I saw Mayro do this once, but she wasn't 100%ing the game, just seeing which levels were possible coinless. I thought I'd try and see just how few coins I could get away with.
I'm doing this with savestates because I don't have infinite patience like those guys who play exclusively soulslikes. Enjoy.
World 1
Total coins required: 6
This one's easy (as evidenced by how quick I finished it whenever I had to go back later to get a propellor), but it took me a dozen or so tries the first time around
The 6 coins come from the second Star Coin. They're directly blocking the way.
Total coins required: 2
If you're small you can avoid that coin at the start by twirling, but without the propellor you need at least 2 coins to collect the 2nd Star Coin as opposed to 1, so it's the same result (and way easier, that twirl is fairly difficult) to just use the propellor.
Total Coins required: 2
They put 3 coins before the pipe out of the 2nd Star Coin room....... If you're precise you can dodge one of them.
Total coins required: 0
Not too hard if you have a propellor. Impossible without one.
Total coins required: 0
Seems you can't walk by the clam at the halfway point fast enough to avoid collecting a coin. So that's 2 required, right.....?
Not so fast! At this point in the game, you have access to the World 1-3 cannon! And you can even get there without any coins!
So, go to World 5, beat 5-1, defeat the Piranha Plant on the world map, go to the mushroom house, and..... get a penguin suit.
This'll let you swim fast enough to clear the clam and grab all the Star Coins in the level without collecting a single coin.
Total coins required: 1
There are some tricky spots here, but only one truly unavoidable coin. It's coming down from the Star Coin 1 vine.
There's a line of coins when you get down from there too, but with something similar to that twirl from the beginning of 1-2 you can dodge those. Long leap at the screws too.
Total coins required: 0
This one is dead easy. Got it first try. This is the only one here where the video is just the raw gameplay.
Total coins required: 0
A couple jumps require some finnesse, and the third Star Coin is a bit nerve-wracking, but it's all possible with zero coins.
WORLD 1 TOTAL: 11
World 2
Total coins required: 0
Easy as pie.
Total coins required: 0
This one was really difficult. There's a spot where you need a mini mushroom to get the third Star Coin, you're in between two Spikes, and you need to cross coin-laden moving platforms. Very precise twirls.
With precise timing you can make it through unfettered by evil coins though.
Total coins required: 0
I'm on a roll! Not too many tricky situations, but I had to think on my feet in this level. No coins needed.
Total coins required: 0
Wow, still no coins! You need a mini mushroom for the second coin, and the third one's a tad tricky, but overall no issue.
Total coins required: 16
.......No. I'm not doing this one. You know why? Every few seconds in this level, the wind blows walls of coins at you. They're nearly impossible to dodge. This number is a theoretical minimum only. I mean just look at this shit.
Total coins required: 0
This one had some difficult spots, but it got way easier once I realized there was a Yoshi after the second star coin room.
Just have to defeat the Lakitu in the right spot to get to the Star Coin without getting any of the coins on the way.
Total coins required: 9
The coins fucking move in this one. The platform you're on also moves. You're gonna need a propellor. That's annoying, but not the real problam. The real problem is the second Star Coin room.
There's clouds that bounce you up into the moving coins. The Star Coin is way up there, I found a way to get to it without collecting a coin, but getting back? Impossible. The lowest-coin option is a straight diagonal cut to the right with good timing. The lowest I could manage with that was 8.
Starting off bad, normally you'd need 6 coins to grab the first Star Coin but I got up there first cycle and got that down to 2.
There's a tricky propellor jump barely dodging lava that allows you to grab the last Star Coin coinless, but unfortunately you do need to hit a P switch to unblock the required path.
Minimum number of coins is 4 for this.
WORLD 2 TOTAL: 31
Running total: 44
World 3
Total coins required: 3
There's a few spots where you have to collect coins, but with a little finesse you can hold it to 1 in each of them.
Total coins required: 0
This one is incredibly hard without the propellor, but not so bad with it.
Total coins required: 0
This one is very, very annoying in the first half, but it's all possible.
Total coins required: 0
You have to make a couple scary jumps with a propellor, and you actually have to go through the level twice to get both the needed exit and all the star coins. It's difficult given the falling platforms you're on top of for the second half, but all possible.
Total coins required: 3
Two coins are required near the start. After that you'd normally need three more, but I managed to keep it to one with a well-timed POW block. It might just be possible to skip that one too, but I couldn't manage it. Not too hard with strategic propellor use.
Total coins required: 7
So this level's gimmick is the return of the switches from Mario World, except you need them to progress. They need to be off to get all the Star Coins, and on to get the needed exit. Off is fine, no coins needed, but..... There's a line of 7 coins directly before the pipe to the normal exit. 3rd largest coin total so far, and they're all in a line.
Total coins required: 0
This level is so boring I forgot it existed, and when I was about to post World 3 I saw it on the level list, had to go back, edit the video, and do this writeup.
Total coins required: 1
Tricky because you need the propellor and ice physics are ice physics. There's a spot where you have to dance on donut blocks and another which would be possible coinless without a red ring you can't avoid without grabbing a coin. However, with a precise propellor jump I was able to activate the red ring early, meaning I could hold the number of coins I needed to get before its timer ran out to 1.
WORLD 3 TOTAL: 14
Running total: 58
World 4
Ugh. Water level. Wish I could get a penguin suit, but unfortunately I need a propellor to do the 2nd coin coinless. One of those levels that would be very, very difficult if I couldn't just go back to 1-1 for another propellor. I can't tell you how good I've gotten at doing that level coinless.
Total coins required: 0
In this level you are at the mercy of The Fish. They come from below, and can bounce you into coins, hit you out of nowhere, or perform any number of other wicked deeds as their vile caprices dictate. The Fish were kind to me on this good day. In accordance with our pact, sashimi is off the menu for three full moons. The one coin I needed was not their fault.
Total coins required: 1
This level's not bad at all, except for one part. A Star Coin is within a heart-shaped group of coins, and you need to collect one to progress. Sometimes I think about how little the devs intended for anyone to do this. That heart was intended as a nice little "hey! you got down here!", but to us, it appears to be mocking us with its golden shine, like when someone puts up an extremely bright light or plays something loud for autism awareness.
Total coins required: 1
blök
Total coins required: 0
Another water level. I can use a penguin here, but not like it helps me much. Most of the difficulty here doesn't even come from the coinlessness. The 6784329649 bloopers just unfreeze .3 seconds after you hit them. There's also the coins floating by in bubbles. You can see me waiting for them to pass a couple times. There's one spot where you exit a pipe and they're surrounding you. There's a simple way out, but you have to be ready as soon as you exit the pipe.
Total coins required: 0
Another one where you have to go through twice to get all Star Coins. The first run is no big issue (Even if you do have to play Battle of the Somme with the rats). THere's one spot where you're supposed to use a P switch, but with a penguin suit you can just smash through the blocks. Second time through is another one of those easy levels with one really hard propellor jump. I really didn't intend for this challenge to become Propellorfest 2022, but it looks like that's where we're at.
Total coins required: 0
Easy level. Yet another case of the devs going "Here, I'll help you out! :D" while unknowingly making it harder for me to drive Mario into poverty. There are bonus, "friendly" Lakitus everywhere. Instead of spinies, they drop....... Coins. I forgot this first time around and had to panic a bit. Otherwise just a nice, relaxing Yoshi level. I dropped him at the last second before the flagpole because my behavior is yuckydisgusting.
Total coins required: 0
A Star Coin is surrounded by four coins, but by crouchsliding you can hold the total needed to 1. After that, yet another returning mechanic from Mario World. No complaints, that game is awesome. There are panels you slap to put yourself in the background. This wouldn't be a problem if there wasn't a Star Coin back there. That wouldn't be a problem if the game didn't oh-so-helpfully collect any coins you passed over while flipping horizontally on the panels. So I had to do a bit of backtracking. Past that I just had to dodge the ramming spikesticks (no I'm not going to make the obvious joke) and I was golden. Well, not golden, coins are golden. And coins are bad. There were a couple spots where I thought damage was required because of the normally safe areas being filled with coins, but I managed to slip past.
Total coins required: 1
Mini mushroom level. Don't wanna talk about it.
Total coins required: 0
WORLD 4 TOTAL: 3
Running total: 61
World 5
Into the back half of the game! (oh wait, I'm doing World 9 too....) I would be able to play this the intended way, if not for a coin that juuuuuust barely makes you collect it if you don't have a propellor. Luckily though that's only once in the first half of the level. I seem to be on a bit of a streak, no level since World 3 has needed more than 1 coin.
Total coins required: 0
The organizers of Propellorfest 2022 begin to realize they got more than they bargained for as day-of ticket sales quintuple expected values.
Total coins required: 0
It seems like I'm hitting a string of easy levels. Haven't needed to savestate in a while. Don't even need a propellor for this one (ignore the fact that I used one anyway). From what i remember of the Ghost House, I don't expect that to stick.
Total coins required: 0
Not much appears to be amiss at Propellorfest 2022 for now. It's still early in the day, but the ticket checkers at the front are keeping pace for now. But the day is still young, it's only 7am. Lines start to form.
Total coins required: 0
Okay, now we're in the back half of the game. The infamous floating on acid level. This one's a real humdinger in the speedruns. Not so hard at all here though. Only issue is, when you fireball an enemy they become a coin. Coins also count as weight. This led to a lot of waiting around.
Total coins required: 0
Tricky, but doable. You have to go to 3 different dead ends for the Star Coins, need to keep a mini mushroom almost the whole way, and the last part is practically impossible withouut knowing the layout, but once you do it's all possible coinless. 16th coinless level, and peeking ahead we might be looking at an entirely coinless world.
Total coins required: 0
I'll be honest, this one was mostly luck. Just have to get the POW block to make the coins fall just right. But getting that one POW drop right takes up more than half of my footage for this level.
Total coins required: 0
One. Coin. Exactly one coin away from making it through all of World 5 coinless. Guess it's impossible to play World 9 at all in a truly coinless run. Fuck.
Total coins required: 1
WORLD 5 TOTAL: 1
Running total: 62
World 6
Ouch. Destroying the streak of worlds 4 and 5 in one level by collecting more coins than both of them combined in the narrow mountain passes of 6-1. Mine own hubris hath surpassethed me as i realize that a propellor can't save me here.
Total coins required: 6
This level has some real obstacles. Spinies drop from the ceiling and roll at you. This wouldn't be much of a problem if the devs hadn't oh-so-helpfully left coin blocks on the ground for them to hit. The only place this is a huge problem is near the beginning. My first method was to make some very precise shots with an ice flower to stop them hitting it. Then I realized the spinies were just close enough to the start of the level to hit with a star, if I had optimal movement. This was still pretty difficult, but in the end I managed it. The rest of the level is no cakewalk either. You have to jump above two moving rows of coins to hit a rotating pipe, and then make a couple tight walljumps to the third Star Coin. All worth it to reduce the bourgeois Mario's opulent wealth.>/p>
Total coins required: 0
This one. Hoo boy this one. Probably the only level you need to use two mini mushrooms for. In the beginning, it's just a couple tight-ish walljumps in confined spaces. The second half of the level is real awful, though. To get the third Star Coin you need a mushroom, but to get out of the level at all without collecting coins you need a mini mushroom and some difficult timing on top of that. So how to resolve this? Well, I just played the first half of the level as normal, but I dodged grabbing the checkpoint. Then I used the powerups in the level to get the third Star Coin. Now that I had that, I went backwards to grab the checkpoint. In this game, when you grab the checkpoint and die, it boots you back to the map screen, but it keeps the star coins you've already collected! So I just used another mini mushroom, cleared the second half of the level with that, and escaped with zero coins to my name.
Total coins required: 0
Meanwhile at Propellorfest 2022, people are starting to get a bit antsy. The con space clearly isn't big enough, but the crew are keeping everything running smoothly for now. Vendors are keeping up with the increased demand, and while they have to convert the first few panels to standing room only, there's enough room for everyone.
Total coins required: 0
Someone notices the Propellor Yellow Toad brigade is late. Concession booths start to run low on water as Morton Koopa claims more and more floor space for his burgeoning mountain world exhibit. Disaster looms.
Total coins required: 0
Porcupuffer level. There's one point where you need to swim under a platform and I don't think it's possible to avoid damage, and they decided to put the third Star Coin in the secret exit again so you need that, but other than that I made a clean getaway.
Total coins required: 0
This one is another intentional checkpoint death, but this time I don't have to avoid it and go backwards. The last Star Coin would ordinarily require 4 coins, but with a mini mushroom, you don't need a single one. It's a couple difficult jumps, one to the Star Coin and one back, but I managed to get it on my fourth attempt. First Star Coin might not expressly require a propellor, so this level might be possible without checkpoint abuse, but it'd certainly be a hell of a lot harder.
Total coins required: 0
As the first round of panels lets out and the second begins, the convention hall is well and truly full. Pro-Morton and Anti-Morton camps begin to form. It's becoming obvious that the most popular act isn't showing up. Some early panelists try to get into their hotel rooms, only to discover that the convention organizers have withdrawn payment. Inklings of what's going on start to reach the outside world.Total coins required: 0
Oh boy, this one. Looks like the first and last levels of world 6 are the only big problems. It's an autoscroller, so we're off to a bad start already. But it gets even worse. Every. Single. Star Coin is locked behind these boxen you have to ground pound. Each one gives you a shiny gold coin of doom. You have to hit 5 in all, but if you go into a pipe immediately after, it doesn't add the coin to your counter, so I'm going to say that doesn't count and Mario just left it on the other side of the pipe or something. In the end, this was all that was needed, and I played bumper cars with Bowser Jr. and limped away with four more disgusting golden trinkets to my name.
Total coins required: 4
WORLD 6 TOTAL: 10
Running total: 72
World 7
Status 10/10//22: 100% recorded, 66% edited
World 8
Status 10/10//22: 70% recorded, 0% edited