Nimbus Land
Visit 1
Items:
Mega Glove
Mid Mushroom (optional)
Maple Syrup (optional)
Pick-Me-Up (optional)
Able Juice
Feather
Flower Jar (optional)
Flower (optional)
Level Ups:
Mario [14]: SP (after star)
Bowser [13]: HP (after Valentina)
Battles:
Birdo
Valentina
Head to the shop.
Go to Garro's house (upper right), and talk to the Mallow statue from the upper left. Then, talk to Garro from the front.
(video credit: Mill)
Dodo minigame: Jump when his helmet covers his eyes. Don't do it too soon on the final jump. He will fight you if he catches you twice.
After the minigame, pick up the Feather (ドドのはね) from the next room, unless you don't have at least 1 rock candy and at least 1 fire or ice bomb for Axems, in which case you can just jump over it.
(video credit: Lack)
After the room where Mario's disguise is removed, hop over the gap and then run along rightmost tiles in next room with enemies. Proceed through the door, and run straight ahead (you can grab the flower chest beside the door if you want extras for Countdown or Smithy).
In the next room, hug the lower walls and proceed through the door. Get Castle Key from cloud guy in upper left of the prison room.
(You can also talk to the blue cloud guy for a Flower Jar if you need more FP)
During your trip back up the stairs, hold up and left. Jump over the shaman if you need to.
For Heavy Troopa room, run in a "V" shape, jump over Shaman, and open the door with A (you want to skip the Heavy Troopa guarding the door).
(video credit: Justin-credible)
Go left of Birdo egg to exit the room.
Perform Fan Skip (alternatively, fight the fan if you did horribly on the Land's End star and have an extreme EXP deficit).
To bypass the Forkies, get as close to the fork as possible, then as soon as it retracts, run up + right.
Hold up + right through the next room.
Skip the next Heavy Troopa by holding right until you hit the stairs, then hold up right for the rest of the room.
For the first blue bird room with the save point, hold up until you get into the corner, then hold down right until you get into the next corner, then hold up right to advance to the next room.
For the star, if you followed the EXP route correctly until this point, you only need to hit the 4 birds in this room, plus the 2 birds and Dodo in the next room.
Otherwise:
you need 1 EXTRA bird for each bottom-floor Land's End gecko you hit with star #2 instead of star #1;
you need 2 LESS birds if your last Belome 2 clone was Geno Clone.
If you need extra birds, backtrack into the save room to get them. The star looks like it has a short timer, but it does not. You can afford to hit the birds in the save room if you need the EXP. The star timer only looks short because entering Dodo's room forces it to 0.
Return to Nimbus Land town square after falling through the clouds.
(video credit: Mill)
Leave through top door after cutscenes.
You can grab the flower where the star used to be if you are at a deficit or want safety against later bosses.
Go straight right in hot springs room and jump over the water.
(video credit: Mill)
Visit 2
Take the left path getting back to the Throne Room.
[CAMERA: Slight up right, the hold right going into the cutscene with the King & Queen]
(video credit: Mill)
Perform your preferred version of Bowser Door Manip. Head directly to the bus if you're doing Mario's Pad manip, head to the Feather save room if you're doing Nimbus Manip.
BEAN VALLEY | NIMBUS LAND | BARREL VOLCANO | BOWSER'S KEEP (2)