Well, here we go. A complete guide to finding all 96 exits in Super Mario World. Done by TheFadedWarrior, I don't own Nintendo, blah blah blah. Ghost houses and Star Road will be at the end of the guide.

TIPS:

If you haven't yet, unlock Top Secret Area. It is a must-have if you are trying to get all 96 exits. It supplies to with 2 capes, 2 fire flowers, and 1 Yoshi. Scroll to the near-bottom of this guide and read the section about Donut Ghost House.
A cape is a player's best friend. Master flying! There will be many secret exits that require flying.
Make sure you've completed all the regular exits as well as those darn ghost house exits.
Be patient. I know from experience that some of these exits are extremely frustrating, including Outrageous's exit.

THERE ARE NO SECRET EXITS IN W-1

W-2: DONUT PLAINS

Donut Plains 1 - Make sure you get a cape. Get a spare if you're not so sure. Go to the very end of the level with the fireball plant thingy and Chuck. If you have already gotten the green switch, just run up the wall. If not, defeat Chuck and the plant. Go next to the goal, turn around, run at full speed, and jump just before you hit the pink corner. You should get up to the key and keyhole.

Donut Plains 2 - This secret exit requires you to have either a cape or for you to be large Mario. Get to near the end with the raising platforms and the pipes on the ceiling. On the last one, get on the platform, jump and hold up then hit the last green pipe. When you come out, keep running until you get to the blue shell. You can pick it up and throw it at the last turn block then jump up to the vine OR you can simply fly up there.

Donut Secret 1 - Go through the level regularly until you get to the blue P-switch. Pick it up and do not lose it. Continue going until you get to the 'used' blocks with the key underneath. Hit the P-switch, grab the key, and take the exit. This leads to the ghost house that unlocks Star Road.

W-3: VANILLA DOME

Vanilla Dome 1 - Be sure to being Yoshi on this one. Go to the section with the 2 yellow pipes and the buzzy beetle. See that turn block? Jump up beneath it and jump off of Yoshi to hit it. Do the same again except try to get on top of the turn block. Once succeeded, climb up the vine and finish the level.

Vanilla Dome 2 - Go to the part with the item block and the very steep ramp. Jump onto the ramp, run up, turn around, and jump to the other side. Grab the P-switch, run past the coins to the wall of used blocks, and hit the P-switch. Jump over the first pit, but fall down the second pit. Keep running until you get the key, drop down through the water, and stick it in the keyhole.

Vanilla Secret 1 - This is almost impossible if you don't have a cape. Go up to the spring board. Get it out of the way. Go all the way to the right, then run at full speed until you get to the left edge. Jump up and fly to the pipe. Go through the pipe, blah blah blah. This leads to Star Road.

W-4: TWIN BRIDGES

Cheese Bridge Area - This is requires a cape and Yoshi. Get to the end of the level. Notice how the end-level gate is higher up than where you're standing? Float off the edge going right, and once you've passed the goal you can jump off of Yoshi onto the ground past the gate. Keep running to get the secret exit.

W-5: FOREST OF ILLUSION

I expect that most of you are missing a few exits from this world. One of them is pretty much impossible to know about. That exit, the secret fortress exit, was the last exit I got to complete the 96.

Forest of Illusion 1 - You know the part with the 3 wigglers? Go just past that. There should be a question block. Hit it, grab the P-balloon, and float left under the bridge until you get to the key. I know, pretty easy.

Forest of Illusion 2 - This is kinda hard to explain, but go to the section with all the urchins and the yellow ! block. Go to the block and swim left all the way until you get to the key.

Forest of Illusion 3 - Make sure you stay large Mario the whole time. Keep going until you hit the point with all the question blocks. Pretend that's a landmark for where you're supposed to go. Keep going to the turn blocks. At the end, there should be a green pipe. Go down through the pipe. This is where you need large Mario. Spin on top of the turn blocks to get the key and keyhole.

Forest of Illusion 4 - Get to the blue pipe with the P-switch under it and the Lakitu inside of it. Get rid of the Lakitu and go through the pipe.

Forest Fortress - This is by far the most secret exit in the game. It's also really hard if you're not too good at surviving and you rely almost entirely on powerups and Yoshi. Get 2 capes (if you think you're super-pro, grab 1 cape) and go to the very end of the level. Jump over the wall. See that seemingly never ending pool of lava, you have to fly across that. To make things easier, you can just spin-jump across. Run at full speed and spin jump right when you get to the edge. It's kinda hard, but at least it pays off with nine 1-ups!

W-6: CHOCOLATE ISLAND

Chocolate Island 2 - This level is quite unique. It has 2 regular exits and 1 secret exit depending on how fast you beat it and the amount of coins you get. For the first exit, you have to collect less than 4 dragon coins. For the second exit, you have to collect at least 4 dragon coins. For the secret exit, you must get to the 3rd area with more than 250 seconds on the clock left.

Chocolate Island 3 - Bring a cape for this. Go to the very end without losing your cape. Run towards the block with the vine in it, keep going, and fly beneath the goal. If you keep going, you will get the secret goal.

W-6: VALLEY OF BOWSER

Valley of Bowser 2 - This one is really hard to find on your own. A cape is recommended, but you can get one in the level. Go past the midway point and through the pipe. If you want the cape, bring a shell through, jump to the top left, and throw the shell up. Finish the next part and go through the green pipe. Go up the small set of stairs, run at full speed, and then jump up and land on top of the left ceiling, Keep running left until you get to the key and keyhole. Pretty hidden, eh? Oh, and good luck with the next level. It's almost as tough as Outrageous!

Valley of Bowser 4 - This secret exit requires Yoshi. Go to the very end of the level. See that key? Face against the wall and eat the key then walk into the keyhole. Simple as that.

GHOST HOUSES

Donut Ghost House - This secret exit unlocks Top Secret Area, which has free powerups. Go into the ghost house with a cape. Immediately go to the right until the first pit. Turn around and start running. Jump before you hit the left boundary and land on the secret platform. Run for a long ways until you reach the door with the 4 turn blocks. Each block has a 1-up inside.

Donut Secret House - This requires a cape as well. Go to the 2nd room and go all the way to the left and grab the P-switch. Find somewhere to reach full speed and do so. While still holding the switch, fly up to the secret platform and run to the very end of it. Press the switch and a secret door should open. To beat the boss, throw 3 of the blocks at him while he's visible.

Forest Ghost House - Go through the level like normal. When you get the P-switch in the second area, keep going until you see the 2 sections with coins over them. Go into the second section and hit the switch. Go through the blue door. Go left as far as possible. Ignore the first door. Once you reach the second door which is placed at the beginning of the level, go through it. There is a 3-up and the secret goal.

Valley Ghost House - The hardest of the secret exits. Go to the second room (the one with all the coins and the P-switch). Hit the P-switch and run right as fast as possible until you get to the very last door. Go through it. Grab the P-switch and go to the next room over. Jump on the P-switch and immediately hit the block. This is the worst part -- You have to create stairs for Mario to use, and they have to be exact at the end of the stairs. Hit the side of the platform and the blocks should stop going. You can think walk or duck under the wall and put the key in the keyhole.

STAR ROAD

Star Road 1 - Make sure that Mario can break turn blocks. Get through the first layer of them. On the second layer, stay on the right edge. Once you've destroyed enough blocks, you should get down to the key and keyhole.

Star Road 2 - Right when you start the level, swim close enough to the Yoshi egg so that it breaks. Grab the star then the baby Yoshi and cruise along the level with your awesome star powers. In the future when you need to come back, let the star fall onto the baby Yoshi so it can grow. You'll need the blue Yoshi later. Go to the end of the level where the pipe is. Now swim UNDER the platform and keep going. You should reach the key and keyhole.

Star Road 3 - Go to the section where the floor is 2 blocks thick. Grab a block and throw it at Lakitu. Once you hit him, jump on his cloud and go up to the ceiling. Find your way to the hole in the ceiling then go to the item block on the left. Hit it, grab the key, and jump to the right side. Now wasn't that easy?

Star Road 4 - Bring the blue Yoshi to this level to make it easier. Any koopa shell that blue Yoshi eats gives it wings so you can fly across the level. On the other hand, Yoshi will swallow the shell if you have it too long, so you'll need to replace it often. Go to the section with the cement blocks and the ! boxes. The ! boxes are placed there to not allow you to beat the level without getting all the switches. This is not thought clearly though. You can eat a shell of any color other than red (red has fireballs) and fly underneath the cement platform to the item box. Stand as close to the edge as possible and shoot the shell at the item block. Pick up the key and put it in the keyhole.

Star Road 5 - Blue Yoshi is highly recommended for this level as well. But unless you are the god of Super Mario World flying, you need some kind of Yoshi. Go to the section with the single green pipe and the 3 yellow pipes. Eat a blue shell (or any shell if you have blue Yosh) and fly up the left side of the green pipe. If you've already gotten all the ! switches, you have to go to the left until there's an opening.

Yup, that's all the secret exits. Quite a lot, isn't it? I hope I assisted you in getting 100% completion! Thanks.

Help I used: My brain and memory, hyrulesmasher, and GalliaCrusader. The latter 2 are Youtubers that have been kind enough to post video walkthroughs for this game. I have watched their gameplay and typed down what they have done. Do they know about this? Of course not!

Dang. This is a really well done and useful guide man. Even though I don't play Mario very often, I used to play it often so I may actually go back and start playing some mario games again and follow this useful guide. How long did this take you to type? XD

mohammedroxx3: 'Bout time someone acknowledged this guide! Thanks! I was also doing homework while writing this guide (just like in my first Super Mario 3D Land guide), so it took me much longer than it should have. To be honest, it didn't even take me that long anyways. Maybe an hour? All I had to do was go on Mario-wiki to find out which levels actually had secret exits, then I had to go on Youtube and skim through the levels so I knew where the exits actually were. My others guides (the SM3DL guides), though, are much tougher to make. The cool part is that at least half of these secret exits are from memory.

Thanks for the feedback!

This is a great guide. Thank you so much for the post.

TheFadedWarrior :
lol you don't even need the Forest Fortress secret exit; it's the exact same exit. It's just there as a challenge and easy 1-ups. Otherwise, you can just go for the normal boss, it's much easier.

It counts as a normal exit, meaning that if you go for the second exit, the first exit won't count. Go for the first exit, the second exit won't count.

If it did count as a secret exit, I think it would give you a new path.
For anyone who is using the guide, don't go for that secret exit; you'll just waste your time. It's too hard and utterly useless. I only got it once (without save states/rewind), back when I was little. After that I never succeeded again, and I never used that exit for 96.

Trust me, you don't need it. Otherwise, this is a great guide!


By the way, Vanilla Secret 1?
Just get the blue switch and this one secret exit will be one of the easiest. You don't need to fly to get the secret exit, lol. Althouh it is possible without a cape/blue switch. Low%... Try that, the low% category might as well be the hardest besides 86 exit as small Mario only/no Yoshi. And you need to go for Vanilla Secret secret exit on low%... as small Mario. Funny enough, it's not the hardest secret exit as small Mario.



Moving on, Chocolate Island 2.
Just get the normal & the secret exit. Getting both of the normal exits is utterly useless, just wastes time.


Bowser's Valley 2:
Doing it with a cape is harder than without a cape. Just be small Mario (or big/fire), and just wait at the end when the yellow platform is rising up. When the platform reaches the top, just jump on the yellow platform and jump to the left. Much easier, lol.


Donut Secret House doesn't need a cape. It's a very well written guide, but I see a lot of mistakes lol.
Just hit that P-Switch, go to the right, you'll see that there are a bunch of ?-blocks suddenly. Stand in the middle, and jump against the middle rotating block. A vine will appear, which allows you to get to the secret exit without a cape. Again, much easier than what you said (if you suck at flying it's easier lol)


Star World 4:
You know what, screw Yoshi. I fly under the stage with a cape and I'm more than certain that Nintendo made it on purpose so that you can complete the stage with Blue Yoshi/Cape. If not, then why in the world can we access Bowser's Castle with the Star Road but when you use the other Star Roads, we can't do anything? (Unless we found the exit manually in the overworld)

If you're going casually, I just recommend getting the switches first.

Star World 5...

I'm not a God at flying and yet you're calling me a God, lol.
Anyways, sorry if I was rude. Just wanted to tell you the mistakes you made.
Amazing walkthrough, just having mistakes that could end up misleading people. You mentioned 98 exits, not 96, lol.

Have a good day

(And yes, I'm aware that this is my 1000th post. Not going to post a thread about it.)

This was an original guide. Since the regular gameplay (even for me) was relatively easy, talking about all the secrets will surely revive interest for those who lost it!

Suggestion if you make another similar guide: also include "regular" ghost houses since they are also difficult to deal with.

Great guide, like wow. That's a lot of detail.

About the Valley of Bowser - 2, I honestly didn't know it even existed. Very well explained!