This page serves as a knowledge base for speedrun-related glitches, tricks and information for Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga.
It is recommended to use Bizhawk with the mGBA core for TASing, if possible, as it emulates the Action Command Glitch accurately whereas VBA-Next and VBA v24 svn480 do not.
Acute Angle Thundergrab Clip (Wall Clipping)
Use Luigi's Hand on Mario and walk against an acute-angled wall. This will cause Mario to enter the wall. There are few places where this can be done in the game, but it is useless for speedrunning.
Acute Angle Clip (Wall Clipping)
If you are properly positioned and walk into an acute angled wall such as the one in the image, then you can clip into a wall. There is almost no place like this in the game so it is useless.
Firedash Glitch (Wall Clipping) (Japanese only)
In the Japanese version, have Mario use Fire on Luigi when close to a ledge. If done correctly, Luigi will fall off the ledge and be able to walk before Mario left the ledge. This causes the brothers to become glitched: They can clip into walls and reach places that were previously unreachable.
This does not work on the US and EU versions because Luigi cannot walk until Mario reached the floor behind him as well.
This glitch is obsoleted by the Action Command Glitch and the Sign Glitch since those glitches can be done much earlier in the game and grant wall clipping power as well. And more precise wall clipping at that (for example, Barrel Clipping, with which you can determine what walls you want to cross).
NPC Clip (Wall Clipping)
With very precise positioning, you can get ejected into a wall by an NPC. Details:
- All walking NPCs will eject the brothers. Most still-standing NPCs will not eject the brothers, but some still do.
- You can get ejected both horizontally and vertically. These descriptions assume you are positioned inside an NPC while on the ground:
- To get ejected to the right, be in the "perfect horizontal middle" (front brother has same X pos as the NPC) of the NPC or to the right of it, and press Left.
- To get ejected to the left, be left of the "perfect horizontal middle" of the NPC, and press Right.
- To get ejected to the top, you have to be positioned inside the NPC in the "perfect vertical middle" (= front brother has same Y position as the NPC), and you have to be facing downwards, then walk downwards.
- Alternatively, if not facing down, be positioned in the "perfect vertical middle" and any amount of frames of walking distance to the top, then start walking down to reach the "perfect vertical middle".
- If you are not positioned in such a way, that you ever reach the "perfect vertical middle", then the NPC will not eject you vertically.
- To get ejected to the bottom, you have to be positioned inside the NPC in the "perfect vertical middle", and you have to be facing upwards, then walk upwards.
- Alternatively, if not facing up, be positioned in the "perfect vertical middle" and any amount of frames of walking distance to the top, then start walking up to reach the "perfect vertical middle".
- If you are not positioned in such a way, that you ever reach the "perfect vertical middle", then the NPC will not eject you vertically.
- Each NPC has their own collision box size. Most will eject for a maximum of 4096 (position units), which equals 0x100 in hex. If you get pushed any further than 4096, then you will clip into the wall. For this to work, the NPC has to be located further than 4096 from the wall.
- Unfortunately, NPC clip is not useful at all in speedruns or any sequence break scenario. Known clips:
- Luigi in the room where Toadsworth gives you a suitcase can push you northwards and into the wall, unfortunately not leading to Suitcase skip. Note that Luigi in this room is an NPC, and not the player character Luigi. There is a BK2 movie file that demonstrates this clip (requires older Bizhawk).
- Oho Jee in Oho Oasis can clip you horizontally into walls. Unfortunately, the Oho Jees in the East part of the isle will not allow for clipping into the surf plate / pipe, since they never walk near the wall.
- Fat lady in the relaxation room in Gwarhar Lagoon.
- Fat Koopa in one of the houses in Bean-Bean Town.
- Koopa that needed directions, in Koopa Cruiser.
- There are some NPCs that would allow for NPC clipping, but they never approach the wall:
- Walking Yoshi in Yoshi theatre.
- The Captain in the ship in Teehee Valley.
- Koopa in the end room of Koopa Cruiser.
If you want to investigate NPC clipping, ask MUGG on the forums for help.
Luigi Mole Glitch (Wall Clipping)
On "right ledges", it is possible to pound Luigi into the ground at a precise location where he then is considered to be inside the ledge. Moving "up" or "down" will make him zip, possibly clipping into an adjacent wall.
This glitch does not work on "left ledges".
Some walls will allow underground Luigi to zip through the wall freely with Mario (who is still in bounds) following behind.
Tunnel Clip (Wall Clipping)
With proper positioning, you can clip through the left or top side of a wall. In some places, this can cause you to clip up to the top of the wall.
This trick saves ~1 minute in Hoohoo Mountain by clipping up on the ledge to reach the red switch earlier (found by SolidifiedGaming).
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Trigger Zone Skipping
Jump Course Skip (English Only)
In Stardust Fields, you can skip having to climb up to the flag. A trigger zone near the exit normally stops the brothers, but it can be bypassed by positioning the brothers next to it and using Spin Jump. If done correctly, the back brother will stand past the trigger zone. When switching the brothers around the corner, it will cause the front brother to stand past the trigger zone and be able to enter the loading zone to go to the next room.
This does not work in the Japanese version due to a
difference in the brothers interaction with walls when switching places.
This trick was found by RTA runner Murmilio and saves about 15~20 seconds.
Badge Tutorial Skip (English Only)
Using a similar approach like the jump course skip, you can skip the badge tutorial that follows outside the castle after defeating Queen Bean. This would save time if not for these drawbacks:
- You miss out on the bean badge. Without it, Mario is underpowered and the Popple & Rookie fight goes into a 4th round, which allows Rookie to enter his fire-breathing cutscene.
- You would sell the bean badge for 14 coins later, but now you can't.
- The "can equip badges" flag is never set, and therefore you can't equip badges in your inventory. You can still buy + equip in shops, but you can't buy any badges in Bean Bean Castle-Town since the tutorial hasn't been completed. (Also, coffee items can't ever be equipped if the tutorial hasn't been done.)
- You have to skip past the trigger zone again in lategame (once upwards and once downwards).
If you obtain some badges and then do the tutorial, it might select a different badge than the Bean Badge but otherwise plays out the tutorial normally.
Fountain Glitch (English Only)
After acquiring hammers, make Mario ingest water. Let Luigi hammer Mario until he runs out of water. If you hammer Mario again, he will make a little hop and become angry at Luigi. When Mario lands on the ground from the hop, the brothers will start gliding into different directions, possibly entering walls. The glitch also works when using Thunder Hand to make Mario mad at Luigi.
This glitch can cause the brothers to enter a "glitchy state" (see 0:11 in the video). However, it is not possibly to exploit it since Mario ingests water again so the brothers cannot switch places. Draining Mario of water will get rid of the glitchy state.
Therefore, this glitch is useless for speedruns.
After watching the respective tutorials in which the brother learn Hammer moves and Hand moves, the Fountain glitch will no longer work.
Left Corner Clipping (Wall Clipping)
Corners that transit leftwards into tight passages can eject Mario or Luigi into the wall. This requires precise positioning.
This glitch is useless at the moment.
Mini Mario Glitch
Luigi can use Hammer on Mario to flatten him. Small Mario walking through a tunnel will cause the brothers to get separated. When Luigi then approaches Mario, Mario will walk behind Luigi and Luigi will turn Mario back to big.
However, if Luigi approaches Mario in a way that Mario does not need to walk behind Luigi at all, Luigi will forget to turn Mario back to big. This can be done by having Luigi aim a jump at Mario, then aiming away and landing precisely in front of Mario. In other words, small Mario is exactly behind Luigi at the time they are united again. Further glitching can be done from here.
While Mario was still big, he could cycle through the following action commands:
ID | Name |
00 | Jump |
01 | Spinjump |
02 | Hammer |
Now that he is small, the game will only let you cycle through these:
ID | Name |
00 | Jump |
01 | Hammer |
If Mario (behind) had Hammer selected before doing Mini Mario Glitch, he will have 02 now which will translate to Hand. However, small Mario using Hand on Luigi will softlock the game.
Hammering Luigi will allow you to subsequently switch brothers. It will also turn Mario big. If you hammer again, Mario will become small again. At this point, small Mario will have access to the following action commands:
ID | Name |
00 | Jump |
01 | Spinjump |
02 | Hammer |
Starting a spinjump while Mario is small will crash the game. Highjumping while Mario is small can be done as long as not facing left or right, otherwise the game crashes as well.
When small Mario uses Hammer on Luigi and the brothers then leave the room, the glitch will lose its effect. That means, small Mario will become big permanently.
Mini Mario Glitch is part of the Action Command Glitch. Also notable is that small Mario will be able to pound Luigi into the ground everywhere, even if Luigi is on top of a ledge or unsuitable ground.
Barrel Glitch
When Luigi is inside a barrel and Mario breaks it with his hammer, there is one frame of opportunity where Mario can use his "hop on barrel" command even though the barrel was broken. This will cause the barrel to be restored.
Mario should then hop off the barrel. The brothers can switch places. Barreled Luigi can cycle through action commands until it is stuck at "barrel break".
Mario pounding the glitched barrel will cause Luigi to be pounded into the ground. The barrel will not be broken but it vanishes.
After doing the Barrel Glitch, you will be able to do Barrel Clipping which will allow you to access places that were unreachable before.
When Luigi breaks out of his barrel, he will have a blank action command (ID 255). This blank command can be used in order to do "Sign Glitch" (see below).
Bringing a glitched barrel to Teehee Valley will allow you to do "Peach Speech Glitch" (see below).
Side explanations:
The old TAS used to do the Barrel Glitch and then Barrel Clip through a few rooms, heading towards the beach, in order to access Oho Oasis to acquire Mario's Hand command. Because when Mario behind Luigi has Hand selected, you can do the Action Command Glitch.
Hand commands are no longer gotten in Oho Oasis, however, since you can now do the Sign Glitch to skip them.
The earliest location in the game to find a barrel in is in Chuckola Woods. It is fastest to use the barrel there in order to do a number of glitches and then finish the game, by fighting Popple & Birdo in Teehee Valley and then entering Bowser's Castle.
The glitches required to skip the rest of the game are:
Barrel Glitch, Sign Glitch, Action Command Glitch. Then you can do Barrel Clipping, Floating Luigi Skipping and Luigi Hat Teleportation. Please see each glitch's own entry for specific information.
Here is a list of commands that can be cycled through before the brothers do the Barrel Glitch:
Mario behind Luigi | | Luigi behind Mario | |
Mario | Luigi | Luigi | Mario |
00 "Jump" | 00 "Jump" | 00 "Jump" | 00 "Jump" |
01 "Spinjump" | 01 "Hammer" | 01 "Highjump" | 01 "Hammer" |
02 "Hammer" | | 02 "Hammer | |
Here is a list of commands accessible after the Barrel Glitch:
Mario behind Luigi | | Luigi behind Mario | |
Mario | Luigi | Luigi | Mario |
| 255 "Blank" (after breaking out) | | |
00 "Jump" | 00 "Barrel break" | 00 "Barrel break" | 00 "Jump" |
01 "Hop on barrel" | 01 "Hammer" | 01 "Glitched" | 01 "Hammer" |
02 "Hammer" | | 02 "Hop off barrel" | |
| | 03 "Hammer" 03 "Hand" (after using hammer) | |
If Luigi behind Mario had "00 Jump" selected before doing the Barrel Glitch, he will now be stuck at "00 Barrel break". In order to access "Glitched", "Hop off Barrel", "Hammer"/"Hand", he will need to have "Highjump" or "Hammer" selected beforehand.
Note: The only command that allows Luigi behind Mario to jump up ledges is "02 Hop off barrel". Therefore it is very important to select Luigi (behind)'s Hammer beforehand.
Barrel Clipping (Wall Clipping) (Japanese Only)
In order to do this glitch you must use either the "Barrel Glitch" or the "Action Command Glitch" in order to acquire a glitched barrel for Luigi. The brothers should be able to switch places and Luigi should be barreled.
Note that you can clip through walls only horizontally. If you want to clip through a wall vertically, you must use "Luigi Hat Teleportation" (see below).
Have Mario be next to the wall that you want to clip through and switch places. Since Luigi is barreled, he uses up more horizontal space and is thus considered to be inside the wall. Mario can clip alongside with Luigi by switching places. Positioning might need to be optimized in order for Mario to clip. When inside the wall with both brothers, walk at the next "wall unit" and repeat the process.
When attempting to Barrel Clip in the English version, only Luigi will be able to enter a wall (Mario has to "barrel hop" on Luigi in order to create his barrel). That's because there is a wall collision check while switching the brothers' places. This wall collision check is missing in the Japanese version.
Sign Glitch
TODO: This section is in need of an update.
VBA and VBA-Next are deprecated (they do not emulate the Action Command Glitch correctly) and should be replaced by mGBA wherever this section lists a comparison of instructions.
This glitch allows you to skip getting Mario's Hand from Oho Oasis.
In order to do this glitch, one of the brothers must have a blank action command with ID 255. Other IDs don't work. You can use the Barrel Glitch to give Luigi in front a blank command.
The glitch works differently between versions and/or systems. This is taken into consideration in this step-by-step explanation. Please also note that action commands can get skipped when pressing a button for a given amount of times. This is due to how the glitch works and can cause the glitch to fail.
1. Have Mario behind Luigi select "Hammer". Luigi in front of Mario should have "Blank". All other commands should be set to "Jump".
2. Have Luigi walk at a sign and then switch places.
| JP | US | EU |
console | 3. Press L 10 times | 3. Press L 10 times | 3. Press L 10 times |
VBA v24 svn480 | 3. Press L 4 times | 3. Press L 4 times | 3. Press L 4 times |
Bizhawk 1.8.2(VBA-Next) | 3. Press L 4 times | 3. Press L 4 times | 3. Press L 4 times |
4. Switch places.
5. Walk away from the sign, start Spinjumping on Luigi and hop off.
6. Luigi behind Mario should have "Spinjump" now. If not, try pressing L two times to get it. Otherwise, the glitch failed and you have to redo from the beginning.
7. Have Luigi spinjump on Mario.
| JP | US | EU |
console | 8. Press R 15 times, jump off, press R 1 time If you hear a loud distinctive sound while pressing R, jump off, press R 2 times OR press R 1 time, jump off, press R 1 time | 8. Press R 15 times, jump off, press R 1 time If you hear a loud distinctive sound while pressing R, jump off, press R 2 times OR press R 1 time, jump off, press R 1 time | 8. Press R 15 times, jump off, press R 1 time If you hear a loud distinctive sound while pressing R, jump off, press R 2 times OR press R 1 time, jump off, press R 1 time |
VBA v24 svn480 | 8. Press R 15 times, jump off | 8. Press R 1 time, jump off, press R 2 times OR Press R 2 times, jump off, press R 1 time | 8. Press R 1 time, jump off, press R 2 times OR Press R 2 times, jump off, press R 1 time |
Bizhawk 1.8.2(VBA-Next) | 8. Press R 15 times, jump off | 8. Press R 1 time, jump off, press R 2 times OR Press R 2 times, jump off, press R 1 time | 8. Press R 1 time, jump off, press R 2 times OR Press R 2 times, jump off, press R 1 time |
9. Mario should have "Emerge" now. If not, the glitch failed and you have to redo from the beginning. Now emerge from the ground. Mario should have a blank command.
10. Have Mario behind Luigi select "Hammer".
11. Have Mario walk at a sign. Switch. Press L 1 time. Mario behind Luigi should have an "X command" now.
12. Switch places. Have Luigi pound Mario twice or spinjump on him and hop off. Mario behind Luigi should have "Hand" now.
At this point, since Mario behind Luigi has "Hand" now, you can go and do the Action Command Glitch.
Action Command Glitch
TODO: This section is in need of an update.
VBA and VBA-Next are deprecated (they do not emulate the Action Command Glitch correctly) and should be replaced by mGBA wherever this section lists a comparison of instructions.
In order to do this glitch, Mario behind Luigi must have Hand selected. The goal of this glitch is to acquire Mario (behind)'s "Hop on Barrel" command. This "Hop on Barrel" command is different from the one that you have access to when doing the "Barrel Glitch": Even if Luigi breaks out, you can create him a new barrel and do more...
For more uses, see "Floating Luigi Skip" and "Luigi Hat Teleportation" below.
The glitch works differently between versions and/or systems. This is taken into consideration in this step-by-step explanation. Please also note that action commands can get skipped when pressing a button for a given amount of times. This is due to how the glitch works and can cause the glitch to fail.
To do the Action Command Glitch now, you must use the "Mini Mario Glitch":
1. Have small Mario walk through a tunnel in order to separate the brothers.
2. Have Luigi jump at small Mario in such a way that Mario will be exactly behind Luigi when reuniting.
3. The screen should be graphically glitching. Press L 3 times to select "06 Hammer". Use this hammer to pound Luigi. (It will not work if you press L too many times and use "01 Hammer".)
4. Have Luigi emerge from the ground. Mario behind Luigi should have "06 Highjump".
5. Highjump on Luigi. While Highjumping, you can press L and R as many times as you want in order to advance the brothers' action commands to your desire.
| JP | US | EU |
console | 6. Press L 17 times, jump off, press L 2 times OR Press L 18 times, jump off, press L 1 time | 6. Press L 12 times, jump off, press L 2 times | 6. Press L 12 times, jump off, press L 2 times |
VBA v24 svn480 | 6. Press L 12 times, jump off, press L 1 time OR Press L 13 times, jump off | 6. Press L 12 times, jump off, press L 1 time OR Press L 13 times, jump off | 6. Press L 12 times, jump off, press L 1 time OR Press L 13 times, jump off |
Bizhawk 1.8.2(VBA-Next) | 6. Press L 12 times, jump off, press L 1 time OR Press L 13 times, jump off | 6. Press L 12 times, jump off, press L 1 time OR Press L 13 times, jump off | 6. Press L 12 times, jump off, press L 1 time OR Press L 13 times, jump off |
7. Mario should have "31(dec)/1F(hex) Hop on Barrel" now.
When creating a barrel for Luigi, make sure to position the brothers around a corner as to interrupt the barrel hop. Otherwise, Mario will jump on top of Luigi to make him a barrel and you have to cycle through all action commands before being able to jump off. When this happens, you will only have access to regular "01 Hop on Barrel". That means, when Luigi breaks out you cannot make him a new barrel and you cannot use further action command glitching.
TODO: List of all action commands that you can get, for console/vba and jp/english
Floating Luigi Skipping (aka. Rock Skip) (Wall Clipping) (For English)
TODO: This section is in need of an update.
VBA and VBA-Next are deprecated (they do not emulate the Action Command Glitch correctly) and should be replaced by mGBA wherever this section lists a comparison of instructions.
Since "Barrel Clipping" does not work on the English version, you would normally be unable to bypass a few places such as the rocks in Teehee Valley when heading towards Popple & Birdo. So "Floating Luigi Skip" was invented in order to skip through rocks on the English version.
The glitch works differently between versions and/or systems. This is taken into consideration in this step-by-step explanation. Please also note that action commands can get skipped when pressing a button for a given amount of times. This is due to how the glitch works and can cause the glitch to fail.
This glitch is part of the "Action Command Glitch" described above. Make sure Mario behind Luigi has "06 Highjump".
1. Highjump on Luigi.
| JP | US | EU |
console | 2. ? untested ? | 2. Press L 13 times | 2. ? untested ? |
VBA24 svn480 | 2. ? untested ? | 2. Press L 7 times, jump off, press L 2 times (This will give "21(dec)/15(hex) Hammer") OR Press L 10 times, jump off, press L 1 time (This will give "27(dec)/1B(hex) Hammer") OR Press L 11 times, jump off (This will give "27(dec)/1B(hex) Hammer") | 2. ? untested ? |
Bizhawk 1.8.2(VBA-Next) | 2. ? untested ? | 2. ? untested ? | 2. ? untested ? |
3. Mario behind Luigi should have a glitched hammer, either ID 21(dec)/15(hex) or 27(dec)/1B(hex). Hammer Luigi with it.
4. Press L until a "Highjump" command appears. Start "Highjumping" on Luigi.
5. Hop off, press L until a "Highjump" command appears again. Start "Highjumping" on Luigi.
| JP | US | EU |
console | 6. ? untested ? | 6. Press R 21 times, jump off | 6. ? untested ? |
VBA24 svn480 | 6. ? untested ? | 6. Press R 14 times, jump off, press R 1 time | 6. ? untested ? |
Bizhawk 1.8.2(VBA-Next) | 6. ? untested ? | 6. ? untested ? | 6. ? untested ? |
7. Luigi in front of Mario should have "28(dec)/1C(hex) Barrel break". Use this command to break out.
8. Switch places.
9. Make Luigi do a Highjump on Mario. Luigi should be floating in the air after he did it. If not, the glitch failed somewhere.
10. Switch places again. Use Mario's Highjump to cross the rock that you want to bypass.
11. Since Luigi has an "underground" status right now, he will not be able to cross ledges. Have Luigi behind Mario use hammer twice in order to fix this.
This glitch can be used while Luigi behind Mario has "Spinjump" so that you can use "Sign Glitch" after doing it.
TODO: Explain why you would want to do this and add step by step explanations.
Luigi Hat Teleportation (Wall Clipping)
Since "Barrel Clipping" can only be done horizontally, "Luigi Hat Teleportation" was invented in order to clip through walls vertically. More precisely, you do not clip but you teleport!
The glitch works differently between versions and/or systems. This is taken into consideration in this step-by-step explanation. Please also note that action commands can get skipped when pressing a button for a given amount of times. This is due to how the glitch works and can cause the glitch to fail.
This glitch is part of the "Action Command Glitch" described above. Make sure Mario behind Luigi has "06 Highjump".
1. Highjump on Luigi.
| JP | US | EU |
console | 2. ? untested ? | 2. Press L 13 times | 2. ? untested ? |
VBA24 svn480 | 2. ? untested ? | 2. Press L 7 times, jump off, press L 2 times (This will give "21(dec)/15(hex) Hammer") OR Press L 10 times, jump off, press L 1 time (This will give "27(dec)/1B(hex) Hammer") OR Press L 11 times, jump off (This will give "27(dec)/1B(hex) Hammer") | 2. ? untested ? |
Bizhawk 1.8.2(VBA-Next) | 2. ? untested ? | 2. ? untested ? | 2. ? untested ? |
3. Mario behind Luigi should have a glitched hammer, either ID 21(dec)/15(hex) or 27(dec)/1B(hex). Hammer Luigi with it.
4. Press L until a "Highjump" command appears. Start "Highjumping" on Luigi and hop off.
5. You should now have "glitched movement". If you walk then Mario and Luigi will start to get closer and they will teleport once they reach the same position.
6. If you enter a loading zone, you will lose glitched movement, but you can easily get it again. Press L until you get High Jump on Mario again, then High Jump on Luigi and hop off.
7. To cancel glitched movement, you may use Luigi's Emerge or Barrel Break. Generally Emerge is preferred as some of Luigi's physics will still be messed up if you use Barrel Break, but Emerge will completely restore normality. There are multiple Emerge commands with different IDs, including 21, 49, and 69, that can be used depending on the situation.
How the teleporting works
While walking with glitched movement, Luigi advances 4 positions on the follow path per frame, while Mario advances 8 positions. Luigi starts at position 64 and Mario at position 0, since the follow path is reset by high jumping. After 16 frames of walking, they will coincide on the same follow path position. The next frame, Mario will teleport to the position 8 frames ahead in the follow path.
If Luigi moves in the air with glitched movement, he will advance 8 positions on the follow path. This means that each frame of air movement pushes forward the position they will coincide on by 8 indices. If you don't jump, Mario will teleport to position 136. If you do jump, which takes 24 frames, Mario can teleport to any multiple of 8 between 144 and 256, by moving for a certain number of frames in the air.
Mario doesn't teleport to the exact position on the follow path. He only teleports to the nearest position to him that matches the lower two bytes of the follow path position. If he is equally close to two such positions, he will teleport to the lower one. Then if there are any walls between Mario and this adjusted position, he will sometimes get blocked by them (end up touching the wall instead of going through it). Also Luigi will teleport to a certain position: consider the 0x2000 by 0x2000 square centered at Mario's new position. Luigi teleports to the nearest position to him that is inside this square (including the borders). These rules are not fully understood and you may occasionally come across a teleport that behaves differently.
Joke's End Early
Peach Speech Glitch
At a certain point in the game, you have to escort Peach through Teehee Valley while protecting her from enemies. After each room, she will wait for you. If you go close to her (by walking into a trigger zone), she will walk to the next room and you follow her automatically.
Regardless of whether Peach is being escorted or not, if you touch any of the Peach trigger zones while being inside a glitched barrel, the Peach Speech Glitch is triggered. You will be stuck and you can only move on after you switch places. If you break your barrel, then a glitched event will occur. What will happen is dependent on the frame, but usually the game will crash.
In VBA24 svn480, there is a very slim chance that the game runs an actual event that exists in the game, including the End Credits. On console, the glitch does work, but due to there being no savestates or rewinds usable on console, glitch-testing is difficult and time-consuming. Therefore, the glitch has not been verified very well yet and the Peach Speech Glitch triggering actual events (including the End Credits) might have been an emulation issue.
Here is more detailed information about the glitch in VBA24 svn480:
- When an event occurs that doesn't immediately crash the game, then you will be in a loop of glitched events. That means, an event occurs and then another one will occur etc.
- There is a very slim chance of surviving the glitch without it crashing. But in that case, no glitching will take place (in the form of corrupting memory or triggering events).
- It is also possible to survive the glitch if Luigi breaks his barrel while hitting a !-block at the same time.
- Actual events that can happen include:
- "Inventory Koopa photographer" cutscene
- "Inventory Bean servant explaining badges" cutscene
- Mine Cart minigame
- Barreling minigame
- End Credits
- Selling items screen (even if you don't have any, but it's not possible to mess with RAM using this screen.)
- Gameover screen (The game will softlock after you attempt to continue)
- Map screen with a little icon in the middle
- Battle against Goombas or other random enemies. There is a chance of unused BGM playing
- Rope jumping minigame
- While the game glitches out, it will randomly give you strange amounts of money and items
- It seems you can influence the rough outcome of the glitch by going to your items screen in your inventory or by performing actions in the overworld and switching through your action commands.
There are other trigger zones in the game which you could use Peach Speech Glitch on, but touching them while barreled will not allow you to run a glitched event. This has not been tested thoroughly yet, however. It has not been understood why the Peach trigger zones in Teehee Valley cause the glitch to happen but other trigger zones don't.
Zero DEF Glitch
Use Thunder Bros on an enemy. Strangely, the fewer commands you get right, the lower the enemies' defence becomes. If you miss all but the first "B", the enemies' defence will drop to zero.
It was thought that this glitch could aid in weakening bosses but in order to learn Thunder Bros, you must visit Gwarhar Lagoon and go through the Hand tutorial there which takes too much time. Therefore this glitch is useless in any%, but may be useful for other categories.
Pepper Glitch (English Only)
Red Pepper and Green Pepper boost Pow and Def by 1.25 in J, 1.5 in English, respectively. In the English version, if a brother dies while his pepper is active, the effect will stay for the rest of the battle. This has already been used by console speedrunners.
Information Store Dialogue Glitch (English Only)
If you repeatedly talk to the hint guy in Bean-Bean Castle Town, eventually his dialogue box will glitch up, causing the game to freeze. At the moment, this glitch is not well investigated and is not a timesaver in speedruns.
The finder reported that instead of freezing, the game has a chance of crashing or surviving the glitch. This seems to be the case for VBA-M. These occurences have not been spotted on VBA-24m nor Bizhawk (mgba core).
TODO: Test on Bizhawk VBA-Next. Test on regular VBA-M. Test at different points in the game (which causes the dialogue box to have different text and amount of bubbles).
(Go to 5:55 in the video)
Money Trick Glitch
When doing the money trick where Luigi highjumps on small Mario, sometimes it counts as two hits, effectively converting Luigi's HP into money twice as fast as was intended.
Note that 1 Luigi HP equals 1 coin on the English version and 2 Luigi HP equals 1 coin on the Japanese version.
Firehand Battle Encounter Glitch
Mario has to be behind Luigi and Luigi has to be underground. When Mario behind Luigi charges firehand, and an enemy approaches to start a battle, if you let go of charging firehand at the same moment Luigi is forced out of the ground, the game may graphically glitch or crash depending on Mario's facing direction.
Wide Bros. Coin Block Glitch
If you hit a wide coin block, it will eventually solidify. If you hit a saveblock or stand in front of a sign, a glitch occurs: Instead of the wide block becoming solid, the saveblock or sign will move towards the wide block.
When you hit the wide block, event layer 2 is occupied. It holds an event pointer related to the wide block and there is a timer running down. When it has run down, the game attempts to run the event that is stored in layer 2. But if you do something that occupies layer 2 as well, such as hitting a saveblock or standing in front of an NPC or sign, the movement bug happens.
Why exactly it happens is a mystery for now.
Details:
- When the moving object reaches the wide block, it vanishes.
- If you hit the wide block at the same time the moving object reaches the wide block, it depends on the object what will happen: A saveblock will co-exist with the wide block but you can't hit neither (only the wide of the wide block). If you do it with a map, the wide block will vanish as it will be replaced by the map.
- You can stop the moving objects from reaching the wide block by interacting with it
- If you stop the moving object, the wide block can be farmed forever. The timer doesn't run anymore so the block doesn't become solid until you leave the room.
- If you inspect a map for the first time and the bug occurs, you can walk around freely with the explanation text bubble.
Bowser's Castle Skip
When you defeat the final boss, you are to use an escape route to leave Bowser's Castle before it explodes.
You can use the same escape route the other way around to reach Cackletta while skipping all Koopalings and Fawful. All you have to do is use one of the wall clipping glitches to get up the ledge and then walk into the next room.
Important: If all the timer addresses equal zero, the game will think that your time has run out and you will game-over. In order to prevent this from happening, you will need to trigger an event beforehand that uses a timer. Examples for good timer events are Hohooros' soul collecting minigame and the surf minigame on the islands.
There are also bad timer events because those will not prevent the game-over from happening. That's because the timer runs down to zero during those events. An example is the jumping minigame in Guffawha Ruins.
You want to trigger at least one "good timer event" before doing Bowser's Castle Skip. Also note that the timer address values are reset to zero when you reset the game. Therefore, if you load a savegame and then attempt the skip right after, it will game-over.
For the timer addresses, refer to the memory address list below.