Strange Locked Warp Bug

[Chad]

While trying to fix some locked pipes in an older level of mine, I discovered this completely by accident: Under the right circumstances, going through a locked warp can replace the key in your hand with a different NPC. Just take a look at the images below:

Spoiler: show

For this to work, though, ALL of the following conditions must be met at once:

• The locked warp must allow NPCs.
• The key must be on a layer that gets hidden as soon as you use it; in other words, the key's "death" must trigger an event that hides the key.
• There must be at least one other NPC on-screen at the time that you unlock the warp.

What this ends up doing is confusing the game, because it's trying to let you take the key through the warp (Allow NPCs). However, the very NPC it's allowing gets hidden as you enter the warp while also being used to unlock it. I guess the game substitutes a nearby NPC in order to fill that void. There's even a frame where the new NPC returns to its original position (or somewhere close to it) during the warp, and it will do that when you let go. It works with pipe warps, doors, and even instant ones as long as they're locked. It even works with warps that go to different sections.

I haven't tried it with every NPC, but it's worked with all of the ones I did try it with (SMB3 coin, both Donut Blocks, Mother Brain glass, Ripper, spawned Rinkas, Bullet Bill). If there are multiple NPCs on-screen, sometimes it picks randomly between them, maybe it'll pick a favorite and stick with it, or pick a couple of random ones while ignoring others. I have no idea what decides that.

Here's the test level in the screenshots if you want to mess around with it. The warp is locked, the key is on its own layer, and there's a random NPC off to the side that appears in your hands. The conveyor belt is on the Default layer with no additional properties added to it.

Download

Nothing special happens with Link or Yoshi, but a blue or black Yoshi will be able to fly with nothing in their mouth until you dismount. That part doesn't even depend on the above conditions though, just that the warp is locked.

[FanofSMBX]

Is there any utilization of this glitch?

[Chad]

You could put an item in an unreachable but on-screen place for when the player enters the locked warp, so if you want someone to hold a shell right after going through, you potentially could. However, that assumes another NPC wouldn't claim the spot first and it wouldn't make too much sense to begin with.

[Valtteri]

[bossedit8]

Original Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjT1DWzhBR4

What I did with them.

[SMBXxer]

Wow, that's really cool. Someone could use this for a puzzle level of some sort.

[bossedit8]

Wow, that's really cool. Someone could use this for a puzzle level of some sort.

Well, not really a good idea by that Glitch...

[SMBXxer]

Wow, that's really cool. Someone could use this for a puzzle level of some sort.

Well, not really a good idea by that Glitch...

Nope, use it for a puzzle level. Case set.

[FutureNyanCat]

How are you going to use that in a puzzle level? (WTF, Switch Goombas in blue pipes?!?)

[Tango]

If you make a "RPG" themed level, you can for example, exit from the pipe with a Toad, and the warp go in a void room. If you drop him and talk with him, a door appears, with events. And yes, this can be used in Puzzle Levels.

[zlaker]

SMBXxer is right. It could be used as a puzzle or gimmick, but it would be a pretty glitchy one

[SMBXxer]

SMBXxer is right. It could be used as a puzzle or gimmick, but it would be a pretty glitchy one

:'D Yay someone agrees with me!

[SBGamer]

mmmm .... this glitch is similar to that of sm64, with which you can clone

[Warlock]

mmmm .... this glitch is similar to that of sm64, with which you can clone

Please refrain from bumping old topics without making a decent contribution to the discussion.

[Novarender]

I'm assuming that this works the same way as the cloning glitch in SM64. It appears to give you random nearby NPCs because of the memory slots of what's loaded in. Once you use the key, you are still holding it as it unloads and therefore you are holding an empty object slot that other npcs can be loaded into. Due to how loading NPCs works, a different nearby NPC will be bumped from its own object slot and into the one you're holding, effectively letting you hold a random nearby NPC, no matter what it is. Which NPC you get is decided by what order they are in the object slots, but there is no reliable way to figure this out. I don't remember why it goes back to it's original spot, but it does that in SM64, too.
Here, Pannenkoek explains it twice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xE2otZ-9os
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2AhyDI58-I

[LGLMAKING]

Is it just me or did Valterri''s video show me that the glitch works only once? It could also be used as a randomizer without requiring prior knowledge of coding in SMBX. For The Arena-styled boss rushes, for example. You could apply Tango's idea with toads to make the game choose a boss (if we start making boss rushes like the Kirby Super Star devs did, oh how much neater that genre would seem).