.:Overview
Another FAQ: this will attempt to cover all the (known) glitches in the game, explain how they work and provide demos for them (occasionally). Also at first I will simply copy and update the data on the thread in the old forums but that's just between you and me ;)
Important: If you know of any glitches (of any kind) not covered in this thread, post ‘em below so I can add them.
.:Glitches/Bugs in NED
Bugs are annoying, but luckily for you Mare has already made a thread covering the various bugs in NED! You can find it here: http://metanet.2.forumer.com/index.php?showtopic=13
A NaN occurs when data for an object or a tile has been entered incorrectly. There are two types of NaN glitch: "random" NaN glitches, and manual NaN glitches.
A "random" NaN glitch is unpredictable and will usually occur when map data has been copied incorrectly saved or loaded. You can spot a random NaN glitch by looking around the outside edge of a map: if there is an object there that shouldn't be there, this is probably the glitch. If you find that you cannot remove the object within NED, don't worry! You can actually remove these glitches from the data it iself. My advice is to copy the data into Microsoft Word (or it's equivalent) and using ctrl+f to locate the NaN and remove it. If you have manually NaN'd objects (see below), be careful not to get confused with those when trying to delete the object. There is a more detailed guide on removing these glitches here.
You may wonder why anyone would want to manually NaN an object, but it does have it uses. If you change the last number in the code for a drone to NaN then it won't move. At all. They'll still function as drones, though, so be careful if you encounter them while playing. You can NaN pretty much any object in NED to produce different effects, but most of these aren't so spectacular and can potentially corrupt level data, so be careful when experimenting. This thread may help you if you want to experiment with NaN'd objects.
There are too main types of glitches tiles: those that look solid but aren't, and those that look solid and are but behave in a very strange way.
If you encounter the former, you have probably loaded your map data incorrectly. In the words of lord_day:
"The trouble is with your level data. Some how you've deleted some of the tiles from the level data, and so that when you load a level, visibly you can see the tiles that were present on the level loaded before you loaded, but you won't be able to interact with them. Your best bet is to press J, load the data in NED and then add in tiles where there aren't any."
The latter type of fake tile is much rarer, and usually has to be caused manually. They can either kill you outright (not terribly useful) or they can act as propulsion, which is useful in the context of a DDA and a select few other contexts. You can find a guide on how to make them on this map
Teleporters, you say? Tell me more! A detailed explanation on how to place teleporters can be found here.
Check this thread for help with some of the weirder glitches in N.
When the game loads, right click the screen, and choose Settings. Choose the tab with the folder on it. Slide the bar all the way to the right (to unlimited). Also, check this.
Yes, it's true. You can get the flavor without completing the last level in a column. As long as you reach the last level.
An odd glitch, explained in this thread.
If you complete a level while wallsliding, you will continue to wallslide after the victory animation.
If you complete a level while on a slope, the ninja will shake very quickly upon completion.
Lag. Everyone hates it, pretty much, as it makes the game nearly unplayable. It can, however, produce some very weird glitches, as well. Take this for example.
According to The_V_dude, "If you play a level in practice mode, it'll record the demo. Sometimes it takes longer than 90 seconds, but that's all recorded. Now if you go watch the demo with practice mode OFF, it'll go into negative time."
More of a bug than a glitch, but pretty self-explanatory nevertheless: basically there's a random error which causes the flash player to go too fast, causing N to crash. Thanks to 999_Springs for reminding me of this
Take it away, 999_Springs:
"From main menu, hover your mouse pointer over the "highscores" section. The "res" of "highscores" will move 1 pixel to the left, and then back to its original position once you move your mouse pointer off."
You can actually squeeze through several tiles while playing N, either by moving very quickly through them or by beind pushed through by thwumps or launchpads. Maps involving squeezes are not uncommon; this is probably the definitive squeeze map.
It's possible to squeeze through 5-tiles as well - see here.
Sometimes, N can die crashing into the ceiling with very little momentum. It's very strange, and has yet to be explained.
Gold delay is when you place gold over an object to delay the use of it. This does not apply to enemies. This is usually only seen in DDAs.
One-ways are renowned for the number of glitches you can perform with them. You can find a comprehensive list of one-way glitches here. Huge thanks to Gforce for compiling these!
There are many door glitches (surprise surprise), for example:
-When multiple locked doors are overlapped, you only need to collect the switch that activates the door that was placed on last.
-When a normal door is placed under a locked door, with the switch on top, it would be a one-time use platform. Example courtesy of usaswim
A longer and more comprehensive list of door glitches can be found here: http://forum.droni.es/viewtopic.php?f=1 ... &sk=t&sd=a
Lord_day again: "If you place the door before you place the floorguard, then the floorguard will travel on it. If you place the door after you place the floorguard, then the floorguard won't travel on it. It's just a matter of placing floorguards and doors in the right order."
If you place a floorguard on something other than a solid surface, then they will act strangely, running off the map in one direction and not very far in the other. Here is an example of this glitch: http://www.nmaps.net/193785
When N is literally pixels away from a floorguard, it doesn't chase him until he moves farther from the floorguard. There's an example of that in this map.
Thwumps are associated with a number of glitches; here are a few of them.
Ever wondered how and why the thwumps move on 86-3? (Which is also here) Well, a full explanation can be found here
A thwump does not move when it is enclosed on either side with a "5" tile. See here.
Velocity problems with thwumps: http://metanet.2.forumer.com/index.php?showtopic=15288
Thankfully very rare: http://metanet.2.forumer.com/index.php?showtopic=9881
Again, a thankfully rare glitch: http://metanet.2.forumer.com/index.php?showtopic=8618
Drones; the grunts of the N world.
Drones can go through doors: if N is next to a normal door, opening it, and a drone of any kind passes next to it, the drone will go through the door. This glitch has been utilised many times, for example in this map.
Drones slow down: pretty self-explanatory: http://www.nmaps.net/57283
Lasers aren't as buggy as most other enemies, but they have their moments!
Lasers can shoot through tiles: Yes, this is possible, as several of the demos here demonstrate. According to jtbandes, "This happens because the laser hits the tiny, almost unhittable gap between tiles."
Lasers sometimes fire when they can't see you: Check it out! (Thanks Inspired!)
INVINCIBILITY, AWESOME!!! AM I RIGHT, OR WHAT???
Sadly it's nowhere near as good as it sounds. Basically, if you die while performing another action simultaneously, e.g. hitting a mine and launchpad at the same time, you will become invincible. Walk through zap drones and mines untouched, laugh as the laser beam fails to harm you. On the other hand, this affects all objects: no more getting that exit switch for you! Thus, invincibility can be cool but it's far from useful as you can't actually complete the level while invincible. If this scares you, don't worry: this glitch only happens in uerlevels, and will disappear as soon as you self-kill or quite the game or whatever.
You remember that scene in The Matrix? Well, it is possible for bullets fired right at you to miss, somehow, although this is very unlikely. I don't think anyone knows what's required for this to take place (probably lag), so I guess I'll just put it down to luck.
Huge thanks to TRO for greatly expanding the content in this section! (Any tricks where it says "courtesy of TRO" were written by him, and often have examples provided by him as well).
It should be noted that whether some of these are glitches are not is up for debate; I've included them anyway, though, as it's still useful to have a list of tricks do-able within the game.
This is a good way to become a better N player in general, as well as practise and learn some very cool tricks - what are you waiting for? Oh, a link. Fair enough, here it is.
If you hit jump while hitting a launchpad next to a wall (or another solid surface like a one-ways or trapdoor, although that is much more difficult), you can get a "super" jump. Watch pretty much any demo on 0-0 to see this in action.
The thwump cannon is a great way to take advantage of thwump positioning to speed up demos. As 999_Springs puts it, you need to be "squished against a tile but to one side of it so as not to be crushed by it, which gives a speed boost to the side of the tile that the ninja is on." Vankusss' demo on 55-0 is a good example of this.
There are times in N when daring death to do its worst pays off. Believe it or not, it is possible to jump off edge of the deadly side of a thwump; Izzy explains: "It's exactly the same as bounceblock "corner jumping": What the ninja is actually doing is walljumping off of the side of the thwump (with that propulsion that you get when you touch the side of a bounceblock/thwump)" Check Golfkid's 94-0 demo for an example of this.
Exactly what it says on the tin: you can jump twice on one bounceblock to jump much higher than usual. Press jump twice in succession while on a bounceblock and watch your ninja fly into the air. Double jumping is a common trick that isn't too difficult to master, and is one of the most used tricks in a highscorer's arsenal. See 10-2 for a lot of double bounceblock jumps (dbbj for short).
Same as above, accept jump three times instead of two. You need very quick fingers for this. Yes, it is possible; thanks to TRO for this example:
Izzy sums this one up: "Backwards bounceblock walljumps happen when you walljump from below the bounceblock (or a thwump). See: 175-3 speedrun, 29-0 speedrun."
Courtesy of TRO: "These are quite the same as a bouceblock side double, but instead you are doing 3 jumps off the side as it retracts giving you quite a bit of speed. These are very easy to do, they don't require you to be very as at all, just press jump 3 times quickly and you should get it." Demo:
Courtesy of TRO: "This is four jumps off the side of a bounceblock. This is quite hard to my knowledge kryX, Meta, and I are the only ones to have pulled this off real time. Watch either run on http://www.nmaps.net/168115 for an example."
Courtesy of TRO: "if you hit any corner of a thwump at just the right angle you will be given a boost of speed. These can be done while falling down on to a thwump corner; this will result in extra downward propulsion, or by jumping in to a corner; this will result in extra upward propulsion. These can be seen everywhere, they are quite common, but hard to control."
The tricks listed form here on all utilize what is known as the backwards wall jump (BWJ). This can be done on tiles, bounceblocks, thwumps, locked doors, and trap doors. Even though for bounceblocks and thwumps we give different ways of doing a BWJ different names like "corner kick" neither bounceblocks nor thwumps actually have corners. That is why you can not do an upwards corner jump off of either like you can off of tiles. This bwj is exactly what is sounds like you are doing a wall jump off of a surface that you are not facing. the ninjas back is to the wall of which he jumps off of. The reason that I think the bwj is possible is because of the fact that you can jump 1 frame before you touch a wall. This allows you do be either in front or behind a wall and jump off of it.
An example off each type of backwards wall jump. I suggest watching in FBF to understand what is going on because everything happens quite fast:
*note* this is only referred to bwj if it is off of a tile or a door, if it is off of a bounceblock or Thwump it will have a special name. This is when you do a wall jump off of a tile or door when you are not facing it. These are quite tough to plan with out FBF, but do happen randomly sometimes. Watch any run on http://www.nmaps.net/198240 to see many BWJs and BBBWJs.
This is when you are falling down to a bounceblock and you do what looks like a corner jump off to either side. These are becoming quite common. More and more highscorers and speedrunners are using them. Watch any run on http://www.nmaps.net/163449 for an example.
These are similar to a bounceblock double jump, but here you do one jump on top of the bounceblock and then as you are moving to either side the bounceblock will then rise up next to you allowing you to do a jump off the side of it making a more angled double jump. These are not too hard to do, but most of the time they are by accident. Watch any run on http://www.nmaps.net/147305 for an example.
This is the same idea as a BBCD, but this time you do two jumps on top of the the bounceblock and then let it rise up next to you allowing you to do a third jump on the side of the bounceblock give a very high and angled jump. This is probably one of the hardest tricks in the game to pull off, to my knowledge only Kool has done one real time. Watch his run on http://www.nmaps.net/182687 for an example. I suggest watching this run in FBF to really get an idea of what is happening if you don't fully understand the concept.
This is where you come up from underneath a bounceblock and then jump off what looks like the corner and continue upwards at about a 45 degree angle. This can vary depending on what angle you hit the bounceblock at. Watch any run on http://www.nmaps.net/152816 for an example.
This is where you come up from underneath the thwump and then wj off of one of the sides. These can be done off of side of a Thwump as long as the side that is acting as the "wall" is a grey side. These are quite common in highscoring and speedrunning. They aren't too hard to pull off, but they are still on the upper end of tricks. Watch my run posted on http://www.nmaps.net/186490 this run showcases every type of jumping thwump trick.
This is where you are falling on to a thwump and do a jump off of what looks like the corner, but is actually a backwards wall jump. Again these can be done off of any side of a thwump as long as the side acting as the "wall" is grey. Watch my run post on http://www.nmaps.net/186490 for an example.
- Usaswim, for writing the original guide which I have essentially tidied up and edited.
- TRO for writing a very large portion of the Tricks Section, providing examples and giving explanations.
- 999_Springs, Izzy and Inspired for suggesting some glitches and giving examples and/or explanations.
- lord_day, jtbandes, and the_v_dude for providing explanations for some glitches.
- All those authors whose maps are used as examples for demonstrating glitches.