List of glitches in the EarthBound series

A list of glitches appearing in the Mother series.

Bread Crumbs Glitch
A glitch involving the use of bread crumbs allows the player to reach an out-of-bounds area of the map in the original Mother. To activate the glitch, Ninten must never use bread crumbs, and then must subsequently rescue Pippi. If Pippi starts a trail of crumbs and then is delivered safely to the mayor, the player can choose to talk to her to obtain the items from her. Since each character has a separate variable for bread crumbs, and Ninten has not used them yet to set the variable, the crumbs that Pippi hands back to him lead to the default location on the map. The glitch can be canceled by using the Map in certain locations, which can be used to skip a large section of the game. If the player moves too far in any direction, the game will create large amounts of glitched blocks that Ninten cannot pass through.

This glitch was fixed in the English prototype and Mother 1+2.

Teleport Music Glitch
When the player fails to teleport through a spot that would normally change music, such as from the Yucca Desert to Youngtown, the music playing before the teleport will continue, even after passing the music-change point.

This glitch was not fixed in the English prototype or the Mother 1+2 port.

Poltergeist Music Glitch
If the player saves the game while Ninten's home is under attack by the poltergeist, then defeats the Doll and does not save, being knocked unconscious will cause the poltergeist music to replay. This is due to how the game stores the saved location, as it also saves the current music playing. Entering a different room causes the music to return to normal

This glitch was not fixed in the English prototype or the Mother 1+2 port.

Rock Candy/Condiment Glitch
With a Rock Candy or other food item and a condiment, it is possible to reuse the item an infinite number of times, only using the condiment. To do this, the food item must be at the bottom of the player's inventory. The player should then enter a battle and use the item. The condiment will be used, but the food item will not, allowing infinite recovery or status-enhancement. If any stat becomes higher than 255, the stat will underflow to zero.

Staircase Glitch
In EarthBound, when a player is at low on the overworld from poisoning, they receive a message warning them that a character is low on health. If this message is shown on a staircase, the player can walk through all walls. Ness's party's movement direction is fixed at the direction in which the message appeared. To fix the glitch, the player must walk to the bottom of another staircase. This was fixed in the Mother 1+2 version of the game.

Threed Tent Bug
A small section of the tent in Threed causes slowdown related to text when Checking it. If checked enough times, it may output long strings of random text, or occasionally, will leave text in the foreground of the screen, even after the text string ends. If the player repeatedly does this, it will eventually activate one of the game's debug menus.

The menu is untranslated; instead, it uses the first letter of the intended Japanese syllable. The menu includes a party selector, sound test, Hint Shop text selector, item description tester, teleport location tester, inventory item selector, Status ailment tester, and a menu working similarly to the Mother 3 Debug Room that takes the player to specific sections of the game, including the ending.

This glitch was fixed in the Mother 1+2 version of the game.

Shattered Man and Runaway Five Glitch
During the end of the game and when waiting on the Runaway Five's bus, there are no enemies on the entire map. An oversight leaves scripted battles such as the Sanctuary Boss battles working as normally; however, if Ness's entire party is the game will endlessly loop the game over screen or freeze with graphical glitches. Both glitches were fixed in Mother 1+2 by separate methods; the Shattered Men disappear after completion of the game, while the game-over code has been modified to account for Mondo Mole.

Diamondized Glitch
When teleporting, if a character is diamondized, hitting a wall will cause all characters to appear diamondized for a split second.

Happy-Happyist's Lair Glitch
If the player Talks to a present through the command menu rather than Checking it, it will output the text, "(There's no response.)," rather than the normal "Who are you talking to?" This is due to the room-specific coding intended for the non-sprite Happy-Happyists in the background. After defeating Mr. Carpainter, the room functions normally.

Simultaneous Defeat glitch
If all of the party members and enemies die at the same time, the game will proceed to giving experience points. However, since none of the characters are alive, the game will attempt to divide it between the zero living characters, which will underflow to a very large number. Since no characters are alive, however, nobody actually receives this experience.

Exit mouse glitch
In Mother 1+2, a newly-introduced allows the player to exit the Cave of the Past by using an Exit mouse in the final room where Giygas resides. After doing this, Ness's party are no longer robots, and appear at the entrance to whichever dungeon that the mouse was obtained in. Doing this, the locations in the game are already prepared for the ending, playing the music used during the prayer sequence.

If the player chooses to return to Saturn Valley, they can reenter the Phase Distorter with no negative consequences. If this is done, the events proceed mostly as normal; however, the scene in which Dr. Andonuts pulls Ness aside is skipped, instead skipping directly to the sequence in which the party is transformed into robots. Additionally, Poo will relearn PK Starstorm Ω from the Star Master.

Poisoned Giygas glitch
If Ness or one of his party members uses a snake on Giygas in the final battle, it will still damage him normally. If Giygas dies to the poison, the game fades out with the background still Giygas's lair. Ness's family can be seen in the positioning on the screen where they would be in Ness's home in the ending.

New Game+ Glitch
If the player creates a new game, sometimes data is not fully erased from the previously loaded file. This results in Lucas and Kumatora retaining their PSI attacks, even before Lucas gains his PSI abilities, with Lucas and Salsa equipped with the equipment from the previous file. If the player unequips these items, they disappear permanently, as they were not in the main inventory. Additionally, Lucas's equipment will return to normal in Chapter 4, as he then gains the Easy-Grip Stick in his weapon slot. He retains his PSI for the duration of the game, however.

Present Status ailment Glitch
Occasionally, opening the Map or Status menus will temporarily change a gift box onscreen into a status ailment icon. Moving into a different area, opening the map, or checking the status menu again will fix the glitch.

Tanetane Island Sludge Pond Glitch
If Lucas becomes Feverish and enters the sludge pond west of Mixolydia's home, his sprite can temporarily be changed to that of Boney. When the fever dies down, if the player goes into the PSI menu, after exiting the menu, Lucas will look identical to Boney. Going into a menu or entering a battle will fix the glitch. Saving the game will preserve the glitch, however.

Aeolia-Ionia Name Glitch
In the scene at Aeolia's home in Chapter 7, Ionia's name appears instead of Aeolia's in the name box despite Aeolia being the speaker. This was fixed for v1.1 in the Mother 3 fan translation.

Menu Scrolling Glitch
When scrolling too fast through the item menu or another similar menu, sometimes the text will not clear on the screen, only replacing text filled by the new text option. It can be fixed by changing to a different menu or closing the menu and re-opening it, and has no effect on gameplay.

Name Summary Slowdown Glitch
After naming characters, a fade out occurs. The audio and game slow down considerably, due to the sprite text welding system implemented in the translation.