List of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon glitches
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This is a list of glitches in Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. Unless otherwise noted, all names are conjectural.
Single-player glitches
Ghost Glitches
Continuous tornado
In the Old Clockworks, during the fight with the Greenies that spawn tornadoes, it is possible to cause the tornado sound effect to repeat continuously. It is unknown why this occurs.
Dancing brick
In level C-3: Roundhouse Brawl, when fighting the Ancient Poltergeist, if Luigi gets scared by a Sneaker when catching the Ancient Poltergeist when the poltergeist is about to throw a brick, it is possible for the brick to play the first frames of the levitating animation continuously. The glitch ends when the poltergeist levitates and throws the brick or when the level ends.
Dark room glitch
In the Old Clockworks, in the Kiln room, if Luigi has previously captured the Boo hidden in the room, then if he does the mission again and once again captures the two Greenies, the room will remain dark and continue playing the dark room music thinking there are still ghosts in the room even though there are none. Luigi can still leave the room as he has cleared it. The mini map also registers this as a room with ghosts in it after clearing it.
Inaccessible treasure
It is possible, but rare, to successfully capture a ghost from behind a wall. If the resulting catch rewards the player with treasure, it will be blocked by the wall. If there is another room behind it, the treasure will not be in it.
Invisible Boo back
This happens in Gloomy Manor - B5. To execute the glitch, all the player has to do is to capture the Boo found in the painting by using the dark light device. Once found, the Boo will give its normal speech, and if the player looks where the roof of the mouth is supposed to be, the roof of the mouth is invisible, with the painting being visible behind it. This happens at random and has no other effects on gameplay.
No Possessor catch music
In Chilly Ride, when capturing the Shrewd Possessor, if Luigi keeps on sucking it up but does not use a Power Surge, the music that plays while capturing it stops after one playthrough.
Player glitches
Bulb in Nautical Exhibit
In the Treacherous Mansion, it is possible to use a Bulb in the Nautical exhibit. First, the player should turn the E-Gate towards the Study. Next, they should enter the Study and get a Bulb, which should then be taken to the Jungle exhibit and stand under the waterfall. Luigi will "take a shower" and drop the Bulb. However, it will not pop. The player should then leave the berry there and enter the Nautical exhibit and turn the E-Gate around. Then, they should return to the Jungle Exhibit and grab the Bulb. It is then possible to take the Bulb into the Nautical exhibit though the E-Gate. This glitch has no ill effects on gameplay.
Carnivorous plant glitch
In the Treacherous Mansion's Jungle Exhibit (Level E-2), when the player first enters and fights the two Strong Greenies with spears, if the player approaches the carnivorous plant while sucking up one of the ghosts, the plant will lunge at Luigi and try to eat him. As the game is focused on Luigi sucking up the ghost, this will confuse it, and instead of being in the plant's mouth, he will appear to be struggling just above the plant's head. Luigi still loses health, but eventually while struggling the whole time, the plant lets him go, and the game returns to normal.
Dark Moon piece glitch
Sometimes when the player has beaten a boss in one of the mansions, the Dark Moon piece will not come out of the Poltergust 5000, preventing Luigi from ending the level. The player has to restart the boss battle to end the glitch, since there is nothing the player can do if the Dark Moon piece is not there. This glitch occurs rarely but has a higher probability of occurring when facing the Overset Possessor. This glitch is still present in the Nintendo Switch release.
Dual scream
In the place where the first Toad is saved, if the first cutscene is skipped but the Dual Screen call is not, the Dual Screen scene will also be skipped. However, E Gadd will continue talking as if it was happening. Every time the player presses 
to go to the next text screen, the Strobulb flashes.
Early access glitch
If Luigi goes back to the second mission in Gloomy Manor after gaining the Dark-Light Device, it is possible to enter rooms meant for later access. If Luigi looks into the Library through a hole in the wall during the mission Gear Up, he will see books float into the air and fly around. Luigi can enter the room while the books are flying. If he does not look through the hole they will remain on the floor.
Floating Dollar Bill
If there is a dollar bill floating in the air while the player gets a call, it will freeze in midair after the call is over. Dollar bills and sheets of paper will also get stuck in the air at random when Luigi reveals a "stash" of them. The glitch ends when the player collects the money.
Floating shovel
In the final level of Haunted Towers, if Luigi goes to the east hallway to capture ghosts that have spawned there, one Greenie will have a Shovel, a Sneaker ghost with two other Greenies will also be there. They must suck up the two Greenie Ghosts and tackle the Shovel Greenie. To perform the glitch, the player must reel in both the Creeper ghost and the Shovel Greenie at the same time and, if performed correctly, the shovel will remain staying in thin air. The shovel can be moved around by the Poltergust 5000 and, rather interestingly, if player attempts to put the shovel on the floor, the shovel will go partway through the floorboards, leaving the handle or the shovel end upright. Because of the nature of the final levels in the mansions, this glitch can happen randomly at any point.
Invisible Luigi
During the mission A-1: Poltergust 5000, Luigi should obtain the Strobulb, but he should not flash the nearby door. Instead, he should go to the Mudroom and flash the door there instead. If done so, Luigi will suddenly become invisible while the door unlocks.
Luigi's animation glitch
Whenever an objective of a mission is cleared, Luigi usually has a few seconds before he receives a call from Professor E. Gadd. If Luigi manages to pick up an object with his Poltergust 5000, such as a bucket, or the furry, purple enemies from Secret Mine, or Toads before he gets the call, the glitch will trigger. During the call, Luigi may start fidgeting, or start sliding around, or may vanish from the screen for a few seconds. The object being carried by the Poltergust 5000 may even get stuck inside Luigi. This is due to the game trying to load the object stuck on the Poltergust 5000 when it is not supposed to. The glitch ends when the results screen appears.
Luigi's left arm glitch
If Luigi calls with the 
at the same time he does something else, such as opening a door, he will put his arm down instead of using it normally. However, the animation will otherwise be unaffected. For example, when Luigi wipes his hands at the end of a level, he will only use one hand, as the other will be resting by his side. This glitch is easiest to see when Luigi gets a call from E. Gadd, picks up a gem, or does the "showering" animation under running water. The glitch ends after the mission ends or Luigi is controllable again.
Malfunctioning Poltergust
During normal play it is possible, at random, for the Poltergust to become unresponsive, by either not reacting to button presses or circlepad movements and ending a ghost capture as soon as it begins.
When the player pauses the game and then unpauses, a large portion of the background music will skip.
Poltergust 5000 overlay
Sometimes, the Poltergust's nozzle will overlay the Flashlight. There is no explanation for this glitch.
Shadow Luigi
After defeating King Boo, when the mission cleared screen appears, a shadowed Luigi can be seen, as some moving black pixels from his hat, and his right arm can be seen moving across the red part of the monitor. This glitch causes no problems and always happens.
Sitting on floor
Sometimes, when the players are on the Terrifying Invasion level when they are in the Ice Age Exhibit, when they tug on the mammoth's trunk, go onto the Gargoyle Roof and exit before the map renders the roof on the map, Luigi will be stuck in the sliding animation and cannot move even though he is on the ground. If Luigi is attacked by a ghost and his health goes to 0, he will still be sliding and the ghosts will ignore Luigi because the game renders Luigi dead, even though he is still in the sliding animation.
Stuck behind bonfire
In the Secret Mine's mission Hit Rock Bottom, inside the Deep Hall room, it is possible to get Luigi stuck behind the bonfire. This is achieved by Luigi walking from where the teakettle is and if done right, Luigi can get stuck behind the bonfire. It is not possible to get Luigi out, so the mission will have to be restarted.
Stuck in floor
It is possible for Luigi to fall through or get stuck in the floor. This is known to happen in two places:
- In the Dark Ages Exhibit in Treacherous Mansion, it's entirely possible to fall onto one of the display cases or objects by having a ghost attack Luigi at the right time. This can somehow cause him to warp into the floor of the room above, forcing a mission restart. [1]
- In the Crank Room in Old Clockworks, when catching Slammers in the back of the room, Luigi may get stuck in the floor up to his chest. Luigi can still do everything he normally can, but he will be contained within a small area. When this happens, a mission restart is needed.
Toad in Secret Mine glitch
In the first mission of Secret Mine, Toad will sometimes not be picked up by the Poltergust 5000 when Luigi tries to suck Toad in. If this happens, the player will have to restart the mission.
Toad on the Poltergust 5000 nozzle glitch
In Treacherous Mansion's second mission, Double Trouble, if the player goes to the Jungle Exhibit, defeats the Strong Greenies, defeats the Flytrap, and then rescues the Green Toad stuck in the painting, the player has a few seconds to suck up the Toad in between the animation of Toad being pulled out of the running water and his dialog tree. If that happens, the Toad's head will merge with the Poltergust 5000's nozzle. The Toad's footsteps will still be heard as Luigi walks around with the Toad. The glitch ends when Luigi makes the Poltergust 5000 "blow" to fling the Toad off the nozzle. It is unknown what causes this glitch.
Toad through floor
In Old Clockworks' Mission C-5: Piece at Last, after saving Toad from his Painting, if the player heads to the Maintenance Hub, shoots the Toad across the chasm to the floor above (leading to the Service Elevator room) and makes their way to him, the Toad will fall through the metal floor. There is no explanation for this glitch.
Unreachable final battle
If the player quits in the King Boo battle after the first Tough Possessor is defeated, it is possible that the game will count the earlier mission as complete without opening up the final mission and will not send the player to the final boss upon replaying the level, making the game incompletable.[2]
Wall clip out of bounds
During mission E-2 Double Trouble, the player should play through as normal until they rescue the Green Toad in the Jungle Exhibit. Leading the Toad to one of the Restrooms, the player should wedge Luigi between the back wall and the stall, and then pick up Toad. Facing the wall and pressing against it, the player should expel Toad, causing him to clip through the wall and respawn. As he is respawning, Luigi needs to press against the wall and try to vacuum Toad again as he is falling. If successful, Luigi will clip through the wall and respawn after a few seconds.
Wrong music
If the player goes to the Final Level of Haunted Towers and crosses the Sky Bridge from the left tower to the right, they will hear a change in music from the Bridge. When they enter the right tower, the music will change to the normal theme for Haunted Towers. If the players cross back to the other tower using the Sky Bridge, the music from the Right Tower will still be playing. The ghost catching music will even retain its place too. The glitch ends when Professor E.Gadd calls to update Luigi on new ghost locations on the Dual Scream, when it reverts back to the theme for that level.
Wrong object
Sometimes, if Luigi get a gem and a dollar bill at the same time (easily done with the second gem in Gloomy Manor), Luigi will do the key animation instead of the gem animation. At the same time, a dollar bill will be shown instead of a gem.[3]
Multiplayer Glitches
Item Glitches
5th Red Coin glitch
In the ScareScraper, sometimes an extra red coin will spawn. This does not affect gameplay and ends when the player collects four red coins.
Dark-Light and sound glitch
In the ScareScraper, whenever a Luigi is revealing something with the Dark-Light Device, the object plays a continuous noise as if Luigi is interacting with it as it appears.
Lobby freeze
In Online Play, when connecting to a player's lobby, the Back button will show up at the bottom of the top screen. If the player has a poor connection, an error message will appear. If the player was holding the button to delay the screen where they are given the choice of leaving or staying when they select Ok, the player is sent to the beginning of the ScareScraper menu, with the screen for leaving or staying remaining. If the player chooses to leave, the screen will freeze for a short time before the 3DS resets, notifying the player why the freeze occurred.
Map spawn glitch
In Rush Mode, sometimes, if a player enters a room with a map item in it, captures the last ghost in that room and falls in a carpet trap while the ghost is still going in the Poltergust nozzle, a large amount of maps will constantly spawn from the nozzle and may cause the game to lag until the player is freed from the carpet trap and all the maps are collected.
No key glitch
In the ScareScraper, during an online Hunter Mode game, a key that is required to progress will sometimes not spawn in. The glitch ends when the timer runs out.
Non-appearing doghouse
In an online Polterpup Mode, sometimes, the doghouse may start to appear but will not appear. This glitch is fixed when all players leave the room.
Red Coin bonus freeze
When a team has successfully collected all the Red Coins during Red Coin Scramble when a floor is completed, the game may freeze when it tries to load the bonus game.
Red Coin failure glitch
If a Luigi manages to get the last Red Coin right before timer runs out and the losing animation starts, all Luigis do the failure animation, but the game still counts the Red Coin Scramble as success as seen at the results screen; most of the time, the Luigis do the success animation. This Glitch also works vice-versa, where if the Luigis get all four Red Coins during the last second the game counts it as a failure.
Ghost glitches
Boss victory glitch
In the ScareScraper, when facing a Sneaker boss, if both Sneakers are caught at the same time, or if one is caught while falling through a portal, the game will not register it being caught and will continue thinking that the boss is still there. When the timer runs out, the game will not end but the players will stay on the boss floor. The glitch ends when all players quit. However, a Luigi can sometimes cause the level to count as complete by returning to the room the Sneaker boss was defeated in. However, it will still count the level as incomplete despite the boss being caught if the Luigi does not return.
Double bosses glitch
In the online mode of ScareScraper, a random boss will sometimes appear during an already going boss battle. It is unknown why this happens. The glitch ends when the first boss is captured, but the ghosts will still remain.
Extra Polterpup glitch
In Polterpup Mode, when a floor is cleared of all Polterpups and Red Coin Scramble takes place, an "extra" Polterpup may appear in a room has not yet been cleared of ghosts. This occurs very rarely.
Falling through floor
Sometimes, after getting sucked out of a Sneaker boss battle in ScareScraper via a portal, Luigi will spawn partly in the floor and quickly fall through, with his shadow appearing like it is above the ceiling. He will then drop back in the room normally with no additional damage taken.
Ghosts behind wall
Ghosts can sometimes spawn or travel through walls. This is mostly seen when capturing the ghosts. The Glitch causes no harm besides the Inaccessible Treasure Glitch.
Missing Polterpup
In the Polterpup Mode of ScareScraper, sometimes after Luigi finds a Polterpup's hiding place, investigating the object does nothing. The Polterpup is not revealed, and when investigating any other object in the same room, a noise of when Luigi finds the Polterpup and the animation of Luigi finding the Polterpup is displayed. The object can be repeatedly investigated, producing a continuous sound. Sometimes the glitch can be fixed by interacting with the object continuously or by leaving and re-entering the room, otherwise the round continues until the timer runs out.
Repeating boss glitch
In the ScareScraper, if players manage to surpass 25 floors on Endless Mode, the game glitches and continues using the same series of boss ghosts for the boss floors. The glitch ends when the game ends.
Player glitches
Colliding vase floor fall glitch
Sometimes when two players collide next to a vase in the corner of a room, the player adjacent to the vase may end up going behind it and falling through the floor. The player will then drop back in the room normally.
Double music glitch
In the ScareScraper mode, if the Red Coin Scramble starts when two or more Luigis speak the same thing, the countdown theme plays with another countdown theme playing slightly behind, sounding much like an echo. It is also possible with a single player saying something as soon as the music loads. The glitch ends when the 20 seconds of music are over or when all Red Coins are collected.
Stuck in back of closet
In the ScareScraper, if two players accidentally run into the back of a closet, one player will slide to the back of the closet and get stuck there. This glitch ends when the floor is completed.
Stuck in furniture
Sometimes when a player uses their Dark-Light Device on a piece of furniture (such as long kitchen tables) and they stand in it while transparent, the furniture may actually materialize and the player will become stuck and unable to get out unless they get knocked back from damage, the floor is cleared or the game ends.
Stuck on object
Also in the ScareScraper, it is possible to end up landing on an object (like a tall vase) via a portal generated by a Sneaker boss. Luigi will end up sliding off the object to the left or right if the player does not press any buttons, but can theoretically stand there until the timer runs out.
Useless Poltergust
On rare occasions, during a game of ScareScraper, the Poltergust 5000 will instantly disengage if a Luigi attempts to suck up a ghost. If the team loses, the game will fade to black and freeze. It is unknown why this glitch happens.
