Pit

Mario falling into a bottomless pit in Super Mario World.

The terms bottomless pit (or abyss) refer to an area in a video game where no solid ground is programmed. If a playable character falls or jumps into the pit, he or she will be affected negatively. While most games do not explain this phenomenon, on Mushroom World they are a natural element. Literally, these pits have no bottom, although after falling a varying distance down the abyss, the person will die without hitting the bottom. This will even happen to invincible characters. Some Shaydes are tasked with cleaning bottomless pits as punishment in the Underwhere, as seen in Super Paper Mario.

Mario running across a row of one-block bottomless pits.

Sometimes abysses are very narrow. In such cases, the player is able to run across the pits without falling down. Walking across the abyss without accelerating, however, does not work.

There are also two other types of holes easily confused with an bottomless pit. First, some pits, such as those found in Donkey Kong, are not bottomless. However, players will be taken out if they hit the bottom, and are issued a penalty, such as losing a life, or being warped back to a particular location. Secondly, in Super Mario Bros. 3, there is one in 8-2 but it super hard to get to. You have to go through the whole game without dying, getting any power ups or coins, and beat every stage in under an hour. Then, when you get to the pit with all the music blocks in 8-2, you fall down the pit and there's a secret room. In the room, there's a [[secret mushroom house[[ and toad gives you a Yoshi suit. Then if you beat Bowser with the Yoshi suit, you start a new game with all Yoshi suits in your inventory. Finally, the pits in Wario World lead to Unithorn's Lair, a subterranean cavern, similar to Super Mario Bros. 3, where there are pits that will lead Mario to a underground room. Because players can resume progress once a specific goal has been reached, these cannot be considered pits.