List of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon glitches
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This is a list of glitches in the game Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon.
NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, all names are conjectural.
Single Player Glitches
Cutscene Glitches
End Cutscene Glitches
- Invisible Mouth Glitch: In some copies of the English version of the game, after Luigi has restored the Dark Moon and returned the ghosts to normal, the Greenie that appears right at the screen within the Ghost Container in E. Gadd's Bunker is missing its mouth. This Greenie will still lack its mouth when it leaves the container after E. Gadd releases the ghosts. This glitch is not present in Japanese copies of the game.
- Missing Vanes in Haunted Towers Gate: During the scene where the Slammer has a Greenie in its mouth the vanes on the gate behind them will vanish during the scene. This glitch is random.
Mansion Cutscene Glitches
- Busted Piano: During the Poltergeist's introduction cutscene, the piano keys on the far left are falling through the piano. This glitch happens when the Gold Spiders and Mice are captured as they are part of the cutscene.
- E. Gadd's theme: During the cutscene after beating the Grouchy Possessor and after talking with E. Gadd, E. Gadd's theme sometimes plays over the cutscene as the single spider scares Luigi.
- In Mission B-3 when Luigi sees the Greenie and Slammer removing the last pinwheel vane, the other vanes can be seen under the Greenie but are not there after the cutscene.
- On mission B-Boss if the 3D is off, black patches will appear during the first cutscene.
- On Mission B-1, The Torch overlays the Poltergust 5000 during the cutscene for a few seconds.
- In the cutscene where King Boo is firing up his power-enhancing jewel, the jewel will sometimes not flash and boom, but the sounds will remain there.
Special Effects Glitch
During some cutscenes or mission result screens the lighting and special effects will vanish at random. For example, when Luigi is confronting King Boo, it is possible that the cutscene won't add the crystal glow effect when King Boo charges his crown. It is unknown what causes this and it seems to occur randomly. The glitch ends after the cutscene. During the mission results screen, certain parts, like the speaker, go missing at random. This is most noticeable in the Old Clockworks and Treacherous Mansion boss fights. The Old Clockworks is missing the "screen glow" effect, and Treacherous Mansions speaker will vanish.
Ghost Glitches
Continuous Tornado Glitch
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 happens.
Dancing Brick Glitch
In level C-3: Roundhouse Brawl when versing 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 Glitch
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 Back Boo Glitch
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 his normal speech, and if the player looks where the roof of the mouth is supposed to be, the roof of the mouth is invisible, and so the painting is clearly visible behind it. This happens at random and has no ill effects on gameplay.
No Catching a Possessor Music
In D-Boss: Chilly Ride, when capturing the Shrewd Possessor, if Luigi keeps on sucking it up but doesn't use a Power Surge, the music that plays while capturing it stops after one playthrough.
Player Glitches
Bulb in the Nautical Exhibit Glitch
In the Treacherous Mansion, it is possible to use a Bulb in the Nautical exhibit. First, turn the E-Gate towards the Study. Next, enter the Study and get a Bulb. Take the berry to the Jungle exhibit and stand under the waterfall. Luigi will "take a shower" and drop the Bulb. However, it will not pop. Leave the berry there and enter the Nautical exhibit. Turn the E-Gate around once more. Then, 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'll 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 won't come out of the Poltergust 5000, and will not allow Luigi to end 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 isn't there. This glitch occurs rarely but has a higher probability of occurring when facing the Overset Possessor.
Wrong Music Glitch
If the player goes to the Final Level of Haunted Towers, and crosses the Sky Bridge from the Left tower to the right, he or she 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 it's 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.
Early Access Glitch
If Luigi goes back to the 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 mission A-2: 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 Glitch
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 Glitch
In the final level of Haunted Towers, If the players go 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, players 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 players attempt 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 Third 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 or picks up a gem. The glitch ends after the mission ends or Luigi is controllable again.
Malfunctioning Poltergust Glitch
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.
Messed up Luigi 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.
Wrong Object Glitch
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.[1]
Pause Menu Music Glitch
When the player pauses the game and then unpauses, a large portion of the background music will skip.
Poltergust 5000 Through Torch Glitch
At random the Poltergusts Nozzle will overlay the Torch model. 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 the Floor Glitch
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 can't 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 in floor glitch
It is possible for Luigi to fall through or get stuck in the floor. There are currently Two cases of this:
- 1: 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. [2]
- 2: 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 through Floor Glitch
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.
Dual Scream Glitch
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.
Toad On The Poltergust 5000 Nozzle Glitch
In Treacherous Mansion E-2: 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 stuck like this. The glitch ends when Luigi makes the Poltergust 5000 "blow" to fling the Toad off the nozzle. It is unknown what causes this glitch.
Unreachable Final Battle Glitch
If the player quits in the King Boo battle after the first Tough Possessor is defeated, it's 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. [3]
Multiplayer Glitches
Item Glitches
5th Red Coin
In the ScareScraper sometimes an extra red coin will spawn. It is a 5th red coin. This does not affect game play and it ends when the player collects four red coins.
Crash
When using 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 holds on off the screen where the Player is given the choice of quitting or staying in the lobby. If the player has a poor connection, he or she is greeted with the An error has occurred message. If the player clicks Ok, the player is sent to the beginning of the ScareScraper menu, while the screen for quitting or staying remains. If the player picks stay, everything will return to normal. However, if the players picks to quit, the screen will freeze for a bit, and the 3DS will reset, notifying the player of the reason behind the crash.
Half Visible Object Glitch
If the Dark Light is used to make an object appear at the same time an object is inside the place where the object will spawn, the object will be stuck in a half visible state and constantly rattling until the object is moved out the way.[4]
Dark-Light & 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. This causes no problems and always happens.
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 Dog House
In an online Polterpup Mode sometimes the dog house may start to appear but won't appear. This glitch is fixed when all players leave the room.
Red Coin Failure Glitch
If a Luigi manages to get the last Red Coin right before the timer is 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.
Red Coin Bonus Freeze Glitch
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.
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
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 The Floor Glitch
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's above the ceiling. He'll then drop back in the room normally with no additional damage taken.
Ghosts Behind the Wall Glitch
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 Glitch
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 Glitch
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 Glitch
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 Glitch
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.