Silly level 3 skeleton trick

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BadAtPrince
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Silly level 3 skeleton trick

Post by BadAtPrince »

Apologies if everyone knows about this already, but I couldn't find information about it anywhere, either.
You can 'skip' the skeleton in level three after you've knocked him down. Instead of dropping down yourself, you can get it to move out of your way by simply holding on to the ledge and going back up and down repeatedly.

Amethyst
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Re: Silly level 3 skeleton trick

Post by Amethyst »

I discovered this too at some point and thought it was pretty funny. On the other hand, the poor creature has to make do without a brain, so let’s cut him some slack :)
BadAtPrince
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Re: Silly level 3 skeleton trick

Post by BadAtPrince »

I do believe it's common knowledge at this point, just found it odd that no one mentioned it anywhere.
You can even get it to fall down the pit by itself if you jump over the loose tile.


Maybe there are other enemies that act this goofy, but the skeleton is the only one I know of.
dmitry_s
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Re: Silly level 3 skeleton trick

Post by dmitry_s »

Most guard types (guard, Jaffar, fat guard) in the game code have guard type value of 2 but skeleton has the value of 4. That was done to allow special events like skeleton rising and falling into a different room. But it also means parts of the code do not handle skeleton the way they handle other guards.

The first bug is caused by the fact that skeleton always stands in fight mode while other guards put the sword down when they do not see prince. They see prince only when they are at the same row and there are no walls/drops/chompers between them and prince. When prince climbs down and the guard has sword out, the game assumes he is dropping down a row. That causes guard to follow prince unless there is a dangerous tile like a chomper in front of him.

The game thinks skeleton always sees prince in the same room since his sword is always out. Repeatedly climbing down (and up) causes skeleton to move forward all the way into the invisible part of the room on the right.

Skeleton can also get stuck in the air while falling if you put him in a different room. The reason is the falling logic only handles the scenario where if falls between 2 specific rooms in the original game.
David
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Re: Silly level 3 skeleton trick

Post by David »

I know another shortcut:
Run-jump (in the top row) over the skeleton before he wakes up, so when the fight starts, the prince is on the right side.
Then back off the ledge and drop down. The skeleton won't be there, since you haven't knocked him down.
That way you don't have to fight him again (or at all).

dmitry_s wrote: July 28th, 2022, 4:02 pm Skeleton can also get stuck in the air while falling if you put him in a different room. The reason is the falling logic only handles the scenario where if falls between 2 specific rooms in the original game.
Can you please post a video of this?

I tried to reproduce it when you mentioned this on Ticket #284, but with no luck.
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