These are the noteworthy glitches that can be performed in Zyphoid.
Contents
Health Glitch
Similar to the Metroid series of games, in Zyphoid the player character Dugon in begins with a single bar of health and can collect up to ten Energy Tanks, each of which adds an additional bar of health to the total.
Screenshot
Health is displayed as a grey bar in the top middle area of the screen
Effect
Gain 21 bars of health upon using a save point, or when respawning at one.
Prerequisites
Must not have collected any Energy Tanks.
How To
Use a save point, respawn at a save point after death, or spawn in at a save point from the main menu.
Notes
Upon dying, the player’s health bar count is set to -1. This will result in having only 20 tanks of health after respawning rather than 21.
Mockball
Effect
Gain the morph ball ability without having collected the morph ball. Effect persists until death or exiting to main menu.
Prerequisites
None.
How To
Letting go of the <Morph Ball Button Ⓑ> while in a morph ball tunnel can result in Dugon standing up and getting stuck in the level geometry. Most (not all) morph ball tunnels on the Zyphamin Overworld have a safeguard script attached to them that bypasses collision checking and forces the morph ball state back onto Dugon if this happens.
Simply entering the collider for these safeguards will force the morph ball ability onto Dugon even before collecting the morph ball item. There are two locations where the collider for the morph ball safeguard extends to a location accessible without already having morph ball:
- In a building in the northwest corner of the map, the safeguard collider extends beyond the entrance of a morph ball tunnel on the top floor.
- In a building in the southeast corner of the map, Dugon can fit into the vertical sections of a morph ball maze.
Simply passing through either of these spaces will activate mockball.
Video
Clip: Activating mockball in the northwest building.
Missile Storage
Effect
Suspend a missile mid-flight. The missile can be repeatedly taken out and used.
Prerequisites
Missile launcher.
How To
- Press and hold the <Missile Button Ⓧ>
- Press and hold the <Fire Button Ⓐ> and then release the <Missile Button Ⓧ>
- Release the <Fire Button Ⓐ>
- If performed correctly, a missile will be stored mid-flight. Press the <Missile Button Ⓧ> to take it out.
Depending how long the <Fire Button Ⓐ> is held down before releasing the <Missile Button Ⓧ>, the missile can be stored at different distances from Dugon. When stored at close range, it is known as a melee missile.
A stored missile can be repeatedly toggled on and off inside an enemy’s hitbox to damage it. Attacking an enemy this way appears to ignore any invulnerability frames the enemy may have.
A stored missile can be reused indefinitely until one of two events occur to despawn it:
- Pressing the missile against a solid object, such as a wall, floor, or door
- Pressing the <Fire Button Ⓐ> while the missile is out, which will shoot a new missile
The red missile shields that are used to lock some doors are not solid objects from the missile’s perspective, but the doors immediately behind the shield are. To safely open one of these doors with a stored missile first shoot it with a beam, which will open the door while leaving the shield in place, and then bring out a missile to dispel the shield.
Video
Clip: Using a melee missile to kill a Zyphoid
Video
Clip: Setting up a long-range stored missile.
Infinite Missiles
Effect
Missiles can be fired even after running out of missile ammo.
Prerequisites
Multi-missile launcher.
How To
The four extra missiles per shot granted by the multi-missile launcher still shoot even when out of missile ammo.
Notes
Obsolete since the discovery of Elevator Skip.
Space Jump Clipping
Effect
Clip vertically through solid surfaces.
Prerequisites
Space jump.
How To
When equipped with space jump, every second time the <Jump Button Ⓨ> is pressed while jumping or falling will cause Dugon to teleport upwards by a fixed distance in a single frame. The game achieves this by directly modifying Dugon’s y-coordinate rather than using the physics engine. This can be taken advantage of in two ways:
- When in morph ball form, Dugon’s hit box is small enough to fully teleport through a ceiling in a single frame. Simply mash the <Jump Button Ⓨ> when near a ceiling to clip through it.
- When the game is paused, or when some dialogue boxes are displayed, all physics on Dugon is stopped including collision checking. As the teleport from the space jump does not rely on character physics it still works, and repeatedly pressing the <Jump Button Ⓨ> will cause Dugon to move upwards and clip through any surfaces.
Video
Clip: Clipping out of bounds while in morph ball
Video
Clip: Clipping back into bounds while paused
Line of Sight Trigger Abuse / Zyphoid Trigger Abuse
Effect
Certain events in the game occur when a trigger object enters the centre of the player’s field of vision. When paired with out of bounds clips and the fact that most exterior surfaces in dungeons do not have textures, events can be triggered from unintended locations.
Similarly, zyphoids are activated when the missile targeting reticule locks on to them. Lock-on occurs when the reticule aligns with the zyphoid while within a certain proximity, even if walls or other obstructions are in the way. This can be used to trigger zyphoids from unintended locations.
Prerequisites
None / Missile launcher.
How To
Simply look at the trigger object, or pass the missile reticule over the known location of a zyphoid.
Video
Clip: Going out of bounds to activate an event trigger in the opening sequence
Zyphoid on Head
Effect
While a zyphoid is attached to Dugon’s head, certain event triggers are disabled. This can be used in Crimson Caverns to prevent the miniboss from spawning, allowing the multi-missile launcher to be collected from its room.
Prerequisites
Missile launcher and morph ball.
How To
In Crimson caverns, use zyphoid trigger abuse to activate the second zyphoid in the dungeon (it is the one in a room accessible via morph ball tunnel blocked by a crate). Proceed through the dungeon as normal. In the corridor before the miniboss, the zyphoid should clip down through the ceiling and latch on to Dugon’s head. Proceed into the miniboss room and collect the multi-missile launcher.
Before detaching the zyphoid, make sure to hug the walls or leave the room, to avoid immediately triggering the boss.
Video
Clip: Zyphoid on head strats
Notes
Obsolete since the discovery of double zyphoid on head.
Double Zyphoid on Head
Effect
Elevated heart rate, increased blood pressure.
How To
As in regular zyphoid on head, activate the zyphoid in the morph ball tunnel room. Drop down to the bottom of the room and activate a fairy zyphoid through the floor. Head directly towards the miniboss.
Video
Clip: Double zyphoid on head strats
Notes
Obsolete since the discovery of Elevator Skip.
Charge Beam Weirdness
Effect
The charge beam projectile travels for a fixed distance, ignoring walls and other obstacles. It seems to do some weird hitscan thing where the further away an enemy is, the less accurate you need to be. You can snipe things from halfway across the map. It’s weird.
Prerequisites
Charge beam.
How To
Collect the charge beam. Shoot it a bunch, unexpected things will happen.
Notes
There has never been a speedrun route that incorporates the charge beam because going out of the way to collect it is a big time loss.