List of Donkey Kong 64 glitches: Difference between revisions

{{more images|Images for every glitch}}

This is a list of glitches in ''[[Donkey Kong 64]]''. Unless otherwise noted, all glitch names are conjectural.

==Audio==

===Wrong music in Frantic Factory's R&D Room===

Anywhere where there is a slope that leads into water, such as the beaches of Kong Isle and Banana Fairy Island, it is possible to swim through it. First, the player must go in the water in front of a shore, but not too far away. Then, the player must slowly swim toward the shore by rapidly pressing B. If done correctly, they will go through through the shore. This allows players to access the interior of Banana Fairy Island with any Kong by swimming through the island and clipping into the loading zone.

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===Swim through vertical walls===

[[File:DK64 swim through vertical walls.png|thumb|Lanky swimming through a wall]]

If the player swims up to certain vertical walls and goes into first person, they can swim through them. Examples include the wall near the exit of the training area, the wall near DK's caged Golden Banana in Jungle Japes, and the wall to the right of the entrance to Gloomy Galleon's lobby.

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===Take no fall damage===

With any Kong, run towards a ledge that isn't above a bottomless pit and hold the {{button|n64|Z}} Button to crouch. If the player keeps crouching as they fall, no fall damage will be taken regardless of how high they fall. An example of this glitch is doing it on [[DK Isles]] on the floating island where the entrance to [[Fungi Forest]]'s lobby is located.

The following chart displays the time that each fadeout occurs, the cutscene number that the fadeouts trigger, and the Intro Story scene that plays if the fadeout is not canceled. Times vary slightly between Nintendo 64 and Wii U Virtual Console due to the latter having less lag.<ref>[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12gg-vDzTLkGet6_e6831l0iR9NDj47c5evspqyGZ9VY/edit#gid=409689042 Wrong Cutscene (Intro Story Fadeout Cancel)]. ''Google Docs''. Retrieved August 27, 2023.</ref>

!Fadeout  

!Time

|Squawks informs DK that his Golden Bananas have been stolen

|}

====Bring Rambi outside of Jungle Japes====

[[File:DK64 Rambi glitch.png|thumb|[[Rambi]] in DK's Tree House]]

Normally, if the player leaves a map in any way while a Kong is transformed, such as by exiting the level from the pause menu or going out of bounds and voiding out, the game automatically changes the active character back to the original Kong. This glitch works because the game only attempts to make this change the instant the map transition begins. By using Bongo Blast and starting an Intro Story fadeout before the transformation finishes, Rambi emerges after the fadeout has already begun, bypassing the failsafe. The transformed state does not persist between maps, so upon performing this glitch, the game stops treating Rambi as a transformed DK and instead considers him a standalone character. As a result, pressing {{button|n64|Z}} and {{button|n64|Cleft}} will not transform him back into DK, and the game will no longer attempt to revert him when changing maps.<ref>Exchord. (March 8, 2020). [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQcWh8lTi7U Rambi Adventure]. ''YouTube''. Retrieved September 16, 2023.</ref>

=====Side effects=====

Since Rambi was intended to only be playable in very specific parts of the game, bringing him elsewhere has many side effects, including some game freezes.

*Rambi has no squishing animation, so he will not be squished in scenarios that the Kongs would, such as taking fall damage or getting hit by a Kosha's overhead swing.

*If the Rambi Crate in Jungle Japes is entered as Rambi, he will transform into himself. Upon pressing {{button|n64|Z}} and {{button|n64|Cleft}} to end the transformation, Rambi's theme music will continue to play.

*Glitches can be used to get Rambi into the Creepy Castle minecart area. He is completely invulnerable to all of the obstacles on the track, including the gravestones and all of the [[resident demon]]'s attacks. However, the Golden Banana is Donkey Kong-specific, so Rambi cannot collect it even if he meets the coin requirement.

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To prevent this from happening, the player can activate the Intro Story glitch and enter Troff 'n' Scoff while the first or second fadeouts are queued. Upon entering Troff 'n' Scoff, the camera will be at an unusual angle and the player will be unable to control their Kong. From here, the player simply needs to wait for another Intro Story fadeout. This autosaves the game, so the next time the player enters Troff 'n' Scoff, the game will not attempt to play the introductory scene again. Alternatively, if the source file did not open every boss door, the player can simply enter a Troff 'n' Scoff whose boss door is still closed and watch the scene without issue.<ref>Intro Story Glitch. (June 19, 2014). [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM1ovaH-fOA Troff 'n' Scoff Softlock]. ''YouTube''. Retrieved September 3, 2023.</ref>

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====Fungi Forest minecart area on foot====

[[File:DK64 Forest Minecart on foot.png|thumb]]

Upon gaining control, the sound will be glitched, with the machinery sounds from the end of the cutscene looping and most other sounds (including the Kong's voice) muted. This sound glitch will persist as long as the Intro Story glitch is still active. It can be fixed by activating an Intro Story fadeout, then entering either Cranky's Lab or the DK Isles main hub.

=====Map oddities=====

There are three Hideout Helm maps in the game: the actual level explored during gameplay (map {{hover|11|17}}), one used for the Intro Story ({{hover|98|152}}), and one used for non-Intro Story cutscenes (map {{hover|1C|28}}). Therefore, when the player gains control, they are not inside the proper Hideout Helm level but the non-Intro Story cutscene version. While the map's geometry is identical to the normal level, it is different from the standard map in several ways:

*Almost all of the objects found in normal Hideout Helm are missing, including enemies, Tag Barrels, vines, Bananaport Pads, [[Music Pad]]s, and the Boss Key. There is also no loading zone at the entrance. The doors, however, are still present. The absence of these objects mandates using glitches to explore the area in its entirety.

*K. Rool and the Kritter technicians can be encountered, and they will be stuck in an animation loop based on what they were doing at the end of the cutscene. The Kritters will be pleading, and K. Rool will be frantically pressing the button on his throne. The navigator Kritters and purple [[Klaptrap]] from the Intro Story can be also found at the steering wheel, even though they do not appear in the cutscene at all. They are completely motionless. K. Rool and the Kremlings have no collision, and interacting with them does nothing.

====Game mode manipulation====

''Donkey Kong 64'' has various "modes" that affect how the game functions, such as what controls are enabled and whether or not the game can save, and switches between them depending on what part of the game the player is in. Intro Story glitch fadeouts store the active game mode whenever they occur, which can result in certain game modes being active in situations where they are not intended to be (e.g. the game's mode designed for the main menu being active in Adventure). Modes 4 and 8 appear to be unused.

!Number

!Usage

Level lobbies exhibit some unusual properties involving parent map locks. Despite lobbies being considered by the game in most ways to be part of DK Isles, their level indexes used for Troff 'n' Scoff correspond to that of the level they lead to. For example, using the Bonus Barrel in the Angry Aztec lobby to lock it as the parent map and entering a Troff 'n' Scoff portal will load the Angry Aztec Troff 'n' Scoff instead of the DK Isles one, even though pausing the game will show DK Isles as the player's current location, and the pause menu will have the "Quit Game" option instead of the "Exit Level" option. The only lobbies where a parent map lock is possible are Angry Aztec's, Fungi Forest's, Creepy Castle's, and Hideout Helm's.

====Bonus Barrel glitches====

Entering a Bonus Barrel while the parent map is locked has side effects: if the player wins the minigame, then upon emerging from the stored parent location, the game will prepare to break open the nearest Bonus Barrel within a large radius of the active Kong and spawn its reward. If the stored location was itself a Bonus Barrel, this will always be whichever Bonus Barrel the Kong emerges from; otherwise, it can affect Bonus Barrels that are a significant distance away from where the Kong spawns. For example, emerging from the Battle Arena Pad on the giant mushroom in Fungi Forest will break open the Bonus Barrel on top of the mushroom. If that barrel has already been cleared, the one on top of the [[Owl (character)|owl]]'s tree will be affected instead. As soon as the camera gets close enough to load the Bonus Barrel, it will immediately break open and spawn the Golden Banana, even if Diddy has not raced the owl yet.<ref>LookAtTheWindow. (October 23, 2021). [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiGA7NyNQoQ Donkey Kong 64 Glitch - Owl Race Skip]. ''YouTube''. Retrieved May 3, 2024.</ref>

Upon entering the room, Troff and Scoff will be absent, and the door will already be open with Donkey Kong's face on it, a state normally only seen when the player has already finished feeding Scoff and opened the door in a level but hasn't beaten the boss yet. The door will close if approached by the wrong Kong as usual. Entering the door leads to the battle with King K. Rool. If the player enters the DK Isles Troff 'n' Scoff on a file where K. Rool has already been beaten, the door will be closed with a DK logo and checkmark on it, as is the case for any level where the boss has been defeated.

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====Hideout Helm Troff 'n' Scoff====

[[File:DK64 Hideout Helm Troff N Scoff.png|thumb|Hideout Helm's Troff 'n' Scoff]]

*Capturing a [[Banana Fairy]]

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Upon gaining Tag Barrel storage, the player will be able to control their Kong, but they will be invisible and the camera will remain fixed on the Tag Barrel. Entering first person removes the camera lock, and playing an instrument makes the Kong and the level visible again. Pausing the game reactivates the Tag Barrel void. Since the {{button|n64|A}}, {{button|n64|B}}, and {{button|n64|Z}} buttons are used to select Kongs in the Tag Barrel, actions that involve these buttons such as jumping must be done while transitioning between different Kong selections to preserve Tag Barrel storage. If the player moves far enough away from the Tag Barrel while the camera is not locked, the Tag Barrel will become inactive until the player approaches it again (indicated by the Kongs' names being visible at the bottom of the screen). When a Kong is selected, they will spawn wherever the player was when they were selected instead of at the Tag Barrel. The mechanics behind Tag Barrel storage can lead to many other glitches and sequence breaks.<ref name=tbs>Ballaam. (January 16, 2019). [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tks4DjPlzxQ Tag Barrel Storage (TBS) & Stored Positions].  ''YouTube''. Retrieved November 11, 2021.</ref>