Suckage glitch
Explanation
The entirety of the Metro Kingdom is surrounded by an invisible barrier that behaves as a force field. Rather than simply stopping Mario when he touches it, as a regular wall would, it applies a force to Mario if he is outside its limits, and this force gets stronger the farther Mario is outside the boundary.
The interior of the New Donk City Hall Auditorium is actually located in the same stage as the mainland of the Metro Kingdom. When Mario enters the auditorium, the game simply moves Mario to a distant section of the map where the interior is located. However, this location is actually outside the kingdom boundary, so in order to prevent the force pushing Mario back toward the mainland, the game temporarily disables the force field when Mario enters the loading zone to the auditorium, and re-enables it when Mario walks into the exit loading zone from the inside.
However, it is possible to reach the interior of the auditorium without entering the loading zone. This can be done by exploiting the mechanics of the Assist Mode bubble. First, the player must enter the auditorium normally and walk to the back of it to place the bubble's safe spot. Then, one must enable two-player mode and bounce on the New Donkers to exit the auditorium without moving the safe spot. Upon exiting, the player must press A or B on Cappy's controller to bounce Mario at the exact moment that Mario becomes controllable; this prevents the safe spot from being placed at the spot where Mario walks out. Mario must grab a ledge and shimmy over to the edge of the kingdom to fall into the void.
Another way to prevent the safe spot from being placed as Mario walks out is to use the Letter Escape glitch to place a letter right where Mario exits and use two-player mode to capture it before Mario is controllable.
If everything was done correctly, Mario will be put into a bubble and carried all the way to the distant location of the auditorium's interior. Mario will now be pinned to the right side of the room, since the player never entered the loading zone to disable the force field.
In the back right of the auditorium, there is a spot where Mario can clip out just by doing certain movements (this has been observed with jumping[1], crouching[2], rolling[3] and ground pounding[4]). Essentially, the force exerted by the force field will outweigh the force of the walls keeping Mario in bounds for a brief moment, causing Mario to clip through and be sent flying a great distance back toward the mainland.
Execution
To perform the glitch, one must follow these steps:
- First, ensure that Assist Mode is enabled, since attempting to enable it later will reset the world and send Mario back to the Odyssey.
- If one wishes to use the Letter Escape method, a letter must first be placed at the entrance to the auditorium using that glitch. The letter should be in the same location that Mario would normally exit the auditorium at, so that Mario will be inside the letter upon exiting. If one wishes to use the captureless method instead, this step can be skipped.
- Enter the auditorium and walk to any spot near the back, and enable two-player mode if it is not already enabled. This will place the bubble's safe spot.
- Without touching the ground, head back to the entrance of the auditorium. This can be done by bouncing on the heads of the NPCs until near the entrance, and then using a cap bounce to cross the remaining distance to the door. Note that only one cap bounce can be used, since bouncing on NPCs does not refresh Mario's cap bounce.
- Dive into the loading zone near the top. This must be done near the top since Mario will continue to fall for a brief moment behind the scenes even after triggering the loading zone, and if he is too low and touches the ground during this fall, the Assist Mode safe spot will be updated.
- If the Letter Escape method was used, simply mash the A/B buttons on Cappy's controller as Mario exits the building to immediately capture the letter before the safe spot can be updated (since the letter cannot update the safe spot). Walk over toward the edge of the kingdom as the letter, then uncapture it and dive into the abyss.
- If the captureless method is being used instead, press A or B on Cappy's controller slightly before control is gained after exiting the building, in order to buffer an input to bounce Mario on the first frame of movement before the safe spot is updated. Grab one of the ledges on the building as Mario, and traverse over to the edge of the kingdom without touching the ground by shimmying along ledges and/or grabbing trees. Dive into the abyss to trigger the Assist Mode bubble.
- If the steps were performed correctly, the Assist Mode bubble should carry Mario all the way to the inside of the auditorium in the distance. Mario should be pinned to the right wall of the interior due to the barrier.
- Locate the small pole holding up a velvet rope in the back of the auditorium. By performing certain movements on this pole, such as ground pounding, Mario can clip out of the auditorium and be sent flying back toward the mainland.
Uses
Minimum Captures
The suckage glitch can be used in two-player Minimum Captures runs to access the top of the New Donk City Hall skyscraper without capturing the spark pylon that is normally required to get up there, to allow collecting the Dizzying Heights moon.[1]
In two-player Minimum Captures runs, Morning Metro is used, meaning it is impossible to achieve kingdom peace without additional captures. This means that the suckage glitch is the only known way to reach the top of the building, since all other known methods to reach the top without captures require kingdom peace.
In single-player Minimum Captures runs, the suckage glitch is not an available option to reach the top of the skyscraper, since it relies on the use of two-player mode. However, since Morning Metro is not used in single-player runs, kingdom peace can be achieved and the player can use Pauline hat jumping or dog hovering to reach the top.