List of Super Mario 64 glitches

This is a list of glitches featured in Super Mario 64. For glitches found exclusively in the remake, Super Mario 64 DS, see List of Super Mario 64 DS glitches.

NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, all names are conjectural. Glitches marked with an asterisk (*) are fixed in the Shindō, PAL, North American, iQue Player, and Virtual Console releases.

Boo glitch
After collecting at least 12 Power Stars a large Boo appears in the hallway leading to the courtyard. The player should enter the Whomp's Fortress painting room and move to the far left side, then leave and head to the hallway. The Boo should be facing backwards, and the player must chase it out of the room.

Now the player must enter the basement and immediately return to the Boo, who is now facing forward. Performing the previous actions again will cause the Boo to seemingly disappear. However, the player either enters the door to the courtyard or manipulates the camera to see beyond the wall, the Boo can be seen floating behind the door.

Bubba death glitch
If Mario is using a Koopa Shell to surf on the water and gets eaten by a Bubba, the shell stays suspended in the air.

Doors and a cloud in empty space
Certain doors in Peach's Castle are visible from other rooms when the camera shows the space beyond the walls. This can be achieved by standing near a wall and using the first-person camera mode to look through it. The doors appear to be in empty space because the rest of a room is not rendered while Mario is in another area. Likewise, the reflection of Lakitu's cloud in the second-floor mirror room is always rendered. In several places, like the corners next to the room's door and the stairway to the second floor, Mario can enter first-person view to look through a wall and see the cloud.
 * If Mario looks around in first-person view while standing on the left edge of the platform with the 70 Star Door, a door from the lower level is visible.
 * When using first-person view from the outside wall of the spiral staircase to the second floor, the 50 and 70 Star Doors are visible.
 * Another door can be seen when standing in the left edge next to the Whomp's Fortress painting.

Fly Guy size manipulation
If Mario runs back and forth underneath the Fly Guy in Tall, Tall Mountain, it begins to shrink. This is a side effect of the Fly Guy changing size to signal that it is preparing to shoot a fireball. The Fly Guy's size affects the starting height of a Spin Jump off of it.

If the glitch is repeated, the value for the Fly Guy's size eventually becomes negative, causing it to render upside-down and inside-out. Mario cannot interact with the Fly Guy while it has a negative size.

Frozen head*
After defeating Bowser in the Dark World or Fire Sea, he drops a key. In the Japanese version, if the player runs to where the key will land, presses and looks somewhere, Mario keeps looking that way during the key collection cutscene.

Ground Pound turn-around
When Mario ground pounds out of a Side Somersault, he turns around instantly in midair.

Instant Tower of the Wing Cap transition
When the Tower of the Wing Cap is unlocked, Mario has to stand right next to the sun carpet in the castle's main hall and look at the sun on the ceiling. Then, he has to leave the first-person view mode, quickly step onto the carpet, and press again. Mario enters the Tower of the Wing Cap instantly while the camera is still zooming in, instead of framing the ceiling as intended.

Invisible Bowser glitch
Bowser can teleport when battled in the Fire Sea, during which he becomes invisible. If Mario grabs Bowser while he teleports, Bowser stays invisible until he teleports again or is thrown off of the platform. The invisible Bowser cannot hurt Mario on contact, but is still able to attack as usual.

Mr. I hovering around Mario
This glitch occurs in Lethal Lava Land only. The player has to get the Koopa Shell from the ! Block and set the camera to fixed mode, so that a Mr. I can be seen until Mario moves. Then, he has to defeat the Mr. I by circling around it, but due to it being offscreen now, its death animation cannot play. The defeated Mr. I's eyeball then hovers around Mario for a short amount of time and move in various ways.

Pitch conservation
When Mario is in a diving animation (normal diving, swimming, or flying), his angle is preserved in memory. This value is supposed to be reset between animations, but due to an oversight, sometimes it does not. For instance, if Mario exits the water while he was facing upwards and then performs a dive, the dive will start with the previous extreme angle as opposed to a normal dive. Despite this dramatic difference, the physics of the move are unchanged.

If an extreme angle is preserved and Mario starts flying, he will immediately face the preserved angle which will influence his trajectory. Several actions reset the conserved angle, including grabbing a ledge, shooting from a cannon, changing areas, and jumping while facing a slope.

Power Meter glitch
When Mario dies in a course, the Power Meter is typically set to one wedge for the cutscene where he is ejected from the course and the meter refills. However, when Mario is ejected from Hazy Maze Cave, Rainbow Ride, Bowser in the Dark World, or Bowser in the Sky, there is a delay before the meter is set to one wedge, so when Mario returns to the castle the amount of wedges in the Power Meter briefly carries over from death.

Below Mario in Bob-omb Battlefield
While using the Lakitu camera mode, If the player performs Wall Kicks to jump from the foot of the white slope over the seesaw platform, the camera focuses Mario from below the floor.

In the walls of Dire, Dire Docks
In the beginning area of Dire, Dire Docks, if the player swims into the wall above the tunnel leading to Bowser's Submarine, the camera moves out of bounds. Moving away from the wall returns the camera to a normal position.

Invisible cannon
After entering a cannon, if the player attempts to launch Mario as early as possible, the game gets confused. The viewfinder does not show up and the camera pans out of the cannon as if Mario was standing in that spot, revealing that both the cannon and Mario are invisible. The camera can be controlled and rotated around normally. This glitch ends when the cannon is fired.

Star/death camera glitch
When Mario collects a Star or dies and the platform he stands on moves away, he will warp to the next surface below him, which is often the death barrier. This extreme change in height is too much for the camera to track, resulting in Mario being far below the camera. The spinning platform around the volcano in Lethal Lava Land, Donut Blocks, and being pushed off a Magic Carpet in Rainbow Ride are common places to accomplish this glitch.

Stuck behind door
When Mario enters a door in the castle and then goes back through it quickly, the camera may briefly get stuck behind the door. This does not work on the doors in the main lobby.

Wing Cap camera glitch
If Mario lands on a slope on the same frame that he starts flying with the Wing Cap, the camera continues using the mode intended for flight. This can be achieved by Triple Jumping onto the fence past the first bridge in Bob-omb Battlefield, with precise timing. The camera follows Mario closely, and tries to stay behind him at a low angle. The buttons only move the camera temporarily.

The camera returns to intended behavior if:
 * Mario receives knockback, is thrown, gets squished, or gets set on fire
 * Mario initiates flight normally, rides a Koopa Shell, or leaves the course
 * Mario enters water, a cannon, or a tornado

Big Boo's Haunt music cut-out
In Big Boo's Haunt, the player should choose any mission other than Go on a Ghost Hunt, then defeat Big Boo in the Merry-Go-Round but ignore the Star. Instead the player needs to leave, collect a Vanish Cap and acquire 100 coins. After the Vanish Cap expires, the player should collect the 100-Coin Star. Now the background music does not play, though sound effects can still be heard, including ambient noises outside the mansion. Should the player wear the Vanish Cap again, the music restarts after the cap wears off.

Infinite cap music
NOTE: This glitch does not work in the Japanese version.

After selecting the second mission in Bob-omb Battlefield, the player should talk to Koopa the Quick while wearing the Wing Cap. While racing him up the mountain, the player must use a small alcove to warp higher up the mountain; the Wing Cap will seemingly disappear, after which the player should reach the flag at the summit and wait for Koopa the Quick to arrive. After talking to Koopa the Quick, the Wing Cap background music plays endlessly. Alternatively, the player can talk to King Bob-omb while wearing the Wing Cap, and then quickly warp using the alcove near the summit, achieving the same effect.

To end the glitch, the player can collect another Wing Cap and let it expire.

Japanese music cut-out*
In both Bowser in the Sky and Shifting Sand Land's pyramid, it is possible for the music to cut-out due to multiple glitches exclusive to the Japanese version of the game. While this glitch is in effect, any attempt to leave the course freezes the game. For Bowser in the Sky, just entering the stage the wrong way can cut-out the music. For the pyramid, collecting the fifth secret in an odd way sometimes cuts out the music.

Koopa Shell music glitch
If the player holds to crouch right as Mario touches a Koopa Shell, the music in the level will replay from the beginning as Mario dismounts immediately. Despite this, the shell remains and the glitch can be repeated.

Koopa the Quick warp music glitch*
In Bob-omb Battlefield, if Mario travels through a warp after starting a race with Koopa the Quick, the "Slider" music is replaced with the "Super Mario 64 Main Theme". This glitch was fixed after the original Japanese release.

Loud Ukkiki
In Tall, Tall Mountain, even if Mario is very far away from Ukkiki, the monkey can be heard as if they were right next to him.

Yahoo paused sound pitch
If the game is paused just after Mario performs a Long Jump or Triple Jump, his voice can shift lower or higher in pitch than normal.

Attacking an uninitialized Monty Mole
Before popping out of holes to attack Mario, Monty Moles start out invisible and in predetermined locations. Only when Mario is within 1500 units of a hole will the Monty Moles be repositioned and behave as normally seen. Reaching a Monty mole in this uninitialized position and attacking it freezes the game.
 * In Tall, Tall Mountain, the player can use a 100-Coin Star to reach the uninitialized Monty Mole at the bottom of a pit, and attack it before Mario is ejected from the course.
 * In Hazy Maze Cave, the player must take a route that involves Backwards Long Jumping through the mesh wall in front of the Navigating the Toxic Maze Star. After clipping through the wall, the player must go down the elevator, enter the maze, and take the first right turn to get to the plateau with a Blue Coin Block. The uninitialized Monty Mole sits in the poison gas in front of said plateau.

Crash in Big Boo's Haunt
There is a corner of Big Boo's Haunt that crashes the game when Mario touches it. This corner can be accessed by entering the rightmost door on the first floor.

After positioning Mario on the thin ledge located to the left of a bright window, the player should jump and move Mario slightly away from the ledge until he begins to fall. Now moving towards the wall and pressing  to kick for some extra momentum, Mario should touch the wall and the game will freeze.

Dead Mario softlock
In Bob-omb Battlefield, the player should use the Wing Cap to fly Mario above the floating island such that falling would result in Mario's death. If Mario Ground Pounds the yellow ! Block, upon landing he will die as the Star is released. At this point Mario cannot move, exit the course, or complete his death animation. Similarly, if Mario dies and collects a coin to summon the 100-Coin Star at the same time, the game will softlock.

NOTE: Using the "Zombie Mario" glitch removes the need for precise positioning and timing.

Double Star softlock
If Mario collects a 100-Coin Star as he opens a Star block, this second Star may be released as Mario lands. Similar to the Dead Mario softlock, the overlapping animations of a Star dance and a Star being released confuse the game, resulting in a softlock.

Freeze while entering Vanish Cap Under the Moat
When entering Vanish Cap Under the Moat, if the player tries to move the camera around in Lakitu Mode while the screen is black, the game may freeze.

NOTE: This glitch only applies to the North American version.

Hanging Mario freeze
If Mario is pushed backwards off a hangable ceiling before completing the grabbing animation, the game freezes. This can be accomplished using a bloated Bob-omb to push Mario backwards, or a crate placed in a way that can push Mario off.

Long-distance Monty Mole defeat
When a Monty Mole is defeated from too far away, the game cannot choose the next hole for the Monty Mole to appear from, as every hole is too far from Mario. This unexpected result causes the game to freeze. The player can defeat a Monty Mole from a sufficiently long distance by throwing a Bob-omb.

According to Tyler Kehne, "When a mole is KO'd, the game runs a function to determine which hole the mole should go to next. The function cycles through all the holes to see which ones are eligible candidates, and then selects one of those at random. But if none of the holes are eligible, the function returns null. Throwing the Bob-omb at the mole allows the mole to be KO'd at a distance, something the programmers hadn't accounted for. Thus, Mario is too far away from all the holes for any of them to be eligible, and so null is returned, causing the game crash. TL;DR Long range mole KO's crash the game."

Monty Mole rocks filling memory
Due to a developer oversight, the rocks thrown by Monty Moles do not disappear if thrown off the cliff of Tall, Tall Mountain. Once approximately 200 rocks accumulate, there is no more space available to load new objects, freezing the game. This is similar to how the game handles the teleportation clones of Mario's cap.

As stated by Scott B. (alias pannenkoek2012) on YouTube, "... the game will eventually crash due to a continuously accumulating supply of pebbles. Pebbles deactivate when they are more than 4000 units away from Mario. Hence, a deactivated pebble won't hit the ground and unload, but instead just remain invisible and unmoving in midair. So by having Monty Moles continually throw pebbles off the edge, the pebbles will keep loading into object slots but never unload. Since the game only has 240 object slots, eventually all the slots become occupied and the game crashes."

NOTE: This glitch may not work on the Virtual Console release.

Physics
NOTE: These glitches result from how Mario and/or other characters and objects interact with the world.

1-Up Mushroom circles Mario
Mario can avoid a homing 1-Up Mushroom indefinitely by crouching. Despite its ability to move vertically, the mushroom instead attempts to reach Mario laterally, flying in circles above his head. This oversight was not fixed in the Nintendo DS remake.

Baby Penguin stuck in the chimney
In Cool, Cool Mountain, the player should pick up a Baby Penguin and bring it to the cabin at the summit. By letting go of the Penguin above the chimney, any attempt to reclaim the baby will result in Mario entering the slide area with the Big Penguin. Reloading the main area by either talking a bridge warp or exiting the cabin at the base of the slide will reset the baby Penguin's position.

Black room of death
A  (BRoD for short) refers to the spaces behind doors in the Peach's Castle, which are only meant for Mario to walk into during the animation where he opens the door. Nonetheless, certain exploits allow Mario to reach these spaces. Once inside these spaces, attempting to open the door will put Mario in the corresponding BRoD at the other side. Depending on the collision around the "rooms" in each loaded area, he may or may not be able to escape.

¹This is inescapable.

Climb slippery slopes
While facing a slippery slope, the player must rhythmically switch between moving towards the slope and holding the control stick  neutral. This process allows Mario to climb the slope. Similarly, this can be accomplished in the remake by moving in the given direction without pressing  down.

NOTE: This trick does not work on all slippery slopes. Additionally, the slope shown was changed to a wall in Super Mario 64 DS.

Alternatively, if the player runs up a slippery slope and kicks  whenever Mario begins to slow down, he will scale the slope. This works in many areas including: the slope next to the basement door, the slope of the Toxic Maze in Hazy Maze Cave, Bowser's steep stair slopes, and the white slope in Bob-omb Battlefield.

Clip through walls
There are various tricks the player can perform to clip Mario through walls depending on the situation:

Clip with hyperspeed
When using a hyperspeed exploit to gain an immense amount of speed, Mario can clip through most walls. This exploit works thanks to how collision checks are processed.

, the game splits up each frame of movement into four "quarter frames"; for each quarter frame, the game checks for collisions by determining Mario's next position based on his velocity and seeing if it overlaps with anything. Notably the game does adjust for how fast Mario is going, so an exceptionally large speed will have large gaps between each position that is checked. These walls are typically not very wide, so with high enough speed Mario's position will never be inside the wall on a given quarter frame, effectively bypassing the wall.

Clip with objects
The following glitches involve Mario being pushed through solid geometry using either the push from an object or the backward force from throwing objects.

Bob-omb clip
Mario is can be pushed through walls by jumping between the wall and a Bob-omb as it chases him. Alternatively if Mario holds a bloated Bob-omb with his back to a wall or steep floor, throwing the Bob-omb can push Mario through. This can be used to clip Behind Chain Chomp's Gate and collect the Star without freeing the Chain Chomp.

Chuckya clip
When Mario is held by a Chuckya, the Chuckya will ignore any collision it may swing Mario into. By luring a Chuckya to a wall and then having it grab Mario, it can throw Mario through walls or even out of bounds. Alternatively, if Mario has his back against a wall and throws the Chuckya, the action will push Mario through the wall.

Crate clip
After placing a crate next to a wall, the player should ground pound between the box and the wall. This will cause Mario to clip through the wall. Alternatively, if Mario has his back against a wall and throws the crate, they will briefly interact which will push Mario through the wall.

Penguin clips
In Cool, Cool Mountain both the Mother Penguin and the Baby Penguins can be used to clip through walls:

By grabbing Tuxie after reuniting with her mother, she can be lured to stand next to the cabin at the foot of the mountain. Mario can then clip into the cabin by jumping in between the wall and the Mother Penguin. Alternatively, Tuxie can be used to clip through the floor by guiding the Penguin to the peak of the mountain and jumping just past her. This glitch can be used to avoid collecting the coins above the chimney of the cabin.

Coin through the platform
Beneath the gray platform in Shifting Sand Land, Mario should run toward a Goomba and defeat it with either a dive, break dance, or slide kick. This should launch the Goomba away, and its coins may fly upwards and through the ceiling.

Death outside the boundaries
The boundaries that surround each course and the castle, referred to as out of bounds, are designed to never let Mario through, and are more effective than typical walls; anywhere that no floor exists below a space is out of bounds. However, certain interactions do not account for this restriction, allowing Mario to breach the boundary. As a failsafe, the game will always unceremoniously deplete Mario's Power Meter the instant his position is out of bounds.

NOTE: The death barrier is defined using a floor, so the large pits below certain levels are not out of bounds.

One method involves Mario lifting himself from a ledge. If Mario reaches the rightside corner of the castle roof, he can hang from the ledge right against an invisible boundary. The player can pull Mario back up onto the roof, where Mario will climb up past the intended boundaries and lose a life. For unusual reasons, he also loses his cap.

Alternatively the player can be pushed or placed out of bounds by Bob-ombs and Chuckyas respectively, or clip through using a crate. For example, if a player grabs a crate in Bob-omb Battlefield, Mario can crouch to place the box partially inside a slope at an edge of the level. Then by then performing a ground pound between the crate and the hill, Mario will temporarily clip under the slope despite the space being out of bounds. This is caused by the game using a stale reference for the ground that Mario was last in contact with, mistakenly assuming that the space Mario clips into is valid. However after being moved, the game updates this floor reference and Mario is killed from being out of bounds.

Death transfer
When Mario loses all his health and leaves the area through certain means, his dying animation can occur in the new area by exploiting instances where his health is preserved between areas. This transfer of health results in the game attributing the death to a different cause than whatever action brought Mario's health down. These glitches can be performed in the DS remake.

Burn into drowning
By leaving Vanish Cap Under the Moat with no health remaining, Mario can drown in the castle moat immediately after spawning there. One strategy is to let a Keronpa Ball burn Mario while at two remaining wedges of health, then running off the ledge. Mario will be warped to the moat with no health, thus he drowns and loses a life.

Burn into Lethal Lava Land
The player can deplete the Power Meter in the basement by burning Mario on the torches. If Mario is burned by a torch and enters the Lethal Lava Land painting such that he has no wedges of health, then upon landing in the course he will die.

Death exit
The player can deplete Mario's health to two wedges and enter the Tower of the Wing Cap. When the Wing Cap begins to wear out, they should aim to land on the edge of the central platform so Mario slides off while taking fall damage. Once Mario lands back in the castle lobby, he dies.

A more universal method involves taking small fall damage. While in a course, the player must take die from fall damage while not moving the control stick. As the health depletes, there is a brief moment when the player can pause the game and exit the course before the death animation plays.

Drown Twice
After completing the mission Board Bowser's Sub, a large opening leading from the second area of Dire, Dire Docks to the lake outside of Peach's Castle will become accessible. If Mario drowns while drifting into this opening, he will drown a second time at the other side.

Snufit into drowning
While Mario's health is low in the Cavern of the Metal Cap, the player must obtain a Metal Cap and have a Snufit chase Mario. When Long Jumping to the box Mario can be hit by the Snufit, causing him to fall into the waterfall and return to the castle moat. Mario will die as soon as he hits the lake.

Floating Bob-omb
In Mission 1 of Bob-omb Battlefield, there is a Bob-omb operating the water cannon along the mountain path. If Mario picks up this Bob-omb and ground pounds then the Bob-omb will be suspended in mid-air, as the programmers modified this particular Bob-omb's behavior to keep it in place.

Gentle squish
Inside the pyramid of Shifting Sand Land, if Mario is positioned at the edge of where the Spindel rolls, it will start to flatten Mario. However, being crushed will only do damage if Mario is squished a sufficient amount, so he will not lose any health. While gently squished the player cannot move until the Spindel rolls off of Mario. This effect can also be seen if Mario stands beneath elevator lifts in various levels.

Grinding
If Mario is positioned at the edge of ground such that he is facing slightly away from the ledge, falling off and immediately attempting to move back towards the ledge can make Mario rapidly switch between falling and standing. In this state the camera will shake, and if the player presses Mario performs a Double Jump.

This glitch is labeled  by analogy to a type of skateboarding trick.

Hyperspeed exploits
All of these glitches involve Mario being able to increase in velocity without limit, due to the lack of a speed cap on certain actions such as moving backwards and wall jumping. Mario can conserve this momentum into Wing Cap flight, abuse this speed to pass through walls, and traverse between Parallel Universes.

Backwards Long Jump
A Long Jump typically sends Mario forwards. However, if the player then holds the control stick back relative to Mario and continues to perform Long Jumps, Mario will begin moving backwards. If this is performed on a staircase, steep slope, riding up an elevator, or with some surface that holds Mario in place, he will land much sooner than on flat ground. When landing, the player can rapidly tap the button, causing Mario to zoom backwards at very high speeds. This is most famously used to reach the top of the endless stairs in the Peach's Castle. Normally when running up this staircase, the game repeatedly warps Mario back down to a lower section of the stairs to prevent access to Bowser in the Sky until 70 Stars are collected. However when the Backwards Long Jump is repeated in quick succession, Mario can reach enough speed to bypass the trigger that creates the illusion of the endless stairs. This same principle allows Mario to breach walls.

NOTE: This glitch was fixed in the Japanese Shindou edition re-release, the iQue Player release and the Super Mario 3D All-Stars port (which both are based on the Japanese Shindou edition re-release), as a speed cap was added for when Mario travels backwards. The glitch was also fixed in the DS remake as if when Mario attempts a backwards long jump, the camera goes behind Mario and he turns around. The glitch is not fixed in the Nintendo 64 - Nintendo Switch Online release.

This glitch is acknowledged in the "Super Mario 64 Question Mark Block" LEGO Super Mario set, as the "Perform the perfect jump" mission consists in the player replicating the glitch to obtain a Power Star.

Hyperspeed wall kicking
When Mario contacts a wall in the air, there is a moment where he can perform a Wall Kick. Normally this will set his speed to a fixed amount, however if the player presses the instant Mario contacts the wall, he will push away from the wall before the game can limit his speed. Done consecutively this can be abused to accumulate forward speed, although the process is slower and more precise than performing than abusing Backwards Long Jumps.

Hyperspeed walking
When standing on a slope and the edge of water, the backwards momentum Mario receives can build up. This can be abused to reach massive backwards speed if there is something to hold Mario in place during the process. Among these spots are:
 * In the castle grounds next to the waterfall where the water and the wall touch on the left side.
 * In Whomp's Fortress the corner next to the cannon and the brick wall in the pool of water.

Hyperspeed wind
In places including Tiny-Huge Island and Tall, Tall Mountain, when Mario is pushed upwards into a slope by wind, his speed steadily builds up.

Invisible walls
Due to how the game handles the positions of surfaces, Mario can collide with a wall, ceiling, or out-of-bounds area in places where this behavior is not intended. Despite these collisions being attributed to "invisible walls" the actual culprit is most often an exposed ceiling.

Lose cap in the ice
In Snowman's Land, Mario will lose his cap when blown off the icy bridge by the Snowman's Big Head. If the player is unfortunate, the cap may be sent towards the ice box into the section with a Star inside. This Star will prevent Mario from retrieving his hat from above. If the game saves at this point, Mario will remain capless unless the player abuses hyperspeed exploits to clip through the side of the ice box.

Overextended see-saw
NOTE: The following trick does not apply to the rotating platforms in Big Boo's Haunt.

See-saw platforms will rotate based on the side Mario is standing on. Typically they will not rotate more than 90° as Mario will begin to slide off. However, this restriction can be bypassed if the player performs the first method of climbing slippery slopes, allowing Mario to continue tilting the platform. If the platform is rotated more than 260° from its resting position, it resets as soon as Mario stops standing on it. Due to these types of platforms being offset from the pivoting axis, the whole platform will eventually be on the opposite side of Mario relative to the axis, making 270° the absolute limit.

Pokey gets segmented
Pokeys are normally made of four connected segments and a head. If Mario knocks a segment off it will disappear and the head will drop down, but after some time all segments will regrow. If a Pokey travels into the stone structure in Shifting Sand Land, the Pokey can split into two pieces. Now the head does not move downward when Mario destroys segments.

Skeeter gets stuck
If the water level in Wet-Dry World is lowered when a Skeeter is in between two platforms, it will be unable to escape, constantly banging into the sides of each wall.

Slide in place
Within courses there are certain locations where Mario can get stuck in a sliding or diving position. For many spots this prevents the player from escaping once stuck; the option to exit the course through the pause menu is not available in this situation.

Slide on dangerous surfaces
If Mario slides off a slope while sitting or performs a slide kick, the initial bounce will allow him to skim the surface of quicksand, lava, and freezing water without harm.

Stuck to lava glitches
It is possible for Mario to become stuck under objects while falling into lava, preventing him from bouncing away. Getting burnt by lava does not give Mario temporary invulnerability unlike running into an enemy, so in these situations he rapidly screams and dies near-instantly.

NOTE: If the player runs through a Spinning Heart before burning Mario, he can stay in contact with the lava for longer.

Crushed by moving platforms
In the Fire Sea, there is a section with the two platforms shifting across the lava. The player should jump into the lava when the platform is moving towards Mario so he moves to be under the base of the platform. If timed correctly, the platform crushes Mario while he is standing on lava, causing massive damage. Alternatively, if Mario landed very close to the platform, Mario is instead gently squished.

Rolling log in Lethal Lava Land
The player must grab a Green Shell in Lethal Lava Land, and head to the log near the caged area. After jumping onto the log to make it move, they should charge at the log as it rolls towards Mario. Upon contact, Mario loses the Green Shell and the log crushes him while he is repeatedly burnt by the lava, causing a near-instant death.

Tilting lava platforms
In either Lethal Lava Land or Bowser in the Fire Sea, the player should dive underneath one of the tilting pyramid platforms that float above the lava. If positioned correctly, Mario will be stuck to the bottom of the platform due to the ceiling, and so he rapidly gets burned and his Health Meter drains almost immediately.

Unreachable 100-Coin Star
Once Mario collects the 100th coin in a course, the 100-Coin Star will spawn a set distance above the player with no exceptions. If the 100 coins milestone is achieved close to a ceiling, the Star will be placed inside the ceiling where Mario cannot collect it. This oversight is commonly seen by collecting a Red Coin atop a bookshelf in Big Boo's Haunt and the highest Red Coin in Dire, Dire Docks, though it is possible to collect a coin from a defeated enemy and achieve the same result.

Wing cap momentum memory
When Mario touches the ground after a Wing Cap the game does not reset the variables affecting the direction Mario was turning towards. This means that if the player holds or  on the Control stick just before Mario touches the ground and then performs a Triple Jump to fly again, Mario suddenly jerks towards said direction.

Scripting
NOTE: These glitches abuse interactions that cause objects or displayed information to perform unintended behaviors.

Beached Bubba
Although Bubba cannot be defeated by conventional means, there is a way to beach the hungry fish. In Tiny-Huge Island, Mario should lure the Bubba to the rocky edge of the shoreline. If Bubba lunges out of the water and lands on the rocky surface, it will begin drifting across the island while facing downwards. Bubba will stop at walls and will still attempt to chomp at Mario in this state, albeit without being able to chase him. If Bubba falls off of the level, the fish can be seen resting on the death barrier.

Beat Koopa the Quick in zero seconds
In Bob-omb Battlefield, the player should don a Wing Cap and triple jump right in front of Koopa the Quick, then land inside the nearby cannon. At this point Mario can fly up to the summit and reach the goal flag, using another cannon to gain more height as necessary. Koopa the Quick will offer to race Mario once he lands, and by accepting Mario will immediately win the race, with the timer at zero seconds.

Similarly in Tiny-Huge Island, the player should defeat the Koopa so that a Koopa Shell rests on the beach. Then the player should triple jump right in front of Koopa the Quick, aiming to land on the shell. After riding to the goal flag and dismounting, Mario can immediately win the race.

Despite the race starting, Koopa the Quick never begins running to the goal flag, so the Star cannot be obtained in this way. Instead an invisible and silent Koopa the Quick remains at the start.

Bowser momentum glitch
During any Bowser battle, the player must first grab Bowser's tail and throw him off the edge. When Bowser jumps back, intercept him before he lands, grabbing his tail again, and throw him into a bomb. Rather than being blasted back onto the platform, Bowser will be sent flying off the edge of the stage.

Because Bowser fell off during the hit, he will eventually jump back to the center of the stage and the battle will progress as if he was never injured.

Broken big crate
If the player attempts to destroy a Purple Switch crate as it disappears, it will instead break as the Purple Switch is pressed again.

Broken bookshelf
During the mission "Secret of the Haunted Books" of Big Boo's Haunt, it is intended that Mario approach a bookcase and hit three of the books in a particular sequence, opening a path to the Star.

Once a book is hit, it will stay inserted unless the player does not apply the correct sequence or he exits the room. Due to an oversight however, Mario's progress in the sequence is remembered. This means that Mario can hit two of the books in the correct order, leave the room, and come back to hit the third book, which should play a jingle. If Mario now hits another book before the bookshelf opens up the game will be confused, as Mario has now both inputted the correct and incorrect code. The bookshelf will not move yet the books will not pop out to let the player try again.

Cap duplication
While Mario's cap is resting on the ground, if the player uses a warp and returns, a duplicate cap will be created in the same spot the original cap fell. This can be performed repeatedly to create a new cap on every warp, and a duplicated cap will adopt Mario's facing angle from the moment it was created.

Cap in hand
If the player strikes a Cap Block and lets it respawn to hit it again, two caps will briefly be collectable. If Mario picks up the first cap before it disappears and the second cap lands on him before he finishes, Mario will hold the special cap in his hands while still gaining the new attributes.

Alternatively the player can perform the cap duplication glitch to have multiple hats in the same spot. Attempting to pick up the hats will cause Mario to put them on one at a time. When Mario picks up the second, the cap on his head will disappear and Mario will keep holding the second cap in his hand rather than placing it on his head.

There are several aspects that are affected by performing this trick:
 * In this state Mario's hat cannot be stolen or blown off his head, though damage is still increased due to Mario not wearing the cap.
 * Talking to a Bob-omb Buddy will cause Mario to correctly put on the cap.
 * If the player used Klepto, then reentering Shifting Sand Land will show the hat still in his talons.
 * Objects Mario picks up will no longer be rendered in his hands, allowing him to throw objects remotely.
 * Saving and reloading the game, Mario will be without his cap.

Chain Chomp falls down
In Bob-omb Battlefield, if Mario frees the Chain Chomp from its post right as it lunges, its momentum will influence the Chain Chomp's trajectory and it may go over the fence as it hops around. This offset will cause the sequence to look very strange, as the Chain Chomp hits the wall at the bottom when attempting to break the cage that holds the Star.

Cloning


Mario and held objects are intended to have a doubly linked relationship: Mario's data structure references the held object's slot in memory, and the held object stays loaded but hidden (the graphic in Mario's hands is not the actual object) until he drops it. However, if an object unloads in the time it takes to process that Mario has grabbed it, Mario will hold a reference to the now-vacant slot that it occupied. This can be done in various ways, including grabbing a crate as it unloads or breaks, or a Bob-omb as it explodes. Another object can then load into the empty slot while unaware that Mario is holding it, and regardless of whether it was programmed to be held.

The player can strategically load and unload objects to manipulate which vacant slot index is held, and what object takes that slot. Because the newly loaded object appears to be rendered both in the world and in Mario's hands, this glitch is commonly referred to as cloning. Nearly any object can be cloned, but it must load in after Mario performs the setup, so he cannot, for instance, clone himself.

Once dropped, clones of normally unholdable objects do not process scripting events properly. For example, many coins are spawned in sets, where a spawner object tracks which coins in the set have been collected. If one of these coins is cloned, it cannot pass an event to its spawner to flag itself as collected. Upon reloading the spawner, that coin respawns and can be collected a second time. Another consequence of the broken event processing is that Mario can only interact with such clones once. Clones of enemies that were not intended to be held can collide with Mario once before becoming largely unresponsive. Cloned platforms do not collide with Mario whatsoever.

Clones also cannot unload unless Mario passes through a loading zone or exits the stage, so repeated cloning can fill up all 240 memory slots that the game allocates for objects. This causes the game to enter an infinite loop that is functionally equivalent to a crash.

Coin counter rollover
If Mario collects more than 255 coins in a course, it will save a number less than or equal to 255 as the coin count record. For example, collecting a Star while the coin count is at 999 will record a coin count of 231 coins. The reason this happens is that the record's coin counter only saves the first byte of the level's coin data (which is stored in two bytes). The coin counter effectively rolls over while saving. If Mario collected 256 coins (or a number multiple of it, such as 512, and 768) in a level, it would be stored as 0.

NOTE: The maximum number of coins that can be collected while in a level is 999; collecting more does not affect the coin counter, except on the original Japanese release.

Delayed dialogue
Certain text boxes will automatically open when Mario is standing in proximity to Koopa the Quick, the Big Penguin, et al. These textboxes can be delayed to initiate the conversation from further away than intended. By performing a Triple Jump with one of the jumps being in the range of the speaker, the game will not begin the conversation until Mario lands for a long enough moment. If Mario wears a Wing Cap he can fly an arbitrary distance from the speaker, which can be exploited to beat Koopa the Quick in zero seconds.

Floor property inheritance
When Mario is standing on the edge of a surface with another floor below him, the game may incorrectly apply the properties of that lower floor to where Mario stands. For instance, Mario can sink into a Tox Box because of the quicksand directly below, or slide back as if the floor is steep.

Fly Guy disappears
In Snowman's Land, if Mario stands near a specific tree then a Fly Guy will fly towards the freezing water and will mysteriously die. It is believed that the freezing water physically extends beyond what is seen.

Frozen environment
These glitches cause the game to maintain a surreal state where most objects either are unloaded or do not update when interacted with. A similar glitch is possible in New Super Mario Bros.

Mario's magic monkey*
At the section of Tall, Tall Mountain with a log, the player should dive at Ukkiki such that Mario lands in the water, swimming with Ukkiki in his hands. Note that Ukkiki has not spoken at this point, since the game waits for Mario to be standing on the ground. Sliding off of the geometry in the water and bouncing on the ground will allow the player to Ground Pound which drops the monkey without ever conversing. Mario is now in the surreal world of frozen time and unloaded objects. Once Mario retrieves Ukkiki and properly begins the conversation, the world will resume; coins released from various events will spawn, and enemies return to intended behavior.

In releases beyond the original Japanese version, Ukkiki's conversation will begin as soon as Mario is touching the ground for even a moment, making the last step of the setup impossible. Additionally, it is not possible to drop Ukkiki in midair, as pressing the button now does nothing in this situation.

Time-Freezing Cap Switch*
When Mario has just stomped on a Cap Switch, the game goes into a frozen state until the text box is closed. Similarly to the delayed dialogue exploit, if Mario jumps or slides off right when pressing the switch, the game will wait until Mario is next standing on the ground to initiate the text box. In this moment, Stars do not disappear when collected. The glitch ends when the text box appears or Mario exits the course.

Goomba drowns
At the foot of Tall, Tall Mountain there is a trio Goombas. The one closest to the water often gets stuck on unstable ground in the river. While in the water it will be fine, however if the Goomba touches the ground beneath the water it will die.

Hands free holding
Normally Mario's movement is restricted while holding an object. However, this can be circumvented with the following interactions: In this state the object is being held but Mario isn't occupied with physically holding it, hence the term "hands free". However, While Mario has his hands free, the game tries very hard to drop the object at this point; various actions cancel the glitch ranging from most ground movement and actions against walls, to interacting with poles, cannons, sources of damage, wind, shells or the owl, to being tosses, carried or blown away. Thus, Mario must be kept occupied constantly.
 * 1) Grabbing an object with a dive and landing on a downward slope
 * 2) Holding an object and being pushed off a ledge
 * 3) Holding an object and soft bonking against a ceiling (e.g. the bottom edges of ! Blocks)

Despite the instability of this state, Mario can still punch, kick, jump, hang from ceilings, and fly without dropping the item. The player can turn Mario by butt-sliding down slopes or using rotating platforms. Regrabbing the object can be achieved by diving, entering water, trying to pick up something else, initiating a conversation, or a summoning a Star.

Hands free teleport
While Mario's carrying an object with his hands free, the player should use a warp. Once on the other side, there are various effects depending on what object was taken through:

NOTE: Clones will vanish upon warping, and the source of the clone will be unaffected.

Heavy objects become light
There are certain enemies such as Chuckyas and King Bob-omb which are very heavy, thus Mario will lean back, cannot jump, and walks slowly while he carries them. However, if the heavy enemy and Mario stand positioned close to a ledge, the player can punch such that Mario falls off the ledge immediately. Because Mario is airborne he can perform a dive and grab the heavy enemy. Normally a dive cannot be used to grab heavy objects, however canceling the punch and quickly diving tricks the game since Mario satisfied the punching check and was in a grabbing state. Because dives are not meant to be used in this way, Mario defaults to holding the object as normal.

Alternatively in Wet-Dry World, Mario should throw a Chuckya off a ledge and then get caught by it in midair before it touches the ground. This will safely transport it to a lower elevation, and the player can now raise the water level using a Crystal Tap to submerge the Chuckya. If Mario grabs the Chuckya while underwater, he will be able to carry it as if it were a normal object., allowing him to jump high and run at normal speed.

Held Object's Last Position
The Held Object's Last Position, often abbreviated to "HOLP", is a location the game tracks when Mario holds most objects. What Mario holds is simply a visual copy of the original object, so once Mario releases this copy from his grasp, the original object is set to a particular location relative to the and inherits Mario's orientation; if an object is dropped by Mario it is placed at the height of Mario's feet and at the lateral position of the  with no velocity, and if Mario throws an object it will move to the  while inheriting his speed.

The is a global value used between all courses and save files, and defaults to (0,0,0) before being used. When needed, the game will update this value to match the location of Mario's hands, however it will only update when the game needs to render an object in Mario's hands. As such the will not update when: Mario is not holding anything, Mario is invisible from knockback, Mario is not within view of the camera, or the object being held is not visible in the first place. Exploits such as the Cap in hand glitch can be used to hold an object without updating the, allowing the player to remotely throw an object from wherever Mario last properly released an object. The only way to reset the is if the player resets or turns off the system.

Infinite Coins
Through various exploits it is possible to obtain an endless number of coins. However, the coin counter is limited to 999 coins maximum.

Bowser's fire
While battling Bowser, the fire he spews at Mario has a chance to drop coins. Through patience the player can collect these coins as these appear without limit.

Cloning
By cloning coins or their Spawning Points in courses with loading zones it is possible to obtain an infinite amount of coins; in courses without loading zones, the amount of coins which can be collected by cloning is limited by the amount of available object slots.

Disappearing crate
In levels with platforms such as Blocks, pushable blocks or Blue Coin Blocks, Mario should place a crate atop one of these objects. If the player walks away, the platform used becomes intangible and the crate falls until the two overlap. Right as the crate would despawn from inactivity, Mario must return to make the platform tangible again, breaking the crate and releasing its three coins. The game does not realize the crate was broken, so it will simply respawn and the process can be repeated.

Money Bags duplication
In Snowman's Land there are two Money Bags which disguise themselves as coins until Mario approaches them. If the player reapproaches a Money Bags just as it transforms back into a coin, it will duplicate into two Money Bags, one that transforms into a coin and another that hops away. This process can be repeated to collect an unlimited amount of coins.

Piranha Flower death trick
In the small version of Tiny-Huge Island there is an area with 5 Piranha Flowers, which normally go limp and drop coins when defeated. While a Piranha Flower is shrinking back into the ground however, the player should attack it at the last moment possible. The Piranha Flower will play a death sound as it sprouts back up, and defeating it now will drop 2 coins as it vanishes. The game is tricked into thinking the Piranha Flower has not yet been defeated, so if Mario uses the Shrinker Pipe and returns, the plant will respawn and the process can be repeated to obtain more coins.

Downward teleports
Some events and interactions expect Mario to stay grounded, and if he somehow becomes airborne the game will send Mario to the next available floor as a failsafe: In Dire, Dire Docks, the player should collect the 100th coin such that the 100-Coin Star overlaps with the path of the poles near the submarine. When collecting this star will hanging from a pole, Mario will suddenly drop to the bottom of the lake and celebrate as if he were standing on land.
 * Swimming into a ceiling such as the underside of the ship in Jolly Roger Bay, the game will move Mario out by sending him down until he no longer overlaps with said ceiling.
 * Jumping above a swinging pendulum while its ceilings are exposed.
 * Grabbing the tail of Bowser while it hangs off the edge of the arena will send Mario instantly to the death barrier below.
 * Being crushed while the platform Mario stands on moves out from under him.
 * Being electrocuted by an Amp while performing a Ground Pound.
 * Mario collects a Star while the platform he stands on moves out from under him.

On Cool, Cool Mountain, if the player heads to the top of the wooden lift and performs a Long Jump towards the Bob-omb Buddy's island, landing at the very edge of the island will cause Mario to warp down. He appears to be stuck in snow yet also in the air, but he actually rests on the death barrier. Once Mario frees himself, he loses a life and is ejected from the painting.

Upward teleports
Some events and interactions expect Mario to be at a specific height, and if he isn't the game will simply send Mario up this expected position:
 * Beginning to swim will set Mario to the water's surface, even if he wasn't at that height when entering the water.
 * Collecting a Star next to a ledge will briefly make Mario grab it before snapping him onto the floor above.
 * Jumping into the edge of a ceiling directly below a hanging grate, the game will incorrectly assume Mario grabbed the grate and warp him up. This effect can be seen inside the mountain of Tiny-Huge Island by jumping into the ceiling above the exit, and in the Fire Sea by jumping into the edge of the pole base.

Koopa Shell glitch
Normally riding a Koopa Shell into water will cause Mario to simply surf across the surface. However, a glitch can be performed in the large version of Tiny-Huge Island which circumvents this restriction.

After reaching the beach, Mario should knock the Koopa Troopa away such that it slides towards the water when trying to retrieve its shell. When the Koopa is slightly submerged, the player can knock it away again and land such that Mario mounts the shell and enters the water at the same time. At this point Mario will be swimming with the shell inside him, propelling him forwards indefinitely. Mario's range of moves are no longer bound by the typical restrictions of a Koopa Shell; instead a different set of interactions will end the ride on top of what would break a shell: When attempting the glitch with a shell clone, Mario will not be propelled nor have a shell attached to him. Instead only the music will change and the shell clone can be reused. If Mario goes through a warp, the music will stop playing and the shell will be forever intangible.
 * Attempting to walk, use a cannon, or get lifted by wind
 * Receiving knockback, being burned, getting grabbed, or twirling

Misplaced Coins
Various coins throughout the available courses are misplaced such that they float inside the ground and/or despawn instantly:
 * In Snowman's Land, there is a single coin that was placed inside the mountain, just below the wooden slope. This coin can be collected if Mario clips into the mountain.
 * The Mystery Goomba of Bowser in the Sky cannot be defeated due to being spawned on the death barrier and promptly unloaded, making the coin it holds impossible to collect.
 * In the small version of Tiny-Huge Island, there are two slopes in front of the iron ball spawner, where a line of three coins lay: the first coin sits at the beginning of the slope, the second coin is slightly inside the ground but sticks out enough to be collected when running over the slope, and the third coin floating completely inside the island. This third coin can be collected if the player clips into the island, then jumps outn of the water towards the coin.
 * In the large version of Tiny-Huge Island where iron balls roll, there is a line of four coins spawned by one Spawning Point. This particular spawning point is meant to create 5 coins that are set down to the nearest floor. The fifth coin is spawned halfway inside the ground due to the spawner being located beneath the slope, activating a failsafe which immediately unloads the coin. This makes the fifth coin impossible to collect.

NOTE: The reason for both of Tiny-Huge Island's misplaced coins is believed to be a change of the level geometry during development to make the iron balls roll away from the fenced area, without adjusting the positions of the coins and coin spawner to compensate.

Mystery Goomba
The Mystery Goomba is a misplaced Goomba found in Bowser in the Sky. After climbing up the long Pole, Mario reaches a platform with a Goomba Spawning Point on it. Despite all Goomba spawning points spawning three Goombas, only two of them can be seen at this location. The reason for the missing Goomba is the spawner's placement, which causes the third Goomba to spawn off the platform, above a bottomless pit. Because Goombas always spawn at the closest available floor directly below them, this Goomba does not spawn in the air next to the platform; rather the Goomba spawns all the way down on the death barrier, where it gets deactivated only one frame later due to Mario being too far away. As such it can only be seen in that one moment.

Although it can be cloned, the Mystery Goomba cannot be properly defeated due to it being so far away from its spawning point - both the spawning point and the Goombas it spawns have their own activation radius, and Mario needs to be within both the Goomba's and the spawner's radius to activate the Goomba and be able to interact with it - because its own activation radius and the spawner's activation radius can never overlap.

Negative lives*
NOTE: This glitch only works in the Japanese version.

When Mario reaches a total of 1,000 coins in a given course, his extra life total will change to "" due to a developer mistake. The intended process was to set the coin total back to 999 coins if the player ever exceeded this limit. On the original Japanese release however, the game will instead set Mario's total lives to 999 when he has exceeds the coin limit. Since the life counter is only 8 bits, this overflows and reads as -25 (the display shows M25, with M representing a minus sign). Upon reaching -128 lives, the total underflows and then is set down to 100. The releases that followed corrected this issue.

Parallel Universe
Parallel Universes (PUs for short) are phantom copies of a course's collision model that occur at regular intervals out of bounds.

The game stores object positions as floating point numbers. Within the collision checks for floors and ceilings in the level geometry, it casts the position values to signed 16-bit integers. This data type can only store values from &minus;32768 to 32767, so the type conversion will truncate larger float values into this range. Therefore, an object far out of bounds might detect collision where there is none, if the game finds collision at the truncated converted position. In practice, there seem to be invisible copies of the collision model that tile the coordinate space every 216 units. This glitch does not apply to walls or objects with colliders, which both use floating point arithmetic. Some objects are exceptions, such as loading zones, namely paintings in the castle, or Crazed Crates. It also does not apply to water, or copy the stage's visual model.

The direction of a Parallel Universe influences how collision checks work, leading to different properties. Lateral have floors and ceilings. Upward vertical are filled with ceiling hitboxes. Downward vertical have floor collisions that snap Mario back up to the lateral grid (a glitch called an overflow jump).

Mario can reach a Parallel Universe if he has enough hyperspeed to clip through out of bounds. Because the game checks Mario's position in four increments per frame, Mario needs enough speed to travel between four Parallel Universes at a time. Thus, it is most convenient to sync up with that are a multiple of four away in each direction. Other are accessible through diagonal movement, or if a movement increment is canceled, which occurs when it would place Mario inside a ceiling or out of bounds.

Attempting to bring the camera into a Parallel Universe will freeze the game on console, so it must be set to fixed mode first; this crash does not occur in emulator releases. Mario can bring held objects into Parallel Universes, or spawn certain objects there. Spawning a Power Star like a 100-Coin Star in a Parallel Universe softlocks the game.

Larger floating point numbers are spaced more coarsely; the existence of Parallel Universes allows for glitches where this affects kinematics. When far enough from the origin, float-valued coordinates become so coarsely spread that it is difficult for objects to cross between them and change position. Some Parallel Universes are completely inaccessible because no floating point coordinate lies within them.

Permanently crushed
If Mario collects a Star while he is being crushed by an object, Mario will remain squished. In this state movement speed and jump height are decreased, and Mario will not die from slow quicksand. Additionally, pressing or  will do nothing.

Spawning displacement*
In the original Japanese release, if Mario is standing on a moving platform (e.g. the falling blocks in Whomp's Fortress or the rotating platform in Wet-Dry World) and suddenly loses contact, the platform will still influence Mario by shifting him once before he falls as normal. By dying or leaving a course through various means, this can be applied to Mario the moment he returns to the castle. Specifically, Mario will shift relative to the platform's position in the course he left, which is often far from where Mario is spawned in the castle. Due to this, rotational displacement is often larger than translational displacement.

If the platform Mario stands on is replaced in memory by another object in the castle, or if the shift in position would place Mario out of bounds, the displacement does not occur. If Mario exits a course standing on an object that is replaced by a moving platform in the next area, Mario will be displaced by the new platform.

NOTE: Spawning displacement will affect the demos that play after getting a game over. This will desync the intended behavior of the demo.

Star dance in the sky
There are several courses with large pits below the ground: Tiny-Huge Island, Tick Tock Clock, Whomp's Fortress, Rainbow Ride, Cool, Cool Mountain, Tall, Tall Mountain and Hazy Maze Cave. If Mario collects a Star above on of these pits, he will land on the death barrier below and perform his victory dance. Once Mario is done however, the level kicks him out as intended. It is easiest to perform this trick using a 100-Coin Star, as the position of the Star is based where Mario collects his 100th coin.

Suicidal Bowser
In any Bowser arena, Mario should lure or throw Bowser to the platform's edge. Then, Mario should be positioned on the same ledge far from Bowser so that he jumps towards Mario and narrowly misses the platform during his descent. As Bowser's fall was not a result of being thrown, he will not jump back to the platform, leaving Mario alone in the arena.

Water level manipulation
In courses with water, the surface naturally fluctuates slightly up and down from the median value. If the Mario moves through a loading zone in either Wet-Dry World or Dire, Dire Docks, the game will set the current water level as the median value, even if it is slightly higher or lower. By repeating this process, the water can be can either be drained or fully flood the course with patience. Done to its extreme, the player can set the water level such that it reaches the upper or lower bounds in its height, allowing it to oscillate between fully submerging the levels and draining them.

Yoshi falls off the roof
Once Mario has collected 120 Stars, Yoshi can be found atop the flat section of the castle roof walking between four different spots: Starting from position 1: if Yoshi turns counterclockwise walking to position 3, and then turns clockwise walking back towards position 1, there is a chance that Yoshi will step onto the slanted part of the roof. This offset interrupts Yoshi's path, causing him to pass the aforementioned spots and continue walking forwards. If Yoshi falls off the roof and Mario is away from his normal location, he will respawn. If the player tries talking to Yoshi on a slanted section, Yoshi may be unable to properly jump to the waterfall, resulting in a softlock. Similarly, if Yoshi is spoken to while he is steps off the roof, he will be blocked by the castle wall, unable to reach the waterfall.
 * 1) Near the Cap Block
 * 2) Near the central spire
 * 3) Near the back-right corner of the castle roof
 * 4) In the center of these three points

Zombie Mario
When Mario's Power Meter is fully depleted, the game is supposed to initiate a death animation based on the current situation. For example, dying in water will show Mario drowning, and death by knockback will show Mario fail to stand back up. Most of these animations have a delay before they play out, which can be abused to postpone the death sequence.

For instance: If Mario takes small fall damage in front of a door, he is able to enter the door despite his condition and promptly loses a life at the other side.

To stay dead for arbitrarily long, the player should abuse cannons; the developers did not add a condition for Mario dying inside a cannon, so he is able to operate one without any health. By either taking knockback from a Bob-omb explosion or taking fall damage at the edge of the cannon's opening such that Mario falls into it, he can enter a cannon while his Power Meter depletes. Wearing a Wing Cap allows for controlled flight while dead, though collecting any coins at this point will not restore Mario's health. Once Mario lands he will properly lose a life. This can be achieved in places such as Shifting Sand Land and the Castle Grounds.

Sequence breaks
NOTE: These glitches and exploits allow Mario to access areas through unintended methods.

Blast Away the Wall cannonless
In Whomp's Fortress, if Mario touches an exact spot on the wall which can be blasted away, he will do a ledge grab animation and collect the Star in the process. With the following setup this trick can be achieved consistently:

First the player should grab the wall so that Mario is between the log bridge and a Piranha Plant, with his left hand touching the bridge. After climbing up, the player must backflip onto the bridge, turn the camera left twice, and punch  once. Then, the player has to walk down, so that Mario walks to the bridge's ledge and grabs it. After pressing then  to reset the camera orientation, the player should climb up and immediately move  down again, so that Mario runs in an arc off the bridge, hitting the wall and collecting the Star.

Climb the castle without 120 Stars
From the right side of Peach's Castle, the player should perform a triple jump onto the grassy slope, moving slightly to the left during the second jump. If done correctly, Mario will begin sliding and the player can quickly jump to grab the castle roof.

Clip Behind Chain Chomp's Gate
Using a bloated Bob-omb in Bob-omb Battlefield, it is possible to get Behind Chain Chomp's Gate without freeing the Chain Chomp. After preparing the Bob-omb and navigating to the gated Star with the backwards momentum, the player should position Mario with his back against the gate. When throwing the Bob-omb from this position, Mario will clip through and can collect the Star.

Complete the game with 0 Stars
After starting a new file, the player should enter the castle and go to the stairs leading to the basement. A ledge near the ceiling can be grabbed to pull Mario into a space in the walls. There, multiple Backwards Long Jumps can be performed to build up speed. Once Mario has enough speed, he can redirect his momentum first towards the castle's entrance door, then up the stairs in the main hall, and finally through the 8 Star Door to reach Bowser in the Dark World. After defeating Bowser and receiving the first key, the player must head to the basement.

NOTE: Alternatively the moat door skip can be used instead to access the basement without beating Bowser in the Dark World.

Next the player should position Mario on a small set of stairs and face away from the 30 Star Door. Performing multiple Backwards Long Jumps here, Mario can clip through said door and past the entrance to Dire, Dire Docks with good positioning. After Bowser has been beaten in the Fire Sea, the player must enter Dire, Dire Docks and pause to exit the course, as otherwise there is no way out of the room. Now that Mario has access to the second floor of the castle, Backwards Long Jumps can be performed to breach both the 50 Star Door and the endless staircase.

Lakitu skip
Before crossing the bridge to enter Peach's Castle for the first time, Lakitu will stop Mario and begin an introduction. If the player performs a Long Jump on the edge of the bridge, the trigger can be skipped and Lakitu remains resting in front of the castle's entrance door, without his cloud. Lakitu will be gone when returning to the Castle Grounds.

Mario Through the Jet Stream without Metal Cap
In the Through the Jet Stream missions for Jolly Roger Bay or Dire, Dire Docks, Mario should swim to a jet stream. While the force pushing Mario back is strong, it is possible to swim against the current. The player must repeatedly and rapidly press while swimming into the jet stream, and eventually Mario will reach the Star without a Metal Cap.

MIPS clips
After grabbing MIPS for the first time, he can be grabbed again and carried around. When setting MIPS down, Mario moves forward a bit which can be exploited.

If the player walks into the corner of a door while holding MIPS and lets go, Mario can be pushed inside of the door. By crawling and turning around, MIPS can be grabbed while staying inside the door, and Mario can simply clip out the other side. Performing this trick on the wooden door in the basement and the 30 Star Door, Mario will gain access to Dire, Dire Docks and Bowser in the Fire Sea with less than 30 Stars. Mario can also use this glitch to enter to two different Black Rooms of Death.

Moat door skip
It is possible to enter the door inside the castle's moat while it is still flooded, though the full setup is too precise to be reliably performed in real time.

With 10 Stars or more, Mario can enter Vanish Cap Under the Moat by hyperspeed flying with the Wing Cap found atop the castle. With less Stars however, Mario can instead perform Backwards Long Jumps starting from near the pond to jump down through the grate and enter the course.

Once inside, the player should stand on a wooden lift and build up immense speed by performing many Backwards Long Jumps against the wall until Mario drops off the elevator into the abyss. This places Mario in the moat water, which conserves the built-up speed. Now by sliding on a slope outside the castle and navigating through Parallel Universes with precise angles, it is possible to redirect Mario so he is right next to the moat door but not swimming.

NOTE: This grants access to the basement without needing to defeat Bowser in the Dark World.

Pillarless through the top of the pyramid
Using a bloated Bob-omb, it is possible to enter the pyramid in Shifting Sand Land through the top without standing on the four pillars first. Grabbing the Bob-omb close to the level entrance at its largest possible size before it explodes gives Mario significant backwards momentum. From here the player should navigate up the sand dunes and dive while sliding to initiate the hands free holding glitch.

The sections of quicksand can be avoided with Ground Pounds so that Mario stays in the air for longer while being pushed. After passing over the fence and landing on the pyramid, the player has to rapidly press to scale the slope until Mario is around the same height as the Star Shining Atop the Pyramid. Performing another Ground Pound will clip Mario into the pyramid, entering it from above.

Underground lake shortcuts
The cavern where Dorrie swims in Hazy Maze Cave can be reached without riding the elevator located after the rolling rocks area.

Elevator clip
Between the rolling rocks section and the Red Coins area is an elevator. After stepping onto the elevator, the player should jump off and position Mario so he hugs the wall the elevator is connected to, then shimmy to the right. When the elevator descends, Mario gets pushed through the floor towards the island with the Swimming Beast in the Cavern Star.

Elevator room jump
Again in the elevator room leading to the Red Coins, the player can go over the walls by performing several Wall Kicks at the top. Starting with a Side Somersault or a Triple Jump can make the process easier, but eventually Mario will reach the underground lake from above.

Triple Jump off the block
First the player must reach the red mesh platform above the rolling rock pit, where a yellow ! Block can be found. Performing a Triple Jump with the third jump landing on the ! Block gives Mario enough height to pass over the cave walls, where he can fall into the underground lake.

Cartridge tilting glitches
Tilting a cartridge can interrupt part of the flow of data between the cartridge and the console, causing glitches that may not be possible with a stable connection. Cartridge tilting glitches are only possible on Nintendo 64 releases of Super Mario 64, as Nintendo DS and Nintendo Switch Game Cards cannot be tilted.

Effects of cartridge tilting on this game may include parts of Mario's body disappearing or rotating unusually, corrupted music and sound effects,, corrupted textures, clipping through collision, blurry graphics, and freezing or crashing the game upon certain interactions.

There is a glitch to make Mario lie sideways without disconnecting the cartridge, which is a common graphical result of cartridge tilting. In the American and European versions of the game, the player must go to the roof of Peach's Castle, get the Wing Cap, and go to the left of Princess Peach's image. Mario suddenly lies on the roof and briefly disappears after jumping. The glitch lasts until the console is turned off.