Finding New glitches
9 years ago
England

I don't know if this has happened to anyone else, but during follow the spiders after burning the last web the cutscene before fighting aragog didn't play at all, resulting in a softlock and this killed my potienal sub 3 run which really pissed me off. I was on the Xbox Version.

West Sussex, England

I did a run on the GC without any footage a few weeks back, so sadly couldn't submit it, but there was a point where I was trying to dodge past the last prefect in the Slytherin Dungeons on Night 3. The camera changed to normal from the position used in stealth parts, when I got caught. No "Get back to your Dormitory!" message appeared or any loss of House Points occurred, so I thought I had softlocked, but luckily it loaded back to the point where Harry spawns after talking to Draco. Nothing unusual outside the fright I had there.

I'm also planning on doing a Founders' Card run (Any% with the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin cards), and I have a theory that you can just Flipendo the heads of the plants that grow the vines to get the Hufflepuff card. Hopefully I'll get some streaming done one day.

Australia

Sounds good mate! I'll showcase the new skip I discovered in the Incendio challenge within my next stream which will hopefully beat WR time due to the massive time save for my skip :)

Australia

Also JAsh15 I'm not sure if you're still around, but yeah that softlock happened to me TWICE during two different runs, one of which was on really really good pace (at the time) and it was really annoying. I don't know what caused it to occur but I hope it never happens again. If anyone knows how it can potentially happen, let us know!

Oklahoma, USA

Wait so what's the skip? Watched the WR run and didn't notice anything that I didn't know about 3 years ago.

United Kingdom

There was a skip to skip putting out the fires and pressing the buttons by clipping through the stairs, but it seems like it doesn't set the flag for the challenge to be finished, so you can't continue afterwards.

Australia

Yeah what he said^, it's really unfortunate that my skip doesn't have any practical use in the run.

In a segmented run the skip could be used, but that category does not exist yet. It may also be used in a TAS run if there were a way around the flag. Speaking of, if there is a way to activate the flag AND utilise the skip at the end of the challenge with time save, then this skip would be viable. However I have never been able to make this happen.

I attempted using the stair clip glitch to reach the Incendio Spell Book early without the necessity of defeating the two required Gargoyles, however Harry's height is too low from clipping into the stairs to reach the spell book, so you fall straight into the abyss. If there was a way to elevate Harry out of bounds using some sort of glitch, then this would be a viable path.

I also attempted skipping straight past the first Gargoyle and moving onto the second one using the stair clip glitch. Unfortunately this was not successful as the second Gargoyle would not initiate the battle, which I'm guessing is because there's a flag that triggers after defeating the first Gargoyle.

Finally, I tried initiating the first Gargoyle fight in the hallway behind the Gargoyle using the stair clip glitch and then running to the second Gargoyle, however this did not trigger the second Gargoyle, which means that you must defeat the first Gargoyle to trigger the second Gargoyle fight.

There is massive potential time save if this glitch had practical use, such as; skipping the Gargoyle fights, getting straight to the spell book and skipping the final puzzle, but we are limited by the in game flags and Harry's height out of bounds.

Do you guys reckon it's possible to trigger these flags alternatively? Or does this glitch have no practical use in a run due to my findings? Let me know, cheers. :)

United Kingdom

What happens if you save and quit, the reload the file, does the flag still not update?

West Sussex, England

Don't you have to just, like, open the door and go halfway up the stairs to activate the cutscene and complete the Incendio challenge? This is also in the Avifors challenge.

There's something else I've been pondering since I did my run a while back. Harry somehow managed to jump on this 'ledge' in the middle of the cliff in front of where you jump off the Whomping Willow. This should shave off a minute or two if it's possible to climb the cliff and skip the vine and first Puffapod.

United Kingdom

Yeah, that invisible ledge has been known about for a while, you're just slightly too low to be able to grab the ledge above, I tested it for a while a year and a bit ago and couldn't get it to work.

Australia

Alright, time to use my knowledge to explain things.

Firstly the invisible ledge in the Whomping Willow; StarrlightSims is right, you're too low unfortunately for it to be viable. There is a similar invisible ledge in the Forbidden Forest, but once again Harry is too low and in this instance, the ledge has no viable use. There is also a particular spot at the last spider web trigger whereby if Harry jumps off and hugs the angled surface, he will clip back into the cave underneath. Unfortunately this does not have any practical use as there is no necessity to back track in this area.

For the end sequences of the Avifors and Incendio challenges, there are flags that need to be triggered in order to continue progression in the game. In the Incendio challenge, you have to collect the Incendio Spellbook in order to trigger the flag to complete the challenge, however if you get the spellbook but don't complete the final puzzle, you will become softlocked as Ron will be waiting outside Flitwick's classroom saying, "Let's go into charms Harry" and won't be waiting at the bottom of the entrance hall as he should be. Another key indicator that your game is soft locked, is if Oliver Wood isn't waiting outside the Quidditch stadium, both of these occurred within my attempt in a run, you can go to my Twitch and look for the video titled "When a softlock ruins a good pace" to see what I'm talking about.

Now for the Avifors challenge. I attempted to use the Out of Bounds glitch on the Avifors Spellbook room to run both underneath and around the perimeter of the first room to reach the end door to potentially trigger the end cutscene and continue on with the game, I believe this was on one of my streams but I don't believe it was saved. Regardless, this unfortunately did not work as there has to be a flag associated with defeating the Gargoyle, because only then will the cutscene trigger if you have defeated the Gargoyle. I have not gone back to the Out of Bounds spot to see if you can complete the challenge going Out of Bounds once the Gargoyle is defeated. If this does in fact work, then we could attempt to find an Out of Bounds location in the first room of the Avifors Challenge to save at least 20-30 seconds as we won't have to wall sneak and won't get hurt by the ghosts which can potentially increase your time.

Australia

Oh and for the save and quit scenario; I tried saving and quitting (I believe) and had no success in my results. I can attempt to try it again with different save points or find a way to deliberately die after I complete the challenge to see if it updates the in game flags.

West Sussex, England

That sucks. :(

By the way congrats on the WR. :) Sorry it was so late though, and thank you for the research. I'll give up on the ledge for now and practice in other areas while saving up for a capture card one day.

Australia

Yeah it does suck unfortunately.

Thanks mate, appreciate it!

No need to worry for the late response. Check out my channel for some new skips I've discovered, I hope they help mate! :)

United Kingdom

New Whomping Willow Skip, works on Xbox, hasn't been tested on GCN or PS2.