The black hole glitch is a glitch found in Super Smash Bros. Melee involving Reflector, Vegetable, and the Super Scope. The many thrown Vegetables become stuck in a crossfire caused by the scope. If players touch the Vegetables, they will quickly take heavy damage. The glitch was discovered by Aftermath and Juce in late 2004. There are a number of methods to perform the glitch, all of which involve Peach throwing several Vegetables into a stream of Super Scope shots; the glitch can theoretically be perfomed with any item that has a hurtbox and does not vanish when hit, but the physical properties of Vegetables and their ease of acquisition make them the only reasonable option.
The glitch occurs because the amount of Vegetables being focused into a single location overcomes a technical limitation in the game: for the purposes of preventing attacks from hitting the same thing twice, attacks can remember a total of 12 objects that they have already connected with. If an attack hits more than 12 things, it begins to forget about the first ones, and is therefore capable of damaging them again. As a result, funnelling more than 12 Vegetables into one place means they will continuously hit every other Vegetable in an infinite loop.[1]
It is likely that the list for "objects this attack has hit" has a limit in other games (as it is poor practice to allow such a list to be limitless), so in theory a black hole could be formed in other games if there were some way to bring enough viable items together. However, as the Infinite Super Scope glitch is not present in other games, there is no known way to set up the situation.
Performing the glitch
Method #1
This method is the most well-known and first one reported. It requires 4 human players.
Characters
- 2 Fox/Falco's
- 1 Peach
- 1 fourth character (must be teamed with a Fox or Falco, Friendly Fire turned off.)
Items
- At least 1 Super Scope
Stage
Any stage where two characters can face each other horizontally far apart while a third stands below them can be used. Examples include:
- Temple (recommended and most notable to perform)
- Battlefield
- Yoshi's Story
- Kongo Jungle
- Mushroom Kingdom
- Yoshi's Island 64
- Jungle Japes
- Dream Land
- Onett[2]
- Green Greens*
- Pokémon Stadium*
- Flat Zone*
- Fountain of Dreams*[3]
*These stages are not recommended, as the glitch only works when certain platforms are out.
Performing the glitch
- The Foxes/Falcos stand on opposite platforms facing each other, while Peach stands underneath them.
- The fourth character picks up a Super Scope, and performs the Infinite Super Scope glitch on it.
- The fourth character stands behind the Fox/Falco that is on the same team as them with friendly fire disabled.
- Both Foxes/Falcos use and hold Reflector.
- The fourth character continuously fires the Super Scope. The shots pass through the Fox/Falco in front of them, reflect off the other Fox/Falco, and reflect back by the first Fox/Falco, creating a long stream of shots back and forth. A single clang bubble appears in the middle of the stream.
- Peach jumps upward into the stream a number of times to create additional clang bubbles.
- There's an unbroken line of clang bubbles overlapping between the two Foxes/Falcos that remain after the fourth character stops firing the Super Scope.
- The fourth character stops firing the Super Scope. Peach throws at least 13 Vegetables into the same place in the stream, where they get stuck (throwing too many however may cause the game to freeze).
- Once the Vegetables are in place, the fourth character jumps in front of the Fox/Falco he/she was behind, breaking the line of clang bubbles and Super Scope shots. This leaves only 13+ Vegetables spinning in place.
- The black hole glitch is now complete. Any character who enters the mass of Vegetables will get stuck and almost immediately take up to 999% damage. A player may use DI to escape.
Method #2
This method is best when 4 human players are not available, and can be performed with as few as 2 players.
Characters
- 1 Peach
- 1-2 Ice Climbers
Stages
Any flat, unmoving stage whose length is longer than the range of a Super Scope shot. Final Destination is recommended.
Items
- 2-4 Super Scopes
Instructions
- Each of the Ice Climbers pick up 2 Super Scopes, and perform the Infinite Super Scope glitch on all of them.
- All Ice Climbers stand at one end of the stage while Peach stands at the other end, out of range.
- All Ice Climbers begin firing. The shots form a continuous stream with no uneven gaps, as in (● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●) rather than (●● ●● ●● ●●). The latter may occur most frequently when there is only 1 Ice Climbers and 2 Super Scopes used; if it does, then the Ice Climbers perform Belay to desynch them before firing.
- While the Ice Climbers are firing, Peach throws 13 or more Vegetables into the same location in the stream of shots. After enough Vegetables are in place, the Ice Climbers stop firing, leaving the Vegetables suspended on the stage, forming the black hole.
Modifications
After the black hole has been constructed, various modifications can be made. Beware that too many of these may cause a lot of lag or cause the game to freeze.
Ultranova
The most well-known modification is commonly named the "Ultranova". To perform this, the fourth character should be Ness. Perform PK Fire into the black hole, surrounding it with flames.
Other
- Items such as Flippers and Freezies can be thrown into the black hole for additional effects.
- When Party Balls are thrown into the black hole, they will get stuck. Anyone who touches the Party Ball will take a large amount of damage.
- Certain Pokémon can interact with the black hole:
- If Togepi or Articuno freezes someone who is trapped in the black hole, they will be stuck in one position, and they will continue to use Blizzard indefinitely. Anybody frozen by the Blizzard attack will be stuck in one spot, and will never thaw out.
- If Wobbuffet touches the black hole, it will be stuck in one position, and anyone who touches it will take a huge amount of damage and knockback if the player DIs out of it.
- If Snorlax falls onto somebody who is trapped in the black hole, it will be stuck in its falling position, and anybody who touches it will take a large amount of damage.
- If Fox/Falco uses Fox Illusion/Falco Phantasm through the black hole, the blue 'ghost' Fox/Falco will remain behind and not dissipate.
- Various attacks where part of a character is temporarily invincible or otherwise avoids getting hit can be used on the black hole, and the character and attack will be frozen in place while any effects of the attack are maintained. The character can be released from the black hole by being attacked by another character; however, if the entirety of the character is invincible during the attack, the only way to escape is to dissipate the black hole entirely.
- If Fox/Falco uses Reflector inside the black hole immediately after respawning, the attack will get stuck and Fox/Falco will remain intangible until the black hole is dissipated. Anyone who enters the black hole will get shocked.
- If Ness uses his forward aerial or back aerial into the black hole, the attack can get stuck while Ness remains undamaged. Anyone who enters the black hole at this time will produce a spark effect from the attack.
- If Mario uses Super Jump Punch into the black hole, it will continuously sprout coins as long as Mario stays stuck.
- If Mr. Game & Watch uses Judgement on another character stuck in the black hole, the black hole will continuously produce any effects of the Judgement move (such as flames for #5, electricity from #6, and freezing effects from #8).
- If Sheik uses Chain on the black hole, it will get stuck inside.
- If Pikachu uses Quick Attack on the black hole, any character who enters will get shocked.
- If Link or Young Link throws a Bomb at the black hole, it will get stuck but will still explode within the usual timeframe.
Supernova
A weaker variant of the "Ultranova" that also involves Ness's PK Fire, the "Supernova" can be performed by first KO'ing one Fox/Falco so that he gains temporary invincibility from the revival platform. While invincible, Fox/Falco should enter the black hole and use Reflector, which will cause him to get stuck. Ness should then use PK Fire 13+ times into the black hole. Finally, have Peach remove her Vegetables from the black hole (by air-grabbing them with Z). This should leave the PK Fires alone stuck together.
Removing the black hole
To remove the black hole, simply have Peach air-grab the Vegetables from inside. Once the number of Vegetables has dropped to 12 or fewer, the Vegetables' object memory will no longer be overrun, and the black hole will fall apart by itself. This can also be done by any other character unaffected by the Vegetables (such as a character on the same team as Peach with Friendly Fire off, or a temporarily invincible character).