Earthbound/Stairs Glitch Route

Completed Runs

See [1] for a (mostly) up-to-date leaderboard.

Route

While it's possible to go straight to Giygas with the stairs glitch, it's necessary to go to Lumine Hall and Magicant beforehand.

Onett

1. Obtain and equip the Cracked Bat. Even if luck manipulation is used to avoid fights, the Cracked Bat should be equipped to avoid extra dialogue from Pokey. Equipping the bat saves about 140-150 frames over the extra dialogue.
2. Receive the Map at the library.
3. Obtain the Mr. Baseball Cap from the treehouse, sell it for $99 at the Drugstore, and buy the Baseball Cap instead. This sacrifices 1 point of defense, but it lets you afford a Cheap Bracelet right away. Equipping the Mr. Baseball Cap beforehand can save a bit of time because the clerk will automatically ask if you want to sell it after equipping the Baseball Cap.
4. Fight the Pogo Punk in front of the Arcade, the Pogo Punk inside the Arcade, and the Yes Man Jr. Both Pogo Punks drop Hamburgers, and fighting the extra Pogo Punk will let Ness level up before Frankystein.
5. Defeat Frank.
6. Get the Key to the Shack. When opening the shack, you can avoid the "door is locked" notification if you stop a bit in front of the door or to the right of it. Using the key will still work outside of the notification range.
7. Grind to level 8 in order to learn PSI Rockin alpha. Defeat the Titanic Ant.

   Death-warping can be used to exit the cave, but because it requires getting into a fight with Black Antoids, the amount of time it takes can be random. Even with decent Black Antoid luck, death-warping can be a few seconds slower.

8. Defeat Captain Strong.

Twoson

1. Discard everything except the ATM Card, Sound Stone, Town Map, and possibly the Tee Ball Bat. Buy as many Skip Sandwiches as you need to cross the cliffs into Threed.
   • If luck manipulation will not be used during the late game boss fights, fill the rest of Ness's inventory with Salt Packets. The Salt Packets can be used later to exploit the condiments glitch to dupe a Brain Food Lunch, which recovers full HP/PP with Salt Packets.
2. Use the walk-through-cliffs glitch to go straight to Threed.

Threed

1. If you used up all of your Skip Sandwiches to skip Twoson, obtain one from a trash can near the tunnel.
2. Get the 2 zombies in northwest Threed to notice Ness. Go to the hotel and get captured.

Winters

1. Save the game in Dr. Andonuts's lab and reset.
2. Enter the Sky Runner.

Threed (stairs glitch)

1. With luck manipulation (video), enter a fight with Urban Zombies, get Paula and Jeff to 0 HP and Ness to critical health with a cold, and trigger the stairs glitch on the stairs leading out of the underground holding cell.
2. Walk 2 rooms to the right and 1 room up to enter the Summers museum. Use the Map to load the room, and then exit/reenter the room to deactivate the glitch. Stand as far right in front of the phone as you can, and wait for Ness's HP to drop to 4. Save the game and reset.

Lost Underworld

1. Make a copy of the save file before opening it.
2. Trigger the glitch again at the bottom of the stairs leading to the beach. You can reach the bottom of the stairs just in time by using a Skip Sandwich and going straight to the stairs south-east of the museum.
3. Walk down to Lumine Hall. Load the room with the Sound Stone, and then fall into the hole leading to the Lost Underworld.
4. Obtain the Brain Food Lunch, Horn of Life, and Sea Pendant. Luck manipulation can be used to prevent enemies from appearing and the geyser from erupting.
5. Death warp back to Summers. Equip the Sea Pendant on Ness, use the Horn of Life on Paula, and throw away Paula's Teddy Bear. Ensure the Brain Food Lunch is in Ness's inventory and is listed after the Salt Packets.

Magicant

NOTE: Discarding Paula's Teddy Bear prevents the game from crashing after Magicant. When Ness wakes up from Magicant, each party member rejoins him one at a time. If Paula's Teddy Bear is left alone, Poo will wander off-screen instead of joining the party, and the game will hang.

1. (Optional) Buy a few Secret Herbs at Toto in cause Paula falls unconscious to Ness's Nightmare's glorious light attack.
2. Load the second save file. Walk onto a set of stairs leading to the beach, and let the party fall. Answer "no" and then "yes" at the game over scene to return to the title screen. Load the primary save file to have the party start in a ghosted state.
3. Walk up to the Flying Men's house. Load the house with the Sound Stone, and exit the house. If you prefer, you can recruit 2 Flying Men. (The glitched state of the game lets you recruit 2 Flying Men instead of just 1.)
4. Go through Magicant. Luck manipulation can be used to prevent any enemies from appearing. If luck manipulation is not used, enemies can still be despawned the usual way--however, you will probably need to level grid against Mr. Molecules to level up Paula. Leveling up Paula to level 22 will ensure she learns PSI Shield Σ after Ness's Nightmare.
5. Defeat Ness's Nightmare.
   • If luck manipulation is used, make Ness's Nightmare feel strange with Paula's pray, and then have Ness's Nightmare defeat itself with its glorious light attack.
   • If luck manipulation is not used, exploit the condiments glitch to dupe a Brain Food Lunch with Salt Packets to maintain Ness and Paula's PP during the fight. (A Salt Packet + Brain Food Lunch restores full HP/PP.)
   • If Ness is unconscious at the end of this fight, he will be permanently removed from the party!

Phase Distorter

1. Talk to Dr. Andonuts and enter the Phase Distorter.
2. Exit and enter the entrance to Saturn Valley. This adds Saturn Valley to your Teleport list.
3. Teleport to Winters. Save the game in the drugstore and reset.
4. Use the second save file to ghost the party. From the Winters drugstore, walk straight up to Lier X. Agerate's house. Load his house with the Map, and exit into northern Onett.
5. Take the Meteorite Piece.
   • (Optional) Teleport to Twoson to restock on Salt Packets.
6. Give the Meteorite Piece to Dr. Andonuts.
   • If luck manipulation will not be used against Giygas, buy a Night Pendant for Ness at the store. Buy as many Horns of Life as you can and give them to Ness.
7. Sleep, and then go to the Cave of the Past.
8. After going back in time, save the game and reset.

Giygas

1. Use the second save file to ghost the party, and enter Giygas's lair.
2. Use Paralysis until it works against Pokey. Use PSI Shield Σ to protect the party from PSI Rockin, and attack with Freeze β. Maintain Paula and Poo's PP with Salt Packets and the Brain Food Lunch.
3. Pray 9 times against Giygas.

Ending

1. Teleport in front of Ness's house to skip a photo spot and dialogue with Paula.