Nox/Mechanics and Glitches
From SDA Knowledge Base
Contents
Versions
Nox can be run in two versions: Original (1.0) or Latest (1.2). The differences are as follows:
- 1.0: Contains Infinite Jump glitch, Charge Cancel glitch, Reload Cancel glitch, Lightning Stacking.
- 1.2: Contains normalized damage on spells.
Mechanics
Movement
Since Nox offers free, 360 degree movement, you'll want to cut corners as much as possible. Know which rocks, plants and monsters you can jump over, and try, when possible, to time your jump so that you land just on the edge; you can get small boosts in movement that way. This is most consistent on coffins and other objects that open on touch.
Leveling up
Finding enough experience to level up is important for a variety of reasons. All classes gain additional health per level, Wizards and Conjurers gain additional mana, and Warriors learn new skills at certain levels. Items have level requirements as well.
The game awards a lot of experience for finishing quest objectives and defeating bosses, so there is never a need to grind experience. Any time you're able to gain experience without wasting time, however, is generally a good idea.
Keys
Both keys and doors are defined by colour: any given locked door requires either a Ruby, Sapphire, Gold or Silver key. Any key o the correct colour will work; as a result, it is occasionally possible to use a key on a door it was not originally intended for. However, on the start of a new chapter all keys in your inventory are destroyed. Because of this, no useful applications of this mechanic have been found yet.
Skipping Animations
All leveling animations and most quest completion animations can be skipped by opening the quicksave menu and closing it again. Warriors, when leveling up and gaining a new skill, can simply hit Esc (when not gaining a new skill, also use the quicksave method).
Three Necromancer Fight
At the end of the Dismal Swamp chapter is a mandatory fight with 3 Necromancers. 50 seconds after the start of this fight, a Lich spawns in the center of the area. This puts the fight on a rather lengthy timer, allowing you a lot of leeway to carefully pick off the three necromancers. Only the speed at which the Lich is defeated defines how fast you can progress.
Laser Puzzle
At the end of Land of the Dead is a room with 4 spinning lasers. The most consistent way to approach this room with all characters is to save and reload at the entrance to the room, in order to reset their cycle. This allows you to disable the closest switch immediately, then hide behind the walls on the south and proceed to disable the other switches.
In addition, this technique commonly triggers the liches and iron golems following the puzzle to move out of their usual position, allowing you to reactivate a spinning laser and letting it kill them for you.
Glitches
(Apple)Bumping
Items that are on the floor have hitboxes and physics. Dropping a stack of items on the floor puts those hitboxes inside of each other, causing the items to push each other away. Thus, dropping a stack of items right at your feet can launch you away in the opposite direction.
The most obvious application of this mechanic is apple bumping. This glitch consists of putting your back against a door, gate or wall, then dropping a high quantity of items on the floor (most commonly apples) one pixel away from the center of your character. If done correctly (and with some luck) you will be launched through the door.
Different Door Types
The amount of items needed to successfully Applebump depends on the door in question, and in some cases the direction of the bump. In addition, some doors are too thick to be bumped through; instead, you get stuck inside of the door, sometimes with no way to escape.
- Single Wooden Door - Generally cannot be bumped. Exceptions are noted where relevant.
- Double Wooden Door - Generally cannot be bumped.
- Single Wooden Gate - Minimum of 3 items; consistent at 4 items.
- Double Wooden Gate - Minimum of 2; consistent at 4.
- Single Iron Gate - Minimum of 2; consistent at 4.
- Double Iron Gate - Minimum of 3; consistent at 4.
- Iron Fence - Minimum of 5; consistent at 6. (Fences tend to slightly push you back as you try to stand next to them. Standing in the corner of an iron fence puts you straight next to it)
- Wooden Fence - Generally cannot be bumped(?).
- River Bank - Minimum of 3; consistent at 5.
- Double Large Doors - Generally cannot be bumped.
- Ix Temple Door - Minimum of 0; consistent at 2. (Running into this door at the right angle can trigger the level transition zone)
Different methods of bumping
There are three additional methods of doing a door bump.
- Fireball - Either the Wizard's spell or from a Fireball Staff, the knock-back from a fireball hitting a monster or a wall can do a bump. The strength varies between 2 and 6, depending on how close the fireball explodes.
- Summon Monster - The spawning of a monster through the Conjurer's summon ability applies the same physics bump. The strength depends on the size of the summoned creature and the way it will behave once summoned; it can vary between 1 and 4 on Large creatures, but is highly inconsistent.
- Telekinesis - The Wizard's Telekinesis spell can bump with any strength, depending on how many spells have been stacked.
Reload Bumping
When using the quickload function, any momentum your character currently has is retained after the load. This allows a different technique of bumping: Quicksave while standing at a door or fence, move away to an open area, do a full strength applebump, then quickload on the first frame of movement. You'll retain some of the bump strength, approximately 5 items of strength, but because you reloaded, you still have all your apples in your inventory. This is generally more time consuming than an ordinary bump, but it allows you to do bumps in otherwise dangerous areas, or to simply avoid having to buy/find more apples.
The Wall Bump
The Wizard is able to make his Wall spell clip into a door. Doing so will change the door's physics properties, which can allow the Wizard to bump through doors that other classes are unable to. Since Wall is a very lategame spell, this technique has few applications.
Purple Laser Bump
The Land of the Dead chapter contains purple lasers that deal immense damage on every frame of contact. However, with a strong enough Applebump it is possible to be propelled past the laser without the game rendering a frame where you touch the laser, thus not triggering its damage. The minimum strength for this is 3 items, or 6 when crossing the double lasers (though this is extremely inconsistent and only recommended for segmented runs).
Infinite Jump
By casting a spell while in the middle of the jumping animation, the game prolongs the jumping state indefinitely, allowing you to practically walk over rocks, plants, polyps, lava, fire, spikes, traps, and smaller enemies. The infinite jump ends when you jump again, come to a halt, or cast another spell. If you want to cast a spell while infinite jumping, simply reactivate the glitch while doing so. Since a spellcast is needed to activate this glitch, the Warrior is unable to perform it.