Debug Room
MOTHER 3 contains at least four debug menus: a debug room, a Magypsy debug menu for Chapter 7, a debug menu that was likely to be used while walking around, and a battle debug menu. Of these, only the standard debug menu and Magypsy debug menu have known means of access.
Something to be noted is that, when using the debug room to skip to different parts of the game, while going forward in the game (for example, skipping to Chapter 3 from Chapter 1) is likely to be relatively glitch-free, going back (for example, from Chapter 7 to Chapter 2) can result in glitches, likely because some flags that are not supposed to be set at that point could already be set. Besides this, there is still potential for some inaccurate flags and glitches.
The only way to leave the debug room aside from interacting with the characters present is to battle the Firefly in the bottom-right corner and lose to it. This will transport the player to their last save point, and allow them to retain the party they set before leaving the debug room (unlike in the case of interacting with the various characters, where the party members will be pre-determined. For example, if the player skips to a point in Chapter 4, they will have Lucas and Boney in the party, even if they had Lucas, Kumatora, Flint and Wess in the party while in the debug room).
Also, leaving the room in any way except for the firefly method will sometimes leave a variety of items in the player’s inventory, including [favourite food] (inaccessible in normal gameplay), Nut, Lighter’s Lumber, Fresh Lumber, Capricorn Bracelet, Taurus Bracelet, Mosquito Charm, Fly Charm, Chick Bandana, Very Good Stick and Mole Cricket Brother. In addition, leaving the room without the firefly method (which allows the party to retain its levels) will leave the party members at pre-determined levels (for example, even as far as Chapter 7, Lucas and Boney could be left at Level 16), although the player has the option to set all party members to Level 99.
The standard debug room accommodates the following features:
Left Mr. Saturn: Allows the player to access the beginning of Chapters 1, 2 or 3. Chapter 2 and 3 are functional, but accessing Chapter 1 in this way is extremely glitchy; it will leave the player with only Lucas in the party, right outside the Tazmily prison. Going east to the town square will result in the usual opening sequence of Chapter 1, but in daytime. After Thomas joins the team, he will move off-screen, and the game will freeze because of Flint being absent from the party, Lucas being present instead.
Right Mr. Saturn: Allows the player to access the beginning of Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, all of which are functional.
Flint: Allows the player to skip to certain points in Chapter 1:
Duster: Allows the player to skip to certain points in Chapter 2.
Salsa: Allows the player to skip to certain points in Chapter 3.
Lucas: Allows the player to skip to certain points in Chapter 4.
Clayman: Allows the player to skip to certain points in Chapter 5.
Ionia: Allows the player to skip to certain points in Chapter 7. However, considering the length of Chapter 7, the points accessible in this case are inadequate. To make up for this, the Magypsy debug menu allows the player to skip to the remaining points in Chapter 7.
Porky: Allows the player to skip to certain points in Chapter 8.
Hinawa, top right: Allows the player to skip to the ending.
Phone: Allows the player to set Lucas and Kumatora’s sprites to be “Kids” or “Adolescents”. This does not allow the player to change Claus’s sprite, but Claus’s “Kid” sprite automatically changes to his “Adolescent” sprite at the beginning of the Tanetane Island hallucination sequence.
Standard Pigmask: Allows the player to choose characters to add or remove from the party. The characters available, in order, are Flint, Lucas, Duster, Kumatora, Boney, Salsa, Wess, Thomas, Ionia, Fuel, Alec, Fassad and Claus. The party can contain up to five characters at a time.
Pigmask Captain (Blue): Allows the player to set the individual levels for Flint, Lucas, Duster, Kumatora, Boney, Salsa and Wess (despite him not being playable in the final game) to Level 1, any multiple of 5 up to Level 60, and Level 99. There is also the option to set everyone’s Level to 99, which will also affect Claus’s level.
Navy SQUEAL (Violet): Allows the player to fill remaining inventory slots with Nuts.
Pigmask Major (Green): Allows the player to check various fade-out effects in practice, some of them unused.
Pigmask Colonel (White): Allows the player to activate all memo flags (unlocking all memos in the secret memo menu) and obtain all area maps.
CAST: Allows the player to view the Cast Roll. The game will then proceed to the Staff Credits and the wooden MOTHER 3 logo.
Hinawa, near Pigmasks: Allows the player to save the game.
Firefly: Functions as an encounter with the Firefly enemy, but it can be run from, and does not move out of battle due to having no movement code associated. Respawns if left off-screen for a sufficient period of time.
