Climbing Gloves

Verified against the spelunky.ai port v0.1.10 on 27 October 2026.

Without them, the player only catches the edge of a ledge, where there's open space above the block. With them, he catches the side of any wall he falls past while pressing toward it, and by jumping from his grip and catching the wall again, he climbs it. General Stores, Clothing Shops, Rare Shops and the Dice House offer them, and Crates, blocks and Kali give them away. They're worn from the moment they're picked up or paid for until the game ends.

Picking up a free pair, paying for one or carrying one out of a shop puts it on: the message "YOU GOT CLIMBING GLOVES!" shows, the pair disappears, and an icon of it joins the row under the hearts ^{[3] [4]}. They stay on until a new game starts, which clears them ^{[5] [6]}.

In the air, pressing toward a wall he's touching, the player hangs on to it when there's a block right beside his head. Without the gloves, he does only where there's no block above that one and none just below his feet, at a ledge's corner ^[7]. With them, while he's falling, any block beside his head will do, so he grabs a sheer wall anywhere, his height snapping to a multiple of 8 pixels ^[8]. Hanging, a jump while holding toward the wall takes him up off it, and once he falls again he grabs it again ^[9]. The clip shows the player falling back from a wall he can't grab, then, with the gloves, grabbing its bare face and climbing it to the top, a block (16 pixels) a jump ^[10].

The gloves also keep him from grabbing the wall he's just left. Walking off a ledge with them, he can't grab anything for 5 steps; letting go of a wall (down and jump), for 10 steps instead of 5 ^{[11] [12]}.

A shop stocks a pair only if the level hasn't got one already, even for a player who wears a pair ^{[20] [21]}, and it adds 10% of the base price for each level past the second ^[22]. Shops are made from level 2 on ^[23], and level 16, Olmec's Lair, has none:

The Dice House puts its prize up from the same set of rare items, and a roll of seven gives it away and puts up another ^{[24] [25]}. Every block of rock away from the level's edges that isn't gold and holds no gem has a 1 in 1200 chance of hiding an item, one of nineteen at random ^{[26] [18]}. Kali's first gift, when the player's favour with her reaches 8 at one of her altars, is one of eight pieces of equipment the player hasn't got, the gloves among them ^[27]. In custom levels, they're the level editor's tile G ^[28].

Carrying a pair out of a shop without paying puts it on and angers the Shopkeeper, as with any ware; whether it goes on at once depends on whether the player or the pair leaves the shop first ^{[21] [29]}.

• Only a fall catches a wall: rising, the player grabs only ledges, as without the gloves ^[30].
• A grabbed wall holds him only while it's beside him: when there's nothing within 2 pixels on the side he faces, he falls ^[31].
• Spring Shoes don't raise a jump from a wall: only a jump from the ground gets their boost ^{[32] [9]}.

• A wall with nothing to stand on is no longer a dead end: falling down a shaft beside a wall, holding toward it stops the fall.
• Each jump off the wall climbs about a block, so a tall wall takes a jump for each block of its height.

• Their message has a second line, "YOUR SPIDER SENSE TINGLES!", for when the player's held item is a Web Cannon. It never shows: the gloves are the held item when they go on, as picking them up sets it to them, so it's never the Web Cannon ^{[33] [34] [21]}.
• Shops call them "CLIMBING GLOVES", though their type is just "Gloves" ^[35].