The Compass's arrow off the screen

Verified against the spelunky.ai port v0.1.11 on 28 October 2026.

The Compass points to the exit with an arrow on the edge of the screen: along the bottom for an exit below it, and on the left or right edge for one to the side, at the exit's height. Nothing stops that height from being above the screen. Then the arrow is drawn there too, where no one can see it.

In Olmec's Lair, the player picks up a Compass, and its arrow points right, at the top of the screen, toward the exit. He drops into the bottom left of the lair, the screen follows him down, and the arrow goes up off its top, all but a sliver ^[1].

The HUD draws a down arrow for an exit more than a screen's height below the view's top ^[2]. For any other exit, one to the left or right gets a side arrow, drawn at the exit's y less the view's:

        else if (global.exitX < view_xview[0])
        {
            if (global.messageTimer > 0) draw_sprite(sCompassSmallLeft, -1, 0, global.exitY-view_yview[0]);
            else draw_sprite(sCompassLeft, -1, 0, global.exitY-view_yview[0]);
        }
        else if (global.exitX > view_xview[0]+320-16)
        {
            if (global.messageTimer > 0) draw_sprite(sCompassSmallRight, -1, 304, global.exitY-view_yview[0]);
            else draw_sprite(sCompassRight, -1, 304, global.exitY-view_yview[0]);
        }

For an exit above the view, that's a negative y, above the top of the screen; one straight above gets no arrow at all. On a generated level the exit is in the bottom row of rooms, which the view can't go below. In Olmec's Lair the HUD sets the exit itself, at (640, 544) ^[3], and the lair goes deeper: at its bottom left, with the view's top at y 553 to 556, the right arrow is drawn at y -9 to -12 ^[4].

Carry a Compass into Olmec's Lair and go down into its bottom left: the arrow that points right to the exit goes off the top of the screen. With seed 1, the lair has a free Compass of its own, buried in a block by the left wall that Olmec's slams dig through. The replay picks it up, with the view's top at y 536 to 539 and the arrow at y 5 to 8, then drops into the bottom left, where the view follows him down to 556 ^[5].

The spelunky.ai port reproduces it exactly: it's in docs/quirks.md's list of the 1.1 source's bugs ^[4], and the oracle's fingerprint of the replay pins the view's position, which places the arrow. No option turns it off.