Spelunky is © 2008, 2009 Derek Yu and Mossmouth, LLC, and is used under the [Spelunky User License v1.1b](https://spelunky.ai/LICENSE.txt). spelunky.ai is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Mossmouth. The game and its assets may not be sold.

Music by George Buzinkai and Jonathan Perry; sound effects made in SFXR. From Spelunky Classic 1.1, © 2008, 2009 Derek Yu and Mossmouth, LLC.

# Items freeze off screen

From the spelunky.ai wiki: <https://spelunky.ai/wiki/items-freeze-off-screen>. Verified against the spelunky.ai port [v0.1.13](https://github.com/851-labs/spelunky/releases/tag/v0.1.13) on 28 October 2026.

Items freeze off screen is a quirk of Spelunky Classic in which a thrown item that leaves the view stops in mid- air until the view comes back.

| Quirk     |                                                                                                                                                                                                  |
| --------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Status    | GML + Oracle                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Where     | [`objects/oItem/step.gml:1`](https://spelunky.ai/wiki/source/objects/oItem/step#L1)                                                                                                              |
| Pinned by | `fidelity/replays/item-seed-49-rock-off-view.txt`                                                                                                                                                |
| Row       | [docs/quirks.md §1, Bugs and leftovers in the 1.1 source](https://github.com/851-labs/spelunky/blob/main/docs/quirks.md#1-bugs-and-leftovers-in-the-11-source): “Items freeze outside the view.” |

A [Rock](https://spelunky.ai/wiki/rock) thrown out of the view doesn't land somewhere out there: it stops in mid-air, a little past the
view's edge, and waits. When the player comes back, it flies on from where it was, at the speed it had, as if it
had just been [thrown](https://spelunky.ai/wiki/throwing).

## What happens

The player throws a rock to the left from a running jump, and it flies out of the view. He walks away to the
right, and comes back much later: the rock flies in from the left at the speed it left with, bounces off the
cave's wall and lands[^1].

**Clip: A thrown rock waits outside the view.** The player throws a rock to the left from a running jump, and it flies out of the view. He walks away to the right, then comes back much later: the rock flies in from the left as if it had just been thrown, bounces off the cave's wall and lands, and he picks it up. ([video](https://spelunky.ai/wiki/media/clips/quirks/rock-freezes-off-view/clip.mp4))

## Why

The whole of the items' step, the flying, the bouncing and the landing, is inside one test: that the item is
within 16 pixels of the view, or is a rope:

```gml objects/oItem/step.gml:1-3
if ((x > view_xview[0]-16 and x < view_xview[0] + view_wview[0]+16 and
    y > view_yview[0]-16 and y < view_yview[0] + view_hview[0]+16) or
    type == "Rope")
```

[`objects/oItem/step.gml:1-3`](https://spelunky.ai/wiki/source/objects/oItem/step#L1-L3), from `spelunky.gmk`, Spelunky Classic 1.1's source, © 2008, 2009 Derek Yu and Mossmouth, LLC ([Spelunky User License v1.1b](https://spelunky.ai/LICENSE.txt)).

Outside it, the step does nothing, so the item keeps its position and its speed, and stays active, until the
level deactivates it, 96 pixels or more past the view[^2]. When the view
comes back within 16 pixels of it, the step runs again with the speed it kept, and it flies on[^3].

## Reproducing it

Throw a rock hard out of the view, then walk away and back. It happens whenever a thrown item leaves the view
before it lands. The replay of the clip throws the rock at 14 pixels a step (frame 978). It leaves the view and
stops in mid-air at (182, 226) on 990, still with that speed. The player walks right until the rock is
deactivated (1063), then back: it's active again on 1126, still in mid-air, and flies on once it's near the view
again (1154), bouncing off the wall and landing[^4].

## In the port

The spelunky.ai port reproduces it exactly: it's in docs/quirks.md's list of the 1.1 source's bugs[^3], and the oracle's fingerprint of the replay pins where the rock stops and when it flies on. No
option turns it off.

## FAQ

### Why does a rock I threw come flying back on screen in Spelunky Classic?

It never landed. A thrown item stops where it is once it's more than 16 pixels outside the view, still moving as far as the game knows, and goes on flying as soon as the view comes back near it, however long that takes.

### Which items freeze outside the view?

The items that use the shared item step, the Rock for one. A rope doesn't: the step makes an exception for it.

### Is a frozen item the same as a deactivated one?

Not quite. Further out, from 96 pixels past the view, the level deactivates things, items included, though it keeps more active to the right of and below the player. Short of that, an item is still active, but its step does nothing.

## See also

- **Related:** [Throwing](https://spelunky.ai/wiki/throwing), [Rock](https://spelunky.ai/wiki/rock)

## References

[^1]: Clip quirks/rock-freezes-off-view

[^2]: [`objects/oLevel/step.gml:64-77`](https://spelunky.ai/wiki/source/objects/oLevel/step#L64-L77)

[^3]: Quirk 1 (docs/quirks.md)

[^4]: Replay `fidelity/replays/item-seed-49-rock-off-view.txt`

### Source code

- [`objects/oItem/step.gml`](https://spelunky.ai/wiki/source/objects/oItem/step)
- [`objects/oLevel/step.gml`](https://spelunky.ai/wiki/source/objects/oLevel/step)