Pitcher's Mitt

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

Wearing it, the player throws harder: whatever he throws from his hands, a Rock, a Jar, a held Bomb, leaves 6 pixels per step faster across and, unless he aims up or down, almost level. With empty hands, a rock flying into him doesn't hurt him. Clothing Shops and Rare Shops sell it, and Crates, blocks and Kali give it away. It's worn from the moment it's picked up or paid for until the game ends.

Picking up a free mitt, paying for one or carrying one out of a shop puts it on: the message "YOU GOT A PITCHER'S MITT!" shows, the mitt disappears, and an icon of it joins the row under the hearts ^{[3] [4]}. It stays on until a new game starts, which clears it ^{[5] [6]}.

An item thrown from the hands (the attack key, holding anything that isn't a weapon) normally leaves at 8 pixels per step across, 4 if it's heavy, plus the player's own speed, and 3 pixels per step upward, 2 if heavy; 9 upward when he holds up (4 if heavy), and 3 downward when he holds down in the air ^[7]. With the mitt, unless he's crouching, the item gets 6 pixels per step more across, so a light one thrown standing still leaves at 14 (420 per second). Holding neither up nor down, it starts almost level, at 0.4 pixels per step upward; holding down in the air, it goes down at 6 ^[8]. The throw that a low ceiling ahead turns flat, without the mitt, isn't changed with it ^[9].

The mitt also sets the item's gravity to 0.1, a sixth of the usual 0.6, but the item's own step puts it back to 0.6 on every step it isn't in Lava, so the lighter gravity lasts a single step ^{[10] [11] [12]}. Thrown straight ahead from the ground, then, an item flies fast and flat and meets the floor soon. A Jar, a Skull and a die have movement code of their own, which only changes their gravity in lava, so they keep the 0.1 for good: thrown the same way, a Jar flies flat across the room, and it falls slowly from then on ^{[13] [14] [15]}. The clip shows a Rock thrown along a corridor twice: without the mitt, it leaves at 8 pixels per step, arcs, and rolls to a stop about 100 pixels away; with it, at 14, skimming the floor, and stops about 60 pixels away ^[16]. Thrown upward, the item follows nearly the same arc as without the mitt, 6 pixels a step faster across, so it carries far; a Jar, a Skull or a die, a far flatter one.

The second clip shows a Jar thrown up and to the right with the mitt: it leaves at more than 13 pixels per step and, falling at a sixth of the usual rate all the way, crosses the cave to break on the rock above ^[17]. Bombs thrown with the bomb key, rather than from the hands, leave at the usual 8 pixels per step ^[18].

A Rock moving faster than 4 pixels per step across that touches the player (and isn't one he has just thrown) costs him 2 hearts, knocks him back and stuns him. With the mitt and nothing in his hands, none of that happens, and the code puts the Rock object in his hands instead, not the rock that hit him ^[19]. So every Rock near the screen is held: the ones lying on the floor fly into his hands too, and his next throw throws them all together, one on top of the other ^{[12] [20]}. Only rocks are caught: a fast arrow still hurts ^[21].

A shop stocks a mitt only if the level hasn't got one already, even for a player who wears one ^{[27] [12]}, and it adds 10% of the base price for each level past the second ^[28]. Shops are made from level 2 on ^[29], and level 16, Olmec's Lair, has none:

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 ^{[30] [25]}. 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 mitt among them ^[31]. In custom levels, it's the level editor's tile g ^[32].

Carrying one 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 mitt leaves the shop first ^{[12] [33]}.

• A thrown item hurts a monster it hits by the same amount whatever its speed, so the mitt adds speed and reach, not damage; the monster is knocked back with 0.3 of the item's speed across, so harder ^[34].
• A crouching throw, which sets the item down gently, isn't changed by the mitt ^{[35] [36]}.

• To throw far with the mitt, throw upward: a level throw from the ground stops sooner than one without it.
• A level throw reaches a monster at the player's height in a few steps, before it can move far.

• The catch makes the player hold oRock, the object, rather than the rock it found touching him, which holds every Rock at once ^[12]:

          if (global.hasMitt and !holdItem)
          {
              holdItem = oRock;
              holdItem.held = true;
              pickupItemType = holdItem.type;
          }

• Its type is "Mitt"; shops call it "PITCHER'S MITT" ^[37].