Rope

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

The player carries ropes as a count, shown at the top of the screen beside his bombs, rather than in his hands, and the rope key uses one ^[2]. Thrown up, a rope catches where it stops rising and unrolls down to the ground; dropped at a ledge, it hangs over the edge. Either way he climbs it as he would a ladder. More come in Rope Piles, three at a time.

The rope key throws a rope straight up from the player at 12 pixels per step (360 per second), unless there's a ceiling right above him, when nothing happens and no rope is spent ^{[3] [4]}. It rises as any thrown item does, slowing by 0.6 pixels a step, so in the open it climbs about 126 pixels, nearly eight blocks (12 + 11.4 + … + 0.6) ^[5]; on the way up, a ceiling it hits turns it back ^[6]. On the step it stops rising, it catches: it moves to the middle of the block-wide column it's in, away from a wall, puts a hook at the top, and unrolls down 8 pixels a step, a segment each step, until it reaches the ground or has 16 segments, 128 pixels ^[1]. In the clip, the player throws a rope up from the floor, jumps onto it and climbs ^[7].

A rope flying up faster than 2 pixels a step that touches a monster hurts it, as any thrown item does ^[8].

Holding down, the rope key hangs a rope a block ahead of the player instead, moved half a block to the side where it finds open air below; it catches at once and unrolls down. With no open air to hang it in, as on flat floor or against a wall, nothing happens and no rope is spent ^[9]. In the clip, the player first presses the rope key under a low ceiling, which does nothing, then holds down at the edge of a ledge and drops a rope down it ^{[10] [11]}.

To the code a rope is a kind of ladder: pressing up at one, standing or in the air, grabs it, and the player climbs up and down it as he would a ladder ^[12].

The item key takes a Bomb into the player's hands, and pressing it again swaps the bomb for a rope; a third press puts the rope back and returns what he held before ^[13]. Holding one, the attack key throws it up or, with down, drops it down a ledge, as the rope key does; dropped where there's no room, it's tossed a little way along the floor instead, a loose rope to pick up again. Either way, what he held before comes back to his hands ^[14]. A rope in his hands when he takes an exit goes back into his count ^[15].

• The player's own. A new game starts him with 4, the Tunnel Man with none ^[16], and the Tutorial with 2 ^[17]. He can carry 99 at most ^[18].
• Rope Piles, three ropes each, picked up by touch: in shops, in Crates, and left by the Yeti King ^[19].
• Monkeys: one clinging to the player sometimes takes a rope and throws it out, loose, where he can pick it up again ^[20].
• The title screen has one hanging ^[21].
• Custom levels start the player with the rope count the level editor gives them, 99 at most ^[22].

• Lava. A segment hanging in lava catches fire. The fire climbs the rope a pixel a step, and each segment it reaches burns away; a player climbing the rope falls when his segment goes ^{[23] [24]}. In the clip, a rope dropped over a Temple lava pool catches fire at its foot, and the player hanging from it drops off as the fire reaches him ^[25].
• Bombs. An explosion knocks away a rope that's in flight or lying loose, as it does any item, but not one that's unrolling, and it leaves a hung rope alone, even when the blocks it hangs from are blown away ^[26].
• Webs don't catch a rope, where they stop other items ^[27].
• Leaving the screen. Unlike other items, a thrown rope doesn't freeze just past the edge of the screen ^{[28] [29]}.

• A rope thrown up in the open climbs about 126 pixels and unrolls 128 at most, so it hangs down to about where it was thrown from.
• The rope key wastes nothing when it can't be used: under a low ceiling, on flat floor or against a wall, the rope stays in the count.

• The code that drops a rope down a ledge has a commented-out line that would toss the rope out along the floor when there's no room ^[30]; a rope dropped from the hands still does that ^[31].
• The game has a "rope bag" object whose type says "Bomb Bag", which nothing makes ^{[32] [29]}.