Impossible Levels in Super Mario Maker

**Notice: This article is strictly for informational purposes. This should not be used to upload impossible levels. Any impossible levels that are uploaded should be reported and deleted.**
In *Super Mario Maker*, players are required to beat a level from the beginning and from each checkpoint in order to prove that a level is possible before uploading. However, through various exploits, it is actually possible to upload an impossible level.

## Creating an Impossible Level

Impossible levels generally rely on minor differences between the upload process and play mode. This allows the creator to beat a level as intended, but impossible for anyone else to complete.

### Pink Coins

Note: This is only possible after version 1.40 and was patched in *Super Mario Maker 2*.

This setup exploits a difference in how Pink Coins are loaded into the game. If a Pink Coin is placed in an unreachable subworld then the game will not load that coin in when the level is played resulting in only the coins in the main world being shown. However, the unobtainable Pink Coin *is* loaded during the upload process.

This means that if 1 pink coin is placed in each world, the creator will be able to collect the first coin without obtaining a key, while anyone else will immediately get a key due to it being the only pink coin loaded into the game. By forcing the player to pass a Key Check they will be unable to complete the level.

### Semi-Impossible Setups

In addition to fully impossible levels, it is also possible to create levels that are semi-impossible.

#### Mystery Mushroom

This setup exploits the fact that players have to manually unlock the different Mystery Mushrooms for Costume Mario, as well as the fact that switching costumes causes the screen to freeze. By using a setup that will cause a P Switch to activate if the screen freezes, it is possible to force a player to have to collect a specific costume in order to pass. However, if the player does not already have the designated costume unlocked then they will not be able to complete the level.

For example, if the creator equips Mario with the Fighter Fly costume at the start, and places the default randomized Mystery Mushroom at the end the level will be 100% impossible for anyone that does not have it unlocked, while anyone that does will have between a 25%-0.65% chance depending on how many costumes they have unlocked.

#### Weird Mushroom

Note: This is only possible after version ?

When a Super Mushroom is spawned, there is a very small chance that it will spawn as a Weird Mushroom. However, after version ? an update made it impossible for a creator to get a Weird Mushroom during the upload process, which was likely due to many people making RNG-based levels where a player would be forced to get a Weird Mushroom in order to beat the level.

Because of this, it is possible to create a level that forces a player to collect hundreds of Mushrooms, where the level becomes impossible if a Weird Mushroom is spawned, and because the creator is unable to spawn Weird Mushrooms they are able to beat the level without effort. Because of how RNG works, these kinds of levels are *theoretically* possible, but will likely never be cleared because of the impossibly low odds.

## Uploading an Impossible Level

Note: This only worked before the maintenance on January 27, 2016

Through a game-breaking glitch, it was actually possible to upload levels that were neither possible to the creator nor the player. This relied on a bug that allowed the creator to glitch items in the editor that would then show up in all levels they played (including upload check) until the game was reset. This allowed the creator to use items that were not present in the actual level to then complete and upload the level.

This also meant that is was *technically* possible for a player to also glitch items into the level in order to beat it, however, this glitch has since been patched resulting in these types of levels becoming impossible for anyone to clear.

## Retroactively Impossible Levels

*Main article: List of Global Patches in Super Mario Maker*
*Main article: List of Global Patches in Super Mario Maker 2*
Sometimes a player uploads a level with the intention of it being possible, and then retroactively the level becomes impossible because of an update patch from Nintendo. An example of this is the following level: Yoshi is required to eat a solid block in order to advance, however, as the trick was globally patched from the game this is no longer possible.