How to Drown

Castle Crashers317 views6 favorites3 min readby SlashJayUpdated Jan 11, 2024View on Steam ↗

Drowning In Castle Crashers

In real life, drowning is a form of suffocation that occurs when, instead of air, you breathe water. Assuming most readers of this guide are mammals, this usually results in unconsciousness, or if you are severely unfortunate, death.

In Castle Crashers, "Drowning" is not a programmed event. This is confusing as both water and (presumably) air exist as features of the game. However, I have since found a glitch that softlocks the player by trapping them in water. Close enough. The process is not easy to pull off, however, and requires progressing through the main story twice.

Mastering the Art of Spinjitzu

From Fandom's Ninjago Wiki Page:
Spinjitzu is a close-combat martial arts technique in the world of Ninjago. It involves the user tapping into their inner balance while spinning rapidly, creating a tornado-like vortex of energy around themselves.

Learning the art of Spinjitzu is a vital step in Drowning. This will be explained later.

Castle Crashers has two playable characters that are able to tap into the power of Spinjitzu:

THE BEAR

Through years of training and mastery, the sub-aquatic, white-haired beasts of the rivers have mastered the elemental power of the storm. This makes them a threat to many things, including my sanity when I play Insane Mode.

To unlock the Bear, you must first beat the final stage as the Red Knight, to unlock the Skeleton. They must then beat it again as the skeleton to unlock the Bear as a playable character.

THE SARACEN

The Saracen are the people of the temperate deserts to the East. They're also huge JoJo fans, and as such, learned of a different, yet equally powerful form of Spinjitzu. They're also obsessed with Horse Racing, for some reason.

To unlock the Saracen, first beat the final stage as the Green knight. Much like before, this unlocks a new character: the Royal Guard, or as my close accomplices call them, "Chain Face". Beat the game again with the Royal Guard to unlock the Saracen.

You only need one of these characters unlocked to successfully drown.

How to Drown (performing the softlock)

Enter the Rapids Ride or Catfish level as either the Bear or the Saracen
Jump out of the water (does not work on one of the rafts)
cast the tornado spell mid-air (Right Trigger + Y)
Cancel it before you re-enter the water

Results

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNClqIYUP_o
If done right, you will have successfully drowned. Your character will be unable to jump out of the water, and cannot by hit by the various hazards in the level.

The glitch is a little inconsistent: occasionally, if you jump out of the water, you instead cast your
jumping magic spell even when not holding down the Right Trigger. It may take some practice to get.

Extra Details of Note

If you instead stay in Tornado form, you are able to move along the surface of the water. This leads me to believe that Jesus Christ from the New York Times Best-Selling book The Bible was a Spinjitzu Master.
The Spinjitzu attack has some strange damage calculation. For the first hit on a grounded opponent, it uses your magic stat, but for consecutive hits on airborne targets, it instead uses your standard physical attack damage. It's valuable to invest into both stats because of this.
The Catfish boss is able to bring back drowned characters from the dead. This is because the Bear Tribe Worships the Catfish as their lord and savior, and their faith in Catfish gives it the power to resurrect the dead.