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| 3 | %% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. |
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| 6 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1319638279001400100 |
| 7 | %% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread. |
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| 9 | [[quoteright:277:[[VideoGame/CastleOfIllusion https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Bottomless_Pit_3339.jpg]]]] |
| 10 | [[caption-width-right:277:[[WesternAnimation/KimPossible "IT'S VERY VERY DEEP, ALL RIGHT?!?"]]]] |
| 11 | |
| 12 | ->''"When you fall in a bottomless pit, you die of starvation."'' |
| 13 | -->-- '''What's Her Face''', ''WebAnimation/TeenGirlSquad'' |
| 14 | |
| 15 | One of the longest-standing video game hazards in existence: pits that send your character plummeting to an early grave, usually costing [[VideoGameLives one of the player's lives]]. In many games, there are sheer-faced bottomless pits nearly everywhere you travel, waiting for you to mistime a jump (or get [[LedgeBats smacked into it by annoyingly placed enemies]]). |
| 16 | |
| 17 | If the player character [[JumpPhysics does not take damage from long falls]] as long as they [[NotTheFallThatKillsYou land on a non-damaging surface]] (as was common in the early days of VideoGames), this can be especially jarring. There may be certain levels where you fall many, many, ''many'' screens down, but hit the bottom completely unharmed, yet a simple pit will end your life instantly. More {{JustForFun/egregious}}ly, bottomless pits are almost always instantly fatal, even in games where your character can take a point-blank explosion or a volley of bullets and only lose one point of health. However, the biggest threat to a player's WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief is the pits which are treated as being fatal, even when they are located above safe landing ground. The screen will simply refuse to scroll down if you fall into it. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | With the advent of 3-D and FallingDamage, most "bottomless" pits are shown (or assumed) to be really, really deep pits. Still, one wonders why science labs, factories, and temples have [[MalevolentArchitecture so many deadly drops built in them]], or why the building inspectors [[NoOSHACompliance allow them]]. Sometimes, the pits are clearly not bottomless but are treated as if they were anyway, because the player would be unable to get back up to the [[NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom designated path]]. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | Note that, in many cases, not all pits are "bottomless". Sometimes, the designers try to explain their lethality by putting something in them, though this often leads to other cases of weird logic. If the pit has water in it, it's a case of SuperDrowningSkills. If there's lava instead, then you likely have a case of ConvectionSchmonvection. Other times, there may be [[GrimyWater deadly chemicals]], SpikesOfDoom, or a host of other things, which brings us back to MalevolentArchitecture. Note also that "bottomless" in this context is a holdover from older English usage, and means "than which there is no deeper". |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Unintentional versions are very common in DummiedOut levels, [[KillScreen Kill Screens]] or [[MinusWorld Minus Worlds]], due to them typically having broken or even no collision data. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | Watch out for LedgeBats, which live to knock you into these while you are jumping. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | A SuperTrope to NonLethalBottomlessPits, BottomlessPitRescueService. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | Compare with FloatingPlatforms. |
| 30 | ---- |
| 31 | !!Examples: |
| 32 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 33 | [[folder:Action-Adventure]] |
| 34 | * There are pits like this scattered hither and yon throughout ''VideoGame/{{Blasphemous}}''. The catch is that you can acquire a Relic called the Linen of Golden Thread that prevents you from dying. Several "bottomless" pits actually have items in them that you can only reach by jumping in with the Linen. As an amusing result of the Linen's existence, there actually aren't any ''bottomless'' pits - every pit actually leads into another area, which can cause problems if you fall into one and end up having to take the long way back to where you were! |
| 35 | * ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'': |
| 36 | ** The early games make common use of them, although many holes are only ''one screen deep''. Very often, you climb a set of stairs out of one screen with nothing but solid ground all around, sometimes very close to the top, but as soon as you leave the screen it no longer exists, and falling off the platform you're on will kill you, instead of you just falling the few spaces to the screen below. Not only is falling damage never suffered anywhere else, but the fourth level of the [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaI first game]] begins with a quick cutscene showing Simon falling down a well shaft to an underground cave -- and the level you just beat ends at the top floor of a ''tower''. |
| 37 | ** ''VideoGame/SuperCastlevaniaIV'' has parts of stages where you must climb up. A platform on the screen will be safe only so long as it remains above the bottom of the screen. Once you scroll the screen above it, it ceases to exist; try to jump on it and it will be the same as falling into a bottomless pit. |
| 38 | * Late in ''VideoGame/DragonsDogma'', [[spoiler:the Everfall opens up, swallowing over half of Gran Soren in the process. Jumping into the Everfall, however, is not fatal: in addition to having multiple ledges where bosses await, falling into the bottom of the Everfall simply teleports you back above the Everfall. Even faceplanting on one of the ledges isn't usually fatal, as the FallDamage you would usually take is reduced significantly.]] |
| 39 | * ''VideoGame/{{Drakan}}'' has a ridiculous number of these, especially in jumping obstacles in dungeons. This is made especially weird because partway through the fall into an endless abyss, Rynn bursts into several bloody chunks, seemingly from nowhere. |
| 40 | * ''VideoGame/EnterTheMatrix'': Most holes are too deep to see the bottom of, but you have no idea which ones are bottomless until you have the misfortune of falling into one. |
| 41 | * Since you spend ''VideoGame/{{Ghostrunner}}'' ascending an impossibly tall skyscraper, falling off a ledge or platform into a seemingly endless fall is an easy way to die. Not that you have to wait long, the killboxes are low enough that you'll die the second you're out of reach of any more platforms, no long plummeting animation required. |
| 42 | * ''VideoGame/GoofTroop'' has bottomless pits in some rooms. You lose a life if you fall into them, but you can also push enemies into them. |
| 43 | * ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro'': Several areas contain or are surrounded by bottomless abysses. These can be used to the player's advantage, as enemies pushed into them will be instantly killed. |
| 44 | * ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': Many games have bottomless pits, which usually put you back at the beginning of the room at the cost of a heart. |
| 45 | ** ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'' subverts this; bottomless pits (i.e. ones with no water or lava) are one of the few things that can't kill or even harm you. In fact, you frequently have to jump into them to get where you need to go. |
| 46 | ** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' is the first game of the series to properly introduce them as they are known today. Although some pits drop you to the floor below (usually they are textured), the stark black pits result in Link being sent back to where he fell from and losing half a heart. Of particular mention is a large chasm which surrounds the bottom of Death Mountain and divides it into two parts. It's too dark to see the bottom, but star-like sparkles appear in it. It's unclear if they are meant to be gemstones, or if something else is going on. The Dark World equivalent at least does appear to have a bottom, as veins of lava can be seen running through it. Only the Light World counterpart presents an actual fall hazard (it is not possible to jump into the dark world chasm) and it has the same effect as any other bottomless pit. |
| 47 | ** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'': The last dungeon has a gimmick where [[GravityScrew the floor and the ceiling switch places]], making it possible for Link to fall into the abyss of the sky. |
| 48 | ** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'': Bottomless pits are not actually bottomless pits, at least from a technical standpoint. The so-called bottomless pits actually have a bottom, as seen when a bomb is dropped into one of them (the bomb falls in and impacts a floor). However, Link will either fall through the floor and respawn or respawn before he hits the invisible floor. |
| 49 | ** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': The canyons bounding off Hyrule's northern and western boundaries sink downward into a deep, fog-shrouded abyss and out of sight. Further, while most of the towers are in relatively mundane places, like the top of a ridge or the middle of a lake, one bizarre exception is the tower for the Gerudo Highlands area: The Gerudo Tower is situated in the middle of an enormous hole in the ground, with the hole and tower itself seeming to extend infinitely downward. Not far from that, the Yiga clan hideout also contains a round, bottomless pit. Some shrines also consist of a seemingly infinitely deep room, with floating platforms arranged in midair. In all of these cases, gliding below a certain depth will cause Link to instantly lose hold of his paraglider and pitch screaming into the abyss, after which he'll respawn on solid ground minus a heart of health. |
| 50 | ** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'': The pits in the Gerudo Highlands gained a bottom, but the canyon and shrines are still bottomless. One character comments that you really don't want to hit the bottom of an almost-bottomless pit. |
| 51 | * ''VideoGame/LEGOStarWars'': ''Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy'' features traditional-style bottomless pits that cause the player to lose a portion of the Lego studs they have collected so far before [[CheckPoint teleporting to the edge again]]. However, the game also features a few pits in which the player can clearly see the bottom -- which may not even be very far down -- but that nonetheless kill the player upon impact. |
| 52 | * ''VideoGame/MissionImpossible1990'' for the UsefulNotes/{{NES}} is absolutely littered with bottomless pits, and numerous other hazards exist to push you into them, such as massive fans, moving walls, or conveyor belts. There's also the [[PushyMooks Neo Knight]] enemies who deal no damage, but charge at you full speed to push you into pits. |
| 53 | * ''VideoGame/{{Ratatouille}}'': Each time there's a slide through the pipes, there will be gaps in the sheeting to slide around as well as the possibility of sliding overboard. Thankfully, it's not an insta-kill, although it does remove two segments of the health bar (i.e 50% at the start and 25% at the end). If you do die in this way, the cutscene will even show Remy falling and falling, not once hitting the ground. |
| 54 | * ''VideoGame/{{Reventure}}'': One ending involves falling down a bottomless pit, and since it's bottomless, the cause of death is ''starving to death'' while falling. |
| 55 | * ''VideoGame/SpiderManShatteredDimensions'': The console and PC versions have a unique spin on bottomless pits. While some will kill Spidey outright, there are many others where he's given a chance to shoot a web to sling his way out of it -- if you can just [[PressXToNotDie hit a particular button within a few seconds of falling in]]. |
| 56 | * ''VideoGame/ZanZarahTheHiddenPortal'': Falling off a Fairy Duel arena results in the involved fairy's instant death. Also, falling off a cliff is one of the few ways to [[NonStandardGameOver kill Amy herself]]. |
| 57 | [[/folder]] |
| 58 | |
| 59 | [[folder:Action Game]] |
| 60 | * Some games -- including the ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'' series, and the ''VideoGame/Area51'' FirstPersonShooter -- apply Bottomless Pit rules to ''all'' falls; one either kills you, or does nothing, there's no middle ground where it's simply damaging. |
| 61 | * In ''VideoGame/BrainDead13'', Lance can fall into one and die if he hasn't beaten all the bosses before meeting up with Fritz in the final battle. |
| 62 | * ''VideoGame/DynamiteDux'' has these from the third stage onward. They cost a life when you fall into them, but thankfully there are warning signs placed near them. |
| 63 | * ''VideoGame/TheMatrixPathOfNeo'' has these in the AbsurdlySpaciousSewer levels; you fall, you die, no exceptions. |
| 64 | * ''VideoGame/SARSearchAndRescue'', despite being set ''inside'' a derelict ship, have pits leading into nothingness that costs you a whole life if you fall. One area even have the floors collapsing as soon as you walk on them. The upside however is that enemies - including the larger and stronger XenomorphXerox foes - can be killed by these pitfalls too. |
| 65 | * ''VideoGame/{{XCOM}}: Enforcer'' has a level spanning across the roofs of high-rise buildings. The landing makes a crater decal rather than simply entering the normal death animation. There's also a bonus level that includes bottomless pits. |
| 66 | [[/folder]] |
| 67 | |
| 68 | [[folder:Adventure Game]] |
| 69 | * A subversion is found in ''[[VideoGame/{{Dizzy}} Fantasy World Dizzy]]'', wherein the titular egg hero must jump into a (labeled) bottomless pit, travel through the earth, and pop out (upside-down) on the other side of the world. |
| 70 | * A little freeware sidescroller called ''Microman'' had an actual bottomless pit -- that is, if you jumped into it, you would fall forever. Eventually you would take a hit out of nowhere and die, but [[FridgeLogic why didn't they just do that to begin with]]? |
| 71 | * One ''VideoGame/NancyDrew'' computer game has a bottomless pit... in a hotel, accessible by climbing around in the elevator shaft. |
| 72 | * The ''only'' way to die in ''VideoGame/TheNeverhood'' is to fall into a very clearly marked bottomless pit. Which of course means [[SchmuckBait you'll do it once anyway]]. |
| 73 | * ''VideoGame/{{Uninvited}}'' has a regular-sized hole with an endless void below, which the hero has to throw [[BigBad Dracan]]'s unconscious body into to be rid of him. If he takes too long to do so, Dracan wakes up and tosses ''him'' in (you can also just [[PressXToDie take the option to jump in]]), and as the text puts it, he'll "continue to fall..." |
| 74 | * ''VideoGame/{{Zork}}'': |
| 75 | ** Most of the series averts bottomless pits because of a FridgeLogic problem. In most adventure games of the time (''VideoGame/ColossalCave'' in particular), pits were plentiful in dark areas to keep you from just stumbling through blind. They were in the original version of ''Zork'', but then someone pointed out that this meant you could fall into a bottomless pit on the second floor of a house. The result, after much revision, was the grue. |
| 76 | ** If you fall into a bottomless pit in ''VideoGame/ZorkGrandInquisitor'', you end up raising a family with another unlucky pit-faller, and eventually die of old age. The question of food is not answered, nor the one about terminal velocity. Just go with it, 'kay? [[RuleOfFunny It's funny.]] |
| 77 | ** This is lampshaded in the prequel ''VideoGame/ZorkZero'', where you actually use magic to ''close'' the bottomless pits, forcing the grues that dwelled in them to find new hiding spots... |
| 78 | [[/folder]] |
| 79 | |
| 80 | [[folder:Beat-'em-Up]] |
| 81 | * ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage'' has these in one stage. If a player character falls into one, instant life loss. If an enemy falls into one, they're not coming back. In the penultimate stage, an outdoor elevator climb, jumping off or being knocked off the elevator has the same function. ''Streets of Rage 2'' does away with them, but they come back in ''Streets of Rage 3''[='=]s Stage 3, where enemies will die as usual upon falling into one but players will [[DownplayedTrope simply bounce out with a lot of health lost]]. |
| 82 | [[/folder]] |
| 83 | |
| 84 | [[folder:Driving Game]] |
| 85 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Driver}} 2'', the bottom of the skybox was pictured as water, but was really a disguised bottomless pit, with the screen fading to black upon falling in. Sometimes a GameBreakingBug would occur where the player could fall through a hole in the polygons into the "void". |
| 86 | * In ''VideoGame/FZero'', ''every'' track is suspended high in the air, and falling off the track means you lose the race instantly. |
| 87 | * All over the place in the ''VideoGame/JetMoto'' racing games, one of the things making the games that much more NintendoHard. |
| 88 | * ''VideoGame/MarioKart'': |
| 89 | ** Rainbow Road is usually set in space or high in the sky, thus it's hovering over nothing and falling off the track is treated as being out of bounds. Rainbow Road in ''[[VideoGame/MarioKartDoubleDash Double Dash!!]]'' is set above a city while [[VideoGame/MarioKartWii the Wii version]] is in space once again, but with the Earth right below. |
| 90 | ** The Ghost Valley tracks in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioKart'' also have nothingness below. |
| 91 | * ''VideoGame/UphillRush'': They appear as a hazard. The game warns you before each one with a "Jump" sign, and falling into one will result in a life loss. |
| 92 | [[/folder]] |
| 93 | |
| 94 | [[folder:Fighting Game]] |
| 95 | * In general, any fighting game that allows a player to earn victory via RingOut (such as the ''[[VideoGame/SoulSeries Soul Calibur]]'' and ''VideoGame/FightersDestiny'' franchises) and does not have in-universe fighting leagues with established arenas that have well-defined boundaries to enforce said victories will probably have arenas surrounded by bottomless pits in order to explain why being knocked out of bounds equals defeat. However, traditional fighting games generally put a ''lot'' less emphasis on the bottomless pits than their PlatformFighter cousins, so a player usually has to be exceptionally careless in order to actually fall in. |
| 96 | %%* ''VideoGame/{{Brawlhalla}}''. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample) |
| 97 | %%* ''VideoGame/{{Brawlout}}''. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample) |
| 98 | * ''VideoGame/{{Nidhogg}}'' features these, which the fencers can take advantage of by dive kicking one another into one for a quick kill, especially if they've lost their sword. Some have conveyor belts and crumbling floors leading into them. If both fencers fall in, the right of way resets, forcing both fencers to fight to gain it. |
| 99 | %%* ''VideoGame/RivalsOfAether''. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample) |
| 100 | * In ''VideoGame/SpellSwap'', some maps feature deadly pits. The goal of the game is not specifically to push your opponents into said pits, but it can be a valid strategy to weaponise them when they're present. |
| 101 | * In the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series, the goal is to knock your opponents into a bottomless pit. Knocking them off screen from the sides or in the sky works, too. Lava/Acid on the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' stages avert the trope and only damage the player as long as it's high enough; if it's offscreen, it doesn't exist and players will fall to their doom like normal. ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl Brawl]]'' also has water that characters can swim in... but only for a short time before they drown instantly. Yes, even [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Squirtle]]. Fittingly enough, the character who has the shortest time to swim is [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic]]. Though the mere fact that he can swim at all is an improvement over his series of origin. |
| 102 | %%** And for extra "fun", you have the "[[VideoGame/BalloonFight Trout of Doom]]" on the VideoGame/{{Ice Climber}}s' stage. Shudder. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample; what's the Trout of Doom?) |
| 103 | [[/folder]] |
| 104 | |
| 105 | [[folder:First Person Shooter]] |
| 106 | * Most Imperial bases in the ''VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga'' come fitted with at least one Bottomless Pit as standard. [[MalevolentArchitecture There are truly depraved architects in a Galaxy Far Far Away]], and the Empire, being the Empire, [[NoOSHACompliance doesn't care]]. This is understandable — they're [[CardCarryingVillain evil]] — but how to explain Nar Shadaa, the vertical city, sort of a mini-Coruscant in that the entire moon is covered in superskyscrapers and people almost never actually touch the ground... except ''there are no guard rails''. This serves to make Force Push the most powerful offensive power in the game. |
| 107 | * While the official ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' maps don't have any bottomless pits, an unofficial add-on called "The Lost Duke Episodes", which replaces every level of every episode in the game, does have one that is literally bottomless. Inspection of the level in question in the BUILD editor shows that mid-air teleporters are used to produce the effect. If playing with the original registered release (v1.3D of the game), the jetpack can get you out. If you're playing the Atomic Edition (v1.4 or v1.5), the only ways out are to kill yourself or load a saved game. |
| 108 | * The original ''[[VideoGame/HalfLife1 Half-Life]]'' and its expansion packs have a few. There's even one area in ''[[VideoGame/HalfLifeOpposingForce Opposing Force]]'' where the ceiling is so high that you can't see it either. The FanRemake ''VideoGame/BlackMesa'' replaces them all with visible floors. |
| 109 | * The ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' games have several deep pits to fall in, but nearly all of them have a bottom, even if it is ''very'' far down. However, there are space levels in some of the games, like the [[VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved first]] and [[VideoGame/{{Halo 2}} second]], where you can "fall" into what would logically be a bottomless pit. |
| 110 | ** Some multiplayer maps, such as ''VideoGame/HaloInfinite'''s Elevation, are completely suspended in the air or space, so EXTRA care should be taken to not fall off the map and into the death pit. In sillier gametypes such as Kong Slayer where lots of jumping and grappling is necessary, it is not uncommon for every player in the match to self-destruct at least once on such maps. |
| 111 | * ''VideoGame/KensLabyrinth'' has bottomless pits, but since its engine is two-dimensional, they're represented as sprites rather than parts of the level geometry. They come in two flavors: the first is basically your standard garden-variety hole in the ground. The second kind has [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]] and [[PortableHole moves around]]. Either way, move over one and you die. Enemies can fall down the permanent holes (yes, the living holes can, too). They won't, however, go down the moving holes. |
| 112 | * ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'': |
| 113 | ** The later half of No Mercy has you ascend the skycraper that is Mercy Hospital, eventually getting so high that falling off the building is lethal. Beware of Tanks up there, as the high knockback of their punches can send you plummeting to your doom. |
| 114 | ** The beginning of Dead Air has you walk across rooftops in a city, and once again, falling off a building is lethal. |
| 115 | * In ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'', the bridge in the finale of The Parish is placed over a large river, but since the game averts SoftWater, falling off still yields instant death. This time, there's not only Tanks to watch out for but also Chargers, whose knockback-inducing charges can singlehandedly cause a TotalPartyKill if the survivors are all standing in the wrong spot. |
| 116 | * The ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy'' games (with the exception of [[VideoGame/MetroidPrime the first one]]) have these. In ''[[VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes Echoes]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption Corruption]]'', you only [[NonLethalBottomlessPits lose 5-10 health]] when you fall in, but in ''[[VideoGame/MetroidPrimeHunters Hunters]]'', falling is an instant kill. |
| 117 | * Some of the maps in ''VideoGame/{{Paladins}}'' have them on the edge of their boundaries. They're generally not a major concern, but skilled players can use knockback to throw enemies into pits for an easy kill. However, some champions can use their mobility skill to get out of the pit before it's too late. |
| 118 | * ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' has some among the official and "official unofficial" maps: |
| 119 | ** The Atomic Pits after they get blown up by BLU's cart on the Payload maps. |
| 120 | ** The pit around Control Point E on Steel. |
| 121 | ** The Arena map Lumberyard's claim to fame is that the one medkit on the entire level is located on a thin log above a pit of death. |
| 122 | ** Upward, another of the official maps, is located on the top of a mountain. A huge bottomless pit surrounds the battlefield, and another one is the pit in RED's base, where the BLU team must dump the payload cart to win. |
| 123 | ** Ghost Fort, the 2012 Halloween map, has one deep enough to get lampshaded by some of the characters when they fall inside. |
| 124 | --->'''Scout:''' AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH- Holy crap, this goes on forever.\ |
| 125 | '''Spy:''' AAAAAAGGHHHHH! ...come on, I don't have all day! |
| 126 | * ''VideoGame/TurboOverKill'' has bottomless pits throughout the levels. However, falling into them sends Johnny back onto solid ground without any penalty. |
| 127 | * ''VideoGame/{{ULTRAKILL}}'' features bottomless pits in some levels like 3-2 and 6-1. In some cases, they're shown to be just really high pits, in other cases, there's blackness or redness below. Falling into them causes V1 to teleport back at the cost of health. Exceptions are some early game pits which instantly kill V1. |
| 128 | [[/folder]] |
| 129 | |
| 130 | [[folder:[=MMORPG=]s]] |
| 131 | * ''Videogame/{{Elsword}}'', the spiritual successor of ''Grand Chase'' below, has these in some levels, but it's subverted in that they aren't instant death and cannot kill you, only leaving you with [[HPTo1 one HP]]. They start showing up in Feita, and appear at least once per town. |
| 132 | * ''VideoGame/GrandChase'': In certain levels (Temple of Fire, Kastulle Ruins, and Bermesiah's Last Stand, to name a few), you have to cross a stage filled with ever-shortening ledges, environmental hazards, and falls that knock off your limited number of lives like there's no tomorrow. |
| 133 | * A key mechanic in a few jumping puzzles in ''VideoGame/GuildWars2''. The main challenge of the first half of the Windy Cave mini dungeon is fighting/avoiding enemies on a very narrow bridge through a bottomless pit that instantly kills the character. The Forsaken Fortune mini-dungeon has a jumping puzzle section that's a strange hybrid of this and NonLethalBottomlessPits; fall off a ledge and your character dies quickly, but you are slowly resurrected back at a checkpoint at the beginning of the puzzle. |
| 134 | * Certain pits in Moria in ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsOnline'' canonically ''do'' have a "bottom". For example, jumping into a well will usually take you to the "Water Works" section of the region, even though that makes ''no'' sense based on the map unless either the wells have a substantial horizontal component, or the map of Moria, unlike every other map in the game, is laid out so that "down" actually means "down" rather than south (though to ''walk'' from the top of most wells to the Water Works does indeed require you to head south). Characters who fall into a pit (or off certain cliffs in both Moria itself and other regions of the game) will generally die ''before'' hitting bottom, though it is possible under certain conditions to jump into a Moria well and survive the fall. One particularly egregious fall is from the Bridge at Khazad-Dum, which Gandalf survives (you can even find his discarded hat at the bottom), even though a) that's a case where you die while falling and b) you respawn in the bridge area, not (as would make more sense based on other examples) in the Foundations of Stone where the hat is found. |
| 135 | * ''VideoGame/NexusClash'' has Purgatorio, a plane composed entirely of bottomless pits in between the occasional FloatingContinent. If you fall off the edge, it really ''is'' the fall that kills you. |
| 136 | * ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': |
| 137 | ** The game generally averts this; the damage taken from a fall is proportional to the distance you fall, modified by parachute-like effects. However, there are a few places that actually do have bottomless pits, which are accessible [[NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom but have no way back up]], so you die when you hit the ground no matter what. |
| 138 | ** It's also possible to fall off the edge of the world on Outland, the shattered remnants of a planet floating in the Twisting Nether. You fall for a while, then the camera stops and watches your body recede into the depths, and you respawn at a graveyard since you can't recover your body normally. The same thing happens if you fall off the edge in the Firelands. |
| 139 | ** In the fight against Deathwing, for no apparent reason, water is now a bottomless pit. [[FridgeLogic The same water that you can swim in normally is now a bottomless pit that eventually kills you if you fall in.]] |
| 140 | ** The Everbloom dungeon features an odd one of these. The last boss fight takes place on a clifftop [[spoiler:overlooking Stormwind City (at least if you're Alliance)]]. If you fall off the cliff (or jump off), no slow-fall ability will save you; you will die ''before'' you hit the ground. |
| 141 | [[/folder]] |
| 142 | |
| 143 | [[folder:[=MOBA=]s]] |
| 144 | * ''VideoGame/{{Gigantic}}'' has these, usually around the edges of maps. A favored tactic of many players involves pushing enemy heroes into them by using abilities with knockback. |
| 145 | [[/folder]] |
| 146 | |
| 147 | [[folder:Party Game]] |
| 148 | * In the ''VideoGame/{{Overcooked}}'' series, there are both traditional bottomless pits -- holes in the kitchen floor -- and other "pits", such as falling off the side of a moving vehicle. This is part of the game's general NoOSHACompliance schtick, where all of the kitchens in the game are ludicrously unsafe. |
| 149 | [[/folder]] |
| 150 | |
| 151 | [[folder:Platform Game]] |
| 152 | * ''VideoGame/TenSecondRun'': There's a pit below every course and falling down results in death. |
| 153 | * Plentiful in ''VideoGame/TheAdventuresOfLomax''. Especially annoying in TheWildWest world and right before the fight with [[BigBad Evil Ed]]. |
| 154 | * In ''VideoGame/AtlantisNoNazo'', many levels are full of bottomless pits. The infamous "Black Hole" level is nothing but a giant bottomless pit. [[GuideDangIt Certain pits will warp you to another stage instead of killing you.]] |
| 155 | * Pits are a common hazard to face when fighting against bosses in ''VideoGame/BananaNababa''. |
| 156 | * ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'': |
| 157 | ** There are four of them in the original ''Banjo-Kazooie'' game. Notably, one of them is in one of the game worlds (where you have to recollect all notes and Jinjos if you die), making that particular location much harder to tackle. They all use the same "fall into lava" sound effect when the player falls in, even when the pit is very obviously ''not'' lava. |
| 158 | ** ''VideoGame/BanjoTooie'' uses bottomless pits more liberally, since notes and Jiggies are permanently collected and the player no longer has a finite number of lives. In fact, every level but three features at least one, and one of the levels even consists of a big ol' WorldInTheSky which is basically a bunch of platforms above one big death hazard. |
| 159 | * ''VideoGame/{{Bug|1995}}'' has them ''all around you''. Your character is on a level suspended in mid-air, so falling off FloatingPlatforms or the terrain itself could spell certain death. Thankfully, EdgeGravity is in play in most terrain with a "border" to prevent the player from falling off via walking the wrong direction. |
| 160 | * In the ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'' series, the player character dies from merely ''touching'' a pit past a certain point -- say, knee-deep or so -- making the lethality of said pits even more questionable. It's equally lethal to fall to the bottom of the screen in vertical levels, due to the RatchetScrolling. In co-op mode, you can kill your partner by scrolling him off the screen. |
| 161 | * ''VideoGame/CosmosCosmicAdventure'' has bottomless pits in nearly every level. Which doesn't really make sense considering the eponymous character has suction cup hands and can stick to walls. |
| 162 | * The ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' series has many of these, and they're probably the most common hazards in the earlier games besides the enemies. |
| 163 | * [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in ''VideoGame/DefaultDan'', where falling into a bottomless pit sends you to the top of the screen. |
| 164 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Dustforce}}'', plenty of levels have them implied in the form of instant-death-zones below the stage. Genuine bottomless "pits", however (really just the area outside of the level) can be found if you manage to make your way out of the main stage area or find an opening in the aforementioned death-zones. |
| 165 | * In ''VideoGame/DynamiteHeaddy'', bottomless pits appear frequently, but they don't kill you instantly -- Headdy jumps out of it (and high enough to regain footing) and it takes off about a third of his health. |
| 166 | * ''VideoGame/EarthwormJim: Menace 2 the Galaxy'' creates an egregious example. In the laboratory level, the left side of one floor has a bottomless pit, while the right side has a pit that simply brings you further down the level. If you reach the bottom-right of that area, you can get a powerup that lets you fly -- including up the bottomless pit. If the fly powerup disengages, you get killed if you are in the bottomless pit, but not if you're on the other side of a one-way-wall. Furthermore, flying permits you to go up the pit, but stops at an invisible floor when you try going back down. |
| 167 | * ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'': They exist, but are surprisingly scarce. They only appear in two levels, and since the first of these levels is on a series of flying airships, and the second is on a large warship orbiting the planet (with the airlocks open), they are justified. |
| 168 | * ''VideoGame/FreshMintyAdventure'': Falling past the bottom in the Cave of Wonder results in needing to reload a save. |
| 169 | * ''VideoGame/Gamer2'': The first level is set on rooftops, and failing a rooftop jump is an instant death. |
| 170 | * ''VideoGame/AHatInTime'': Spoofed, in which the [[ShowWithinAShow Game Within a Game]] ''Corgi Quest 7: The Leashes That Bind'' includes a canyon which is "very large, and measurably deep should you possess the immense means to do so." |
| 171 | * ''VideoGame/ImpossibleMission'': One of many types of obstacles. One of the best-known sound effects from that game is [[SyntheticVoiceActor the secret agent's scream]] as he falls down yet another one. |
| 172 | * ''VideoGame/{{Inkulinati}}'': The edges of each level of play open up into the abyss. Any object, Beast, or Tiny, including flying units, that is pushed off the edge falls into the nothingness and is instantly destroyed. |
| 173 | * ''VideoGame/{{Jumper}}'': Pits are a standard obstacle. Oddly enough, Ogmo dies the instant he goes below the screen, even if he has an extra jump left. |
| 174 | * ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'': Most games have bottomless pits, which is odd considering Kirby can fly indefinitely in most of the games as well. (They're mostly a danger while inhaling, since Kirby can't inhale and fly at the same time, and also while using abilities like Stone.) In fact, the bottom of the screen must contain some sort of special Kirbicide, because if Kirby so much as grazes it while hovering near the bottom, he dies. Strangely enough, the Helpers in ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'' are completely immune to the effects of these bottomless pits (in most cases they simply return to Kirby upon falling in), further supporting the Kirbicide theory. In ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheForgottenLand'', bottomless pits simply damage Kirby before respawning him on land, although Kirby can no longer indefinitely fly here. |
| 175 | * ''VideoGame/{{Klonoa}}'' features many of them -- ''especially'' in Vision 6-1 and 6-2 of the first game. In the latter level, they usually have to be crossed by jumping on ''incredibly'' tiny floating platforms. |
| 176 | * ''VideoGame/LowGMan'' has bottomless pits in some levels, mostly later ones. |
| 177 | * ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'': |
| 178 | ** In ''Videogame/MegaMan1'', the infamous NintendoHard Guts Man stage, which has bottomless pits crossed via moving platforms that drop out from under you at certain points on their track. It's infamous because this is ''at the '''very start''' of the level''; many players simply gave up without seeing more than 2% of Guts Man's stage. |
| 179 | ** ''VideoGame/MegaMan2'': |
| 180 | *** No one can forget the [[AdvancingBossOfDoom Mecha Dragon chase]] on [[FloatingPlatforms floating blocks]] over a Bottomless Pit in the first Wily stage. At least those weren't disappearing blocks. |
| 181 | *** In Heat Man's stage, you have to jump between disappearing blocks over a LavaPit and a Bottomless Pit, with [[TrialAndErrorGameplay no way of knowing on the first try]] whether the next block will be ahead or above you. |
| 182 | *** In Magnet Man's stage, where you have to jump across them over a Bottomless Pit ''and'' have a magnet pulling on you. |
| 183 | ** ''VideoGame/MegaMan3'': |
| 184 | *** Then you have to do it again (albeit with non-disappearing blocks) in Gemini Man's SlippySlideyIceWorld, if you don't have the Rush Marine. |
| 185 | *** Then there's the dreaded "[[LiftOfDoom rocket platforms]]" in Spark Man's stage, over a Bottomless Pit, of course, which try to push you into the [[SpikesOfDoom Spiked Ceiling of Doom]]. |
| 186 | *** Later on, there are two situations which require you to have a fully powered Rush Jet, one over a long Bottomless Pit, the other over a long stretch of SpikesOfDoom. If you have run out of juice after the PointOfNoReturn, the stage is {{Unwinnable}} unless you lose all your lives and start over. And you've got various GoddamnedBats (dragonflies, bees, parachuters, etc) bombarding you all the way. |
| 187 | *** Incidentally, ''3'' accidentally left in a debug feature that lets Mega Man survive at the bottom of these pits if you hold Right on the second controller. If you run out of health while in this state, you also become invincible (but you can't shoot the Mega Buster anymore). |
| 188 | * ''VideoGame/NebsNDebs'': If you fall into the pits, first you act like you've been struck, then you lose a life. |
| 189 | * ''VideoGame/NinjaSenki'' features them from the very first level. Sometimes they're filled with water, but usually they're the plain variety. |
| 190 | * ''VideoGame/NinjishGuyInLowResWorld'': Some areas in the game have pits that will cost you one hit point if you fall in. |
| 191 | * ''VideoGame/PacLand'' is an early example of bottomless pits appearing. |
| 192 | * ''VideoGame/{{Pepsiman}}'' has bottomless pits all over the place, including on city streets. |
| 193 | * ''VideoGame/PizzaTower'': Some levels have bottomless pits, and if Peppino falls into one, he's treated to a brief [[WeAreExperiencingTechnicalDifficulties Technical Difficulty]] screen before being placed back onto solid ground. One such level, [[SlippySlideyIceWorld "Refrigerator-Refrigerador-Freezerator"]], grants an achievement if completed without falling into a single pit. |
| 194 | * In ''Predator'' on the NES, falling into a bottomless pit is instant death. |
| 195 | * ''Franchise/PrinceOfPersia'': |
| 196 | ** The first ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia1'' made an early attempt at averting the trope, favoring falls that are too far for you to survive or have SpikesOfDoom at the bottom over truly bottomless pits (of which there are a grand total of one). |
| 197 | ** ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia2'' was less successful in averting this trope, having bottomless pits in the opening RoofHopping level and in several levels toward the end of the game. |
| 198 | * Played straight in the first ''VideoGame/Rayman1'' game, but subverted in [[VideoGame/Rayman3HoodlumHavoc the third]], where falling into an area that ''looks'' like a bottomless pit instead lands you in a basement-level area that can be escaped by climbing rubble or by other means. Falling into a "fake" bottomless pit is actually ''required'' to move on in one point of the game. |
| 199 | * In ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheNinja'', you can fall off the bottom of the screen, even when on rotating platforms that just dip off the screen for a few seconds. You actually don't instantly die from falling down one, instead taking a large amount of damage and respawning on a safe platform. |
| 200 | * A common hazard in ''VideoGame/ShovelKnight''. Their bottomlessness is somewhat in doubt, however, due to the presence of an item that lets you ''fish'' in them. |
| 201 | * ''VideoGame/SkunnyKart'': A bottomless pit is one track hazard. |
| 202 | * ''VideoGame/SkunnySaveOurPizzas'': Skunny can fall down a bottomless pit and lose a life. |
| 203 | * ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'': |
| 204 | ** The earlier games have bottomless pits here and there, but they're not that common. While lava pits do exist, they're not usually instant death, [[MercyInvincibility as long as you have rings]]. Nearly all of the pits in the early games also have a lip of some kind that [[EdgeGravity stop you from flying off into space without warning]]. |
| 205 | ** Starting with ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'', Sonic games became positively chock full of bottomless pits -- you'll be hard pressed to find stages without them, boxing you in from every side. |
| 206 | ** ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' includes an automatic stop at the edges of ledges for all characters except Tails and Eggman in their mechs, who instead go into the edge-wobbling animation. |
| 207 | ** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'' probably went a bit overboard with the bottomless pits, placing them in the snowboarding levels when you have to do an IndyEscape, making an entire level [[QuickSandSucks that is one giant bottomless sand pit]], and even in the hub worlds there are instant death pits. |
| 208 | ** In ''VideoGame/SonicColors'' and ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'', however, not only are they present in a lesser quantity than the other 3D Sonic games, but [[NoticeThis the game will also warn you if you're above them]] to tell the difference between pits and lower paths. Then again, ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'', as a game pulling stages from across Sonic's history, ''introduced'' bottomless pits to areas where there weren't any before. |
| 209 | * ''VideoGame/SpeedyEggbert'': Falling into a bottomless pit is an instant GameOver, but there aren't any in the single player mode. |
| 210 | * ''VideoGame/{{Spelunky}}'' has the Ice Caves, which are all suspended over one(?) of these. |
| 211 | * ''VideoGame/StriderArcade'' has plenty, and in the final stage, there is an area with [[GravityScrew inverted gravity]] where you can die by falling upwards. |
| 212 | * Bottomless pits are everywhere in the ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' games: |
| 213 | ** All 2D platformer games feature bottomless pits, as well as [[SuperDrowningSkills water pits]] and [[ConvectionSchmonvection lava pits]]. ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' and onward tend to avoid the water pits (since Mario had learned how to swim consistently by that time), but every other pit is fair game. In addition, the 2-D ''Mario'' games other than the ''Franchise/DonkeyKong''[=/=]''VideoGame/MarioVsDonkeyKong'' series never show Mario suffering fall damage from any other drop. |
| 214 | ** ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' has bottomless falls in some levels, making many stages {{Floating Continent}}s. |
| 215 | ** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' dramatically reduced the amount of Bottomless Pits found in the game, for the most part limiting them to the special stages. However, one stage, Pianta Village, is positioned directly above a bottomless pit. One wonders how many villagers they've lost over the years. There are also two bottomless pits in Bianco Hills that are both in locations that you have to go out of your way to even reach, let alone fall into (you ''are'' expected to approach them in a couple of missions, but there isn't any platforming to be done over them). In these special stages and in Pianta Village, the bottomless pit has a textureless floor that Mario can cast a shadow on. This is visible when Mario nears this barrier, below which the game kills Mario.[[note]]Both of the bottomless pits in Bianco Hills are ''not'' textureless; the one that Petey Piranha sits across in a certain mission is a lake that is just too far below a steep drop for Mario to possibly jump back out of, while the level-boundary one is on the other side of a wall that you only ever have to go on top of for the bonus Red Coin mission, and the pit itself is a surprisingly detailed (albeit low-resolution) steep mountainside, complete with a view of Ricco Harbor at the very bottom.[[/note]] |
| 216 | ** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'', as part of its JustForFun/RecycledInSpace theme, used black holes as bottomless pits, in addition to the regular ones. While Mario usually adheres to any small object as if it has Earth gravity, nearby black holes cause objects to function as traditional platforms where Mario can fall off. They never seem to affect any other matter and are everywhere later in the game. There are also situations where clever jumping or carelessly shooting Mario out of a cannon can make him essentially achieve escape velocity towards deep space, leaving him flailing off towards the void to suffer death by breakdancing. |
| 217 | ** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'': Well over half of the Kingdoms are of the FloatingContinent variety[[note]]the only major exceptions are the Lake Kingdom, Lost Kingdom, Seaside Kingdom, and Snow Kingdom[[/note]], and there are numerous sub-areas that take place over completely empty space. |
| 218 | ** In ''VideoGame/WarioWorld'', bottomless pits always lead to the "Unithorn's Lair", where creatures called Unithorns steal your coins. You have to escape by finding the escape spring, which is hidden in a random box. |
| 219 | * In ''Videogame/TeslaTheWeatherMan'', Tesla dies instantly if he falls off the bottom of the screen. |
| 220 | * The original ''Franchise/TombRaider'' series generally doesn't use bottomless pits (with the lone exception of ''VideoGame/TombRaiderII'''s Floating Islands level), just really deep ones (or ones with SpikesOfDoom or lava etc. at the bottom); sometimes the Game Over screen appears before you hit bottom. There are a few apparently-bottomless pits in the next-gen series. |
| 221 | * Seen in some levels of ''VideoGame/{{Trine}}''. |
| 222 | * ''VideoGame/TurtlePopJourneyToFreedom'': One of your turtles falling into one in this game causes you to fail a level. |
| 223 | * Used a lot as a scenery element (and platforming hazard, obviously!) in ''VideoGame/{{Venineth}}''. |
| 224 | * In ''VideoGame/ViceProjectDoom'', the platforming stages have bottomless pits all over the place, though sometimes the game does require you to descend a ladder. |
| 225 | [[/folder]] |
| 226 | |
| 227 | [[folder:Puzzle Game]] |
| 228 | * ''VideoGame/BackToBed'' has these as one of the most common hazard types. Others include things like man-sized knives placed in Bob's path. |
| 229 | * ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheInkMachine'': |
| 230 | ** Henry comes across one (and comes across one) in chapter four. |
| 231 | ** The Ink Machine room is now a giant shaft that stretches all the way to the bottom of the studio. You can look into different sections off the shaft once per chapter and see the Ink Machine riding down to the bottom. |
| 232 | * ''VideoGame/{{Gruntz}}'' has them in various fashions according to the current world - tar pits, fall from very high, cooking plates... |
| 233 | * ''VideoGame/HuntTheWumpus'' was another text-era computer game with bottomless pits. You had to explore a maze and deduce where the Wumpus was (which would let you shoot it) without entering its room (and getting eaten) or entering a room with a bottomless pit. |
| 234 | * ''VideoGame/{{Kindergarten|2017}}'' has the Nugget Cave, a pit Nugget dug in the sandbox that is so deep that Ms. Applegate the teacher can't see the bottom. The only way to survive jumping down it is if Nugget first throws down a load of nuggets to cushion the landing. |
| 235 | * ''VideoGame/{{Lemmings}}'' and its many sequels have this as an all too frequent hazard. It comes in several different flavors; literal bottomless drops, i.e. falling off the screen (which you can make yourself if you have spare digging attributes and want to wreck the level), falls onto ground that's too far away for the Lemmings to survive unaided, and falls that end in [[SuperDrowningSkills water]]. |
| 236 | * ''VideoGame/{{Nibblers}}'' has this as a mechanic starting in the mountain levels. While they may pose no real threat to the player unlike most other examples, movable Lizards or fruit can be dragged into one, removing them from play. |
| 237 | * The ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' series: |
| 238 | ** ''VideoGame/Portal1'' lets you make your own bottomless pit; put one of your portals on the floor, and the other on the ceiling directly above. For fun, drop something into it. For nausea, drop yourself into it. There is even an [[CosmeticAward achievement]] awarded for falling far enough in this fashion. |
| 239 | ** ''VideoGame/Portal2'' is full of bottomless pits, especially [[spoiler:when the facility starts falling apart, revealing just how far down it goes]]. This is especially egregious, as Chell has boots specifically designed to prevent fall damage from terminal-velocity landings. At one point while [[ItMakesSenseInContext Chell and GLaDOS are falling down a bottomless pit together]], [=GLaDOS=] chooses to use that time to deliver some exposition, but not before once again reminding everyone of her status as DeadpanSnarker. |
| 240 | --->'''[=GLaDOS=]''': [[AC:Since it doesn't look like we're going anywhere - well, we ''are'' going ''somewhere'', alarmingly fast, actually... But since we're not busy other than that, here's a couple of facts.]] |
| 241 | * ''VideoGame/PortalTheFlashVersion'' includes bottomless pits in a few levels. You have to either avoid them or use them to knock turrets out of the game. The 3D map pack for the Source engine substitutes them with the acid pools from ''Portal''. |
| 242 | * ''VideoGame/{{Revolution 1986}}'': Going off the edge of the level or falling through gaps between tiles results in this and in you losing a life. |
| 243 | * ''VideoGame/ShironeTheDragonGirl'', being a puzzle-platformer, features Bottomless pits as a recurring obstacle. The fall is hardly punitive, however. |
| 244 | * ''VideoGame/SpellingJungle'': Dark Pits in ''Spelling Jungle'', Glacial Crevasses in ''Spelling Blizzard''. Animals will not enter them under any circumstance. |
| 245 | [[/folder]] |
| 246 | |
| 247 | [[folder:RealTimeStrategy]] |
| 248 | * ''VideoGame/Pikmin2'': Several caverns feature rusted metal platforms fastened above an endless chasm. If you accidentally throw any Pikmin over the edge (which is very easy to do), or they are tossed over by enemies, they will die. On the plus side, you can goad enemies into walking over the edge as well, which will instantly kill them. If they have a treasure, then it will simply reappear on the ground nearby. |
| 249 | * ''VideoGame/StarCraftI'': Missions which take place in installations usually feature bottomless pits. [[LampshadeHanging They are even named so]] in the "Installation" map tileset in the editor. Luckily, your units can't fall into them -- they are just there to restrict movement in the same manner as mere walls do. |
| 250 | [[/folder]] |
| 251 | |
| 252 | [[folder:Roguelike]] |
| 253 | * ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'': In early versions, maps sometimes featured bottomless pits, into which dwarfs can accidentally fall and refuse (inanimate and otherwise) can be deliberately dumped. In the current version, [[spoiler:[[PhysicalHell the Underworld]] features eerie glowing pits that can only be entered from the lowest possible z-level. Anything that falls into a glowing pit is destroyed forever.]] |
| 254 | [[/folder]] |
| 255 | |
| 256 | [[folder:Role Playing Game]] |
| 257 | * ''VideoGame/ArenaXlsm'': These appear after either you or an enemy passes over cracked ground. Moving into these is an OneHitKill for either you or the non-flying enemies, though the latter will avoid it. Still, it is possible to trap an enemy on the cracked square for a turn, at which point it'll collapse and kill them. |
| 258 | * ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'': Bosses ''can'' throw you into a bottomless pit by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_lTWoaFKGo clipping through layers]]. |
| 259 | * Nearly omnipresent in ''VideoGame/CodeVein'', where nearly every level is littered with gaping chasms or rifts in the ground. The Dried Up Trenches and Cathedral of the Sacred Blood are by ''far'' the worst, but you'll struggle to find any area of [[CityOfAdventure Vein]] that doesn't have at least a few; the only one where they're ''completely'' absent is the City of Falling Flame, and that's only because nearly every surface is perpetually on ''fire''. |
| 260 | * Bottomless pits are one of the most common causes of death in ''VideoGame/DarkSouls''. Some players are even known to ''[[ExploitedTrope weaponize]]'' them against hackers who have inflated their HitPoints. |
| 261 | * A handful of dungeons in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' have dark chasms. They're not literally bottomless, so if an essential (unkillable) NPC falls into one of those, they'll spend the rest of their existence being [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential knocked unconscious repeatedly]]. |
| 262 | * ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' don't have literal bottomless pits, but some lethal falls, such as the gaps in the "High Road" elevated highway from the ''Lonesome Road'' DLC, will cause a fade-to-black as if they were. |
| 263 | * In ''VideoGame/SanctuaryRPG'', one type of a random encounter presents you with such a pit. All you need to do is walk away. The game [[SchmuckBait also lets you jump in]]. |
| 264 | * As an isometric RPG, these don't show up as a gameplay element in ''VideoGame/{{Tyranny}}''. However, Tunon's court is surrounded by such pits, oozing inky black darkness, and it's said that he occasionally lobs people into them as a form of execution. |
| 265 | * ''VideoGame/UltimaV'' has many pits, but only one location where they are "bottomless". Stonegate, where the Shadowlords dwell, has lethal pit traps ending in a lava sea. |
| 266 | * You can fall off the edge of the world and/or into a bottomless pit in almost every single area in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1''. [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist Doing so will simply boot you back to the last landmark you passed.]] Note that you [[ViolationOfCommonSense have]] to fall off once to get the "Terminal Velocity" achievement. |
| 267 | [[/folder]] |
| 268 | |
| 269 | [[folder:Shoot 'Em Up]] |
| 270 | * In ''VideoGame/CommandoCapcom'', falling into any hole in the ground, whether it be [[SuperDrowningSkills knee-deep water]] (which the enemies can stand in) or a [[InsurmountableWaistHeightFence waist-deep trench]], results in death. |
| 271 | * Present in ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'', but instead of being a OneHitKill, they do damage like anything else and then shoot the boys back up to solid ground. They even respect MercyInvincibility. |
| 272 | * Mission 3 in ''VideoGame/MetalSlug'' uses the “screen won’t scroll back down” variety. Doesn’t matter if there’s a platform two feet below it, once your legs touch the bottom of the screen you’re dead. |
| 273 | [[/folder]] |
| 274 | |
| 275 | [[folder:Sports Game]] |
| 276 | * In ''[[VideoGame/BackyardSports Backyard Skateboarding]]'', [[SuperDrowningSkills water]] (in any level) is a bottomless pit. |
| 277 | [[/folder]] |
| 278 | |
| 279 | [[folder:Stealth-Based Game]] |
| 280 | * ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'': One of the most incongruous examples of this trope is the bottomless pits in the ''armory''. |
| 281 | [[/folder]] |
| 282 | |
| 283 | [[folder:Survival Horror]] |
| 284 | * ''VideoGame/HauntingGround'': A room near the end of Debilitas's section of the game features a very dark room with two especially dark patches on the floor. Unfortunately for Fiona, there are two pits hidden in the shadows. On the flip side: Fortunately for Fiona, Hewie (among other things) can lead her safely around them. |
| 285 | * The ''Franchise/SilentHill'' series is full of places where the ground inexplicably drops away into nothingness, but ''VideoGame/SilentHill3'' is the only game to actually use them as a hazard. On the higher difficulty levels, Heather doesn't even do her "whoa" animation to warn the player that she's about to fall into one. [[EverythingTryingToKillYou As if the place wasn't dangerous enough without them...]] |
| 286 | * ''{{VideoGame/Vanish}}'': One appears in the Water Pump Room. Fall into it and you die. Notably, it's the only way to die aside from being caught by the Molemen. |
| 287 | [[/folder]] |
| 288 | |
| 289 | [[folder:Turn-Based Strategy]] |
| 290 | * One of the terrain hazards in ''VideoGame/IntoTheBreach'' is an apparently endless drop, present as either an immediately visible dark hole or as a cracked tile that will crumble into a dark hole on taking any kind of damage. It's possibly the deadliest piece of terrain in the game, because while [[AntiFrustrationFeatures your mechs]] and [[ContractualBossImmunity some large Vek]] are beefy enough to stand in water or even lava without dying the way basic Vek do (although lava will set units on fire), ''any'' non-flying unit that gets knocked into a pit isn't coming back. RST is most noted for them, with the out-of-control terraforming engines offering up missions where row after row of the battlefield is crumbling away into an infinite abyss or chunks of land are disappearing into a narrow but very deep newly minted ravine; there's also one level setup that commonly appears where instead of the Vek spawning the usual way, Vek Hornets emerge from a couple of large pits in the map that apparently hold hives. The Cataclysm mech team, introduced in the Advanced Edition, is built entirely around creating new pits and shoving/throwing enemies into them. |
| 291 | [[/folder]] |
| 292 | |
| 293 | [[folder:Wide Open Sandbox]] |
| 294 | * The world of ''VideoGame/CortexCommand'' seems to be surrounded by bottomless space. Move a little to the left or right of the screen, and you lose control of the body. Rocket too high into space, and you either return to the mothership or lose the body. Dig just a little too deep in the ground, and you fall off the screen and lose the body. |
| 295 | * In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' and ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity Vice City]]'', your character has SuperDrowningSkills, resulting in instant death if you fall in the water. However, polygon drop-out glitches sometimes occur, allowing you to fall into the "void", and if this happens, you just get teleported back to solid ground. An unintentional example of NonLethalBottomlessPits. |
| 296 | * The Void in ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' lies beneath the bottom of the map (or at least the deadly part does), and kills you within seconds if you manage to fall into it. It is important to note, however, that the Void is impossible to fall into in survival mode, except in [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon The End]]. Unless you count things like mods, cheats, glitches, custom superflat worlds, and edited maps. |
| 297 | [[/folder]] |
| 298 | |
| 299 | [[folder:Non-Videogame Examples]] |
| 300 | [[AC:AnimeAndManga]] |
| 301 | * The titular Abyss of ''Manga/MadeInAbyss'' is an EldritchLocation for a number of reasons, but even putting aside the supernatural elements, it's ''enormous.'' According to [[AllThereInTheManual the latest available map]], the cave system reaches beyond 20,000 meters below sea level, which makes it more than twice as deep as the Marianas Trench. |
| 302 | |
| 303 | [[AC:ComicBooks]] |
| 304 | * ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': When Neron opens a pit to hell nabbing Diana, ComicBook/{{Artemis}}, [[ComicBook/{{Etrigan}} Jason Blood]], and [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Cassie]] and Helena Sandsmark off the street, it appears to be bottomless from the topside, but as Donna and Hippolyta realize when descending, there's more of a portal effect going on, and partway down those entering it are warped to the "bottom". |
| 305 | |
| 306 | [[AC:FanWorks]] |
| 307 | * ''Fanfic/ForeverAndAMile'': According to Opie, who lives in it, Precinct 13579's ball pit goes on forever, "and then some", with the levels in the ball pit changing each time someone enters it. |
| 308 | |
| 309 | [[AC:FilmsLiveAction]] |
| 310 | * {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''Film/TheGoldenChild'' when Chandler Jarrell undergoes a quest to retrieve a sacred knife. The ground opens up beneath him, revealing what appear to be this. Jarrell drops a coin to prove they're not really bottomless. |
| 311 | -->'''Jarrell:''' There's a ground. You just use mirrors and shit to make it look like there's no ground.\ |
| 312 | ''[he drops a coin and listens... [[{{Beat}} and listens...]]]''\ |
| 313 | '''Jarrell:''' [[OhCrap There's no ground in here!]] |
| 314 | ** Even better, the coin DOES hit the ground, but it is several minutes later (while Chandler is busy retrieving the knife). Now, if you include the time it took for the sound to actually reach him and use that to calculate the exact distance..... |
| 315 | |
| 316 | [[AC:{{Literature}}]] |
| 317 | * A strange variant occurs in ''[[Literature/PriscillaHutchins Chindi]]'' aboard a massive alien space ship when a character falls into a deep shaft. The others think that he fell to his death until he suddenly flies back upwards past them, only to come back down again, repeat. They realize that the source of gravity onboard the ship is near the center and that he is flying through it, only to slow enough before hitting the other side and be pulled back. They eventually devise a way to get him out of there safely. |
| 318 | * In ''Literature/ConsiderPhlebas'', these serve as launch tubes in an abandoned underground missile system. During a shoot-out, someone falls inside, and when the protagonist peeks over the edge, he can see the flare of their energy weapon getting smaller and smaller as the soldier is still falling. Later, when he has to carry a prisoner down the same shaft (using an anti-gravity harness), she asks him to [[MercyKill shoot her first]] if he's forced to drop her for any reason. |
| 319 | * ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': The literal-minded citizens of Lancre have a tourist attraction called the Place Where The Sun Does Not Shine. This is implied to be a bottomless pit, but apparently lots of unusual things show up there, such as undesirable jobs, improbable excuses, and things which imply a degree of physical pain and discomfort. Although comments from unimpressed locals suggest that it's a mundane but deeply shadowed ravine (the kingdom being famously mountainous). |
| 320 | * The short story ''He-y, Come on Ou-t!'' by Shinichi Hoshi has one of these appear next to a village. Eventually it gets used to dispose of anything unwanted, including radioactive waste -- until... |
| 321 | * The Abyss in ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'' acts as this. Anybody unlucky enough to fall in would end trapped there, falling for eternity. |
| 322 | * ''Literature/MermaidsSong'': The last trial of the Choosing requires the mermaids to swim into a pit that leads to a series of caverns that are so far below the surface that the pressure makes it hard to breathe and threatens to rupture their ears. Maids with Merra ancestry can hear voices in the pit, telling them to swim down to their deaths. A few Merramogs succumb to the voices. Elan survives despite being the only competitor who's all Merra because she has organized a group of Merras to sing at the exit hole so she can follow their voices to safety. |
| 323 | * ''Literature/TheMummyMonsterGame'': In the pyramid where the body of Osiris is kept, a bottomless pit with a swinging rope over it must be passed to reach the chamber where the body is held. Later, Josh has to cross it in real life to reach the room where the final cell is located, and where Harry, Amy, and Spy are being held captive. Unlike the game, they have to swing ''back'' over the pit in order to escape. |
| 324 | * ''Literature/NotQuiteAMermaid'': The shipwreck Electra explores in ''Mermaid Wish'' is right next to a trench so deep that no one has ever seen the bottom and lived to tell about it. Electra and Maris are almost sucked into it by the dangerous currents. |
| 325 | * ''Literature/{{Tunnels}}'': There are seven of these connecting the Deeps to the [[HollowEarth Garden of the Second Sun]], appropriately called the seven sisters. There are three named in the novels: [[SpellMyNameWithAThe the Pore]], Puffing Mary, and Smoking Jean. Characters are constantly falling down and climbing up them, and they have a habit of sucking in ships from the surface, ranging from Spanish treasure galleons to a modern Russian nuclear submarine. |
| 326 | * In ''Literature/TheVazulaChronicles'', the mermaid Merletta's second year test takes place partly in a trench. In order to complete her task, Merletta has to swim down until her head aches from the pressure, and she still can't see the bottom. |
| 327 | * In ''Literature/WhichWitch'', one of the witches creates a hole that is really bottomless, an admirable feat of dark magic. Of course, it is kind of impractical to have something like this in your garden. A LemonyNarrator tangent goes into some detail about how a bottomless pit is not the same as "a hole that [[DiggingToChina comes out in Australia]]." |
| 328 | |
| 329 | [[AC:LiveActionTV]] |
| 330 | * ''Series/Daredevil2015''. At the end of "[[Recap/Daredevil2015S2E7SemperFidelis Semper Fidelis]]", our heroes find a giant hole being dug at Midland Circle. They throw a flashlight in and are still waiting for the sound of it hitting bottom when the credits roll. [[Recap/Daredevil2015S2E8GuiltyAsSin The next episode]] starts with the flashlight finally hitting the ground; Matt Murdock estimates the drop as the equivalent of a forty story building. |
| 331 | * ''Series/ThePrisoner2009'': One shows up in the fourth episode and becomes a critical plot point later. It's a sign that [[spoiler:the dreamspace is falling apart]]. |
| 332 | |
| 333 | [[AC:TabletopGames]] |
| 334 | * ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' plays it straight with magical bottomless pits. It also has the "budget bottomless pit", which is a standard PitTrap (spikes optional) with Silence and Darkness permanently cast upon it. Stories abound of adventurers trying to swing across or drop down on a rope, only to discover that a 50-foot rope isn't much help in a 10-foot drop. |
| 335 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': The Great Maw, the god the Ogres worship, takes the form of a vast fleshy pit lined with sharp fangs. Those few Ogres who made the long, dangerous journey to the Maw claim that it's completely bottomless -- just endless rings of teeth going down, down, down. A few especially far-travelled Ogres claim that this goes to its logical conclusion and that there's a twin opening at the other end of the world, the Maw having bored its way clear through the planet's diameter, but most dismiss such claims. |
| 336 | |
| 337 | [[AC:WebAnimation]] |
| 338 | * ''WebAnimation/TeenGirlSquad'': Issue 4 has So-and-So falling into one of these[[labelnote:*]]named the "Fighting Growlbacks Bottomless Spirit Pit"[[/labelnote]], setting up the page quote. However, as the ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' wiki notes, you would actually die of thirst first, not starvation. |
| 339 | |
| 340 | [[AC:WebComics]] |
| 341 | * ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': There's at least one pit that appears this way under a TrapDoor in Castle Heterodyne. The castle [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110304 drops Othar into it upon hearing that he's a hero]]. |
| 342 | -->'''Sanaa:''' What did you do ''that'' for?!\ |
| 343 | '''Castle:''' Eh. He is a '''''hero'''''. I don't need much of a reason.\ |
| 344 | '''Sanaa:''' But... but the ''Heterodyne Boys'' were heroes!\ |
| 345 | '''Castle:''' Yeeees... they didn't come ''home'', much.\ |
| 346 | '''Sanaa:''' No, really?\ |
| 347 | '''Castle:''' Oh, but we had such ''fun'' when they did! Well, ''I'' had fun... I rather miss having a hero about!\ |
| 348 | '''Sanaa:''' Well, if you drop them down ''bottomless pits'' every--\ |
| 349 | '''Castle:''' Oh, tosh. If he was a ''real'' hero--\ |
| 350 | '''[[UnexplainedRecovery Othar]]:''' This ''is'' an annoying place, ''isn't it?'' |
| 351 | * ''Webcomic/LatchkeyKingdom'': In "Snakes", the evil snake cultists are trying to fill a pit with snakes. Their prisoner [[https://latchkeykingdom.thecomicseries.com/comics/137/ mentions]] they're wasting their time because the pit is bottomless. |
| 352 | * Deconstructed in ''[=POPsickle=] STRIP''. Two [[StickFigureComic stick figures]] stand by a bottomless pit and discuss the mechanics of it, including how it comes out the other side of the planet, and how it's really just a long tunnel. |
| 353 | |
| 354 | [[AC:Web Video]] |
| 355 | * In the ''Website/SCPFoundation'' short film ''WebVideo/SCPOverlord'', MTF operatives are sent to investigate a new age cult and find several of these, [[spoiler:foreshadowing TheReveal that they are the exit points of the tentacles of a giant InvisibleMonster beneath the earth.]] |
| 356 | |
| 357 | [[AC:WesternAnimation]] |
| 358 | * WesternAnimation/DangerMouse and Penfold confront Dr. Frankenstoat who is about to voice-activate his vampire bat-creating machine (creating cricket bats with bat wings) when DM shouts "Give the doctor a hole in one!" With Count Duckula in his arms, a hole opens up and down plummet Duckula and Frankenstoat. When Penfold asks how far they'll go, DM responds "I forgot to give the machine any dimensions...all the way, Penfold!" |
| 359 | -->'''Penfold:''' 'Cor, Duckula's on a slow stoat to China! |
| 360 | * ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': In "[[Recap/GravityFallsS1E14BottomlessPit Bottomless Pit!]]", Dipper, Mabel, Soos, and Stan accidentally fall into one. When they notice that they're still descending, they pass time by telling stories. At the end of the episode, [[spoiler:they find themselves plummeting towards a light. As they "hit" it, they fly out of the same hole they fell into, and no time has passed.]] |
| 361 | * ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'': The Abyss of Nothingness from the first season, which is described in its debut by Heloise as "just a big hole", though Lucius (in the same episode) goes further to explain that "it's a dark, dreary place filled with misery and despair." That being said, characters have ended up in the place, [[ResetButton then returned the next episode without explanation]]. |
| 362 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': In an episode where YourMindMakesItReal plays a major role, Mr. Cat pushes Quack Quack into a "bottomless pit" and says things to fuel his imagination, so Quack Quack physically experiences being thrown into a bottomless pit. |
| 363 | * ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': Parodied in "[[Recap/KimPossibleS2E18HiddenTalent Hidden Talent]]". Dr. Drakken [[JustBetweenYouAndMe gives Kim a description]] of the DeathTrap he's about to drop her into, leading to confusion on Shego's part when he mentions the pit being bottomless but also filling up with water, and an irritated Drakken explaining that "bottomless" was just hyperbole. |
| 364 | -->'''Drakken:''' First, you'll be sealed in a reinforced titanium box. Next, you will be dropped into this bottomless chasm. Then, the chasm will be [[DrowningPit filled with water]]. Then, [[SharkPool man-eating sharks]] and a {{giant squid}} will be released into the water!\ |
| 365 | '''Shego:''' Huh? Wait... [[FridgeLogic If the chasm is bottomless, how can you fill it with water?]]\ |
| 366 | '''Drakken:''' ''[exasperated]'' IT'S '''VERY VERY DEEP''', ALL RIGHT?!? |
| 367 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{King}}'': The Clockmaker moves into a bottomless pit in "The Monster Who Would Not Arrive". Loopy describes it as the hottest new lifestyle choice. The people in the bottomless pit are shown to be living very stable lives despite being in perpetual freefall. |
| 368 | * King Harkinian in ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda1989 animated series]] is put in a room with one after he is kidnapped by Ganon in the episode "[[Recap/TheLegendOfZelda1989E5SingForTheUnicorn Sing for the Unicorn]]". Unless Zelda and Link either find him and/or turn the Triforce of Wisdom over to Ganon in [[RaceAgainstTheClock one hour]], a pit gradually opening within that timespan will drop him in and he will fall forever until he dies. |
| 369 | * ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack2017'': Jack and Ashi descend the hole where Jack lost his sword on the back of a giant bird, and it takes them several hours, if not days, to reach the bottom. They actually camp out on the way down so the bird can rest. |
| 370 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': |
| 371 | ** Parodied in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E5TreehouseOfHorrorIII Treehouse of Horror III]]" in "Clown Without Pity". Homer, who is trying to get rid of the Krusty the Clown doll that's trying to murder him, stuffs the doll in a sack of stinky socks and goes to the local bottomless pit to toss the sack in (though it doesn't work). Played for laughs in that shortly after Homer disposes of the doll, a man throws down a box of nude photos of Creator/WhoopiGoldberg, [[{{Squick}} only for the pit to reject it]], the box flying back up into the man's arms. |
| 372 | ** While living with Mr. Burns, Bart tells Lisa that Burns has a bottomless pit somewhere in his estate. Lisa doesn't believe it. |
| 373 | |
| 374 | [[AC:RealLife]] |
| 375 | * UsefulNotes/BlackHoles in RealLife. According to General Relativity, gravity warps space-time, and the larger it is, the larger that warp is. A way to picture it is to consider space-time as a rubber lattice with bodies on it, and forming wells more or less deep on it depending on their masses and/or densities. A black hole is the equivalent of an infinitely deep well -- the ultimate bottomless pit. |
| 376 | [[/folder]] |
| 377 |
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