List of glitches in Dragon Quest III

The following are known glitches in Dragon Quest III.

NES version glitches

Numb status glitch

Often called the Dream Ruby glitch, because it can induce the numb status to a character, this glitch uses the fortune teller in Ashalam to alter memory addresses. Notably, it can be used to transform held items into other items, as well as alter the Zoom spell list to include locations not yet visited. This allows for large sequence breaks which can be used to complete the game very quickly. This glitch only applies to the NES version.

Companion overload glitch

This glitch involves recruiting the maximum number of companions using Ruida's Tavern. Once the capacity has been reached, The Hero will mysteriously know many spells which are not learned until later levels, including:

• Blaze
• Heal
• Expel
• Ironize
• Firebal
• Return
• StopSpell
• Sleep

It is hypothesized that some memory addresses overlap causing this glitch. This glitch only applies to the NES version.

Several downsides to the glitch, however include the inability for the Hero to learn Heal and Return outside of battle & certain items disappearing from the inventory. The first Wizard spells for battle will also disappear from the list

Stat rollover glitch

When leveled up high enough, certain stats will roll over the limit of 255, resulting in extremely low stats for a highly-leveled character. This glitch applies to the NES version.

Silver harp glitch

If you play the Silver Harp in a Monster Arena, you will remove the top monster from the list of monsters in the battle. When you bet, you need to select the monster above the monster you want to bet on.

So if you want to bet on the second monster, bet on the empty space, or if you want to bet on the third monster, bet on the second monster, etc. It will use the odds from the slot you selected.

This glitch can become absurd when it's the one-on-one fight between the Man-Eater Chest and the Bomb Crag. You can bet on the empty space with over 200x returns, and always win.

Additionally, if you have under 65536 gold, then gain enough gold to exceed 131072 gold, you can exceed the 99999 gold limit. It will still display as 99999 though.

Lancel glitch

You need to be poisoned for this to happen. First, go to Lancel, and accept the Navel of the Earth challenge. Then wander around the overworld, and die to poison damage.

You will end up stuck in a glitched room, and have a party consisting of only your one dead character. You will be unable to move, use items, cast spells, or otherwise proceed in the game.

Zombie Slasher/Metal Slime glitch

In the top floors of the Tower of Garuna, you can encounter a formation with a Sky Dragon then multiple Metal Slimes. If you are equipped with the Zombie Slasher, and Metal Slime A runs away, you will deal large amounts of damage (usually more than 5) to the remaining Metal Slimes with every hit.

GBC version glitches

Pachisi level up glitch

This glitch occurs while playing Pachisi and landing on a space which causes the characters stats to go down, and the stat you lose is Strength. After this occurs, the next battle fought will result in a massive number of experience to be added to the characters total experience, causing him/her to automatically level up to level 99.

However, it has been noted that these level ups are not the same as standard level ups, causing the level 99 character to only have the stats of approximately a level 75 character who is leveled up normally. This glitch only applies to the GBC version.

Chimaera bug

The chimaera bug (キメラバグ) affects the Japanese GBC version only. The bug can corrupt the memory that holds information about the party's second, third, and fourth characters. The bug can also be exploited to write arbitrary values into that memory.

The chimaera bug occurs after using a chimaera wing in the bag, then, rather than choosing a destination, pressing B twice to return to the bag. This temporarily maps any changes to the bag's memory into the first character's inventory memory instead.

The first character's inventory has only 2 pages, so changes to the bag's third page and above overflow into the memory following the first character's inventory. Overflow memory includes the second character's name, class, stats, spell list, and so on.

The chimaera bug is fixed in the English GBC version.