This page covers one of the most popular unsupported features of the game. Some procedures discussed here are unsupported as well. Always back up your saves when attempting something (seemingly) unintended by gearbox. Dr. F
The Crimson Armory Glitch, also known simply as "Armory Glitch" is a glitch in the Crimson Armory during the missions Armory Assault, Loot Larceny, Super-Marcus Sweep and It's Like Christmas!, allowing players to bypass the elevator to loot all the chests the Crimson Armory without the time limit and potentially farm this vast ocean of chests.
To best understand how the glitch works it is important to understand the mission's normal flow and objectives:
Entering the Armory
The very first step is to kill General Knoxx. Killing him will lower the force field on the right, opening the path to the armory.
There is a huge steel door blocking the entrance to the armory right after the color-coded lock. This door will only open if the player has the “Assault” or a “Larceny” quest activated, but the "Steal Loot" objective has yet to be completed.
Countdown started
Once you enter the Armory you'll find an elevator. Activating the elevator will complete the "Countdown started" objective.
Steal loot
Upon reaching the bottom of the elevator shaft the player completes the "Steal loot" objective.
Completing this objective closes the steel door mentioned above preventing you from re-entering.
From there the player is free to loot for 3:00 [citation needed].
Boom!
At the end of the countdown the player is teleported out and "Boom!" is completed.
Aftermath
The mission is completed and it is not possible to loot the armory (for that mission) anymore.
Explanation: Bypass
The entire bulk of the glitch is a secret hole in the ground that allows entrance to the armory without completing the objectives. This allows the player to repeatedly loot the armory without the countdown. To do this effectively it is very important to avoid doing anything that could complete the above objectives. In particular the elevator room must be avoided at all costs.
If you are unsure what the elevator room is then it is recommend that you do a non-save test run. You can try and explore as much as you want. Keep your eye on the "Steal loot" objective. If you complete it you got too close to the elevator. Do a "non-save reset" and you will be fine. Don't loot anything: If you find something good you won't be able to save it.
Please see Walkthrough below for a recommended path to looting the armory.
Go through the door with the color code panel (BYCO).
Alcove room with crouching location highlighted green
In the hallway before the elevator with the alcoves full of lockers with red force field walls, crouch when on the door rails. Do NOT enter the elevator control room.
Look straight down and wobble back and forth (or sideways if facing a wall) resulting in the character falling through the floor. Face as if you had one foot on either side of the green line in the picture on the right.
The first room with the chests
Fall down into the room with the chests. You may need to crouch before you can see where they are. Neither the countdown timer nor any of the mission objectives are activated. The room is in the second floor of the Armory.
Avoid this room at all costs!
Loot the whole floor as desired. Unless doing Loot Larceny, avoid the large elevator shaft (from where the Armory should have been accessed) at all costs. Otherwise, if Super-Marcus Sweep or It's Like Christmas! are active, the Steal Loot-objective is checked, the Armory is locked for further access and the mission can no longer be completed (see further down for what to do if this has happened).
Use this elevator to loot the alcove wall and gain access to the upper floor
After the whole second floor is looted (apart from the room across the large elevator shaft) loot the wall with the alcoves and the floating elevator platform.
After the alcoves are looted park the elevator in front of the upper right alcove and jump over the railing onto the third floor (the floor with the shipping container maze) and loot the whole floor.
Access can be gained to the chests in the room beyond the large elevator shaft by descending to the second floor from the third floor via stairs and an automatic elevator. The elevator shaft must still be avoided (unless Loot Larceny is active).
After looting the third floor take the automatic elevator to the fourth floor.
Loot the fourth floor.
To quit the looting spree and sell your loot either exit the game or commit suicide.
Exiting the game and restarting will respawn you back at T-Bone Junction, the mission will be reset, you will have to re-battle General Knoxx and his minions and the chests will all be closed again and will have different contents the next time you open them.
Committing suicide via grenades or a rocket launcher (turn your shield off first) will respawn you in the room with the vending machines at the start of the Armory. General Knoxx will still be dead but you will have to re-battle his minions again. All the chests will still be open so you can go back for that one special weapon you didn't have room for before.
Remember to lower the floating elevator platform back to the second floor to access it if another looting spree is intended. Jumping back onto the elevator is hard to do in single-player.
This is where you'll respawn after committing suicide
Any suicides carry the standard reconstruction fee so make sure the contents of the backpack that are about to be sold (if any) are worth more than 7% of the character's total money in order to replenish monetary losses.
To continue the looting spree:
Either do the glitch again or begin the entire mission again.
To complete the mission after a looting spree:
You must start the countdown first.
To access the countdown switch you must either restart the level by committing suicide or restart the whole mission by exiting the game and restarting at T-Bone Junction.
If during Super-Marcus Sweep or It's Like Christmas! the Steal Loot objective gets checked before activating the countdown the door at the top of the large elevator (where access is gained via the glitch) closes. This blocks access to the countdown switch, preventing completion of the mission and remains blocked whether you restart the level or the whole mission.
The mission can still be completed by resetting to an earlier Save Game via save game modification (and losing your loot) or by doing the mission again in co-op with another player who hasn't yet completed the said mission as the host.
To reset a locked-up looting mission on the Mac edition see the Mac section on the general Borderlands Modding page.
Pitfalls
These are the list of things you need to watch out for:
Singleplayer
Don't go into the elevator room! This cannot be stressed enough. It is one of the few things that can go wrong in single player.
If you DO go into the elevator room then the best thing to do is hard reset your game: You'll lose the loot, but your savegame will be safe.
Multiplayer
In multiplayer you want to play with players you can trust. Other players can potentially go into the elevator room themselves too. If any player does complete an objective for you then it is recommended to just hard reset.
Repairing
Rollback
The easiest and safest way: Restore from backup. The advantage of this method is it like a safety net when all else fails. Make sure you backup often. Make sure you keep historic versions of your backup in case you want to go back a great deal in time.
Mac users can use their time machine to rollback.
Completing
Another option: Join a multiplayer game and complete the mission. Once completed you can unlock the next "Loot" mission.
With Willow Tree
If using Willow Tree one can simply locate the mission that has been affected by the glitch under the "Missions" tab. From there it is just a matter of selecting the correct objective and changing it from 1 to 0.
Optimizations
PC Players may wish to install third party fast travel, such as The Crow's Nest or Fast Travel. This allows teleporting straight to the Crimson Armory (as opposed to driving from T-Bone Junction).
An alternative is to do infinite runs without leaving the game by starting a split-screen game or online game with 2 or more players. Instead of committing suicide after the loot is completed one of the players will travel back to Road's End taking with him the player or players inside the armory. Once players go back to the armory the red barrier will be back up, so a lower level player will shoot the other player or players over the barrier with Sledge's Shotgun and repeat the glitch as many times as desired. While exploiting this way of looting items dropped inside the armory will remain there for future pickup and almost all chests will re-spawn.
This page is exempted from this wiki's manual of style. The time and effort required to rewrite this page in the proper third person (without the "you"s) is extreme and prohibitive.
