View source for Bottomless Pit Rescue Service

{{trope}}
[[File:xmen genesis jean saftey net 5179.png|link=X-Men (Comic Book)|frame|Jean Grey, working hard to keep her teammates' feet on the ground.]]


You're playing a game, make a jump, and you miss, falling down a [[Bottomless Pit]]. [[Video Game Lives|There goes one of your lives]]...

But wait, something is happening! Either you or someone else is pulling you up.

A type of [[Non-Lethal Bottomless Pits|Non-Lethal Bottomless Pit]], except that instead of respawning back on safe ground with no explanation, something automatically retrieves you from the pit first.

Note this doesn't count if this occurs during a cutscene due to [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]], as those tend to work [[The Plot Demanded This Index|only when the plot demands it]].
{{examples}}
* Pictured is the first ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' game on the [[Sega Genesis]], in which Jean Grey uses her [[Telekinesis]] to pull players up.
* Layle's powers in ''[[Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Crystal Bearers]]'' includes this, with one area as an exception, where you just respawn at the start.
* In one area of the first ''[[Spyro the Dragon]]'' game, fairies do this for you.
** Only if you fall within the specific area in the center, though. Fall off the edge anywhere else, you're screwed.
** In ''The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon'', the player is automatically forced into flight mode if they fall into an otherwise bottomless pit. ([[Invisible Wall|Thermal updrafts]]?)
** The [[Game Boy Advance]] games ''Spyro: Season of Ice''/''Season of Flame'' probably count as well. Fairy magic saves you from falling into [[Super Drowning Skills|water]] in a home world.
* Elika serves this purpose in ''[[Prince of Persia]]'' (2008).
** Similarly, in the ''Sands of Time'' trilogy, the Prince's dagger/pendant allows him to reverse time, making him his own '''Bottomless Pit Rescue Service''' (at least until you run out of sand).
* In ''[[Mega Man 3]]'', a [[Good Bad Bug]] allows Player 2 to perform this service, rendering Mega Man invincible (but unable to shoot regular bullets) in the process.
** In ''7'', ''9'' and ''10'', you can purchase a one-time use Beat Whistle that will save you from a bottomless pit.
** Something similar takes place in ''[[Rock Man 4 Minus Infinity]]''; rescuing Beat in Skull Man's stage and Cossack Stage 1 lets the bird rescue Mega Man an unlimited amount of times at the cost of some of his health.
** Certain Cyber-elves do this in ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'', but there is usually a better use for any given elf slot.
** Model A also does this once per pit in easy mode of ''[[Mega Man ZX]] Advent''..
* Lakitus from the ''[[Mario Kart]]'' games would pull the player out of things like a bottomless pit, water and lava. Of course being a racing game, it still costs valuable time (and coins in the original game, ''Super Circuit'', and "7").
* In the first ''[[Sly Cooper]]'', it was possible to learn the ability to recover from falling down bottomless pits (and, with another ability, even [[Super Drowning Skills|water]]).
** Water rescue is available first
* In ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]'', Rosalina will pull Mario up if he falls in the [[Hub Level]].
** The Gate's appearance at the end of "The Perfect Run" in [[Super Mario Galaxy 2|the sequel]] [[Kaizo Trap|averts this.]]
* Night Terror, a winged [[Bonus Boss]] from ''[[Soul Calibur]] 3'', cannot be defeated by a ring out. He flies back into the arena.
* The Marble Garden Zone boss battle in ''[[Sonic 3 and Knuckles|Sonic the Hedgehog 3]]'' has Tails pick you up and fly you after the boss. If Sonic jumps and hits the boss and falls offscreen, Tails will fly back up with him moments later.
* Corvus from ''[[Heretic]] 2'' is inexplicably teleported back to safety if he falls while trying to jump across a broken bridge. No explanation is given and it only seems to happen in one place. Later you get a power that lets you do the same manually.
* In ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]. Brawl'', The second player in The Subspace Emissary has the ability to turn into a beam of light at any time and fly back to Player 1. They will only die if they are either smashed away by an enemy, or if they touch an enemy when they are off the screen.
** In general, the gameplay of ''Brawl'' is reminiscent of ''[[Kirby Super Star]]'', which likewise let Kirby's helpers (controlled either by the computer or player two) teleport back to Kirby at will, or if they went too far off-screen.
* In ''[[The Ren and Stimpy Show|Stimpy's Invention]]'', Powdered Toast Man will rescue you if you fall into a pit.
* In ''[[Kid Icarus]]'', if you have at least one Angel Feather in your inventory when you fall to the bottom of the screen, Pit will fly back up. You have to get him to safety before the feather wears off, or else your next fall will be a fatal one.
* In ''[[Rayman]] 3: Hoodlum Havoc'', falling down into the colorful void during one of the psychedelic skating mini-games will cause a flying robot to pick you up and bring you back to a checkpoint.
** In addition, during the second boss fight with Razoff, falling into a pit has a...strange tentacle monster thing gently pick you out and put you back onto the ledges.
* In ''[[Bomberman]] [[Super Title 64 Advance|64]]'', if Bomberman falls through the cracks of the web made by the spider boss of the [[Slippy-Slidey Ice World]], Sirius will swoop in and save him. This has its limits; fall too often, and Sirius won't appear, costing the player a life.
** If you have collected 100 Gold Cards and are replaying the boss for fun,  {{spoiler|Sirius will actually not save you from falling at all as a result of his [[Face Heel Turn]], making this stage of the fight a little more challenging than before.}}
* In ''[[Beyond Oasis]]'', your [[Summon Magic|summon spirit]] Shade will save you from falls as long as you have MP.
* In ''[[Crash Team Racing]]'', your friendly mask spirit (Aku Aku for the good guys and Uka Uka for the baddies) will save you from bottomless pits. This is more complicated in [[Spiritual Successor|Crash Nitro Kart]], where Emperor Velo's team gets pulled back from a pit by a mask resembling his face. Very [[Non Sequitur Scene|unexpected]], yet [[Nightmare Fuel|very chilling]].
* In ''[[Phantom Brave]]'', getting knocked out of the battle area will KO a phantom or minor enemy, but major enemies and Marona will just teleport back on the field.
* One of the powerups in ''[[Shantae]]'' makes you temporarily unable to fall into a Bottomless Pit. Which is good, too, since one of the items requires that powerup to get.
* The Phoenix in ''Demon Sword''.
* An analogous situation can be found in ''[[Star Control]] II'', where running out of fuel would leave you stranded in deep space—except that the Melnorme (or the Druuge, if you're unlucky enough to be in their space) will show up to sell you fuel, in exchange for bits of your ship (or crewmen) if necessary.
* This also occurs in a few multi-player minigames in the ''[[Mario Party]]'' franchise.
* ''[[Sonic Adventure 2]]'': In Radical Highway, Shadow can float his way across a gap bridge should he miss the pole swings. This is removed in the Hard Mode for the stage.
** Likewise, the pits by the very first platform in Sky Sanctuary Zone in ''[[Sonic 3 and Knuckles]]'', where you watch the Death Egg ascend into the clouds, actually have gusts of air that will keep you afloat if you jump into them. Most pits later in the stage are not so kind.
* In ''[[Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions]]'', if any of the Spideys fall into a bottomless pit, it'll switch to first person mode and you can fire a webline to save yourself.
** Also, Madame Web will teleport enemies that fall into bottomless platforms to safe locations so that the Spideys don't have to worry about accidentally killing people.
* ''[[Kirby's Epic Yarn]]'' has a character called Angie who carries Kirby out of bottomless pits but many beads are dropped in the process.
* ''[[Lego Adaptation Game|LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4]]'' has a Red Brick extra that levitates you back out of pits.
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword]]'' offers this with patrolmen, but only near Skyloft.
* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', in the Molten Front daily questing area, the Druids of the Talon will do this for you once you recruit them.

{{reflist}}
[[Category:Video Game Difficulty Tropes]]
[[Category:Bottomless Pit Rescue Service]]