SnakeArm Chip Gate Glitch explanation

Every frame, the game populates an array containing battle object pointers. The game does not have any protections if you fill this array, so if too many objects are rendered in a single frame, you can corrupt nearby data. While type 1 (usually viruses, navis, and player related) and type 3 (general purpose) objects have no interesting data to corrupt, there's some very important data after the type 4 (used for timestop and decorative objects like explosions which animate in timestop) object pointer array relating to player inputs which when corrupted prevents player inputs and leads to the Chip Gate error message upon winning the battle. Losing the battle in this state will stay on the battle screen forever instead of exiting to the game over screen or overworld.

The reason why this glitch has only been reported to happen in SnakeArm fights is because the SnakeArm virus spawns many explosions (which are type 4), one for each "segment" of the worm, upon death. Theoretically, it could be possible on other fights if they spawn enough type 4 objects in a specific manner. Reproducing this is very hard because you need to have 35+ type 4 objects rendered in a single frame to corrupt the important data, but the maximum number of type 4 objects is 32. So, you would need to construct a setup where the game will have X type 4 objects existing, free min(X, 3) type 4 objects, then spawn 32 - X more, where X is between 3 and 32 inclusive, all in a single frame. Because of this, I was only able to replicate this glitch using a recorded softlock vs SnakeArms from Erothaur, a BN6 speedrunner. (link: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/48926846 )

The option to end the battle will indeed end the battle. I didn't show it because I modified an existing fight as I don't have a save at the fight in Pavillion 4. This doesn't affect the glitch at all.

Special thanks to these two posts which alerted me about the SnakeArm virus bringing up a Chip Gate error message. (Post 1: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/929992-mega-man-battle-network-6-cybeast-falzar/55006888 ) (Post 2: https://forums.therockmanexezone.com/exe-glitches-t4432-s120.html#p340016 )