List of glitches (Generation II): Difference between revisions

This is a list of glitches that occur in the Generation II Pokémon games.

Gold and Silver

NOTE: The following glitches affect all versions of Japanese Pokémon Gold and Silver (1.0 and 1.1) unless noted otherwise.

Bug-Catching Contest data copy glitch

Main article: Bug-Catching Contest data copy glitch

In the Japanese versions of Pokémon Gold and Silver, if the player uses Fly or Teleport to leave the National Park during a Bug-Catching Contest, the game creates unstable Pokémon data.

This glitch was fixed in the international releases and in all versions of Pokémon Crystal.

Cerulean Gym fishing oversight

This bug was carried over from Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue. In Cerulean Gym, the water tiles have wild Pokémon data programmed in, which allows players to fish Pokémon. It was already corrected in Pokémon Yellow and it was fixed again in Pokémon Crystal.

Coin Case glitches

Main article: Coin Case glitches

The Coin Case glitches are a set of glitches which occur exclusively in the English versions of Pokémon Gold and Silver. They allow the player to run arbitrary code by exploiting an oversight in the process used by the game to print the text box data for the Coin Case.

These glitches do not work in the Japanese versions and other localizations or in Pokémon Crystal.

When the game is played on the Game Boy or Super Game Boy instead of the Game Boy Color, the effects caused by the oversight are more limited.

Present damage miscalculation

Main article: Present (move)#Generation II

In Pokémon Gold and Silver, the move Present has a damage formula of its own due to a glitch. This causes the level, Attack, and Defense variables of the regular damage formula to be replaced. Thus, the move deals unusually large or small amounts of damage, depending on the Pokémon.

This glitch was fixed in Pokémon Stadium 2 and in Pokémon Crystal but it still occurs in the latter during Link battles to preserve backwards compatibility.

Thick Club effect error

If a Marowak with an Attack stat equal or higher than 256 uses Swords Dance while holding a Thick Club, its Attack will be reduced by 1024 (minimum 1) during damage calculation only. This happens as a consequence of an oversight that causes the temporary Attack boost from Thick Club to ignore the stat cap of 999 unlike other stat modifiers. During damage calculation, both the attacker's (Special) Attack stat and the defender's (Special) Defense stat are modded by 256, and, prior to that, if either is higher than 255, both are temporarily divided by 4. Thus, stats that are equal or higher than 1024 (256×4) will be treated wrongly.

This glitch was fixed in Pokémon Stadium 2 and in Pokémon Crystal but it still occurs in the latter during Link battles to preserve backwards compatibility.

This behavior also applies to Pikachu holding Light Ball and to Ditto holding Metal Powder. However, these Pokémon need to receive boosts from a Pokémon that knows Baton Pass in order to be able to reach a stat of at least 1024.

Trainer House corruption

Main article: Trainer House glitches

This glitch affects the Trainer in the Trainer House and is caused by corrupted RAM for the save file in Pokémon Gold and Silver.

Crystal

NOTE: The following glitches affect all versions of English Pokémon Crystal (1.0 and 1.1) unless noted otherwise.

Pokémon Communication Center script bugs

In the Japanese version of Pokémon Crystal, address $A800 in SRAM triggers a script in the Pokémon Communication Center that may be arbitrarily set to values other than 0x00 when the game does not currently have a save file; otherwise, its value is correctly set to 0x00. This causes all sort of bugs like crashes, freezes, and other random behavior.

While the purpose of this script is not known, it appears to be related to the Pokémon Mobile System GB. In the localizations, although the related code is unused, this issue was fixed by adding a check that looks up the value of address $A800 and automatically resets it to 0x00.^[1]

In all core series games

NOTE: The following glitches affect all versions of Japanese Pokémon Gold and Silver (1.0 and 1.1) and of English Pokémon Crystal (1.0 and 1.1) unless noted otherwise.

Belly Drum effect error

When a Pokémon uses Belly Drum, its HP is deducted by 50% and its Attack stat raised by up to 12 stages, ensuring that even the Attack stat of a Pokémon with an Attack stage of -6 can be maximized. This is accomplished through executing the command used by Swords Dance by a maximum of 6 times; however, the command is erroneously called once before verifying that HP of the user can be deducted by 50%. This means that if the user doesn't have enough HP to use the move, the Attack stat will be incorrectly boosted by 2 stages. The game will state that the attack has failed.

Catch rate errors

There are four minor bugs in the catch rate formula, all of them as a consequence of programming oversights.

The status conditions of paralysis, burn, and poison, increase the catch rate by 0 as opposed to by 5 as it was intended.

The Love Ball only gains a catch rate of 8× on Pokémon of the same gender and species as the player's Pokémon, rather than on Pokémon of the opposite gender.

The Moon Ball was intended to multiply the catch rate by 4 on Pokémon that evolve with Moon Stone, but was erroneously programmed to apply this effect on Pokémon that evolve with Burn Heal instead. Subsequently, Moon Ball does not have any additional effect and always acts like a Poké Ball.

The Fast Ball only quadruples the catch rate against the first three of all fleeing Pokémon: Magnemite, Grimer, and Tangela.

Celebi Egg glitch

Main article: Celebi Egg glitch

Ditto assumption

In Generation I and II, any Pokémon that uses Transform is regarded as a Ditto in its new form; this means that if the player catches a Mew or a glitch Pokémon which has used the move Transform or a Pokémon which has used Transform via Mirror Move, instead they will obtain a Ditto. Mew turning into Ditto is not an issue because wild Mew cannot be legitimately encountered. With the overhaul of the mechanics in Generation III, wild Mew are able to legitimately encountered.

In Pokémon Crystal this glitch is only avaible using the move Sketch, because Mirror Move will fail against Transform.

Nonetheless, the glitch is also no longer a concern because it too was fixed in Generation III.

Dragon Fang glitch

Due to a bug, the Dragon Scale boosts the power of Dragon-type moves rather than the Dragon Fang.

This glitch was fixed in Pokémon Stadium 2.

Exp. Share formula error

A Pokémon with the same original Trainer as the player that is sent into battle with an Exp. Share held will gain 50% of the experience twice, which, due to rounding, may not equal 100%.

Experience amount oversight

A Pokémon that gains an amount of experience consisting of five digits will not have the number displayed correctly. Furthermore, such scenario is only possible in the Trainer House. The lowest level required for achieving such feat is 82 for Pokémon with an experience yield of 255, and the lowest experience yield with which this is feasible with is 208. Performing the glitch also requires an outsider Pokémon with a Lucky Egg.

Experience underflow

Main article: Experience#Experience underflow glitch

In Generation I and II, level 1 Pokémon using the "medium-slow" growth algorithm will jump from level 1 to level 100 after gaining a low amount of experience points (less than 54 if the total experience is 0).

Interregional Teleport quirk

If the player travels to either Kanto or Johto in the S.S. Aqua and then teleports, he or she will be taken to either the Vermilion or Olivine Pokémon Center as opposed to the last Pokémon Center they used in either region. This does not occur with the Magnet Train. If the player loses a battle during their trip, they will be sent to their cabin instead.

In Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, teleporting after travelling in either Magnet Train or S.S. Aqua behaves properly by returning the player to the last Pokémon Center used. This also applies to lost battles during the trip.

Legendary beast cry distortion

When the player checks Entei's Pokédex entry, plays its cry, and then immediately switches to either Suicune's or Raikou's entries, their cry will be distorted.

Leveling past 100

In Generation I and II, if a Pokémon is obtained at a level above 100 (101–254), it can be leveled up with Rare Candies up to level 255. If a Rare Candy is fed to a level 255 Pokémon, its level will reset to 0. If a Pokémon above level 100 levels up due to experience, its level will be reset to 100.

Park Ball graphics corruption

If the Park Ball is used from the Ball pocket of the player's Bag on a wild Pokémon, the game will not reload the graphics on the battle screen, causing a temporary glitch in which part of both the Bag and battle screens mix up until the Pokémon catching animation is over, at which point the game will show the battle screen being reloaded.

Pokémon Storage System cloning

Main article: Cloning glitches#Storage system method

Shiny switch glitch

If a transformed Pokémon defeats a Trainer's Pokémon and the player switches it out to a Shiny Pokémon when prompted to, the transformed Pokémon will have a Shiny pallette while being switched. This does not happen if player switches Pokémon normally.

Sketch glitches

Main article: Sketch glitch

Trade cloning

Main article: Cloning glitches#Trading method

Trainer Counter/Mirror Coat damage oversight

In Trainer battles only, if the player uses a healing item or a Poké Ball during the same turn as the opponent's Counter or Mirror Coat, their damage will be of at least 4 HP, twice the minimum standard damage for neutral moves (2 HP).

Glitches involving communication with the Generation I games

Time Capsule exploit

Main article: Time Capsule exploit

Shiny Ditto DV manipulation

The Shiny Ditto glitch requires a game from both Generation I and II but it only has an effect on a Generation II game. In Generation I, if a Pokémon uses the move Transform while already transformed, it will retain the DVs of the Pokémon it transformed into after being caught. Due to Shininess being determined by DVs in Generation II, this allows the player to make a wild Ditto Shiny by having it use Transform while already transformed; accomplishing this is possible by either having a Shiny Pokémon that knows Transform (Mew, certain glitch Pokémon, or another Ditto) or by teaching a Shiny Pokémon the move Mimic, then having the wild Ditto use Mimic on the move Transform. The end result is that the Ditto will be Shiny in the Generation II game.

Trade evolution learnset oversight

Generation I Pokémon that evolve by trading can be taught glitch moves through this glitch. This can be achieved by trading such Pokémon from a Generation I game to a Generation II game at a level where its evolved form will learn a move not present in Generation I. Trading the Pokémon back to the Generation I game will cause the move to become a glitch move.

For example, trading a level 34 Graveler from Pokémon Red to Pokémon Gold will cause the Graveler to evolve into Golem. Since it is at level 34, it will learn Rollout in Gold. If it is then traded back to Red, it will still have the move but the game won't recognize it properly since it is a Generation II move, so it will become TM05.

Stadium 2

Infinite continues glitch

This is a glitch that can be performed in Pokémon Stadium 2 with any Stadium Cup. It does not work in the original Pokémon Stadium. If there is a previously suspended game and the player is playing the Stadium Cup, suspending the game after a loss causes a warning message to pop up, telling the player that there is already a suspended game. If "Continue without Suspending" is selected, a rematch with the opponent who just defeated the player will be triggered, but no continue will be used.

Pokédex data oversight

Due to a localization oversight, using the Transfer Pak with the English versions of Pokémon Stadium 2 and Pokémon Blue and looking up the locations of wild Pokémon in the Pokédex will instead load the corresponding data for the Japanese version.

References

This glitch Pokémon article is part of Project GlitchDex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on glitches in the Pokémon games.