Trainer House glitches

This article does not yet meet the quality standards of Bulbapedia. Please feel free to edit this article to make it conform to Bulbapedia norms and conventions. Reason: It is written like a sandbox of experiments in SRAM corruption achieved by chaining glitches, which raises doubts about its compliance with the notability requirements, especially since inaccurate emulation was involved and there is a clear lack of an actual bug or design flaw at play.

The receptionist's dialog if the opponent is ^P_K^M_N TRAINER Thomas

The Trainer House glitches are glitches in Pokémon Gold and Silver that affect the Trainer in the Trainer House. It is caused by corrupted RAM for save data from attempting to modify the time just after a Mystery Gift or a trade, or glitch dimensions caused by viewing the entries of glitch Unown.

Glitch Trainer variation causes

Cause Glitch Trainer Time method PKMNTRAINER Thomas Unown method See List of glitch Trainers in Trainer House caused by the Unown method Cartridge's battery has run dry Glitch Trainer with Pokémon of any level Triggered as side-effect of bad cloning Glitch Trainer with a level 0 Mankey or Primeape which freezes the game Obtained through a corrupted link battle or Mystery Gift Glitch Trainer with Pokémon over level 100 of any species, sometimes even ?????. The game may also suddenly display "Waiting..." as if it was in a link battle. Once this message is displayed, the game will freeze. RAM physically damaged Glitch Trainer with numbers in their name, usually with Pokémon over level 100

Corrupted link battle/Mystery Gift method

A corrupted link battle obtained using over 6 Pokémon

A glitch Butterfree that appears during a corrupted link battle

Sometimes during a link battle—possibly due to a dusty, damaged, or loose link cable—one of the players can send invalid data to the other player. This triggers a corrupted link battle with a different result for each player. Usually the opponent withdraws the Pokémon which was fighting to send out a glitch Pokémon that wasn't in their party. The players will battle against an AI using mostly the Pokémon which were in the party of the opponent but also glitch Pokémon usually over level 100 and asleep. In particular, many corrupted link battles trigger a Butterfree with a large amount of HP, making it virtually undefeatable and forcing the player to restart the game. If a player had an Egg in their party, then the Egg can be sent out by the AI and appear with the sprite and the moves of the Pokémon which is inside the Egg, but it will immediately faint.

A corrupted link battle has a good chance to corrupt the Trainer House and the mailbox of the player who received the invalid data, while it won't affect the player who sent the invalid data. The glitch Trainer obtained in this way can be battled, but the screen may display "Waiting...!" as if the player was in a link battle. Once the message "Waiting...!" is displayed, the game will freeze. A corrupted link battle can be forced by having a Pokémon with an irregular HP bar.

It is also possible to cause Trainer House glitches if the last Mystery Gift was corrupted by an infrared interference. In this case, the item received will be unaffected, but the Trainer House could be corrupted.

Time method

A ?????, which uses the same sprite as its Trainer, but with less detail and uses the color palette as the Pokémon it is

A Trainer affected by the glitches; all of his Pokémon have fainted

This method usually occurs if the player sets the time back just after a trade or a Mystery Gift. The Trainer in the Trainer House is replaced with ^P_K^M_N TRAINER Thomas. ^P_K^M_N TRAINER Thomas is displayed in the receptionist's dialog as a series of "9" and letters. This ^P_K^M_N TRAINER is displayed in battle with six Pokémon, which are all fainted, and sends out a level 0 ????? with his same sprite causing an immediate freeze. ^P_K^M_N TRAINER Thomas doesn't corrupt the player's mailbox, and can be fixed by doing a new Mystery Gift or a trade, which should replace the missing information.

Unown method

A glitch Mystery Gift policeman may appear on the second floor of any Pokémon Center, and will give the player a random item

A Pokémon over level 100 of the glitch Trainer

This method overwrites data associated with the mailbox and Trainer House with a certain index number depending on the hexadecimal identifier of a viewed glitch Unown in the Unown Mode, causing alterations to the game. If the new value triggers a glitch Unown then the time will be reset and the Trainer in the Trainer House will be displayed without a valid name, but with six Pokémon. Battling the Trainer twice (or even once) in one day often either freezes the game or triggers the glitch dimension. The glitch Trainer may have Pokémon with glitch status conditions and Pokémon over level 100, and may have Pokémon with impossible movesets and Pokémon with a series of "?" instead of their name. Some glitch Pokémon know a glitch move which, if used, causes the message "But nothing happened" to appear, followed by the game entering the glitch dimension. Additionally, if the player checks Unown's Pokédex data in a Pokémon Center or inside a city, there will be a Policeman on the second floor of all Pokémon Centers, as if the player had received a Mystery Gift. When spoken to, he says "Hello! You're <player>, right? I have something for you." If the player chooses "YES", the Policeman will say "Here you go!" and the player will receive an item (this item is related to the glitch Unown index number). This allows the player to obtain various glitch items, such as the Teru-sama.

Trainers

Main article: List of glitch Trainers in Trainer House caused by the Unown method

Registering glitch Unown

To register a glitch Unown in the Unown Mode, the player may obtain a ????? (Hex FF) as a bad clone from the Celebi Egg glitch. If the ????? is placed as the first Pokémon in the party, the player can use the "MOVE ^P_K^M_N W/O MAIL" option to withdraw over 6 Pokémon. This corrupts RAM data located past the expected end of the Pokémon data structure, although there are only a limited amount of Pokémon that the player can withdraw before the game freezes. If details about a 'post-6' Pokémon conflicts with data about Pokémon in the Unown Mode, then it is possible to replace entries with glitch Unown, provided that the player already has the Unown Mode, for example the index number of the current fourth move's PP of Pokémon #11 conflicts with RAM data associated with the first Unown. It is possible to replace the first Unown with a glitch Unown this way provided that the player used PP Ups to raise its associated index number past 26. In the process of obtaining glitch Unown, the player will be corrupting the values of other RAM addresses such as those determining seen or owned Pokémon in the Pokédex, or the number of options on the menu.

If the player added a glitch Unown which activates a glitch dimension, then there is a possibility that it will trigger the Trainer House glitches depending on its index number. Since getting a glitch dimension from glitch Unown only partially saves the game, any values changed prior such as the number of Pokémon seen and owned in the Pokédex will be returned to normal, provided that the player did not already save from the menu. A list of glitch Unown which give obtainable Mystery Gift items can be found below.

By Pacoo81

This video is not available on Bulbapedia; instead, you can watch the video on YouTube here.

List of obtainable 'Mystery Gift' items

Below are a list of Mystery Gift items obtainable through glitch Unown, based on the viewed hexadecimal identifier. Some hexadecimal values can trigger two or more items depending on where the glitch Unown is displayed. Missing hexadecimal values don't trigger any item.

Hex Item 1C TM03 1D TM09 1E Poké Doll 1F Poké Ball 22 Exp. Share 23 TM10 24 SquirtBottle 26 Teru-sama 29 Revival Herb 31 TM15 38 Ice Berry 39 TM48 3A Scope Lens 3C TM10 41 Master Ball 43 X Speed 46 Repel 47 BrightPowder or Polkadot Bow 4A TM18 4B TM03 4C X Accuracy 4D TM32 4E Leftovers 4F Dire Hit 50 HM12 52 Revival Herb 54 Moon Stone or Super Potion 58 Master Ball 59 Stick 5A Super Potion 5D Poké Ball 5F Ice Berry or TM38 60 Leaf Stone, Leftovers, or PP Up 65 Teru-sama 66 Master Ball 67 TM10 69 TM10 6B BrightPowder, Lemonade, Max Revive, Nugget, PRZCureBerry, Super Rod 6B Park Ball (New Pokédex Mode only) 70 TM19 73 TM26 7D EnergyPowder 82 Teru-sama 83 TM03 84 TM42 86 Master Ball 8E TM12 91 TM20 94 TM14 97 TM27 99 Potion A1 Revival Herb B0 HM08 B2 Master Ball B5 Super Rod B8 TM03 B9 Coin Case BF Fresh Water C0 Metal Powder C1 Exp. Share, PP Up, or Teru-sama C3 Max Ether C4 TM48 C9 PP Up or TM48 CA TM48 CD TM42 CF TM04 D0 Teru-sama D3 Master Ball E3 TM15 E4 TM10 E5 TM18 E7 HM12 or Mint Berry ED Coin Case, Nugget, Super Rod, or Teru-sama F1 Antidote F2 TM14 F3 TM03 F7 HM08 F9 TM14

Related problems

A mailbox corrupted by this glitch. The messages may be signed from unused character strings

It is rare that the Trainer House data is corrupted without simultaneous corruption of other areas of the save.

A glitch message in a corrupted mailbox. It's signed by GREEN

Most commonly, the player's mailbox is corrupted. If so, the list is not properly terminated. Some of the messages may be signed from unused character strings, such as GREEN (a default character name remnant from the Japanese version), and some may freeze the game or reset it into a glitch dimension if they are read. If the player gives one of these messages to a Pokémon, and the mail appears as a purple version of the Flower Mail from the mailbox, the game will transform it into an equivalent item depending on its index number. All invalid Mail will appear this way, except for index number 255, which causes the screen to become blank.

If the player has an excessive number of glitch messages the overworld will become corrupted, the screen may turn black and the NPC sprites will become corrupted sprites. If the player has around 230 messages the game will freeze or reset into a glitch dimension.

By reading or scrolling past these messages, a series of side-effects may occur:

• The options "PACK" and "SAVE" will disappear from the menu.
• Wild Pokémon and Trainers not inside the Trainer House may become glitchy. In this case, the Trainers will have the same name and Pokémon as the last Trainer fought in a link battle. If the player hasn't performed a link battle, their first Pokémon will be a Wigglytuff. The screen will display "Waiting..." when the player attempts to fight as if they were in a link battle.
• The player's Pokémon cannot use field moves.

Another common problem is having an excessive amount of room decorations, which may include glitch decorations placed directly into the PC.

Glitches in the Pokémon games Multiple generations Transform glitches • Glitch Trainers • Cloning glitches • Error messages • Arbitrary code execution Generation I Glitches • Battle glitches • Overworld glitches -- • 0 ERROR • Broken hidden items • Cable Club escape glitch • Dual-type damage misinformation Experience underflow glitch • Fight Safari Zone Pokémon trick • Glitch City • Item duplication glitch • Item underflow Mew glitch • Old man glitch • Pewter Gym skip glitch • Pokémon merge glitch • Rhydon glitch • Rival twins glitch Select glitches (dokokashira door glitch, second type glitch) • Super Glitch Time Capsule exploit • Walking through walls • ZZAZZ glitch Generation II Glitches • Battle glitches Bug-Catching Contest glitch • Celebi Egg glitch • Coin Case glitches • Experience underflow glitch Glitch dimension • Glitch Egg • Teru-sama • Time Capsule exploit • Trainer House glitches • GS Ball mail glitch Generation III Glitches • Battle glitches • Overworld glitches Berry glitch • Dive glitch • Pomeg glitch • Glitzer Popping Generation IV Glitches • Battle glitches • Overworld glitches Acid rain • GTS glitches • Pomeg glitch • Rage glitch Surf glitch • Tweaking • Pal Park Retire glitch Generation V Glitches • Battle glitches • Overworld glitches Charge Beam additional effect chance glitch • Charge move replacement glitch • Choice item lock glitch Frozen Zoroark glitch • Sky Drop glitch Generation VI Glitches • Battle glitches • Overworld glitches Charge Beam additional effect chance glitch • Charge move replacement glitch • Choice item lock glitch Lumiose City save glitch • Symbiosis Eject Button glitch • Toxic sure-hit glitch Generation VII Glitches • Battle glitches • Overworld glitches Charge Beam additional effect chance glitch • Charge move replacement glitch • Choice item lock glitch Toxic sure-hit glitch • Rollout storage glitch Generation VIII Glitches Charge Beam additional effect chance glitch • Charge move replacement glitch • Choice item lock glitch Toxic sure-hit glitch • Rollout storage glitch • Party item offset glitch Generation IX Glitches Glitch effects Game freeze • Glitch battle • Glitch song Gen I only: Glitch screen • TMTRAINER effect • Inverted sprite Gen II only: Glitch dimension Lists Glitches (GO • Mystery Dungeon • TCG GB • Spin-off) Glitch Pokémon (Gen I • Gen II • Gen III • Gen IV • Gen V • Gen VI • Gen VII • Gen VIII) Glitch moves (Gen I) • Glitch types (Gen I • Gen II)

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