- For other uses of question marks in the Pokémon games, see Question marks.
??????????
|
|
??????????'s sprite
|
|
|
EV yield
|
HP ?
|
Atk ?
|
Def ?
|
Sp.Atk ?
|
Sp.Def ?
|
Speed ?
|
Exp. ?
|
|
|
??????????, also known as Ten question marks or its fan-given nickname, Decamark(s), is a glitch Pokémon that occupies slot 0000, and all slots above 019D in Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed, and LeafGreen. It was programmed into the game to prevent game crashes and is technically not a glitch Pokémon because its information was defined by the programmers. However, ?????????? can also occupy other values of the 65536 slots available as well as cause glitchy behavior in games, some specific versions may even freeze the game, such as hex DEFD.
??????????'s sprite usually appears as three concentric circles alternating between white and black around a question mark in the center. Whereas index number 0000 and other ?????????? usually use Bulbasaur's footprint, there are a few which use other Pokémon's footprints.
?????????? hex 0000 form can not be obtained, as it disappears from a party when caught.
This glitch data is most commonly encountered in-game by using a GameShark or Action Replay code for a Pokémon that doesn't exist. However, there are several other methods for encountering ??????????.
Level-up method
A GameShark code can be used to quickly level-up a Pokémon in FireRed and LeafGreen's Pokémon Day Care. If any Pokémon is placed into the day care before the code is activated, after a short while of walking around, the Pokémon in the daycare will produce an Egg all by itself. The Egg will soon hatch into a Level 0 ??????????, which cannot be leveled up without using a Rare Candy, as 1,000,000 EXP points are required to reach level 1.
If ?????????? is traded to Pokémon Emerald, it can be left in the day care and will instantly grow to level 100. At this point, it can learn any of the eight HM moves and will be safe for the game unless its summary is looked at. If given Rare Candies, it will start rapidly learning Ice Punch, even if the player refuses to teach it. This can be fixed by activating the "access fly map" GameShark code. ??????????'s National Pokédex number can vary, ranging from 0 to over 386, depending on its hexadecimal identifier. If the hexadecimal identifier number is over 1000 then a ? mark replaces the hundreds column, e.g. ?24
Pre-starter method
Another method for obtaining ?????????? is to use an Action Replay code to teleport or walk through walls to an area where a wild Pokémon can be captured before getting a starter Pokémon from either Professor Birch in Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald or Professor Oak in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen. If a wild Pokémon battle is initiated, the player will send out a ?????????? with 0/0 HP and with a hexadecimal identifier of 0. If the Pokémon gets hit, the player will white out and be sent to a Pokémon Center where 65536 Poké Balls will begin to appear in seemingly random locations all over the screen (this is because the game will refer to the number 0 as one more than a full two bytes (65535)). A very similar effect occurs when one performs a variation of the Pomeg glitch; when the Pokémon's HP goes below 0 it will skip to the largest value. This system uses two bytes, so the Pokémon's HP will start to drop down from 65535.
After this Pokémon is captured, if one chooses to nickname ?????????? or looks at it in the party screen, its sprite may appear as a gold-colored Bulbasaur, which might suggest that Nintendo originally planned to make thumbnail images of Shiny Pokémon and this thumbnail was the last stable sprite that remained. It could also be because this Pokémon uses Bulbasaur's data for its icon, and simply uses icon palette 0 as a default because it is undefined. There is also a difference between the Shiny and normal color: the white on the Shiny Pokémon appears to be darker. (Another way to see this glitch is to use the "walk through walls" code, go to the Link Cable area, and battle. Since there is no connected opponent, this glitch appears instead (as value 000).)
Pre-National Pokédex method
A third way to obtain ?????????? is to use a GameShark or Action Replay to catch a Hoenn or Johto Pokémon in its original area before obtaining the National Pokédex as the game would search for a Pokémon using the Regional Pokédex number rather than the National Pokédex number; for example, if the player was to normally encounter a Yanma, instead the game would search for a Pokémon with a Regional Pokédex value of 193, possibly resulting in an encounter of another variety of this glitch with a different moveset and Ability or a Regirock in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald Versions.