List of glitches (Generation II)

This is a list of glitches in the Generation II Pokémon games. It applies to both the original Game Boy Color and the 3DS Virtual Console releases unless otherwise noted.

Some glitches are found on a separate page:

Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal

Celebi Egg glitch

Main article: Celebi Egg glitch

Day Care experience loss

In this generation only, when a Pokémon is withdrawn from the Day Care, its experience is rounded down to the minimum value for the current level. As a result, a Pokémon can lose experience in the Day Care.

For instance, a level 99 Lugia or Ho-Oh has a value between 1,212,873 and 1,249,999 experience points; once it obtains a total of 1,250,000 experience points, it will reach level 100. If a Lugia or Ho-Oh is deposited in the Day Care when it has 1,249,999 experience points (needing just 1 more point to reach level 100), but the player immediately withdraws it without walking any steps, then this Pokémon will revert to exactly 1,212,873 experience points (the minimum amount for level 99), losing 37,126 experience points in the process.

Interregional Teleport quirk

If the player travels to either Kanto or Johto in the S.S. Aqua and then teleports, they 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.

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


S.S. Aqua map glitch

 
Initial state of the Pokégear map on the S.S. Aqua, erroneously showing the player's current place as New Bark Town

If the player uses the Pokégear map while travelling on S.S. Aqua, the ship appears as a small sprite at the bottom-right corner. However, the map cursor erroneously selects New Bark Town by default as the player's current place.

It is not possible to select S.S. Aqua in the map. The feature to select S.S. Aqua in the map is technically programmed in the game, but not actually available to the player.

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.

When the Pokédex is sorted alphabetically, this glitch can also be applied to Espeon's cry.

Pokémon cloning

Main article: List of cloning glitches → Storage system move method
Main article: List of cloning glitches → Trading method

Strain 0 Pokérus

Main article: Pokérus → Generation_II

Pokérus strain values of zero can be generated by the Pokérus generation algorithm with probability 15/255. The primary cause is an incorrectly-placed scratch register copy[1] which expresses when the high four bits are zero. In this case, a part of the logic is skipped, and because the bit test cleared the lower four bits and the higher bits are zero, a value of zero is copied to the scratch register, whose low bits become the strain. The day count of one is then derived from this zero as normal.

Strain zero in Generation II behaves almost as normal: it is visible in the status screen, it triggers the Nurse Joy and Professor Elm dialogues, it spreads as normal, it increases stat experience gain as normal, and it is cured over time as normal. The lone abnormality is that when strain zero is cured, it does not leave the Pokémon in a post-infection state, but in a state as if it had never been infected, like if traded to a Generation I game: it can catch Pokérus again, does not block Pokérus spread, and does not have increased stat experience gain.

Time Capsule glitches

Time Capsule exploit

Main article: Time Capsule exploit

The Time Capsule exploit works around the programming checks put in place on the Time Capsule to prevent players from trading Generation II Pokémon to Generation I games.

Trade evolution learnset

Generation I Pokémon that evolve by trading can be taught glitch moves. 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.

Pokémon Gold and Silver

All languages

Cerulean Gym

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. This likely happened because while Yellow came out after Red and Blue did, Red and Blue were already being used as the base of Gold and Silver due to Yellow not existing yet.

Trainer House

Main article: Trainer House glitches

English language

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.

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.

Japanese language

Bug-Catching Contest

Main article: Bug-Catching Contest 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 will treat the contest as still ongoing.

This may also be used to create unstable Pokémon data.

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


Pokémon Crystal

All languages

Clair gift glitch

In Crystal, if the player whites out due to poison damage while still inside the Dragon Shrine at Dragon's Den after receiving the Rising Badge, they can return to the Blackthorn Gym to receive the reward TM from Clair. However, due to an oversight, if the player then returns to Dragon's Den and stands on the tile directly in front of the Dragon Shrine's door, Clair will appear again and give the player another TM24 (DragonBreath), as if they hadn't already received it.

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


Pokémon meeting level glitch

In Pokémon Crystal, the level and time of day when a Pokémon was originally caught, hatched, or received is stored in the game data and can be verified by visiting the Poké Seer. However, this only works correctly for Pokémon met up to level 63.

This Pokémon meeting data is condensed into a single byte, the upper two bits represent the time it was met, and the lower six bits represent the level it was met. For example, a level 70 Pokémon met in the morning will be reported as a level 6 Pokémon met in the day by the Poké Seer.

This glitch does not usually affect the gameplay for these reasons:

  • In Pokémon Crystal, there are no available Pokémon met over level 60 (other than Pokémon from in-game trades). The in-game event Ho-Oh and Lugia are both found at this level, even though they had been available at level 40 or 70 in earlier games.
  • Pokémon obtained from in-game trades do not record any Pokémon meeting data. Those Pokémon are received with the same level as the player's traded Pokémon, but they are not affected by this glitch.
  • The Generation I games and Pokémon Gold and Silver do not record the meeting data of any Pokémon, therefore the Pokémon caught in those games are not affected by this glitch even if they are transferred to Pokémon Crystal.

In Pokémon Crystal, any Pokémon obtained with a high enough level from event distributions had their meeting data incorrectly recorded because of this glitch. In particular, this affected the level 70 Shiny Mewtwo received from New York Pokémon Center.

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


Languages other than Japanese

Legendary beasts incomplete OT check

In Crystal, when the player talks to Eusine in the Celadon City Pokémon Center he will report a rumor that a rainbow colored Pokémon has appeared in Tin Tower (Ho-Oh) and leave the building when Suicune, Raikou or Entei appear in the party and/or storage boxes with OT and ID data matching that of the player. Due to a glitch, the English version of Crystal will only check the first five characters of the player's name. For example, if the player's name was “CRYSTAL”, then having the legendary beasts with the OT name “CRYST” and a matching ID of the player will enable the event. This is due to the player names in the original Japanese version being a maximum of five characters long and the English version failing to account for the change.

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


Japanese language

Pokémon Communication Center

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 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.[2]

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


German language

Dude money glitch

On the German cartridge version of Crystal, when doing the Dude glitch, trying to use the Poké Ball shows:

Die POKéMON-BOX
ist voll. Das
kannst du jetzt
nicht benutzen.

This message also glitches the left side of the screen. Another message is shown:

KUMPEL hebt
$###### auf!

If the tutorial is accepted again, the player is left with $999999.

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


Dude freezing glitch

On the Virtual Console release of German Crystal, if the player has full boxes while the dude wants to present how to catch Pokémon, the game will freeze. Other languages of Crystal freeze or reset the game with the 'Game Boy Color only' message in different ways.

Pokémon Stadium 2

All languages

Infinite continues

This occurs with any Stadium Cup. If there is a previously suspended game and the player is playing a 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.

Depositing a held Key Item

If a Pokémon is holding a Key Item in the Generation II (such as by using the Celebi Egg glitch), this item can be deposited normally in the Metal Case from the PC in Pokémon Stadium 2 and then transferred to another Generation II game.

For instance, this can be used to transfer a Squirt Bottle between Generation II games for the purpose of sequence breaking.

Languages other than Japanese

Pokédex data localization

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.

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


References


Multiple
generations
Transform glitchesGlitch TrainersCloning glitchesError messagesArbitrary code execution
Generation I GlitchesBattle glitchesOverworld glitches
--0 ERRORBroken hidden itemsCable Club escape glitchDual-type damage misinformation
Experience underflow glitchFight Safari Zone Pokémon trickGlitch CityItem duplication glitchItem underflow
Mew glitchOld man glitchPewter Gym skip glitchPokémon merge glitchRhydon glitchRival twins glitch
Select glitches (dokokashira door glitch, second type glitch) • Super Glitch
Time Capsule exploitWalking through wallsZZAZZ glitch
Generation II GlitchesBattle glitches
Bug-Catching Contest glitchCelebi Egg glitchCoin Case glitchesExperience underflow glitch
Glitch dimensionGlitch EggTeru-samaTime Capsule exploitTrainer House glitchesGS Ball mail glitch
Generation III GlitchesBattle glitches
Berry glitchDive glitchPomeg glitchGlitzer Popping
Generation IV GlitchesBattle glitchesOverworld glitches
Acid rainGTS glitchesPomeg glitchRage glitch
Surf glitchTweakingPal Park Retire glitch
Generation V GlitchesBattle glitches
Charge Beam additional effect chance glitchCharge move replacement glitchChoice item lock glitch
Frozen Zoroark glitchSky Drop glitch
Generation VI GlitchesBattle glitches
Charge Beam additional effect chance glitchCharge move replacement glitchChoice item lock glitch
Lumiose City save glitchSymbiosis Eject Button glitchToxic sure-hit glitch
Generation VII GlitchesBattle glitches
Charge Beam additional effect chance glitchCharge move replacement glitchChoice item lock glitch
Toxic sure-hit glitchRollout storage glitch
Generation VIII Glitches
Charge Beam additional effect chance glitchCharge move replacement glitchChoice item lock glitch
Toxic sure-hit glitchRollout storage glitchParty item offset glitch
Generation IX Glitches
Glitch effects Game freezeGlitch battleGlitch song
Gen I only: Glitch screenTMTRAINER effectInverted sprites
Gen II only: Glitch dimension
Lists Glitches (GOTCG GBSpin-off)
Glitch Pokémon (Gen IGen IIGen IIIGen IVGen VGen VIGen VIIGen VIII)
Glitch moves (Gen I) • Glitch types (Gen IGen II)


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