List of cloning glitches: Difference between revisions

The cloning glitch most popular in [[Generation I]] involves the interruption of the trading process. As [[link cable]]s for the [[Game Boy]] are unable to send and receive data simultaneously, one game cartridge first sends its traded Pokémon's data while the other receives it, and then vice versa for the second traded Pokémon. Interrupting the trade after one Pokémon was sent and the other wasn't causes the first Pokémon to be present on both games and the second one not present on either, essentially making two of the same Pokémon while making the other disappear. The interruption can be either accidental—because of dirty connectors or damaged link cables—or on purpose—by disconnecting the link cable or turning the Game Boy off.

Due to improvements of the games and hardware such as the capability of the [[Game Boy Advance]] [[link cable]] to send and receive data at the same time, the auto-canceling of [[trade]]s if something goes wrong, the lack of need to [[saving|save]] while changing [[Pokémon Storage System|PC Boxes]] and new data corruption protection, both methods exploited in the first two generations to clone [[Pokémon]] were essentially removed for the [[Generation III|third]]. While Pokémon cloning was completely absent on most games of this generation, the glitch returned in a different form in {{game|Emerald}}, where the Link-Battle mode of the {{Gdis|Battle Tower|III}} saved only the [[party]] and Bag of the {{player}}, even if he or she chooses "no" when the game asks to; this was due to the game's need to save a massive amount of data and check connections. Like in the methods from the previous generation, if the save is interrupted at the right moment, up to six Pokémon can be cloned at one time. However, unless the player is willing to lose a Pokémon, up to five of them can be cloned at once. It is also possible to clone numerous items at once.