List of glitches (Generation III)
This is a list of glitches in the Generation III Pokémon games.
Some glitches are found on a separate page:
Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed, and LeafGreen
Evolution move-learning script bug
If the player presses both A and B buttons during the same frame on the "Delete a move to make room for {move}?" message screen after their Pokémon evolves, the "Stop learning {move}?" message screen is loaded as a full black screen, making it invisible. The game behaves normally otherwise but the graphics are only properly reloaded after the player presses the A button.
In the Western localizations of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, the red focus rectangle can be seen on the black screen. This does not occur in the Japanese versions or in any release of Pokémon FireRed, LeafGreen, and Emerald since a black focus arrow is used instead.
This behavior is not seen in non-evolution scenarios because the games use other procedures for the move-learning sequence.[1]
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Held item loss glitch
If Kadabra, Machoke, Graveler, or Haunter is traded while holding any item, that Pokémon will evolve as expected, but its held item will be permanently lost.
This glitch also applies to Everstones. If any of these Pokémon is holding an Everstone when traded, it will still evolve, and the Everstone will be lost.
Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald
Dive glitch
- Main article: Dive glitch
Freezing NPC's while the player moves
If the player interacts with something at the moment an NPC moves and the player character is moved without the player's input, the NPC will remain frozen.
This effect only occurs when the player moves without having to open the party menu or select an object in the Bag. As such, this effect can only be performed in the Battle Tent, the Battle Factory, or when entering the Pokémon Cable Club.
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Oldale Town Poké Mart promotion gift
The Poké Mart clerk in Oldale Town gives the player 1 free Potion the first time they speak with them, unless the Bag is full already. As long as the player hasn't successfully received that promotion gift, the event is repeatable. If the player barely enters Route 103 and returns immediately, the worker will still be near the Poké Mart, but behave as if they were at their original position. Talking to them again (except from the right) will lead the player into a tree - they can get out however, since they are only one tile into it. This happens due to the temporary flag 0x1 resetting when changing maps, but the sprite of the clerk still being loaded and thus not being moved back.
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Route 134 current interruption error
On Route 134, if the player surfs on the current near Swimmer Laurel or Swimmer Jack and is spotted by them, when the battle is over, the player will remain stationary, despite being in the middle of the current.
Seafloor Cavern boulder oversight
In the Seafloor Cavern, in the second-to-last room, there is a Strength boulder puzzle that the player can accidentally make unsolvable. The game will reset the position of some boulders when the player walks away from them to make the puzzle solvable again; however, one of the boulders doesn't get reset properly, and its tile will contain two boulders at once. This glitch was first discovered by the Mutekimaru Channel.
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Sky Pillar rock drop
The player can fall through a specific broken floor tile in the middle of the very left side (X: 0x0 | Y: 0x8) of the second floor (first floor for non-Americans) and land on an otherwise inaccessible rock.
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Team Magma/Aqua encounter oversight
After defeating Roxanne, the player is supposed to trigger a cutscene in Rustboro City involving the villainous team by walking to the crossroads. By using Teleport, the player can get around the trigger and walk around with the game being the same as it was before defeating Roxanne, until they step on the tiles that normally trigger the cutscene, as no other trigger tiles exist.
Walkable current tile in Route 134
In the bottom right corner of the island to the southeast of Route 134 is a current tile (X: 0x4F | Y: 0x22), which doesn't behave like all others. The player can neither Surf nor use any Fishing Rod on it. Instead it is treated as walkable land and moving onto it will correctly push them to the left. The reason is a faulty movement permission.
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Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire
256× item selling price bug
When selling at least 256 of an item, even though the Poké Mart states the correct price, for every 256, because the number sold only takes the lower byte, the total price is actually counted as $0, and the player loses $2560 for every multiple of 256 (just like tossing them). For example, selling 999 Berries gives $2310 (0 for 768, +2310 for 231). This is normally only possible with Berries because they are the only items that the player can hold more than 99 of in one Bag slot, although through cheating the bug can be performed with other items as well.
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Acro Bike instability
In the Japanese versions of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, if the player continuously performs bunny hops by holding the B button on tall grass for a long yet undetermined period of time, the game may freeze after a wild battle. If the freeze occurs in Mt. Pyre's summit, the clouds that are part of the map's weather remain animated.
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Other than freezes, the game may experience tile or graphics corruption as well as other random behavior.
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Berry glitch
- Main article: Berry glitch
This bug is exclusive to earlier copies of the games as it was fixed in Japanese and European versions 1.1 and in English versions 1.2.
Dewford Gym statue error
Two tiles of the wall near the entrance of Dewford Gym behave like the statues. When approached and the A button is pressed, it reads "DEWFORD POKéMON GYM, BRAWLY'S CERTIFIED TRAINERS:". After Brawly is defeated, it will list the player as a certified Trainer. It is caused by the events of the statues being duplicated onto the walls. Interestingly enough the code which executes on interaction is the same between both the left and the right side, but has been duplicated as well. The left wall tile calls the same script offset (0x15327E) as the left statue, and the right one that of the right statue (0x15328E).
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Diploma bug
While checking for National Pokédex, the game doesn't properly check for ownership of Chikorita and Treecko; while Treecko is properly checked for the Hoenn Pokédex, Chikorita is not needed for the diploma.[2]
Landsurfing bug
In the Japanese versions of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, by using the Acro Bike to side-hop north or south onto a tile adjacent to a water tile and then pressing A at the exact right frame, the player can bring up the Surf dialogue box while facing a regular tile on land. Answering yes will cause the player to Surf onto that tile. The player can then Surf around on land. The game will still behave as if the player is walking normally otherwise.
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This bug can also be used to enter the Fortree Gym without the Devon Scope (the Gym is normally blocked off from the north by an invisible Kecleon), if it is performed on Route 119 and the player surfs north to Fortree City. While surfing in Fortree City, the player can jump off their Pokémon from the bridge south of Fortree Gym and access the Gym from there. In order to escape, a Pokémon with Teleport or Fly may be brought; however, the player must beat the Gym in order to use Fly. Presumably, the player can black out to escape from the Gym or the area surrounding it as well.
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Sand Ornament collapse bug
In the Japanese versions of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, if the player places a Sand Ornament against the wall in a Secret Base and collapses it (with the A button), adds a one-tile or three-tile poster behind the ornament, then exits and returns to the Secret Base, the ornament will not appear to have crumbled and it will still have the poster behind it. Collapsing the Sand Ornament again will trigger a hole on its top area.
In international versions of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire as well as all versions of Pokémon Emerald, posters cannot be placed on a wall directly behind a Sand Ornament even if collapsed.
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Softboiled out-of-battle fail message bug
In the 1.0 release of the English versions of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, whenever the player uses Softboiled outside of battle on a Pokémon that is fainted or at full health, the game erroneously states "This item can't be used on that POKéMON." In the 1.1 release, the word "item" was removed and the message correctly says "This can't be used on that POKéMON." This error does not exist in the Japanese versions, meaning it was a localization oversight.
Strain 0 Pokérus
- Main article: Pokérus → Generation_III
In Ruby and Sapphire only,[3] X values of 0 and 8 do occur naturally, whereas in Pokémon Emerald onward, the RNG does not allow them to occur at all.
Strain 0 does not behave normally, as it only sets the value for "days until cured" to 1, it has no visual indication that a Pokémon is infected, does not boost the amount of EV the infected Pokémon receives, and leaves no trace of having been infected when cured, even permitting the previously infected Pokémon to be re-infected by Strain 0, or other non-glitched strains of Pokérus (X values 1 through 15). It cannot infect Pokémon already infected with Pokérus, or cured from a non-0 strain of Pokérus.
Strain 0 also persists through trade and transfer to other games, as long as the "days until cured" value does not fall from from 1 to 0 as a result of being in the player's party when the date changes or the internal clock passes midnight.
Trainer approach oversights
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This glitch is in need of research. Reason: Check all languages. You can discuss this on the talk page. |
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There are three NPCs who may move on top of an obstacle. This only occurs in the English versions as these Trainers have a different visual range from the other versions.
If the player stands in Route 118's Aroma Lady Rose, Route 121's Gentleman Walter, or Abandoned Ship's Tuber Charlie's line of sight while directly behind the ledge, fence, or wall, the Trainer will notice the player and walk over these obstacles and battle.
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Walkable rock wall in Sootopolis City
In the north east of Sootopolis City, to the left of the staircase leading to the house of the old lady who talks about Mt. Pyre, is a rock wall (X: 0x2C | Y: 0x0A), which the player can walk a single step into. This is caused by a faulty movement permission.
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Yellow Scarf bug
In Japanese Ruby and Sapphire, a Pokémon with at least 200 points in the Smartness condition will be able to receive both the Green Scarf and Yellow Scarf (normally for having at least 200 points in Toughness) even if the Pokémon's Tough condition isn't high enough. For a Pokémon with only 200 points in Smartness, speaking to the Slateport City Pokémon Fan Club Chairman once would give out the Green Scarf and speaking to him again would give out the Yellow Scarf.
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Pokémon Emerald
Aqua Hideout Dive glitch
In the Japanese version of Pokémon Emerald, in the submarine room of Aqua Hideout there are water tiles that look like deep water on which the player can use Dive. While the player normally cannot use Dive on these tiles, they can if they save the game and reset while in this room. If they do use Dive, they will be warped to Petalburg City, walking out the door of the house next to the lake.
In Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, the player cannot access the Aqua or Magma Hideout after they gain the Mind Badge (which is required to use Dive outside of battle). In international versions of Emerald, the player cannot use Dive here even after saving and resetting.
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Battle Pike's Gentleman third text box
In the Battle Pike, in the Gentleman's room, when his Pokémon attacks (it doesn't matter if is Kirlia or Dusclops), if the player does not press any button, normally two text boxes will be activated, but if the player presses the A or B-Button when the Pokémon approaches, a third text box will activate, ordering the Pokémon to stop. This occurs because, when the player enter in the room, the Pokémon approaches so quickly that the game can no longer load all the text boxes in time.
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Battle Tower cloning glitch
- Main article: Cloning glitches#Generation III
Mirage Tower collision error
In Mirage Tower, there is no rock on the second floor near the ladder but the player cannot walk there.
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Mover Vigoroth cry oversight
In the Japanese version of Pokémon Emerald, although the mover Pokémon at the player's house in Littleroot Town during their early journey were changed from Machoke to Vigoroth by altering the sprites and text, the cry of Machoke was kept.
Pomeg glitch
- Main article: Pomeg glitch
Sootopolis Gym wall oversight
In Sootopolis Gym, the player can walk one step into the wall to the right-down of the stairs, causing them to stop working until they step back onto the floor.
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Stuck Cheri bug
When the player makes a trade with Pokemon Colosseum or Pokemon XD, a single patch of soft soil appears next to the Berry Master's house. An ungrowable Cheri berry will be stuck there. This is unrelated to the Berry Glitch.
Trainer's School window tile quirks
When a Pokémon is present in slots 4-6 of Box 8 (or Box 7's slots 26-28 in Japanese Emerald) of the Pokémon Storage System, black pixels with a certain form are written on the sides of the windows of Rustboro City's Pokémon Trainer's School, based on the particular Pokémon.
Slot 4 controls a small portion of tiles near the top of the window, while slot 5 controls a large portion of tiles around the middle, with slot 6 controlling a small portion of tiles near the bottom.
When Pokémon fill all the affected the slots, curtain-like graphics typically appear, but one can manipulate this bug (i.e. by having slot 4 and slot 6 occupied but not slot 5) to make the pixels not resemble curtains as much.
Specifically, with memory-address location randomization disabled, the tiles depend on the data from addresses $0202DAE4-$0202DB43. Each byte can control 1-2 pairs of pixels for the left and east-most sides.
The bug occurs because data for tiles with IDs greater than 790 is overwritten with Pokémon data and the pixels on the window depend on the data of tiles 791-793.[4]
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Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen
Celadon City meeting location glitch
If the player is currently in the Celadon Department Store, any Pokémon met in Celadon City will have its meeting location displayed in the summary as the Celadon Department Store. The meeting location will appear as Celadon City if the player is not in that store. For instance, this glitch affects the gift Eevee, the Pokémon obtained as prizes from the Rocket Game Corner, and any Pokémon hatched in Celadon City.
Similarly, if a Pokémon was originally met in the Celadon Department Store (which is possible if an Egg hatches there), this meeting location will be correctly displayed as Celadon Department Store when the player is in the store, or it will be shown as Celadon City when the player is elsewhere.
Nugget Bridge script oversight
If the player loses to the Team Rocket Grunt at the end of Nugget Bridge, the player has a chance to battle him again, unlike in the Generation I games. Each time he is rebattled, he will give the player a Nugget, so one can purposely lose to obtain Nuggets repeatedly. This is caused by an unset flag before the battle begins, making the script endlessly repeat itself.
This bug only works in the Japanese and English versions as it was fixed in the European localizations.
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Opening sequence oversight
In English versions 1.0, the word "PRESENTS" is not shown in the Game Freak logo part of the opening sequence despite the graphics data being present in the ROM. This was fixed in English versions 1.1.
Pokédex category oversight
In the English version 1.0 release, if a Pokémon category has two words, the Pokédex will mistakenly only display the first word. For example, while Beedrill's category is "Poison Bee Pokémon", it is listed in-game as "Poison Pokémon". Internal data lists categories as in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, so the game likely reads the space in the category name as a terminator. This was corrected in version 1.1 of the English versions, which is the one distributed in the Player's Choice release.
Pokémon Colosseum
Poison revive bug
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This glitch is in need of research. Reason: How does this apply to bad poison? What if the Pokémon faints outside of battle but is revived in battle? You can discuss this on the talk page. |
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In Pokémon Colosseum, if one of the player's Pokémon faints outside of battle as a result of poison, and the player revives this fainted Pokémon using an item, the Pokémon will be revived with its poisoning intact.[5]
Pokémon Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness
Corner clipping bug
In Pokémon Colosseum, the cliffs in Agate Village directly to the left and right of the hill at the entrance are buggy. While walking downwards on these small cliffs, there are two specific points where the player will hit the edge, continue to walk, and cause the screen to start to shake. This can be used to purify all Shadow Pokémon in the player's party or the Day Care quicker while the GameCube controller's Control Stick is held in the same direction.
In Mt. Battle, after finishing a battle with any trainer, walk to the edge of the platform and slowly move the Control stick until the screen starts to shake. Due to the design of the platforms, the corner clipping bug is a little more difficult to do on the platforms.
The corner of the wall directly in front of the stairs in Gonzap's office within Snagem Hideout is bugged. While walking upwards into this corner of the wall, the player will hit the corner, continue to walk, and cause the screen to start to shake. This can be used to automatically purify all Shadow Pokémon in the player's party or the Day Care while the GameCube controller's Control Stick is held in the same direction.
This bug can also be done in Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, in Citadark Isle. In the Whirlpool Machine room, the door below the center of the room has two corners. One in the direction of the whirlpool machine and the other facing the outer-wall. If the player walks into the corners on either side of the door at the right angle, the screen will begin to shake while the player character walks in place.
References
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This glitch Pokémon article is part of Project GlitchDex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on glitches in the Pokémon games. |