Super Glitch

The subject of this article has no official name. The name currently in use is a fan designator; see below for more information.

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Super Glitch is the nickname for a large amount of volatile glitch moves that exist in hexadecimal slots A6 to C3 in Pokémon Red and Blue and Pokémon Yellow. These moves generally have either no name, a number of glitchy symbols as a name, or the name of a Pokémon in one's party as its name. Super glitch effects can also occasionally be caused by the move --. If the move is used, the opposing Pokémon will be burned, and will either faint, or its HP will drop until it has almost fainted.

Effect

Super Glitch can cause some rather strange effects. The most famous scenario is a chain of events starting with the music slowly fading out before stopping altogether known as the 'TMTRAINER effect'. The opponent's name then changes to "TMTRAINER" followed by several lines of glitch dialogue, and the HP of his or her Pokémon rises to a very large value which is often larger than the amount of max HP that the opponent Pokémon has, which causes the HP bar to stretch and wrap around the screen (the filled part the bar also instantly jumps from empty to full repeatedly before fainting (0HP) during damage animation due to the fact that the calculations to display how much fill in the bar in percent has been overflowed, thus causing the fill to wrap between empty and full). It will display that the enemy Pokémon is poisoned, but the game will state that it is frozen solid, followed by the enemy Pokémon becoming hurt by a burn. This burn will often deplete all of the enemy Pokémon's health, causing the giant HP bar to loop several times before all the HP is depleted, causing it to faint. If the battle is won before the game freezes, the glitch Pokémon that used Super Glitch may grow to a random level (sometimes even exceeding level 100). Also, sometimes many random Pokémon not part of the player's team evolve right after a battle. On such cases, Pokémon that cannot evolve can evolve into themselves.

Super Glitch is possible to activate outside of battle. By having a Pokémon that knows Super Glitch learn another move by level, the glitch will activate, just without the TMTRAINER effect, as you are not in battle. An example of this happening is Q◣, which will learn Mega Punch at level 11. However, if it knows Super Glitch, then the effects will activate as if the player had just exited a battle using the glitch.

On occasion, a player may return to the game after a battle in which Super Glitch was used, but everything will be severely glitched. It will appear as if some Pokémon are poisoned in the player's team as every few steps a Pokémon faints. However, these Pokémon have glitchy names and were never part of the player's team before the battle. Some positions of the map will be glitchy and volatile, as if parts of Glitch City merged with the regular map. The player's name will have changed to a scrambled string of symbols. The player will be unable to view his or her Pokémon (if the Pokémon option is selected in the menu, a blank screen will show from which one can't escape) and hence it becomes impossible to Surf or Fly. Pokémon will disappear out of the Pokédex after taking a few steps. The music everywhere (except in battle) becomes eerie and glitched. The game may unexpectedly freeze at any point. The player may also randomly get stuck. By using the "deposit" option in the PC, it is possible to reveal that the game has given the player a lot of Pokémon, many of them with names made entirely out of glitch characters and with stats exceeding 999. Many of these pokemon will crash the game if the player attempts to interact with them.

Super Glitch's index number only changes the probability of the move causing glitch effects, and it does not change the obtained effect itself - the effects are the same for every Super Glitch index and for every Super Glitch-related move.

Cause

Super Glitch moves have no defined names, so the game looks for them past the actual move name list, and takes an unpredictably chosen RAM fragment as the name of the move. The problem occurs when the game tries to display such a name on the screen - the programmers assumed that each move name always ends with an end of string symbol, so the copy operation continues until it is found. The random move name that is picked from the memory may not have such a symbol, so the game copies too many bytes, overwriting important memory areas behind the text buffer.

In the memory layout of the game, a screen buffer is located directly after the text buffer. The screen buffer is a memory fragment where the game saves how the screen looked like before opening a full-screen menu - it exists so the screen contents can be restored after the menu has been closed. Opening any full-screen menu causes the buffer to be replaced with the current screen contents. It means that the values Super Glitch writes depend on what was recently displayed on the screen, and by opening any full screen menu and refreshing the screen copy, it is possible to control how Super Glitch corrupts the RAM. Also, the number of characters the move names before the Super Glitch have will offset the location where memory corruption starts.

The starting location of Super Glitch's memory corruption can be calculated from an equation: StartingLocation = D0E1₁₆ + MoveLengths + NumberOfMovesBeforeSuperGlitch.

To find the memory address where the n-th screen tile will be written, use the formula: StartingLocation + n.

Issues and prevention

As the Super Glitch corruption is caused by viewing the name of the move, if a Pokémon as much as attempts to learn the move — as many Glitch Pokémon do — the RAM may be corrupted. This can be avoided by standing on a certain tile on the ground floor of Celadon Mansion and opening the Start Menu. Having last opened the menu there — taking care not to touch it afterwards — the player can view Super Glitch move names without any adverse effects on the game. This is very useful as it allows a careful player to train Pokémon that learn the move, while avoiding the RAM corruption.

Misconceptions

Something important to note is that it is the move that is dangerous, not its users. For example, ゥ .4, which knows Super Glitch as a starting move, is mistakenly believed to be extremely dangerous to one's game and save file. However, ゥ .4 as a species is no more dangerous than MissingNo. or 'M (00). In fact, a ゥ .4 acquired by trading a p^P_K^M_Np' ' from Pokémon Yellow will pose no threat whatsoever to the game, and a ゥ .4 that has forgotten Super Glitch is completely safe. Though obviously, a wild ゥ .4 will still pose a significant threat, as it will know Super Glitch.

Generation I

Super Glitch index A7

Index no.		Type	Power	Accuracy	Base PP	Effect	Appearance	In Generation II
Hex	Dec
A7	167	Glitch	45	33%	8	Absorbs half of damage inflicted. May cause TMTRAINER effect and other Super Glitch effects.	—	Triple Kick

By leveling up

#	Pokémon		Type		Level
					I		II		III		IV		V		VI
080		4 4Hy	Water		Psychic	250			'			'			'				'			'
061		a	Water		Water	121			'			'			'				'			'
000		PC4SH	Normal	Ground	207			'			'			'				'			'
006		'M (FF)	Fire	Flying	207			'			'			'				'			'
015		ゥ ( Z4	Bug	Poison	182			'			'			'				'			'
000		Glitch (CA)	Poison		Poison	204			'			'			'				'			'
Bold indicates a Pokémon gains STAB from this move. Italics indicates a Pokémon whose evolution or alternate form receives STAB from this move. A dash (−) indicates a Pokémon cannot learn the move by the designated method. An empty cell indicates a Pokémon that is unavailable in that game/generation.

Super Glitch index AB

Index no.		Type	Power	Accuracy	Base PP	Effect	Appearance	In Generation II
Hex	Dec
AB	171	Glitch	60	8%	3	Lowers Evasion down 2 stages. May cause TMTRAINER effect and other Super Glitch effects.	—	Nightmare

By leveling up

#	Pokémon		Type		Level
					I		II		III		IV		V		VI
006		u	Fire	Flying	224			'			'			'				'			'
000		ゥ .4	Pokémaniac		Pokémaniac	195			'			'			'				'			'
Bold indicates a Pokémon gains STAB from this move. Italics indicates a Pokémon whose evolution or alternate form receives STAB from this move. A dash (−) indicates a Pokémon cannot learn the move by the designated method. An empty cell indicates a Pokémon that is unavailable in that game/generation.

Super Glitch index AD

Index no.		Type	Power	Accuracy	Base PP	Effect	Appearance	In Generation II
Hex	Dec
AD	173	Glitch	45	0%	3	Has 40% chance of poisoning the target. May cause TMTRAINER effect and other Super Glitch effects.	—	Snore

By leveling up

#	Pokémon		Type		Level
					I		II		III		IV		V		VI
033		Glitch (FA)	Poison		Poison	195			'			'			'				'			'
Bold indicates a Pokémon gains STAB from this move. Italics indicates a Pokémon whose evolution or alternate form receives STAB from this move. A dash (−) indicates a Pokémon cannot learn the move by the designated method. An empty cell indicates a Pokémon that is unavailable in that game/generation.

Super Glitch Index AE

Index no.		Type	Power	Accuracy	Base PP	Effect	Appearance	In Generation II
Hex	Dec
AE	174	Blank	?	?%	8	Absorbs half the damage inflicted. May cause TMTRAINER effect and other Super Glitch effects.	Substitute	??

Super Glitch index AF

Index no.		Type	Power	Accuracy	Base PP	Effect	Appearance	In Generation II
Hex	Dec
AF	175	Glitch	3	32%	26	Has no secondary effect. May cause TMTRAINER effect and other Super Glitch effects.	Pay Day	Flail

By leveling up

#	Pokémon		Type		Level
					I		II		III		IV		V		VI
000		♀Pゥ ゥゥT	Normal	Ground	243			'			'			'				'			'
000		3TrainerPoké $	Normal		Normal	--			'			'			'				'			'
080		4 4Hy	Water		Psychic	3, 208			'			'			'				'			'
Bold indicates a Pokémon gains STAB from this move. Italics indicates a Pokémon whose evolution or alternate form receives STAB from this move. A dash (−) indicates a Pokémon cannot learn the move by the designated method. An empty cell indicates a Pokémon that is unavailable in that game/generation.

Super Glitch index B1

Index no.		Type	Power	Accuracy	Base PP	Effect	Appearance	In Generation II
Hex	Dec
B1	177	Electric	65	26%	33	May cause TMTRAINER effect and other Super Glitch effects.	—	Aeroblast

By leveling up

#	Pokémon		Type		Level
					I		II		III		IV		V		VI
061		a	Water		Water	195			'			'			'				'			'
Bold indicates a Pokémon gains STAB from this move. Italics indicates a Pokémon whose evolution or alternate form receives STAB from this move. A dash (−) indicates a Pokémon cannot learn the move by the designated method. An empty cell indicates a Pokémon that is unavailable in that game/generation.

Super Glitch index B4

Index no.		Type	Power	Accuracy	Base PP	Effect	Appearance	In Generation II
Hex	Dec
B4	180	Blank	?	?%	50	Has no secondary effect. May cause TMTRAINER effect and other Super Glitch effects.	Comet Punch?	?

Super Glitch index B5

Index no.		Type	Power	Accuracy	Base PP	Effect	Appearance	In Generation II
Hex	Dec
B5	181	Glitch	45	33%	35	Lowers Speed down 1 stage. May cause TMTRAINER effect and other Super Glitch effects.	—	Powder Snow

By leveling up

#	Pokémon		Type		Level
					I		II		III		IV		V		VI
094		h POKé	Ghost	Poison	205			'			'			'				'			'
Bold indicates a Pokémon gains STAB from this move. Italics indicates a Pokémon whose evolution or alternate form receives STAB from this move. A dash (−) indicates a Pokémon cannot learn the move by the designated method. An empty cell indicates a Pokémon that is unavailable in that game/generation.

Super Glitch index B6

Index no.		Type	Power	Accuracy	Base PP	Effect	Appearance	In Generation II
Hex	Dec
B6	182	Normal	93	17%	0	May cause TMTRAINER effect and other Super Glitch effects.	—	Protect

By leveling up

#	Pokémon		Type		Level
					I		II		III		IV		V		VI
000		ゥ .4	Pokémaniac		Pokémaniac	234			'			'			'				'			'
015		ゥ ( Z4	Bug	Poison	35 175			'			'			'				'			'
Bold indicates a Pokémon gains STAB from this move. Italics indicates a Pokémon whose evolution or alternate form receives STAB from this move. A dash (−) indicates a Pokémon cannot learn the move by the designated method. An empty cell indicates a Pokémon that is unavailable in that game/generation.

Super Glitch index B8

Index no.		Type	Power	Accuracy	Base PP	Effect	Appearance	In Generation II
Hex	Dec
B8	184	Normal	38	1%	58	Behaves like Dream Eater. May cause TMTRAINER effect and other Super Glitch effects.	—	Scary Face

By leveling up

#	Pokémon		Type		Level
					I		II		III		IV		V		VI
033		Glitch (FA)	Poison		Poison	213			'			'			'				'			'
000		ゥ .4	Pokémaniac		Pokémaniac	240			'			'			'				'			'
121		Q◣	Water	Psychic	224			'			'			'				'			'
Bold indicates a Pokémon gains STAB from this move. Italics indicates a Pokémon whose evolution or alternate form receives STAB from this move. A dash (−) indicates a Pokémon cannot learn the move by the designated method. An empty cell indicates a Pokémon that is unavailable in that game/generation.

Super Glitch index B9

Index no.		Type	Power	Accuracy	Base PP	Effect	Appearance	In Generation II
Hex	Dec
B9	185	Glitch	80	7%	20	Lowers Attack down 2 stages. May cause TMTRAINER effect and other Super Glitch effects.	—	Faint Attack

By leveling up

#	Pokémon		Type		Level
					I		II		III		IV		V		VI
000		Glitch (CA)	Poison		Poison	135			'			'			'				'			'
Bold indicates a Pokémon gains STAB from this move. Italics indicates a Pokémon whose evolution or alternate form receives STAB from this move. A dash (−) indicates a Pokémon cannot learn the move by the designated method. An empty cell indicates a Pokémon that is unavailable in that game/generation.

Super Glitch index BE

Index no.		Type	Power	Accuracy	Base PP	Effect	Appearance	In Generation II
Hex	Dec
BE	190	Flying	20	17%	38	Behaves like Splash. May cause TMTRAINER effect and other Super Glitch effects.	—	Octazooka

By leveling up

#	Pokémon		Type		Level
					I		II		III		IV		V		VI
062		ゥL ゥM 4	Water	Fighting	24			'			'			'				'			'
000		ゥ .4	Pokémaniac		Pokémaniac	--			'			'			'				'			'
Bold indicates a Pokémon gains STAB from this move. Italics indicates a Pokémon whose evolution or alternate form receives STAB from this move. A dash (−) indicates a Pokémon cannot learn the move by the designated method. An empty cell indicates a Pokémon that is unavailable in that game/generation.

Super Glitch index C0

Index no.		Type	Power	Accuracy	Base PP	Effect	Appearance	In Generation II
Hex	Dec
C0	192	Poison	43	70%	10	Raises Speed up 2 stages. May cause TMTRAINER effect and other Super Glitch effects.	—	Zap Cannon

By leveling up

#	Pokémon		Type		Level
					I		II		III		IV		V		VI
000		▶ A	Normal	Normal	224			'			'			'				'			'
061		a	Water		Water	43 238 239 240			'			'			'				'			'
015		ゥ ( Z4	Bug	Poison	42			'			'			'				'			'
006		u	Fire	Flying	96			'			'			'				'			'
Bold indicates a Pokémon gains STAB from this move. Italics indicates a Pokémon whose evolution or alternate form receives STAB from this move. A dash (−) indicates a Pokémon cannot learn the move by the designated method. An empty cell indicates a Pokémon that is unavailable in that game/generation.

Super Glitch index C1

Index no.		Type	Power	Accuracy	Base PP	Effect	Appearance	In Generation II
Hex	Dec
C1	193	Ghost	227	14%	0	May cause TMTRAINER effect and other Super Glitch effects.	—	Foresight

By leveling up

#	Pokémon		Type		Level
					I		II		III		IV		V		VI
062		ゥL ゥM 4	Water	Fighting	55 56			'			'			'				'			'
121		Q◣	Water	Psychic	9			'			'			'				'			'
Bold indicates a Pokémon gains STAB from this move. Italics indicates a Pokémon whose evolution or alternate form receives STAB from this move. A dash (−) indicates a Pokémon cannot learn the move by the designated method. An empty cell indicates a Pokémon that is unavailable in that game/generation.

Super Glitch index C3

Index no.		Type	Power	Accuracy	Base PP	Effect	Appearance	In Generation II
Hex	Dec
C3	195	Glitch	45	33%	6	Lowers Special down 1 stage. May cause TMTRAINER effect and other Super Glitch effects.	—	Perish Song

By leveling up

#	Pokémon		Type		Level
					I		II		III		IV		V		VI
062		ゥL ゥM 4	Water	Fighting	71			'			'			'				'			'
006		u	Fire	Flying	175			'			'			'				'			'
Bold indicates a Pokémon gains STAB from this move. Italics indicates a Pokémon whose evolution or alternate form receives STAB from this move. A dash (−) indicates a Pokémon cannot learn the move by the designated method. An empty cell indicates a Pokémon that is unavailable in that game/generation.

Videos

By crazybuizel

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

By Gligar13Vids

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

By Missingnoxpert

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

Trivia

• Super Glitch moves have a tendency to change player's Pokémon into a MissingNo. with a hexadecimal 7F, change a large amount of moves to Waterfall, and set some Pokémon to level 127. This happens because the tile with 7F is the space character, which is widely used on screen to display textboxes and aligned lists.
• The only factor preventing the player from saving the game after using Super Glitch is the corrupted player name. So theoretically, with enough luck, Super Glitch may bring a name with an end of string symbol, and the player would be eventually able to save with the corrupted data.
  • Despite this, one would still have to view a special text box (such as the "HEAL/CANCEL" ones at Pokémon Centers) to avoid any glitch message boxes crashing the game.
• Contrary to popular belief, using a Super Glitch move isn't any more destructive than viewing it in the fight menu; both are equally destructive.
• Super Glitches may sometimes reveal certain unused data portions, like beta battle systems in Pokémon Yellow or the cardinal direction boxset.
• Super Glitch index A6 is especially dangerous, since its invalid name points to a constant memory location, which always causes memory corruption. According to TheZZAZZGlitch, since older versions of VBA do not emulate VRAM inaccessibility, index A7 name is displayed as "qq", because of a B0 B0 50 pattern in VRAM at address $83C5, thus the move will not cause any side-effects (while it will cause memory corruption if viewed in the overworld). On BGB (and real console), the finishing 0x50 byte at $83C7 is not read, causing Super Glitch effects.

External links

• Thread on Glitch City Laboratories
• Glitch box-sets
• A YouTube video, showing examples on how to manipulate Super Glitch's effects

References

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 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 both Project GlitchDex and Project Moves and Abilities, Bulbapedia projects that, together, aim to write comprehensive articles on glitches in the Pokémon games and moves, respectively.