Trainer House glitches

The receptionist's dialog if the opponent is ^P_K^M_N TRAINER Thomas

The Trainer House glitch is a glitch in Pokémon Gold and Silver that affects the Trainer in the Trainer House. It is caused by corrupted RAM for save data, in particular from glitch dimensions caused by glitch Unown. It may be also triggered if the player tries to modify the time just after a Mystery Gift or a trade.

Effects

This glitch policeman may appear on the second floor of any Pokémon Center, and will give the player a random item

A Pokémon over level 100 of the glitch Trainer

This glitch overwrites the Unown's Pokédex data with a random hexadecimal value, causing alterations to the game. If the new value triggers a glitch Unown then the time will be reset and the Trainer in the Trainer House will be displayed without a valid name, but with six Pokémon. This glitch Trainer can be battled, but the screen may display "Waiting...", as if the player was in a link battle. Once the message "Waiting..." is displayed, the game will freeze. The game will often also freeze at the end of the battle due to an invalid response from the opponent. Battling the Trainer twice (or even once) in one day often either freezes the game or triggers the glitch dimension. The glitch Trainer may have Pokémon with glitch status ailments and Pokémon over level 100, and is very likely to have Pokémon with impossible movesets and Pokémon with a series of "?" instead of their name. Additionally,the player will find a glitch Policeman on the second floor of any Pokémon Center. When spoken to, he says "Hello ! You're <player>, right? I have some-thing for you." If the player chooses "YES", the Policeman will say "Here you go!" and the player will receive an item (this item is related to the glitch Unown hexadecimal value). This allows the player to obtain various glitch items, such as the Teru-sama.

Instead, if the new hexadecimal value triggers a normal Unown the Trainer will be displayed without a name, but only as ^P_K^M_N TRAINER, and will sent out a Mankey or a Primeape level 0, causing a game freeze. In this case, the glitch Policeman won't appear and the time will work regularly. Sometimes ^P_K^M_N TRAINER may have other Pokémon such as level 127 Pincer and level 0 Venonat. ????? may duplicate the Pokémon that fainted just before it occasionally.

^P_K^M_N TRAINER Thomas

A glitch Pokémon with the sprite of the Trainer and a series of "?" instead of its name

A Trainer affected by the glitch; all of his Pokémon have fainted

This is a variation of the original glitch and usually occurs if the player sets the time back just after a trade or a Mystery Gift causing a lack of information to the Trainer House which has already discarded the previous data. The Trainer in the Trainer House is replaced with ^P_K^M_N TRAINER Thomas (the name is an acronym which means "Time, Hour, Minutes And Seconds"). ^P_K^M_N TRAINER Thomas is displayed in the receptionist's dialog as a series of "9" and letters. This ^P_K^M_N TRAINER is displayed in battle with six Pokémon, which are all fainted, and sends out a level 0 ????? with his same sprite causing an immediate freeze. ^P_K^M_N TRAINER Thomas doesn't corrupt the player's mailbox, and can be fixed by doing a new Mystery Gift or a trade, which should replace the missing information. ^P_K^M_N TRAINER Thomas is less dangerous than any other kind of glitch Trainer in the Trainer House because he is not triggered by corrupted data, but simply by a system error.

Related problems

A mailbox corrupted by this glitch. The messages may be signed from unused character strings

It is rare that the Trainer House data is corrupted without simultaneous corruption of other areas of the save.

A glitch message in a corrupted mailbox. It's signed by GREEN

Most commonly, the player's mailbox is corrupted. If so, the list is not properly terminated. Some of the messages may be signed from unused character strings, such as GREEN (a default character name remnant from the Japanese version), and some may freeze the game or reset it into a glitch dimension if they are read. If the player gives one of these messages to a Pokémon, and the mail appears as a purple version of the Flower Mail from the mailbox, the game will transform it into a random item. By reading those messages, there's a small possibility that the glitch Trainer changes his party.

Another common problem is having an excessive amount of room decorations, which may include glitch decorations placed directly into the PC.

List of obtainable items through the glitch Policeman

In the brackets there's the hexadecimal value needed to trigger each item. Missing hexadecimal values don't trigger any item.

• TM 03 (1C,3E,4B,83,B8,F3,F4)
• TM 04 (CF)
• TM 09 (1D)
• TM 10 (23,3C,67,69,E4)
• TM 12 (8E)
• TM 14 (94,F2,F9,FA,FC,FE)
• TM 15 (31,E3)
• TM 18 (4A,E5)
• TM 19 (70)
• TM 20 (91)
• TM 26 (73)
• TM 27 (97)
• TM 38 (5F)
• TM 42 (84,CD)
• TM 48 (39,CA,C4)
• HM 08 (B0,F7)
• HM 12 (50)
• Antidote (F1)
• Coin Case (B9,ED,EE,F0)
• Energy Powder (7D)
• Leaf Stone (60)
• Leftovers (4E)
• Lure Ball (1F)
• Master Ball (41,58,66,86,B2,D3,D4,D5,D8,DF)
• Max Ether (C3)
• Max Revive (6B)
• Metal Powder (C0)
• Mint Berry (E7)
• Moon Stone (54)
• Polkadot Bow (47)
• Poké Ball (5D)
• Poké Doll (1E)
• Potion (99,9B,9E)
• Repel (46)
• Revival Herb (29,2B,52)
• Scope Lens (3A)
• Squirtbottle (24)
• Stick (59)
• Super Potion (54)
• Teru-Sama (26,65,82,D0)
• X Accuracy (4C)

Video

By Pacoo81

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

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