Pomeg glitch
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The Pomeg glitch is a glitch exclusive to Pokémon Emerald that involves the use of a Pomeg. The glitch involves forcing a Pokémon into negative HP by using a Pomeg Berry to lower its Max HP by 2. There are currently no known dangers to the save file or game cartridge by performing this glitch.
Performing the glitch
To perform the glitch, one must use a Pokémon that has been EV trained in HP such that, upon using a Pomeg Berry on it, its Max HP will decrease by 2. (one may also use 8 HP Ups on it when it is around Level 60) Then, it must be poisoned and be walking around until only 1 of its HP is left. Then, cure the poisoning and use a Pomeg Berry on it. Its HP will decrease by 2, but won't become -1. It will instead become "?35" HP. At this point, the glitch is complete, though there are two very interesting sub-glitches that can be performed from this point. To perform either of them, one must first save. From this point on, the Pokémon that was just glitched is referred to as the "Pomeg'd Pokémon".
?????????? sub-glitch
After the Pokémon has been glitched by the Pomeg Berry, the player must head to a Pokémon Center and make sure that the only Pokémon in their party are the Pomeg'd Pokémon and a normal Pokémon. The Pomeg'd Pokémon should be at the front of the party. Then the player must head to any area and enter a wild battle. Defeat (or run from) the wild Pokémon using the Pomeg'd Pokémon. After the battle, the player must come to the Pokémon menu and switch the Pomeg'd Pokémon and the normal Pokémon.
Without getting into any battles, the player then heads back to a Pokémon Center to deposit the normal Pokémon. Then he or she returns to an area where one can fight wild Pokémon, but not to fight yet. First, they must use any healing item on the Pomeg'd Pokémon and it will faint, but the player will not white out and will be able to walk around with no usable Pokémon. Now, one must get into a wild battle. Because of the party-switching earlier, and because the Pomeg'd Pokémon is now fainted, the player will now send out ??????????; what would happen if the player had no Pokémon at all. Like most known variations of ??????????, it will have no HP, no attacks, and will faint instantly when attacked.
Battling egg sub-glitch
After the Pokémon is glitched by the Pomeg Berry, the player must head to a Pokémon Center and ascertain that the only Pokémon in their party are the Pomeg'd Pokémon and the Egg one wishes to battle with. The Pomeg'd Pokémon should be at the front of the player's party. Then, the player must a wild battle. Defeat (or run from) the wild Pokémon using the Pomeg'd Pokémon. After the battle, the player must come to the Pokémon menu and switch the Pomeg'd Pokémon and the Egg. Then any healing item (Potion, Berry, etc.) must be applied to the Pomeg'd Pokémon. It will faint, but one will not white out and will be able to walk around with no usable Pokémon. Then the player must enter a wild battle. Because of the party-switching earlier, and because the Pomeg'd Pokémon is now fainted, the player will now send out the Egg. The Egg is exactly as it would be as soon as it hatched, with all the moves, stats, nature, and so on that it would have: the only difference is that it uses the Egg's sprite and does not make its own cry. The player then must revive their Pomeg'd Pokémon (returning it to normal) and switch out, making sure that the Egg doesn't faint. Upon winning the battle, the player will find that the Egg can gain EXP, learn moves, and even evolve. But, by reviving the Pomeg'd Pokémon, the player returns it to normal, meaning that to battle with the Egg again, the player must perform the glitch again. However, the player will have to revive the Pomeg'd Pokémon or white out, even if the battle with the Egg was won.
- If one evolves and then hatches an Egg, the hatched Pokémon will still be Level 5. This can be used to get any breedable Pokémon at level 5, such as a Level 5 Blastoise.
Possibly never-ending battle
If the Pomeg'd Pokémon is sent into battle against a Pokémon with an HP stealing move, like Absorb, the battle becomes an almost endless cycle of the HP of the Pomeg'd Pokémon being stolen then reverting back to full then being stolen again. The effects of the HP stealing move finally end after the HP falls through the ???-?0? phase and the ?99-?03 phase and into normal numbers that fall until it reaches the original HP of the Pomeg'd Pokémon. Also, once the HP stops falling, if an HP stealing move is used again against that Pomeg'd Pokémon, the cycle starts all over again.
Possible explanations
Pomeg glitch
The reason the Pokémon's HP becomes ?35 may be because by lowering the Pokémon's max HP by 2 while its current HP was 1, 2 is subtracted from 1. The Pokémon's HP should have become -1, but the type of variable the game uses for HP can't store negative values, so if the HP were to go below zero, it would "loop" back up to its maximum value: 65535. (it displays as ?35 because the game attempts to display 655 as one digit).
The reason for this "loop" is that the standard behavior for binary code is to use the first digit for showing negative numbers. Therefore, normally, -1 would be 10000000000000001 instead of 00000000000000001. However, the game is not designed for this format, so it reads it as if the first digit was part of the ordinary code and changes it to the largest number it can handle, in this case 65535.
?????????? and Egg sub-glitches
Possibly for the same reason, using a healing item on the Pomeg'd Pokémon causes it to faint, and because the variable can't be higher than 65535, it "loops" back around to 0. However, the player doesn't white out since the game doesn't check for usable Pokémon after healing, as under normal circumstances healing wouldn't cause one to faint.
Egg subglitch
An Egg is extremely similar to a normal Pokémon. The only things different about it are a few values that tell the game that it is an Egg. The game deciphers these values and prevents the player from looking at an Egg's true stats or sending it out into battle. The reason the player is able to battle with an Egg is because by switching the party around and fainting the Pomeg'd Pokémon, the game is tricked into overlooking the Egg-specific values. Since all stats, moves, and so on are predetermined for the Egg when it is obtained from the Day-Care Man, it can in fact battle.
External links
- Never ending battle The HP stealing sub-glitch
- GLitch EGG The EGG gains experience