Acid rain

Acid rain is a glitch in Pokémon Platinum, HeartGold and SoulSilver that results in the simultaneous occurrence of multiple types of weather at once, thus damaging all Pokémon on the field. Even though it was discovered before the English release of Platinum, it is present in all versions of the mentioned games.

Cause

If any weather effect (including Trick Room, Gravity, and Uproar, but excluding rain) is in effect, and a player of Platinum, HeartGold, or SoulSilver uses Pursuit on a Pokémon that is switching out on that turn and causes it to faint, this glitch will activate. Upon sending out the next Pokémon, the weather will have changed, and all four types of weather will be occurring at once until the end of the battle.

This will occur if the user of Pursuit is the host, even if the host game is Diamond or Pearl.

Effects

If Trick Room, Gravity, or Uproar is in effect when the glitch is activated, they will activate the glitch, along with any other effects with priority below it. The priority is:

1. Trick Room
2. Gravity
3. Uproar
4. Fog (hurts after animation)
5. Hail (hurts after animation)
6. Sunshine (hurts after animation)
7. Sandstorm (hurts after animation)
8. Rain (hurts after animation; glitch cannot be activated using this weather)

Other moves with multiple-turn effects, such as Mud Sport, Water Sport, Tailwind, and Perish Song, will not be affected and work normally.

Even if the Pokémon is normally immune to a type of weather due to its type (Ice-type Pokémon with hail, and Rock-, Ground-, and Steel-type Pokémon with a sandstorm), they will accumulate damage four times each turn, with this message:

The foe's <Pokémon> is hurt
by its <Ability>!

However, if the Pokémon is immune to both Hail and Sandstorm, like Swinub, or if its Ability is Magic Guard, that Pokémon will be immune to all the damaging effects of this glitch.

Conversely, a Pokémon with an Ability that heals it in certain types of weather, such as Ice Body or Rain Dish, will not take damage, but instead be healed four times every turn until they are fully healed, and then, the weather will hurt it. Dry Skin, which heals in some weather and hurts in other weather, will work as it normally does, healing with one condition and hurting with the other.

Thunder and Blizzard will ignore accuracy and evasion checks, due to simultaneous rain and hail. SolarBeam will require no charging due to the sun, but its damage will also become decreased by 50% due to the other three types of weather.

If a Castform is brought into battle, its Ability will cause it to constantly transform, thus locking up the battle until the game is turned off. Castform will only transform between its Sun and Rain forms due to those particular types of weather being the first two to occur (and thus, Castform recognizes these as being the only two types of weather on the field).

Weather Ball's type is the type of the highest priority weather that can change Weather Ball's type. For example, if the glitch was performed using Harsh sunlight, Weather Ball would be Fire type. If it was performed using Gravity, it would be Ice type because hail has the highest priority of the four present weather conditions.

By Planet Poké

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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 Project GlitchDex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on glitches in the Pokémon games.