MissingNo.

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Missingno.
けつばん Ketsuban
Missingno.png
The five forms of Missingno (clockwise from left: Normal, Ghost, Aerodactyl, Yellow, Kabutops)
Type Category
 Bird  Normal 
Red/Blue

 Normal  999 
Yellow
??? Pokémon
Hexadecimal identifier Exp. at Lv. 100
1F, 20, 32, 34, 38, 3D, 3E, 3F, 43, 44, 45, 4F, 50, 51, 56, 57, 5E, 5F, 73, 79, 7A, 7F, 86, 87, 89, 8C, 92, 9C, 9F, A0, A1, A2, AC, AE, AF, B5, B6, B7, B8 Unknown
Pokédex
National
#000
Johto
#—
Hoenn
#—
Sinnoh
#—
Unova (BW)
#—
Unova (B2W2)
#—
Games found in
Red, Blue, and Yellow
Special stat for Mew glitch Time Capsule exploit Pokémon
31, 32, 50, 52, 56, 61, 62, 63, 67, 68, 69, 79, 80, 81, 86, 87, 94, 95, 115, 121, 122, 127, 134, 135, 137, 140, 146, 156, 159, 160, 161, 162, 172, 174, 175, 181, 182, 183, 184 N/A
Height Weight
10'0" 3507.2 lbs.
Hybrid of Catch rate
N/A 3
Gender ratio
Unknown
Egg Groups Egg cycles
Unknown Unknown
EV yield
HP
?
Atk
?
Def
?
Sp.Atk
?
Sp.Def
?
Speed
?
Exp.
?

Missingno. (Japanese: けつばん Ketsuban) is a dual-type Bird/Normal glitch Pokémon in Pokémon Red and Blue, and a dual-type Normal/999 glitch Pokémon in Pokémon Yellow. Due to the ease of which it can be found, it is one of the best-known glitch Pokémon.

In later generations, other glitch Pokémon are referred to as "a Missingno.", despite there being little relation to the one found in Pokémon Red and Blue or Yellow.

Missingno.'s cry is the game's equivalent of a "blank" cry: a Nidoran♂'s voice with a pitch of 0 and no echo. However, a few Missingno. have different cries, such as a Rhydon's cry.

The Pokédex entries of Missingno. and all glitch Pokémon with a Pokédex number of 0 will only appear upon capture if the player has not encountered Cubone, but as with all glitch Pokédex entries, they normally remain inaccessible through the actual Pokédex. An exception to this is in Red and Green, where Missingno. can be "registered"; in the Pokédex if the player enables the 'seen' flag for #152 through select button glitches and memory corruption. If Missingno.'s Pokédex data is viewed, it will consist of a very long string of glitchy sounds, much like ゥ .4 or h POKé's entries. However, unlike their entries, Missingno.'s does not lock up the game.

The leveling up learnset, base stats and types of the Kabutops Fossil, Aerodactyl Fossil and Ghost forms are the same as the Pokémon whose data was accessed last.

Forms

Normal form

Missingno RB.png

Missingno. normal form has a sprite that is a strange block of glitched pixels in a backward-L shape. Due to the larger number of characters that can be used to make it appear, it is the most common form. Normal form is exclusive to Pokémon Red and Blue.

  • This form appears through the old man glitch if the character in the third, fifth, or seventh slot of the player's name is the end-name marker, G, H, J, M, S, T, :, ], a, b, c, m, o, p, or v.
  • This form appears through the Mew glitch with a Special stat of 31, 32, 50, 52, 56, 61, 62, 63, 67, 68, 69, 79, 80, 81, 86, 87, 94, 95, 115, 121, 122, 127, 134, 135, 137, 140, 146, 156, 159, 160, 161, 162, 172, 174, 175 or 181.

Kabutops Fossil form

Spr 1b 141 f.png

Missingno. Kabutops Fossil form uses the sprite of the Kabutops Fossil found in the Pewter Museum of Science.

  • This form appears through the old man glitch if w is the character in the third, fifth, or seventh slot of the player's chosen name.
  • This form appears through the Mew glitch with a Special stat of 182.

Aerodactyl Fossil form

Spr 1b 142 f.png

Missingno. Aerodactyl Fossil form uses the sprite of the Aerodactyl Fossil found in the Pewter Museum of Science.

  • This form appears through the old man glitch if x is the character in the third, fifth, or seventh slot of the player's chosen name.
  • This form appears through the Mew glitch with a Special stat of 183.

Ghost form

Ghost I.png

Missingno. Ghost form uses the sprite of the Ghost found in Pokémon Tower if the player does not have the Silph Scope.

  • This form appears through the old man glitch if y is the character in the third, fifth, or seventh slot of the player's chosen name.
  • This form appears through the Mew glitch with a Special stat of 184.
  • This form apperars through evolving Z ゥ at level 224.

Yellow form

Missingno Y.png

Missingno. Yellow form is Normal/999, whereas Missingno. forms in Pokémon Red and Blue are Bird/Normal. It uses the palette of Pikachu, and so appears as a yellow and red glitched box. It also causes glitches that Missingno. in Red and Blue did not. If caught, it will cause graphical glitches, possibly rendering the player invisible and making duplicates of the player and all other on-screen characters walk in random locations on the screen. Yellow form is exclusive to Pokémon Yellow.

  • This form does not appear through the old man glitch, as the old man glitch was removed in Pokémon Yellow.
  • This form appears through the Mew glitch with a Special stat of 31, 32, 61, 62, 63, 67, 68, 69 or 86.
  • This form also appears through the Mew glitch by battling a few of the Channlers in the Pokemon Tower.

Glitches caused

Examples of corrupted Hall of Fame entries

Missingno.'s appearance in-battle allows the item duplication glitch, which increases the number of items in the 6th bag slot by 128 unless the number of items in the slot already exceeds 128.

Encountering Missingno. has been known to interfere with the save game data in various ways, such as adversely affecting the Hall of Fame saved data and (if its stats are viewed) messing with some graphics until the stats of a normal Pokémon are viewed. When a Trainer battles with Missingno. in their party, both the Trainer sprite and their Pokémon's sprites will be scrambled, and all other sprites will be reversed. Viewing the stats screen of a non-glitch Pokémon will remove the effects.

Trading Missingno.

Missingno. can be traded from Red and Blue into Pokémon Yellow, but cannot be traded forward through the Time Capsule into Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal. In Yellow, Missingno. levels down to level 1 if it gains any experience, and cannot grow any higher. The only way to use a Missingno. at a different level in battle is to use a link cable to battle between two games.

In the trade center, Missingno., due to its index number, appears as many different Generation II Pokémon from the perspective of Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal, most commonly Tyrogue (due to the common name of ASH in Generation I). For a full list of the Generation II Pokémon Missingno. can appear as, see list of Pokémon by index number (Generation I). If the player tries to trade Missingno., a message will appear stating "Your <name> appears abnormal." and the trade will automatically be cancelled. Rarely, if a Missingno. is successfully traded, it will become the Pokémon it was said to be, and act normally (though it will retain any and all moves it had as a Missingno.). At this point, it only may be traded back into the Generation I game while the player is still in the Time Capsule (where it will again become a Missingno.), as if the player leaves, the Generation II game will detect it as a Generation II Pokémon and not allow the player to enter the Time Capsule.

In Pokémon Stadium

When viewed in Pokémon Stadium, Missingno. will appear as a substitute doll, while in Pokémon Stadium 2, Missingno. will show up as a Ditto, and if the game is saved via Stadium 2, will then become a Ditto permanently. Capturing Missingno. in the Game Boy Tower in Pokémon Stadium may cause the cartridge to become unable to be played with Pokémon Stadium.

Nintendo on Missingno.

Nintendo has an official description of Missingno. listed in their Customer Service troubleshooting section:

"MissingNO is a programming quirk, and not a real part of the game. When you get this, your game can perform strangely, and the graphics will often become scrambled. The MissingNO Pokémon is most often found after you perform the Fight Safari Zone Pokémon trick. To fix the scrambled graphics, try releasing the MissingNo Pokémon. If the problem persists, the only solution is to re-start your game. This means erasing your current game and starting a brand new one." [1]

Nintendo was incorrect on the method for fixing graphical issues; releasing Missingno. does not fix the graphics. The actual way to fix these issues is to view the Pokédex data or stat page of a hybrid glitch Pokémon or official Pokémon.

Game data

Pokédex entry

Game locations

This Pokémon was unavailable prior to Generation I.
Generation I
Red Blue
Glitch Old man glitch, Mew glitch
Yellow
Glitch Mew glitch


Base stats

In Red/Blue

For the typical Bird/Normal type Missingno. associated with the end name marker with an index number of 80:

Stat Range
At Lv. 50 At Lv. 100
33
93 - 139 176 - 269
136
141 - 187 277 - 370
0
5 - 51 5 - 98
29
34 - 80 63 - 156
6
11 - 57 17 - 110
Total:
204
(210 on other generations' scale)
  • Minimum stats are calculated with 0 EVs and IVs of 0.
  • Maximum stats are calculated with 63001 EVs and IVs of 15.
  • Total on other generations' scale counts this Pokémon's Special stat as both Special Attack and Special Defense.

Stat Range
At Lv. 50 At Lv. 100
178
238 - 284 466 - 559
19
24 - 70 43 - 136
11
16 - 62 27 - 120
0
5 - 51 5 - 98
23
28 - 74 51 - 144
Total:
231
(254 on other generations' scale)
  • Minimum stats are calculated with 0 EVs and IVs of 0.
  • Maximum stats are calculated with 63001 EVs and IVs of 15.
  • Total on other generations' scale counts this Pokémon's Special stat as both Special Attack and Special Defense.

Type effectiveness

In Red/Blue

Template:RBY Type effectiveness

Template:RBY Type effectiveness

Learnset

By leveling up

By leveling up

Generation I
Other generations:
None
 Level   Move   Type   Power   Accuracy   PP 
00Start Water Gun Water 04040 100}}100% 25
00Start Water Gun Water 04040 100}}100% 25
00Start Sky Attack Flying 140140 090}}90% 5
  • Bold indicates a move that gets STAB when used by Missingno.
  • Italic indicates a move that gets STAB only when used by an Evolution of Missingno.
  • Click on the generation numbers at the top to see level-up moves from other generations
Kabutops Fossil, Aerodactyl Fossil and Ghost forms

The leveling up learnset of the Kabutops Fossil, Aerodactyl Fossil and Ghost forms are the same as the Pokémon whose data was accessed last.

Generation I
Other generations:
None
 Level   Move   Type   Power   Accuracy   PP 
00Start Pay Day Normal 04040 100}}100% 20
00Start Bind Normal 01515 075}}75% 20
00Start Water Gun Water 04040 100}}100% 25
  • Bold indicates a move that gets STAB when used by Missingno.
  • Italic indicates a move that gets STAB only when used by an Evolution of Missingno.
  • Click on the generation numbers at the top to see level-up moves from other generations

By TM/HM

Generation I
Other generations:
None
 TM   Move   Type   Power   Accuracy   PP 
Bag TM Normal Sprite.png TM01 Mega Punch Normal 80 85% 20
Bag TM Normal Sprite.png TM02 Razor Wind Normal 80 100% 10
Bag TM Normal Sprite.png TM03 Swords Dance Normal —% 30
Bag TM Normal Sprite.png TM05 Mega Kick Normal 100 75% 5
Bag TM Poison Sprite.png TM06 Toxic Poison 85% 10
Bag TM Normal Sprite.png TM09 Take Down Normal 90 85% 20
Bag TM Normal Sprite.png TM10 Double-Edge Normal 120 100% 15
Bag TM Water Sprite.png TM11 BubbleBeam Water 65 100% 20
Bag TM Ice Sprite.png TM13 Ice Beam Ice 95 100% 10
Bag TM Ice Sprite.png TM14 Blizzard Ice 120 70% 5
Bag TM Fighting Sprite.png TM17 Submission Fighting 80 80% 25
Bag TM Fighting Sprite.png TM19 Seismic Toss Fighting 100% 20
Bag TM Normal Sprite.png TM20 Rage Normal 20 100% 20
Bag TM Electric Sprite.png TM25 Thunder Electric 120 70% 10
Bag TM Ground Sprite.png TM26 Earthquake Ground 100 100% 10
Bag TM Ground Sprite.png TM27 Fissure Ground 30% 5
Bag TM Psychic Sprite.png TM29 Psychic Psychic 90 100% 10
Bag TM Psychic Sprite.png TM30 Teleport Psychic —% 20
Bag TM Flying Sprite.png TM43 Sky Attack Flying 140 90% 5
Bag TM Psychic Sprite.png TM44 Rest Psychic —% 10
Bag TM Electric Sprite.png TM45 Thunder Wave Electric 100% 20
Bag TM Normal Sprite.png TM49 Tri Attack Normal 80 100% 10
Bag TM Normal Sprite.png TM50 Substitute Normal —% 10
Bag HM Normal Sprite.png HM01 Cut Normal 50 95% 30
Bag HM Flying Sprite.png HM02 Fly Flying 70 95% 15
  • Bold indicates a move that gets STAB when used by Missingno.
  • Italic indicates a move that gets STAB only when used by an Evolution of Missingno.
Kabutops Fossil, Aerodactyl Fossil and Ghost forms

The TM/HM learnset of the Kabutops Fossil, Aerodactyl Fossil and Ghost forms are the same as the Pokémon whose data was accessed last.

Generation I
Other generations:
None
 TM   Move   Type   Power   Accuracy   PP 
This Pokémon learns no moves by TM.
  • Bold indicates a move that gets STAB when used by Missingno.
  • Italic indicates a move that gets STAB only when used by an Evolution of Missingno.

Evolution

Most index nos.
Missingno RB.png
RGB
Missingno.
 Bird  Normal 

Most index nos.
Missingno Y.png
Yellow
Missingno.
 Normal  999 


182
Ghost I.png
Ghost
Missingno.
 Bird  Normal 

File:Z glitch yellow.png
Unevolved
Z ゥ
 Normal 
Rare Candy
Level 224


MissingNo. Z Yellow.png
First Evolution
Missingno.
 ??? 

This Missingno. is hex B8, the Ghost form.

183
Spr 1b 142 f.png
Aerodactyl Fossil
Missingno.
 Bird  Normal 

184
Spr 1b 141 f.png
Kabutops Fossil
Missingno.
 Bird  Normal 

Trivia

  • If counted among normal Pokémon, the typical 'normal form' Missingno. have the highest Attack base stat of all valid Pokémon in Red and Blue. This is the thirteenth highest of all Pokémon, not including other glitch Pokémon as of Generation V.
    • Likewise, the 'normal form' Missingno. have the lowest Defense base stat of any Pokémon, again not including other glitch Pokémon and the third lowest Speed base stat in Red and Blue.
      • The Pokémon Yellow normal form Missingno. have 0 base speed. This ties with various Generation I glitch Pokémon for the lowest base Speed stat.
  • Missingno. is much heavier than any regular Pokémon. Missingno. is about four times heavier than 'M. Missingno. is about half the weight of h POKé, the heaviest known Pokémon of any kind.
  • Missingno.'s height is 10'0". 'M is more than twice as tall as Missingno. This makes Missingno. the 19th tallest Pokémon when compared to non-glitch Pokémon.
  • In its normal form, it has the same learnset as 'M, except that 'M cannot learn Substitute via TM50 and Missingno. cannot learn Pound.
  • Normal form Missingno.'s stats in Red and Blue are actually determined by the parties of several Bikers, read as base stats.
  • Missingno. is the only glitch Pokémon in Generation I whose English name is entirely composed of typographical characters. Although other glitch Pokémon such as Trainer and C may appear to be entirely composed of typographical characters, they contain illegible characters which change depending on the current tileset loaded into memory.

Name origin

Missingno.'s English and Japanese names are both derived from "missing number".

External links

References

Red/Blue: 'M (00)MissingNo.▶ Aaゥ (C1)ゥ .4h POKé
PokéWTrainerPkMn (C5)ゥL ゥM 4♀Pゥ ゥゥTゥU?◣ゥ 8PC4SH
PPkMn ◣ nTrainer▼ W G dOPkMn4XPkMn PkMn T4B 8 4 8
ゥ 'M p'u ゥAゥ GPゥ ゥ ゥ4 hGlitch (D7)PkMnaPkMnゥ ♂ fPkMnk
PkMnRPkMn "B (DA)Glitch (DB)Glitch (DC)7PkMn 'v-PkMn.PkMn
/PkMn ▼PkMn'v……ゥ (E3)Glitch (E4)C- -
Pゥ 4$X CcA (EA)Glitch (EB)Glitch (EC)hゥ
.gゥ$'Mゥ$ (F0)94ゥ l (F2)ゥ l (F3)ゥ$ (F4)
ゥ (F5)G'Mp'Ng'Mp'Ng ゥ$94 hGlitch (FA)'M 'N gO
ゥ$ 6ゥ'M (FE)'M (FF)
Yellow: 3TrainerPoké $MissingNo.4 44 4 Hy♀ .pPkMnp' 'ゥ ( Z4
X ゥ- xゥ,4. .ァ7gug gァ / g J 1Glitch (CA)
. pゥ.8ゥ. BPkMn pゥぁ ゥぇ (CE)4, ゥァ (CF)ゥ'B ァ h
PkMn ? Aゥゥ)ゥ (D4)'ゥ.PkMn pゥぁ ゥぇ (D6)B (D7)PkMn (D8)
ゥ (D9)]ゥ' BPkMn (DC)4, ゥァ (DD)8 (DE)p ID
8 P ァ'r 'r 4(h4to894 89 48B 4 8Z ゥ9
ゥHIゥ.4(h4hi?$4HI?'r ゥ$ Pゥ. 4(?/4(h4?
ゥ► ゥ▼ ゥh 4Pゥ ゥ.... ゥ ( .I' .' B' ゥゥ ゥェ ゥ ▷ゥ $ A (F3)♂ p ゥ
▼ pゥゥ $ A (F6)PkMn (F7)ゥ 4- 4$ゥ▾ ゥ♂F q ,
ゥ$ 4MN ゥ× 'rゥ. 4-ゥ/ 4ァ 4,Q ◣
Generation II: ????? (00GSFCGSFEGSFFGS00CFCCFECFFC)
Glitch EggGlitch Unown
Generation III: -???????????Bad Egg
Generation IV: -----Bad EggGeneration IV hybrid
Generation V: -----Bad EggGlitch Unown
Generation VI: Bad EggGeneration VI 724+ glitch Pokémon


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