List of glitches in Generation II

This is a list of glitches that occur in the Generation II Pokémon games.

Gold, Silver, and Crystal

Battle system

Belly Drum effect

When a Pokémon uses Belly Drum, its HP is deducted by 50% and its Attack stat raised by up to 12 stages, ensuring that even the Attack stat of a Pokémon with an Attack stage of -6 can be maximized. This is accomplished through executing the command used by Swords Dance by a maximum of 6 times; however, the command is erroneously called once before verifying that HP of the user can be deducted by 50%. This means that if the user doesn't have enough HP to use the move, the Attack stat will be incorrectly boosted by 2 stages. The game will state that the attack has failed.

By Dukstless

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

Catch rate

The status conditions of paralysis, burn, and poison increase the catch rate by 0 as opposed to by 5.

The Love Ball only gains a catch rate of 8× on Pokémon of the same gender and species as the player's Pokémon, rather than on Pokémon of the opposite gender.

The Moon Ball is supposed to multiply the catch rate by 4 on Pokémon that evolve with Moon Stone but instead does this on Pokémon that evolve with Burn Heal, as the game uses the index number that Moon Stone has in Generation I, rather than Generation II. Consequently, Moon Ball does not have any additional effect and always acts like a Poké Ball.

The Fast Ball is supposed to quadruple the catch rate against all wild Pokémon that can flee (a mechanic unique to Generation II), but only does this for three of them: Magnemite, Grimer, and Tangela. additionally, the Fast Ball has no boosted success rate on Raikou, Entei, and Suicune (when roaming), which it was likely intended to do.

Dragon Fang effect

The Dragon Scale boosts the power of Dragon-type moves rather than the Dragon Fang.

In Pokémon Stadium 2, the Dragon Fang boosts Dragon-type moves as intended, while the Dragon Scale has no in-battle effect.

Dude glitches

If the Dude is prompted to show the tutorial of catching Pokémon when the player has a full box, the game will glitch. Effects vary based on the language/version of the game, with the effects in Gold/Silver being more minor (in the English version it is possible to briefly see a HUD with a Level 0 male ?????, but not freeze the game), except in Korean Gold/Silver which may cause a post-battle sprite misalignment glitch without a freeze. Since the dude won't show the tutorial after the player has caught a Pokémon, but the event will activate when the player walks on a specific tile on Route 29, the way to perform this glitch is the following:

1. Start a new game and advance until Silver battles the player for the first time.
2. Heal in the Cherrygrove's Pokemon Center.
3. Poison the starter. The way to poison it varies depending of the game: either the player can encounter a Spinarak during the night^GS or a Weedle during the morning^SC in Route 30, and let it poison the starter.
4. Deliver the Egg to Elm.
5. Walk either inside the lab or in New Bark Town until the starter faints and the player is teleported to Cherrygrove City, effectively skipping the catching tutorial.
6. Fill up the box in the PC.
7. Return to Route 29 and walk as if going to New Bark Town.
8. In the edge, the Dude will be prompted to show the player the catching tutorial; accept the tutorial.
9. The game will glitch when the Dude selects a Poké Ball.

The dude money glitch only occurs in the German version of Pokémon Crystal.

Exp. Share formula

A Pokémon with the same original Trainer as the player that is sent into battle with an Exp. Share held will gain 50% of the experience twice, which, due to rounding, may not equal 100%.

Experience amount

A Pokémon that gains an amount of experience consisting of five digits will not have the number displayed correctly. This is possible with an outsider Pokémon holding a Lucky Egg used at the Trainer House. The lowest opponent level required for achieving such feat is 82 for Pokémon with an experience yield of 255, and the lowest experience yield with which this is feasible is 208.

By Dukstless

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

Experience underflow

Main article: Experience#Experience underflow glitch

Level 1 Pokémon using the "medium-slow" growth algorithm will jump from level 1 to level 100 after gaining a low amount of experience points (less than 54 if the total experience is 0).

By TTEchidna

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

HP bar animation

A Pokémon with 49 HP or more will deplete the HP bar at a slower rate than intended when taking damage. Due to an issue with the order of the code within the game, a value that would help to set a delay that was partially dependent on the maximum HP of the Pokémon, sets instead a constant delay that does not change with different HP values. This results in extra delays in the animation updating and prolongs the animation of the bar dropping.

A Pokémon with 48 HP or less is not affected as each HP is equal to one or more pixels of the HP bar, thus skipping any delay.

By Crystal_

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

Leveling past 100

If a Pokémon is obtained at a level above 100 (101-254), it can be leveled up with Rare Candies up to level 255. If a Rare Candy is fed to a level 255 Pokémon, its level will reset to 0. If a Pokémon above level 100 levels up due to experience, its level will be reset to 100.

Lock-On/Mind Reader oversight

When Lock-On or Mind Reader are in effect, the moves Attract, Curse, Foresight, Mean Look, Mimic, Nightmare, Spider Web and Transform cannot hit targets in the semi-invulnerable turn of Fly or Dig, and moves cannot lower stats of targets in the semi-invulnerable turn of Fly or Dig (status moves such as String Shot will fail, and additional effects of moves such as Bubble will not activate).

Menu scrolling oversight

A flag (bit 0 of memory address FFAC) in memory determines whether options can be scrolled through by holding a direction on the d-pad rather than simply pressing it, which is used by menus such as the bag. This flag is normally unset after closing the menu, and is not usually set in battle menus, meaning the player must tap through battle move menus instead of holding a direction.

Watching the staff credits after defeating Red keeps the bit set, allowing the battle options to be scrolled through. This effect is cleared however after resetting the game and reloading the save, which is probably a reason why the glitch does not work with credits triggered by entering the Hall of Fame (which resets the game afterwards).

By ChicksaurusGL

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

Opponent Full Heal and Full Restore oversight

If an opposing Trainer uses a Full Heal to cure their Pokémon, it will not be cured of Nightmare (even after waking up from sleep) or of confusion.

If an opposing Trainer uses a Full Restore to cure their Pokémon, it will not be cured of Nightmare (even after waking up from sleep). However, it will be cured of confusion.

The Full Heal and Full Restore properly cure a Pokémon of both Nightmare and confusion if used by the player.

By ChickasaurusGL

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

Park Ball graphics corruption

If the Park Ball is used from the Ball pocket of the player's Bag on a wild Pokémon, the game will not reload the graphics on the battle screen, causing a temporary glitch in which part of both the Bag and battle screens mix up until the Pokémon catching animation is over, at which point the game will show the battle screen being reloaded.

By SatoMew

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

Present damage

Main article: Present (move)#Generation II

In Pokémon Gold and Silver, the move Present has a damage formula of its own. This causes the level, Attack, and Defense variables of the regular damage formula to be replaced. Thus, the move deals unusually large or small amounts of damage, depending on the Pokémon. Additionally, Present calculates type-effectiveness twice, which causes Present to only inflict a quarter of the normal damage against Rock-type and Steel-type Pokémon.

In Pokémon Crystal, both bugs were fixed for regular battles by having Present use the standard damage formula. The old formula from Gold and Silver is still used during link battles to preserve backwards compatibility. This was fixed entirely in Pokémon Stadium 2.

By ChickasaurusGL

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

Pursuit-Revival glitch

Using a Revive, Max Revive or Rare Candy on a Pokémon that fainted from Pursuit after a switch will revive the Pokémon with the non-volatile status it had before fainting. This applies both to healing inside and outside of battle.

By ChickasaurusGL

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

Sandstorm Spikes glitch

	This glitch is in need of research. Reason: Is there a party position/permutation of switches or anything that causes this not to work? Do Poké Dolls work? Does party count matter? What happens exactly when the fainted team's health is later restored? Why is it "rematching trainers in the grass" may not work? You can discuss this on the talk page.

This glitch occurs with a Pokémon in a Sandstorm which faints, when there are active Spikes against the player's Pokémon. Sending out three more Pokémon in succession which will immediately faint from the Spikes, can result in the last Pokémon surviving but with 0 HP. The player can then proceed to escape the battle (i.e. with a successful catch), and every Pokémon will remain in the party with 0 HP. White outs may not occur.

This glitch leads to other derivative sub-glitches, such as the previously known 'instant victory' effect (also used by "any%" speedrunners in the past with arbitrary code execution or bad cloning); in which entering any battle causes it to end (of the partial sort; the battle ends before the Pokémon is sent out rather than the start of the battle itself), effectively allowing the player to always win.

By ChickasaurusGL

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

SRAM clear errors

An internal function in the code for wiping the save file known unofficially as "ClearWRAM" does not function correctly. It may be worth noting, there are more specific glitches in the game, such as "Hall of Fame SRAM glitch" (box 2+ data becomes invalid, and allows the player to ultimately obtain glitch Pokémon and ????? without bad cloning, if the player clears the save file and enters the Hall of Fame without saving in between). This glitch is loosely similar to Generation I SRAM glitches related to impartial clearing, such as the "ghost Bicycle" phenomenon, "save abuse" and string names leftover from the previous save file with - (move). Another SRAM glitch is the Japanese Poké Communications Center SRAM glitch (mentioned at the header Pokémon Communication Center, though that one is related to exhausted or broken save batteries).

Stat rollover glitch

If a Pokémon's effective stat would exceed 1024, the Pokémon's stat is decreased by 1024 (for a minimum stat of 1) during damage calculation only. While most methods to increase stats cap at 999, the Thick Club, Light Ball, and Metal Powder do not.

While it is possible for this to occur for all of these items, this most readily occurs with Marowak (since Pikachu and Ditto require stat boosts to be received via Baton Pass for this to occur). If a Marowak with an Attack stat of at least 256 uses Swords Dance while holding a Thick Club, its Attack will be reduced by 1024 (minimum 1) during damage calculation only.

During damage calculation, if the attacker's (Special) Attack or the defender's (Special) Defense is higher than 255, both are temporarily divided by 4, then (regardless of whether the stats were quartered) both the attacker's (Special) Attack stat and the defender's (Special) Defense stat are taken modulo 256. Thus, stats that are greater than or equal to 1024 (256×4) will be treated incorrectly.

In Pokémon Crystal, this bug was fixed for regular battles but still occurs during link battles to preserve backwards compatibility. This was fixed entirely in Pokémon Stadium 2.

Trainer Counter/Mirror Coat damage

In Trainer battles only, if the player uses a healing item or a Poké Ball during the same turn as the opponent's Counter or Mirror Coat, their damage will be of at least 4 HP, twice the minimum standard damage for neutral moves (2 HP).

By Crystal_

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

Transform glitches

Main article: Transform glitches

Time Capsule

Time Capsule exploit

Main article: Time Capsule exploit

The Time Capsule exploit works around the programming checks put in place on the Time Capsule to prevent players from trading Generation II Pokémon to Generation I games.

Trade evolution learnset

Generation I Pokémon that evolve by trading can be taught glitch moves. This can be achieved by trading such Pokémon from a Generation I game to a Generation II game at a level where its evolved form will learn a move not present in Generation I. Trading the Pokémon back to the Generation I game will cause the move to become a glitch move.

For example, trading a level 34 Graveler from Pokémon Red to Pokémon Gold will cause the Graveler to evolve into Golem. Since it is at level 34, it will learn Rollout in Gold. If it is then traded back to Red, it will still have the move but the game won't recognize it properly since it is a Generation II move, so it will become TM05.

Other

Celebi Egg glitch

Main article: Celebi Egg glitch

Day Care experience loss

In this generation only, when a Pokémon is withdrawn from the Day Care, its experience is rounded down to the minimum value for the current level.

As a result, a Pokémon can lose experience in the Day Care. This can be verified by depositing and withdrawing a Pokémon in the Day Care without increasing its level, and comparing how much experience this Pokémon had before and after the Day Care. If this Pokémon had any experience besides the minimum required for its level, it loses that amount of experience.

Interregional Teleport quirk

If the player travels to either Kanto or Johto in the S.S. Aqua and then teleports, they will be taken to either the Vermilion or Olivine Pokémon Center as opposed to the last Pokémon Center they used in either region. This does not occur with the Magnet Train. If the player loses a battle during their trip, they will be sent to their cabin instead.

By SM

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

S.S. Aqua map glitch

Initial state of the Pokégear map on the S.S. Aqua, erroneously showing the player's current place as New Bark Town

If the player uses the Pokégear map while travelling on S.S. Aqua, the ship appears as a small sprite at the bottom-right corner. However, the map cursor erroneously selects New Bark Town by default as the player's current place.

It is not possible to select S.S. Aqua in the map. The feature to select S.S. Aqua in the map is technically programmed in the game, but not actually available to the player.

Legendary beast cry distortion

When the player checks Entei's Pokédex entry, plays its cry, and then immediately switches to either Suicune's or Raikou's entries, their cry will be distorted.

Pokémon cloning

Main article: Cloning glitches#Storage system method

Main article: Cloning glitches#Trading method

Strain 0 Pokérus

Main article: Pokérus → Generation_II

Pokérus strain values of zero can be generated by the Pokérus generation algorithm with probability 15/255. The primary cause is an incorrectly-placed scratch register copy which expresses when the high four bits are zero. In this case, a part of the logic is skipped, and because the bit test cleared the lower four bits and the higher bits are zero, a value of zero is copied to the scratch register, whose low bits become the strain. The day count of one is then derived from this zero as normal.

Strain zero in Generation II behaves almost as normal: it is visible in the status screen, it triggers the Nurse Joy and Professor Elm dialogues, it spreads as normal, it increases stat experience gain as normal, and it is cured over time as normal. The lone abnormality is that when strain zero is cured, it does not leave the Pokémon in a post-infection state, but in a state as if it had never been infected, like if traded to a Generation I game: it can catch Pokérus again, does not block Pokérus spread, and does not have increased stat experience gain.

Gold and Silver

Bug-Catching Contest

Main article: Bug-Catching Contest glitch

In the Japanese versions of Pokémon Gold and Silver, if the player uses Fly or Teleport to leave the National Park during a Bug-Catching Contest, the game will treat the contest as still ongoing.

This may also be used to create unstable Pokémon data.

By ChickasaurusGL

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

Cerulean Gym

This bug was carried over from Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue. In Cerulean Gym, the water tiles have wild Pokémon data programmed in, which allows players to fish Pokémon. It was already corrected in Pokémon Yellow and it was fixed again in Pokémon Crystal. This likely happened because while Yellow came out after Red and Blue did, Red and Blue were already being used as the base of Gold and Silver due to Yellow not existing yet.

Coin Case

Main article: Coin Case glitches

The Coin Case glitches are a set of glitches which occur exclusively in the English versions of Pokémon Gold and Silver. They allow the player to run arbitrary code by exploiting an oversight in the process used by the game to print the text box data for the Coin Case.

When the game is played on the Game Boy or Super Game Boy instead of the Game Boy Color, the effects caused by the oversight are more limited.

Encore-Disobedience

	This glitch is in need of research. Reason: Technical information such as the cause is wanted, spading (for example, does it only occur with transformed Pokémon?/can it disobey in every way) as well as confirmation on which versions it occurs in (as it was assumed to be Japan-only after disassembly research regarding the Japanese version). You can discuss this on the talk page.

This glitch involves the move Encore and an outsider Pokémon. If the outsider Pokémon is locked in to a move under Encore, it may still disobey the player. While under Encore, a game freeze or glitch dimension can occur after the Pokémon disobeys the player.

By ChickasaurusGL

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

Present text overflow

If Present is used by the player's Pokémon on a Pokémon with 8 or more characters in its name, e.g. Venusaur, and the game tries to heal the foe, but fails due to them having full HP, the “n't” will appear between the first and second lines. Result:

Enemy VENUSAUR ca
n't
receive the gift!

Trainer House

Main article: Trainer House glitches

Crystal

Battle Tower text glitch

In v1.0 of English Pokémon Crystal (and not v1.1), a glitch causes enemy Trainers in the Battle Tower to always use the texts of female Trainers. This is due to the game attempting to use the sixth character of the Trainer's name to determine the gender.

Clair gift glitch

In Crystal, if the player whites out due to poison damage while still inside the Dragon Shrine at Dragon's Den after receiving the Rising Badge, they can return to the Blackthorn Gym to receive the reward TM from Clair. However, due to an oversight, if the player then returns to Dragon's Den and stands on the tile directly in front of the Dragon Shrine's door, Clair will appear again and give the player another TM24 (DragonBreath), as if they hadn't already received it.

By ChickasaurusGL

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

Heavy Ball junk data glitch

In Crystal, the Heavy Ball's algorithm incorrectly retrieves the weights of Kadabra, Tauros, and Sunflora, causing them to become junk data that is interpreted as massive weight, giving these Pokémon +40 capture modifier.

Legendary beasts incomplete OT check

In Crystal, when the player talks to Eusine in the Celadon City Pokémon Center he will report a rumor that a rainbow colored Pokémon has appeared in Tin Tower (Ho-Oh) and leave the building when Suicune, Raikou or Entei appear in the party and/or storage boxes with OT and ID data matching that of the player. Due to a glitch, the English version of Crystal will only check the first five characters of the player's name. For example, if the player's name was “CRYSTAL”, then having the legendary beasts with the OT name “CRYST” and a matching ID of the player will enable the event. This is due to the player names in the original Japanese version being a maximum of five characters long and the English version failing to account for the change.

By ChickasaurusGL

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

Pokémon Communication Center

In the Japanese version of Pokémon Crystal, address $A800 in SRAM triggers a script in the Pokémon Communication Center that may be arbitrarily set to values other than 0x00 when the game does not currently have a save file; otherwise, its value is correctly set to 0x00. This causes all sort of bugs, like crashes, freezes, and other random behavior.

While the purpose of this script is not known, it appears to be related to the Mobile System GB. In the localizations, although the related code is unused, this issue was fixed by adding a check that looks up the value of address $A800 and automatically resets it to 0x00.

By ChickasaurusGL

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

Dude money glitch

On the German cartridge version of Crystal, when doing the Dude glitch, trying to use the Poké Ball shows:

Die POKéMON-BOX
ist voll. Das
kannst du jetzt
nicht benutzen.

This message also glitches the left side of the screen. Another message is shown:

KUMPEL hebt
$###### auf!

If the tutorial is accepted again, the player is left with $999999.

By ChickasaurusGL

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

Dude freezing glitch

On the Virtual Console release of German Crystal, if the player has full boxes while the dude wants to present how to catch Pokémon, the game will freeze. Other languages of Crystal freeze or reset the game with the 'Game Boy Color only' message in different ways.

Stadium 2

Pokémon Stadium 2 fixed the following bugs from Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal:

• Dragon Fang effect
• Present damage
• Stat rollover glitch

Infinite continues

This occurs with any Stadium Cup. If there is a previously suspended game and the player is playing a Stadium Cup, suspending the game after a loss causes a warning message to pop up, telling the player that there is already a suspended game. If "Continue without Suspending" is selected, a rematch with the opponent who just defeated the player will be triggered, but no continue will be used.

Pokédex data localization

Due to a localization oversight, using the Transfer Pak with the English versions of Pokémon Stadium 2 and Pokémon Blue and looking up the locations of wild Pokémon in the Pokédex will instead load the corresponding data for the Japanese version.

By ChickasaurusGL

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

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