Top Ten In-Game Glitches and Their Potential Competitive Impacts

By Aaronboyer. Released: 2019/07/31

Introduction

Nearly every single video game, no matter their genre, no matter their platform, is released with a few unintentional bugs or quirks. These are more commonly known as glitches, and the Pokémon franchise is no exception to having them. Many can recall the most famous Pokémon glitch, Missingno., but there are many more glitches that do much more than mess up your Hall of Fame records and can affect many more generations of Pokémon beyond the confines of a single Game Boy cartridge. While some Pokémon-related glitches have uses for speedrunning or other miscellaneous effects, other glitches can warp a competitive Pokémon metagame in unbelievably disastrous ways. While precautions have been put in place to prevent most unintended mechanics stemmed from glitches to be allowed in competitive play, today we're going to be looking at just some of these potentially metagame-breaking glitches and their impacts on the competitive scene.

10. Symbiosis Eject Button Glitch (Gen 6)

Symbiosis is deemed by many to be one of the most useless abilities of the sixth generation. It was only usable in Doubles formats when most of the cartridge gameplay was Singles, and at the time, Symbiosis was limited to just the Florges line. However, this ability produced strange results when used in combination with an adjacent Eject Button user. Florges's Symbiosis ability, for some strange reason, seemed to activate after the Eject Button user had already swapped out. This may at first appear to be just a graphical glitch and not affect gameplay at all, but lo and behold, the Eject Button user's newly passed item now has its effects doubled, or even, in the case of Leftovers, quadrupled! This glitch was not banned from tournament play, nor was it patched by Nintendo until generation seven, which makes sense. From a competitive standpoint, Florges wasn't that great in Battle Spot Doubles, VGC, or any other notable Doubles tournaments, and there was a very limited number of viable Eject Button users. However, just the concept of item bonuses stacking in this way is kind of mind-boggling. Leftovers would restore 25% of a Pokémon's health, and, when used in combination with Protect, it would restore 50%! Certain items such as a Choice Band, Choice Scarf, Choice Specs, and Assault Vest would also seem to stack without any additional consequences. Unfortunately, the benefits of item stacking were far outweighed by the unconventional strategies that needed to be pulled off successfully to trigger the glitch. It's incredibly broken in theory, but not broken whatsoever in practice.

9. Mew and Celebi Glitches (Gens 1-2)

Mew and Celebi are fundamental parts of the RBY and GSC Ubers metagames. They were among the small handful of Pokémon above OU in the first two generations and played pivotal roles: Mew as a Swords Dance sweeper and Celebi as a Snorlax-checking support Pokémon. However, their limited distribution outside of in-person Japanese-only events made them extremely hard to come by. Fortunately, glitches were discovered so that you could find these Pokémon in-game without their events. Mew can be encountered by first walking in front of a Trainer such as the one in the grass on the left of Route 24 at the same time as opening the start menu and then using Teleport or an Escape Rope. You then need to battle a Trainer that not only has a Pokémon with the correct Special stat of 21 but can also walk up to you such as the Youngster on Route 25 with the Slowpoke. You then return to Route 24 where your start menu pops up without you pressing Start. Pressing Start to exit the menu initiates a battle with Mew. Battling against a Pokémon with a different Special stat besides 21 will let you encounter other Pokémon, many of which are glitch Pokémon, which we'll discuss in further detail about later.

Now, we've arrived in Johto, and there are multiple ways of finding Celebi. While arbitrary code execution and Coin Case methods exist, perhaps the easiest way to obtain Celebi is by using bad clones to hatch one. By taking two Sneasel of opposite genders, each with Beat Up as their third move, making bad clones of them in the PC, and dropping them off at the Day Care, an Egg can be collected and hatched into a Celebi. This occurs because Beat Up is the 251st move registered in the game's memory and Celebi is the 251st Pokémon. Now with Mew and Celebi in hand, you can bring these two Pokémon to Link Battles and use them against people who are expecting to be only be playing with Pokémon obtainable normally in-game, giving you a significant advantage. It's important to note that without these glitches, Mew and Celebi would be pretty much legally unobtainable on cartridge. Thankfully, however, we can continue to enjoy RBY and GSC Ubers with these Pokémon intact for years to come.

8. Giratina Forme Change and Non-EV-restricted Arceus Glitches (Gen 4)

Continuing with the Ubers theme, we now travel over to the Sinnoh region, where two other legendary Pokémon await us wanting to drastically alter the DPP Ubers metagame. The first of these is Giratina and its other forme Giratina-O, which, by adding or removing its held Griseous Orb while in the player's Pokémon party in the PC, can maintain the base stats of its other forme. This continues even after the game has been saved, meaning these swapped formes of Giratina could be realistically taken to Wi-Fi battles. Imagine having to face an even bulkier variant of Substitute + Calm Mind Giratina-O or a Choice item Giratina that's simulating a non-Griseous Orb restricted Giratina-O.

Tweaking in DPP and even in HGSS was a widely known glitch, usually performed by hopping on a bike and zipping around in specific ways to load and unload certain parts of the overworld. Most famously, this trick allowed players to encounter Darkrai and Shaymin in Diamond and Pearl while also saving some time speedrunning in all of the fourth generation games. Fairly recently, however, a method was discovered to encounter Arceus without the need for an Azure Flute. More importantly, this Arceus wasn't EV restricted, allowing bulkier formes such as Arceus-Steel and Arceus-Ghost to take shape while more offensively-inclined formes such as Arceus and Arceus-Ground became faster and more powerful. Both Giratina and Arceus glitches were highly contested among Old Gens DPP council members and DPP Ubers enthusiasts alike, although the eventual decision was for both of these Pokémon to remain unusable. This was because they would rapidly and profusely change a metagame from over 10 years ago, and first and foremost, these were still considered glitches.

7. Acid Rain Glitch (Gen 4)

In real life, acidic rainfall can be extremely dangerous for plants, animals, and their ecosystems, and is usually attributed to air pollution. Acid rain in Pokémon, however, is attributed to what might be the weirdest in-game glitch, where all weather conditions appear simultaneously. The glitch is triggered when sun, hail, sand, Trick Room, or Gravity is in play, and during its duration a Pokémon faints to Pursuit as it switches out. When the glitch is triggered, fog appears and each player's Pokémon is hurt by their ability similar to the text animation of Solar Power during sun. Then, hail appears and damages both side's Pokémon, subsequently followed by sun, sand, and rain hurting them. While the scenario for this to happen is quite situational, it can't be understated how important losing 30% of a Pokémon's health at the end of a turn is. Other important effects include Thunder and Blizzard both having perfect accuracy at the same time and Castform and Cherrim infinitely changing formes creating endless battles. But most importantly, if the concept of acid rain became more of a mainstay, competitive metagames would overcentralize around the fastest Chlorophyll and Swift Swim users, namely Pokémon such as Jumpluff and Floatzel (Sand Rush and Slush Rush didn't exist at the time). People may consider generation five to be the generation of weather wars, but once this glitch triggers and all four weather conditions are present at the same time, one might consider giving that title to generation four instead.

6. Pokémon Merge Glitch (Gen 1)

Did you know that Mew isn't the only Pokémon able to be found using the Mew glitch? As stated before, using different Special stats besides just 21 can produce different results. Using a slightly different approach than the method we used to get Mew described above and a Pokémon in our party with a Special stat of 192, we'll be able to find a glitch Pokémon known as 4 4 Hy, which will evolve into the Pokémon we want for the Pokémon Merge glitch, Q ◣. It should be noted that once you've reached a special stat in the mid- to late-100s into the 200s, catchable glitch Pokémon and challengeable glitch Trainers are more commonly found until you hit 256 and the game starts over from 0. To start, encounter the same Trainer on Route 24 and hit the Start button on the same frame to access the menu and be able to use Fly. Fly away anywhere with a nearby Trainer you can face and challenge them. After presumably winning, the Start menu should be accessible again. Then Fly over to Cinnabar Mansion where we want to encounter Ditto. Purposefully allowing Ditto to transform into our party member with a Special stat of 192, essentially allows to manipulate and face a Pokémon with whatever Special stat we want or need, in this case, the one to get 4 4 Hy. After catching or defeating Ditto, Fly back to Route 24 to face and capture 4 4 Hy. After feeding it enough Rare Candies or by other means leveling it up to Level 6 or higher, 4 4 Hy will evolve into Q ◣. Now that we've done all the work to find Q ◣, we can start performing the Pokémon Merge glitch.

By having at least one Pokémon above Q ◣ and two Pokémon below Q ◣ in your Pokémon party, you can deposit all the Pokémon above Q ◣ as well as Q ◣ into your PC, and Q ◣ will force the two Pokémon below it to combine. The donor Pokémon, the Pokémon that was directly below Q ◣, will pass its moveset and stats to the receiver, the Pokémon two slots below Q ◣. This allowed Pokémon with wide movepools and great stats, particularly Mew and Mewtwo, to donate to OU powerhouses such as Jynx, Exeggutor, Alakazam, and Tauros. While any Pokémon could receive these movesets and stats, giving them to Pokémon in OU disguises the fact you are using the glitch, similar to what you would see with Zoroark's Illusion. The concept of fusing two Pokémon was way ahead of its time, predating Pokémon Black 2 and White 2's Kyurem fusions by over 15 years. Tauros could use Bubble Beam on Golem and Rhydon or Self-Destruct at a moment's notice, Jynx could set up with Amnesia and start dishing out Blizzards, and Rhydon could Swords Dance and Soft-Boiled to its heart's content. Allowing these unstable hybrid Pokémon into the competitive scene would drastically alter the metagame, not knowing what Pokémon was actually in front of you.

5. Sky Drop Glitch (Gen 5)

The next glitch occurred in the BW Doubles format involving the use of the move Sky Drop. A new TM to the generation, Sky Drop would normally have one Pokémon send its target into the air for it to be launched back down the following turn. This wouldn't be too overly useful if it weren't for the unintended mechanics when Gravity comes into play. If Gravity is used while two Pokémon are in the air half-way through using Sky Drop, they'll both return to the field as expected, but the target of Sky Drop will not be able to select a move or switch out. This is absolutely disastrous for the opponent, as their other Pokémon will be ganged up on two-to-one while the Sky Drop-locked foe remains a sitting duck. Despite its somewhat convoluted nature, Sky Drop and Gravity would have made a huge splash for all the wrong reasons in Doubles tournament play, and as such Sky Drop was banned by Nintendo in Battle Spot Doubles and VGC '11-'13, and by Smogon and Pokémon Showdown on their BW Doubles ladders, which is kind of unique considering it could have just been patched.

4. Sketch and Metronome Glitches (Gen 1-2)

Smeargle was one of the most interesting Pokémon to make their debut in the second generation. In large part, this was due to its signature move, Sketch, which permanently copied the last move used by the opponent. This alone would radically alter the competitive scene if Smeargle's base stats had not been such a tremendous letdown. However, Smeargle is not the only Pokémon capable of utilizing Sketch. In what's known as the Sketch Glitch, a Pokémon that knows Transform can morph into a Pokémon with Sketch and permanently copy a move for their own. This is most optimally done when facing off against one of the Smeargle in the Trainer House. Unfortunately, this was still rather niche, as the glitch was only extended to Transform users: Ditto and Mew.

However, the glitch could be further distributed to a small selection due to Metronome's status as a TM in generation one, forward and backwards compatibility with generation two games, and the rare but possible chance that Metronome could randomly select Transform. All of a sudden, Alakazam and Mewtwo could become the fastest Spore users, Snorlax could use Extreme Speed, and Mew could set up Spikes. If these glitches were allowed, RBY and GSC competitive metagames would devolve and heavily overcentralize around the same Pokémon using otherwise illegal moves they've obtained from one of these two glitches in a Balanced Hackmons sort of format. However, because the GSC games were backwards compatible, Pokémon affected by the Sketch and Metronome glitches could donate their movesets and stats to another Pokémon in RBY in combination with the Pokémon Merge glitch. Most unfortunate of all, the majority of top-level Pokémon could also learn Metronome: Alakazam, Gengar, Snorlax, Golem, Jynx, Chansey, Mew, and Mewtwo. Unfortunately these glitches weren't tournament legal; however, they were good for easily beating your friends at recess. Who could find fault in that?

3. Glitch Pokémon and Items (Gen 1)

There are several more glitch Pokémon besides just 4 4 Hy and Q ◣ that exist. They all have their own unique stats, typings, and movepools (the latter two of which can have glitch typings and moves). However, most glitch Pokémon have wonky stats that make them unusual in competitive play. These are just some of the glitch Pokémon that would see competitive use if they were allowed.

.g (Bug / Glitch) is one of the scariest special attackers to ever exist. With its base 254 Special and base 121 Speed, .g can demolish foes with its perfect coverage of Thunderbolt and Blizzard as well as outpace huge threats such as Tauros, Starmie, and Alakazam. .g also has access to Soft-Boiled to reliably check special attackers throughout the game. However, .g also has absolutely garbage 14 / 12 defense stats, and its Attack is a whopping 0, meaning even though .g has access to Swords Dance, STAB Hyper Beam, STAB Tri Attack, and Submission, .g can't make use of any of it. Even against Chansey, +0 Explosion does less than 50%. Because of all of this, .g is extremely afraid of physical attackers such as Tauros and Snorlax, although it should be noted Golem gets blown back by Blizzard, and Tauros and Snorlax are not safe switch-ins either. All in all, .g has no reliable switch-ins due to its insane Special and Speed stats.

Second, .PkMn (Normal) isn't too exceptionally notable other than its blazing base 178 Speed and access to Hypnosis, making it the fastest Pokémon to learn a sleep-inducing move naturally. It also has access to Seismic Toss to make up for its pitiful attacking stats, or even STAB Wrap to trap foes indefinitely. However, due to its abysmal 37 / 40 / 19 bulk and reliance of connecting with Hypnosis, .PkMn wouldn't be a metagame staple.

Third, we have A ゥ G (Ghost / Poison). At first glance, A ゥ G doesn't seem overly notable. It has the same typing as Gengar, and it shares the exact same stats. Upon closer inspection, however, its access to moves such as Spore and Recover makes A ゥ G a total upgrade. A ゥ G also has a wide special movepool including Psychic, Thunderbolt, Fire Blast, and Aurora Beam, and it can boost its already sky-high base 130 Special with Growth. A ゥ G also has access to Explosion and a stronger, less accurate version of Explosion called TM09. A ゥ G would be an absolute nightmare to play against due to its vast coverage options and its ability to put any of its checks to sleep.

Next, Xゥ- xゥ (Normal / Glitch) has the highest base stat total of all Pokémon up to this point in Pokémon history at 686, which is off the charts compared to Mew's base stat total of 500 and Mewtwo's base stat total of 590 at the time. This was counteracted somewhat by its limited movepool and lack of recovery options; however, it still contained a variety of useful moves such as STAB Body Slam, STAB Wrap, Submission, Rock Slide, Thunderbolt, Waterfall, and Psychic. So while Xゥ- xゥ may seem at first to have the upper hand, its poor longevity would make it a welcome addition to the RBY Ubers metagame had it not been a glitch Pokémon.

Finally, we have 8F, which isn't a Pokémon but rather a glitch item that can be used to execute arbitrary code. 8F alone is the most game-breaking glitch of generation one competitively and can be utilized to reprogram the game to do nearly anything, from giving your Pokémon 255 in every stat, to giving them whatever moveset you want to, to giving them new types, you name it. This defeats competitive Pokémon at its core, although it's an extremely tedious process and it only affects generation one games, as far as stats and typing goes; it only affects generation two games concerning movesets of non-glitch Pokémon.

2. RNG Manipulation and Cute Charm Abuse (Gen 4-7)

Have you ever wondered how competitive Pokémon players were able to obtain legitimate Pokémon with the correct IVs, ability, optimal Hidden Power, nature, and shininess on cartridge? Most people may believe it takes a considerable amount of luck, but in actuality we have RNG manipulation to thank for this, which is a complex process of generating the correct seed, measuring delays, and calculating the precise number of frames. While RNG Manipulation and Cute Charm abuse in generation four technically are not glitches, they do benefit the player in ways unintended by Nintendo and have shaped the course of competitive Pokémon play ever since. Using programs such as RNG Reporter and filling out all the information on what your ideal perfect Pokémon would be, players can determine their desired seed and how much delay there would be. By performing such basic actions such as looking at the summary of Chatot with a custom cry, walking forward one step, or turning, the player can also manipulate what frame they are on, and therefore can find competitively viable wild Pokémon.

Cute Charm abuse is another method of obtaining competitive wild Pokémon. Similar to that of RNG manipulation, you would use a program to input what kind of Pokémon you are looking for, your Trainer ID, and your personality value to determine your Secret ID. Cute Charm narrows down how many personal values wild Pokémon can randomly have, and by having a Pokémon with Cute Charm in the first slot of your party and as long as the Pokémon you are looking for has both male and female formes, the pool of randomized Pokémon shrinks considerably, helping you find the exact Pokémon you want.

1. Mimic and Rage Glitches (Gens 3-7)

Consider the Sketch and Metronome glitches from generation two and the outcomes of giving only about 20-25 fully evolved Pokémon a Sketched movepool. Now if you imagine that number became closer to 350, your heart would kind of skip a beat. So how do the Mimic and Rage glitches work? Well, we've got to take a quick little detour to the Hoenn region first. In generation three, Mimic became a move tutor, and the wide majority of Pokémon who could learn TMs and Move Tutors were given access to this move. After sending your Mimic-knowing Pokémon to a generation four game, one can begin the actual glitches. The Mimic Glitch allows any Pokémon that knows Mimic to permanently learn the moveset of a Pokémon that knows Transform, and the Rage Glitch allows a Transformed Pokémon to permanently learn the moveset of a Rage user it Transformed into. By entering a Double battle with your Mimic user, a Ditto, and a Pokémon knowing Rage and 3 other moves you want your Mimic user to learn, your Mimic user will permanently know the Rage user's moveset. Notably, Smeargle has access to all moves including Rage, and therefore is the most optimal Pokémon to perform the Rage Glitch with.

Ditto would first transform into one of the opposing Pokémon, and the Mimic user would copy Ditto's Transform. The Ditto would then be swapped out with Smeargle, which the Mimic user would then Transform into. By using Rage and getting the "rage is building" message, KO all of the opponent's remaining Pokémon. Check out your Pokémon's summary and voila! The Mimic user has copied Smeargle's moveset. If this wasn't enough, Smeargle could have had Sketch as one of its three non-Rage moves. This means that the Mimic user could even Sketch a move that wouldn't exist until generation five, six, or seven. The possibilities are absolutely endless: Shedinja could learn Entrainment and pass Wonder Guard to anything in a Doubles format, Mega Pidgeot could abuse No Guard mechanics along with Sheer Cold, Primal Groudon could get Thousand Arrows, Mega Glalie could get FakeSpeed, Sylveon could get Geomancy from Eevee, and every metagame and every tier from DPP onwards would become strictly hyper offense. This pair of glitches destroys four generations of competitive Pokémon by itself and is by far the most competitively influential pair of glitches the Pokémon series has seen to date.

Closing Words

In-game glitches left by the developers are mistakes, and the consequences for those mistakes would undoubtedly change competitive Pokémon forever. Thankfully, precedents have been put in place by Nintendo and Smogon alike to ban these glitches from competitive play or otherwise resolve them. With the generation eight games just around the corner, who knows what competitively game-breaking glitches await us?

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