This is alist ofglitch effects that can be encountered in Pokémon games.

Many generations

Game freeze

Main article:Game freeze

Agame freeze is an event when the game stops responding to the player's input, caused by a glitch or hardware failure. During it, the player cannot move, speak to NPCs, select objects or use any buttons. The only solution to escape a game freeze is to simply turn the power off and restart the game from the player's lastsave file.

A game freeze can be caused by a lot of factors, such as walking out of the boundaries of an area. Performing some glitches can also cause the game to freeze, such as executing theMew glitch incorrectly. They may also be caused by physical harm to the gaming system or the game cartridge, like dropping or hitting by a major force, or a dirty game cartridge. InRuby and Sapphire, it may happen, with a tiny probability, when usingThunderbolt orThunder unless battle effects are turned off.

Mostly, game freezes are accompanied by an odd buzzing sound, but sometimes, the normal music can play, either normally or looped at one or several sounds. Modern consoles, however, only display an error message.

Softlocking

Asoftlock is a variation of game freezing. However, the game is not actually considered frozen, sosoft resetting is still possible. The player is unable to move, but the music still plays and NPCs can still move.

Examples include alevel 0, 1 or 171 Pokémon usingPsywave or every action that results indivision by 0 in Generation I, or theLumiose City save glitch in version 1.0 ofX and Y.

Glitch battle

Main article:Glitch battle

Aglitch battle is a battle which is initiated by a handful of types ofglitch Pokémon. It happens when an encounter starts with a glitch Pokémon whose sprite causesmemory corruption, or, more rarely, when the player has no Pokémon in theirteam. Glitch battles have a lot of very unpredictable effects, such as corruption ofHall of Fame data, but almost all of them eventually cause the game to freeze.

Glitch battles most frequently follow a constant string of events:

1. The screen tiles get scrambled. However, this does not always happen.
2. The game refreshes the corrupted values and makes changes visible.
3. Music usually fades to a single sound or is replaced with a static or low pitch noise, or even the lowHP beeping loop starts playing for no reason.
4. The game may try operating solely on the corrupted values.
5. Eventually, the game crashes in its confusion.

Glitch song

Main article:Glitch song

Aglitch song is a continuous sound produced by a glitch Pokémon, glitch text strings or the game freezing. Glitch songs may take on a melodic or a chaotic tune. Certain glitch songs can result in a game freeze, while others just force the player to reset the game.

A glitch song can be triggered by:

• A glitch Pokémon'scry, e.g.♀ .
  • If it is a chaotic song, it may play even for half an hour.
• Viewing sprites of certain glitch Pokémon.
• Game crashes, such as going out of bounds inPallet Town inPokémon Green.
• Parts of glitch dialogue.

Generation I only

Glitch screen

Main article:Glitch screen

Aglitch screen is an overlay of color over a Pokémon's sprite and the immediate surrounding area. These can only be noticed when playing the games on aGame Boy Color because of theSuper Game Boy's inability to replace the color white, and theGame Boy's screen being able to only show the colors black and white.

• Glitch screens
• 
  The red-tint glitch screen recolors already colored pixels red.
• 
  The purple-tint glitch screen recolors all pixels a dark purple hue.
• 
  The purple glitch screen recolors all non-black pixels purple.
• 
  The glitch screens also affect the battle menu.
• 
  Theblackout glitch screen recolors already colored pixels black.

TMTRAINER effect

Main article:TMTRAINER effect

TheTMTRAINER effect is the common name for glitch effects associated with the-- move and mostSuper Glitch moves occupying hexadecimal identifiers between A6 to C3, which translate toindex numbers between 166 and 195.

The most common occurence of this effect follows this pattern:

1. The opponent isburned.
2. The music fades, then it usually plays a sound effect once fully faded.
3. Presuming that all pre-battle processes were running as they should've been, using a move or item results in displaying the text that the opponent Pokémon isfrozen solid, but a glitch dialogue (which often takes a lot of space) andTMTRAINER appear before the species name.
4. Then, the same text is displayed, except that it's about the Pokémon being burned.
5. The enemy Pokémon's health bar will wrap several times across the screen and will slowly deplete. The enemy Pokémon may faint after this.

If theplayer is fighting aTrainer, the opponent will send out the Pokémon that was in battle before the glitch was activated. InPokémon Red and Blue, unless the battle occured in a cave, the game will freeze upon finishing the battle. InPokémon Yellow, the TMTRAINER effect does not crash the game, but when the player returns to the overworld, the sprite graphics will become scrambled.

Inverted sprites

Main article:Inverted sprite

Inverted sprites are the result of encountering certain glitch Pokémon or viewing theirstats.

When entering battle, the player's sprite is broken and partially reversed, and the opponent's sprite is simply reversed. The player Pokémon's sprite is broken. Once that Pokémon uses an attack, the enemy's sprite breaks as well.

To fix this glitch, one must look at the Pokédex entry or the summary screen of a non-glitch Pokémon.

• Example
• 
  The battle starts.Red andRattata's sprites are reversed.
• 
  Rhydon's sprite is already broken upon entering battle.
• 
  Rhydon attacked Rattata, and its sprite broke as well.

Generation II only

Glitch dimension

Main article:Glitch dimension

Aglitch dimension is a glitch that affects the game's visuals. The game alters all the colors on the screen. This makes it possible to go through pitch-black caves like theDark Cave without using Flash. All fade-in and fade-out animations are disabled.

It can be caused byCoin Case glitches or viewing????? (FE)'s Pokédex entry inGold or Silver.

This effect happens as a result of the game resetting unexpectedly, causing it to try to determine the type ofGame Boy it is running on from the information left in memory on startup, which differs by model. Because this information is no longer available, the game believes it is running on the classic Game Boy.Pokémon Crystal does not have any backwards compatibility with the original Game Boy, so it will only display a message that it can only be played on theGame Boy Color. Likewise,Mystery Gift is unavailable while in a glitch dimension.

• ????? (FE)^GS's Pokédex entry
• 
  What shows while the game is reloading
• 
  The game's title screen afterwards

Duplicate Key Items

In the Generation II games, glitches can be used to duplicateKey Items. If the player then changes the order of said Key Items, it can lead to data corruption.

TMs and HMs in the wrong pocket

In the Generation II games, glitches can be used to putTMs andHMs in a different pocket than the TM/HM pocket. When said TMs and HMs are used from the wrong pocket, they have glitched effects.

Invalid decorations

In the Generation II games, glitches can be used to fill theplayer'sbedroom with invaliddecorations.

Some glitched posters remove the exit from the player's bedroom. If the player saves there, they will be stuck, as trying to put away a glitch poster will restart the game in aglitch dimension.Pokémon Stadium 2 does not recognize such decorations, and can be used to remove them or replace them with valid decorations.

Related articles

This glitch Pokémon article is part ofProject GlitchDex, aBulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on glitches in the Pokémon games.

• Articles with accompanying video
• Glitches
• Glitch effects
• Lists