Talk:Missingno.

Latest comment: 15 years ago by Dudemeister1234 in topic Missingno. truth
Former good articleMissingno. was one of the good articles, but it has been removed from the list. There are suggestions below for improving the article to meet the good article criteria. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.
Article milestones
DateProcessResult
July 27, 2005Peer reviewReviewed
February 18, 2006Featured article candidateNot promoted
April 10, 2006Good article reassessmentDelisted
October 30, 2008Articles for deletionDeleted
Current status: Delisted good article

Discussion Questions

Are the image postings in the article a copyvio, or fair use? --zandperl 04:56, 22 Mar 2004 (UTC)

They're screenshots, so i'd say they're fair use. (Even though they're screenshots from an emulator.) T 22:57, 14 Apr 2004 (UTC)
The emulator, however, is freeware. See http://www.work.de/nocash/ --Fibonacci 00:47, 18 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Does anyone know what happens if you trade Missingno into Pokémon Gold and Silver? Or is it not possible to trade this pokémon (Like Pikachu in Pokémon Yellow)? Or does it turn into another pokémon?
--Fern 18:35, 23 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I think it's not tradeable, at least not to Gold and Silver; but I haven't tried, and I cannot try. So, this may be false. --Fibonacci 00:47, 18 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I've tried trading Missingno into the Gold and Silver versions. Missingno appears as a Tyrogue and 'M appears as a Slowpoke (from the Gold/Silver perspective). When you try the trade it says "Your Tyrogue appears abnormal" and automatically cancels the trade. --67.81.178.64 02:27, 29 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Sometimes, when I try the Missingno. glitch, I get a level 128 Golbat, or a 255 Marowak in Blue, or a level 128 Golduck or 255 Snorlax in Red. Has anyone else had this happen? --Ramirez June 1st, 2005

You can also find Level 160 Magnemite, Level 171 Nidorina, or a Level 250 Mewtwo, or at least thats what I heard. As for me, I found a Level 99 Venusaur, Charizard, Slowpoke, and Magikarp
There will always be certain other POKéMON appearing when trying this cheat. The POKéMON you see depend on your player name (since talking to the Old Man stores your name in the data area showing which POKéMON are present). Obviously, there is some difference between your name in Blue, and your name in Red, or you would get the same POKéMON. --Pidgeot (t) (c) (e) 01:07, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Missingno. truth

Missingno. is actually an error message programmed into the game so the testers knew when there was a battle slot programmed incorrectly. (Unused battle slots when accessed always throw up Missingno.) The pause when Missingno. is first seen is due to the extra code inserted taking effect.

However, it seems there are a number of slots which do NOT throw up Missingno., instead merely crashing the game (Such as FF). More research is needed. Perhaps there were more Pokemon intended?

The companion 'M is a glitch in battle slot 00. (One byte is reserved for the battle slot - from 00 to FF (255 in hex). Pokemon are, in Red/Blue/Yellow, randomly spaced in this continuum up to BE [Victreebell].) The same glitch exists in Gold/Silver/Crystal -- try it yourself.

I don't agree with 'M being in battle slot 00, at least not fully. (Warning: Techincal explanation ahead.)
I've decoded the names from the game data. Starting at Rhydon (assuming that's 00), there are 190 readable names encoded (the surplus being Missingno.s). However, I can't tell whether this is supposed to be an array of that size, or whether it should be 255 elements - at any rate, the game seems to access it as the latter at some occasions, which trigger 'M.
'M does not appear in the ten bytes preceding Rhydon (unless using a token, which is unlikely), so it can't be one slot "lower" than Rhydon without some strange mapping.
There are a couple of instances of the string 'M after Rhydon, but not all line up properly for the name array. Proper matches are at positions FC to FF (using Rhydon as 00; # represents an non-decoded character):
####'M####
####'M####
####'M####
####'M####
Not all of these have the same hex values, however. To determine which appears to be most correct (based on the blocks), I found a code to force all battles to be against a specific index. Strangely enough, FC through FF crash the game, and only 00 gives the right 'M. The rest don't even give the 'M part, they just display garbage.
This testing leads me to believe that the battle slot number we use is really an indexer that subtracts 1 from the number when fetching data from the array (thusly, Rhydon would appear as 01 to the programmer, but be in position 00) However, because an unsigned byte is likely used (range 0-255), it will underflow when trying to get data for 0x00 (which means it becomes 0xFF in regards to the array). That would return the last of those names, stored as 0xD73D3E14E08CCD202921. --Pidgeot 03:42, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)
There were not more pokemon intended, the problem is that when you input different hex values with the game shark that alter the "Pokemon Species" variable, there is no programmed error message, so the game does not know the difference and assumes that it is another pokemon. Still unknown is how stas, types, and those weird glitchy sprites are determined. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dudemeister1234 (talkcontribs) 15:30, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

Could someone integrate this information into the main article? There's also a more detailed explanation by a writer named RJones on why the old man causes Lv100+ Pokemon to appear -- perhaps that could be merged in as well.

Additionally, has nobody noticed the extra space in the name of the Silph-ghost Missingno. as opposed to the Tetris-block Missingno.? It's just a variant; more research needed.

I didn't really notice until you mentioned it, but that would have to be a bug occuring during writing of the name - it can't be part of the name itself, as Missingno.'s name is exactly 10 characters long, and POKéMON names are stored as (coded) strings with an exact length of 10 bytes (using 0x50 as blank characters).
To give an example of the beginning of the decoded text (using * as replacement for 0x50):
RHYDON****KANGASKHANNIDORAN♂**CLEFAIRY**SPEAROW***VOLTORB***NIDOKING**SLOWBRO***
And yes, they really are stored in that strange order. --Pidgeot 03:42, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Do you have the entire list of names? And does anyone have any idea why they would be listed in a seemingly random order? --Typhlosion(talk) 15:21, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Sure - I've listed them below, with line breaks every 8 names (80 characters).
RHYDON****KANGASKHANNIDORAN♂**CLEFAIRY**SPEAROW***VOLTORB***NIDOKING**SLOWBRO***
IVYSAUR***EXEGGUTOR*LICKITUNG*EXEGGCUTE*GRIMER****GENGAR****NIDORAN♀**NIDOQUEEN*
CUBONE****RHYHORN***LAPRAS****ARCANINE**MEW*******GYARADOS**SHELLDER**TENTACOOL*
GASTLY****SCYTHER***STARYU****BLASTOISE*PINSIR****TANGELA***MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.
GROWLITHE*ONIX******FEAROW****PIDGEY****SLOWPOKE**KADABRA***GRAVELER**CHANSEY***
MACHOKE***MR.MIME***HITMONLEE*HITMONCHANARBOK*****PARASECT**PSYDUCK***DROWZEE***
GOLEM*****MISSINGNO.MAGMAR****MISSINGNO.ELECTABUZZMAGNETON**KOFFING***MISSINGNO.
MANKEY****SEEL******DIGLETT***TAUROS****MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.FARFETCH'D
VENONAT***DRAGONITE*MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.DODUO*****POLIWAG***JYNX******
MOLTRES***ARTICUNO**ZAPDOS****DITTO*****MEOWTH****KRABBY****MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.
MISSINGNO.VULPIX****NINETALES*PIKACHU***RAICHU****MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.DRATINI***
DRAGONAIR*KABUTO****KABUTOPS**HORSEA****SEADRA****MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.SANDSHREW*
SANDSLASH*OMANYTE***OMASTAR***JIGGLYPUFFWIGGLYTUFFEEVEE*****FLAREON***JOLTEON***
VAPOREON**MACHOP****ZUBAT*****EKANS*****PARAS*****POLIWHIRL*POLIWRATH*WEEDLE****
KAKUNA****BEEDRILL**MISSINGNO.DODRIO****PRIMEAPE**DUGTRIO***VENOMOTH**DEWGONG*** 
MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.CATERPIE**METAPOD***BUTTERFREEMACHAMP***MISSINGNO.GOLDUCK***
HYPNO*****GOLBAT****MEWTWO****SNORLAX***MAGIKARP**MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.MUK*******
MISSINGNO.KINGLER***CLOYSTER**MISSINGNO.ELECTRODE*CLEFABLE**WEEZING***PERSIAN***
MAROWAK***MISSINGNO.HAUNTER***ABRA******ALAKAZAM**PIDGEOTTO*PIDGEOT***STARMIE***
BULBASAUR*VENUSAUR**TENTACRUELMISSINGNO.GOLDEEN***SEAKING***MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.
MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.PONYTA****RAPIDASH**RATTATA***RATICATE**NIDORINO**NIDORINA**
GEODUDE***PORYGON***AERODACTYLMISSINGNO.MAGNEMITE*MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.CHARMANDER
SQUIRTLE**CHARMELEONWARTORTLE*CHARIZARD*MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.
ODDISH****GLOOM*****VILEPLUME*BELLSPROUTWEEPINBELLVICTREEBEL
Although there are only 190 names in this list (rather than all of the 256 names there is actual room for), the rest of them are not readable text.
Coincidentally, Ruby/Sapphire uses a similar (read: strange) storage order for the Hoenn POKéMON, although the Kanto and Johto POKéMON are stored in a linear fashion. I can't remember how GSC acts, but I could find out if need be.

To whomever removed my changes...

Please do your own research - Missingno. DOES evolve into Kangaskhan, and all other information I added was proven by analysis and deductive thinking. Thomas Winwood 23:09, 15 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Actually, it is 'M that evolves into Kanga. Noone 01:00, 7 July 2006 (UTC)


Hey howdy hey! I'm new here, and I am gonna answer some questions that may or may not have been asked. PS I will refer to Missingno. as MN.

Q1) What types of MN do I get? A1)It depends on your name. There are 3 types of MN

- the backwards L -Un-silphed ghost -Fossil [ aerodactle or kabutops]

To get Ghost and Fossil, you need a W, X, and/or Y in either the 3rd, 5th, or 7th positions of your name. W is for ghost, X for kabutops fossil, and y for aerodactle. SO if your name was Zawayix, you could get all 3 of these guys.


Please note that 'M is not Missingno. I must do further research on him, for my name does not get him to pop up.

Q2)Will he mess with my game? A2) No, missingno. does nothing but screw up your hall of fame, and make all characters in battle face the other way. This only lasts for a little bit after you catch him. BBBUUUUUTTTTTT!!!!!! 'M WILL screw up things. Having not caught him I can't say this for myself, but I have read other peoples stories. So don't catch him.

Q3) So what are his moves? A3) Water gun

   Water gun
   Sky attack
   ----

Yes you heard me right. 2 water guns.


Also, If he goes into your box he DOES NOT freeze it to my understanding. Again, the evil 'M must be attacking you. I have 2 missingno's. One all of a sudden turned into a Rhydon!!! He did NOT evolve. He just made a Rhydon sound in the box, and he was a rhydon when I withdrew him. He is abnormal. I've done many experiments with him. Pokemon Stadium classified him as a ??? pokemon, ??? number, ??? status and it goes on and on..... Same for normal missingno. It's picture was of the Doll you get when you use substitute. Pokemon staduim 2 said it was a ditto. Yellow froze up, beeped around, turned all white, etc. Silver said "You friends Rhydon is abnormal. the trade will be canceled." Red is the who says and acts like he is normal. I can't find my gold so I can't experiment in that. I doubt Blue will be different either. Maybe all this glitchy stuff has to do with the fact that I nicknamed him M box, and his moves are still water gun water gun and sky attack. I also gave him surf. I might experiment with Pokemon colleseum if I rent it again, and any new game I possibly can try it in.

Q4) AWESOME! I want it in Ruby/Sapphire. A4) Fear not my friends! It's simple to get him, but differently.

Step 1 = Get a gameshark advanced and eneable the code WALK THROUGH WALLS.

Step 2 = Start a new game and walk through the wall to get into route 1 without a pokemon. When you battle a pokemon, you have a weird black circle with a question mark in it. It says he was obtained in trade. I have not yet seen any sighns of missingno. in Fire red/ leaf green. That's all for now!

- Professor Zak AKA mario and the triforce world.

Missingno. Can evolve into Kangaskhan that way. It also can evolve into a Rhydon if placed in the PC and switched back a few times. That's how I got a surfing, flying Rhydon, my prized pokemon! -Zyborg

Something changed the page

Iv'e recently put up a missingno "how to catch in yellow" but it was replaced after 10 min. with "this is described at gamefaqs" can someone help me in here?

That was me. I replaced it with an external link because I felt that it was a bit too game-guidey for an encyclopedia article. Perhaps you could shorten it to a few short blurbs, like is done with the description of the "original" glitch? --Sparky the Seventh Chaos 00:21, Dec 29, 2004 (UTC)

Missingno. and Kangaskhan

Whenever I gave Missingno. a Rare Candy at any level, Missingno. grew to the next level, but never evolved (see picture). However, whenever I gave an 'M a Rare Candy at any level, 'M grew to the next level and evolved into Kangaskhan. (See picture). -- 67.84.138.44

Image:Missingnolevelup.jpg - When a Missingno. is given a Rare Candy Image:Mkangaskhanevolution.jpg When an 'M is given a Rare Candy

Curious. I have seen it with my own eyes that a Lv0 Missingno. raised to Lv1 evolved into Kangaskhan. (This makes sense - Missingno. as slot 00 has no defined evolution and defaults to evolving to number 01 on the list, Kangaskhan.) ThomasWinwood 03:31, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC) Actually, 'M, MissingNo., and 3TrainerPoké can all evolve into Kangaskhan/Rhydon (so, they can be glitched Rhyhorn.)
Thing is, slot 00 isn't Missingno. Look at my post a bit higher up (just before "To whomever removed my changs"), it lists the first 8 names in ROM. --Pidgeot 06:58, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)
I'm well aware of that, but in many respects it acts as such. A friend has suggested chaos theory - no two instances of Missingno. will act in precisely the same way since it uses arbitrary RAM data for all its calculations (try using a code to catch Missingno. on Route 1 for example). Evidence suggests there is a subroutine which loads the error message MISSINGNO. (missing number) rather than crashing horribly - this would be of use to beta testers (as Nintendo of Europe informed me to begin with) and explains why the name doesn't appear on the list. All I know is that I have DEFINITELY evolved Missingno. into Kangaskhan before. I tried to reproduce it using my guaranteed-good-dump Red ROM, but my results matched yours. I may attempt to find out if this is some kind of version issue - I may have a new revision of the ROM which is different to yours and the ROM and which includes the code to evolve Missingno. to Kangaskhan. (P.S. Hex code 50 is equivalent to an "end of string" message.) -- ThomasWinwood 11:52, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)
If there's a subroutine, it doesn't make much sense to have as many instances of the name MISSINGNO. as there are (about 40 or so), unless there's one assigned to each area in the game. At any rate, how would one then explain 'M? Since the name MISSINGNO. is clearly defined so many places, how can it suddenly use slot FF (assuming my indexer theory above is correct, thus being considered 00 in the code)? --Pidgeot 14:03, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)
I can't explain the demented actions of game developers of the early nineties. Heck only knows why there's forty listings of the name MISSINGNO. 'M is a mixed up slot 00 (you can see this by putting in the Gameshark code for catch any Pokemon and use slot 00). Also, you haven't considered the possibility of the order of the names being different to the order of the Pokemon. --ThomasWinwood 21:30, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)
WOW THATS AWESOME *claps.* I like the pics!-darkmewham
Me and my friends had a Missingno research club when we were little. We discovered this, but we never really saw the memory slot relation. It's so cool, you know? My childhood coming back., and these things being explained.

Entirely arbitrary?

The artical states that, "The picture chosen for Missingno. is pulled from an entirely arbitrary section of RAM, with the result that any and all actions taken prior to encountering Missingno. by whatever means (Gameshark or game glitch) affect this picture."

I believe that the picture is not "entirely arbitrary," but based on the letters in your name. (The relation between your name and the appearence of Missingno. is described in the section "Why Missingno. appears") If the picture was entirely arbitrary, then you would have pictures of (for example) Squirtle or Pidgeot appearing.

However, certain letters seem to consistantly bring up the ghost picture, or the skeleton picture. These could not be entirely arbitrary. --BioPizza 02:46, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

You are confused. In the known Cinnabar strip area there are four different types of Missingno. available for capture - glitch-block, ghost, Kabutops and Aerodactyl. (I believe the website with this data on is linked in the article.) However, try using a Gameshark to open a known Missingno. block (again, the website has details) and go somewhere other than Cinnabar and I guarantee you will find something completely different but still called Missingno. (Example: I had an Articuno in my team and caught a Missingno. in Pallet Town via this method, and it had a new image (messed up since this was not one of the slots to bring up a Kabutops or Aerodactyl, or the ghost) and was Ice/Flying type. Note Articuno is Ice/Flying.) Chaos theory seems to prevail. ThomasWinwood 19:44, 8 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Missingno and Deoxys?

This was posted by anonymous user 24.210.101.125. I have moved it here for the time being, since I do not believe it is suited for an article in its current form. Additionally, there are various things I feel the need to comment upon - I've placed this below the text.

Missingno and Deoxys?

Also, I think that I have made an important discovery pertaining to Deoxys. As I was researching Deoxys, I found that (it, she, him) was a virus from outer space that had crached onto the planet upon a meteor and was mutated by a laser beam. Let's analyze the similarities between the two. Deoxys and Missingno. are both viruses, given that a glitch is sometimes called a virus. Then, Deoxys crash-landed on a meteor. Possibly, that same meteor cracked open the earth around Cinnabar Island...formed a massive fissure...and formed a volcano? Another point is that perhaps Deoxys/Missingno. was mutated by a stray laser beam from the abandoned Laboratory. Lastly, I want to point out that they Deoxys and Missingno are both "secret" characters, because they are supposedly not in the game, although Deoxys is meant to be visible in Leaf Green and Fire Red.

However, this observation was made before the Pokemon movie "Destiny: Deoxys" was released. This movie explains the origins of Deoxys (I think it portrays him as a big softie) and thus disproves my theories.

Lastly, I would still appreciate this entry remaining in the Wikipedia, although it may no longer be correct.

The bottom line is that I have found many similarities between the two. However, you may hold your own opinion. Maybe that's all distorted.

Anyway, this interesting tidbit was from Flameviper12. [1]


For starters, calling a glitch a virus is a misnomer; a glitch is a program bug whereas a virus is a malicious program created deliberately to destroy data - or in biology, a lifeform that infects a different lifeform, usually affecting it somehow. Secondly, I'm not familiar with any scenario where a meteorite could create a volcano. A meteor crater (impact crater) is very different from a volcano crater. And lastly, although you could call both of them secret, Deoxys is meant to be visible to the player (after going to a Nintendo event and unlocking it). Missingno. is not. Of course, if people thinks it's worthy of a mention, feel free to out it back - but IMO, it should at the very least be re-written to a style fitter for an encyclopedia. --Pidgeot (t) (c) (e) 16:35, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Doesn't look worth considering. It uses fan assumptions rather than scientifically-checked facts. --ThomasWinwood 01:17, Apr 17, 2005 (UTC)

Flameviper thanks you for your suggestions.

Guys..."scientifically-checked facts"??? This is Pokemon, people, not chemistry...you might have a TEENY bit too much free time on your hands...although I shouldn't talk...Flameviper12 16:42, 31 October 2005 (UTC) 16:41, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

                                                                                               Flameviper12 is right...

^Unsigned. Also, that is pure fan speculation, and that does not belong in Wikipedia. 63.231.156.20 04:47, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

I agree with Flameviper12, but a could a glitch create a stray virus? But to tell you the truth I think its stupid why would they base a new pokemon on a gaming error, thats practically saying: "Hey look, we made the stupid mistake of causing the missingno. glitch, and we're to lazy to think up new pokemon!" Redxiii121

Hacking an empty section...

I've learned a great deal about Missingno. from experimentation and it appears this article is in need of severe reconstruction. Pidgeot, I'd like to recruit you for writing up all I've found (please contact me further on my talk page), but I don't want to keep up any inaccurate information here. What should I do? --ThomasWinwood 01:20, Apr 17, 2005 (UTC)

The usual practice for doing extensive work on an article without it being displayed until it's done seems to be creating a page (this could be something like Missingno./temp) where editors can work.
If you don't want it on WP at all before it's done, you can install something on a different server (such as MediaWiki) and build the article there, ultimately copying it here. However, you need to remember that all contributors must be acknowledged (as per GFDL). --Pidgeot (t) (c) (e) 10:21, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)
I think I shall keep it on an offsite server and then when it's finished I can wikify. --ThomasWinwood 10:28, Apr 17, 2005 (UTC)

Is this true?

"Also, you can fly to fuchsia city and then surf on the east coast of seafoam island"

An anon user just posted this. Not sure if it's true or not. Terribly sorry if it is, and by all means revert if so, but I've never heard of this. --Sparky the Seventh Chaos 07:05, May 14, 2005 (UTC)

I was going to look into that myself. It's not in the Missingno FAQ at GameFAQs. But I'll see what I can find. Leave it out for now... and if all else fails I could test it via *gasp* emulation at some point. Master Thief Garrett 10:32, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

Missingno: It is true.. I have tried it there isn't a missingno. but superpower pokemon instead(all of them are lv 128-148 but go to 100 if used in a trainer battle or wild pkmn battle but they can be used in link battles)

Don't forget, the POKéMON you see there depend on your name. AFAIK, you should see the same POKéMON there as you would on the east coat of Cinnabar. --Pidgeot (t) (c) (e) 01:53, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

I will vouch that All right coasts work. I have just tested south of pallet, seafoam islands, the power plant - all of them contained all Pokemon that one would expect due to one's name after talking to the coffee man. It should be noted that encountering any wild Pokemon in grass (but not due to Surfing or fishing) will alter the Pokemon encountered on the coast. -rby4ever


It also works on the west coast south of pallet town. - 12hernn

different-shaped Missingno. in Blue

Heres a story from me. When I was playing the Blue Version as a kid, i came across another glitch pokemon like missingno. I dont remember if it had a name or not, but unlike missingno; it appeared as a complete block type glitch, not a backwards L.

It may be you came across 'M, but both forms are known to take many appearances; they are, after all, glitches. Certainly when the Pokemon "moves" it sometimes switches palettes partially or even completely, and, apparently, running into a Missingno or 'M right after seeing another one will result in it being different yet again. It sure is an interesting thing... Master Thief Garrett 17:48, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

Different MISSINGNO. in Blue's solution!

The reason you saw MISSINGNO. differently may be because you weren't seeing MISSINGNO. at all, but a partially deleted Pokémon that has a hexadecimal number higher than the valid ones. These pokémon are partially deleted, possibly, and have names like: (glitch box) A(glitch box), and they are known to some as: HOUHOU, BEEPIN, ANTHRAX, MEWTHREE, PIKABLU etc.. And yes that A thingy above is properly named. You may have also seen a ghost or fossil MISSINGNO. that looks like some of the ones accesed through GameShark in the wild, or it might just be a quirky cartridge. (posted by User:71.34.250.164, 22:00, 14 May 2005 UTC)

None of those names exist in the game data for POKéMON Blue, with the possible exception of (glitch) A(glitch). It's a little hard to test for that particular name, since non-printable characters are used.
I do recognise several of those names you mention, though... They're the names used for what was appearantly extremely well-hidden POKéMON (POKéGODS) in Red/Blue, that could only be gotten by doing something highly complicated and impossible. Needless to say, those were fake. --Pidgeot (t) (c) (e) 23:40, 14 May 2005 (UTC)
 I've heard of the Poke'Gods they can be obtained through a gameshark by using a species mod code, then typing in numbers that doesn't get you a pokemon known in the game. 

The end result is a glitched up pokemon like missingno. without the side effects. This method of catching Poke Gods can also be used in the later versions of the Pokemon games (like Emerald or leaf green), but instead of a glitch you'll get a ? pokemon that will know weird moves.

Mysterious Moves!

I have seen Pokémon glitches use moves like:TM42(works like self destruct, but user doesn't faint, freezes game) TM28(same but no game freeze) and I have heard about a move called bAcKrUb. And yes the casing of bAcKrUb is correct. I intend to use cheat codes for moves to find bAcKrUb and the blood-draining move mentioned farther on, and its name. I have also read a story about someone finding a "Houhou" that knew Bloodsuck or Blood Drain or something like that. It was a One-Hit KO move and the 2 Pokémon fainted by it didn't revive at the Pokémon Center... (posted by User:71.34.250.164, 22:10, 14 May 2005 UTC)

None of these moves exist in the game data for POKéMON Blue, so I wouldn't bother too much if I were you. Besides, there is NO way a move could permanently kill a POKéMON like you suggest this Blood Drain did. --Pidgeot (t) (c) (e) 23:40, 14 May 2005 (UTC)
Houhou is a Pokegod, and the Pokegods are, without exception, fake. People have already mapped out the hex digits so a GameShark can access ALL Pokemon slots (incl. Missingno. & Co.) and there were no Pokegods. Sad but true. And yet you'll still find these stories everywhere. And yes the game mechanics would not allow a Pokemon to be destroyed--'M screws up the game, alters the Hall of Fame, and allegedly can destroy a cartridge over time, but even it can't kill Pokemon! Master Thief Garrett 01:17, 15 May 2005 (UTC)
Actually, Houhou is one way of romanising the Japanese name of Hoot-Hoot. But yeah, it isn't in R/B/G/Y. And another odd move I've heard of is "Symphonie", which supposedly has 300 base damage and infinite PP. I could be wrong, though. Ketsy 23:31, 16 May 2005 (UTC)
You may have heard of that move, but it doesn't exist in the game data. Besides, I'm fairly sure they only use a single byte for attack power (so it's capped at 255), and additionally, no move can have infinite PP (with the only possible exception being Struggle, which, AFAIK, wouldn't if it was learned as an actual move). --Pidgeot (t) (c) (e) 00:37, 17 May 2005 (UTC)
Hmm, I was sure I'd heard of a glitch move like that... I didn't know base damage was capped at 255 (I thought Explosion's base damage was 300?). Also, the move Shadow Rush has infinite PP, but it only appears in the third-generation game Pokémon Colosseum, and third-gen games used different mechanics than first-gen games... Ah well. Ketsy 00:40, 17 May 2005 (UTC)
Explosion is 250. And Shadow Rush doesn't really count, because it isn't a move as such - it's essentially Struggle with more power, only selectable. --Pidgeot (t) (c) (e) 00:47, 17 May 2005 (UTC)
Now, just let me add my two cents here. The moves like "TM42" and such ARE real (some glitch Pokemon do learn them naturally) but others such as "bAcKrUb", "Blood Drain", and "Symphonie" are obviously fake. While other glitch moves are weak and have little effect (except for game-damaging ones), these so-called moves supposedly have "godlike" power, much like Pokegods. So you can see why they, again like Pokegods, are fake. --Abwayax 2 July 2005 04:14 (UTC)
TM42, etc. are not moves - this can be proved by looking at the move names in the game data. Or were you referring to the moves taught by those particular TMs? If so, those names represent a different move, and are only used in your item list.
As a matter of fact, there are no glitch moves at all in Blue - if there were, they would have no name, as there are 1993 bytes of zeroes before the move names, and no further data after them. --Pidgeot (t) (c) (e) 23:46, 23 July 2005 (UTC)
I so agree abwayax! (are you the abwayax from trsrockin.com?) My (female symbol) keeps trying to learn it.. its hillarios. WHY DO PEOPLE WASTE THEIR TIME TELLING LIES????? I'd rather sleep *yawn* -darkmewham
Let me add my two cents. Rollout has a maximum damage of 480, so who's to say that other moves can't do more than 255 damage? Rollout was introduced in the 2nd generation, which was made for the GBC, and 2nd gen games had (mostly) the same mechanics as 1st gen games. -- PinkDeoxys 15:47, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
Isn't Houhou the Japanese name for Ho-Oh? --Libertyernie2 21:16, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

You can catch pikablu on red and blue. It knows a move called ELECTRODE. You can look it up somewhere else on the internet.- 12Hernn

I don't see why everyone is saying that moves like TM42 aren't possible to learn. Missingno is a glitch. It screws up the cartrige. It's not in the game data for a glitch to be able to change the amount of items you have in your sixth slot, but that happens too. Just because it's not logical doesn't mean Missingo. can't make it happen.

Actually, Missingno doesn't learn any glitch TM-whatever moves. Abwayax (contribs :: talk) 23:24, 26 May 2006 (UTC)
Ummm. Pikablu=teh not realz.Qwerasdfzxcvvcxz

Japanese version

Is Missingno in the Japanese version of Pokemon?

Considering that the English versions are basically just translations, I would think it is. I haven't tested it, though, as I don't have Red, Green or Blue in Japanese. --Pidgeot (t) (c) (e) 14:04, 2 September 2005 (UTC)
yes it is use that cheating device over there... Its called a gameshark. Otherwyes NOPE!-darkmewham

I have tested it, and can vouch for Missingno's appearance in the Japanese games. It is dangerous (more dangerous?) compared to it's english counterparts. The Red/Green MiNo will crash the game upon encountering it. Only the Fossil/Ghost MiNo is (appears to be) safe to face. The Japanese Blue MiNo is much like the english MiNos, but it has a different set of attacks, including some glitch "TM" moves. It is possible that it could know one such move that could delete the game, though I haven't tested thoroughly yet. Interestingly, it has MUCH higher stats - my level 32 wartortle took 6 waterguns to down a level 15 MiNo on J-Blue -rby4ever

That probobly why my japanese Red version is infected with something called Venustoise (it looks like a combanation of Venusaur and Blastoise

Missingno. in Leaf Green and Fire Red

Missingno. does make apearances in the semicurrent versions of pokemon but these glitchy pokemon are a bit less leathal to your game and a lot stranger. I have been using my Game Shark or a while now pluging in species mod codes for my game and typed ina code that wasn't for a pokemon in the 3 generations. Well an extrodanary thing happened as soon as I was in the feild looking for pokemon my game froze (This is abnormal since it never did that before) adn I waited for a hile and soon I was in a battle with a missingno. It was at lv 16 and knew thunder punch and giullotine. Now such a weird okemon only comes so often, so I caught it. This Pokemon was nicknamed ?????????? and held a ?????????? item so that was weird and its actual name was a weird looking A followed by :'s in a pattern. After that discovery I have now started a hunt for missingno that know peculiar moves or have outstanding stats. After that incident i've been experimenting with all my missingnos . Other missingno. include -(yes there is a missingno. named -) and Bad egg these are both egg missingno. The - can attack but has very low status and Badegg... well lets just say you don't want that one although there have been rumors that they transform into Deoxys and Jirachi. To obtain Badegg all you need to do is to capture another trainer's pokemon (use the easy catch code for gameshark or AR not the catch trainer's pokemon code) to obtain - use the sepcies mod code for gamshark and type in an invalid number (so for example the poke mod code is 83007D2OXXX, the x's standing for the pokemons number so if you type three zeros you will get a missingno. also you want to pass the number 19A,deoxys' code, so the you can catch more missingno.). The missingno. will not screw up you game what so ever( but keep in mind the game will glicth if you look a the 1st page of their summary, the way to get around this is to look at the 2nd page of another pokemon's summary and sroll down till you find you glitchy friend). I'm still hunting for more missingno.

A similar thing happened to me. I used the "Instant Win" Action Replay code for my FireRed version and I found a wild Missingno. It was called Wild, and turned into a Bad Egg when I caught it. Everything was fine for a while, until the Sapphire disappeared from the Network Machine. After that, my game said it was corrupt and froze whenever I walked into a building (it still does sometmes, even though I restarted my game). A side note, after I found the Missingno, the only Pokémon I found in the wild were Missingno and Pidgeotto. -- PinkDeoxys 00:24, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

I found a completely black Poochyena in my FireRed (eyes, fur, everything). It did NOT sparkle so its not shiny.

My friend found the same Poochyena in his Sapphire version. It turned into a Bad Egg when captured. -- PinkDeoxys 15:49, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Images

Image:Missingnoghost.jpg was placed uner IfD by Thunderbrand. Should it stay or be delted? It has been on the Missingno. page for a very long time, and for it to all of a sudden be put in IfD seems sort of strange.

Nevermind. It is a duplicate of Image:Missingno ghost.jpg.

Pidgeot, Electrode and one more I found but forgot

On one occasion, while surfing on Cinnabar coast, I found several Level 160+ Pokémon; the ones I found were Pidgeot, Electrode and one other I forgot. If you manage to 'level them up', they would revert to Level 100. However, they were strangely weak in their Level 160+ forms, even though their statistics were high. Is this somehow related to Missingno.? x42bn6 Talk 13:28, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

Kind of. The POKéMON you meet at the coast depends on your name - therefore, some players may never meet Missingno at all.
As for their strength (or lack thereof), I presume an overflow happened somewhere, causing what should have been a very high value to become a very low value. --Pidgeot (t) (c) (e) 15:42, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
True, true. I caught a Golduck down there at something like level 130 and then it levelled down to 100. Michaelritchie200 09:31, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Future additions to the article

I'd like to see two things happen to this article:

1) The eventual dissolving of the "Details" Section into smaller sections.

2) The article needs to become sourced -- Wikipedical 23:50, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

Some Comments

I don't feel like making changes to actual content itself, so I'll leave some comments here.
First: Missingno. can be caught at levels 0 and 100+ (I forget the exact number of the level but it's not too high from 100, it might be 120, levels in between can be caught also). Missingno., and 'M, will evolve into a Kangaskan (OMG I KNOW THAT'S MISSPELLED BUT I'M TOO LAZY TO CHECK, YOU GET WHAT IT IS I"M TRYING TO SAY, RIGHT?) However, this cannot be done by giving it a rare candy as you have to actually use it in a battle and it will evolve afterwards.
Second: There are numerous other glitches that I think should be mentioned, such as the "Surf on Statue" glitch, the "Walk on Trees" glitch, and the "Truck Glitch". I've done just about every glitch in the old games except for the Truck glitch...
Third: There's a glitch in Gold'Silver in which you can screw up the color scheme in the game. This is very strange considering what you do to get it. The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.251.247.157 (talk • contribs) 15:24, 28 January 2006 (UTC).

This is off-topic, but if you want a line break, use <br />. It'll prevent that unsightly <pre>-like non-breaking formatting. --Closedmouth 06:45, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Note: The alleged truck glitch where you can catch mew by Strenghting the truck, that glitch is a myth.

Article removed from Wikipedia:Good articles

This article was formerly listed as a good article, but was removed from the listing because it contains no references. --Pagrashtak 01:19, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Why this article is in need of help

Missingno. is incredibly notorious in the Pokémon world. Nearly everyone who's played the game has heard about it. But there are lots of problems constantly plaguing this article.

First, there is an enormous amount of false information out on the internet concerning Missingno.. Many people claim that it's related to Mew, can unlock Pokégods, etc. Almost all these rumors are proven to be false. But almost everyone has heard rumors about what Missingno. can do and people write them down here without knowing that they aren't true.

Second, there's confusion with 'M. 'M and Missingno. are NOT the same Pokémon, even though they behave similarly in many aspects. A considerable amount of information about 'M is accidentally becoming associated with Missingno. in this article.

Third, there's the individual take on Missingno.. Because it's appearance and subsequent effects depend on the player's name, almost every single player who has encountered Missingno. will report different high-level Pokémon. Even though as a whole the entire glitch has been extremely well documented online, people feel that they're contributing something original when they say "using name XXX will cause Pokémon YYY, ZZZ, and AAA to appear." Though true, it's misplaced and cluttering.

Fourth, Missingno. has such a vast amount of information associated with it that it's hard to sort out. Gamers want to see how to get/exploit it and programmers want to learn the guts of how the glitch works. This makes for a very cluttered article.

Fifth, there's creep. The Missingno. article is beginning to turn into a complete documentation of every single glitch in Red/Blue. There's a lot to talk about, but does it really belong here? I think we should start a new page dedicated just to the other glitches.

In short, there's a huge amount of information out there to write about. But we must be careful when doing so because there are many, MANY factors working against an encyclopedia-style article documenting this fascinating glitch.

Standard Deviation 08:30, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Removal of Merge tag

Hello, I'm just a wikignome passing through who noticed the merge tag on this article. I removed it because both articles, while similar and have similar references, are different enough and large enough to remain seperate. I don't know much about this, but it is apparent enough from the articles and discussion pages that they are active enough topics that they will be expanded and changed in the future, and that there isn't really any cruft to remove in order to prepare for a merge. The ikiroid (talk·desk·Advise me) 01:47, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

They're tagged for merging because, once all the unverified and game-guide info is removed, there's not much else. Everything in this article is attributed to one Pokémon fansite or various forums. - A Man In Bl♟ck (conspire | past ops) 01:54, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
Well, I don't think I know enough about Pokemon to determine fact from fiction, so once all of the unverified info is cited/removed I'll be glad to help with the merge part. But don't put keep the merge tag up if there's no discussion and the article has other issues, because someone might come by and add the unverified stuff with the kosher material. The ikiroid (talk·desk·Advise me) 01:57, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
Well, the verifiable material is about three sentences. I am going to tag this unsourced and cleanup-rewrite, though, since it needs to be done. - A Man In Bl♟ck (conspire | past ops) 02:03, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
Just like most Pokemon-related articles, referencing is a big problem with this article. I'm not sure what can be done - cutting out all of the true but unreferenced information would make this article useless, but as it stands it's a poor article due to lack of references - references which don't exist. Rarr 00:52, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Request for edit

To resolve the double-redirect created by renaming the target article this page points to.

#REDIRECT [[Notable glitches of the Pokémon video games]]

--Stratadrake 12:26, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

  Done --  Netsnipe  ►  14:22, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
Netsnipe, do you know how cheesy it looks when you do that? ~ Flameviper 17:13, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

WTF?!?

Who merged it? They took all the information out! It used to be an encyclopedia article about the origins of Missingno and the reason for its appearance, but now it's crap! ~ Flameviper 17:13, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

Clearly you haven't partaken in the discussions. Missingno. was AFD'd and the consensus was to merge. Additionally, much of the information was unsourced fancruft and/or original research, which means that it shouldn't even have been included in the first place. I've mentioned this once before, but: When it comes to information derived from another source, Wiki articles should summarize said information, not copy it. If you want to know all the ins and outs of Missingno., go look it up on a gaming wiki, not a general-purpose encyclopedia. --Stratadrake 23:42, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
Still, it doesn't even say anything. I'm not saying that you shouldn't remove fancruft, but the logical and generally accepted reason for the occurence of Missingno. was just taken out, leaving only a short blurb that was already obvious. ~ Flameviper 16:26, 17 October 2006 (UTC)
The "logical and generally accepted reason" for Missingno.'s occurence wasn't fancruft -- it was original research. That's why it was taken out. --Stratadrake 12:23, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Retargeting

Please retarget this page to Notable glitches in the Pokémon video games. ~ Flameviper 16:26, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

DoneRich Farmbrough, 18:02 18 October 2006 (GMT).


Target page has been renamed again, now Glitches found in the Pokémon video games, a slightly more NPOV version of the same title. --Stratadrake 17:23, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Done. Good catch. – Luna Santin (talk) 00:29, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

Please rebuild this page. Now.

Although I'd personally like there to be a separate page for every "glitchy" Pokémon, including four Missingno. pages, I know that there can probably never be such on Wikipedia. Wow, Wikipedia is bad at describing Pokémon glitches. Please either remake this page, or just unlock it so I can rebuild it. If you do not, I will have to cry because Wikipedia is so inaccurate. Missingno. is as much a Pokémon as Pikachu, and more well-known (at least outside Japan) than, say, Mime Jr. or Weavile. It deserves its own article as soon as possible. So please unlock it.

66.224.229.18 22:23, 1 November 2006 (UTC)Jon Armor Mode

Only a Wikipedia admin can protect or unprotect articles. Go look up Wikipedia:Protection policy for details. --Stratadrake 03:11, 2 November 2006 (UTC)
A page for each glitch would be out of place here, but much less so on Bulbapedia. --Libertyernie2 18:02, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Author's input

Hey guys, it's nice to see my article getting so much recognition. I am the bona-fied pokemon glitch EXPERT an could easily confirm and deny all of your naive statements, but since I would get writer's cramp from such an ambitious endeavor, just go to trsrockin.com. They lay all the facts out for you, no rumors, and it's all tested and verified by me and the other certified pokeglitcholigists.Dudemeister1234 (talk) 02:00, 10 October 2008 (UTC)