Oh yes, the most famous glitch in gaming is still present in the eShop versions of the original Pokémon games. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to pull it off, in case your memory is rusty.
The easiest way to encounter Missingno is through something called the “old man glitch.” You can’t do this right away; you need to have both A) visited Cinnabar Island and B) know fly. With that in mind, first, you need to talk to a man found in the northern part of Viridian City, a location in Pokémon Red and Blue. He looks like this:
You’ll want to let him teach you how to catch a Pokémon — yes, even if you already know how to do it. After his demonstration, you should fly to Cinnabar Island, another location in Red and Blue. From there, you need to surf on the eastern coast of the island. The trick is that you can’t go off into the water — you have to keep “surfing” on the land touching the water, like so:
While doing this, you might encounter random Pokémon with all sorts of wild levels — but occasionally, you might encounter Missingno. Jackpot! Missingno comes in a few different varieties, such as…
Missingno, as many of you already know, is not a normal monster. It’s literally not supposed to exist, which is also why, once you have it in your party, things can get kind of funky.
Missingno can go over level 100. It can learn certain moves more than once. It can’t evolve. It has the highest attack stat in Red and Blue, but also the lowest defence stat. And, according to Nintendo, it can actively corrupt your game. So, if you do choose to capture it, do be careful!
If you’d like to see the glitch in action, here’s a video by Epi Demie on the newest version of Pokémon Blue.
In case you’re curious, no, he has not tried uploading it to Pokémon Bank. I’m not sure it would work, though.
Happy glitching!
Comments
11 responses to “How To Do The Missingno Glitch In Pokémon Red And Blue 3DS”
I wish Nintendo would make Missingno (specifically, the L block variant) official.
They could have a lot of fun with its lore and how it’s obtained. Imagine that dungeon where you got Arceus, or Giratina, except set in the internet but without the seizure inducing flashing.
I was really hanging out for Missingno to be inserted as Porygon’s mega evolution.
No mention of how encountering Missingno. gives you a whole bunch of whatever item is in your 6th item slot?
(Though it is mentioned in the article linked in the first sentence)
I thought it was the 7th slot? Though it has been awhile since I last used it.
Also, you only find high levels of a single other pokemon when surfing the area and it varies handheld to handheld… I think on my original Blue it was an Electrode.
The reason for variation is actually based on your characters names. My memory is a little fuzzy on the exact details, but each letter/number/symbol in your name corresponds to a certain number in Hex (I beleive) which is tied to a Pokédex number, so depending on what your name is, it works with the Missingno. glitch to occasionally let you run in to other Pokémon (even stuff that isn’t normally wild).
You can also do this glitch but with the Safari Zone, and encounter Safari Zone Pokémon out in the wild where you can actually battle them/use your cloned Master Balls/etc.
Don’t forget to name your character DxDyDzD to catch Mewtwo!
I used “Chris” to get a mew, from memory
JADE in all caps achieved level 128 mewtwo’s as well. 🙂
There was a way to trigger trainers, too. Including Prof. Oak.
This is fantastic, but honestly amazed that they kept it in given the fact that you can transfer to Pokemon bank. I wonder if the actual mew glitch is in there as well.
Wasn’t there something about the 9th letter of your name being a “y”?
Sorry, that posted twice
The third, fifth, and seventh slots in your name correspond to the particular Pokemon, and the second, fourth, and sixth slots correspond to the level of the Pokemon. Some symbols cause Trainers to appear; for example, the MN symbol in the third, fifth, or seventh slot causes Prof. Oak to fight you. Look it up to see which Pokemon/Trainers can appear