Pro tip: finding MissingNo (or 'M) in Pokémon Red and / or Blue

Will — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:08:17 +0000

I have to preface today's tip with a serious warning: Do not try this at home! Seriously, doing this glitch can corrupt your save game, costing you hours upon hours of work, or worse. I'm doing it here so you don't have to.

To find the mysterious Glitch Pokémon MissingNo (or possibly 'M), perform the following steps. You'll need to be pretty far into the game (at least far as Cinnabar Island)

1. Start in Viridian City. Find the guy that offered to teach you how to catch Pokémon

2. Take him up on his offer and watch the show

3. When he's done, immediately Fly to Cinnabar Island (yes, I know the picture says Fuchsia City, don't worry about that)

4. And begin Surfing up and down on the thin strip of terrain where the water and the land meet (remember, even encountering this thing can cause some game hiccups, don't do it)

5. Eventually a battle will start, and the Pokémon is a glitchy mass of pixels with a 'M in its name or MissingNO. It's level 0, so it shouldn't be much of a challenge to capture or defeat (extra warning catching it causes lots of glitchy and unpredictable behavior, don't do it)

6. As an added bit of fun, if you fought 'M, like I did here, the sixth item in your inventory will have inexplicably multiplied to an amount so big, that the numbers glitch out trying to display it (around 128)

If MissingNo or 'M is caught, glitches will happen (in fact, just encountering 'M will make weird things happen). But, like I said, this can have disastrous effects on your saved game, whether you save it or not.

Pro tip: evolving certain Pokémon the easy way

Will — Thu, 28 May 2009 12:30:35 +0000

In the main Pokémon games you capture and train creatures to build your ultimate fighting team, and when certain conditions are met, they change into more powerful forms, called 'evolution' in-game.

A few have the rather unusual condition that you have to find someone to trade them with, and as a result of the trading process they will evolve into their more powerful forms.

So, you had to track down someone who had a copy of the game and negotiate a trade where you likely traded monsters, let them evolve, and then traded back so you could have your original creature, now powered up.

But! There's a better way!

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl have introduced the ability to trade over the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection. You put up something and what you'll take for it and then wait for someone else to take your offer, kind of like a Pokémon trading post. If what you put up there doesn't get taken, then you can withdraw your request and try again.

But! What if you put up one of the Pokémon that evolve via trading? Then request something that's impossible to get via normal means (such as a Level 1 Blastoise) to ensure that nobody will actually be able to trade with you? Then immediately take your original Pokémon back?

It evolves! Just like you had traded it with someone.

And you have, sort of. You've traded with yourself.

Pro Tip of the Day - pokemon

Pro tip: finding MissingNo (or 'M) in Pokémon Red and / or Blue

Pro tip: evolving certain Pokémon the easy way