Part 55: Glitzer Popping
Side Notes 14: Glitzer PoppingSo it's time to talk about the really big glitch of the LP and it's similar to the Mew of Celebi Egg Glitch in size, since it's pretty similar in what in does, but activated in a different way. This glitch can only be performed in Emerald and Gen 4 because of the new effect of the Pomeg Berry: it lowers a Pokemon's HP EVs by 10, which can cause the Pokemon's HP to become lower than 1 without it fainting. As you'd expect, this is pretty big, as the game gets pretty damn confused.
Before we really glitch things up, one big thing you can do with this glitch is have Eggs be sent out into battle, since the game considers your Pomeg'd Pokemon to still be alive, but not able to be sent out. So the Pokemon that would hatch from the Egg is sent out (mixed with the colour palette of the Egg) and has all the stats and moves it would have while hatching. During this time, you can level up, learn moves and evolve, all without hatching the Egg. When it does hatch, it's sent back to level 5, EVs are reset to 0 and all exp is removed, but the changed moveset and evolution remain, allowing you to get level 5 evolved Pokemon and Pokemon with moves they won't learn for a long time. Also, since you can trade Eggs in these games, Pokemon that would evolve when traded, like Kadabra, will evolve while you have a Pomeg'd Pokemon in your party.
But the main use of the Pomeg Glitch is Glitzer Popping, letting you go beyond the sixth slot of the party and, like similar Gen 1 and 2 glitches, start messing around in the game's data and corrupt Pokemon in Box 1 and 2 in the Storage System. It's pretty easy to set up, but if you want to get a specific Pokemon from this, then you need to know what happens when you corrupt a Pokemon's data to get something different in the PC. To understand how this all works, we need to go over how the Pokemon's data is laid out:
This determines everything the Pokemon is about, but the main reason this glitch works is because the game organises these four structures in different orders depending on the remainder of the Pokemon's personality value mod 24, in this chart (don't worry if you don't know what mod is):
So, by changing a Pokemon's personality value via this glitch, we change what values the game reads, as the data structures don't change order when you forcibly change the personality value in this way, so in this way, we can have the game read a Pokemon's HP and Attack EVs as the species index, or the ID of the first move as the Pokerus status and met location. Can you see how this glitch might work? By changing the personality value, we can manipulate all aspects of a Pokemon's data by changing how many EVs it has, or what attacks it has, things very easy to control and have the game read it as the species index number, or the item held, something we wouldn't be able to manipulate in such a way.
This means, of course, that only some Pokemon actually work for this glitch, since they need to have the right personality value to then corrupt to a different personality value that will have its structures read in the "right" way. To use that table, a corrupted Pokemon will have its personality value changed to either 8 above or 8 below the number its previous personality value was. Obviously you won't know what the personality value is unless you use a save editor of some kind and since you're there you might as well change the EVs to your liking, but remember that all four data structures get read in different ways, so depending on which one you end up in, the Growth structure values is now being read as Moves, so you'd end up with a Pokemon with glitched moves, or with Pokerus. It's overall not important, since the main focus in on turning the EVs or first Move into the Species ID.
Alright, how exactly do you corrupt a Pokemon then? It's actually a lot simpler than you'd think, aside from having the very specific Pokemon you want to corrupt. All you need to do is clone the Pokemon you want to corrupt multiple times and place it in box 2 slot 23/24 and then chequerboard the other clones around the box to increase the chance of the Pokemon becoming corrupted. Other, more useless Pokemon should be placed in the gaps as a "corruption initiator" to be corrupted in unfavourable ways instead of the Pokemon you actually want to corrupt properly. Because of how fast you'll be scrolling through game data in this glitch, you're going to be changing a lot of things very quickly, so it's best to have a lot of backups and sacrificial lambs.
Now, fill your party with fainted Pokemon, one of which needs to know Fly, and the Pokemon you'll use the Pomeg Berry on to activate the glitch. Reduce its HP to 1, but don't put it to 0 just yet. When using the Pomeg Berry on it, you don't want to lower its HP below 0, or the game won't count it as a fainted Pokemon. You can simply use a Potion to put it back to 0. Anyway, now is the time to save, this is where you'll restart if the glitch either doesn't work, or corrupts your favoured Pokemon incorrectly.
Start a wild Pokemon battle and flee from it, then deposit the first fainted Pokemon in the PC. Now use the Pomeg Berry and reduce the Pokemon's HP to 0. Start another wild Pokemon battle and since you technically don't have any non-fainted Pokemon, you'll send out ??????????. Open the Pokemon menu and view the summary of the first valid Pokemon in the party, then back out and scroll up. And keep scrolling, yes even past the Cancel option, slot 256, to start you at slot 255, which is the data of the Pokemon in box 2 slot 23. The more you scroll up, the more you corrupt the Pokemon in the storage system, up until slot 215 (Box 1 slot 1) at which point you start selecting Day Care data, contest data, map data, flag data, etc. Basically anything you can think of, you can potentially blindly select and change in some way. Only do so if you know what you're doing.
When you've corrupted as much of the PC as you want, leave the battle and check the Pokemon in the PC. What you're looking for is just a normal Egg where your Pokemon might be. Ignore all the Bad Eggs and other random crap that might be in there. Withdraw the Egg and see if it's the right Pokemon by sending it out into battle. If it is, hatch it and it's added to your Pokedex, completely legit!
Now you might be thinking woah woah woah, how do HP and Attack EVs translate to a Pokemon species, you can only have 252 in one stat, do you add them both to get a Pokedex number, so 386 for Deoxys? Close, but no, you need to know the internal species ID for that Pokemon, so for Deoxys, that's 410 and if you need a Pokemon lower than 255, then you just use the HP EV, but for anything higher than that, you need to have 1 Attack EV, since that gives you the species number of 256. You then add on whatever amount of HP EVs to get the number you desire, so 154 HP EVs will get you 410, Deoxys. You can also do this with Moves, such as Beat Up resulting in Celebi, hey remember that? But there aren't as many moves as there are Pokemon anymore, so it doesn't work out. You aren't able to manipulate the held item in this way by changing Defense and Speed EVs, as 1 Defense will equal 512, which exceeds any item ID value. Maths!
If you have no idea what I'm talking about still, then yeah, maybe I'm back at explaining this stuff, so just refer to Werster's video on the subject as he explains it very clearly. And there you go, you can now get any Pokemon you damn well fancy, though it might not be a great idea to get Mew and Deoxys if you plan of using them. That's because if you don't get them with an obedience flag (fateful encounter when traded to Gen 4) via their event, they don't obey you in the slightest and cannot be traded. Though since you have a save editor to get the right Pokemon to corrupt, you can just, uh, change that. Okay, well see ya.