Part 2: Show me your Mews

Okay maybe not keeping my Teleport point in Pewter City was not the best plan since you can't go back after hopping this ledge. Why is that ledge there, anyways?



It was tough, but I managed to clear a path to Vermillion with what I've got. Battles are only going to get harder, so I think we could use some more extreme firepower.



In the meantime, I grab a couple items for later. I normally don't actually care about the bike, because it's not a whole lot faster than walking for me. I think I might want it in the future, however.



Time to have some fun. One space to my left is a trainer who would see me if I stepped left.



I immedietely press start, however, so he does not see me until I close the menu. This happens because all NPCs and the player face downwards by default, so it took him half a second to turn towards me. I think I could take another step towards him as he sees me, as well, which is funny, but...



What happens if we escape the map while in this state?



He saw me, but I teleported before he walked up to me! Kind of a weird effect on my sprite there too.



Back in Vermillion, I find that I can't push start or talk to anyone suddenly. Very strange! Maybe the game thinks I'm in battle? Well, I know how to fix that.



Beat someone in a battle, that's how. I need to clear this guy anyhow. But make sure he actually takes a step, or the game softlocks, since it's expecting the NPC to move and waits for it to happen when it actually can't.



I proceed east, but there's an actually effective roadblock. (There's a point to this, I promise!)



Oops, shouldn't have ran into that guy, I suppose.

So I head north of Vermillion and--



Hey, my menu popped up without a button press! And there's a flying NPC...?



Wh-what, a battle? What?



WHAT!...yeah you probably saw this coming.

No Generation 1 player HASN'T heard of this trick, and it's a crazy one. Teleporting away from that trainer earlier "buffers" a battle in that area so to speak. If you fight another trainer and return to that area, a wild Pokémon appears based on - I'm not kidding - the special stat of the most recent Pokémon you encountered.

"Wait so that Rattata had 31 special, for Nidoqueen's dex number?" you ask. Nope, it actually had 16 special. See, Pokémon in Gen 1 have a dex number, but they also have an internal ID which is different from the dex number. Don't ask why, that's also the case in Gen 3. The point is, if you know the IDs and which enemies to look for, you can make ANY Pokémon you want appear. Any of them. Starters? Mewtwo? Want to stick it to Nintendo and make Mew appear outside of an event?! There ya go. This list will help you get the numbers you want. (That list spoils some stuff I'm going to go over though!)

This trick is known by many names. Some call it the "Mew Glitch" because, well, you can catch Mew with it. Then another guy called it the "Oddish Glitch" because you can catch Oddish too. Me, I prefer "Trainer Escape".

Of course you don't really have to escape from the trainer I used this time. Any trainer who can see you from the edge of the screen will work. When this was first discovered, they were Flying away from a Gambler outside Lavender Town. Then they figured out you could use Teleport so they did it with a trainer on Route 24 and an Abra they caught there. THEN they figured out Escape Ropes work and did it with a Rocket in Mt. Moon.

Oh, but guess what? You can do it even SOONER than that!



Remember this guy from earlier? He is the first trainer to have tall grass in his sight. You can, in fact, get a wild encounter on the same step as a trainer seeing you, and if you do, the wild battle happens first. If you black out in the wild battle, then the same effect as escaping a trainer occurs. However, naturally the odds of getting an encounter on just the right step is kind of low.



Speaking of luck, any Pokémon that you encounter this way that you couldn't normally has the same catch rate as legendaries. Luckily, the capture algorithm is poorly implemented. Long story short: if your target has a high catch rate, take its HP down to half and start tossing Great Balls. If its catch rate is low, put it to sleep and start tossing Ultra Balls.

That's right, in certain circumstances a Great Ball has better odds. Which...is actually kind of a neat idea.



Fortunately I pulled it off, but all this blacking out is costing me money, so I could use a limitless source of it.



It's a good thing there is one!...in Blue Version, anyways. Never play Red Version.



By the way, did you know that you can purchase any drink at the vending machine as long as you have 200 bucks or more? Even if you're purchasing the more expensive drinks? It's not TOO useful, but hey.

So I bet you're thinking, "Boring, the Mew Glitch is decade-old news!" Well, maybe, but what if I knew some ways of manipulating the outcome of the glitch that you don't?



Let's do it again, but I'll run into this Swimmer in the Cerulean Gym.



Now, on this Swimmer's last Pokémon, I Growl at it six times. There's a reason for this.



While I'm at it: fishing in statues. You can Surf in it too, and there's even encounters in here. Misty really does run an aquarium!

...except if I fish I get encounter...which messes the trick up wait no forget I did that



This is technically where the route's map starts, so the menu pops up here. Who's that Pokémon?!



It's...level one! This is the reason I growled at the Shellder earlier. While the special stat of your last encounter determines the SPECIES of the result, the ATTACK MODIFIER determines the LEVEL. No, really. The attack modifier can be anything from -6 to +6, so the game considers 7 to be neutral, which is why Mew Glitch encounters are usually level 7.



You need to be seriously careful about accidental knock-outs when you do this, but there we go!



Now hold on there, that's an ABSURD amount of EXP and it's still just level 1? Well, Generation 1 never has any Pokémon below level 2, so what you're seeing is an experience underflow bug. By the way, NEVER send a level 0 or 1 Pokémon to the computer boxes, because the game crashes if you withdraw it. EXP miscalculation glitch or some such.

But, wait, if its EXP is underflowing, what if it gained a tiny amount of EXP?



OOOOOOOH SHIT. A level 100 is possible as early as BROCK with a little luck! Jumping from level 1 to 100 is only possible for a few Pokémon, however, due to their EXP curves being vulnerable to underflow. Those Pokémon are Mew and any 3-stage evolution line that is not Caterpie's line, Weedle's line, or Dratini's line.

Nintendo, I SWEAR if you block these Mews from going to Gen 7, I will boycott it. (Maybe.)

Unfortunately, this Mew just fell victim to one of the few detrimental bugs in Gen 1. It skipped from level 1 to 100, so it missed its chance to learn any moves in between. For Mew this isn't too bad since it can learn any TM and HM, but I remember my Bulbasaur skipping the level it learns Vine Whip since it got a huge EXP boost from being traded. (Yes, traded. You thought I would choose the Grass starter?)

I should also mention, you don't have to actually win against the second trainer, or even run into them per se, to resolve the glitch. Any scripted event that moves an NPC works, such as an NPC in Pewter City that shows you the Museum, the NPC who "blocks" you from leaving without the badge, or even...a Strength boulder. I'm not kidding. You still need to encounter something, however.

Of course, you need the start menu for the Strength boulder method, so here's what to do: Go to any computer and change boxes. Yes, interacting with NPCs doesn't work, but the computers do. Don't question it. Anyways, changing boxes forces the game to save, so you can reset, reload, and have your buttons working again. Everyone thought it was annoyign to have to save to change boxes, but now there's a good use for it!

But maybe...you're still unimpressed. Well, how about we learn all the different ways of manipulating the outcome?

As stated, your most recent encounter determines what you get out of this trick. That includes any trainer or even wild Pokémon. When using a trainer for this, the result is guaranteed because they all have fixed IVs. As a result, there's a handy guide right here to what every trainer can give you.

Wild Pokémon, however, have randomized IVs so their special stat can vary by a point or two. To confirm you're getting what you want, you can capture it...or you can encounter Ditto, because he transforms into your Pokémon, and copies over their special stat too! Your own Pokémon's stats can be used. Too bad about that Snorlax blocking me from getting to Fuschia City, where they appear, right?



Wait, WHAT! He's gone! How? Okay, listen to this, you're gonna love it. So some maps have NPCs and objects that can disappear, like items and legendaries. The game loads a list of these into memory when you enter an area with them. Then after any encounter it checks to see if you got it from a random encounter, and if you didn't, it MUST have been a legendary, so it removes an object. The Mew Glitch lets you get one of these encounters any time, thereby fooling the game into removing the first of these objects from the most recent area you went to that had one!

In other words, I just skipped:
-The Pokémon Tower
-The Game Corner
-Rock Tunnel

Bonus: I can't even use Flash anyways without the Boulder Badge. The one badge you MUST have before advancing enables a move gained much later in the game, how odd.

Oh? That's STILL not enough for you?



Let's do it AGAIN.



By the way, it seems that beating this guy moves the guard regardless of whether you had seen Bill already, so I just skipped him, too! I wonder if that means I can't get the S. S. Ticket...ah, nobody needs that now, either.



I'll fight her, and then...



Talk to this guy. He trades with you, but I only need to talk to him, not trade. Why? Because when you talk to a trade NPC...the nickname of the Pokémon they trade you gets loaded...and the nickname gets used for the Mew Glitch!

Specifically, the 5th letter determines species, and the 6th letter determines level. Oh, but this guy named his Jynx "LOLA" which is only four letters. In cases like this, the 5th and 6th spaces will be 0x50 in Hexadecimal, since 0x50 is the "End of string" marker. So I'm getting a level 80 Pokémon now, but who occupies ID number 80?



The fade-out lasts a second or so longer than normal, that's strange.



...WHO AND WHAT

Bonus:



I decide to head down the Nugget Bridge to try something out. Oh I'll show you what I caught, alright!



You couldn't even knock out one tiny little Pokémon!



This guy has level 12 Caterpie and Weedle and doesn't regret not evolving them? Okay then.



I was wondering what would happen if you had no room for the Nugget this guy gives, but he just sends you away. Interestingly you can only fight this guy one time, win or lose, because if you lost you could repeat the event where you get the Nugget and get as many of them as you cared to get.

It's a good thing they didn't make that exact mistake in Fire Red and Leaf Green! Oh wait. THEY DID. Interesting how the remake ADDED a glitch.