Missingno.

Missingno. (けつばん Ketsuban) is a well-known glitch found in the Pokémon Red and Blue Game Boy games. Missingno. is an abbreviation of “missing number”; its Japanese name, Ketsuban, also means “missing number”. Missingno. and other glitch Pokémon appear in the games due to programming oversights.

How Missingno. is found
The most common way other players encounter Missingno. in the Red and Blue versions of Pokémon is by doing the following: Alternatively, a player can also cause Missingno. to appear by trading Pokémon with a friend via a link cable or with one of the in-game traders, then Flying or Teleporting to Cinnabar or the Seafoam Islands and surfing along the coast as mentioned before.
 * Going to the northern part of Viridian City and watch the old man’s demonstration on how to catch a Pokémon.
 * Flying or Teleporting to Cinnabar Island or Fuchsia City.
 * Surfing up and down along the east coast of Cinnabar Island or the Seafoam Island closest to Fuchsia City until Missingno. appears. (Depending on the player’s name, Missingno. may not show up., )

When Missingno. is encountered, the game makes a partial save consisting of garbage data. In Pokémon Stadium, when the player is playing in Gameboy tower, this is made apparent by the “game saved” message that appears when battling Missingno. It is recommended that you properly save the game immediately after Missingno. appears.

Reasons why Missingno. appears
When the player watches the Old Man catching a Weedle, the game replaces the player’s graphic and name with those of the Old Man to show the training sequence. The player’s name has to be stored elsewhere for later retrieval, and the programmers decided to store it where information on wild Pokémon availability is usually loaded, since the player won’t encounter any wild Pokémon in Viridian City. When the battle ends, the game retrieves the player’s name from its temporary storage place.

As soon as the player enters an area with wild Pokémon, such as Route 2, the game will overwrite their saved name data with information on the wild Pokémon in the current area. However, Flying or Teleporting directly to another city doesn’t change that data, since cities don’t have wild Pokémon.

This effect (transferring the name to the wild Pokémon data space) also occurs during Pokémon trades. When a trainer catches a Pokémon, the player’s name is stored as the Pokémon’s Original Trainer (OT). During a trade, the game effectively deletes the Pokémon from one cartridge and re-creates it on the other. In order for a player to receive a Pokémon with a different Original Trainer, that player’s name and ID number are temporarily swapped with those of the person he/she is trading with, and the player’s real name is stored in the wild Pokémon data section (the same data-swapping trick as during the Old Man’s demo). This explains encounters with Missingno. or other Pokémon after trading.

This all causes Missingno.’s appearance because Cinnabar Island’s coast is programmed as an area where wild Pokémon are available, but it is not specified which Pokémon. Thus, the game doesn’t overwrite the previous wild Pokémon data, which (due to the Old Man’s demo or a trade) currently holds the player’s name. When a random battle begins, the game checks this data for a wild Pokémon list. Instead of finding a valid list, it will find the player’s name. It treats the letters in the name as hexadecimal data rather than character data.

The player’s name consists of six bytes, which are interpreted as data for three wild Pokémon, whose identities and levels are determined by the letters of the player’s name. (Their identities are determined by the third, fifth, and seventh characters of the player’s name, while their levels are determined by the second, fourth, and sixth characters, respectively.) However, not all letters in the player's name point to actual Pokémon. Though 256 slots exist for Pokémon, not all of these values are specified. Of the unspecified values, most are programmed to return the name “MISSINGNO.” This prevents the game from crashing if a glitch Pokémon is encountered. Some of the higher values, as well as zero, are not crash-protected in this way. This is why Pokémon like “'M” and “3trainerpoké” appear. Additionally, some players choose names at the beginning of the game because the letters in their name determine which rare Pokémon appear on the Cinnabar Island coast.

Rumors and popularity
Missingno.'s presence in the Red and Blue versions led to widespread rumors about it and similar glitches. Many claimed that, because it had the unused "Bird" type, Missingno was a deleted "Legendary Bird." Others claimed that Missingno evolved into Mew or unobtainable "Pokégods," hybrid or second-generation Pokémon said to exist in the first-generation games. All of these rumors have been proven false, mainly by examination of the game's hexadecimal data. A very popular rumour was that Missingno. was dangerous to a players game, but in reality Missingno. is a harmless glitch and some players have fun playing around with it.

Appearance and attributes
Missingno. has no Pokédex description, but is registered in the Pokédex. When Missingno. is encountered, the sixth item in your inventory will increase by 128 (if you have fewer than 128 of that item). Additionally, all existing Hall of Fame data will be corrupted, even if the game is reset without saving (this is because encountering Missingno. causes a partial save, as explained above). Many players take advantage of this by duplicating rare items like Master Balls, Nuggets and Rare Candies. Catching a glitch Pokémon can mess up the in-battle graphics, effects include flipping over enemy Pokémon sprites, but this is easily fixed by looking at the stats of a non glitch Pokémon. Checking the stats of Missingno. will reglitch the graphics. Many people think that Missingno. is dangerous to a the game, but the only thing that can be fatal to a save file is sending a level 0 Pokémon to Bill's PC (Missingno. cannot be found at level 0, but 'M can). Because a player's name determines which glitches appear, there are many possibilities for what will appear, and there is a chance one of the glitches will be severe. However, releasing all glitch Pokémon from the PC will allow you to use the storage system again. A battle with 'M continues after capturing it, but its sprite is no longer there. Catching it again results in catching a Ditto.

The 256 slots for Pokémon graphic data are not all filled. 151 are real Pokémon; 56 are trainers; 39 are Missingno., and the remaining 10 are simply glitch Pokémon. This would explain why trainers sometimes appear on Cinnabar Island's coast. Since characters and pixel data are all stored as numbers, the characters in the player’s name determine the Pokémon encountered via the Missingno. glitch (see above).


 * Missingno.’s appearance is as a mass of pixels in a backward "L" shape (see infobox picture). However, this mass sometimes changes shape. For example, if a player goes to the Indigo Plateau and defeats all of the opponents with Missingno. in the player's party, after Professor Oak congratulates the player for winning and the player's party Pokémon are displayed, Missingno will not appear as it normally looks (the graphics will be different). In the case of 'M, after being caught its image will disappear (although the player will still be battling a Ditto.)

Missingno. Ghost sprite
Missingno. Ghost form uses the sprite of the ghost found in Pokémon Tower if the player does not have the Silph Scope.
 * This form appears through the old man glitch if y is the character in the third, fifth, or seventh slot of the player's chosen name.
 * This form appears through the Mew glitch with a Special stat of 184.
 * This form appears through evolving Z ゥ at level 224.

Missingno.’s icon in the Pokémon menu is also glitched, often appearing as a pixellated Surfing icon or a black blob (it changes based on the player’s location). When used in Pokémon Stadium, it looks like a Substitute doll.

Missingno. sometimes appears as the sprite which represents Ghosts in Lavender Tower before the player receives the Silph Scope item. Other types of Missingno. appear as the Aerodactyl or Kabutops fossils from Pewter City’s museum. If the player’s name has a lowercase “y” as the third, fifth, or seventh letter, Missingno. will appear as a Ghost; a lowercase “x” results in the Aerodactyl fossil appearance; and a lowercase “w” results in the Kabutops fossil graphic. (This is because the memory addresses for the Ghost, Aerodactyl fossil, and Kabutops fossil graphics correspond to the numerical identifiers for the “y”, “x”, and “w” characters.)

Missingno.’s type, stats (including HP, Attack, Defense, Speed, Special, height, weight, and cry) and attacks vary depending on its identifier (there is more than one Pokémon called “Missingno.”, explained above), the characters in the player’s name, and the player’s currently owned Pokémon. Missingno.'s defense is always poor when the player catches it, but it can be improved by giving it Iron, possibly even giving it Iron using the Rare Candy trick (see first paragraph in this section). Missingno.'s types are Bird/Normal, and its most common attacks are Sky Attack, Water Gun, and Water Gun (though normal Pokémon cannot learn the same move twice, Missingno. has two instances of Water Gun). It sometimes gains levels erratically, commonly gaining the experience and/or types of other party Pokémon. Its stats also change randomly, not always growing higher with the level. I n later generations, other glitch Pokémon are referred to as "a Missingno.", such as ??????????, ? , and -. Despite this, they have little relation to the one found in Pokémon Red and Blue or Yellow.

Other glitches
Missingno. is one of many glitches that occur in the Red and Blue versions. It is arguably the most well-known Pokémon glitch, and has acquired much notoriety. It appears in many Pokémon myths, especially those involving Mew. Actually, the glitch described above cannot make Mew appear on the Cinnabar Island or Seafoam Island coasts; its numerical identifier does not correspond to a letter available for player names. Despite this, Mew’s popularity and Missingno.’s own mystery have secured Missingno. a place in Pokémon culture.

Another glitch Pokémon similar to Missingno. exists, with a glitched name appearing as “” (referred to as “'M” or “'M Block”). This “Pokémon” is far stranger than Missingno, and unlike Missingno. it can cause problems with your save file.

Advantages and disadvantages of Missingno.
Encountering Missingno., 'M, and other glitch Pokémon often interferes with the saved game data in various ways. Trainer and Pokémon graphics during battle are corrupted; the Hall of Fame data is extremely glitched (changes in screen color, music, and game speed have been known to occur); sometimes, every box in the PC is cleared except for the selected one if Missingno. or 'M are encountered too many times. There are rumors that the entire saved game may be deleted or the cartridge permanently corrupted, but these have been (mostly) disproven. On a very few occasions, keeping Missingno. in your party for a long time may even cause it to erase other Pokémon in the party.

Missingno.’s presence also allows what is known as the “Rare Candy Glitch” or “Item Duplication Glitch”, an infamous item bug which adds 128 of the sixth item in the player’s inventory. It is commonly used to duplicate valuable and hard-to-obtain items, such as Rare Candies and Master Balls. However, the duplication bug can affect any item in the game, not just Rare Candies. Using the bug to duplicate Key Items is possible, allowing the player to obtain more fossils for reviving Kabuto, Omanyte, and Aerodactyl; this is not recommended, since the player cannot get rid of duplicated Key Items through “tossing” or selling, and they serve only to take up inventory space.

The coasts where Missingno. may be found are used for other cheats as well. If the player Surfs along the coasts after leaving an area where certain wild Pokémon appear, those Pokémon will continue to appear by the coast, even if they are not water-dwelling Pokémon. This is because Surfing along the coasts does not overwrite the data for which wild Pokémon are available, and if the player’s name has not been stored in that area through one of the procedures above, the previous wild Pokémon will appear. This glitch can be used to fight Pokémon from the Safari Zone in a normal battle. Other Extra-strong Pokémon can appear, boasting stats higher than level 100, such as lv. 128 Golbat and lv. 153 Snorlax. 

One disadvantage of Missingno. is that it can't be used in official Nintendo Gameboy tournaments involving multiple players and game link cables. (These tournaments are held on tours at malls). Missingno. is explicitly not allowed in any of the battles by the supervisors, and anybody found to be using a Missingno. will be ejected from the tournament.

Missingno. in other games
All Pokémon games for the Game Boy include glitch “Pokémon” similar to Missingno., most of which are only obtainable through cheating devices (such as Gameshark). Players often refer to these anomalies as “Missingno.” even though none of them explicitly carry that name within the games. Notable glitches in other games include the “question mark glitches” in the Ruby, Sapphire, FireRed, LeafGreen, and Emerald versions, named as such because of their resemblance to either a question mark within a circle or two block letter question marks, and their name comprised solely of question marks.

Missingno. in Pokémon Yellow
When Pokémon Yellow was released, the east coasts of Cinnabar Island and Seafoam Island were reprogrammed to disallow random encounters. However, some time after Yellow was released, a new glitch was discovered that allowed battles with any Pokémon, including Missingno. and Mew. This method is an extension of the Mew glitch:
 * Outside the Underground Path between Celadon City and Lavender Town, there is a bald Gambler trainer. Walk down towards him such that he notices you just as he appears on the screen.
 * Just before an exclamation mark appears over the Gambler’s head and he battles you, open the Start menu and Fly to Lavender Town. Your Start Menu will not work past this point until the procedure is complete.
 * Enter the Pokémon Tower and fight any Channeler with a Gastly. Make sure the Channeler walks up to you to battle, or the game will freeze.
 * Head out and walk west, back towards the original Gambler (do not Fly). As you exit Lavender Town, the Start Menu pops up.
 * Close it and a level 7 Missingno. will appear. The game might freeze; if it does, wait a while or turn it off.

A Yellow-version player can also receive a Missingno. by trading with a Red or Blue version player. In this case, Missingno. will affect the Yellow version in the same way it affected the Red or Blue versions, including corrupting the Hall of Fame data. In some instances, a Missingno. traded from Red or Blue to a Yellow version will become a Rhydon or Kangaskhan for the same reasons Missingno. and 'M can evolve into those Pokémon.

In Pokémon Stadium
Missingno. and 'M can be uploaded to Pokémon Stadium, and (if the game doesn’t freeze) will look like Substitute dolls (small Rhydon or Kangaskhan-like figures that appear when a Pokémon uses the Substitute attack). Missingno.’s graphic is purple and 'M’s is blue. When viewed in the Pokémon Center, all of Missingno.’s stats will be question marks (including the species ID, even though Red, Blue and Yellow identify Missingno. and 'M as #000). However, the glitches will not be allowed to battle, nor will they function correctly in the Gallery (in which players can take pictures of Pokémon). Photos of them will not develop if taken.

If Missingno. or any other glitch Pokémon is selected in the “see list”, the game will freeze, playing the music without the bass track in the background. If a player tries to view Missingno.’s stats, the game will also freeze on occasion.

The second generation
Missingno. cannot be traded to Pokémon Gold and Silver because the data slots once filled by Missingno. in the first generation are filled by real Pokémon in the second generation. In the trade center, Missingno appears as whatever second-generation Pokémon corresponds to that Missingno’s numerical identifier, often a Remoraid or Tyrogue. When the players try to trade Missingno., a message appears stating “Your friend’s [Missingno.’s name] appears to be abnormal.” and the trade is cancelled automatically. Less often, Missingno can be traded, in which case it turns into the Pokémon it was displayed as. This also occurs with other glitch Pokémon, such as “Prof. Oak” and “4”.

Similar problems present themselves when attempting to transfer Missingno. or 'M to Pokémon Stadium 2 (USA). If successfully transferred, Missingno. and 'M will become a Ditto.