"The Pre-Pokédex Glitch" or "The Early Shiny Pokémon Glitch"
(A glitch I discovered that raises the odds of meeting a shiny Pokémon in Pokémon Crystal, Silver and Gold, when you do not have the Pokédex (And Pokéballs!) yet.)
((Drawing above is an old oekaki from 2010; an illustration of the glitch!))
During the summer of 2010, I started a new game on my Pokémon Crystal cartridge.
Just after receiving my starter, a Cyndaquil, I started training in the grass just outside New Bark Town. After just a few minutes of playing, I encounter a shiny Pokémon; a Sentret.
((Shiny Sentret on Pokémon Crystal [USA] on my GBA.))
I literally screamed. It was my very first legit shiny on Pokémon Crystal and I met it so early that I didn't had the Pokéballs yet! You bet right; all I could do was to K.O it or RUN.
W-what luck...
I decided to start a new game.
I picked Totodile as a starter this time and decided I could just run through the grass to get the Pokéballs as fast as I could... I met a shiny Pidgey before I could get out the grass on Route 29.
((Shiny Pidgey on Pokémon Crystal [USA] on my GBA.))
But this time I K.O'ed the little sparkling bitch. I wasn't happy, not at all.
Can I be so un-lucky? I am making this out?
I restarted other games on my cartridge, but those times around, I wasn't so lucky... Or unlucky. So I guess, those two shiny Pokémons were just a twist of fate. No luck. I guess.
A day, I was chilling and playing Pokémon Crystal on my Wii. (It's kinda illegal... I know.) I decided to continue a old game, that surprising enough, was only getting close to the second town. Still no Pokéballs in the bag. It was nighttime and I when to see Mr. Pokémon. On the very last patches of grasses, just before his house, I encountered a shiny Hoothoot.
((Shiny Hoothoot on Pokémon Crystal [FR] on my Wii.))
A third encounter? A THIRD SHINY POKÉMON WITHOUT HAVING ANY POKÉBALLS?
I am getting tired of this! I'll just ran away... And then, I realized...
Wait a minute...
The odds of seeing a shiny Pokémon in Pokémon Crystal (Generation II) are approximately 1/8192. That insanely low. Most people will never encounter a single shiny Pokémon in their life but I met three in just a couple of days? And under the exact same circumstances? Circumstances being having not a single Pokéball yet AND not having the Pokédex yet!
What if... the odds of meeting a shiny Pokémon were higher due to a glitch?
What if... the odds are insanely high because it was a feature used in the demo of Pokémon Silver & Gold to prove that shiny Pokémons ever existed? And somehow the feature was never completely deleted out and still remains in the very first minutes of play, because you don't have the Pokédex?
Eh... I am getting carried away. It is probably just very bad luck. I don't recall nobody having the same bad luck as me.
I wanted to be sure. So I did the drawing that you saw on top of this article and posted it on DeviantArt. I asked the community if the same "bad luck" happened to them. And, well...
((Thanks to everyone for the answers! These comments are from my post on my dA: MBlock))
Not only I discovered that a lot of people had the same problem during their game but also that the glitch is present in Pokémon Gold & Silver too!
Now I am mostly sure that I discovered, with the help of devoted and kind friends, a glitch!
"The Pre-Pokédex Glitch" or "The Early Shiny Pokémon Glitch" is a glitch that raises the odds of meeting a shiny Pokémon in Pokémon Crystal, Silver and Gold.
The mechanics behind this glitch is unknown, but as shiny Pokémons are generated with the DVs (Only in Generation II), maybe it's a glitch that cause the DVs to be locked into a certain range of possibilities (Just like the Odd Egg) and causing the odds to met a shiny raising to impressing levels!
It have been reported to work on a English (USA) and French cartridge, on a real Gameboy Color, a GBA and on a emulator. The glitch is present in Pokémon Crystal, Silver and Gold.
Requirements:
- Start a new game on Pokémon Crystal, Silver or Gold.
- Don't go into to the house of Mr. Pokémon.
Et voilà! Now all you got to do is battle wild Pokémons! Maybe a shiny one will appears!
Last time I did encountered the glitch, I was on a emulator, playing Pokémon Crystal [FR] and the very first pokémon I encounter was a shiny Pidgey! Two battles later, an other shiny Pidgey show up. That would have being almost impossible with odds at 1/8192!
Next tests to do:
- Test if the glitch works too on Route 46.
- Test if the glitch raises the odds to receive a shiny starter (Cyndaquil, Totodile or Chikorita).
- Catch a shiny Pokémon met under the glitch's restriction, but catch it with the help of cheating. I want to know the DVs of the shiny Pokémons!
- What about the other Routes? Does the glitch works on them too? Maybe we could see it if we do some "Walk Through Walls" cheating.
- - -
If you want to help you can actually!
Tell us your story, if this glitch happened to you or test the glitch!
Shiny Pokémons that were encountered with the glitch so far:
((Thanks to everyone for the answers! So far, 3 people on Tumblr confirmed meeting a shiny Pokémon under the exact same circumstances.))
Thank you everyone for your help and support!
EDIT 01/12/12 : I've tested the glitch for a shiny starter, a Cyndaquil, and I was successful in about 50 soft resets or so. I also heard people obtaining easily shiny starters in generation II... so this means the odds are also effective on starters?
I'll add up shiny Cyndaquil sprites above. His DVs are: 0HP, 10DEF, 10SPD, 10SP.DEF, 10SP.ATT and his DV in attack is 10 or 14. (He finally learn Hidden Power, it's a Grass-type one) I can't find a way to calculate it's attacj DV precisely...
That'd be really interesting to catch a shiny Pokémon with the glitch, but with cheats to have Pokéballs and compare the DVs to see if it's a malfunction in the generation of the DVs that causes the glitch!
Tell me Tumblr, do you had a shiny starter in generation II ?
(Maybe if enough people confirm the statement above, maybe it can prove the glitch is effective on the starters too!)
If this glitch is effective on starters then it is useful! If I ever get proof that it work on them, I rename the glitch to "Shiny Starter glitch", because people would use the glitch in a way to obtain shiny starters not to meet un-catchable wild shiny pokémons.
