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Glitch Trainer



A glitch Trainer refers to any Trainer with invalid data.

In Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow and Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal, these are Trainers belonging to an invalid class, Trainers that have an invalid roster, glitch link battle Trainers, or glitch Trainer House Trainers.

In Generation I

Generation I has three types of glitch Trainers:

Invalid Trainer classes

"Trainer class" is a term for the name of the Trainer, their picture, their artificial intelligence and their base payout.

Glitch Trainer classes have index numbers hex:C8 (this Trainer is nicknamed 'Jacred' but has a name that varies) and hex:F8-FF. Like glitch Pokémon, they have invalid sprites. Their base money payout may be very high, and because of that, certain Trainer class and roster combinations cause the ZZAZZ glitch (e.g. Trainer class 255's roster 07).

Their glitch AI may freeze the game.

Invalid rosters

"Roster" simply refers to which collection of Pokémon a Trainer has in their party. A roster is defined by the memory address D05D (D05C in Yellow).

Invalid rosters will commonly consist glitch Pokémon, sometimes at a level above 100 or at level 0, but their moves will not be random; they will be moves that the relevant Pokémon can learn.

Often all of the Pokémon from an invalid roster will be at the same level.

In Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow, invalid roster data follows on from the last valid roster, which is Lance (hex:F7)'s first roster. This means that Lance (hex:F7)'s roster 02 is a glitch team, because he only has one valid team, and this is the same as e.g. Agatha (hex:F6)'s roster 03, or Channeler (hex:F5)'s roster 04.

Glitch link battle Trainers are Trainers with Red's picture. They can be accessed after performing the ZZAZZ glitch or the Cable Club escape glitch, due to the memory address D12B (D21A in Yellow) being set, which controls whether the opponent is a link battle Trainer.

Glitch link battle Trainers can also be accessed through the partial trapping move Link Battle glitch or through a communication error.

A ZZAZZ glitch caused glitch link battle Trainer (also known as a 'death Trainer') is known for having a Charizard 'M (Pokémon Red/Blue) or Q (Pokémon Yellow) with extremely high HP.

A Cable Club escape glitch link battle Trainer will have the roster from the other player you linked to if you open the trade screen before escaping from the Cable Club. If you did not open the trade screen, then it will have a glitch team. [clarification needed] If you defeat the Cable Club escape glitch glitch Trainer, it will have 'no Pokémon' for the next battle, so it may send out a Charizard 'M or Q.

Lock-up Trainer battles

Main article: Coin Case glitch A phenomenon in Pokémon Red and Green with an unknown cause. Some glitch Trainer rosters are inaccessible due to the game locking up with the music still playing before battle.

[b]YouTube video by PLASMA GER[/b]


In Generation II

Generation II has four types of glitch Trainers. However, for some reason most if not all invalid Trainer classes and invalid rosters in Pokémon Crystal freeze the game.

Invalid Trainer classes

Unlike Generation I, there are 190 glitch Trainer classes in Pokémon Gold/Silver and 189 (due to the addition of 'Mystical Man') in Pokémon Crystal. The Trainer class in Pokémon Gold and Silver can be changed with the GameShark code 01xx18D1.

In Gold/Silver, the names of Pokémon may be used in Trainer class names (e.g. hex:71 as EKANS) and the picture usually looks like a ?????, with a palette that depends on the Trainer class chosen.

Here is a list of valid Trainer classes and their identifiers.

Invalid rosters

In Generation II, the roster memory address D11B (Gold/Silver) controls not only the opponent's team, but also their name. For example, the codes 017118D1 and 01011BD1 give a Trainer called "EKANS 9KB".

Glitch Trainer House Trainers

After Trainer House corruption caused by something like the Unown SRAM corruption glitch, a glitch Trainer will appear in the Trainer House. In Pokémon Gold and Silver, if their name does not have a hex:50 after at most the 10th position of their name the game may reset in a Glitch Dimension, but Pokémon Crystal seems to handle longer names.

Different types of glitch Unown give different outcomes.

Like in Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow, players can battle glitchy Trainers in Generation II during a communication error in a link battle.

Additionally, in Pokémon Crystal, the code 0101DCC2 will force a link battle, and the code 0104DCC2 will force a mobile battle.

Ditto Trick Trainers

Glitch Trainers can be encountered with the Ditto Trick; an application of the Trainer escape glitch.

The Special stat of your Pokémon that Ditto will Transform into must be 200 or more, and the roster of the Trainer you encounter is based on the attack stage of the last Pokémon in memory, which defaults at 07 (neutral).

Since invalid rosters will be taken from a valid Trainer class with a greater index number if possible (e.g. Brock hex:E8's second roster is Misty hex:E9's first roster), the player will have to use a glitch Trainer that goes beyond Lance (hex:F7)'s first and only roster. Trainer C8 (hex:200) doesn't count, because it is believed to be Trainer class #256.

Agatha's roster 07 in Pokémon Red and Blue is nicknamed "Agatha Ultima" by fans for being relatively hard to defeat.

Old man glitch Trainers

Glitch Trainers can be encountered using the old man glitch with one of the following characters in the 3rd, 5th or 7th position (the 9th and 11th characters count as well, but those cannot have compatible characters normally):

CharacterTrainer classIndex number of character (hexadecimal)Index number of character (decimal)
PkBlue picture/ID #1E1225
MnProf. OakE2226
-ChiefE3227
?RocketE6230
!Cooltrainer♂E7231
BlaineEF239
× (multiplication symbol)GentlemanF1241
.Blue picture/ID #2F2242
/Blue (Champion)F3243
,LoreleiF4244
ChannelerF5245


These glitch Trainers use a unique set of Pokémon that can only otherwise be found with the cheat 01xxD8CF and a certain roster value set.

The last roster value in memory (D05D) before directly affects the roster. This address can be written to by encountering any valid Trainer and winning or losing to them, for example, the fifth Cue Ball on Route 16 (in Cycling Road, with the trainers counted from right to left from the Celadon City entrance) loads roster 03, which will load a glitch Trainer during the old man glitch that is fan-named "Blue Ultimus" due to it being relatively hard to beat.

Here is a list of the first ten old man glitch Trainer rosters:

The data below was generated by the forums user TheZZAZZGlitch.

Roster valuePokémon 1Pokémon 2Pokémon 3Pokémon 4Pokémon 5Pokémon 6
00◣ゥ 8 (level 32)Hex:FA (level 32)Missingno. hex:4F (level 32)PkMn (hex:CC) (level 32)Flareon (level 32)Hex:FA (level 32)
01Drowzee (level 111)Rhydon (level 111)Pidgey (level 111)Grimer (level 111)Missingno. hex:20 (level 111)Hex:F0 (level 111)
02ゥ (hex:C1) (level 9)Grimer (level 9)Missingno. hex: 20 (level 9)Hex:EB (level 9)◣ゥ 8 (level 9)Missingno. hex: AF (level 9)
03TRAINER (level 215)Pidgeot (level 215)Ivysaur (level 215)TRAINER (level 215)Nidoking (level 215)Fearow (level 215)
04Tentacool (level 128)Gengar (level 128)Cubone (level 128)a (level 128)Dugtrio (level 128)Growlithe (level 128)
05Tentacool (level 128)Voltorb (level 128)Cubone (level 128)
06Growlithe (level 64)
07Pゥ ゥ ゥ (level 128)C (level 128)Rhydon (level 128)Exeggcute (level 128)Spearow (level 128)Trainer (level 128)
08Nidoran♀ (level 14)Magneton (level 14)'M (FF) (level 14)Gastly (level 14)Grimer (level 14)Missingno. hex:20 (level 14)
09Rhyhorn (level 42)Arcanine (level 42)Missingno. hex:3E (level 42)Clefairy (level 42)Mewtwo (level 42)Missingno. hex:5F (level 42)


See also

  • TrainerDex — Database of glitch Trainers.
  • Trainer escape glitch
  • ZZAZZ Glitch
  • Old Man Trick
  • Cable Club escape glitch

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