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MissingNo.

For "MissingNo." as a term used unofficially to describe glitchy Pokémon not mentioned here, see glitch Pokémon and list of glitch Pokémon.

← Previous glitch PokémonCurrent glitch PokémonNext glitch Pokémon →
'M (00) (Red/Blue)/3TRAINERPOKé₽ (Yellow)MissingNo. (many index numbers)▶ A (BF) (Red/Blue)/4 4 (BF) (Yellow)


Missing Number (Japanese: けつばん Ketsuban, lit. "Missing Number"), displayed in-game as MissingNo., refers to a group of glitch Pokémon that act as fillers for vacant slots. Three particular examples also serve a specific purpose throughout the game.

MissingNo. is among the most well-known Pokémon glitches in the English player base, likely because it can be encountered through simple glitches and provide a means to duplicate items (see glitch Pokédex flags). It is also visually similar to 'M (00).

The earliest mention of MissingNo. by Nintendo of America was on the May 1999 issue of Nintendo Power where it warned that "any contact with it (even if you don't catch it), could easily erase your game file or disrupt your graphics". It was later featured among other support notes for Pokémon Red and Blue on the company's Nintendo.com website as early as 2000 (link), where it is described as a "programming quirk", "not a real part of the game", and "most often found after you perform the Fight Safari Zone Pokémon trick". Despite these official statements, MissingNo. is a relatively safe glitch Pokémon.

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Details

The sprites and core data of MissingNo. varies between versions (Red/Blue, Yellow and each of their localizations, in addition to the Japanese Red/Green and Japanese Blue), but its Pokédex category is common across all variants, being classified as the "???" Pokémon. Some of the MissingNo. have sprites which may freeze the game (although not necessarily), such as the front sprite of regular MissingNo. in the English Yellow version.

The Old Man Trick is sometimes referred to as the "MissingNo. glitch", but this is misleading because MissingNo. is not the only Pokémon or glitch Pokémon that can be found with the glitch.

The Old Man Trick is not present in Yellow or certain foreign language versions such as Pokémon Red/Green, so MissingNo. cannot be obtained that way in those versions.

Upon catching MissingNo., its Pokédex entry will be shown if the player has not seen Cubone, and this will activate the Rhydon trap. Otherwise, the Pokédex entry will not be shown and the MissingNo. will not be turned into a Rhydon.

English MissingNo. have invalid mini-sprites that vary based on location.

MissingNo. unlike 4h (hex
D6)
and other 000 family glitch Pokémon cannot learn any level up moves.

Obtaining MissingNo.

Below are methods of obtaining MissingNo. in different versions.

Note that additionally, MissingNo. can be seen and can duplicate items using the Cable Club escape glitch in all versions.

Pokémon Red/Blue (English)



  • Old man glitch:- if the character in the third, fifth, or seventh slot of the player's name is : the end-name marker, G, H, J, M, S, T, :, ], a, b, c, m, o, p, or v.

    In the Spanish versions, it is required to walk on the shore tiles with walk through walls instead of surfing on it. While the old man glitch is possible the same way in the Italian versions, MissingNo. and hex:00 may freeze the game.

    The glitch can be pulled off by surfing in the French versions, MissingNo and hex:00 also freeze the game at either a black or white screen.

  • Ditto trick/Trainer-Fly variation:- with one of the following Special stats (if the value is greater than 255, take a modulo 256): 31, 32, 50, 52, 56, 61, 62, 63, 67, 68, 69, 79, 80, 81, 86, 87, 94, 95, 115, 121, 122, 127, 134, 135, 137, 140, 146, 156, 159, 160, 161, 162, 172, 174, 175 or 181.
  • Remaining HP glitch:- with one of the following remaining HP values (if the value is greater than 255, take a modulo 256): 31, 32, 50, 52, 56, 61, 62, 63, 67, 68, 69, 79, 80, 81, 86, 87, 94, 95, 115, 121, 122, 127, 134, 135, 137, 140, 146, 156, 159, 160, 161, 162, 172, 174, 175 or 181.
  • Time Capsule exploit:- with Scizor, Shuckle, Heracross, Sneasel, Teddiursa, Ursaring, Slugma, Magcargo, Swinub, Piloswine, Corsola, Remoraid, Octillery, Delibird, Mantine, Skarmory, Houndour, Houndoom, Kingdra, Phanpy, Donphan, Porygon2, Stantler, Smeargle, Tyrogue, Hitmontop, Smoochum, Elekid, Magby, Miltank, Blissey, Raikou, Entei, Suicune, Larvitar, or Ho-Oh.
  • Arbitrary code execution with 8F.
  • TMTRAINER effect via '-' (when sprites are not flipped).

    Via evolutions

    1={{GPS|C254 front}}
    {{GNS|Pentamark}} (FE)
    C=
    Level 3 →
    2={{GPS|C000 front}}
    {{GNS|Pentamark}} (00)


    1={{GPS|C254 front}}
    {{GNS|Pentamark}} (FE)
    C=
    Level 3 →
    2={{GPS|C000 front}}
    {{GNS|Pentamark}} (00)


    1={{GPS|C254 front}}
    {{GNS|Pentamark}} (FE)
    C=
    Level 3 →
    2={{GPS|C000 front}}
    {{GNS|Pentamark}} (00)


    After the evolutions have finished, both glitch Pokémon will look like this on the evolution screen:



    Pokémon Yellow (English)



  • Ditto trick/Trainer-Fly variation (fossil/ghost MissingNo. recommended to avoid a freeze)
  • Remaining HP glitch:- with one of the following remaining HP values (if the value is greater than 255, take a modulo 256): 31, 32, 50, 52, 56, 61, 62, 63, 67, 68, 69, 79, 80, 81, 86, 87, 94, 95, 115, 121, 122, 127, 134, 135, 137, 140, 146, 156, 159, 160, 161, 162, 172, 174, 175 or 181.
  • Time Capsule exploit:- with Scizor, Shuckle, Heracross, Sneasel, Teddiursa, Ursaring, Slugma, Magcargo, Swinub, Piloswine, Corsola, Remoraid, Octillery, Delibird, Mantine, Skarmory, Houndour, Houndoom, Kingdra, Phanpy, Donphan, Porygon2, Stantler, Smeargle, Tyrogue, Hitmontop, Smoochum, Elekid, Magby, Miltank, Blissey, Raikou, Entei, Suicune, Larvitar, or Ho-Oh.
  • Arbitrary code execution with ws m.
  • TMTRAINER effect via '-' (when sprites are not flipped).

    Via evolutions

    1={{GPS|C254 front}}
    {{GNS|Pentamark}} (FE)
    C=
    Level 3 →
    2={{GPS|C000 front}}
    {{GNS|Pentamark}} (00)


    After the evolution has finished, the glitch Pokémon will have a different sprite on the evolution screen, such as below:

    (in Viridian City) (in Pokémon Center)

    Pokémon Red, Green, Blue (Japanese)



  • Ditto trick/Trainer-Fly variation (with the aforementioned Special stats. Regular MissingNo. may freeze the game in Red/Green)
  • Fossil conversion glitch (with a current experience modulo 256 of 31, 32, 50, 52, 56, 61, 62, 63, 67, 68, 69, 79, 80, 81, 86, 87, 94, 95, 115, 121, 122, 127, 134, 135, 137, 140, 146, 156, 159, 160, 161, 162, 172, 174, 175 or 181.
  • Arbitrary code execution with てヘ (tehe).

    Data

    All MissingNo. are Pokédex number 000. and cannot learn any level up moves, unlike 'M (00) which evolves into Kangaskhan at level 0 or Clefairy at level 128, and learns Pound at level 136. MissingNo. typically have 'blank' cries; i.e. a Nidoran♂ (base 00)'s cry with a pitch of 0 and no echo, but nine MissingNo. have unique cries that were actually programmed into the game (see this section).

    There are five 'forms' of MissingNo. in the English games. The first form is the 'regular' form, which there are 36 of. The second form is Pokémon Yellow's equivalent of the Red/Blue regular form.

    All 36 'regular' and 'regular Yellow' MissingNo. use an invalid sprite. The other three forms are MissingNo.'s 'special' forms, which use the Kabutops fossil sprite from Pewter Museum (hex: B6 form), the Aerodactyl fossil sprite from Pewter Museum (hex:B7 form), and the Ghost MissingNo. sprite from ghosts in the Pokémon Tower (hex:B8 form), respectively.

    In English Red/Blue, all 'regular' MissingNo. share the same sprite.

    MissingNo. occupies the following index numbers.

    Hexadecimal IDDecimal ID
    1F31
    2032
    3250
    3452
    3856
    3D61
    3E62
    3F63
    4367
    4468
    4569
    4F79
    5080
    5181
    5686
    5787
    5E94
    5F95
    73115
    79121
    7A122
    7F127
    86134
    87135
    89137
    8C140
    92146
    9C156
    9F159
    A0160
    A1161
    A2162
    AC172
    AE174
    AF175
    B5181
    B6182
    B7183
    B8184


    'Regular' Red/Blue MissingNo. data

    All 36 regular Red/Blue MissingNo. are dual typed Bird/Normal Pokémon.

    Their data is derived from Biker rosters; because the game uses extrapolation to work out the 'base' data for Pokédex number 000. For this reason, a lot of 'M (00)'s data is the same, because it shares the same Pokédex number (or 'family').

    See this page for more information.

    Starting moves

    All 36 regular Red/Blue MissingNo. have the following starting moves:

    Water Gun, Water Gun and Sky Attack.

    Learnset

    All MissingNo. can learn no moves other than its starting moves, moves through TM/HM or through additional glitches/cheating such as the Time Capsule exploit, large storage box byte shift glitch, arbitrary code execution

    Base stats

    All have the following base stats:

  • Base HP of 33.
  • Base Attack of 136.
  • Base Defense of 0.
  • Base Speed of 29.
  • Base Special of 6.

    TM/HM learnpool



  • TM01 - Mega Punch
  • TM02 - Razor Wind
  • TM03 - Swords Dance
  • TM05 - Mega Kick
  • TM06 - Toxic
  • TM09 - Take Down
  • TM10 - Double-Edge
  • TM11 - Bubblebeam
  • TM13 - Ice Beam
  • TM14 - Blizzard
  • TM17 - Submission
  • TM19 - Seismic Toss
  • TM20 - Rage
  • TM25 - Thunder
  • TM26 - Earthquake
  • TM27 - Fissure
  • TM29 - Psychic
  • TM30 - Teleport
  • TM43 - Sky Attack
  • TM44 - Rest
  • TM45 - Thunder Wave
  • TM49 - Tri Attack
  • HM01 - Cut
  • HM02 - Fly

    Miscellaneous data

    Red/Blue regular MissingNo. has a catch rate constant of 29, and Yellow regular MissingNo. has a catch rate constant of 0.

    Red/Blue regular MissingNo.'s experience group is hex:1A. For this group, MissingNo. has a total experience of 345420 at level 100. In Yellow it is the hex:06 group instead, where MissingNo. will usually stay at Level 1 and has less experience at Level 255 than at Level 100.

    Encountering this MissingNo. on the opponent's side or sending it out in battle will corrupt the Hall of Fame.

    Due to an invalid Pokédex flag (#000, but essentially #256), MissingNo. (and 'M (00)) will increase the player's sixth item quantity by 128 if they do not have at least 128 items in that position.

    MissingNo.'s base experience yield byte is 0x8F. Its base stats sprite dimensions are 8x8, while its actual front sprite dimensions are 13x13. Its front sprite source pointer is at 0x1900 and its back sprite source pointer is at VRAM:8F37.

    Pokédex data:



    'Regular' Yellow MissingNo. data

    'Regular' Yellow MissingNo.'s random front sprite commonly freezes the game, but when it doesn't, it may cause a multiple walking characters effect after exiting battle. Regular Yellow MissingNo. is a dual-typed Normal/Glitch (0x25) glitch Pokémon.

    The corruption is caused by the source of Yellow MissingNo.'s front sprite, at 0x0006 in the ROM. Here the dimensions of Yellow MissingNo.'s front sprite are 0x0 which is apparently interpreted as a size of 256x256. However, in the base structure it is $AD (10x13). Yellow MissingNo.'s back sprite pointer is at 0x0D0C in the ROM where its dimensions are specified as 6x6.

    Starting moves



  • Pay Day
  • Bind
  • Water Gun



    Base stats

    All have the following base stats:

  • Base HP of 178.
  • Base Attack of 19.
  • Base Defense of 11.
  • Base Speed of 0.
  • Base Special of 23.

    TM/HM moves

  • TM01 Mega Punch
  • TM02 Razor Wind
  • TM03 Swords Dance
  • TM05 Mega Kick
  • TM06 Toxic
  • TM10 Double-Edge
  • TM11 BubbleBeam
  • TM17 Submission
  • TM19 Seismic Toss
  • TM20 Rage
  • TM22 SolarBeam
  • TM24 Thunderbolt
  • TM34 Bide
  • TM35 Metronome
  • TM37 Egg Bomb
  • TM41 Softboiled
  • TM43 Sky Attack
  • TM44 Rest
  • HM02 Fly

    Pokédex data:



    Miscellaneous data

    Yellow MissingNo.'s catch rate is 0, but this does not mean it is impossible to catch it. Yellow MissingNo. needs an extremely large amount of experience to reach level 100 (16,136,684) but needs less to reach level 255 (13,582,671). It is part of experience group 0x06.

    Its base experience yield byte is 0x0B. Its sprite dimensions in the base data structure is 10x13, but actual sprite dimensions are 0x0. Its front sprite source pointer is 0x0006 and its back sprite source pointer is 0x0D0C with actual sprite dimensions of 6x6.

    'Special' MissingNo. data

    'Special' MissingNo. take the appearance of either a Kabutops Fossil (hex:B6), an Aerodactyl Fossil (hex:B7) or Pokémon Tower Ghost (hex: B8) on the opponent's side, but they have no valid back sprite.

    The two-byte backsprite pointer is instead taken from another Pokémon that was in memory. In Red/Blue the pointer if banked, is from bank 0x0B for MissingNo. 0xB6 (Kabutops Fossil) or bank 0x0D for MissingNo. 0xB7 (Aerodactyl Fossil, Pokémon Tower Ghost).

    The starting moves, TM/HM learnpool, base stats and experience needed to level up for these Pokémon is based on the last Pokémon in the party except for another MissingNo. of the same kind. For a Trainer with an opposing special MissingNo., this data is taken from the last Pokémon they sent out.

    A special MissingNo. will only corrupt the Hall of Fame if the player sends it out in battle.

    Japanese MissingNo. data

    The Japanese Pokémon games have at least 5 forms of MissingNo.; which are the previously mentioned 'special' (Kabutops Fossil, Aerodactyl Fossil) MissingNo. as well as Red/Green MissingNo., Japanese Blue MissingNo. and Japanese Yellow (Pocket Monsters Pikachu) MissingNo.

    The Pokémon that occupies 'Ghost MissingNo.' in the Japanese versions however is not called "MissingNo." (unlike the localizations) but rather "ゴースト" (ghost) (not to be confused with "ゆうれい" (yuurei), used for Pokémon Tower ghosts in the final game.

    Red/Green MissingNo. and Japanese Yellow MissingNo. can freeze the game on the opponent's side, while Japanese Blue MissingNo. appears to be stable.

    In Pocket Monsters Blue, MissingNo. was given the placeholder Pokédex entry "コメント さくせいちゅう" (meaning 'comment to be written') and became the ??? species. This was not translated, resulting in a glitched Pokédex entry in the localized Pokémon Red and Blue and the corruption of MissingNo.'s original height and weight (1.0 m (3.3 ft) and 10.0 kg (22.1 lb), respectively), showing instead a height of 10.0 ft (3.1 m) and a weight of 3507.2 lb (1590.8 kg).

    Placeholder Pokémon theory

    It is a common misconception that MissingNo. is an error handler for invalid Pokémon in general; but this is not the case, all glitch Pokémon with index numbers past the last valid Pokémon Victreebel; hex: BE (counting 0 as 256) have invalid names.

    The name "MissingNo." therefore, may be referring to a placeholder Pokémon name, either in case Game Freak wanted to add more Pokémon into the game or replacing a deleted Pokémon.

    The list of Pokémon by index number is not in Pokédex order. These numbers rather correlate with the numbers given to Pokémon sprite art during the development of Pokémon Red and Green (as revealed by concept art in the official 2018 "Satoshi Tajiri: The Man Who Created Pokémon" educational manga).

    It may be of note that there are 39 MissingNo., and 151+39 comes to 190.

    There may have once been an extra MissingNo. occupying Mew's index number, hex:15; because according to Iwata Asks: HeartGold/SoulSilver, Mew was a last minute addition to the game once debugging features were removed.

    Unused cries

    Of the 39 MissingNo., nine of them have unique cries.

    Note that MissingNo. hex:45 has a cry identical to Zubat, and MissingNo. hex:89 has a cry identical to Dragonair.

    The data is as follows (see here for recordings):

    The cry for MissingNo. 67 (0x43) may belong to the unreleased Pokémon "Cactus", due to Cactus being given the same number.

    Index NumberHexadecimal IdentifierBase CryCry PitchCry Length
    670x43012816
    690x4529224128
    790x4F3425564
    810x511422496
    940x5E1564192
    950x5F1532192
    1270x7F173216
    1370x891564128
    1810xB5290128


    File:MS Man RB.png|Sample Red/Blue menu sprite (Viridian City) File:MS Fat Man Y.png|Sample Yellow menu sprite (Viridian City)

    Front sprites

    File:MissingNo. RB.png|Red/Blue regular MissingNo. sprite File:Kabutops fossil.png|Kabutops fossil MissingNo. sprite File:Aerodactyl fossil.png|Aerodactyl fossil MissingNo. sprite File:Pokémon Tower ghost.png|Pokémon Tower ghost MissingNo. sprite File:YGlitch000.png|Yellow MissingNo. (and other 000 family glitch Pokémon) sprite File:RGGlitch000_JP_1.0.png|Regular MissingNo. (Red/Green v1.0, with fixes, may activate Trainer battle) File:RGGlitch000_JP_1.1.png|Regular MissingNo. (Red/Green v1.1, with fixes, may activate hooked Pokémon battle) File:Kabutops fossil RG.png|Kabutops fossil MissingNo. sprite (Red/Green) File:Aerodactyl fossil RG.png|Aerodactyl fossil MissingNo. sprite (Red/Green) File:BGlitch000_JP.png|Japanese Blue regular MissingNo. sprite File:RBGlitch000_FR.png|French Red MissingNo. sprite (sound bank fix) File:RBGlitch000_DE.png|German Red MissingNo. sprite File:Italian MissingNo Red.png|Red regular MissingNo. sprite (Italian localization) File:BlueItalianMissingNo.png|Blue regular MissingNo. sprite (Italian localization) File:RedGlitch000_ES.png|Spanish Red MissingNo. sprite File:MissingnoSpanishBlue.JPG|Spanish Blue MissingNo. sprite File:YGlitch000_JP.png|Japanese Yellow MissingNo. sprite File:YGlitch000_FR.png|French Yellow MissingNo. sprite File:YGlitch000_DE.png|German Yellow MissingNo. sprite File:YGlitch000_IT.png|Italian Yellow MissingNo. sprite File:YGlitch000_ES.png|Spanish Yellow MissingNo. sprite

    Backsprites

    File:RB Backsprite Family 000.png|Sample Red/Blue backsprite. Actually 'random', from 0x8F37 in VRAM. File:RB Backsprite B6 MissingNo.png|Sample MissingNo. 0xB6 backsprite. From bank 0x0B loaded with the two byte backsprite pointer of the previous Pokémon in memory (a Rattata). File:RB Backsprite B7 B8 MissingNo.png|Sample MissingNo. 0xB7 and 0xB8 backsprite. From bank 0x0D loaded with the two byte backsprite pointer of the previous Pokémon in memory (a Pidgey). File:Y Backsprite Family 000.png|Yellow backsprite. File:Y Backsprite B6 MissingNo.png|Sample MissingNo. 0xB6 backsprite, with Pidgey as the opposing Pokémon. File:Y Backsprite B7 B8 MissingNo.png|Sample MissingNo. 0xB7 and 0xB8 backsprite, with Pidgey as the opposing Pokémon. File:RGGlitch000b_JP 1.0.png|Red/Green backsprite (v1.0, with fixes) File:RGGlitch000b_JP 1.1.png|Red/Green backsprite (v1.1) File:BGlitch000b_JP.png|Japanese Blue backsprite File:RBGlitch000b_FR.png|French Red backsprite File:RBGlitch000b_DE.png|German Red backsprite File:RBGlitch000b_IT.png|Italian Red backsprite File:RBGlitch000b_ES.png|Spanish Red backsprite File:YGlitch000b_JP.png|Japanese Yellow backsprite File:YGlitch000b_JP 1.1.png|Japanese Yellow backsprite (Rev A, Rev B, Rev 3) File:YGlitch000b_FR.png|French Yellow backsprite File:YGlitch000b_DE.png|German Yellow backsprite File:YGlitch000b_IT.png|Italian Yellow backsprite File:YGlitch000b_ES.png|Spanish Yellow backsprite

    Experience group



    Red/Blue experience group 0x1A: Experience=

  • Experience at Level 100: 345,420
  • Experience at Level 255: 2,185,270

    Yellow experience group 0x06: Experience=

  • Experience at Level 100: 16,136,684
  • Experience at Level 255: 13,582,671

    Other uses of the term 'MissingNo.'

    MissingNo. is sometimes used as a general term for every glitch Pokémon, but this is a misnomer, as not all glitch Pokémon are called MissingNo., and MissingNo. is a placeholder name rather than an error handler per se.

    In Generation IV, there is a sprite that reads 'missing number' (けつばん) in kanji (欠番) but it is not related to the glitch Pokémon MissingNo. and the name MissingNo. from Generation I.http://iimarck.us/i/missing-number/



    See also



  • Old man trick
  • MissingNo. Time Capsule exploit moves
  • Placeholder
  • Bird Type
  • Glitch Pokémon



  • Encountering MissingNo. via the Old Man Trick
  • Encountering a level 7 MissingNo. via the Ditto Trick

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