Wrong pocket TM36: Steal other Trainer's Pokémon transcribed

Hi all. ChickasaurusGL here. I hope you had a great Christmas and got some nice gifts this year. This is the commentated version of the wrong pocket TM36 glitch for Pokémon Gold and Silver Versions that allows you to throw a Poké Ball with infinite uses and get a chance to obtain a copy of another Trainer's Pokémon.

When any TM or HM is outside of the TM/HM pocket, it can be used to execute code. Some TMs and HMs such as TM25 in Gold/Silver and TM33 in Crystal execute code from writable memory, meaning their effects will vary. These TM/HMs are two examples of TMs and HMs which can be manipulated to execute arbitrary code.

Other TM/HMs such as TM36 (the TM featured in this video) will always execute code from a constant ROM location.

The easiest way to obtain TM36 in Gold/Silver is to use Coin Case arbitrary code execution. To do this you will need the Coin Case, Bellsprout or Machop's Pokédex entry, a fresh low level 'slide' Pokémon in slot 3 and a specific Pokémon in slot 4.

In this video, we will use a Quagsire holding a TM02 with Return as its first move. This makes the program counter jump to D8C0. D8C0 is the second character for box name 1. We are also going to use specific box names to give us TM36.

Using box names to execute code is easier to set up than using stored PC items for the code, which has commonly been done before.

The problem with stored PC items is that it is required to place specific items in the PC, and some of these items like TM06 may be 'one off' items you can only get once in the story. Additionally, if the code required more than of a non-purchasable item it would make the code tricky to set up. **

With specific box names, although it can be a little hard to create the code you need (due to a limited number of available opcodes and operands from the characters you can choose) it makes setting up Coin Case arbitrary code execution much easier, because once you have the Coin Case, Bellsprout or Machop's dex entry, slide Pokémon and Quagsire holding TM02 with Return all you have to do is enter in the box names using a PC.

To perform Coin Case arbitrary code execution after you have everything prepared, you should walk in a specific pattern in the overworld, listen to Bellsprout/Machop's cry, change item pockets and use the Coin Case. A commonly used pattern is making four steps right after stepping out of the door for Professor Elm's lab so you are below the first tree, but in this video we take four steps right from the Cherrygrove City Poké Mart instead, so that we are below the second tree.

After using the Coin Case, we have changed the first item in Balls pocket 1 into a TM36, which means that it can now be used to obtain another Trainer's Pokémon. To prevent the game from freezing after giving us the TM36, we made a couple of tweaks to the game's memory. This has the unfortunate side effect of slowing down the Start menu to an extreme, but if you hold down A and mash down you can eventually get to the Save option. Saving and resetting the game will then bring everything back to normal.

Now, in order to use TM36 you must encounter a Pokémon first and end the battle before selecting the item. If you don't encounter a Pokémon first, it may cause the game to freeze. First we are going to use TM36 to capture Elite Four Will's Xatu at Kanto's Pokémon League. The catch rate for catching any Pokémon with TM36 is low, but it can be increased slightly by freezing the enemy Pokémon or putting it to sleep.

This level 41 Smeargle knows Selfdestruct and Spore. It is at a low enough level not to KO Xatu, but it also has the ability to take a hit and put Xatu to sleep.

The first time we attempt to put Xatu to sleep, we unfortunately get knocked out by Xatu which is why it may be a good idea to save the game before talking to Will unless you are using a better Pokémon.

After being defeated by the level 40 Xatu, we will white out but TM36 will give us a low chance of catching our own level 40 Xatu. This Xatu will have randomised stats, and we can continue to use TM36 to obtain multiple Xatu. Please note that after using TM36, you may be stuck in a Glitch City, meaning that you should always bring a Pokémon with Fly before using the item, and use it in a place you can Fly or Teleport away from.

This time we were really lucky and caught Xatu on our first throw!

But it takes us a few more attempts to capture another Xatu.

Note that these Pokémon are said to have glitchy nicknames, but if you decide not to nickname them they will rather have their actual species name. Additionally, two of the same Pokémon you catch with this glitch will most likely not have the same stats.

Before we attempt to capture another Pokémon we will go and faint Pidgey to allow us to white out while the enemy Pokémon is sleeping. Instead of doing this, you could switch in the level 6 Pidgey and have it get knocked out before Smeargle comes in or before it uses Spore.

I overlooked that in the video, so if you want to do this glitch with multiple trainers you probably won't have to go here to faint your Pidgey.

Next, another good Pokémon to copy is a Pokémon from the opposing Trainer in the Trainer House. For example, we can put Cal's level 50 Meganium to sleep with Spore, white out and then use TM36 to capture a level 50 Meganium. Theoretically, this should work with any Trainer House Pokémon you force via Mystery Gift. Additionally, TM36 can be used to copy a link battle Trainer's Pokémon if you forfeit the match after it was the last Pokémon sent out. However, a Link Battle Trainer's Pokémon may have different moves to the original and its stats appear to be randomized.

Incidentally, you may have noticed the play time is stuck at 80:59 throughout the video. This is probably because the in-game time previously maxed out at 999:59 and I changed it back to a lower value; so that may be why the time hasn't advanced yet.

One small note is that saving and resetting won't let you escape from the glitched overworld, so you'd likely need Fly, Teleport, or theoretically Dig, Escape Rope (if the Pokémon was caught in a dungeon) or arbitrary code execution to escape.

And that's all. Thanks for watching and I hope to join you again for another video! :)