MissingNo.
Pokemon #000
Type 1/Normal, Type 2/Bird
Hex Value: Various
Starting Moves: Water Gun, Water Gun, Sky Attack

TM Moves: Cut, Fly, Mega Punch, Razor Wind, Swords Dance, Mega Kick, Toxic, Take Down, Double-Edge, Bubblebeam, Submission, Seismic Toss, Thunder, Fissure, Teleport, Rest, Thunder Wave, Tri Attack, Substitute

MissingNo ("Missing Number") is encountered by Surfing along the east coast of Cinnabar Island after watching the Old Man's demonstration. Like 'M, MissingNo appears as a backwards-L shaped block of pixels. MissingNo is often encountered by players because it exists in many different hex slots. Having one of the following letters in the 3rd, 5th, or 7th slots in your name will yield a MissingNo: G, H, J, M, S, :, ], a, b, c, m, o, p, v. MissingNo can also be found by doing the Mew Trick with other trainers (such as the second Fisherman south of Lavender Town).

When training a MissingNo at a high level (determined by other letters in your name), this glitch will increase and decrease levels randomly. For example, you catch MissingNo at level 163. After gaining any experience, it will "grow" to level 100. Then it may jump down to level 70.

Storing a MissingNo in the PC for a long time has been known to produce Rhydons with the same moves. You will not have problems withdrawing your Pokemon if you store MissingNo.

In Pokemon Stadium, MissingNo will appear as a baby Rhydon Substitute doll. It will not be able to participate in any Stadium battles (the Pokemon will appear grayed-out). In Stadium 2, it will appear as a Ditto (at level 100, if it had been over level 100) knowing Transform. If you view a MissingNo in Stadium 2, it will permanently become a Ditto on your saved game.

MissingNo does not make your game save when you encounter it. Although a MissingNo will corrupt your Hall of Fame records, it won't do as much damage to them as 'M will.

Battling with MissingNo can cause your game's graphics to be temporarily scrambled during battles. Wild Pokemon may face away from you, mirror-imaged. When you register a hit on an enemy Pokemon, the image may break into scrambled vertical lines of the enemy. Your trainer's sprite viewed through the menu looks like a scrambled Brock.

MissingNo causes the 6th item in your held inventory to be increased by 128. This is a great way to get more evolution stones, Master Balls, Full Restores, and other expensive goodies.

MissingNo is the placeholder Pokemon, filling the unused slots in the hex list. It is said that MissingNo was used to program all the "real" Pokemon in the game, but since a player wouldn't encounter one through normal gameplay, it was never removed. MissingNo is not a remnant of Mew being removed from the game, since Mew is still in the programming (she just isn't programmed to appear anywhere). It is possible, however, that MissingNo was left in slots where certain never-released Pokemon were deleted. Of course, there is no proof of this one way or the other.

Screenshots:

Next: MissingNo (Ghost Version)