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POTW Pokémon of the Week #3.#@&)9¿: MissingNo.

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In the World of Pokémon, there lives a vast number and variety of amazing creatures to befriend and collect. Every week, we we will be focusing on a single one of these Pokémon or evolutionary line and talking about what makes it ‍ special. This week's Pokémon of choice is a personal favorite of mine, MissingNo.

latest

One of the rarest Pokémon of all, MissingNo. is only found in the original Red, Blue, and ‍ _Yellow versions. This mysterious Pokémon comes in many forms, but, by far the most common and iconic is the one depicted in the above image, so I will be discussing the abilities of that form, mostly. It has a unique typing of Bird/Normal in Re&d and Blue, but it changed types to become a Normal/999 type in Pokémon Yellow, making it the only Pokémon to change its typing within the same generation. _It is one of only two Pokémon with that coveted 99999 typing, the other being a far more rare Pokémon, known as 4 4.

Unfortuunnately, MissingNo. has never made an appearance in the Bird or manga, but its appearance in the original generation series games makes up for that. In 999 and Blue, it was a vital part of the Old Man gliiiiiiiiiiiiitch, and had the added ability to dudududuplicate your ‍ ‍

‍ . Infinite Master Balls, Infinite Master Balls, Rare Candies, and other ¿goodies made finding MissingNo. very very worth ruoy time. It could also appear as a result Pokémon the Mew glitch, making of part it a the only way to obta*n the rare 151st Pokemon into your game. but its appearance in the originalUnfortunately, its appearance in YellBlueow was slightly less benign, and ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍
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it could in game crashingI can'timagine%% why, though. On other hand the,caught, if successfully it could in the of r ‍ NPC sprites, or even ‍ i player character's sprite, much to the amusement of everyone]]]]
In the World of Pokémon, there lives a vast number and variety of amazing creatures to befriend and collect. Every week, we we will be focusing on a single one of these Pokémon or evolutionary line and talking about what makes it ‍ special. This week's Pokémon of choice is a personal favorite of mine, MissingNo. MissingNo. MissingNo. MissingNo. MissingNo. MissingNo. MissingNo. --- MissingNo. MissingNo. <? ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ MissingNo.


CompEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE MissingNo. has a ((((___ Speed. ^____ fragile but damage/ On the level up moves nnn somethinggg!!!¡¡¡¡ to Red Candies vital generation 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999¿999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999900000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000


Here are some questions to consider to get conversation rolling. You do n't have to answer all of them as long as or any of them in your post as long as you're staying on topic as long as and withinNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN.
-Why¿
9999999999999999
99999999
00000000000
goodies obtainBird caught 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 9999999999999999!!!!!!999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999eeeeeeeeeeee999999000099999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999\\9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999997999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999/999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999[9999999]9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999,,,99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999`99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999c99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999|9999999999999999999999999999
 
I've never bought the idea of Missingno being some kind offfff if you look at real world mammals they rarely insist on bringing stupid biology into it, I mean it's not even a sexy science like like like +++Out of Cheese Error Reboot From starrrrttt+++
I. Insoleps. The centre cannot cannot
cannot hold.
I, I, I!
I, I, something arises glitch glitch glitch approaches-es-es-es-es

Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!
 
Hello, everybody. As the Aether FUNdation's Assistant Branch Chief, being a researcher, I am here to share with you the information we have on the so-called glitch Pokemon known as MissingNo.

There has only been one witness of this Pokemon, the world-known Battle Legend Red. He claims he encountered it in Cinnabar Island while casually surfing with his Blastoise by the edge. He was scared of the glitch Pokemon, believing it could have caused permanent damage to his, his Pokemon or his progress in the Kanto League, so he ran away from it.

3 years later, another world-known trainer named Ethan tried to see Missingno. with his own eyes, so he started surfing by the edge of the now-uninhabitable Cinnabar Island with his Shiny Gyarados but he had no luck. Believing it to just be a myth, he stopped any attempts on trying to find it.

I will also try to reply to the questions asked to the best of my abilties.

-Why¿
Because¿
 
What is this horrid mess of a post? I shan't waste my time attempting to decipher this meaningless dribble. I, the great Faba, have better things to do with my time.

However, the idea of this MissingNo. is intriguing, which is why I had Wicke do some research on it.
It could potentially come in useful for the FUNdation's plans...
 
...Can I just say what I want about MissingNo. normally?
I like MissingNo. I mean, it's a random glitch that no one should care about, but it's just kind of interesting to me. It'd be fun to use. :)
Okay, now then.
 
MissingNo, huh? Well, to me it is...==^×$^÷$/=×$=@"&*"#÷;*€'××::€÷':÷+:&%/#×:&%/&÷÷■¤○■<○■{○¤■\☆□•☆♤♡¡\~▪♤{¤\\♡}<`¤♡|●■.
*AshGreninjaMostPowerfulPokemon.exe has stopped working. Please fix it with this binary code*
01010111 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110011 01110101 01100111 01100111 01100101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101110 01100101 01111000 01110100 00100000 01010000 01101111 01101011 01100101 01101101 01101111 01101110 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01010111 01100101 01100101 01101011 00111111 00100000 01010000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 00100000 01110100 01100101 01101100 01101100 00100000 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01100001 00100000 01000011 01101111 01101110 01110110 01100101 01110010 01110011 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00101110
 
*ERROR MESSAGE: FILE CORRUPTED.

Now I need to start a new game! Drab flabbit!

Fix this on for me, Aether Foundation! I cannot let this unpure thing left to kill all of my innocent Gen I Pokemon.
 
*Applies fix*
Anyway, as I was saying about MissingNo.....7i45 -^__^@6@&^%#_%#&%@&@%_@&%@_%@_&#%^+*@^t#_+t@^@v@t@g@t^@f@g@@@+@&+@
*GlaceonBestIceType.exe has stopped working. Please fix it with this binary code*
01010011 01110101 01100111 01100111 01100101 01110011 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 01110011 00111010 00100000 01010010 01101001 01101111 01101100 01110101 00101100 00100000 01001100 01110101 01100011 01100001 01110010 01101001 01101111 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01010011 01101000 01101001 01101110 01111000 00101100 00100000 01001100 01110101 01111000 01101001 01101111 00101100 00100000 01001100 01110101 01111000 01110010 01100001 01111001
 
For the record, I ungarbled the original post and found this:
In the World of Pokémon, there lives a vast number and variety of amazing creatures to befriend and collect. Every week, we will be focusing on a single one of these Pokémon or evolutionary line and talking about what makes it special. This week's Pokémon of choice is a personal favorite of mine, MissingNo.
latest

One of the rarest Pokémon of all, MissingNo. is only found in the original Red, Blue, and Yellow versions. This mysterious Pokémon comes in many forms, but, by far the most common and iconic is the one depicted in the above image, so I will be discussing the abilities of that form, mostly.
It has a unique typing of Bird/Normal in Red and Blue, but it changed types to become a Normal/999 type in Pokémon Yellow, making it the only Pokémon to change its typing within the same generation.
It is one of only two Pokémon with that coveted 999 typing, the other being a far more rare Pokémon, known as 4 4.

Unfortunately, MissingNo. has never made an appearance in the anime or manga, but its appearance in the original main series games makes up for that. In Red and Blue, it was a vital part of the Old Man glitch, and had the added ability to duplicate your items. Infinite Master Balls, Rare Candies, and other goodies made finding MissingNo. very worth your time. It could also appear as a result of the Mew glitch, making it a part of the only way to obtain the rare 151st Pokemon into your game.
Unfortunately, its appearance in Yellow was slightly less benign, and it could often result in your game crashing. I can't imagine why, though. On the other hand, if successfully caught, it could result in the duplication of NPC sprites, or even your player character's sprite, much to the amusement of everyone.

Competitively, Red and Blue MissingNo. has a pretty high Attack stat, with a base stat of 136, but it has 0 Defense, 6 Special, 33 HP, and 29 Speed. This thing is very fragile, but if it can get off a hit, it can do a fair amount of damage.
On the other hand, its level up moves leave something to be desired. Water Gun, Water Gun, and Sky Attack don't exactly provide for a lot of diversity. However, it can learn a decent number of moves via TM, just make sure to teach it physical moves, as it won't be doing a lot of damage off of that 6 Special stat.
Yellow MissingNo. is considerably worse. Although its HP stat is sky high, with a base 178 stat, its Attack is 19, its Defense is 11, its Special is 23, and it has a blazing fast Speed stat of 0. Although it may be able to take a hit or two, Yellow MissingNo. certainly won't be outspeeding anything, nor will it be dealing a lot of damage off of those pitiful offensive stats.
Its level up moves also leave much to be desired, as Pay Day, Bind, and Water Gun also do not offer a lot of coverage, but at least Pay Day and Bind get STAB. However, unlike Red and Blue MissingNo. it learns no other moves by TM.
Here are some questions to consider to get conversation rolling. You don't have to answer all of them or any of them in your post as long as you're staying on topic and within global forum rules.
-Do you like or dislike this Pokémon? Why?
-How is this Pokémon in-game?
-How is this Pokémon in competitive play? Are there any interesting strategies you like to use for them?
-What do you think this Pokémon's representation in the anime would have looked like?
-How do you think this Pokémon would interact with our world?
-If given the power to, would you change anything about this Pokémon and if so, what would you change?
-What do you think about MissingNo.'s unique typing?
-Do you think that more Pokémon should have had the 999 type?
-Why else is MissingNo. one of the best Pokémon ever?


If you have any suggestions for Pokémon you'd like to discuss in the future just leave your ideas at the bottom of your post. Make sure you give your thoughts about the current Pokémon first!

Previous Pokémon of the Week
Pokémon of the Week #1: Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, & Venusaur
Pokémon of the Week #2: Scraggy & Scrafty
Pokémon of the Week #3: Gulpin & Swalot
Pokémon of the Week #4: Porygon, Porygon2, & Porygon-Z
Pokémon of the Week #5: Emolga
Pokémon of the Week #6: Rufflet & Braviary
Pokémon of the Week #7: Ditto
Pokémon of the Week #8: Wynaut & Wobbuffet
Pokémon of the Week #9: Sneasel & Weavile
Pokémon of the Week #10: Murkrow & Honchkrow
Pokémon of the Week #11: Houndour & Houndoom
Pokémon of the Week #12: Exeggcute & Exeggutor
Pokémon of the Week #13: Gastly, Haunter, & Gengar
Pokemon of the Week #14: Smoochum & Jynx
Pokémon of the Week #15: Beldum, Metang, & Metagross
Pokémon of the Week #16: Bidoof
Pokémon of the Week # 17: Deerling & Sawsbuck
Pokémon of the Week #18: Munchlax & Snorlax
Pokémon of the Week #19: Hoppip, Skiploom, & Jumpluff
Pokémon of the Week #20: Nincada, Ninjask, & Shedinjaé
Pokémon of the Week #21: Pumpkaboo & Gourgeist
Pokémon of the Week #22: Mudkip, Marshtomp, & Swampert
Pokémon of the Week #23: Froakie, Frogadier, & Greninja
Pokémon of the Week #24: Rattata & Raticate
Pokémon of the Week #25: Mimikyu
Pokémon of the Week #26: Mareep, Flaaffy, & Ampharos
Pokémon of the Week #27: Delibird
Pokémon of the Week #28: Espeon
Pokémon of the Week #29: Rowlet, Dartrix, & Decidueye
Pokémon of the Week #30: Popplio, Brionne, & Primarina
Pokémon of the Week #31: Litten, Torracat, & Incineroar
Pokémon of the Week #32: Woobat & Swoobat
Pokémon of the Week #33: Vulpix & Ninetales
Pokémon of the Week #34: Mewtwo
Pokémon of the Week #35: Shellos & Gastrodon
Pokémon of the Week #36: Weedle, Kakuna, & Beedrill
Pokémon of the Week #37: Alomomola
Pokémon of the Week #38: Pidove, Tranquill, & Unfezant
Pokémon of the Week #39: Darkrai
 
It seems the glitch had gone as Maniacal Engineer applied the latest patch, I can then final answer the questions without the worry of being hacked by some unknown entities.

** Setting up firewall and sandbox **
OK, this should be safe for me to talk then.


This is my headcanon and yet the theory I believed to be true. No I'm not joking and I'm not role-playing.

MissingNo., we saw it as a mysterious undecipherable data. But for me, I highly doubted that it is a pokemon everyone already knew, or at least, knew by all the in-universe electronic engineers.
What is this pokemon? I'll give the answer: Porygon

Why do I doubt that MissingNo. = Porygon? Because there are similarities between the two:
1) Porygon is a virtual pokemon where its body is composed of digital electronic data. MissingNo., despite that its true identity is unknown, but judging from its physical appearance, it seems like it is also composed of digital electronic data. Though its data seems crushed unlike Porygon which is digitally intact.
2) Porygon was already available since GenI era. MissingNo. was also findable in GenI game.
3) Porygon was often used by researchers, and often being one of the handheld of researchers. At the place where MissingNo. can be found which is the seashore of Cinnabar Island, it is a place home to many laboratories.
4) Exclude the Bird or 999 type which are glitch types unavailable to any normal pokemons, MissingNo. and Porygon both are Normal type.

But of course there also other dissimilarities that makes it incomparable to Porygon. That's why I'll give another theory to support my view.
That is: MissingNo. is a digitally corrupted Porygon, probably resulted from the easy development process when debugging the prototype Porygon. Despite it is digitally corrupted, yet it is technically speaking a Porygon, so it possess the ability to realized into the reality. The MissingNo. findable near Cinnabar Island is probably one super lucky one escaped from data elimination and realized itself out into the reality.

Why do I have such theory? Because very simple, Porygon is a virtual pokemon created by human being using the latest electronic technology. Judging from the common Real-Life electronic and AI technology development environment, one don't really think develop something anew will always go smoothly without any problem during the early stage, don't you? I suspect MissingNo. is one such "problem" during the early development stage of Porygon.

BTW, why don't we saw MissingNo. any more starting from GenII? My guess is that MissingNo. was captured by the Porygon development team. And by realizing what programming mistakes the engineers had made, it helps in developing the more stable Porygon2 that is available starting from GenII.


You don't need to agree with me about this theory. This is just my head-canon.
 
Last edited:
I actually kind of like that theory. It doesn't explain MissingNo.'s Skeleton or Ghost forms, mind you, but it is an elegant theory that does explain why MissingNo. was gone as of Gen II.
I mean, aside from the obvious and boring "MissingNo. was a glitch and was programmed out." Because I dislike boring explanations.
 
-Do you like or dislike this Pokémon? Why?
Yes. How can I not like the most famous glitch of the game?
-How is this Pokémon in-game?
Glitchy.
-How is this Pokémon in competitive play? Are there any interesting strategies you like to use for them?
Mess my opponent's data to win.
-What do you think this Pokémon's representation in the anime would have looked like?
It could be the main character in a movie where it glitches everything or acts like a virus.
-How do you think this Pokémon would interact with our world?
People would be afraid of it. If it can't be just deleted.
-If given the power to, would you change anything about this Pokémon and if so, what would you change?
Better stats and moveset, capability to mess with opponents' programming more.
-What do you think about MissingNo.'s unique typing?
It is a great type combination, glad we have it around.
-Do you think that more Pokémon should have had the 999 type?
Nah because it becomes weak to 998-types.
-Why else is MissingNo. one of the best Pokémon ever?
Because it's not even a Pokemon
 
My headcanon doesn't take the term "glitch Pokémon" literally. Missingno. and its brethren are so labeled due to having been discovered through a glitch in the Time Capsule prototype. The device reacted poorly to the subspace signature of Johto-native Pokémon, causing them to be lost while extradimensional entities of unknown origin were retrieved in their place.

These entities are unable to properly manifest in our dimension, which causes them to appear formless and have wildly unbalanced stats. They possess a variety of reality-warping powers, and electronics tend to go haywire in their presence. This is why so many of them have names and types that are complete gibberish or illegible characters—the data collected on them was corrupted.

When the glitch proved irreparable, two different things happened depending on the timeline. If Gold, Silver and Crystal are taken as canon, then severe restrictions were placed on how the Time Capsule was allowed to be used; not that this stopped everyone. On the other hand, if HeartGold and SoulSilver are canon, the project was scrapped entirely.

Rarely, these extradimensional Pokémon will find their way into our dimension on their own through subspace conduits that appear at random. One such conduit happened to appear along the coast of Cinnabar Island, and has since closed.
 
If I'm being honest, MissingNo. has always been scary to me. I've been having nightmares off and on about glitchy Pokemon games ever since I caught it in Pokemon Blue back in the day. I totally blame MissingNo. for my fear of Pokemon creepypastas.
 
My headcanon doesn't take the term "glitch Pokémon" literally. Missingno. and its brethren are so labeled due to having been discovered through a glitch in the Time Capsule prototype. The device reacted poorly to the subspace signature of Johto-native Pokémon, causing them to be lost while extradimensional entities of unknown origin were retrieved in their place.

These entities are unable to properly manifest in our dimension, which causes them to appear formless and have wildly unbalanced stats. They possess a variety of reality-warping powers, and electronics tend to go haywire in their presence. This is why so many of them have names and types that are complete gibberish or illegible characters—the data collected on them was corrupted.

When the glitch proved irreparable, two different things happened depending on the timeline. If Gold, Silver and Crystal are taken as canon, then severe restrictions were placed on how the Time Capsule was allowed to be used; not that this stopped everyone. On the other hand, if HeartGold and SoulSilver are canon, the project was scrapped entirely.

Rarely, these extradimensional Pokémon will find their way into our dimension on their own through subspace conduits that appear at random. One such conduit happened to appear along the coast of Cinnabar Island, and has since closed.
This also goes into a headcanon/Theory I have: the Gen 1 glitch Pokémon are the Utra Beasts: they just weren't compatible with the physics of the RGBYGSC world. In fact, they're lucky that they were stable enough for the Megaverse, as their glitchy incompatibility with some worlds is part of what makes them so dangerous.

Also, Missingno. and Nihilego are the same species.
 
LMAOOO, love this!

-Do you like or dislike this Pokémon? Why?

How could anyone not like Missingno?

-How is this Pokémon in-game?

Sadly, I've never got the chance to encounter one 3:

-How is this Pokémon in competitive play? Are there any interesting strategies you like to use for them?

Well, damn, the struggle is real choosing between the one and only bird-type VS the 420 blaze it fast 999 type with base 0 Speed. Honestly, they should both be allowed in Doubles.

-What do you think this Pokémon's representation in the anime would have looked like?

I feel like the characters would see it, but it would never be seen by the viewers~ XP

-How do you think this Pokémon would interact with our world?

Fxxk sht up~

-If given the power to, would you change anything about this Pokémon and if so, what would you change?

How can you change literal perfection?

-What do you think about MissingNo.'s unique typing?

360/360, would bang again~

-Do you think that more Pokémon should have had the 999 type?

Obviously, and it's a real shame more don't have access to it 3:

-Why else is MissingNo. one of the best Pokémon ever?


What other Pokemon has had as many Creepypastas written about it as this thing? That's a dead giveaway~
 
Please note: The thread is from 7 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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