In the Pokémon video games, there are two primary ways to "clone" Pokémon, both of them involving exploiting in-game glitches without special hardware aside from the standard link cable. One method, effective in the Pokémon Red and Blue versions, involves trading Pokémon and turning off the game during the process. However, instead of duplication the trick may sometimes delete the Pokémon if improper timing is used.

Another method, which works only in the Gold, Silver, and Crystal versions, can be used to clone both Pokémon and items. However, it does require more exact timing in the Crystal version than in the Gold/Silver versions.

Alternatively, use of cheat devices such as a GameShark, Action Replay, CodeBreaker , Xploder , or Monster Brain allows duplication to be quickly performed in all versions of the Pokémon games. This is typically done by applying a patch code which exploits in-game facilities, such as the daycare center, for the purpose of cloning.

Lastly, other safe techniques for cloning involve external storage devices. After transferring a Pokémon through some standard mechanism such as the link cable or transfer pak, the original saved game can be restored to effectively clone the transferred Pokémon. Such external storage devices include a Mega Memory Card , Monster Brain, GameShark (later versions which allow saved games to be copied and restored from a PC), or DexDrive (for the Stadium series). A variation on this method allows users of gameboy emulators that support link-cable emulation to copy their saved games, trading, and then restoring the saved game.

See also

• Missingno.
• 'M
• Glitch City