It's taken 19 years, but a new Generation 4 Pokemon glitch has finally been properly documented after going almost completely undiscovered for the best part of two decades. I say 'almost,' because there's one player out there who's going to be feeling very validated right now.
As highlighted by YouTube creator Etchy (below), the glitch involves the move U-Turn, and some weird behavior surrounding it in Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, SoulSilver, and Battle Revolution. The Bug-type attack's whole gimmick is that after using it, it enables its user to switch out – if you have a fast Pokemon, for example, you can damage your opponent before swapping into a different 'mon that resists an incoming attack. Handy stuff. However, you can also sometimes apply an unintended effect when you switch.
Behold, the Flinch Glitch. Turns out, if you use U-Turn to switch into a Pokemon holding an item that can cause opponents to flinch when attacked (the King's Rock or Razor Fang), the game can erroneously make the damaged Pokemon flinch even though they didn't actually make contact with the held item. It's niche, incredibly situational, and rare even at the best of times – with the items in question only activating their Flinch effect 10% of the time in the first place – so it's no wonder it hadn't been spotted until now.
Except, it was. As Etchy notes, in a GameFAQs post from 15 years ago, user opklm asks about this very thing. "Does U-Turn use some effects from the Pokemon that is switching in?" they questioned at the time. "I used U-turn with Staraptor in a double battle with Salamence against a Kabutops. Staraptor had a Choice Scarf and Salamence a Focus Sash. For U-Turn I switched in a Togekiss with a King's Rock. Then Salamence used Earthquake. Kabutops flinched."
Was this post hailed as the discovery it truly was? No. "Nope. U-Turn just caused 70 Bug-type damage to the Pokemon u targetted," one response reads. "U-turn: Attack, then switch your pokemon in 1 turn. And that's that," says another.
There was one sole believer of this story, and even then, they didn't really know what had happened in the user's game: "They are right. I am not sure why Kabutops flinched, but they are one hundred percent correct," they asserted at the time.
As Etchy reports, no other instances of this glitch appear to have been posted online until a Discord user called 'CasualPokePlayer' experienced it in Pokemon Battle Revolution a few months ago, prompting Etchy to test it further and lead us to where we are today.
Now, I'm just wondering if this news has reached opklm yet. Their GameFAQ profile says they've not been online since July 2010, so that's not exactly promising, but maybe they're still active elsewhere to claim the glory they always deserved for discovering the glitch all those years ago.
While you're here, be sure to take a look at our roundup of the best Pokemon games.
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