How to Catch Missingno. in Pokémon Red and Blue: 6 Steps

If you played Pokémon Red or Pokémon Blue in the era of link cables, cafeteria rumors, and “my cousin swears this works,” then you probably heard whispers about Missingno. The name alone sounded spooky, like a creature that crawled out of the game’s code after midnight and decided to live on the coast of Cinnabar Island. The wild part? The rumor was real.

Missingno. is not a normal Pokémon. It is a famous glitch encounter that appears when the game reads data it was never meant to use as a proper wild battle. That is why it can look like a scrambled barcode, produce odd effects, and turn a normal play session into a weird little museum of Game Boy history. For many players, catching Missingno. was equal parts science experiment, badge of honor, and “well, this save file might get haunted now.”

In this guide, you will learn how to catch Missingno. in Pokémon Red and Blue in 6 steps, what you need before trying it, what usually happens when you find it, and what risks you should know before you start surfing along Cinnabar’s coastline like a very determined glitch archaeologist.

What You Need Before You Try

Before you go hunting for Missingno., make sure your save file has the basics covered. The classic method is simple, but it does require a little setup. You should have:

• A copy of Pokémon Red or Pokémon Blue
• Access to Viridian City
• Access to Cinnabar Island
• A Pokémon that knows Surf
• A way to use Fly, which makes the method much easier
• Poké Balls if you actually plan to catch Missingno.

One more thing: if you care deeply about a perfectly clean Hall of Fame record, think twice. Missingno. is famous for weird side effects, and while many players use the glitch just fine, it is still a glitch. In other words, this is not the moment to act shocked when your save file starts behaving like it drank too much lemonade.

Why Missingno. Appears at All

The short version is that the game briefly rewires how wild encounters are generated after the Old Man’s catching tutorial in Viridian City. In the Cinnabar coast setup, the game can pull encounter information from data tied to your character’s name instead of proper wild Pokémon tables. That broken handoff is what makes Missingno. appear.

So no, Missingno. is not a secret legendary hidden by the developers as a reward for the brave. It is a programming accident. A fascinating, iconic, delightfully messy programming accident.

How to Catch Missingno. in Pokémon Red and Blue: 6 Steps

Step 1: Get Surf, Fly, and access to Cinnabar Island

The easiest Missingno. method depends on mobility. You need Surf so you can travel along the water on Cinnabar Island, and Fly so you can move quickly from Viridian City to Cinnabar after triggering the setup. If you are late in the game, you probably already have both. If not, finish enough of the main adventure to unlock them first.

This is also the time to stock up on Poké Balls. While some players only encounter Missingno. for the famous item duplication trick, your goal here is to catch Missingno. Bring plenty of balls so you do not reach the big moment and realize your inventory is somehow full of Potions, Antidotes, and regret.

Step 2: Talk to the Old Man in Viridian City

Head to Viridian City and find the elderly man near the north side of town. He is the one who offers to demonstrate how to catch a Pokémon. Say yes and watch the full tutorial.

This is the trigger that makes the Missingno. setup work. During the demonstration, the game temporarily stores special encounter information in a way that later causes the Cinnabar coast glitch. If you skip this step, you are not catching Missingno.; you are just taking a lovely surf along the beach and accomplishing absolutely nothing glitch-related.

Step 3: Fly directly to Cinnabar Island

As soon as the Old Man finishes his little master class in Weedle management, use Fly and go straight to Cinnabar Island. Do not wander around hunting random trainers, do not go sightseeing, and do not suddenly remember you wanted to check your PC. Go directly to Cinnabar.

The reason is simple: you want to preserve the altered encounter state from the tutorial. The classic route is fast, clean, and proven. If your goal is to use the most reliable Missingno. method in Red and Blue, this is the way to do it.

Step 4: Surf on the east coast where the water touches land

Once you reach Cinnabar Island, go to the east coast and use Surf. This is the most important positioning step in the whole process. You do not want to drift out into open water. Instead, move up and down along the edge where the water tiles touch the land.

Think of it like tracing the shoreline, not cruising the ocean. This coastal strip is where the glitch comes alive. If you are in the right place, the game can start pulling bizarre encounter data, which leads to all kinds of odd wild battles. You may see high-level monsters, other glitch encounters, or finally the weird celebrity of the hour: Missingno.

Step 5: Wait for Missingno. to appear

Keep surfing up and down the eastern shoreline until a random encounter begins. You may not see Missingno. immediately. That is normal. This glitch can produce different results depending on the data being read, including odd Pokémon and unusual levels.

When Missingno. appears, it usually looks like a scrambled blocky sprite, though its appearance can vary. It may not look like something you would lovingly raise into the Hall of Fame. It looks more like your Game Boy tried to render a filing cabinet. That is part of the charm.

If you do not see it right away, stay patient and keep moving along that same coastline. The key is consistency. Wrong route, wrong tile path, wrong result. Right route, right tiles, and eventually the glitch greets you like a cursed old friend.

Step 6: Catch Missingno. carefully

Once the encounter starts, battle it like you would any other wild Pokémon, with one giant asterisk hovering over the process. You can weaken it if you want, but many players simply throw Poké Balls and hope for the best. Since this is a glitch encounter, “normal expectations” are not exactly running the show.

When you catch Missingno., it becomes part of your collection, but you should understand the trade-off. The most famous side effect is that it can corrupt your Hall of Fame data. Many players also use Missingno. encounters to duplicate the item in the sixth inventory slot, which is why the glitch became legendary among kids who dreamed of endless Rare Candies and Master Balls. That said, if you are trying this purely for curiosity, it is smart to treat the catch like a novelty, not the cornerstone of a carefully maintained competitive roster.

What Happens After You Catch Missingno.?

Usually, the game does not explode into dramatic cinematic flames. Most of the time, the effects are stranger than they are catastrophic. The best-known results include:

• Hall of Fame corruption, which can make those records display garbage data
• Item duplication involving the sixth item slot in your bag
• Occasional graphical oddities or strange temporary behavior
• A story you will absolutely tell other Pokémon fans forever

In practical terms, many players deliberately triggered Missingno. because duplicating Rare Candies, Master Balls, or other valuable items felt like discovering cheat codes without a cheat device. It was ridiculous, useful, and exactly the kind of thing schoolyard legends were built on.

Is Catching Missingno. Safe?

“Safe” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Missingno. is famous because it usually works well enough to be memorable, but it is still an exploit. If you are using an old cartridge or a save file you truly care about, caution is the smarter move. If you are experimenting on a spare file and you mostly want to see gaming history in action, then the risk may feel worth it.

A sensible approach is to treat Missingno. like a museum exhibit that bites. Look, admire, maybe toss a Poké Ball, but understand that you are interacting with broken code. That broken code is the entire point.

Best Tips for a Smoother Missingno. Hunt

• Use the classic Viridian-to-Cinnabar route exactly as described
• Stay on the east coast tiles touching land while surfing
• Bring extra Poké Balls so the encounter is not wasted
• Do not expect Missingno. to appear on the very first battle every time
• Use a save file you can afford to experiment with if possible

Why Missingno. Still Matters

Missingno. is more than a weird bug from an old Game Boy game. It is one of the most famous glitches in video game history. Players remember it because it felt like discovering a secret world hidden just underneath the official one. You were not supposed to be there, and the game made that very clear, but it still let you in.

That sense of mystery is why people still search for terms like how to catch Missingno. in Pokémon Red and Blue, Missingno. glitch guide, and Cinnabar Island Missingno. method. It is not just about catching a broken sprite. It is about revisiting a moment when games felt full of rumors, surprises, and strange little corners that developers never intended to become legends.

Conclusion

If you want to catch Missingno. in Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue, the classic six-step method still comes down to one beautifully broken recipe: prepare your file, watch the Old Man’s tutorial in Viridian City, fly to Cinnabar Island, surf the east coast where water touches land, wait for the glitch encounter, and throw a Poké Ball when Missingno. shows up.

It is simple, iconic, and just dangerous enough to stay exciting. That combination is exactly why Missingno. never faded from Pokémon folklore. Some players wanted infinite Rare Candies. Some wanted proof the rumor was real. Others just wanted to stare directly into the code-shaped abyss and see if it blinked first. No matter the reason, catching Missingno. remains one of the strangest and most unforgettable things you can do in Generation I.

Player Experiences and Memories of Chasing Missingno.

For a lot of players, Missingno. was not just a glitch. It was a rite of passage. Long before wikis, video walkthroughs, and social media clips explained every secret in ten seconds flat, information about Pokémon spread through friends, siblings, classmates, and that one kid who always claimed his uncle worked for Nintendo. Missingno. lived right in that sweet spot between rumor and proof. It sounded fake enough to dismiss, but specific enough to make you try it anyway.

The experience usually started with disbelief. You would hear that if you watched the Old Man catch a Pokémon in Viridian City, flew to Cinnabar Island, and surfed along the coast in exactly the right way, the game would break open and reveal a hidden monster. That sounded absurd, which of course made it even more tempting. Then you tried it. You followed the steps carefully, probably convinced you were wasting your time, until suddenly the battle screen flickered and there it was: a glitched, blocky thing called Missingno. The rumor was real. The playground had spoken truth for once.

That first encounter felt different from finding a normal rare Pokémon. Catching Articuno felt exciting because the game intended it. Finding Missingno. felt thrilling because the game absolutely did not intend it. You were no longer just playing Pokémon Red or Blue; you were peeking behind the curtain, touching the wires, and discovering that the world of Kanto had cracks in it. For kids especially, that was mind-blowing. Games were supposed to be fixed, tidy, and rule-based. Missingno. showed that they could also be messy, unstable, and weirdly alive.

Then came the experimentation. Players tested what happened if they caught it, battled it, ran from it, or rearranged items before the encounter. The sixth-slot duplication trick turned Missingno. from a spooky curiosity into a full-blown legend. Rare Candies multiplied. Master Balls multiplied. Suddenly the glitch was not just creepy; it was useful. That usefulness made it spread even faster. A rumor can stay niche, but a rumor that gives you infinite good stuff becomes a movement.

Of course, the experience also came with fear. Maybe your Hall of Fame data got mangled. Maybe a sprite looked wrong. Maybe your friend swore that catching the wrong version would destroy everything you loved. Half the fun was not knowing where the boundary was between harmless weirdness and actual danger. Missingno. turned ordinary players into little digital urban explorers, taking one more step just to see what happened.

That is why Missingno. still sticks in people’s memories. It was not merely a bug; it was a shared cultural moment inside gaming. It taught players that some of the most memorable stories do not come from official quests or planned rewards. Sometimes they come from a coastline, a coding mistake, and the stubborn decision to see whether a ridiculous rumor might actually work.