Addendum to the Ditto Trick

[IIMarckus]

It's been discovered that the level of the Pokemon is determined by the Attack stat modifier (not the stat itself). Thus, using Growl on the Ditto once will make the Mew (or whatever) level 6, using Growl twice will make it level 5, and so on down to level 1. Theoretically, if the Ditto Transformed into something with Swords Dance and then used it three times before being defeated, we would have a level 13 Mew. This means that we can, theoretically, get a shiny Mew through the DV transfer glitch (where you have the Red Gyarados traded to RBY, have it use Mimic on Ditto, have Ditto transform into Gyara, have Gyara transform into Ditto, have Ditto transform into Gyara again, and catch the Ditto to make it have Gyara's DVs and thus be shiny when traded to GSC), because Mew learns Transform at level 10 or so.

There's also some other glitch that, when getting a level 1 Mew, causes it to have negative experience points and thus go up to level 100 in the next battle. More details can be found at SDA, where I found out about this.

[Adrian Malacoda]

Good find Bent`! I'll update this shortly, along with all the other addenda I have yet to add. >->

[Newo]

Nice one...
Could this apply to over 100? Or am I missing the point.

[Adrian Malacoda]

Nice one...
Could this apply to over 100? Or am I missing the point.

You can't jack the modifier up that high.

[Newo]

This is true, Does it work downwards. (probably not)

[IIMarckus]

A stat's modifier is set at 7 when you start a battle. If the opponent uses a stat-lowering move (such as Growl), the modifier goes down by 1. If the user uses a stat-raising move (such as Meditate), the modifier goes up by 1. Moves such as Swords Dance and Screech move the modifier by two places (so one Swords Dance raises the Attack modifier from 7 to 9, for example). The limits for the modifier are 1 to 13, inclusive. Thus, through the Mew glitch, we can have a Pokemon at any level from 1 to 13.

Pokemon earn experience at four different rates. Some Pokemon only require about a million experience points to reach level 100, while others need more. There are four experience rates. Those with a specific experience rate (probably the one that requires the most; it's the one Mew has) will actually have negative experience points at level 1. Because the game engine itself doesn't recognize the existence of negative numbers, the experience points are instead read as a very large number (enough to get a Pokemon of that experience rate to level 245, apparently). Thus, if you use this level 1 Pokemon in battle, it will instantly go to level 100 after gaining experience, so long as the experience gained from the battle isn't enough to instead make it go to level 2. It won't go any higher than level 100, since (as we know from testing with the Missingno. glitch) L100+ Pokemon immediately return to level 100 upon gaining experience.

However, I wouldn't be surprised if depositing the level 1 Mew in the PC would recalculate the level based on the experience points and actually make it level 245 or so.

[Adrian Malacoda]

IIRC, depositing a Pokemon in the PC recalculates EXP based on level, not the other way around. I might have to check on that, though.