Unnerve desync glitch
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The Unnerve desync glitch is a natural glitch, occurring in Generation VI, VII, and VIII. It results from the smoothed-out manner in which animations play when multiple Pokémon take damage from the same move, in combination with the Berry-suppression effect of Unnerve being lifted at an unusual time.
Performing the glitch
In order for this glitch to occur, battle animations must be enabled. One trainer should have a Pokémon with a held Berry (and possibly also the Cheek Pouch ability), which it should be in a position to consume right away, except that one of its opponents has the Unnerve ability to prevent that from happening. The Pokémon with the Berry needs to be missing at least 1 HP, but a small enough amount that between the Berry's own innate healing (if any) and/or Cheek Pouch, the Pokémon would be able to recover beyond its current maximum HP, if such a thing were possible. There are several combinations that can achieve this:
- The Pokémon can have Cheek Pouch and be holding a Berry that doesn't restore HP, but rather attends to a nagging condition (such as Cheri Berry while it's paralyzed, or Leppa Berry while it has a move that's out of PP). In this case, the Pokémon needs to have more than 2/3 of its maximum HP remaining, but less than full HP.
- If the Pokemon is low enough in level, Oran Berry alone can be enough to trigger the glitch. In this case, the Pokémon needs to have 1/2 of its maximum HP remaining or less, but be within 9 HP of maximum (which together imply that its maximum HP can be no greater than 18). If the Pokémon has Ripen (doubling the Oran Berry's effect to 20 HP), the maximum HP threshold increases to 38, or if it has Cheek Pouch (which gains more HP after using the Berry), the maximum HP can be as high as 54.
- The Pokémon can have both Cheek Pouch and Sitrus Berry, in which case it needs to be in a narrow window where it has more than 5/12 of its maximum HP remaining, but no more than 1/2. In Generation VII only, the Berries that can potentially cause confusion (such as Figy Berry) can also be used, which slides the window down to more than 1/6 of its maximum HP, but no more than 1/4.
Next, one of two options needs to happen: either the Unnerve Pokémon uses Self-Destruct, Explosion, Misty Explosion, Final Gambit, Mind Blown, or Steel Beam to knock itself out and deal enough damage to knock out the Berry-wielding Pokemon as well (the simplest way to do this is by having a Mewtwo from the Virtual Console Generation I games learn Self-Destruct from TM36 there, then send it to Pokémon Bank where it will receive Unnerve as its ability), or else (only in a Double or Triple Battle), one of the Unnerve Pokémon's teammates can use a multi-target move to hit its teammate (which is processed first), then the Berry Pokémon, dealing enough damage to knock out both of them.
If battle animations are off, the visual representation of events in this case will show the Unnerve Pokémon faint before the Berry Pokémon takes any damage. The Berry Pokémon will immediately use its Berry to heal either HP or a status condition, as appropriate, and if Cheek Pouch is present, that ability will restore its HP to full (which, necessarily for the glitch, involves healing less than the full amount the ability and/or Berry are capable of, because healing is capped at the maximum HP). The damage of the incoming attack had already been calculated by that point, and was similarly capped by the amount of remaining HP that the Berry Pokémon had at the beginning of the move, so only that much damage will be dealt, leaving the Berry Pokémon with remaining HP equal to the amount it was able to heal before it bumped into the maximum.
On the contrary, if battle animations are on, the visual sequence will show the Berry Pokémon take enough damage to drop all the way to 0 HP, but not faint yet. After all HP changes have been shown, the Unnerve Pokémon will faint, which then causes the berry-eating animation to play (and if Cheek Pouch is used, that ability pops up afterward), making the Pokémon appear to heal the appropriate amount from a starting point of 0 HP, but in this case, there is sufficient space to gain the entire amount. Cheek Pouch and/or the Berry will then be shown gaining their full amount, even though it's more than the amount that was healed in the animations-off case. Experience points will then be given for the Unnerve Pokémon fainting, if the player's side is the one with the Berry Pokémon and it's an in-game battle in which experience is capable of being earned.
At this point, the behavior with animations off is a more accurate representation of the game state: the Berry Pokémon does not actually have the full HP allotment that its healing method was capable of, it has some lower amount instead. However, by playing with animations on, the HP total will not be corrected as long as the battle is still going. If the Pokémon takes enough damage from a later attack in the same battle to knock it out from the HP total that would have been shown with animations off, the animation will show the Pokémon losing only that much HP and being left with a positive number of HP equal to the difference between the two figures. Then it will faint, still with that positive HP total shown--thus it will hereafter be referred to as the "undead Pokémon".
Effects
If the undead Pokémon was one of the player's own, and the battle is not of a type that causes each team to be fully healed at the end, then ending the battle will cause it to be properly recognized as fainted, with 0 HP. Until that happens, though, the Pokémon menu will still show it as non-fainted, with the previously noted HP total, and (no matter whose side the undead Pokémon was on) the red and white dots showing each player's count of remaining healthy Pokémon will still count it as a healthy Pokémon.
Since a Pokémon just fainted, the player will be sent to a menu and forced to choose a replacement. The player can attempt to send out the undead Pokémon, but rather than failing with the usual message "There's no will to battle!" that accompanies a fainted Pokémon, the failure message will be "[Nickname] is already in battle!" Whichever Pokémon does get sent out next, the glitch will still persist afterward.
The player can use a Revive on the undead Pokémon, which will raise its visual HP to 1/2 of maximum plus the amount that it was shown fainting with. The Pokémon can then be sent back out to take more damage, and if it falls back to its desynchronized HP total, it will become undead again, with the same effects. Using a Max Revive instead will restore the fainted Pokémon to full HP by all accounts, and will end the effect of the glitch on it. Attempting to use any other healing item while it's still undead will fail, much like using a Full Heal on a Pokémon with no status condition, and the player's turn will be wasted with no effect.
If a trainer's team is reduced to only the undead Pokémon plus other Pokémon that are truly fainted in all regards, the game will correctly recognize at that point that their entire team has been defeated, and that trainer will lose the battle and/or black out, after which time the effects of the glitch will end and their Pokémon will be healed.
Other than the initial menu to replace the undead Pokémon, the trainer whose team it's on will have the option to switch to it on a later turn while it's still undead, and this switch, if the trainer chooses to make it, will not fail. In a Single Battle, if it's ever sent out again, the game is effectively stuck: the player will still receive an action menu at the beginning of each turn, but any actions they select from that menu will be skipped, including selecting moves, switching Pokémon, using items from the Bag in battles that allow it, running away or forfeiting, or attempting to call upon Mega Evolution or Dynamax. The opponent will still be able to use moves, but any move that targets the undead Pokémon will be treated as though there's not actually a Pokémon there, and will fail as a result. Notably, this includes Struggle, so the opponent will not be able to hit with Struggle and will not damage itself with recoil, and the player with the undead Pokémon does not have the potential win condition of waiting for all the opponents to faint from Struggle recoil (unless every single one of them has Explosion or a similar move). The only ways for the battle to end at this point are by turning off or resetting the game, or in the case of a link battle against another player, waiting for the match timer to run out.
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