Selfdestruct and Substitute glitch

Miscellaneous glitches of Pokémon Red and Blue and Pokémon Yellow

Amazing Man (Red and Blue only) | Cable Club escape glitch | Celadon looping map trick | Champion Blue music muting glitch | Coastal Flooding | Confusion and Substitute glitch | Cooltrainer move | Cycling based glitch maps | Escape sprite handling glitch | Evolve without an evolutionary stone (Red and Blue only) | Evolving Raichu (Red and Blue only) | Expanded item pack | Expanded Pokédex | Focus Energy glitch | Get stuck in a wall | Ghost Bicycle glitch | Glitch encounter system | Glitch City RAM Manipulation | Infinite Blaine Door | Introduction Nidorino glitch (Red and Blue only) | Invisible PCs (Red and Blue only) | Invisible tree glitch | Item stack duplication glitch | Mute the music in the Pokémon League | Partial trapping move link battle glitch | Pokémon Tower Pokédex glitch | PP underflow glitches | Recovery move glitch | Rival's effect | See a Ghost without a Silph Scope | Selfdestruct and Substitute glitch | Silph Co. PC Glitch | Slot machine glitch | Stand on a tree | Statue behavior glitch (Red and Blue only) | Super effective move AI flaw (Red and Blue only) | Super Glitch | Surf down glitch | Swift miss glitch | Transform assumption glitch | Transform Empty Move Glitch | Trick Zone | Vending machine purchase glitch | Walk around with only fainted Pokémon (Red and Blue only) | Walking lag glitch | Walk on water through Surf | Walking Pikachu happiness glitch (Yellow only) | Wild appeared! | ZZAZZ Glitch

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The Selfdestruct and Substitute glitch allows a Pokémon to use Selfdestruct or Explosion and not to faint.

Performing the glitch

Requirements

• A fast Pokémon knowing Substitute
• Another Pokémon knowing Explosion or Selfdestruct
• Both Pokémon must face each other in a battle.

Selfdestruction without fainting

1. One of the Pokémon must use Substitute
2. The other must then (not necessarily the same turn) use Selfdestruct or Explosion
3. The game will state that "(Pokémon)'s SUBSTITUTE broke !" but the Explosion user won't faint. Its sprite will vanish and won't be revealed again until a new Pokémon is switched in.

Explanation

There are two functions used to deal damage : one for the enemy, one for the player's Pokémon.

However, only one function handles damage to a Substitute. The "forced fainting" is the applied to the Substitute instead of the Explosion user, although the sprite vanishes as this is handled by the attack sprite animation.

See also

• Confusion Substitute glitch - a glitch in which damage is dealt to the opponent Pokémon's Substitute instead of the user's when a Pokémon under a Substitute is hurt from its confusion.

Video demonstration

Video demonstration by ChickasaurusGL