Special (location)

Error prevention and placeholders in the Pokémon games:

?????????? | ????? | ! | Abnormal Pokémon | Bad Egg | Enigma Berry (Generation III) | Error! | Error codes (Generations I and II) | Error traps for damaged save data | Error traps to prevent impossible progress | Event data debugging messages | Instant victory effect (Generation II) | Mystery Zone | N/A | Pokégear instruction booklet trap | Rhydon trap | Special (location) | This Game Pak is designed only for use on the Game Boy Color. | This Pokémon cannot be traded.

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Unused maps and placeholder map names within the Pokémon games

Alternative map locations (Generation I) | Alternative Route 104 map | Battle Park (Platinum) | Generation II Safari Zone | Haunted House | Jubilife Condominiums floors 3 and 4 | Map 0x0B (Generation I) | Map 0x6F (Generation I) | Mystery Zone | Record Corner (FireRed/LeafGreen) | R/S Flower Shop (Festa 2002 demo) | Special (location) | Special Area | Sevii Islands 8 and 9 | Unused Olivine City house | Unused Sunyshore City house | Unused Celadon City house

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Bulbapedia also has an article about Special (location).

This article is about the location name "SPECIAL". For other uses such as the Special stat please see Bulbapedia's disambiguation page.

SPECIAL on the Pokégear map in Crystal

SPECIAL is placeholder text in Pokémon Gold, Silver and Crystal that appears as a Pokégear map name for when the player is in the second floor of a Pokémon Center but the last map in memory (to be loaded when the player goes down the stairs) is the second floor of the Pokémon Center itself.

The index number of "SPECIAL" is 00 in the Pokégear map. According to the Pokégear map, "SPECIAL" is set in Johto, and its coordinates are off the map.

The second floor of a Pokémon Center is in actuality a single map, and the Pokégear map takes the name for this map from the last place that the player visited, such as "CHERRYGROVE CITY" for Cherrygrove City's Pokémon Center 1F as the last location, "GOLDENROD CITY" for Goldenrod City's Pokémon Center 1F and so on.

"SPECIAL" also appears as the last entry in a location list dumped in a Pokémon Crystal text dump with two entries that may be unused, N/A and "POKéMON MANSION".

Curiously, SPECIAL shares its name with the Special stat from Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow; games that Pokémon Gold, Silver and Crystal were built on.

Seeing the string

Method 1

• The code 0100D7C5 (Gold and Silver) or 0100D7C6 (Crystal) will bring up the word "SPECIAL" when the Pokégear map is opened.

Method 2

Gold and Silver:
Enter a Pokémon Center with the codes 010143D0, 011444D0, 010145D0 activated, then go up the stairs and back down again. The Pokégear map will tell the player they are in SPECIAL.

Crystal:
Enter a Pokémon Center and activate the codes 0114B5DC, 0101B6DC. Go up to the second floor, and the Pokégear map will tell the player they are in SPECIAL.

Similar string

Another term, "Special Area" exists in Pokémon Emerald. It has an index number of 196 (hex:C4).