A Pokémon Gold player recently discovered a “strange” item after speaking to an NPC in Goldenrod City—an item that isn’t normally available in the game but was obtained due to a glitch. Pokémon Gold and its counterpart, Pokémon Silver, are the sequels to the original Pokémon Red and Blue, moving players from the Kanto region into the new Johto region. These second-generation games are widely regarded as a significant improvement over the originals, featuring a larger selection of Pokémon and introducing several new gameplay elements.
Generation 2 also introduced a variety of new items for players to use, including Held Items, a mechanic that has remained a core part of the franchise. However, Pokémon Gold and Silver aren’t without their glitches. Like Pokémon Red and Blue, these games are filled with programming quirks, affecting not only the original Game Boy Color versions but also the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console releases. One fan recently encountered such a glitch when they received a mysterious item in Goldenrod City.
User NecessaryMastodon229 shared their experience on the r/pokemon subreddit. They were playing Pokémon Gold in order to complete a living dex for Pokémon Home and were trading between Gold and Silver with their spouse. While on the second floor of the Goldenrod Pokémon Center, they noticed an unfamiliar NPC behind the counter. After speaking to the NPC, they were given a generic message stating they were supposed to receive an item. To their surprise, they found a “?” item in their bag, with a quantity of one. Although it couldn’t be used, the item could be registered to the select button.
The ? Item in Pokemon Gold and Silver Explained
More experienced Pokémon fans have identified this issue as a glitched Mystery Gift item in Pokémon Gold and Silver. Typically, this specific NPC is responsible for giving the player a Mystery Gift when they qualify. Since the Mystery Gift data is stored in the game’s save file, rare instances of game crashes can corrupt this data, causing the game to mistakenly believe the player is eligible to receive an item. This results in the item being assigned an ID of 00, which corresponds to a glitched item that serves no purpose in the game.
Fortunately, this is a relatively harmless glitch in Pokémon Gold and Silver. Players can easily get rid of the item by discarding it or giving it to a Pokémon as a held item, which causes it to vanish. While glitches are common in Pokémon, this particular one is one of the many interesting bugs that can occur in Gold and Silver, making it fascinating for players to experience.