Pokemon Scarlet & Violet player discovers game-breaking duplication glitch

Lucas Simons
Smeargle Glitch

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet players have found a new duplication exploit in the game, and it involves two of the most broken species in the game.

For Pokemon Scarlet and Violet players, having a ton of items can significantly improve their gameplay experience. That’s why when Pokemon trainers discover a new method to get loads of important items, such as the Master Ball and Safari Ball, it is a huge deal.

The Item Printer introduced with the Indigo Disk DLC brought a lot of opportunities for players to stock up on these precious items, but again, it works as intended. However, a new duplication glitch has been recently uncovered, and players are going nuts about it.

According to the popular Pokemon Streamer Osirus, the glitch involves duplicating an item with the help of two unconventional but also broken Pokemon: Smearlge and Ditto.

As explained by Osirus in the video above, the method for duplicating items in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is a little roundabout and involves the following steps:

  1. Have a level 100 Ditto with the Limber ability.
  2. Have Kyurem or Black Kyurem in your second slot holding the item you want to duplicate, with only the ‘Imprison’ move slotted.
  3. Have a Pokemon that knows the ‘Trick’ move.
  4. Heading to the Terarium Savannah area, and luring a wild Smeargle into a certain glitched spot.
  5. Making it face Ditto, transforming into Smeargle, and making Smeargle copy transform with Sketch.
  6. Immediately switch to Kyurem (or Black Kyurem).
  7. Letting Smeargle transform into Kyurem. Then using a battle item to stall until Kyurem Smeargle uses Imprison.
  8. Let the two Pokemon battle using struggle, and after a few turns, run away from combat.
  9. Running away will glitch Smeargle in the area and it will have the duplicate item; now you can steal the item, run away, and repeat the process.

It is quite a complicated but effective method to collect lots of incredible items. But again, we do not encourage anything that can serve as an exploit or be branded as a “cheat.”

We will let you know in case that Game Freak decides to take measures and patch this glitch.

In the meantime, if you are interested in playing the most recent Kitakami Epilogue Episode, here’s how to start the Mochi Mayhem Quest. And here’s all you need to know about Pecharunt and how to get it.

About The Author

Lucas is a Games Writer for CharlieIntel, specializing in covering Pokemon, including Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, Pokemon Go, and Pokemon TCG. A former Game Reviewer and PR Liaison for HD Tecnologia (ARG), Lucas is also an Audiovisual Media Producer, Game Designer, Narrative Designer, and author, having published several books including Press Start, a guide to video game writing and world building. You can contact him at [email protected].