Game Freak’s Pokémon Scarlet and Violet launched in, let’s say, not the most polished of states, which while a headache for some has allowed other players to discover some rather useful cheats.
While there are no official cheats for Scarlet and Violet, there are however several rather useful glitches and workarounds that can get Poképlayers a lot of extra items and money.
These glitches are hardly anything new, with methods of Pokémon cloning and infinite money bugs running rampant in the days before internet patches.
It’s nice, therefore, for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet to inadvertently continue this long-running tradition. Here are the available cheats and exploits.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet cheats
Just a few pointers here. Firstly, make sure not to use any of these cheats in multiplayer mode, as this may swiftly get you banned.
Secondly, bear in mind that these glitches may be patched out at any time, so it might be best not to update your game if you’re dead set on using them!
Shiny Spot Duplication
This is one of the easier cheats to exploit, but it’s down to luck how good the reward is. The cheat involves duplicating items that appear as shiny spots in the ground, and can be done with the following steps:
- Find a shiny spot on the ground.
- Set up your picnic over the spot.
- Eventually, you’ll see an item has appeared in your picnic basket.
- Leave your picnic there, and over time the item will carry on spawning apparently infinitely.
There’s no way of knowing what item is in the shiny spot until you set up a picnic, and even then it’s usually just a TM ingredient that isn’t particularly valuable – but if you chance upon a great shiny spot item, this could prove very useful.
Duplicate Wild Shiny Pokémon
This cheat is a bit more useful, though does require you to find a shiny Pokémon near certain towns. The instructions are as follows:
- Find and catch a Shiny Pokémon in the wild.
- Head towards the nearest town or city that doesn’t require a loading screen.
- Save just before crossing into the town.
- Head back to the location of the shiny Pokémon, where you will find a duplicate there.
While there’s limited usefulness in having multiple of the same shiny Pokémon, it’s always nice to have a few spares if you decide to evolve. For a visual guide, see this video from YouTuber Austin John Plays:
Item Duplication
This cheat is a bit more in-depth, but if you’ve beaten Area Zero then this allows you to duplicate items of your choice. Just follow the steps below:
- Turn your Miraidon/Kiraidon into battle form.
- Give your Miraidon/Kiraidon the item you wish to duplicate.
- Make sure your party is full, then catch a wild Pokémon.
- Choose Miraidon/Kiraidon to be sent to your box.
- Quickly hit the A and B buttons.
- Miraidon/Kiraidon will then be duplicated in your box, and the item added to your bag.
- When you add Miraidon/Kiraidon back to your party, they will still be holding the item also.
It’s a tad complicated, but if you can pull it off you could soon be duplicating Ability Patches, Rare Candies and even the legendary Master Ball.
Infinite Money
Infinite money is a classic cheat, whatever the video game. Here’s how to pull off the glitch in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, which is essentially an expansion of the shiny spot glitch above. You’ll need male and female Pokémon that can breed, however!
- Go to the shop with a red door in Mesagoza (West).
- Buy five strawberries and five bananas only.
- Head out to the shop with the green and white awning on your right.
- Buy some butter, cream cheese, peanut butter and picks.
- Head to West Province (Area One) – North, and then the Asado Desert.
- Open the menu, select ‘Options’ and then turn off Autosave.
- Save the game.
- Look for a sparkle spot and then pick it up.
- Repeat the process of saving and picking up sparkle spots until you find an item of high sale value.
- Press the HOME button to open the Switch menu and then close the game with the X button.
- Reopen the game and head towards the shiny spot with the high-value item.
- Leave some distance, so you can then set up a picnic with the basket directly above the shiny spot.
- Make a sandwich, ideally a Great Peanut Butter Sandwich. This can be done in Creative Mode.
- As a Level Two Egg Power, this will encourage your Pokémon to breed.
- Wait a few minutes, then check the picnic basket – instead of eggs you should find duplicates of the high-value item.
- Waiting around 30 minutes should give you plenty of duplicates which you can then sell for high prices!
While useful, this is quite a complicated glitch, so you can watch YouTuber Kibbles do it first in the video below:
Secret Backup Save
Pokémon is notorious for only having a single save file – but luckily should you experience a crash or some other issue there is a way to restore your old save.
This one’s pretty simple – all you have to do is press the X button, the B button and the Up on the control pad while on the title screen of the game.
This will then bring up stats for a recent save, which you can restore by pressing ‘Start from Backup Data’. Best of all, this works even if you have autosave turned off!
It’s more of a feature than a cheat, but one everyone should know about!
PSA: Avoid losing your save data when #PokemonScarletViolet crashes!!💀A cheat code lets you access a secret save BACKUP. Just press X + B + Up on title screen pic.twitter.com/wJ5sBXjX3L
— GameXplain (@GameXplain) November 19, 2022
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