Update – 16/01/2024: This method has changed in terms of what you need to do so I’ve changed the video to reflect these recent clarifications.
Pokémon fans: there’s a new item duplication glitch in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet. A number of YouTubers have posted videos of the latest exploit to clone items (and Pokémon if you want them). The above video is from PanFro Games who demonstrated how to get the glitch working. If you want to try it, I recommend you watch to see how it’s done but the basic gist is:
- You need a Ditto with Limber or Mew with Transform (preferably Lv 100 or at least with good Speed) in the first slot.
- Any Pokémon in second slot that only knows one move (preferably a non-damaging move) that is holding the item you want to duplicate
- A Pokémon that knows a move that involves swapping or taking a Pokémon’s held item (e.g. Trick, Switcheroo, Covet, or Thief) in the third slot (Ribombee is used in the video and has all four – the more you know!)
- You get a wild Smeargle into a specific spot near a tree in any biome that it naturally spawns in. This will take some trial and error
- Once in position, encounter it and Transform into the Smeargle
- When Smeargle sketches Transform, switch into your slot 2 Pokémon
- Let Smeargle transform into that Pokémon
- After that, run away. If you can’t, Smeargle will try to use a move and that’s why a non-damaging move is best so you don’t get unnecessarily knocked out.
- If the glitch worked, the transformed Smeargle should quickly turn its head away and disappear. If you look across at the big tree nearby, it should be underneath it, still as the transformed Pokémon
- Spoiler alert: it’s not Smeargle anymore—it’s a clone of that slot 2 Pokémon! Now you have to put your item swapping move Pokémon into the first slot, encounter the clone, use Trick, Switcheroo, Covet, or Thief and obtain the duplicated item.
- Once obtained, run from the encounter and the clone should still be there. Keep encountering until you get enough of the item you need.
It’s recommended not to catch the Pokémon and keep it since it’s a clone but you may—or may not—be safer doing so if you use a Pokémon that is naturally found in the biome you’re in (I’d highly recommend NOT bringing it to an online competitive battle, anyway).
I tested this last night (13th January) with a few different items and it worked just fine and I’ve had no adverse effects to my game. I had to fly to another biome to make it despawn and everything is still fine as of today.
You might not care about this glitch as the Item Printer can get you a lot of exclusive items but if you’d rather not grind it all out and just get a few extra Apricorn Balls like I did, this might be useful. Of course, The Pokémon Company will likely fix this in a future patch (but not the upcoming one, I suspect) and that’s fine. I just can’t believe Game Freak have created a glitchier game than Red/Blue/Green/Yellow. This is what happens when you’re made to rush something through!
If you’ve tried it and it’s worked, let us know in the comments what you used!
