It is arguable that the mainline series of Pokémon games is one of the most successful franchises on a handheld gaming console. Game Freak’s massive success with Pokémon Red and Blue in Japan, and in America, ushered in a whole new level of video game obsession, and fandom. The series initially swept through America by word of mouth; schoolyards were particularly infested with talk of the new pocket monsters. By the time Pokémon Gold and Silver were released, the fans playing the game had already become a little segregated into groups of casual gamers and those who aspired for more.

Between rumors and cheating devices like the GameShark, new areas were discovered in what was initially intended as the last set of Pokémon games. No, we are not talking about little secrets like how it seemed like Lugia was swimming underwater and Ho-oh was flying through the sky when in reality its the same image flipped upside down with the color adjusted.

From your Pokémon’s end on the top of Mount Silver to the possibility of any Pokémon from Bill’s Garden here are: 15 Hidden Locations In Pokémon Gold and Silver Only Experts Found.

Unknown Locations

Unown’s only moves are Hidden Power and being shaped like the letters of the English alphabet — along with some special characters — all while being a nuisance in the Alph Ruins.

Navigating and finding all of the secrets hidden within the Unnown infested ruins was a truly difficult task. Finding cryptic messages, little bits of information, and trying to capture all of the different shapes of Unknown was a huge task undertaking by those who hoped something grand would happen if they managed to pull it off.

After solving all of the puzzles, they ended up not getting much of anything, leaving those fans disappointed until the re-release of the games just before Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon on Nintendo’s e-shop.

In the trailer for the re-release, on a wall presumably in the ruins of Alph, the titles of the future games would appear to be spelled out by Unknown. They are probably still disappointed.

The Snow on Mount Silver

In the original Pokémon Gold and Silver, Mt. Silver didn’t actually serve much of a purpose outside of being able to battle the main protagonist from Pokémon Red and Blue. Like the originals, Pokémon Gold and Silver later received rumors of a darker, more sinister version of the games. Pokémon Black was a creepypasta for the originals, while The Snow on Mt. Silver was for Gold and Silver.

Instead of the light-hearted and friendly content associated with the family-friendly show and game series, The Snow On Mt. Silver offers a great horror movie vibe.

Not relying on jump scares is definitely a plus. Instead, it relied heavily on more of a creepy vibe, using mortality and audioscaping as primary tools.

The Safari Zone

Going into the era of Pokémon Gold and Silver, most players had very fond memories of wrangling up as many of their favorite pocket monsters from the Safari Zone. It even made it into the Pikachu version of the game (Pokémon Yellow). Sadly, only partial data for the Safari Zone made it into Pokémon Gold and Silver.

Thanks to hacking, you could actually make it into the Safari Zone.

Enough data had made it into the game, but not enough to trigger encounters while walking through the grass there. Pokémon could be caught in the Safari Zone, but only if you brought your fishing rod. Using the same hack, the Pokémart used to get into the Safari Zone can also be used to teleport to Fuchsia City.

The Glitch Dimension

It takes a lot to enter the Glitch Dimension. There are certain Pokémon the player can talk to, and certain cards that can be traded to create this effect. But it’s quite likely that the method used most often is to employ a cheat code.

Once the player manipulates this glitch, they enter the appropriately named Glitch Dimension.

It’s not unusual for the game to then freeze and force the player to restart the game completely, so it’s not exactly a desirable dimension to try to journey to.

Occasionally, the player will actually be able to walk around in and explore this trippy place.

One explanation for this crazy glitch is that the game’s memory is manipulated to make the console believe it is running on a classic Game Boy handheld when it is not.

Whirl Islands

The Whirl Islands, also known as the Whirlpool Islands, isn’t exactly a hidden location. It just takes quite a process to actually access it. Gamers will need to have the Whirlpool technique equipped to access the location.

Strength, Waterfall, and Surf are all necessary to actually make it through the area.

With how much of an inconvenience it is to get to the Whirl Islands, gamers might be wondering why they should even bother trying to reach this location. But there is one very big draw. If you carry a Tidal Bell and Silverwing, you will be able to encounter the Legendary Pokémon, Lugia. With a little luck and skill, you may just be able to capture it and add it to your roster.

New Bark Town Is Silent Hills

New Bark Town is an actual town that pretty much anyone can get to. It’s often the hometown of the main character of the game and is the home of Professor Elm. New Bark Town is a conduit to several other towns in the game.

Obviously, it doesn’t take a lot to get to New Bark Town, but there’s a secret detail that puts an eerie spin on this seemingly innocent location.

When Nintendo debuted their Pocket Monsters game at Nintendo Space World in 1997, New Bark Town was named Silent Hills. The town also had a different layout. The name was eventually changed, possibly due to the debut of Silent Hill the next year.

When you really think about it, this means players are walking through the haunted coal mining town every time they enter New Bark Town.

House South Of Cerulean

The House South of Cerulean is easy to get to,but it definitely tries to make sure you stay out of it. When you reach the outside of this house, you will find a sign that tells you that implies the house is empty, it reads “House for sale, nobody lives here.” There you have it, it’s empty, nobody lives here, move along, please.

The house is, in fact, unlocked and you can walk right into it.

If you go inside the supposedly empty house, you will find two people sitting at a table. Are these the owners? The realtors? Squatters? Is the sign a total lie? It’s hard to say, but either way, there definitely seems to be more going on at this house than first meets the eye.

Olivine City’s Hidden House

There is a house in Olivine City that can only be accessed if the player cheats. If you enter the right cheat code, you will be able to reach this mysterious location. There are two non-playable characters hanging out in this house, the house’s owner, and a seemingly sick Rhydon. The woman remarks on the Rhydon’s illness as the Pokémon glitches out and turns into a Clefairy when it moves.

There may be a good explanation for this mysterious house.

It could have been intended to be in the game from the very beginning, but was later removed.

When the woman speaks about her sick Pokémon, she mentions the pharmacy. She says that the pharmacy is located in Ecruteak City when it is actually located in Cianwood City. The developers obviously made some changes before the game’s official release.

Walk Through Walls Glitch

Video games are supposed to be bound by the mechanics set by the video game developers. Of course, that’s not how things actually work in the real world. Gamers are able to find glitches and loopholes that allow them to take advantage of the system, kind of like how data mining has become normal. 

The glitch will let anyone who uses it explore the entire game - even the places you aren’t normally supposed to go.

Using this Walk Through glitch, the player is able to walk literally everywhere in the entire game. You can walk through walls and other objects, making virtually no place off limits to the player. You could even walk on water - just don’t expect any praise for it.

Fly Gone Wrong

When you pull off this bizarre glitch, the player sort of ends up with a stalker. Using glitches and cheat codes, Cyndaquil can be given the ability to fly - an ability this particular Pokémon doesn’t normally have. From there, the player can be transported into the middle of a forest, where the Walk Through Walls glitch needs to be used to get out of the trees, which you can’t normally walk through.

After the player finally gets back to town, there is an NPC who suspiciously turns up everywhere you go.

Enter a new town, and he’s staring at you. Walk past him and turn onto a different street, and he’s staring at you again. He knows what you did… he knows.

Union Cave

The Union Cave is another example of an area that anyone can get to - it’s just quite difficult and specific to try to get there. Once the gamer reaches this unknown cave, they have the ability to capture Lapras, who doesn’t show up in the wild, otherwise.

In order to reach the Union Cave, the player has to beat Gym Leader Morty in a battle of Pokémon. The only thing is, to add the Lapras your Pokédex, you can’t just go find the Union Cave any old time.

The cave has to be visited on an in-game Friday after Morty has been beaten.

The player will then use Surf (gained by defeating Morty) to catch the Lapras. In the Pokémon Gold and Silver: The Golden Boys manga, Lapras appears in the appropriately named issue “Extreme Power!! The Friday Pokemon”.

Berserk Gene

Not only is this a hidden location - it’s a hidden item! The player travels to the location in Cerulean City where MewTwo’s cave was in Generation 1. Then, the player needs to talk to an NPC standing near a bunch of houses, one of which has a pond in the yard. The NPC will mention his viewfinder, which is trained on the location of the item you need.

The player can travel to the location seen in the viewfinder and there they will find the Berserk Gene.

The Berserk Gene itself is a bit of a mystery. It is only available in Generation 2 and not much is known about the item. Some rumors say that the item maxes out the Pokémon’s attack stats. According to the official guide, the Berserk Gene doubles the Pokémon’s attack and causes confusion.

Bill’s Garden

Pokémon fans heard tell of a tale of an amazing area filled with rare and hard to find Pokémon hidden behind Bill’s garden. All you had to do was make your way back behind Bill’s house and squeeze your way through a weird gap between mountains that sat behind Bill’s home. Then you would find that fabled promise land.

This one seems to have been totally squashed, however. It was all just a rumor.

It turns out, the bizarre gap was caused by the game developers’ placement of the roof of Bill’s cottage in juxtaposition with the mountains.

It simply wasn’t possible for the rooftop sprites to sit on top of the mountain textures. Players didn’t understand these mechanics back in the day, and thus, a legend was born.

Trainer House Glitch (Unown)

Lots of hidden locations in Pokémon games offer the player the ability to capture rare Pokémon. That’s great - adding new creatures to your Pokédex is pretty much the entire point of being a Pokémon trainer. Well, that and, you know, battling it out against other Pokémon and their trainers.

Typically, a player will face off against other Pokémon that are at their own level, or just a little above. With the Unown Trainer House Glitch, all of that changes drastically.

By manipulating certain values and identifiers in the game, the player can unlock an unidentified trainer.

When this happens, it is possible to find yourself battling AI-controlled Pokémon that are over level 100 with impossible move sets. If the player then checks the Unown trainer’s Pokédex, they will unlock the ability to collect certain glitch items.

Trainer House Glitch (Time Method)

Using the Time Method, the Trainer House Glitch unlocks a mystery trainer with some pretty bizarre stats, but there are some good reasons to avoid it.

To unlock this glitch, the player must reset the time after a trade or a Mystery Gift.

When this happens, a trainer with a strange name, PKMN Trainer, will appear in the Trainer House. When in battle, this trainer’s Pokémon are all automatically fainted and seem to be at a level zero.

The downside is that unlocking this PKMN Trainer also leads to freezing the entire game, though a full restart should not actually be necessary. The fix is quite simple, however. Should the player participate in another trade or Mystery Gift, the issues should then be corrected.

Did we miss any hidden locations in Pokémon Gold and Silver? Let us know in the comments!