How to Catch Mew in Pokémon Emerald

Last Updated: December 23, 2021

Mew is one of the most sought-after Pokémon in all of the Pokémon games. You can visit Faraway Island to catch Mew using recent discoveries in the Pomeg Berry glitch or by using an Action Replay. This glitch is due to Pokemerrp.

Presently, this guide is only valid for US versions of Pokemon Emerald. It will be updated for other regions soon.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

With the Pomeg Berry glitch

1
Get at least one Pomeg Berry
- There are 6 in the Berry garden of Route 119 and 8 growing near Fortree City in Route 123.
2
Understand the Cloning and Reverse Cloning glitches.
- To do the Cloning Glitch, start by Flying to the Battle Frontier, and go to the Battle Tower PC.
- Deposit all but 1 Pokemon from your party in the PC (make sure all Pokemon you want to clone are in the PC). Save the game.
- Withdraw up to 5 Pokemon you want to clone and talk to the rightmost Lady (who manages the LINK Multi Battle Challenge).
- Enter the challenge, and when it says "Would you like to save the game? Yes/No", turn off the power. When you turn the game back on, the Pokemon you wanted to clone will be in both the PC and your party.
- A video guide for the cloning glitch can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRq7rJ7E7hU
- To do the Reverse Cloning Glitch, start by having the Pokemon(s) you want to delete in your party (up to 4) while in the Battle Tower. Make sure you also have 2 other Pokemon in your party that are Battle Tower legal. Save the game.
- Deposit the Pokemon you want to delete in your PC, and go to the same lady. Enter the challenge. When it says "Would you like to save the game? Yes/No", turn off the power. Now the Pokemon should be gone from both your party and PC.
- It might seem unnecessary to master the Reverse Cloning glitch when you can transfer Pokemon instead, but later we will have bad eggs that won't be able to be transferred. So we will have to use the Reverse Cloning Glitch to delete them.
- A video guide for the reverse cloning glitch can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BapXdh-lYMQ
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3
Catch a Bagon.
- There is one specific area of land in Meteor Falls where you can catch a Bagon. It is where you find the TM02 Dragon Claw.
- It has a 5% spawn rate, so be prepared to search for a while until it appears.
- If you are unable to find it, here is a video guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9PRws7pRws
4
Catch or hatch a Volbeat.
- These have a 1% chance of spawning in Route 117.
- A more reliable way to obtain a Volbeat is to breed an Illimuse (can be found more easily in Route 117) with a male Wurmple. The eggs will have a 50% chance of hatching into a Volbeat.
5
Complete the following In-Game trades:
- At the treehouse closest to the Pokemon Center in Fortree, trade Volbeat for the Plusle named PLUSES.
- At one of the southern houses in Pacifidlog town, trade Bagon for the Horsea named SEASOR.
- Remove the mail from these Pokemon.
- Clone an extra copy of these pokemon for future use or if you mess up the next steps.
6
Go to the Move Deleter in Lilycove City and delete all moves from Pluses *except* Growl.
- Do not train PLUSES at all.
7
Go to Lilycove Department Store and buy a Fluffy Tail
- They sell them on the 2nd floor.
8
Get exactly 17 HP EVs and 6 Attack EVs on SEASOR by doing the following
- Teach SEASOR Surf to make this process easier.
- Go to Rusturf Tunnel and faint exactly 17 Whismur using just SEASOR. Alternatively, you can use one HP Up and faint exactly 7 Whismur.
- Go to Route 121 and faint exactly 6 Shuppet. You can replace Shuppet with Poocheyena (for example faint 4 Shuppet and 2 Poocheyena).
- It is imperative that you DO NOT let SEASOR faint or help faint any other Pokemon in this process and you faint exactly this quantity.
- Make sure you do not get Pokerus in the process, and SEASOR stays below level 40.
- It is okay if SEASOR levels up and/or evolves as long as it does not hit level 40.
9
Take all Pokemon out of the Day Care and boxes 1 or 2.
- We will soon glitch these locations so we don't want any Pokemon there except the Pokemon that will be specified shortly.
- Place your Pokemon in boxes 3 or higher.
10
Clone 6 copies of SEASOR (that you used to defeat the Whismur/Shuppet) and 6 copies of PLUSES (with only the move GROWL known).
- You can make additional copies to use in the future, but do not involve the additional copies in the next step.
11
Place the copies of SEASOR and PLUSES in the following slots
- SEASOR: Box 2 slots 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24
- PLUSES: Box 2 slots 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23
- The numbering is left to right, then top to bottom. So if the above was done correctly, the third and fourth row of Box 2 should be full and no Pokemon should be anywhere else.
- Note: Box 1 should be empty.
12
Catch a Shuppet with even total HP in Route 121
- In other words, its HP should be a multiple of 2
- It should know the move Curse.
- These have a 30% spawn rate in the grass.
13
Give Shuppet HP ups until its HP becomes odd.
- This will probably take two HP ups
- The HP will likely increase by 0 the first time, 1 the second time.
14
Have exactly 3 Pokemon in your party as follows.
- The lead Pokemon should be the Shuppet.
- The second should be a weak Pokemon that knows FLY.
- The third should be a Pokemon strong enough to survive and run from wild battles
15
Get your weak Pokemon to faint.
16
Fly to Oldale Town, and get Shuppet to use Curse twice against the wild Pokemon in Route 101.
- The wild pokemon in Route 101 cannot hurt Shuppet, so this is foolproof.
- You cannot use curse twice in the same battle, so after using curse each time, run from the battle.
17
Verify that your party looks like this:
- You should have a Shuppet with 1 HP in the lead of the party, a fainted pokemon in the second slot, and a strong Pokemon with full health in the third slot.
- Save the game. During the next few steps, do not save until this guide says it is safe to save.
18
Enter a wild Pokemon battle
- Then immediately switch to your third Pokemon (that is alive), then run.
19
Go to Oldale Town and deposit your third (strong) Pokemon (not in box 1 or 2).
- Remember: Box 1 should be empty and box 2 should have just the 6 SEASOR and PLUSES in the order mentioned earlier).
20
Give your Shuppet a Pomeg Berry.
- This should cause the Shuppet to faint.
21
Verify that your party looks like this
- You should have a fainted Shuppet and a fainted weak Pokemon in your party.
- If not, make sure you have followed instructions for the Shuppet correctly.
- Even though you have no live Pokemon in your party, the game should not tell you that you whited out yet.
22
Go to route 101 and enter a Wild Pokemon Battle.
- The Pokemon you sent out should look like a Question mark (?).
- If anything else happens, turn off and try again from your save point (when you had 3 Pokemon in your party and the lead had 1 HP).
23
View the summary of Shuppet
- Click "Pokemon" and you will see your party has a blank Pokemon in the lead, your fainted Shuppet in the second slot, and your fainted weak Pokemon in the third slot.
- Click on the Shuppet and click "Summary"
24
Perform the corruption by doing the following:
- Exit the Summary to view your party once more.
- Press and hold the "up" button. You should hear the sound of scrolling, but the scrolling should seem different than normal. After about 2 seconds (or about 15 "clicks"), click B to return to the wild Pokemon battle.
- Alternatively, instead of holding up, you can click "up" 15 times after exiting the summary.
25
Use the Fluffy Tail to escape from the battle.
26
See if you have this Egg in box 2.
- There is a 5/32 chance that you will have this egg, otherwise reset and try again.
- The previous step will have caused glitching in some Pokemon in Box 2. Some of them will turn into a Bad Egg (the name will say "Bad Egg"). It is possible that you will have have at least one Egg (that is named "Egg" instead of "Bad egg" when hovering over it in the PC) - these have a chance to be the Eggs you want.
- When viewing the summary of the Egg, check to see if it is named SEASOR, about to hatch, and is caught in a Nest Ball.
- If you have an egg like that SAVE the game. If you have no Eggs like that, reset and try again.
- Once you have the correct egg, you might want to make several clones of it. You can use this egg to execute all sorts of code in your game by changing the box names (including warping to Navel Rock or Birth Island)
27
Move all your Pokemon (glitched or not) to the first 10 boxes of your PC. So boxes 11-14 should be empty
28
Name the boxes as follows (note all instances of " are right double-quotations and ' is a right single-quotation). Ignore the parentheses:
- Box 1: (mFloyLRo), note the lowercase L
- Box 2: ( ?”m”Ro ) (One space at the beginning and end)
- Box 3: (?”…P-n ) (… is one character, two spaces at the end)
- Box 4: (EFQRn ) (Three spaces at the end)
- Box 5: (…TRnt ?n) (Space between t and ?)
- Box 6: ( ?”lGEn ) (note the lowercase L, space at beginning and end)
- Box 7: (?” …?q ) (… is one character, space between " and …, two spaces at end)
- Box 8: (EVTTn ) (Three spaces at the end)
- Box 9: (FMBnNJRo)
- Box 10: ( ?”5…Bq ) (… is one character, space at beginning and end)
- Box 11: (?”oS…o ) (…is one character, two spaces at the end)
- Box 12: (E4FRn ) (Three spaces at the end)
- Box 13: (’FQm ) (Four spaces at the end)
- Box 14's name shouldn't matter, name it BOX14 to be safe.
29
Fill your party with up to 5 Pokemon you want to use to catch Mew and exactly one SEASOR Egg (that you acquired earlier).
- SAVE the game at this step.
- If you have a Pokemon with the ability Flame Body, like some Slugma have, you can put in your party to hatch the egg faster.
- Do not put the egg in the lead slot of your party.
30
Bike between the right of the Oldale Town sign and the trees to hatch the egg.
- As soon as the egg hatches, you should warp to Faraway Island.
- If the game freezes, turn the console off and on, then double check your box names. If you are sure they are correct, you may have made an error in an earlier step.
- It is possible to warp to a place in Faraway Island where you get "stuck" (like a wall). If so, try again and make sure you hatch the egg while you're in a different spot in Oldale Town.
- If you are in a tree, you can sometimes walk out of the tree.
- Do not save until you are sure that you can access the forest where Mew is.
- Once you are sure that you are not stuck, SAVE the game.
31
Check your party to make sure the glitch pokemon is NOT in the lead.
- If so, carefully switch it with another pokemon in your party without viewing its summary.
32
Enter the forest where Mew resides
- As soon as you know that you can get to this spot, it is safe to save the game.
33
Follow around the Mew until you are next to it
- It can take a little time, but you will eventually get close to it by constantly chasing it whenever you see it.
- If you can't see Mew, just walk around a bit and its tail will show.
- Once you are right next to Mew, save the game. Clicking "A" will initiate an encounter and if you reset you will still be right next to Mew.
34
Catch Mew.
- If Mew uses the move transform, it will also copy the catch rate of the Pokemon it transforms into.
- For this reason, Mew can be quite easy to catch compared to other legendary Pokemon.
35
Return to Lilycove City
- Find the boat captain on the south of the island; he will take you back to Lilycove City.
36
Switch the glitch "?" Pokemon to the lead spot in your party without viewing its summary.
- Save before doing this if you are worried about messing up.
- Viewing the summary of the glitch pokemon will crash your game. If this happens, turn your console off and on again to resume from your last save.
37
Release the Glitch Pokemon as follows:
- Go to the PC and click DEPOSIT POKEMON.
- As soon as it shows your party, do not move your cursor.
- Click on the glitch Pokemon (at the lead in your party), then click "release".
38
Use the reverse cloning glitch to eliminate all the eggs in box 2.
- For this step, it might be okay if you accidentally view their summary.
- You may also have some "invisible" bad eggs in box 2 that you can move around. If it says there are more Pokemon in the box than you see, try clicking around the empty squares to find the invisible bad eggs. These can be reverse cloned or deleted by picking them up with a group selection and setting them back down.
- Transfer the remaining Pokemon in box 2 without reading their summary, as their moves may be glitched.
39
Visit other secret islands and execute other codes by changing the box names and hatching another egg
- Change the name of box 11 to (?”wS…o ) (ignoring parentheses) (two spaces at the end) to warp to Birth Island and catch Deoxys
- Change box 11's name to (?”CRlo ) (two spaces at the end) and box 12's name to (EqFRo ) (three spaces at end) to warp to Navel Rock and catch Lugia and Ho-oh.
- You may have to hatch the egg in a different area than where you hatched the egg to warp to Faraway Island. Hatching a little to the right of the Mauville game corner will warp you to the correct part of Navel Rock.

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

With an Action Replay or Emulator

1
Start Emerald with an Action Replay installed, or by using an emulator.
- VisualBoy Advance is one of the more popular Game Boy Advance emulators, and support Action Replay codes.
- Click here for instructions on entering the codes into an actual Action Replay.
- Note: If you hadn't reached Lilycove City in your game yet, you may be out of sequence when you go to Lilycove from Faraway Island. This may cause problems with your game, causing you to get stuck. It's best to wait to use this code until you've reached Lilycove City through the regular game.
2
Prepare your party. You'll be facing a Level 30 Mew, which will be able to transform into the same Pokémon that you have in your party. Mew is a great Pokémon to use your Master Ball on if you still have it, but you can also capture it the traditional way by lowering its health and throwing Poke Balls.
- If you don't have or don't want to use your Master Ball, stock up on Ultra Balls and bring a Pokémon with False Swipe to lower Mew's health. Mew is only Level 30, so it won't hit too hard, but you don't want to accidentally knock it out either. It will also help to have a Pokémon that can put Mew to Sleep or Paralyze it.
- Since Mew is Level 30, you'll need the Knuckle (2nd) Badge for it to obey you once you've captured it.
3
Click the "Cheats" menu and select "Cheat list". You'll need to enter the code for Faraway Island on your Action Replay or emulator.
4
Click the .Gameshark... button. This will prompt you to enter a new code.
5
Cheat to get a Master Ball (optional). If you want to use a Master Ball to catch Mew but don't have yours anymore, you can cheat to get as many as you'd like. Enter the following code and the next time you enter a Poke Mart, all of the stock will be free Master Balls.
958D8046 A7151D70
8BB602F7 8CEB681A
6
Enter the teleport code to get to Faraway Island. Open the Cheat list again and enter a new Gameshark code. The following code will take you to Faraway Island, where Mew can be found.^{[1]
X
Research source}
8DEB234A 4C8DC5EC
- Since you are cheating to get to Faraway Island, and not to specifically get Mew, your Mew should appear legitimate when checked for hacks.
7
Walk through a door or change locations. Once you've entered the code, walk through a door or change locations to automatically teleport to the Faraway Island.
8
Disable the Faraway Island code. After you've teleported to Faraway Island, you'll need to disable the code or else you won't be able to change locations again. Open the Cheats list and uncheck the Faraway Island code.^{[2]
X
Research source}
9
Walk into the forested area of the island. By following the winding path through the forest, you should be able to find the entrance to another area. The entrance to the second area will have a deep shade of green beneath the trees. This will take you deeper into the forest. Once you enter this second area, you'll see Mew ahead of you.
- The entrance to the second forest area is located on the right side of the forest at the top of the hill.
- If you walk through the entrance and are taken back to the start of Faraway Island, you'll need to disable the Faraway Island teleport code. This code will teleport you back to the start of Faraway Island every time you try to change locations.
10
Chase down Mew. Mew will continue to run away from you as you chase it through the grass. The grass will shake to show where Mew is running. You'll need to chase it down until you can corner it. Once you have Mew cornered, talk to it to begin the battle.
11
Throw your Master Ball to catch Mew. If you have a Master Ball, you can throw it immediately to catch Mew. If you don't have a Master Ball, you'll need to lower Mew's health.
12
Lower Mew's health if you don't have a Master Ball. If you need to catch Mew with traditional Poke Balls, you'll need to lower its health so that the bar turns red first.
- The easiest way to do this without knocking Mew out is to use False Swipe. This will lower Mew's health, but will not drop it below 1.
- Putting Mew to Sleep or Paralyzing it will make it much easier to catch.
13
Leave Faraway Island. Once you've captured Mew, you can leave the island. Return to the bottom of the hill to take the boat back to Lilycove City.

Community Q&A

Question

Can I catch more than one Mew?

Community Answer

No, you can't. You can only catch one Mew legally per event. If you want to catch more than one, use Gameshark codes.
Question

How do I make Mew obey?

Community Answer

Mew failing to obey means that it has been correctly identified by the game as a hacked Pokemon, most likely due to a lack of the "fateful encounter" flag. Check if it has a "fateful encounter" listed on its status screen - if not, it means you probably followed one of the steps incorrectly.
Question

How do I catch Mew in Pokemon Ruby?

Community Answer

There is no legitimate way to get Mew in Pokemon Ruby. You would have to hack in order to do it.