It's been nearly 20 years since Pokémon Gold and Silver—the first games in the second generation of the series—hit our shelves. Whether you played these classic RPGs for the first time on Game Boy Color or the 3DS Virtual Console, you probably enjoyed them a lot! Picking up three years after the events of Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow, ౠthese games saw the player travel through the regions of Johto and Kanto, collecting Gym Badges and defeating Team Rocket as they went. There were all-new Pokémon to catch, new Types to behold, and even new methods of evolution. What's not to love?
Pokémon Gold, Silver and Crystal were somewhat unique Pokémon games in the sense that they allowed the player to explore two regions of the Pokémon world rather than the standard one. This meant double the towns, many more routes, and plenty of caves, islands, and forests. Still, the most diligent players traveled everywhere possible across both Johto and Kanto. At least, that♋'s what we all 💝thought!
Turns out that just like pretty much every other Pokémon game released, Gold and Silver contained hidden areas and secret locations that even the most masterful of Pokémon players didn't find. Whether these places were unlocked using glitches or special items inaccessible in many regions, they mostly remained hidden—until now, that is! We've collected together just some of the locations that not every Pokémon player managed to find, and the results may surprise you. Game Freak certainly hid a lot of secreﷺts in those small game 🉐cartridges!
20 The Trainer House's🍒 "Unown" Version
In Pokémon Gold and Silver, Viridian City's Trainers' School has been replaced by the Trainer House, a training facility where you can battle one train⛦er each day. This trainer is either the last real-life friend the trainer used the Mystery Gift function with, or a ge🤪neric NPC called Cal.
Well, those are the official options, anyway!
There are numerous glitches that can modify the trainer you battle, and their Pokémon's le꧋vels. The Unown Method, for example, involves entering the house after viewing a glitched Unown in the Unown Pokédex. Theꦿ exact method is very complex and technical, but it can lead to weird and wonderful trainers and Pokémon appearing—such as a Level 217 Ho-oh!
19 The R൩are Pokémon Fishing Area
While there are a lot of glitch-based areas that the player can access in Pokémon Gold and Silver, very few of them actually allow you to catch Pokémon without the game total༒ly crashing. However, there's one area accessed using Gameshark codes that actually allows you to fish for Pokémon on the tile in which you start—even though there's no water there!
The Pokémon you encounter aren't Water-types, either.
They're usually pretty rare creatures with levels that can be impossibly high. Known as , this area features Ho-oh, Umbreon, and Jolteon as ꩵaccessible Pokémon.🍒 Sure, visiting it MIGHT break your game... But is the risk worth it? That's for you to decide!
18 The "Diglett's Cave" Glitch 🎃
Despite its name, this secret area found in Pokémon Gold and Silver isn't accessible through a hidden tunnel in Diglett's Cave! Instead, it's another glitch that requires using Gameshark codes and going upstairs and downstairs in any Pokémon Center. The player will end up in a place that ဣthe PokéGear claims is Diglett's Cave.
However, it most definitely isn't.
The "Rival Encounter" trainer battle music plays, weird symbols crowd the screen, and the world gets a purpl🐈e background. There are no Diglett here—or any Pokémon, in fact! There's not much to explor♒e, but hey—at least you can say you've found this glitch area!
17 Celebi'🥃s Shrine
Remember that weird shrine that appears in Ilex Forest in the very early stages of Gold and Silver? In these games, it served a purely visual purpose. However, this all changed in Pokémon Crystal, although only for a handful of players. A special event in Japan allowed players to access the GS Ball, an item that would cause the Legendary Pokémon Celebi to spawn at the shrine. These days, players from all regions can reveal the secrets of the shrine using the Virtual Console version of Crystal. A kindly man in Go💞ldenrod City Pokémon Center will give you the GS Ball when you defeat the Pokémon League!
16 🙈 The Gl🐎itch Dimension
Pokémon Gold and Silver don't just feature the odd glitch location here and there. There's an entire Glitch Dimension for you to discover! It's surprisingly easy to access: for example, one method involves simply viewing the Pokédex entry for Machop and using th🌳e Coin Case directly afterward. While this action might cause your game to crash, it may also cause it to restart with an entirely new color scheme. This is what's nicknamed the "Glitch Dimension": a version of Johto that's almost exactly the same as the one we know and love, but just that little bit different! Even the colors of battles and Pokémon are altered. Weird...
15 ও The Safari Zone
Back in Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow, one of the main attractions of Kanto's Fuschia City was its Safari Zone. In this unique area, players could pay for the privilege to go and catch some pretty rare Pokémon. Considering that Pokémon Gold and Silver feature a return to Kanto, many players ꦫexpected that the Safari Zone would again be playable. However, its owner is apparently on holiday, making the area inaccessible to play𓄧ers...
Or so we thought!
Turns out ℱthat the Safari Zone's map can be accessed using GameShark Codes. No Pokémon appear in the area's grass, but you can catch some Water-type Pokémon in its ponds using a fishingꦑ rod. Neat!
14 Thꦰe "Empty" Hou♒se
In Pokémon Red and Blue, a house just south of Cerulean City—on Route 5—houses the Day Care Man. As his name suggests, this kindly man will look after your Pokémon for a while—and raise their levels while he's at it. By the time that Pokémon Gold and Silver brought us to Kanto, though, this man had moved out of his h🌄ome. On the front door, a sign reads "House For Sale: Nobody lives here." Well, that's that—no point investigating the house further, right? Wrong! The house is not, in fact, empty. An old woman lives there who'll give you the Cleanse Tag, an item that decreases the amount of wild Pokémon you encounter.
13 Union Cave 🐎
Now, Union Cave isn't exactly a hidden location in itself. Every single Pokémon Gold and Silver player has to pass through it to reach Azalea Town! However, it's very easy to miss out on the treasures of this cave's depths. If you simply pass t✱hrough it early on in the game and fail to return when you've acquired the HM Surf, you miss out on capturing one of the game's coolest Pokémon.
A Lapras lurks in a pool found in the cave's basement floor!
However, it only appears under very specific circumstances. Lapras෴ only comes out on a Friday—visit the cave on any other day, and you𝓰'll be met with an empty pool!
12 Cerulean Gym's Fishing Spot 𝕴
Everyone knows that in Pokémon Gold and Silver, the storyline doesn't end when you become Pokémon League Champion. Your next task is to travel Kanto, defeating the region's eight Gym Leaders as you go. This journey eventually takes you to the Cerulean Gym, where Misty awaits you with her Water-type Pokémon. While most players will have simply visited this Gym to defeat Misty and then leave again, others may have picked up on a pretty funny oversight that Gold and Silver's developers left in the game. You can actually fish in the🍃 water that surrounds Misty and her fellow trainers! How⭕ did wild Water-type Pokémon get in there?! Nobody knows.
11 Olivine City's Secret House ꧅
Some of the secret areas accessible in Pokémon Gold and Silver appear to be locations that were initially going to be included in the games themselves but were eventually scrapped. The so-called "s🤪ecret house" in Olivine City is just one example of this. Using GameShark codes, it's possible to find a home in the city that houses one female NPC and her Rhydon (which, confusingly, glitches into a Clefairy when it moves). The woman talks to you about a medicine shop in Ecruteak City that cured ღher Rhydon when it became sick. In the final version of the game, this pharmacy is in Cianwood City, and this NPC is nowhere to be seen!