Summary of "FireRed & LeafGreen Glitches are basically DLC"

Big picture

FireRed and LeafGreen are faithful but restrictive remakes of Red/Blue. Many post‑game and Johto features, some evolutions, and event encounters are deliberately blocked. The glitch community has developed reliable, easy setups that effectively restore or add content — everything from item duplication and enabling trades to spawning mythical encounters (Mew), creating legal 6‑IV eggs, and running Arbitrary Code Execution (ACE).

The video this summary covers explains step‑by‑step how to set up the central “mail glitch,” how to bootstrap ACE both post‑Elite Four and pre‑Elite Four (the “Hawk 2.0” method), then demonstrates many useful ACE scripts/codes and quality‑of‑life hacks.

Required hardware / compatibility

Real GBA hardware and original cartridges: works.
Emulators:
- mGBA + official GBA BIOS — the only guaranteed emulator in the video.
- OpenAGB_FIRM on 3DS — also works.
- Analog Pocket GBA core — currently not accurate enough for these glitches.
Tools shown/used:
- Ace Code Generator (web tool)
- Pomeg / “Letter Bombers” text guides
- GBx flash / save dumper
- PKHeX (for checking legality)

Mail glitch — setup (high level)

Minimum progress: at least Celadon City (access to 4F to buy Retro Mail).

Required party members

One Pokémon holding a consumable berry (example: Citrus Berry).
One Pokémon that knows Knock Off (example: Farfetch’d).
A trade Mr. Mime (on the cartridge) that knows Recycle (to pick up items/mail).

Battle method (step‑by‑step)

Fill your inventory with Retro Mail (buy on Celadon 4F).
Put a Pokémon (example: Blastoise/“War Turtle”) below half HP and make it hold the Citrus Berry so it will consume the berry during battle.
Put a Retro Mail onto Mr. Mime and type a short word (example: “Abra”).
Enter a double battle (specific Celadon trainers are recommended in the guide).
Use Knock Off on Mr. Mime to force the mail off (the mail item is removed but its message remains in memory).
Use Recycle with Mr. Mime to pick up the Citrus Berry — the message remains in memory even though the item was picked up.
Fill all six party slots with Pokémon and give Retro Mail to each. On the sixth mail give you should see question marks — this confirms the mail glitch succeeded.

Effects / immediate uses

Duplicate items by swapping: give an item to your sixth Pokémon and use the mail-give swap flow (no words) → creates another copy in Bag/PC.
Corrupt mail/text to write data into box 3 slot 1 (creates a “bad egg” or a targeted glitch Pokémon depending on words entered) — this is the basis for ACE.

Basic troubleshooting & tips

Save before running codes; soft reset if something behaves oddly.
If boxes act flaky or invisible ghost Pokémon appear: use the yellow hand (select and drag) or group‑select and move Pokémon to clear ghost data.
Keep Boxes 13 and 14 empty except for the one pairing used to execute codes — having data there often causes crashes.
Watch for typos and ambiguous characters (spaces, capitalization, lower‑case l vs 1, O vs 0).
Language/region differences: ACE works on non‑Japanese copies (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish); Japanese ROMs need a different setup (refer to the community guide).

ACE — post‑Elite Four (simple route)

If you have beaten the Elite Four, a very simple 4‑word mail combo creates the “ace” glitch Pokémon (species 0351, name appears like OEAEIE).
Example (English): bulk up / capable / karate chop / Magikarp (choose Magikarp from the Pokémon category, not alphabetical).
After giving the mail words to the sixth party slot and confirming, box 3 slot 1 will contain the ace Pokémon.
Test the ace with a short ACE test code (one example spawns a shiny Bulbasaur in a box). Use the yellow hand and swap trick to execute codes (grab a spare Pokémon, swap, put down).

ACE — pre‑Elite Four (Hawk 2.0 method)

This method is more involved but doable without having beaten the Elite Four.

Requirements

Eight HP Ups (can be duplicated using the mail duplication trick).
A glitched slot Pokémon created by a specific three‑word mail combo (English example words: “highs”, “I choose you”, “wandering”).
Give the glitched Pokémon specific EVs:
- One Attack EV via a Doduo battle.
- One HP EV via a Caterpie in Viridian Forest.

Process summary

Duplicate eight HP Ups via mail duplication.
Create the Hawk glitched Pokémon using the specified mail words.
Give Hawk the eight HP Ups and the one Attack & one HP EV through participation/switching in fights.
Place Hawk in box 3 slot 1 and swap the mail words (swap “highs” and “wandering” per the instructions) to finalize the ace Pokémon.
Test with a small ACE test code (e.g., shiny Bulbasaur) and save.

Practical ACE scripts / codes demonstrated

Unlocks and progression scripts

Install arbitrary scripts into NPCs (via Ace Code Generator) to:
- Upgrade to National Dex early (enables Crobat evolution, etc.).
- Unlock trading with Ruby/Sapphire (via specific NPC scripts).
- Give items/tickets (Rainbow Pass, Mystic Ticket, Aurora Ticket) to visit Sevii Islands, Birth Island, etc.
- Caveat: running some postgame scripts can upgrade the Elite Four or otherwise change progression — be cautious.

Create tradeback NPC

Creates an NPC that will trade with you and then trade back — enables trade evolutions on a single cartridge (e.g., Machoke→Machamp, Scyther→Scizor with Metal Coat).

Start wild battle with any Pokémon

Spawns an overworld battle with any specified species and level — useful for encounters or shiny hunting.

Create gift Pokémon (bootstrapped)

Longer bootstrapped code + Box14 exit code can give gift Pokémon directly into the party (example: Celebi).
Bootstrapping requires specific box wallpapers and the Box14 exit code to be set up.

Start fateful Mew encounter at Indigo Plateau

A complex ACE that hijacks Deoxys and Berry Powder scripts; uses Indigo Plateau because it has 8 NPC slots.
Produces a Mew with the fateful encounter flag (so it will obey and be flagged like legitimate event Mew).
Caveats:
- You must have beaten the Elite Four once for the two NPCs to exist.
- Capturing or running this Mew may mark Deoxys as encountered and affect related events (e.g., Birth Island).

Create 6‑IV eggs and custom Hidden Power eggs

Two approaches:
- Simple 6‑IV egg.
- Bootstrapped version that assigns exact IVs so you can choose Hidden Power type (it calculates checksums on the fly).
Use mail activation / nature words to finalize the egg’s PID/nature/ability; hatch to obtain a legal, breedable 6‑IV Pokémon. Minor move/level tweaks may be needed for fully legal transfer.

Quality‑of‑life & item codes

Ad Reichu (wrong‑pocket): places an item in a wrong bag pocket so using it removes an item from a different pocket — effectively infinite copies (e.g., infinite Max Repel, Rare Candies, Master Balls). Note: SELECT registration may not work if the item is not normally registerable.
OG Slipener (get any item): Puts any item(s) into the PC in a chosen quantity (up to 65,535).
Change Pokémon level: temporarily sets a party slot to level 99; using a single Rare Candy makes it permanent and recalculates stats — handy to raise a Pokémon quickly before an event.
Teach any move (TheOccatic / Vidian NPC code): overwrite a move in the first party Pokémon with any move (one use) — useful for moves normally locked to tutors or events.
Re-enable single‑use move tutors (bootstrapped): makes single‑use tutors reusable.

Legality / transferability

Many generated mythicals (Mew, Celebi, Deoxys hijack results, etc.) are not officially legal for transfer beyond Gen 5 due to server checks and missing event provenance. These are primarily intended for single‑cartridge, single‑player enjoyment.
6‑IV eggs and breedable Pokémon created via the egg method can be made legal (breedable in later generations). Small tweaks (level and moves) may be needed to make them fully legal in PKHeX or for later transfer.

Important tips / rules of thumb

Save frequently and reset if you run many codes back‑to‑back — running multiple codes without resets can corrupt pointers and cause errors.
Keep Boxes 13 & 14 empty (except for the specific code pairing used) — otherwise ACE execution can freeze or crash.
Use the Pomeg / “Letter Bombers” docs and the Ace Code Generator — they contain language variants, box names, bootstrap exit codes, and many precomputed code strings.
Use the yellow hand (select) to move/remove invisible glitch objects and to safely pick up ace Pokémon before running codes.
For emulation: only mGBA with the official BIOS is reliable; OpenAGB_FIRM works on 3DS; avoid Analog Pocket for these glitches.

Warning: many ACE scripts can alter game progression (upgrade Elite Four, mark events as completed, etc.). Save before running anything you don’t fully understand.

Where to get help / further reading

Pomeg / “Letter Bombers” website (text guides and language variants).
Glitch City Research Discord (community research and troubleshooting).
Ace Code Generator (online generator used to produce box names and many scripts).
The video’s author’s Discord/comments (for troubleshooting and followups).

People, community members and sources referenced

Pomeg / Letter Bombers website
It Is Final (community contributor)
Glitch City Research (Discord / community)
ESA’s Ace Code Generator (tool)
TheOccatic (aka Theoatic) — contributor of multiple codes
Ad Reichu — author of item/wrong‑pocket code
Papa Hefe — author of the Mew/Deoxys ACE technique
OG Slipener — creator of the “get any item” code
mGBA (emulator), official GBA BIOS, OpenAGB_FIRM (3DS), Analog Pocket (not accurate), GBx/GBX cart reader, PKHeX (save editor/viewer)

(End of summary.)