How to Catch Mew and Mewtwo

Green, Red, Blue, and Yellow Versions

After defeating the Elite Four in these games, don't restart! Continue the same game and go to Cerulean City. If you surf in the water besides Nugget Bridge, you will come to a cave filled with Pokemon so strong that only Pokemon Masters may enter. Lucky you, you just became one! After you enter the cave and make your way through a maze, you will find Mewtwo. Be sure to save the game, because you only get one chance to try to catch him, and you definitely don't want to miss.

Most people would originally save their Master Balls for catching Mewtwo, in order to avoid the hassle of sleep powdering, paralyzing, or poisoning him, wittling his health down to next to nothing (but not fainting him), not fainting themselves, and using about a million pokedollars worth of Utra Balls before achieving the great victory of owning him. With a Master Ball, you just confront Mewtwo, hurl it at him, and you're done. For obvious reasons, this was the prefered method. Hence, Master Balls are closely associated with Mewtwo (and that is why I have little Master Balls next to my updates and as dividers). Nowadays, though, the Legendary Beasts, which run away as soon as they are seen, are better candidates for the single Master Ball, as they add the additional hassle of needing to chase them across the land and getting lucky to even see them.

I think that instead of saying "Mew!" Mewtwo should say, "Petty human, you think you can catch me? Mwhahaha!", but that's just my opinion.

Nintendo said that there is no way to get Mew. They said our only options are to use a Gameshark or similar cheating device, have won their promotional contest (which ended millions of years ago), or go someplace where there would be an offical-type person to load it into our game for us.

They LIED.

With that simple statement, I probably have you bugging your eyes out, right? I mean, you've probably heard bazillions of codes and cheats that promised a Mew but ended up wasting your time. Just for the record, you cannot get Mew by knocking over the truck by the S.S. Anne (the truck, and the keys in the top right seat of the game corner, are probably just easter eggs the programmers put in for fun). You also cannot get Mew by using any sort of elemental stone on Mewtwo, running into a secret guy in Celedon mansion after reading all the diaries in order, talking to any person after getting all the Pokemon, going into Bill's non-existant "secret garden," getting into the forests beyond the walls of Pallet Town, using the ItemFinder a bazillion times while standing anywhere, defeating the Elite Four any number of times, or just walking around, no matter what some dumb rumors say.

That is NOT gonna work!

However, there IS a way to get Mew, without ANY equipment whatsoever, and it is quite an easy process. I caught a Mew today. Phooey on you, Nintendo!

Okay, I put you in enough suspense already. I'll tell you the cheat. Just so you know, someone e-mailed me about this awhile ago, and I'll give all the credit to them. However, I've forgotten who it was. I had to do the cheat myself before I would post anything, just so as not to send people on a wild goose chase for nothing, and by the time I finished, I forgot who it was. Oh, and I stole the screenshots. Anyway, onward on your quest for Mew!

Click here for the honest-to-goodness, REAL, personally tested, tried and true way to capture a Mew without a Gameshark!

I think this is a good place to note that, although you hear it all over the web, and it was even on this site for awhile, Japanese players are NOT awarded a Mew when they catch all 150 Pokemon in their Green, Red, Blue, or Yellow versions. All they get is a diploma, just like us.

And here is what Pokemon's creator, Satoshi Tajiri, had to say about Mew in an interview with Time Magazine:

TIME: What's the story with Mew? Some kind of a secret character?

Tajiri: Yes, this was done on purpose. Mew was not originally included in the games for people to acquire. You had to get it from interacting with Game Freak or Nintendo. There were 150 characters, and Mew was number 151. You can't ever get a Mew without trading for it. It created a myth about the game, that there was an invisible character out there. Someone gives me Mew, then I give Mew to you, then you pass it on. Introducing a new character like that created a lot of rumors and myths about the game. It kept the interest alive.

So there you go. Mew was meant to be passed on around the world, eventually landing in everyone's game. *looks around for the greedy person that messed up the chain* Ahem, anyway, moving on...

Gold, Silver, and Crystal Versions

In these games, the Unknown Dungeon is gone. Or caved in, as I believe. Mewtwo was probably sick of being woken up in the middle of the night by pesky trainers. Whatever happened, you can't catch him. You'll need to trade with an older version.

Mew also cannot be found in these games, but you can trade to get a Mew obtained using the above-linked Mew glitch from an older version.

Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed, and LeafGreen Versions

Mewtwo, along with most other Kanto and Jhoto Pokemon, is not available in the Ruby, Sapphire, or Emerald Version, and trading doesn't work with the older versions. However, the Unknown Dungeon is again in existence in Fire Red and Leaf Green, and he is obtainable there. If you catch Mewtwo in those games, he is tradeable to the Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald versions.

The Mew catching method linked above, as far as I can tell, does not work in LeafGreen or FireRed. Also, the Gameboy Advanced games are uncompatible for trading with the older versions. However, Mew is somewhat available in the Emerald Version. I say somewhat because she is hiding on World's Edge Island (Faraway Island in English). And to get on this island, you need a ticket. And it seems that to get a ticket, you need to visit some offical Pokemon event or store, and either get it loaded into your game or visit a WonderSpot and get it wirelessly transmitted to your game. So, that means Mew's back to being a hard-to-get prize or cheatingly obtained in Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Fire Red, and Leaf Green. Dumb Nintendo.