How to Get Mew in Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow

With the release of Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow on the 3DS, the hunt to catch ‘em all has begun once again. However, it seems that the elusive legendary Pokémon, Mew, can be caught after all with a little glitch that works in both the new 3DS version and your original cartridge game.

In order to successfully encounter Mew, you’ll need to do this on your very first playthrough of this area. Simply going back and revisiting the location mentioned below once you’re already past Cerulean City will not work.

When you get to Cerulean City you need to head for Nugget bridge just to the north. You’ll need to make sure you’re stocked up on Poké balls and have fully recovered your team before you go any further to avoid any heartbreak. It’s also a good idea to save here so you can reset in case anything goes wrong.

Once you’re at Nugget bridge, beat every other trainer on the bridge, including your rival and then take a left.  You should be able to see a trainer standing in the strip of grass (see image above).  Don’t go too close above or below him as he is needed later on in the process. Walk to the side of him in the grass, and keep walking until you come across a wild Abra. Please Note: If you are playing Pokémon Yellow, you must capture an Abra from Route 5 just south of Cerulean City in the grass by the day-care. You’ll need to capture it and so throwing Poké balls at it is your best option, otherwise, it’ll just teleport away.

Once you’ve got yourself an Abra, head up and to your right towards Route 24 where you’ll find a tree maze of sorts and a bunch of trainers to defeat. Take on the first three trainers and stop when you have defeated the trainer stood by the two trees jutting out from the top wall. Go slow here. You’ll then see a line of trees coming up from the bottom, hug these and go down, avoiding the trainer staring up (see image below). That is the only trainer you don’t want to beat, so go ahead and take on the other five. Once these are all defeated, use Abra’s teleport to take you back to the Pokémon center in Cerulean City and heal your team.

When you’re all healed up and ready to head back out go to Nugget bridge. Walk past all of the trainers and take the same hard left you did before. Save the game at this point so you can reload in case you mess this up. Where you see the grassy strip you want to stand diagonally from the corner of the water that juts out above it (see image below). You should be above the trainer now but not close enough for him to challenge you to a battle.

Get ready to get glitchy! Press down and start at the exact same time. If you’ve got this right you should see that the trainer is looking up at you, but you should be safely in the pause menu. Use your Abra to once again teleport back to the Pokémon center. When you’re doing this the trainer should get the classic “!” above his head. If you do see this, congratulations you’re about to grab yourself a Mew. If it doesn’t or he’s spotted you before you hit start you’ll need to reload and try this step again.

Now that you’re back at the Pokémon center make your way back over the bridge and to Route 24. This time, where we saw those two trees jutting down from the top you’re going to stay right close to these, walk up, and hug the north wall, walking in front of the trainer until he challenges you to a battle. If you don’t stick close to this north wall then your game will crash. Defeat the trainer and then teleport back to the Pokémon center once again (I promise you this will be the last time).

Start walking back over to the bridge and proceed to walk across it. Your game should pause itself as you’re walking across the bridge. Unpause it and prepare to do battle with the super rare Mew! The little pink Pokémon is incredibly weak at level 7 so be careful not to kill it and spam Poké balls until he’s yours. Who needs that stupid truck by the S.S. Anne now, eh?!

Got any other tips for your fellow Pokémon trainers? Share them in the comments below.