Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen Altering Cave Explained
In Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, the Altering Cave is a seemingly empty cave that is only home to wild Zubat, located on Outcast Island, which can be found by going north of Six Island (Sevii Islands).
Players who encounter the Altering Cave for the first time may be wondering what the significance of this cave is, why they cannot find anything other than Zubat living inside it even though its location gives the impression that it is significant in some way.
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What is the Altering Cave in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen
In the original GBA version of Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, the Altering Cave was meant as a special area that would allow trainers to alter what Pokemon appear inside it by activating Mystery Gifts using e-Readers at Wonder Spots (real-life distribution events).
This would have given FireRed and LeafGreen players a chance to encounter and catch Pokemon exclusive to the other region in their games. The default encounter in the Altering Cave (Zubat ) would have changed into something else if players used the correct Mystery Gift.
The Altering Cave event was never officially held outside of Japan, however. Notably, all Pokemon that had a planned appearance in this cave were made obtainable in Pokemon Emerald’s Safari Zone, making the planned event obsolete, which resulted in Nintendo scrapping the idea altogether.
The full list of the possible Pokemon players could have encounter in the Altering Cave, had the event been held, is as follows:
- Zubat
- Mareep
- Pineco
- Houndour
- Teddiursa
- Aipom
- Shuckle
- Stantler
- Smeargle
Wonder Spots were real-life locations where Nintendo held events for the franchise, distributing special items like the Aurora Ticket and Mystic Ticket . This practice was discontinued later on, and currently, there are no active Wonder Spots in the world.
With Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen re-releasing on the Switch and Switch 2, there were some rumors that Nintendo might implement the Wonder Spot Pokemon in the Altering Cave, giving players a chance to obtain these event-exclusive Pokemon, as they have done for Lugia, Ho-Oh, and Deoxys. Unfortunately, the Altering Cave in the Switch version of FRLG is exactly the same as it was in the GBA version: containing only wild Zubat, nothing else.
While it is possible that Nintendo might implement a new event in the Altering Cave at a later date with an update, that is not currently the case.
The Altering Cave also makes an appearance in Pokemon Emerald on Route 103, but it is just as empty there as it is in FRLG.
- Released
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September 7, 2004
- ESRB
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Everyone 10+ / Mild Fantasy Violence, Simulated Gambling
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer
