Highlights
- A player discovered a glitch in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet that allows them to catch Houndour early, adding to the list of glitches found in the games.
- Normally, Houndour can be found in the southern part of the Paldea region by talking to Arven, but the glitch allows players to catch it without speaking to Arven.
- Other players have found alternative methods to catch Houndour before Arven, but the glitch discovered by _Uhh2009_ seems to be the most reliable. The developers are unlikely to fix these glitches anytime soon.
One Pokemon Scarlet and Violet player recently found a peculiar glitch that allowed them to catch Houndour earlier than they were supposed to. Their discovery adds to the ever-growing list of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet glitches that the fandom has been uncovering since the games hit the market last November.
Houndour is one of the nearly 300 pocket monsters from the previous Pokemon generations that have been available in Scarlet and Violet from day one. This Dark- and Fire-type creature can be found across several locations in the southern part of the Paldea region. And though the games themselves are conducive to roaming, accessing the first area in which Houndour tends to spawn normally necessitates talking to Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Arven.
Alternatively, it's possible to completely ignore Arven and still catch a Houndour by glitching through one hill found alongside the Poco Path, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's introductory route that serves as the setting of the games' tutorial mission. This was recently discovered by Reddit user _Uhh2009_, who also shared a brief video demonstration of the technique that confirms nearby Houndours can spawn as soon as the player approaches one of the hill's deepest nooks. The spawn will be indicated by a standard Pokemon info panel that will pop up on the screen, which is a signal to throw the Poke Ball and watch it fly through the terrain all the way to the unsuspecting Houndour.
Some of the players chiming in on this discovery claimed that there's an even easier way to catch a Houndour before speaking with Arven, stating that they had encountered the Pokemon on the wrong side of the glitchy hill, immediately next to the tree visible in the newly shared video. But seeing how it's unclear what causes those misaligned spawns, the method demonstrated by _Uhh2009_ appears to be a more reliable way of catching a Houndour and consequently obtaining a Houndoom in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet as soon as possible.
Many other Pokemon Scarlet and Violet players previously found ways to glitch into buildings and terrain, with their discoveries eventually informing a number of popular speedrunning strategies. Time will tell whether this recently emerged glitch does the same, but the fandom will likely have plenty of time to experiment with it. Namely, seeing how the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet updates that Game Freak released to date were mostly focused on performance issues, it's unlikely that fixing harmless glitches in the games will be part of the developer's agenda anytime soon, if ever.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available for Nintendo Switch.
