Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Teal Mask hack allows Ogerpon to grief online battles

A new Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Teal Mask hack involving Ogerpon is being used to grief players in online battles. Normally, this particular Legendary cannot change its Tera Type via the Treasure Eatery. Depending on its mask, you can only alter its Tera Type to Grass, Water, Rock, or Fire. However, hackers can force the critter to have a different Tera Type.

In such cases, when Ogerpon is Terastallized in an online battle, the game is unable to load said Tera Type, and the match enters a softlock. This way, hackers can grief other players by waiting out the full match time, or gain rank by prompting their opponent to quit the game.

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Here is how the new Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Teal Mask hack with Ogerpon works

A good video example of this new Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Teal Mask exploit can be seen in the above video. Twitter user @Sibuna_Switch shows an online battle that begins with Ogerpon entering the field and attempting to Terastallize into a Dark-type.

Remember, this Legendary cannot normally have that Tera Type. Ogerpon's gimmick revolves around her masks dictating her Tera Type. Hackers can force a softlock by using any Tera Type outside of Grass, Fire, Water, or Rock.

In this video example, the battle never progresses after everybody makes their decision since Pokemon Scarlet and Violet cannot change Ogerpon's form to a type it can't technically have.

The online Pokemon Scarlet and Violet battle system can typically check blatantly impossible moves, stats, etc. One thing it doesn't account for is Tera Types since there haven't been any past Pokemon that would have an illegal Tera Type. Ogerpon is the first candidate for such abuse since its Ability revolves around it.

Much of this problem was documented on September 19, 2023, with the hacking discovery circulating online, about a week after the Teal Mask DLC launched. Game Freak will patch this issue out in the future and can only hope that it hppens sooner rather than later.

Until then, be careful if you see an Ogerpon on the opposing team. You can't know for certain until the game starts if that person is a hacker who is about to waste minutes of your life with this bizarre softlock.

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What to do in the meantime

This new issue shouldn't affect too many players (Image via Game Freak)

As bad as this new Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Teal Mask hacking exploit sounds, most players shouldn't have too much trouble. If you don't do online battles, then this new softlock won't affect you at all. Similarly, players who do competitive online matches won't always encounter a hacker if they see an Ogerpon on the opposing team.

It can be cumbersome if you are unlucky enough to bump into somebody forcing a softlock but don't forget that you can also waste the opponent's time by not leaving.

Whether Ogerpon would be made illegal in online battles or if a stricter check on her Tera Type could be implemented remains to be seen.