Two Master Balls are better than one, obviously, and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet players believe they have discovered a new duplication glitch that has yielded more than 18 in some cases. The problem, however, is it seems to be tied to a breeding bug that’s difficult to replicate, and somewhat annoying, too, since it can erase several hours of work.
One player stumbled across the bug (and in turn, the Master Ball duplication glitch) when their game crashed after breeding Clodsire for four hours, which all went down the drain.
Frustrated, they asked others what happened, and were told the game seems to crash when more than 10 eggs are hatched, which can also have the effect of doubling the number of Master Balls in a player’s inventory.
It’s unclear how or why this happens. It also doesn’t happen every time, making it difficult to replicate, but other players also reported having similar experiences, some with other items, too. As far as duplication glitches go, it’s one of the more frustrating ones since it can take hours of work—all of which will be lost— and there’s no guarantee it will work.
But at least it’s possible, and some players will undoubtedly want to take advantage of it while they can.
Now the word is out, however, Game Freak might add it to their long list of things to fix in Scarlet and Violet, maybe even as soon as the next big update in February.