While delving down into the bits of Amiibo, I found what I believe is an Easter egg in the Amiibo.

Hexadecimal

Before I go further I need to explain different number systems. If you are already familiar with hexadecimal, then feel free to skip this section.

Typically we work in decimal (base 10). This is likely because we have 10 fingers. There are other number systems frequently used. Computers work in binary (base 2). Effectively all 0s or 1s. Long strings of 0s and 1s are hard to read. By converting binary to hexadecimal (base 16), we can make it more manageable. Hexadecimal uses 0-9 and A-F. This changes one byte from eight binary characters to two hexadecimal characters. To distinguish hexadecimal numbers from decimal numbers, they are often prefixed with 0x, ex. 0x1234.

Amiibo Character Numbers

Every Amiibo contains eight bytes that identify what character the figurine, card, or plush represents. For the purposes of this post, I’m going to focus on the first two bytes (16 bits).

The first 12 bits indicate the game series, ex. Super Mario Bros. and Legend of Zelda. The remaining four bits determine the character. Together these 16 bits are typically the same for Amiibo of the same character. For example, Link’s Awakening Link and Majora’s Mask Link share the same 16 bits (0x0100). The remaining 6 bytes (48 bits) differentiate them from each other.

Pokémon Character Numbers

Typically, the character numbers are assigned sequentially. For example, the Super Mario Bros. series starts with 0x000 to 0x002. The first several characters look like this:

Character Number
Mario 0x0000
Luigi 0x0001
Peach 0x0002
Yoshi 0x0003
Rosalina and Luma 0x0004
Bowser 0x0005
Bowser Jr. 0x0006
Wario 0x0007
Donkey Kong 0x0008
Diddy Kong 0x0009

The Pokémon series doesn’t follow that pattern. Let’s look at a few of them:

Character Number
Ivysaur 0x1902
Charizard 0x1906
Squirtle 0x1907

2, 6, and 7 are not sequential but any longtime Pokémon fan will recognize them. They are the national Pokédex numbers for those Pokémon.

Let’s look at the other Pokémon and subtract 0x1900 from each of their numbers.

Character Number Number - 0x1900 National Pokédex
Ivysaur 0x1902 2 2
Charizard 0x1906 6 6
Squirtle 0x1907 7 7
Pikachu 0x1919 25 25
Jigglypuff 0x1927 39 39
Mewtwo 0x1996 150 150
Pichu 0x19AC 172 172
Lucario 0x1AC0 448 448
Greninja 0x1B92 658 658
Incineroar 0x1BD7 727 727

It’s a perfect match.

You may claim this is just careful organizing, not an Easter egg. It probably is. Though it’s a lot of wasted assignable numbers for Pokémon that haven’t been released. The only good reason I can see to do this would be if Nintendo released a large number of Pokémon Amiibo. This could be done through cards like the Animal Crossing cards. It would be interesting to see Pokémon TCG cards scannable as Amiibo.

One More Thing

Here’s the thing that really caught my attention. Does 0x1900 have any significance? Look through the character numbers again and one might stand out. Mewtwo’s character number is 0x1996. Any longtime Pokémon fan will recognize that number. 1996 is the year Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue released in Japan. This could be complete coincidence, especially with it being Mewtwo of all Pokémon. Still it’s too good to ignore.

Wait, What About Pokémon Trainer?

Actually, there are three Amiibo I haven’t mentioned: Pokémon Trainer, Shadow Mewtwo, and Detective Pikachu. They don’t fit the convention of the other Amiibo.

Personally I would have assigned Pokémon Trainer the number 0x1900. That would avoid interfering with Pokédex numbers. Instead Nintendo assigned him the number 0x1D40. Subtracting 0x1900 gives 0x440 or 1088. I don’t see any significance to those numbers. At the time of this writing, the highest national Pokédex number is Zarude at 893. Give it a few years and we may have a conflict on this number.

The Shadow Mewtwo card and Detective Pikachu figurine are particularly unusual. Nintendo assigned them the numbers 0x1D00 and 0x1D01, respectively. Typically Nintendo assigns the same character number to different Amiibo even if they come from different Amiibo series. For example, the Hammer Slam Bowser figurine from the Skylanders SuperChargers series has the character number 0x005 matching the Bowser and Wedding Bowser figurines from the Super Mario Bros. series.

Another oddity is that Shadow Mewtwo and Detective Pikachu don’t work as trainable Amiibo in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Scanning Shadow Mewtwo disappointingly does nothing and Detective Pikachu gives you a spirit as consolation.

Calculating 0x1D00 - 0x1900 gives 1024. Detective Pikachu is one later at 1025. These are also outside the current national Pokédex. Any programmer will quickly notice that 1024 is a power of 2 (2^10). Outside of that I see no significance.

Conclusion

This post is already longer than I anticipated. I hope you enjoy this fun discovery hidden in the depths of Amiibo.