SPOILERS! Mysteries and Conspiracies of Pokemon

[Snoozer (Zzz...)]

The "Change player color glitch" does work. I remember successfully pulling it off in the past. That image comes from this Glitch City wiki article.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Thinking about shiny locks just now and it seems to me that GF is kind of inconsistent with how they're applied.

• In Gen V, only Reshiram, Zekrom, and Victini are shiny-locked. All other catchable legendaries - Kyurem, the Kami trio, and the Swords of Justice - are available in their shiny forms. The three mythicals are obviously also shiny-locked by dint of only being available by events. Additionally in B2W2 all of the old legends are available shiny.
• In X and Y all legends and mythicals are shiny-locked, period. In ORAS Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, and Deoxys are shiny-locked but everything else is available as a shiny.
• In Gen VII Solgaleo, Lunala, Necrozma, Cosmog, Zygarde, all the Tapus, all the Ultra Beasts, Ash-Greninja, and all the mythicals are shiny-locked. In USUM, this no longer applies to the Ultra Beasts (except Poipole) and does not apply to any of the older legends available via the Ultra Wormhole.
• In Gen VIII Zacian, Zamazenta, Eternatus, Cosmog, Kubfu, Calyrex, Spectrier, Glastrier, Keldeo, and the Galarian forms of the legendary birds are shiny-locked. In addition, the starter trio and the scripted encounter with Galarian Slowpoke are all shiny-locked too, but can be bred to produce shiny forms.

Few things jump out at me there:

-In BW they didn't lock everything they could have. You'd have expected Kyurem or possibly even Landorus to be shiny-locked but it seems like initially they just wanted to lock the cover legends as well as Victini, which is a mythical. For obvious reasons, Game Freak seems to dislike giving easy or early access to shiny mythicals since Mew and Celebi were always distributed with fixed IVs in Gen I and II - while Celebi could be SR'ed for in Crystal, this was only ever possible in the Japanese titles until recently. Mew wasn't available shiny until Gen III, and only then on Japanese copies of Emerald with an extremely elusive event item. Consider that in 2021, eleven years after BW's initial release, Meloetta, Keldeo, and Victini are still unavailable in shiny form; there has never been an event for any of them, despite ample opportunity.

-In X and Y there isn't a "lower" legendary trio so they just said "screw it" and locked everything, including Mewtwo and the three legendary birds. I suppose they locked Zygarde because at this point they expected another Kalos game to happen and probably anticipated that they could use shiny Zygarde for an event. Part of me suspects they regretted giving early access to shiny Kyurem in BW and wanted to keep something back this time around.

-By the time we reached SM, it looked like they wanted to lock ALL special Pokemon, period, so not one of the catchable legends can be caught shiny. Except... did they forget about Type:Null? It seems an odd one to leave out given that the game is clear on it being a legendary. Yes it's a pain to SR for but people will do it. They later made a big hoo-hah about releasing shiny versions of the light trio, Poipole, and the Tapus, so you'd think they'd do the same with Type:Null.

-In Gen VIII they've again just locked off absolutely everything, and even made it so you can't get a shiny starter (which seems unduly harsh). Oh, wait. Turns out Regieleki and Regidrago were never shiny-locked. I'm not complaining, but... why not? Those two, along with Glastrier and Spectrier, are four of the most wanted Pokemon in the game right now. Why wouldn't GF take the opportunity to restrict them?

Serebii has a good list of all the shiny-locked Pokemon at the time of writing - there's some oddballs on there, like shiny Fancy Pattern and Pokeball Pattern Vivillon or hat Pikachu. What intrigues me is that there are some Pokemon, like Zeraora, for which it only took GF two years to release the shiny for, and yet others, like Victini and Hoopa, that we are still waiting on after years and years. Keldeo is encounterable for the first time in the Crown Tundra, and yet GF still shiny-locked it. Zeraora has no connection to Galar, and was an odd pick to be the prize for "one million victories" (seriously, why not Victini, it's literally there in the name) - did GF just look at all the mythicals and pick it randomly? Or is there more of a reason to it?

What do you think is the reason we haven't seen some of these yet?

 

[Nokocchi]

Game Freak seems to dislike giving easy or early access to shiny mythicals since Mew and Celebi were always distributed with fixed IVs in Gen I and II - while Celebi could be SR'ed for in Crystal, this was only ever possible in the Japanese titles until recently. Mew wasn't available shiny until Gen III, and only then on Japanese copies of Emerald with an extremely elusive event item.

There was a Shiny Mew event in Gen II that was downloadable from the Pokemon Centers in both Japan and New York(There were also shiny events for all of the Legendaries from both Gen I and Gen II, the former especially helped because it's hard trying to get anything Shiny in the Gen I games without ACE). Shiny Celebi, however, was still exclusive to the Crystal event released only in Japan.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

There was a Shiny Mew event in Gen II that was downloadable from the Pokemon Centers in both Japan and New York(There were also shiny events for all of the Legendaries from both Gen I and Gen II, the former especially helped because it's hard trying to get anything Shiny in the Gen I games without ACE). Shiny Celebi, however, was still exclusive to the Crystal event released only in Japan.

Oh, was there? I was under the impression that all the Mew distributed were fixed to not be shiny, but I'm not familiar with the majority of Gen I and II events.

 

[Nokocchi]

Oh, was there? I was under the impression that all the Mew distributed were fixed to not be shiny, but I'm not familiar with the majority of Gen I and II events.

Most are locked to not be Shiny, but this one was SUPPOSED to be Shiny, like Shiny download event Pokemon in Gen III-VIII(Outside of a handful of Japan-only events Gen V and VII that only have a chance to be Shiny, instead of always or never being Shiny)

If you were wondering what those events that had a chance to be shiny were they were the following:

-A large variety of Cherish Ball fully-evolved Gen III Pokemon that were downloadable from train stations during Gen V
-A Cherish Ball Piplup that was distributed at a Zoo during Gen V
-A group of downloadable Eggs from Gen VII that hatched into Cherish-Ball Pokemon, most of them rare Gen VII Pokemon but Goomy was also included for some reason.

While it makes sense that the Gen VII Eggs could be Shiny(due to the same exploit that made Shiny Manaphy possible in Gen IV), the Gen V events were pretty unique in that they were not Eggs, they just simply had a chance to be Shiny for whatever reason.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Thinking about shiny locks just now and it seems to me that GF is kind of inconsistent with how they're applied.

Yeah, its frustrating they like to Shiny lock some Pokemon that have no reason to be locked because they, at that moment, think it's better to keep the Shiny in their pocket as a POSSIBLE Event they could do later (whether they do or don't doesn't matter, which is where why this is such a problem comes from). The only Pokemon that should be shiny-locked are story event Pokemon and Pokemon they plan on having a Shiny Event for (and make sure that Shiny event is a worldwide release...). There's no excuse otherwise, and even the Event excuse is a bit flimsy and should only be done so with absolute certainty that most everyone would be able to get it.

 

[ttr]

Thinking about shiny locks just now and it seems to me that GF is kind of inconsistent with how they're applied.

• In Gen V, only Reshiram, Zekrom, and Victini are shiny-locked. All other catchable legendaries - Kyurem, the Kami trio, and the Swords of Justice - are available in their shiny forms. The three mythicals are obviously also shiny-locked by dint of only being available by events. Additionally in B2W2 all of the old legends are available shiny.
• In X and Y all legends and mythicals are shiny-locked, period. In ORAS Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, and Deoxys are shiny-locked but everything else is available as a shiny.
• In Gen VII Solgaleo, Lunala, Necrozma, Cosmog, Zygarde, all the Tapus, all the Ultra Beasts, Ash-Greninja, and all the mythicals are shiny-locked. In USUM, this no longer applies to the Ultra Beasts (except Poipole) and does not apply to any of the older legends available via the Ultra Wormhole.
• In Gen VIII Zacian, Zamazenta, Eternatus, Cosmog, Kubfu, Calyrex, Spectrier, Glastrier, Keldeo, and the Galarian forms of the legendary birds are shiny-locked. In addition, the starter trio and the scripted encounter with Galarian Slowpoke are all shiny-locked too, but can be bred to produce shiny forms.

Few things jump out at me there:

-In BW they didn't lock everything they could have. You'd have expected Kyurem or possibly even Landorus to be shiny-locked but it seems like initially they just wanted to lock the cover legends as well as Victini, which is a mythical. For obvious reasons, Game Freak seems to dislike giving easy or early access to shiny mythicals since Mew and Celebi were always distributed with fixed IVs in Gen I and II - while Celebi could be SR'ed for in Crystal, this was only ever possible in the Japanese titles until recently. Mew wasn't available shiny until Gen III, and only then on Japanese copies of Emerald with an extremely elusive event item. Consider that in 2021, eleven years after BW's initial release, Meloetta, Keldeo, and Victini are still unavailable in shiny form; there has never been an event for any of them, despite ample opportunity.

-In X and Y there isn't a "lower" legendary trio so they just said "screw it" and locked everything, including Mewtwo and the three legendary birds. I suppose they locked Zygarde because at this point they expected another Kalos game to happen and probably anticipated that they could use shiny Zygarde for an event. Part of me suspects they regretted giving early access to shiny Kyurem in BW and wanted to keep something back this time around.

-By the time we reached SM, it looked like they wanted to lock ALL special Pokemon, period, so not one of the catchable legends can be caught shiny. Except... did they forget about Type:Null? It seems an odd one to leave out given that the game is clear on it being a legendary. Yes it's a pain to SR for but people will do it. They later made a big hoo-hah about releasing shiny versions of the light trio, Poipole, and the Tapus, so you'd think they'd do the same with Type:Null.

-In Gen VIII they've again just locked off absolutely everything, and even made it so you can't get a shiny starter (which seems unduly harsh). Oh, wait. Turns out Regieleki and Regidrago were never shiny-locked. I'm not complaining, but... why not? Those two, along with Glastrier and Spectrier, are four of the most wanted Pokemon in the game right now. Why wouldn't GF take the opportunity to restrict them?

Serebii has a good list of all the shiny-locked Pokemon at the time of writing - there's some oddballs on there, like shiny Fancy Pattern and Pokeball Pattern Vivillon or hat Pikachu. What intrigues me is that there are some Pokemon, like Zeraora, for which it only took GF two years to release the shiny for, and yet others, like Victini and Hoopa, that we are still waiting on after years and years. Keldeo is encounterable for the first time in the Crown Tundra, and yet GF still shiny-locked it. Zeraora has no connection to Galar, and was an odd pick to be the prize for "one million victories" (seriously, why not Victini, it's literally there in the name) - did GF just look at all the mythicals and pick it randomly? Or is there more of a reason to it?

What do you think is the reason we haven't seen some of these yet?

I think the difference comes in between what they see as event only or more story important Pokémon, the pokemon that are more involved in the story of the games themselves have been generally shiny locked in recent times, such as Calyrex, since you are probably going to see it if you do the Crown Tundra DLC. This brings in the original Ultra Beasts and Lunala + Solgaleo from Gen 7, since you would see them if you followed the main story. Just about every other non shiny locked Pokémon in those two generations is off the beaten path in terms of the story, so it would make sense not to shiny lock them since people really would not see them.

BW sets the standards for shiny locked pokemon IMO here. Since I'm never (without hacks) going to see Genesect on my replay of Black, why bother locking it? I am otherwise going to see Zekrom and Reshriam in the story, but never Genesect outside of events. However, I will see Thundurus if I click on the NPC's in the game. Kyurem does not matter to the main story of BW, so why bother locking it? Victini stands out as a locked pokemon right now, but for a month when BW was released the Liberty Pass event was active over Wifi, so anyone could get it as soon as they got to Castelia City. Looking at the Crown Tundra, everything in Dynamax Adventures is unlocked, but every pokemon encountered as part of the story or a gift is locked. It fits a trend of Game Freak locking pokemon that they show in the story or give to you on a silver platter, but otherwise let every other pokemon go free. An extreme example is the Porygon you get as a gift in IoA, since its not the most important pokemon to shiny lock since you could get it shiny before, but it is given as a gift so it is locked! That Porygon is more of a story mon in IoA since if I do the story, I will probably get it.

While something like Type: Null seems weird, you may never get it if you dont know how to get it. You do not need to go back to the Aether Foundation for really any other reason than to get Type: Null, while for the Ultra Beasts in order to complete the post game story you need to see them and battle them. In the end, I believe it comes down to what Game Freak really wants you to see when playing the game in determining what they lock, meaning that they will lock special gift pokemon, but pokemon that otherwise will only be event releases or are not connected to the story will not be locked.

 

[Hugin]

Springboarding off that, I also think they're worried about overworld sprites/cutscenes not matching the battle sprite. This is also inconsistent, but it does actually match to a certain degree with the above, since story-important pokes are also the ones you're more likely to see outside of the battle screen. That also matches the SwSh starters being locked, since IIRC you get a cool little cutscene with them before picking one. I think they're somewhat worried that a player will walk up to a mon and then load into a battle and have it be a different color.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

That also matches the SwSh starters being locked, since IIRC you get a cool little cutscene with them before picking one.

The Alola starters aren't shiny locked, right? There's a cutscene after you pick your starter where it stares at you and picks you back. Do they show up as shiny in that cutscene?

 

[ttr]

The Alola starters aren't shiny locked, right? There's a cutscene after you pick your starter where it stares at you and picks you back. Do they show up as shiny in that cutscene?

Apparently, they are not shown as shiny in the cutscene but are actually shiny when you get them and can nickname them, the video linked below shows someone apparently getting it in S/M:

Link:

This is the first video I was able to find that was not clickbait and where the person actually found the shiny, but a lot of others noted that it could be shiny but did not actually find it themselves.

Springboarding off that, I also think they're worried about overworld sprites/cutscenes not matching the battle sprite. This is also inconsistent, but it does actually match to a certain degree with the above, since story-important pokes are also the ones you're more likely to see outside of the battle screen. That also matches the SwSh starters being locked, since IIRC you get a cool little cutscene with them before picking one. I think they're somewhat worried that a player will walk up to a mon and then load into a battle and have it be a different color.

Yeah, I think in part it is to prevent this inconsistency, since it is a lot more consistent to render the pokemon once in the same way rather than needing to remember two models. However, I also think they also want to discourage soft reseting for shiny pokemon when they are story important. When I was looking up the last video most of the top links with a ton of views were from Gen 7, showing how someone can soft reset for one. From what I can tell, it looks like soft reseting took off around 2016 with S/M as most of the videos came out around S/M's release.

It might kinda tie into how the Galar Starters iirc are not guaranteed to have any max IV's while most other legendaries in Sw/Sh have 3 guaranteed max IV's. Since the starters don't have any guaranteed IV's and are unable to be Shiny there is less point to soft reseting at the start of the game. Instead, you have to play through the game until you can get a Shiny starter with better iv's from an egg, which usually in the post game. It encourages people to actually play through the game instead of being stuck at the same spot for hours reseting for a shiny.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

I think the difference comes in between what they see as event only or more story important Pokémon, the pokemon that are more involved in the story of the games themselves have been generally shiny locked in recent times, such as Calyrex, since you are probably going to see it if you do the Crown Tundra DLC. This brings in the original Ultra Beasts and Lunala + Solgaleo from Gen 7, since you would see them if you followed the main story. Just about every other non shiny locked Pokémon in those two generations is off the beaten path in terms of the story, so it would make sense not to shiny lock them since people really would not see them.

BW sets the standards for shiny locked pokemon IMO here. Since I'm never (without hacks) going to see Genesect on my replay of Black, why bother locking it? I am otherwise going to see Zekrom and Reshriam in the story, but never Genesect outside of events. However, I will see Thundurus if I click on the NPC's in the game. Kyurem does not matter to the main story of BW, so why bother locking it? Victini stands out as a locked pokemon right now, but for a month when BW was released the Liberty Pass event was active over Wifi, so anyone could get it as soon as they got to Castelia City. Looking at the Crown Tundra, everything in Dynamax Adventures is unlocked, but every pokemon encountered as part of the story or a gift is locked. It fits a trend of Game Freak locking pokemon that they show in the story or give to you on a silver platter, but otherwise let every other pokemon go free. An extreme example is the Porygon you get as a gift in IoA, since its not the most important pokemon to shiny lock since you could get it shiny before, but it is given as a gift so it is locked! That Porygon is more of a story mon in IoA since if I do the story, I will probably get it.

While something like Type: Null seems weird, you may never get it if you dont know how to get it. You do not need to go back to the Aether Foundation for really any other reason than to get Type: Null, while for the Ultra Beasts in order to complete the post game story you need to see them and battle them. In the end, I believe it comes down to what Game Freak really wants you to see when playing the game in determining what they lock, meaning that they will lock special gift pokemon, but pokemon that otherwise will only be event releases or are not connected to the story will not be locked.

That's fair, although I'm still puzzled why they're apparently so concerned that the Reshiram that didn't look shiny in the overworld might be shiny in-battle. I can see the logic of locking "story" Pokemon but it's kind of bizarre to me. Things like the Piplup I started with in Diamond having Pokerus (I'm assuming because the Starly it battled did) aren't "meant" to happen but they're a neat little bonus. Getting a scripted Pokemon as shiny is a cool bonus, not a flaw.

Although of course you do see people saying things like "my Mewtwo was green and I thought it was a glitch so I turned the game off" every now and then.

Regarding Kyurem specifically, you could ask the same of Zygarde. I think it was obvious to us all Kyurem would have significance later on so it would make sense to lock it. And I don't really see why the Ultra Beasts had to be locked in SM, particularly as there were multiples of them.

I can understand it if the motive is simply to make the shinies exclusive. That's just good business sense, because you ensure that events giving out previously-inaccessible shinies will be successful. And it was reasonable when it was only some Pokemon that it applied to. But it's overkill in the recent titles, when all but two or three are shiny-locked. Like, why lock Type:Null in SwSh when it was available shiny in Gen VII?

It might kinda tie into how the Galar Starters iirc are not guaranteed to have any max IV's while most other legendaries in Sw/Sh have 3 guaranteed max IV's. Since the starters don't have any guaranteed IV's and are unable to be Shiny there is less point to soft reseting at the start of the game. Instead, you have to play through the game until you can get a Shiny starter with better iv's from an egg, which usually in the post game. It encourages people to actually play through the game instead of being stuck at the same spot for hours reseting for a shiny.

If this is the reason I think it's a pretty shitty one tbh. I haven't spent hours SR'ing for something for quite a while, but a lot of people do and that's their prerogative as people who've bought the game. If they want to spend 12 hours getting a shiny starter, why shouldn't they? Disabling that option feels a lot like GF trying to make players play the game the "right" way, and that mindset is a part of why I'm quite turned off by some of the more recent titles. What I enjoy about Pokemon is the freedom to play in the style you want, and any constraints like this make the game less interesting and expansive in my view.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

Not really a mystery or conspiracy, more of just an oddity that I found peculiar.

As many of you probably know, each of the Kanto Elite 4 has a sort of secondary type focus. Lorelei has Water, Bruno has Rock and Ground, Agatha has Poison, and Lance has Flying. Interestingly, each of these secondary types is paired with their primary types in the TCG. Ice is represented as Water, Rock and Ground are classified as Fighting, Ghost and Poison were both grouped in with Psychic before Poison switched to Dark, and both Dragon and Flying fell under Colorless before Dragon became its own type.

Except... Poison wasn't originally considered Psychic. Up until Gen 4, Poison was considered Grass. Meaning that every Kanto Elite 4 member had their Pokemon unified under TCG types except for Agatha.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Not really a mystery or conspiracy, more of just an oddity that I found peculiar.

As many of you probably know, each of the Kanto Elite 4 has a sort of secondary type focus. Lorelei has Water, Bruno has Rock and Ground, Agatha has Poison, and Lance has Flying. Interestingly, each of these secondary types is paired with their primary types in the TCG. Ice is represented as Water, Rock and Ground are classified as Fighting, Ghost and Poison were both grouped in with Psychic before Poison switched to Dark, and both Dragon and Flying fell under Colorless before Dragon became its own type.

Except... Poison wasn't originally considered Psychic. Up until Gen 4, Poison was considered Grass. Meaning that every Kanto Elite 4 member had their Pokemon unified under TCG types except for Agatha.

I don't think they were really thinking about the Type Specialists in Gen I when they were assigning the Types to the TCG. I think their logic was as so:

GRASS:

• Bug: Grass-type could be seen as the "nature" Type and bugs are heavily associated with nature. And though you can find bugs most anywhere on Earth and can be carnivorous, when many think of a bug's natural habitat they'll think a forest or garden where there's plenty of leaves to snack on. The Paras family may have also been an influence. Also Bug-type is usually represented by the color green.
• Poison: Even though they very purpose of poison is to kill, it's still part of nature. Many plants are poisonous even if only to be inedible, this is even reflected with the amount of Grass-types that have Poison as a secondary Type (including the Bulbasaur family). Also a lot of bugs are poisonous, as well as Bug-types, so there's another connection.

WATER:

• Ice: Do I really need to explain the reasoning, Pokemon influences, and color association with this one?

FIGHTING:

• Rock & Ground: Now I combined them together because I feel wherever one went the other would follow since they're closely related Types. Not really matching the Grass-type aesthetic as "part of nature", instead they focused on their physical attributes of being, well, physical objects. Rock-types were hard and sturdy while Ground-types were heavy hitters, both which matched well with the idea behind the Fighting-type. And though there was no Fighting/Rock or Fighting/Ground, Fighting-types generally learned some Rock- and Ground-types moves which were important Type coverage for them. Finally, their colors matched well enough together being shades of red & brown.

PSYCHIC:

• Ghost: If Fighting was the physical Types, than Psychic represented the spiritual Types; obviously this would include Ghost-types. Also, Psychics were pink, Ghosts were purple, it sort of matched color-wise. I wonder if this would later be the reason why Poison would be moved to Psychic.

COLORLESS:

• Normal: The only reason it's not called the "Normal" Type was due to TCG mechanics. You can use any Energy to fill in for a Colorless requirement; you're filling in the color with the Energy's color.
• Flying: This is more probably due to Flying not being a Type on its own and thus often paired with the Normal-type. Also, Colorless is represented by a star, and where do you find stars but in the sky?
• Dragon: As the "Infinity+1" Type (theoretically, anyway), Dragon-types had the odd trait of being resistant to all the basic special/energy Types (aka the Starter Types plus Electric) and super strong with their own element but wasn't seen as physical force (Fighting) or had special effects (Psychic). Dragon was made Colorless simply because it didn't match any other Type for it was like the culmination of all the Types.

Think the TCG designers deserve a round of applause because this probably wasn't easy. They couldn't make a TCG Type for every Type so tried to combine all the Types into half as many yet keep the game simple for young kids to pick up and play. And they did try to give certain "absorbed" Types special traits: Poison Pokemon being usually the only Grass-types to inflict poison. Ice Pokemon being the only Water-type to inflict freeze. Rock & Ground/Flying had different weaknesses & resistances when compared to a Fighting/Normal-type thus giving the Fighting/Normal TCG Type some variety while all using the same colored Energy to do their attacks. And so on.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

I don't think they were really thinking about the Type Specialists in Gen I when they were assigning the Types to the TCG. I think their logic was as so

Oh, I don't think they did it intentionally. I think all the original TCG types were pretty easy groupings, minus Rock/Ground + Fighting but I guess the icon is pretty easy to mistake for a rock. I just find it interesting that all but one of the Kanto E4 were monotype under TCG, and then the odd one out was retroactively made monotype years later. Though I wonder if Agatha might be the reason for making Poison a Psychic type? I've never understood why Poison switched from Grass to Psychic. The only possible reason I could think of was "purple" which is such a ridiculously superficial reason. Agatha is a much better reason to swap it even if I still think it's a terrible reason.

I guess now it's a proper mystery and/or conspiracy.

 

[PokemonCrusader]

Swsh focus a lot on british modern times for their pokemon. Probably them relying too much on James Turner's british background in general. His pokemon are more focused on pop culture, which isn't bad, but led to a lack of more historical stuff and made the swsh dex feel artificial, too modern

Which was disappointing since British folklore is rich in potential designs.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

So I brought this up in the thread I posted about which Pokemon are available in which game, but I think it merits a discussion, so I'll expand on it here.

Nearly every game introduces at least a couple of Pokemon which evolve via a trade. It's an accepted part of the formula by now and a relatively simple evolution method. It can be hard on those who don't have the ability or opportunity to trade with friends, though. So occasionally there'll be a way to skip the requirement and get one of those coveted trade-evolution Pokemon. The Japanese Pokemon Blue features in-game trades with two NPCs who give you Haunter and Graveler, both of which can evolve. In Pokemon Yellow, a little girl will trade you her Machoke for a rare Cubone, allowing the player to potentially get a powerful Machamp.

As time's gone on and the roster of available Pokemon in the games has gotten ever bigger, Game Freak has relaxed things a bit and let us straight-up catch Pokemon that were formerly locked behind complex evolution methods or high levels. Reference how Kingdra, Cloyster, and Gorebyss can all be fished up in Unova, how wild Salamence can be encountered in Alola, or how Pokemon like Rhyperior and Gengar are just freely wandering around in the Wild Area.

Who doesn't like a good list?

Trade evolution Pokemon and how long it took for them to become available without having to trade

Machamp - available one-time-only in Yellow via an in-game trade. Catchable in raids in the Wild Area
Alakazam - available one-time-only in B2W2 via an in-game trade. Later catchable on the Isle of Armor
Gengar - available one-time-only in Japanese Blue via an in-game trade. Later catchable via dongle mode in DPP and in Wild Area raids in SwSh
Golem - available one-time-only in Japanese Blue via an in-game trade. Alolan Golem is available one-time-only in SM via an in-game trade
Politoed - can be fished up in BW
Slowking - can be fished up in BW
Kingdra - can be fished up in BW
Scizor - available wild in the Isle of Armor
Steelix - available wild on Iron Island in DPP
Porygon2 - never available without trading
Huntail - catchable wild in BW and USUM
Gorebyss - catchable wild in BW and USUM
Electivire - available wild on the Isle of Armor
Magmortar - available wild on the Isle of Armor
Rhyperior - available in the Wild Area
Dusknoir - available in the Wild Area
Porygon-Z - never available without trading
Conkeldurr - catchable via Island Scan in SM
Gigalith - available one-time-only in B2W2 via an in-game trade
Accelgor - available via raids in the Wild Area
Escavalier - available via raids in the Wild Area
Slurpuff - available via raids in the Wild Area
Aromatisse - available via raids in the Wild Area
Trevenant - available wild in XY
Gourgeist - available in the Wild Area

This ultimately makes sense, I think. Even taking Dexit into account, it remains a rather hellish task to catch 'em all, and I'm certainly not going to complain about them making things a little easier.

But. But but but. There's one Pokemon which, despite needing a trade to evolve, can consistently be found in the wild in nearly every game it's been in.

Despite online trading being extremely convenient in XY, and Trevenant's fellow Grass/Ghost Pokemon which evolves by trade, Gourgeist, being inaccessible without one, Trevenant can be caught wild in Kalos. That's weird. That'd be like if we could catch wild Machamp in RBY. In Alola it's similarly available, either as a Poke Pelago encounter in SM or via an in-game trade with an NPC in USUM. And in Galar... no surprise, it can be caught freely there too.

In fact, the only games in which one has to trade to evolve it are ORAS, which it doesn't appear in anyway so HAS to be traded to if it's not coming via Bank.

What gives? Why did Game Freak bother making this one a trade evolution, exactly? With every other trade evolution they've waited a few games before letting players get one without trading. But here the ability to bypass trading was there from the off.

 

[Yung Dramps]

So anybody got a clue what was up with Wattson's RS team, specifically the lack of a Manectric? Even in those games one of the gym trainers had an Electrike, which for that point in the game is closer to evolving than Magnemite (Level 26 for Manectric VS Level 30 for Magneton). In addition the anime episode Wattson debuted in had him use the electric dog and that first aired in August 2003, well over a year before Emerald's japanese release. My best theory atm comes from a vague recollection of a RS beta leak that happened a while ago where a bunch of gym leaders had teams without any Hoenn mons, likely as placeholders until the new 135's designs and battle properties were finalized. Maybe they accidentally kept Wattson's placeholder team? Alternatively it may have been deliberate, they might've figured Magneton fit more with Wattson's status as a tech mogul than Manectric. Waddya think, agree with either of these theories or got your own?

 

[R_N]

It's definitely possible it was just a longstanding holdover. Development can always get hectic and, I suppose, Magneton is still a solid "boss monster" so it just slipped through the cracks.


....Speaking of Wattson's RS team, though, it's worth a brow raise that Wattson's team wasn't changed in ORAS. "They were overly faithful to RS", I hear you frustratingly type, to which I have to point out that Flannery replaced one of her Slugma for a Numel (fun fact flannery is the only gym leader to get a change other than level/moveset.). If they were willing to add extra hoenn flavor to her team, why not at least swap out magnemite for electrike?

 

[Celever]

So anybody got a clue what was up with Wattson's RS team, specifically the lack of a Manectric? Even in those games one of the gym trainers had an Electrike, which for that point in the game is closer to evolving than Magnemite (Level 26 for Manectric VS Level 30 for Magneton). In addition the anime episode Wattson debuted in had him use the electric dog and that first aired in August 2003, well over a year before Emerald's japanese release. My best theory atm comes from a vague recollection of a RS beta leak that happened a while ago where a bunch of gym leaders had teams without any Hoenn mons, likely as placeholders until the new 135's designs and battle properties were finalized. Maybe they accidentally kept Wattson's placeholder team? Alternatively it may have been deliberate, they might've figured Magneton fit more with Wattson's status as a tech mogul than Manectric. Waddya think, agree with either of these theories or got your own?

In RS, Wattson only uses Pokémon from New Mauville, which is a project he oversaw. I think they thought it added to his flavour to use a team of New Mauville Pokémon for that reason, and then in Emerald realised it just makes more sense for him to use the new electric dog on the route right outside his gym lol.

 

[mertyville]

I love how the anime told Wattson that he got destroyed because he didn't use one of those amazing Gen 3 Pokemon and stayed adamant with his KANTO team.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

In RS, Wattson only uses Pokémon from New Mauville, which is a project he oversaw. I think they thought it added to his flavour to use a team of New Mauville Pokémon for that reason, and then in Emerald realised it just makes more sense for him to use the new electric dog on the route right outside his gym lol.

Only tangentially relevant, but you just reminded me of a funny quote from an old Emerald guide I have bookmarked because it's a great read

 

[Ironmage]

Only tangentially relevant, but you just reminded me of a funny quote from an old Emerald guide I have bookmarked because it's a great read

View attachment 372147

Wouldn't the electrike part of that not do anything since the entire encounter table is electric type? The only other line in New Mauville is voltorb.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Wouldn't the electrike part of that not do anything since the entire encounter table is electric type? The only other line in New Mauville is voltorb.

Not only that, Magnemite's encounter chance is already 50% on the first floor (the other 50% being Voltorb). In the basement both are 49% because there's a 1% chance of encountering their evolutions. So not sure how Magnet Pull affects a Pokemon with an encounter rate already at 50%.

My guess is whoever wrote this didn't understand by "increase chance of encounter" they meant when you encountered a Pokemon that was when it alters which Pokemon you're about to get, not that it increases the amount of wild encounters. That or they personally had a very frustrating time in New Mauville.

 

[R_N]

Not only that, Magnemite's encounter chance is already 50% on the first floor (the other 50% being Voltorb). In the basement both are 49% because there's a 1% chance of encountering their evolutions. So not sure how Magnet Pull affects a Pokemon with an encounter rate already at 50%.

My guess is whoever wrote this didn't understand by "increase chance of encounter" they meant when you encountered a Pokemon that was when it alters which Pokemon you're about to get, not that it increases the amount of wild encounters. That or they personally had a very frustrating time in New Mauville.

Magnet Pull would depend on if it is:
-A complete override (ie if you roll a Voltorb, it does another coin flip on if it will grab a Magnemite instead)
-An additive to the encounter rate(in which case, it's 100%, good bye voltorb)
-A multiplicative to the encoutner rate (so a 75% chance in this case)

I think the way this works with Cute Charm is it just straight up overrides everything else, which is how you can grind out female Salandits easier. If Magnet Pull is similar it probably does that option.


And if it does that I...guess that would mean that if multiple Steel types are available, it actually just picks one at random? Suppose an easy way to test that (I feel this has to be documented *somewhere*, surely, though) would just be grab a Magnet Pull, go to the basement and see how often you run into Magnetons

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Idk, I've never taken a Nosepass and Electrike into New Mauville so I've never thought that hard about it.

Bulbapedia's explanation is "there is a 50% chance the game will force an encounter with a Steel-type Pokemon, so I assume the encounter table remains the same or it's 25% Magnemite, 25% Magneton, 50% other.

Okay, now I do want to test this...