Okay so a fascinating thing I discovered recently is unused data from Gen 1 and Gen 2, namely, two unused experience groups.
As you all know, back in the Gen 1 and 2 days, there were four known experience groups: Fast, Medium Fast, Medium Slow, and Slow. However, there are two unused experience groups in the data, classified as hex:01 and hex:02.
In the coding, the data lists the EXP Groups as the following:
hex:00 (Medium Fast),
hex:01 (Unused group 1)
hex:02 (Unused group 2)
hex:03 (Medium Slow)
hex:04 (Fast)
hex:05 (Slow)
The unused EXP Groups have the following formulas:
hex:01's formula is
This ultimately results in 849,970 EXP at Level 100.
hex:02's formula is
This ultimately results in 949,930 EXP at Level 100.
The fascinating thing is that these two experience groups follow a parabolic formula, which is similar to Medium Slow, the only one of the four original EXP groups that calculates EXP on a parabolic function.
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Three of the EXP groups, Fast, Medium Fast, and Slow, calculate EXP on a cubic function. With respect to these, Medium Fast can really be described as the "Medium" EXP group between the three.
Fast's EXP formula is
, resulting in 800,000 EXP at Level 100.
Medium Fast's EXP formula is
, resulting in 1,000,000 EXP at Level 100. Note that Medium Fast basically uses a basic cubic function.
Slow's EXP formula is
, resulting in 1,250,000 EXP at Level 100.
As you can see, these three are basically the "cubic" function EXP groups.
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Meanwhile, Medium Slow uses a parabolic function like the two unused EXP Groups:
, resulting in 1,059,860 EXP at Level 100.
In the end product, Medium Slow is the most unique of the four used EXP Groups in that it is parabolic. However, with the two unused EXP groups, there are two EXP Groups that are also parabolic, meaning had they been used, there would have been three cubic EXP Groups and three parabolic EXP Groups.
Of the three parabolic ones, the EXP Group we know as Medium Slow is effectively the "slowest" of the three parabolic EXP Groups, at 1,059,860 EXP at Level 100.
As I've already outlined, the three have their parabolic functions, but the end total EXP amounts to the following:
Unused Group 1: 849,970
Unused Group 2: 949,930
Medium Slow: 1,059,860
It seems the three together were supposed to form a parabolic trio of EXP Groups that leveled at different rates relative to each other, with Medium Slow as the slowest one of the three. Unused Group 1 would effectively be "Parabolic Fast", Unused Group 2 would be "Parabolic Medium", and Medium Slow would be "Parabolic Slow".
Meanwhile the three groups known as Fast, Medium Fast, and Slow would be "Cubic Fast", "Cubic Medium", and "Cubic Slow".
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Putting the EXP Yields together, from least to most EXP at Level 100, we get the following:
Cubic Fast: 800,000
Parabolic Fast: 849,970
Parabolic Medium: 949,930
Cubic Medium (Medium Fast): 1,000,000
Parabolic Slow (Medium Slow): 1,059,860
Cubic Slow: 1,250,000
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Now we get to the main point: this raises the mystery that had the two unused parabolic EXP groups actually been used, what would've been their purpose with respect to levelling rate? And why would some Pokemon have a parabolic levelling rate and others a cubic levelling rate?
In the final product, the three cubic EXP Groups were largely used by two-stage and single-stage Pokemon. Fast was used exclusively by Chansey, Wigglytuff, and Clefable, who were either clerics or early game crutches who you could evolve early with a stone, Medium Fast (aka Cubic) was used by the vast majority of two-stage mons, and Slow was used by a bunch of really high BST mons at the time, mainly mons who had 430 BST or higher.
Medium Slow was the only one of the three parabolic EXP Groups that ended up used, and it was pretty much exclusively given to three-stage evolutionary families as well as Mew. But had the two unused parabolic EXP Groups been used, what would have been their purpose? Would there have been a division among the three, and which Pokemon would've gotten the three groups? How would they have divided which mons ended up with Parabolic Fast and Parabolic Medium, and the Parabolic Slow group (which ended up used as Medium Slow)?
It's definitely fascinating that there were also three parabolic EXP Groups, but unlike the three cubic groups, only one of the parabolic curves ended up used, the slowest one of the three, and it was granted to just about every three-stage evolutionary line, barring Butterfree, Beedrill, and Dragonite. It raises the question as to why only one of the parabolic groups ended up used while all three cubic groups were used, and what would've been the rationale to assign the three parabolic groups to certain Pokémon had the two "faster" parabolic ones been used.
Just something that is really fascinating to think about, amongst all the scrapped data in the games the fact that these two unused EXP Groups exists is something I find fascinating.
