If we're talking about Megahorn, Pinsir still doesn't learn it.
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Pokémon Movepool Oddities & Explanations
- Thread starter Kurona
- Start date
Makes sense to me, Pinsir grapples with its horns rather than stabs with them.
This is because Pinsir must always be in Heracross' shadow, it is known (except in Gen VI and VII where it briefly got a Flying-type Mega in an attempt to terrorise its rival, but we couldn't have that for long)
crazy to me that, not including regional forms and megas, since gen 5 there has only been 1 new mon with levitate (vikavolt). Despite it seeming like an ability that can be given to so many things and one they used to hand out for seemingly very loose reasons (looking at carnivie), nearly half the series has gone past with there only being 1 new one. Like virtually every ghost type could get it cause ghosts float. I could see a lot of dragon and bug types getting it cause of those type's associations with wings. But no, only a single new mon with it since 2010. And fun fact, the net amount of all mons with levitate has not changed since gen 5 cause gengar lost it the same gen vikavolt was introduced in
that's kind of the problem though, they painted themselves into a corner with levitate where they can't give it to every pokemon that floats because that would be very restrictive and boring and as they seem to have realized they can't really give it to only some pokemon that float because that would just be confusing and doesn't make sense since their models would still be floating even if they didn't have it (see: the magnimite line). levitate is a relic of the past that doesn't fit in with modern pokemon design
Okay that is weird. Checking Bulbapedia, everything that learns it is both Bug-typed AND in the Bug egg group(or the no eggs group). Which is a pretty severe restriction. The only exceptions are:
Iron Moth (alt form of a bug from the bug egg group)
Mew (learns everything)
Gligar line (bug egg group, based on an insect)
Shedinja (bug-type from the Mineral egg group, evolved from the bug egg group)
Flygon line (based on Dragonflies, bug egg group)
Armaldo line (bug-type in the Water 3 egg group)
And Staraptor exclusively, a normal/flying bird in the flying egg group. Not any of it's pre-evos. And only in SV. Wait.
So, in SV, Struggle Bug is TM 15. In all previous gens, Struggle Bug was TM 76. In previous games*, TM 15 was Hyper Beam. Which Staraptor can learn but neither of it's pre-evos can. This is purely about Gamefreak again failing to actually look at movesets when updating for modern games.
*We can ignore Sword/Shield and LGPE because Staraptor wasn't in those games.
Clearly, it has hands, they're just covered by the mud so you can't see them.
It's a strong draft horse with an equally strong spirit. Not the traditional fighting spirit but I think it fits. Honestly, japanese name aside, it wouldn't surprise me if the "focus" in the English name also played a role.
Horses are measured in hands so I guess this explains it. Mudsdale is 2.5 metres so it has around 25 hands*
*no idea if this is how it works I’m not a horse guy
You see, I'm more curious as to why Focus Blast needs to have anything to do with hands. It seems like such a weird thing to make central to the move's identity when, as you already pointed out, not every Pokémon who learn it has hands. It's like being confused why something learns Ice Beam when it doesn't swim because most Pokémon that learn it can swim.
Focus Blast is supposed to be a hadoken/ki blast.
The learnsets for the XY legends are rather weird.
Xerneas' level-up moveset would make you think it's designed as a physical attacker, seeing as the only special attacks it gets by level-up are Aurora Beam and Moonblast. That's it. Compare to it getting Megahorn, Night Slash, Outrage, Close Combat (mirroring Yveltal's Focus Blast), Giga Impact (mirroring Yveltal's Hyper Beam)...
Then again, its attack stat is the same as its sp. attack (131!!). Perhaps had they given it physical STAB in its debut generation, physical Xerneas would've popped off.
It’s almost definitely cause they wanted a special parallel to xerneas learning CC as no me vean points out, but maybe it has to do with yveltal being able to steal spirits and weaponizing them, something else no other mon really has the power to do. That is kinda its whole thing
Guess I should note that my surprise is not "only Yveltal learns it naturally" it is "only Yveltal learns it naturally"
It's a move that's been around for a very long time by this point, I could see several other Pokemon in the TM list learn naturally. Lucario & Mienasho, pairing with Aura Sphere, Medicham, Pokemon focused on firing implements, random Pokemon whose flavor is "focusing really hard on something", etc
It's a move that's been around for a very long time by this point, I could see several other Pokemon in the TM list learn naturally. Lucario & Mienasho, pairing with Aura Sphere, Medicham, Pokemon focused on firing implements, random Pokemon whose flavor is "focusing really hard on something", etc
Well instead of having to make its own focus and/or spirit, it can take the focus/spirt from other mons. It uses the move in a different way then every other Mon does thus putting it in a group of its own
Is that 'group of its own' a good reason why no one else gets it via level up? No not really. But it is a reason
Like everyone else has to unlock the ability to weaponize their focus, but Yveltal doesnt. It can just steal focus from others
Is that 'group of its own' a good reason why no one else gets it via level up? No not really. But it is a reason
Like everyone else has to unlock the ability to weaponize their focus, but Yveltal doesnt. It can just steal focus from others
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the most infamous movepool oddity that comes to mind for me is that for whatever reason Feraligatr cannot learn Waterfall in Gen 2 specifically, every other gen it can. It feels like it was a mistake and its infamous to me because it sucks getting all the way to the road to the elite four and having to backtrack to find a mon with waterfall because your water starter can't learn it, lmao.
Waterfall is a weird case as not all mons that learn Surf learn Waterfall.
It's likely intentional that Feraligatr can't learn it. Why? No clue, but there was deliberate choice in who can and cannot
Conversation got me curious how many of the 25 water type lines in Gen 2 missed on waterfall. Slightly more than I thought!
Krabby line & Corsola never got it ever.
Krabby is a crab, I guess maybe they thought it wouldn't be able to climb waterfalls. more of a beach dweller? It does feel a little surprising it never got it after the phys/special split, even with Crabhammer they like redundancy sometimes.
Corsola I guess I kind of see it, not presented as very mobile and sticks with special or launching attacks.
The Totodile, Tentacool and Remoraid lines got it in gen 3.
Tentacool could have missed it in gen 2 since they thought it wouldn't climb waterfalls very well? Is a jelly after all. Then got it in gen 3 for utilitarian purposes; it's one of the more available water types in a region that needs 3 HMs dedicated to it.
Totodile...genuinely feels like this is something they went "wait this SHOULD have it". It's a strong swimmer with big arms, putting it in the same bracket imo as things like golduck or the polis and certainly I'd believe a alligator could climb a waterfall before a salamander/mudskipper like Quagsire. Honestly between the two water starters I'd probably think Blastoise should have been the one to get it later.
Remoraid, honestly? No clue why they went back on it, it does kind of seem like a fish/cephalopod that wouldn't climb a waterfall. Maybe they thought if a jellyfish could, an octopus should. Or maybe they thought since Mantine could, the hanger-ons should? That's kind of cute logic.
The Slowpoke & Shellder lines got it in gen 9
I can easily see the logic of why these two missed out (former's not very athletic, the latter occupies the same area as corsola in my mind in terms of kind of water life), so dunno why they got it after all this time. If they wanted the "iconic" physical water move post gen 4 feels they should have given it to it earlier, you know?
Makes me think that if Krabby were in Gen 9 it also would have gotten waterfall. Feels like one of those gens they went through the learnsets and went "eh why not".
Krabby line & Corsola never got it ever.
Krabby is a crab, I guess maybe they thought it wouldn't be able to climb waterfalls. more of a beach dweller? It does feel a little surprising it never got it after the phys/special split, even with Crabhammer they like redundancy sometimes.
Corsola I guess I kind of see it, not presented as very mobile and sticks with special or launching attacks.
The Totodile, Tentacool and Remoraid lines got it in gen 3.
Tentacool could have missed it in gen 2 since they thought it wouldn't climb waterfalls very well? Is a jelly after all. Then got it in gen 3 for utilitarian purposes; it's one of the more available water types in a region that needs 3 HMs dedicated to it.
Totodile...genuinely feels like this is something they went "wait this SHOULD have it". It's a strong swimmer with big arms, putting it in the same bracket imo as things like golduck or the polis and certainly I'd believe a alligator could climb a waterfall before a salamander/mudskipper like Quagsire. Honestly between the two water starters I'd probably think Blastoise should have been the one to get it later.
Remoraid, honestly? No clue why they went back on it, it does kind of seem like a fish/cephalopod that wouldn't climb a waterfall. Maybe they thought if a jellyfish could, an octopus should. Or maybe they thought since Mantine could, the hanger-ons should? That's kind of cute logic.
The Slowpoke & Shellder lines got it in gen 9
I can easily see the logic of why these two missed out (former's not very athletic, the latter occupies the same area as corsola in my mind in terms of kind of water life), so dunno why they got it after all this time. If they wanted the "iconic" physical water move post gen 4 feels they should have given it to it earlier, you know?
Makes me think that if Krabby were in Gen 9 it also would have gotten waterfall. Feels like one of those gens they went through the learnsets and went "eh why not".
I wonder if maybe this was supposed to be a versatility/choose your style thing. Run a very wide Physical coverage pool vs a narrower option set with Geomancy for monster boosts. Yveltal mostly gets Special moves to contrast this despite not really mirroring the "small but buff vs wide-unboosted" dynamic all the way
for some reason this made me wonder "who all learns Crabhammer" the signature move of Krabby/Kingler
apparently as of Gen 9, Gligar and Gliscor are crabs, which feels incredibly random to me that this generation of all generations to go "hmm these scorpions they should learn Crabhammer"
There are also pokemon like Dwebble and Crustle that don't learn it despite being hermit crabs, Skorupi and Drapion don't learn it despite being scorpions maybe because their pincers are not crablike?
if they just give it based on the specific appearance of a pincer then pokemon like Parasect and Scizor should learn it.
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A small peeve I had while looking at Rillaboom's coverage options for OU talk: You telling me this thing can't lob (sharp) rocks like the Mankey/Timburr lines, Alolan Grimer/Muk, Tauros, etc. among the non-Rock users that learn Stone Edge by TM/Breeding?
Normally I don't call out moves here on the basis of their usefulness as opposed to flavor, but Stone Edge and Rock Slide are on PLENTY of Pokemon that match Rillaboom's physical profile or are arguably farther removed from being able to use stones as weapons so it sticks out even more that it's absent from Mon that would use it more than them and has about as much justification for getting it.
Normally I don't call out moves here on the basis of their usefulness as opposed to flavor, but Stone Edge and Rock Slide are on PLENTY of Pokemon that match Rillaboom's physical profile or are arguably farther removed from being able to use stones as weapons so it sticks out even more that it's absent from Mon that would use it more than them and has about as much justification for getting it.