History GuideDangIt / Pokemon

** [[{{DidNotDoTheResearch}} Press B Genius]].

* Something that ''is'' required for HundredPercentCompletion, however, is Shedinja (in Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald as well as the National Dex in every game past Ruby/Sapphire). Shedinja cannot be found in the wild and despite appearing in the Pokédex after Nincada and Ninjask and obviously being from the same evolution line, doesn't evolve from anything. To get it, the player must raise a Nincada to Level 20 and let it evolve with at least one empty slot in their party and at least one Poké Ball [[strike: of any variety]] (and it MUST be specifically a Poké Ball!) with them. Having the Poké Ball is very likely already, but most players go around with a full party for the entire game as soon as they are able to do so. Shedinja is also never mentioned in any of the games or used by anyone outside of the Battle Tower (where opponents are randomly generated).

* Something that ''is'' required for HundredPercentCompletion, however, is Shedinja (in Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald as well as the National Dex in every game past Ruby/Sapphire). Shedinja cannot be found in the wild and despite appearing in the Pokédex after Nincada and Ninjask and obviously being from the same evolution line, doesn't evolve from anything. To get it, the player must raise a Nincada to Level 20 and let it evolve with at least one empty slot in their party and at least one Poké Ball of any variety with them. Having the Poké Ball is very likely already, but most players go around with a full party for the entire game as soon as they are able to do so. Shedinja is also never mentioned in any of the games or used by anyone outside of the Battle Tower (where opponents are randomly generated).

* With the Gen II remakes [=HeartGold=] and [=SoulSilver=] , we have a few Pokémon of the third and fourth generations hiding in trees. Now, there are a handful of specimens that are found in very specific trees (and every single tree in the game can be headbutted, so we're talking about thousands of trees). One example: Taillow is found at Cherrygrove, the first city you visit in the game, after a pool of water and over a pile of rocks that can be only climbed after you beat all the 16 gyms. There are four trees, and you need to headbutt the lower left tree. Even then you can still fight other Pokémon. Honestly, how should we know that?

** Still here? Well, assume without loss of generality that you're playing Diamond/Pearl (Gen. IV); the process for Gen. III is similar. Here's the sequence a reasonable player with no access to a walkthrough would have been expected to go through if they wanted to get Milotic. First you should have realized, by some epiphany of intuition, that the gigantic lake under Mt. Coronet might be hiding more than Barboach and [[MagikarpPower Magikarp]]. Inspired by this, you should have obviously tried fishing in ''every single'' water tile. Because, see, out of the hundreds of water tiles only in FOUR you may encounter anything out of the ordinary at all, and even then only at 35% probability. This means that if you were to try fishing in every single tile you would still end up with squat roughly one time out of five- not that you would know that there is anything special in there to begin with, of course. Now if you're exceptionally lucky you've found some ugly brown fish called Feebas which your Pokédex urges you to ignore and cannot do anything but Splash around. At this point if you have an ounce of GenreSavvy in you you'll go through the painful process of equipping it with Exp. Share and leveling it up, waiting in anticipation until the moment it evolves. Except, it doesn't. After you level it up to the point where you despair of it ever evolving, it should occur to you that you ought to feed this ugly fish blue Poffins (Pokéblock in Gen. III) to make it more beautiful, though again, it's not like the game gives you any incentive to actually do that. If you were to feed it Poffins that were not of high enough quality, or you were unlucky enough to have reeled up a Feebas that just hates blue Poffins, you'll end up with a not quite sufficiently beautiful ugly brown fish which will get you nowhere, and even if it might occur to you that something has gone wrong, you would have to go back to the lake and fish up another one. You might think yourself clever for remembering where you got the last one, but alas, the tiles where it appears are randomized every day. Now, GIVEN that you have acquired this ugly brown fish, and GIVEN that you have managed to feed it beautifying Poffins of sufficient quality, the next time you level up your ugly brown fish it should evolve into Milotic. This is a serious contender for MostTriumphantExample of this trope.

** Dialga and Palkia in Platinum. Gaah. First, you must find the Adamant and Lustrous Orbs, located in an out-of-the-way cavern in Mt. Coronet that is unlikely to be discovered by most players. Then, you must travel to the Spear Pillar. Players of Diamond and Pearl know that there is no post-story reason to return to the Spear Pillar except to play the Azure Flute. Said item is currently unobtainable without cheating. Sure, people might want to go to the Spear Pillar just to see if the portal to the Distortion World is still there, but it's not likely that they'd find the orbs first. Did I mention that there are absolutely no hints about any of this?

*** This one's a GuideDangIt induced by translation; Coronet's Japanese name is Mt. [[SdrawkcabName Tengam]].

*** Read your pokedex, and the pieces kinda fit. Who else would a Reaper Cloth or an Upgrade belong to?

** Turns out it's Chimecho. It can only be encountered in one place, the top of Mt. Pyre, which the player will probably only visit when he needs to progress the story. And even when the player is in the area, the grass is out of the way. And even if the player goes to the grass, the chance of encountering a Chimecho is only 1%. So you've got a very rare non-legendary who no one in the game uses or seems to know about hiding in a very out-of-the-way area with no hints that it's there. Well, after going through all that trouble to find this rare Pokémon, is it at least any good? [[spoiler:It has stats befitting of a ComMon.]]

*** Tyrogue is greatly simplified if you realize that not tampering with its stats at all will result in a Hitmontop, while feeding it anything that permanently boosts its attack or defense stat will give Hitmonchan or Hitmonlee.

*** HeartGold and SoulSilver are no fairer. Firstly, you can only get Feebas through the Pokéwalker in one route, this is also the last route you would normally get, Quiet Cave, which needs a massive 100,000 watts to unlock. Thankfully, Feebas is quite easy to catch in this one. You only need 500 steps on the route to make it appear, it shows up at a reasonable rate (20%). But wait! Saw a Chingling? you better send another Pokémon over because the game has randomly decided to not let you get a Feebas this time around! And once you caught it you still need to evolve it. But wait again! Poffins don't exist in Johto! How are you going to max out the beauty stat? Turns out that the only way is to let Daisy Groom your Feebas enough times to raise it's beauty. But she only grooms you Pokémon between 3pm and 4pm each day and she'll only do one groom per day. So you need to do this multiple times in the week and then level it up for it to evolve into the long-wanted Milotic. Most people either trade the Feebas over to raise beauty by Poffins, or grab one by the GTS.

*** But for those who bought a cheap used cartridge (without an instruction manual), not knowing to cut open the door to the Dotted Hole on Six Island in FireRed and LeafGreen is extremely frustrating because it says "cut" on the door, but in Japanese Braille. Name another door you have to cut open, and not just use a key if necessary and walk through it.

** Gible also appears in HeartGold and SoulSilver. In the Safari Zone...but only if you've completed the two prerequisite quests to unlock the ability to combine certain areas, two of which are needed to find Gible...which two areas? Good luck finding that out. Oh, and if, by some bizarre coincidencem you do manage to find these two necessary areas, you need to set them up and then wait a certain number of days for the areas to "level up", increasing the likelihood of finding certain rare Pokémon from 0% to 5%. How many days? ''Over a hundred''.

** Actually, in FireRed and LeafGreen, if you hit L or R during a battle when the button mode is set to "HELP" (which thankfully is the default so maybe somebody hits it setting their Game Boy down for example) then you can see the type effectiveness chart, or go to "what does this mean?" then "Attack" or "Sp. Atk" for a list of the physical or special types.

* With the Gen II remakes HeartGold and SoulSilver, we have a few Pokémon of the third and fourth generations hiding in trees. Now, there are a handful of specimens that are found in very specific trees (and every single tree in the game can be headbutted, so we're talking about thousands of trees). One example: Taillow is found at Cherrygrove, the first city you visit in the game, after a pool of water and over a pile of rocks that can be only climbed after you beat all the 16 gyms. There are four trees, and you need to headbutt the lower left tree. Even then you can still fight other Pokémon. Honestly, how should we know that?

**** I just used Action Replay to get the national and regional Dex completed. Call me acheater if you wish.

** Still here? Well, assume without loss of generality that you're playing Diamond/Pearl (Gen. IV); the process for Gen. III is similar. Here's the sequence a reasonable player with no access to a walkthrough would have been expected to go through if they wanted to get Milotic. First you should have realized, by some epiphany of intuition, that the gigantic lake under Mt. Coronet might be hiding more than Barboach and [[MagikarpPower Magikarp]]. Inspired by this, you should have obviously equipped the Super Rod (there are two other rods) and tried fishing in every single water tile. Because, see, out of the hundreds of water tiles only in FOUR you may encounter anything out of the ordinary at all, and even then only at 35% probability. This means that if you were to try fishing in every single tile you would still end up with squat roughly one time out of five- not that you would know that there is anything special in there to begin with, of course. Now if you're exceptionally lucky you've found some ugly brown fish called Feebas which your Pokédex urges you to ignore and cannot do anything but Splash around. At this point if you have an ounce of GenreSavvy in you you'll go through the painful process of equipping it with Exp. Share and leveling it up, waiting in anticipation until the moment it evolves. Except, it doesn't. After you level it up to the point where you despair of it ever evolving, it should occur to you that you ought to feed this ugly fish blue Poffins (Pokéblock in Gen. III) to make it more beautiful, though again, it's not like the game gives you any incentive to actually do that. If you were to feed it Poffins that were not of high enough quality, or you were unlucky enough to have reeled up a Feebas that just hates blue Poffins, you'll end up with a not quite sufficiently beautiful ugly brown fish which will get you nowhere, and even if it might occur to you that something has gone wrong, you would have to go back to the lake and fish up another one. You might think yourself clever for remembering where you got the last one, but alas, the tiles where it appears are randomized every day. Now, GIVEN that you have acquired this ugly brown fish, and GIVEN that you have managed to feed it beautifying Poffins of sufficient quality, the next time you level up your ugly brown fish it should evolve into Milotic. This is a serious contender for MostTriumphantExample of this trope.

** Wonder why a crucial stat of your Pokémon's seems weak for no justifiable reason? That's because of poor Individual Values (essentially, genes), and/or bad Effort Values (essentially, stat-based experience gained when you battle different Pokémon). The existence of these stats is only vaguely alluded to in-game, and fully understanding the process and its various formulas by oneself without hacking and digging deep into the game files is likely an impossible task. Knowing these stats and understanding them is essential for breeding Pokémon for competitive battling. In fact, this is specifically an Internet Guide Dang It, as even Nintendo's official guides include no information on [=IVs=] or [=EVs=]. Nintendo seems intent on disavowing their existence and making the games' level-up systems seem more like a standard RPG. It's worth noting that being aware of the EV and IV systems isn't required to beat the core game and even achieve HundredPercentCompletion, but considering that the game alludes to and references the hidden stat systems, it would appear that Nintendo expected some players to know about them at some point.
** Something that ''is'' required for HundredPercentCompletion, however, is Shedinja (in Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald as well as the National Dex in every game past Ruby/Sapphire). Shedinja cannot be found in the wild and despite appearing in the Pokédex after Nincada and Ninjask and obviously being from the same evolution line, doesn't evolve from anything. To get it, the player must raise a Nincada to Level 20 and let it evolve with at least one empty slot in their party and at least one Poké Ball of any variety with them. Having the Poké Ball is very likely already, but most players go around with a full party for the entire game as soon as they are able to do so. Shedinja is also never mentioned in any of the games or used by anyone outside of the Battle Tower (where opponents are randomly generated).
*** In Generation IV, it has to be a Poké Ball specifically.
** A few Pokémon evolutions in general are Guide Dang It during in the more generations and especially in the fourth one, with what things like certain stat values, time of day, gender or even location affecting Pokémon evolutions. Want a Glaceon? Well, if you have an Eevee, and happen to level it up near an icy rock on Route 217... Consider that Eevee evolves in seven different ways: Used a a Water Stone on it? It evolves into Vaporeon. Got it too happy during the day? It evolves into Espeon. Got it too happy during the night? Yep, it evolves into Umbreon.

*** Magneton and Nosepass only evolve if leveled up in Mt. Coronet, which apparently exudes a magnetic field that affects the two magnet-based Pokémon. Tragically, ''nowhere in the game is it mentioned that Mt. Coronet is magnetic!''. An NPC in Platinum tells you that certain Pokémon level up at Mt. Coronet, but they never hint as to which Pokémon or that Mt. Coronet is magnetic.
*** Baby Pokémon might count as this: you can only find some Pokémon by breeding their parents. This then requires a [[GenderEqualsBreed female evolution of the baby]]. Which Pokémon are only obtainable therein isn't really explained. To add insult to injury, in the case of any baby introduced from Generation III onwards this also requires the parent to be holding a certain type of incense. Using a Ditto will also work for breeding when you only have a male, but if you're trying to get certain egg moves (another aspect that isn't exactly mentioned in the games) you need the father to know the moves you want inherited, while the mother is the Pokémon you want it to be born as. Then there's also Volt Tackle, which can only be learned as an egg move if bred with a female Pikachu or Raichu carrying a Light Ball.
*** Certain Pokémon only evolve if traded while holding a certain item, or if leveled up holding a certain item. These items aren't labeled as influencing evolution, and many of them have a beneficial effect, so one might never realize they have a second use.
**** Others ''don't'' have any other effect, but are also extremely vague as to what they're used for. For example, the in-game description of the Protector reads, "A protective item of some sort. It is extremely stiff and heavy. It is loved by a certain Pokémon." This item cannot be found on a wild Pokémon, so there are no clues as to which Pokémon is being referred to. [[spoiler:It's Rhydon, which will evolve into Rhyperior if traded while holding one.]] The Reaper Cloth has the same situation, although you ''might'' be able to get a minor hint[[hottip:* :After catching Giratina, if you return to Turnback Cave, an item will be waiting for you in Giratina's room on each return trip, which changes based on how quickly you get there. 16-30 rooms will give you a Stardust (an item that exists only to be sold), 4-15 rooms gets you a Rare Bone (the same, but more valuable), and the minimum 3 rooms will net you an extra Reaper Cloth, which further points toward it belonging to a Ghost type.]], while the Magmarizer and Electirizer, albeit with similarly cryptic in-game descriptions, do not, as they are sometimes held by the wild Pokémon that would use them.
*** Tyrogue will evolve into one of three Pokémon based on whether its Attack and Defense are higher than each other or equal. Strangely, all three evolutions have similar stats and are all offensively-based. Wurmple evolves into one of two Pokémon based on a stat that's never alluded to in the game called personality values. While its evolutions can be caught in the wild, they won't know any offensive moves and will never learn any until their final evolution.
** The ''entire move list'' in the first generation of games was a Guide Dang It, because nowhere in the game did any of those moves get their effects described. So you really had no idea what that new move Charmander just learned actually does, you just know it's a Fire attack with 15 PP. Is it stronger or weaker than that other Fire attack it just forgot? Who knows?
*** And still, in Generation II, you don't know if a move is good or not until you actually learn it. Obviously, when you replace a decent move for Swift (60 power, Normal type and ignores accuracy and evasion modifications), this can be frustrating when you deleted a 100% accurate Normal move with 85 or so power.
** The ins and outs of breeding for movesets is a Guide Dang It all on its own. Breeding can result in babies that know moves from their parents, which results in expanded move pools for most Pokémon. However, which moves can be inherited aren't told anywhere in the game. Some of them can be inferred (it's easy to figure out that you can breed Thunderbolt onto any Pokémon who can learn it via TM), some of them aren't that surprising (Mud Shot can be learned by an awful lot - but throwing mud around isn't the most mindblowing technique), but some are positively mind-boggling (Aron, a Rock/Steel type that weighs over a hundred pounds and eventually evolves into something weighing nearly 800 pounds, can inherit a move called Aerial Ace, a swordsman-inspired move). On top of that, there's the rule that many guides overlook, in that a baby will inherit a level-up move if both parents know it. Valuable for Pokémon with wildly divergent movelists upon level-up (like Seedot) or anyone looking to breed for TournamentPlay (which sometimes imposes level restrictions, preventing you from acquiring moves via LevelGrinding).
*** Diglett, known for never being shown aboveground aside from it's head, can learn Aerial Ace as well, though that's more FridgeLogic...
**** Aerial Ace is called "Turning Swallow Cut" in Japanese. It's a cutting, slashing attack based on the sword technique of the same name by Sasaki Kojiro. Coincidentally, I learned this on Bulbapedia.
** Anyone who got the three legendary golems in Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald ''without'' a guide is also a flat-out liar. Each beast occupies its own inconspicuous cave; these caves are scattered throughout Hoenn. However, to even get into the caves, they need to be unlocked. To unlock them, you need to use Dive in a ''tiny'' patch of deep water on a route at the end of some very fast currents; simply getting to the spot is a result of either trial and error or pure chance. Once you Dive and get into the cavern, you need to be able to read Braille. ''With your eyes''. Though, mercifully, there is a Braille alphabet right outside. On the other hand, you'd need to know Braille to know it was the Braille alphabet. The Braille writing tells you to how to progress - these clues include using Dig ''on a wall'' instead of using it to try to leave the cave like you normally would, as well as putting a Wailord and a Relicanth (two relatively hard-to-get Pokémon that most trainers ''never'' have in their parties, especially not simultaneously) in specific spots in your party. Then you have to FIND the now-open caves. What's even more annoying, each cave as their own little Braille test before you can even get to the Pokémon; one requires you to stand in place, ''not touching your Game Boy'', [[WeWait for two minutes]]. After all that, battling the monsters (who all have mammoth Defense & Special Defense stats) feels like a piece of cake.
*** The instruction manual includes a Braille alphabet, although some versions don't explain why.
**** But for those who bought a cheap used cartridge (without an instruction manual), not knowing to cut open the door to the Dotted Hole on Six Island in FireRed and LeafGreen is extremely frustrating because it says "cut" on the door, but in Japanese Braille. Name another door you have to cut open, and not just use a key if necessary and walk through it.
** [[OneHundredAndEight Spiritomb]], anyone? The part about putting the Odd Keystone into the Ruined Tower is intuitive enough, as examining the latter suggests that something could be put in there and hints at what it is, but the other requirement involves interacting with other people in the Underground at least 32 times. There is one trainer on a nearby route who gives you a hint when you talk to him after beating him, though.
** Finally, there's the Generation IV National Dex. It is unlocked by ''seeing'' (not catching) every Pokémon in the Sinnoh Dex (150 as of Diamond and Pearl--seeing Manaphy, the 151st in the Sinnoh Dex, wasn't necessary--and 210 in Platinum), and to help make this easier, they made it so that every non-legendary Pokémon in the Sinnoh Dex could be seen in a trainer battle at some point during the game. Furthermore, to increase the likelihood that you'd have to beat the game (or come up just short) to do so, the only trainer with a Garchomp, Spiritomb, or Milotic (and in Platinum, you can add Togekiss to this list) is the Pokémon League Champion. However, they didn't always make it entirely evident where to find some of these. Examples of Pokémon that could easily be missed:
*** Wormadam--in the party of a trainer on a part of Route 214 that you might not even end up visiting at all (in between Veilstone City and Lake Valor, since the first time you visit Lake Valor for plot purposes, you'll be coming from Pastoria City), whose gaze can easily be avoided as she isn't facing the main path.
*** Riolu--in the party of a trainer at Veilstone Gym, which means that if you beat the leader without beating this trainer first, good-bye. Platinum remedied this by giving one to another trainer on Route 217, but given the wide-open nature of that route, it's still no sure thing. Did we mention that the only way to get one for yourself is to go through a sidequest in an optional area while keeping a slot in your party open (which also means no catching Pokémon while you're there) and then hatching an egg?
**** Actually, Riolu isn't in Veilstone Gym in Diamond/Pearl, according to Bulbapedia. I didn't see it there either, and I fought every trainer in every gym. However, it is in said egg, and also in the team of a man in a cave on route 204, but you need several HMs to get to him. Doesn't make getting him any easier, though.
***** Geez, it's not exactly tough work either. Iron Island isn't as dilapidated as Victory Road.
*** Palkia (Diamond)/Dialga (Pearl)/Manaphy (Platinum): In the original two, the Pokédex data for the legendary not appearing in your game could be obtained by returning to Celestic Town after Spear Pillar and talking to Cynthia's grandmother. In Platinum, both Dialga and Palkia are seen (and uncatchable) on your initial trip to Spear Pillar, but the expansion of the Sinnoh Dex to 210 means that data for the hidden number 151, Manaphy, must be collected. You can find this data in a similar fashion, but a different place: a book in Mr. Backlot's mansion.
*** Rotom. Without the guide letting you know you can only catch it in the Old Chateau at night, and that you need a certain key to unlock its various forms...you'd pretty much have no idea it even exists.
*** Dialga and Palkia in Platinum. Gaah. First, you must find the Adamant and Lustrous Orbs, located in an out-of-the-way cavern in Mt. Coronet that is unlikely to be discovered by most players. Then, you must travel to the Spear Pillar. Players of Diamond and Pearl know that there is no post-story reason to return to the Spear Pillar except to play the Azure Flute. Said item is currently unobtainable without cheating. Sure, people might want to go to the Spear Pillar just to see if the portal to the Distortion World is still there, but it's not likely that they'd find the orbs first. Did I mention that there are absolutely no hints about any of this?
** Want to have the resident non-legendary GameBreaker Garchomp for yourself? Okay, just catch a Gible. Pokédex says it's in Wayward Cave. You know, that cave you access by cutting down some trees by the Bicycle Path and wandering past the grass there? Yeah... after a couple hours of wandering (and helping Mira out), you'll probably figure out that there's no Gible there. Now go look for an alternate entrance to the cave, one which ''is blocked from view by the Bicycle Path running above you''. Oh, and you probably should have brought a Pokémon with Strength. Then, go to the basement and catch one, while you complete a semi-difficult bike course, at the end of which... oh, so ''that's'' where the Earthquake TM was! And here you probably thought paying 80 BP at the Battle Tower/Frontier was the only way to get it. [[spoiler:Because, of course, without a guide, there's no way you'd know that a Pokémon with the Pickup ability, at Level 91 or higher, had a 1% chance of picking them up, too...]]
*** Gible also appears in HeartGold and SoulSilver. In the Safari Zone...but only if you've completed the two prerequisite quests to unlock the ability to combine certain areas, two of which are needed to find Gible...which two areas? Good luck finding that out. Oh, and if, by some bizarre coincidencem you do manage to find these two necessary areas, you need to set them up and then wait a certain number of days for the areas to "level up", increasing the likelihood of finding certain rare Pokémon from 0% to 5%. How many days? ''Over a hundred''.
** And on the subject of the Safari Zone, there is a GuideDangIt with the Safari Zone itself. When the Warden tells you about objects, he doesn't really mention that you simply have to press "A" in the Safari Zone to place the objects. Thankfully, it's a mild example, but easy to miss if you didn't already know.
** Before all of this, there was the ''original'' GuideDangIt of the series: physical versus special moves. You can hammer your way through the game without knowing the difference, but if you want to fight well, it's the very first thing you have to understand. But ''nowhere'' in the first ''three generations'' of Pokémon games are the nine physical and eight special types actually listed -- not even at the trainer schools! Gen. IV uncoupled physical/special from move types, so it's no longer an issue.
*** Actually, in FireRed and LeafGreen, if you hit L or R during a battle when the button mode is set to "HELP" (which thankfully is the default so maybe somebody hits it setting their Game Boy down for example) then you can see the type effectiveness chart, or go to "what does this mean?" then "Attack" or "Sp. Atk" for a list of the physical or special types.
** Another one, exclusive to [[{{Ptitlem5qiqwn8}} Ruby and Sapphire]]: So it looks like there's a hole in your Hoenn Dex at No. 151. Well, that's fine, you'll probably eventually encounter a trainer with it, or even run into it in the wild. Oh, wait, you've already battled every NPC trainer in the game outside of the Battle Tower? And you've battled them in rematches enough that they've stopped buffing up their teams? And you still haven't seen it? Well that's strange. It's too early in the 'Dex to be a legendary. The ones before and after it in the 'Dex listing have neither evolutions nor baby forms. What could it be? Where could it be?
*** Turns out it's Chimecho. It can only be encountered in one place, the top of Mt. Pyre, which the player will probably only visit when he needs to progress the story. And even when the player is in the area, the grass is out of the way. And even if the player goes to the grass, the chance of encountering a Chimecho is only 1%. So you've got a very rare non-legendary who no one in the game uses or seems to know about hiding in a very out-of-the-way area with no hints that it's there. Well, after going through all that trouble to find this rare Pokémon, is it at least any good? [[spoiler:It has stats befitting of a ComMon.]]