Anti Frustration Features / Pokémon

Works with their own pages:

• Pokémon GO

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Mainline Games | Permanent Changes

Introduced in Generation I

• In every Pokémon game, the Master Ball and HMs cannot be sold to vendors, preventing players from accidentally getting rid of them, and in the latter case being unable to advance.
• The Day Care tends to be located close to a long straight path – often the longest uninterrupted path in the game – to allow players to quickly cycle up and down it to better raise the experience of your Pokémon and, from Gen II onward, get or hatch eggs faster. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire even adds a second Day Care in the Battle Resort, where players can line up with a specific rock and hold one button to continuously bike in a circle, making the process even more hands-free.

Introduced in Generation II

• False Swipe leaves Pokémon with exactly 1 HP no matter how many times you use the move. This makes catching wild Pokémon a LOT easier, especially in this generation where they tend to be underleveled. However, very few Pokémon could learn the move during this generation.^note Farfetch'd, Cubone, Scyther, and their evolutions.
• The games now autosave upon entering the Hall of Fame so you can turn them off to skip the credits without losing your progress.
• If you disabled battle animations in the Generation I games, it would automatically turn them back on during the Champion fight. From these games onward, that no longer happens.

Introduced in Generation III

• Relearning moves from a Pokémon's natural moveset was impossible in Gen I, and in Gen II required you to beat the Pokémon League of the side game Pokémon Stadium 2 with your own team of non-rentals. Starting from Gen III, an in-game NPC will do this for a Heart Scale. These can easily be farmed off of Luvdisc, found scattered across the overworld, and occasionally can be given as a reward from NPCs for doing certain tasks.
• The Soothe Bell was introduced to double up the happiness gain rate of its holder, speeding up the time needed to grind for happiness-based evolutions. This is very helpful since many Pokémon that evolve through this method are Baby Pokémon too weak to grind happiness with by leveling up, and other methods such as massages or using vitamins are either limited or too expensive.
• Starting with this Gen, Running Shoes were introduced that allowed your character to run outdoors by holding the B button, at the cost of increasing the encounter rate and attracting the attention of nearby trainers. It serves as a fantastic stop-gap before getting the Bike much later in the game, and while it isn't as fast as a Bike, that may be a good thing as Bikes tend to be so speedy you can't react fast enough. Starting with Gen VII, the Running Shoes are removed as an item and functionally replaced with the ability to Run (which the player may still have to wait to learn how to do).
• Starting in Emerald, some of the berries introduced will increase a Pokémon's friendship with its trainer at the cost of lowering one of its stats' EVs by a few points. Not only can the berries be regrown, this allows for fixing any mistakes made when Min-Maxing. And their secondary effects can also be stacked with the Soothe Bell.

Introduced in Generation IV

• From Platinum onward, any legendary Pokémon that faint before you catch them will reappear after defeating the Elite Four, and will continue to reappear until captured.
• In the first three generations, a Pokémon that was poisoned would take damage outside of battle for every few steps you took and it could faint outside of battle as well. Poisoned Pokémon now lose the poison effect at 1 HP, preventing them from fainting.
• The Bag of Holding now has a limit of 999 copies of each item instead of 99. There is space for every item in the game, so there's no need to put items in PC storage, which has been removed as a result.
• The map will now show the location of roaming Pokémon without having to find them first, making it way easier to find and catch them.

Introduced in Generation V

• All TMs are infinite use and unable to be sold, incentivizing experimenting with different movesets and Pokémon.
• Whenever a legendary Pokémon needs to be captured for the plot to continue, it will have a catch rate of 45 as opposed to the usual legendary catch rate of 3, making it a more manageable task.
• Players can trade Pokémon that are in their PC, eliminating a rather tedious hassle.
• Finding and evolving Feebas was previously a pain due to finding it being a Luck-Based Mission and having to use Pokéblocks or Poffins to maximise its Beauty stat, and it was rather easy to render it unable to evolve. Gen V gave Feebas the alternate evolution method of being traded with a Prism Scale.

Introduced in Generation VI

• Pokémon can be traded from anywhere without having to visit a Pokémon Center. To keep players from accidentally trading away their only Pokémon that knew a given HM move and getting stuck, Pokémon with HM moves cannot be traded from within the player's party.
• Catching Pokémon now gives the same experience and effort values as if it is defeated.
• Game Freak began to lower the entry barrier to competitive battling, with the introduction of methods to easily manipulate Effort Values. Future generations would have their own unique methods of doing the same, as well as easy ways to manipulate Individual Value stats (starting Gen VII), Natures and Nature stats (starting Gen VII and VIII respectively), Abilities (starting Gen VI), and Hidden Abilities (starting Gen VIII).
• Starting with Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, one set of games per generation will feature a way to obtain all Legendary Pokémon from past entries, foregoing the need for players to trade up from past generations to keep their Dex filled, be it through overworld events, minigames, or side modes.
• Effort values now max out at 252 points instead of 255, meaning that the last 3 points cannot be wasted.^note 4 effort values equal +1 to the actual stat.
• The Global Trade Station has been streamlined. You don't need to have a Pokémon listed as "seen" by the Pokédex to request it (you can just type in the name if you know it), after which you can browse through potential offers and you filter out requests based on whether you have the Pokémon the other person is requesting or if they're "special" (i.e. Event-exclusives) only.
• All Pokémon that can't breed whatsoever (mostly Legendaries and baby Pokémon), are guaranteed at least three perfect stats when you catch it.
• Breeding now allows both parents to pass on Hidden Abilities^note Males can only pass down theirs if bred with a Ditto. and Egg Moves, and the Destiny Knot now guarantees that five IVs from either parent are inherited, making passing down existing perfect IVs much less time-consuming.
• Hatched Pokémon can now relearn Egg Moves they had forgotten. In addition, Event Pokémon can relearn event-exclusive moves they've lost.
• Many moves that Pokémon can only learn at very high levels can simply be obtained from the Move Reminder.
• Your character will turn their head and look at nearby objects of interest such as signs and hidden objects.
• There's a new item called the Ability Capsule that allows you to switch a Pokémon's ability to another one that is available to it, though Hidden Abilities are exempt from this (both in giving your Pokémon that ability or removing it).
• The stats judge who tells you if your Pokémon has any good Individual Values will now also tell you if any of them have any Individual Values of 0, which can be useful for ensuring minimum Speed for Trick Room or Gyro Ball.

Introduced in Generation VII

• HM moves no longer exist. This saves having to keep an HM Slave/HM Mule or filling your team's moveslots with useless moves like Cut and Rock Smash. Now if you need to cross water or smash some rocks, you can call on a rideable Pokémon such as Tauros, Lapras, or Sharpedo. Later games would have similar replacements, such as Pokémon Sword and Shield giving the bike an upgrade that allows it to become amphibious. Meanwhile, more well-liked HMs such as Strength and Surf remain in the game as TMs (and later TRs).
• The new interface shows which moves are effective, non-effective, or super-effective against the opposing Pokémon if you've battled one of its species before; how much a Pokémon's stats have been raised or lowered; and many other variables that players had to memorize in previous games, such as non-volatile status effects (e.g. Leech Seed, Confusion, etc.), how long weather will last, the presence and strength of entry hazards, among others. This makes it so players no longer have to memorize which buffs or debuffs are in effect or recall/look up type charts during battles, which is a boon for both newcomers and series veterans.
• NPCs that battle the player on sight now have visual cues that distinguish them from harmless NPCs. They have a battle pose, and if the player gets close, the screen gains a letterbox effect.
• In previous games, to get the Oval Charm (increases the chance of finding eggs), you need to see all the Pokémon in that game's regional Dex. In Sun and Moon onwards, you just need to win against Game Freak Morimoto.
• Certain Trade-exclusive Pokémon such as Machamp and Gengar can now be freely caught in the wild, though they remain quite rare; while later games will make them easier to find, the Alola games have the additional caveat of them being "SOS Summons".
• Hyper Training allows you to max out the IVs of a Pokémon. It doesn't work for breeding, but that's not its main use anyways: it's actually most useful for difficult-to-acquire, single-specimen genderless Pokémon whose IVs cannot be corrected by breeding at all, notably legendary Pokémon. It also comes with the perk of allowing players to run any type of Hidden Power with "perfect" IVs. In particular, Latios, Magnezone, Alakazam, and Gengar can now freely use Hidden Power Fire and Fighting to deal with Steel and Dark-type Pokémon more effectively without having to give up an incredibly valuable perfect Speed stat.
• When you catch a new Pokémon or try to take an Egg with a full party, you have the option to immediately swap out a member of your team rather than having to backtrack to a PC. If you choose to send a new catch to the PC and it's holding an item, the game will inform you and give you the option to send the item to your bag before the Pokémon is boxed. If you choose to box an existing team member and it's holding an item, the game will also let you take the item first. This feature also allows players to check what nature a Legendary Pokémon has immediately instead of having to wait through a cutscene first.
• In the previous games, if you evolve a Pokémon at a later level than normal, the Pokémon would miss out on any moves that the Pokémon would have learned upon evolution. In Sun and Moon, the Pokémon would instead learn the move after the evolution itself, permitting later evolution and earlier access to moves, given that the Pokémon learns stronger moves at earlier levels if the Pokémon is at an earlier evolutionary stage.
• In a similar vein, the Move Reminder now teaches every move in a Pokémon's level-up learnset, instead of the ones it would have learned at an earlier level, meaning that you no longer have to put off an evolution until the Pokémon learns the move you want.^note Though it will still not allow you to relearn moves that are exclusive to a previous evolution. This also has the added effect of, should you so desire, getting certain Pokémon (the ones that require specific moves) to evolve almost instantly.
• The Pokémon Day Care has been replaced by the Pokémon Nursery, which lets you breed Poké without worrying about their movesets getting overwritten, which used to be a huge annoyance when trying to breed Egg moves.
• The Hidden Power checker is now in the breeding center, saving you a trip when breeding for a particular Hidden Power.
• The stats judge, instead of being an NPC you have to travel to, is now an unlockable PC feature that also shows you all the values in a hexagon chart with labels, with "Best" being a maximum IV and "No Good" being a minimum IV.
• Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Eevee!:
  • Candy crosses over from Pokémon GO, but now act like Vitamins/Wings combined with Rare Candies; they provide a small stat boost and a small bit of experience.
  • The introduction of Pre-existing Encounters means that you can traverse caves without being assailed and worn down by battles that you didn't want to get into. While this game only has preexisting encounters, the later games would use it in conjunction with traditional Random Encounters.
    • The Pokémon Center PC has been superseded by the Pokémon Box Link that can be accessed from the player's Bag at all times, allowing you to manage all your Pokémon and even swap around your party at all times.
  • Mystery Gifts can now be accessed during normal gameplay without having to go back to the main menu, and online features in general have been promoted to a main menu option.
  • The partner Pokémon that follows you can be freely set, independent of party order.

Introduced in Generation VIII

• This game mostly did away with location-based evolutions (though it also introduced some new ones), making it possible for such Pokémon to evolve via stones.
• The Escape Rope is now an infinite-use Key Item, rather than the consumable item of past games, meaning you no longer have to waste money in stocking them.
• For Shiny hunters, "strong-looking" Pokémon will never be shiny, preventing situations where you are forced to run or faint a shiny Pokémon all because it wouldn't lower its guard.^*You cannot catch a Pokémon if it won't lower its guard
• The Nickname Rater, Move Reminder and Move Deleter are now a single NPC found in every Pokémon Center instead of being three individuals scattered across the map. The Move Reminder especially tended to only be available near the end of the game, forcing players to wait a long time if they accidentally passed up or got rid of a move they wanted back. There's also no charge for any of these services, so there's no need to stockpile Heart Scales.
  • Evolved Pokémon will now always have all of their pre-evolution's moves available in their learnset, letting you evolve your Pokémon without worry and then hit up the Move Reminder for any level-up moves you missed out on that used to be exclusive to pre-evolutions, like Superpower for Flygon and Vibrava.
  • Moves learned from Technical Records (which are single-use, much like TMs in older generations) are permanently added to a Pokémon's move list, allowing them to be re-learned from the Move Reminder if forgotten. This means you don't have to worry about finding another TR to re-learn a Record move you deleted by accident, or if you replaced it with another move for a particular situation.
• Mints change the bonuses for Natures to what you want (though without changing the Nature itself, making this effectively Hyper Training for natures). While quite expensive at 50 BP apiece, they are great for cases where chaining catches/breeds for a specific Nature is not ideal (or even possible, such as Legendaries and Gigantamaxes).
• Unlike previous games, where you could only change Rotom's form by visiting a specific location in the overworld, there is now a Key Item called the Rotom Catalog that can be used to change Rotom's form at any time outside of battle simply by using it from your Bag.
• Pokémon that can evolve via level up are no longer locked out of it forever if they reach Level 100 — a Rare Candy will trigger the evolution directly.
• Pokémon that require happiness to evolve now have a lower requirement for it because of how the mechanic has been reworked.
• Previously, you can only use vitamins (Protein, Calcium etc) to EV train your Pokémon if that Pokémon's EV for the respective stat is 100 or less. As each vitamin only gives 10 EV, this means that you can only feed 10 vitamins of a particular stat to any Pokémon before you have to painstakingly search for EV farming spots to max out your Pokémon's EV. Gen VIII removes the "100-EV-or-less" limit, thus allowing you to simply farm money to buy lots of vitamins to instantly max out your Pokémon's EV with no battling needed.
• The Crown Tundra DLC added Ability Patches, which let you give a Pokémon its Hidden Ability if it has one, removing the last bit of RNG from building a competitive team.

Introduced in Generation IX

• All consumable held items except Berries are now returned to the holder upon the end of every battle, even those outside of PVP or Battle Facilities.
• The Ability Patch was buffed since Sword and Shield so that it can now be used to change a Hidden Ability back to a regular Ability.
• Shiny Pokémon will not be affected by overworld conditions that would normally make them more difficult to catch, such as Sandygast melting in rain, Voltorb self-destructing, and Jigglypuff and Hoppip getting blown away by heavy wind. Though for species that have a high tendency to flee, such as Stantler and Mudbray will still attempt to flee due to being programmed to flee from any trainers that gets too close to them, making their Shinies far harder to catch.
• Additionally, the new Auto-Battle feature excludes shiny Pokémon, allowing you to easily clear an area without having to worry about shinies getting lost. It also doesn't use up your Pokémon's PP.

Mainline Games | Game-Specific Features

Generation I

• Losing the first trainer battle of the game doesn't cost you any money. This is explained in the remakes by Professor Oak himself paying the prize money in your place if you lose, since the player character wasn't aware of any "prize money" system at the time.
• Due to the lack of moves like False Swipe or Hold Back in this generation, the catch mechanics are more lenient with how low you have to drop a Mon's HP to catch one. Generally, you'll get the maximum catch rate as long as you drop its health to 1/3rd or less.
• In Yellow, Brock's Rock/Ground types are resistant/immune to the starter Pikachu's Normal/Electric attacks. Thus, several Pokémon are made available with improved movesets before Brock's gym as compared to Red/Blue. The Nidoran line learns the Fighting-type Double Kick much earlier, the Fighting-type Mankey is added and learns a Fighting-type move much earlier, and Butterfree learns the Psychic-type move Confusion immediately upon leveling up.

Generation II

• In Violet City, you can trade a Bellsprout for an Onix. Bellsprout can be easily found before entering Violet City, and the first two gyms you battle specialize in Flying and Bug-types respectively, making this a nicely-placed trade. In addition, Onix will prove much more useful than the more-common Geodude thanks to its new evolution, Steelix (provided you have someone or a second game console to trade with).
• There's also a trainer in the Goldenrod City Department Store who will trade you a Machop for a Drowzee (in Crystal, the trainer will instead ask for Abra). Drowzee and Abra both can be found just before you enter Goldenrod, Machop is a fighting-type, and the one you're given is female. All of which make for some major convenience since the gym leader of Goldenrod focuses on normal-types and has a female team who uses the move Attract, which, if your Pokémon is a male, can prevent them from attacking for several turns (in addition to being considered one of the most difficult bosses in the game).
• Ditto is conveniently located on Route 34, right where the Day-Care Center is. Ditto can breed with most Pokémon regardless of their gender or egg group, which allows for very early breeding access and makes it easier to breed in general. The catch, however is that Ditto has a low encounter rate.
• Bill will call you to notify that your PC box has been filled up and needs to be switched in order to capture wild Pokémon, which beats having to figure it out yourself like in the previous generation.

Generation III

• In Ruby and Sapphire the Sky Pillar has sections with cracked floor tiles that force you to use the Mach Bike to traverse over them without falling through. Since Emerald added an event that requires you to come for Rayquaza's aid to complete the story, the cracked tiles are absent on your first visit.

Generation IV

• Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum
  • Platinum offered many quality-of-life updates from the original Diamond & Pearl, like making the Old Chateau Rotom obtainable after the second gym as opposed to the postgame.
  • In Platinum, the Veilstone Department store sells Poffins of various flavor combinations for $6400 apiece. While these are rather middling in terms of contest stat growth, and thus not useful for making a Pokemon good to use in contests, they CAN be used to max out Feebas's beauty stat if you have the cash, making it far easier to evolve into Milotic. Getting the Feebas in the first place though? That's another matter entirely.

• Heart Gold and Soul Silver
  • All of the fully evolved Johto starters can learn Rock Climb, which is mandatory to reach Red at the top of Mount Silver. This makes it so you won't ever have to take an HM Slave into the game's True Final Boss / Super Boss.

Generation V

• Various dungeons have Doctor or Nurse Trainers who, when talked to after being defeated, will completely heal the player's Pokémon free of charge. Handy if you're halfway through a dungeon and don't want to backtrack to a Pokémon Center.
• Black 2 and White 2 added the option to automatically use Repels if one runs out while exploring.

Generation VI

• Each of the attractions on the Pokémon Global Link can give players items that are one-of-a-kind or cost a lot of BP. The attractions only cost 100 PokéMiles to use, which can easily be gained through Wonder Trade.
• The kinds of Pokémon you can get are specifically arranged so that, with some trading between the various Generation VI games, you can complete the National Pokédex without having to import any Pokémon from previous generations despite this being possible through PokéTransport. Granted, you still need to do the latter in order to obtain Mythical Pokémon, though they still won't count towards your completion rate (save for Deoxys).
• If you raised the affection levels of a Pokémon in Pokémon-amie, then traded it from X and Y to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire or vice-versa, the Pokémon will still have the same affection for its original trainer if it is traded back.
• Pokémon X and Y:
  • To aid in capturing Pokémon early on, the game gives you the TM for False Swipe a little after beating the first Gym.
  • The Exp. Share is also obtained right after you beat the first gym, and has returned to the Exp.All's roots of granting the entire party experience. Unlike the Exp.All, however, where the player would have to potentially scroll through multiple consecutive messages each describing specifically how much Exp. every non-participating Pokémon received, the Exp. Share now only shows one additional message if it is enabled, thus making total party level-ups much faster.
  • There's a PC at the lab where Pokémon fossils are revived, so you don't have to walk to the Pokémon Center just to make space in your team. If you don't have a space open the Mon will just be deposited into the PC.
  • Just got the HM Surf? Somehow don't have a Water Pokémon or other Surf user by this point? Just right next to the river you need to cross to continue the game, an NPC gives you a free Lapras.
  • In the first forest area, one of your friends follows you everywhere and offers to heal your Pokémon whenever you like. Later on, NPCs offer the same somewhere along the longer paths so you don't have to trek back so far to the next Pokémon Center.
  • Berry cultivation has been massively streamlined, with the player given one big field for it a stone's throw from a Fly target instead of having to scramble all over the map for multiple smaller patches. Crop yields have also been pretty much doubled, and there are new ways to obtain new types of berries. Berry plants can no longer become permanently unharvestable, either, so you won't be at risk of permanently losing a rare berry by planting it.
  • The Safari of this game is pretty much interface friendly unlike before. It now has set Pokémon depending on the friend you picked, and you can engage the Pokémon like a normal battle rather than being limited to tossing items. Plus, the Pokémon you get there have two perfect IVs of random stats and may have its hidden Ability, with better chance of that if the friend owning the zone is online!
  • Getting Hidden Abilities is now easier, as horde battles may have one or two Pokémon with their hidden ability.
• Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire:
  • The DexNav, which allows you to see a wild Pokémon's Nature, Ability, first move (some of which can be Egg Moves), level, hold item, and even number of perfect IVs before you find and capture it, cutting down tremendously on Save Scumming and breeding for the kind of Pokémon you want. Even better? The odds of finding said Pokémon increase the more times you encounter its species in battle.
  • Every O-Power except for the Hatching Power is obtained in Mauville's Pokémon Center, though each one requires progressing through the story first.
  • Granite Cave has been redesigned so that Steven is right at the entrance, making the rest of the cave optional. In addition, the darkness in the lower floors is negligible, and can easily be navigated without Flash.
  • It's now possible to own both the Mach Bike and Acro Bike at the same time, although you're only allowed to do so after beating the game. Still, it beats having to constantly run back and switch bikes to get through different areas.
  • Pokéblocks are considerably simplified and easier to understand. The idea of them having feel is gone and they can only have two levels, you're not dependent on what berries NPCs throw in to get the color you want, and there's no need to play a minigame. Just open up the Pokéblock Kit, pop in four berries of your choice (with the game now pointing out which ones increase which contest stats), and out pop four Pokéblocks of the predominant color in the blend (or a rainbow block if four different ones are used). Further, there's no limit to how many Pokéblocks a Pokémon can eat now and their preference isn't affected by Natures, so feel free to stuff them full of basic-level blocks as much as you want if you can't get your hands on plus ones. This also makes it much easier to evolve Feebas.
  • Several points in the game that required backtracking in the originals now give you an option to just travel there immediately. For example, after beating Flannery your rival will offer to travel with you to Petalburg City so you can fight Norman.
  • The cracked floor tiles found in Granite Cave and Sky Pillar that required the Mach Bike have been completely removed, making traversing them much easier.
  • Getting Feebas is no longer a Guide Dang It!, as it can be found anywhere on Route 119's river with any of the fishing rods. Alternatively, just fish in the shadow under a certain bridge during the day, and you will find Feebas all the time. If it's night, you can fish it by a rock in the southern part of the route instead.
  • The Safari Zone is now free, doesn't have a step limit, and allows you to catch Pokémon the old-fashioned way, meaning no more fleeing Pokémon.
  • If you couldn't catch Kyogre or Groudon, they will respawn in the Cave of Origin after beating the Elite Four. Deoxys will spawn at the top of Sky Pillar if you couldn't catch it during Delta Episode.
  • The ice tile puzzles in Wallace's gym stay solved if you fall through the floor on the next one and need to climb back up; in the original games, a fall meant starting over.
  • Surfing the ocean routes is made more manageable: encounter rates are lower, there are Ace Trainers so you're not just fighting Water Pokémon, the PokéNav map on the bottom screen makes it significantly easier to figure out where you're going, and movement speed is faster (and can be increased further by Surfing on a Sharpedo).
  • You can use Fly to travel to any location now, not just towns. You still need to walk to the specific part of that location you want to get to, but it's a huge cut to travel time. After fighting the title Legendary in the Cave of Origin, you get the Eon Flute so you can use Latias/Latios to Soar without even needing them in your party. Without even needing them in your game, in fact.
  • Since catching Rayquaza is now mandatory to complete the game, its catch rate has been increased significantly.
  • None of the TMs require Battle Points to purchase, thus making it possible to collect them all without Battle Resort grinding.
  • Berry farming is much more convenient than in X and Y. Berry yields are much larger on average and there is no more need to weed and get rid of pests. There are also more berry plots (including a large garden with 24 plots) and with the ability to fly to routes it is easy to maintain many plants. The PokéNav Plus also has an app that keeps track of all the berries you planted and lets you know if any of them are ready to harvest without having to go there.
  • In addition, a few more NPCs that give berries were added compared to the original games. Some secret base trainers also provide berries when using their special skill. Also, audience members in the contests halls reward you items, including berries, when you win a Pokémon contest. This makes obtaining particularly rare berries a lot easier.
  • Rainy weather no longer prevents Sweet Scent from triggering Hordes like in X and Y, since it is almost always raining on Route 119.
  • Many players find the "Withdraw" and "Deposit" Pokémon options in the PC to be inferior to the "Organize" option below them, which does both along with other features. After meeting Lanette, players can ask her to put the "Organize" option at the top of the list to make it the default option.
  • The game's local Stat Judge is also located in the Pokémon Center just adjacent to the Day Care, allowing min-maxers to quickly check the IVs of their newly-hatched Pokémon without having to travel between locales, unlike in X and Y.

Generation VII

• Pokémon Sun and Moon and Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon:
  • Obtaining all the version-exclusive legendary Pokémon has never been an easy feat for those without another player or 3DS to help them. While the GTS has helped in some cases, if the trade requirements aren't completely bogus, you'd have to give up a one-of-a-kind legendary Pokémon. Sun and Moon helps out by giving you multiple copies of several version-exclusive Pokémon. You can obtain a second Solgaleo/Lunala in the post-game, and you are required to catch multiple specimens of Ultra Beasts as well, which can make trading for the other version much easier.
  • Poké Pelago in the Gen VII Alola games is extremely useful when you level each of the islands up, but special mention needs to go to Isle Aplenny, which takes the berry growing mechanics of past games and streamlines it. Instead of having to manually watch and water them, your boxed Pokémon take care of that for you. Once you've fully leveled that island up, you can plant 18 berries and expect a full yield when the berries are done growing. Poké Pelago can also be accessed from the menu once you've unlocked it, so you don't need to memorize where you planted what berry.
    • The Poké Pelago in general helps cut down on having to travel to four different locations to do some tedious things. It has a Berry Farm that no longer requires checking in to get the max yield, a cave that can get you various items, including evolution stones, a training area that can not only level up Pokémon but also their stat EVs, and finally a Hot Springs that not only helps raise Friendship of Pokémon but can slowly hatch Eggs as well.
  • When using Z-Power, if more than one attack will use the unique Z-Move, but one will make the Z-Move more powerful than the other, the game will mark the Z-Move that has more power with a glowing filter.
  • The Rotom Pokédex helps keep track of the player's objectives, which in previous games could sometimes be unclear. It also activates when a Pokémon is registered via trading or evolution, something it did not do in previous games, the information becoming more readily available.
    • The Rotom Pokédex and QR codes allow you to better track down wild Pokémon, down to the specific patch of grass they can appear in.
  • Pokémon Refresh lets you heal status effects without using up precious items or backtracking to a Pokémon Center, which also means you won't need as many items to begin with since many players wait until after they finish a battle before healing up.
  • Poké Beans can be "bought" by purchasing a drink at the cafe - the drink itself doesn't seem to actually have an effect other than receiving some beans from it. However, you can only receive 12 of them once a day.
  • The post-game allows a Fast-Forward Mechanic, by way of traveling to a parallel universe with a twelve hour difference, to bypass all the time-restricted events such as encounters and Zygarde cell collection.
  • You can take a job once per day to remove Pyukumuku from the beach and receive 20,000 Pokédollars, cutting down on the money grinding and having to go though the Battle Buffet and Elite four runs. In addition, you sometimes receive sellable items from some Pre-existing Encounters and by fishing and breaking rocks.
  • The two versions of the game allow you to obtain multiple copies of the version-exclusive Ultra Beasts and legendary, allowing you to trade them for the ones you're missing.
  • Due to how helpful the Move Reminder is and how scarce Heart Scales were in previous generations (forcing players to constantly hunt and catch Luvdisc in the hope that they would be holding one), Sun and Moon gives players a number of Heart Scales every time they visit the local Island restaurants and buy a meal. Unfortunately, this isn't pointed out to the player and they can easily run right past the restaurants as they're never required to enter them, thus being a bit of a Guide Dang It!. In addition, they can also be a tad pricey at times (with Sushi High Roller costing 4,000 per meal). Luckily, if the player defeated the local Kahuna, then once a day, the last item on each menu can be ordered for free, since the Kahuna pays for them. The Kahunas aren't interested in keeping their Heart Scales, so the player also receives double the amount than usual.
  • The Ability Capsule costs a whopping 200 BP in the 6th Generation for an item that only works once and doesn't give you access to Hidden Abilities. In these games, their price was reduced to 100 BP.
  • Unlike most Legendary Pokémon, Tapu Koko will reappear without defeating the Elite Four if the player defeats it for the first time as the player has to fight Tapu Koko before the credits roll.
  • Getting the Shiny Charm (increases the chance of finding shiny Pokémon) is tougher, since you need to obtain every Pokémon in the National Dex. Luckily, event-exclusives such as Mew are optional for this purpose, though that doesn't stop some people from going for "true" 100% Completion anyway. Again, Sun and Moon makes this more manageable, since you just need to register everything in the Alola Dex (there being no National Dex in these games), cutting down the number of Pokémon needing to be obtained from about 800 to about 300 and not locking out people lacking access to Pokémon Bank.
  • Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon made getting battle points easier. One criticism of the original pair was that Battle Tree regular battles would throw the same fully-trained Pokémon with tough, competitive movesets, items, and abilities at you that Super Battles do, and when you start off, all you're likely to have is a team of haphazardly-trained adventure Pokémon with imperfect stats ^note In the previous generation, regular battles only had you square off against unevolved or low-tier Pokémon to compensate for this limitation, forcing you to pretty much have a competitive team to get items to breed competitive teams. These games make it so that Pokémon over Level 50 are not de-leveled to 50 in regular battles (along with allowing otherwise banned Pokémon), letting you use level advantage to overcome faults in training and stats and get a strong start. They also introduce the Mantine Surf minigame which also awards battle points, letting you skip the Battle Tree altogether.
  • Mantine Surfing also addresses one of the other problems with BP in past games. Past games generally only let BP be acquired in Battle Facilities, which often use advanced battle techniques, and some games only had them available in the post-game. Mantine Surfing is available from a quarter of the way through the game and does not require strong Pokémon with good battle techniques, letting anyone get BP. And while certain techniques are still locked off until the post-game, others aren't, allowing players to pick up some cool coverage moves for their Pokémon along the way, too.
  • Poké Pelago's Isle Aphun now has a "Play Longer" option in the Ultra games, which will cause Mohn to automatically check the structure for you and allow you to set the playtime again, making the whole ordeal of taking at least one Pokémon out a lot less harrowing.
  • At Team Rainbow Rocket's Castle, you're required to solve a memory game, but later versions have you engaged in a battle in an attempt to distract you. If this works and you have to do the puzzle again, you won't have to do the battles either.
  • Sun and Moon didn't have many options when it came to end-game leveling. In USUM, wild Chansey were added as ambush encounters in Poni Plains, and they give tremendous amounts of experience when defeated and can easily be chained through SOS battles. Even better, they have a chance of calling Blissey as allies, which have the highest base experience yield in the game, period. They also know only two attacking moves, Egg Bomb and Fling, with the former having a paltry 75% accuracy and the latter only working if the user is holding a Lucky Egg, itself a rarity, and both run off the line's pathetic physical attack stat, meaning they won't be able to do much damage even over longer battles.
  • Having trouble with the Ultra Warp Ride because of motion controls? There's an Aether employee in Heahea City that allows you to switch controls to the Circle Pad instead.
  • If you're having trouble with the boss battle against Ultra Necrozma, a simple and rather comical solution is the Zorua that can be caught at the Trainer's School way back on the first island. Level it up, teach it Toxic, and you've got a handy A.I. Breaker that turns the toughest battle of the series into an outright joke.
• Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Eevee!:
  • Koga's gym in Fuchsia City requires the player to have registered at least 50 Pokémon in their Pokédex before they can challenge him. Conveniently, GO Park is also located in the city where the gym resides, so if players are short on Pokémon by the time they get to him, they can transfer their Pokémon from Pokémon GO to reach the amount required. This is also how the player can obtain Meltan and Melmetal, who just so happen to be immune to Koga's Poison-type.
  • CP crosses over from GO, but now serves as a simplified way to show a Pokémon's stats, which makes finding a strong Pokémon of a given species much easier.
  • Your partner Pokémon will wag its tail when a hidden item is nearby, rather than forcing the player to switch to using a dedicated Itemfinder. Small follower Pokémon will also sniff them out for you.
  • Because the game requires you to have plenty of Pokéballs for leveling up your party via catches, defeating trainers will give you both money and Pokéballs (except for the Elite 4 and Champion. However, at that point, money should no longer be an issue).
  • Nicknames can now be changed freely rather than depending on a specific NPC.
  • Especially large or small Pokémon now have auras in the overworld to make them easier to find if the player wants to go hunting them. Shiny Pokémon also have a unique aura too, and being shown on the overworld makes them more easily found.
  • There is a Fortune Teller in Celadon City who will ask you what colors of flower you would like and don't like. This allows you to forcefully restrict the possible Natures of Wild Pokémon at the cost of 10,000 Pokédollars, and is effective for 24 hours in real time, essentially allowing you to easily get whatever Nature Pokémon you want.
  • Since many Pokémon can be selected to be sent to the Professor at once, if you select a Shiny Pokémon, there will be an extra confirmation prompt asking if you’re sure you want to transfer that Pokémon.
  • Your partner Pikachu/Eevee cannot be shiny and always has perfect IVs, mostly removing any need to soft-reset to get the one you want. You can see its gender almost immediately after starting the game (by looking at its tail; female partner Eevee has a heart-shaped gender marker similar to Pikachu's), and partner Eevee has a 1/1 gender ratio instead of the normal 1/7 female/male, so getting your preferred gender takes little time and can be set up before the game technically begins. Its Nature is still random and unknown until a few minutes in, although its stats are boosted enough that this doesn't make a whole lot of difference anyway.
  • Much like the past core series games, obtaining Mythical Pokémon are not required to complete the Pokédex; however, this also applies to Master Trainers in regards to unlocking the Grand Master title, meaning acquiring the Master Titles for Mew, Meltan, and Melmetal are not necessary to unlock the Grand Master title.
  • Something that isn't directly pointed out but is still useful nevertheless, has it so catching a specific species of Pokémon becomes gradually easier the more of said species you catch throughout the entire game. Pokémon that were once difficult to catch with Ultra Balls eventually become easy to catch using regular Poké Balls alone after having caught a certain number of them, though this usually takes least a hundred or more of the same species. If needed, so long as you send these Pokémon to Professor Oak, every time you transfer a particular species he'll inform you of how many you've caught and sent to him total.

Generation VIII

• Pokémon Legends: Arceus:
  • You do not need to complete all the tasks in a Pokémon's PokéDex entry for it to count is as "complete"; you only need to do enough to raise its research level to 10. Completing every single task instead counts as a "perfect" entry, which makes a Shiny of that species more likely to spawn. Moreover, the game considers the PokéDex finished so long as you have caught one of every Pokémon regardless of research level, cutting down on the time needed to access the fight against Arceus.
  • Since Shaymin and Darkrai are only accessible via Old Save Bonus, they are the only Pokémon (aside from the similarly Mythical Manaphy and Phione, who, while not requiring an Old Save Bonus, still require information you're intended to get from owning Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl) that do not need to be caught to fight against Arceus.
  • If you accidentally knock out a Legendary Pokémon, they will immediately respawn to full health just so you don't have to reset the game to try catching them again.
  • Evolving a Pokémon doubles as catching the resulting evolution, and by extension, counts towards any related research task (e.g., catching a Pokémon at certain times of day can be fulfilled by having its pre-evolution evolve at that time instead).
  • Most of the research tasks require specific Pokémon to perform specific moves in battle. Fortunately, the game only requires you to just see a Pokémon use the move and not actually have to defeat opposing Pokémon. Moreover, seeing enemy Pokémon perform certain moves as well will count towards the research task as well. The same logic also applies to strong/agile style moves.
  • The Trading Post in Jubilife Village sells an item called a Linking Cord, which you can use to evolve Pokémon that only evolve when you trade them, like Machoke, Haunter, or Kadabra. Furthermore, trade-evolving Pokémon that evolve by being traded with a designated item are now simply evolved by having the item used on them without trading them, said items also being sold at the Trading Post.
  • All of the items at the Trading Post can also be found else where in the game as random drops you can gain from exploring Space-Time Distortions, breaking stones, digging with Ursaluna, or purchasing from Ginter, meaning you don't necessarily have to grind for Merit Points. Speaking of, NPC satchels are periodically scattered around the overworld, so you can still collect them and obtain Merit Points even when playing offline.
  • You can freely change a Pokémon's name and moveset at any time, without the need of an NPC as in previous games. A Move Tutor in Jubilife Village will also teach it moves for a fee.
  • You can manually trigger when an evolution occurs for every Pokémon, not just the ones that require evolution stones, in case you want to work on research tasks that involve it using certain moves. Additionally, if a Pokémon you've just caught already meets the conditions for evolution, you can evolve it immediately instead of having to raise it to the next level or (if it's at Level 100 already) use a rare candy (at level 100) like in previous entries.
  • Another first in the series (not counting Pokémon Colosseum or its sequel), although a minor one. If you are fighting multiple wild Pokémon at once, you can throw a ball whenever you want and catch whichever Pokémon you want instead of having to faint all but one.
  • You don't have to beat a frenzied Noble Pokémon all in one go if you're having trouble with it. If you black out, there's an option to restart with progress (meaning that the frenzy bar will retain the damage you've done to it) except you and your Pokémon will be returned to full health.
    • In addition to this, blacking out against a Noble Pokémon does not incur the item loss penalty that blacking out anywhere else in the game does.
  • Primarily to prevent Pokémon contained in Heavy Balls from being a liability or inconvenience in the field, Heavy Balls and Feather Balls that contain Pokémon will instead behave like standard Poké Balls when thrown — as in, the Heavy Ball will travel further than the few feet in front of you it usually travels when trying to catch a Pokémon with it.
  • Pokémon caught while you are exiled can still be reported to the Professor when you are reinstated in the Galaxy Team, meaning there’s no reason to hold off on catching Pokémon because you will still get funds from them just at a later point in time.
  • Pokémon which require items or high happiness to evolve and don't appear in the wild can still be caught either in space-time distortions, flying around in specific locations (like Togetic or Crobat) or in the form of respawning Alphas (including the three Sinnoh Starters). The only exception are the Alphas from the lake trials, which will disappear after you catch or defeat them. The only Pokémon that you absolutely need to evolve yourself are most of the ones with Hisuian forms. Even in that case, you can find their pre-evolved forms with high levels, so you can just catch and evolve them immediately, like Zoroark.
  • As of the "Daybreak" update, Massive Mass Outbreaks, which have the potential to spawn several rare Pokémon in one go, making it much easier and faster to complete various research tasks such as "Number Captured" and "Number Defeated" for those going for 100% Completion.
  • All Alpha Pokémon have a roar that forcibly dismounts the player from their Ride Pokémon, and as a form of mercy, this does not apply to Basculegion and Braviary, which would probably dump the player into the water or cause them to fall from a damaging height if they did.
  • In Release Multiple mode while looking through your pastures, to avoid accidentally marking any Legendaries, Mythicals or Shiny variants and subsequently releasing them, the game will bring a confirmation screen up asking if you really want to do this.
  • The game's day-and-night cycle is determined by an in-game clock instead of what time it is in the real world (1 minute IRL = 1 hour in-game), so it's now possible to catch and/or evolve certain Pokemon without losing sleep nor mess with the Switch's system settings. Additionally, taking a rest in the tent gives you the option skip to certain time periods, so you can do your business sooner.
  • If you are Shiny hunting, Shiny Pokémon will have an audio and visual cue pop up while you're in the field, so it makes it easier to catch them. This also helps during massive breakouts if you are hunting for a shiny rare Pokémon.

Generation IX

• Pokémon Scarlet and Violet:
  • Tera Pokémon in the overworld cannot be caught in their Terastallized state and have to be broken out of it first by reducing it to low HP (around 25% of max HP). To prevent players from accidentally knocking them out in the process, the Tera Pokémon cannot be dropped below the HP threshold while it is Terastallized, and if your Pokémon attacks first, the attack that breaks the Terastallization will make the Tera Pokémon skip its turn.
  • Due to being catchable only from Event-only raids, both Walking Wake and Iron Leaves are not required to complete the Blueberry Pokédex.
  • After clearing the Indigo Disk story, talking to Briar will allow you to use your Tera Orb without needing to recharge it, saving countless trips to the Pokémon center or the self-healing stations for tera orb recharging.
  • The top bread is not needed to get the full effect of the sandwiches, meaning if you made your sandwich ingredients piled up and you believe that the top bread could topple it and ruin the desired effects, you may toss it aside and the sandwich will still give you your desired effect.

Other Games

Spinoffs

• In Pokémon Colosseum, if you fail to snag a Shadow Pokémon from an enemy trainer, you had to refight that trainer — in the case of bosses, with noticeably improved teams, much later in the game. In the sequel, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, a failure to snag resulted in said Shadow Pokémon being stolen by Miror B, a preferable fight because a) his team was considerably weak throughout the entire game, save for what is essentially a Superboss fight for 100% Completion, and b) his battle music was one of the best tracks in the series. Additionally, a lot of late-game Shadow Pokémon in Gale of Darkness are ones that are hard to get in the main Gen 3 games, such as Tauros. Provided you snag them, you'll have to spend less time in the Safari Zone, where catching Pokémon is noticeably different and harder.
  • Additionally, Shadow Pokémon in both Colosseum and XD have had their catch rates adjusted to create a smoother difficulty curve. In most cases this results in the Pokémon being easier to catch than they would be in the wild.
• In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, if your team or client is defeated or otherwise fails to clear a dungeon, your money and/or items in the team's Treasure Bag are lost, but any items in storage and money deposited in the bank are safe.
  • In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers, failing Drenched Bluff (your first mission as guild members) twice will prompt an extra scene where Wigglytuff summons your team to his office late at night to give them a Reviver Seed, an Oran Berry and a Max Elixir.
  • In Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, you can still complete the dungeon even if your client is defeated and you have no Reviver Seeds left. Also, TMs can now be used in the overworld, meaning you no longer had to bring the Pokémon into the dungeon just to teach it the move.
• The ball saver in Pokémon Pinball is activated at the beginning of a new ball and for the first 60 seconds of the Catch 'Em and Evolution Modes.
• Pokémon Sleep:
  • If you forget to perform a sleep session on a given day, you have the option to record your sleep data manually, which will still give you a small reward, such as a second Bonus Biscuit for your next actual sleep session, even though you can't get sleep research or other benefits. Premium Pass players can also gain Sleep Points as if they had completed a normal sleeping session, but to prevent obvious abuse you can only get sleep points this way once per day.
  • Shiny Pokémon can show up in the game, and they're just as rare as they are in the main series. Because of this, they'll always show up hungry and are instantly befriended after feeding them just one Biscuit, regardless of its strength.
  • A Pokémon's Friendship Gauge is carried over to its next visit, so you can continue filling it up. It's also shared among the same species if more than one visits your Camp, so if one gets full, you can continue filling up the Gauge by feeding the other. However, you can't do this to befriend more than one Pokémon at the same time, since completely filling up one species' Friendship Gauge won't do the same for the other.
  • If a Pokémon with a sleep style you already recorded appears in your camp, you can skip the recording process and have the game automatically snapshot all the already recorded Pokémon.
  • If a Pokémon's carrying capacity hits its maximum, any overflow Berries that would have been gathered will automatically be converted to Drowsy Power for Snorlax so they aren't wasted. This does not apply to Ingredients, however, so you are still required to check in every few hours to ensure you don't run low on reserves.
  • Some Pokémon who evolve by level-up have their minimum evolution levels reduced in this game. For example, Squirtle evolves into Wartortle at Lv. 12 instead of Lv. 16.
  • The amount of energy your Pokémon recovers is based on your Sleep Score for the day. The Recovery Incense doubles the amount of energy your Pokémon recovers in a sleep session, which greatly helps if you know your next sleep won't be too good. Additionally, Boxed Pokémon recover energy equivalent to 5% of your Sleep Score, allowing them to recharge bit by bit each day.
  • Certain Pokémon will appear based on your sleep style, which can be frustrating if you're looking to get specific Pokémon since you normally cannot control how you sleep. Certain events throw the player a bone by having any Pokémon show up regardless of your sleep style for the night.
  • The number of ingredients that can go in the cooking pot doubles on Sundays, allowing players who haven't unlocked higher pot levels the space to make larger recipes.
  • Originally, your Pokémon couldn’t recover energy without either a team member providing an energy boost or you giving them an Energy Pillow, which restores 50% of their energy. An update now allows your team to recover a little energy through meals you make for Snorlax. The amount of energy they gain varies depending on how much they have before the meal.
  • You can still track your sleep during maintenance, and your sleep tracking won't be interrupted if the maintenance period begins during it.

Trading Card Game

• The Pokémon Trading Card Game Online highlights cards in your hand which are able to be used since they can interact with cards on the field (for example, you can't play the card Field Blower, which removes tools and stadium cards, if there isn't at least one of those on either side of the field), which also serves to prevent accidentally wasting cards. The feature also enforces the once-per-turn limit of being able to attach energy and playing supporter cards, and also highlights any Pokémon on your bench which haven't used their once-per-turn abilities yet.

ROM Hacks

• Renegade Platinum and Blaze Black 2 Redux/Volt White 2 Redux have NPCs introduced part way through the game that drastically streamline and speed up the level grinding and EV training process. Of course, this does little more than make it your own damn fault when you get floored by Crasher Wake and Drayden later.
• Eternal X and Wilting Y halve the EXP you get from beating Pokemon to balance the EXP Share. This also makes the early game extremely grindy, however. Don't be surprised if takes you 20 hours to get to the 2nd Gym. To alleviate it somewhat, the first restaurant that becomes available in Lumiose City has you fight multiple Audinos during your meal, and you get more money than you spent ordering the course by beating the trainers using them so you can rematch them as much as you like.

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