Developers Foresight / Pokémon

General

• The move Ingrain recovers HP by digging roots into the ground for nutrients. As a result, not only is regular and forced switching for that Pokémon impossible, there is an element in place that negates immunity to Ground-type attacks from being a Flying-type or using Levitate, which affects only two Pokémon that normally learn Ingrain (Carnivine and Celesteela). Smeargle, who can learn the attack through Sketch, can also use Baton Pass to give the Ingrain status to any other party member, including one with a natural immunity to Ground. This even puts the recipient in contact with Spikes, Toxic Spikes, and Sticky Web, should they be there.
• Likewise, the move Telekinesis causes the user to lift the target into the air with psychic powers. While this causes all moves to hit them regardless of accuracy, they also become immune to Ground-type attacks as if they had the Levitate ability. There are exactly five Pokémon in the entire series that cannot have Telekinesis used against them directly: Diglett, Dugtrio, Sandygast, Palossand, and Mega Gengar. All five of these Pokémon are permanently rooted to the ground, and Mega Gengar is also incorporeal and thus has no physical form to lift.
• In 3D battlers like Pokémon Stadium, all Pokémon have programmed animations for every single existing move, independent of said move being learnable under natural conditions or if a move not naturally learnable was hacked into a Pokémon. The N64 Stadium games had a feature in which, should a certain Pokémon have a move it isn't able to naturally learn in the games, whether said move is learned through cheat devices or a Gen I move that is possible to learn in Gen II (like the Elemental Punches, if used in Stadium 1), the move is highlighted purple.
• There are certain event Pokémon that are shiny-locked, meaning that no matter how many times you've reset the game, they can never be encountered as a shiny. However, these Pokémon do have shiny palettes, which may then be revealed when they are eventually released as a shiny, while doubling as a failsafe if anyone tries to hack in a shiny event Pokémon (an action that might result in the game crashing or reading junk data if it can't find the palette).
  • In addition to event Pokémon, the Poochyena faced in the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire battle tutorial is always shiny-locked, preventing players from encountering a shiny that is guaranteed to be uncatchable (while simultaneously making things less painful for players soft-resetting for shiny starters).
• Many moves have subtle side-effects depending on the situation. Jump Kick and Hi Jump Kick causing the Pokémon to keep going and receive crash damage if it misses, Stomp and Steamroller dealing extra damage if the opponent is using Minimize (in a double example, this vulnerability from Minimize is removed if the Pokémon Dynamaxes after using Minimize), Earthquake and Magnitude doing double damage if the enemy Pokémon is underground, and Rollout and Ice Ball being stronger if the user also used Defense Curl the turn before are just a few examples.
• If a Pokémon obtained via a trade reaches a level beyond whatever level cap your current badges give you, your Pokémon will occasionally disobey you. Trying to bypass this by putting the Pokémon to sleep and giving it Sleep Talk or Snore (moves that only work while sleeping, the former of which calls other moves.) results in unique text describing the Pokémon disobeying you while asleep.
• The already useless move Splash (called Hop in Japanese) can't be used while the move Gravity is in effect. Neither can Jump Kick, High Jump Kick, or Flying Press. Fly, Bounce, and Sky Drop don't work either, and get interrupted if already in progress.
• Receiving a trade-evolving Pokémon from the GTS will still put both in your Pokédex, since, although the evolution sequence triggers right after the trade, you are still technically in possession of the unevolved Pokémon for a few seconds. Same goes for Shinies, which will both be recorded.
• When all of your Pokémon faint, your character rushes to the last Pokémon Center that you used. If you happen to not have used a Pokémon Center at all, your character rushes back home instead where their mother will revive the party.
• From Generation VI onwards, the final PC storage box is only unlocked after the legendary Pokémon is caught at the climax of the story. Since catching the Legendary is required for story progression, this ensures that it can always be caught even if you fill up your PC.
• Rotom's appliance forms each have a move exclusive to that form, which is immediately forgotten and replaced with the exclusive move of its new form when you change its form. Changing it back to its normal form will usually cause that move to be forgotten and not replaced with anything, but if the exclusive move is the only one Rotom knows (which has to be done intentionally as even a freshly-hatched Rotom will come with at least two moves), it will learn Thunder Shock to avoid having no moves at all.
• Moves that have their power affected by an ability, such as Sharpness (slicing based moves), Mega Launcher (pulse based moves) or Strong Jaw (biting based moves) are programmed to boost moves even if Pokémon with said abilities are incapable of learning them.
• Pokémon retain their contest stats in games that lack contests and have no way to view a Pokémon's contest stats. This means a Pokémon from Ruby/Sapphire (the games that introduced contests) will still have raised contest stats if transferred all the way to Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl (the most recent game with contests). This also means if a Feebas with high enough beauty is transferred or traded to a game without contests, it will still evolve into Milotic when leveled up.

Generation I: Red, Green (JP), Blue, Yellow

• The developers knew before the first game was even completed that players would attempt to beat the game by using a high-leveled Pokémon they obtained in a trade and not bother with raising their own to beat the challenges legitimately, so the concept of gym badges that allow control over unruly Pokémon was conceived.
• The Pikachu following the player in Yellow relies on a Pikachu with its Original Trainer's name and ID matching yours being in your party. It will disappear as soon as that Pikachu either gets put into the PC, gets traded, or you hacked or glitched the game so that you could change them to something else. Furthermore, if you hack or glitch the game to allow you to catch another Pikachu (as they can't be encountered in the wild within Yellow)^note For instances, trading the Pikachu to Gold or Silver and doing the cloning glitch there will result in having two Pikachus with your trainer ID when you trade both of them back to your Yellow game, it's possible to get it to mimic the starter Pikachu simply by releasing the original. Do so, and the Pikachu now mimicking the starter will be disappointed for some time (noticeable if you were to examine it afterwards).
• Because of the possibility of Sequence Breaking, Koga and Sabrina have similarly leveled Pokémon.
• In Yellow, to ensure your rival can shove you out of the way to get the Eevee originally intended for you, so that Professor Oak gives you the Pikachu, a trash can is placed in Professor Oak's laboratory next to the table where Eevee's Poké Ball sits and Professor Oak blocks the other side of the table. This prevents you from walking behind the table where your rival can't take the Eevee from you^note If you cheat to use a walk through wall code to bypass the trash can, the cutscene would still play out normally minus the rival shoving you out of his way.
• Also in Yellow (the problem, unfortunately, went unnoticed in previous versions), you are required to enter the Safari Zone at one point to find the HM03 and the item that lets you have the HM04. Should you find yourself short on funds, you will be let in anyways, but with fewer Safari Balls. Entering while having no money at all will only get you one.
• In Yellow, interacting with the Jigglypuff in the Pewter City Pokémon Center causes Pikachu to fall asleep. You can wake it up by simply talking to it, but it willl also wake up if you play the Poké Flute.

Generation II: Gold, Silver, Crystal

• If you trade a Pokémon holding an item to a Generation I game and trade it back later down the road, the Pokémon will still have the item it was traded away with, taking advantage of an otherwise unused (and redundant) catch rate value stored within every trainer Pokémon within the first generation Pokémon games.
• Similar to the above, Crystal is the first Pokémon game to keep track of where a Pokémon was caught. Although Gold and Silver did not have this feature, the data remains valid if a Pokémon from Crystal is traded to one of those (unfortunately, the location data is deleted if a Pokémon is traded to a Generation I game).
• These three games introduced the concept of Roaming Pokémon with the legendary beasts. They are also the only games where there is a specific check for Roaming Pokémon to not appear in the wild if the player keeps moving between the same two maps, forcing you to move to a third one for them to spawn again.
• Otherwise unused text in the game indicates that the game had specific lines for your inability to make actions with an empty party. For example, attempting to access Bill's Computer to use storage when you had no Pokémon would have given you a text message about it.
• While there was unused text exhorting the player to flee if they somehow entered a wild Pokémon battle without any Pokémon in their party, the final games would simply skip the battle instantly instead, an Obvious Rule Patch to ensure the player did not get a glitchy mess when entering a battle without any Pokémon as in the previous generation.
• Instead of giving her badge away immediately upon defeat, Clair challenges the player to visit the Dragon's Den and complete a certain task. In Gold and Silver, this is finding a Dragon Fang somewhere in the cave, which immediately triggers an event where Clair appears to give the player their badge^note this is because the Dragon Fang, as a generic hold item, can be thrown away, which could render the game unwinnable otherwise. However, you might get the idea of cheating in the item in your inventory or trading in a Pokémon with a Dragon Fang to avoid having to go into the Dragon's Den entirely. Not only does this NOT mark the scenario as cleared, Clair actually has unique dialogue for this event where she calls you out for trying to cheat.^note This does not occur in Crystal; the player is instead required to go into the Dragon's Den and speak to an elder at the shrine in order to receive Clair's badge.
• Clair normally gives the player a TM after passing the challenge in the Dragon's Den. If you leave without getting it,^note either because you already have 99 of the TM, because your last Pokémon fainted from poison inside the shrine in Crystal, or by using an Escape Rope or Dig in HeartGold and SoulSilver Clair gives it to you the next time you talk to her in her gym while saying, "You've kept me waiting!" However, in the original games, returning to the spot in the Dragon's Den results in Clair showing up to give you another TM24.
• When you get healed by Mr. Pokémon, the game silently sets Cherrygrove Pokémon Center as the last one you visited, so you can't skip the Silver fight by losing to wild Pokémon. There's also no way to avoid being healed by Mr. Pokémon, as he does it automatically at the end of your conversation and you can't progress more than a few minutes into the game without visiting him.

Generation III: Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed, LeafGreen, Colosseum, XD

• In all games in Generations III and IV, if you release the only Pokémon in your party and PC with certain HM moves, it immediately comes back with the text box "Was it worried about you?" to prevent the game from becoming Unintentionally Unwinnable. For the same reason, the Move Deleter in Emerald won't delete Surf from your only Pokémon who knows it.
• The move Struggle has Contest stats, despite not being able to be used in Contests.
• Losing the starting battle with Poochyena (Ruby and Sapphire) or Zigzagoon (Emerald) is impossible; if you try to lose on purpose by spamming your stat move, the wild Pokémon will run away once your mon's health falls below a certain point. Professor Birch still thanks you and lets you keep the starter^note If you somehow managed to lose to the wild Pokémon, as shown in this clip, the cutscene just plays out as normal and you do not white out.
• You will be let into the Oceanic Museum in Slateport for free if you don't have the money needed to pay the fee, but only during the one time the plot requires you to enter. Team Magma/Aqua has taken over the museum, allowing you to simply walk in (since the goal is to beat them, everything goes back to normal and the fee returns once they are defeated).
• Emerald players can skip the encounter with the rival in Rustboro City if they didn't use that town's Pokémon Center by either catching an Abra and using Teleport or just whiting out to return to an earlier town. If this occurs, the rival shows up at Mr. Briney's cottage instead to exchanges PokéNav numbers and offer a battle as per usual.
• Emerald's version of the Trick House has a Strength puzzle that can theoretically trap you if done a certain way. It's actually impossible to get stuck since the game will reset the position of a certain boulder should you attempt to do so.
• It's possible to skip the Fortree Gym and make it all the way to the League without Winona's badge; Fly is not necessary to progress through the game and there's no stopping you from proceeding unlike other games where you absolutely have to battle Gym Leaders to advance. The game will change the last Gym Leader's dialogue after defeating them to reflect that you need to go back and defeat Winona, and if you attempt to challenge the League without defeating her, the NPCs outside will stop you saying that you don't have all the Gym badges.
• This generation introduced pairs of Trainers who will challenge you to a Double Battle. If you only have one Pokémon able to battle in your party, they won't challenge you, most likely as an Anti-Frustration Feature. The Foresight comes from the fact that every single one of these pairs will have unique, in-character dialogue for talking to them with only one Pokémon, including Trainers found very late into the game where traveling with anything less than a full team, let alone just one Pokémon, is practically a Self-Imposed Challenge. This also includes Gym Leaders Tate and Liza, who will only allow the player to challenge them to a Double Battle.
• In Ruby and Sapphire, you normally acquire the Dive HM by talking to Steven in his house in Mossdeep City, but trading in a Pokémon that already knows Dive allows you to bypass this and proceed with the game normally. After you become the Champion, Steven disappears from his house, but if you didn't get Dive from him, he instead leaves behind two item balls (the Dive HM and the Beldum you would normally get), and there's an extra bit of dialogue in his note telling the player to take the HM just in case.
  • There's a different bit of foresight in Emerald, where instead Steven gives you the Dive HM after defeating Team Magma at the Space Center. If you trade in a Pokémon that knows Dive and go to the Seafloor Cavern first, a Team Aqua grunt blocks the way into the main part of the cavern and tells you to go check out the Space Center.
• In FireRed and LeafGreen, key items from Ruby and Sapphire, while unavailable via standard methods, have descriptions different than they were in Ruby and Sapphire (usually to reflect that they are unusable in this game, in the event that a player that has them has no idea that they are useless in that game). For example, the Scanner:
  RSE: A device found inside the Abandoned Ship.
  FRLG: A device used to search for life-forms in water. It looks too difficult to use.
• Early in Pokémon Colosseum, there's a point where the three entrances to Phenac City are blocked by a trio of Cipher Peons, each with a different Johto starter as a Shadow Pokémon. Once you defeat one, the other two disappear to prevent you from getting all three starters at the beginning of the game. If you snag your chosen starter and then white out to the grunt's non-Shadow Pokémon? All three grunts will have their Shadow Pokémon removed from their team.
• Pokémon Colosseum only has three boxes for storing Pokémon, since there are a finite number available in the world, totaling fewer than 90. Normally, this would mean that the boxes can never be completely filled. However, the game accounts for the case where the player manages to fill up all three boxes (only possible through importing dozens of Nincada from a GBA game and evolving them all into Ninjask and Shedinja) and prevents you from snagging more Pokémon.
• If you try outsmarting FireRed or LeafGreen by setting up poison so you faint inside Blaine's gym after defeating him, turns out Cinnabar Island's Pokémon Center was silently set as your destination. Sorry, no Bill skip for you.
• Deoxys and Mew are programmed in all Generation III games to disobey the player, regardless of their Badges, if their summary doesn't state they were met in "a fateful encounter." These Pokémon can only normally be met in these "fateful encounters," but players who tried cheating to add these Pokémon to their party anywhere else would be in for a shock.
• In Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, if you somehow have a Poké Doll or Fluffy Tail and attempt to use it during a Poké Spot wild battle, the game informs you that the item cannot be used in the Orre region.
• Bonsly, one of two Gen 4 mons included in Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, is programmed to know Struggle despite normally only being playable in a mini-game, likely to prevent the game crashing should a player attempt to hack Bonsly into their party. Oddly, however, the same failsafe is not in place for the other Gen 4 mon in the game, Munchlax.
• In Pokémon Red and Blue, checking the side of the TV makes your character say, "Oops, wrong side..." but in FireRed and LeafGreen, the TV is made part of the wall to prevent this. However, using a Walk Through Walls cheat code to check the side of the TV nets you the same dialogue.
• In FireRed and LeafGreen, the thirsty guards in the four guardhouses surrounding Saffron City will only accept Tea, a newly introduced key item, instead of a vending machine drink, since such a drink could be held by a Pokemon and traded into a game for Sequence Breaking purposes (Gen 1 didn't allow Pokemon to hold items, so it wasn't necessary there).

Generation IV: Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, SoulSilver

• Arceus, a Mythical Pokémon, can have any Pokémon type corresponding to what type Plate it has, and has a different color scheme for each Plate. The move Curse has the type ???, and is the only move with this type (until Generation V, when they've finally classified it as a Ghost-type move). If you hack the game so that Arceus has the same type as Curse, it has its own color scheme and sprites.
• Since you are required to see every single Pokémon in Sinnoh to obtain the National Dex, there will be points in the game where you'll have to fight every stage of each of the starter Pokémon (for instance, one of the Gym Leaders has a Turtwig, and one of the Elite Four has an Infernape), and that excludes the battles against Barry. That way, the unpicked Starter will be guaranteed to be seen no matter what.
• Similar to the 3rd generation, the move Struggle has Super Contest stats.
• Professor Rowan will note if your starter has evolved before you've gone to see him for the Pokédex.
• If you don't have the Marking App on your Pokétch when Professor Rowan talks to you about using the app to see where the roaming legendaries are, he will comment that you should pay a visit to the Pokétch Building more often.
• Platinum introduces an NPC Roadblock that's only visible if you sequence break. The game's story takes you to Celestic Town, where you get the HM for Surf that allows you to access Canalave City. If you somehow obtain a Pokémon with Surf early and try visiting Canalave before you're supposed to go there, a pair of battling Trainers will be blocking the route gate leading into Canalave.
• If you run away from Giratina when you're supposed to fight/catch it in the Distortion World, Cyrus will comment on it. This is actually a valid way to clear the Giratina battle.
• Platinum includes an area called the Battleground where the player can have rematches with the Sinnoh Gym Leaders. Roark and his father, Byron, are both Gym Leaders; when they appear in the Battleground at the same time, their after-battle dialogue changes from what it normally would be. Roark tells the player that when he became a Gym Leader, he realized how great a Trainer his dad is, but that he would never admit it in front of his father. Byron talks to himself about how Roark thinks he can "show up his old man", and that he, Byron, will need to get better to prevent that from happening.
• If you show a voiceless or footprint-less Pokémon to Dr. Footstep, he will give you unique responses in that he cannot give you as much information as usual, though if the Pokémon has max happiness, it'll still get the Footprint Ribbon.
• In HeartGold and SoulSilver, if you hack the games to get the GB Sounds early (which cannot be obtained until after getting all 16 badges), you'll find out that it works for songs that you normally can only hear before getting the GB Sounds, like the Radio Tower takeover music. There are also brand-new 8-bit renditions of themes that the original games didn't even have, like the Pokéathlon Dome.
• Speaking of the Pokéathlon of HeartGold and SoulSilver, if you were to enter Diglett or Dugtrio in Courses that involve jumping, they will remain rooted to the ground (making them useless in Lamp Jump and Disc Catch). However, in the case of Hurdle Dash, they will burrow under the hurdles instead of leaping over them.
• In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers, the Itemizer Orb will turn an enemy Pokémon into an item. If you throw it at an enemy who is under the effect of Mirror Move, however, you get turned into an item instead. At this point, you automatically fail the dungeon — none of your revival items can help you, because the problem isn't that you're unconscious. The end-of-mission screen even specifically says that '[Name] was turned into an item' instead of the normal defeat message.
• HeartGold and SoulSilver lets you walk with your lead Pokémon and they will go anywhere you go barring a few exceptions. Huge Pokémon like Lugia will go back into their ball if you go inside a building since they are too large to fit indoors.
• Several walking Pokémon have special interactions if you talk to them in certain locations. Some of these are basic and encompass all Pokémon of a specific type, like fire-types acting nervous near the water's edge or dragon-types becoming agitated in the Dragon's Den, but others are unique to one or two species and are only triggered in very specific locations. Some of the more interesting ones include Togepi crying in Misty's gym (a nod to Pokémon: The Series where Misty prominently had a Togepi), and Electrode becoming fearful in the Rocket hideout where its brethren are being exploited.
• Even though you cannot legitimately obtain a shiny Spiky-Eared Pichu in HeartGold and SoulSilver, there is one programmed into the game if the player tries to hack it in.
• In HeartGold and SoulSilver, if you manage to strand yourself in Cianwood City with only one Pokémon in your party and none in your boxes (which you would have to deliberately go out of your way to do), an NPC in the Pokémon Center there will give you a free Tentacool. Since the Surf HM is required by this point, you will always be able to teach it Surf and escape. The event can be repeated so long as you only have one Pokémon.
• Also in HeartGold and SoulSilver, if you attempt to trap yourself on Cinnabar Island, the game will switch your last used Pokémon Center to Viridian City so you won't be stuck on the island with no way to get off if you Teleport or blackout. Like the above entry, you would need to be doing all this deliberately in order to get stuck this way.
• In order to catch Rayquaza at the Embedded Tower, you need to show Professor Oak a Groudon and a Kyogre that were caught at the same place. If you try showing him one you transferred from a previous entry, rather than traded from another copy, than he’ll note that it’s not what he’s looking for.
• In HeartGold and SoulSilver, if you raise your Forretress to maximum Friendship and trade it for Steven's Beldum, he'll comment on how much your Forretress likes you, asking if you're a fan of Steel-types like him.

Generation V: Black, White, Black 2, White 2

General

• Victini has sprites present for its shiny form, even though it can't be legitimately encountered as shiny in the event distribution.
• The TMs are no longer single-use items. When a Pokémon forgets a move in order to learn from a TM, the move learned with a TM takes on the current PP of the move replaced by the new move. This is to prevent repeated usage of TMs for the purpose of PP restoration.
• In Pokémon Conquest, each trainer type (i.e. the ones with different sprites) have different reaction lines to various conditions in and outside battle. This includes a unique reaction to their Pokémon being asleep, which can only be induced by a very small number of attacks and abilities in this game. They also each have their own reaction specifically to being knocked out by friendly fire or stage hazards.

Pokémon Black and White

• If you somehow get through the battle with Bianca at the start of the game without taking any damage, Cheren says "It's amazing that you won without your Pokémon's losing any energy, which is called HP."^note Bianca is coded to always use Tackle on the first turn, which has been buffed to 100% accuracy and you have no means to decrease her Pokémon's accuracy. So essentially she will always use Tackle on the first turn and it will hit your Pokémon. The only way to see that text is to hack the game such as to start with a Ghost-type Pokémon like Lampent.
• During your first meeting with him, Cedric Juniper will say that you met a Klink, as that Pokémon is unavoidable due to being used by N. However, if one cheats to avoid N or to otherwise prevent Klink from being considered seen, he instead says "You haven't seen a Klink yet, eh?"
• At one point, the player has to capture Reshiram or Zekrom (depends on the version) to advance the story. However, if your party and PC are completely full — which is very unlikely to happen by accident due to the amount of Pokémon you have to catch — this becomes impossible, so the game lets you skip the capture and lets you try again at Dragonspiral Tower after the end of the game.

Pokémon Black 2 and White 2

• Since Badges aren't required to use HMs in this generation, it's possible to trade in a Pokémon with Surf before the cutscene where Alder jumps from the cliff near Floccesy Town. Surfing normally lets you access the top of this cliff, but if you try it before this scene, you'll run into a unique NPC Roadblock preventing you from reaching Alder.
  Youngster: You can use Surf? Nice! We can be Surf buddies!
• Halfway through the game, you inherit one of N's former companions, specifically his Zorua. If you use it when you challenge N, he will recognize his Pokémon and praise you for raising it.
• N's recognition of the Pokémon he used in Black and White on Victory Road extends to the ones that can only be caught when Memory Link is activated.
• After getting the DNA splicers and catching Reshiram/Zekrom, if you try to fuse them into Black or White Kyurem and then try to trade it off to an in-game NPC (not that you would anyways), the game says "That Pokémon cannot be traded.", as it would result in the permanent loss of the DNA Splicers.
• In one of the PokéStar Studios movies you can film — the second Mystery Doors movie — your character talks to a magic plush doll acting as a gatekeeper. If you remake the film again using your own Pokémon and use Substitute during this scene, you'll trigger an extra bit of dialogue in the movie where the gatekeeper remarks how much the Substitute doll looks like himself. There would be no reason to do this normally — the prop you battle can't even attack you, making Substitute needless, nor is it needed for the Strange Ending.
• One of the things you can do with the Xtransceiver is call Cheren to identify a Pokémon's type weaknesses. If a Pokémon's type is hacked to be a combination that doesn't exist in Gen V, Cheren will still be able to correctly list what it's weak to◊^note If you're curious, the first Bug/Dark Pokémon was Lokix in Gen IX.

Generation VI: X, Y, Omega Ruby, Alpha Sapphire

General

• The games usually wish the player happy birthday on the day of their birthday. However, if the player was born on February 29th (meaning their birthday only rolls around once every four years), and it's not a leap year, the Pokémon Center nurse wishes them happy birthday on February 28th while noting it's a day early.
• The plural forms of all the in-game items are programmed into the game in case the game needs to refer to them in plural form. This includes items that are unobtainable in-game (due to being Dummied Out) and items that you can normally only get one of per game, even through trading (such as the TMs, the HMs, and the key items). This isn't simply just adding an "s" at the end of their names, either — the correct plural form of the respective words are programmed into the in-game data as an additional set of names.
• Only Unbound forme Hoopa can use Hyperspace Fury — a message will display if it were to try to use it while it's in its normal "Confined" forme. A different message appears if you attempt to hack the move onto a Pokémon that isn't Hoopa (or have Smeargle learn it with Sketch) — it's impossible for them to pull off the move even though they know it. A similar situation occurs with Dark Void, which can only be used by Darkrai starting in Sun and Moon.
• If one uses Fly on Diglett or Dugtrio, then their landing sequence has them rendered invisible, to get around the problem of never seeing their bottom half. Demonstrated here.
• The player character can stand in the spot that the Mystery Gift woman would appear in a Pokémon Center before they redeem a Mystery Gift, then save and reload after receiving it. The woman will cleanly appear upon loading the game one square left of where she would usually be. If the player redeems the Diancie event, the following cutscene proceeds without glitches.
• There's data for Wonder Cards that's only used on the off chance that a Wonder Card somehow doesn't have its event title.
• The O-Powers can give you advantages in-game which you can share with random players, except for the "Encounter" and "Stealth" O-Powers, which make random encounters more and less likely. Game Freak knew that would inconvenience the other players (as sharing O-Powers automatically gives players their effects), thus they are the only two that you cannot share online.
• Trying to pet certain parts of certain Pokémon in Pokémon-Amie will have predictable results: Pikachu's cheeks will shock you, Litleo's mane will burn you, Bisharp's blades will cut you, etc. Keep doing it and your Pokémon will look at you curiously like it's wondering why you keep hurting yourself. Less painful instances of this including your hand phasing through Pumpkaboo's head and being slowed down by Goodra's slime.

Pokémon X and Y

• If you don't have enough money to pay the cabs in Lumiose City, the drivers get angry and battle you. The taxi drivers have several different designs and dialogues, even though almost no one will be short enough on cash for this to happen.

Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

• As in the original Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, Struggle has placeholder stats should you hack it onto a Pokémon and use it within the Contest Spectaculars. However, it's now considered in-game to be a Tough move due to it sharing the same stats with Pound, the move that has the internal in-game ID of "0".
• The QR code generator for the Super Secret Base is specifically programmed to ignore as-yet unreleased event Pokémon if you have hacked them into your team while generating the QR code, and will use a different Pokémon you have on you for your battle party.
• If the battle format of a trainer's Secret Base is set to Double Battle, Triple Battle, or Rotation Battle, but the Secret Base Trainer currently doesn't have enough Pokémon on their team to do those types of battles, they'll specifically point that out and ask to do a Single Battle instead.
• If you trade mulch from XY into Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, due to the differing berry mechanics, the mulch cannot be used on Hoenn soil. Their descriptions have been accordingly altered to state this fact. In addition, the mulch introduced in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, normally only obtainable within the sixth generation games by hacking and having generic descriptions within XY, also had their descriptions altered to state they can't be used on Hoenn soil.
• Origin Pulse, introduced within Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, is one of the few moves that can have its power boosted by the ability "Mega Launcher" due to it being a "pulse" move. Due to Origin Pulse being the signature move of Kyogre (who doesn't have Mega Launcher), this can only happen legitimately under very rare circumstances.
• The player can show the Game Freak staff member a Pokémon from Ruby, Sapphire, or Emerald that has undergone a cross-generation evolution — such as a Ralts that evolved into a Gallade — to get the Time Travel Award. The award is still presented, and it won't try to display a non-existent sprite.
• Think you can't actually get Magnezone and/or Probopass until after defeating the version legendary (and getting access to New Mauville)? The plant's magnetic field reaches beyond the locked door; using Rare Candy on Magneton and Nosepass while on that small entry area is enough.
• A number of ribbons obtained in the third generation Hoenn games state in their description that they were earned in another region. But if a Pokémon with those ribbons is traded to Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire, the description is changed to say they were obtained "somewhere long ago" — these games take place in Hoenn as well, so it would be inaccurate to say the ribbons are from another place!
• If you teach Surf to certain Pokémon, they will have their own unique surfing animation and eventual additional mechanics:
  • Wailmer just has a model of its own, without any special features.
  • Sharpedo can move faster than other Pokémon that know the move. You can't fish on Sharpedo, but you can still sneak up on hiding Pokémon.
  • Kyogre also moves faster, but not as fast as Sharpedo. While underwater, it has a much larger hitbox.
• You cannot update your secret base data while in someone else's secret base.

Generation VII: Sun/Moon, Ultra Sun/Moon

• The release of the Generation I Virtual Console games during this period opened up the possibility of having a Machamp with the ability No Guard, which prevents any of it or the opponent's moves from missing, and the OHKO move Fissure, which it can learn in Gen I games. This would have been incredibly broken in competitive play and even in regular playthroughs. The developers prevented this, though, by giving Pokémon transferred from Gen I and II their Hidden Ability upon transfer, which is unable to be changed with an Ability Capsule.
• The storage system gives you up to 31 storage boxes before you get the box legendary; the 32nd box is unlocked after you catch the box legendary to ensure that no matter what, the player will have room to keep them.
• Beat Kahuna Hala without using Z-Power, and Captain Ilima will mention it as he congratulates you.
• If Mina doesn't get a chance to use her Pokémon's Z-Move, she comments on it after the battle.
• In the unlikely situation that you've completely filled your PC boxes to the point of being unable to obtain more Pokémon, and then talk to Gladion when he wants to give you Type: Null, he'll call you out for catching such a ridiculous amount of Pokémon.
• In Pokémon Refresh, this generation's expanded version of Gen VI's Pokémon-Amie, it seems that the developers clearly took into account the fact that you might use the mechanic to tend to more amorphous Pokémon such as Grimer or Garbodor (the former especially since it's readily available around the time you're first introduced to the mechanic), and has a slight difference where instead of simply scribbling on your screen to treat their injuries or status conditions, you use the stylus to draw longer strokes. The cursor even moves slower to match!
• Unsurprisingly, with the games being based on Hawai'i, you can't name your Pokémon after Hawaiian curse words.
• Should you rank up the Festival Plaza while in the castle, the cutscene will automatically start. If the Global Mission person is the one who gets you a rank up, she'll say "The owner of the castle is here. Please go talk to him." and the cutscene will automatically start.
• If the player has the box legendary in their party when meeting Professor Kukui outside the League for the first time, he'll comment on it, even addressing it directly to explain that the mountaintop site was chosen to honor it.
• Similarly, having the box legendary in your party when facing Tapu Koko will cause it to directly address the legendary before your fight. Given that Tapu Koko is implied to have been watching your journey, it has probably also been watching the box legendary alongside you.
• In the cutscene just after you catch the cover Legendary, Lillie will refer to them as Nebby before correcting herself and referring to them by the nickname the player gives them. If you name the cover legendary Nebby, however, Lillie will refer to them by their species name rather than the nickname.
• Generation 7's take on Diglett and Dugtrio using Fly and other such moves is further refined; instead of turning invisible, they will take a chunk of the floor with them when they lift off the ground.
• If you spin the control stick around long enough, your trainer will start doing a ballerina twirl, and when you stop, they strike a pose. This would go on to be a part of Milcery's evolution criteria in the next generation.
• If you successfully avoided all the pre-Totem encounters during Mallow's trial in the Ultra games, she will thank you for being considerate of the Pokémon.
• As you approach the Pokémon League in the Ultra games, a special cutscene will play with your starter Pokémon releasing itself from its Poké Ball. Naturally, the cutscene won't play if you don't have your starter with you, but it will still play if the starter is still in its first or second stage.
• Upon defeating Gladion at Mount Lanakila, he will claim the player has "good Pokémon." If he was defeated with only one Pokémon in the party, he will instead claim the player has "a good Pokémon."
• Since it's possible for a Pokémon to use Transform or the Imposter ability to turn into a Mega-Evolved Pokémon while holding a Z-Crystal, if they were to try and use a Z-Move as a Mega-Evolved Pokémon, they'll instead get the message that says there's no compatible move even if they obviously know such a move in order to prevent such a Pokémon from using a Z-Move. This might also be the reason why a Pokémon with the Illusion ability drops said illusion upon using a Z-Move (to ensure a Mega-Evolved Pokémon is never shown using one in any capacity).
• If Regigigas uses a Z-Move that runs on its Special Attack to bypass Slow Start, the Ability has been custom coded that if you think of doing that, Slow Start will lower its Special Attack for that turn.

Generation VIII: Sword/Shield, Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, Legends: Arceus

• In the battles against Hop, he'll comment on things like critical hits and type effectiveness — and perhaps most surprisingly, he even has a comment for forcing him into using an attack that has no effect, something which requires a very specific strategy.
• If you counter Raihan's strategy by replacing Sandstorm with a different weather condition, Raihan will comment on it, complimenting you for understanding weather mechanics so well.
• In the duel against Leon, you are allowed to bring Eternatus into the battle. If you do so, Leon will tell you he's amused that you brought the Pokémon that almost destroyed Galar into the fight and that he'll take it down anyway. Leon is also fully capable of pulling it off if you're careless.
• There are many possible shortcuts in Max Raid Battles, and Game Freak has caught seemingly all of them and changed their functions solely in this type of battling:
  • You can bring Oranguru into a Max Raid Battle, but you cannot use Instruct on a Dynamax or Gigantamax Pokémon to cheat the system by doing a Max or G-Max Move twice in one turn. Same goes for using Instruct on Zacian for a second use of Behemoth Blade, Zamazenta for a second use of Behemoth Bash, or Eternatus for a second use of Dynamax Cannon.
  • The counterattack from Cramorant's Gulp Missile counts as an attack in any other context — but in a Max Raid Battle, it will not remove a barrier segment like other attacks would. It does inflict a lot of damage through the barrier, however.
  • Percent Damage Attacks become standard damage attacks in a Max Raid Battle, though the damage they inflict will scale according to the move's original rules.
  • One-Hit KO moves will work in a Max Raid Battle, but instead of completely depleting the big Pokémon's HP, it will instead just do a lot of damage. If the barrier is up and the move connects, it will take off two segments, the only moves besides Max Moves and G-Max Moves to do so.
  • Destiny Bond and Perish Song will not work in a Max Raid Battle, preventing you from ending the battle prematurely.
• Sinistea and Polteageist have form differences that are only viewable from specific angles. Pokémon HOME's Pokédex displays static art of any Pokémon viewed in it, but there’s a special button that switches the head-on picture of those two Pokémon with a picture taken from an angle that shows the mark on their rare form (or its absence on the common form).
• If you don't have any Poké Balls when you're required to catch Eternatus, you'll inexplicably have a Poké Ball in your inventory to ensure you catch it.
• In The Isle of Armor DLC, if Kubfu is holding an Everstone (which prevents evolution) when the player interacts with the Scroll of Darkness/Waters, Mustard notices and lets the player not evolve Kubfu into Urshifu.
• During The Crown Tundra DLC, if, at a certain point during the Calyrex story, you decide to visit the Crown Shrine early, you’ll trigger a special cutscene wherein something from a first-person perspective watches you, but when you turn, it’s gone. Considering that Glastrier or Spectrier appears later on and is later revealed to have taken over the Crown Shrine, it’s implied that it’s one of the two horses watching you.
• Giving an Alpha Pokémon to an NPC for a sidequest in Legends: Arceus will initiate alternative dialogue where the NPC comments on the size of the Pokémon.
• Think you can just sweep Cynthia's Garchomp with a Fairy-Type (Such as Togekiss which is also immune to Earthquake) in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl? Garchomp now knows Poison Jab, which is super-effective on Fairy-types.
• Thought you could have a Machamp with both No Guard and Fissure in Sword and Shield? Sorry, but the Ability Patch introduced in these games doesn't allow you to revert its Hidden Ability back to its regular ability.
• The Miss Fortune Sisters do have dialogue if they manage to defeat you during a random encounter. Considering how easy it is to defeat them you have to actively be trying to lose to them.

Generation IX: Scarlet/Violet

• Unlike in Sword/Shield, the Ability Patch now has the effect of changing Hidden Abilities to regular ones. What's more, due to Dex cuts, Machop's evolutionary line is absent from all the DLCs, once more preventing you from having a Machamp with No Guard and Fissure. Even if they could be brought over, transfer-only moves are no longer a thing and thus a Machamp would not be able to carry Fissure over with it to Scarlet/Violet anyway. Dang it, Game Freak!
• It's possible to jump over the fences into Team Star bases and enter the area without facing the guard(s) out front. Doing this makes them tell you "Go through the front door" and kick you out.
• Should you clip out of bounds to reach certain story locations early, such as the academy or Lab Zero, you'll find that the doors to those buildings are disabled. Instead, a message will appear saying “You can head this way later”, and your character will walk away.
• Certain Pokémon have special interactions in the overworld. In stormy weather, ultra-light Pokémon like the Igglybuff and Hoppip lines will be blown away in the wind. In rain, Sudowoodo, notorious for its hatred of water, will run around like a chicken with its head cut off.
• In order to prevent the player from losing out on a rare spawn, certain overworld shinies will behave differently from normal members of their species. Shiny Voltorb won't explode, and species that normally run away will run much slower if they're shiny.
• The high-level Houndoom that attacks you and Koraidon/Miraidon in Inlet Grotto at the beginning of the game can be seen watching you from above before you hit the cutscene where it shows up. It's possible to hit it with a Poké Ball if you target it from a specific angle, but the ball will bounce off without initiating a battle, something that happens at no other point in the game.
• When challenging Team Star bases, you use the first three Pokémon in your party to fight off waves of grunts' Pokémon in Let's Go mode. Since obedience isn't a factor in Let's Go mode, you'd think you'd be able to use an overleveled Pokémon to effortlessly sweep them all, but think again — if you try to bring in a Pokémon that's too high-leveled to obey you, it will be skipped over and the next Pokémon in your party will be used in its place.
• It is possible to go straight to the Elite Four building with zero gym badges. If you do so, Rika will humor you with a different interview about how school is going, though she won't let you properly challenge the Elite Four yet.
• In certain places in the overworld you can find Zorua and Zoroark disguised as other local Pokémon; if they happen to be disguised as one that runs away when you get close, like Toedscool, they will simply stand their ground instead.
• If you already finished either "Victory Road" and/or "Starfall Street" first before you finish "Path of Legend", Arven's dialogue when you mention either Nemona and/or Penny when he mentions needing people to help get through Area Zero will change to reflect that such as Penny being the Team Star boss, which you only know by finishing the "Starfall Street" scenario.
• In The Teal Mask:
  • As Kitakami isn't counted as part of Paldea, any breeding done with Paldean forms while there will result in hatching Pokémon of their first variants (such as getting a Kantonian Tauros from breeding a Paldean Tauros).
  • The animation for Dipplin's Secret Art, Syrup Bomb, uses red syrup that matches the color of the syrup over Dipplin's apple. If Dipplin is shiny, however, the animation will change the syrup into a golden color that matches the shiny's new palette, similar to Blacephalon's Mind Blown.
  • Much like Sinistea and Polteageist, Poltchageist and Sinistcha have form differences that are only viewable from specific angles. Pokémon HOME's Pokédex displays static art of any Pokémon viewed in it, but there’s a special button that switches the head-on picture of those two Pokémon with a picture taken from an angle that shows the mark on their rare form (or its absence on the common form).
  • Ogerpon is a mandatory capture but as this clip shows, much like Eternatus, if you have no Poké Balls in your possession at the time you will be given one for free. Same deal with Terapagos.
  • The Post-Final Boss requires you to put Ogerpon in your team, but if you happen to have it sent to another player, put it in Home, or released it, Carmine will complain a bit about your decision but she will still battle you anyway.
• In The Indigo Disk:
  • Crispin's Elite Trial involves making a sandwich for him. He will comment on it if you don't put the top bread on the sandwich, but you'll pass regardless.
  • If you have Ogerpon in your party during your rematches with Carmine and Kieran, both will comment on it.
    Carmine: Oh hey, Ogerpon! Aww, you must've really missed me, huh?
    Kieran: You've got some nerve... Bringing out the ogre NOW of all times?!
• In Mochi Mayhem:
  • Pecharunt's battle has unique interactions between it and Ogerpon or it and any member of the Loyal Three if any of them are sent out, all culminating in respective Berserk Buttons.
    • If Ogerpon is sent out, she yells out in anger at Pecharunt, since as the Loyal Three's leader, it is the cause of all her suffering.
    • If any of the Loyal Three are sent out, Pecharunt reacts angrily at the player using its minions against it.
  • After the events of the story, Kieran will trade a Pokémon of his for any one of your Pokémon, except if it's Ogerpon or Terapagos, the very Pokémon he tried to befriend/catch himself in the earlier DLC.

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