PokéFarm (also known as PokéFarm Q) is a long-running online browser game based on the Pokémon franchise. Originally launched in 2008, it was relaunched as PokéFarm Q in 2014 (the original, now-defunct version of the site is known as "PF1").
This website provides examples of:
- Absurdly High Level Cap: Level 100, just like in the original games. EXP, however, is completely uncapped; Pokémon at Level 100 will just keep earning EXP until they've overflowed the cap by tens of millions of points.
- Action Pet: The player can use the Pokémon they hatched to battle other trainers.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: The original and fanmade Pokémon show examples of this trope.
- Animals Not to Scale: Like the original games, Pokémon here can be much larger or smaller than their real-world counterparts.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- When obtaining Summon Items from Boxes, they're much more likely (though not guaranteed) to be Summon Items you've unlocked but haven't obtained before. Considering there are currently 77 Summon Items, with the last one only obtainable by using the other 76, this is a big help when trying to get the last few.
- If you have a shiny chain active, your odds of finding that Pokémon's Eggs in the Shelter drastically increase.
- The 28 Unown forms all have separate EggDex entries, so if you find an Unown egg in the Shelter, you can instantly tell whether it will hatch into an Unown you haven't obtained yet, thus making it much easier to get them all.
- Artistic License – Biology: Like in the original games, all Pokémon here are born from eggs.
- The Albino and Melanistic Pokemon have effectively nothing in common with real-world Albino and Melanistic creatures; pretty much all of the Albino Pokémon have a color-shifted brighter color palette, and the Melanistic Pokémon have a color-shifted darker color palette.
- Badass Crew: The player can form these if they raise their Pokémon well enough and actually take part in battles against other Trainers.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Meta-example. When the Pokémon X and Y Pokémon were first added to the site, many of them lacked sprites at first, and were instead shown as question marks until they were updated. The developers eventually got so fed up of players demanding sprites for the remaining Pokémon that they obliged — by giving them incredibly crudely-drawn sprites. The player base at large found this Actually Pretty Funny, and the complaints stopped.note
- Beneficial Disease: The player can obtain Pokerus if they click the current Pokerus host’s Pokémon. Pokérus doubles the EXP you receive from clicks for the next 15 minutes - and since everyone on the site will be clicking you in the hopes of getting Pokérus next, this is extremely powerful.
- Big First Choice: One of the first choices a player will make is what egg they want as their starter. This includes all the starters from the main series games, as well as a few others.
- Breeding Slave: As with the regular Pokémon games, you can leave two Pokémon together in the Daycare to breed, and they'll leave Eggs for you to hatch. Many farmers have entire fields of mass-bred Pokémon that they'll typically sell or release.
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: Hunting Melanistic Pokémon is a very hard task, because the odds of hatching one are very low. Players will generally need a Pokéradar and Albino Radar at the very least, but the odds can be further increased by activating Hypermode and using Shiny Charms, Übercharms and Z-Crystals - and all except the Z-Crystals are obtained by buying them with Zophan Canisters, a premium currency bought with real money.
- The Bus Came Back: When PokéFarm Q launched, it didn't come with any of the Variant Pokémon that were present in PF1, but many of them have since been added back in as part of events. Special mention goes to the Deinglitch line, which was reintroduced ten years after Q's launch.
- Composite Character: In the games, male and female Nidoran are considered to be two separate Pokémon, due to having been introduced before the gender mechanic was added in Pokémon Gold and Silver. In PokéFarm Q, they're a single Pokémon.
- Diverging Evolutionary Phases: As well as the examples from the original franchise, PokéFarm converts the Nidoran lines into this by merging them into a single Mon that evolves into either Nidorino or Nidorina depending on gender. A few of the site's original Pokémon have branching evolutions as well:
- Petripeep evolves into Chirock if male, or Serpitone if female; genderless Petripeep can be evolved into either by giving them a specific evolutionary stone.
- Kawotor evolves into either Lutriva or Selutian depending on which evolutionary stone it's holding when it reaches Level 30.
- Caprakid, much like Tyrogue, evolves into either Saytaries, Taurminos, or Sagidamas depending on its Attack and Speed stats at Level 20.
- Double Unlock: Unlocking certain Legendary Pokémon requires you to unlock and summon specific other Legendary Pokémon first - for example, you can't unlock Zygarde until you've summoned Xerneas and Yveltal. Exaggerated with Arceus, which requires you to summon every other Legendary Pokémon first.
- The Golden Rule: It's one of the website's rules. "Treat others as you would have them treat you."
- Gotta Catch Them All: Professor Holly gives you a Pokédex so you can log all the Pokémon you hatch. As of October 2023, with the addition of the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Mons, there are over 1,600 of them. As of February 2024, the highest Pokedex rank - Arceus - only requires 99% completion, to give you some breathing space and account for the constant addition of new Mons.
- Guide Dang It!: There are a lot of things that the game is very secretive about, such as how to breed Variant Pokémon. You can try and figure it out yourself, or you can simply consult the Wiki.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: You're given the option to name your character when you first sign up. You can also nickname your Pokémon.
- Holiday Mode: During Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Halloween, the Berries you can feed to Pokémon are replaced with season-appropriate treats.
- Joke Character: Perroc, a Pokémon introduced for the April Fools Day 2024 event. Its default form looks like an unhatched Egg with googly eyes glued on, and it has a base stat total of just 45, making it the weakest Pokémon in the game by a wide margin (the next-weakest, Solo Form Wishiwashi, has a BST of 175). Needless to say, it's completely useless in battles.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Defied. The site has rules against discussing unreleased or newly-released games, and Pokémon from newly-released games aren't added until some time after their release, precisely to prevent this from happening.
- Leet Lingo: The rules specifically prohibit such speech.
- Old Save Bonus: Pokémon from the original PF1 website can be transferred to a Q profile.
- Play Every Day: You get rewards each day for logging in, hatching eggs, finishing Scour missions, and making 1,000 interactions. Keep it up for five days in a row and you'll get a significantly larger reward.
- A Quest Giver Is You: You can send up to four Pokémon out to perform Scour Missions, which net you Boxes, currency, and various useful items. You can also collect Totem Stickers to obtain a Pokémon's Totem Form, or change the forms of certain other Pokémon such as Cramorant.
