items in pokemon games that became impossible to get. back in 1999, pokemon gold and silver introduced a dialogue with team rocket where they were chopping off slowpoke tails for profit. there was even a npc on route 32 trying to sell you one for a ridiculous one million pokedollars. since your wallet could only hold 999,999, player thought it was just a in game joke that you could never actually buy. but there was a way. if you went to mahogany town before winning team rocket at their hideout, you could buy the slowpoke tail for 9,800 pokedollars at the souvenir shop. it was totally useless in battle thought. then ten years later, gamefreak made it extinct. in the 2009 remakes heartgold and soulsilver, they changed the slowpoke tail into a key item. because key items can’t be bought or sold in shops, they had to completely remove it from the mahogany town store. the slowpoke tail still exists in the game’s code with the description “it can be sold for a high price,” but there is literally no way to ever obtain it thought normal gameplay.

pokemon features that make everyone anxious. back in 1999, pokemon gold and silver introduced a secret mechanic that was even rarer than catching a shiny pokémon. it was an “anomaly” that genuinely terrified players. when you brought your pokemon to the pokemon center, nurse joy would sometimes give you worrying news that one of your pokemon had been infected with a mysterious virus. shortly after, professor elm would call you, warning that it was multiplying fast and could spread to other pokémon. this was the infamous “pokerus”. because information traveled slowly back then, wild rumors spread that pokerus was a dangerous glitch that would delete your save file or kill your pokémon. thousands of scared players actually released their beloved pokemon into the wild just to stop the “infection” from spreading. in reality, pokerus is an extremely rare hidden mechanic with odds of roughly 1 in 21,845, even rarer than a shiny. and despite being called a virus, it’s actually incredibly beneficial since it doubles the effort values (evs) your pokemon gains, making them grow much stronger. the number of days before a pokemon gets cured from pokerus vary from 1 up to 4 days. the pokemon still gains double effort values after the cure.

pokemon vs cards are so beautiful and underrated

innovative features that took every pokemon player by surprise. back in 2013, pokemon x and y introduced a squid like pokemon called inkay, a dark and psychic type that evolved into malamar. most players tried the casual way to evolve it by leveled it up, but nothing happened. people tried also various methods of evolving (like for example via stones) but again they have found a dead end. inkay’s evolution thought was something nobody could have guessed. game freak director shigeru ohmori designed inkay’s evolution to use a piece of hardware no pokemon game had ever used before, the 3ds’s built in gyroscope. all you had to do was level inkay up to 30 or higher while physically holding your entire 3ds console upside down. ohmori even said he liked the idea of someone discovering it completely by accident. game freak also brought the exact same mechanic to pokemon go. to evolve inkay in the mobile game, you firstly need to get 50 inkay candies. then you have to physically turn your phone completely upside down before hitting the evolve button. (the evolve button will change color). to this day, it remains the only pokemon that evolves using the 3ds motion controls and it’s one of the few innovative main series mechanics that made its way into pokemon go.