Most Recent Mechanics (Re)Discoveries

Stuffed Pokemon with lots of little mechanics and edge case move interactions. Sometimes changes between generations. What is something you have recently learned (or rediscovered) about one of the games?
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Puts four forward, thanks to currently replaying Generation 2. (Only asked for one. Happened all at once, though.)

1. Capped stats at 999 in Generation 2. May not be necessary to boost a move to +6 stages for the maximum effect.
   
   
2. Added an Ice resistance to Fire in Generation 2. Inflicted neutral damage on the Fire-type in Generation 1.
   
   
3. Pokegear trainer phone call mechanics. Essentially flips a coin after 20 minutes since your last call. Flips it again at 10 minutes if a phone call did not occur. Drops down to 5 minutes next, then every 3 minutes beyond that.
   
   
4. Whirlwind failing in Generation 2. Gave it -1 priority (the lowest at the time). Always failed if it went before the opponent's move, however (due to perhaps Vital Throw or other -1 priority moves).

Dig changing power always confused me, but that confusion is backwards. I'm so used to it being 60 power starting from gen 2 that when replaying gen 1, I keep assuming it's not as good as Earthquake and forgetting to teach it to things. Crazy to remember how strong it used to be!

Until recently, I had no idea that type effectiveness and STAB worked differently in Legends: Arceus.

In that game, if a Pokémon's types are both weak to a move, that Pokémon only takes 2.5x damage instead of 4x; conversely, if both its types resist that move, it takes 0.4x instead of 0.25x damage. STAB is also nerfed, and only deals 1.25x damage instead of 1.5x.

Do I prefer this over what Pokémon normally has? Maybe; it could certainly help Pokémon who are unnecessarily crippled by their weaknesses, like Aggron, but at the same time I don't want Landorus to be even better than it is. Not sure about the STAB change, either.

- Introduction to Fairy-type in Gen6, it helps out the balancing issues with certain-type like how gen1 and some typing are too powerful then gen2 we have that

- Walking pokemon with trainer in gen2 remake which are appealing and cute

- Pokemon type have their special triat. Ghost-type can escape freely, electric type are now immune to paralyze

- Introduction to 2v1 battle, it just makes more interesting

I remembered the natural object that was introduced one generation (6), gone the next (7). I don't think this mechanic ever had any sort of practical use, so no wonder it went away.

I skipped Gen VI and VII, so while most of the previous 'mon changed to Fairy-type make sense I still find myself surprised by Steel-types taking neutral hits from Ghost and Dark.

That and more than just Swampert and Infernape out of the starters being competitively dominant

I will always chuckle at how one of ghost types best moves, shadow ball, was physical for gen 2 AND 3.

Squirtkipfan01 said:

I will always chuckle at how one of ghost types best moves, shadow ball, was physical for gen 2 AND 3.

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Fun fact: ALL damaging Ghost moves were Physical before Gen IV. Of course, Shadow Ball is the only relevant attack that changed category, but Ghosts being a Physical type before the Physical/Special split sounds completely contrary.

Speaking of Shadow Ball, for some ungodly reason Shadow Ball had a chance to decrease Special Defense when it was a Physical move.

A yes, lets make out typing that mostly excels in sp atk into PHYSICAL. Hilarious

Ghost being physical makes more sense in context, I suppose. In Gen I the only damaging Ghost type moves that existed were Lick and Night Shade.

Lick was obviously physical and Night Shade doesn't use the formula at all, plus, with 15 types they already had more Special Types than Physical Types so making it Physical wasn't that bad.

And in fact they stuck to it in later generations as of Gen VIII, there are 16 damaging Physical Ghost moves and only 12 Special (11 if you don't count Night Shade).

The notion of Ghost as a special type is more because some very notable Ghost Pokémon (Gengar line, Rotom, Chandelure line, Calyrex-Shadow, etc.) are Special than a type wide trend. On average, Ghost types are fairly balanced between Physical and Special Attack.

Something that's more surprising to me is Dark being Special, since:

1) it was made to deal with Psychic types, that were Special heavy,
2) all damaging Dark moves introduced before Gen IV would later become Physical,
3) Dark types are on average physical attackers, in fact, during Gen II, the only dark type Pokemon that were undoubtedly special were the Houndoom line.

Older gens were something else lol

On top of Dark = Special not making any sense, Dark types didn't even have anything to do with darkness until Dark Pulse came out with the split. The large majority of moves are just related to using cheap/dirty/dishonorable battle tricks, which is why they lose against fair martial arts.

Personally, the Dark and Ghost issue is one of the main reasons why I can't go back to Gen 1-3 (except for rom hacks of course, since most of them fix this)

Corveone said:

On top of Dark = Special not making any sense, Dark types didn't even have anything to do with darkness until Dark Pulse came out with the split. The large majority of moves are just related to using cheap/dirty/dishonorable battle tricks, which is why they lose against fair martial arts.

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To be fair to Game Freak, that's a translation issue. The original Japanese literally means "evil".
Nintendo of America (or whoever was responsible for the translation) probably didn't translate it literally because of image concerns (GS launched somewhere during the tail end of the Satanic Panic era).

But yeah, playing older generations can be a bit disorienting at times.

Returns with another mechanic. Always connects with Toxic if used by a Poison-type since X/Y. Includes if the target is semi-invulnerable from Fly, Dig, and similar moves.

Bypasses Mist (and Safeguard) with the Infiltrator ability. Knew it ignored screens and Substitute. Never states Mist clearly in the description.

Flavor Text said:

The Pokémon's moves are unaffected by the target's barriers, substitutes, and the like.

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Rarely needs to care about Mist and/or uses a Pokemon with Infiltrator, in fairness. Barely runs into screens and Substitutes. Pulls out screens maybe once or twice per game (main story) between moveset, AI, and getting punched first. Cannot remember the last Substitute. (Just checked. Zero trainers with Substitute in Scarlet/Violet, base game Sword/Shield, and Ultra Sun/Moon. Happens in Dynamax Adventures, come to think of it.)

Clears Mist with Defog also, fittingly.

Pops back in here every few months, apparently.

This time: Max Mushrooms. Knew about it being an ingredient for Max Soup in Isle of Armor. Also grants +1 to all stats if used in battle. Could stack these too. Imagines giving several of these to a Pokemon with Stored Power.

Returns for yet another discovery. Cannot confirm these, so take them with a grain of salt.

Apparently altered certain bits of Diamond/Pearl on certain days. May even extend to Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl.

1. Quicker egg hatching on Masuda's birthday, Valentine's Day, Hinamatsuri, School Entrance Ceremony, Mayday, Tanabata Star Festival, Diamond/Pearl's release date, Halloween, Ruby/Sapphire's release date, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day.

2. Different spawn rates. Increases Pokemon spawn rates on Masuda's birthday, St. Patrick's Day, and Independence Day (US), Christmas Eve, Italian Liberation (Italy), Volkstrauertag (Germany), National Foundation Day (Japan), and maybe more. Decreased spawn rates on days like 9/11, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Christmas, Culture Day, New Year's Eve, the Spring Equinox, and the Fall Equinox.

Devalue said:

Apparently altered certain bits of Diamond/Pearl on certain days. May even extend to Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl.

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I loved the special hidden additions to specific days in Diamond and Pearl. The diamond dust weather is my favourite, even if it doesn't really do anything.

One thing that confused me for the longest time was being able to use specific moves to hit background objects in battles in Pokemon X and Y. Things like harvesting berries or crushing rocks that appear in the background. I'd never seen anyone talk about it for what's basically been a decade now. Here's a link to that info on Serebii.

When on your Pokemon's info in the party in SwSh you can make it do the same animations you can see in the PokeDex if you press down on the left and right sticks.
Found this by accident a couple days ago and did not even realize it was a thing lol

Might be this way in other games as well.