"Wow, I was an IDIOT!" moments

[Almonds]

I wanted a shiny Lucario, so I placed a male Buneary and a female Riolu in the Day Care.

It was only after 15 minutes of biking around that I realized Riolu was a baby pokemon and cannot breed. Whoops.

 

[Zkat]

I took out a bunch of Scatterbugs that had been sitting in my Pokemon Bank for a while, and evolved them to see what patterns they were. I ended up having a lot of modern patterns, which I thought was kind of weird. After I evolved them all, I found out why.

It was because most of them were mine.

 

[Solar Dragon]

My first game was Gold, when I was 10. I started with Totodile, got to Mr. Pokemon's house, got the Pokedex, skipped through the phone call then tried to carry on to Violet City. Couldn't. Tried training up a bit then tried again. Still couldn't. Backtracked, battled my rival, tried to carry on again, I still couldn't. I then thought "Maybe if I evolve Totodile, they'll let me through?" I had a Croconaw, tried again, still couldn't get through. Eventually made my way back to the lab where I had a discussion with Elm about my rival, and then I named him ??? because the game told me that was his name. THEN I could get through to Violet City.

I had a Croconaw before I had even got to the first Gym. Yeah, my team was unbalanced all through the game as a result.

 

[Angelfms]

Playing Black or something a year or 2 ago, completely brain-farted on EV's, Vitamins, whole shebang. Just used a bunch of every vitamin until I couldn't use em anymore. Brought me back to my beginning days when I did the same because I didn't even know about EV's.
Using an Arcanine once, I knew it had 31 IV in attack, so I made it completely physical focused, used it for months before remember actual base stats kind of matter too. To this day I don't remember Arcy's base stats, and I have no idea if i was wasting him or being stupidly clever.

 

[Psalmist]

I quit my first game (Diamond) after the first Gym badge 'cause I got to Ravaged Path and couldn't continue. Came back to the same Diamond after playing some of Ruby and being like, "Oh, so I needed something called 'Rock Smash' to get through?"

 

[LordGarcholf]

I quit my first game (Diamond) after the first Gym badge 'cause I got to Ravaged Path and couldn't continue. Came back to the same Diamond after playing some of Ruby and being like, "Oh, so I needed something called 'Rock Smash' to get through?"

Awww haha. This was awesome!

Something similiar happened to me when I restarted my old good SoulSilver and had gotten used to that the newer games didn't require so much using HM's to move around. So, I partly forgot to pick up Rock Smash from the man somewhere next to Violet City - I had it in mind but I think I was too hasty progressing the game so nope, I forgot.
And when I first needed the HM (further in game), I was somewhere with half-fainted Pokemon trying to auto-pilot myself out of some damn cavern.

 

[Sword Master]

Giving my shiny Chimchar away in wonder trade and getting rattata back.

 

[Zkat]

In Pokemon Shuffle, the one time I actually have a jewel when it asks if I want to spend one for an extra five turns, I hit yes by accident.

 

[CynthiaLover]

This is one I just remembered. Back when I was first playing Diamond, I caught a Chingling. Since I knew that Chimecho were very rare, I did everything in my power to try to evolve it. I must've spent days trying to evolve it, maximizing its friendship rating, as I knew that was how it evolved. No dice. Only when, by sheer chance, I was playing after 8 PM, it evolved! I was like "Finally! But why now all of a sudden?" I finally had the brains to look up Chingling on the wiki and realized that it only evolves AT NIGHT! *facepalm* You'd think that, given the fact I knew it evolved via friendship, I would've figured out that out sooner. By the time the little bell had evolved, it was nearing Lv 50, because I didn't have the brains to look up Chingling PRIOR to trying to evolve it. *sigh* That was the last time I didn't research the Mon I was raising before trying to raise it.

 

[Berrenta]

So tried to progress through my X Wonderlocke to have my three mons lagging behind to catch up. Things weren't going as I hoped; was struggling to find good spots, so I decided to leave the game...

...only to realize I forgot to save after Amaura evolved.

 

[italicizewafer]

I honestly think we all nicknamed the GSC rival "???".

 

[overlordreubs]

Ah, let's see...

-Getting scared of Pokerus and turning off my DS
-Fainting Mewtwo then saving
-Not saving before any E4 battles
-Thinking that 'anytime soon I will find a shiny' and encountering what must have been 100s of wild Pokemon to find one
-Selling Black 2 with a level 93 Heatmor on it and a team full of level 70+ legends

 

[Muur]

I honestly think we all nicknamed the GSC rival "???".

Nah I was amazed when a mate told me he did it xD I did once attempt to name him Brian, only to name him Brain.

 

[Almonds]

After going through hours of frustratingly leveling up a Wurmple to level 30, cancelling evolutions every single time it leveled up...

... I realized that all I needed to do was give it an Everstone.

(mind, the reason I was trying to level up a Wurmple that much was because there was a decent gts offer that I saw)

 

[TheNefariousDelphox]

While I was playing X, I defeated both Valerie and Olympia and got their gym badges, late one night. Soon after I decided to stop playing, but unfortunately I forgot to save my game. Then I had to start all over and get their gym badges again.

I also entered the Elite Four (still in X) by accident, and had to defeat them again (already did it once). My Pokemon were all healthy, so I defeated them again though it was rather easy to begin with.

 

[FeatherBat]

My first ever moment on Pokemon when I was nine. Oh, Pokemon Pearl. The memories of my ignorance.
"Mum, I can't get out of my bedroom."

And on the same game, giving both me and my rival a name in capitals.
BEN [Barry/Jun/Pearl]: "I'm fining you 1 million PokeDollars if you're late!"

 

[Snowfall]

When I first started EV training, I thought EV training was just giving your Pokemon 10 vitamins for each stat then you're done. Turns out that screws up the Pokemon and looking back, I wasted lots of money. Another was back then when I had my first Pokemon game, Crystal, I used to think that Ember was the best move since it OHKO'd or 2HKO'd everything on the first route, including the Geodude.

 

[Lylian]

Defeating instead of capturing Kyogre in Sapphire.

 

[Aezuica]

•Didn't know what EV/IV's were
•Used rare candies to level up to 100, expecting to destroy everything
•Taught my starter HM's
•Put a Buizel and Bunery in Daycare for leveling, then found an egg. Was expecting a weird, morphed Buizel/Bunery creature to hatch from it

That's all I can remember!

 

[Random_Pyro]

I was just trying to catch an absol in alpha sapphire; I had it down to 1 health and paralyzed but I had to bring out my swampert to try and tank its attacks in the event of a capture failure. The first thing I did after sending my swampert out was making her use power up punch on the absol. -_-