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Obscure Pokémon game trivia

I mean, I'm not saying you can't come up with your own rationalization; I obviously do that all the time. I'm just saying that the games on their own don't do much to support that idea. Prior to Sun & Moon, there really wasn't much of an indication that Pokémon could just permanently change their type in response to environmental factors in a manner akin to real evolution, and nothing about Heatmor as presented to us in Black & White suggests that's it's ever been anything other than what it is. Especially when it's called "Heatmor." What would it have been before? Normor? (Assuming it even was a Normal-type - there's no indication as to what other type it "might" have been, because are they even trying to imply that used to be different?) And why would they not communicate that to us more directly? With Genesect, for example, we're told upfront that it used to be different, and that Team Plasma covered it in high-tech armor. Even though we never see the original version of Genesect, the games tell us that it existed in a different way before. Same for the Original Dragon. Never shown, but they don't leave its existence up to fan extrapolation and guesswork.
 
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There are many separate reasons to name something that would eventually become a widely used name. Nothing got its name immediately, it was because of the development of language that things started to be named. I'm saying that Heatmor might have been a newer name than what the original Pokemon was named due to millions of years of real-life evolution, like the original Pokemon increasingly getting access to more and more Fire-type moves along the way.
 
Again, I'm not talking about speculative possibilities. I'm talking about the information that is actually presented to us, and the context in which it was presented.
 
I mean, while they're weaker to fire attacks, they're stronger against virtually anything else.

The Pokédex also say the following about Durant:
- Different ants have different roles in colony defense (specifically against Heatmor)
- They attack in groups
- Their mandibles work well against Heatmor (used as retaliation)

And it states that Heatmor attacks them with their flame tongue, which seems to be the kind of thing that isn't area-of-effect (like say, Rock Slide). It doesn't look like a Heatmor can attack multiple Durants at the same time.

So it's certainly plausible that they have one ant essentially sacrifice itself against Heatmor (or even just take a lot of damage since I doubt Heatmor can kill / melt one instantly - this stuff takes time) while the others attack the Heatmor, driving it away.

Remember that in the "wild", you likely wouldn't find a 1v1 between Heatmor and Durant, it'd likely be something more like 1v5+
 
And it states that Heatmor attacks them with their flame tongue, which seems to be the kind of thing that isn't area-of-effect (like say, Rock Slide). It doesn't look like a Heatmor can attack multiple Durants at the same time.

This is precisely the point in the Durant/Heatmor relationship where we move from ludonarrative dissonance to resonance.

If you look at Durant's moveset, even just their natural learnset, in BW, we can see that they've got some useful options for countering Heatmor. Dig being probably the most immediate one, as they are more than fast enough to outspeed Heatmor. This protects them for a turn and can deal big damage to Heatmor before it gets a chance to strike - and it ties in naturally to them being ants, who dig tunnels. They can also throw Sand Attack to lower Heatmor's accuracy (unless Heat's packing White Smoke). But my favorite detail is this: Only a handful of Pokémon learn Entrainment through level-up in BW. Durant is one of them. Why is this noteworthy? Because Durant's Hidden Ability is Truant. But what good is it to have such a self-hindering Ability, besides just being an "ant" pun? (A pun which doesn't work in Japanese, and so likely wasn't a factor in the decision to assign the Ability.) Well, if individual Durant play different roles in defending against Heatmor, then doesn't it make sense for some Durant to use a Truant + Entrainment strat to make it so that Heatmor can only attack every other turn? :eek:

So it's certainly plausible that they have one ant essentially sacrifice itself against Heatmor (or even just take a lot of damage since I doubt Heatmor can kill / melt one instantly - this stuff takes time) while the others attack the Heatmor, driving it away.

That would also be of some benefit to the Durant who have Swarm - if they don't get KO'd, their power goes up 50%.

Remember that in the "wild", you likely wouldn't find a 1v1 between Heatmor and Durant, it'd likely be something more like 1v5+

X & Y bring this to life, too, with Horde encounters. If you find a 4 Durant/1 Heatmor horde, they'll attack each other instead of you.

I mean, for what it's worth I'm very fond of Durant and Heatmor. All I'm saying is that the "covering themselves in steel armor to protect themselves from Heatmor" Dex entry is awkwardly written, as it runs counter to the games' basic type matchups and makes Durant sound kinda dumb, even though in practice they're really quite smart. As it stands, it makes it sound like the steel armor tactic is adopted in response to Heatmor as presented to us, not some conjectural ancient version of Heatmor that was totally different. If that's what they wanted to suggest, then why not phrase it something like, "Long ago, they donned steel armor to protect themselves from their natural predator of the time." And then for Heatmor, you could write a complementary entry saying, "When Durant began using steel armor to protect themselves, Heatmor developed the ability to use fire in order to burn through their defenses." Just two simple sentences and boom, "evolutionary arms race" theory is made directly clear to the audience.
 
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In Gens 3 and 4, if only one of your Pokémon knows certain HMs (Surf, Fly, or Rock Climb I think) and you try to release it, it will come back and display this message:
0898 - Pokemon - Sapphire Version (U)_1614981430481.png
0898 - Pokemon - Sapphire Version (U)_1614981435015.png
0898 - Pokemon - Sapphire Version (U)_1614981432897.png
0898 - Pokemon - Sapphire Version (U)_1614981437221.png

It is possible to have a poisoned Steel-type in GSC. You just have to catch a Magnemite or Magneton on RBY, get it poisoned in a battle, and transfer it to a Gen 2 game.
Pokemon - Silver Version (USA, Europe)_1614982660462.png


As I accidentally found out recently, in the Platinum Lost Tower there are two Pokéfan Trainers. If you put their Pokémon to sleep while they're at full HP, the Trainers will use a Super Potion that somehow wakes their Pokémon up.
1614915576905.png

1614915606860.png

1614982918604.png

1614982943467.png

These are the only ones I know.
 
This is probably well known by now but if you interact with the door of the house on Route 5 in GSC you'll find a 'for sale' sign. I never knew that back when I played those games because it never occurred to me that doors could be interacted with.
 
This is probably well known by now but if you interact with the door of the house on Route 5 in GSC you'll find a 'for sale' sign. I never knew that back when I played those games because it never occurred to me that doors could be interacted with.

Woah, I’ve never heard of this one! :eek:

This reminds me of a bit of trivia about Celadon Condominiums:

> “In Pokémon Crystal only, there is an Easter egg on the right side of the staircase that leads up from the roof's entrance/exit. Interacting with this wall yields the text 'There's graffiti on the wall... <Player> added a moustache!'”
 
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Did you guys know that moves that hit multiple Pokemon (Surf, Heat Wave, etc.) have their damaged reduced by 25%, and were reduced by 50% in Gen 3?

I mean, that's probably relevant for comp players, because every mechanic affecting damage is, but boy I sure had no idea about it for a while.
 
Did you guys know that moves that hit multiple Pokemon (Surf, Heat Wave, etc.) have their damaged reduced by 25%, and were reduced by 50% in Gen 3?

I mean, that's probably relevant for comp players, because every mechanic affecting damage is, but boy I sure had no idea about it for a while.

Wait fr?

I knew about multi-target moves getting a damage cut in Battle Royals. Because an NPC in the Dome mentions it - so in my head it’s like, “ah, yes, makes sense, normally that’s not how it works, but they must not want them to be OP for Battle Royals.” But what really happened is that they just increased the amount it’s cut by for that battle mode?
 
During the 3D-era of Pokemon, any Pokemon not affected by a move would still play the getting hit animation when there is a double battle. For example, a Camerupt would still play the getting hit animation when Discharge is used on at least one Pokemon that gets affected by the move, but Camerupt itself doesn't take damage at all from Discharge.
 
Wait fr?

I knew about multi-target moves getting a damage cut in Battle Royals. Because an NPC in the Dome mentions it - so in my head it’s like, “ah, yes, makes sense, normally that’s not how it works, but they must not want them to be OP for Battle Royals.” But what really happened is that they just increased the amount it’s cut by for that battle mode?

Yup.

In Generation III Doubles, moves that hits both enemies and would hit two targets have a 50% damage cut (but not moves that would also hit your partner). in Gen IV+ Doubles and Gen V / VI Triples, any move that hits more than one Pokémon has a 25% damage cut.

But Battle Royals came back with the Gen III damage cut, probably because the point is to kill only one Pokémon.
 
How did USUM sell more than BW2.

I call fraud.

I'm more surprised by the relative position of BW, given how highly they're regarded by the community. I think it must owe something to being the second pair of titles on the same console (and thus impacting the sequels similarly).
 
Despite third version often being considered the "definitive versions" of a Pokémon game to play, some of them are actually the worst-selling core series games in the Pokémon franchise.

I mean, that's to be expected. A lot of people won't buy the third versions because they feel there isn't a lot of difference between them and the originals, so why pay for essentially the same game twice?
 
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