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What's the most embarrassing thing you used to believe about the Pokémon games?

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From trucks to tricks, from Mewthree to Oak's secret postgame content, the early Pokémon games boasted a bevy of fan-created mythology which duped many a young mind... but some of us fell prey to especially stupid trains of thought for which we have only ourselves to blame. What were your blunders?

My first self-inflicted wound was quite an honest mistake - having primarily been exposed to the anime, cards and other media prior to the games themselves, I was baffled as to how to get Slowpoke to evolve in Gold. I mean... do you walk around with both Slowpoke and Shellder in your party? Do you have to fish for Shellder with Slowpoke first in the party? Does that Shellder need to use Clamp? I tried all of these, before catching a wild Slowbro in Slowpoke Well.

My second is definitely more embarrassing. A friend told me - in good faith - that the DS titles could make use of the system's microphone to boost catch rates. It might be excusable for a ten-year old to hold down the A and B buttons as part of a little catching ritual, but a 14-year old should probably guess that something feels suspect when they're barking "GOTCHA!" at their handheld every ten seconds.
 
I always thought that in the original Gen 3 games that you could go to space if the launch number reached 100. But nope, it was just a disappointing rumor.

Lol, I believed this, too - I think what made it sound credible compared to the myths of the previous titles was that the number never stopped ticking up. Outside of the day/night cycles and the fact that it tracked the day of the week, GS never really had a mechanic that suggested it was actually counting time, and so the relative novelty of such a feature in RSE meant that it had be tied in with something, right?
 
From trucks to tricks, from Mewthree to Oak's secret postgame content, the early Pokémon games boasted a bevy of fan-created mythology which duped many a young mind... but some of us fell prey to especially stupid trains of thought for which we have only ourselves to blame. What were your blunders?

My first self-inflicted wound was quite an honest mistake - having primarily been exposed to the anime, cards and other media prior to the games themselves, I was baffled as to how to get Slowpoke to evolve in Gold. I mean... do you walk around with both Slowpoke and Shellder in your party? Do you have to fish for Shellder with Slowpoke first in the party? Does that Shellder need to use Clamp? I tried all of these, before catching a wild Slowbro in Slowpoke Well.

My second is definitely more embarrassing. A friend told me - in good faith - that the DS titles could make use of the system's microphone to boost catch rates. It might be excusable for a ten-year old to hold down the A and B buttons as part of a little catching ritual, but a 14-year old should probably guess that something feels suspect when they're barking "GOTCHA!" at their handheld every ten seconds.
I clicked on this thread because the title made me remember the DS era and how my friend told me the exact same thing about the microphone. I didn't know that was such a widespread thing!

Another one from gen 4, which I guess I never actually disproved, but it just sounds outlandish, is that hatching an egg in Floaroma town will always result in a female. I believed that one for a while before I learned how breeding mechanics worked lol
 
That if you walked left or right on top of the Tin Tower, you would fall off and die:

Tin_Tower_Summit_GSC.png


Edit: In retrospect, I feel like this is kind of a fascinating case study about the power of the mind. I was a child when I believed this, but it's not like I got the idea from some Internet post or playground rumor. I literally just inferred from the fact that my character was on the roof of a tall tower that it would be possible to slip off of the edge and perish, despite nothing else in the game ever remotely hinting at it being possible for the player avatar to "die," and fully believing in this notion that I had conjured up, I didn't dare to even attempt to move left or right, even though doing so and hitting the invisible boundary would have immediately disproved my assumptions. It's as if I had unconsciously cast a hypnotic suggestion upon myself. o_O
 
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That if you walked left or right on top of the Tin Tower, you would fall off and die:

Tin_Tower_Summit_GSC.png

I mean, credit where due for actually being able to recognise this as the roof of the tower, as opposed to the strange, vaguely-geometric void my own young eyes interpreted it as.
 
For Generation I & II: Used to believe that holding Down + B would boost the chance of catching a Pokémon. Did not know until maybe circa 2005 - 2006 that this does absolutely nothing.
Generation III: That it was possible to become a gym leader or Elite Four member by defeating the Elite Four a certain number of times.
 
I used to have a friend back in elementary school that'd create the most bizarre theories or make up stuff about the early Pokemon games, like all the time. Two of the things he said is that you could get a car in Gold & Silver (instead of a bike, you'd drive a car lol), and that there was a way to start the game with fully evolved starters.
 
I was once told from a school friend in Gen 1 that if you beat the E4 10 times with only 3 Mons in your party you'd get a special event where you could catch a second Mewtwo or something like that. Poor, naïve little 10-year old me fell for that one hook, line, and stinker.

Another one was about that hidden reserve behind Bill's house if you complete the dex or something in Gen 1 (I don't remember the details well). I tried endlessly to figure that one out. Heh, that one's pretty funny because in Gen 5 you actually get to go to a reserve after completing the dex. Essentially, GF took that rumor and ran with it four gens later.

There was also the whole "Pikablue" rumor, and that if you went fishing in Yellow near Cerulean City Pikachu would evolve into Pikablue.

And then there was the whole down + B rumor that would increase your chances of catching a Mon. That one lasted until I wised up in Gen 3, as I kept doing that all through Gens 1 and 2.

And I also fell for the DS microphone rumor, but fortunately I remembered the above point and stopped trying that within a week of learning it. Good thing, too, as I kept spooking my pets every time I did that.

I think that about covers it, at least off the top of my head. Man, there were a lot of strange rumors going around during the early days.
 
I fell for an April Fools' joke that detailed how to acquire Ho-Oh in the Generation I games. Fortunately I was stopped short of actually trying it by the fact that I had no way of getting my hands on Japanese cartridges at the time.
 
I used to think Giratina was a glitch Pokemon since I used the heck out of Action Replay back when I played Diamond. I also used to think that Sendoff Spring and Turnback Cave were glitch areas.
 
I had never heard of Shiny Pokémon at one point so when I encountered a Shiny Loudred in my Sapphire (back when chances were, like, 1 in 8000) I ran from it thinking it was a game-breaking glitch from the one time I used an Action Replay for some Rare Candies
 
I used to have a friend back in elementary school that'd create the most bizarre theories or make up stuff about the early Pokemon games, like all the time. Two of the things he said is that you could get a car in Gold & Silver (instead of a bike, you'd drive a car lol), and that there was a way to start the game with fully evolved starters.
Technically the latter COULD be true if you used the PC Box glitch in Gold and Silver after fully evolving a starter but not saving your game before then. Can get all three fully evolved starters as soon as you hit the PokeCenter the first time.
 
Ohhh this thread takes me back.

back when I spent my summers in Japan, I met a teenager who knew a lot about Pokémon, or so I thought. According to him team galactic was going to wipe out all the Pokémon in my pc, leaving me with just a magikarp with tackle & leer. While I knew magikarp didn’t learn leer, I was still worried about that magikarp.
 
Instead of the truck, I was told Mew was under the SS Anne itself and you had to use Strength to lift it up. At this point, I had completed the Pokedex in Red, and there was no way I was going to risk starting a new game. My brother had no such issues, so we were only mildly disappointed when it turned out to be nothing.
 
Please note: The thread is from 2 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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