10 In Game Pokemon Secrets!

Today's update will go over in game Secrets, vital or game changing information the Pokemon games either don't tell you, tell you sparingly or information that tends to almost always completely go over your head. Be it battle mechanics, moves, easter eggs or in game locations. Cause trust me, when I realized half of the things on this list were things you could actually do and find, it made my entire world collapse!!! These are all things I wish I would've known sooner!

1. You CAN damage a Pokemon that's beneath the ground/Using Dig!

It wasn't until I curiously decided to do the battle simulations in the 2005 title Pokemon XD Gale Of Darkness that I learned you could damage a Pokemon using Dig. Dig is a move where the user goes beneath the ground for one move and attacks the next. During its time beneath ground, it is immune to attacks. Or at least that's what I thought for 20+ years. In Gale of Darkness, there was a simulation that required you to defeat a Pokemon in 2 moves. In those said two moves, the opponent uses the move Dig. Therefore you're unable to defeat it. UNLESS you use Earthquake! Earthquake can and will damage Pokemon that are using the move Dig. Sadly I don't exactly use Pokemon that can learn Earthquake, but at least now I know I can defend myself if the opponent uses Dig!

2. Forming Bonds with your Pokemon will make them perform better in battle

Bonding with your Pokemon, Introduced in Pokemon X & Y and has been incorporated into every mainstream game since, is time consuming but has great payoff! Loads of people don't even know about Friendship Bonuses earned through bonding with your Pokemon due to how time consuming it is & how easily this function is to miss. Where or how do you bond with your Pokemon?  In X & Y, it's Pokemon Amee? (Don't know how to spell it.) In Sun & Moon is the Pokemon Isle/Resort that you can access after the Fire Trial. In Sword & Shield you camp with your Pokemon and in Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl you quite simply just let your Pokemon roam with you. What are some perks that come with strong bonds with your Pokemon? They are more likely to make critical hits in battle, will get over status conditions such as confusion or sleep faster and can endure hits with 1 HP remaining. For the friendship perks alone, I will gladly dedicate my time to bonding with my Pokemon.

3. Thunder can have 100% Accuracy

Thunder is the king of electric type moves as it has high attack power BUT with low accuracy. But did you know you can increase the accuracy of Thunder? Thunder has 100% accuracy during rainy weather. Therefore, always use Thunder when the weather is rainy/stormy or have one of your Pokemon know the move Rain Dance in order to change the weather. I always thought it was odd that Legendary Pokemon Raikou, an electric type, could learn Rain Dance. But now I understand.

4. How To navigate the Glimwood Tangle

The Glimwood Tangle, a route in Pokemon Sword & Shield, is a pitch black forest only illuminated with glowing mushrooms. Unless you talked to the female NPC In front of the entrance to the Glimwood Tangle, you most likely never would've known that you could interact with the environment within the Tangle. Yeah, I didn't know until my 3rd playthrough of Sword/Shield that you could actually interact with the glowing Mushrooms. Interacting with the mushrooms will do one of two things:
1-Illuminate the Forest better allowing you to navigate in the darkness easier than before
And/or
2-A wild and most likely uncommon or rare Pokemon will attack you. So if you thought the Glimwood Tangle was hard to navigate before, now it's easier! If you have Pokemon strong enough to fight the Pokemon you could encounter that is.

5. You can capture Alpha Pokemon WITHOUT combat!

In the new title, Legends Arceus, the games introduced an entirely new gaming format for Pokemon games allowing you to either tackle Pokemon head on in battle or take a stealthy approach to capture. To new players, they most likely take the head on approach and to veteran players they tend to take a more stealthy approach as they realized how much more easier the Stealth approach is. However, what many many people don't realize is that with the right Pokeballs, and loads of patience and stealth, you can capture Alpha Pokemon at any guild rank. Because Alphas are so highly leveled and very perceptive they ARE difficult to capture without engaging in battle. Hence why most don't even realize you can capture Alphas without battle. Just make sure you have a form of heavy pokeball, take a stealth approach, and use the back strike technique. Heck, with this strategy i was capturing Alphas while I was still Rank 2!

6. The Pokemon Colosseum & Gale of Darkness in game cheat code.

Trust me, I was rolling my eyes too when I heard that this pair of games actually had an in game cheat code/hack. Some Shadow Pokemon in Colosseum & Gale of Darkness are ridiculously difficult to catch. But, there's a hack that nearly makes it so you'll capture any Shadow Pokemon without fail. Keep in mind that i mentioned this is a hack that increases the catch rate by a great deal and DOESNT guarantee capture. That is, you throw a Pokeball at the Pokemon you wish to capture, once the ball opens up hold A B & the Left Stick at the same time. I was so skeptical of this hack that I started a new game and used this hack and much to my surprise it worked 95% of the time. I wasn't even bothering to damage the opposing Pokemon, I just threw a Pokeball at it, used the hack, and it was captured! That or I just have incredibly high luck.

7. Certain Moves have HALF the attack power in double battles

Yes, you heard me right, during double battles certain pokemon moves are halved in strength. Which moves are halved in strength? Any move that can attack multiple opponents. Some of these moves in question include Razor Leaf, Surf, Earthquake, Discharge, Heat Wave, Air Cutter and many many more moves that I won't be mentioning😅 I find this nerf in power to be a bit much and in my opinion I wish it wasn't a thing. I didn't even learn about this till rather recently too might I add. Wasn't sure why it was implemented either to be honest. This function has apparently been a thing since double battles were introduced to the series. It's also not even mentioned anywhere in the series either!!!

8. Genderless Pokemon are Immune to Attract

Probably the best known secret on the list, heck it might not even be a secret at all, but Genderless Pokemon are immune to becoming 'attracted' to another Pokemon. Attract makes it so a Pokemon of the opposite sex becomes temporarily infatuated with the move's user. Because they're infatuated, they DONT want to attack the opponent resulting in your Pokemon missing/refusing to attack the opponent which can get really tricky & a major annoyance as Attract tends to stick to the opposing Pokemon for easily 3+ turns. However, a genderless Pokemon is immune to Attract. Some people think that if a pokemon is genderless that they can become attracted by either gender, but really they're immune as a whole. That means pokemon like the Magnemite Family, Porygon Family, Klink Family and most legendaries are immune to the move Attract.

9. Pokemon Black & White 2's Zoroark Sidequest

This entry here was made because when I initially played Black & White 2 I ENTIRELY skipped this quest and I'll explain. During your playthrough of Black & White 2, you'll be gifted a Zorua prior to the 5th Gym. Therefore, you're given the opportunity to raise this Zorua into a powerful Zoroark in which I happily had done. Heck, Zoroark was my Ace on my team. Fast forward to post game after you successfully defeat the Elite 4 & Champion, you're notified that a wild Zoroark had been seen roaming the ruins of N's Castle. In my teenage mind, I took this notification as the game telling me there's a second Zoroark available to capture in the game. Me, already having a Zoroark on my team, didn't bother with this side quest. Turns out, the notification of a roaming Zoroark wasn't the game telling the player to go & Capture it. In reality, the Zoroark side quest was to tell the player to check out the ruins in general as it'll lead you to N deep within the ruins. N will monolog for a while before releasing his Reshiram/Zekrom then tasking the player with capturing it.
Yeah um... I skipped this side quest thinking the game was giving you a second Zoroark when in reality it was the only way for the player to capture the box legendary. I HOPE I'm not the only person to initially skip this quest.

10. Literally ALL of the Legendaries in New Pokemon Snap

The point of Pokemon Snap is to capture a picture of all the available Pokemon in the game. After the main story, new areas of the game are unlocked & you're HEAVILY encouraged to re-visit areas in the game you've already completed without explanation as to why you should revisit said areas. Turns out, the game encourages you to revisit all of the courses you've previously researched during the main story because there's legendary pokemon hidden somewhere along EVERY single course in the Post game. Such as Shaymin frolicking in flowers during the day version of the Florio Nature Park course. Mew teleporting around the night version of the Founja Jungle course. Hibernating Lugia in a secret route of the Lental Seasfloor Undersea course. And many more legendaries to name a few.

How many of these 'secrets' did you know about?