Useless Pokemon Facts

Pokemon is such a deeply fascinating, albeit bizarre, franchise. Not only is it made up of over 30 different mainline games (not counting spin-offs and other media, like the anime or the TGC), but it also focuses heavily on its massive collection of over 1025 fictional creatures that players can catch, befriend, train, and make them confront each other in battle.

As a result of its massive scope and long tenure, the Pokemon franchise is filled to the brim with interesting trivia, with much of it actually serving no purpose whatsoever. There are multiple facts that are completely useless in terms of gameplay, and yet, they’re always fascinating to learn and spread around. Therefore, the following ten Pokemon facts are perfect examples of this bizarre phenomenon.

Some Pokemon’s Names Are Palindromes

A Curious Fact That Connects Ho-Oh, Eevee, And Girafarig

For those who don’t know, a palindrome is a word that reads the same backward or forward, and among the 1000+ collection of Pokemon in the series, there are only five whose names fall into this oddly specific category: Eevee, Ho-Oh, Girafarig, Alomomola, and Farigiraf.

While their unique names make these Pokemon stand out a lot more, there’s only one in which this makes a lot of sense: Girafarig. Since it has two heads, one on its neck and one on its tail, it’s always facing its opponents, regardless of the direction it’s actually looking. Girafarig’s Generation Nine evolution, Farigiraf, does follow the same naming convention, but it’s slightly different because its second head covers and protects the first one like a hoodie.

Some Pokemon Can Actually Devolve

But Only In The Lore, Never In-Game

Everybody is familiar with the concept of Pokemon evolution, a transformation that alters a Pokemon’s biology while making it more powerful and giving it additional characteristics (like a new type, a new ability, etc.). Evolution has been permanent and irreversible since the franchise’s inception, but, curiously enough, there are a few noteworthy exceptions.

While no Pokemon can go back to a previous form in-game, five of them are technically able to devolve (according to their Pokedex entries): Slowbro and Slowking can become a Slowpoke if the Shellder biting their tail falls off. If one of Exeggutor’s six heads falls off its tree-like body, it will become a new Exeggcute. Vanilluxe can keep on living even if it loses one of its heads, which would basically turn it back into a Vanillish. Since Silvally is an artificial Pokemon that only evolves when its helmet is removed, it can go back to being a Type: Null if somebody puts it back. Finally, it is said that, at the very end of a Melmetal’s lifespan, it will spread metal shards that will transform back into Meltan.

One Pokemon Has Over 4 Billion Variations

No Two Spindas Are Alike

Pokemon fans are always trying to catch unique variants of Pokemon, like shinies or ones with forms that were only distributed via events. However, there is a single species that stands out for having an absurd number of variants, even if the changes are purely aesthetic and hold no relevance in the gameplay.

Introduced in Generation Three, Spinda is a Normal-type Pokemon whose spots change depending on each individual’s personality value, meaning that it has over 4.29 billion possible variations. As a result of this bizarre condition, every Spinda has its own spot design that makes it look completely different from the others, thus making this Pokemon a little bit more interesting to find and catch in the games (although the fact that it’s ridiculously weak in battle doesn’t help it very much).

Archeops’ Base Stat Total Hides A Fascinating Secret

Learning About The Dewey Decimal System With Pokemon

Most of the time, a Pokemon’s base stat total seems to be an arbitrary number born from the result of adding up all of its individual stats. However, one of them holds a mind-blowing piece of trivia that makes it seem like the designers at Game Freak gave it that specific number on purpose.

Archeops’ base stat total is 567, which, weirdly enough, coincides with the number for feathered dinosaurs in the Dewey Decimal System (the library classification system created to organize books): 567.9. Since Archeops is based on the Archaeopteryx, a feathered dinosaur that is believed to be the “ancestor to all birds,” it is extremely likely that this was an intentional reference.

Toxel Is Technically A Baby Pokemon

The First One Introduced Since Generation Four (13 Years Prior)

A common misconception in the Pokemon fan base is the belief that the only Pokemon that fall into the category of baby Pokemon are pre-evolutions that were introduced way after their respective evolved forms, like Pichu, Elekid, Magby, or Bonsly. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth, because various baby Pokemon were introduced in the same generation as their evolution, like Togepi and Riolu.

The only creatures that fall into this specific category are those that are unable to breed but evolve into a Pokemon that can. Weirdly enough, however, Game Freak decided to stop introducing babies after Generation Four but made a single exception in Generation Eight: Toxel, the pre-evolved form of Toxtricity, is a Baby Pokemon. This is one of many reasons fans believe that Toxtricity is supposed to be Lucario’s Galarian equivalent.

Cetitan Has The Longest Pokemon Cry

This Title Was Held By Jynx For Nine Generations

The idea of Pokemon solely being able to say their names only really applies to the anime, because in the original games, they have distinct, animal-like cries instead. For over 26 years, the record for the longest cry in the series was held by Jynx, whose signature sound was approximately 3 seconds long.

Unfortunately for Jynx, it lost that title in 2022, with the release of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, which introduced Cetitan. The Terra Whale Pokemon’s cry is exactly 4.007 seconds long, meaning it’s now the longest one in the franchise. Curiously enough, both Jynx and Cetitan are Ice-type Pokemon.

Beheeyem Can Learn Steel Wing Despite Having No Visible Wings

A Bizarre Move Distribution, Most Likely Caused By A Programming Oversight

Game Freak almost always tries to make some sense when it comes to deciding which Pokemon learn which moves, but there are some exceptions, and the biggest one is undoubtedly Beheeyem and the move Steel Wing. Despite having no visible wings nor being connected to the Steel type in any way, this alien-like Psychic-type Pokemon has been able to learn that damaging move since Generation Six.

There’s a reasonable explanation for this oddity, even if it’s only speculation on the fan’s part: Back in Generation Five, TM051 was Ally Switch, a Psychic-Type status move that makes sense for Beheeyem to learn. However, TM051 was changed to Steel Wing in Generation Six, meaning that Game Freak most likely forgot to remove said TM from the Pokemon’s learnest. Unfortunately, since Steel Wing is a physical attack and Beheeyem’s Attack stat is quite low, there’s no context in which giving it this move can even be remotely useful.

The “Umbreon + Synchronoise” Paradox

The Most Useless Move + Pokemon Combo In The Franchise

There’s no denying that Synchronoise is one of the weirdest and most pointless moves in the entire franchise. This is a damage-dealing Psychic-type move that only hits opponents that share at least one type with the user, but since most types resist themselves, there are few (extremely specific) instances in which using Synchronoise can actually yield effective results in battle.

Curiously enough, Eevee can learn Synchronoise by breeding, meaning that Umbreon is also able to learn it. There’s one big problem, however: Dark-type Pokemon are completely immune to Psychic-type moves, meaning that Synchronoise is unable to deal damage to any opponent that shares that type with Umbreon. While it makes a bit more sense for some of the other Eevelutions to learn this move, this is still one of the most baffling (and admittedly funny) decisions in the entire franchise.

What Would Happen If A Pokemon Could Have All 18 Types?

Weirdly Enough, It Would Only Be Weak To The Rock Type

Types are practically what define the entire Pokemon franchise, as each Pokemon can have either one or two at a time, which determines their respective weaknesses. With over 18 types in total, there’s a large variety of different matchups that help make these games all the more strategic and engaging.

Since type matchups can be calculated using math and logic, at one point, some Pokemon fans seemingly asked themselves: what would happen if a Pokemon could hypothetically have all 18 types at the same time? What would it be weak to? Oddly enough, the answer is the Rock type, due to how matchups in this franchise work. As an added fun fact, an impossible Pokemon that has all the types would be unaffected by every single status condition (like paralysis, burn, or poison), with the only exception being sleep (because no type is immune to the sleep status).

Pokemon Champions’ Female Gallade

The Most Recent Game Had An Error That Fans Quickly Grew Fond Of

Gallade is one of many Pokemon that can only be male, seeing as it evolves exclusively from male Kirlia. Nevertheless, the latest entry in the franchise, the battle simulator Pokemon Champions, had a bizarre mistake at launch: in one of the tutorials, an NPC uses a female Gallade, something that should technically be impossible.

This so-called “transgender Gallade” quickly became a fan favorite, especially among those who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. Unfortunately, it was eventually reverted in Champions’ 1.0.3. Update and, as a result, that same Gallade is male now. Regardless of this abrupt change, now Gallade remains as one of the franchise’s biggest LGBTQ+ icons, right alongside Azurill, a Pokemon that used to have a 25% chance to change gender upon evolving in Generations Three, Four, and Five.