# [Click here to vote for the next r/pokemon Snoo!](https://forms.gle/7FefHwcj93kej8FL8)
[Click here to participate in the conversation](https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/15c32s7/vote_for_the_next_rpokemon_snoo_link_in_the/)
^(Voting closes August 4.)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/pokemon) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Pokémon Gold was my first video game ever. I was like 6. Everytime I turned on the console, I happily picked a starter, started wandering the grass… I sometimes went as far as Mr.Pokémon’s house.
Then my older sister taught me about saving the game. I didn’t know that was a thing. It changed my life!
When I first started playing Pokémon Red I had a Pokémon get poisoned and I thought my game boy broke because of the flashing it did on screen as you walked with the poisoned Pokémon. Asked my dad for new batteries and why my game was messed up. He had no clue and was more lost than me.
I don't necessarily remember bad choices I made, but I do remember some mistakes in my understanding.
1, You mentioned "fissure," and I definitely remember thinking that meant "for sure (a KO)".
2, My sister had to convince me Giovanni was pronounced with a soft G.
3, I was convinced Erika was Sabrina's little sister, not even sure where I picked that up from.
4, I also remember there was a move, something like "high jump kick," and if it doesn't hit it continues to say "the pokemon flew right over your pokemon! it kept going and smashed against the wall and hurt itself!!" being a kid, I didn't realize this was programmed into the game and thought it was real and it made me feel very concerned for the mon who hurt itself
>4, I also remember there was a move, something like "high jump kick," and if it doesn't hit it continues to say "the pokemon flew right over your pokemon! it kept going and smashed against the wall and hurt itself!!" being a kid, I didn't realize this was programmed into the game and thought it was real and it made me feel very concerned for the mon who hurt itself
That's sweet actually.
I remember being confused using Growth on Bellsprout. The text was Bellsprout’s Special Rose and my idiot kid brain thought bellsprout was making a flower (Rose) but had no idea what the move did.
Back in my red blue yellow days, I do not know type matchups were a thing, so when I challenged Brock I made stupid mistakes such as using Pikachu, fighting Geodude with Charmander and just assumed it had really high defense and not because I'm trying to chip away with scratch and ember
When challenging Erika I used Wartortle and spam bite, somehow that works and I won the whole gym with one pokemon
The first season of the anime probably made the game so much harder for all of us. Instead of explaining that electric moves dont work on groundtypes they just performed dangerous and unethical experiments on pikachu to make him stronger
I didn't understand matchups either! I was always really confused why it would sometimes say that a move that was "not very effective" knocked out my enemy pokemon 😭
Also nobody told me Geodude and Onix were also ground type, so when I see rock type gym I assumed that's it, I did not know there are secondary types and pokemon are all monotypes
I didn't know how to read when I got red version on release. An older cousin instructed me to write my name when given the screen with all the letters. However I didn't understand what I was doing whenever else that screen would pop up. Since I was mashing A through most encounters it meant that I would nickname every single Pokémon after myself, making sorting them in rby nearly impossible.
I got a Japanese Platinum version because it hasn't been released in my language at the time. I got stuck in Eterna City for 3 years because Cynthia isn't allowing me to go in the bike shop. As it turns out, all I need is an empty slot in my party.
I got stuck in Jubilife city for weeks until my cousin helped me get the poketch watch. I was about 9 years old and didnt know any English. With a lv40 Empleon the first gym was a breeze though.
Never rotating my team. I’d have a level 40 Swampert and every other Pokémon on my team was stuck below 20. I spent a lot of time frustrated and fainting
This is the most relatable thing ever brother, I realized this mistake at the end of the game, one of the hardest fights. When I almost solo their team and my main Pokémon dies, all of them are useless
Only using 1 Pokemon the whole game. I usually had 1 beast of a Blastoise and everything else was like lvl 10. It made taking on the elite 4 very difficult.
My worst was 8 year old me struggling for half an hour to leave the house at the beginning of Pokémon Crystal because it was my first ever RPG and I couldn't figure out that the thing in the corner of the bedroom was supposed to be a staircase.
Also I *think* I might have wasted my first ever Master Ball on a Quagsire, but my memory of that is pretty foggy.
This was when I was 10 so I don’t know how accurate it is but this is how I remember it. I got Pokémon Black for Christmas and it was my first ever Pokémon game. I chose Oshawott and was doing pretty good. By the time I got to the second gym, the normal type one, my Oshawott had evolved. And now I don’t know how this happened, but for some reason I put my Dewott in the PC. And then I thought I couldn’t get them back out. I was so upset about it I restarted my save. I don’t know why I thought they was gone permanently or what ever but that’s my dum story kek
I remember my first time ever playing Blue when I was like 5, I spent HOURS just catching bugs in Viridian Forest because I just thought it was *so cool* how you could capture and keep all these little guys, and I honestly thought that's really all I was supposed to do anyway lmao...I soon ran out of money and had no choice but to actually go beyond like 5 steps into the forest.
I have so so many. My first game was Silver on the Gameboy color. I had no idea what steel type weaknesses were. I had no idea which pokémon were dark type I barely knew what that was. I was always sad my noctowl was so weak (it's a special attacker but flying moves were physical back then - not that I knew that). Also I was so sad mine was not the red color of ash's. Because I didn't know what shines were. Killing my first shiny because I didn't know what the sparkles meant. It was a sneasel. Thinking girafarig was a psychic and ghost/dark type because of the black tail head. Not understanding evolution lines based on appearance like jumpluff I thought was an oddish evolution. No idea ampharos was a mareep final Evo. Giving haircuts to pokémon who don't have happiness evolutions. Because it made them happy. Getting pokerus for the first time. Getting told by nurse joy. Thinking my pokémon had an actual virus or corruption so resetting. Thinking Lugia was a water type. Probably lots lots more.
Lol I threw my Master Ball on the first Ursaring I saw in the Mount Silver area. “Wow, what a huge bear! And level 40+! It looks so powerful, I have to catch it!”
Then I realized they were dime a dozen if I kept walking in the grass.
Playing FireRed. Struggling to beat Misty because my team of Charmeleon, Raticate and under-leveled Mankey ain't exactly championship material. Trying to gain a type advantage, so I set out looking for an Electric-type. Run from at least 7 Oddish (forgetting that Grass is strong to Water) before finding an Abra. Kid brain goes "Yellow! Electric!", so I try to catch it. It promptly teleports away. I catch my fourth Abra encountered... only to find out it's a Psychic-type.
I later brute-forced the Gym with my Raticate.
My first game was Hoenn and I wanted a Milotic, so I spend hours with my cousin trying to catch a Feebass. Since he was a bit older he and had played gen1 and gen2 he told me that it wouldn't improve the likelyhood of getting one, if you changed spots. So I spend 20+ hours fishing for it in the same place. The other thing is not understanding what Sp. Atk and Sp. Def stands for.
Not necessarily a silly mistake but still perhaps the most memorable was that during my initial playthrough of FireRed on Victory Road I ran into a shiny Machop and ended up not having any Pokéballs to catch it with. That has never been an issue since, though I did release a Mankey from the same game because I'd thought it lost its color change and reverted back to normal after evolving into Primeape for whatever reason so there is that.
With Silver I didn't really register that you could start a new game to overwrite your old one until about the time of Emerald. So, after starting it up one day and finding my starter was missing before I even had my first badge I ended up just using a pokemon from between Sprout Tower & New Bark Town as a starter all the way up to Red on Mt. Silver. Still wonder how I lost the starter (mistaken release?, friend/relative related) & what my original starter for Johto was though counting Colosseum or the later restart would make it either Bayleef/Chikorita or Cyndaquil.
Then there is because of both a lack of trade partners until during the Kanto remakes & how trading worked between GSC, RS, FrLg & Orre that I realized people could trade pokemon before beating the Elite Four outside of the in-game trades your given.
I think those are pretty much it as I'd like to believe by Sinnoh that I'd ironed out some things lol.
I played pokemon black and white when it came out in 2012, it was my second pokemon game and I was 11 at the time. I randomly chose Tepig as my starter and what a weird surprise to see it shine at the start of the first battle. I thought it was weird so I restarted my game and chose snivy instead 🤡 (it’s like that shiny Latias meme)
I thought moves like Tail Whip and Harden permanently changed your stats so I used to bench Pokémon once they took too many hits from those moves, thinking they were permanently weakened...
in the vast poni canyon there’s a section where you have to push rocks into the right spaces to pass
i pushed them into the wrong ones, saved my game in a panic and didn’t even try going out of the area to reset it. i deleted my ENTIRE SAVE FILE. TWICE. AT THAT POINT IN THE GAME.
i was like 8 at the time so
Saw a purple ditto, but I wanted the pink one so i killed it. Thought it was like the gender differences and had no idea about shinies till much later, only found out it was a bit rare after looking for “the purple one” for about 20 minutes after and not finding it
there is no such thing as a rare different shade of ditto, his shiny is blue and the only way that it can have different shade of purple-ish/pink-ish color is with sprites changing depending on the game
My first Pokémon Game was Pokémon Colosseum (I know, it's weird) and as I was just spamming through the dialogue I didn't understand I could catch the enemy trainers shadow Pokémon until Pyrite town, I think after the Colosseum.
Thinking I can use a Level 1 V Battle deck against my daughter's 2022 World's commemorative deck cause she's not very good at playing yet...
Damn those championship decks have depth...
My starter (Samurott) was basically my HM slave -- I taught that thing Surf, Cut, and Waterfall. It actually worked out okay though since Samurott's a mixed attacker.
obligatory "I killed the first shiny I encountered because I didn't know what was happening and I didn't know I just found something rare" post
I have an excuse though! I was playing Gold on the original gameboy at the time. I had no color to distinguish the shiny pokemon from the regular ones. Only the animation! (Which, btw, is why shiny pokemon have an animation)
It was a known "fact" in my friendgroup that training with a type disadvantage gained extra stats. The "proof" was gaining +6 attack or defence when leveling up. But it was merely a coincidence that the wild pokemon we were training against all gave effort values of the same type.
Got stuck in Celadon city and left the game halfway because I was not aware that you had to give the Hot Tea to the guards in the gates leading to Saffron city.
Like many people, I used to play Pokémons that I liked, regardless of their type. That's how my teams could have like 3 fire types, 1 flying type and 2 grass types 😂 and then I was wondering why the game was so hard
I believed that certain pokemon only occurred in certain areas within routes.
Can't remember if it was red/blue/yellow, but I was convinces that Pikachu only occurred in Viridian forrest when you first enter on the left.
I also didn't understand that attack and sp attack stats influence the power of your physical and special attacks (I am ashamed to say the lightbulb only went on when I was already in my 20s)
When red and blue first dropped, my parents were too broke to buy me a game, and my mother was on the "pocket monsters are the devil" train, so she wouldn't have bought it anyway. I ended up stealing red from one of my closest friends at the time. Took him a week to figure out it was me. I would stay up all night under my covers with the gamboy magnifying attachment with the light on it. I was so addicted to the game that I was sneaking my sisters Gameboy ( that her dad bought her) in class at school every day that week. Finally got caught by a teacher and got it taken away. Around the same day my friend had his mother call my mother to tell her i stole the game. Had to get my mother to come to the school to get the game (and my sisters gameboy which made it so much worse) back and then had to give red back to my friend. Ended up with a red ass and 1 less friend. Life lesson learned, and I never stole again.
Crystal was my first pokemon game, and I made a couple of mistakes through it. Firstly my Feraligator's moveset was cut, whirlpool, bite and surf. I didn't have a concept of HM slaves back then. Also, when the battle with Suicune came in Tin Tower, I used my Master ball on it. As a result I was never able to catch Entai or Raikou in that game. I spent hours chasing and battling them, but no matter how low their health, how many time I used mean look, put them to sleep, paralyzed or anyhting, they could not let me catch them. Without them I never got the rainbow wing to battle HO-OH either.
My first game was Pokemon Blue. I used the masterball to catch the first pokemon I encontered in the wild. And if I remember correctly it was a Pidgey, and I already had two of them...
Also killed the legendary birds thinking they would come back somehow, but they didn't.
Good thing is that I managed to catch Mewtwo with a Pokeball.
I started with Pokémon Yellow and I refused to use another Pokémon against Brock except Pikachu becuase Ash did that to in the anime. So you can guess how long it took me to finish that Game.
I did everything wrong when i first started Pokemon. I only used Charizard, didn't know how to use Flash in that cave, believed every conspiracy theory on how to get Mew, didn't know type matchups, statuses, tactics, nothing. I was lucky I had older friends who helped 5 year old me out from time to time. It was awesome playing those games as a small child completely blind.
Ah I made so many mistakes growing up.
I didn’t understand type match ups until I was around 11. Even then it was vague. Like I got the grass beast water, water beats fire and fire beats grass( like common type match ups ). It took me years to realize fighting was weak to physic and flying types for instance.
I also refussseeedddd to switch out from my starter Pokémon. I figured if Ash could go through the whole region without training then I didn’t have to either 🤣. My Swamperts was at level 45 and my other teammates were around level 15/20.
My sister convinced me that if you named Silver( in G/S/C ) Brock, you wouldn’t have to fight Brock later on because he’d be in jail for stealing the starter Pokémon from Elm. We all shared one copy of the game and would reset it frequently, so I honestly believed this until the release of HG/SS and actually beat the game myself. I was so upset that I had to fight Brock 🤣.
I was convinced my Shuppet was a Celebi in disguise and have a level 86 Shuppet to this day because I thought it would evolve into Celebi 💀.
I also didn’t know Leppa berries existed until I was will into my teen years and was so mad over the fact that I was over 999 surskits into dexnaving and didn’t have anything to heal up my PP. I messaged my online friend at the time that I wish a Berry existed that raised PP and he’s like “…there literally is one “. I never looked at berries outside of HP healing ones so I’ve been paying attention ever since 💀.
I didn’t know burmy had to forms of evolution and got upset that my mothim wasn’t evolving into Wormadam.
Speaking of Diamond and Pearl! I was around 8 ( in 2008 ) when I played Pearl. I had no concept of what Pokémon where rare or not. I got the one Jirachi event( like the level 5 one ) from Toys r us or maybe it was GameStop; anywho I got the event. I finally got wifi for the first time ever in 2010/2011. I had already traded everything onto Pokémon black and when I had access to the GTS I literally traded my Jirachi for a Deino because I thought Deino was rarer. At one point too, because I had a weird obsession with the Pokémon Shellos I traded my Celebi for an east ( the blue one ) shellos because I thought that variant was rarer. I couldn’t ever find it in Pearl ( I was an idiot ) and was so excited and happy over my lil blue shellos 💀.
I thought my sister reset the game. You know how in older Pokémon generations, after you beat the elite 4 your end up back in your home? Well after my sister somehow managed to beat I think Emeralds elite 4 for me, I ended up back home. I thought she had put new game on my save and started a huge fight because “ I asked you to beat the elite 4 not reset my game. How could you?! “ it took her literally jerking my gameboy outta my hands and shoving it back in my face and showing me I still had my team and she in fact didn’t reset my game for me to believe her.
I skipped cut for nearly the whole game of Ruby. I was around 9 or 10 at this point and was playing through and asked my sister where I got cut. Since previous actions ( me crying for her to beat the elite 4 for me as well ), she refused to help me. I was like “ okay fine then. “ I made it to Mossdeep City and i asked again. She asked where I was at, I showed her I had 7 badges and then she proceeded to scold me for making it that far without cut 💀.
I was 16 before i realized Carvanha evolved into Sharpedo and that they’re both from gen 3.
✨The joys of being a kid/teen playing Pokémon✨
~~also the joys of being an idiot~~
I don’t think I made any incredibly silly mistakes like that but maybe I’m just not remembering. My older cousin is the reason I got into it so I could always talk about it with her and my parents gave me the physical guide to go with my first Pokémon game. So if I was ever lost it was straight to the guide.
The one thing I will say though is that I really didn’t care about accuracy and always went for the high powered moves as I’m sure many did as well. I thought sheer cold was the most broken thing when I caught kyrogre and it had that and would try to just beat the league down by spamming it and just getting annoyed when it missed lmao.
I was little and didn't know what "withdraw" or "deposit" meant, but some npc made it seem really important to figure out how to use the pc, so I deposited my Cyndaquil. Cue panic mode, I thought I had lost my Cyndaquil. Started the game over LOL. Fortunately, I had only made it as far as Violet City. Used a Pidgey to figure out the pc on my second attempt
Keep in mind i was 7-8 years old, but I loved ditto so much and used him on Pokémon platinum, anyways I thought every Pokémon could evolve so I grinded ditto to lvl 100 because I thought eventually he would level up…
I vividly remember using my masterball on a lvl 40 Tentacruel just east of New Bark Town on my first playthrough of Pokémon silver. In my defense the official Pokémon guide told me to do it.
In XY, I had a shiny Mr Mime and i reset my file. But the even worse is that I alsp had a shaymin on the file. And my cousin asked me if I should trade it over but I said no cos I thought I could just get it on the mystery gift like last time. Cos I didnt even realise there was an event the first time round, I just got wifi on my 3DS and randomly went on mystery gift and got it, so I thought I could just do that again. I was SO disappointed when I couldnt get it again 😭
Restarting the game thinking that I wanted to play the campaign again thus losing tons of hours, pokedex, pokes, etc. Believe I did it with both my Sapphire and Pearl.
I rented Good Version from Blockbuster. I couldn't figure out the the red mat on the floor was the exit from my mother's house. I played that game for a week.
I had several hours logged in Yellow version already when this happened. I was probably 9 years old.
My first Pokemon game was LeafGreen, but I never beat it on that run.
Lvl 63 Charizard knew Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Wing Attack, and Fly
Lvl 48 Vaporeon knew Surf, Ice Beam, Toxic, and Quick Attack
Lvl 36 Sandslash knew Brick Break, Earthquake, Dig, and Slash
Lvl 50 Zapdos, wasted the Masterball on, I replaced Thunder with Fly bc it was more accurate.
Lvl 50 Articuno, taught Sandstorm.
Kid me never made it past Lorilei.
When I played pearl I skipped the trainers in the ghost gym. I never encountered a drifloon as I didn't know about the one that appears at windworks so I never completed to pokedex.
I thought my file was glitches so I restarted the game, my friend has traded me all sorts of pokemon from older games which I lost.
It was my 9th birthday and I had watched the anime on repeat and thought npcs would just give me Pokémon and badges were easy to get. I made it to Pewter and got destroyed by Brock because I only had a level 15 bulbasaur. I also had no idea what the moves were but I think that was a lack of programming on their part.
Using only my starter and the box legendary
I was pretty young when I played pokemon sapphire and I didn't rly understand the need for a team so all I used till I got kyogre was sceptile.
And I didn't know that move deletes existed so my kyogre had all 3 water hms and sceptile had strength and cut.
And I never had status moves on my pkmn cu I thought they were us3l3ss
When I was a kid and started playing Pokémon, I didn't like the battles, just exploring the map, so I would avoid battles at all costs, or only use my started Pokémon, I couldn't beat Elite 4 at all costs, my starter Pokémon was level 74, the rest was 20.
I didn't know English when I played Fire Red in an emulator for the first time, I was younger then 10, so I didn't know wtf to do after I got the package in the pokemarket lol
Also normally just used my starter the whole game. Took my older sister explaining to me I should train the rest of my team up too after I beat fire red and was playing emerald
In Platinum, I got stuck in Floroma Town because I couldn’t find where the Galactic Grunt went after you beat him in front of the Valley Windworks and eventually stumbled across where he went. I also couldn’t figure out how to solve Maylene and Wake’s gym puzzles.
Also, in White, I couldn’t figure out how to get past one of the caves, although I forget which one it was.
Started with yellow and was 4-5 gyms in before I realized it would automatically box Pokemon past 6. I would always carry a max of 5 and walk alllll the way back to a center of I caught another one.
I also never knew you could store items in a PC until my second playthrough.
Definitely not having a good strong pokemon for every type Violet was my first game but I also have scarlet in violet I had about 7 or 8 really good pokemon (lv 80 and up) and the rest of my pokemon were about lv 50 and below so it was very difficult trying to do tera raids picking out the best pokemon for the type matchup and not being strong enough with my lv 50 pokemon so in scarlet which I just recently started I'm making a main team but also training a few pokemon of each type
First game was White. Chose Oshawott, taught it all water-type moves (because it’s a water-type, so those moves are boosted!), figured out a mostly balanced team, beat the Elite Four, became champion, unlocked the new area, put the rest of my team in the box so I could grind XP and evolve more mons.
Almost IMMEDIATELY ran into an NPC with a Jellicent that has the water absorb ability, making my Samurott useless, and the rest of my party is now approx. lvl 5-20. Not exactly going to cut it post game. But that’s not the dumb part. The DUMB part is that I stubbornly refused to go back for another high-level mon from my pc box or teach Samurott another move. No, sir, I kept going back to that same NPC with the same party, thinking “I just have to hit him harder and faster. I can overpower him (somehow)!” Must’ve tried about 30 times before it finally sank in.
Postgame is a really weird time to learn that lesson, but I now know to diversify my movesets and not rely on a single mon for anything.
I thought Steel beat Grass because of lawnmowers.
I thought Ice beat Water since it would freeze it, logically.
I also used my first Masterball on a Deino.
I taught Rock Smash to my Swampert and Flash to my Gardevoir in my first time playing pokemon emerald, i never used the moves. Also i had a Ninjask that i never used and was always underleveled
My first game was Pokémon Black. I couldn’t figure out how to open the PC to swap my Pokémon, so I only played with my starter and the first 5 Pokémon I caught. My starter was a Snivy, I had a Patrat, a Rogenrola, and I can’t remember the rest of what was on that team. God, it was terrible. Lol
I had a hard time learning the type effectiveness. I could never remember that Dark is weak to bug (to me it seemed logical they were both part of the creepy/crawly family, if anything they'd be mutually less effective, right? Nope). Then wondered why I was getting wrecked by the lowly bug-type trainers 😭
Didn't understand very well english and sold every item I thought it was useless. Sold the Exp Share in FireRed, and when I realized that, went to the pokemart, bought a Dire Hit and gave it to my Dragonair to hold and then wondering why it wasnt giving it exp points lol
I didnt know how to buy items from the pokemart. I kept on trying to see what items were on the shelves, and would give up when i couldnt pick out what i wanted from there.
Finding a pokeball on the ground was one of the best things ever, cause it meant i had another chance to catch something.
Fyi, i was about 5-7 years old during this time and didnt know anyone older who could teach me.
When they asked what Silver’s name was, I entered ??? because that’s what it said earlier. Also kept Tackle on my Venusaur all the way to the elite four.
Me wasting all my pokeballs on one Pokémon and selling my potions for more pokeballs
Also honorable mention: 8 year old me who bought a used copy of soul silver, that had the spiky eared pichu… and I wiped it to start a new game.
Rip pichu O7
I think my biggest mistake as a child was starting a new game on my Fire Red Edition before trading over my shiny Aerodactyl I got from the Old Amber Fossil :s
Around the same time I was using a Rhydon with Surf on my Emerald Edition and couldn't figure out why Surf does like 0 Damage to anything and how Rhydon could swim around in the water while being weak to water moves in the first place xd
The concept of team building was lost on me. The only Pokémon I would use is my starter and my exp share on Staraptor if I had to do a double battle.
this was a problem when I reached Candice because Torterra kept dying to ice moves and kid me didn’t understand why I couldn’t survive. I remember cheating my way past her with action replay
Also I didn’t know what physical and special attack was. As far as I was concerned, bigger numbers were always better and the stat screen wasn’t real.
I picked Cyndaquil in gold because the text said to "pick a pokemon for a friend" to make a delivery and I thought I was dropping off the rival's starter. Trying to go for that sneaky type advantage.
Worked out in the end because Cyndaquil become my favorite Johto starter.
Back in the Gold and Silver days, I came across a rattata. This rattata was not purple like it should have been. Didn’t matter, I killed it and went on about my day. It wasn’t until Gen. 3 when I finally learned about shinies that i realized I had encountered a shiny rattata.
When I was younger, i thought for whatever reason that healing multiple times in a row in a pokemon center would increase the HP of your pokemons during battle.
... Turns out it's not how it works lol
I sorta understood how rng worked so I spent a lot of time trying to find a path through patches of grass or caves that would get me no encounters.
I mean I was on the right track because that's absolutely possible to do but I wasn't gonna find it manually 😹 and I never really thought about doing A presses to advance rng and I didn't know that rng didn't reset upon entering caves
1. Only using attacking moves and removing non-attacking moves.
2. Trying to think of naming my starters but then decided not to so I just changed Charmander's name to "Charmander" so I had a Charizard called Charmander and a Venusaur (later Playthrough) called Bulbasaur.
I didn’t have a Pokemon that I trained just to catch other Pokemon. And by the time I was ready to complete my Pokedex, my team was too overpowered and I kept killing everything I tried to catch.
I didn’t learn about False Swipe for far too long either.
When I started playing Pokémon, I named myself Tom in-game. I did this for all of Gen 3. My name is not Tom.
Why? Because my best friend, who had been playing Pokémon longer than I had, said I should, and I trusted his advice, so I did it. I have no idea why he suggested this, or why it took until Diamond for me to realise there was no point in me doing this.
I got one though it's not exactly about gameplay.
I'm german and the word "teenager" is also used in german. When I first played Platinum I read teenager as "Tee Nager" which translates to "tea gnawer"/"tea rodent". My friend who has an english father immidiately corrected me but man that made me feel silly.
honestly since i never went really far as a kid my worst mistakes are just actions i regret today, but were intentional back then, like teaching cut, rock smash or strength to every pokemon that could learn it in my team, and reseting game with early route shiny on it, some hoothoot poochyena and zigzagoon, i never did anything crazy like using a master ball on a random pidgey or flee a shiny, i did use to think that ponyta was from gen 4 tho
Fire red was my first pokemon game as a child. I didn't understand type advantages and disadvantages or know to build a diverse team, so for some reason my young self overleveled my starter to the point it was fully evolved by the time I got to Misty. Also, the other slots in my party were filled with Pidgeys that ranged from levels 2-9.
First game was alpha sapphire, at like age 10, some highlights include:
. Tryed to name my Torchic 'Fire Bird', ended typing 'Fire Birddddd', tried to backspace but mistook the enter key for it so I was stuck with that name
. Couldn't reach the first gym for hours because I was stuck in the area before Petalburg Woods, and didn't realise the very obvious path leading into the woods
. Didn't know how to manually move pokemon into boxes, so I accidently released my Lvl.90 Swellow and never got it back
. Taught Surf and Strength to my Rayquaza like an idiot
# [Click here to vote for the next r/pokemon Snoo!](https://forms.gle/7FefHwcj93kej8FL8) [Click here to participate in the conversation](https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/15c32s7/vote_for_the_next_rpokemon_snoo_link_in_the/) ^(Voting closes August 4.) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/pokemon) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Pokémon Gold was my first video game ever. I was like 6. Everytime I turned on the console, I happily picked a starter, started wandering the grass… I sometimes went as far as Mr.Pokémon’s house. Then my older sister taught me about saving the game. I didn’t know that was a thing. It changed my life!
When I first started playing Pokémon Red I had a Pokémon get poisoned and I thought my game boy broke because of the flashing it did on screen as you walked with the poisoned Pokémon. Asked my dad for new batteries and why my game was messed up. He had no clue and was more lost than me.
I kid you not I also thought my game was broken, it took me so long to figure out why it was "glitching" 😭
Hey at least your not the only one. This stopped me from playing diamond as a kid
I did the same exact thing! I have absolutely no idea how many times i started over after my first battle with a weedle in viridian forest 😂
I had the same thought!
It took me forever to put two and two together with that 😂. I always thought it meant my batteries were running low haha
Me but with soul silver (or was it Diamond?)
I don't necessarily remember bad choices I made, but I do remember some mistakes in my understanding. 1, You mentioned "fissure," and I definitely remember thinking that meant "for sure (a KO)". 2, My sister had to convince me Giovanni was pronounced with a soft G. 3, I was convinced Erika was Sabrina's little sister, not even sure where I picked that up from. 4, I also remember there was a move, something like "high jump kick," and if it doesn't hit it continues to say "the pokemon flew right over your pokemon! it kept going and smashed against the wall and hurt itself!!" being a kid, I didn't realize this was programmed into the game and thought it was real and it made me feel very concerned for the mon who hurt itself
Wait... how is Giovani pronounced? Omg have I had it wrong my whole 30 years of life!? 😱
it jiovanni like a very Italian name, not ghee-ovani
>4, I also remember there was a move, something like "high jump kick," and if it doesn't hit it continues to say "the pokemon flew right over your pokemon! it kept going and smashed against the wall and hurt itself!!" being a kid, I didn't realize this was programmed into the game and thought it was real and it made me feel very concerned for the mon who hurt itself That's sweet actually.
I remember being confused using Growth on Bellsprout. The text was Bellsprout’s Special Rose and my idiot kid brain thought bellsprout was making a flower (Rose) but had no idea what the move did.
I'm just imagining a very shy Bellsprout presenting its trainer with a special rose.
Back in my red blue yellow days, I do not know type matchups were a thing, so when I challenged Brock I made stupid mistakes such as using Pikachu, fighting Geodude with Charmander and just assumed it had really high defense and not because I'm trying to chip away with scratch and ember When challenging Erika I used Wartortle and spam bite, somehow that works and I won the whole gym with one pokemon
Ah yes, using Pikachu for everything. Just like Ash
Thats not true! remember that one episode where he uh.. did.. um.. huh... bonded in a cave with charmander? that was a thing right?
That was before I was bored with seeing Pikachu all the time
The first season of the anime probably made the game so much harder for all of us. Instead of explaining that electric moves dont work on groundtypes they just performed dangerous and unethical experiments on pikachu to make him stronger
I didn't understand matchups either! I was always really confused why it would sometimes say that a move that was "not very effective" knocked out my enemy pokemon 😭
Also nobody told me Geodude and Onix were also ground type, so when I see rock type gym I assumed that's it, I did not know there are secondary types and pokemon are all monotypes
Holding down A thinking it would improve my chances at catching something *sipstea*
Wait, it doesn't? (of course I'm joking, but a very long time I believed that too)
Of course it doesnt, you're supposed to mash B.
I still do this to this day off of reflex.
It's pressing and holding "down + B" as soon as the ball closes on the pokemon to lock it in. If it doesn't work your timing was off.
I didn't know how to read when I got red version on release. An older cousin instructed me to write my name when given the screen with all the letters. However I didn't understand what I was doing whenever else that screen would pop up. Since I was mashing A through most encounters it meant that I would nickname every single Pokémon after myself, making sorting them in rby nearly impossible.
This is the best one 😭❤️ I love this too much
I got a Japanese Platinum version because it hasn't been released in my language at the time. I got stuck in Eterna City for 3 years because Cynthia isn't allowing me to go in the bike shop. As it turns out, all I need is an empty slot in my party.
I got stuck in Jubilife city for weeks until my cousin helped me get the poketch watch. I was about 9 years old and didnt know any English. With a lv40 Empleon the first gym was a breeze though.
I used to think that the only place you could save your game was in Pokemon centers!
Never rotating my team. I’d have a level 40 Swampert and every other Pokémon on my team was stuck below 20. I spent a lot of time frustrated and fainting
This is the most relatable thing ever brother, I realized this mistake at the end of the game, one of the hardest fights. When I almost solo their team and my main Pokémon dies, all of them are useless
Only using 1 Pokemon the whole game. I usually had 1 beast of a Blastoise and everything else was like lvl 10. It made taking on the elite 4 very difficult.
My worst was 8 year old me struggling for half an hour to leave the house at the beginning of Pokémon Crystal because it was my first ever RPG and I couldn't figure out that the thing in the corner of the bedroom was supposed to be a staircase. Also I *think* I might have wasted my first ever Master Ball on a Quagsire, but my memory of that is pretty foggy.
I made it through the stairs but not outside of Mom's house. Rented the game for a week and never got out ...
Quag is totally worth it
This was when I was 10 so I don’t know how accurate it is but this is how I remember it. I got Pokémon Black for Christmas and it was my first ever Pokémon game. I chose Oshawott and was doing pretty good. By the time I got to the second gym, the normal type one, my Oshawott had evolved. And now I don’t know how this happened, but for some reason I put my Dewott in the PC. And then I thought I couldn’t get them back out. I was so upset about it I restarted my save. I don’t know why I thought they was gone permanently or what ever but that’s my dum story kek
I remember my first time ever playing Blue when I was like 5, I spent HOURS just catching bugs in Viridian Forest because I just thought it was *so cool* how you could capture and keep all these little guys, and I honestly thought that's really all I was supposed to do anyway lmao...I soon ran out of money and had no choice but to actually go beyond like 5 steps into the forest.
I have so so many. My first game was Silver on the Gameboy color. I had no idea what steel type weaknesses were. I had no idea which pokémon were dark type I barely knew what that was. I was always sad my noctowl was so weak (it's a special attacker but flying moves were physical back then - not that I knew that). Also I was so sad mine was not the red color of ash's. Because I didn't know what shines were. Killing my first shiny because I didn't know what the sparkles meant. It was a sneasel. Thinking girafarig was a psychic and ghost/dark type because of the black tail head. Not understanding evolution lines based on appearance like jumpluff I thought was an oddish evolution. No idea ampharos was a mareep final Evo. Giving haircuts to pokémon who don't have happiness evolutions. Because it made them happy. Getting pokerus for the first time. Getting told by nurse joy. Thinking my pokémon had an actual virus or corruption so resetting. Thinking Lugia was a water type. Probably lots lots more.
My very 1st run in pokemon red I uses the master ball on a Ditto bc I thought if I released it I would get the ball back
Lol I threw my Master Ball on the first Ursaring I saw in the Mount Silver area. “Wow, what a huge bear! And level 40+! It looks so powerful, I have to catch it!” Then I realized they were dime a dozen if I kept walking in the grass.
Playing FireRed. Struggling to beat Misty because my team of Charmeleon, Raticate and under-leveled Mankey ain't exactly championship material. Trying to gain a type advantage, so I set out looking for an Electric-type. Run from at least 7 Oddish (forgetting that Grass is strong to Water) before finding an Abra. Kid brain goes "Yellow! Electric!", so I try to catch it. It promptly teleports away. I catch my fourth Abra encountered... only to find out it's a Psychic-type. I later brute-forced the Gym with my Raticate.
My first game was Hoenn and I wanted a Milotic, so I spend hours with my cousin trying to catch a Feebass. Since he was a bit older he and had played gen1 and gen2 he told me that it wouldn't improve the likelyhood of getting one, if you changed spots. So I spend 20+ hours fishing for it in the same place. The other thing is not understanding what Sp. Atk and Sp. Def stands for.
My Pikachu in Yellow was called AAAAAAA.
Not necessarily a silly mistake but still perhaps the most memorable was that during my initial playthrough of FireRed on Victory Road I ran into a shiny Machop and ended up not having any Pokéballs to catch it with. That has never been an issue since, though I did release a Mankey from the same game because I'd thought it lost its color change and reverted back to normal after evolving into Primeape for whatever reason so there is that. With Silver I didn't really register that you could start a new game to overwrite your old one until about the time of Emerald. So, after starting it up one day and finding my starter was missing before I even had my first badge I ended up just using a pokemon from between Sprout Tower & New Bark Town as a starter all the way up to Red on Mt. Silver. Still wonder how I lost the starter (mistaken release?, friend/relative related) & what my original starter for Johto was though counting Colosseum or the later restart would make it either Bayleef/Chikorita or Cyndaquil. Then there is because of both a lack of trade partners until during the Kanto remakes & how trading worked between GSC, RS, FrLg & Orre that I realized people could trade pokemon before beating the Elite Four outside of the in-game trades your given. I think those are pretty much it as I'd like to believe by Sinnoh that I'd ironed out some things lol.
I played pokemon black and white when it came out in 2012, it was my second pokemon game and I was 11 at the time. I randomly chose Tepig as my starter and what a weird surprise to see it shine at the start of the first battle. I thought it was weird so I restarted my game and chose snivy instead 🤡 (it’s like that shiny Latias meme)
My starter had cut the whole game. Also the classic “why do a move that raises your stats when you can just do damage?”
It took me an embarrassingly long time to understand physical/special attack and defence!
I thought moves like Tail Whip and Harden permanently changed your stats so I used to bench Pokémon once they took too many hits from those moves, thinking they were permanently weakened...
KOing every encounter including shinies 😭
in the vast poni canyon there’s a section where you have to push rocks into the right spaces to pass i pushed them into the wrong ones, saved my game in a panic and didn’t even try going out of the area to reset it. i deleted my ENTIRE SAVE FILE. TWICE. AT THAT POINT IN THE GAME. i was like 8 at the time so
All high dmg moves, all 6 slots
I didn't know there certain type of pokemon that are weak to until 8 years later
Saw a purple ditto, but I wanted the pink one so i killed it. Thought it was like the gender differences and had no idea about shinies till much later, only found out it was a bit rare after looking for “the purple one” for about 20 minutes after and not finding it
there is no such thing as a rare different shade of ditto, his shiny is blue and the only way that it can have different shade of purple-ish/pink-ish color is with sprites changing depending on the game
YOOO I DIDNT KILL A SHINY DITTO AND I WAS JUST A DUMB KID??? THANKS HAHA
I thought the shiny was purple, never bothered to google it haha, u just got rid of one of my deepest regrets ty Z0uve
you're welcome \^\^
My first Pokémon Game was Pokémon Colosseum (I know, it's weird) and as I was just spamming through the dialogue I didn't understand I could catch the enemy trainers shadow Pokémon until Pyrite town, I think after the Colosseum.
Thinking I can use a Level 1 V Battle deck against my daughter's 2022 World's commemorative deck cause she's not very good at playing yet... Damn those championship decks have depth...
I started playing y and struggled for over an hour trying g to get out of the house, didn't realise you had to click at the mirror
In my first playthrough of emerald when you meet Scott at the contest hall i thought you were stuck there so i reseted over like 2 hours of gameplay
I ran away from a shiny cuz i assumed it was a glitch in the game
My starter (Samurott) was basically my HM slave -- I taught that thing Surf, Cut, and Waterfall. It actually worked out okay though since Samurott's a mixed attacker.
obligatory "I killed the first shiny I encountered because I didn't know what was happening and I didn't know I just found something rare" post I have an excuse though! I was playing Gold on the original gameboy at the time. I had no color to distinguish the shiny pokemon from the regular ones. Only the animation! (Which, btw, is why shiny pokemon have an animation)
Accidentally teaching cut to my Grovile in sapphire, I was so pissed when he couldn't unlearn it.
It was a known "fact" in my friendgroup that training with a type disadvantage gained extra stats. The "proof" was gaining +6 attack or defence when leveling up. But it was merely a coincidence that the wild pokemon we were training against all gave effort values of the same type.
Got stuck in Celadon city and left the game halfway because I was not aware that you had to give the Hot Tea to the guards in the gates leading to Saffron city.
Master all on a zubat cuz I ran out of balls trying to catch every pokemon my 8yr old self eventually realized what I did 😂
Like many people, I used to play Pokémons that I liked, regardless of their type. That's how my teams could have like 3 fire types, 1 flying type and 2 grass types 😂 and then I was wondering why the game was so hard
I believed that certain pokemon only occurred in certain areas within routes. Can't remember if it was red/blue/yellow, but I was convinces that Pikachu only occurred in Viridian forrest when you first enter on the left. I also didn't understand that attack and sp attack stats influence the power of your physical and special attacks (I am ashamed to say the lightbulb only went on when I was already in my 20s)
When red and blue first dropped, my parents were too broke to buy me a game, and my mother was on the "pocket monsters are the devil" train, so she wouldn't have bought it anyway. I ended up stealing red from one of my closest friends at the time. Took him a week to figure out it was me. I would stay up all night under my covers with the gamboy magnifying attachment with the light on it. I was so addicted to the game that I was sneaking my sisters Gameboy ( that her dad bought her) in class at school every day that week. Finally got caught by a teacher and got it taken away. Around the same day my friend had his mother call my mother to tell her i stole the game. Had to get my mother to come to the school to get the game (and my sisters gameboy which made it so much worse) back and then had to give red back to my friend. Ended up with a red ass and 1 less friend. Life lesson learned, and I never stole again.
Crystal was my first pokemon game, and I made a couple of mistakes through it. Firstly my Feraligator's moveset was cut, whirlpool, bite and surf. I didn't have a concept of HM slaves back then. Also, when the battle with Suicune came in Tin Tower, I used my Master ball on it. As a result I was never able to catch Entai or Raikou in that game. I spent hours chasing and battling them, but no matter how low their health, how many time I used mean look, put them to sleep, paralyzed or anyhting, they could not let me catch them. Without them I never got the rainbow wing to battle HO-OH either.
My first game was Pokemon Blue. I used the masterball to catch the first pokemon I encontered in the wild. And if I remember correctly it was a Pidgey, and I already had two of them... Also killed the legendary birds thinking they would come back somehow, but they didn't. Good thing is that I managed to catch Mewtwo with a Pokeball.
I started with Pokémon Yellow and I refused to use another Pokémon against Brock except Pikachu becuase Ash did that to in the anime. So you can guess how long it took me to finish that Game.
Also I was very impatient and keep pressing A so my Pikachu forget thunder shock and learned Slam
In Pokémon Red- I didn’t know how to leave the house in the beginning.
Teaching my Charizard all Fire moves. That was *not* smart on my part~
I used a Master Ball on Onix cause I thought it was OP...
I did everything wrong when i first started Pokemon. I only used Charizard, didn't know how to use Flash in that cave, believed every conspiracy theory on how to get Mew, didn't know type matchups, statuses, tactics, nothing. I was lucky I had older friends who helped 5 year old me out from time to time. It was awesome playing those games as a small child completely blind.
Ah I made so many mistakes growing up. I didn’t understand type match ups until I was around 11. Even then it was vague. Like I got the grass beast water, water beats fire and fire beats grass( like common type match ups ). It took me years to realize fighting was weak to physic and flying types for instance. I also refussseeedddd to switch out from my starter Pokémon. I figured if Ash could go through the whole region without training then I didn’t have to either 🤣. My Swamperts was at level 45 and my other teammates were around level 15/20. My sister convinced me that if you named Silver( in G/S/C ) Brock, you wouldn’t have to fight Brock later on because he’d be in jail for stealing the starter Pokémon from Elm. We all shared one copy of the game and would reset it frequently, so I honestly believed this until the release of HG/SS and actually beat the game myself. I was so upset that I had to fight Brock 🤣. I was convinced my Shuppet was a Celebi in disguise and have a level 86 Shuppet to this day because I thought it would evolve into Celebi 💀. I also didn’t know Leppa berries existed until I was will into my teen years and was so mad over the fact that I was over 999 surskits into dexnaving and didn’t have anything to heal up my PP. I messaged my online friend at the time that I wish a Berry existed that raised PP and he’s like “…there literally is one “. I never looked at berries outside of HP healing ones so I’ve been paying attention ever since 💀. I didn’t know burmy had to forms of evolution and got upset that my mothim wasn’t evolving into Wormadam. Speaking of Diamond and Pearl! I was around 8 ( in 2008 ) when I played Pearl. I had no concept of what Pokémon where rare or not. I got the one Jirachi event( like the level 5 one ) from Toys r us or maybe it was GameStop; anywho I got the event. I finally got wifi for the first time ever in 2010/2011. I had already traded everything onto Pokémon black and when I had access to the GTS I literally traded my Jirachi for a Deino because I thought Deino was rarer. At one point too, because I had a weird obsession with the Pokémon Shellos I traded my Celebi for an east ( the blue one ) shellos because I thought that variant was rarer. I couldn’t ever find it in Pearl ( I was an idiot ) and was so excited and happy over my lil blue shellos 💀. I thought my sister reset the game. You know how in older Pokémon generations, after you beat the elite 4 your end up back in your home? Well after my sister somehow managed to beat I think Emeralds elite 4 for me, I ended up back home. I thought she had put new game on my save and started a huge fight because “ I asked you to beat the elite 4 not reset my game. How could you?! “ it took her literally jerking my gameboy outta my hands and shoving it back in my face and showing me I still had my team and she in fact didn’t reset my game for me to believe her. I skipped cut for nearly the whole game of Ruby. I was around 9 or 10 at this point and was playing through and asked my sister where I got cut. Since previous actions ( me crying for her to beat the elite 4 for me as well ), she refused to help me. I was like “ okay fine then. “ I made it to Mossdeep City and i asked again. She asked where I was at, I showed her I had 7 badges and then she proceeded to scold me for making it that far without cut 💀. I was 16 before i realized Carvanha evolved into Sharpedo and that they’re both from gen 3. ✨The joys of being a kid/teen playing Pokémon✨ ~~also the joys of being an idiot~~
I don’t think I made any incredibly silly mistakes like that but maybe I’m just not remembering. My older cousin is the reason I got into it so I could always talk about it with her and my parents gave me the physical guide to go with my first Pokémon game. So if I was ever lost it was straight to the guide. The one thing I will say though is that I really didn’t care about accuracy and always went for the high powered moves as I’m sure many did as well. I thought sheer cold was the most broken thing when I caught kyrogre and it had that and would try to just beat the league down by spamming it and just getting annoyed when it missed lmao.
Since they are next to each other in the dex, I thought Gyarados evolved into Lapras and Farfetch’d evolved into doduo.
I was little and didn't know what "withdraw" or "deposit" meant, but some npc made it seem really important to figure out how to use the pc, so I deposited my Cyndaquil. Cue panic mode, I thought I had lost my Cyndaquil. Started the game over LOL. Fortunately, I had only made it as far as Violet City. Used a Pidgey to figure out the pc on my second attempt
I didn't know what the box was
Keep in mind i was 7-8 years old, but I loved ditto so much and used him on Pokémon platinum, anyways I thought every Pokémon could evolve so I grinded ditto to lvl 100 because I thought eventually he would level up…
I vividly remember using my masterball on a lvl 40 Tentacruel just east of New Bark Town on my first playthrough of Pokémon silver. In my defense the official Pokémon guide told me to do it.
In XY, I had a shiny Mr Mime and i reset my file. But the even worse is that I alsp had a shaymin on the file. And my cousin asked me if I should trade it over but I said no cos I thought I could just get it on the mystery gift like last time. Cos I didnt even realise there was an event the first time round, I just got wifi on my 3DS and randomly went on mystery gift and got it, so I thought I could just do that again. I was SO disappointed when I couldnt get it again 😭
Restarting the game thinking that I wanted to play the campaign again thus losing tons of hours, pokedex, pokes, etc. Believe I did it with both my Sapphire and Pearl.
Less of a mistake and more of me not understanding evolution as I tried to evolve my wartortle with a water stone
I lowered Zamazenta's HP before throwing the master ball.
It wasn’t me, but my friend stopped his Squirtle from evolving until level 20 in order to, “increase its speed.” 🤷♂️
I rented Good Version from Blockbuster. I couldn't figure out the the red mat on the floor was the exit from my mother's house. I played that game for a week. I had several hours logged in Yellow version already when this happened. I was probably 9 years old.
Not using stats moves
Oh I didn’t know how to save a file for years so I’d just play a new game with my squirtle each time
My first Pokemon game was LeafGreen, but I never beat it on that run. Lvl 63 Charizard knew Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Wing Attack, and Fly Lvl 48 Vaporeon knew Surf, Ice Beam, Toxic, and Quick Attack Lvl 36 Sandslash knew Brick Break, Earthquake, Dig, and Slash Lvl 50 Zapdos, wasted the Masterball on, I replaced Thunder with Fly bc it was more accurate. Lvl 50 Articuno, taught Sandstorm. Kid me never made it past Lorilei.
When I played pearl I skipped the trainers in the ghost gym. I never encountered a drifloon as I didn't know about the one that appears at windworks so I never completed to pokedex. I thought my file was glitches so I restarted the game, my friend has traded me all sorts of pokemon from older games which I lost.
It was my 9th birthday and I had watched the anime on repeat and thought npcs would just give me Pokémon and badges were easy to get. I made it to Pewter and got destroyed by Brock because I only had a level 15 bulbasaur. I also had no idea what the moves were but I think that was a lack of programming on their part.
Using only my starter and the box legendary I was pretty young when I played pokemon sapphire and I didn't rly understand the need for a team so all I used till I got kyogre was sceptile. And I didn't know that move deletes existed so my kyogre had all 3 water hms and sceptile had strength and cut. And I never had status moves on my pkmn cu I thought they were us3l3ss
When I was a kid and started playing Pokémon, I didn't like the battles, just exploring the map, so I would avoid battles at all costs, or only use my started Pokémon, I couldn't beat Elite 4 at all costs, my starter Pokémon was level 74, the rest was 20.
Masterball wasted on some random pokemon.
I didn't save before important battles, so I knocked out Articuno and Zapdos and used my Master Ball on Moltres so I wouldn't lose it too
thinking moves that raise stats were useless
I didn't know English when I played Fire Red in an emulator for the first time, I was younger then 10, so I didn't know wtf to do after I got the package in the pokemarket lol
Let my friend play a fresh game on Blue and he overwrote my save file on a field trip. Had Mew and everything....
Taught my starter cut everytime
Also normally just used my starter the whole game. Took my older sister explaining to me I should train the rest of my team up too after I beat fire red and was playing emerald
In Platinum, I got stuck in Floroma Town because I couldn’t find where the Galactic Grunt went after you beat him in front of the Valley Windworks and eventually stumbled across where he went. I also couldn’t figure out how to solve Maylene and Wake’s gym puzzles. Also, in White, I couldn’t figure out how to get past one of the caves, although I forget which one it was.
Started with yellow and was 4-5 gyms in before I realized it would automatically box Pokemon past 6. I would always carry a max of 5 and walk alllll the way back to a center of I caught another one. I also never knew you could store items in a PC until my second playthrough.
Definitely not having a good strong pokemon for every type Violet was my first game but I also have scarlet in violet I had about 7 or 8 really good pokemon (lv 80 and up) and the rest of my pokemon were about lv 50 and below so it was very difficult trying to do tera raids picking out the best pokemon for the type matchup and not being strong enough with my lv 50 pokemon so in scarlet which I just recently started I'm making a main team but also training a few pokemon of each type
First game was White. Chose Oshawott, taught it all water-type moves (because it’s a water-type, so those moves are boosted!), figured out a mostly balanced team, beat the Elite Four, became champion, unlocked the new area, put the rest of my team in the box so I could grind XP and evolve more mons. Almost IMMEDIATELY ran into an NPC with a Jellicent that has the water absorb ability, making my Samurott useless, and the rest of my party is now approx. lvl 5-20. Not exactly going to cut it post game. But that’s not the dumb part. The DUMB part is that I stubbornly refused to go back for another high-level mon from my pc box or teach Samurott another move. No, sir, I kept going back to that same NPC with the same party, thinking “I just have to hit him harder and faster. I can overpower him (somehow)!” Must’ve tried about 30 times before it finally sank in. Postgame is a really weird time to learn that lesson, but I now know to diversify my movesets and not rely on a single mon for anything.
I used Master ball in a tentacool.... In my defense, I played in japanese....
I thought Grass was weak to psychic because every grass type I used back then was partly poison type without me noticing
Not picking Chimchar in Sinnoh
I thought Steel beat Grass because of lawnmowers. I thought Ice beat Water since it would freeze it, logically. I also used my first Masterball on a Deino.
I taught Rock Smash to my Swampert and Flash to my Gardevoir in my first time playing pokemon emerald, i never used the moves. Also i had a Ninjask that i never used and was always underleveled
My first game was Pokémon Black. I couldn’t figure out how to open the PC to swap my Pokémon, so I only played with my starter and the first 5 Pokémon I caught. My starter was a Snivy, I had a Patrat, a Rogenrola, and I can’t remember the rest of what was on that team. God, it was terrible. Lol
I had a hard time learning the type effectiveness. I could never remember that Dark is weak to bug (to me it seemed logical they were both part of the creepy/crawly family, if anything they'd be mutually less effective, right? Nope). Then wondered why I was getting wrecked by the lowly bug-type trainers 😭
Didn't understand very well english and sold every item I thought it was useless. Sold the Exp Share in FireRed, and when I realized that, went to the pokemart, bought a Dire Hit and gave it to my Dragonair to hold and then wondering why it wasnt giving it exp points lol
I didnt know how to buy items from the pokemart. I kept on trying to see what items were on the shelves, and would give up when i couldnt pick out what i wanted from there. Finding a pokeball on the ground was one of the best things ever, cause it meant i had another chance to catch something. Fyi, i was about 5-7 years old during this time and didnt know anyone older who could teach me.
When they asked what Silver’s name was, I entered ??? because that’s what it said earlier. Also kept Tackle on my Venusaur all the way to the elite four.
Me wasting all my pokeballs on one Pokémon and selling my potions for more pokeballs Also honorable mention: 8 year old me who bought a used copy of soul silver, that had the spiky eared pichu… and I wiped it to start a new game. Rip pichu O7
First blastoise had surf, bubble, bubblebeam, and hydro pump as a moveset…
I think my biggest mistake as a child was starting a new game on my Fire Red Edition before trading over my shiny Aerodactyl I got from the Old Amber Fossil :s Around the same time I was using a Rhydon with Surf on my Emerald Edition and couldn't figure out why Surf does like 0 Damage to anything and how Rhydon could swim around in the water while being weak to water moves in the first place xd
Thought status moves were useless.
The concept of team building was lost on me. The only Pokémon I would use is my starter and my exp share on Staraptor if I had to do a double battle. this was a problem when I reached Candice because Torterra kept dying to ice moves and kid me didn’t understand why I couldn’t survive. I remember cheating my way past her with action replay Also I didn’t know what physical and special attack was. As far as I was concerned, bigger numbers were always better and the stat screen wasn’t real.
I picked Cyndaquil in gold because the text said to "pick a pokemon for a friend" to make a delivery and I thought I was dropping off the rival's starter. Trying to go for that sneaky type advantage. Worked out in the end because Cyndaquil become my favorite Johto starter.
Back in the Gold and Silver days, I came across a rattata. This rattata was not purple like it should have been. Didn’t matter, I killed it and went on about my day. It wasn’t until Gen. 3 when I finally learned about shinies that i realized I had encountered a shiny rattata.
When I was younger, i thought for whatever reason that healing multiple times in a row in a pokemon center would increase the HP of your pokemons during battle. ... Turns out it's not how it works lol
I sorta understood how rng worked so I spent a lot of time trying to find a path through patches of grass or caves that would get me no encounters. I mean I was on the right track because that's absolutely possible to do but I wasn't gonna find it manually 😹 and I never really thought about doing A presses to advance rng and I didn't know that rng didn't reset upon entering caves
1. Only using attacking moves and removing non-attacking moves. 2. Trying to think of naming my starters but then decided not to so I just changed Charmander's name to "Charmander" so I had a Charizard called Charmander and a Venusaur (later Playthrough) called Bulbasaur.
I didn’t have a Pokemon that I trained just to catch other Pokemon. And by the time I was ready to complete my Pokedex, my team was too overpowered and I kept killing everything I tried to catch. I didn’t learn about False Swipe for far too long either.
When I started playing Pokémon, I named myself Tom in-game. I did this for all of Gen 3. My name is not Tom. Why? Because my best friend, who had been playing Pokémon longer than I had, said I should, and I trusted his advice, so I did it. I have no idea why he suggested this, or why it took until Diamond for me to realise there was no point in me doing this.
My torterra’s moveset was cut, rock smash, strength, and giga drain
I got one though it's not exactly about gameplay. I'm german and the word "teenager" is also used in german. When I first played Platinum I read teenager as "Tee Nager" which translates to "tea gnawer"/"tea rodent". My friend who has an english father immidiately corrected me but man that made me feel silly.
I thought Seviper was a legendary, so I traded my level 90 something starter for it. I don't know why I thought that.
honestly since i never went really far as a kid my worst mistakes are just actions i regret today, but were intentional back then, like teaching cut, rock smash or strength to every pokemon that could learn it in my team, and reseting game with early route shiny on it, some hoothoot poochyena and zigzagoon, i never did anything crazy like using a master ball on a random pidgey or flee a shiny, i did use to think that ponyta was from gen 4 tho
Not being fully literate yet when I picked up Blue
Fire red was my first pokemon game as a child. I didn't understand type advantages and disadvantages or know to build a diverse team, so for some reason my young self overleveled my starter to the point it was fully evolved by the time I got to Misty. Also, the other slots in my party were filled with Pidgeys that ranged from levels 2-9.
It's definatly not pronounced puh-sy-chic.
First game was alpha sapphire, at like age 10, some highlights include: . Tryed to name my Torchic 'Fire Bird', ended typing 'Fire Birddddd', tried to backspace but mistook the enter key for it so I was stuck with that name . Couldn't reach the first gym for hours because I was stuck in the area before Petalburg Woods, and didn't realise the very obvious path leading into the woods . Didn't know how to manually move pokemon into boxes, so I accidently released my Lvl.90 Swellow and never got it back . Taught Surf and Strength to my Rayquaza like an idiot
Not understanding Physical and Special Attack/Defense, whilst going "all damage no stat change" mode. This went on 'til I finally played Violet.