DEX FILES
The Pokédex says stranger things than most people realise, and a lot of what gets repeated about it is wrong. These are close readings of what the entries actually say — quoted from the games they appear in, with every number checked against official data.
Yamask Is Carrying Its Own Face
It was a person. The mask is what it used to look like, and it is still looking for someone who recognises it.
3 MIN READ
Can Magikarp Leap a Mountain? The Pokédex Says Both Yes and No
One entry caps it at seven feet. Another says an old one can clear a mountain. Neither has ever been withdrawn.
2 MIN READ
The Highest HP in Pokémon History Belongs to a Pink Nurse
Blissey has 255 base HP. No legendary, no box art dragon, no Mega has ever come close.
2 MIN READ
Phantump Is a Child Who Died in the Forest, and It Wants You to Follow
The lore is bleak enough. Then Ultra Sun explains what it does with a child’s voice, and why.
2 MIN READ
Spoink Dies if It Stops Bouncing
Its heart is pumped by the impact of its own hopping. The Pokédex is explicit about what happens if it stops.
2 MIN READ
Magikarp Gains 340 Stat Points Overnight
The worst Pokémon in the game becomes one of the most feared at level 20, and the jump is the joint biggest in the series.
2 MIN READ
Grab a Ninetales’ Tail and You Get a 1,000-Year Curse
It lives a thousand years, holds a grudge, and the Pokédex has been warning you since 1996.
2 MIN READ
Regigigas Towed the Continents Into Place With Ropes
It built the other Regis out of clay, ice and magma, then dragged the landmasses where it wanted them. And it can barely move.
2 MIN READ
Froslass Was a Woman Who Died on a Mountain
The dex says she was reborn as it. It also says what she does with the people she freezes.
2 MIN READ
Smeargle Can Learn Almost Every Move in the Game
One move, Sketch, copies whatever it just saw — permanently. No other Pokémon comes close to its movepool.
2 MIN READ
Ditto Can Breed With Almost Every Pokémon in the Game
Including species with no gender at all. It is the single most important creature in competitive breeding and the dex never mentions why.
2 MIN READ
Pikachu Used to Be Round
Put the 1996 sprite next to the modern one. The mascot has been quietly slimming down for thirty years.
2 MIN READ
Banette Is Looking for One Specific Child
It was a toy somebody threw away. The entries are clear that it is not haunting a house — it is searching for a person.
2 MIN READ
Parasect: the Bug Is Already Gone
The mushroom is not riding the insect. It replaced it, and the entries say so in order.
2 MIN READ
Absol Never Caused a Single Disaster
It showed up to warn people. They decided that made it the cause, and drove it into the mountains.
3 MIN READ▶ SHORT
Slaking Beats Legendaries on Paper, and Game Freak Made Sure It Never Would
A base stat total of 670 puts it above Zapdos. One ability takes half of it away, on purpose.
2 MIN READ
Shuckle Has 230 Defence and 10 Attack
It holds two all-time records in the same stat line, and one of the worst numbers in the game sits right next to them.
2 MIN READ
The Biggest Pokémon Weighs Less Than a Snorlax
Wailord is 14.5 metres long and 398kg. Snorlax is 2.1 metres and 460kg. Both numbers are official.
3 MIN READ
Arceus Shaped the Universe With 1,000 Arms. It Has None.
The god of the Pokémon world has a creation myth with a specific number in it, and a body that flatly contradicts it.
2 MIN READ
Whose Skull Does Cubone Actually Wear?
Its mother’s. The Pokédex says so plainly, and then keeps going.
2 MIN READ
Kadabra’s Pokédex Entry Says It Was a Human Boy
One morning a child with psychic powers woke up as a Pokémon. The dex states it as fact and never returns to it.
2 MIN READ
Bulbasaur Wasn’t the First Pokémon Designed — Rhydon Was
Number 112 in the dex was number one on the drawing board, and the first games are full of evidence.
2 MIN READ
Shedinja Has Exactly 1 HP and It Cannot Be Raised
The only Pokémon in the series with a hard-coded health value, an ability that makes most attacks bounce off, and a way of joining your party that nothing else does.
2 MIN READ
A Third of Female Azurill Used to Change Sex When They Evolved
Azurill is 75% female. Marill is 50%. For three generations the game recalculated on evolution, and the maths did the rest.
2 MIN READ