No series in gaming has had as many rumors as Pokémon. Frꦜom as early as Generation I to as late a🐻s the prospective Generation VIII, this is a franchise that thrives on misinformation, rumor mongering, and straight up false information. The Pokémon series as we know it simply cannot exist without dozens upon dozens of rumors muddying ꦐup the fanbase and tricking fans for years. Chances are, you’ve heard tell of a few rumors that you’ve strongly believed for years. Is it on this list? Are you about to have your worldview shattered?
What’s most interesting about your average Pokémon rumor is just how easy it is for them to be created. Whether you’re someone on the internet actively trying to create a hoax, an insider who’s been fed poor information, or just some school kid trying to trick you♔r friends that your uncle really🌞 does work at Nintendo, your rumors are going to spread like wildfire nine times out of ten. Fans will latch on to just about any halfway interesting rumor if it means giving the series that element of mystery they felt so potently as children. Although the rumors have gotten less extreme since the days of Generati🌌on I, they still are present. Some, in hindsight, seem too insane to have ever been plausible, while newer ones give us hope for the series.
30 OLD: Press Down + B To Improve Catch Rate
What’s interesting about rumors in the Pokémon franchise is just how universal they can be. Holding down and B at the same time originated in the schoolyards, but it swept up just about every major region to the p🎀oint where you probably didn’t even realize you were subconsciously putting in these inputs every time you tossed a Pokéball.
Hold "A" to catch everything in your path.
It perhaps goes wi൩thout saying, given that t🌃his is a rumor list and all, but button inputs do not, in any way, shape, or form, influence whether or not a Pokémon’s catch rate increases or decreases. When you toss a Pokeball, that’s it. By all means, though, keep pressing down and holding B. It’s tradition.
29 OLD: Pikablu
Pokémon before Generation III was a bit of a Wild West, so to speak. There was no real sense where the series was going, or if it would even continue being a series after Generation II. Fans knew that Generation II was in the making, but just how long could this “trend” co✃ntinue? In this era, with no sense of w♐hat to make of Pokémon, misinformation spread like wildfire.
Enter “Pikablu.” Chances are, even without the internet, you heard tell of Pikablu at some point had you grown up in the series. When Game Freak initially revealed Marill, fans tried to make sense of the creature by ꦏlinking it to Pikachu. After all, it had no name, but it did resemble the electric mascot. It was a simpler time bac🌜k then.
28 NEW: Let’s Go Will Become A Sub-Series
It may not be on your mind quite yet, but Let’s Go can totally ꧂tu꧙rn into a sub-series, right? Game Freak seems to have put so much effort in Let’s Go’s wo🙈rld and assets that it almost seems foolish the🔯y’d leave it alone after one game. Of course, many of its features are borrowed from Go, but there’s a clear upgrade at play.
The sooner you accept this, the better.
We can perhaps assu♏me Game ༒Freak already has a franchise on their mind with Let’s Go, but it’s important to consider one key detail: sales.ꦍ There’s a good🐠 reason Let’s Go is modeling itself so heavily after Generation I and it pretty much bo💛ils down to ensuring it sells even if the game isn’t that good. Should Let’s Go meet their expectation, get ready to see Let’s Go Plusle and Let’s Go Minun down the road.
27 OLD: Super Splash
Legend tells of a Pokémon so powerful, one single attack from it could fell an entire party. This is a Pokémon with so much raw potential, that 🌌only a devoted few have ever seen its true strength in action. This is the legend of Magikarp’s Splash attack. Obviously, any conjecture about Splash is going to be bogus, but the rumors associated with it are legitimately crazy.
Given that you could purchase a Magikarp with o🌌nly Splash in Generation I, many fans theorized this was less so you could have a Gyarados early, and more because Splash has a .01% chance of actually doing something, specifically, one hit KOing everything in its path. This is clearly not the case, but it is an interesting take o🙈n why Game Freak let fans waste their money on 🤪a Magikarp.
26 OLD: Bill’s Backyard
Given that Bill’s backyard is a physical place playe🌞rs can see, but cannot enter, it n𓃲aturally sparked quite a few rumors in the early days of Pokémon’s 🐷fandom. Specifically, Bill’s backyard was supposedly home to Kanto’s starte⛦r Pokémon, allowing players to catch the two starts they were unable to attain without training.
Surely there must be treasures hidden in this man's backyard.
Another rumor stated that Bill’s backyard was filled with level 100 Pokémon, a perfect grinding spot so to speak. Other rumors claimed that Mew was housed behind Bill’s home. After alﷺl, if Mew, the rarest Pokémon in the series, was going to be anywhere, why wouldn’t he be in Bill’s backyard?
25 NEW: Generation III On Switch
Game Freak made one thing clear with the 3DS Virtual Console: the older Pokémon games aren’t going anywhere. Even though Generations I and II are officially out of canon and no longer compatible with the series’ current tim𓂃eline, that doesn’t mean they ♌deserve to be ignored. That goes for Gen III as well.
Given that Generation III has been retconned by ORAS, it’s in the same spot as both Gens I and II. That said, the Virtual Console rereleases sold fairly well so it’s only a matter of time before 🍌Game Freak ports Generation III to the Switch. Of course, the Switch does not have a dedicated Virtual Console, but that shouldn’t stop GF from trying.
24 OLD: Finding The GS Ball
The GS Ball’s inclusion in the anime would go on to spark an obscene number of rumors over whether or not it could be꧅ obtained in-game, basically dominating Generation II discourse for years. What’s most interesting about🐭 this rumor is that it’s actually grounded in truth unlike most rumors in the series.
Some rumors DO come true.
In Japan, players actually could get the GS Ball through a special event, but this was never implemented in the west until the 3DS Virtual Console rerelease. Many fans correctly theorized that the GS Ball would play a role in catching Celebi, but no one coul𒁏d correctly guess that you all had to do was wait a few decades ඣfor Nintendo to rerelease the game on a 3D handheld.
23 OLD: The Rocket Count
Despite having no🅺 basis in reality, the rocket count is very similar to the GS Ball in that it dominated conversation in its Generation for years and was directly linked to the catching of a Legendary Pokémon. According to rumors, should the Mossdeep Space Center launch their rocket 100 times, players would be offered a ride on it.
Upon riding said rocket, they would be launched straight to Deoxys, Generation III’s elusive event Pokémon. Players tried for years to get the rocket to launch into outer space, but no amount of launches resulted in anything. It was always🦄 just a rumor created to make sense of the Mossdeep Space Center.
22 NEW: The Core Games Will Change Drastically
Pokémon is legitimately at a point in its life cycle where it cannot stay the same. The shift to the 3DS brought 3D models and the shift to the Switch is completely abandoning the series’ insistence on releasing on dedicated handhelds. Come Generation VIII, the core games are going to change🦹 big time.
Nothing will ever be the same.
This could mean one of two things: Let’s Go is serving as a basis for the new Generation, opting for꧂ a more traditional three dimension look, or Gen VIII will stray away from both SUMO and Let’s Go’s approach. Either way, you can count on the new core game♋s basically b🎃eing unrecognizable next year.
21 OLD: Deoxys And Jirachi On The Moon
On the subject of the Mossdeep Space Center, piggybacking off of the Deoxys rumor, there was a subset ✅of the rumor which stated t🌠hat the rocket would take players to the moon itself. On the moon, trainers would be able to not only catch Deoxys, but Jirachi as well. No Pokémon game has ever left the planet, but who’s to s🐼ay Generation III couldn’t have been the first?
What’s interesting about this rumor is how it weaves Jirachi into the Deoxys rumor🌳. Originally, at lea🦄st in the west, Jirachi was only attainable by pre-ordering Pokémon Colosseum for GameCube and receiving the bonus disc. Said bonus disc contained Jirachi which could be tra𝔉nsferred into Gen III, but no moons were involved whatsoever.