Feature: 30 More Things You Might Have Missed In Pokémon Scarlet & Violet

Remember our feature that highlighted 30 Things You Might Have Missed In Pokémon Scarlet & Violet? Well, we’ve already found 30 more things, from neat Easter Eggs to things that make battling a whole lot easier.

Let’s dive in — how many do you already know?

More Things You Didn’t Know About Pokémon Scarlet & Violet

Gary’s back

Remember Gary? The little toerag of a rival from the original Pokémon games, back when rivals were just the kids who wanted to ruin your life? Well, there’s a reference to Gary in Pokémon and Scarlet, and he has tiny hands. Looks like we win again, Gary.

Toedscool runs like a weird little guy

This falls into the category of “hey, that’s cool!” instead of a useful fact about the game, but just look at this lad:

Convergent evolution is real

When two unrelated species end up evolving into similar shapes, that’s called “convergent evolution“, and its most well-known example is carcinisation, in which multiple species have evolved a crab-like creature.

Wiglett, Wugtrio, Toedscool and Toedscruel are examples of this evolution. They’re entirely separate Pokémon, not regional variants!

You can name your Pokémon “Egg”

If you name your Pokémon “Egg”, the game will occasionally think it is an egg, and refer to it as “The Egg”. It doesn’t change anything in any meaningful way, but still — Egg is a great name.

Herba Mystica is a reference to older Pokémon games

Old Pokémon games had HMs, which taught you new traversal moves like Fly, Surf, and Strength. ScarVi has Herba Mystica… but what does Herba Mystica abbreviate to? That’s right. HM. Woah.

Marks and Ribbons give your Pokémon titles

You can earn Ribbons for your Pokémon and catch wild ‘mons that have Marks on them, but did you know that each one confers a title on your Pokémon? It’ll appear in battle, turning your Pokémon from bog-standard Pikachu into “Pikachu the Great Friend” or “Pikachu the Rowdy”. Some of them are really hard to get, though…

Bagin’s is a reference to Pokémon Legends: Arceus

The bag shop in ScarVi is called Bagin’s, and you might think, “sure, it’s a play on the word ‘bag’, I get it” — but it’s more than that!

Players of Pokémon Legends: Arceus may remember Bagin as the guy who charges WAY too much money to add a single slot to your bag. Looks like he took all that money and made himself a business!

There’s a super rare Ribbon

…In fact, there’s one ribbon with a chance of finding it that’s so minuscule that no one actually has found it yet. It’s called the Once-In-A-Lifetime Ribbon, and it’s earned through Surprise Trades!

A neat trick for swapping around items like Rocky Helmet, Lucky Egg, and Amulet Coins!

Press RS to centre the battle view

Do you find that your viewpoint is always a bit pants? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have the battle framed like old games, with the option to free-cam around if you feel like it?

Just press in the right stick on your controller to snap the battle into an old-style view!

Press ZL in battle to focus on the opponent

And hey, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to examine your foes, too? Well, you can! Hold down the ZL button and you’ll focus on your opponent up close.

Press RS in the overworld to change the zoom

While you’re running around in the open world of Paldea, you can change how close the camera is for a better view. Just click in the right stick to zoom out or in.

Check stat changes with Y

When you’re in battle, press “Y” to open up a menu that shows you all the effects, stat changes, and abilities in effect on the battlefield. Handy!

Pin TMs to track down ingredients

Head over to the TM Machine and press the + button to “pin” a TM recipe. When you’re running around, you can press right on the D-Pad to bring up the TMs you’ve pinned, check what you need, and whether or not you’ve got all the ingredients yet!

You can rename a traded Pokémon once

It used to be the case that traded Pokémon were stuck with the terrible names their former owners gave them, but not any more — you can change their name once once you have them.

Head to page two for 15 more things we’ve discovered about Pokémon Scarlet and Violet…
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Welcome to page two! Let’s get stuck in:

15 More Things You Didn’t Know About Pokémon Scarlet & Violet

Pokémon have unique sleeping animations

Tinkaton sleeps on its hammer, Rellor snoozes on top of its dung ball, and a lot of other Pokémon curl up and nap like a dog. It’s very cute, and if you want to see it for yourself, just set up a picnic and wait a couple of minutes.

Pokémon won’t auto-battle shiny wild Pokémon

Now, we haven’t tried this out, but don’t blame us — we’re not willing to test a theory like this considering the 1/4000 chance of finding a shiny in the first place! However, the internet seems to agree that your Pokémon won’t auto-battle shiny Pokémon when you’re using the Let’s Go feature. That’s a relief.

There are two different Academy founders

Naranja and Uva Academy were founded by two different people. One even looks like an orange, and the other like grapes.

Will we find out more about these mystery founders in DLC?

Light Pokémon get blown away in the wind

Admittedly, when we first saw a bunch of Hoppip flying diagonally into the sky, we assumed it was a glitch (can you blame us?), but it turns out that this is actually the result of light Pokémon being unable to stay where they are in heavy winds.

There’s a bug that gives your Pokémon tattoos

Unfortunately, it might not be permanent (unlike real tattoos), but it sure looks cool:

You can battle the bird on your house

Your home back at the start of the game (the one your mum never leaves) has a Squawkabilly on the roof. It’s a Pokémon, like any other — so you can totally battle it, if you want.

A sneaky trick to refill PP for free

You can unlearn, then relearn a move in the field to easily refill its PP without having to use an Ether. It’s not as fast as an Ether… but it’s free!

Tera Orbs refill

You don’t need to schlep all the way to a Pokémon Center to refill your Tera Orbs. In fact, you don’t even have to do a Tera Raid. Just find a Tera Raid den, interact with it, and back out — and your Orb will fill back up!

Finding Ditto and Zorua doesn’t have to be hard

Unfortunately, unlike shiny Pokémon, your Let’s Go Pokémon will auto-battle a Ditto or a Zorua in disguise, and you won’t know until it’s fainted and you get the Ditto/Zorua materials. But here are a few tips for finding them:

• Press ZL to target the Pokémon and see its real name
• If you see a Pokémon behaving oddly (like a Pineco not in a tree) it’s probably a Ditto or Zorua
• If a Pokémon runs away from you when it usually wouldn’t, it might be a Zorua

Scovillain has different heads for different moves

Scovillain’s red pepper and green pepper head are tied to different moves, which is a neat little detail:

Cassiopeia and Team Star have a secret

Did you catch the constellation references in Team Star? Each individual gang is named after one of the stars in Cassiopeia, and they even make the constellation on the map!

Delibird Presents are different in each town

Less of a fun fact, more of a useful tip — Delibird Presents’ stock varies from town to town. Make sure to check in on each one!

The size difference is noticeable

Pokémon sizes in this game range from teeny-tiny to big. Not as big as Pokémon Legends: Arceus’ big ‘mons, but still. Here’s a size guide:

A secret Legendary Pokémon…

Finally, did you catch the hints at a potential secret new Pokémon? Don’t read unless you’ve finished the game, but here you go:

There we go! 30 more interesting things that we’ve discovered about Pokémon Scarlet and Violet as we make our way through the game.

Do you have any additions to the list? Were any of these new to you? Tell us in the comments below!