50 Fun Facts About Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

Koraidon and Miraidon, the Legendaries that serve as the player's ride, are relatives of which ordinary Paldean Pokémon?

Cyclizar has carried riders since ancient times, and 10,000-year-old murals show people on its back. Koraidon is its past-era relative and Miraidon its far-off descendant.

Besides giving a Pokémon a crystalline look and a jewel on its head, what does Terastallizing actually do in battle?

Terastallizing changes its type to a hidden Tera Type, which can differ from the Pokémon's normal typing. Tera Blast then becomes a move of that type.

Two weeks after launch, how did Nintendo respond to Scarlet and Violet's bugs and frame-rate drops?

A public apology came on 1 December 2022 alongside update 1.1.0, which fixed some bugs; players who asked for refunds were granted them in most cases.

Which singer's 'Celestial', the first Pokémon game track with lyrics, plays over the Scarlet and Violet end credits?

Ed Sheeran, a fan since childhood, wrote 'Celestial' for the games, and its video shows a Snorlax saving him from a car accident. Oddly, the song is left off the official soundtrack.

Tinkaton swings its 220-pound hammer at rocks to knock which Flying-type Pokémon out of Paldea's sky?

Corviknight is the target, which is why Paldea's Flying Taxis use Squawkabilly instead. The hammer is bigger than Tinkaton's whole body, and it sleeps on it like a bed.

What could players do with Paldea's eight Gyms in Scarlet and Violet that no earlier mainline Pokémon game had allowed?

Players can fight them in any order because Paldea is the series' first open world, and wild levels never scale to your progress, so the 'wrong' Gym first is brutal.

Scarlet's Paradox Pokémon are primeval versions of today's species; what are Pokémon Violet's Paradox Pokémon instead?

Beings from the far future, such as the robotic Iron Valiant, fill Violet's Area Zero, while Scarlet's are feathered beasts like Roaring Moon.

Scarlet and Violet are the first Pokémon games with version-exclusive professors; what are the two called?

Sada and Turo take their names from the Spanish 'pasada' and 'futuro', and whichever you get turns out to be Arven's long-absent parent.

Scarlet's school is Naranja Academy and Violet's is Uva Academy, names borrowed from which two fruits?

Orange and grape match each version's colour scheme; the two schools are otherwise identical, and at 805 years old the academy is the oldest in Paldea.

Team Star's five squads, Segin, Schedar, Navi, Ruchbah and Caph, are named after stars in which constellation?

Cassiopeia is also the alias of the gang's hidden big boss, who hacks your Rotom Phone to launch Operation Starfall against the squads.

Gimmighoul evolves into Gholdengo only once its Trainer is carrying how many Gimmighoul Coins?

All 999 coins are consumed on the spot, and once the total is reached the evolution cannot be cancelled. Roaming Gimmighoul flee when touched, leaving coins behind.

Primeape finally gained an evolution, Annihilape, which it reaches only after using which move twenty times?

Rage Fist must be used twenty times before a level-up, after which Annihilape's fury literally outgrows its body. Only it and Primeape can learn the move.

Quaxly's final evolution Quaquaval, Paldea's flamboyant 'Dancer Pokémon', pairs Water with which second type?

Fighting joins Water at Quaquaval, Quaxly's final form; Quaxly's crest is a visual pun on the ducktail hairstyle, and Quaquaval fans out water feathers in battle.

Which Levincia Gym Leader livestreams her own Gym Test, sending challengers around the city to find Director Clavell?

Iono, the 'Supercharged Streamer', rates her viewers' reactions above winning and keeps broadcasting right through the Gym battle itself.

Which Ice-type Gym Leader on Glaseado Mountain was a world-class pro snowboarder until an injury ended his career?

Grusha was the second-best snowboarder in the world, winning six straight Paldean majors before a crash forced him to retire to the Gym.

Which Cascarrafa Gym Leader, a seafood chef, dashes off to an auction and leaves his wallet for the player to return?

Kofu then makes buying rare Hoenn wakame at the Porto Marinada auction your impromptu Gym Test, handing over 50,000 Pokédollars to bid with.

Which weary businessman serves as both Medali's Normal-type Gym Leader and a Flying-type member of Paldea's Elite Four?

Larry is the first Trainer to hold two posts in the same League at once, and his creed is that 'simplicity is strongest'.

Ryme, Montenevera's Ghost-type Gym Leader, has also spent four decades as a world-famous what?

A rapper known as the 'MC of RIP', she is said to bring the dead to their feet, which is why she took up Ghost types.

Which member of Paldea's Elite Four is a small child who specialises in Steel types and nicknames her Tinkaton 'Tinkie'?

Poppy is far younger than every Gym Leader and Elite Four member yet ranks among Paldea's strongest, calling her Copperajah 'Rajah'.

Which Dragon-type Elite Four member also teaches art at the academy and inspired Brassius's 'Surrendering Sunflora'?

Hassel ran away from a long line of Dragon Trainers to chase a dream of making music before landing both jobs in Paldea.

Which Top Champion and League chairwoman awaits on the League building's rooftop, closing every match with her Glimmora?

Geeta also chairs the academy's school board and inspects Gyms by battling their leaders, several of whom admit she makes them uneasy.

When the player picks a starter in Scarlet and Violet, rival Nemona deliberately chooses which one to keep things fair?

The one weak to yours is her pick: a Champion-ranked Trainer who moved to Paldea at seven, she raises a fresh team so you can become her equal.

Arven hunts the five Herba Mystica partly to heal which badly injured pet, hurt by something in Area Zero?

Mabosstiff was mauled in Area Zero, where Arven's absent parent runs a lab, and the fifth herb finally brings it back to full health.

In what form does Arven serve the Herba Mystica that gradually restore the player's weakened Koraidon or Miraidon?

As sandwiches, made at a picnic table; all five together also cure his pet, which leaves Arven ecstatic.

Dondozo, the 'False Dragon Titan', is steered from inside its own mouth by which small sushi-shaped Pokémon?

Tatsugiri shelters in Dondozo's mouth, and its Commander Ability powers up the giant catfish whenever the two are sent out together.

Which Paradox pair, Donphan's ancient and futuristic relatives, escaped Area Zero to become the Quaking Earth Titan?

Great Tusk and Iron Treads are version-split, the tusked beast in Scarlet and the rolling tank in Violet, and this is the only Titan that is itself a Paradox Pokémon.

Roaring Moon, a Scarlet Paradox Pokémon named after a beast in the Scarlet Book, is the ancient kin of which Dragon?

Salamence in its Mega-Evolved form is the model, so Roaring Moon is effectively a Mega Salamence that never needed a stone.

On which date did Scarlet and Violet, the first ninth-generation Pokémon games, launch worldwide on the Switch?

18 November 2022 was launch day, a week after a Splatoon 3 Splatfest themed on the three starter types had warmed up the crowd.

Miraidon, Pokémon Violet's mascot, shares Koraidon's Dragon typing but pairs it with which second type?

Electric suits a futuristic mech: the Violet Book's 'Iron Serpent' folds its back legs to expose jet engines in its Drive Mode.

Of the record haul Scarlet and Violet sold in their first three days, roughly how many copies were bought in Japan?

About 4 million, 4.05 million exactly, out of more than 10 million worldwide, which made them Japan's best-selling games of 2022.

At the bottom of Area Zero, the professor who guided the player by Rotom Phone all game turns out to be what?

A robot running an AI copy of the professor's mind stands in for the real one, who was killed by a second, more aggressive Koraidon or Miraidon.

What did the professor build deep in the Zero Lab to pull Paradox Pokémon into present-day Paldea?

A time machine is the professor's legacy, and the lab's guardian is programmed to defend the machine even as it begs you to shut it down.

Finishing Victory Road, Path of Legends and Starfall Street unlocks which final story that wraps up the plot?

The Way Home sends you into Area Zero with all three story partners, and unlike the first three stories it can only be played last.

What does the academy call Director Clavell's independent-study assignment that sends every student out across Paldea?

The Treasure Hunt tells students to find something they personally treasure, the in-world excuse for letting you roam an open world.

Metacritic scores of 72 and 71 gave Scarlet and Violet which distinction among mainline Pokémon games?

Lowest-rated ever on Metacritic, yet OpenCritic found 48% of critics still recommending them, and many reviewers praised the story.

Team Star, the delinquent gang dismantled in Starfall Street, was originally founded by students who were what?

Victims of bullying formed the team and confronted their tormentors eighteen months earlier, a scandal that made the bullies drop out.

Which shy schoolgirl, rescued from Team Star grunts on her first appearance, is secretly the gang's founder and boss?

Penny ran Team Star from her room so none of its members ever learned her face, then plotted Operation Starfall to disband it herself.

Each Team Star boss rides into battle atop a Starmobile, a custom car built around a modified form of which Pokémon?

Revavroom is bolted to the car, retyped to match its boss and given an Ability that regular Revavroom never have.

Asado Desert, Socarrat Trail and Casseroya Lake show that Paldea's places are named after terms from which field?

Cooking and food run through the whole region, down to sandwich-making and a pig Pokémon named after roast suckling pig.

Which city at Paldea's geographic centre is the region's largest, with the academy perched above its infamous staircase?

Mesagoza holds the academy, reached by an outdoor staircase of over 150 steps that students call 'the worst staircase in the world'.

In Scarlet and Violet, Eggs now turn up during which activity, which replaced the Pokémon Day Care?

Picnics also let you wash your Pokémon and build meals that grant Egg Power, which raises the odds of an Egg turning up in the basket.

The Teal Mask's legend of Ogerpon and three false heroes reverses the roles of which Japanese folktale?

Momotarō, the peach boy, fought ogres with a dog, monkey and pheasant; here the ogre is the wronged hero and the animal trio are the thieves.

Okidogi, Munkidori and Fezandipiti, honoured every year at Kitakami's Festival of Masks, are known collectively as what?

The Loyal Three are really the villains: they stole Ogerpon's masks, and villagers who misread the clash buried them as heroes under a monument.

Which Kitakami boy, Carmine's younger brother, steals the Teal Mask and later becomes BB League Champion?

Kieran dethrones Drayton after losing Ogerpon to the player, turning from a timid kid into a strength-obsessed rival.

The Indigo Disk added a nineteenth Tera Type that no Pokémon can carry as a normal typing; what is it called?

Stellar is what Terapagos becomes when it Terastallizes, and its signature Tera Starstorm turns Stellar-type in that form.

Which item, which comes in 19 varieties, rewrites the type a Pokémon becomes when it Terastallizes?

Tera Shards come in one variety per type, nineteen in all, so a Pokémon's hidden type can be rebuilt from scratch.

Every student and teacher at Blueberry Academy, the Indigo Disk's undersea school, specialises in which battle format?

Double Battles are the house rule, and the school even runs its own currency, Blueberry Points, for everything from classes to the cafeteria.

Blueberry Academy's Terarium, the undersea nature park where exchange students train, is split into how many biomes?

Four biomes, Savanna, Coastal, Canyon and Polar, fill the dome, each with its own plaza where a BB Elite Four member waits to be challenged.

The DLC epilogue Mochi Mayhem introduces which Mythical Pokémon that enslaves people and Pokémon with toxic mochi?

Pecharunt, a Poison/Ghost type shaped like a peach, hides as a shop decoration in Kitakami before the showdown.

Pokémon: Paldean Winds, the four-episode web series set at the academy, was produced by which animation house?

Wit Studio made it for YouTube in 2023, outside the main anime, with each episode following a different student overcoming a problem.