Obscure "Pokemon" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Magmar

Psychic is particularly powerful in the first generation. The Dark and Steel typings did not exist yet, so only Psychic itself resisted the move by the same name.

Magmar was the only Fire type in all of the first generation who could learn Psychic. It was able to learn the move via TM, with the TM for Psychic being pretty easy to obtain at that in Saffron City. While seemingly niche, this could help a lot for in-game playthroughs. Magmar with Psychic has a better matchup against threats Fire types are not great against, such as Gym Leader Giovanni with his Nidoking and Nidoqueen and Elite Four member Agatha of whom her entire team is weak to Psychic.

Answer: Rock Smash

Rock Smash is a Fighting-type attack, which is not very effective on Metapod, a Bug-type Pokemon. Rock Slide (Rock-type) and Wing Attack (Flying-type) are both Super Effective on the Bug-type.

Answer: Primeape w/Seismic Toss

In breeding, the male Pokemon's moveset, if applicable, is the one which is sent down to the baby in the second generation. Miltank can only ever be female, so even if it knows Seismic Toss and has a compatible male partner, the eventual baby cannot inherit Seismic Toss from it. This was eventually changed in the sixth generation but, in second generation games, only the male Pokemon can send down moves to the baby.

Mew cannot accomplish this, as the vast majority of Legendary and Mythical Pokemon across history cannot breed. But, even if it could, it would not solve the problem of requiring a male Pokemon to send down moves, as Mew is genderless.

Primeape could be a male, and it can learn Seismic Toss while being compatible with Miltank. The Primeape must actively have Seismic Toss on its moveset in order to pass the move down to the baby.

Answer: Thunderbolt

Shadow Ball and Shadow Punch are Ghost type moves, so they receive Same Type Attack Bonus or, STAB, when Gengar uses them. This is not the case with Thunderbolt, so it may seem as if Thunderbolt would be inferior. However, prior to the fourth generation, all Ghost type moves are physical, thus their damage is determined by the user's Attack stat. This even applies to Shadow Ball despite the fact that move is clearly a projectile. Thunderbolt is an Electric type move, and prior to generation four, Electric moves were all specially offensive. Even Thunderpunch, clearly a move making physical contact, had its damage output determined by Special Attack.

In the third generation, Gengar's Special Attack is a base 130, while its Attack is a lowly 60. As such, STAB is not particularly close to making up the difference, so Thunderbolt is much stronger than Shadow Ball, assuming the target takes neutral damage from both, when Gengar uses it.

Answer: Starmie's ability

In this case, my Starmie would be in possession of the Illuminate ability. In generation three, all Illuminate did was make wild encounters likelier to happen if the user is at the front of the party.

In later generations, as wild Pokemon as a mechanic got reworked entirely, Illuminate would have been useless and without purpose. It was instead reworked entirely, and it would now ignore the opponent's evasion boosts while rendering the user immune to accuracy reducing moves such as Sand Attack.

Answer: Heal Bell

As the name implies, Soundproof is intended to make the user immune against any and all sound-based effects. It was particularly strict during its debut generation, as even Heal Bell would fail on a Soundproof user. This was changed in generation five, as Heal Bell would simply work like on anything else and would bypass Soundproof.

Of course, it is not possible for the opponent to wield Heal Bell in a way which is harmful towards you directly, so Soundproof being immune to Heal Bell served to do nothing but muddy things up for the Heal Bell user, and could not be wielded offensively.

Answer: Marill/Azumarill

While absurdly niche, Sap Sipper allowed Azumarill to try its hand with a nasty stallbreaker set. Azumarill could use Whirlpool and Perish Song together to trap and eliminate anything which couldn't seriously threaten it. This was prior to Azumarill becoming weak to Poison moves, as it was not yet a Fairy type, so Grass types could find themselves at a loss in terms of dealing immediate significant damage to it.

Of course, Azumarill's devastating offensive sets fueled by its Huge Power Ability were almost always preferred. But, Sap Sipper Azumarill could make for a heck of a surprise factor, so it wasn't useless by any means.

Answer: Excadrill

Eelektross is difficult to hit super effectively because it is a pure Electric type. Electric is normally weak to Ground, but Eelektross possesses the Levitate Ability, making it immune to Ground. Ordinarily, it will be impossible to hit Eelektross super effectively.

Excadrill, however, can be equipped with the Mold Breaker Ability. Mold Breaker, in a nut shell, allows the user to essentially negate the target's Ability. In this case, Excadrill can equip a Ground move such as Earthquake and use Mold Breaker to ignore Levitate, letting it hit Eelektross super effectively.

Answer: Whoever they want

A new concept in the fifth generation was to give the player the freedom to determine the order they went through the Elite Four in. As such, the player can face them in any order they want, and they can change the order in between attempts, too. This could be very useful if the player is struggling with one or a few Elite Four members, but not them all.

The player could start their run with whoever they deem to be the easiest, then work their way up. They could try the opposite approach too, starting off with the hardest and getting progressively easier.

Answer: Ghost

Prior to this, only Flying type Pokemon or Pokemon with the Levitate Ability were immune to Arena Trap. Ghosts were now made to be immune to trapping in general, not just Arena Trap.

Was this Nintendo's way of silently sending an SOS call to the GhostBusters? The world may never know.

Answer: Exactly one hit point of damage

Shedinja has exactly one hit point which cannot ever be raised in any way. Final Gambit does damage based on how much HP the user has, and then it KOes the user. So, for example, a Pokemon who is at 100/200 HP remaining will do exactly 100 damage with Final Gambit. Because Shedinja cannot ever get more than one hit point maximum, it can never deal more than 1 damage with Final Gambit before it immediately faints.

As such, unless trying to make somebody laugh, please do not put Final Gambit on your Shedinja.

Answer: Plant Badge

The Cliff Badge is given by Grant, the second gym leader who specializes in Rock types. The Fighting specialist Korrina, the third gym leader, yields the Rumble Badge when beaten. Ramos is who gives the Plant Badge, before the fifth leader in Clemont will give the Voltage Badge.

Answer: Raticate

In "Moon" and "Ultra Moon", an Alolan version of Raticate is the very first Totem Pokemon encountered. In "Sun" and "Ultra Sun", this is instead a Yumgoos.

Mechanically, Totem Pokemon differ from wild Pokemon in that they often carry synergistic held items and have advanced AI, meaning they will prioritize using effective or super effective moves against the player, as opposed to Wild Pokemon who just pick their moves randomly. Totem Pokemon will also make SOS calls for allies to join them at a fixed rate.

In Alolan Raticate's case, it does not carry any items, but it does have the effects of the advanced AI. So, if the player brings a Misdreavus or a Gastly to this fight, Alolan Raticate's strong super effective Bites will send them packing very quickly.

Answer: Nobody

The question did mention "with one exception", and that exception happens to be Kommo-o. Kommo-o is unique for being the only Totem Pokemon to serve in this capacity in every single generation seven game, never at any point being replaced or even moved to be earlier or later in the game.

It is the psuedo-legendary of this generation of course, so it getting this unique role does make sense.

Answer: Everything can Dynamax, only some things can G-Max

Only a small, exclusive roster is capable of Gigantamaxing. G-Max Pokemon are only different in that they get a complete cosmetic overhaul, and also receive their own exclusive Max Move. Everything in the game can Dynamax, even Pokemon who can also G-Max could alternatively Dynamax.