Unused items

Unused content in the Pokémon games

Unused map locations | Early English promotional Pokémon names | Eternal Flower Floette | Bird type | Unused music | Unused encounter system (Yellow) | Unused Bulbasaur slot machine symbol | Unused Shadow Pokémon | Cacophony | Unused Japanese list strings (Generation I) | Unused items | Unused Pokémon data | Unused and redundant Egg moves

See also: S.S. Anne Ship Truck

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This article is a summary page for different variations of a glitches, etc. when talked about as a whole.

This page is about possible beta or pre-release items within the Pokémon games, for items which were never intended by the game developers see Glitch items

Within the Pokémon games exist numerous items which for some reason, were never used in the final game. Many of these items, particularly those from Generation I and Generation IV have been used as 'dummy' items in the sense that they account for features within the game which do not require an item such as the '?????' item which acts as a Surfboard in Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow or the Loot Sack in Pokémon Diamond, Pokémon Pearl and Pokémon Platinum which was seemingly intended for the Underground, however the Underground would use an entirely different interface when the player activates the 'start menu' so was unnecessary.

Other items tend to have been used in a previous game before, such as the Scanner in Pokémon FireRed, Pokémon LeafGreen, or the Slowpoke Tail on Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver. This is unsurprising as many of the newer Pokémon games tend to use a slightly modified version of the previous game engine. For example, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen use a similar map engine of the previous games, namely Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. On the other hand, especially for remakes of older Pokémon games Nintendo may 'presume' the existance of a certain item in the final game which seems to have been the case for the Slowpoke Tail.

Finally, there are a few items such as the Lock Capsule which were added to the final game for a completely unknown reason, however this may eventually have a purpose within Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, as some people presumed the Enigma Crystal to be a beta item until it was released through Wi-Fi. [1]

Unused items in Generation I

Generation I included many glitch items but only a few items within the game's coding have names or effects which suggest that they may have been once intended in the final game.

1. ?????: The ????? item when used will act as if the player's Pokémon had used the move Surf. For this reason, it is often nicknamed the 'Surfboard' in the sense that Nintendo may have intended players to ride a Pokémon, or some kind of vehicle by simply using an item. There is no evidence to support this however, and there is also the possibility that Nintendo may have been using this item for either beta testing or as a place to define information about the move Surf.
2. Badges as items: Despite existing in the final game in the player's Trainer Card Badges exist as items within the coding of Pokémon Red, Pokémon Green and Pokémon Yellow. It is unknown why these can exist within the player's bag, however Nintendo may have used them as a place to store techincal information about the relevant badge or may have once intended Badges to be seen in the player's bag. These will give unintended effects when used in battle however and the Boulderbadge and the Cascadebadge will act as the 'Throw Bait' and 'Throw Rock' options of the Safari Zone respectively. The following items can appear in the player's bag.

1. Boulderbadge
2. Cascadebadge
3. Thunderbadge
4. Rainbowbadge
5. Soulbadge
6. Marshbadge
7. Volcanobadge
8. Earthbadge

Unused items in Generation II

Generation II included many unused items in Pokémon Gold, Pokémon Silver and Pokémon Crystal however these are likely to be just placeholders in the sense that they all share the same name and a description of '?'.

1. 29 items all of which are referred to as Teru-Sama exist in Pokémon Gold and Silver which are presumably placeholders for items which may have once existed. This can be supported by the fact that their hexadecimal identifiers are often in between items which were used in the final game. The name Teru-Sama is a romanisation from Japanese and roughly translates to the phrase 'to shine.' There are less Teru-Samas in Pokémon Crystal because some of the original Teru-Samas were defined to be real items but with different names and effects.