Catching trade evolutions and fossil Pokemon in the wild is BS

[Forkball]

BS = Bouffalant Silliness

Some Pokemon can only be evolved through trading, like Machoke to Machamp and Haunter to Gengar. It can get even more complicated with other evolutions, like requiring a specific item to be held during the trade, or having to trade two specific Pokemon. It took effort, it took planning, to get these prized Pokemon. Look at Gengar's face, he's happy that you did all this just for him.

A lot of people hate trade evolutions, however. Why? Because you're lazy, just admit it. I always thought it was a unique mechanic and gives some gameplay variety in how you acquire Pokemon for those who are into the collector aspects of the game. With online trading and forums, it is easy to set up a trade.

Yet Game Freak has slowly but surely given players the chance to just catch trade evolutions. These encounters were incredibly rare in the past, like needing to have a GBA game in your DS slot or a slim chance at finding one in a rare occurrence in the overworld. Most were also for the lower-tier trade evolutions. No one cares about Huntail.

But now? It's just open season on trade evolutions since Sword/Shield and the wild area. Catch a Dusknoir! Catch a Machamp! These Pokemon aren't special! Never trade or talk to anyone HOORAY! Many trade items are now useless and bloating up my bag. Reaper's Cloth? DON'T NEED IT. Though as a side note I wish they would just make one trade evolution item instead of splitting them per evolution.

Catching trade evolutions was a slippery slope. Now we have completely slipped off the slope and are face down in the mud with Crown Tundra's crime against nature: catchable fossil Pokemon. Pokemon that once could only be brought back to life through ancient fossils with the power of science are just roaming around the island as if they were no different from a Yamper. WHAT. Like trade evolutions, fossils were a unique way to obtain some truly special Pokemon. People would speculate about what the new ones would be based off, and SwSh actually had a unique spin on the idea.

Remember in the Sinnoh Underground when you found old fossils? You were like "Whoa, not only do I get the fossil Pokemon from this game, I get old ones as well!" You dug up that fossil with your bare stylus and it made you feel like you found something incredible. Now? I dunno there's a T-rex walking around near that bush go catch it. They could make a story out of it, like you find some amazing Jurassic Park island filled with fossil Pokemon still alive, but no, we're in England.

THOUGHTS?

 

[Spiderhead]

So you're discriminating on Pokemon being able to trade themselves, wtf

 

[FreshYoungDoggo]

Hey us friendless freaks really appreciate being able to finally get them, give us a break huh

 

[Yoshimitsu126]

The money you paid for the dlc was spent on bringing these pokemon alive in the wild areas.

 

[Alek]

Yeah pretty lame. I dislike this. How hard would it be to add the fossils in some form?

 

[Deleted member 19742]

Lack of creativity is a bummer, sure, but you're otherwise kind of taking this to an extreme, man.

 

[RochHoch]

Trade evolutions shouldn't even exist anymore

That or there should be an alternate method of evolving them on your own

 

[KillstealWolf]

I don't mind the trade Pokemon but the fossils bother me on a lore level. Who or what brought them back to life? Xerneas perhaps?

 

[Gaardus]

It bothers me a little, but not as much as I appreciate being able to choose my pokeballs for them.

 

[DNAbro]

I liked it. Also interesting lore hearing that Omynite's have been revived so much that they are now a nuisance lol

 

[Yoshimitsu126]

I liked it. Also interesting lore hearing that Omynite's have been revived so much that they are now a nuisance lol

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They should be grateful.

 

[Minthara]

THOUGHTS?

Click to shrink...

To be honest, Fossils/trade evolutions to me feel like archaic game design. A lot of modern Pokemon feels like it was clinging to that archaic game design as well, and I would argue the best thing Sword and Shield did was make Pokemon who rely on dumb grinding on older games/reliant on other people completely catchable on their own.

I kind of wish Pokemon would get rid of all this stuff entirely and would even go as far as getting rid of the two versions thing. I think both pieces of Sword and Shield DLC prove that there's other things that you can do to control those levers of how rare Pokemon are, I think the game design can evolve from many of the elements that are still in the franchise from Red & Blue.

 

[Roliq]

Trade evolutions shouldn't even exist anymore

That or there should be an alternate method of evolving them on your own

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Is why i always liked things like rom-hacks and randomizers making it so that trade evos are just regular evos with level requirements and needing to only held the specific item

And there is a case for changing evolutions with Leafeon and Glaceon needing only a elemental stone instead of the dumb requirement introduced in Gen 4, did you know that you can't get them (alongside Magnezone and Probopass) in HeartGold/SoulSilver because the locations aren't there

 

[CaptainBojangles]

I wouldn't be mad at it if Game Freak didn't go on about how they were trying to make the wild Pokémon make sense in the world. It also just helps to further solidify the idea that Pokémon lore is literally useless information.

 

[EvilChameleon]

I love being able to catch trade evolutions in the wild.

 

[mnk]

Trade evolutions have been catchable in the wild since at least Black/White.

edit: Oops I forgot reading OPs is a thing to do before posting.

 

[Larrikin]

Trading pokemon is so easy now as to be a complete waste of time.

Fossil Pokemon have been reintroduced in-universe years now. They can breed and have been reintroduced into the wild.

Bam. Your problems don't exist.

 

[Chopchop]

I didn't like trade evolution pokemon as a kid because I wasn't close enough with anyone to trade with them. Plus a link cable was expensive for us at that age lol.

Making them rare encounters is fine imo.

 

[RecRoulette]

Being mad about this and not being upset that in-game canon allows an infinite number of legendary pokemon is kind of weird.

I figure the Pokemon universe tech has come a long way since Red/Blue and can just release these fossils out in the wild. Was neat seeing Kabutops just roaming around

I liked it. Also interesting lore hearing that Omynite's have been revived so much that they are now a nuisance lol

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Everyone trying to get their own Lord Helix and only getting Regular Ass Helix instead.

 

[steviestar3]

Seeing fossil Pokemon walk around in the Crown Tundra was cool. It'll be dumb if they have them spawn everywhere in future games but the idea of having one remote area where they didn't go extinct is neat.

 

[Sandfox]

Calling people who either don't want to or can't do trade evolutions lazy is kinda messed up.

Also, the lore for fossils roaming around is fine with me and it allows us to catch them ourselves, which I personally prefer.

 

[roguesquirrel]

I wouldve thought with the internet, stuff like trade evolutions would be more common. Its infinitely easier to just find a rando on a forum or in a discord group than it is finding someone irl

 

[Deleted member 19742]

I love being able to catch trade evolutions in the wild.

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This, actually. Also, I'm not offended at you calling non-traders lazy, OP: I actually find it hilarious that you're so into your argument, you happily just call a lot of folks lazy. Good work, buddy. Also, as easy as it is to trade online/with friends now, I still have fun memories of generation one and not having friends to evolve my Kadabra with. So more options for getting Pokemon doesn't always hurt.

 

[Deleted member 17388]

GameFreak just went:

 

[Scruffy8642]

Trade evolutions were always kinda annoying, especially as a loner it's basically meant you can't catch a first form and train it up. You have to give it away to a random you're unlikely to get it back from, so you can only get strong trade evolutions that don't have your player under OT (in recent gens at least, in the past you just had like a lv100 Haunter lol).

Kinda ironic they're making trade Pokémon easier while version exclusive and singular Pokémon are just as if not even more bullshit - like only choosing one Regi in the recent DLC, or only getting one of Flapple/Appletum unless you dynamax raid which makes it difficult to trade for the other. Gotta give people reason to buy the second version and get them $$ lmao.

Definitely feel with the generations the act of doing interesting stuff to evolve and complete your Pokédex is becoming less and less of a thing and they're just kinda serving them up to you. It was that variety that made it interesting and fresh to collect them in the first place.

 

[treasureyez]

classic pokemon does a lot better than modern pokemon (IMO) but trade evolutions have always been a nuisance

 

[RPGam3r]

I wish they would kill off trade evolutions. Or make it some in game NPC/quest setup. The only reason I didn't mind it in SwSh was bc my daughter is old enough to play and has own Switch.

 

[Phellps]

Trading pokémon to evolve them is not a challenge, it's a nuisance. If anything, the idea that these Pokémon never existed prior to humans catching and trading them and therefore none is available in the wild makes absolutely no sense. There should be fully evolved Pokémon in the wild and I'm glad SwSh finally pulled the trigger on this concept. It makes the world feel a lot more alive to see a big ass Steelix roaming around.

As for the fossils, I'll admit reviving them was neat. But the idea that there is a place in the Pokémon world were all these species managed to survive is also pretty great. So I don't care. The Crown Tundra is all post-game content anyways.

 

[Slamtastic]

Trade evolutions and version exclusives and two versions shouldn't exist.

 

[Jakenbakin]

BS = Bouffalant Silliness

Look at Gengar's face, he's happy that you did all this just for him.

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Gengar, what have they done to you?

 

[wastingmyyouth]

Trade evolutions and version exclusives and two versions shouldn't exist.

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This. I haven't had a friend who played Pokémon for at least a decade, so this has always infuriated me.

 

[Woylie]

The more variety the better, IMO. It's pretty novel seeing these fully evolved Pokemon wandering around the Wild Area as challenges you can take on optionally (assuming you have a team around the 60s/70s and haven't been grinding a ton) and while it's a bit weird lore-wise with the fossil Pokemon, I feel like they could have easily handwaved that by placing some NPC somewhere that mentions that "rare Pokemon thought be extinct" are rumored to exist deep in the Crown Tundra. I hope that future games follow suit and just have as much variety in the wild Pokemon selection as possible - it keeps things interesting and makes the areas seem more varied.

 

[MP!]

The whole Pokémon formula is ready for a fundamental change

 

[Maple]

It's not just trade evolutions or fossil Pokemon - the Crown Tundra allows you to catch full pseudo-legendary Pokemon like Dragapult and Metagross. I'll be riding along and they will just pop up repeatedly.

This just shouldn't be the case. Part of the allure of Pokemon is that some are inherently rarer and more powerful than others. It completely dilutes the experience when you're just casually riding by and see a bunch of fully evolved pseudo-legendary and ultra rare Pokemon just hanging around.

There are 800+ Pokemon. They have plenty of Pokemon to choose from to create a sense of variety without making fully evolved pseudo-legendary Pokemon as common and easy to catch as a Pidgey. Really bad design decision IMO.

 

[Rolling Antony]

Both are awesome things and I love being able to see those fully evolved and fossil mons walking around. They add to the world, instead of taking away from it. SwSh still lets you revive fossils and you can choose to not catch a Gengar and instead trade for it, so it's not like you're missing something...

Are you also gonna complain about pseudos or other "rare" Pokémon appearing at low rates on the wild?


People are really scraping the bottom of the barrel to find a way to complain about "modern" Pokémon games

Definitely feel with the generations the act of doing interesting stuff to evolve and complete your Pokédex is becoming less and less of a thing and they're just kinda serving them up to you. It was that variety that made it interesting and fresh to collect them in the first place.

Click to shrink...

But... they are still making some fun evolutions and the like? The 4 fossils, goddamn Runerigus or Alcremie are exact examples of "interesting stuff to complete".

 

[super-famicom]

I never had anyone to trade with when I played Pokemon Red/Blue as a kid. So I was stuck with Kadabra for years.

 

[Ocean Bones]

You're making me want to buy sword and shield and give it a go.

I haven't really played much of a Pokémon game in about 8 years.

 

[Deleted member 63122]

They kinda fixed the trade evolution part, the majority of them appeared on the Wild in SWSH and they also appeared in the dynamax dens.

 

[Lord Azrael]

Don't care about trade evolutions, that's just a dumb pain in the ass mechanic anyway, but it makes no sense for fossils. Could've made up some BS explanation about how the crown tundra is isolated from the rest of the world or something so it's stuck in the past, but nothing

 

[Scarlet Spider]

Fossil Pokemon being alive and well makes sense. They fit the theme of the region. :)

 

[Strings]

Trade evolutions and fossil Pokemon are bullshit.

 

[Rosebud]

Arceus just listened to my prayers.

But they could just make all the fossils available, instead of the pokemon.

 

[MarvelousIntent]

Screw trade evolutions, they suck. Let me evolve my Scyther in peace, dammit!

 

[BlueRose]

I love the idea of fossil Pokémon roaming the Crown Tundra. It's thematic. I also don't think it's questionable to assume that fossil Pokémon could have been revived and reintroduced into the environment.

The BS is that in past games, scientists would revive an extinct Pokémon and just hand it over to the player no questions asked...

 

[Pancracio17]

Fossils being gone sucks and makes no sense imo.

And yeah I was lazy for trades, so what, im glad theyre gone.

 

[Nickgia]

Fuck trade evo's.

 

[Dark Mantonio]

It'd be cool if the trade-evo pokes had split evos. So if trading isn't an option you could still evolve them into some kind of 3rd form instead of being stuck w/ Kadabra or Haunter forever.

 

[Lindsay]

I'd say its pretty cool for peeps who wanna fill out their 'dex with just the 1 game alone. Still gotta breed and raise up the bases forms an then trade with someone else/yourself if you want 'em in peak condition though, so that part kinda bites. But for just getting 'em all and seeing a wider variety of 'mon in the wilds its a boon.

 

[Deleted member 3815]

A lot of people hate trade evolutions, however. Why? Because you're lazy, just admit it. I always thought it was a unique mechanic and gives some gameplay variety in how you acquire Pokemon for those who are into the collector aspects of the game. With online trading and forums, it is easy to set up a trade.

Yet Game Freak has slowly but surely given players the chance to just catch trade evolutions. These encounters were incredibly rare in the past, like needing to have a GBA game in your DS slot or a slim chance at finding one in a rare occurrence in the overworld. Most were also for the lower-tier trade evolutions. No one cares about Huntail.

Click to shrink...

Not everyone has the means of trading, especially given that trading on-line is now behind a paywall, so it's cool that Game Freak added options of catching them without trading. Plus they have done it in past games and given that this is the wild area where Pokémon naturally roam. It doesn't make sense for the final evolution to be absent.

Catching trade evolutions was a slippery slope. Now we have completely slipped off the slope and are face down in the mud with Crown Tundra's crime against nature: catchable fossil Pokemon. Pokemon that once could only be brought back to life through ancient fossils with the power of science are just roaming around the island as if they were no different from a Yamper. WHAT. Like trade evolutions, fossils were a unique way to obtain some truly special Pokemon. People would speculate about what the new ones would be based off, and SwSh actually had a unique spin on the idea.

Click to shrink...

The game Pokédex entry literary explains to why the fossil Pokémon are roaming in the wild, they're Pokémon that were either released by trainers or escaped into the wild. Plus I don't recall anyone complaining when the animé showed them living underground.

Remember in the Sinnoh Underground when you found old fossils? You were like "Whoa, not only do I get the fossil Pokemon from this game, I get old ones as well!" You dug up that fossil with your bare stylus and it made you feel like you found something incredible.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, it was terrible system as it was needle in a haystack hunt and even when you found them, you had to carefully dig them out without the wall collapsing thus losing the fossil.

It wasn't fun.

Now? I dunno there's a T-rex walking around near that bush go catch it. They could make a story out of it, like you find some amazing Jurassic Park island filled with fossil Pokemon still alive, but no, we're in England.

Click to shrink...

You mean Scotland. The superior part of the UK.

It's not just trade evolutions or fossil Pokemon - the Crown Tundra allows you to catch full pseudo-legendary Pokemon like Dragapult and Metagross. I'll be riding along and they will just pop up repeatedly.

This just shouldn't be the case. Part of the allure of Pokemon is that some are inherently rarer and more powerful than others. It completely dilutes the experience when you're just casually riding by and see a bunch of fully evolved pseudo-legendary and ultra rare Pokemon just hanging around.

Click to shrink...

Gen 5 allowed you catch Dragonite and Metagross in the wild plus gen 7 made them SOS encounter.

There are 800+ Pokemon. They have plenty of Pokemon to choose from to create a sense of variety without making fully evolved pseudo-legendary Pokemon as common and easy to catch as a Pidgey. Really bad design decision IMO.

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Pidgey has a catch rate of 225 and is typically found in early routes. Metagross on the other hand has a catch rate of 3, with the other having a catch rate of 45, and is found later in the game and at a much higher level. It's far from an easy capture.

 

[Lobster Roll]

Trade evolutions originally existed to get a household to buy multiple copies of a game, multiple Game Boys, and a trade cable. Trade evolutions deserve to die.