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This is a sub-page of Development:Pokémon Gold and Silver/Pokémon Data.

The information in this article is pulled from the following files in the JP and KR sources:

Initial Movesets#

• All movesets from the 1997 version of Gold & Silver seem to have been completely thrown out, with the developers electing to start from scratch.
• Generation I Pokémon had their initial set of level-up moves imported from Pokémon Yellow, with the following exceptions:

:*Pokémon that evolve through leveling up originally kept the same Level 1 moves as their unevolved forms, even if they had more in Pokémon Yellow. For example, Dragonite's initial set of Level 1 moves for Pokémon Gold & Silver only includes Wrap and Leer, even though it had Thunder Wave and Agility in Pokémon Yellow.

:*For Pokémon that evolve through evolutionary stones, any Level 1 moves that they could also learn through leveling up were removed. For example, in Pokémon Yellow, Nidoking had Tackle, Horn Attack, Poison Sting, and Thrash as Level 1 moves, but could also learn Horn Attack and Thrash by leveling up. In his initial Gold & Silver level-up moveset, the Level 1 entries for Horn Attack and Thrash were removed, while Tackle and Poison Sting stayed.

• For new Pokémon that weren't a part of an existing Generation 1 line, their initial level-up moves tend to consist of Tackle and nothing else until they were further developed. By the earliest moveset we have (April 3rd, 1999), most of the Pokémon that made it into the game have proper level-up movesets, but there are a few stragglers.

No Changes#

The following Pokemon already had their movesets finalized as of the earliest known move group set (1999/04/03):

• Caterpie, Metapod
• Weedle, Kakuna
• Rattata family
• Spearow family
• Ekans family
• Pikachu
• Sandshrew family
• Nidoran♀, Nidorina
• Nidoran♂, Nidorino
• Clefairy family
• Vulpix
• Jigglypuff family
• Zubat family
• Persian family
• Abra
• Geodude family
• Tyrogue
• Ditto
• Eevee, Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon
• Cyndaquil family
• Totodile family
• Furret family
• Hoothoot family
• Ledyba family
• Chinchou family
• Togepi family
• Sunkern
• Wooper family
• Unown
• Wobbuffet
• Forretress
• Dunsparce
• Gligar
• Qwilfish
• Slugma Family
• Delibird
• Mantine
• Smeargle

Complex Changes#

The Pokémon in this section either went through a series of changes prior to their level-up moves being finalized (In the case of Pokémon from older families) or had their movesets significantly changed (In the case of Pokémon from new families).

Legend

• Red: Newly introduced move / move does not appear in previous set.
• Blue: Move was in previous set but was placed in another slot.

Old Families#

Squirtle Family#

The Squirtle line's level-up moves were finalized by July 21st, with one exception: They originally learned Curse after Bite. This was changed to Rapid Spin, which both suits the turtle-like family and added a new set of Rapid Spin users to the game. Plus, Curse can be taught to all of the Squirtle clan through TM03 anyway, so it's not like they lost anything.

This was one of the last moveset-related changes in the game: This change can be seen in the September 13th move file, but a comment in Document\ダケモン金銀\p20911.txt places this change around September 10th at the latest.

Butterfree & Beedrill#

Someone was a little overzealous in removing duplicate moves, because both Butterfree and Beedrill have no Level 1 moves in the earliest set. This is a bit of a problem, because both Pokémon can be caught at Level 9 on Route 2. This was fixed by June 2nd, where they got their Generation I starting moves back.

Pikachu Family#

Pichu originally had two starting moves and four level-up moves. To bring it in line with Cleffa and Igglybuff, who only have three level-up moves each, Quick Attack was deleted.

Raichu's starting moves already differ from Generation I, but it was missing Thunderbolt from its pool until August 16th. All this really means is that the two NPC trainers in the game besides Lt. Surge who have a Raichu now have a more powerful attack option.

Ninetales#

While Ninetales learning Curse does line up with its Red & Blue Pokédex entry, it doesn't really work from a gameplay perspective since it's not a Ghost-type. This was replaced by the more useful Fire Spin, but both it and Vulpix can still learn Curse from TM03 if so desired.

Oddish Family#

Oddish and Gloom got their final level-up moves fairly quickly, but Vileplume and Bellossom are different stories:

• Vileplume had Acid as a starting move instead of Petal Dance. It also originally had a Level 55 move, just like its counterpart Bellossom, that was deleted for reasons unknown.
• Bellossom went through a sort of identity crisis. It started out as a moveset clone of Vileplume, then got its own set of starting moves and three level-up moves to Vileplume's one! By July 21st it just copied Gloom's level-up moves and added SolarBeam, then around August 16th it reverted back to a moveset clone of Vileplume with a level 55 SolarBeam as an added bonus.

Paras Family#

Both Paras and Parasect had their final level-up movesets by June 2nd, but the rate at which they learned moves was a little too slow - having to wait until Level 62 to get Giga Drain is a bit much. The level requirements were lessened at some point before August 16th.

Diglett Family#

Like some of the earlier Pokémon in the Pokédex, Diglett and Dugtrio have already incorporated Gen II moves in their earliest available moveset. The only difference is a lack of Fissure, which was added by August 16th. Before then, the only way to use the move would be through Metronome or using the Time Capsule to transfer a Generation I Pokémon that learned the move via TM27.

Psyduck Family#

The level requirements for both Psyduck and Golduck were both lowered slightly by August 16th.

Poliwag Family#

Poliwag and Poliwhirl's movesets were already finalized by July 21st, though the rate at which Poliwhirl learned moves changed from every ten levels to every eight levels. Poliwrath, however, went through a bit more work: By July, it got its final level-up moves and Submission at Level 39, which was latered lowered to 45 by August 16th. A bit later, it gained an additional level-up move in Mind Reader.

Politoed went through a similar development as Bellossom, starting out as a clone of Poliwrath, then copying Poliwhirl's moveset (with Perish Song in place of Belly Drum), then losing all of its level-up moves except Perish Song. It gained a second level-up move, Swagger, at the same time as Poliwrath.

Machop Family#

All members of the Machop family got the newly-introduced Cross Chop around when the move was implemented, and the devs threw in Foresight as a bonus. Scary Face then went from the third-to-last learned move to the second-to-last learned move.

Ponyta Family#

In what was probably a copy-paste error, Rapidash originally had the same level-up move acquisition rate as Ponyta (barring Fury Attack). This was corrected less than a month later.

Seel Family#

The move acquisition rates for Seel and Dewgong were changed. For Seel, this went from alternating between six and twelve levels to five and eleven levels per move. Dewgong has a more confusing set of changes, with Ice Beam being acquired 3 levels earlier but Safeguard staying at Level 60, meaning it now has to wait seventeen levels to get its last move!

Grimer Family#

While the transition from the Pokémon Yellow moveset to the final moveset seems to have happened more smoothly than most Pokémon in this section, something went wrong with Muk's level-up moves. Yes, that really is the order they're stored in the game. It seems like they partially copied Muk's Pokémon Yellow moveset, changed Poison Gas to a level-up move, then copied from Grimer's level-up moves. Unfortunately they forgot to update the levels for the first three moves, which are Harden, Disable, and Sludge. This does have in-game ramifications: Wild Muk (which in this game max out at Level 33) will only know Poison Gas, Pound, and Harden, with Minimize and Screech being skipped over.

Shellder Family#

Seems there was some debate on when Cloyster would learn its single level-up move. It started at 50, matching Pokémon Yellow, then it was lowered by a single level to 49, before finally being reduced to a more reasonable 41.

Gastly Family#

The Gastly line originally had Confuse Ray as a starting move. Giving a wild Pokémon a confusion-inducing move with a 100% accuracy rate this early in the game would have made going through Sprout Tower at night extremely annoying, so it was thankfully swapped with Hypnosis by mid-August.

Onix Family#

Surprisingly, Steelix did not start off as a clone of Onix: It had an extra move, Iron Tail, which it could learn at Level 55. However, when Onix's movepool was changed, Steelix's movepool was also changed to duplicate it. Realizing the mistake they made, the developers later gave it an extra level-up move...Crunch. This means that Steelix, the long, Steel-type serpentine Pokémon whose body has to be at least 50% tail, cannot learn Iron Tail naturally in Generation II! It has to be taught the move through TM23 instead. Weird.

Tyrogue Family#

The level-up movesets for all three Tyrogue evolutions changed in some way:

• Between July 21st and August 23rd, some of Hitmonlee's late-level moves were shuffled around and Foresight was added.
• Hitmonchan went through the fewest changes, with move acquisition going from every 7 levels (except the elemental punches) to every 6 levels.
• Hitmontop already had its own starting and level-up moves by April 3rd, even having one more move than Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee. However, its moveset was only updated once compared to the others' two, moving a few moves around and adding Detect. It actually ended up with the fewest moves of any Tyrogue evolution.

Chansey Family#

Oddly, Blissey has more Level 1 moves than Chansey in the July 21st set. This would make sense if Chansey evolved by hitting a certain level, as it did in the 1997 version, but all known evolution data for the 1999 version of Gold & Silver has Blissey as a friendship evolution. These extra moves were deleted on or before August 16th.

Mr. Mime#

Mr. Mime's last learned move was originally Psywave, that move that does between 1 HP and (1.5x the user's level) HP worth of damage. It was later replaced by Psybeam, the 65 base power Psychic move. Someone on staff must have liked the little goof, because a week later it was thrown two bones in the forms of Baton Pass (useful considering how many support moves it has) and Safeguard.

Smoochum Family#

Smoochum's moveset started out similar to Jynx's moveset, but with Lovely Kiss (あくまのキッス, or Demon's Kiss, in Japan) replaced with the new Sweet Kiss (てんしのキッス, or Angel's Kiss), and some of the more physical-oriented moves like Body Slam and Thrash replaced with more indirect techniques like Sing and Psywave. In the August 16th set, its remaining physical move, DoubleSlap, was replaced by Confusion, but Body Slam was strangely brought back into its moveset, taking Psywave's slot. The final moveset took it away again and replaced it with Mean Look.

Jynx went through a less complicated development: The only difference between the July and August movesets is the placement of Body Slam and Thrash being replaced by Mean Look.

Pinsir#

In an odd carryover from Generation I, Pinsir could originally learn Slash despite not really having anything to slash with. This was replaced by the more appropriate Submission by August 16th.

Tauros#

The August sets start giving Tauros level-up moves at Level 4, not 5, but both share the same formula for move acquisition. Tauros also learned to take it easy and Rest once in a while.

Eevee Family#

Oh geez.

• Both Espeon and Umbreon started out on April 3rd as move clones of Eevee.
• By July 21st, they both got their own sets of level-up moves, with the appropriate Dark and Psychic-type moves slotted in. In these sets, Espeon's final move is Return and Umbreon's final move is Frustration: this is leftover from the original concept where Eevee would evolve into Espeon at high (>220) friendship, and Umbreon at low (<20) friendship. This was already dropped by July 21st, but their movesets had yet to be updated.
• By August 16th, Espeon's last level-up move changed to Psychic. Umbreon went under more radical changes: All of its Dark-type moves were removed (Bite was still a Normal-type move at this point), with the replacements being Confuse Ray and the two Poison-type moves Acid and Toxic. Thief was removed at the same time as other Pokémon (read on for more info about that), and Frustration no longer made sense, but removing Faint Attack is a bit puzzling. It's possible that whoever updated the movepool either thought that Umbreon was a Poison type (which it was in the 1997 versions of Gold & Silver, but never in the 1999 revamp), or they took inspiration from its Gold Pokédex entry.
• About a week later their movesets were finalized: Espeon got Morning Sun (which had previously not been assigned to any Pokémon at all) and had two of its later level-up moves switched around, while Umbreon got Moonlight and two Dark-type moves in Pursuit and the return of Faint Attack.

Porygon Family#

In one of the more pointless changes, the order of both Porygon and Porygon2's starting moves changed from (Tackle, Conversion, Conversion2) to (Conversion2, Tackle, Conversion). Inscrutable!

Legendary Birds#

Zapdos seems to have settled into its final level-up moves quickly, but Articuno and Moltres had some changes with their second-to-last moves: Articuno originally had Safeguard while Moltres got Recover! Perhaps realizing that this was a bad idea from a game balance perspective, Moltres got Safeguard instead while Articuno got Reflect.

New Families#

Chikorita Family#

As if the Chikorita line didn't have it bad enough in the final game, it originally didn't learn PoisonPowder and had to wait until Level 15 to get Razor Leaf!

Spinarak Family#

It took a weirdly long amount of time for Spinarak and Ariados to get their signature move, Spider Web, in their level-up movesets, considering the move had long been implemented by this point.

Natu Family#

In another case of assigning moves based on flavor rather than practicality, both Natu and Xatu have Curse in their earliest sets. Unlike Ninetales, the thematic link is shakier here: neither Natu nor Xatu's Pokédex entries mention curses or bad fortune. The move was eventually replaced by Teleport, taking Future Sight, Confuse Ray, and Psychic down a slot.

Mareep Family#

Mareep, Flaaffy, and Ampharos had ThunderShock and Thunder Wave swapped to give all of them earlier access to an Electric-type attack. Ampharos had Cotton Spore and ThunderPunch swapped after its evolution requirement changed from Level 26 to Level 30.

Marill Family#

Both Marill and Azumarill gained a new move, BubbleBeam, and both had their level-up move acquisition rates sped up quite a bit.

Sudowoodo#

Amusingly, Sudowoodo seemed to have been a little too effective at mimicking a tree, because some confused developer assigned it a bunch of Grass-type moves! When this was pointed out in a bug report, all of its moves besides Mimic were temporarily removed. Around the time that the Spaceworld 1999 demo was released, it received its final, less floral, moveset.

Hoppip Family#

No difference in level-up moves, but all three members of the Hoppip family gained Synthesis as a starting move.

Aipom#

Thief was removed from Aipom's moveset. There's a good reason for this: in Generation II, if an enemy Pokémon uses Thief, it's able to permanently steal the player Pokémon's held item! This was brought up in Bug 408 in the Document\ダケモン金銀\バグ報告\金銀バグ0601-0828.xls bug report file (Dated July 9th), but then was was resolved as "Intended", i.e. not a bug. However, by July 15th, the issue was brought up in Question 74 of the Document\ダケモン金銀\バグ報告\金銀質問1017.xls Q&A document, where the developers replied that they were going to keep wild and Trainer Pokémon from using the move. So, between July 21st and August 16th, all instances of Thief in Pokémon's level-up movesets were removed.

In Aipom's case, the move was replaced by Agility, which switched places with Swift in the lineup.

Sunflora#

Sunflora was stuck with a dummy Tackle moveset until sometime around Spaceworld '99. Sunkern was initially removed from the game around this time; when it came back, Sunflora inherited its starting move, Absorb.

Murkrow#

Murkrow didn't even get an extra move to replace Thief, but at least Faint Attack was moved to its slot.

Misdreavus#

Safeguard, a move that doesn't really fit Misdreavus's "theme", was replaced by Pain Split, a move which had been around for a while but hadn't been assigned to a Pokemon yet. Other than that, some moves were shuffled around.

Pineco#

Pineco received Spikes (yet another previously unassigned move) at the same time Forretress was added to the game.

Snubbull Family#

In what seems to have been an attempt to tone down the family's violent nature and make them more "cute", Thrash was removed from Snubbull and Granbull's level-up movesets, and Charm was added, followed by Lick.

Heracross#

Heraross originally didn't have any Fighting-type moves it could learn by leveling up. This was rectified by August 16th, which added Counter (taking the place of the somewhat out-of-place Reflect) and Reversal to its moveset. Fury Attack was moved up a slot, while Take Down was placed in-between the new moves.

Sneasel#

The continuation of two trends: Thief was removed and replaced by Agility, which then swapped places with Slash; then Sneasel got a previously unassigned move, Beat Up, which would end up being its signature.

Teddiursa Family#

More evidence that Kotora and Raitora once took up these slots. Look at all of those Electric-type moves! These level-up moves survived until at least June 2nd before Teddiursa and Ursaring finally got proper moves. After Ursaring's evolution level changed from 20 to 30, it kept Teddiursa's requirements for Faint Attack and Rest, but the gaps between its last three moves increased from eight levels to ten levels.

Swinub Family#

Both Swinub, Piloswine, and the cut Piloswine evolution originally had a placeholder moveset that only contained Powder Snow at Level 1. Considering that no other Pokémon has this move the April 3rd data, the developers might have originally intended Powder Snow to be this line's signature move before they eventually assigned it to other Pokémon.

By August 16th both Piloswine and its cut evolution had proper level-up moves but, curiously, Swinub only had Tackle at Level 1 and Powder Snow at Level 8. At this point in development, Swinub evolved into Piloswine at Level 15; the evolution condition was actually so low that Swinub couldn't be encountered in the Ice Cave, but Piloswine could. After the level to evolve went from 15 to 33 and the third stage in the line was cut, Swinub got its own set of level-up moves, and the level requirements for Piloswine's last two moves were considerably increased.

Corsola#

Corsola was introduced late, so there wasn't much time to work on its moves. The only difference it received was changing Light Screen to Mirror Coat, a change which allowed Squirtle and Tentacool to obtain Mirror Coat as an egg move.

Remoraid Family#

Both Remoraid and Octillery had a few level-up moves, including Octillery's signature move Octazooka, but they hadn't gone all-in on the "beam" moves yet. That changed by July, with Hydro Pump's removal and moves like Psybeam, Aurora Beam, and Hyper Beam being added to both of their movesets. Some time after Spaceworld '99 one of the developers realized that Ice Beam was missing, so they added that in, placing it right before Hyper Beam.

Skarmory#

Skarmory's Pursuit was replaced by Fury Attack, though it can still learn Pursuit as an egg move. Swift was moved up to the second move slot, while Steel Wing was moved down to Level 49.

Houndour Family#

The original final level-up move, Fire Spin, was changed to the more thematically appropriate Crunch. They can still learn Fire Spin as an egg move anyway, so everybody wins!

Phanpy Family#

Donphan had a near-final level-up moveset by April, but Phanpy only had two starting moves in Tackle and Defense Curl which, considering that Phanpy evolved at Level 25 even back then, would have made battling with it bothersome. Both Pokémon got their level-up movesets updated some time in August; Phanpy got a moveset similar to Donphan's but with a few unique moves of its own, while Donphan inherited Phanpy's Defense Curl and Flail.

Stantler#

Stantler's sparse move pool was spruced up by adding Take Down, its most powerful attack by level-up. Sand-Attack and Stomp were swapped, allowing it to learn a more powerful attack even sooner.

Miltank#

Miltank started out as, appropriately enough, a move clone of Tauros, with Milk Drink in place of Tauros' Leer. Between June 2nd and July 21st, it had more of its own identity, deleting the more Tauros-focused Tail Whip and Rage and adding more status moves like Growl, Defense Curl, and Heal Bell. By August 23rd, more of its moves swapped slots, and Miltank was deemed sufficiently round enough for it to naturally learn Rollout.

Legendary Beasts#

By April 3rd, all three legendary beasts only had perfunctory movesets with a single 40 power elemental move. From July 21st on, with the exception of their starting moves and learning Roar at Level 21, the movesets split:

• Raikou has two Electric-type attacking moves, two other attacking moves, and one more support move in Reflect.
• Entei has three Fire-type attacking moves and two more supporting moves, Smokescreen and Swagger.
• Suicune has one Water-type attacking move, one other attacking move, and three more supporting moves: Safeguard, Rain Dance, and Recover(!).

After Spaceworld '99, the developers tried to standardize the beasts' level-up moves:

• Level 11 is a 40-power elemental move that matches the user's typing. This meant that Suicune got its Water Gun back.
• Level 21 is still Roar.
• Level 31 is an offensive move that fits the theme of the Pokémon.
• Level 41 is a 65-base power attack. In Raikou and Suicune's case this matches their typing; Entei, however, has Stomp here because there aren't any 65-base power Fire type moves in this generation.
• Level 51 and 61 are both "thematic" moves. While Raikou and Entei just moved existing moves to these slots, Suicune received Mist and Mirror Coat as new moves.
• Level 71 is a 120-base power elemental attack matching the user's typing.

It looks like the developers weren't completely satisfied with Suicune's moveset, because in Pokémon Crystal, some of the removed moves (Aurora Beam and Rain Dance) came back, while Water Gun was removed from its movepool again.

Larvitar Family#

All members of the Larvitar line had placeholder Tackle movesets in the April 3rd data. By July 21st, Tyranitar had an early version of its final moveset, while Larvitar and Pupitar still had nothing. At last, around the time of Spaceworld 1999, Tyranitar got its final moveset -- with the notable addition of Rock Slide, a Rock-type offensive move that it was strangely lacking -- and both Larvitar and Pupitar followed suit.

Lugia & Ho-Oh#

The April 3rd file has preliminary movesets for both Lugia and Ho-Oh that includes Gust as a starting move and their respective signature moves at Level 40. After staying like this for at least three-and-a-half months, both Lugia and Ho-Oh received near-final movesets around the time of the Spaceworld 1999 demo.

Both level-up movesets were revised once more to fix an issue with their in-game battles: Regardless if they were encountered at Level 40 or Level 70, both Ho-Oh and Lugia would only have a single offensive move with just 5 PP. So, players could just deplete the PP of that move and leave both Ho-Oh and Lugia as sitting ducks, unable to damage the players' Pokémon until they used Struggle. To remedy this, Scary Face was replaced by Gust (which has 40 PP), and Foresight was replaced by Swift (with has 20 PP).

Other Changes#

The Pokémon in this section went from their Pokémon Yellow-based movesets (or, in the case of new lines, from a placeholder Tackle moveset) to their final movesets with no known intermediary steps.

Legend

• Red: Newly introduced move / move does not appear in previous set.
• Blue: Move was in previous set but was placed in another slot.

Old Families#

Bulbasaur Family#

Charmander Family#

Pidgey Family#

Nidoqueen & Nidoking#

Venonat Family#

Mankey Family#