Unused Pokémon Data

This is a sub-page of Pokémon Black and White.

Manaphy Egg#

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Carried over from the last generation is Manaphy's Egg. While it cannot be obtained under normal circumstances, it works perfectly fine when hacked into the player's party. All of its sound effects and graphics were carried over. Its battle sprite did receive a bouncing animation like the regular Pokémon eggs, as well as an updated version of its unique hatching animation. The party menu icons were left untouched, though. The existence of this implies that a Manaphy Egg distribution may have been planned for Generation V, seeing how Pokémon eggs cannot be transferred into these games.

Unobtainable Shiny Pokémon#

For the sake of consistency, every Pokémon in every Pokémon game is given a Shiny variant. Most Shiny Pokémon have been obtainable through random chance encounters or event distributions, including most Legendary Pokémon. However, a few Pokémon cannot be obtained in this form without hacking, and as a consequence, normal players would never be able to see their Shiny coloration.

• Reshiram, Zekrom - These Legendary Pokémon are encountered via fixed in-game battles in the climax of the game's story. However, they are restricted to never be Shiny. Shiny Reshiram and Zekrom would later be legitimately obtainable for the first time in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.

• Victini - Also encountered in battle, but during a distribution-based event. Like Reshiram and Zekrom, Victini is set to never be Shiny.

• Keldeo, Meloetta - These Mythical Pokémon were only obtainable through special distributions via Mystery Gift. Pokémon obtained from Mystery Gift cannot be Shiny unless distributed as such, and no distributions of these Pokémon ever occurred for the Generation V games. The Shiny variant of Genesect, the fourth Mythical Pokémon of Generation V, was distributed in some Asian countries following the premiere of the 16th Pokémon movie. Shiny Meloetta and Shiny Keldeo would later be given out as completion rewards in Pokémon HOME, the former being rewarded for completing the Paldea, Kitakami and Blueberry Academy Pokédexes, and the latter for doing likewise for the Galar, Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra Pokédexes. Meloetta and Keldeo can also be found in the wild in Blueberry Academy and the Crown Tundra respectively, as well as Hyperspace Lumious in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, however those encounters are all shiny locked.

Unused Hidden Abilities#

In the Generation V games, it is possible to find Pokémon with special "hidden Abilities". However, some Pokémon couldn't be encountered with hidden Abilities through any legitimate means, rendering the hidden Abilities unused in normal gameplay.

• Note that Gothita, Klink, and Rufflet's evolutions have hidden Abilities that are obtainable. However, because these hidden Abilities were only given to males (or, in the case of Klink, genderless Pokémon), obtaining these hidden Abilities through breeding is impossible in the Generation V games. The new breeding mechanics of the Generation VI games gave Gothita, Rufflet, and Klink their previously-unobtainable hidden Abilities.
• Larvesta and Volcarona can now be found with their hidden Ability in the Generation VI games.
• The Unova and Johto starters, along with the Legendary birds and golems, were distributed with their hidden Abilities in event distributions in Generation VI.
• Also of note is that Litwick, Lampent, and Chandelure's hidden Ability in the Generation VI games changed from Shadow Tag to Infiltrator. These Pokémon can now be found in the Generation VI games with Infiltrator.
• Zapdos's hidden Ability was changed to Static in Generation VI, for it can be seen with this Ability in the Battle Maison. It can be obtained with this Ability from an event distribution.
• In the Generation VII games, Raikou, Entei, and Suicune's Hidden Abilities were all changed to Inner Focus, now obtainable by transferring from Virtual Console Gold, Silver, or Crystal to Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, or Ultra Moon.

Unused Dream World Data#

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Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver's overworld sprites for every Pokémon from Generation I through to Generation IV still remain in the data of Black and White. These sprites are intended to be used for Pokémon encountered in the Entree Forest. Roughly half of the Pokémon were obtainable through the Dream World in some way. For most evolutionary lines, at least one Pokémon was distributed. However, most evolutions, legendaries and some other exceptions were never distributed, rendering their graphics as well as level data completely unused. Every Pokémon introduced in Generation V have no proper sprites or level.

The level data is defined in a list file. The developers took some factors into account when creating this list:

• The minimum level for every Pokémon is 10.
• Pokémon that evolve by level use the minimum level they can be obtained at. Pokémon that evolve at a level lower than 10 are meant to be encountered at level 10.
• Pokémon that evolve by trade, happiness, item, or other conditions retain the level of their previous stage.
• Legendary and Mythical Pokémon mostly use the levels that they can be encountered at in previous games in the series. Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mewtwo, Raikou, Entei, Suicune, Lugia, Ho-Oh, Latias, Latios, Kyogre and Groudon use their encounter levels from Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver. Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf, Dialga, Palkia, Regigigas, Cresselia and Shaymin use their encounter levels from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. Heatran and Giratina use their encounter levels from Pokémon Platinum. Mew and Deoxys use their encounter levels from Pokémon Emerald. The level for Darkrai doesn't seem to match with any encounters in previous games.

Unused Held Items#

Some Pokémon, when encountered in the wild, have a chance of holding an item. Held item data also exists for some Pokémon which cannot be caught in the wild in the final game, rendering such assignments unseen.

Alternate Forme Placeholder Data for Kyurem#

There exists placeholder data for an alternate form of Kyurem in Black and White. There is a table within the game's coding that specifies the number of Formes/forms a Pokémon has. Pokémon that have no alternate forms are listed with the forms count 0, while Pokémon with alternate forms are listed with a number corresponding to the number of forms they have. For example, Pikachu has the number 0, while Deoxys has the number 4. There is one exception to this: Kyurem is the only Pokémon listed with the number 1. This number is meant to be a placeholder, meaning that at least one alternate Forme was in development. This was previously seen in the coding of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, in which Rotom, Giratina, and Shaymin had the number 1 listed. It is worth noting that Kyurem's two signature moves from the sequels, Freeze Shock and Ice Burn, also exist in Black and White.

Kyurem ended up with two new Formes, Black Kyurem and White Kyurem, in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2. Tornadus, Thundurus, Landorus, and Keldeo, which all gained new Formes in the sequels, are listed with the number 0, suggesting that the alternate Formes for these Pokémon were not in development until later.