Pokémon Gold and Silver - Notes
Double Evolutions
A Pokémon gets only one opportunity to evolve when it levels up, even if it meets one or more conditions to evolve. For example, if a Zubat with a very high happiness reaches level 22, it evolves into Golbat, but not into Crobat afterward. It must wait until the next time it levels up to evolve into Crobat.
Pokérus
Pokérus is a virus that infects Pokémon. There is a 3/65536 chance that a wild Pokémon will have Pokérus. If this happens, some of the Pokémon in the party may be infected with that virus after the battle ends. (Even eggs can be infected this way.) A Pokémon infected with or cured of Pokérus will earn twice as much stat experience as normal in battle.
Infected Pokémon have a status that reads Pokérus. (However, Pokérus is not a status problem.) When the player tries to heal the infected Pokémon in a Pokémon Center, the receptionist will say:
Your Pokémon appear to have tiny life forms stuck to them. Your Pokémon are healthy and seem to be fine. But we can't tell you anything more at a Pokémon Center.Then, Professor Elm will call:
I discovered an odd thing. Apparently there's something called Pokérus that infects Pokémon. Yes, it's like a virus, so it's called Pokérus. It multiplies fast and infects other Pokémon too. But that's all. It doesn't seem to do anything, and it goes away over time. I guess it's nothing to worry about. Bye!
Whenever a battle ends, for each Pokémon infected with Pokérus, there is a 1/3 chance that both the Pokémon before and after that Pokémon are also infected with Pokérus if not already infected. (Even eggs can be infected this way.) Walking with an infected Pokémon in the party or placing an infected Pokémon in a PC storage box won't infect other Pokémon.
Within four days, at midnight, the Pokémon is cured of Pokérus. Once a Pokémon is cured of Pokérus, it will never get it again (in the stats screen of such a Pokémon, a black dot will appear). However, a Pokémon kept in a PC storage box will remain infected.
Pokégear Phone
When will Mom call the hero?
It's been shown that Mom will call the hero once she has saved up enough money to buy the hero an item. Because Mom only gets your money after trainer battles, there is a false rumor that you must defeat a certain number of trainers in order for Mom to call you.| Mom will buy... | if she saves up... |
| Super Potion | 600 |
| Repel | 270 |
| Hyper Potion | 900 |
| Moon Stone | 3000 |
| Charmander Doll | 1800 |
| Clefairy Doll | 4800 |
| Pikachu Doll | 8000 |
| Big Snorlax Doll | 22,700 |
How often will trainers call?
Trainers appear to call you every half hour. They appear to call whenever you step out of a building, fly, finish a battle, or ride the train. The calls might not be triggered by steps. Decision of which trainer will call is random.
Legendary Beast Trio
Whenever the map changes; whenever the game is restarted; or, at a 1/16 chance, whenever a battle ends, each of the three creatures (Raikou, Entei, Suicune) moves to the next route on the map where the player wasn't found two times ago. At a 1/32 chance, the creature may instead move to a random route on the map where the player wasn't found two times ago. The list below shows the possible destinations (the numbers below are route numbers).
- 29 → 30, 46
- 30 → 29, 31
- 31 → 30, 32, 36
- 32 → 31, 33, 36
- 33 → 32, 34
- 34 → 33, 35
- 35 → 34, 36
- 36 → 31, 32, 35, 37
- 37 → 36, 38, 42
- 38 → 37, 39, 42
- 39 → 38
- 42 → 37, 38, 43, 44
- 43 → 42, 44
- 44 → 42, 43, 45
- 45 → 44, 46
- 46 → 29, 45
Radio
Pokémon March doubles the encounter rate of wild battles, and Pokémon Lullaby halves the encounter rate of wild battles.
Lucky Number Show
You can earn different prizes in the Lucky Number Show if one of
your Pokémon's ID numbers match the winning number. Here is
the complete list:
If last 2 digits (in decimal) match, you'll win a PP Up.
If last 3 digits match, you'll win an Exp.Share.
The game doesn't check if last four digits match.
If last 5 digits match, you'll win a Master Ball.
The Pokémon with the winning ID need not be in your party, but can also be in the currently selected PC box.
Gender Ratios
If a Pokémon's Attack DV is within the "Female Range" for its species, the Pokémon will be female.
| Odds of Female | Value | Female Range |
|---|---|---|
| 0% | 0 | - |
| 12.5% | 31 | 0-1 |
| 25% | 63 | 0-3 |
| 50% | 127 | 0-7 |
| 75% | 191 | 0-11 |
| 100% | 254 | 0-15 |
| Genderless | 255 | - |
Unown
This is the formula to find the form of an Unown:
UnownLetter = ((A+B+C+D)/10)+1
where A, B, C, and D are based on the Pokémon's DVs as follows:
| Deter Value | A (Attack) | B (Defense) | C (Speed) | D (Special) |
| 0, 1, 8, 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2, 3, 10, 11 | 64 | 16 | 4 | 1 |
| 4, 5, 12, 13 | 128 | 32 | 8 | 2 |
| 6, 7, 14, 15 | 192 | 48 | 12 | 3 |
The result, UnownLetter, is the position in the alphabet of the Unown shape (for example "A" if the result is 1).
Bug Catching Contest
This formula calculates the amount of points a bug Pokémon will earn in the Bug Catching Contest.
(Total HP * 4) + Attack + Defense + Speed + Sp.Attack + Sp.Defense + A + int(Current HP/8)+B
A is based on the DVs of the caught Pokémon:
- A starts with 0.
- If half the Defense DV, rounded down, is odd, add 16 to A.
- If half the Attack DV, rounded down, is odd, add 8 to A.
- If half the Special DV, rounded down, is odd, add 4 to A.
- If half the Speed DV, rounded down, is odd, add 1 to A.
If the Pokémon is holding an item, B is 1; otherwise B is 0.
The game truncates each stat (including total and current HP) to the lowest 8 bits for the purposes of this formula.
Name Rater
A Pokémon's trainer ID and OT name must match those of the player in order to rename it with the Name Rater.
Happiness
There is a special value called "happiness" that determines how well the player raises a certain Pokémon. However, it's not easy to tell exactly how happy a Pokémon is without a little work.
To get an idea of happiness, talk to the lady in east-central Goldenrod City and she'll check the first Pokémon in the party. What she says will determine the approximate happiness of that Pokémon.
| Value | What did the lady say? | Notes |
| 250 to 255 | It looks really happy! It must love you a lot. | |
| 200 to 249 | I get the feeling that it really trusts you. | Some Pokémon will evolve when their happiness reaches 220 or more the next time it gains a level (after the battle ends, if any, and after adding happiness gain due to leveling up). |
| 150 to 199 | It's friendly towards you. It looks sort of happy. | You can get Return at this stage. |
| 100 to 149 | It's quite cute. | |
| 50 to 99 | You should treat it better. It's not used to you. | |
| 0 to 49 | It doesn't seem to like you at all. It looks mean. | You can get Frustration at this stage. |
Pokémon caught with the Friend Ball start with a happiness of 200; Pokémon caught with any other ball (or obtained internally) start with their base happiness (in Gold/Silver/Crystal, the base happiness is always 70). A Pokémon hatched from an egg starts with a happiness of 120. Happiness ranges from 0 through 255. Here are the ways to raise or lower happiness.
| Method | Happiness 0-99 | 100-199 | 200-255 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level Up** | +5 | +3 | +2 |
| Stat Enhancer (Protein, Iron, Calcium, Carbos, HP Up, PP Up) | +5 | +3 | +2 |
| Haircut (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday) | +1,3,5* | +1,3,5* | +1,1,2* |
| Haircut (Sunday, Wednesday, Friday) | +1,3,10* | +1,3,10* | +1,1,4* |
| Daisy's Fur Grooming (in Pallet Town; 3:00 PM hour only) | +3 | +1 | |
| Begin a battle against a Gym Leader, Elite Four, Lance or Red with the Pokémon in party (even if it doesn't participate or the battle ended in defeat) | +3 | +1 | |
| Walk every 512 steps | +1 | ||
| Heal Powder, Energy Powder | -5 | -5 | -10 |
| Energy Root | -10 | -10 | -15 |
| Revival Herb | -15 | -15 | -20 |
| Pokémon faints | -1 | -1 | -1 |
| Pokémon faints outside of battle due to poison | -5 | -5 | -5 |
| Trade, or put in a Stadium PC | Returns to base happiness | ||
*60%, 30%, and 10% chance, respectively.
**In the Crystal version, happiness gain is doubled if the Pokémon levels up at the place at which it first appeared in the game. To find out where, visit the Pokémon Seer in Cianwood City.
