Playthrough Elusive Pokemon

[CPU]

Gold and Silver have a lot of these, which unfortunately encompasses the majority of new Pokémon, but I wanted to focus specifically on a couple of these that are rare more from location rather than encounter rarity.

Natu and Smeargle are only found in grass outside the Ruins of Alph, grass that can only be accessed by trekking through Union Cave. Said cave is one of Johto's two required caves, but what you're required to navigate through is a pretty straight shot. You can also bypass it most of the time after you clear Sudowoodo out. If you didn't do what little exploring you could in Union Cave the first time or missed the dialog from a trainer mentioning roars from a Pokémon deep in the cave on Friday, you probably wouldn't think to return once you have Surf (which is received after you clear Sudowoodo). If you didn't explore or forgot the little hints, there's not much incentive to ever return.

Let's say you're a trainer who wasn't planning on going back to Union Cave. You keep playing your game until you hit Route 44, and you fight Birdkeeper Phil and his funny round bird Pokémon Natu. You check the Pokédex to see where it's found, and it's... the Ruins of Alph? The only thing in the caves is Unown, and no grass is immediately visible. There's an apparently inaccessible cave visible to the left of the east entrance; its connecting cave is either barely or barely not visible by surfing along the water on the north part of the map (still no grass). You will have no luck trying to break down the caves the Unown reside in to get to what you can tantalizingly see.

Union Cave is very close to the Ruins of Alph, and it's possible you could see how the two might be connected (it has "union" in its name, implying some sort of connection to something else). But it doesn't change the fact that Natu and Smeargle are hidden in 12 patches of grass total in an area you have to get to via a cave that isn't where the Pokédex lists them at.

 

[Siggu]

I do love when games make pseudos available stupidly early, though. I remember grinding very hard back in the early days of SM to catch a low-level Salamence in Kala'e Bay. And of course you can pick up a Deino right afterwards in Ten Carat Hill. Alola was so crazy for Pokemon availability.

Not to mention that pseudo-legendaries generally... aren't that good for in-game runs.

Even the better ones tend to be plagued by their poor level-up movepool and bad experience group.

 

[Hugin]

The post-surfing water-types are always an annoyance. By definition, you have a good water on your team by then, which makes swapping a pain.

The Gen I fossils, in most games. The later gens tended to make that gen's fossils available relatively early, but they mostly locked fossils from other gens to the postgame. This makes it really hard to take an Omanyte through the game.
Kanto: Revive at Cinnabar Island, at which point you already have a flier and a surfer(and about 6 badges)
Johto: Aerodactyl is a post-game trade in GS, revival in HG/SS is post-E4 Pewter
Hoenn: The fossils aren't in RSE, they're mirage spot locked in ORAS
Sinnoh: National Dex
Unova: Nat Dex in BW, Hall of Fame in BW2
Kalos: Aerodactyl is unlocked as soon as you reach Glittering Cave, Kabuto/Omanyte are post-HoF
Alola: No Aerodactyl at all, Kabuto and Omanyte finally show up relatively early at Olivia's shop
Galar: Crown Tundra.

 

[Nokocchi]

Alola: No Aerodactyl at all, Kabuto and Omanyte finally show up relatively early at Olivia's shop

In both pairs of Alola games, there is an NPC that gives you an Aerodactyl(the Pokemon, not the Old Amber) for free. However, they are located in the Seafolk Village on the final island. As a result it has a dex entry in the Poni Island and Alola dex.

 

[LonelyGaruga]

Electabuzz in RBY is a 5% encounter rate in the Power Plant, and can be found nowhere else. Furthermore, Electabuzz is version exclusive to Red. Unlike Pokemon sporting even worse encounter/catch rates, like the already mentioned Safari Zone Normals, the Power Plant is a completely optional area requiring a backtrack to a specific corner of a Route after acquiring Surf that the player has no reason to revisit except specifically to explore it, probably after seeing it on the Map and wondering what would be hidden there. Its version counterpart, Magmar, is found in Pokemon Mansion, a required dungeon of a far greater size than the Power Plant, at an encounter rate that tops at 10%. And the worst of it is, Electabuzz is exclusively found in the same location as Zapdos, one of the most useful Pokemon in the game, so players going to the Power Plant knowing what is there are more likely to be there to acquire Zapdos, leaving Electabuzz outclassed.

For this, I nominate Electabuzz as one of the most obscure playthrough Pokemon in RBY. Version exclusive, 5% encounter rate, in an obscure optional area of the game, with no merit in intentionally using it.

 

[bdt2002]

Here’s some cool little trivia about some Pokémon worth mentioning



Chimecho is a Pokémon that comes up a lot in discussions like this, and for good reason. Other users have already posted about where to find it, but what I’ve always been more interested in is... why? Why is Chimecho like this? In other threads, I’ve stated that numerous pieces of evidence exist to suggest that Chimecho was a last-minute addition to Ruby & Sapphire’s roster, as evident by its extremely obscure availability and unique index number in the games’ files.



Wait, you can get a Gible in a Gen 5 playthrough? Well... no, you can’t. This nomination is actually very interesting since we’re looking specifically at Black & White 2 for this one since sequel games like it and the Johto titles have their story and regional PokéDexes include the postgame as well as the main story. So what exactly is the deal here? As it turns out, Gible isn’t a part of the expanded Unova PokéDex like most of the other pseudo-legendaries are. In fact, Gible’s only way of being obtained in a Gen 5 single player experience, without the use of either link trades or Poké Transfers, is by obtaining the gift Shiny one from Benga as a Black 2 version exclusive. This also makes Gen 5 Gible the only Pokémon in history who can ONLY be obtained as a Shiny Pokémon at first given a single player experience. That definitely counts as elusive in my book, and is also part of why I prefer Black 2 over White 2.



I still remember when reports about underlevelled Salamence in Sun & Moon took the fanbase by storm in late 2016. Getting a Pokémon like Bagon as early as the first of four islands was already interesting enough given its 1% encounter rate in certain tall grass areas. Turns out the rabbit hole didn’t stop there, because people soon figured out that Bagon itself could, like many Pokémon, utilize the SOS call mechanic. This already-rare Pokémon had a further 1% chance to call in a massively underlevelled Salamence for seemingly no reason. The idea of making such a strong Pokémon available so early on in the game hidden behind what was essentially a 1 in 10,000 chance encounter had to have been intentional as a sort of hidden reward for lucky players, and other rare SOS calls actually support this hypothesis. In the postgame of Sun & Moon, a very similar occurrence can happen with Dratini and its evolution line, for example.



I’ll keep this one brief because the details are incredibly similar to Salamence. In the Ultra versions of Sun & Moon, there was a second Pokémon in the regional PokéDex who got this same kind of treatment, being Larvesta. This 1% encounter also has a 1% chance of calling in an underlevelled Volcarona. Not much Elesa to say here that I haven’t already said in Salamence’s section except that Volcarona is exclusive to the Ultra versions whereas the Salamence example is in every Alola game.

 

[Codraroll]

Thank you all for leaving a really notable example untouched for me:

Most Ice-types, most games.

For whatever reason, Game Freak has decided that Ice-types belong to a snowy, cold area around the seventh Gym. Rare examples can be encountered a little earlier, but you're usually 5-6 Gyms into the game before you get an option to use any Ice-type at all. By then, your team slots tend to be filled up, and you're not likely to want to swap out any of your 'mons for a slow-as-molasses creature with a bajillion weaknesses and severe movepool issues.

The rarity, or perhaps "lateness", of Ice-types can be illustrated with how much of a pain they are to evolve, should you choose to trade them over earlier. The earliest Ice-type to evolve by level-up is Smoochum, which evolves at level 30. Others require convoluted trades, proximity to icy rocks (usually found around the seventh Gym or later), rare Ice Stones, random weather, or the like. Trying to use an Ice-type on your team for the majority of any game is a quite futile endeavour. You have to trade to make it work most of the time, and even if you do, what you get in return is hardly worth the effort.

 

[Lightchao42]

Skiddo and Gogoat might be the kings of this thread. They haven't been available since X and Y, which are also the only games they're available in. Skiddo is catchable in one route, Kalos Route 5, meaning it's only available in one place in the entire series! Skiddo isn't terribly common in that route either, with a 10% encounter rate in grass and 30% in purple flowers. Gogoat doesn't fare much better, being Friend Safari exclusive.

While not as glaring as Skiddo and Gogoat, there are some other cases of Kalos Pokémon was sporadic availability:

Scatterbug has only ever been catchable in Kalos Route 2, Santalune Forest, and through Island Scan in USUM. Spewpa is only catchable on Berry trees in Kalos and Vivillon is also Friend Safari exclusive.

While starters tend to not be readily available, the Kalos starters are similarly only available in XY and through Island Scan in USUM (Ash-Greninja aside, which doesn't help with Froakie and Frogadier since it can't breed).

The Litleo and Flabébé lines and Furfrou are also only available in XY and USUM, but they don't require Island Scan like Scatterbug and the starters do.

And lastly, there are a few lines that only appear in XY and SwSh, though at least none of them require the expansion pass to obtain.

 

[R_N]

I'm pretty lenient on the gen 6 crew. Like there's just not been many games to be in and of the 4 ""normal"" (Let's Go & BDSP & LA are basically their own kettle of fish in regards to dex even with regard to Dexit) games since XY (ORAS, SM, USUM, SWSH) they're in 2-3 of them

Though Gogoat is definitely slowly but surely approaching Glameow levels. One thing to miss out on ORAS but missing both Alola titles and SWSH...gettin' pretty tight here.

 

[Hugin]

Thank you all for leaving a really notable example untouched for me:

Most Ice-types, most games.

For whatever reason, Game Freak has decided that Ice-types belong to a snowy, cold area around the seventh Gym. Rare examples can be encountered a little earlier, but you're usually 5-6 Gyms into the game before you get an option to use any Ice-type at all. By then, your team slots tend to be filled up, and you're not likely to want to swap out any of your 'mons for a slow-as-molasses creature with a bajillion weaknesses and severe movepool issues.

The rarity, or perhaps "lateness", of Ice-types can be illustrated with how much of a pain they are to evolve, should you choose to trade them over earlier. The earliest Ice-type to evolve by level-up is Smoochum, which evolves at level 30. Others require convoluted trades, proximity to icy rocks (usually found around the seventh Gym or later), rare Ice Stones, random weather, or the like. Trying to use an Ice-type on your team for the majority of any game is a quite futile endeavour. You have to trade to make it work most of the time, and even if you do, what you get in return is hardly worth the effort.

I've said it before, special shout-out to SWSH's Ice Stone, which is post-surf. Almost all other evo stones are pre-Gym 1, and even Dusk and Shiny stone are earlier than Ice. If you want a Glaceon(as I did), you'd better prepare to spend a LOT of Watts at the Dig Bros.

 

[PokePoindexter]

Delibird isn't exactly the most optimal mon to use in most games it appears in, but BW2 takes this to the next level. Its highest encounter rate is only 5%, doesn't show up until after the seventh badge, and no NPC uses it. I wouldn't fault you if you never even knew it was in those games to begin with until now.

 

[Plague von Karma]

I talked about this before, but finding a Remoraid in Gold and Silver is a nightmare. To obtain one, you need to specifically fish it up with a Super Rod on Route 44, in which it's a 10% encounter. Where do you get a Super Rod? Route 12. In Kanto. Now, there is one way around this, and it's equally obscure: if you get Fisher Wilton's number on Route 44, you can trigger a Remoraid swarm that way instead. If you don't know about this or don't know the Daylight Saving Time exploit, then getting a Remoraid in any reasonable capacity is just impossible. I don't know why it's like this when Remoraid evolves at L25, while its only reasonable encounter is at L40. Oh, and Crystal just removed Remoraid from the game, you can't get it without trading. It's a shame, as Octillery is one of the most interesting Pokemon to use in GSC in general...


I also talked about this one, because my goodness does it make me rack my brain. Slugma is only obtainable on the Kanto Cycling Road 5% of the time in Gold and Silver, at around L28, where your team is probably double that. This is despite the Burned Tower, Mt. Mortar, Dark Cave, and other Fire-type havens clearly being better places for it to exist. Additionally, because of when you obtain it, Slugma also has the gall to demand you level it up 10 times to evolve it. I don't think many people would even identify Slugma as a GSC Pokemon without Blaine leading off with Magcargo, in which it dies the next turn. In a fashion I will simply call a Remoraid moment, Game Freak saw Slugma's existence as an affront to humanity, and changed it to only appear in the day in Crystal. There wasn't even any good compensation here bar making Murkrow appear more often at night, they just up and did it. Luckily, it sucks, so nobody cares.


Sunkern is a strange one, only being obtainable in the daytime in either the National Park (25%) or Route 24 in Kanto (30%). Now we're all familiar with this Pokemon being aggressively, almost offensively garbage, so I suppose it's obscure on that front as well. I'm not sure why they went and made this Pokemon time-restricted given it was prominently marketed and the Sun Stone is available right when you find it.

Curiously, all of these were made Shadow Pokemon in ADV, and all in Pyrite Town in Colosseum. Perhaps this was an apology?

 

[R_N]

I agree Remoraid is a pain but I wouldn't call the Swarm encounter "obscure". Just about every guide listed out the 6 swarm Pokemon. The unusual thing about Remoraid (& Qwilfish) is they gave you the Super Rod's 10% encounter as a super late game "out" to dealing with the swarm mechanic. Snubbull and such weren't as lucky, at best being available as a 1% encounter.
Sunkern is probably day-only in reference to it [evolving into] a sun flower. Day time is its whole shtick.


Now you want needlessly obscure, needlessly elusive Johto swarm Pokemon I'm gonna go with GS Marill. Despite it's ridiculous marketing (Snubbull was in the same boat) it's only available in Mt Mortar (for some reason), which is an optional area to begin with iirc, as a swarm encounter. And the associated NPC for this is on Route 45, after Blackthorn; Mt Mortar is Route 42.
The usual thing with swarms is the NPC who tells you about them is on the same route they're available, the only other exception is Dunsparce (Dark Cave) and mechanically that's the introduction to swarms (he's the only trainer on the route out of union cave) and can be seen as a way of avoiding dealing with a tiny dark cave that happens to have a rare pokemon in it since yo ucan at least encounter it later.

So you got this swarm pokemon you cant even really game the system for until you're at the 8th gym, and on top of it all Marill is just bad.

Gamefreak basically spent every game after this "making up" for it. It is now a 5-20% encounter...at Night??? In Crystal, it's an obscenely common encounter in Hoenn, it's relatively common any other time it shows up in a dex after that, Gen 3 gave it Huge Power, Gen 4's physical split gave it more tools to use that power, Gen 6 gave it fairy typing, etc

 

[CPU]

I do like how the player's guide mentions that Marill is found on the land part of Mt. Mortar. Kind of a necessary specification, since water is a large part of the map and there aren't any other Water-types to be found on the land part of the map unlike someplace like Whirl Islands. It's also only found in the entrance level; hope you didn't go deeper expecting to get a higher encounter rate!

 

[DreamPrince]

Most Ice-types, most games.

For whatever reason, Game Freak has decided that Ice-types belong to a snowy, cold area around the seventh Gym. Rare examples can be encountered a little earlier, but you're usually 5-6 Gyms into the game before you get an option to use any Ice-type at all. By then, your team slots tend to be filled up, and you're not likely to want to swap out any of your 'mons for a slow-as-molasses creature with a bajillion weaknesses and severe movepool issues.

The rarity, or perhaps "lateness", of Ice-types can be illustrated with how much of a pain they are to evolve, should you choose to trade them over earlier. The earliest Ice-type to evolve by level-up is Smoochum, which evolves at level 30. Others require convoluted trades, proximity to icy rocks (usually found around the seventh Gym or later), rare Ice Stones, random weather, or the like. Trying to use an Ice-type on your team for the majority of any game is a quite futile endeavour. You have to trade to make it work most of the time, and even if you do, what you get in return is hardly worth the effort.

I've always wondered if this more like an RPG thing rather than a Pokemon thing. In many other games, snow based area tend to be later in the game rather than earlier. Makes sense when you think of it from a real life perspective, tundras and taigas are some of the harshest and coldest places on the planet, and the animals that live there have special adaptions to thrive. You can't just walk in there unprepared or you will freeze to death. So that's probably why snow areas tend to be later in the game, to reflect the real life ecosystem.

Anyway, Amaura also exists in XY as an early game Ice-type. While its defensive typing is terrible and evolves late, it gets Refrigerate boosted Take Down and Bolt Beam once you obtained the Thunderbolt TM from Clemont, so its pretty good offensively.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Now you want needlessly obscure, needlessly elusive Johto swarm Pokemon I'm gonna go with GS Marill. Despite it's ridiculous marketing (Snubbull was in the same boat) it's only available in Mt Mortar (for some reason), which is an optional area to begin with iirc, as a swarm encounter. And the associated NPC for this is on Route 45, after Blackthorn; Mt Mortar is Route 42.

See I can understand making Snubbull and Marill painfully rare despite their overmarketing. In fact, it's probably because of that overmarketing that they're a pain to find.

Look no further than Pikachu, the series mascot, for this treatment. Where is it available in RB? In Viridian Forest... at a 5% rate. Or the Power Plant, much later in the game and at levels generally far below the other, better Electric types. Game Freak almost certainly anticipated it being popular so made it elusive. (Obviously Yellow made it a starter but the point stands; in fact Pikachu is relatively uncommon in the vast majority of titles in the series.) Other examples which spring to mind are Ralts, Munchlax, Axew, Zoroark (...okay Zoroark is this concept taken to a ridiculous extreme so not Zoroark).

This thinking doesn't explain why those species that weren't hyper-promoted like Slugma and Remoraid were made so rare, but that's more a problem with GSC, which takes the whole "secret rare" thing into overdrive. There are only a handful of Johto Pokemon that are out-and-out easy to get in GSC/HGSS (though the Pokewalker compensates in the latter case).

 

[DreamPrince]

Look no further than Pikachu, the series mascot, for this treatment. Where is it available in RB? In Viridian Forest... at a 5% rate. Or the Power Plant, much later in the game and at levels generally far below the other, better Electric types. Game Freak almost certainly anticipated it being popular so made it elusive. (Obviously Yellow made it a starter but the point stands; in fact Pikachu is relatively uncommon in the vast majority of titles in the series.) Other examples which spring to mind are Ralts, Munchlax, Axew, Zoroark (...okay Zoroark is this concept taken to a ridiculous extreme so not Zoroark).

Didn't the games come before the anime though?

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Didn't the games come before the anime though?

The anime came out around a year after the games did, yeah - they would have been planning it for some months before that, though.

It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario, I think. Pikachu wasn't the mascot originally, though it was deliberately designed to be uncommon: “One of the planners saw Pikachu and was like, ’This is a really cute Pokemon. Maybe it’s not a good idea to have it be a really common Pokémon in the game.’ It was almost certainly that rarity that made it popular and contributed to it becoming the eventual mascot. I don't think they would have chosen a commonplace Pokemon to be the mascot. Nowadays, marketability definitely plays a part in which Pokemon are rare in the games.

 

[R_N]

The anime came out around a year after the games did, yeah - they would have been planning it for some months before that, though.

It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario, I think. Pikachu wasn't the mascot originally, though it was deliberately designed to be uncommon: “One of the planners saw Pikachu and was like, ’This is a really cute Pokemon. Maybe it’s not a good idea to have it be a really common Pokémon in the game.’ It was almost certainly that rarity that made it popular and contributed to it becoming the eventual mascot. I don't think they would have chosen a commonplace Pokemon to be the mascot. Nowadays, marketability definitely plays a part in which Pokemon are rare in the games.

Where is my swaths of Dhelmise merchandise, tpc

 

[pharaohcalvin]

I talked about this before, but finding a Remoraid in Gold and Silver is a nightmare. To obtain one, you need to specifically fish it up with a Super Rod on Route 44, in which it's a 10% encounter. Where do you get a Super Rod? Route 12. In Kanto. Now, there is one way around this, and it's equally obscure: if you get Fisher Wilton's number on Route 44, you can trigger a Remoraid swarm that way instead. If you don't know about this or don't know the Daylight Saving Time exploit, then getting a Remoraid in any reasonable capacity is just impossible. I don't know why it's like this when Remoraid evolves at L25, while its only reasonable encounter is at L40. Oh, and Crystal just removed Remoraid from the game, you can't get it without trading. It's a shame, as Octillery is one of the most interesting Pokemon to use in GSC in general...


I also talked about this one, because my goodness does it make me rack my brain. Slugma is only obtainable on the Kanto Cycling Road 5% of the time in Gold and Silver, at around L28, where your team is probably double that. This is despite the Burned Tower, Mt. Mortar, Dark Cave, and other Fire-type havens clearly being better places for it to exist. Additionally, because of when you obtain it, Slugma also has the gall to demand you level it up 10 times to evolve it. I don't think many people would even identify Slugma as a GSC Pokemon without Blaine leading off with Magcargo, in which it dies the next turn. In a fashion I will simply call a Remoraid moment, Game Freak saw Slugma's existence as an affront to humanity, and changed it to only appear in the day in Crystal. There wasn't even any good compensation here bar making Murkrow appear more often at night, they just up and did it. Luckily, it sucks, so nobody cares.


Sunkern is a strange one, only being obtainable in the daytime in either the National Park (25%) or Route 24 in Kanto (30%). Now we're all familiar with this Pokemon being aggressively, almost offensively garbage, so I suppose it's obscure on that front as well. I'm not sure why they went and made this Pokemon time-restricted given it was prominently marketed and the Sun Stone is available right when you find it.

Curiously, all of these were made Shadow Pokemon in ADV, and all in Pyrite Town in Colosseum. Perhaps this was an apology?

Sunflora got no love in Colosseum. It does not come in Pyrite Town, it comes in Realgam Tower . The last part of the main story at lvl 45.

 

[Codraroll]

I've always wondered if this more like an RPG thing rather than a Pokemon thing. In many other games, snow based area tend to be later in the game rather than earlier. Makes sense when you think of it from a real life perspective, tundras and taigas are some of the harshest and coldest places on the planet, and the animals that live there have special adaptions to thrive. You can't just walk in there unprepared or you will freeze to death. So that's probably why snow areas tend to be later in the game, to reflect the real life ecosystem.

That could be a quite plausible explanation, indeed.

Still ... several games take you to undersea caves or inside active volcanoes before you get to any icy areas. Active mines, factories, criminal lairs, or faulty powerplants are also places the games like to send you long before you see any snow. It shouldn't be too much to ask for one snowy early-game area once, or just an Ice-type living in regular grass like other elemental creatures do. You usually don't have to go to a volcano to catch Numel or a powerplant to find Magnemite, so it's kinda strange that 'mons like Swinub or Vanillite are so gosh-darn dependent on being restricted to the icy area.

 

[Preved Medved]

Thank you all for leaving a really notable example untouched for me:

Most Ice-types, most games.

But the one that takes the cake for me is Weavile.Hard and late to find,requires a rare evolution item and its level-up movepool sucks,so you have to breed to get an Ice type move with usable power.

 

[aegon the unlikely]

Heracross for Nuzlockes of GSC. Keep running away and breaking out of every Poke Ball (or higher) I throw at them...even when asleep.

Out of multiple (like a dozen or more) Nuzlocke attempts, I only captured a Heracross ONCE.

That could be a quite plausible explanation, indeed.

Still ... several games take you to undersea caves or inside active volcanoes before you get to any icy areas. Active mines, factories, criminal lairs, or faulty powerplants are also places the games like to send you long before you see any snow. It shouldn't be too much to ask for one snowy early-game area once, or just an Ice-type living in regular grass like other elemental creatures do. You usually don't have to go to a volcano to catch Numel or a powerplant to find Magnemite, so it's kinda strange that 'mons like Swinub or Vanillite are so gosh-darn dependent on being restricted to the icy area.

Definitely believe a game starting with or near icy or snowy areas would actually be pretty cool (no pun intended).

Tbf Numel is found adjacent to volcanoes and Magnemite adjacent to urban areas, so Ice-types should live in cold areas at the very least.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Definitely believe a game starting with or near icy or snowy areas would actually be pretty cool (no pun intended).

Platinum really dropped the ball on this IMO. They made such a big deal out of "OMG Sinnoh has snow everywhere now!!!!!" in the prerelease and it ended up... affecting nothing and only showed up on a few routes in the early game. I don't think any of the routes after Floaroma have added snow iirc.

They shook up Pokemon distribution but pretty much all the added Ice types were confined to Route 216/217. We could have had Ice-types appearing on other routes but nah. Nothing. IIRC Platinum added more Fire-types to Sinnoh than Ice-types.

 

[Cheryl.]

Mantine (gen 2)

I've already talked a bit about Mantine being a relatively obscure mon in general, but I'd really like to highlight how Gen 2's trend of making their own generation's mons unnecessarily rare also affected Mantine. In Johto, Mantine is only found in Gold, Crystal, and Heart Gold, needing to be traded for the Silver versions. It is only found in one singular route, that being Route 41. It's luckily a fair bit better than the 1% mons featured in this thread, being at a gracious 10% through Surfing!! The issue with this, is that by being on Route 41, you already have a mon that can use Surf, likely a Water type. And on top of that, you're probably so annoyed with the constant Tentacool encounters that you've blasted your Repel for the entire route as you make it to Cianwood. You'd have to be seriously lucky to find this thing on your first venture through Route 41, and it's available nowhere else in the game. As far as I know, I don't think any NPCs use Mantine either, at least in the original GSC. (It may have been changed in HGSS). So yeah, redundant Water type that's version-exclusive, in one route only, and is a bit rare on top of that. Johto's work at it's finest.