5 secrets Pokemon games don't tell you about

Pokemon games are known for being simple to pick up, but being surprisingly deep for hardcore players. While most casual players can get by with the information provided by in-game tutorials, each mainline entry has in-depth mechanics that go far beyond what these fans might expect, and the games do very little to convey this information to the player.

While these aspects have been far more apparent in recent entries, the franchise is known for the secret mechanics in features across many main titles. Here are five things Pokemon games hide from the average player.

Note: Some aspects of this article are subjective and solely rely on the writer's opinion.

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5 hidden details Pokemon games hide from players

1) Effort Values

Effort Values boost your Pokemon's stats depending on the creatures they take down (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Effort Values are hidden points every Pokemon earns whenever it defeats another creature in battle. Each creature in the franchise is assigned a value and type of points they distribute every time they are defeated, but this information is never available in the games themselves.

NPCs hint at this mechanic by mentioning a Pokemon's "effort", with some giving these creatures special ribbons once they obtain their maximum amount of Effort Values. The vitamin line of items like Protein and Calcium also provides these points. 252 of these points can be assigned in a given stat, with the highest amount of Effort Values a single creature can have being locked at 510.

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2) Individual Values

Individual Values are different for every Pokemon, also playing a part in determining their stats (Image via The Pokemon Company)

When NPCs say every Pokemon is unique, it is easy to write it off as the typical "everybody is special" type of motivational dialogue one would expect to see in a game for younger audiences. However, they mean this literally, as Individual Values exist in the Pokemon games. Much like Effort Values, Individual Values help determine a Pokemon's stats.

Rather than being points players accumulate, creatures are either born or generated with set Individual Values, with 31 being the max value a creature can have in each of their main stats. The exact amount of Individual Values a creature has is never stated in-game, only being rated on a scale of "No Good" to "Best".

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3) Breeding Groups

The Day Care is a center many Pokemon use for breeding, but which Pokemon can breed depends on hidden Egg Groups (Image via The Pokemon Company)

The Pokemon Day Care or Nursery is something every player is exposed to briefly in their playthrough with most main series titles, but the inner mechanics are never openly explained to the casual playerbase. What some casual players may not know is that whether two creatures are compatible is determined by their species' hidden Egg Group.

What these Egg Groups are called, and the creatures within them, are never explained to trainers in the games themselves. The only indicator will be two creatures getting along in the Day Care. This can be checked by talking to a staff member outside of these locations. They will disclose whether the two creatures like each other.

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4) Pokerus

Pokerus is a hidden virus Pokemon can contract to increase the growth of their Effort Values (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Pokerus is a hidden mechanic that has been in every mainline game since the second generation of the franchise. This virus is rarer than a Shiny Pokemon and is caught by battling a wild Pokemon that already has the virus. While the player does get a brief explanation of the virus after visiting a Pokemon Center when their creatures contract it, very little information is provided about it beforehand.

Pokerus doubles the amount of Effort Values a Pokemon receives from combat, and with accumulating Effort Values being made easier with each passing generation, Pokerus is more of a cool thing rather than something practical for building competitive Pokemon.

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5) Ability interactions

Certain Pokemon abilities have effects outside of battle (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Every Pokemon has an ability in the modern era of the franchise. While most of these abilities are explained in the creature's stat screen, some have special interactions outside of battle. Most notably, the Flame Body and Magma Armor abilities, which halve the walking distance required to hatch eggs.

Most of these outside-of-battle effects are either completely hidden from the player, or are only explained through one NPC tucked away in some part of the explorable map. Thankfully, third-party wiki sites typically have all the information on every one of these effects throughout the franchise's history.