Item

Items are objects that can be kept by the player and other characters in the Pokémon franchise. They first appear in Generation I.

Description

Obtaining

Purchasing

Most times, items can be bought at Poké Marts for a certain amount of Pokémon Dollars, with the price varying per item but remaining consistent in all shops. Items can also be sold, although at a price always lower than the purchase price, generally for exactly half the purchase price. As the player obtains more Gym Badges, more items are quietly added to Poké Marts, such as Great Balls and Hyper Potions. Every region except Kalos has a department store with a much larger variety of items for sale, including items that cannot be bought from a standard Poké Mart. Poké Marts and department store never have any shortage in stock, and the only limit is how many items the player can carry.

In battle facilities, there are items that can be bought using BP, such as in-battle effect items and evolution items.

Overworld

Items can be found on the overworld, but the number of them depends on the location. They are located inside of item balls, which look exactly like Poké Balls, but it does not necessarily mean its content is a Poké Ball. From Generation VI onward, TMs and HMs are represented by item balls with an upper gold half instead, allowing them to stand out. An item can be picked up by standing next to the item ball, facing it, and pressing the A button. Afterward, the item is sent to the Bag unless it is full, but this usually does not occur from Generation IV onward. Once the item is collected, it cannot respawn where it was collected.

There are hidden items, and their name comes from the fact that they are not visible on the map. Regardless, a hidden item can be picked up like other items if the player knows their exact placement and which direction to face them from. Certain equipment such as the Item Finder or the Dowsing Machine can help the player find hidden items.

It can be useful to talk to non-playable characters throughout, since some of them give away an item.

Pokémon

Pokémon can sometimes find items themselves, usually if they have Pickup as an Ability, in which case they sometimes obtain items from the ground. In battle, if a Pokémon knows how to use the move Covet or Thief, they can use it to steal an item held by the opposing Pokémon, if it has one. Some wild Pokémon have a held item equipped, so if the player catches it, they obtain the item in addition to the Pokémon.

Storage

Items are stored mainly inside of the player's Bag. While items were originally stored in only one compartment, it has a few pockets from Generation II onward to better organize the items, such as a pocket for TMs and HMs, one Poké Balls, and one for key items. The maximum capacity of the Bag is also increased from

The PC is another way to store items, especially in older generations, in which the Bag cannot hold as many items. A PC has only one compartment for storing a limited number of items. Unlike their Bag, the player cannot use items from their PC directly, but they can only either deposit items from their Bag into their PC or vice versa, or throw the items away. The PC first becomes accessible in the player's room, but it can also be accessed from any Pokémon Center or any building with a PC.

When identical items are stored together, they are grouped together in one slot to avoid the redundancy of being listed more than once, and there is a number that shows the number of that specific item in storage. The player can group up to 99 of a type of item. Two or more of the same item are moved in groups between the Bag and the PC or from buying and selling in shops, and the player can choose how many units of each item to either move, buy, or sell.

From Generation IV onward, the maximum number of items in the Bag is increased to 999, greatly reducing the necessity of a PC. Additionally, games from Generation IV onward do not allow the player to trade a held item over with its Pokémon.

Usage

To use an item outside of a battle, the player must open the menu, select "Bag," and then the item inside of it. The player can either use the item directly or give it to the Pokémon to hold.

In battle, one of the player's options each turn is to use an item. Only certain items are usable in battle, especially battle items, which are intended specifically to be used in battle. However, the most common items used in battle are healing items, for restoring a Pokémon's HP or a status condition of theirs. Poké Balls are a type of item designed to be used specifically during wild Pokémon encounters.

Items that can be equipped to a Pokémon are known as held items, but some can be used on a Pokémon directly. The effect of a held item depends on the type of item, such as how some boost a statistic, some cure a status effect, and some restore HP. Some items cannot be used by the Pokémon holding it, particularly man-made healing items. There are a few types of items that are only function when held by a Pokémon: Mail, which can send a letter to a player when trading it over; Mega Stones, which allow certain Pokémon to become their Mega Evolution if held; and Z-Crystals, which allows the holder to use Z-Moves if it knows a move of its corresponding type.

Many items have an effect on the progress of the game, especially key items, such as the Running Shoes and Bicycle allowing the player to travel the overworld more easily. HMs enable the player to overcome an obstacle on the field, if they have a Pokémon that can use the move. Similarly, there are event items that allow the player to access a location with a Mythical Pokémon. A key item can be assigned to the Select button (Y button from Generation IV onward), such as a Bicycle; this way, pressing the button on the overworld activates the item, meaning the player no longer has to use it from the Bag directly.

Types

Items are classified by different types within the Bag, particularly for their function or purpose.

Items

The Items pocket, redefined as Other Items since Generation VIII, is for regular items within any of the following groups:

• Evolution item: Certain Pokémon require an evolution item to evolve: Some evolve by giving it an evolution item to hold and then trading it to another player. An Evolutionary Stone has to be used on some other Pokémon, evolving it instantly.
• Boosting item: These items can be equipped to a Pokémon to improve one of its statistics. Examples include Plates and type-enhancing items, the latter applying only to a specific type.
• Repels: These keep away wild Pokémon at lower levels than the Pokémon in the first slot of the player's party, but they wear off after a number of steps.
• Fossils: Objects with the genetics of an ancient Pokémon that can be revived when taken to a certain Scientist.
• Scarfs: Clothing items that can enhance any one of the five conditions of a Pokémon: Tough, Clever, Beautiful, Cool, and Cute.
• Incenses: They have a variety of uses, much like regular items in general, but what stands out with Incenses is that when held by certain Pokémon, they can breed certain baby Pokémon that they are unable to otherwise.
• Mulch: They are used to alter the growth conditions of a Berry, such making it grow faster or slower.
• Shards: Colored fragments that can often be exchanged for Evolutionary Stones or a set of three Berries.
• Valuable items: Items that can be sold for a lot of Pokémon Dollars but have no use otherwise.

Medicine

The Medicine pocket, organized separately from Items pocket since Generation IV, consists of items that can heal a Pokémon.

• Healing items: Items that can be used to restore a Pokémon's HP, one of their move's PP, or a status condition.
  • Potions: Essential items that restore a Pokémon's HP, either partly or fully, and they are often necessary to prevent a Pokémon from fainting upon losing all of its HP.
  • Herbal medicine: Cheap items from Herb Shops that either cure a status condition or a Pokémon's HP, but at the cost of a Pokémon's friendship level decreasing.
  • Drinks: Another alternative to potions: drinks that restore health.
  • Status-restoring item: Cures a status condition, which puts a Pokémon at a disadvantage in battle.
  • Ethers and Elixirs: They can restore the PP of one of a Pokémon's moves.
• Vitamins: Nutritional drinks that increase a Pokémon's Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, or Speed.

Battle items

This pocket contains items designed particularly for use in battles. There are two types:

• Battle items: Increases one of a Pokémon's statistics for the remainder of battle.
• Flutes: Items produced in the Glass Workshop, exclusively in Hoenn, that can either cure a status condition or help with catching Pokémon.

Poké Balls

This pocket stores different types of Poké Balls, which are used to capture Pokémon.

TMs & HMs

A pocket that contains TMs and HMs, both of which teach a certain move to a Pokémon. TMs are usable only once, whilst HMs can be used on an unlimited number of Pokémon.

Berries

A pocket that stores Berries, which can be used to make Poffins or Pokéblocks. They can also be fed to Pokémon, having a variety of effects, but mostly to restore HP or cure a status condition. A Pokémon holding a Berry can use it in battle arbitrarily.

Mail

This pocket stores Mail, a type of held item where the player can add a message, give it to a Pokémon to hold, and later trade not only the Pokémon but also the message it is holding for the recipient to read. Only unused Mail is stored in the Bag, while used Mail is stored on the PC.

Key items

This pocket has key items, a unique type of item usually obtained from other character. Most of them are required to complete the game, meaning that they cannot be thrown away or held by a Pokémon, and therefore cannot be traded. Some key items have to be given to a non-playable character.

• Keys: They are used to unlock access to various locations.
• Fishing rods: The player uses them to go fishing for Pokémon encountered in a body of water before battling them.
• Bicycles: Riding one enables the player to travel around faster. Bicycles have two models or two driving modes: one focus on speed and the other on traversing steep slopes.
• Squirt Bottles: They are used to water plants that grow berries.
• Cards: They contain specific data involving the player's journey and their accomplishments.

Miscellaneous

Some items are defined based on what they have in common, not their function or purpose. For one, Vitamins, Berries, Food, and Drinks are classifiable as consumable items because they can be ingested by a Pokémon, while signature items are defined for being usable only on one species of Pokémon.

Appearances

Core series

Generation I

In Pokémon Red Version and Pokémon Blue Version and Pokémon Yellow Special Pikachu Edition, up to twenty items are listed in the Bag, each with a maximum quantity of 99. Items are stored only in a one compartment of the Bag, which has a very limited capacity. There is no fixed sorting order, but it is possible to sort the items manually. Because of its limitation, the Bag must be emptied regularly, and the PC offers the option of storing items indefinitely.

Generation II

Pokémon Gold Version and Pokémon Silver Version are the first games to store items in differently labeled pockets of the player's Bag as well as allow a Pokémon to hold an item. They are also the first core games in which each item has a short description.

In Pokémon Gold Version and Pokémon Silver Version and their upper version, Pokémon Crystal Version, up to 20 different types of items can be stored in the main "Items" pocket of the player's Bag.

Generation III

In Pokémon Ruby Version and Pokémon Sapphire Version, up to twenty different items can be stored in the Bag, like in the Generation II games. In Pokémon FireRed Version and Pokémon LeafGreen Version, this was doubled to 42. In Pokémon Emerald Version, the number has been decreased to 30.

Generation IV

Since Pokémon Diamond Version and Pokémon Pearl Version, up to 999 of each item can be stored in the Bag, effectively eliminating its storage limit, and more compartments for different types of items have also been added to the bag.

In Pokémon Diamond Version and Pokémon Pearl Version and Pokémon Platinum Version, various items can be obtained by digging underground, with some of them being fossils and gems. Items are stored in a second bag while underground, so any items obtained there have to be sent to the main Bag before the player can use them.

Pokémon can pick up items in Amity Square, even if they do not have Pickup as an Ability.

Generation VI

In Pokémon X and Pokémon Y, there are natural objects in battle that can release items, which the player collects once the battle is over.

Generation VII

In Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon and Pokémon Ultra Sun and Pokémon Ultra Moon, items at the Festival Plaza can be bought with a unique type of currency, Festival Coins. Some Pokémon drop an item when defeated, similarly to enemies in several role-playing games.

If a Stoutland is used in a Poké Ride, the player has the opportunity to discover hidden items.

Spinoffs

Pokémon Colosseum / Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness

Many of the items in the core series also appear in Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, retaining the same function and purpose. Items on the overworld can be obtained from chests with a Poké Ball-like design. Some items are not in the core series, like how Pokémon Colosseum is the only game in which a Time Flute appears. Both games feature Poké Coupons, which can be exchanged for items, with some being obtainable only through this method.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series

In the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series, some of the main types of items include Seeds, Wonder Orbs, and Ribbons, but some are still retained from the core series, such as TMs and Berries. Items on the field are depicted with their actual appearance and not represented by a Poké Ball icon, unlike in the core series.

Many of the items are different than in the core series. Nevertheless, most of them function identically to their counterpart in the core series, such as a Reviver Seed and Revive both having the ability to revitalize a fainted Pokémon so that it can continue to participate in battle. Certain items like the Wonder Orbs do not have an item with a comparable effect in the core series.

Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon introduces two types of items, Emeras and Wands. When an Emera is attached to a ring, it provides an additional effect to the Pokémon wearing it, but as items, they can permanently increase a certain statistic of a Pokémon. Wands are similar to Wonder Orbs except the difference is that they usually affect only one Pokémon. The game also introduces Djinn's Bottle, which can be used once to summon Hoopa, who then assists the player for the remainder of the floor.

Pokémon GO

More information about Item can be read on the Pokémon GO Wiki.

In Pokémon GO, the player can receive items at PokéStops, usually Poké Balls, but it is also possible for them to receive a Potion or its upgrades, a Revive or Max Revive, a few Berries, or either a Great Ball or Ultra Ball.

The game has a Shop where the player can purchase items with PokéCoins. Some of the purchasable items are not in the core series, including Lure Modules, which attract wild Pokémon to the player at a PokéStop, and Egg Incubators, which are required to hatch Pokémon Eggs. Besides Poké Balls, some other purchasable items from the core series include Lucky Eggs, which double the player's XP for the next half hour, and Incenses, which has a much different function than in the core series of increasing the rate of wild Pokémon encounters for an hour.

Pokémon UNITE

In Pokémon UNITE, there are only two types of items, Held Items and Battle Items, both having a self-explanatory purpose. Unlike the core series, a Pokémon may have up to three Held Items equipped at once, but the player still has to unlock the two additional item slots at Trainer levels 7 and 10 respectively. Contrarily, a Pokémon can hold only one Battle Item at a time.

There are Item Enhancers usable only on Held Items to increase their grade; each time its grade reaches a multiple of ten—10, 20, and 30—its main effect is increased. A grade cannot go beyond 30.

Anime

Items also appear in Pokémon the Series but seldomly have a major role in the episodes. Potions are often used to heal Pokémon, while Berries are commonly used to make food for Pokémon, such as Pokéblocks and Poffins. Brock, Cilan, and Clemont have used healing items whenever one of the protagonists' Pokémon is sick. Ash and his friends have occasionally borrowed Bicycles to use for quicker transportation. Evolutionary Stones have also appeared, and Ash's Pikachu has notably refused a Thunder Stone that evolves it into Raichu. Poké Balls retain their usual role of being used to catch Pokémon, but variations of them do not often appear like in the games.

Items also play a special role in Mega Evolution, because a Pokémon is required to have a Mega Stone and its trainer a Key Stone in order to Mega Evolve. A Mega Stone is carried around by various Pokémon Trainer on their travels, such as Alain, Sawyer, and Korrina. The first time a Mega Stone and a Key Stone appears is in "The Bonds of Evolution!", where they play a major role.

An item plays a large role in the plot of some films. One instance in the fifth film, Pokémon Heroes, where the Soul Dew ensures that the canals of the city of Alto Mare are filled with water and that the Defense Mechanism of Alto Mare is functional. In Pokémon: Giratina & the Sky Warrior, the Gracidea plants allow Shaymin to become its Sky Forme. In Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life, there is the Jewel of Life, which is formed out of some of Arceus' sixteen plates, but when the Jewel of Life is stolen, Ash and his friends make it their goal to recover the item. In Pokémon the Movie: Black—Victini and Reshiram / White—Victini and Zekrom, the Light Stone and Dark Stone have a key role of summoning Reshiram and Zekrom, respectively. In Pokémon the Movie: Genesect and the Legend Awakened, all four of Genesect's Drives appear. In Pokémon the Movie: Hoopa and the Clash of Ages, the Prison Bottle has a major role, containing Hoopa's Unbound form.

Manga

In Pokémon Adventures, items are used by Pokémon Trainers similarly as in the core series. Like in the games, one of the most commonly used type of item is healing items. Trainers use Potions to heal a damaged Pokémon. Status-restoring items also appear, and the first time one is seen is in "The Secret of Kangaskhan", when Red uses an Antidote to heal a small Kangaskhan in its mother's pouch. Berries have sometimes appeared, like in "Miltank Melee", when Eusine uses one to heal a Miltank. Unlike the anime, a Max Revive has also appeared, particularly in "Up in the Air", when Skyla uses it to restore a defeated Pidove.

Fossils have been used to resurrect ancient Pokémon, which first occurs in "Holy Moltres", when Red uses an Old Amber on an Aerodactyl, which becomes his Pokémon henceforth. Evolutionary Stones also make an appearance, as well as an unique a legend of a few appearing in an underwater dome at the bottom of Vermilion Harbor, which is first told to Yellow in "The Kindest Tentacruel".

Evolution items have had a role, like in "Ampharos Amore", when a King's Rock is used to evolve Polibo into a Politoed, or in "Dealing With A Koffing Fit", when when a Razor Claw is used to evolve Silver's Sneasel into a Weavile. When Mega Stones were introduced in the X & Y Chapter, certain Pokémon have been given them to wear and Mega Evolve as necessary.

Held items have also had a role, such as in "The Last Battle IV", when each of the Legendary Beasts were given a held item to strengthen their moves. In "Yikes, Yanmega! II", an evolution item, the Protector, is used by Kit as a held item to protect itself from the sound waves of Mars' Yanmega, but not to evolve.

Poké Balls have appeared in a variety of different designs. The regular type is used by trainers the most often, as usual, but stronger trainers tend to store their Pokémon in more advanced Poké Balls, such as the Gym Leaders keeping theirs in Great Balls or the Elite Four and Pokémon Champion keeping theirs in Ultra Balls.

HMs have been used to teach Pokémon new moves, like in the core series, though TMs have only been mentioned.

Key items are often used by the Pokédex Holders. Some of them use Bicycles to travel around, and Fishing Rods have been used to catch Pokémon in the water. Some trainers have used tickets, such as the Tri-Pass, to explore new locations. Some key items have a large role in a plot, done in a similar manner to the Pokémon films, such as the Red Orb and Blue Orb in the Ruby & Sapphire Chapter or the Light Stone and Dark Stone in the Black & White Chapter.

Trading Card Game

In the Pokémon Trading Card Game, items are used in the form of item cards, some of which are items from the core series, such as Potions and Revives. A major difference from the core series is that the player use as many item cards as they desire before using a move.

See also

• List of Items