The Pokémon games have over 20 years of storied history and have seen countless entries over those two decades. As such, with each new entry in the series, the games have been growing larger and larger over the years From Red and Blue to Sun and Moon, all of the games have huge maps that are riddled with optional and secret areas. While sometimes they’re relatively boring or unnecessary areas, you can sometimes also just find a surprise legendary kicking back! Or a dedicated area for a certain Pokémon that has 28 equally useless forms. Either one.
If you’re just playing through a Pokémon game casually, there is a good chance that you’ll miss some of these areas. From post-game content to lore heavy secret areas and a literal alternate dimension, here are 25 hidden areas in Pokémon you might miss on a casual playthrough. Let us know in the comments if you’re finding out about any of these areas for the first time, or any areas we might have missed. Enjoy!
25 Platinum: Villa
Do you remember that weird thing in Pokémon Platinum where you’re just kind of given a house from someone that you move into and bought furniture for it that could barely interact with? Because that was the villa. I don’t really know why this feature existed, but having all sorts of different NPCs visit and chat with you is a pretty neat feature. Minimum wage really stinks. Why can’t I force animals to destroy each other and then be given a resort villa for it?
24 Sun And Moon: Battle Tree
The Battle Tree in Sun and Moon is completely avoidable, since it is post-game content, and it’s boring. It is X and Y’s post-game recycled. The only great thing about the unnecessarily large tree is that is houses old characters from the Pokémon series, such as Wally (okay), Blue (yes), Red (yesyes) and Cynthia (yesyesyesyes). This nostalgia driven feature is really the only interesting factor of the tree and makes the visit worth it.
23 Black and White: Black City Or White Forest
Pokémon Black 1 and 2 and White 1 and 2 have arguably some of the largest version exclusives throughout the entire franchise, with the key difference being a version exclusive location. If you stuck with Black and Black 2, you might never know that White Forest exists in White and White 2. The reverse is the same for Black City. This is a version difference that I would love to see come back in future installments.
22 X and Y: Battle Maison
In X and Y, there was this weird castle where you could go and battle like, a royal family of some sort?
I don’t really know. It was weird.
Essentially, for every trainer that you beat in the Maison, you can rank up, before becoming the Grand Duke or Duchess. After you complete the storyline of the games, gym leaders, the elite 4 and Diantha appear as different nobles, with Diantha having level 80 Pokémon under certain conditions, the highest in the game. It’s a shame she still kind of stinks even then.
21 Emerald: Battle Frontier
A complete overhaul from the Ruby and Sapphire Battle Tower, the Battle Frontier is one of the most expansive post-game areas ever, featuring seven different battle facilities. Each of the facilities offers a different type of battle experience, including one where Pokémon battle without any input from their trainers! While this area was a blast to play through, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire actually opted to remove the area entirely. You know, because they’re terrible games.
20 Red And Blue: Kanto Power Plant
The Power Plant is never an area you need to go to in any of the 487 Kanto games that we currently have available, but it is always a worthwhile experience. That’s because it always holds Zapdos, one of Kanto’s legendary birds. Besides that, the Power Plant also features other interesting Pokémon such as Electabuzz.
Also Muk for some reason. He’s there too.
Also a bunch of Electrodes pretending to be items, which… please don’t do that.
19 Diamond and Pearl: Turnback Cave
In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, Turnback Cave was the home of the legendary Giratina, before becoming the mascot legendary of Platinum. The cave works as a maze, where each room you enter is picked randomly. If you can’t find Giratina before 30 rooms, you have to try again. The cave also features a selection of ghost Pokémon and an entrance to the Distortion World.
And the icon Chingling!
He’s welcomed anywhere in my book.
18 HeartGold And SoulSilver: Sinjoh Ruins
Situated between the Johto and Sinnoh regions, we have the Sinjoh Ruins. This event location for HeartGold and SoulSilver allows the player to get a Palkia, Dialga, or Arceus to add to their party. However, the absolute best part of this event is the lore that comes with it. I won’t spoil it, but there’s a whole heck of a lot of it that makes this event great. Ok I will spoil one little bit, Cynthia is there, so you know that it has to be great.
17 X And Y: Terminus Cave
While we had to wait until Pokémon Z for Zygarde to have a starring role (lol jk), the legendary was capturable in the X and Y optional area, Terminus Cave. This Pokémon raised many questions during the X and Y era, even with its capture being completely optional and missable. Sadly, we never got it as a mascot Pokémon and had to wait until Sun and Moon for more info on the mysterious legendary.
16 FireRed and LeafGreen: Sevii Islands
Only ever appearing in FireRed and LeafGreen, the Sevii Islands of Kanto serve as post-game content for the titles.
Each of the islands is diverse, and all feature their own side mission.
This type of post-game content is one of the best types, as it features all sorts of fun stories, lore, and Pokémon that are unobtainable in the rest of the game. Also, there are nine Sevii islands so that’s just confusing.
15 Diamond And Pearl: Battle Zone
Remember the days when the post-game of Pokémon titles weren’t just a huge tree you can battle in?
Or a mansion that’s function is the exact same as said tree?
Well, in case you thought the credits signaled the end of Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum and stopped right there… start again! The Battle Zone hosts a variety of different locations and fun secrets that we’ll be getting into a bit later into the list. In Platinum, it hosts an entire Battle Frontier! What did we do to deserve Generation Four?
14 Black And White: Anville Town
In Pokémon Black and White and BW2, you can reach the secluded and optional Anville Town by taking the Battle Subway. From there, the town has a sidequest to find a missing Pokémon, a lost and found, and visiting trainers that will trade with you. There’s not much to do in this town besides finding a few rare items, but it sure is there if you want to take a look.
13 Ruby And Sapphire: Sealed Chamber
In the Generation Three titles, the Sealed Chamber is a puzzle-oriented room that allows you to encounter the legendary titans after it is solved.
The puzzle is obtuse as heck, I mean, whoever thought that Relicanth would be relevant ever?
After the puzzle is solved, you’re able to go and hunt the Regis (the most subpar to okay Pokémon of all time) which can be found all around the Hoenn region.
12 FireRed, LeafGreen, And Emerald: Birth And Navel Island
As I mentioned earlier, there are actually nine islands featured in the Sevii islands. The final two islands, Birth and Navel Islands, are only available through Mystery Gift. These islands are home to Deoxys and Lugia and Ho-oh respectively. While the two Generation Two legendaries are easily encounterable, Deoxys requires the player to solve a puzzle before it can be encountered. Ah, remember the good old days? When events were actually fun, and not just a delivery man handing you a Pokémon.
11 Diamond And Pearl: The Underground
While there is a forced NPC conversation about this place, no one ever makes you go to The Underground in Diamond and Pearl. This experimental area was filled with things like mining minigames, hidden bases, and connectivity for nearby players. The area is certainly interesting and was never expanded upon in further generations. Also, it’s also the only way to obtain Spiritomb. Somehow I don’t see Cynthia spending enough time down here to get one herself though.
10 X And Y: Unknown Dungeon
You know what I literally just found out existed? The Unknown Dungeon in Pokémon X and Y. This cave is an homage to Cerulean Cave, as here you can catch Mewtwo and pick up a Mewtwonite in the process. How did I not know that this existed? It’s a great callback to some of the older Pokémon titles, but considering that we get those callbacks in almost every mainline game does muddle the importance a bit.
9 HeartGold And SoulSilver: Ilex Forest Shrine
While the original Gold and Silver games featured the Ilex Forest Shrine, it was purely cosmetic for fans outside of Japan, who didn’t have access to the Pokémon Mobile System. However, in HeartGold and SoulSilver, the Shrine holds two different events. One allows you to get a Spiky-eared Pikachu, and the other literally allows you to travel back in time and confirm a massive fan theory and battle one of the biggest Pokémon villains of all time. So, you know, definitely equal in impact.
8 Diamond And Pearl: Amity Square
A cute little precursor to the return of walking Pokémon in HeartGold and SoulSilver, Amity Square is an optional location to visit in the rest of the Generation Four titles. The park allows you to walk a selection of small, cute Pokémon through the park that you can interact with. They will also pick up items throughout your walk. While this was obviously expanded upon in the Generation Two remakes, at this point in series history, this was a fun and novel idea.
7 Sun And Moon: Alternate World
There’s literally an alternate dimension in the original Sun and Moon titles that is horribly underdeveloped. You can access a portal in the Altar of the Sunne or Moone (that’s how rich people spell sun and moon) that takes you to, essentially, the other version of the game, and the corresponding Altar. From there you can get a Cosmoem that evolves into your game’s mascot… again. Oh.
And the only difference in this alternate dimension is the time of day. Double oh.
Well, that really could have been a lot cooler.
6 Gold And Silver: Ruins of Alph
The Ruins of Alph are actually the entry point for the Sinjoh Ruins, which is the best part of the entire ruins. However, what they’re mainly known for is the fact that they contain Unown. Yay. Who doesn’t love the famous letter Pokémon?
Look, the concept of Unown is cool, but making them awful didn’t really help their case in terms of fan opinions on them.
It’s actually required that you solve multiple puzzles in order to unlock them all. Ew. No.
