The 4th generation of Pokémon was a major milestone for the long-running series. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl versions were the main games released in 2006 (Japan) and 2007, as well as Pokémon Platinum that released in 2009. The 4th generation was the first series on Nintendo’s new handheld brand, the Nintendo DS. While the games still featured a top-down 2D sprite design, it showed a lot more life than its Game Boy Advance predecessors by having more of a 3D environmental design.
Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum brought many changes to the Pokémon gameplay formula. One of the biggest changes was the restructure of physical and special moves. No longer were moves determined by their type, but instead their actual nature of the move. This allowed for more unique ways to develop Pokémon competitively as well as buff up Pokémon whose typing was a special type but had plenty of physical power (Electabuzz is a prime example.)
Of course, like many Pokémon games, there are always a large number of secrets and easter eggs that can be found in the game. Many of these secrets may not have been experienced unless you took advantage of a glitch or hacked certain items in the game just to play planned side quests. Here we will venture forth into the mysterious and often chilly Sinnoh region and discover 30 gameplay secrets that players may not have been aware of when Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum took center stage in the Pokémon universe.
30 Diamond And Pearl’s Hidden Side Quests That You Likely Missed
Generation 4’s Legendary Mythical Pokémon, Darkrai, Shaymin, and Arceus had a different method planned in order to acquire than past Pokémon like Mew and Celebi. Originally, each of these three Pokémon had side quests that were unlocked once you received a mystery gift item online.
These items were never distributed outside of Japan.
Instead, only the Pokémon themselves were released, meaning the side quests were never accessible legally. You can hack the mystery gift items to trigger the side quests.
29 Encountering The God Of Pokémon
One of the most memorable Pokémon in the 4th generation is the Legendary Mythical Pokémon Arceus. Arceus is known as the Creation Pokémon, said to have created the entire universe. Additionally, it had the highest base stats of all Pokémon at the time, and if you take away Mega Evolutions and Fusion forms, it still does have the highest.
Arceus is commonly referred to as the PokéGod, who was part of an unreleased side quest.
If you obtained the unobtainable Azure Flute, then go to the Spear Pillar, the flute will automatically play. This will cause a staircase to appear in which you will ascend to the heavens to battle Arceus at level 80. Not only is this the highest level wild Pokémon ever, but with a move like recover available, it is also one of the most difficult Pokémon of all time to capture.
28 A Major Trick To Collecting Shiny Pokémon
Shiny Pokémon made their debut in Pokémon Gold and Silver. Shiny Pokémon were alternately colored Pokémon that can be noticeably different from their normal designs. This type of Pokémon was extraordinarily rare. In fact, the odds of encountering a shiny Pokémon are 1/8192. However, there was one method that was introduced in generation 4 that made encountering shiny Pokémon significantly better.
The Masuda Method increases the rate of shiny Pokémon hatches by a factor of 5.
The Masuda Method is named after the Director at Game Freak and series creator, Junichi Masuda. The Masuda Method involves getting two Pokémon that were caught by trainers from two different real-life countries and breeding a Pokémon egg from them. The egg will have a 1/1638 chance of hatching into a shiny Pokémon.
27 You Can Catch Specific Pokémon From Generations 1 And 3
With the original Nintendo DS and DS Lite, the system features a GBA cartridge slot where you could play just about any GBA game on your DS. The games can even communicate with each other. This is well used in 4th gen Pokémon. Of course, you can transfer your Pokémon via the Pal Park, but there is an added bonus to having a GBA Pokémon game inserted. By having Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Fire Red, or Leaf Green inserted, you can catch many of the exclusive Pokémon from those respective games in the wild in the DS game.
26 Rematch With Every Gym Leader And Others
If you missed out on Pokémon Platinum, you missed out on one of the nice additions to the post game. After you complete the Stark Mountain sidequest, a restaurant known as the battleground will open up. Here you can battle in rematches against all of the gym leaders in Platinum as well as the tag battle partners you meet along your journey. This is a valuable source of gaining experience as these trainers all have 5 Pokémon leveled in the low 60s. This gives trainers multiple options on how they want to grind out leveling up Pokémon to the higher levels.
25 It's Good To Turn Back At Turnback Cave
Turnback Cave is best known in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl as the location in which you can capture the legendary Pokémon Giratina. However, Turnback cave can help trainers get rich quick. It is a very confusing cave as each room is basically random.
After you battle Giratina, if you come back, there will be an item in its place.
Depending on how soon you get to the room, one of three different items appear. These items include a Reaper Cloth, a Rare Bone, and Stardust. If you come back to get rare bones they can be useful in earning a lot of cash.
24 Getting A Happy Birthday Message From Your Friend
One of the neat little touches that Pokémon can have with its players is the thoughtfulness of connecting to your system settings and having a special happy birthday message whenever you play the game the day that your birthday is set.
Pokemon Diamond and Pearl were the first games to have this feature.
If you play on your birthday and go to Sandgem Town, your friend Lucas/Dawn will acknowledge that it is your birthday. Unfortunately, there isn’t any gift that is being given to you, but it’s the thought that counts right?
23 Old Chateau Mysteries Are Easy To Miss
Pokémon Diamond and Pearl features a rather interesting location just north of Eterna Forest, a haunted mansion known as the Old Chateau. The Old Chateau was best known as the location where you can get the ghost Pokémon Rotom, but it is pretty easy to miss some of the weird happenings that can occur in the mansion.
There are two ghostly people that appear within the mansion, but they have to be triggered through specific means.
First, a girl would appear in an adjacent room when you enter a specific bedroom down a hallway. Next, if you leave the dining room, then re-enter, you’ll see what appears to be a butler floating towards the kitchen. These are the only times you ever see them and there is no explanation as to who they are or why they are there.
22 You Can Save Your Best Battles As Highlights
If you missed out on Pokémon Platinum you missed one of the cool additions to the game. In Platinum, you can receive the item Vs. Recorder. This item will allow you to save a limited number of battles that you engage in either online or at the Battle Tower. You can then share your videos over the Global Terminal. This is a very good feature for competitive battlers being able to review how their battles went and what they can improve on in the future.
21 Transfer As Many Pokémon As You Want As Soon As You Want
Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum allowed you to transfer Pokémon from your Game Boy Advance games into the Pal Park. However, there was a very annoying catch in that you could only do six Pokémon a day. There is a way that you can bypass this and transfer as many Pokémon as you want in one day. You’ll need two GBA Pokémon games to pull this off, one where you transfer like normal, the other to use as a decoy when you change the time.
When you change the time on your system, make sure to have the decoy copy inserted in the DS. When you restart Pokémon D/P/P it will have to re-calibrate due to the clock settings changed on the DS and you would have to normally wait 24 hours (why Game Freak?) Then restart with the normal copy you are transferring from and you can send six more Pokémon over. To do more, just rinse and repeat.
20 Mystery Gift Had To Be Unlocked In Generation 4
The Mystery Gift feature has been a staple in Pokémon games since generation 2. In recent games, this option was available from the start. However, in generation 4, you actually had to unlock the Mystery Gift option in the game before you could use it.
In order to unlock it, the player would have to visit the Jubilife TV station and talk to a TV producer on the third floor. He would then ask questions to which you would have to choose from a select list of words. The answers that need to be chosen are “Everyone Happy” and “Wi-Fi Connection.” With this, the Mystery Gift option will be unlocked in the main menu.
19 Secret Wallpapers To Decorate Your PC Boxes
Did you know that you can change the background images of the PC boxes? It’s easy to overlook the feature because you’ll likely just want to organize where you want your Pokémon stored, but what if you wanted to make things a bit more lively?
There are some extra options if you want to spruce up the look of your boxes instead of the bland environmental designs.
You’ll unlock more after you defeat the Elite Four, but you can unlock some more secret wallpapers from the TV producer in the Jubilife TV Station if you give specific answers. However, those answers depend on your Trainer ID.
18 A Special Event Can Be Triggered In Snowpoint City
One of the coolest, yet rarest, things to witness in Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum is a special event that happens only a few days a year in Snowpoint City. If you visit Snowpoint City on January 12th, (as long as your system calendar is accurate) you’ll notice a special weather pattern known as Diamond Dust take place. This particular date represents the birth date of Game Freak Director Junichi Masuda. There are other dates where this can occur, specifically certain anniversary dates of other Pokémon game launches, but the first known happening of Diamond Dust occurred on January 12th.
17 Pokémon, Transform!
Generation 4 is known for introducing multiple Pokémon with different forms. There have been other Pokémon beforehand that have multiple forms such as Castform and Deoxys, but there are many Pokémon that debut in gen 4 that take advantage of this. These Pokémon include Burmy/Wormadam, Cherrim, Shellos/Gastrodon, Rotom, Giratina, Shaymin, and Arceus. While some of these are purely cosmetic, many of these forms can change their stats, type, and abilities, bringing forth new strategies for how you want to train them. Among the examples, the most significant changes lie within the six different forms of Rotom.
16 Are You Regi To Catch These Pokemon?
In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, once you transfer the three legendary Pokémon Regirock, Regice, and Registeel, you can then catch Regigigas. However, in Pokémon Platinum, that process is reversed. First, you would have to have received via Mystery Gift a special Regigigas used to promote the movie Giratina & The Sky Warrior. With that particular Pokémon in your party, you then unlock new areas in Sinnoh that will allow you to catch the three legendary Pokémon.
15 Last Chance To Gamble In Pokémon
In early games leading up to generation 4, Pokémon games would often include a game corner where you can play at slots in hopes of earning money and purchasing valuable prizes.
Newer fans of Pokémon may not be aware of the gambling aspects that Pokémon games included.
However, as more concerns and laws were put forth to eliminate gambling from many different forms of entertainment, Game Freak has taken the precautionary step to have generation 4 be the final game that featured any form of gambling.
14 Want A Pokémon With HP Over 65,000? Give It A Pomeg Berry
Yeah, it’s possible to get a Pokémon in Diamond and Pearl with that insane amount of HP, but you’ll have to take advantage of a glitch to get it. What you’ll need is a Pokémon that is low on HP, roughly around 1 or 2 HP. A Pomeg Berry will normally reduce the Effort Values (or EVs) of the Pokémon’s HP stat, which would reduce its current HP by a couple points. If you use that on a Pokémon with only 2 HP or less remaining, it will create a glitch that resets the HP to a whopping 65,535. Good luck trying to use it online, as glitched Pokémon can be deleted simply by connecting online.
13 The Long Path To Shaymin
Shaymin is the second of the three Legendary Mythical Pokemon. Once you receive Oak’s Letter, go to route 224 as instructed and you’ll meet the professor there. There Oak will show you a stone where people go to show their gratitude. Then he asks you to tell him who do you want to thank. You could type literally anything there, Pokemon, your ex, Barack Obama, anything.
After interacting with the stone, Shaymin shows up and then opens the very long path to Flower Paradise known as Seabreak Path. Once you run straight ahead for a couple minutes (yes it’s that long of a path), you can catch Shaymin at level 30.
12 Get A Good Sneak Peak At Your Unborn Pokémon
Usually, when you have a Pokémon egg, it is a complete surprise as to what it could be. You may (or may not) know what species it is, but that is all you would know. You won’t know how good its stats are, or what moves or abilities it could have until it hatches.
However, there is another glitch that can show you what its stats are at level 1.
If you put a Pokémon in one box in the PC and then put the egg in an adjacent box in the same exact position, the stats that show the Pokémon will accidentally show the stats of the egg. This could save you some time in getting an idea of a Pokémon’s nature and IVs.
11 Manaphy Has One Of The More Unusual Methods To Receive
Before the 4th generation, Mythical Legendary Pokémon is typically revealed sometime after the start of a generation. Manaphy was a different story as it first made its debut in the form of the Pokémon movie Pokémon Ranger & The Temple Of The Sea.
Eventually, this Pokémon would play a major role in a side quest in the spinoff game Pokémon Ranger on the DS.
This was literally the reason why players bought the game. Completing this side quest will earn you a Manaphy Egg that you would have to transfer into Diamond and Pearl.