That seems to be the general principle. As a consequence, moves like Psychic Terrain and Pollen Puff are entirely cut from the game because nothing learns them under this philosophy. One oddity we discovered earlier in the thread was Nidoking picking up Sludge Wave by level-up, which is good news for the LO Sheer Force archetype but downright bizarre in light of so many other Pokémon losing historically important moves (e.g. Altaria's Dragon Dance). You may also be aware that Toxic returns as a TM but sees greatly restricted distribution compared to any prior game where it appeared, which we can only assume is a conscious decision. Someone behind the scenes selectively tinkered with these things at their personal discretion, and I doubt we'll learn the full rationale unless that person(s) is identified and interviewed.I don't think I've seen a general summary of how the movepools are constructed, besides a few tidbits here and there, so I would like to ask about any general patterns that were found. My understanding is that the egg moves are completely copied from Gen 7 for all Pokemon, including those that were in Sword and Shield, but the rest of the learnsets (levelup and TMs) were copy-pasted from Sword and Shield where applicable, with moves that were TM-only in Sword/Shield but not TMs in BDSP just unavailable to the respective Pokemon. Is this understanding correct, and if so, are there any notable exceptions to the rule?
Last edited: