Pokémon Scarlet and Violet NPC trades a Haunter “without” an Everstone, unlike in Diamond and Pearl

An NPC in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet who will trade you a Haunter has been gaining attention recently. Players are delighted with this virtuous NPC who will trade you a Haunter that isn’t holding any unnecessary items—something that wasn’t the case in some past entries in the series.

In addition to a great number of new species of Pokémon, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet also include many species from past titles. These include the evolutionary line of Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar, who debuted in the first-generation Pokémon titles. The newest games feature an NPC located in Levincia in the Paldea region that will trade you a Haunter.

This NPC will hand over her Haunter in exchange for a Pincurchin, but what’s important about this trade is that Haunters will only evolve when they are traded. So by trading with this NPC, the Haunter that you receive will immediately evolve into a Gengar.

On the surface, this NPC trade seems perfectly ordinary, but a tweet by @OoCPokemon showcasing the trade has over 65,000 likes and almost 4,000 retweets as of the time of writing. The reason for this high level of attention lies within the games Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl also contained an NPC that would trade you a Haunter. However, just as you’re thinking to yourself, “Yes! I can get my hands on a Gengar without trading with another player,” you will realize that the Haunter doesn’t evolve. This is because the Haunter that the NPC trades to you is actually holding an Everstone.

An Everstone is an item that will prevent a Pokémon from evolving if they are holding it, no matter if the evolution conditions are fulfilled. It can be useful when you want a Pokémon to learn a move earlier than usual, or if you want to completely stop a Pokémon from evolving. You can, of course, press the B button to stop an evolution while it is happening, but an Everstone removes the constant hassle of stopping it every time for Pokémon that evolve via level. As one may expect, an Everstone also stops a Haunter from evolving when it is traded.

Any players who are aware of Haunter’s evolutionary requirement would obviously expect that they are, in essence, receiving a Gengar when they trade for a Haunter. However, these players basically feel hoodwinked by the Pokémon Diamond and Pearl NPC that trades them a Haunter holding an Everstone. This NPC also appeared in the remakes Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl—something that likely brought back some bitter memories for players of the originals.

As an aside, the Japanese version of Pokémon Blue has an NPC that will trade you a Haunter that does immediately evolve into a Gengar.

The ability to trade for a Haunter that “actually” evolves into a Gengar in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet has served as a method to wipe away the trauma players experienced in Diamond and Pearl. The memory of that somewhat malicious trade is likely also the very reason that so many players have taken notice of this new trade. Any players who would like to obtain a Gengar without trading with another player should catch a Pincurchin and then seek out Scarlet and Violet’s virtuous NPC.

Written by. Marco Farinaccia based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-11-24 17:16 JST)