Twenty-six Pokémon shaped like letters, hidden beneath ancient ruins, and messages carved in an alphabet nobody can read: the Unown are the great mystery of Gold, Silver and Crystal. Here is everything you need to know to wake them, catch them and complete the Unown Report.
What is an Unown?
UnownPsychicPsychic. There are 26 forms, one for each letter of the Latin alphabet. It knows only one move, Hidden Power, whose type and power vary from one Unown to another.
All Unown forms count as a single Pokémon in the Pokédex. They have their own record, the Unown Report, which fills in letter by letter. Unown live only in the Ruins of Alph, between Violet City and Azalea Town.
The four puzzles
Each chamber in the ruins contains a sliding-tile puzzle to solve. Once the picture is complete, the floor gives way and you fall into the large underground chamber; some letters then wake up.
| Puzzle | Access | Letters awakened |
|---|---|---|
| Kabuto | Directly from the ruins | A to K (11 forms) |
| Omanyte | Through Union Cave, with Surf | L to R (7 forms) |
| Aerodactyl | Directly from the ruins | S to W (5 forms) |
| Ho-Oh | Through Union Cave, with Surf | X to Z (3 forms) |
The Unown Report and the odd signal
As soon as three different forms have been caught, a scientist from the Research Center waits for you at the exit and gives you the Unown Report. After that, turn on the radio of your PokéGear to the frequency 13.5 inside the chambers: the Strange Signal you hear is the voice of the Unown, and it preferentially attracts the forms you are missing.
Why a given Unown has a given letter
In Generation II, an Unown’s letter is not random: it is calculated from its hidden values, the DVs (Attack, Defense, Speed and Special). This is also why a shiny Unown can only be an I or a V: a shiny Pokémon’s DVs are so constrained that they only give those two letters.
Crystal’s secret chambers
In Crystal, each puzzle chamber hides an inscription and a second chamber. To open it, you must perform the action described by the inscription in front of the back wall: use an Escape Rope (Kabuto chamber), use Flash (Aerodactyl), have Ho-Oh in your party (Ho-Oh) or use a Water Stone (Omanyte). Each chamber contains four items and leads to a room whose floor bears a message in Unown.
