Items you never use

ReKoil

ReKoil

  • Wonderful Gifts of Surprise
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    There is a pretty vast amount of items in the Pokemon games, but some are not very useful or just too situational. Ofc, most of them have A use, but for my examples below I don't consider their use good enough to sacrifice the held item slot for it and would rather just use a different/better item.

    So: Are there any items in particular that you just never end up using and are always just clutter in your bag?

    Some items that come to mind that I never end up using:
    -Binding Band
    -Damp Rock
    -Float Stone
    -Grip Claw
    -Heat Rock
    -Icy Rock
    -Shed Shell
    -Smooth Rock
    -Zoom Lens
     
    Writes this from the perspective of a playthrough, not postgame content. Holds for postgame content in most cases too.
    - One-use hold items. Names terrain seeds, Absorb Bulb, Snowball, Mental/Power/White Herb, type gems, Shed Shell, and Focus Sash. (Contains most of the postgame exceptions.)
    - [Max] Elixirs, [Max] Ethers, Max Revives, and Sacred Ash. Cannot purchase them. Hoards them, naturally. Harvests Leppa Berries for PP restoration.
    - Smoke Ball. Prefers Cleanse Tag.
    - Bitter medicine. Wants friendship.
    - Lagging Tail, Iron Ball, Grip Claw, Binding Band, and Float Stone. Exceptionally niche.
    - Big Root. Chooses a +damage type hold item or Leftovers instead.
    - Ice Heal. Rarely, if ever, becomes frozen.
    - Light Ball and Lucky Punch. Evolves Pikachu before obtaining the Light Ball. Selects Leftovers for Chansey.

    Almost said pinch berries and most anti-supereffective berries. Frequents the Juice Shoppe in X/Y challenge runs, however.
     
    Devalue said:
    Writes this from the perspective of a playthrough, not postgame content. Holds for postgame content in most cases too.
    - One-use hold items. Names terrain seeds, Absorb Bulb, Snowball, Mental/Power/White Herb, type gems, Shed Shell, and Focus Sash. (Contains most of the postgame exceptions.)
    - [Max] Elixirs, [Max] Ethers, Max Revives, and Sacred Ash. Cannot purchase them. Hoards them, naturally. Harvests Leppa Berries for PP restoration.
    - Smoke Ball. Prefers Cleanse Tag.
    - Bitter medicine. Wants friendship.
    - Lagging Tail, Iron Ball, Grip Claw, Binding Band, and Float Stone. Exceptionally niche.
    - Big Root. Chooses a +damage type hold item or Leftovers instead.
    - Ice Heal. Rarely, if ever, becomes frozen.
    - Light Ball and Lucky Punch. Evolves Pikachu before obtaining the Light Ball. Selects Leftovers for Chansey.

    Almost said pinch berries and most anti-supereffective berries. Frequents the Juice Shoppe in X/Y challenge runs, however.
    Click to expand...

    You really hit a lot of the items I literally never use. Chronic Hoarding Syndrome is real. Other than that I'd probably add X-items as well. I really dont ever use them preferring to either set-up with moves like calm mind/swords dance/nasty plot or just bum rush and attack.
     
    Berries, a lot of the more niche items listed by people above me, x-items (literally never haha), and bitter medicines that make Pokémon less happy. These things will just sit around in my bag forever most of the time. :x A select few berries are nice in competitive but I just never tend to use them in PvE since I have Full Heals and HP/PP healing items.
     
    X-items, well most of them or several items because they bluntly no good for normal gameplay when you have stats boosting moves which can be used without worrying quantity

    Certain berries expect sitrus and lum because lum can just cure all those status problems and sitrus is just better than oran and prefer-berries that tends to confuse if pokemon don't like certain flavor

    Ether/Max Elixir, they're quite scarce thru out the game and finding one and using them means no point when you can just fly to nearest town and go to pokemon center

    Bitter items, it kinda ruins when you plan to evolve a pokemon that needs friendship
     
    Am I the only one who just never uses items? I think the only items I used through the last three generations are Pokeballs and maybe one or two healing items because I couldn't be bothered to trek all the way back to the Pokemon Center. Oh, and I used a ton of EXP candies in SnS I suppose. But Pokemon games don't really require item use now if you're not playing competitively.
     
    Battle or Trainer items:
    I just don't use them because I'd feel like cheating. It's like having a stat boosting or Recovery move without actually having to dedicate a move slot for it and with maximum priority. Makes no sense at all. Obviously I do use HP/Status recovery items outside battle to reduce backtracking.

    Held Items:
    Well, it depends on the game. Weather/Terrain extenders might be pointless in the vanilla Pokémon in-game, but in certain difficulty rom hacks they can actually make the difference. Same goes for the Berries that reduce damage from one super effective X type move.

    Items I find pointless are:
    -Focus Sash (and Band): Amazing for competitive or if you're playing a game like Radical Red where the item regenerates after battle (not consumed if used during a "boss" battle), but for the regular Pokémon in-game it's trash because it's used once and gone forever.
    -Grip Claw and Binding Band (I actually had to google what these things were for because I didn't even remember)
    -Destiny Knot: Only useful for breeding.
    -Whatever the Berry to defrost is called: By the time you may even start seeing Ice type moves you'll most likely already have access to Lum Berries, and a Berry to only cure a status that has a 10% chance of happening is so pointless.
    -Negative effect items such as Iron Ball. Might be useful in some competitive strategies or difficulty hacks/fan games, but for vanilla in-game I doubt anyone would bother.
     
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    x items for sure. even before i adopted the no items in battle rule i put on myself, i still never used them lol. it's just. idk. i see their uses in in like a crazy challenge like caterpie only or something but i just never find the need for them. i would rather have a stat boosting move or a held item or something. like who do u think i am, gen 1 giovanni?? please
     
    Not entirely surprised by the X-item mentions, but they have actually saved my behind a couple times when an opposing mon just became too hard hitting (rarely happens in a normal playthrough, but it can happen if you have my luck xD). But yea, their use is rarely required.

    Dawn said:
    Am I the only one who just never uses items? I think the only items I used through the last three generations are Pokeballs and maybe one or two healing items because I couldn't be bothered to trek all the way back to the Pokemon Center. Oh, and I used a ton of EXP candies in SnS I suppose. But Pokemon games don't really require item use now if you're not playing competitively.
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    As someone who has always had his mons hold an item since gen 4, I can only tip my hat =o
     
    the usage of x-items has actually saved my ass against totem mimikyu in moon version and i will never forget that lmao

    but that said, i never use herbal medicine in pokemon, ever. i think the fact that it decreases friendship has always put me off of using them. ._.
     
    I barely use any of them honestly. Especially battle items like x attack or x defend. I also use very few key items. I tend to only use the bike, rods, and item-finder. I kind of hated when they made the bag limitless and took away pc storage because I didn't want to carry so much extra stuff I never use.
     
    Bellsprout said:
    I kind of hated when they made the bag limitless and took away pc storage because I didn't want to carry so much extra stuff I never use.
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    Tbh I like the unlimited bag space so I dont have to worry about deciding what I want to toss so I can pick up like an elixir or whatever. But I do wish they kept the PC storage so I can have unlimited bag space while also being able to offload all the junk I KNOW ill never use
     
    colours said:
    the usage of x-items has actually saved my ass against totem mimikyu in moon version and i will never forget that lmao
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    I think Sun/Moon with its totem pokemon was the first time I ever thought to use the X-items too, especially after they'd been buffed to 2-stage increases that gen. They're legitimately useful if it's exactly what you need when caught off-guard, and probably especially good for challenge runs... but I think anyone that started before Gen VII just thinks about how useless they used to be! Not that I used any throughout all of SwSh.

    Hard to think of any that I've never used though... each of the held items has at least some kind of use I've bothered with, definitely had to use the herbal stuff when I ran out of healing items, and I feel like I've even used ice heal at least once just because I had it

    Maybe one of the flutes from gen III...? Or ultra-specific held items like Ring Target or Utility Umbrella
     
    I don't use energy powders or items that lowers happiness.

    I know it's really just an arbitrary number, but I guess I get sucked into the role playing aspect of being a trainer.
     
    I'll gladly take the money from vitamins (besides PP up). The tiny stat boost isn't important to me for doing the story mode and they sell for tons of money.
     
    I haven't used an Incense for its battling properties in at least 10 years, bar recent experiments with Lax Incense in Battle Tower (it didn't work out). Looking through my bag in Black 2 right now the following I can't recall ever having a use for:
    - Black Sludge (Bulbasaur is pretty much the only Poison-type I've ever raised)
    - Brightpowder (hax)
    - Cleanse Tag (I still "Catch 'em All!")
    - Destiny Knot (other than Whitney, Attract isn't an issue)
    - Eject Button (haven't got round to it)
    - Float Stone (" ")
    - Grip Claw (never use Pokémon with the relevant moves)
    - King's Rock
    - Metronome (I think this could be fun with Fury Cutter though)
    - Quick Claw
    - Ring Target (seems like the defensive weaknesses of No Guard without the benefits)
    - Sticky Barb

    I'm sure there are plenty of others I haven't used. I often use the Plates in Platinum, or Silk Scarf etc. in Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn. I used Rocky Helmet for the first time recently on my Tepig, which has been fun. He's powerful but has a -Spe nature and 2 IV. So he always takes a hit, retaliates with great power but if he doesn't get the OHKO he's going down. Rocky Helmet's extra damage means he always gets his KO.

    I'm also a weirdo in that I only use specific pokéballs. I'll only use the ones introduced in a region (except Unova, where I alternate between only/I] the good old red-and-white, and using everything).
     
    All the one time use items such as Focus Sash.
    You usually only get one during a playthrough and I always consider it a waste to use them and end up never using them rofl

    For held items I usually just use an item that boosts a STAB move's damage or I put leftovers on it. Also usually Amulet Coin on one mon for easy dosh.
    I barely use any other held items if at all.
    I never use berries as held items. I only use berries at all in games that have Contests.

    All those Niche items like Lagging Tail or Zoom lens I never use either.
     
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