Paradox Pokemon’s bizarre TM move leaves Scarlet & Violet fans baffled
A popular Paradox Pokemon’s moveset has left Gen 9 fans baffled after they realized that it can learn an unexpected TM move in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet saw the arrival of Paradox Pokemon, strange beings that resemble ancient and futuristic variants of existing Pokemon. Also known as Monsters of Area Zero, these new Pokemon play a big role in Gen 9’s main story.
They quickly proved to be fan favorites with some trainers even calling for more Pokemon to receive the same treatment that both the Legendary Beasts and Swords of Justice did.
Now though players are discovering that one of the first Paradox Pokemon ever seen has a strange characteristic that they can’t explain.
Great Tusk learns an unexpected TM Move
Confused by one of the moves Great Tusk can learn, a fan posted on X/Twitter, “great tusk facts: great tusk learns psyshock. that’s it that’s the fact why the F**K does it learn psyshock.”
Psyshock is a Special Psychic-type move with 80 Base Power that can be taught to Great Tusk by using TM054 on it. This is a strange fit on an ancient rendition of Donphan that is a Ground and Fighting-type and only has 53 Special Attack.
Equally bewildered by the Paradox Pokemon’s move compatibility, others replied, “WHAT THE F**K IT’S TRUE,” and, “Ngl you got me. I was like nah that’s impossible. IT F**KING IS.”
One player hypothesized, “Maybe it was supposed to be TM053 Smart Strike but they accidentally gave it TM054 Psyshock,” though it is worth noting Great Tusk also learns Smart Strike so this is unlikely to be the case.
Another trainer speculated, “I think they maybe wanted to give it Psychic Fangs (A move that it doesn’t learn currently) but they did an oopsie and wrote Psyshock instead and nobody realized until launch.”
Pokemon learning unexpected moves has been a part of the franchise for years. From Gastly learning several Punch moves to Shedinja being able to learn Substitute, Great Tusk’s compatibility with Psyshock is far from the strangest we’ve seen.
