Fix it. Find some way to make these legitimately interesting outside of collecting. The game has these things just under Legendaries in terms of importance.
Fuse them all together into either a swarm hive mind legendary or a conglomerate golem legendary
Done
>>26535145
>Johto
>my favorite games
>I'm only now just realizing it had so many shit mons
>>26535156
Making them evolve into a useful Pokemon is a cheap way. Make the Unown itself useful, don't make it become something useful.
>>26535145
Have some caves with legendaries and shit that you need certain Unown to get through. Make it interrsting like the Regi puzzles
capture them all, use them to open a chamber to the dream world where spelling out a pokemons name will unlock a hidden ability
alternatively, they stay shit because they are shit
>>26535145
Give them bst and stat spread variety. Like Pumpkaboo and Gourgeist. The A would be the one with lowest stats, and the Z or ? the ones with the higher ones. Also modifying their movepool.
Nah, there isn't a way to fix them, you need to change them entirely.
Capture them all for my research and ill upgrade your pokedex. I'll even give you an exclusive print out you can try with the new gaming accessory!
>>26535145
I like the fan evo from like 10 years back.
Nazcrypt. An evolution with a form based on the Unowns hidden power type.
There was a rom hack where they could learn all the moves that started with their letter. So for example Unown Z could learn Zap Cannon and Zen Headbutt and nothing else, while other letters had significantly more moves.
Dunno what to do with ? and ! though.
>>26535145
Use them to spell out words within your team. Their combined psychic powers opens a portal to a "pocket universe" where a Pokémon/item/something can be found, similar to the Mirage Spots in ORAS. Make it to where each letter is used at least once to give incentive to catch all of them.
>>26535145
Don't give them importance. There. I 'fixed' them. If they were just a random Pokemon with no backstory to them, they'd just be a weird neat addition.
If you want to actually make them interesting and relevant. Maybe have every unown relate to an area in the game that's blocked by a rock. If you take the unown there with the corresponding letter, it opens and leads you to an item. Maybe evo stones, leftovers, stuff like that. Just small stuff, but make it obvious what unown you need to bring. Something like a sentence missing a letter.
>>26535145
Pokemon tabletop came up with a way, Primal unown. Basically smash 6 unown together (4 in game, tabletop has 6 moveslots), and it gets each instance of Hidden Power. It also gets to decide whether Hidden Power will be physical or special.
I can't see a good way to make that work in the Pokemon engine as it is, but it is something.
>>26535145
Give them a lowercase baby form. :^)
>>26535145
Platinum made me get them all for their seals which was kind of cool
>>26535145
Give them all auto perfect IVs and let them learn 4 Hidden Powers of any type independent of IVs for a start.
Then give them a special ability.
Give them an ability that makes Hidden Power deal typeless damage that is always super effective. That's all you can do
>>26535371
Adding to this, let you minmax them however you want. Give them 400~ stats to spread however you want, then let you also change their HPs to physical or special. And have the ability additionally power them up slightly with more Pokemon on the team with the same starting letter as them, with some special for ? and !.
And >>26535325
>If you want to actually make them interesting and relevant. Maybe have every unown relate to an area in the game that's blocked by a rock. If you take the unown there with the corresponding letter, it opens and leads you to an item. Maybe evo stones, leftovers, stuff like that. Just small stuff, but make it obvious what unown you need to bring. Something like a sentence missing a letter.
>>26535325
Too late for that.
>>26535145
Give them an ability that drastically changes the engine of the game and the way it's played. Something along the lines of how Multitype works.
>Immunity to their Hidden Power type
>HP acts like Metronome for them, except limited to their HP type
Enough to make them viable in casual play without being stupid "Collect them all to get something good that's completely unrelated to them!"
Give them a few more attacks for a somewhat viable move pool, and I could even see it being a mega evolution, where it turns into a swarm (similar to how Mega Kang just gets its baby grown up a tiny bit)
>>26535188
I have no idea why all my favorites lean towards Johto
>Forretress
>Magcargo
>Ursaring
>Lanturn
I thought up an ability for Unown once...
Conjugate:
The user's Attack and Special Attack stats [or maybe SpAtk and Speed?] are raised one stage for every other ally Pokémon on the field with the ability Conjugate.
Also, just let it learn some moves other than Hidden Power.
>>26535540
Give it Hidden Power, Nature Power, Secret Power, and Superpower.
If we get crazy, it gets Pure Power too.
There, it is now almost usable in PU.
>>26535318
? gets confusion and amnesia, ! gets boomburst and screech
>>26535540
>that Ability
>have to face 5 of them in a horde battle
Jesus Christ.
Just make a cool sidequest with lots of lore and a good reward. That's all it needs.
>>26535145
Someone else came up with this idea; having them in your party to unlock caves and things, possibly in a specific order to spell out a password.
>>26535302
This is cool as shit
>>26535581
>horse battles with unown
DUDE...
Some ideas:
1) Make them typeless. Give them an ability to become the opponent's type. Give them more than one move.
2) Their typing is completely random upon encounter, like Spinda's pattern. The typing can be any combonation, including oxymoronic rulings like Dark/Psychic, Electric/Rock, Water/Fire, etc. Give them a decent move pool, but keep their stats.
What would I do? Make them some foreign entity's attempts at communicating with humans. Make it vaguely explained at best, malicious only by accident or misunderstanding, so powerful or simply different that its very existence is harmful even if it has no desire to be disruptive.
If you want an event to catch it, you'd need to catch Unown Y or N in answer to questions it asks you. Then battle it until it realizes what it's doing and reins in its destructive power to be your "friend."
>>26535224
this. unowns should be used to decipher ancient text in each game, akin to braille in gen 3. i believe unowns represent the ancient language of the pokemon world, and that they themselves are the keepers of the lore and history.
so every ancient ruin or cave should have some sort of lore goodies spelt on the wall with unowns. let's say you're trying to find the box legendary. the cave starts out pretty normal but once you get close it starts to look more and more like the ruins of alph.
statues, pillars, unown text on the walls. these should all be implemented as staples of pokemon lore. it would bring the world of pokemon much closer and can be used as puzzles for discovering other pokemon.
right now the whole catching part of pokemon is kinda weak. the regi puzzles were some of the most interesting ways this was explored. i hope to see more stuff like that in the future games.
>>26535318
>>26535575
Maybe ? can learn all gimmick-based-Pokémon moves (like all the moves Wobbuffet can learn; Transform; Sketch).
How about if you collect and arrange Unown to spell out a typing in your party at some special Unown Altar, you completely change the typing of wild ones you find in whatever ruins they're from. They'll still be partly psychic however. Then you can begin hunting Unown of every type. Each type Unown has a diverse movepool based on that typing. Then just buff their stats and throw in a Signature Move based on Hidden Power called Full Potential or some shit that unleashes a wave of energy that's indiscriminately super effective to everything. The spelling is based on the usual type icons.
>Normal
>Fight
>Flying
>Poison
>Rock
>Bug
>Ghost
>Steel
>Fire
>Water
>Grass
>Electr
>Psychc
>Ice
>Dragon
>Dark
>Fairy
In hindsight they sound like a bunch of Mini Arceus's but that's not too weird considering the power they are alluded to having in regards to creation and shit. Awfully interesting species of pokemon. Mysterious as fuck even now.
>>26535302
This shit right here is fucking amazing.
Abilities
Huge Power
Pure Power
Moves
>stored power
>cosmic power
>secret power
>nature power
>hidden power
>ancient power
>earth power
>power swap
>power trick
>power whip
>power gem
>superpower
Could have cosmic power + stored power shenanigans at the very least.
>>26535266
Should base it on letter popularity (in English), so E is weakest and most common, while Q/X/Z/!/? are stronger and rarer.
Mega evolve into swarm form.
122 base Sp.Atk.
98 base Speed
Wonder Skin (or Magic Bounce or Magic Guard or Moody or Trace)
That would be enough to actually use it somehow.
>>26535145
mega evolve into this
...or even better, make a special spot to change its form (like Keldeo case). Then it changes into Swarm Form with nice BST, one of mentioned abilities and some additional moves like Cosmic Power, Ancient Power, Stored Power.
>>26536962
10,000 hours in paint
>>26535145
Well the alphabet was created out oftthese guys in the games lore right? So that seems important.
I'm currently raising a D unkown in Pokemon gold and struggle is the fucking best thing.
>>26535145
make the game give you stickers based on the letters you catch.
>>26535540
I came into this thread to suggest a doubles utility. I'm glad I wasn't the only one.
I was thinking more of a unique boost depending on their letter. The obvious ones would be A and D for attack/defense, and S would be the most used because everyone loves speed, but then you'll have ones like J, where if it or its allies get hit with a Dark-type move, it raises its partners attack two stages, like a better version of Justified. Or something like M giving a 1.5x boost to meteor moves (meteor punch, Draco meteor...).
What do you think?
>>26539792
Bless you.
>>26535899
>that last part
I agree so much. This is a fucking master catching game, they should at put most of their effort into making catching the monsters interesting. and they've shown they can do so, we've had multiple interesting methods of catching 'moms throughout the years.
People want to aka them competitively viable but that's fucking stupid. They're MEANT to be gimmick Pokemon, and they always will be. I say just pull the old "you need them to solve x puzzle" trick, while also continuing to keep the vaguely related to the lore. That's the best we'll ever realistically get out of them, and I'm fine with that. I think they (among Mew and others) should be normal type or typless though..
>>26535145
Capture 6 of them and have all 6 on your pokemon team. upon entering battle the unknown fuse and work together and gain boosted stats kinda like a mega evo. but if the fusion dies the whole team dies and you lose.
>>26541502
Basically this.
These guys have the right idea.
>>26535224
>>26535321
>>26535325
>>26535595
>>26535894
>>26535899
>>26541376
The often repeated refrain of "not all Pokemon need to be competitively viable" is true, but Pokemon has also been dropping the ball on non-competitive mons being cool or useful in other ways. It can't just be a weird form change or variation, it should have some sort of intriguing story, lore, or single player mechanic to it. Using the Unown's as puzzle solving ciphers or needing certain sets to unlock stuff is cool. In many ways, it could function like a vague hard mode. You need a team of 6 spelling out a word, but you have to take them through a mini dungeon first to get to the place where they're used. Obviously, you'd need to balance things so it's not an absolute chore, but you get the basic idea.
The idea of needing to use them in a battle where the point isn't to win but communicate is interesting too. Helps switch up the "just beat the shit out of the legendary until it becomes your friend" thing. There's a number of ways the Unown, and other gimmick Pokemon, could be made more interesting without just making them better in normal battles. The series could use a little mixing up on that front. The last time something like that was introduced was with the Contests in Gen III, and even that was basically just battling by a different name (still sufficiently different to work, though).
For every unown on your team, your pokemon get a 10% stat boost.
