Unown symbols - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokmon encyclopedia

Unown symbols (Japanese: アンノーン文字(もじ) Unknown characters), also known as Unown letters, are a form of ancient writing resembling the Pokémon Unown that appear in the Johto and Sinnoh regions.

In the games

Unown text is present in the core series Pokémon games Pokémon Gold, Silver, Crystal, Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, SoulSilver, Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl, and Legends: Arceus, where it is used to write the Latin alphabet with words separated by spaces. It is also used decoratively to spell out "CRYSTAL" during the game intro and on the Game Boy Color-only error screen.

The symbols used for Unown text in each game are displayed in the table below.

Inscriptions in Johto

Unown Mode

Unown Mode with all 26 Unown forms listed

In Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal, the Unown Mode associates each form of Unown with a word written in Unown symbols that begins with the same letter. All language versions use the same English words.

In Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, the same words are included as regular text in the Unown Report, with three changes: the word "?????" is added, representing Unown ?; the word "!!!!!" is added, representing Unown !; and the word "ANGER" replaces "ANGRY" in non-Japanese versions.

Ruins of Alph

The walls of the Ruins of Alph feature Unown text as decoration.

In Pokémon Crystal, HeartGold, and SoulSilver, the four puzzle chambers in the Ruins of Alph have Unown text on the far wall that is a hint to unlocking a secret room, where there are inscriptions detailing the relationship between ancient people and the Unown. In Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver only, once the first seven pages of the report are complete and the 26 alphabetic Unown forms have been caught, a fifth inscription can be read in the entrance room. This text is localized into the language of the game, with Japanese and Korean games displaying romanized text.

Upper-right entrance

Lower-right entrance

Lower-left entrance

Upper-left entrance

Hall entrance

Inscriptions in Sinnoh/Hisui

Solaceon Ruins

In Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl, there are three inscriptions in the Solaceon Ruins. The first room on 1F has an inscription that indicates which sets of stairs to take to pass through the chambers containing Unown F, R, I, E, N, and D. In the last of these rooms on B4F, another inscription is located there. The room on 2F accessible from the Maniac Tunnel contains the last inscription.

In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, only the inscription from the last room is present. The player must recover the lost Wall Fragment from the Miss Fortune sisters to make the carvings readable.

In Japanese, English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish games, this text is localized into the language of the game, with Japanese games displaying romanized text. In Korean and Chinese games, the English text is displayed, except for "?!" which is written as "!?" in Korean instead.

Unown Research Notes

In Pokémon: Legends Arceus, the Unown Research Notes provide hints for the locations of each form of Unown. In Japanese, English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish games, this text is localized into the language of the game, with Japanese games displaying romanized text. In Korean and Chinese games, the English text is displayed, though two of the phrases are modified to remove references to proper nouns ("of Celestica" is changed to "of the foothill temple", and "the greatest glacial legacy" is changed to "the largest ice block").

In the spin-off games

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series

In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time, Explorers of Darkness, and Explorers of Sky, the player, their partner, and Grovyle find a stone tablet inscribed with Unown letters at the Old Ruins in the Hidden Land. Grovyle states that the runes are the written form of an ancient language, and that the text says to place the Relic Fragment in the Rainbow Stoneship in order to activate it and take it to Temporal Tower.

In the anime

Unown text is used to spell "ENTEI" on the Japanese logo and English poster for Spell of the Unown: Entei.

Unown symbols were observed on a tablet located in Amity Square in Top-Down Training!, where Cynthia reads the text aloud. The same text appeared again at the Solaceon Ruins in Journey to the Unown!. It contains the Unown text from B4F of the Solaceon Ruins in the Japanese versions of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.

In the manga

Pokémon Adventures

Gold, Silver & Crystal arc

While Bugsy searched for Suicune in Hurray for Heracross, he found two chambers in the Ruins of Alph with Unown markings. Using his device to translate them, they read the following, matching the Unown text from two of the chambers in the Japanese versions of Pokémon Crystal.

In the TCG

The Unown cards released during the Neo Series and Diamond & Pearl Series feature the Unown symbol corresponding to the form featured on the card as part of the card's name, followed by the corresponding letter as regular text in square brackets (such as "Unown A [A]").

The Neo Series cards additionally write the name of the card's Pokémon Power as Unown text, followed by the name as regular text in square brackets (such as "ANGER [Anger]"); these names are listed below. Most of them match the word associated with the given form in the Unown Mode in the games.

The Alph Lithograph cards have most of their text written in Unown letters, including the card type, the text box, and the collector card number (in Western languages). Each card features a key to decode the Unown text as its illustration.

Trivia

• Artwork of Whitney and Ethan in the Ruins of Alph from the Game Freak website features the Unown text "WELCOME TO GAMEFREAK".
• Unused text in Pokémon Crystal would have displayed "It's Unown text!" when the inscriptions in the puzzle chambers in the Ruins of Alph are examined. In the final games, only "Patterns appeared on the walls..." is shown.
• Although most Unown text is written without punctuation apart from spaces, exclamation marks, or question marks, it has rarely been written mixed with regular letters or punctuation.
  • The French versions of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl, and Legends: Arceus include regular punctuation in the inscription in the Solaceon Ruins.

• Prior to version 1.1.3, the French versions of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl letter additionally rendered the letter "À" as regular text.

• In version 1.0.0, the Spanish versions of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl displayed the inscription of the second floor of the Solaceon Ruins with parentheses. This was carried over from the original games, where they were present in the internal data, but were not displayed visibly.

In other languages

See also

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