Mail: Difference between revisions

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|descrse=A <sc>{{p|Pikachu}}</sc>-print <sc>Mail</sc> to be held by a <sc>Pokémon</sc>.
|descrse=A <sc>{{p|Pikachu}}</sc>-print <sc>Mail</sc> to be held by a <sc>Pokémon</sc>.
|descfrlg=A piece of <sc>Mail</sc> featuring a cute <sc>{{p|Pikachu}}</sc> print. It is to be held by a <sc>Pokémon</sc>.
|descfrlg=A piece of <sc>Mail</sc> featuring a cute <sc>{{p|Pikachu}}</sc> print. It is to be held by a <sc>Pokémon</sc>.
|locrse=Held by {{p|Skitty}} traded from [[Fortree City]]{{sup/3|RS}}, [[Trick House]]
|locrse=Held by {{p|Skitty}} traded from [[Fortree City]]{{sup/3|RS}}, [[Trick House]], [[Lilycove City]] ({{DL|Pokémon Center Ladies|Quiz Lady}}){{sup/3|E}}
}}
}}


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|descrse=A <sc>{{p|Bellossom}}</sc>-print <sc>Mail</sc> to be held by a <sc>Pokémon</sc>.
|descrse=A <sc>{{p|Bellossom}}</sc>-print <sc>Mail</sc> to be held by a <sc>Pokémon</sc>.
|descfrlg=A piece of <sc>Mail</sc> featuring a cute <sc>{{p|Bellossom}}</sc> print. It is to be held by a <sc>Pokémon</sc>.
|descfrlg=A piece of <sc>Mail</sc> featuring a cute <sc>{{p|Bellossom}}</sc> print. It is to be held by a <sc>Pokémon</sc>.
|locrse=Held by {{p|Corsola}} [[trade]]d from [[Pacifidlog Town]]{{sup/3|RS}}, [[Trick House]]
|locrse=Held by {{p|Corsola}} [[trade]]d from [[Pacifidlog Town]]{{sup/3|RS}}, [[Trick House]], [[Lilycove City]] ({{DL|Pokémon Center Ladies|Quiz Lady}}){{sup/3|E}}
}}
}}



Revision as of 19:02, 9 October 2023

This article is about the type of item. For the feature in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series, see Wonder Mail.
292Shedinja.png The contents of this article have been suggested to be split into individual articles for each item.
Please discuss it on the talk page for this article.

Mail (Japanese: メール Mail) is a type of item in the Pokémon games. It was introduced in Generation II and appeared until Generation V.

In the core series games

Mechanics

The various kinds of mail are held items given to Pokémon. Each mail item is able to contain a message written by the Trainer. This message can be sent to other Trainers by trading Pokémon.

Pokémon that are holding Mail use a special Mail icon instead of the normal held item icon.

Pokémon holding mail cannot be placed in the PC or released. When removing Mail from a Pokémon, the player has the option to store it in the PC's mailbox or placing it in the Bag; the Mail's message is lost if returned to the Bag, but preserved if sent to the mailbox.

In battle, having a Pokémon hold a Mail item prevents both the foe and the user from successfully using Trick or Switcheroo. Mail cannot be thrown with Fling, given with Bestow, or stolen with Thief or Covet.

Generation II

Printed Mail

The player can freely enter 32 characters across two 16-character rows of text. Mail uses a unique text entry interface, that has a wider selection of characters than other text entry interfaces in these games.

Each different type of Mail has a unique background image, which can be viewed in the games themselves or in Pokémon Stadium 2. The Mail includes the message entered by the sending player, as well as their Trainer name at the bottom. Uniquely, the Portrait Mail also includes the sprite of the Pokémon holding the message, but using the same color palette as the Mail background.

Mail can be printed using the Game Boy Printer accessory. As with all documents printed by the Game Boy Printer, the image is grayscale. This feature is disabled in the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console versions.

In the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console versions, when the player attempts to enter the Trade Center while one of the Pokémon in their party is holding Mail, they are given a warning on the touch screen not to include offensive material in Mail.

In the Western games, the language of the message is stored internally, so that if it is traded to a player in a different language game, the Mail can still be read using the correct character encoding; however, the English versions of Pokémon Gold and Silver ignore this value, instead trying to render the message using the English character encoding, which lacks several characters that can be typed in other Western languages.

Generation III

In Generation III, Mail is typed using the easy chat system, which restricts players to choosing from a pre-defined list of words and phrases. Mail has nine phrase slots, structured as four rows of two slots and a fifth row with one slot.

The player can unlock additional phrases from the Hipster in Mauville City.

Pokémon with Mail cannot be traded to Pokémon Colosseum or XD because Mail does not exist in those games.

Generation IV

In Generation IV, Mail consists of three sentence slots, which can each be filled with a sentence structure from several pre-defined structures. These sentence structures themselves have one or two gaps within them, that the player can fill using the easy chat system (which restricts players to choosing from a pre-defined list of words and phrases). This facilitates translating the message between game languages automatically.

The player can unlock additional phrases from the old man in Snowpoint CityDPPt or on Route 16HGSS.

In the Generation IV games, the player's Bag has a separate pocket for Mail.

Generation V

In Generation V, Mail consists of three sentence slots. For BridgeMail, the player can choose a sentence structure from several pre-defined structures for each of these slots, then fill gaps in those sentence structures using the easy chat system (which restricts players to choosing from a pre-defined list of words and phrases). For non-BridgeMail, all three sentence structures are fixed, depending on the specific type of Mail; the player can only fill the gaps inside the sentences, and cannot change which sentence structures are used.

Mail has now been moved back into the general items pocket of the Bag rather than having its own pocket.

List of Mail

Generation II

Generation III

Mail from Generation II is not present in the Generation III games.

Generation IV

Mail from previous generations is not present in the Generation IV games.

Generation V

Mail from previous generations is not present in the Generation V games, making Generation IV Mail the only holdable items from Generation IV to no longer exist in the data of the Generation V games.

Gallery

Generation II

Pokémon Stadium 2

In Pokémon Stadium 2, Mail can be edited using the C-buttons to control the cursor.

Generation III

Generation IV

Generation V

In the manga

A Tropic Mail in Pokémon Adventures

Pokémon Adventures

Gold, Silver & Crystal arc

In The Last Battle VIII, Silver revealed that as Green had used her Abra to teleport him away earlier, his Sneasel had used Thief to steal the Flower Mail held by Abra. The Mail contained a map that told Silver of Green's plan to go to Ilex Forest.

Ruby & Sapphire arc

In The Beginning of the End with Kyogre & Groudon VI, Ruby left Wallace a Tropic Mail, informing his teacher of his decision to fight against Team Magma.

HeartGold & SoulSilver arc

In Weavile Wobbles But It Won't Fall Down, Mail was seen being sold at the Safari Zone Gate.

Trivia

  • When the Portrait Mail is given to an Unown in one of the Generation II games, the Pokémon's sprite is always displayed as Unown A.

In other languages

Language Title
Chinese Cantonese 郵件 Yàuhgín
Mandarin 郵件 / 邮件 Yóujiàn
The Netherlands Flag.png Dutch Post*
French Canada Flag.png Canada Courrier*
France Flag.png Europe Lettre
Germany Flag.png German Briefe
Italy Flag.png Italian Messaggio
South Korea Flag.png Korean 메일 Mail
Portuguese Brazil Flag.png Brazil Papel de carta
Portugal Flag.png Portugal Correio*
Spain Flag.png Spanish Carta

References

  1. Pokémon News Machine (May 22-June 2002 text archive)


Types of items
General Evolution stonesFossilsFlutesShardsHeld items
Evolution itemsEscape itemsExchangeable itemsValuable items
Battle itemsScentsNectarsCandyIngredients
Medicine Status condition healing itemsVitaminsFeathers
MintsMochiDrinksHerbal medicine
Berry and Apricorn Poké BallsApricornsBerriesMulch
Aesthetic DecorationsAccessoriesBackdropsPropsDécor
Clothing (XYSMUSUMLGPESwShBDSPLASV)
Other MailKey ItemsEvent items
Wonder Launcher itemsRotom Powers


Held items
In-battle effect items
BerriesColored orbsDrivesPower items
Experience-affecting itemsGemsIncenseMega StonesMemoriesPlates
Stat-enhancing itemsType-enhancing itemsZ-Crystals
Out-of-battle effect items
Power itemsIncenseMailScarves


Project ItemDex logo.png This item article is part of Project ItemDex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on all items.