While they were out in Rome, a Pokemon fan made a rare discovery in the form of a functional payphone. However, the payphone in question was also covered in Unown lettering, and the Pokemon spelled out a word that fit the payphone. The Pokemon fan then put their findings on social media, where it caught the attention and upvotes of other Pokemon players around the world.
Last seen in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Unown is the Symbol Pokemon and a pure Psychic-type that was introduced in Pokemon Gold and Silver. It is a Pokemon that has multiple variations, as each Unown corresponds to a letter of the alphabet as well as a question mark and exclamation point. This means that, as of the ninth generation of Pokemon games, there are 28 versions of Unown available in games such as Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Pokemon GO. This in turn led to the creation of the "Unown Dex" section of the Pokedex in recent Pokemon games, with rewards available for players that complete it.
A Reddit user by the name of MLGGYARADOS made the discovery of the Unown-covered payphone in Rome, and posted it on the r/pokemon subreddit. The Unown that were found on the payphone were in the form of a bumper sticker. Using the Unown as a means to covey meaning, whoever put the sticker on the phone spelled out the fitting word "rare" on it. Ever since Unown was introduced in the second Pokemon generation, variations of the Symbol Pokemon have been used by Pokemon fans to spell out words and phrases in a clever way. MLGGYARADOS' post on r/pokemon received over 1.2k upvotes in just two days, and the comments asked how rare that these payphones were, let alone the Unown. According to MLGGYARADOS, there were multiple versions of the payphones at the spot they were at when the photo was taken, but rare in other spots.
Unown traditionally has little to no use in a Pokemon battle, given its 336 base stat total and the only move it can learn is Hidden Power. However, some players have opted to use Unown as part of challenge runs, such as a Pokemon player that defeated Cynthia with a team of Unown and posted their victory on social media. Considering the statistical differences between Unown and some of Cynthia's Pokemon such as Garchomp, this makes the feat all the more remarkable.
Though Unown has yet to appear in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, that has not stopped Pokemon fans from making their own versions of Paldean Unown. Only time will tell if the Symbol Pokemon will return in a future expansion or DLC within the ninth generation of Pokemon games.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is available now for Nintendo Switch.