Unown Alphabet (Pokémon)

The Unown alphabet (from English unknown) is a writing system made of the Unown Pokémon, a species introduced in Pokémon Gold & Silver (Game Boy Color, 1999) — the 2nd generation of Game Freak’s franchise. Each Unown looks like a Latin letter: a central eye, sometimes ringed, sometimes framed by arcs or strokes.

In the game, the 28 Unown forms (A-Z + ! + ?) help solve the Tanoby Key puzzle (FireRed/LeafGreen) and appear in the Alph and Tanoby ruins. Beyond the game, the alphabet has been reused by the Pokémon community to write messages at conventions, in derivative comics and in escape rooms.

How does the alphabet work?

The cipher uses a monoalphabetic substitution: every letter of the plaintext is replaced by a glyph drawn from a fixed correspondence table. It is one of the oldest cryptographic techniques on record — already described in antiquity (Caesar cipher, ~50 BC) — and the most directly readable family for a beginner.

The table holds 26 glyphs for the 26 Latin letters (no dedicated digit glyphs). To encrypt, read the text letter by letter and replace each letter with its glyph; to decrypt, consult the same table the other way round.

Cryptographic strength: weak. Because every plaintext letter always maps to the same glyph, the cipher falls to a frequency analysis in a few dozen words (in both English and French, E remains the most common letter, an immediate entry point). Monoalphabetic substitutions are therefore used today for their decorative, playful or pedagogical value — not to protect real information.

Historical and modern usage

• Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal (1999-2000) — Unown species found in the Ruins of Alph (Johto).
• Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen (2004) — Tanoby ruins, Tanoby Keys puzzle.
• Pokémon Sun/Moon, Legends: Arceus — occasional reappearances.
• Pokémon community — used in convention treasure hunts (Pokémon World Championships), tattoos, fan art.

Related variants

• Pokémon Glyphs (Pokémon Sun/Moon) — another franchise script, not covered here.

What are the weaknesses?

• Monoalphabetic substitution — yields immediately to frequency analysis.
• Documented alphabet — public table on Bulbapedia, dCode, and official guides.
• Complex glyphs — visual similarity between some Unown (M/W, P/Q) increases transcription errors.

The 26 glyphs

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

The 2 punctuation marks

!

?