The Ruins of Alph are located just southwest of Violet City. As in Gold, Silver and Crystal, they are the home to the Unown, a species of Pokemon that have 28 forms resembling alphabet characters, as well as the exclamation mark and question mark. There are four puzzle rooms in the area; solving each one will different sets of Unown to appear in the main chamber of the ruins. After solving the first puzzle, you'll also be given the Unown Report, which records which types of Unown you've caught.
| First Puzzle | |
| The first puzzle, Kabuto, can be accessed very early in the game. The cave is very close to the entrance to the Ruins of Alph and just above the Research Center. Solving this puzzle unlocks the following Unown: A B C D E F G H I J |  |
To access the hidden room, examine the back panel behind the puzzle and then use an Escape Rope from your bag. The four items inside are:
|  Our clan engraved words in this place |
EnergyPowder
Heal Powder
Oran Berry
Pecha Berry| Second Puzzle | |
| The second puzzle, Aerodactyl, can be accessed after you have HM03 - Surf. The cave is south of the Ruins entrance, past the small patch of water. Solving this puzzle unlocks the following Unown: R S T U V |  |
To access the hidden room, examine the back panel behind the puzzle and then get one of your Pokemon to use the move Flash. The four items inside are:
|  Our clan created Pokemon statue outside |
Energy Root
Moon Stone
Sitrus Berry| Third Puzzle | |
| The third puzzle, Ho-oh, can be accessed after you have HM03 - Surf. You must head through Union Cave to get to this place. Mid-way between the entrance and exit, there is a ladder heading down to the next floor. In the next room, surf across the water and exit at the northernmost opening. Defeat the Psychic, and enter the cave. Solving this puzzle unlocks the following Unown: W X Y Z |  |
To access the hidden room, examine the back panel behind the puzzle with Ho-oh as the first member in your party. The four items inside are:
|  We humans need to walk with them. We leave here for the sake of them |
Charcoal
Leppa Berry
Life Orb
Revival Herb| Fourth Puzzle | |
| The final puzzle, Omanyte, can be accessed after you have HM03 - Surf and HM04 - Strength. Like the third puzzle, you must go through Union Cave. Instead of exiting through the northermost opening on the second floor, head west after surfing and use Strength on the rock to get past and into the final cave. Solving this puzzle unlocks the following Unown: K L M N O P Q |  |
To access the hidden room, examine the back panel behind the puzzle and then use a Water Stone from your bag. The four items inside are:
|  They possess power to sense with mind and reject outside |
Mystic Water
Star Piece
StardustOnce all 26 alphabetical Unown have been captured and registered in the Unown Report, and each of the four hidden back rooms have been visited, talk to one of the scientists at the Research Center and he'll give you additional reports. When page seven has been given to you, head to the entrance of the ruins and examine the back panel behind the ladder. One of the scientists will inspect it and you'll both return to the Research Center. Visit the same room again, and you'll be able to capture Unown ? and Unown !.
Unown Report Contents
Page 4
Found a strange puzzle in the ruins. Solved it, and suddenly a hole opened up in the ground and I dropped into the room below! Should have known that ancient ruins would have surprising tricks like that.
There was a stone statue where I fell. The place might have been a reception hall. Then, suddenly, the UNOWN appeared. That puzzle was like a key somehow. It woke the UNOWN up from their sleep. These ruins have become difficult.
Page 5
If you turn on the radio in the ruins, you can receive mysterious radio waves! It's proof that the UNOWN communicate with each other using radio waves!
There are as many UNOWN as there are letters in the alphabet. Right now, we're confirming the existence of 26 kinds of UNOWN. Do you think you can find all 26 of them?"
Page 6
It seems that individually they don't make much sense, but when the various UNOWN are arranged in order, they begin to make sense. In nature, they seem to be scattered around randomly, but the truth is they're arranged in a very specific order.
In this report, the scattered UNOWN were sorted and put into order by the research-center staff. That makes the UNOWN much easier to understand.
Page 7
Scratched on the floor of the ruins are UNOWN letters. Finding the room feels like a huge discovery! The Researchers were very excited and said they were going to go check it out.
There aren't just 26 different kinds of UNOWN. Two more have been discovered! But that begs the question of where those other two kinds are hiding...
Page 8
The characters found scratched on the floor in the small room are transcribed here in this report. "OUR FRIENDS LOOK UP AND HEARTILY CONGRATULATE US". We don't know what this could possibly mean yet.
The Researchers were saying that they'll need to examine the ruins again, but...?
Page 9
In the past, it seems that UNOWN lived with relatives of humans in these ruins. In the lower levels of these ruins is a Pokémon statue. We've come to understand that it was those relatives who made that statue.
The UNOWN are very timid creatures, so they don't go outside the ruins. Even if a bunch of people gathered near the ruins, it is said that the ones who wished for UNOWN and humans to again coexist have all left.
