Wild Pokémon: Difference between revisions

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A wild Pikachu appears in Pokémon X and Y

Wild Pokémon (Japanese: 野生ポケモン wild Pokémon) are any Pokémon that are not currently owned by a Pokémon Trainer. They are encountered in most parts of the Pokémon world, most commonly outside of cities and towns, often in tall grass, in caves, or on water. A Trainer may choose to battle a wild Pokémon or run from it. If a Trainer chooses to battle, they may either attempt to catch the Pokémon with a Poké Ball or to defeat it outright. There are many instances of wild Pokémon being used for assistance without being caught, such as Pokémon Rangers using them to perform a task by directing them with a Capture Styler.

In the games

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A battle against a wild Pokémon in Pokémon Sun and Moon

In the games, wild Pokémon will appear to the player in a variety of locations, most often when the player is walking through tall grass, but also within caves, abandoned buildings, or when surfing on water. The species and level of the Pokémon depends on both the location and encounter method. Other methods of encountering wild Pokémon include the following:

• Walking through deep sand, puddles, or snow
• Fishing
• Interacting with Pokémon in the overworld
• Smashing breakable rocks
• Headbutting Headbutt trees
• Using Sweet Scent or Honey
• Interacting with Honey Trees that have been slathered with Honey
• Inspecting certain objects, such as TVs, trash cans, and roadside bushes
• Phenomena
• Ambush encounters
• Soaring

A wild Double Battle in Pokémon Black and White

There are several ways to alter the wild Pokémon encounter rate. One of these, introduced in Generation I, is the use of Repels, which will avoid encounters with any Pokémon of a lower level than the party's lead Pokémon. The Cleanse Tag was introduced in Generation II, which lowers the encounter rate. Pokémon March and Pokémon Lullaby in Generation II, played on the Pokégear, will raise or lower the encounter rate respectively, while certain Abilities do the same since Generation III (many only gaining this effect in Emerald). The White and Black Flutes can be used for this in Generation III and Generation IV. In Generation V, two types of Pass Powers (Encounter Power ↑ and Encounter Power ↓ ) take over this function, while in Generation VI, two O-Powers (Encounter Power and Stealth Power) inherit the same properties. In Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, encounters can be prevented by Roto Stealth.

When encountered, a wild Pokémon's moveset will generally consist of the most recent four moves its species would know by leveling-up; that is to say, a level 8 Yanma will know Tackle, Foresight, and Quick Attack when encountered in the wild in Pokémon Platinum, while one encountered at level 19 will have Quick Attack, Double Team, Sonic Boom, and Detect. This is true even for evolved species, such as Raichu, which, if it were able to be encountered in the wild in Pokémon Platinum, would always know Thunder Shock, Tail Whip, Quick Attack, and Thunderbolt. Additionally, wild Pokémon can hold an item, which can be obtained by catching the Pokémon or using a move like Thief. Wild Pokémon can steal the player's Pokémon's item in every generation except III and IV.

In some instances, multiple wild Pokémon will appear at once. From Generation IV onward, if the player is accompanied by another Pokémon Trainer they can encounter Double Battles in the wild. In Generation V, there is the chance of two Pokémon appearing at once in dark grass. In Generation VI, hordes of five Pokémon may appear. In Generation VII, a wild Pokémon can call for an ally, turning the battle into a 2-on-1 scenario. In all instances, all but one of the Pokémon will have to be defeated before that one can be caught.

If all the Pokémon in the player's party faint while battling a wild Pokémon, the player will drop some money in panic.

Encounter messages

There are times when the usual A wild <Pokémon> appeared! will be replaced by another message:

In the anime

A group of wild Bidoof in the anime

Typically, wild Pokémon are not a central feature of the anime, which focuses mostly on the Pokémon belonging to Ash, his friends, and other Trainers he encounters. Most of the Pokémon belonging to the group were shown in the wild at some point, but are usually caught at a later point in the same episode, most often at the end. Despite this, there have been several recurring wild Pokémon who appear over a length of time and are not caught. Of all of these Pokémon, an Aipom, a Gible, a Krokorok, a Froakie, a Dedenne, and a Rockruff went on to be caught several episodes after they appeared. As demonstrated in a number of occasions, Meowth is also a wild Pokémon.

There are, however, numerous examples of wild Pokémon being featured in the anime in debut episodes that introduce their species, such as Clefairy in Clefairy and the Moon Stone and Sudowoodo in Type Casting.

In the first anime episode, Ash's Pokédex states that wild Pokémon tend to be jealous of human-trained Pokémon, this being one of the reasons that the Spearow Ash hit with a rock attacked Pikachu instead.

Pokédex entries

In the manga

In the Pokémon Adventures manga

As Pokédexes prior to the arcs in Hoenn typically needed the Pokémon to be captured in order for data to be gained, capturing wild Pokémon has been a long-standing point for every Pokédex Holder save Gold and Silver until the Ruby & Sapphire arc. The first wild Pokémon to be captured was a wild Nidorino by Red, and even legendary Pokémon were seen as soon as the first round, though the one in question (a Mew appearing near Pallet Town) was not captured. Pokémon that have been released, unlike in the games, do sometimes appear in the wild and can be re-caught or controlled by another Trainer, such as Emerald's Sceptile and Mewtwo, and again unlike in the games, where identical Trainer ID means that high-level Pokémon can be controlled by its Trainer, several Pokémon such as Pika and Zeller were disobedient and likely to even attack its Trainer on a whim.

Trivia

• In early versions of Pokémon Red and Green, the wild encounter rate was so high that players would encounter wild Pokémon every two steps. Combined with the fact that Trainers would battle the player every time the player walked past them regardless of whether they had already been defeated, it would take players half a day to get through a single cave. Game Freak adjusted the wild encounter rate and changed Trainer battles for a more reasonable experience before the game was released.^[1]

In other languages

Language Title Chinese Cantonese 野生寶可夢 Yéhsāang Pokémon Mandarin 野生寶可夢 / 野生宝可梦 Yěshēng Pokémon Danish Vild Pokémon Dutch Wild Pokémon Finnish Villi Pokémon French Pokémon sauvage German Wildes Pokémon Italian Pokémon selvatico Korean 야생 포켓몬 Yasaeng Pokémon Norwegian Vill Pokémon Polish Dziki Pokémon Portuguese Brazil Pokémon selvagem Portugal Pokémon selvagem* Russian Дикий покемон Dikiy Pokémon Spanish Pokémon salvaje Swedish Vild Pokémon Vietnamese Pokémon hoang dã

References