Abilities

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Abilities are passive effects that each Pokémon possesses for use in battle. A Pokémon's Ability is decided when the Pokémon spawns, and is chosen from a pool of up to three possible Abilities that the Pokémon can have. A Pokémon may only have one Ability at a time.

The pool of possible Abilities a Pokémon can have contains up to two normal Abilities and one hidden Ability, depending on the Pokémon's species. If the Pokémon has two possible normal Abilities, there is an equal chance that either of them will be allocated as the Pokémon's Ability upon spawning. Hidden Abilities are significantly rarer than normal Abilities; by default, a wild Pokémon has a 1/150 chance of having its hidden Ability. The combinations of possible Abilities a Pokémon may have include:

One normal Ability
One normal Ability and one hidden Ability
Two normal Abilities and one hidden Ability

Abilities, including hidden Abilities, can be passed down through breeding. There is an 80% chance that the mother Pokémon will pass down her Ability, or a 60% chance for hidden abilities; the other 20% or 40% of the time, the Ability is chosen randomly from the Pokémon's normal Abilities (with no chance of a hidden Ability). Along similar lines, the father has a 60% chance of passing down his Ability if he breeds with a Ditto, which applies for both normal and hidden abilities.

A Pokémon may change between its two normal Abilities (if it has them) using an Ability Capsule. However, an Ability Capsule cannot change a Pokémon from its normal Ability to its hidden Ability (this is instead done with an Ability Patch). In Creative mode, it is possible to toggle a Pokémon's Ability (including to and from its hidden Ability) using a Pokémon editor.

List of Abilities

Abilities with non-battle effects

First of Party effects:

Storm Drain: Boosts Water-type spawn rate by 5x
Flash Fire: Boosts Fire-type spawn rate by 5x
Harvest: Boosts Grass-type spawn rate by 5x
Lightning Rod/Static: Boosts Electric-type spawn rate by 5x
Magnet Pull: Boosts Steel-type spawn rate by 5x
Infiltrator: Reduces spawn rate of all Pokémon by 50%
Synchronize: Forces the wild Pokémon's Nature to match the Synchronize Pokémon's Nature
Super Luck: Rerolls the held item for wild Pokémon if the first attempt didn't get one

In-party effects:

Pickup: 10% chance to put an item in your inventory after battles
Magma Armor/Flame Body/Steam Engine: Each step counts twice towards hatching Eggs

Moveskills:

Intimidate: Allows the Pokémon to use the Scare moveskill.
Magnet Pull: Allows the Pokémon to use the Ore Sense moveskill.
Illuminate: Allows the Pokémon to use the Flash moveskill.

Config settings

"hiddenAbilitySpawnRate": The chance of wild or spawned-in Pokémon having their hidden Abilities. This setting does not affect breeding.

NBT tag storage

While Abilities themselves are stored in data as NBT tags, there is also a separate tag known as the "Ability slot", which is also created upon the spawning of the Pokémon. This value is where the Pokémon's Ability derives from and controls what the Pokémon's Ability will change to upon evolution (if applicable). It is also used when determining the chances of getting each possible Ability when breeding.

Through the use of an external NBT editor, it is possible to change a Pokémon's Ability. However, if the Pokémon's Ability slot is not also modified correctly, side effects will occur. For example, if a Pokémon spawns in with a normal Ability and is edited to have its hidden Ability without changing the Ability slot, it will be impossible for the Pokémon to pass down its Ability through breeding as the breeding algorithm relies on the Ability slot, which is still routed to a normal Ability in this case.

Abilities

Abilities

Contents

List of Abilities

Abilities with non-battle effects

Config settings

NBT tag storage