Bug-Catching Contest

Bug-Catching Contest judging in Generation IV

The Bug-Catching Contest (Japanese: むしとりたいかい Bug-Catching Contest) is a competition held every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday in Johto's National Park. The Bug-Catching Contest was introduced in Gold, Silver, and Crystal, and makes a return in Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver.

In the games

Rules

There is no entry fee for the Bug-Catching Contest. Anyone may enter once per day, every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

To compete, Trainers must catch the single best Bug-type Pokémon they can find. To do this, Trainers are given twenty Sport Balls (similar to Safari Balls; called "Park Balls" in Generation II), and they are only allowed to use a single Pokémon from their party. The rest of a Trainer's Pokémon remain with the contest officials until the competition is over. The player cannot save the game in the middle of the contest, nor can they use any items from the Bag, except for the limited purpose of giving their chosen Pokémon a held item.

Any Pokémon caught will be recorded in the Pokédex, but only one Pokémon can be kept to be judged. The Pokémon that is judged may be kept after the competition.

The competition ends when all the Sport Balls are used, the Trainer blacks out, the Trainer leaves the park, the Trainer chooses to quit the competition from the menu, or 20 minutes have passed. After that, the judging will occur, in which Trainers are scored on their skills of capturing rare and powerful Pokémon. In Generation II, judging takes place inside the gate to/from Route 36, while in Generation IV, judging takes place in front of the fountain in the middle of the National Park.

Pokémon available

Generation II

Pokémon	Games						Location	Levels	Rate
Caterpie	G		S		C		Grass	7-18	20%
Metapod	G		S		C		Grass	9-18	10%
Butterfree	G		S		C		Grass	12-15	5%
Weedle	G		S		C		Grass	7-18	20%
Kakuna	G		S		C		Grass	9-18	10%
Beedrill	G		S		C		Grass	12-15	5%
Paras	G		S		C		Grass	10-17	10%
Venonat	G		S		C		Grass	10-16	10%
Scyther	G		S		C		Grass	13-14	5%
Pinsir	G		S		C		Grass	13-14	5%
A colored background means that the Pokémon can be found in this location in the specified game. A white background with a colored letter means that the Pokémon cannot be found here.

• Scyther, Pinsir, and one family of Bug-type Pokémon (Caterpie, Metapod and Butterfree in Silver, Weedle, Kakuna and Beedrill in Gold) can only be caught during the Bug-Catching Contest. All the others can be caught in the wild outside the contest.

Generation IV

When generating Pokémon's IVs, the game will reroll the numbers up to 4 times if none of the IVs are at 31.

Pre-National Pokédex

These Pokémon are available in Contests held every day pre-National Pokédex, and on Tuesdays post-National Pokédex (denoted by the levels indicated in the parentheses).

Pokémon	Games						Location	Levels	Rate
Caterpie	HG			SS			Grass	7-18 (24-36)	20%
Metapod	HG			SS			Grass	9-18 (26-36)	10%
Butterfree	HG			SS			Grass	12-15 (27-30)	5%
Weedle	HG			SS			Grass	7-18 (24-36)	20%
Kakuna	HG			SS			Grass	9-18 (26-36)	10%
Beedrill	HG			SS			Grass	12-15 (27-30)	5%
Paras	HG			SS			Grass	10-17 (27-34)	10%
Venonat	HG			SS			Grass	10-16 (25-32)	10%
Scyther	HG			SS			Grass	13-14 (27-28)	5%
Pinsir	HG			SS			Grass	13-14 (27-28)	5%
A colored background means that the Pokémon can be found in this location in the specified game. A white background with a colored letter means that the Pokémon cannot be found here.

Post-National Pokédex

These Pokémon are only available in Contests held on Thursday and Saturday post-National Pokédex.

Pokémon	Games						Location	Levels	Rate
Scyther	HG			SS			Grass	27-28	5%
Pinsir	HG			SS			Grass	27-28	5%
Wurmple	HG			SS			Grass	24-36	20%
Silcoon	HG			SS			Grass	24-36	10%Th
Beautifly	HG			SS			Grass	25-32	5%Sa
Cascoon	HG			SS			Grass	24-36	10%Sa
Dustox	HG			SS			Grass	25-32	5%Th
Nincada	HG			SS			Grass	26-36	20%
Volbeat	HG			SS			Grass	26-36	10%Th
Illumise	HG			SS			Grass	26-36	10%Sa
Kricketot	HG			SS			Grass	27-30	10%
Kricketune	HG			SS			Grass	27-30	10%
Combee	HG			SS			Grass	27-34	5%
A colored background means that the Pokémon can be found in this location in the specified game. A white background with a colored letter means that the Pokémon cannot be found here.

Scoring

Generation II

The score earned for a given Pokémon in Generation II is the sum of the following:

• 4 times the max HP of the Pokémon
• The sum of the Pokémon's other stats
• Up to 29 points based on the Pokémon's individual values:
  • 16 points if half of the Defense IV (rounded down) results in an odd number, 0 otherwise
  • 8 points if half of the Attack IV (rounded down) is odd, 0 otherwise
  • 4 points if half of the Special IV (rounded down) is odd, 0 otherwise
  • 1 point if half of the Speed IV (rounded down) is odd, 0 otherwise
    • If the player manages to find a Shiny Pokémon during the contest, it will be assured of earning all 29 of these points.
• 1/8 of the current HP of the Pokémon, rounded down
• 1 point if the Pokémon is holding an item, 0 otherwise

The maximum possible score in this version of the contest is 386, achieved by catching a level 14 Scyther with maximum IVs in every stat and without dealing more than 7 damage to it.

Generation IV

The score earned for a given Pokémon in Generation IV is the sum of the following:

• The level of the Pokémon relative to the maximum that can be found in the contest (e.g. before the National Pokédex, the maximum value for Paras would be 17, but after the National Pokédex, this would be 34), as a percentage
• The Pokémon's IVs relative to the maximum (186), as a percentage
• The Pokémon's HP relative to its maximum, as a percentage
• A rarity factor, either 60 (Caterpie, Metapod, Weedle, Kakuna, Wurmple, Silcoon, Cascoon, or Kricketot), 80 (all Pokémon not mentioned), or 100 (Scyther or Pinsir)

Therefore, the maximum possible score in this version of the contest is 400, achieved by catching Scyther or Pinsir at either level 14 or 28 (whichever is available), with maximum IVs in every stat, and without dealing any damage to it.

Competitors

These are the competitors found in the Contest.

• Cooltrainer Nick^GSC/Ace Trainer Abby^HGSS
• Pokéfan William
• Youngster Samuel
• Camper Barry
• Bug Catcher Ed
• Bug Catcher Benny
• Bug Catcher Josh
• Bug Catcher Don
• Schoolboy^GSC/School Kid^HGSS Kipp
• Picnicker Cindy

Scores

Generation II

In the Generation II games, each NPC contestant has three possible base scores. Five of the ten NPCs are randomly chosen to appear in the contest, and each of them randomly receives one of their three base scores, plus a random bonus of up to 7 points.

The lowest score that can possibly take first place in this version of the contest is 264, which requires the randomly chosen NPCs to be Don, Ed, Samuel, Kipp, and Cindy and for them to receive their low-value scores.

Contestant	Pokémon	Score
Bug Catcher Don	Kakuna	300
	Metapod	285
	Caterpie	226
Bug Catcher Ed	Butterfree	286
	Butterfree	251
	Caterpie	237
Cooltrainer Nick	Scyther	357
	Butterfree	349
	Pinsir	368
Pokéfan William	Pinsir	332
	Butterfree	324
	Venonat	321
Bug Catcher Benny	Butterfree	318
	Weedle	295
	Caterpie	285
Camper Barry	Pinsir	366
	Venonat	329
	Kakuna	314
Picnicker Cindy	Butterfree	341
	Metapod	301
	Caterpie	264
Bug Catcher Josh	Scyther	326
	Butterfree	292
	Metapod	282
Youngster Samuel	Weedle	270
	Pinsir	282
	Caterpie	251
Schoolboy Kipp	Venonat	267
	Paras	254
	Kakuna	259

Prizes

Place	Version
	Gold	Silver	Crystal	HeartGold	SoulSilver
1st	Sun Stone			Sun Stone (pre-National Pokédex)
				Random Evolution stone (post-National Pokédex)
2nd	Everstone			Everstone
3rd	Gold Berry			Sitrus Berry
Consolation Prize	Berry			Shed Shell

In the anime

The Bug-Catching Contest audience in the anime

In The Bug Stops Here, Ash and Casey competed in the Bug-Catching Contest. During the competition, Casey caught a Weedle, and her Chikorita evolved into a Bayleef. Ash won the competition with a Beedrill, earning himself a Sun Stone. After the competition, he gave the Beedrill to Casey, being aware of her love for Pokémon with yellow and black stripes.

In the anime, the Contest can be followed from a giant screen outside of the park. It also has several other notable differences from the games.

• Only the winner is allowed to keep the Pokémon they caught.
• No consolation prize is available, neither are there any sort of rewards for anybody other than the champion, whereas such prizes can be earned in the games.
• The contest implements strict age-limits: only children under 18 (16 in the dub) are allowed to participate.

Trivia

• The music used during the contest is a remix of the Kanto-based games' Bicycle music.
• In Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal, the contest encounter data table has an unused 11th entry, for Venomoth ranging from level 30 to 40.
• If Youngster Samuel catches a Pinsir in Generation II, it will receive a score between 282 and 289 points, but no Pinsir available during the contest can evaluate to a score lower than 293.
• After the player obtains the National Pokédex and enters the contest on Thursdays and Saturdays in Generation IV, some of the other competitors may be announced as having caught a Pokémon in the Caterpie or Weedle lines, despite those Pokémon not being available to the player on those days.
• In Generation IV, if at the end of the contest the player has a full party and their newly captured Pokémon is sent to the PC, it is referred to as "Bill's PC" (as opposed to "Someone's PC") even if the player has not yet met Bill.
• In Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, when met at the National Park, Bugsy reveals that he's won the contest multiple times, explaining why he does not participate in it with the player.

In other languages

Language Title Chinese Cantonese 捕蟲大賽 Bouhchùhng Daaihchoi Mandarin 捕蟲大賽 / 捕虫大赛 Bǔchóng Dàsài Czech Soutěž v chytání hmyzích Pokémonů Finnish Ötökänpyydystyskisa French Concours de Capture d'insecte German Käferturnier Italian Gara Pigliamosche Korean 곤충채집 대회 Gonchungchaejip Daehoe Polish Zawody w Łapaniu Pokémonów Robaków Spanish Concurso de Captura de Bichos Swedish Fånga Kryp-Pokémontävlingen Vietnamese Đại hội bắt côn trùng