Fateful encounter

A fateful encounter (Japanese: うんめいてき であい destined meeting) is a flag attached to certain event Pokémon and some event-exclusive wild legendary Pokémon that indicates they were met in a special manner. In Generation III, "fateful encounter" was listed as the encounter location; in Generation IV and on, "fateful encounter" is in the text describing the method of encounter.

However, "fateful encounter" does not always appear in the text of Pokémon with this flag set in Generations III and IV. In Generation III, this flag is set for any Mew and Deoxys received from events, as well as the Deoxys caught on Birth Island and the Mew caught on Faraway Island. Moreover, any Pokémon obtained in Pokémon XD will have this special flag set. Without it, it is impossible for these Pokémon to obey the player, even if he or she has obtained all Badges.

In Generation IV, the presence of this flag, from Pokémon Platinum onward, allows for special events to happen if the Pokémon with the "fateful encounter" flag is in the party.

List of in-game events activated by fateful encounter Pokémon

• Shaymin
  • Pokémon Platinum - in the Floaroma Town Pokémon Center, players can receive a Gracidea from a woman.
  • Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver - in the Goldenrod City Flower Shop, players can again receive a Gracidea Flower from a woman.
  • Pokémon Black and White - in the Lacunosa Town Pokémon Center, players can receive a Gracidea Flower from a woman.
  • Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 - in the Striaton City Pokémon Center, players can receive a Gracidea from a woman, as above.

• Regigigas
  • Pokémon Platinum - Activates the appearance of Rock Peak, Iceberg, and Iron Ruins where the other legendary golems can be captured.

• Shiny Pichu
  • Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver - Activates an event involving an encounter with the Spiky-eared Pichu.

• Arceus
  • Pokémon Platinum - in Oreburgh Mine, a Hiker will give away a Flame Plate and a book in the Canalave Library will become available with the inscriptions on all Plates.
  • Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver - When selected as partner Pokémon, the player will be able to teleport from the Ruins of Alph to the Sinjoh Ruins far to the north. This allows the player to obtain either a level 1 Dialga, Palkia or Giratina, holding its respective orb.

• Celebi
  • Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver - activates an event with an encounter and battle with Giovanni after being taken back in time with Celebi.
  • Pokémon Black and White - Allows the player to obtain a Zorua.

• Shiny legendary beasts
  • Pokémon Black and White - activates a battle with a wild Zoroark.

Trivia

• In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, the Shaymin that is captured in the Flower Paradise will not be a fateful encounter Shaymin, while in Pokémon Platinum, it will be. This was likely implemented due to the tweaking and Surf glitches, which allow access to Shaymin in Diamond and Pearl, while this was removed in Platinum. Due to the way receipt and use of the Gracidea is programmed, if the Platinum Shaymin were not given this status, despite being able to be legitimately obtained with Oak's Letter, it would not be able to transform into Sky Forme.
• It was once believed that a fateful encounter flag was needed to be set on a Jirachi in order to activate the Night Sky's Edge Pokéwalker route; indeed, events where such Jirachi were distributed advertised such an unlockable. However, it was later discovered that all Jirachi are capable of unlocking the route even without the fateful encounter flag.

See also

• List of Nintendo event Pokémon with in-game effects

This game mechanics article is part of Project Games, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon games.