Wild Pokémon

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A wild Magneton appears to Lucas in Pokémon Platinum

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 or in caves. Typically, a Trainer will attempt to capture a wild Pokémon with a Poké Ball but it is also common for a trainer to Run from a Pokémon they are not interested in. 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

In the games, wild Pokémon will appear to the player in a variety of locations, most often by walking through tall grass, but also within caves, abandoned buildings, surfing on water, fishing, smashing rocks, headbutting small trees, using Sweet Scent, or by slathering honey on certain trees. Depending on the location, the Pokémon may be different species, and are typically at higher levels in areas only accessible later in the game.

Dawn and Cheryl encounter a wild Budew and Buneary

When encountered, a wild Pokémon's moveset will consist of the most recent four moves its species learns by level-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, SonicBoom, and Detect. This is true for even evolved species, such as Raichu, which, if it were able to be encountered in the wild, would always know ThunderShock, Tail Whip, Quick Attack, and Thunderbolt.

There are several ways to alter the wild Pokémon encounter rate. One of these, introduced in Generation I, is the use of Repel, which will avoid encounters with any Pokémon of a lower level than the party's lead Pokémon. In Generation II, Pokémon March and Pokémon Lullaby, played on the PokéGear, will raise or lower the encounter rate respectively, while certain abilities and the White and Black Flutes do the same in Generation III and Generation IV.

In Generation IV, if the player is traveling with a partner, wild Pokémon will show up in pairs as well, however, to catch them, the player will need to knock out one of them first.

In the anime

Typically, wild Pokémon do not appear in the anime, which focuses mostly on the Pokémon belonging to Ash and his friends. Most of the Pokémon belonging to the group were shown in the wild at some point, but are usually captured at a later point in the 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 captured. Of all of these Pokémon, only an Aipom that stole Ash's hat went on to be captured several episodes after it appeared.

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.