Mass outbreak

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My Pokémon Ranch explaining the general mechanics of a Mass Outbreak

Pokémon outbreaks (Japanese: 大量発生 mass outbreak), also known as swarms, mass outbreaks, or wild outbreaks, are a feature introduced in Generation II that allows the player to catch Pokémon that are usually rare or otherwise unobtainable. They appear from Generations II to V.

Generation II

In Generation II, if the player registered a certain Trainer in the Pokégear, that Trainer occasionally calls to tell the player that they saw or heard about a large number of Pokémon in a certain area; for the next 30 minutes after such a call (in real time, not play time), the swarming Pokémon appear in the given area with much greater frequency than the usual 1%.

Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal

#		Location	Levels	Notifier	Game
128	Tauros	Route 38	13	Lass Dana (Route 38)	G	S	C
183	Marill	Mt. Mortar	13, 15	Hiker Parry (Route 45)	G	S	C
193	Yanma	Route 35	12-14	Bug Catcher Arnie (Route 35)	G	S	C
206	Dunsparce	Dark Cave	2-4	Hiker Anthony (Route 33)	G	S	C
209	Snubbull	Route 38	16	Schoolboy Chad (Route 38)	G	S	C
211	Qwilfish	Route 32 Fishing	5/20/40 Old/Good/Super Rod	Fisher Ralph (Route 32)	G	S	C
223	Remoraid	Route 44 Fishing	10/20/40 Old/Good/Super Rod	Fisher Wilton (Route 44)	G	S	C

Generation III

In Generation III, in addition to making rare Pokémon temporarily more common, this feature can be combined with record mixing to allow the player to catch Pokémon that cannot be caught at all normally.

Every time the player wins a battle, there is a ~0.5% (0x147/0xffff) chance that the game will generate an outbreak. This does not apply to the player's first battle, the Wally catching tutorial, link battles, e-Reader battles, the Safari Zone, or the Battle Tower/Frontier. After an outbreak is generated, the television program announcing it will appear the next day. Once the television program has been watched, the outbreak becomes active.^[1] Outbreaks last until the end of the day after they became active, during which time the swarming Pokémon will have an appearance rate of 50%.

The record mixing feature of Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald allows players to give an outbreak they've seen to other players, regardless of whether that outbreak would naturally occur in the player's game. The traded outbreaks will be announced on television in the following days after mixing records.

Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald

The Seedot and Nuzleaf that break out in Emerald will know the Egg Move Leech Seed.

#		Location	Levels	Game
283	Surskit	Route 102	3	R	S	E
		Route 114	15	R	S	E
		Route 117	15	R	S	E
		Route 120	28	R	S	E
300	Skitty	Route 116	15	R	S	E
300	Skitty	Route 116	8	R	S	E
273	Seedot	Route 102	3	R	S	E
		Route 117	13	R	S	E
		Route 120	25	R	S	E
274	Nuzleaf	Route 114	15	R	S	E

Generation IV

Pokémon outbreaks were largely expanded in Generation IV. Once the player attains the National Pokédex, every day in a particular location, a "swarm of Pokémon" appears, which changes the probability of finding the given Pokémon from 0% to 40%. Outbreaks last only one day and are random events. Information about Pokémon outbreaks can be found in Sandgem Town by talking to Lucas/Dawn's sister or by watching the Sinnoh television ^DPPt, or by listening to Professor Oak's Pokémon Talk ^HGSS.

When players all join the same group, they will all experience the same outbreak on any given day.

The species of an outbreak seems to be determined using a formula, because it is not chosen randomly when the player starts the game that day. Even if the date is edited, the next swarm will always be the same. It is also possible that the species is determined the day before, though there is no additional evidence to support this. If the DS clock is changed or a different DS is used, then the game will detect this and will not change the species swarming until 12:00 AM.

Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum

Many of the Pokémon obtained through Pokémon outbreaks are outside of the Sinnoh Pokédex, and are usually otherwise exclusive to other regions.

Due to the high encounter chances for Pokémon that appear during outbreaks, they make for longer and better chains when using the Poké Radar.

#		Location	Levels	Game
016	Pidgey	Route 229	51	D	P	Pt
081	Magnemite	Fuego Ironworks	28-29	D	P	Pt
083	Farfetch'd	Route 221	28	D	P	Pt
083	Farfetch'd	Route 221	28-29	D	P	Pt
084	Doduo	Route 201	2	D	P	Pt
096	Drowzee	Route 215	20-21	D	P	Pt
096	Drowzee	Route 215	19-20	D	P	Pt
098	Krabby	Route 226	52	D	P	Pt
098	Krabby	Route 226	48-49	D	P	Pt
100	Voltorb	Route 218	28	D	P	Pt
100	Voltorb	Route 218	28-29	D	P	Pt
104	Cubone	Route 203	4	D	P	Pt
108	Lickitung	Lake Valor	34, 36	D	P	Pt
127	Pinsir	Route 229	48-49	D	P	Pt
177	Natu	Route 224	53	D	P	Pt
177	Natu	Route 224	50	D	P	Pt
206	Dunsparce	Route 208	16	D	P	Pt
206	Dunsparce	Route 208	18	D	P	Pt
209	Snubbull	Route 209	16	D	P	Pt
209	Snubbull	Route 209	18-19	D	P	Pt
220	Swinub	Route 217	34	D	P	Pt
222	Corsola	Route 230	50	D	P	Pt
222	Corsola	Route 230	48	D	P	Pt
225	Delibird	Route 216	32	D	P	Pt
225	Delibird	Route 217	32-33	D	P	Pt
231	Phanpy	Route 207	5	D	P	Pt
231	Phanpy	Route 207	5, 7	D	P	Pt
238	Smoochum	Lake Acuity	35	D	P	Pt
246	Larvitar	Route 206	16	D	P	Pt
263	Zigzagoon	Route 202	3	D	P	Pt
283	Surskit	Lake Verity	2	D	P	Pt
287	Slakoth	Eterna Forest	10	D	P	Pt
287	Slakoth	Eterna Forest	10-11	D	P	Pt
296	Makuhita	Route 225	50-51	D	P	Pt
296	Makuhita	Route 225	48-49	D	P	Pt
299	Nosepass	Route 206	14	D	P	Pt
300	Skitty	Route 222	40	D	P	Pt
300	Skitty	Route 222	39-40	D	P	Pt
309	Electrike	Valley Windworks	7	D	P	Pt
309	Electrike	Valley Windworks	9-10	D	P	Pt
325	Spoink	Route 214	22-23	D	P	Pt
325	Spoink	Route 214	21, 23	D	P	Pt
327	Spinda	Route 227	55	D	P	Pt
327	Spinda	Route 227	53-54	D	P	Pt
359	Absol	Route 213	20	D	P	Pt
374	Beldum	Route 228	53	D	P	Pt
374	Beldum	Route 228	51-52	D	P	Pt

Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver

The feature continues to appear in HeartGold and SoulSilver, where the wild Pokémon available include all those from Generation II, plus Ditto, Chansey, and Pokémon from Hoenn and Sinnoh. Information on swarms can now be found by listening to Professor Oak's Pokémon Talk on the Pokégear radio.

#		Location	Levels	Game
113	Chansey	Route 13	23	HG	SS
132	Ditto	Route 47	34	HG	SS
183	Marill	Mt. Mortar	15	HG	SS
193	Yanma	Route 35	12	HG	SS
206	Dunsparce	Dark Cave	2-3	HG	SS
209	Snubbull	Route 38	16	HG	SS
211	Qwilfish	Route 32	40	HG	SS
223	Remoraid	Route 44	20	HG	SS
261	Poochyena	Route 1	2	HG	SS
278	Wingull	Vermilion City Surfing	35	HG	SS
280	Ralts	Route 34	10-11	HG	SS
302	Sableye	Route 9	13-15	HG	SS
303	Mawile	Route 9	13-15	HG	SS
316	Gulpin	Route 3	5	HG	SS
333	Swablu	Route 45	23	HG	SS
340	Whiscash	Violet City Fishing	10/20/40 Old/Good/Super Rod	HG	SS
343	Baltoy	Route 3	5	HG	SS
366	Clamperl	Route 19 Surfing	35	HG	SS
369	Relicanth	Route 12 Fishing	40 Super Rod	HG	SS
370	Luvdisc	Route 27 Surfing	20	HG	SS
401	Kricketot	Viridian Forest	3	HG	SS
427	Buneary	Route 25	8-10	HG	SS

Generation V

The gates in Unova have a monitor inside that will alert the player to where an outbreak is taking place.

Unlike in previous games, the Pokémon outbreaks can be manipulated by soft resetting the game, but only if the player has not saved their game at all that day. When the game is restarted, there will be a different Pokémon swarming.

Black and White

During winter, the monitor may occasionally not report on outbreaks, which is due to parts of Route 8, where Croagunk can be found, becoming frozen during Winter and not allowing the Pokémon to be caught there. All outbreaks in these games have a level range of 15-55.

#		Location	Levels	Game
046	Paras	Route 11	15-55	B	W
056	Mankey	Route 15	15-55	B	W
083	Farfetch'd	Route 1	15-55	B	W
084	Doduo	Route 12	15-55	B	W
102	Exeggcute	Route 18	15-55	B	W
161	Sentret	Route 7	15-55	B	W
193	Yanma	Route 14	15-55	B	W
204	Pineco	Route 16	15-55	B	W
228	Houndour	Route 9	15-55	B	W
235	Smeargle	Route 5	15-55	B	W
236	Tyrogue	Route 10	15-55	B	W
261	Poochyena	Route 9	15-55	B	W
285	Shroomish	Route 11	15-55	B	W
311	Plusle	Route 6	15-55	B	W
312	Minun	Route 6	15-55	B	W
313	Volbeat	Route 3	15-55	B	W
314	Illumise	Route 3	15-55	B	W
353	Shuppet	Route 13	15-55	B	W
360	Wynaut	Route 2	15-55	B	W
449	Hippopotas	Route 4	15-55	B	W
453	Croagunk	Route 8	15-55	B	W

Black 2 and White 2

All outbreaks in these games have a level range of 40-55 and an encounter rate of 40%.

#		Location	Levels	Game
022	Fearow	Route 15	40-55	B2	W2
079	Slowpoke	Abundant Shrine	40-55	B2	W2
083	Farfetch'd	Route 1	40-55	B2	W2
084	Doduo	Route 12	40-55	B2	W2
097	Hypno	Dreamyard	40-55	B2	W2
122	Mr. Mime	Route 20	40-55	B2	W2
162	Furret	Route 7	40-55	B2	W2
166	Ledian	Route 22	40-55	B2	W2
168	Ariados	Route 22	40-55	B2	W2
177	Natu	Route 5	40-55	B2	W2
185	Sudowoodo	Route 20	40-55	B2	W2
187	Hoppip	Route 18	40-55	B2	W2
195	Quagsire	Route 8	40-55	B2	W2
204	Pineco	Route 16	40-55	B2	W2
277	Swellow	Route 13	40-55	B2	W2
284	Masquerain	Route 11	40-55	B2	W2
311	Plusle	Route 6	40-55	B2	W2
312	Minun	Route 6	40-55	B2	W2
313	Volbeat	Route 3	40-55	B2	W2
314	Illumise	Route 3	40-55	B2	W2
317	Swalot	Route 9	40-55	B2	W2
332	Cacturne	Reversal Mountain	40-55	B2	W2
450	Hippowdon	Desert Resort	40-55	B2	W2