Pokémon Sword & Shield Ditto Guide

The easiest way to get a perfect IV Ditto in Sword & Shield

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The Transform Pokémon Ditto is an invaluable resource to Pokémon breeding! So, where is Ditto and what’s the best way to get a Ditto with high IVs or a variety of natures?

In The Wild

After you’ve obtained your 8th badge, you will be strong enough to capture Ditto in the Wild Area. You’ll find it roaming the Over World at Lake Outrage 10% of the time in all weather. You’ll also find it as a surprise encounter in the grass during Normal Weather 2% of the time.

If you need Ditto specifically for a nature, it might be best to search here with a Synchronize Pokémon.

In Max Raids

North of the Nursery in the Wild Area, you’ll find an area called the Stony Wilderness. The Stony Wilderness has mountains lining its Eastern border. If you travel into the area and hug the Eastern wall, you’ll find a small patch of grass with a den behind it. This out-of-the-way den has a secret. The Rare Dens have a 100% chance of having a Ditto. Furthermore, all Raid based Pokémon have a chance at max IVs. Making it perfect for breeding!

When you encounter Ditto, consider setting a friend code by pressing “+” and keeping it exclusive to your friends. Or! Recruit help from the community and leave it open. Whatever you decide, before you dive in, there are two critical components you’ll want to consider.

Repeat Balls

Remember that higher star values also mean the Pokémon will be harder to capture. Before you lob another Ultra Ball at Ditto, consider a Repeat Ball.

Ultra Balls increase your catch chance by x 2. However, if the Pokémon is already in your Pokédex, the Repeat Ball increases your chances of capturing by x 3.5. That increase is almost double! You can buy Repeat Balls for 1,000$ in Wyndon’s central Pokémon Center!

Ditto Transforms

Before you select your favorite Pokémon with great coverage moves, consider that Ditto can transform into any of its four opposing Pokémon, given that they are able to dynamax.

Pokémon who cannot dynamax are the legendary Pokémon Zacian, Zamazenta, and Eternatus. Therefore, if you bring these three Pokémon to Ditto raids, Ditto will already be Dynamaxed and will not be able to assume their form–as they cannot Dynamax. If all four trainers bring legendary Pokémon, Ditto will fail to transform endlessly. Go ahead and chip away at its HP in an easy encounter.

Happy Egg Hatching!

Shout out to our friends Paul (IG @puccello27), JT (IG @jayt491), and Nick Schwerdtfeger for the ground-breaking field research using legendary Pokémon against Ditto!

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200 thoughts on “The easiest way to get a perfect IV Ditto in Sword & Shield”

  2. I scoffed at the exp candy s after I had beaten the game, but now that I’m doing this special run, they have proven immensely useful when starting out.

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  6. I want some headcanons about your trainer and their journey. Cute stuff. So saccharine my heart will melt outta my fuckin chest LETS GO

    Reply

  7. So you can catch opposite version exclusives via raid battles, thats pretty dope if i’m honest. I just got myself a Goodra which saves me some headaches haha.

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  9. Does Team Yell ever actually doing anything significant aside from shepherding me where the game wants me to go? Because they’re pretty lame so far and removing them seems to change nothing about the game. You dont even fight them frequently enough for them to be useful in terms of the level curve or anything. I just got to Spikemuth

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  10. I’m already planning my teams for after I complete each version and restart…

    Sword:
    Rillaboom, Indeedee, Sirfetch’d, Arctovish, Centiskorch, and Copperajah or Polteageist (can’t decide)

    Shield:
    Intelleon, Eiscue, Galarian Darmanitan, Beartic, Mamoswine, Gigantamax Lapras

    Reply

    • It has to be upside down while you’re leveling up. I go ahead and flip it when I start getting the exp. Just to be sure, it must also be at least level 30 to evolve.

      Reply

  13. If you could choose your teammate’s Poké Balls, which would they each be in?

    Roger the Rillaboom – Friend Ball/Poké Ball
    Flea the Centiskorch – Level Ball
    Dean the Drednaw – Dive Ball
    Axel the Toxtricity – Quick Ball
    Paul the Sandaconda – Nest Ball
    Courtney the Alcremie – Fast Ball

    Reply

  14. Finished Sword this weekend. Wish I’d bought Shield, since I actually like Zamazenta much more, especially knowing Zacian is f*cking Fairy-type?? But my love for Bea and my hate towards Allister made me buy Sword. And now I have to miss my dear Drampa. Oh well.

    I liked this game. The way the gym battles were designed was amazing. It made completing the gyms so much more important, since the whole region was watching. This made the storyline pretty solid. However, I was hoping for an amazing villain-storyline, but that disappointed me. Rose was pretty vague with whatever he wanted and his villainous story was also very short. They could’ve done a lot more.

    The new Pokémon. There are some additions I really like, e.g. Cinderace, Inteleon, Corviknight, Dubwool, Drednaw, Toxtricity, Polteageist, Grimmsnarl, Frosmoth, Copperajah and Zamazenta are solid. However, there are also some additions I didn’t like, e.g. Rillaboom, Blipbug line, Applin line, Silicobra line and Arctovish aren’t my favorites. I feel like they made it their mission to create as much gimmicky Pokémon as possible. This includes favorites like Cinderace and Inteleon. Overall, the new creations are fine, but my expectations were too high, I guess.

    I actually liked Hop in the end, even though at first I thought I wouldn’t like him as much. That said, he’s pretty much the same ‘rival’ we’ve seen a couple of generations now. Hoped for something more fresh. The professor is pretty much out of sight and could’ve been given more screen time. Team Yell… meh. Also expected more. The lack of an evil team is really bothering me, more than I thought it would. I really miss teams like Plasma and Aether. Also, I like that the gym leader played a larger role. I really liked most of their designs, especially Nessa’s and Bea’s, but I hate what they did to our first Dark-type gym leader. I was hoping for more. Again, my expectations were probably too high.

    The region is beautiful, although it felt small. Larger cities like Motostoke and Hammerlocke were actually not that large. The Wild Area also lacked. It was cool, but I hope GF takes the experience of creating such an area and makes it much better in a next game. That being said, the scenery was beautiful and a lot felt really realistic.

    Overall, I’m happy with the game and I’m glad to have played a game more or less without knowing anything, although I kept up with most of the videos, but I decided to not watch them two months before release. I also avoided spoilers. That’s why it felt fresh and I really wanted to explore and walk into some tall grass. But I don’t think this game tops SM for me. I know many people didn’t like SM, I really did and I think the bigger story seals the deal for me. A mix between SM and SwSh would be amazing, with the villainous story arc from SM and the gym battles from SwSh. So it’s a decent game, but I hope the third version of these games takes it up a notch.

    Reply

  15. Started a new game on another profile, and I am back on my bullshit, 5 hours in and I am not even on the first gym, just doing raids, low level offline raids at that, and because I am playing it in short bursts after days of playing my normal game with days in between sessions these raids just respawn as soon as I move somewhere else…. please help.

    Reply

  21. Alright i freaking need a 6IV Ditto, Breeding is so time consuming without one, but i managed to get a 5IV Male Rhyhorn with Rock Head with Metal Burst, three factors all on RNG

    Reply

  22. I finally made it all the way to the Battle Tree in Ultra Sun which means I’m ready to grind through thousands of level 60 Pokemon in pursuit of many assorted evolutions. The end of my mission is rapidly closing in but there are probably going to be some really annoying snags along the way. Only a few final starter evolutions left to go!

    Reply

  25. Cool.. Does anyone know if Repeat Balls works on Gigantamax Pokemon if you have the regular ones registered in your dex? If it does, it surely beats using ultra balls in daytime…

    Reply

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