Mass outbreak

Mass outbreaks (Japanese: 大量発生 mass outbreak), also known as swarms, Pokémon 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.

My Pokémon Ranch explaining the general mechanics of a mass outbreak

In the games

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. Until midnight (in-game time), the swarming Pokémon appear in the given area with much greater frequency than the usual 1%.

Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal

#	Pokémon		Location	Levels	Notifier	Game
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. Pokémon encountered through mass outbreaks will also have a predefined set of moves.

After entering the Hall of Fame, every time the player wins a battle, there is a ~0.5% (328/65536) chance that the game will generate an outbreak; this does not apply to 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. 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

#	Pokémon		Location	Levels	Game			Moves
283		Surskit	Route 102	3	R	S	E	Bubble Quick Attack — —
			Route 114	15	R	S	E	Bubble Quick Attack — —
			Route 117	15	R	S	E	Bubble Quick Attack — —
			Route 120	28	R	S	E	Bubble Quick Attack — —
300		Skitty	Route 116	15	R	S	E	Growl Tackle — —
				8	R	S	E	Growl Tackle Tail Whip Attract
273		Seedot	Route 102	3	R	S	E	Bide Harden Leech Seed —
			Route 117	13	R	S	E	Harden Growth Nature Power Leech Seed
			Route 120	25	R	S	E	Giga Drain Frustration SolarBeam Leech Seed
274		Nuzleaf	Route 114	15	R	S	E	Harden Growth Nature Power Leech Seed

Generation IV

Mass outbreaks were largely expanded in Generation IV. Once the player attains the National Pokédex and has entered the Hall of Fame, a "swarm of Pokémon" will appear every day in a particular location, which changes the probability of finding the given Pokémon from 0% to 40%. Outbreaks last only one day and are random events. Information about mass 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 mass 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.

#	Pokémon		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
				28-29	D	P	Pt
084		Doduo	Route 201	2	D	P	Pt
096		Drowzee	Route 215	20-21	D	P	Pt
				19-20	D	P	Pt
098		Krabby	Route 226	52	D	P	Pt
				48-49	D	P	Pt
100		Voltorb	Route 218	28	D	P	Pt
				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
				50	D	P	Pt
206		Dunsparce	Route 208	16	D	P	Pt
				18	D	P	Pt
209		Snubbull	Route 209	16	D	P	Pt
				18-19	D	P	Pt
220		Swinub	Route 217	34	D	P	Pt
222		Corsola	Route 230	50	D	P	Pt
				48	D	P	Pt
225		Delibird	Route 216	32	D	P	Pt
			Route 217	32-33	D	P	Pt
231		Phanpy	Route 207	5	D	P	Pt
				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
				10-11	D	P	Pt
296		Makuhita	Route 225	50-51	D	P	Pt
				48-49	D	P	Pt
299		Nosepass	Route 206	14	D	P	Pt
300		Skitty	Route 222	40	D	P	Pt
				39-40	D	P	Pt
309		Electrike	Valley Windworks	7	D	P	Pt
				9-10	D	P	Pt
325		Spoink	Route 214	22-23	D	P	Pt
				21, 23	D	P	Pt
327		Spinda	Route 227	55	D	P	Pt
				53-54	D	P	Pt
359		Absol	Route 213	20	D	P	Pt
374		Beldum	Route 228	53	D	P	Pt
				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.

#	Pokémon		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, mass 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.

#	Pokémon		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%.

#	Pokémon		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

In the anime

A mass outbreak of Ivysaur occurs in Vermilion City in Ivysaur's Mysterious Tower!.

In other languages

Language Title French Apparition massive German Massiven Auflauf Italian Comparse massicce Korean 대량발생 Daeryangbalsaeng Spanish Aparición masiva

See also

• Dual-slot mode
• Poké Radar

References

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