The Ever-Increasing Difficulty of Finding a Ditto

Ditto is a cool Pokemon. It has the ability to turn into pretty much anything, and in Pokemon GO, it’s no different. While Ditto may spawn in the wild in the main games, the same Pokemon is almost never seen in Pokemon GO. In fact, Ditto disguises itself as different Pokemon, and will turn back into its normal self when caught.

Editor’s Note: Of course, a week after posting this article, Ditto suddenly becomes both shiny and as a reward for research breakthroughs. Typical.

As someone who played Pokemon GO first and the main games later, I somehow forgot about wild Dittos found in tall grass. And in the main games, it is a really useful Pokemon. Not just for breeding Pokemon either. Ditto is used in some early game glitches to catch bugged Pokemon. Which is quite interesting, since Ditto itself acts like it is a bug of some sort.

In Pokemon GO though, Ditto has no real use. At best, it’s a silly gimmick you might throw into a gym or something. While a Ditto will copy the moves of the Pokemon it’s transformed into, it still dies quickly, too quickly to have a use.

That’s assuming you can even find one in the first place.

I actually remember catching my first Dittos. At the end of the Chikorita Community Day, something weird happened. A brand new Pokemon, never seen by ANYONE before, was randomly spawning, and catching them made them turn into Ditto. This was in fact the first time we saw Meltan, the oddly-placed Generation 8 Mythical. But for me, it was also the first time I’d ever caught a Ditto. It was disguised as Meltan and turned into a Ditto once captured.

At the time, I was really happy about this. I had special research tasks that required me to catch a Ditto, and I was one step closer to getting a Mew. But I never realized how lucky I was.

Ditto Disguises are disappearing fast.

There are some rules to how Dittos spawn. To be a potential Ditto disguise, the Pokemon in question needs to be a low level basic Pokemon, and it can’t be shiny. Back during that Chikorita Community Day? There were plenty of options. Rattata and Pidgey were plentiful and both could be Ditto disguises. We also had things like Wismur, Caterpie and Weedle, all common spawns that could easily be caught.

But over the years, more and more of these Pokemon have received their shiny forms. And since they can be shiny, they can no longer be disguises for Ditto. This would be alright if new disguise Pokemon were ever added. But right now, the pool of Pokemon has dropped to just 8 Pokemon. The Pokemon are: Numel, Hopip, Hoothoot, Spinarak, Remoraid, Gulpin, Purrlion and Fungoos.

Again, though, this would be okay if those 8 Pokemon were particularly common. While I’ve seen the occasional Hopip or Numel, I haven’t seen a Remoraid in ages, and Spinarak has disappeared completely. At the same time though, there are plenty of Pokemon that could be made into Ditto disguises. Just glancing at my local spawns, the elemental monkeys, Cacnea and Litleo could all EASILY be made into disguises.

Your only ever guaranteed chance is around April Fools Day

If you want a Ditto, good luck to you. I actually know of someone who has kept a research task that rewards Ditto for about a year and a half now, because that’s how rare Ditto is. A research tasks for catching a Ditto exists, but after two weeks of catching potential disguised Pokemon, I gave up and deleted the research. I feel sorry for anyone who has recently started the Mew quest, which requires a Ditto.

Sure, there is the guaranteed shiny Ditto from the Kanto event earlier this year. But that was locked behind a ticket, and the whole shiny Ditto thing felt like an afterthought rather than anything useful.

At least there is some hope. Every year, generally around April Fools Day, there’s always a trickster-themed event where Dittos are more common. But that makes Ditto no different from every other Pokemon. They just spawn when Niantic makes them spawn in events, and that’s it. In the mean time, there is nothing a player can do, aside from catching everything they see.

I suppose, at least Ditto lacks any real use in Pokemon GO. But currently, all you can do is keep on looking.