The Repel Trick Guide

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The Repel Trick Guide

v2.0

 

 

 

 

Often in chat you'll have players discussing the best locations and methods to hunt their desired Pokémon, which can often involve repelling. Newer players can be unfamiliar with this process, and will ask how its done. This guide offers a full explanation of repelling Pokémon. 

 

 

A basic understanding of Repels

 

The basic function of repelling in PRO is to repel away Pokémon that are at a lower level than your lead slot Pokémon. When traveling on a route with wild Pokémon, these Pokémon can be found within a certain range of levels. When using a repel item, your character can travel a given number of steps without encountering any wild Pokémon, so long as the Pokémon in your lead slot is at a higher level than the Pokémon that spawn there.

 

 

This can be quite beneficial when traveling through routes where a player is unable to avoid tiles that can trigger a Pokémon spawn. While players can often avoid wild Pokémon by not walking in the grass, some locations like caves or water pathways, don't offer such an option. However, properly using a repel in those situations can allow the player to safely pass through without an encounter.

 

There are 3 types available to players - Repel, Super Repel, and Max Repel. The difference between these repels are the amount of steps for each repel, as well as the costs for each repel. You can purchase repels from most Poke Marts, as well as all Department Stores.

 

	Cost to buy	# of steps	$ per step
Repel	350	100	3.5
Super Repel	500	200	2.5
Max Repel	700	250	2.8

 

As you can see above, while your basic Repel is the cheapest to purchase, you're spending 3.5 coins per step of repelling. A Super Repel doubles the amount of steps without doubling the price for a single unit, offering your best "bang for your buck". The Max Repel is a bit more expensive than the Super Repel, both in terms of individual cost and cost per step, but it has the benefit of being the most time efficient, allowing you to walk longer and further before the repel runs out.

 

That said, you can purchase Max Repel in bulk from the NPC Bonny, located in every department store. The benefit of purchasing in bulk is the discounted price, bringing the price per step down to match Super repel. 

 

	Cost to buy	# of Repels	Price per step
Max Repel	250,000	400	2.5

 

 

 

Repel hunting

 

In some cases, there may be a Pokémon that spawns at a higher level than the rest of the Pokémon on a certain route. For example,

 

Source Pro Wiki 

 

This is the list of Pokémon that spawn in the Petalburg Woods. Notice how Cottonee can be found at Levels 10-13, while the rest of the Pokémon can only be found at levels 5-7. This means that repelling with a Pokémon at a level of at least 14 will be able to avoid all the Pokémon at this location, but if you repel with a Pokémon at the levels 8-13, then you will only encounter Cottonee, and not any of the other Pokémon. This is especially helpful if you wish to hunt that specific Pokémon - you can repel away all the undesirable Pokémon, and only encounter Cottonee. This process is whats known as the Repel Trick.

 

Because there is a gap between the levels that Cottonee spawns at and the levels of the rest of the Pokémon in this location, we have a buffer. Because Cottonee spawns starting at level 10, we can use a Pokémon at levels 8, 9, or 10 to repel away the undesired Pokémon, and only encounter the Cottonee. This buffer is nice because if gives us more options when it comes to choosing the Pokemon you wish to use to repel. We also need to be aware to not use a Pokémon at a higher level that could repel away some Cottonee. If you try using a level 12 Pokémon, then you'll only encounter Cottonee at levels 12 and 13, missing out on Cottonee spawning at levels 10 and 11. 

 

 

Here's an example where we dont have a buffer, so we need to get the exact level to properly repel hunt.

 

As you can see, Ditto is the only Pokémon that spawns above the level 30, and at the same time, only spawns at 1 level, 31. This means you will have to run a level 31 Pokémon as your repel. Any lower, you'll spawn all the other Pokémon. Any higher, you'll get no encounters until your repel steps are used up. 

 

It should be noted, repel hunting doesn't mean you're going to start encountering a lot of whatever you're hunting. It removes the Pokémon you could normally encounter instead of your target Pokémon, but it doesn't increase the spawns of your target Pokémon. The spawn rates remain the same, the only difference is you are no longer being distracted by other potential encounters that could delay you finding your target Pokémon. You may still find yourself with lengthy gaps between encounters. 

 

 

 

Important Pokémon for Repel Hunting

 

Lets take a look at Pokémon you'll be using to make your hunt much more efficient

 

The Repel Pokémon - A bit obvious, but essential for the repel trick to work. The repel Pokémon is the lead Pokémon in your party  which needs to be at the correct level to repel away the undesired Pokémon. If its not at the correct level, you will encounter the Pokémon you dont wish to find (too low of a repel level), or no Pokémon encounters at all (repel level too high). This Pokémon must be in slot 1 of your party. 

 

The Sync Pokémon - This is a Pokémon that has the ability Synchronize, and is commonly referred to as a Sync. A Pokémon with synchronize has a 50% chance of applying its nature onto a wild Pokémon. This is extremely helpful if you're hunting a Pokémon with a specific nature, like a Gastly that with a  Timid nature. By running a sync Pokémon, you drastically increase the odds of finding a Pokémon with the same nature as your sync. When you're repelling, you can either run your Sync in slot 2 (alive, behind the fainted repel Pokémon in slot 1), or if its also your repel Pokémon, in slot 1 (alive or fainted).  

 

The False Swipe Pokémon - This is the Pokémon you use to catch everything with. Its most important feature is the move false swipe, which can not faint a Pokémon, always leaving them with at least 1 health point (though beware if the Pokémon has a self-inflicting move, which would then cause it to faint itself). Because it doesn't faint the wild Pokémon, its ideal for hunting. Many of the preferred false swipers have a status inflicting move, usually one that puts the wild Pokémon to sleep. Both Parasect and Breloom are popular choices among players as they both have false swipe and spore (though be careful that they dont have the effect spore ability, which can accidently poison the wild Pokémon). Smeargle is another popular choice amongst players with its unique move sketch, allowing additional hunting specific moves to be learned, such as soak (changes a ghosts type to water so false swipe will effect it) or mean look (prevents Pokémon from teleporting from battle). 

 

The Trace Pokémon - A Pokémon with the ability Trace can determine the ability of the wild Pokémon upon encountering it, providing you with valuable information before selecting a move. If you're hunting a Pokémon with a specific ability, this is extremely helpful by giving you the information on wither or not you should catch it. By skipping the Pokémon that do not have the desired ability, you save yourself wasting poke balls or the frustration of catching Pokémon with excellent IVs but a poor ability. 

 

 

 

Examples of Repel Hunting

 

For those who are visual learners, here are a few examples of what we have discussed above.

 

Spoiler

Example 1 - Repel hunting a Cottonee with the Prankster ability and a Bold nature

 

For repelling Cottonee at Petalburg Woods (see the spawn list above), we'll need a repel Pokémon at levels 8-10 to encounter Cottonee's that spawn at levels 10-13. If our repel Pokémon does not have the Sync ability, we'll want to run a Sync Pokémon in slot 2. In order to both repel and attempt to sync the Cottonee, the repel Pokémon will be fainted in Slot 1, and our unfainted sync will be in Slot 2

 

     

Here we have our level 10 fainted Tyrunt in slot 1 for the repel level, and our unfainted Natu sync in slot 2. Upon entering a battle, the Natu will face the wild Pokémon, as its the first unfainted Pokémon in your party. The Natu will attempt to sync the wild Pokémon, but the drawback here is that you'll need to switch out to either your Trace Pokémon or your False Swipe Pokémon. As the Natu doesn't have false swipe or tell use the Cottonee's ability, its not of much use during the battle, only to sync.

 

 

Now, if we have do have a sync Pokémon at the exact repel level, we can run that in Slot 1, fainted or unfainted. However, it will be more efficient to run it fainted, so our slot 2 Pokémon can utilized for better hunting. 

 

     

In this example, I have a Gardevoir with the ability Trace in Slot 2, behind the fainted level 10 Ralts in Slot 1, which has the sync ability and a Bold nature. The Trace ability will notify me the wild Cottonee's ability, telling me if we encounter one with the desired Prankster ability, or one of its other abilities. This tells me right away if I should prepare to catch this Cottonee, or run away from it. When I encounter one with Prankster, I can then switch to my Parasect, which had the moves False Swipe and Spore. 

 

Spoiler

Example 2 - Repel hunting a Sableye with the Prankster ability and a Bold nature

 

In this example, we're hunting Sableye, which can be repelled at Diamond Domain B1F.

 

As you can see, everything but Sableye spawns here at a max level of 25, while Sableye spawns from 26 to 32. This means I'll need a repel Pokémon at the level 26, and to make things more efficient, im also going to use a Sync Pokémon at that specific level. In this case, it's a Bold Natu. Because this Pokémon fills both roles, I can run a Trace Pokémon in slot 2. This is very helpful, because many people prefer Sableye with the ability Prankster, which is its hidden ability (commonly referred to as its HA), meaning you normally have a 5% chance of encountering it. To increase my odds of finding a Sableye with its HA, I'm running the Black Medallion, which boosts the odds for HA by an additional 20% for 72 hours. When active, you'll have a special icon for it next to the repel icon (see image below). My Trace (another Gardevoir) will notify me if the Sableye has Prankster, so I can tell which ones I should capture, and which I should run from. 

 

 

Because Sableye is part Ghost type, the move False Swipe will not normally effect it. Some Pokémon have the ability Scrappy, which allows them to use normal moves on Ghost Pokémon. Others prefer using a Pokémon with the move Soak, which turns any Pokémon type to Water, which will then allow the wild Pokémon to be false swiped. In this case, I'll use a Smeargle

 

 

Smeargle is a unique Pokémon, that only knows the move Sketch. When it battle, a Smeargle that is slower than the other Pokémon will use the move Sketch after the other Pokémon attacks, which then copies that move. This means Smeargle can learn almost anything, including hunting specific moves. The one I'm using above has Soak, which turns Ghosts (and Grass types) to a Water type. False swipe to lower their HP to 1, and then Spore to put them to sleep (note that Spore don't normally work on a Grass type, hence using Soak to turn them into Water). The 4th move can be whatever you wish. 

 

 

 

I hope you have found this guide on repelling helpful. Best of luck in your hunting!