Roaming Encounter Guide (Retail)

Table of Contents:
Getting Started
  1. Open the GUI and click on the Encounter Lookup button at the top of the main window. This will open the Encounter Lookup tab.

  2. Type the species name of the bird you are hunting into the empty field. This will bring up a list of every possible encounter and has all the information you need for the main window.

  3. Scroll down the list of encounters and click on one of the rows displaying your desired area. This will automatically enter the information into the main window.

  4. Fly to the location in-game and save.

  5. Press the X button on your controller to pause the game, you are now ready to begin.

In-game requirements & Tips:
  • Have the legendary birds roaming in each of the Wild Areas by completing the Crown Tundra main quest.

  • Unlock a fly point in each of the areas. Snowslide Slope (Articuno), East Lake Axewell (Zapdos), and Fields of honor (Moltres) are recommended.

  • Aiming for clustered frames gives you a higher chance of hitting targets. A cluster is a group of frames that produce the same end result.

  • Having any Pokémon with the ability Syncronize in the first slot of your party will guarantee that the nature of any encountered overworld Pokémon will be the same as your leading Pokémon.

With all the required reading out of the way, it's time to get started!

Time to Get to Work!

The goal is to fly into the location of our desired bird on the calculated target frame given by the generator. The advancement methods used are listed on the main page of this guide.

Important Information:
The delay for each of the birds varies. It's recommended to take a few practice attempts and note down your delay for the highest chances of being able to hit the target frame. See the Troubleshooting Encounters section at the bottom of this page if you are running into problems with delay calculation.

The birds will regenerate upon flying into the area. This means you can simply retry if you miss your target frame.

These encounters are shiny locked, so filtering for shiny Pokémon should be avoided here.

Recommended fly point & starting delays:

Articuno
Location: Crown Tundra
Recommended fly point: Snowslide Slope
Recommended starting delay: 130-140

Zapdos
Location: Wild Area (Meetup Point/Motostoke Area)
Recommended fly point: East Lake Axewell
Recommended starting delay: 20-30

Moltres
Location: Isle of Armor
Recommended fly point: Master Dojo
Recommended starting delay: 60-80


We will be aiming for a 5IV marked Zapdos in this example. You can be more specific with the filters if you wish, such as filtering for a specific mark or specific IVs. The process for RNG abusing each of the birds is the same. You will simply fly to the correct location depending on which of the birds you are hunting.

Figure 1 - Tool setup


Awesome, everything looks good! Our TID/SID and the details of the encounter have been entered into the main window. Time to find an ideal position to stand in-game and set the correct weather condition.

Figure 2 - Game setup


Figure 3 - Recommended Fly Points


Game Setup
These three fly points are suggested as they're close to the spawn point of each of the birds, meaning we can encounter them more quickly.

Once a roaming bird has spawned in the overworld, the stats and internal details (such as PID/EC) are generated and set in stone. This is why it is only important to spawn the Pokémon in the overworld on the correct frame (And to not let a target Pokémon despawn!).

Now that the main window is filled in correctly & you are standing in a good position in-game, you can begin looking for target frames by clicking the search button on main window of the generator.


Figure 4 - Seed identification


You cannot search for targets without knowing your current seed. This is achieved by using the Retail Seed Finder window pictured above.

Seed (Re)Identification:
How to identify current seeds using the Retail Seed Finder:

  1. Open the Retail Seed Finder window and open the pause menu in-game.

  2. Open the Pokemon party menu, select a Pokemon, then click summary.

  3. Begin making your Pokemon animate by using the L3 button, take note of the type of animation. (Physical or special).

  4. If the animation was physical, click the (0)Physical button, if the animation was special, click the (1)Special button.

    If you don't feel like clicking the button, you can use your keyboard too! Simply type 0 or , for a physical animation, and 1 or . for a special animation.

  5. Repeat this process 128 times, if done correctly your current seeds will now be visible on-screen. Click Update Main Form. At this stage it is safe to close the Retail Seed Finder window.

  6. After identifying your current seed you can now begin searching for target frames!
How to re-identify current seeds using the Retail Advances Tracker:

  1. Click the Generate Pattern button on the main window after identifying your current seed.

  2. Open the Pokemon party menu, select a Pokemon, then click summary.

  3. Record 10-20 animations until you are left with 1 result.

  4. Click Update States after doing so to input your new current seed into the State[0] and Stete[1] fields automatically.

  5. Search for your target frame again and confirm the seed re-identification was correct.
Seed Identification Troubleshooting:
If you do not find a result after re-identification, or your target frame disappears, this is because either:

  • The initial seed identification (using the Retail Seed Finder) was incorrect. Which is a result of not recording the animations properly.
  • The re-identification animations were not recorded properly, and produced an invalid result.
To resolve this you will need to re-identify your current seed from the start, pay close attention to the sequence of animations to avoid producing incorrect results!

Seed re-identification plays a big role in advancing towards a target frame, and also helps to find out how many advancements will occur from a specific in-game action.

Figure 5 - Target found!


We found one! A Naive natured Zapdos-Galar with the Scowling mark in a cluster on advances 2441-2445. These are the "target frames" and the aim will be to spawn Zapdos in the overworld on any of these frames by flying into the area.

Advancing towards the target!

The generator displays the target on frame 2441-2445, based on local testing the delay for this encounter is 28. This means we will aim fly into the area that contains our desired bird on frame 2413-2417.

Hitting your target frame
Step-by-step tutorial:

  1. Advance towards your target frame using any of the methods listed inside the table on main page of this guide. Consider day skipping to advance large distances.

  2. Once you are within a few hundred frames of your target, stand in a quiet location.

  3. Pause the game using the X button, re-identify your current seed using the Retail Advances Tracker, then search for your target again.

    4. From this point it's recommended to only advance using animations as they only advance in small increments, making them easy to keep track of.

    It's also recommended to have one Pokemon on your party to decrease the amount of advancements that will occur from opening the map from the pause menu.

  4. Open and close the map, and re-identify your current seed. Take note of how many advances occur from doing so, repeat this step multiple times and take an average number from the results.

  5. Open the party menu and advance to your target frame using animations, here's where we need to factor in the amount of advances that pass from closing the map.

    6. Example: If your target frame is on advance 100, the generation delay is 30, and the average amount of advancements from opening the town map is 2, we will need to open the town map on advance 68 in order to hit the target frame. (68+2+30=100)

  6. Open the map and fly into the area to spawn your bird! Encounter and capture it to confirm you hit your target frame.

    7. You can be creative with the methods you use to advance the RNG state. The above method is the recommended method that provides the most consistency of hitting target frames for roaming encounters.

Figure 6 - Target Frame Hit!


By using animations and a standard calculator to keep track of inputs, we were able to hit out target frame!

Figure 7 - Result Found!


The Zapdos-Galar matches the output of the generator, mission accomplished!

Different areas & environments can have a drastic influence on delay, if you are missing targets when you believe you should be finding results, you should consider reading the Troubleshooting Encounters page by clicking the button directly down below.

Click here to be redirected to the Troubleshooting Encounters page!
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