Hidden Encounter Guide (Retail)

If you made it this far, it must mean you have an interest in RNG abusing Pokémon from hidden encounters! This page will cover the whole process, from finding a desirable location to achieving a final result.

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 Pokémon 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 a HIDDEN encounter. This will automatically enter the information into the main window.

  4. Enter your 5 digit TID/SID into the fields on the main window, select the Shiny Charm & Mark Charm checkboxes if you have them present in your save file.

  5. Head to the location in-game, change the date until you meet the correct weather condition, then stand near the spawn point of the Pokémon.

  6. Stand as close to a patch of grass in the area as you can, then save.

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

Tips & Advice:
  • Hidden encounters are not guaranteed to be the same species every time, the Pokémon species is instead based on an encounterslot value of 0-99.

  • Stand as close to the grass as possible when you are close to the target frame, hidden encounters have a chance of spawning per step taken in tall grass.

  • 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.

  • Brilliant Aura is not possible on Pokémon from Hidden encounters.

  • The generator does not currently provide support for mechanics that boost the encounter rates of specific Pokémon. This includes Dexrec boosts or abilities like Storm Drain. Using spawn boosters like these may output incorrect results.
  • 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.

  • Test how fast the RNG state naturally advances in the area of your target Pokémon, consider locations with calm weather to reduce instability.

  • Use small patches of grass where possible to keep the amount of spawned Pokémon to a minimum..

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

Time to Get to Work!

The goal is to walk towards into grass and spawn a hidden encounter on the calculated target frame given by the generator. The advancement methods used are listed in detail on the main page of this guide.

We will be aiming for a Shiny Sinistea-Antique in Glimwood Tangle. You can be more specific with the filters if you wish, such as filtering for a specific mark or specific IVs.

Using Sinistea as the example:
  • The Encounter Lookup tab tells us that Sinistea-Antique has an encounter slot range of 99-99, a level range of 34-36 and is a hidden encounter in all weather. It also tells us Sinistea-Antique does not hold a random item and has 0 potential Egg Moves.
  • After clicking the row of our choice, we can see all the information about the encounter listed on the left hand side of the main window.
  • The Pokedex displays a Number Battled: value of 500 for Sinistea, this needs to be entered into the KO: Count field of the generator.
  • We are paused in-game, and our current seeds are visible on the main window after clicking Connect.
  • Now all the details of our encounter are set up properly and we are ready to search or targets!

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


Game Setup
This location in Glimwood Tangle is ideal, there are no NPCs around and has no extra unwanted spawns present. The weather in Glimwood Tangle never changes, if the weather in the area of your target does change, set the weather condition.

In the event you are forced to stand with unwanted overworld spawns, try to keep them to a minimum.

Glimwood Tangle is a notably a noisy area which will increase the difficulty of hitting the correct target frame.

Once a hidden encounter is 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! (A hidden encounter will despawn after a few seconds, so you need to act quickly!)

Once the main window is filled in correctly & you are standing in a good position in-game, you can begin to identify your current seed.

Figure 3 - 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.

If your results are not desirable, you will need to reset the game and identify your current seeds again.

Figure 4 - Target found!


We found one! A shiny, Lonely natured Sinistea-Antique in a cluster on advances 3451-3453. These are the "target frames" and the aim will be generate the Sinistea encounter on any of these frames.

Advancing Towards A Target!

The generator displays the target on frame 3451-3453, based on local testing the delay for this hidden encounter is 3. This means we will aim to walk into the grass on frame 3448-3450.

Hidden encounters have a chance of spawning per step taken while in grass. If the encounter does not spawn in the first 1-2 steps there is a good chance that you will miss your target frame.

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 thousand frames of your target, stand near to the grass in the area of the Pokémon you are hunting.

  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 menu close & animations as they only advance in small increments, making them easy to keep track of.

  4. Open the Menu Close Advances Viewer window and work out the amount of NPCs that are in the area, (NPC calculation is explained on the main page if you are unsure.) Take note of this number as you will need it later.

  5. Re-identify your current seed once again. You should be roughly a few hundred frames away from the target at this stage.

  6. Open the Menu Close Advances Viewer window again and enter your target frame & amount of NPCs into the correct fields then search again.

    7. If you are unable to find your target frame in the search results, this means the target cannot be hit based on your seed. This can be resolved using animations to advance the RNG state slightly, then searching again.

    How To:
    1. Open the Pokemon summary screen and press the L3 button to advance the RNG state by a single frame.
    2. Open the main window, and set the IV/Shiny/Mark filters to the default settings.
    3. Set the search radius to a small amount, then press search.
    4. You should now be able to see (and track) your current seed (State0 and State1 based on your search results.
    5. Enter your new current seed, target frame, and the amount of NPCs calculated earlier into the Retail Menu Advances Viewer window, and search again.

  7. Use animations to advance to the a point where closing the pause menu once will land directly onto your target frame, according to the Menu Close Advances Viewer prediction.

  8. Close the pause menu and quickly run into the grass to spawn a hidden encounter! If you see the grass rustling, quickly initiate a battle and capture it, make sure all the internal details match the output shown on the generator.

    9. You can be creative with the methods you use to advance the RNG state. Menu close prediction is not necessary but will make for a much easier time hitting target frames and is extremely helpful in areas of the game where the RNG advances at a quick pace.

Figure 5 - Target Frame Hit!


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

Figure 6/7 - Result Found!




The Sinistea-Antique 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!
Send me back!