Symbol Encounter Guide (Retail)

If you made it this far, it must mean you have an interest in RNG abusing Pokémon from symbol 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 SYMBOL 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. Run far enough away to despawn the Pokémon in the grass/water and save.

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

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

  • 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.

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

  • You should knock out any unwanted static spawns if they are blocking your path.

Important Information
The KO mechanic & Brilliant Aura:
This references the Number Battled: screen of the Pokédex and is used to boost the odds of (Shiny) Brilliant Aura Pokémon. You are able to view the total amount of KO'd Pokémon per species in your entire save file.

Find the Pokédex entry of the Pokémon you are hunting and enter the total number of KOs into the KO Count: field of the main window. This number is important in order to get accurate results from the generator.

Brilliant Aura guarantees 2 full 31 IVs. Players who desire high IV wild caught Pokémon may wish to filter for Brilliant Aura.

Other information:
Want to know the odds based on the total amount of KOs? This Bulbapedia article will tell you everything you need to know.

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.

Some Pokémon from Symbol encounters have flee behavior and will despawn quickly after being spawned in the overworld. Encounter these Pokémon as quickly as you can to avoid disaster.

List of fleeing Pokémon:
Butterfree, Vulpix, Chansey, Horsea, Dunsparce, Blissey, Ralts, Whismur, Drilbur, Audino, Trubbish, Zorua, Ferroseed, Inkay, Phantump, Noibat, Wimpod, Skwovet & Silicobra.

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 the grass/water containing your target encounter on the calculated target frame displayed on the generator. The advancement methods used are listed on the main page of the guide.

In this example we will be aiming for a Shiny Phantump with a Brilliant Aura in Slippery Slope. You can be more specific with the filters if you wish, such as filtering for a specific mark, specific IVs, or Brilliant Aura.

Using Phantump as the example:
  • The Encounter Lookup tab tells us that Phantump has an encounter slot range of 90-99, a level range of 60-65 and is a symbol encounter in overcast weather. It also tells us Phantump does not hold a random item and has 3 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 Phantump, 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 Slippery Slope is ideal, there are no NPCs around and there are no spawned Pokémon present. Slippery Slope is located within the Crown Tundra, which is a notably quiet area in calm weather conditions.

Once a Pokémon 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!

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, Lax natured Phantump in a cluster on advances 2016-2020. These are the "target frames" and the aim will be to spawn Phantump in the grass on any of these frames.

Advancing Towards A Target!

The generator displays the target on frame 2016-2020, based on local testing the delay for this symbol encounter is 3. This means we will aim to walk into the grass on frame 2013-2017.

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 spawn point 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 towards the grass/water to spawn your Pokémon! Encounter 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 Phantump 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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