How to Keep a Pokemon from Struggling

When shiny hunting a Legendary Pokemon, there’s always a risk of it using Struggle and knocking itself out. Or, there used to be. Starting in Gen V, it’s possible to set up a wild Pokemon so it can never (or almost never) knock itself out with Struggle. One way to do this is to just use Heal Pulse on it every other turn, which is a lot more accessible if you don’t have access to Pokemon with Hidden Abilities. The other way is a little more involved but will usually last forever once it’s set up.

How It Works

All you need to do is use Skill Swap to give the wild Pokemon the ability Harvest, then use Trick or Bestow to give it a Leppa Berry. The Leppa Berry will restore its PP before it can use Struggle, and Harvest has a 50% chance to restore the Leppa Berry at the end of each turn. Even if it only has the 10 PP from the Leppa Berry, the chances of it not restoring the berry in time are around 1 in 1,000, and if it gets close you can have one of your Pokemon use Sunny Day (or set up harsh sunlight with Drought), which makes Harvest always restore the used Berry.

Which Pokemon Can You Use?

The only Pokemon that can have Skill Swap and Harvest are the Exeggcute and Phantump lines, which can only have Harvest as a Hidden Ability. That can make it hard to get, especially in Gen V where you’d have to have an Exeggcute from the Dream World, which has been offline for years. Here’s how you get Harvest on a Skill Swap Pokemon in the other generations:

Gen VI

You can find both Exeggcute and Trevenant with Harvest in Horde Encounters, with Exeggcute at Azure Bay with a 5% encounter rate and Trevenant at Kalos Route 20 (the Winding Woods) with a 40% encounter rate. You can easily trigger a Horde Encounter by having a Pokemon use Sweet Scent.

Phantump with Harvest can be found in the Friend Safari or as a Hidden Pokemon at Petalburg Woods. You need to have unlocked the third slot in your Phantump safari to get it with Harvest, but if you have it you can run around and check their Abilities with Trace until you find one. As a Hidden Pokemon in ORAS, you can click on its icon in Dexnav for a chance to spawn a hidden Phantump, and you can sometimes see what Ability it has before you battle it.

Gen VII

Both Phantump and Exeggcute can be found in the wild, and by using SOS battle chains you can find any of them with their Hidden Ability. In all Alola games, Exeggcute can be found on Exeggutor Island (Exeggutor appear here too, but they don't call for help so you can't find one with Harvest like this), and Phantump can be found on Memorial Hill. You can also transfer an Exeggcute or Exeggutor from a Virtual Console game and it’ll have its Hidden Ability.

There are no Abilities in the Let’s Go games so this method does not work there.

Gen VIII

Trevenant with Harvest can be found in the 4- or 5-star Max Raid dens in the Stony Wilderness or Watchtower Ruins. With the DLC, you can use an Ability Patch to change an Exeggcute/Exeggutor or Phantump/Trevenant’s Ability to Harvest, or you can find Exeggutor with Harvest in 4- or 5-star dens at the Soothing Wetlands, Forest of Focus, Challenge Beach, or Training Lowlands.

In BDSP, you can use an Ability Patch on an Exeggcute. Exeggcute can sometimes be found in the Great Marsh after completing the National Pokedex, and the Ability Patch can be bought at the Battle Park for 200 BP.

There are no Abilities in Legends: Arceus so this method does not work there.

Gen IX

Both the Exeggcute and Phantump lines are exclusive to the DLC, so you will need to either have the DLC or transfer them in from another game. In Tera Raid Battles in Kitakami, you can find Phantump with Harvest in 3-star raids and Trevenant with Harvest in 5- or 6-star raids (the 6-star raids will always have Harvest). You can also find Exeggutor with Harvest in 5- or 6-star raids at Blueberry Academy; A 5-star raid will be a Kantonian Exeggutor that can have Harvest, and a 6-star raid will be an Alolan Exeggutor that will always have Harvest.

There are no Abilities in Legends: Z-A so this method does not work there.

Skill Swap

The only way to get Skill Swap on your Harvest Pokemon is via TM or Move Tutor, depending on the game. It is a TM in BDSP and SV and a TR is SWSH. It is a Move Tutor move that can be taught by the Nacrene City move tutor for 12 Green Shards in B2W2, a Battle Resort move tutor for 8 BP in ORAS, or the Battle Tree move tutor for 8 BP in USUM.

Skill Swap can also be passed down to Exeggcute by breeding in Generations V, VI, and VII, but it can only be inherited from another Exeggcute or Exeggutor (or, in Gen VII only, a Phantump or Trevenant), so you still need the Move Tutor to get Skill Swap on those Pokemon in the first place. But, this can be a way to get more Skill Swap Harvest Pokemon if you are low on Shards or BP.

Trick

You can have Trick/Leppa Berry and Skill Swap/Harvest on different Pokemon if you want, but it’s nice to have them on the same one. Exeggcute and Exeggutor can’t learn Trick until Gen IX, but Phantump and Trevenant have always had access to it. Trick is a TM in SWSH and SV. It is a Move Tutor move that can be taught by the Nacrene City move tutor for 10 Green Shards in B2W2, a Battle Resort move tutor for 8 BP in ORAS, or the Ula’ula Beach move tutor for 8 BP in USUM.

Some Pokemon get Trick by leveling up, which is the only way to get it in BDSP. In BDSP, Trick is learned by Shuppet at level 50, Banette at level 58, or Rotom at level 45, and can then be bred to some other Pokemon. In the Gen V-VII games, any Rotom, Pumpkaboo, Gourgeist, or Hoopa can be taught Trick at the Move Reminder (and Pumpkaboo can have it by default if hatched from an Egg), and there are other Pokemon that can learn it at higher levels/in later games (see Bulbapedia for more information).

Bestow can be used in place of Trick against Pokemon that can’t hold an item (which is most Legendary Pokemon except Ho-Oh).

Limitations

Skill Swap doesn’t work against Arceus, Terapagos, Pecharunt, or any Ancient or Future Pokemon (including Koraidon or Miraidon) due to their Abilities, so this strategy can’t be used to catch any of these Pokemon. You’ll need to be careful against the Ultra Space Wilds Lugia, since it knows Skill Swap and can temporarily get rid of Harvest. This also doesn't work before Gen V because Harvest was introduced in Gen V.

Other Shiny Hunting Tips

This method is fully compatible with the classic False Swipe and Thunder Wave, so you’ll want to bring Pokemon with those moves to make catching your shiny Pokemon easier.

It can be really helpful to bring out a Pokemon that’s immune to all of the shiny Pokemon’s attacks, so you don’t have to keep healing it or worry about it being knocked out. I’m going to make a guide for all shiny huntable Legendary Pokemon from Gen V-VIII eventually, but you can check it yourself by looking up the location where the Pokemon can be found (not its moveset in that generation, because sometimes the static encounters don’t match the level-up movesets) on Bulbapedia. A lot of times you can either use Shedinja, or a Smeargle with Imprison and up to 3 of the Pokemon’s damaging or healing moves to keep it from doing anything; With the Leppa Berry and Harvest set up, it’s unlikely to run out of PP even if you Imprison all but one of its moves.

If you can’t prevent a Pokemon from using damaging moves, you can also reduce its offensive stats and accuracy, and send in a bulky Pokemon with Defense and Evasion-boosting moves and a Leftovers. This won’t 100% stop the Pokemon from doing damage, but it should at least keep your Pokemon from being Knocked Out.

Helpful Bulbapedia Links

Skill Swap ★ Harvest ★ Trick ★ Leppa Berry ★ Exeggcute ★ Exeggutor ★ Phantump ★ Trevenant