safari zone db

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Pokemon SoulSilver Version – Safari Zone Guide

Safari Zone Guide (DS) by Marter

Version: 1.20 | Updated: 07/04/2010

View in: Text Mode

Johto Safari Zone

The Johto Safari Zone (Japanese: サファリゾーン Safari Zone ) is a special Pokémon preserve where Trainers can catch certain types of Pokémon. The Johto Safari Zone made its debut appearance in Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver , where it was shown to be located northwest of Cianwood . It is located at the Safari Zone Gate , a bazaar that sprung up due to the Safari Zone's popularity. It is owned by Baoba , the owner of the former Kanto Safari Zone , which was, by then, made into a Pal Park by his son.

For $ 500, the player will receive 30 Safari Balls . Akin to previous Safari Zones, there is a large area to cover, but the six areas of the Zone can uniquely be rearranged to suit the player. Also, there is no time or step limit to how long the player can try to catch Pokémon. The only ways to leave are to retire, to walk back through the entrance or to run out of Safari Balls.

When a wild Pokémon appears, no Pokémon may be sent out to battle it; catching Pokémon here, as in most Safari Zones, requires sheer luck. There are four options in the battle screen: throw a Safari Ball, throw Bait, run away, and throw Mud. Throwing Bait makes a Pokémon less likely to run, but makes it harder to catch, while throwing Mud does the reverse, making it easier to catch but more likely to run.

The Safari Zone can only be accessed once the player has healed the sick Ampharos , Amphy , in Olivine City 's lighthouse .

• 1.1 Base flee rates
• 2.1 Default area layouts
• 3.1 First Challenge
• 3.2 Second Challenge
• 4.1 Area upgrades
• 6.7 Marshland
• 6.8 Mountain
• 6.9 Rocky Beach
• 6.10 Wasteland
• 6.11 Savannah
• 6.12 Wetland
• 7.1.1 HeartGold & SoulSilver arc
• 9 In other languages

This Safari Zone works identically to the Great Marsh : Pokémon are made easier or harder to catch by modifying the catch rate of a Pokémon. Each Pokémon appearing in the Safari Zone also has an escape rate, representing the probability that they flee from battle; a Pokémon's escape rate is identical across all Generation IV games (however, their escape rates are not defined in games which they cannot be found in their Great Marsh or Safari Zone). As a rule of thumb, Pokémon at higher evolutionary levels generally have lower escape rates.

At the start of an encounter, both the catch rate and escape rate are set to their species defaults. When Bait is thrown, it lowers the escape rate by one stage, but has a 90% chance of also lowering the catch rate by one stage. When Mud is thrown, it raises the catch rate by one stage, but has a 90% chance of raising the escape rate by one stage. Stages for catch rates and escape rates work identically to stat stages : they can be raised as high as +6 and as low as -6, where 0 is the starting stage; multipliers at each stat stage also work identically.

At the end of each turn, a random number between 0 and 255 is generated. If it is less than the modified stat stage, the Pokémon escapes.

Base flee rates

Like the Safari Zone in Hoenn and Great Marsh in Sinnoh , the Johto Safari Zone has six areas, which are inhabited by different Pokémon. A feature unique to this Safari Zone, however, is the customization of these areas. Each of the six areas may be placed in any arrangement the player desires. This is a useful function, as it means the player does not have to traverse to the furthest area from the entrance to get the Pokémon living in it. This is taken even further due to the fact that there are 10 unique defaults from the moment the Safari Zone is unlocked.

Customization happens on the Nintendo DS touch screen. By dragging and sliding the tiles with the stylus, the player can move them with ease. The exits to each area are arranged so that every conceivable arrangement of areas is possible: up to 2,985,984. In each specific area, the player can choose from several different objects and put up to 30 into the area, which can potentially draw out rarer Pokémon, Pokémon not found in the area, or Pokémon not found in the zone any other way. The specific layout of the Safari Zone may be shared by multiple players at one time, like other events in Generation IV , through record mixing or by using the Safari Zone Link.

Default area layouts

There are ten possible layouts that the areas can be arranged in by default when the player first reaches the Safari Zone. Between the ten default layouts, all of the areas are utilized at least once with the exceptions of the Desert and Rocky Beach areas; each default arrangement positions the Peak area right in front of the entrance. Six more areas can be added once Baoba 's second challenge is assigned to the player.

First Challenge

When the player first visits the Safari Zone, its owner, Baoba , will give the player their first challenge of finding and catching a Geodude inside of the Safari Zone. No matter which of the 10 possible default Safari Zone area set-ups is in use, the Peak Area where Geodude can be found is always the first area that the player enters.

Second Challenge

Three game-play hours after completion of the first challenge, Baoba will call the player and give them their second challenge. The point of this challenge is to get the player to use the Area Customizer, a machine that allows the player to move around and order the different areas of the Safari Zone. Using the Area Customizer to add the Desert Area, the player must catch a Sandshrew . When Baoba is shown a captured Sandshrew, he makes the player the new Safari Zone Owner.

After the player has both received the National Pokédex from Professor Oak , and 3 hours of gameplay have passed after completion of Baoba 's second challenge, Baoba will call the player to tell them that he has come up with a new idea for the Safari Zone. After receiving this call, the player will be able to place blocks in each active area of the Safari Zone. Each active area can contain up to 30 blocks at one time. Initially, the player will have access to only 6 block items. After another 3 hours of gameplay, Baoba will call the player again and add 6 new blocks. This cycle will repeat 2 more times until the player has been granted access to all 24 different block items.

Area upgrades

Each area of the Safari Zone keeps a hidden counter which tracks how many days it has been active. It adds 1 day to the count at midnight (00:00). After an area has been active for a predetermined number of days, it will be upgraded. Each upgrade acts as a multiplier for one block type within an area. For example, a Plains block in an area with no upgrades counts as a single Plains block point. A Plains block in an area with one Plains upgrade counts as two Plains block points. Baoba may call to notify the player when this occurs, however, the upgrade comes into effect regardless of whether the call has been received. The upgrades cannot be reverted once obtained, even if the player moves the area out of the current rotation or removes the blocks.

The invisible day counter for each active area of the Safari Zone is tied to the internal game clock of the system. Playing the game every day is not necessary to advance the counter as long as the game is used in the same system. If the game detects a different clock (either by changing the date or time or by booting the game in a different system), the counter will freeze for 24 hours after saving. If the clock was set one or more days forward, the counter doesn't advance to match the number of skipped days, but resumes counting from where it left off before the penalty period. The counter never resets to 0.

Many Pokémon are found in the Safari Zone with no additional input needed by the player. Other Pokémon will only appear if certain block objects are placed within each area. For example, Fearow will not appear in the Peak area unless there are five Forest objects placed in the Peak area. Some Pokémon need two types of block objects in order to appear. For example, Vigoroth requires both Plains and Forest objects.

The area upgrade mechanic within the Safari Zone is key to being able to encounter the more rare Pokémon types. For example, to encounter a Bagon within the Swamp area, the player must have unlocked the block capability and received enough notifications from Baoba that both Peak and Forest block items are available for placement. The Swamp area must then be made an active area within the Safari Zone for 110 days. This quadruples the block score for each forest block and triples it for each peak block placed within it. The player can then place 19 peak blocks (19 × 3 = 57) and 9 forest blocks (9 × 4 = 36), which achieves the required scores of 56 and 35 respectively to enable Bagon.

All encounter slots in the Safari Zone are 10% each. The block-based encounters will replace topmost available slot, with higher ID being prioritized. For example, having 5 points of Plains blocks and 10 points of Forest blocks in Wetland will cause the game to insert Farfetch'd , Furret and Pachirisu in grass encounter slots 1, 0, and 2, respectively.

The Safari Zone is not listed as a Pokédex area. Any Pokémon that can be encountered only here will have the area listed as "AREA UNKNOWN".

Additionally, when generating Pokémon's IVs , the game will reroll the numbers up to 4 times if none of the IVs are at 31.

If the player keeps track of every area's counter and changes them optimally, they can unlock and obtain every evolution family exclusive to the Safari Zone by waiting 100 days (see the left side of the table). However, to unlock every species in every area, the player has to wait 140 days. The Pokémon on the right side of the table become available earlier through evolution or breeding of encounters from other areas.

To unlock every species in this area, it needs to be active for at least 60 days, after which Vigoroth becomes available by placing the necessary blocks.

Notably, Bronzor becomes available after 30 days and Spheal becomes available after 40 days. All other block-based encounters only need their respective blocks, without requiring any area upgrades.

The following are the default encounters for Safari Zone's Peak area.

The following are block-based encounters for Safari Zone's Peak area.

To unlock every species in this area, it needs to be active for at least 40 days, after which Cacturne (also available in the Savannah area after 20 days) becomes available by placing the necessary blocks. However, Cacnea becomes available in this area after 20 days.

Notably, Vibrava becomes available after 20 days, but Trapinch becomes available after 30 days. Carnivine becomes available after 10 days. All other block-based encounters only need their respective blocks, without requiring any area upgrades.

The following are the default encounters for Safari Zone's Desert area.

The following are block-based encounters for Safari Zone's Desert area.

To unlock every species in this area, only the blocks are needed. No upgrade is necessary.

The following are the default encounters for Safari Zone's Plains area.

The following are block-based encounters for Safari Zone's Plains area.

To unlock every species in this area, it needs to be active for at least 70 days, after which Riolu becomes available by placing the necessary blocks.

Notably, Seedot becomes available after 10 days, Level 48 Nuzleaf becomes available in 20 days (Level 38 Nuzleaf doesn't require any area upgrades), and Nosepass becomes available after 30 days. All other block-based encounters only need their respective blocks, without requiring any area upgrades.

The following are the default encounters for Safari Zone's Meadow area.

The following are block-based encounters for Safari Zone's Meadow area.

To unlock every species in this area, it needs to be active for at least 110 days, after which Bronzong becomes available by placing the necessary blocks. However, Bronzor becomes available in the Peak area after 30 days.

Notably, Beldum becomes available after 70 days, but Metang becomes available in the Mountain area after 30 days. Shuppet becomes available after 20 days. All other block-based encounters only need their respective blocks, without requiring any area upgrades.

The following are the default encounters for Safari Zone's Forest area.

The following are block-based encounters for Safari Zone's Forest area.

To unlock every species in this area, it needs to be active for at least 110 days, after which Bagon becomes available by placing the necessary blocks. However, Shelgon becomes available in the Wetland area after 70 days.

Notably, Level 48 Duskull becomes available after 40 days (Level 42 Duskull doesn't require any area upgrades). All other block-based encounters only need their respective blocks, without requiring any area upgrades.

The following are the default encounters for Safari Zone's Swamp area.

The following are block-based encounters for Safari Zone's Swamp area.

To unlock every species in this area, it needs to be active for at least 30 days, after which Banette becomes available by placing the necessary blocks. However, Shuppet becomes available in the Forest area after 20 days.

Notably, Roselia becomes available after 20 days, but Budew becomes available in the Forest area after obtaining the Plains blocks and the Rocky Beach area after obtaining the Forest blocks, without requiring any area upgrades. Seviper becomes available after 10 days, and Carnivine (also available in the Desert area after 10 days) and Croagunk both become available after 20 days. All other block-based encounters only need their respective blocks, without requiring any area upgrades.

The following are the default encounters for Safari Zone's Marshland area.

The following are block-based encounters for Safari Zone's Marshland area by placing the necessary blocks.

To unlock every species in this area, it needs to be active for at least 80 days, after which Sealeo becomes available by placing the necessary blocks. However, Spheal becomes available in the Peak area after 40 days.

Notably, Metang becomes available after 30 days, but Beldum becomes available in the Forest area after 70 days; and Dusclops becomes available after 20 days, but Duskull becomes available in the Swamp area after obtaining the Peak blocks, without requiring any area upgrades. All other block-based encounters only need their respective blocks, without requiring any area upgrades.

The following are the default encounters for Safari Zone's Mountain area.

The following are block-based encounters for Safari Zone's Mountain area.

Rocky Beach

To unlock every species in this area, it needs to be active for at least 100 days, after which Gible becomes available by placing the necessary blocks. All other block-based encounters only need their respective blocks, without requiring any area upgrades.

The following are the default encounters for Safari Zone's Rocky Beach area.

The following are block-based encounters for Safari Zone's Rocky Beach area by placing the necessary blocks.

To unlock every species in this area, it needs to be active for at least 30 days, after which Solrock becomes available by placing the necessary blocks.

Notably, Breloom becomes available after 20 days, but Shroomish becomes available in the Savannah area after 20 days; and Medicham also becomes available after 20 days, but Meditite becomes available in the Mountain area after obtaining the Forest blocks, without requiring any area upgrades. All other block-based encounters only need their respective blocks, without requiring any area upgrades.

The following are the default encounters for Safari Zone's Wasteland area.

The following are block-based encounters for Safari Zone's Wasteland area.

To unlock every species in this area, it needs to be active for at least 30 days, after which Torkoal becomes available by placing the necessary blocks.

Notably, Shroomish and Cacturne both become available after 20 days. All other block-based encounters only need their respective blocks, without requiring any area upgrades.

The following are the default encounters for Safari Zone's Savannah area.

The following are block-based encounters for Safari Zone's Savannah area.

To unlock every species in this area, it needs to be active for at least 70 days, after which Shelgon becomes available by placing the necessary blocks. However, Bagon becomes available in the Swamp area after 110 days.

Notably, Buizel becomes available in this area after 40 days, but Floatzel becomes available in the Swamp area after obtaining the Peak Blocks, without requiring any area upgrades. All other block-based encounters only need their respective blocks, without requiring any area upgrades.

The following are the default encounters for Safari Zone's Wetland area.

The following are block-based encounters for Safari Zone's Wetland area.

In the manga

Pokémon Adventures

Heartgold & soulsilver arc.

In Weavile Wobbles But It Won't Fall Down , Silver ventured to the newly opened Safari Zone after hearing about it from Clair . There he participated in a Safari Game, during which he was attacked by an Arbok and he countered its attack. In the midst of battle, Eusine stopped him and lectured him about the rules of the Safari Zone, which prohibit attacking the wild Pokémon. Silver, who had recently found out about Plates , showed Eusine a Plate he has found at Whirl Islands , but did not get any reaction out of him other than confusion. His actions were, however, seen by Petrel , who attacked him and Eusine with his army of Koffing . During the following battle, Petrel revealed information about the Plates and that he defeated Lance . The battle ended as Petrel left and Silver stole the Plates he had managed to find. Some time after, Silver encountered Crystal , who was on a field trip with the children from Earl's Pokémon Academy , and they decided to travel to Ecruteak City together.

• Johto did not have a Safari Zone in Generation II . However, an unused and incomplete map of the Kanto Safari Zone still exists in the code of the Generation II games. In its tall grass, there are no Pokémon, but some are available by fishing.
• The number of Pokémon species that can be acquired in this Safari Zone is by far the largest quantity in the main series to date, and includes several species that were never before available in the wild, most notably Shelgon , Metang , Breloom , Vigoroth , and Riolu .
• This is the only Safari Zone which the player can customize.
• This is the first Safari Zone in which there is no step limit. The Hoenn Safari Zone in Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire also does not have a step limit.
• The two construction workers outside of the Safari Zone, in the Safari Zone Gate , imply that they are the ones who move the Safari Zone areas; they mention that most people would think a complicated system would be in place, as well as complaining about aches and pains.
• Should the player use a wallhack to walk through the Safari Zone Gate without going through reception first, the Safari Zone will be 6 plain squares and the only Pokémon that will show up is a level 20 Rattata . However, the battle will go as it would anywhere else, instead of bringing up the Safari Zone's catching interface.
• A graphical glitch occurs in the Swamp area. Four tiles at the top of the grassy patch appear to be empty at first, but when the player (or their partner Pokémon ) walks over the tiles, tall grass will appear underfoot.

In other languages

• Candidates for moving
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• Safari Zones
• Johto locations
• HeartGold and SoulSilver locations

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The Cave of Dragonflies

Where the smallest bugs live alongside the strongest dragons

R/B/Y Safari Zone Mechanics

A staple of the Pokémon series since the originals is the Safari Zone: a special place with Pokémon that aren't found anywhere else (and some that are) where instead of getting to use your own Pokémon to weaken and capture them, you must employ more old-fashioned methods while the Pokémon may run at any moment. While they haven't been in every game, they shake up the usual routine of catching Pokémon and have had various interesting mechanics through the generations - however, the very most interesting has to be the original.

How It Works

In every Safari Zone, the player is unable to use their own Pokémon at all. Instead, when you encounter a Pokémon you have four options: throwing one of the limited number of Safari Balls you have; an aggressive action used to make the Pokémon easier to catch; an enticing action used to make it less likely to run away; or running away from the battle yourself.

In Red, Blue and Yellow, the aggressive action is called Rock , and the enticing action is called Bait . The basic idea is this: throwing a rock will double your chances of catching the Pokémon, but it will also make the Pokémon angry for 1-5 turns. Conversely, throwing bait will halve your chances of catching the Pokémon, but cause the Pokémon to be eating for 1-5 turns. While angry, a Pokémon is twice as likely to run on any given turn as if it were in its neutral state, while it is four times less likely to run while it is eating than in a neutral state.

However, there are several more interesting details and subtleties to how Safari Zone battles happen.

Throwing a Ball

Capturing in the Safari Zone follows the regular R/B/Y capture algorithm , though since neither the Pokémon's HP nor its status can be affected and the only balls available are Safari Balls (identical to Ultra Balls), a lot of things are abstracted out in the Safari Zone. Unfortunately, thanks to the game's flawed RNG , Safari Balls underperform against full-health Pokémon, making all capture chances in the Safari Zone lower than intended. The capture chance maxes out when the Pokémon has a catch rate of 150 or more, for which the chance will be about 27-30% depending on rounding errors; all other Pokémon are harder than that.

The catch rate C starts out being, as in regular captures, the intrinsic catch rate of the Pokémon species. However, unlike regular captures, your actions in the Safari Zone can directly modify C, as hinted above.

Throwing Rocks/Bait

Rocks and bait have two distinct effects. First, every time a rock is thrown, the catch rate C is doubled (though it is capped at 255, so if doubling would make the catch rate more than that, it is made 255 instead), and every time bait is thrown, C is halved and rounded down. This happens even if the Pokémon is already angry or eating, and it happens completely blindly - if the Pokémon has a catch rate of 235, and you throw a rock to give it a catch rate of 255, then throwing bait will take that catch rate down to 127, rather than "canceling out" to give it the same catch rate as before.

Since the capture chance maxes out when the catch rate is 150 as explained above, there is no point throwing rocks at any Pokémon with an intrinsic catch rate of 150 or more, or more than one rock at a Pokémon with a catch rate of 75 or more, or more than two rocks at one with a catch rate of 38 or more. As it happens that covers all Pokémon that can be found in the Safari Zone except for Chansey (catch rate 30) and Dragonair (catch rate 27 in Yellow), who would need three rocks to go over 150.

Secondly, while a battle in the Safari Zone is going on, the game also keeps track of two counters, the "angry counter" and the "eating counter", which stand for the number of angry or eating turns the Pokémon has left. They both start out at zero; however, when a rock or bait is thrown, a random number between 1 and 5 inclusive will be generated and added to the appropriate counter (i.e. the angry counter if it's a rock, or the eating counter if it's bait), while the other counter will be reset to zero regardless of its previous value. This means only one of the counters can be nonzero at any given time. Since the random number is added to whatever value the counter already has, throwing further rocks at a Pokémon that is already angry will prolong its angry state, and likewise with throwing bait at an eating Pokémon. The eating and angry counters are both capped at 255.

The Pokémon's Turn

You always get the first turn in the Safari Zone, but on the Pokémon's turn, two things happen.

First, the game will check if either of the angry and eating counters is nonzero. If so, then a message saying "Wild [Pokémon] is angry!" or "Wild [Pokémon] is eating!" as appropriate is shown and the counter is decreased by one. If the angry counter is decreased to zero this way, the Pokémon's catch rate will also be reset to its initial catch rate , regardless of how it has been modified in the battle before this point; note that this last bit does not happen when a Pokémon stops eating, nor when the angry counter is reset to zero because you threw a bait.

After this, the game will perform a calculation to determine whether the Pokémon will run away on this turn. The run chance depends only on which state the Pokémon is in - angry, eating or neutral - but not on how many times you've thrown rocks/bait in any way: a Pokémon that you've thrown five rocks at followed by one bait will be exactly as happy to stick around as one that you threw a bait at on the first turn. Note that the Pokémon's actual current state does not necessarily correspond to the state indicated by the message that was just shown, since the message indicates only that the counter in question was nonzero before it was subtracted from. This also means that if you throw a rock or bait and the random number generated is 1, you will see an angry/eating message, but the Pokémon will in fact be back in its neutral state before even the run check is performed.

The run calculation itself goes as follows:

• Make a variable X equal to the low byte (i.e. the remainder if you divide by 256) of the Pokémon's Speed ( not the base Speed of the species, but the individual's actual Speed).
• If the outcome is greater than 255 (i.e. if the Pokémon's Speed was 128 or more), the Pokémon automatically runs. Skip the rest of the procedure.
• If the Pokémon is angry, double X again (if it becomes greater than 255, make it 255 instead).
• If the Pokémon is eating, divide X by four.
• Generate a random number R between 0 and 255 inclusive.
• If R is less than X, the Pokémon runs away.

All in all, this means that so long as (the low byte of) the Pokémon's Speed is less than 128 (which it always will be in the actual game - the highest Speed any Pokémon actually found in the Safari Zone can have is 75), the chance that it will run is 2*Speed/256 if it's in a neutral state, min(255, 4*Speed)/256 if it's angry, or int(Speed/2)/256 if it's eating.

Crucially, since this is the actual individual Speed and not the base Speed of the species, lower-leveled individuals are less likely to run . While Scyther at level 25 or 28 have around or above a 50% chance of running every turn in a neutral state, for instance, Yellow's level 15 Scyther are considerably easier to catch, with only a 32% chance of running in a neutral state at the most. Thus, perhaps the best piece of strategic advice for the Safari Zone is to go for the lowest-leveled possible version of your desired Pokémon, given the lower-leveled version isn't unacceptably rare.

So, well, how should one go about trying to achieve success in the Safari Zone, other than trying to catch lower-leveled Pokémon? Four basic kinds of strategies come to mind:

• Balls only. This is the simplest way to go about the Safari Zone - just madly lob balls at everything you want to catch and pray that they don't run before you catch them.
• Rocks, then balls. Throw some sensible number of rocks, then lob balls and hope you catch it before it either runs or calms down and resets the catch rate. If you see it's not angry anymore, start again from scratch with the rocks.
• Bait, then balls. Throw some bait to put the Pokémon in the eating state and make it stick around, then throw balls and hope the reduced catch rate doesn't come back to bite you. Unlike with rocks, where once the Pokémon stops being angry you're back at square one, it's not quite as obvious here that you should throw more bait once the Pokémon stops eating - each bait you throw lowers the catch rate more, after all.
• Rocks to increase catch rate, then bait to get it to stay, then balls. Throw a rock or two (or three) and then immediately throw bait. Provided your first rock doesn't generate one as the number of angry turns (in which case the Pokémon will calm down immediately and reset the catch rate), you'll manage to increase the Pokémon's catch rate before the bait gets thrown, meaning you end up with a catch rate of the same, double or quadruple the original (depending on the number of rocks), but a 4x reduced chance of running and assurance that the catch rate won't reset when it returns to the neutral state.

There are other possible strategies, but they appear obviously flawed - if you were to throw bait and then a rock, for instance, you'd end up with a normal catch rate but a higher running chance after wasting two turns, which can't possibly be helpful. These are the main ones that at a glance appear to hold some kind of promise.

You may think, as I did when I was initially working this out, that the fourth strategy has the most potential. However, as it turns out, the R/B/Y Safari Zone is broken: the balls-only strategy nearly always wins by a considerable margin, at least in terms of your overall chance of catching the Pokémon per encounter. Wasting your time on bait and rocks is only worth it in a couple of very exceptional cases.

Wait, What?

Good question. If you don't care about getting an intuitive grasp on why this is true, feel free to skip to the Safari Zone calculator.

Here's the thing. The entire Safari Zone experience basically simplifies to a game where you and the Pokémon alternate turns, with each of you having a given chance of "winning" on each of your turns (you win if you catch the Pokémon, while the Pokémon wins if it runs). When you throw bait or a rock, however, you do that instead of throwing a ball on that turn, while the Pokémon will continue to have a chance of running on every single one of its turns; essentially, you are forgoing one of your turns (attempts to "win") in exchange for a later advantage.

What is that later advantage, then, and is it worth losing that turn? Well, in the case of a rock, you double your chances of winning (catching the Pokémon) for up to four subsequent turns - but you also double the Pokémon's chances of winning (running away), and because you used up your turn throwing the rock, it's the Pokémon that has the next move.

You can hopefully see how that's not really a recipe for success. However, it's not quite as bleak as it appears, thanks to the one place where the simplification breaks down: you have a limited number of Safari Balls. A rock, by doubling both yours and the Pokémon's chances of winning each turn, will shorten the average duration of the battle. Thus, if you have sufficiently few balls and the Pokémon has a sufficiently low catch rate and Speed, to the point that in an average battle against it you'd run out of balls before either catching it or it running, throwing a rock and shortening the battle so your balls will last can actually be worth it, even at the aforementioned cost. For instance, if you only have one Safari Ball left, then you can either throw that one ball with a regular catch rate or throw some rocks first, which will make your single ball much more likely to be effective once you do throw it; you'll only get one attempt to catch it either way. The risks will still outweigh the benefits if the Pokémon is pretty speedy, since then it will be likely to run before you can actually throw the ball at all, but for a sufficiently slow target (for a single Safari Ball, the highest Speed where a rock will be worth it is 25 or so), rocks can be a good idea when you don't have a lot of Safari Balls left.

Throwing multiple rocks can also help, at least in theory, since more rocks will continue to double your chances of catching the Pokémon without raising the running chance further. Primarily, in many of those situations where a lack of Safari Balls means one rock is a good idea, two (or possibly three) rocks improve your chances even further, though the range of situations where this works is even narrower than for one rock. Technically multiple rocks can also help in general for Pokémon with very low Speeds and low catch rates - however, that's low Speeds as in single digits, and no Pokémon that fit the bill are actually found in the Safari Zone, making that point kind of moot. Otherwise, if you have plenty of balls to spare, the free angry turns they usually get to run away before you even start trying to catch them just result in a disadvantage you can't make up for.

What about bait? Bait is immediately somewhat more promising than rocks, since it halves your chance of "winning" but quarters the Pokémon's. However, bait also differs from rocks in that the catch rate doesn't go back to normal after the Pokémon stops eating, and just like rocks shorten the duration of the battle, bait prolongs the battle - it makes both parties less likely to win on subsequent turns. And the longer the battle goes on, the more the up-to-four turns (remember, the counter is decreased before the run check) that the Pokémon is actually less likely to run diminish in significance compared to all the turns after the Pokémon stops eating, when it will still have a lowered catch rate but a regular chance of running. That's besides the fact that again you must forgo a turn to throw the bait in the first place. In fact, as it turns out this makes bait wholly useless: there is not even in theory a Speed/catch rate combination for which bait will do you any good.

Where does this leave that especially promising-looking "rocks, then bait" strategy? Ultimately, it's stuck in the same rut rocks are: it's normally only useful for Pokémon with such ludicrously low Speed that they don't actually exist in the Safari Zone, and unfortunately, while rocks at least have a niche when you're running low on balls, you're always going to be better off just throwing however many rocks you're going to throw and then throwing your ball than throwing the rocks and then wasting your time on bait if you only have a couple of balls left. This strategy requires wasting several turns without throwing any balls, during some of which the Pokémon will have an increased chance of running, and to make matters worse, if the number of angry turns generated is one, you're going to lose even the rock's advantage and end up with the bait's lowered catch rate after all that preparation. It just kills it.

So, again, in nearly every case the best strategy is to just throw balls and hope you get lucky. That is, however, assuming that what you want to maximize is your chance of success per encounter: since rocks shorten the battle and make for fewer Safari Balls required, rocks may actually save you time and money.

The Safari Zone calculator below includes a variety of strategies, despite their mostly limited usefulness; play around with it if you think you might go with a different one.

Safari Zone Calculator

Use this tool to calculate your chances of capturing a given Pokémon.

As it is, it only includes Pokémon that are actually found in the Safari Zone in either Red, Blue, Yellow, or the Japanese-exclusive Blue version. If there is demand for adding other Pokémon just for the hell of it, I can do that too, but in the meantime, I feel this makes more sense.

In addition to your chances of capturing the Pokémon with any or all of the provided strategies, the calculator will also provide you with the basic capture rate and run chance per turn. When you select a Pokémon and game, additionally, it will give you the locations, levels and rarities at which the Pokémon is found in the Safari Zone in that game, so that you can perhaps attempt to find your Pokémon at a lower level or in an area where it's more common.

The base percentages the calculator gives may not match exactly up with those given by my R/B/Y catch rate calculator , since this calculator makes the simplifying assumption that the Pokémon's HP and Speed are equal to the average HP/Speed a wild Pokémon of the given species/level would have, while the catch rate calculator does the entire calculation for each possible HP IV and takes the average of the actual outcomes. I chose not to do the more accurate calculation here because this calculation is both already relatively slow and involves two different stats - trying every possibility would mean doing that whole relatively slow calculation up to 256 times, which just seems like way more trouble than it's worth.

Pokémon: Chansey Cubone Doduo Dragonair Dratini Exeggcute Goldeen Kangaskhan Krabby Lickitung Magikarp Marowak Nidoran (f) Nidoran (m) Nidorina Nidorino Paras Parasect Pinsir Poliwag Psyduck Rhyhorn Scyther Slowpoke Tangela Tauros Venomoth Venonat

Game: Red Blue/JP Green JP Blue Yellow

Safari Balls remaining:

Strategy: Show all Balls only One rock Two rocks Three rocks Bait repeatedly One bait Two bait Three bait Rock, then bait Two rocks, then bait Three rocks, then bait

Page last modified August 9 2021 at 02:53 UTC

Safari West

Top ways to experience Safari West and nearby attractions

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Safari West - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

• (0.39 mi) Safari West
• (5.51 mi) Chateau de Vie
• (6.68 mi) The Francis House
• (6.79 mi) Embrace Calistoga
• (5.67 mi) Meadowlark Country House & Resort
• (9.74 mi) Guiso Latin Fusion
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• (7.20 mi) Willi's Wine Bar
• (9.76 mi) Baci Cafe & Wine Bar
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• (6.42 mi) Up & Away Ballooning
• (9.07 mi) Gracianna Winery
• (7.99 mi) Electric bike Self-Guided rental
• (8.16 mi) Max Napa Tours
• (8.13 mi) Alexander Valley Vineyards

A safari experience like no other

Spend the Night

Welcome to Safari West

Go on safari.

Unleash Your Wildheart

Start the Adventure Group visits click here

Safari Glamping

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Dining in the Wild

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Safari West Happenings

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Think Your Family is Bananas? So is Ours​

​​The Holidays are here and it’s no secret that getting your troop together can be as stressful as fun. But...

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