Trace (Ability)

Trace (Japanese: トレース Trace) is an Ability introduced in Generation III.

In battle
Trace changes into the Ability of a random adjacent opponent.

Trace can copy. Trace can be swapped by.

Generation III
When a Pokémon with Trace enters battle, it copies a random opponent's Ability (replacing itself). It can copy any Ability, but if it copies Trace, it will not activate again.

Trace can be copied by.

Generation IV
While a Pokémon with Trace is in battle, if at any time an opponent has an Ability that can be copied by Trace, Trace will activate and replace itself with that Ability. Trace can only activate once while a Pokémon is on the field; even if the Pokémon gains Trace again (e.g. via ) after activating it the first time, Trace cannot activate until after it is switched out.

In a Double Battle with only one opponent remaining, if a Pokémon with Trace is sent into battle to replace a fainted Pokémon, Trace has a 50% chance to select the non-present opponent and not activate. Once a Pokémon takes its turn (uses a move, switches out, etc.), Trace will activate and copy the Ability of the opponent that is present.

Trace cannot copy Trace,, or.

Trace can be copied by.

Generation V
When a Pokémon with Trace enters battle, it copies a random adjacent opponent's Ability (replacing itself). If no opponents have Abilities that can be copied by Trace when the Pokémon with Trace enters battle, Trace cannot be activated until it enters battle again.

Trace cannot copy Trace,, , , , or.

Trace cannot be copied by. will fail if used by a Pokémon with Trace.

Generation VI onward
While a Pokémon with Trace is in battle, if at any time an adjacent opponent has an Ability that can be copied by Trace, Trace will activate and replace itself with that Ability. After activating Trace, if a Pokémon gains Trace again (e.g. via ), Trace will activate at the first opportunity.

Trace cannot copy Trace,, , , , , , , , , , , , , , or.

Trace cannot be copied by, , or. will fail if used by a Pokémon with Trace.

Outside of battle
Trace has no effect outside of battle.

When a Pokémon with this Ability is attacked, Trace copies the Ability of the attacking Pokémon. Prior to Gates to Infinity Pokémon can have more than one Ability—if a Pokémon has more than one Ability, Trace chooses one at random. The copied Ability lasts until the Pokémon enters a new floor.

Description

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In the Pokémon Adventures manga

 * In, Blue's Porygon2 was revealed to have Trace as its Ability.
 * In the, Diantha mentioned that her has Trace as its Ability.

In other languages
Fährte Rastro Calque Traccia トレース 复制（特性）