Wild Pokémon

Wild Pokémon (Japanese: ポケモン wild Pokémon) are any that are not currently owned by a Pokémon Trainer. They are encountered in most parts of the Pokémon world, most commonly outside of cities and towns, often in tall grass, in caves, or on water. A Trainer may choose to a wild Pokémon or run from it. If a Trainer chooses to battle, they may either attempt to the Pokémon with a Poké Ball or to defeat it outright. There are many instances of wild Pokémon being used for assistance without being caught, such as s using them to perform a task by directing them with a Capture Styler.

In the games
In the games, wild Pokémon will appear to the player in a variety of locations, most often when the player is walking through tall grass, but also within caves, abandoned buildings, or when ing on water. They may appear when walking over deep sand, puddles, or snow. Fishing, interacting with Pokémon in the overworld,, ing small trees, using , and interacting with trees that have been slathered with honey may also initiate battles with wild Pokémon. Additionally, wild Pokémon sometimes hide within objects such as TVs, trash cans, and roadside bushes, and can be encountered by phenomena, ambush encounters, or soaring. Depending on the location, the Pokémon may be different species, and are typically at higher levels in areas only accessible later in the game.

When encountered, a wild Pokémon's moveset will generally consist of the most recent four moves its species would know by leveling-up; that is to say, a level 8 will know, , and  when encountered in the wild in , while one encountered at level 19 will have Quick Attack, , , and. This is true even for evolved species, such as, which, if it were able to be encountered in the wild in Pokémon Platinum, would always know , , , and.

There are several ways to alter the wild Pokémon encounter rate. One of these, introduced in Generation I, is the use of Repel, which will avoid encounters with any Pokémon of a lower level than the party's lead Pokémon. The Cleanse Tag was introduced in Generation II, which lowers the encounter rate. Pokémon March and Pokémon Lullaby in Generation II, played on the Pokégear, will raise or lower the encounter rate respectively, while do the same since Generation III (many only gaining this effect in ). The White and Black Flutes can be used for this in Generation III and Generation IV. In Generation V, two types of Pass Powers (Encounter Power ↑ and Encounter Power ↓ ) take over this function, while in Generation VI, two O-Powers (Encounter Power and Stealth Power) inherit the same properties. In, encounters can be prevented by Roto Stealth.

In some instances, multiple wild Pokémon will appear at once. From Generation IV onward, if the player is accompanied by another Pokémon Trainer they can encounter Double Battles in the wild. In Generation V, there is the chance of two Pokémon appearing at once in. In Generation VI, hordes of five Pokémon may appear. In Generation VII, a wild Pokémon can call for an ally, turning the battle into a 2-on-1 scenario. In all instances, all but one of the Pokémon will have to be defeated before that one can be caught.

If all the Pokémon in the player's party faint while battling a wild Pokémon, the player will drop some money in panic.

There are times when the usual  will be replaced by another message:

In the anime
Typically, wild Pokémon are not a central feature of the, which focuses mostly on the Pokémon belonging to , , and other Trainers he encounters. Most of the Pokémon belonging to the group were shown in the wild at some point, but are usually at a later point in the same episode, most often at the end. Despite this, there have been several recurring wild Pokémon who appear over a length of time and are not caught. Of all of these Pokémon, an, a , a , a , a , and a went on to be caught several episodes after they appeared. As demonstrated in a number of occasions, is also a wild Pokémon.

There are, however, numerous examples of wild Pokémon being featured in the anime in debut episodes that introduce their species, such as Clefairy in Clefairy and the Moon Stone and Sudowoodo in Type Casting.

In the first anime episode, Ash's Pokédex states that wild Pokémon tend to be jealous of human-trained Pokémon, this being one of the reasons that the Ash hit with a rock attacked  instead.

In the Pokémon Adventures manga
As Pokédexes prior to the arcs in Hoenn typically needed the Pokémon to be captured in order for data to be gained, capturing wild Pokémon has been a long-standing point for every Pokédex Holder save and  until the. The first wild Pokémon to be captured was a wild  by, and even legendary Pokémon were seen as soon as the first round, though the one in question (a  appearing near Pallet Town) was not captured. Pokémon that have been released, unlike in the games, do sometimes appear in the wild and can be re-caught or controlled by another Trainer, such as Emerald's Sceptile and, and again unlike in the games, where identical Trainer ID means that high-level Pokémon can be controlled by its Trainer, several Pokémon such as Pika and were disobedient and likely to even attack its Trainer on a whim.

In other languages
Pokémon salvaje Pokémon sauvage Pokémon selvatico 野生ポケモン 野生宝可梦