In the wild, many Pokémon hold items of their own. Oftentimes it’s a pretty unimportant item, such as a berry you can easily obtain by going to a tree and then cultivating in Poké Pelago.

But other times, the item is a lot rarer, and can be only found by pursuing a specific Pokemon to pluck the item off of them. Worse still, the chance of a Pokemon having the item at all can sometimes sink as low as 5%.

But never fear! There is an easy way to mindlessly farm up many of your favorite items. Just be patient and follow these simple steps.

Step 1 - Preparation¶

The first thing you will need is a Pokemon that knows either Thief or Covet. Thief is a TM and Covet can be learned via Move Tutor. This move enables you to swipe an item off of a Pokemon without having to waste Poké Balls catching a bunch and then manually checking if they hold anything.

Luckily, many Pokémon can learn Thief or Covet. Chances are high you already have something sitting in your PC that needs a bit of leveling up and then is good to go!

The second step to preparation is optional. It is a huge time saver but not necessary if you really can’t accomodate it. That is a Pokémon whose ability is Compound Eyes. This nifty ability increases the chance of a Pokémon holding something.

If a Pokémon has a 50%/5%/1% of holding an item, Compound eyes alters these chances to 60%/20%/5%. As you can see, it’s a huge deal if the item only has a 5% chance of appearing! Lucky for you, Butterfree has Compound Eyes and, better yet, it can learn Thief. Caterpie and Metapod are very easy to find, so go get one!

Step 2 - S.O.S.¶

Head to where the Pokémon is located. Want a Razor Claw? Go to Vast Poni Canyon and start hunting for Jangmo-o. Depending on your odds of finding the Pokémon, this can become tedious and frustrating, but you will find them eventually! Consult the table at the bottom of this page for a list of useful rare items that can only be found on wild Pokémon.

Now you will want to start up an S.O.S. battle so that you do not have to find, say, a Jangmo-o, over and over again. Make sure you use False Swipe to increase your chances of the Pokémon calling for help. Do not inflict a status condition or else this will prevent the Pokemon from ever calling. But do use an Adrenaline Orb!

Step 3 - Use Thief on the Pokemon that respond to the call¶

Obviously, make sure your Thief user isn’t already holding an item. Now comes the fun part! Start spamming Thief! The game will tell you if you successfully steal something after you use the move. Don’t worry if Thief one-shots the Pokémon, if there was an item it will still be stolen.

If this continues for long enough and you still don’t have an item, you will probably start having another problem: The base Pokémon is going to use Struggle soon. If you would like to continue this streak without having to find the Pokémon all over again, feel free to pack another Pokemon that knows Fling and is holding a Leppa Berry.

Otherwise, just start from Step 2 again. This is where having Compound Eyes can really speed up the process.

List of Rare Items¶

The items listed here are either very useful competitively (e.g. Thick Club), are necessary to evolve a Pokémon (e.g. Razor Claw), or allow for an increase in quality of life (e.g. Lucky Egg). We will also include items that are otherwise only available for purchase using BP, and items with limited use that are wild Pokémon exclusive.

Pokémon listed as holding the item are the easiest Pokémon to find. Fully evolved Pokémon have a very rare chance of showing up in S.O.S. chains and will usually have a 50% chance of holding the item.