How to Get Hidden Abilities

Get Pokemon with Hidden Abilities by trading or breeding in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (BDSP). Read on to learn the chance of breeding Hidden Abilities, the best Hidden Abilities, and for Hidden Abilities explained!

How to Get Hidden Abilities

How to Get Hidden Abilities in BDSP
Use an Ability Patch Poke Radar Chaining Ramanas Park Trade Breeding

Use an Ability Patch

Ability Patch

The Ability Patch is an Item available in the Battle Tower, a post-game area, for 200 BP. This item will allow players to change a Pokemon's Ability to a Hidden Ability.

The Ability Capsule a similar item, only allows Pokemon to change between non-Hidden Abilities. The Ability Patch allows Pokemon to change to a Hidden Ability for the first time, making breeding competitive-ready Pokemon significantly easier. However, the steep price of 200 BP means you'll need to have your Battle Tower strategy on point if you want an Ability Patch.

Battle Tower Guide

Uses of Ability Patch

	Ability Patch	Ability Capsule
Ability 1 → Ability 2	X	◯
Ability 2 → Ability 1	X	◯
Ability → Hidden Ability	◯	X
Hidden Ability → Ability	X	X

Legend: X = No; ◯ = Yes

Can a Pokemon's Original Ability be Restored?

Ability Patch cannot switch a Pokemon's Hidden Ability to its regular Ability. There are no ways to change it and is permanently stuck to the Pokemon.

How to Get BP (Battle Points)

Poke Radar Chaining

When using the Poke Radar, there's a chance that a grass patch will have a stronger shake with larger blades of grass coming out of it. The Pokemon encountered in these grass patches are Poke Radar Pokemon with Hidden Abilities.

This type of grass shake is quite rare and when encountering Pokemon in this type of grass, your chances of encountering a Pokemon with its Hidden Ability is still about 30x better than basic odds of encountering Shiny Pokemon.

Pokemon Encounter	Odds
Shiny Pokemon (Basic Odds)	1/4096
Pokemon with Hidden Ability (via Poke Radar)	Approx. 30x better than Basic Shiny Odds

How to Use the Poke Radar

Ramanas Park

Ramanas Park has Legendaries you can catch and all these Pokemon have their Hidden Abilities instead of their regular one. Previously, you can only get Legendaries like these in events.

Ramanas Park All Legendary Pokemon

Trading

You can get a Pokemon with a Hidden Ability via trade with another player. This is the easiest method of getting a Pokemon with Hidden Ability, as you can guarantee beforehand whether the Pokemon you're receiving already has a Hidden Ability or not.

If you have a Pokemon with a Hidden Ability, many players will be willing to trade with you.

Pokemon Trading Board

Check if the trade Pokemon received has a Hidden Ability

Take note that before agreeing to a trade, you can check to see the stats of the Pokemon which you will receive. Make sure the Pokemon you're receiving has the Hidden Ability you're expecting!

How to Trade Locally and Online

Breeding

When you already have a Pokemon with Hidden Ability, you can pass the Hidden Ability to its offspring by breeding it at the Nursery in Solaceon Town.

How to Breed Pokemon

Chance of Breeding Hidden Abilities

Breeding Between Two Different Species

Hidden Ability Inheritance
Goldeen (Male, Ability doesn't matter.)	These two can produce a Magikarp egg with a Hidden Ability.	Magikarp ( Female, with Hidden Ability)
Goldeen (Female, Ability doesn't matter.)	These two cannot produce a Magikarp egg with a Hidden Ability. They will only produce Goldeen Eggs.	Magikarp ( Male, with Hidden Ability)

If the Pokemon with the Hidden Ability is female, its offspring will be the same Pokemon, so it has a chance of inheriting the Hidden Ability.

If the Pokemon with the Hidden Ability is male, its offspring will be the same Pokemon species as the female breeding partner, so there won't be a chance of it inheriting the Hidden Ability, since Hidden Abilities differ between species.

Breeding Between the Same Species

Hidden Ability Inheritance
Magikarp (Male, with Hidden Ability)	These two can produce a Magikarp egg with a Hidden Ability.	Magikarp ( Female, with Hidden Ability)
Magikarp (Male, with Regular Ability)	These two can produce a Magikarp egg with a Hidden Ability.	Magikarp ( Female, with Hidden Ability)
Magikarp (Male, with Hidden Ability)	These two cannot produce a Magikarp egg with a Hidden Ability.	Magikarp ( Female, with Regular Ability)
Magikarp (Male, with Regular Ability)	These two cannot produce a Magikarp egg with a Hidden Ability.	Magikarp ( Female, with Regular Ability)

Keep in mind that when breeding Pokemon of the same species, the female parent should have the Hidden Ability. If only the male parent has the Hidden Ability, there is no chance for their offspring to be born with a Hidden Ability.

We recommend breeding the Male Parent with the Hidden Ability with a Ditto instead, for the offspring to have a chance to have the Hidden Ability.

Breeding with Ditto

Hidden Ability Inheritance
Ditto (Ability doesn't matter.)	These two can produce a Magikarp egg with a Hidden Ability.	Magikarp ( Male, with Hidden Ability)
Ditto (Ability doesn't matter.)	These two can produce a Magikarp egg with a Hidden Ability.	Magikarp ( Female, with Hidden Ability)

Male Pokemon can only pass their Hidden Ability by breeding with Ditto, since the Ditto Egg Group doesn't produce an offspring Ditto and can breed with most Pokemon.

Ditto Location

Best Hidden Abilities

Pokemon	Hidden Ability	Effect
Clefable	Unaware	Ignores any stat changes in the Pokemon.
Gliscor	Poison Heal	Replenishes HP when Pokemon is poisoned.
Garchomp	Rough Skin	Inflicts damage to the attacker on contact.
Infernape	Iron Fist	Boosts the power of punching moves.
Toxicroak	Poison Touch	May poison targets when a Pokemon makes contact.

What are Hidden Abilities?

Rare Abilities Not Found in Wild Pokemon

Hidden Abilities are rare abilities available to most Pokemon. Hidden Abilities function the same way as other Abilities, but Pokemon normally caught in the wild will never have them. Hidden Abilities were first introduced in the Generation 5 games, Pokemon Black and White.

Pokemon BDSP Related Guides

Training and Breeding

Training and Breeding Guides
How to Breed Pokemon and Hatch Eggs	Nature and IV Breeding Guide
How to Level Up Fast	How to EV Train Fast
How to Reroll for Best Nature and IVs	How to Increase IVs
Pokerus Effects	Shiny Hunting Guide
How to Learn Egg Moves	How to Change a Pokemon's Nature
How to Check EVs	How to Check Pokemon IVs
How to Hatch Eggs Faster	How to Get Hidden Abilities
How to Catch High IV Pokemon	How to Increase Friendship