Pokémon Scarlet & Violet: 3 Ways to Swap to Your Pokémon's Hidden Ability

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All Pokémon have Abilities that give passive effects in battle, but many Pokémon have Hidden Abilities—and sometimes, these Hidden Abilities are much more powerful than their normal counterparts. But how do you get a Hidden Ability on your Pokémon? There are a couple of ways to do this, though most involve participating in high-end raids. Keep reading to learn how to get your Pokémon's Hidden Ability in Scarlet and Violet.

Things You Should Know

Participate in 6- and 7-Star Tera Raid Battles to get Ability Patches, which swap your Pokémon's Ability.
You can also get Pokémon with their Hidden Ability in 6- and 7-Star Tera Raid Battles.
If you've got a Pokémon with a Hidden Ability and want to get more, breed them with a Ditto.

Using an Ability Patch

Complete 6- or 7-Star Tera Raid Battles. Ability Patches are items that allow you to change a Pokémon's Ability into one of its Hidden Abilities, and the only way to get them is to finish 6- or 7-Star Tera Raid Battles. These are some of the hardest fights in the game, so make sure you prepare accordingly.

Open your bag. After getting an Ability Patch, open your bag and navigate to the item.

Apply the Ability Patch to the Pokémon of your choice. While Ability Patches can be used on any Pokémon, their rarity and difficulty in obtaining means that most players save them for special Pokémon, such as shinies or legendaries. Ability Patches can only be used on Pokémon that have Hidden Abilities. For example, you cannot use one on a Metapod because they can only have the ability Shed Skin. If a Pokémon has their Ability changed into a Hidden Ability, they will retain a Hidden Ability when evolving. For example, if you used an Ability Patch on a Lillipup to give it Run Away, that ability will change to Scrappy once it evolves into Herdier (as Scrappy is Herdier's Hidden Ability).

Tera Raid Battles

Join a 6- or 7-Star Tera Raid Battle. Pokémon caught in 6- or 7-Star Tera Raid Battles have a higher chance of having their Hidden Ability. These are some of the hardest fights in the game, so make sure you prepare accordingly.

Catch the Pokémon once the raid is over. Note that if you're completing a 7-Star Tera Raid Battle, the Pokémon you catch can only be caught once. 6-Star Tera Raid Battles, however, do not have this restriction, so if you get the wrong Ability, you can try again.

Breeding

Obtain a Pokémon with the Hidden Ability you want. While this method doesn't work if you have zero Pokémon with Hidden Abilities, it works if you're trying to breed more Pokémon with a specific Hidden Ability for better IVs and you have one already.

Obtain a Ditto without a Hidden Ability. Alternatively, if the Pokémon you have with the Hidden Ability is a female, you can breed her with a male of her same species.

Breed the Pokémon and hatch the resulting egg. You can now reliably produce multiple Pokémon with their Hidden Ability, either for getting perfect IVs or for sending to friends.