How To Catch A Ditto In Pokemon GO 2025? Tips & Tricks For Ditto Hunting

Whether you are a beginner in the game or you are a seasoned trainer, catching a Ditto in Pokemon GO is one of the most elusive challenges of the game. Similar to the anime, Ditto does not appear in its true form in the game. Naturally, you cannot spot it in the wild.

If you are completing a research task or completing your Pokedex, knowing how to catch a Ditto in Pokemon GO 2025 is a must! Let us break down everything you need to know for Ditto hunting.

Ditto In Pokemon GO

In Pokemon Red and Blue Games, Ditto was first introduced as a normal-type species. Similar to the anime, it transforms into any opponent in battles. In Pokemon GO, the mechanics remained as Ditto hides as a common species until it is caught. In the game, Ditto was first announced on 23rd November 2016. It was the final non-legendary species from the original Kanto Pokedex to be released in the game.

When it comes to shiny Ditto in Pokemon GO, it was released during the paid Kanto Tour event. Trainers could get their hands on a shiny Ditto through a special research quest on 20th February, 2021. Months later, in September, Shiny Ditto was made available for all the trainers during the Season of Mischief. Here are Ditto Stats in Pokemon GO:

As of right now, Ditto is still one of the species that is too frail to take part in any GBL format. Moreover, it is also unusable in raids. Therefore, it remains only a collection of flex for trainers around the world.

How to Catch a Ditto in Pokemon GO?

When you know how to catch a Ditto in Pokemon GO 2025, both normal and shiny Ditto hunting in the game becomes easy. Here are some steps you can consider to make your hunt fruitful:

Step 1: Ditto Disguises

While it is true that Ditto do not appear in the game in their true form, these species do not randomly disguise themselves as any species in the game. From time to time, there is a pool of Pokemon that Ditto disguises itself as. For example, check out our guide to all current Pokemon GO Ditto disguises in September 2025. For September and October, these are the current disguises. When you encounter any of these species, there is a random chance that one of them will be transformed into Ditto once you catch it.

Please note that these disguises are subject to change from time to time, especially during events where Ditto is a featured character.

Catch All The Disguises

The next step to how to catch a Ditto in Pokemon GO 2025 is to focus on all the disguises. There is no way to tell if a species is Ditto until it is caught. Therefore, the best practice is to catch 'em all! Don't bother about the CP and the IVs. After transforming into Ditto, every metric changes. What matters is the more you catch, the better your odds are of finding a Ditto.

Please note, when a caught Pokemon is a Ditto, you will have a pop-up message that says “Oh?” instead of “Gotcha.”

Lures and Insences

This pretty much goes without saying, but using your lures and incense while walking increases your odds of catching Ditto in the game. When you are staying stationary, use the lures to stop to attract Pokemon. When you are walking, pop up an incense for the same effect. This is especially effective during the events when Ditto is a feature. If you are having weather boosts, you will have more chances of attracting Ditto.

Focus On Big Clusters

Both lures and incenses are great answers to how to catch a Ditto in Pokemon GO 2025. However, nothing works better than big clusters. Crowded spawn zones and clusters often contain a large number of species in compact spaces. These give you a better chance to catch a Ditto, given there are so many species that you can check in one spot. If you are close to any Pokemon nests that are a ditto disguise for that moment, then you have hit the jackpot.

Featured Events

While you can hunt for Ditto in the game throughout the year, when it is a feature in an event, this is where you have the best chances of bagging that normal-type mischievous species. From spotlight hours to week-long events, keep an eye out for the news so as not to miss any chance of catching a Ditto.

How to get Shiny Ditto in Pokemon GO?

Now that you are aware of how to catch a Ditto in Pokemon GO 2025, let's talk about its shiny variant! The good news is that the shiny rates for Ditto are very high. Naturally, they are easier to find compared to other species of the game. The reason behind this is that the more rare a spawn is, the higher the shiny odds it has in the game. Of course, there are exceptions!

Let us take a look at how you can get a shiny Ditto in Pokemon GO:

• Catch the species that are not shiny. Niantic has made it clear that any species found in the wild with their shiny variant will never transform into a normal ditto.
• Whenever there is a Ditto featured in an event, make sure to extend your hunting session to at least 30-45 minutes. This increases your chances of catching a shiny Ditto, as you will be able to see and check multiple Ditto disguises. Check out the tips to increase your odds of catching a shiny Ditto in Pokemon GO.
• There are often field research tasks introduced in the game, which reward you with Ditto encounters. Trainers generally have even better odds of catching a shiny Ditto from research tasks than in the wild.
• Last but not least, if you are simply that unlucky with the normal-type Pokemon, consider trading to find a shiny one. Given the rarity of the events where Ditto is a main feature, it is understandable that trainers might want an alternative way to get a shiny Ditto. Thankfully, we can obtain it via trading. However, make sure you are at least Ultra Friends with someone to have less Stardust cost for the unregistered trade.

Tips to Catch a Ditto in Pokemon GO

Even though catching a Ditto requires a lot of luck, here are some smart strategies on how to catch a Ditto in Pokemon GO 2025:

• Check the local reports of Ditto. You can join your community's Discord servers and Facebook groups. In these groups, the sightings are often recorded by trainers around the community. With that, everyone gets an idea as to where to look for Ditto. Join these groups and servers to contribute your sightings as well as enjoy the reports from other trainers. Moreover, with Campfire introduced, you can have everything in one place.
• Your in-game nearby radar is your best friend. When you are on the go playing the game, check out the nearby radar frequently to see if any disguises are near you. If so, walk to the stop and catch the disguise to have a chance of getting a Ditto.
• During the events, the spawn rate of Ditto disguises is boosted. You generally have less time and more catches. Therefore, whenever you see any events that come into the game, stock up on normal Poke Balls. It will allow you to fast catch all the species of the event and save you some valuable time.
• Learn how to quickly catch! This will help you not only save time for your Ditto hunt but also in community days and Meltan hunting as well.