Ditto (Pokémon)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ditto | |
|---|---|
 National Lapras - Ditto (#132) - Eevee Johto Alakazam - Ditto (#092) - Pineco |
|
| Japanese name | Metamon |
| Stage | Basic |
| Evolves from | None |
| Evolves to | None |
| Generation | First |
| Species | Transform Pokémon |
| Type | Normal |
| Height | 1 ft 0 in (0.3 m) |
| Weight | 9.0 lb (4.0 kg) |
| Ability | Limber |
Ditto (メタモン Metamon?) are one of the 493 fictional species of Pokémon creatures from the multi-billion-dollar[1] Pokémon media franchise – a collection of video games, anime, manga, books, trading cards and other media created by Satoshi Tajiri. The purpose of Ditto in the games, anime and manga, as with all other Pokémon, is to battle both wild Pokémon, untamed creatures encountered while the player passes through various environments, and tamed Pokémon owned by Pokémon trainers.[2] Ditto is known as the resident shape-shifter in the Pokémon world.
In (Ancient) Greek the masculine adjective "dittos" (διττός) means "double", the neuter form of this adjective is the well known "ditto" implying the duplicate usage of certain things. "Ditto" is a slang word related to the Latin "dictum." Its use implies copying or reiterating an idea, this makes sense as Ditto's only attack most of the time is Transform, which allows it to "ditto" another Pokémon. Its Japanese name is Metamon, probably related to the word "metamorphose."
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[edit] Characteristics
Ditto takes the form of an amorphous pink (although classified as purple) blob with a simplistic face. Despite apparently not having a brain or vital organs, Ditto acts and communicates like a normal Pokémon, and its pink body is lightning resistant.
Ditto demonstrates one of the most perplexing and amazing talents in the Pokémon world: Transformation. It is able to rearrange its cellular structure into that of another Pokémon nearby at will so that it both looks like that Pokémon and can wield its powers. It can do this with any Pokémon, no matter how large or complex, be it Onix or Wailord—Ditto can become large enough to resemble these giant Pokémon exactly. The way it can rearrange its cells to apparently expand in size to accommodate its forms as larger Pokémon forever baffles scientists studying it. Strangely, when a Ditto laughs while transformed, it cannot hold its transformation. This is a major weakness.
There are various intriguing properties that occur with some Dittos. First, some inexperienced Ditto who have not perfected their transformation abilities end up not transforming completely into whatever Pokémon they are trying to mimic, unable to change its retained simplistic face accordingly, making it look bizarre and artificial. Another uncommon Ditto property is that sometimes the individual Ditto involved has the inability to mimic the size of the Pokémon it transforms into. In these cases, when it does transform into Onix, it is still the size of a standard Ditto—small enough to fit in one’s lap, rendering the transformation useless for battle, as an Onix relies purely on its massive size & strength. Most astounding of all is a property that seems to break the limits of what Ditto is advertised to be capable of: Some Ditto can transform into inanimate objects roughly their size, objects that may not be Pokémon-related at all, such as a book or a small artillery cannon (as seen in the Pokémon Anime). This is further enforced by the Pokédex fact that it turns into a stone before going to sleep to avoid being attacked.
[edit] In the Pokémon video games
Ditto is found in the Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal, Firered, Leafgreen, and Emerald versions, all generally in the same area. In Emerald, if the player returns to the Fossil Maniac's house after the player beats the Elite Four and go in to the newly dug hole; there will be an abudance of Ditto there. Loudred and Whismur can be found in the same tunnel, however, they are less common.
Ditto, in terms of Pokémon battle, is purely a novelty, basically serving as an opportunity to have a Pokémon identical to the opponent (except for HP). Because its stats are readjusted to mirror the stats of the opponent, Ditto can end up being a menace to whatever it is battling, depending on type matchups of moves. But this does not happen often enough to warrant it in most professional players’ teams.
In areas where Legendary Pokémon are allowed in battle, Mew far outclasses Ditto in every respect, Mew being the only other Pokémon with the move Transform. This is due to the fact that Mew can have extremely variable movepools in addition to or in place of Transform, as well as the fact that every one of its statistics (including Hit Points) is literally twice as high as each of Ditto’s stats, so it can battle effectively even without transformation. And when it is used for transformation, the fact that it has double the hit points of Ditto makes a transformed Mew twice as hard to take down.
Ditto is generally not used for battling. It is mainly used for breeding with all but Legendary and baby Pokémon. This is very useful, especially for Pokémon that are rare and prominently male or genderless. Tyrogue's evolutions, Hitmonchan, Hitmonlee, and Hitmontop, are the types of Pokémon that are good examples of that, as Tyrogue and its evolutions are always male, and they are one-off Pokémon. Thus, you would need a Ditto and breed it with Hitmonchan, Hitmonlee, or Hitmontop in order to produce a Tyrogue. Ditto is also the only way to breed with other genderless Pokémon that aren't Legendary, like Voltorb. This applies to all but Legendary and baby Pokémon, as mentioned prior.
In the games, if the player runs into a Ditto, the player is advised not to defeat it swiftly, because when Ditto transforms into the Pokémon the player is using first, it gives more experience when defeated. However, this doesn't apply to all Pokémon. Some, such as a Caterpie or Magikarp, may give out less experience points than a normal Ditto. In fact, one of the easiest ways to catch a Ditto, followed by a way to catch Mew, is to have a non-legendary, easy to catch water pokemon, and then use the Net Ball after weakening it.
Ditto can also found in the Nintendo 64 game Pokémon Snap in the Cave Course. They will have transformed into Bulbasaur, however, but their faces will be simplistic like what is seen in the anime. They will revert to their normal forms if hit by Pester Balls.
In Pokemon Diamond and Pearl it has been revealed that, if fainted while transformed, Mew or Ditto will still keep the moves they learned while transformed, thus making this very useful for breeding (in Ditto's case, not Mew's).
[edit] Glitches
For some reason, Ditto seems to have connections in the Red and Blue versions to the glitch Pokémon Missingno. and 'M. After an 'M is caught in the game during a battle, there will be an invisible Pokémon that will still be battling your Pokémon. When that is caught, the screen will say "you caught Ditto" (It might be another 'M). Once it is caught it won't be invisible anymore. If a player-controlled Ditto uses Transform to change into the invisible Ditto, its image will turn into a Missingno.'s image, but it will actually still be a Ditto.
Also, in Pokémon Stadium 2, any Missingno. or 'M that are uploaded to the game will get turned into Ditto. A Missingno. that becomes Ditto will be a normal shade of pink but an 'M that becomes Ditto will have a slightly different color. This is due to the different names--in Pokémon Stadium, a Pokémon's nickname dictates what shade it ends up as.
Another thing is the fact that since the Missingno. was not a Ditto, it does not have 'Transform'. This means that when linked into the Pokémon Stadium 2 game, the Missingno. which had been turned into a Ditto ends up keeping its original attacks. The funny thing about this is that even when this bizarre Ditto launches an attack, unless it was 'Transform', the animation attack goes flying and strikes the opponent while the bizarre Ditto is shown still standing around doing its usual taunt as if it was not even doing anything at all.
A famous glitch in Pokémon Gold and Silver can be used to Transform a Ditto into a Smeargle, allowing it to use Sketch to permanently gain an attack used on it. Ditto can then breed the attack into its (non-Ditto) offspring. In Pokemon Emerald and similar games of the generation where Ditto and Smeargle appeared, this was fixed--A Ditto using Sketch will always fail and a Smeargle will find it impossible to Sketch Transform.
[edit] Blue Ditto
Because of Ditto's ability to breed with almost any Pokémon (not including legendary pokemon), and also the fact that a Pokémon with a shiny parent of the opposite gender (or a shiny Ditto parent) has a 1 in 64[citation needed] chance of being shiny in Gold, Silver and Crystal, shiny Dittos can be quite useful for breeding other shiny Pokémon.
However, because the baby will always be in the evolutionary line of the non-Ditto Pokémon, shiny Dittos cannot be bred as they are made of synthetic materials, so one would normally have to resort to finding one in the wild. However, because of a glitch in the programming of Red, Blue, and Yellow often referred to as the "Blue Ditto glitch", it is possible to generate a shiny Ditto without much effort. The glitch is as follows:
- Take the shiny Red Gyarados from the Lake of Rage (any shiny Pokémon that can learn Mimic and can be traded to Red/Blue/Yellow will work, but Gyarados is the only one you're guaranteed to see), and trade it to Red, Blue or Yellow. Teach it Mimic using the TM.
- Go to a place where wild Dittos appear. (Like routes 13, 14 and 15 in Red and Blue).
- Gyarados must use Mimic. The list of Ditto's attacks will appear. (Of course its only attack is Transform).
- Once you have copied Transform, Ditto will transform itself into Gyarados.
- Use Transform too and copy the Ditto. Then, your foe may use Transform again, and then, catch it.
- Once the Ditto is caught, trade it to your Gold, Silver, or Crystal game and you'll have a Shiny Ditto.
In Pokemon Emerald, Blue Ditto is obtained like any normal pokemon- by catching it very rarely in Desert Underpass. When it Transforms into Pokemon, the transformation will also be shiny.
[edit] Super Smash Bros. Melee
Ditto makes a cameo in Super Smash Bros. Melee. In the VS Tournament mode (either winner out or loser out) you can scroll through characters before starting your next battle. But, by pressing L and R, you change your character to "Random" which is represented by a Ditto (as if it transforms into whatever character you end up using). It was also going to be a Pokémon inside the Pokeball item, but due to limitations, you can only get it with the Debug menu. However, the original transform idea is not present, leading to Ditto disappearing seconds after being released. Ditto also appears as a trophy.
[edit] Pokémon Trozei
In the Nintendo DS game Pokémon Trozei, Ditto plays a large role as a wildcard Pokémon; it can Trozei with any kind of Pokémon. It's immensely useful to Trozei with rare Pokémon after the player has made Continuous Trozei. Also, lining up Jammer Balls with Ditto are the only way to get rid of them during boss fights with Generals.
[edit] Pokémon Snap
Ditto will appear in the guise of other Pokémon, namely, Bulbasaur. The player must figure out a way into tricking the "Bulbasaur" into revealing its true nature to obtain a Ditto picture.
[edit] In the anime
Ditto first appeared in the Pokémon Indigo League series, helping to run a theater with its trainer, Duplica (Imite in Japanese version). Ditto has trouble transforming into other Pokémon, as it cannot alter its face to the same as his source.
Ash and company help Duplica and Ditto overcome their problems, and memorably impersonate Team Rocket's motto, much to the annoyance of Jessie, James and Meowth. Ditto overcomes its transforming powers, and becomes an artillerary weapon to defeat Team Rocket.
In the Orange League, Ash encounters a Ditto in his battle with Drake, the leader of the Orange League. Ash pits Pikachu against Ditto, and Ditto Transformed into Pikachu. A close match ensued, with Pikachu winning.
In Johto, Ash and company run into Duplica again, but this time Duplica has a second Ditto that stays the same size even if it copies a very large Pokémon, like Onix. That Ditto was nicknamed Mini-Dit.
Brody, a former Team Magma member, used a Ditto to steal ancient Pokémon data.
[edit] In the trading card game
Prior to the release of EX Delta Species, Ditto has seen several sporadic cards throughout the card game’s lengthy history, all as Basic Colorless Pokémon:
- Fossil
- Gym Challenge (as Koga’s Ditto)
- Skyridge
- EX Hidden Legends
However, once EX Delta Species was released, Ditto was given an entirely new image and role; Ten new Ditto cards were printed, all as Basic Pokémon, and they were almost all of different elements. The artwork on each card depicts a Ditto having transformed into a different Pokémon, but with its different, simplistic face still on it, much like the Ditto seen in the anime. There was one Colorless Ditto as itself, one Grass-type Ditto resembling Bulbasaur, two Fire-type Dittos resembling Charmander, two Water-type Dittos resembling Squirtle, two Lightning-type Dittos resembling Pikachu, one Ground-type Ditto resembling Geodude, and one Psychic-type Ditto resembling Mr. Mime.
[edit] References
- The following games and their instruction manuals: Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue; Pokémon Yellow; Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Stadium 2; Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal; Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald; Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen; Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness
- Publications
- Barbo, Maria. The Official Pokémon Handbook. Scholastic Publishing, 1999. ISBN 0439154049.
- Loe, Casey, ed. Pokémon Special Pikachu Edition Official Perfect Guide. Sunnydale, CA: Empire 21 Publishing, 1999. ISBN 1-930206-15-1.
- Nintendo Power. Official Nintendo Pokémon FireRed & Pokémon LeafGreen Player’s Guide. Nintendo of America Inc., August 2004. ISBN 193020650X
- Mylonas, Eric. Pokémon Pokédex Collector’s Edition: Prima’s Official Pokémon Guide. Prima Games, September 21 2004. ISBN 0761547614
- Nintendo Power. Official Nintendo Pokémon Emerald Version Player’s Guide. Nintendo of America Inc., April 2005. ISBN 1930206585
[edit] External links
- Official Pokémon website
- Bulbapedia (a Pokémon-centric Wiki)’s article about Ditto as a species
- Serebii.net’s 4th Gen Pokédex entry for Ditto
- Pokémon Dungeon Pokédex entry, full of statistics analysis
- PsyPoke - Ditto Pokédex entry and Usage Overview
- Smogon.com - Ditto Tactical Data
- WikiKnowledge.net’s entry for Ditto Previously hosted by Wikibooks
