Several abilities in Polished Crystal have effects that apply outside of battle — modifying wild encounter rates, shaping which species appear, accelerating egg hatching, and rewarding items post-battle. This page documents only effects verifiable in the game's ROM source. If an effect is not listed here, treat it as unverified.

Party Effects After Battle

Pickup

After every battle, each party member with Pickup has a 10% chance to receive an item, provided it is not already holding one. The reward is drawn from a level-scaled table via GetScaledItemReward, which selects from either a base or rare pool depending on the mon's level. The in-battle effect — recovering an item the opponent consumed during the turn — is handled separately by PickupAbility.

Source: engine/battle/abilities.asm (.HoneyOrPickup, .Pickup, GetScaledItemReward, PickupAbility), data/items/pickup_items.asm

Honey Gather

After every battle, a mon with Honey Gather has a level-scaled chance to collect Sweet Honey. The source comment gives the exact formula: 5% at levels 1–10, increasing by 5% per 10 levels, up to 50% at levels 91–100.

Source: engine/battle/abilities.asm (.HoneyOrPickup)

Natural Cure

After battle, any party mon with Natural Cure has its non-volatile status condition automatically cleared.

Source: engine/battle/abilities.asm (.natural_cure)

Egg Hatching

Flame Body and Magma Armor

If at least one non-egg party member has Flame Body or Magma Armor, the egg cycle decrement applied each step is doubled. The check iterates the full party and activates on the first matching ability found.

Source: engine/pokemon/breeding.asm (DoEggStep)

Wild Encounter Generation

All of the following effects are applied inside ApplyAbilityEffectsOnEncounterMon (engine/overworld/wildmons.asm) before the wild encounter is finalized.

Encounter Rate

The lead's ability can raise or lower the raw encounter rate:

• Double rate: Arena Trap, Illuminate, No Guard
• Halve rate (minimum 1): Infiltrator, Quick Feet, Stench, White Smoke
• Halve rate (only when the wild mon is at least 5 levels below the lead): Intimidate, Keen Eye

Encounter Level

Hustle, Pressure, and Vital Spirit each give a 50% chance to push the wild mon's level up by 1, capped at the location's maximum level.

Type Bias

The following abilities give a 50% chance to bias encounter slot selection toward a specific type:

• Fire: Flash Fire
• Grass: Harvest
• Steel: Magnet Pull
• Electric: Lightning Rod, Static

Personality

Synchronize in the lead forces the wild mon's nature to match the lead's nature. Cute Charm in the lead gives a 2/3 chance to force the wild mon's gender to be the opposite of the lead's.

Source: engine/pokemon/move_mon.asm (wild mon nature and gender generation)

Wild Held Items

If the lead has Compound Eyes or Super Luck, the probabilities for wild mon held items shift significantly:

Source: engine/battle/core.asm (LoadEnemyWildmon item assignment)