Pokemon GO isn’t all that far away from catching up to the main Pokedexes of the Pokemon franchise, but we honestly reckon that there are some crossover Pokemon that never go out of style, including everyone’s favorite shapeshifter. If you’ve managed to luck into one while playing Niantic’s latest, here’s how to use Ditto in Pokemon GO. 

How to Use Ditto in Pokemon GO

We reckon that Dittos are great even though they’re definitely very creepy. If you remember how they were being used in Detective Pikachu, well, it’s very hard to get that sort of visceral imagery out of your head.

Regardless, they’re incredibly useful in basically any mainline Pokemon game, even if they aren’t very easy to catch in Pokemon GO because they don’t appear as themselves. Before you read on about how to use a Ditto, it’s probably important for you to get one.

Essentially, Dittos appear as specific Pokemon in this mobile game, and we’ve listed them out below:

• Bidoof
• Foongus
• Gulpin
• Hoothoot
• Hoppip
• Ledyba
• Nummel
• Paras
• Remoraid
• Seedot
• Skitty
• Spinarak
• Venipede
• Venonat
• Voltorb
• Weedle
• Whismur

The trick with Ditto is that it’s not going to be immediately obvious until you catch it that it’s one of those Pokemon, so our best bet is to be extra paranoid if you’re encountering a real flood of any of the above in your area.

Once you get a Ditto, here’s how people are using them now. Ditto as a base Pokemon only knows how to Transform and Struggle, which shouldn’t be a huge surprise. However, Ditto is cool because it will Transform into whatever Pokemon it’s facing down.

It will stay that way the whole battle and use that Pokemon’s moves. If you’re trying to scope out a gym for the first time or just train up, then we reckon it’s pretty handy – you’ll get to see the breadth of moves of your opponent, and in a tricky situation, potentially mitigate any Type disadvantages (though a mirror matchup is rarely all that favorable). 

Now that you have a little bit more information on how to use Ditto in Pokemon GO, it should be easy for you to get the most out of this particular shapeshifting critter even though it’s a little bit of a slippery one.

While it was a relatively late addition to the grind of things, you can use it to frontload some encounters in gyms to get the hang of what you’ll be up against before taking in your real team, so to speak. A decent way to scope out the competition.

Need a hand with anything else in Pokemon GO? Why not check out our dedicated guides hub for the game which contains a bunch of tips and tricks for Trainers just like yourself:

• Pokemon GO Spring Event – What We Know
• How to Beat Arlo in Pokemon GO for March and April 2020
• Elite TM Pokemon GO Guide – What Are These For?