SoulGold Hidden Grottos: every location, reset rules, and what spawns

How Hidden Grottos work

Look for a suspicious path behind a tree and walk in. There are ten grottos, from Route 32 in the south to Route 47 in the west. Each one holds one thing at a time: a Pokémon, a visible item, or a hidden item.

Your very first grotto always has a Pokémon. After that it’s a fresh roll every time it refills. I walked past my first suspicious path twice before I noticed it.

Grottos refill once a day on the in-game clock. A Beckoning Bell refills all of them at once, one use per Bell.

• Free Bell: an NPC in Ilex Forest gives you one.
• More Bells: buy them with BP in the Battle Factory lobby, which opens after you beat Whitney. The Factory guide shows you how to earn BP.

Every grotto Pokémon has its Hidden Ability and two 31 IVs in a random pair of stats. The level is fixed, so Route 32 always gives Lv 10 and Route 47 always gives Lv 40.

What the odds actually are

You get a Pokémon 60% of the time. The other 40% is an item, usually something generic like a Rare Candy or PP Up.

The grotto’s own rare item (Everstone on Route 32, Lucky Egg on Route 47, and so on) only shows up about one visit in ten. Don’t farm a grotto for an item you need once. Buy it or find it somewhere else and treat the grotto drop as a bonus. I wasted a week of visits on Route 32 before I learned that.

Every grotto and what it spawns

Each grotto has four Pokémon at 25% each, a fixed level, and one rare item.

Grotto	Level	Pokémon (25% each)	Grotto-specific item
Route 32	10	Applin, Paldean Wooper, Mareep, Misdreavus	Everstone
Route 33	14	Pachirisu, Mienfoo, Darumaka, Cottonee	Sun Stone
Ilex Forest	15	Oddish, Ferroseed, Roselia, Exeggcute	Leaf Stone
Route 35	18	Rookidee, Pikachu, Poltchageist, Eevee	Unremarkable Teacup
Goldenrod Shore	20	Minccino, Shroomish, Rockruff (Own Tempo), Heracross	Light Clay
Route 38	30	Munchlax, Meowstic (male), Meowstic (female), Espathra	Stardust
Vajra Desert West	30	Baltoy, Vullaby, Larvitar, Gible	Smooth Rock
Lake of Rage	35	Cyclizar, Oricorio (Sensu Style), Falinks, Drampa	Eviolite
Route 44	40	Arctibax, Bergmite, Lopunny, Hisuian Zorua	Ice Stone
Route 47	40	Chansey, Larvesta, Ditto, Zorua	Lucky Egg

The first four are on your main path between Violet City and Goldenrod, so you’ll hit them with a Lv 10 to 18 team. Route 38 and Vajra Desert West are Lv 30, right around the stretch after Morty. Lake of Rage, Route 44 and Route 47 are late game, Lv 35 to 40.

The Unremarkable Teacup from Route 35 evolves Poltchageist, which also only spawns there. Skip the 1-in-10 roll and buy the teacup at the Olivine City mart. Poltchageist was my favorite grotto find of the whole run.

Where each grotto is

Grottos are a dark gap in a tree line. Walk into the gap to enter. These are the ten spots, in the order you’ll reach them.

The grotto-only Pokémon

You can only get these four from a grotto:

• Roselia in Ilex Forest
• Rookidee on Route 35
• Poltchageist on Route 35
• Meowstic , both genders, on Route 38

If you’re working through the commonly missed Pokédex entries, there’s no way around these. Meowstic kept dodging me longer than the other three.

These ones exist elsewhere, but the grotto is easier:

• Eevee on Route 35. Otherwise it’s 8% on Route 48.
• Heracross at Goldenrod Shore. Otherwise Route 48.
• Larvesta on Route 47. Otherwise only from the Lv 30 Larvesta encounter in Deep Ilex Forest.
• Ditto on Route 47. Otherwise 5% on Route 34. The grotto one has two 31 IVs, so it’s a better breeding parent.
• Own Tempo Rockruff at Goldenrod Shore. It’s the only way to get Dusk Form Lycanroc.
• Gible and Larvitar in Vajra Desert West at Lv 30. That’s early access to two pseudo-legendary lines.
• Oricorio (Sensu Style), Falinks, Cyclizar and Drampa at Lake of Rage.
• Arctibax and Bergmite on Route 44.
• Chansey on Route 47. It’s also 40% in the grass on the same route, so you only need the grotto for the Hidden Ability.

Hidden Abilities and IVs explained

Once your dex is filled, the Hidden Ability and the two perfect IVs are the reason to keep coming back.

The two 31 IVs are random, so you won’t always get the pair you want. Fix the rest yourself:

• Feathers from the Battle Factory BP shop or from fishing add 5 to one IV each.
• Hyper Training in Rinto Village uses Bottle Caps.

The Hidden Ability saves you an Ability Patch, and those are scarce. You’ll find them as item balls on Route 27, Snowtop Mountain B1F, Tin Tower 4F, Union Cave B2F (hidden) and Whirl Islands Descent. There are also some in the Factory BP shop, plus one as a Buena’s Password prize. I hoarded every Patch I found and still wished I had more.

A routine for farming grottos

Once you have Fly, the daily loop takes a few minutes. It turned into my warm-up every time I loaded the game.

1. Fly to Violet City. Check Route 32.
2. Walk through Route 33 and Ilex Forest.
3. Fly to Goldenrod. Check Route 35 and Goldenrod Shore.
4. Fly to Ecruteak. Check Route 38.
5. Fly to Mahogany. Check Lake of Rage and Route 44.
6. Fly to Cianwood. Check Route 47.
7. Make a separate trip to Vajra Desert West.
8. Use a Bell only after you’ve opened all ten, because it refills every grotto at once.

Hunting one specific Pokémon? Each visit is a 15% shot (60% for a Pokémon, times 25% for your species). That’s about seven tries on average, so seven days or seven Bells. Buy Bells in bulk at the Factory and ring one after each miss instead of waiting for the clock.

Skip farming rare items that have a fixed source:

• Lucky Egg: Kitakami Mountain, or the Battle Tower BP shop.
• Eviolite: Buena’s Password prize.
• Sun Stone, Leaf Stone, Ice Stone: Indigo Plateau Pokémon Center. Most stones are in the Game Corner or Safari Zone Gate mart before that.
• Smooth Rock: Battle Tower exchange.
• Light Clay: Goldenrod Shore is the only place I ever found it, so that one’s worth farming.

Two more tips:

• Spend your free first Pokémon on a pool you want. Route 32 is the first grotto you’ll reach, and a Hidden Ability Mareep or Misdreavus fits right into a Hard mode team.
• Save before you touch a shiny. If a grotto Pokémon looks shiny in the overworld, save first so a careless KO doesn’t cost you it.

You’ll want this loop most in the postgame, when IVs matter most, so keep it going after the League.