smeargle is a really unique pokemon! it gains access to a move called 'sketch' - which allows it to permanently learn the move last used by its opponent. this gives its moveset tons of flexibility! because of this flexibility, it can be very helpful in your pokemon journey - once you put the time in to building its moveset up properly. in particular, shiny hunters love using smeargle, as it can be the perfect pokemon for... well, catching other pokemon! this guide will focus on building a smeargle for catching pokemon in heartgold and soulsilver!

please note that the particulars of this guide are written from a post-game perspective, so it will mention resources that were unlocked in later parts of the game. you can definitely work around some of those resources, though! for example, i used the waterfall hm to access a route with high encounter rates for ditto as well as raticates at a specific level, but you can still access dittos and raticates at earlier portions of the game. building your smeargle might just take a bit longer!

you can catch a smeargle in a particular patch of grass in the ruins of alph. this grass patch is shown in the above picture.

to get to it, you'll need the hm surf - and to go through the northern basement of union cave. after entering union cave from route 32 (south of violet city), you want to follow the path until it branches off and head north. pass the firebreather and go downstairs. then surf on the water and keep going north. pass by one hiker and keep going straight, following the path as it twists to the west. you then want to pass by the other hiker and head up the stairs.

you'll be in a new room with another small pool of water. use surf once more and keep going north, then go up the stairs. you'll emerge in the ruins of alph!

head through the nearby southern stone structure (it has a door facing the union cave exit; you won't be able to see it from your angle, but it's there). exit through a hidden eastern door (a wide stone is on the path outside this door) and enter the neighbouring stone structure. exit through its southern door and you'll be in the smeargles' little patch of grass.

smeargle cohabitates with natu, so you will likely run into a few of those before you run into smeargle. (especially since natu has a 90% encounter rate, while smeargle has a 10% encounter rate.) but don't worry - smeargle will show up eventually!

when you encounter smeargle, i recommend just throwing pokeballs at it repeatedly so that it doesn't sketch the move that your pokemon uses on it! (don't worry if this happens, though. smeargle will learn sketch many more times as you level them up.)

scribbles the smeargle was level 20 when i caught her, but the smeargles in this patch of grass can be in the level 20-22 range.

now that you have your smeargle, you'll need to start building it! i will be building a smeargle with the following moveset. (as such, the guide will focus on getting these moves on smeargle, but the methods i use to get the moves on my smeargle can definitely be used for others as well!)

★ super fang: the only damaging move on this moveset, super fang cuts the opponent's hp in half. (i.e., it deals an amount of damage equal to 50% of the opponent's existing hp.)

★ recover: restores up to 50% of the user's maximum hp. this is very helpful if you're up against a legendary pokemon, since their moves can do quite a lot of damage.

★ spore: puts the pokemon that its used on to sleep. in gen4 (the generation which hgss is placed in), it does so with a 100% accuracy rate and only fails if its target has insomnia or vital spirit as their ability. catching a sleeping pokemon is easier than catching an awake pokemon, as status conditions increase a pokemon's catch rate.

★ recycle: allows the user to get a used held item back. this isn't limited to the move user's held item, either - it can recover a used item from another pokemon IF that pokemon was in the same position that the recycle user currently is in during the battle. recycle is useful on smeargle because it can recycle a pp-restoring leppa berry and thus never run out of pp during the battle.

other helpful moves for your smeargle are mean look and false swipe. false swipe is similar to super fang, except it will always leave your opponent with at least 1 hp. i personally don't use false swipe when shiny hunting, as i'm DEEPLY afraid of the opponent's moves running out of pp + them using the move 'struggle.' struggle does damage to the pokemon who uses it, and... if the pokemon only has 1hp... this guarentees them knocking themself out! but if you'd like to take the risk, you can always replace one of the above moves with that. as for mean look, that move makes the opponent unable to flee (once your pokemon is fast enough to use it first). this can be really helpful for roaming pokemon like entei and raikou, but i personally just use a dugtrio with the ability arena trap for my roamer legendary hunts. (since arena trap is an ability and not a move, it doesn't have the outspeed requirement.)

smeargle will learn sketch at level 11, 21, 31, 41, 51, 61, 71, 81 and 91 - but please note that smeargle won't be able to possess multiple sketch moves simultaneously. it will need to successfully sketch a move with its first sketch before it can learn another, etc. if you need more sketches, you can also visit the move relearner in blackthorn city, but keep in mind that you'll need to give him a heart scale.

now that we have our moveset planned out, we'll need to find some sketch partners for smeargle. (i suppose they're like smeargle's models...?) i used a method where i caught my smeargle's 'move tutors' rather than relying on wild pokemon rng, as i personally believe that method is a bit too clunky and time-consuming. it's also really cool to have set 'tutors' for future smeargles, in my opinion!

the first pokemon we are going to find is a raticate.

raticates learn super fang at level 34 - so, if you'd like, you can raise one yourself to that level. for the purposes of this guide, we are going to find a wild raticate on route 47, as they can be encountered between levels 31-33 over there. (reminder that you will need both surf AND waterfall to get to these raticates!) this route is to the west of cianwood, and you'll need to go through the cliff edge gate cave to get to it.

when you're inside of cliff edge gate, you need to go follow the straightforward path to exit the first portion of the cave. you'll now be up on a very high cliff. keep going forward and then go up to the other cave entrance (before crossing the bridge). take the ladder that heads down and leave the cave. once outside of the cave, to access the patch of grass with raticates on this route, you'll need to use surf to travel on the ocean water. surf on over to the waterfall, scale it, and then head north on the calmer waters. below is a picture of the grass patch with raticate.

if you want, you can name your new raticate 'super fang' so that you'll always have a reminder of its true calling in life. after catching your raticate, you shouldn't leave this route just yet. conveniently, you can also catch the second pokemon that we need here: a staryu.

staryu learns recover at level 15, and the wild staryus in this area are in the level 15-25 range! head back down the waterfall and surf around until you encounter one. this is where i found my staryu, which i named 'recover':

once you've caught your raticate and your staryu, the next pokemon we're going to look for is a parasect.

parasect can learn spore at level 17 (and paras can learn it at level 17, too). i decided to catch 'spore' the parasect in cerulean cave.

keep in mind that you only gain access to cerulean cave after you have earned all the kanto gym badges. head north out of cerulean town, crossing the bright gold 'nugget bridge.' then turn west, cross through the tall grass, and surf in the water. follow the flow of the water until you see the cave's entrance.

enter the cave, then just run back and forth until you encounter a parasect. once you do, catch it!

now we just need one more pokemon for our full smeargle moveset. the final pokemon we need is mr. mime.

mr. mime learns recycle at level 32. we can encounter mr. mimes between levels 28 - 30 on route 21, which is south of pallet town. (the mr. mimes which encompass this full range of levels are only out during the day, though. otherwise, you can only find level 28 mr. mimes on this route.) you'll need surf to get to this patch of grass, which is also pictured below.

after catching your mr. mime (which i, personally, named 'recycle'), you'll have the full set of pokemon that you need for your smeargle!

next on the agenda is training everyone up. if you've been using the same routes as me in this guide, they should all either already have the necessary move OR just need to hit the right level in order to learn the move - no heart scales necessary! once each of your move tutors for smeargle has learnt the move associated with it, you'll need to pay a visit to the move deleter.

you can find the move deleter to the left of the pokemon center in blackthorn city. have him erase all of the irrelevant moves on your 4 move tutor pokemon, so that they each instead look something like this:

once each of your four pokemon only know their Life's Purpose Move, your smeargle's tutors are good to go!

it's smeargle's time to shine!

like i said before, smeargle will learn sketch at levels 11, 21, 31, 41, 51, 61, 71, 81, and 91 - and can only know one sketch at a time. this means that you'll probably end up needing to train your smeargle quite a bit between sketches, but the method for each sketch will remain unchanged. save before each time, though - just in case!

once your smeargle has a sketch slot ready, you want to set one of the move tutor pokemon as the first pokemon in your party. then you want to find a wild ditto. you can do this method on any wild ditto, but i ended up going back to route 47 (in the patch of grass where i caught raticate), since dittos have a better encounter rate over there. (you can also find dittos on routes 34 and 35, as well as in cerulean cave.)

upon running into a wild ditto, you will automatically send out the move tutor pokemon, as it was the first pokemon in your party. none of these move tutor pokemon have moves that can knock out the ditto, so you can just burn your first turn by using whatever move it is once. ditto will then use transform into that pokemon.

since ditto also copies its target pokemon's moveset, this wild ditto will only know your move tutor's move. it's time to swap in your smeargle!

your smeargle will now be facing the ditto-copy of its move tutor. this ditto-copy will only be able to use the move associated with the move tutor and will NOT be able to knock out your smeargle due to the nature of these moves, so you can have smeargle use sketch on it safetly.

your smeargle has now learnt the move tutor's move!

you can do whatever you want with the wild ditto; catch it, run from it or knock it out.

now that your smeargle successfully sketched its first move, you'll need to raise it the necessary amount of levels in order for it to learn sketch again. repeat this process for the remainder of your move tutor pokemon and, eventually, you'll have a smeargle with all four moves!

the final step of this process is training your smeargle so that it's strong enough to face down target pokemon. your goal will vary in accordance to whatever you want to try to catch, but, generally speaking, a level 100 smeargle will be at the pinnacle of its power and therefore be the most ideal. personally, i enjoy just giving my smeargle an exp share and zoning out while repeatedly battling the pokemon league with the powerful members of my storyline team.

once you've met your training goal... congratulations! you've done it! you've built an extremely helpful smeargle in your copy of hgss!!!

i know that the process can seem quite tedious, but it really is something you fall into the swing of once you get going. moreover, your smeargle will be a very worthy companion on all of your future pokemon-catching escapades. here's a picture of me and scribbles the smeargle, ready to help me shiny hunt for a suicune!

i hope that this guide has been of help to you! i really enjoyed building scribbles the smeargle; the process was so neat that i simply had to share it with everyone here on my site. best of luck with catching pokemon - and may the odds be in your favour if you're looking for something specific, like a shiny or something with specific stats!