Is Butterfree Good in Platinum Playthrough?
If you breed or import Caterpie, AbilityCompound Eyes MoveSleep Powder still works as a status lead. Platinum offers Duskull and Ralts in the wild now though, filling utility roles Butterfree once competed for.
Roark's Pokemon outpace and outclass Caterpie here.
Butterfree resists most of Gardenia's coverage and hits back hard.
Butterfree has the type edge here and should clean up Fantina's team.
Butterfree trades roughly evenly with Maylene's team.
Butterfree trades roughly evenly with Crasher Wake's team.
Byron's team hits Butterfree's weaknesses hard.
Butterfree has the type edge here and should clean up Candice's team.
Volkner's team hits Butterfree's weaknesses hard.
Butterfree trades roughly evenly with Aaron's team.
Butterfree has the type edge here and should clean up Bertha's team.
Flint's team hits Butterfree's weaknesses hard.
Butterfree has the type edge here and should clean up Lucian's team.
Butterfree has the type edge here and should clean up Jupiter's team.
Butterfree has the type edge here and should clean up Mars's team.
Butterfree has the type edge here and should clean up Saturn's team.
Butterfree trades roughly evenly with Cynthia's team.
Catch Caterpie
Catch Caterpie on Route 204 (walking, Lv 5, rare). Pokémon FireRed in GBA slot.
Recommended Moves
- STARTING (Lv 5)
- LV 5NormalTacklePower 35Accuracy 95%PP 35
- LV 15BugBug BitePower 90Accuracy 100%PP 20
- After Byron
- TUTORNormalSnorePower 40Accuracy 100%PP 15Snowpoint City
Evolve Caterpie to Butterfree
Metapod evolves into Butterfree at Level 10. Your Caterpie should hit Level 10 before you reach Gardenia, at typical leveling pace.
Recommended Moves
- LV 12GrassStun SporePower —Accuracy 75%PP 30
- After Fantina
- TM89BugU-turnPower 105Accuracy 100%PP 20Veilstone Game Corner
- TM68NormalGiga ImpactPower 150Accuracy 90%PP 5Veilstone Game Corner
- TM15NormalHyper BeamPower 150Accuracy 90%PP 5Veilstone Department Store
- TM22GrassSolar BeamPower 120Accuracy 100%PP 10Veilstone Department Store
- LV 40BugBug BuzzPower 135Accuracy 100%PP 10
- After Candice
- TM85PsychicDream EaterPower 100Accuracy 100%PP 15Valor Lakefront
- Post-Game
- TUTORBugSignal BeamPower 113Accuracy 100%PP 15Survival Area
- TM53GrassEnergy BallPower 80Accuracy 100%PP 10Route 226
- TM42NormalFacadePower 70Accuracy 100%PP 20Survival Area
How to Get Butterfree in Platinum
Metapod becomes Butterfree at level 10, the only road to one in Platinum. Since Metapod itself needs a FireRed cartridge to spawn, this whole chain is gated behind the dual-slot trick.
Wild Butterfree may be holding when caught:
Silver Powder (5% chance) An item to be held by a Pokemon. It is a shiny, silver powder that ups the power of Bug-type moves.Catch Caterpie or Metapod at any of these 2 spots to eventually evolve into Butterfree.
Encountered via tall grass encounters
Badge 1
Badge 2How to Obtain Butterfree in Pt
The path to Butterfree starts with Caterpie at Lv. 5-13 via walking encounters. 2 catchable stages total, with locations listed for each one below.
- Step 2Catch or Evolve Metapodor evolve from Caterpie (Step 1)
- Step 3Butterfree ✓BREEDINGAvailableLeave a compatible parent at the Pokemon Day Care to receive a Caterpie egg.
How to Get Shiny Butterfree in Platinum
Butterfree never flies wild in Sinnoh, so chain its base stage Caterpie in Eterna Forest to 40 for a shiny and evolve it the rest of the way. Compare Shiny Butterfree odds across every game
Platinum Shiny Butterfree Calculator
3 MethodsThe best route is PokeRadar Chain at full boosts, about 1 in 200 on each try. Tune it below.
PokeRadar Chain: Chain shaking-grass patches without breaking the combo. The rate peaks at a chain of 40.
Masuda Method: Breed with a parent from a different-language game. Works on any breedable line.
Full Odds: Walk through grass, surf, or fish. Every encounter is its own independent shiny roll.
How many you have done, or plan to do.
| Chance | Encounters | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 10%lucky few | 22-- | -- |
| 25%one in four | 58-- | -- |
| 50%coin flip | 139-- | -- |
| 90%very likely | 460-- | -- |
Time assumes -- at your pace and does not change your shiny odds.
How is this calculated?
Every encounter has the same shiny chance, the Shiny Odds Per Try shown above. Each one is a separate roll that does not care how many you have already done, so the more you hunt, the higher your overall chance of at least one shiny. The formula below turns your odds and your number of tries into that combined chance.
chance after N tries = 1 − (1 − p)^N, where p = 1 / odds per try
Example at 1 in 8,192 (classic full odds): about 864 encounters for a 10 percent chance, 5,678 for 50 percent, and 18,862 for 90 percent.
The table above flips that around: it shows how many encounters it takes to reach a 10, 25, 50, and 90 percent chance at your current odds. Turning on boosts like the Shiny Charm, sandwiches, or chains improves your odds, so the encounter numbers drop.
These are estimates, not promises. Most games have no pity counter, meaning no guaranteed shiny no matter how many you hunt, so even Very Likely is not guaranteed: some hunters find one early, others go well past that point.
Want exact numbers for your session? Calculate your shiny odds in Platinum with Butterfree preloaded.
Butterfree Weakness
Butterfree is weak to Rock, Fire, Electric, Ice, and Flying. Watch out for Rock attacks, those deal 4x damage. On the flip side, it's immune to Ground-type moves entirely. Butterfree's special bulk (base 80 Sp.Def) helps absorb special-type weaknesses, though physical moves exploit the lower Defense.
| Damage | Types |
|---|---|
| 4x (Critical) | Rock |
| 2x (Weak) | Fire, Electric, Ice, Flying |
| 0.5x (Resist) | Bug |
| 0.25x (Resist) | Grass, Fighting |
| 0x (Immune) | Ground |
- Fairy type does not exist — Dragon has fewer checks
- Physical / Special split now per-move (introduced Gen IV)
What is Butterfree Weak Against
VulnerableBest Pokemon Against Butterfree
 Aerodactyl Rock | B | |
Obtain MethodOreburgh City Gift Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Butterfree View Aerodactyl builds →Rock Tomb 4x160-190%KO Wing Attack 2x93-110%KO Thunder Fang 2x67-80% Ice Fang 2x67-80% | ||
 Cranidos Rock | C | |
Obtain MethodOreburgh City Gift Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Butterfree View Cranidos builds →Rock Tomb 4x178-210%KO Fire Blast 2x38-47% Thunderbolt 2x33-40% | ||
 Noctowl Normal | C | |
 Anorith RockBug | C | |
Obtain MethodOreburgh City Gift | ||
 Solrock RockPsychic | C | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Butterfree View Solrock builds →Rock Tomb 4x143-170%KO Fire Blast 2x57-67% | ||
 Monferno FireFighting | C | |
Obtain MethodEvolve Chimchar (Route 201 Gift) Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Butterfree View Monferno builds →Fire Blast 2x105-125%KO Rock Tomb 4x85-100%KO | ||
 Growlithe Fire | C | |
 Kabuto RockWater | C | |
Obtain MethodOreburgh City Gift | ||
 Golbat Poison | C | |
Obtain MethodMt Coronet Surfing | ||
 Geodude RockGround | C | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Butterfree View Geodude builds →Rock Tomb 4x127-150%KO Fire Blast 2x38-47% | ||
 Electrike Electric | C | |
 Pachirisu Electric | C | |
 Lunatone RockPsychic | C | |
 Luxio Electric | C | |
Butterfree Evolutions
Butterfree is the final form in a three-stage chain from Caterpie through Metapod. Breeding this form produces Caterpie eggs (quick to hatch). Evolving from Caterpie gave Butterfree the biggest boost in Sp.Atk (+60), bringing the total to 385 stats. View every chain in the Evolution Chart.
How to Evolve
Breeding
Breed with Butterfree to get Caterpie eggs easily using 48 partners from the Bug egg group.
Pt Butterfree Best Moveset
97.5% accurate MoveSleep Powder through AbilityCompound Eyes makes Butterfree one of the most reliable sleep leads available. The moveset follows up with special Bug and Psychic attacks off 80 Sp. Atk, but Bug/Flying typing eats 25% from MoveStealth Rock every switch.
Best Build
Butterfree best EVs are Sp. Atk and Speed
Special Attacker Moveset
- Sleep Powder
- Bug Buzz
- Stun Spore
- Protect
Recommended Teammates
Moves List
TMs define Butterfree's movepool. The natural moves cover basics with Bug Buzz and Signal Beam, but the real versatility comes from technical machines giving it Psychic and Grass coverage and more. That's where the options open up.
How to Read the Moves Table
Tabs
- Level-Up
- Learned by leveling up.
- TM
- Taught by a Technical Machine.
- Egg
- Inherited via breeding.
- Tutor
- NPC tutor (cost: items, BP, money).
- Reminder
- An NPC reteaches any move this Pokemon could have learned by leveling up.
- Transfer
- Carried over from an older game using Pokemon HOME.
- Event
- Given out through Mystery Gift events.
Visual Signals
CAT (Category)
How the move deals damage and which stats it uses.
A small dot on the icon's corner marks the move as contact. That triggers abilities like Static, Flame Body, Rough Skin, or Iron Barbs, plus items like Rocky Helmet and Sticky Barb.
Tier (S to D)
Each move's competitive rank in RankedBoost's system. TM, Egg, and Tutor sort by tier by default (best first). On Level-Up, click the Tier header to do the same.
PWR (Power)
Base damage. Numbers shown in a type color include STAB (base × 1.5). Hover any colored number to see the math.
— means no power (status moves) or variable power.
Sorting & Filter
Click any column header to sort. Level-Up opens with Lv 1 at the top. TM, Egg, and Tutor open with the highest-tier moves at the top.
Search filters by move name or type. The Filter button limits the list to STAB, Physical, Special, or Status moves.
Level-Up Moves
TM Moves
34 of 36 TMs are obtainable before the Elite Four
Egg Moves
Tutor Moves
Reminder Moves
Base Stats
It loves the honey of flowers and can locate flower patches that have even tiny amounts of pollen.
Butterfree Platinum Guide
In Platinum, Butterfree can work for a story run. It rates C-Tier, a middle-of-the-pack pick, so the Bug/Flying typing decides whether it earns a team slot.
In Platinum, Butterfree plays as a balanced. Speed is middling, so pick your spots carefully.
In Platinum, Timid is the go-to nature for Butterfree. That's +Speed / -Attack. Pair it with 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe EVs. Fits the balanced role.
In Platinum, Butterfree pairs best with Gyarados, Electivire, and Latias. Gyarados has Decent synergy and covers what Butterfree can't handle on its own.
Game Availability
Butterfree first appeared in Red & Blue and spans 19 games across 9 generations. It later gained a Gigantamax form in Generation 8, adding new dimensions to its competitive identity.
Click a game to view version-specific details
- Gen 1RBDebut
Red & Blue - Gen 1Y
Yellow - Gen 2GS
Gold & Silver - Gen 2C
Crystal - Gen 3RS
Ruby & Sapphire - Gen 3E
Emerald - Gen 3FRLG
FireRed & LeafGreen - Gen 4DP
Diamond & Pearl - Gen 4Pt
Platinum - Gen 4HGSS
HeartGold & SoulSilver - Gen 5BW
Black & White - Gen 5B2W2
Black 2 & White 2 - Gen 6XY
X & Y - Gen 6ORAS
Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire - Gen 7SM
Sun & Moon - Gen 7USUM
Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon - Gen 7Let's Go
Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee - Gen 8SwShGigantamax
Sword & Shield - Gen 8BDSP
Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl - Gen 8PLA
Legends: Arceus - Gen 9SV
Scarlet & Violet - Gen 9LZA
Legends: Z-A - Gen 10WW
Winds & Waves
Explore
Where to go next after Butterfree.
Keep playing · PlatinumPlatinum Tier ListThe best Pokemon ranked tier by tierSee Platinum Tier List