
Is Cleffa Good in HeartGold & SoulSilver Playthrough?
Baby Normal-type in Gen 4, available through breeding. AbilityMagic Guard blocks all indirect damage. Friendship evolves into Clefairy, then Moon Stone for Clefable. Too many steps for a Pokemon locked behind breeding.
Cleffa trades roughly evenly with Falkner's team.
Cleffa trades roughly evenly with Bugsy's team.
Clefairy has the type edge here and should clean up Whitney's team.
Clefable trades roughly evenly with Morty's team.
Clefable trades roughly evenly with Chuck's team.
Clefable has the type edge here and should clean up Jasmine's team.
Clefable has the type edge here and should clean up Pryce's team.
Clefable has the type edge here and should clean up Clair's team.
Clefable has the type edge here and should clean up Brock's team.
Clefable has the type edge here and should clean up Misty's team.
Clefable has the type edge here and should clean up Lt. Surge's team.
Clefable resists most of Erika's coverage and hits back hard.
Clefable has the type edge here and should clean up Janine's team.
Clefable has the type edge here and should clean up Sabrina's team.
Clefable has the type edge here and should clean up Blaine's team.
Clefable has the type edge here and should clean up Blue's team.
Clefable has the type edge here and should clean up Will's team.
Clefable has the type edge here and should clean up Koga's team.
Clefable has the type edge here and should clean up Bruno's team.
Clefable has the type edge here and should clean up Karen's team.
Clefable has the type edge here and should clean up Lance's team.
Hatch
Hatch Cleffa from an Egg you breed on Route 34.
Recommended Moves
- After Bugsy
- TUTORNormalHeadbuttPower 105Accuracy 100%PP 15Ilex Forest
- TM38FireFire BlastPower 120Accuracy 85%PP 5Goldenrod Department Store
- TM22GrassSolar BeamPower 120Accuracy 100%PP 10Goldenrod Department Store
- TM35FireFlamethrowerPower 95Accuracy 100%PP 15Goldenrod Game Corner
- TM28GroundDigPower 80Accuracy 100%PP 10National Park
- After Morty
- TM30GhostShadow BallPower 80Accuracy 100%PP 15Prize for defeating Morty
- After Jasmine
- TM43NormalSecret PowerPower 105Accuracy 100%PP 20Lake of Rage
- TM10NormalHidden PowerPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 15Lake of Rage
Evolve Cleffa to Clefairy
Cleffa evolves into Clefairy with high friendship. Friendship is usually high enough before you reach Whitney.
Recommended Moves
- After Bugsy
- TUTORNormalHeadbuttPower 105Accuracy 100%PP 15Ilex Forest
- TM38FireFire BlastPower 120Accuracy 85%PP 5Goldenrod Department Store
- TM22GrassSolar BeamPower 120Accuracy 100%PP 10Goldenrod Department Store
- TM35FireFlamethrowerPower 95Accuracy 100%PP 15Goldenrod Game Corner
- TM24ElectricThunderboltPower 95Accuracy 100%PP 15Goldenrod Game Corner
- After Whitney
- HM04NormalStrengthPower 120Accuracy 100%PP 15Gift from a Hiker on Route 42
- After Chuck
- TM01FightingFocus PunchPower 150Accuracy 100%PP 20Prize for defeating Chuck
- After Jasmine
- TM43NormalSecret PowerPower 105Accuracy 100%PP 20Lake of Rage
Evolve Clefairy to Clefable
Clefairy evolves into Clefable with a Moon Stone. You can pick up the Moon Stone in Ruins of Alph. 1 other location is also available.
Recommended Moves
- After Bugsy
- TM15NormalHyper BeamPower 225Accuracy 90%PP 5Goldenrod Department Store
- TUTORNormalHeadbuttPower 105Accuracy 100%PP 15Ilex Forest
- TM38FireFire BlastPower 120Accuracy 85%PP 5Goldenrod Department Store
- TM22GrassSolar BeamPower 120Accuracy 100%PP 10Goldenrod Department Store
- TM35FireFlamethrowerPower 95Accuracy 100%PP 15Goldenrod Game Corner
- After Whitney
- HM04NormalStrengthPower 120Accuracy 100%PP 15Gift from a Hiker on Route 42
- After Chuck
- TM01FightingFocus PunchPower 150Accuracy 100%PP 20Prize for defeating Chuck
- After Jasmine
- TM43NormalSecret PowerPower 105Accuracy 100%PP 20Lake of Rage
How to Get Cleffa in HeartGold & SoulSilver
Get a Clefairy, leave it at the Day-Care, and the egg it produces hatches into Cleffa. There is no shortcut through the grass, since Cleffa never appears in the wild.
Wild Cleffa may be holding when caught:
Catch Clefairy at any of these 2 spots to eventually evolve into Cleffa.
Encountered via tall grass encounters
How to Obtain Cleffa in HGSS
How to Get Shiny Cleffa in HeartGold & SoulSilver
Cleffa hatches from Clefairy, so run the Masuda Method with a foreign parent at 1 in 1,638 for a shiny. Compare Shiny Cleffa odds across every game
Shiny Cleffa Evolution
3 FormsHeartGold & SoulSilver Shiny Cleffa Calculator
1 MethodThe only route here is Masuda Method, about 1 in 1,639 on each try.
Masuda Method: Breed with a parent from a different-language game. Works on any breedable line.
How many you have done, or plan to do.
| Chance | Encounters | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 10%lucky few | 173-- | -- |
| 25%one in four | 472-- | -- |
| 50%coin flip | 1,136-- | -- |
| 90%very likely | 3,773-- | -- |
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.
Curious how fast a hunt could go? Work out your HeartGold & SoulSilver shiny odds for Cleffa.
Cleffa Weakness
Fighting moves hit Cleffa for super-effective damage. The upside? Ghost-type moves can't touch it at all. Cleffa's special bulk (base 55 Sp.Def) helps absorb special-type weaknesses, though physical moves exploit the lower Defense.
| Damage | Types |
|---|---|
| 2x (Weak) | Fighting |
| 0x (Immune) | Ghost |
- Fairy type does not exist — Dragon has fewer checks
- Physical / Special split now per-move (introduced Gen IV)
What is Cleffa Weak Against
GoodBest Pokemon Against Cleffa
Cleffa Evolutions
Cleffa starts the chain as a baby form and evolves into Clefairy by leveling up. To get more eggs, breed the evolved versions. The evolved forms gain up to 265 total stats over Cleffa. View every chain in the Evolution Chart.
How to Evolve
Breeding
HGSS Cleffa Best Moveset
Indirect damage immunity through AbilityMagic Guard, the same ability that makes Clefable elite. At baby-stage stats of 25-55, the moveset can't use it. Evolve through friendship to Clefairy.
Best Build
Cleffa best EVs are Sp. Def
Support Moveset
- Thunder Wave
- Magic Coat
- Trick
- Aromatherapy
Recommended Teammates
Moves List
Without breeding, Cleffa misses out on Amnesia and Aromatherapy. That's 11 egg moves adding depth that the base kit lacks. STAB comes from Last Resort and Uproar, with coverage across 9 types rounding things out.
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
All 22 TMs are obtainable before the Elite Four
Egg Moves
Tutor Moves
Base Stats
Because of its unusual, starlike silhouette, people believe that it came here on a meteor.
When numerous meteors illuminate the night sky, sightings of CLEFFA strangely increase.
Cleffa HeartGold & SoulSilver Guide
In HeartGold & SoulSilver, for a casual playthrough, Cleffa works as a placeholder. normal coverage is useful early. The real payoff is Clefairy. That's where the stats start mattering.
Game Availability
Debuting in Gold & Silver, Cleffa appears in 19 games across 8 generations. A reliable presence in most mainline games, typically found through catching or hatching as a base form.
Click a game to view version-specific details
- Gen 1RB

Red & Blue - Gen 1Y
Yellow - Gen 2GSDebut

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 8SwSh

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
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