Is Metapod Good in Crystal Playthrough?
Metapod sits at this stage for a few levels before the Butterfree payoff. Crystal's early route trainers give enough experience to push through it quickly.
Falkner's team hits Metapod's weaknesses hard.
Butterfree trades roughly evenly with Bugsy's team.
Butterfree trades roughly evenly with Whitney's team.
Butterfree resists most of Morty's coverage and hits back hard.
Butterfree has the type edge here and should clean up Chuck's team.
Jasmine's Pokemon outpace and outclass Butterfree here.
Butterfree trades roughly evenly with Pryce's team.
Butterfree trades roughly evenly with Clair's team.
Lt. Surge's team hits Butterfree's weaknesses hard.
Butterfree trades roughly evenly with Sabrina's team.
Butterfree resists most of Erika's coverage and hits back hard.
Butterfree has the type edge here and should clean up Janine's team.
Butterfree has the type edge here and should clean up Misty's team.
Butterfree has the type edge here and should clean up Brock's team.
Blaine's team hits Butterfree's weaknesses hard.
Butterfree trades roughly evenly with Blue's team.
Butterfree has the type edge here and should clean up Will's team.
Butterfree has the type edge here and should clean up Koga's team.
Butterfree has the type edge here and should clean up Bruno's team.
Butterfree has the type edge here and should clean up Karen's team.
Lance's team hits Butterfree's weaknesses hard.
Catch Caterpie
Catch Caterpie on Route 30 (walking, Lv 3-4, common).
Recommended Moves
- STARTING (Lv 3)
- LV 3NormalTacklePower 35Accuracy 95%PP 35
Evolve Metapod to Butterfree
Metapod evolves into Butterfree at Level 10. Your Metapod should hit Level 10 before you reach Bugsy, at typical leveling pace.
Recommended Moves
- After Falkner
- TM39NormalSwiftPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 20Union Cave
- LV 28FlyingGustPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 35
- LV 34PsychicPsybeamPower 65Accuracy 100%PP 20
- After Jasmine
- TM10NormalHidden PowerPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 15Gift from a fisherman in a house at Lake of Rage
- After Clair
- TM22GrassSolar BeamPower 120Accuracy 100%PP 10Route 27
- After Lt. Surge
- TM15NormalHyper BeamPower 150Accuracy 90%PP 5Celadon Game Corner prize (7500 coins)
- TM29PsychicPsychicPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 10Saffron City
- TM19GrassGiga DrainPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 5Prize for defeating Erika
How to Get Metapod in Crystal
Metapod is the in-between stage, scarcer than Caterpie at its five locations and mostly uncommon. National Park and a Headbutt tree in Ilex Forest are your spots, though leveling a Caterpie to 7 is faster.
4 locations to catch Metapod7 locations to catch Caterpie
Encountered via tall grass encounters
Encountered via tall grass encounters
Badge 1
Badge 2
Badge 3
Badge 4
Badge 5
Badge 6
Badge 7
Badge 8Catch Caterpie at any of the 7 locations below, then level it up to 7 — it evolves into Metapod.
Badge 1 Badge 2 Badge 3 Badge 4 Badge 5 Badge 6 Badge 7 Badge 8Where To Catch Metapod in C
Available earlier: catch Caterpie at the very start and evolve it at Lv 7. Wild Metapod first appears at Ilex Forest (after Badge 1).
- Step 1Catch CaterpieRoute 24Lv.8-10GrassRate 60%MorningRoute 30Lv.3-4GrassRate 50%Morning/dayRoute 24Lv.8-10GrassRate 50%DayRoute 2Lv.3GrassRate 30%Morning/dayRoute 31Lv.4GrassRate 30%Morning/dayIlex ForestLv.5GrassRate 30%Morning/dayRoute 25Lv.10GrassRate 30%Morning/dayNational Park - Bug Catching ContestLv.7-18FloorRate 20%Bug-Catching Contest only, on Tuesdays, ThursdaysIlex ForestLv.10Headbutting special treesRate 15%National ParkLv.10FloorRate 5%Morning/day
- Step 3Catch or Evolve into ButterfreeRoute 2Lv.7GrassRate 10%Morning/dayIlex ForestLv.10Headbutting treesRate 5%National Park - Bug Catching ContestLv.12-15FloorRate 5%Bug-Catching Contest only, on Tuesdays, ThursdaysRoute 24Lv.14GrassRate 5%Morning/dayor evolve from Metapod (Step 2)
To plan your throws, open the Crystal catch rate calculator with Metapod preloaded.
How to Get Shiny Metapod in Crystal
Metapod hangs around National Park at any hour and Ilex Forest during morning and day; walk the grass until a shiny shell appears, or knock one loose from an Ilex tree with Headbutt. Compare Shiny Metapod odds across every game
Crystal Shiny Metapod Calculator
2 MethodsThe best route is Breed w/ Shiny Parent, about 1 in 64 on each try.
Full Odds: Walk through grass, surf, or fish. Every encounter is its own independent shiny roll.
Breed w/ Shiny Parent: Eggs inherit stats from a shiny parent, so about 1 in 64 hatch shiny. A shiny Ditto helps every egg, and any other shiny parent (the red Gyarados works) helps only eggs of the opposite gender.
How many you have done, or plan to do.
| Chance | Encounters | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 10%lucky few | 7-- | -- |
| 25%one in four | 19-- | -- |
| 50%coin flip | 45-- | -- |
| 90%very likely | 147-- | -- |
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.
For time estimates and charm math, open the Crystal shiny odds calculator with Metapod already selected.
Metapod Weakness
Metapod's Bug typing leaves it vulnerable to Fire, Flying, and Rock. Metapod's physical bulk (base 55 Def) helps cushion physical weakness hits, but special attackers are the bigger threat.
| Damage | Types |
|---|---|
| 2x (Weak) | Fire, Flying, Rock |
| 0.5x (Resist) | Grass, Fighting, Ground |
- Dark and Steel types added — Fairy does not exist yet
- Moves are Physical or Special based on type, not per move
- Special stat split into Sp.Atk and Sp.Def
What is Metapod Weak Against
Avg
Metapod Evolutions
Metapod sits between Caterpie and Butterfree in this three-stage line. Not the final form yet. For breeding, quick to hatch with a decent partner pool via one egg group. So far, Defense got the biggest boost (+20 from Caterpie). The final form adds another 190 stats on top. View every chain in the Evolution Chart.
How to Evolve
Breeding
Breed with Metapod to get Caterpie eggs easily using 23 partners from the Bug egg group.
C Metapod Best Moveset
One evolution from Butterfree's MoveSleep Powder, the only competitive purpose this line serves. Harden can't survive anything that matters. Pass through immediately.
Best Build
Utility Moveset
- Harden
Moves List
A compact toolkit overall. The offense runs through Bug STAB for Metapod, with Normal coverage doing what it can. Don't expect versatility from this one.
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.
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
Egg Moves
Tutor Moves
Reminder Moves
Base Stats
This is its pre-evolved form. At this stage, it can only harden, so it remains motionless to avoid attack.
Metapod Crystal Guide
In Crystal, for a casual playthrough, Metapod works as a placeholder. Bug coverage is useful early. The real payoff is Butterfree. That's where the stats start mattering.
Game Availability
Present since Red & Blue, Metapod appears in 19 games spanning 9 generations. Gen 1 originals like Metapod have the longest track record of availability in the series.
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 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
Explore
Where to go next after Metapod.
Keep playing · CrystalCrystal Tier ListThe best Pokemon ranked tier by tierSee Crystal Tier List