Is Trapinch Good in HeartGold & SoulSilver Playthrough?
Breed-only. Ground with AbilityHyper Cutter. Flygon at level 45 is Ground/Dragon with AbilityLevitate. The grind from a bred Trapinch is long, but the immune-to-Ground Dragon is worth pursuing.
Trapinch trades roughly evenly with Falkner's team.
Trapinch has the type edge here and should clean up Bugsy's team.
Trapinch has the type edge here and should clean up Whitney's team.
Trapinch trades roughly evenly with Morty's team.
Trapinch trades roughly evenly with Chuck's team.
Trapinch resists most of Jasmine's coverage and hits back hard.
Trapinch trades roughly evenly with Pryce's team.
Trapinch trades roughly evenly with Clair's team.
Trapinch has the type edge here and should clean up Brock's team.
Trapinch trades roughly evenly with Misty's team.
Trapinch has the type edge here and should clean up Lt. Surge's team.
Erika's team hits Trapinch's weaknesses hard.
Trapinch trades roughly evenly with Janine's team.
Trapinch trades roughly evenly with Sabrina's team.
Trapinch has the type edge here and should clean up Blaine's team.
Trapinch trades roughly evenly with Blue's team.
Trapinch trades roughly evenly with Will's team.
Trapinch trades roughly evenly with Koga's team.
Trapinch trades roughly evenly with Bruno's team.
Trapinch trades roughly evenly with Karen's team.
Flygon trades roughly evenly with Lance's team.
Catchable
Catch Trapinch in the Safari Zone (walking, Lv 46-47). Requires 49 Peak objects placed in Desert.
Recommended Moves
- STARTING (Lv 46)
- LV 46GroundDigPower 120Accuracy 100%PP 10
- LV 46DarkCrunchPower 80Accuracy 100%PP 15
- After Bugsy
- TM22GrassSolar BeamPower 120Accuracy 100%PP 10Goldenrod Department Store
- TUTORNormalHeadbuttPower 70Accuracy 100%PP 15Ilex Forest
- After Whitney
- HM04NormalStrengthPower 80Accuracy 100%PP 15Gift from a Hiker on Route 42
- LV 57NormalHyper BeamPower 150Accuracy 90%PP 5
- LV 65GroundEarth PowerPower 135Accuracy 100%PP 10
- LV 73GroundEarthquakePower 150Accuracy 100%PP 10
Evolve Trapinch to Flygon
Vibrava evolves into Flygon at Level 45. Level it up in the post-game, after you beat Lance.
Recommended Moves
- STARTING (Lv 45)
- LV 45DragonDragon ClawPower 120Accuracy 100%PP 15
- After Bugsy
- TM28GroundDigPower 120Accuracy 100%PP 10National Park
- TM38FireFire BlastPower 120Accuracy 85%PP 5Goldenrod Department Store
- TM22GrassSolar BeamPower 120Accuracy 100%PP 10Goldenrod Department Store
- After Pryce
- TUTORDragonDraco MeteorPower 210Accuracy 90%PP 5Blackthorn City
- After Clair
- TM26GroundEarthquakePower 150Accuracy 100%PP 10Victory Road
- TM59DragonDragon PulsePower 135Accuracy 100%PP 10Given by Clair in the Dragon's Den after the Dragon Shrine test
- LV 57NormalHyper BeamPower 150Accuracy 90%PP 5
How to Get Trapinch in HeartGold & SoulSilver
Trapinch comes from breeding alone, hatched from a Vibrava or Flygon egg at the Day-Care. The desert digger never appears in the wild here, so the line begins with a traded-in parent.
Wild Trapinch may be holding when caught:
Soft Sand (5% chance) An item to be held by a Pokemon. It is a loose, silky sand that boosts the power of Ground-type moves.1 location to catch Trapinch
Encountered via tall grass encounters
Badge 8Where To Catch Trapinch in HGSS
Trapinch is the chain's first catch. You'll find walking encounters from Lv. 44-47 across 4 total spots in the chain.
Bring the right balls: check Trapinch catch odds in the HeartGold & SoulSilver Catch Rate Calculator before you throw.
How to Get Shiny Trapinch in HeartGold & SoulSilver
Trapinch breeds up its shiny, so pair it with a foreign-language parent the Masuda way for a shiny. Compare Shiny Trapinch odds across every game
HeartGold & SoulSilver Shiny Trapinch Calculator
2 MethodsThe best route 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.
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 | 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.
Planning a longer hunt? Set up Trapinch in the HeartGold & SoulSilver Shiny Odds Calculator to compare every method side by side.
Trapinch Weakness
Trapinch is weak to Water, Grass, and Ice. On the flip side, it's immune to Electric-type moves entirely. Standard number of weaknesses for the Ground typing.
| Damage | Types |
|---|---|
| 2x (Weak) | Water, Grass, Ice |
| 0.5x (Resist) | Poison, Rock |
| 0x (Immune) | Electric |
- Fairy type does not exist — Dragon has fewer checks
- Physical / Special split now per-move (introduced Gen IV)
What is Trapinch Weak Against
AvgBest Pokemon Against Trapinch
 Carnivine Grass | C | |
 Gyarados Water | S | |
Obtain MethodLake Of Rage Good Rod Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Trapinch View Gyarados builds →Aqua Tail 2x188-222%KO Ice Fang 2x91-108%KO | ||
 Cacturne GrassDark | B | |
 Tangrowth Grass | C | |
 Jumpluff Grass | C | |
Obtain MethodSafari Zone Surfing | ||
 Vileplume GrassPoison | C | |
 Victreebel GrassPoison | C | |
 Ludicolo WaterGrass | C | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Trapinch View Ludicolo builds →Solar Beam 2x188-222%KO Surf 2x150-177%KO Ice Beam 2x100-118%KO | ||
 Shiftry GrassDark | C | |
 Meganium Grass | C | |
Obtain MethodEvolve Chikorita (New Bark Town Gift) | ||
 Krabby Water | C | |
Obtain MethodCianwood City Old Rod Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Trapinch View Krabby builds →Crabhammer 2x178-210%KO Ice Beam 2x44-52% | ||
 Glaceon Ice | B | |
Obtain MethodEvolve Eevee (Goldenrod City Gift) | ||
 Feraligatr Water | C | |
Obtain MethodEvolve Totodile (New Bark Town Gift) Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Trapinch View Feraligatr builds →Waterfall 2x142-168%KO Ice Beam 2x90-106%KO | ||
 Jynx IcePsychic | C | |
Trapinch Evolutions
Three stages ahead. Trapinch grows into Vibrava, then pushes on to Flygon. Check the evolution methods below. For breeding, average hatch time with a decent partner pool via two egg groups. Evolving adds up to 230 stat points total. View every chain in the Evolution Chart.
How to Evolve
Breeding
Breed Trapinch easily with 48 breeding partners from the Bug and Dragon egg groups. Pass egg moves like Flail, Focus Energy, Fury Cutter and 3 more to offspring.
HGSS Trapinch Best Moveset
Ground type with AbilityArena Trap locking grounded opponents in and 100 Attack for real physical power at the first stage. 10 Speed goes last against everything alive. The moveset traps and hits hard but can't outrun anything. Two evolutions from Flygon.
Best Build
Trapinch best EVs are HP and Attack
Physical Tank Moveset
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Quick Attack
- Crunch
Recommended Teammates
Moves List
Breeding opens up real options for Trapinch. Flail and Focus Energy come exclusively from egg moves, and they're worth the effort. The rest of the kit covers basics through Earthquake and Earth Power and coverage across 7 types.
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 20 TMs are obtainable before the Elite Four
Egg Moves
Tutor Moves
Base Stats
Its nest is a sloped, bowl-like pit in the desert. Once something has fallen in, there is no escape.
Trapinch HeartGold & SoulSilver Guide
- How do I catch Trapinch in the HeartGold & SoulSilver Safari Zone?
See the Locations section above for where to find Trapinch in HeartGold & SoulSilver.
Safari rules: You can only use Safari Balls. No battling. Two tactical items shift the catch/flee trade-off:
- Throw bait to keep Trapinch from fleeing (flee rate cut to 1/4) but it becomes harder to catch (catch factor halved).
- Throw a rock to make Trapinch easier to catch (catch factor doubled) but it flees twice as often.
- Each effect lasts 2-6 random turns; throwing one cancels the other.
Yes. Wild Trapinch in HeartGold & SoulSilver can hold Soft Sand (5%). Use Thief (TM46) or Covet to swipe the held item without affecting your catch chance. Quickest way to farm rare items like Soft Sand.
In HeartGold & SoulSilver, Trapinch has 290 BST and evolves into Vibrava. Compare the two forms before you give either one a team slot.
Game Availability
Available in 15 titles since its debut in Ruby & Sapphire, Trapinch spans 7 generations of Pokemon games. It's accessible through catching or hatching as a base form in most mainline games.
Click a game to view version-specific details
- Gen 1RB
Red & Blue - Gen 1Y
Yellow - Gen 2GS
Gold & Silver - Gen 2C
Crystal - Gen 3RSDebut
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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