Question

My riolu had the inner focus ability, but when it now evolved, the lucario had steadfast. As far as I knew, this wasn't possible if the evolution has the same ability available, but since I didn't save, I reset the game to double check. I am 100% sure my riolu has inner focus. I give it a rare candy, it evolves, and now it has steadfast. This has happened multiple times. Did they change something in Black/White 2 that would allow this?

Comments

I don't think anyone knows the answer to that one kid.

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Why you calling him a kid? xD And I'm sure many people know the answer.

Answer 1

Wanna know the answer?
Its random. Wanna know how I got to the answer? Logic.
Ingame Lucario that do not have DW abilities have either Inner Focus or Steadfast. Riolu's only ability, not counting DW abilities, is Inner Focus. What is the point of giving a second ability to Lucario if it stayed the same? Easy. Because Riolu has a chance to evolve into either of them.

And this:

A Pokémon that evolves and has a certain Ability in its pre-evolution (dual-Ability Pokémon only) but evolves into a dual-Ability Pokémon upon evolution (such as Poochyena with Run Away or Quick Feet evolving into Mightyena with Intimidate or Quick Feet) will keep its Ability from its pre-evolution upon evolving (so a Poochyena with Quick Feet in Generation IV would keep its Ability upon evolving into a Mightyena, while one with Run Away would evolve into a Mightyena with Intimidate instead). If the Pokémon is a single-Ability Pokémon pre-evolution, then it will have a 50% chance of getting either Ability if its evolution is a dual-Ability Pokémon (dependent on IVs).

50% chance. Depends on IV's.

Source!

Comments

I have since figured out what has happened, and it wasn't that. Yeah, I did know that single ability pokemon have a 50% chance of either ability when evolving, but the problem is that Riolu is NOT a single ability pokemon. Riolu can have the Steadfast ability, so by your own source, it should have stayed the same upon evolution.

The problem was that I got that Riolu in a trade (because I was not yet able to breed my own with the egg moves I wanted). Apparently, rather than having bred it himself, the guy I traded with just created a hacked one with pokegen. However there are two parts for ability; the ability itself (which overrides the other part), and the ability value, which can be set to 1 or 2 for whichever ability is selected. Since they can be set independently, he must have forgot to set the value to 2 for inner focus, causing the ability to be reset to steadfast (value 1) during evolution. If he hadn't overlooked that, I probably never would have found out, as it seemed totally legit otherwise.

Since I really don't want to use it now, I guess I'll just wait and breed one myself later (which will be a pain in the ass because in order to get egg moves on it, I'll have to find a rare female Riolu). Thanks for your response though!

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Ugh.
Hacking...

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busted! nice sleuthing