In a horde battle which Pokemon will the trace ability copy?

Question

I have trace gardevoir as my lead so I can be sure my scyther is techinician, but it traced technician in a horde battle! Which one can it be?

Comments

Why is this flagged?

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This question kind of already exists: https://pokemondb.net/pokebase/188144/does-trace-only-show-the-first-pokemons-ability-horde-battle

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Tfw the questions with an answer is the one closed.

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I might as well explain: This thread had the same answer as the original one, but the answer was proven incorrect. I kept this thread because it's now unanswered (i.e. it will get more eyes on it) and it's older.

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Ah, I see

Answer 1

Here is what Bulbapedia says :

In a Double Battle with only one opponent remaining, if a Pokémon with Trace is sent into battle to replace a fainted Pokémon, Trace has a 50% chance to select the non-present opponent and not activate.

That means if you're fighting 2 Pokémon, it has 50-50 change to copy either of them. So if you take it as horde encounter and let's suppose that you had 5 opponent Pokemon, we'll have to do a little math. 100/5 = 20%. Then we have to suppose that the 2nd syther from left is the one with technician. So there is a 20% chance that gardevoir copies it. Sadly, there is no way to find which syther actually has technician.
Hope I helped!
Source : some maths
Source

Comments

This is incorrect as the question said "horde battles" not "double battles". sorry, but -1

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I just used it to calculate.....

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oh, sorry, missed that part. oops!

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rip (filler)

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??????

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oh, i was just saying "it sucks that altaria did that", basically.

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Oh ok thanks

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Yes, I'm sorry HoennSeptile it does suck that I did that

Answer 2

During Horde Encounters, Trace will copy the ability of the Pokémon on the far left, moving across the row to the right if the initial Pokémon in that position has been knocked out.

Source: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Trace_(Ability)

Hope I helped :)

Comments

This is NOT CORRECT. I just ran into a horde of Hoppip with a trace Kirlia as my lead Pokemon. It traced Infiltrator. After finding this answer, i knocked out the other Hoppip and caught the one on the far left. It did NOT have Infiltrator, unfortunately.