Why do all of the headbutt tables on the location guide say limited?

Question

What exactly is considered limited, anyway?
Note that I don't know a lot about how headbutt works in HGSS.

Comments

It is limited in that you can't just walk around and get infinite of them. From all the location guides I've read, "limited" just means that you can choose whether to or not. Like you can choose to battle static legendaries. You can choose to headbutt the trees. Correct me if I'm wrong.

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No, pretty sure that you can get infinite Pokemon from headbutt. Many voluntary actions in this guide, like smashing rocks or interacting with honey trees, correctly state the percentages.

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But I am saying that you choose whether to get a Pokémon, and you are guaranteed to get one. You choose to battle legendaries. You choose to headbutt trees. And every time it is guaranteed to give you a Pokémon.

P.S. the above comment was meant to be an answer, idk how it got to be a comment :/

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It's limited because you only get one species of Pokémon per tree.

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I'm pretty sure it's limited because only certain trees generate Pokemon when headbutted? I remember headbutting in Azalea and only ~3 trees gave Pokemon.

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So are you saying that some trees yield Pokemon, and the Pokemon-yielding trees are different for each game, or are you saying that different trees in the same area yield different Pokemon?

Answer 1

"Limited" is mainly for more specific encounters. Starters, legendaries and other overworld Pokemon are limited, even something like Drifloon which appears every Friday and is technically unlimited.

Not sure why Headbutt says "limited", most likely I didn't have the exact percentages at the time. This page for example says limited for some headbutt encounters but has a probability for others.