How To Get the Scope Lens in Pokémon FRLG

Sitting at the upper floor of a Pokecenter in Pokémon FireRed
Scope Lens
# Location Repeatable?
1 Trade—Must be traded into FRLG from a copy of Ruby, Sapphire, or Emerald. Yes

The only way to get a Scope Lens in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen is to trade the item over from a copy of Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, or Emerald.

In Pokémon RSE, you can give the Scope Lens to a Pokémon to hold, and then head to the Pokémon Center in both games to initiate a trade.

A Wireless Adapter or a Link Cable is necessary to make the trade.

There is no other way to acquire a Scope Lens in-game in either FireRed or LeafGreen.

Getting Scope Lenses

Prerequisites

Since getting a Scope Lens in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen requires trading, you’ll need the hardware that lets you trade. Specifically you will need:

  • A copy of Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, or Emerald
  • A second game console
  • A Wireless Adapter (Emerald only) or a Link Cable (Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald)
  • A Pokémon in Ruby / Sapphire / Emerald that is holding the Scope Lens

If you have the right equipment, then all that is left to do is trade the Scope Lens over (and the Pokémon holding it.)

Trading

To start trading, you need to make your way to any Pokémon Center in the game. Do this in both, Pokémon FireRed / LeafGreen and Pokémon Ruby / Sapphire / Emerald.

Once you’re in the Pokémon Center, in Pokémon FireRed / LeafGreen, head upstairs via the escalators.

Escalator leading to the upstairs floor / Pokémon FRLG
Escalator leading to the upstairs floor

There are three attendants upstairs, but we’re only concerned about the middle and right one.

The middle attendant will let you trade with a Wireless Adapter if you have one plugged in (this only works with Emerald, though.)

The middle attendant upstairs in the Pokecenter / Pokémon FRLG
The middle attendant upstairs in the Pokecenter

The attendant on the right will let you trade via the Link Cable, which will work with any version of Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald.

The attendant on the right-hand side / Pokémon FRLG
The attendant on the right-hand side

Once you talk to the attendant, they’ll have you save your game and then you’ll be lead into the Link Center.

In the Link Center ready to trade / Pokémon FRLG
In the Link Center ready to trade

Here you’ll find two chairs with the machine between them.

Once you sit down, communications will start and you’ll need to wait for the Pokémon RSE player to come take the other seat by repeating the process in their Pokémon Center.

Once they sit down, they can trade you the Pokémon holding the Scope Lens, and you’ll be good to go!

What is the Scope Lens?

The Scope Lens item description / Pokémon FRLG
The Scope Lens item description

In Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, the Scope Lens increases the chance of your Pokémon landing a critical hit. Specifically it boosts your Pokémon’s crit chance by one stage.

There are 5 critical hit rate stages, and all Pokémon default to stage one. This stage can be increased with moves, held items, etc.

So if a Pokémon is holding the Scope Lens, their critical-hit ratio will be boosted from Stage 1 to Stage 2 while they’re holding it.

If you want to see some exact numbers related to Critical Hit chances, we’ve added a small chart below:

Stage Crit Chance
1 6.25%
2 12.5%
3 25%
4 33.3%
5 50%

Is the Scope Lens Worth Trading?

All in all, the Scope Lens isn’t really worth the trade unless you really want the extra crit on a Pokémon for some reason.

It can be fun to build a Pokémon completely around their crit chance, and having the Scope Lens will add a free stage onto it.

But for the most part, you’re going to have much better results just equipping a damage boosting item of some sort onto your Pokémon. Most of the time, the Scope Lens will only add about 6% to your Pokémon’s critical-hit ratio, which isn’t enough to justify the effort of trading.

ReOcelot

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A jack of all trades when it comes to gaming. I can sit down for hours in a casual playthrough of Pokémon, or I can spend months trying to hit Diamond in League of Legends. I love and appreciate everything about games, and love sharing that passion with my readers.

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