Where To Get Spell Tags in Pokémon FRLG

by ReOcelot

Spell Tag
1	Held item (5% chance) on any of these wild Pokémon: Haunter Misdreavus	Yes

Spell Tag

Location

Repeatable?

Held item (5% chance) on any of these wild Pokémon:

Haunter
Misdreavus

Yes

In Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, Spell Tags can be obtained as held items from wild Haunter or Misdreavus. This is the only way to obtain Spell Tags in the game, other than trading one in from another game.

Wild Haunter and Misdreavus each have a 5% chance of holding a Spell Tag when you encounter them.

The easiest way to take any held item is with the move Thief, but you’ll need to run through a lot of wild Pokémon to get even one Spell Tag.

Wild Haunter can be found in Pokémon Tower or in Lost Cave (off of Five Island’s coast.)
Wild Misdreavus can only be found in Lost Cave, and only in LeafGreen.

Prerequisites

There are only a few prerequisites for getting Spell Tags, and most of them involve being able to find a Wild Haunter.

Specifically, the prerequisites are:

Be able to reach Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town
Have the Silph Scope
Have the move Thief or extra Poké Balls.

When you get into Pokémon Tower, you need the Silph Scope to actually find Haunter. Otherwise the wild Pokémon you see will just be called “Ghosts”.

How To Get Spell Tags

I highly recommend getting Spell Tags from wild Haunter on the top floor of the Pokémon Tower.

I say this because that’s the easiest location that you can reach quickly, and wild Haunter have a 15% encounter rate there.

Outside of Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town

With that being said, you can head to the end of Lost Cave (sail there from Five Island) and you have a 30% chance of encountering Haunter there.

Or if you’re playing LeafGreen, you’ll also have a 20% chance of encountering Misdreavus too, which gives you a 50% encounter rate of finding a possible Spell Tag Pokémon.

Outside of Lost Cave after sailing from Five Island

So if you don’t mind making the trek – the end of Lost Cave will give you the highest chance of nabbing a Spell Tag or two.

Otherwise, just head to the 7F of the Pokémon Tower.

All Haunter Locations

SCROLL

Location	Level	Encounter Rate	Spell Tag Chance
Pokémon Tower 3F	20	1%	5%
Pokémon Tower 4/5F	20	5%	5%
Pokémon Tower 6F	21 – 23	6%	5%
Pokémon Tower 7F	23 – 25	15%	5%
Lost Cave	44 – 52	30%	5%

All Misdreavus Locations (LeafGreen Only)

SCROLL

Location	Level	Encounter Rate	Spell Tag Chance
Lost Cave	22	5%	5%
Lost Cave (End)	15 – 22	20%	5%

Getting Spell Tags Using Thief

If you have a Pokémon that knows the move TM46 Thief (found in Mt. Moon), then you can simply find one of the Pokémon that hold Spell Tags and use Thief on them.

Tip: Usually you’d also be able to use Covet to steal a held item, but only Ghost Pokémon (Haunter and Misdreavus) hold Spell Tags in FireRed and LeafGreen, and Covet will not affect them.

So in my case, I’m going to head to the top of Pokémon Tower and look for some Wild Haunter.

Hunting for Haunter on the top floor of Pokémon Tower

Once you find the Pokémon you’re looking for, simply use Thief on it.

Using Thief on Haunter to steal a Spell Tag

If the wild Pokémon is holding a Spell Tag, then an animation will play showing a bouncing bag hop from the Haunter/Misdreavus to your Pokémon.
If no animation plays and the wild Pokémon only takes damage, then it is not holding a Spell Tag.

If Thief doesn’t steal the item, then you can just run away or defeat the Pokémon & keep grinding.

After you steal a Spell Tag successfully, simply open up your Party, select the Pokémon that used Thief (in my case Raichu), then select Item > Take to put the Spell Tag in your Bag.

Taking the Spell Tag from Raichu after stealing it with Thief

Remember there’s only a 5% chance that any Haunter or Misdreavus are holding a Spell Tag.

So you may have to use Thief on a few of them before you actually find the item.

Getting Spell Tags by Catching Haunter/Misdreavus

If you don’t have Thief, or if you just feel bad stealing Spell Tags off of innocent Pokémon, then you can also catch Haunter or Misdreavus until you find one that has a Spell Tag.

If you’re taking this route, I recommend clearing out your party except for one Pokémon.

Emptying my party before looking for Haunter

Haunter and Misdreavus only have a 5% chance of holding a Spell Tag.

So if you don’t clear your party, then you’ll have to catch three or four Pokémon at a time, cross your fingers, and then head back to the Pokémon Center to check whether or not the ones you caught are holding the item.

With an empty party we can catch the Pokémon, then immediately check whether or not it’s holding the item.

If the Pokémon is holding the item, just select the Pokémon, then choose Item > Take to put the Spell Tag in your Bag.

Taking the Spell Tag from a Haunter I just caught

What Does Spell Tag Do?

The Spell Tag’s description in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen

Spell Tag is a held item that boosts the power of Ghost Type moves by 10%.

The Spell Tag is a pretty nice item to have in FR/LG if you like using Ghost-Type Pokémon. Gen 3 Ghost attacks are pretty weak in general, so it’s nice to have the extra 10% power the Spell Tag provides.

With that being said, most Ghost Pokémon can also learn Psychic moves. And most trainers typically choose to teach their Ghost-type Pokémon some strong Psychic-type moves. So you might choose to give them the TwistedSpoon instead of the Spell Tag.

However, both held items are viable for a FR/LG playthrough. So do whatever works for you and your team build!

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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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