Pokémon HGSS Bug-Catching Contest: Complete Guide + Tips

The Bug-Catching Contest is a minigame where you compete with 5 other contestants to capture the best Bug-type Pokémon in the National Park within 20 minutes.

It’s available 3 days a week on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. If you can capture a Bug-type with a very high score then you can win some great prizes, including rare evolution stones.

This guide shows you how to participate in the Bug-Catching Contest in HeartGold & SoulSilver, plus we’ll cover the Contest’s rules and mechanics, a list of all possible Pokémon to catch, and some tips on how to improve your chances at winning.

How To Join the Bug-Catching Contest

The National Park can be found at the end of Route 35, which is just north of Goldenrod City.

The Bug Catching Contest is held at the National Park every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. You can participate once a day.

If it is a Contest day, you can participate by speaking to the attendant NPC beside the entrance to the National Park.

This NPC will be behind the counter on non-Contest days instead.

Bug-Catching Contest Rules & Mechanics

Here is a list of the main rules of the Bug-Catching Contest:

1. You have 20 minutes to capture your contest entry before judging begins.
2. You can only bring one party Pokémon to assist you.
   Note: If you have multiple Pokémon in your party, the Pokémon in the first (upper-left) slot will be selected.
3. You cannot use any items except held items for your single party Pokémon.
4. You can only have one contest entry for each day it runs.
5. You can keep your caught contest entry Pokémon after judging, regardless of your rank.

You will be given 20 Sport Balls to use for catching your contest entry. You can check how many Sport Balls you have left on the bottom screen.

Tip: If you run out of Sport Balls, the contest will end even if you still have time remaining.

The contest will also end if your party Pokémon faints or if you leave the National Park.

Your current contest entry will be displayed on the bottom screen too.

And there will also be a new “Retire” button on the upper left of your menu screen. This button allows you to end the contest early.

Note: The 20-minute timer will not be displayed. But you can still check how much time you have left by selecting the “Retire” button once. Just be careful not to end the contest by accident!

Tip: It may be a good idea to bring a bulky Pokémon that has a held item that restores HP and a non-damaging status-inducing move. Status effects that do not deal damage, like sleep and paralysis, will be the best way to improve your catch rate in this contest – because damaging your contest entry will lower your score.

You also need your Pokémon to withstand the attacks of the wild Pokémon even without healing items.

If you’ve already caught a Pokémon and want to replace it, you can catch another.

However, you can only have one contest entry at a time. When you catch another Pokémon, you will be prompted to choose whether or not to replace your current contest entry.

How Scoring Works

Each contestant will be judged based on how their contest entry Pokémon is rated percentage-wise in the following attributes:

• Level (relative to its species’ level range)
• Individual Values, or IVs
• The Pokémon’s current HP
• Species rarity (ranges from 60, 80, and 100)

Your caught Pokémon’s ranking will be based on the sum of their ratings in these criteria.

This would mean that a Pokémon with the following three features would guarantee you the highest possible score:

• Maximum HP with a rarity value of 100
• Maximum IVs
• And the highest possible level of its species available in the National Park

Tip: Only Pinsir and Scyther have rarity values of 100, but they only have a catch rate of 5.9%. Some easier Pokémon to catch that are valued at a rarity of 80 are Nincada, Paras, Venonat, Volbeat, and Illumise.

Bug-Catching Contest Prizes

You will receive different prizes depending on your ranking after the contest entries have been judged.

The selection of prizes for getting 1st place varies depending on whether or not you have the National Pokédex.

Below is a table of the Bug-Catching Contest prizes and their corresponding ranks:

Available Bug Pokémon

Below are two tables of the Bug Pokémon species that can be caught during the Bug-Catching Contests.

The first table lists the available contest Pokémon before you obtain the National Pokédex. The second is a table that includes the contest Pokémon that are added after acquiring the National Pokédex.

The Pokémon will be ordered starting from the highest rarity values. These tables also include their days of availability and level ranges.

Without National Pokédex

With National Pokédex

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J. Cloverfield

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She's a social science major and hobbyist illustrator known for her shyness, temper, and love of pink. Her first try at gaming was with a Pokémon Silver bootleg as a preschooler, and by now she's played nearly all of the Pokémon games—spin-offs included. Zero Escape, Ace Attorney, Danganronpa, Shin Megami Tensei, Fire Emblem, and Story of Seasons are some of her other favorite franchises.

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