Pokémon ORAS Poison Barbs: Locations + Uses

by Jon Soluna

All Poison Barb Locations
1	5% held item chance on these wild Pokémon: Tentacool Tentacruel Roselia Skorupi	Yes

All Poison Barb Locations

Location

Repeatable?

5% held item chance on these wild Pokémon:

Tentacool
Tentacruel
Roselia
Skorupi

Yes

Poison Barbs can only be obtained as held items by wild Pokémon. Specifically you can get this item from Tentacool, Tentacruel, Roselia, and Skorupi. They all have a 5% chance of carrying one.

Of all these Pokémon, the easiest to find in the wild is Tentancool. It is a common wild Pokémon that can be encountered while surfing in most bodies of water in Hoenn.

All Poison Barb Wild Pokémon

Finding Tentacool

Encountering a wild Tentacool on Route 103.

Wild Tentacool has a 5% chance of holding a Poison Barb. It is one of the most common Water-type Pokémon you can find in Hoenn, making it the best candidate for farming Poison Barbs – all you need is a Pokémon that knows Surf.

From Routes 103 to 134 (with a few exceptions), you can encounter Tentacool through surfing or fishing with the Old Rod and the Good Rod.

Finding Tentacruel

Encountering a wild Tentacruel on Route 124.

Wild Tentacruel can be encountered on Routes 124 to 134 through surfing. Like Tentacool, it has a 5% chance of carrying Poison Barbs.

However, this Pokémon has a low encounter rate:

It has a 15% rarity in most locations, so it’s generally not recommended to farm Poison Barbs from Tentacruel.

Finding Roselia

Encountering a wild Roselia on Route 117.

Wild Roselia can be found on Route 117 through walking – it has a 5% chance of holding a Poison Barb with each encounter.

Roselia only has a 20% rarity in this location and can’t be found anywhere else, making it less efficient to obtain Poison Barbs from this Pokémon.

Finding Skorupi (post-National Dex)

Encountering a wild Skorupi on Route 114.

Lastly, Poison Barbs can also be found as held items by wild Skorupi (5% chance).

It will only appear in the wild post-game once you receive the National Dex, and it can only be encountered using the DexNav. So Skorupi is really not worth farming for Poison Barbs at all.

Farming Poison Barbs

Using Thief against a wild Tentacool.

Among the possible holders of Poison Barbs in the game, you’ll have a better chance of farming this item from wild Tentacool due to its availability in most routes and a high encounter rate to top it off.

You can easily find it on Route 103, so all you need is a Pokémon that knows Surf, and Thief to steal the Poison Barb from Tentacool.

Using Thief as your first move with every Tentacool encounter lets you obtain the item immediately if it’s carrying one, and if not, you can flee on your next turn and try again.

Stealing a Poison Barb from a wild Tentacool.

To farm held items more efficiently, you can check out this guide about forming your own held item farming team.

The strategy utilizes Pokémon with the abilities CompoundEyes and Frisk, which increases your chances of encountering wild Pokémon with held items then identifying these items at the start of the battle.

How Poison Barbs Work

Viewing the Poison Barb in-game.

When held by a Pokémon, the Poison Barb raises the power of its holder’s Poison-type moves by 20%.

Back in Gen II and III, Poison Barbs only gave a 10% power boost. But in later generations it was buffed to 20% like most type-enhancing held items.

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Jon Soluna

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Jon is a game development student pursuing a career in video game writing. When he’s not working on his thesis, you could often find him playing open-world games, reading classic novels, rewatching Game of Thrones, or on occasion, playing Pokémon Alpha Sapphire on his old 3DS.

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