How To Get Smoke Balls in Pokémon ORAS

There are two ways to obtain Smoke Balls in ORAS.

You can get one as a reward from the Trick Master after completing his fourth challenge in the Trick House. This can only be done once, and you’ll need a Pokémon that knows Strength for this method.

Alternatively, you can farm Smoke Balls from wild Koffing or Spiritomb. You can either catch or steal the item from them in battle if they’re holding it.

1. You can find wild Koffing in the Fiery Path – however this is an Omega Ruby exclusive.
2. Wild Spiritomb can be found in both games in Sea Mauville after defeating Primal Groudon or Kyogre. But you’ll need Surf and Dive to access its location.

We’ll cover each method in this guide to help you obtain as many Smoke Balls as you’d want.

Method #1: Trick House (Fourth Puzzle)

The Trick House is located on Route 110, north of Slateport City.

On your fourth visit you’ll encounter a room full of boulder puzzles, so you need to bring a Pokémon that knows HM04 Strength. The Trick Master will give you the Smoke Ball for completing the puzzle.

Note: It is possible to reach a dead-end in this puzzle. You need to push the boulders incrementally to prevent blocking your path. Otherwise, you’ll have to start from the beginning.

In our guide below, the boulders will be marked based on how many times you need to push them so you don’t get stuck.

So once you’re ready just visit the Trick House on Route 110 and follow these steps to complete the fourth puzzle:

Step 1: Inside the Trick House, go towards the left window in the back of the room (circled below) and investigate it to reveal the Trick Master.

Step 2: You’ll find boulder puzzles once inside the maze.

Using Strength, push the boulder in the middle (circled below) 3 steps to the north.

Step 3: Go west and push this left-side boulder (pictured below) 2 times to the left so you can move around it.

Then go down and use the wooden walkway along the edge of the room to to go around and reach the next boulder above.

Step 4: Push this boulder 2 steps to the right so you can pass through.

Then go around the nearby rock and push this same boulder back to the left – this will allow you to pass through going north.

Step 5: Once you head up through the small passageway you’ll be in the northwest corner of the puzzle area.

Push this boulder 1 step upwards. Then go down & circle all the way around to reach the left-side of the boulder so you can push it to the right.

Once you’ve cleared this part of the puzzle, go up and follow the path to the east along the wooden walkway.

Step 6: In this part of the puzzle, it is possible to block your path if you push the boulders too far or in the wrong direction, so you need to be careful.

To clear the path correctly, from top to bottom:

1. Push the first top boulder 1 step to the left
2. Push the second boulder 1 step to the right
3. Then push the third boulder 1 step to the left (this will be directly below the first boulder)

The path should look like this at the end so you can continue to the south.

Step 7: Go over to the wooden walkway on the right-hand side and travel south down to the next boulder below.

You’ll need to walk around to reach this boulder (pictured below) and then push it 1 step upwards.

Step 8: Follow the path to the left and then push one more boulder downward 1 time (pictured below).

Then you can continue following this path left and you can reach the scroll to exit the room.

Step 9: After you interact with the scroll, jump down the nearby ledge and head up towards the green door at the back wall.

Once you’ve exited the puzzle area through that door, speak to the Trick Master and he will reward you with the Smoke Ball.

Method #2: Held Item by Wild Koffing & Spiritomb

This second method is repeatable, so you can acquire as many Smoke Balls as you need this way.

A wild Koffing has a 5% chance of carrying a Smoke Ball, while a wild Spiritomb always holds one.

Finding Wild Koffing (Omega Ruby only)

Koffing is exclusive to Omega Ruby (its counterpart, Grimer, is exclusive to Alpha Sapphire).

You can only find Koffing in the Fiery Path, which is a cave on Route 112 – and you have a 30% chance of encountering Koffing here so they aren’t too rare.

Tip: Bring a Pokémon that knows the move Thief so you can steal the item from the wild Koffing (if it’s holding one). Otherwise, you’d have to capture each one and manually check if it’s carrying a Smoke Ball.

To reach the Fiery Path and start farming Koffing, follow these steps:

Fly to Route 112. You’ll land near three berry trees – from there, go southwest.

You’ll find the entrance to the Fiery Path here (pictured below).

Inside the cave, walk around until you encounter a wild Koffing.

While in combat, use Thief to steal its held item (if it has any).

Since there’s only a 5% chance that a Koffing is holding a Smoke Ball, you might have to repeat this process several times.

Tip: We also created a separate guide explaining how to build an optimized held item farming team, so check that out if you want some suggestions on how to speed up the process.

Finding Wild Spiritomb

After defeating Primal Groudon or Kyogre, head to Sea Mauville to encounter Spiritomb in one of the rooms inside the ship – it will always be carrying a Smoke Ball.

Note that you can only find one Spiritomb in ORAS.

So if it faints during combat, you need to beat the Elite Four again to make it respawn.

In this case, it’s better to capture it so you can acquire both a Smoke Ball and a rare Pokémon!

Tip: Bring a Pokémon that knows a move that induces sleep, like Hypnosis. Spiritomb has the move Memento which makes itself faint in battle, so try to prevent it from using that move before you can capture it.

Assuming you’ve already beaten Primal Groudon or Kyogre, head to Sea Mauville and follow these steps to find Spiritomb:

Step 1: From the top deck of the ship, head inside and go south.

The room where you can find Spiritomb is located on the right side. But since the path there is blocked from this floor, you need to go underwater to get to the other side. So follow the hallway down south.

Step 2: Use Surf to reach the darker patch of water here (pictured below). Then use Dive to go underwater.

Step 3: While underwater, go south, then east until you reach a corner.

Step 4: Follow this pathway as it curves north, and then use Dive on the brighter spot to resurface (circled below).

Step 5: Disembark from the water and take the first door to your left. Once inside the room, you’ll get a message that you’re being watched.

Step 6: In the northwest corner, you’ll find a bookcase – examine the left side of the bookcase (circled below).

After reading a passage about an Odd Keystone, you’ll get another message saying that you’re being watched.

Step 7: Save your game at this point!

Then open the Pokémon menu or your Bag, then exit out of it. Spiritomb will show up behind you.

Step 8: Capture Spiritomb, or just steal from it if you’d prefer.

But either way it will always be carrying a Smoke Ball.

Smoke Ball Uses

The Smoke Ball enables its holder to successfully escape from any wild Pokémon encounter. Its effect is similar to the Ability Run Away.

Additionally, Smoke Balls allow a Pokémon to flee from trapping moves, such as Bind and Wrap, or Abilities that prevent running away, such as Trapinch’s Arena Trap.

A Smoke Ball might come in handy if you’re in an area with higher-level wild Pokémon, which makes running away harder.

Or you can use a Smoke Ball to avoid battles altogether – although if your Pokémon are of a similar level to the wild Pokémon in an area then a Repel would be much cheaper and simpler to use.

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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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