How To Get King’s Rocks in Pokémon Platinum

King’s Rock Locations
#	Method	Repeatable?
1	Celestic Town—On the second tier of the northwestern section of town (hidden)	No
2	Obtained using the Pickup Ability with a Pokémon between levels 11 and 30 (1% chance)	Yes
3	Held item (5% chance) found on the following Pokémon: Poliwhirl (Routes 227 and 228 (Surfing))	Yes

The best way to get a King’s Rock is to find the one hidden in Celestic Town, which you can do at any time after defeating Crasher Wake. This King’s Rock is located on a specific tile on the ground just up the stairs on the left of the Poké Center.

Alternatively you can get more King’s Rocks via the Pickup ability, or by taking them as held items from wild Poliwhirl.

King’s Rock Locations

Method 1: Celestic Town (Step-by-Step)

The easiest King’s Rock to obtain in Pokémon Platinum lies in Celestic Town as a hidden item on the ground.

To find it, first Fly to Celestic Town and head down the staircase to the immediate left of the Pokémon Center.

Heading down the stairs to the northwest of Celestic Town’s Pokémon Center.

Move northwest and then climb up the staircase to the left of the shrine in the middle of town.

Heading up the staircase to the northwest.

Move as far to the northeast as you can across this tiny terrace. On the tile at the dead end of this northern strip of land is a hidden King’s Rock.

Tip: You can use the Dowsing Machine Pokétch app if you need help finding it.

Searching for the King’s Rock using the Dowsing Machine Pokétch app.

Stand to the left of this tile and press A to add the King’s Rock to your Bag.

Obtaining the hidden King’s Rock in Celestic Town.

Method 2: The Pickup Ability (Repeatable)

You can obtain unlimited King’s Rocks with the Pickup Ability, which provides a Pokémon a 10% chance of obtaining a new item after battles.

Common Pokémon with Pickup include Aipom, Pachirisu, and Munchlax.

A level 11 Munchlax with the Pickup Ability.

Which item your Pokémon obtains depends on both the Pokémon’s level and random chance.

In the case of King’s Rocks, a level 11-30 Pokémon has about a 1% chance of acquiring a King’s Rock after a battle.

But Pickup only has a 10% probability of a battle resulting in a new item in the first place (so you don’t always get an item after every battle).

This places your best odds of grabbing a King’s Rock at 0.1% per encounter.

Keep in mind that there are no alerts when a Pokémon successfully picks up an item; you will need to check your party every so often to find out.

Checking the item and discovering a King’s Rock.

Note: Pickup will take effect as long as the Pokémon is in your party, even if it doesn’t participate in battle or if it’s fainted.

This method is endlessly repeatable, but it can take a long time because of its low success rate.

It’s recommended that you add multiple Pokémon with Pickup onto your team in order to boost the odds.

Method 3: Wild Poliwhirl (Repeatable)

There is a 5% chance that any wild Poliwhirl you encounter will be holding a King’s Rock.

While the odds of obtaining a King’s Rock this way are higher than the Pickup method, you won’t find wild Poliwhirl until much later in the game.

In fact, they can only be found on Routes 227 and 228 – which you will only have access to after you’ve defeated the Pokémon League and received the National Pokédex.

Poliwhirl’s habitat according to the PokéDex.

When you’re able to visit either Route, make sure you bring a Pokémon with Surf. Because Surfing the bodies of water on these Routes is the only way to encounter wild Poliwhirl.

And since each wild Poliwhirl has only a 5% chance of carrying a King’s Rock, it’s also advised that you bring a designated item farming team along.

These special teams use Pokémon with the Abilities Frisk and Compoundeyes to both increase the odds of finding items on wild Pokémon, and to instantly identify any held items right at the start of the encounter.

Searching for wild Poliwhirl in the pond on Route 228.

Luckily, Poliwhirl have a high encounter rate of 70%.

So it won’t be long before you start finding them.

Encountering a wild Poliwhirl.

If you’re using an item-farming team, the chance of each Poliwhirl holding a King’s Rock will rise from 5% to 20% thanks to Compoundeyes.

Frisk will also alert you to any item the foe is holding, eliminating guesswork and streamlining the process.

Identifying Poliwhirl’s held item slot using the Frisk Ability.

Once you’ve found a Poliwhirl with a King’s Rock, either use a stealing move (like Thief) to take the item or capture the Poliwhirl and remove it.

Stealing the Poliwhirl’s King’s Rock using Trick.

Then you can end the battle however you prefer—you will keep the King’s Rock even if you flee.

King’s Rock Details and Uses

The in-game description of the King’s Rock.

Uses In Battle

The King’s Rock is a held item. When the holder uses a damaging move on its opponent in battle, there will be a 10% added chance of making the opponent flinch.

A flinching Pokémon is forced to skip a whole turn, which can turn the tide in a battle instantaneously.

Note that a Pokémon can only cause another to flinch if it’s faster than the target. The ideal King’s Rock user would be a nimble hard-hitting Pokémon like Weavile or Aerodactyl.

Certain moves are more useful in making a Pokémon flinch, as well.

With any move that involves multiple hits, like Bullet Seed and Rock Blast, each individual strike will have the same 10% chance of making the target flinch.

Uses Outside of Battle

King’s Rocks are also used in evolving (via trade) Poliwhirl and Slowpoke into Politoed and Slowking, respectively.

Getting a Politoed

If you trade a Poliwhirl holding a King’s Rock to another player, it will evolve into Politoed.

Giving Poliwhirl a King’s Rock before trading it to another player.

After the Poliwhirl reaches the other player, it will evolve into Politoed. Then you can trade back – but note that this process will consume the King’s Rock.

The Pokédex description of the newly-evolved Politoed.

Politoed is one of two possible evolutions of Poliwhirl, the other being Poliwrath.

For the most part, Poliwrath and Politoed have similar stats. Although Politoed is much more geared toward Special Attack and Special Defense than Poliwrath is.

The usefulness of either form will therefore depend on your team’s specific needs (and/or which one you think looks more interesting).

Special mention should go to both Pokémon’s typing. While Politoed is a pure Water-type Pokémon, Poliwrath is a Water/Fighting dual type (and the only Fighting type in Platinum besides Lucario that can learn Psychic).

Keep this in mind when factoring type coverage into your decision in evolution.

Getting a Slowking

If you trade a Slowpoke holding a King’s Rock to another player, it will evolve into Slowking.

Giving Slowpoke a King’s Rock before trading it to another player.

After trading Slowpoke to another player, it will evolve into Slowking. Then you can trade back and get your newly-evolved Slowking.

The Pokédex description of the newly-evolved Slowking.

Slowking is one of two potential Slowpoke evolutions, the other being Slowbro.

There’s little difference between Slowbro and Slowking. Both have decent HP and Special Attack, and, as their names suggest, abysmal Speed.

In fact, their base stats are the exact same except for their Defense and Special Defense: Slowbro has a Defense stat of 110 and a Special Defense of 80, but those numbers are reversed with Slowking.

Because of this, your choice of Slowpoke evolution will boil down to your personal preference and which type of tank your team needs – one with a higher Defense or Special Defense.

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Chris Haygood

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Chris is an American freelance writer and lifelong gamer. RPGs have been his genre of choice ever since he got Pokémon Blue in 1867, but if he finds a good rhythm game, he will prioritize playing it over both eating and breathing.

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