Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Poltchageist location

Finding the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Poltchageist location is a bit more complicated than it sounds. Poltchageist is another Ghost and Grass type – Sinistea but in matcha form, basically – and like other Ghost types, it only comes out at night. The thing is, you can’t actually explore Kitakami, Poltchageist’s home, at night until much later in the DLC’s story. You can, however, take advantage of a few tricks to get your Poltchageist early.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Poltchageist

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Poltchageist location

Poltchageist only live in Kitakami, the region you visit during the Teal Mask DLC, so you have to own the DLC to find them or even receive one in a trade from a friend. They spawn in areas with bamboo like the one shown above, and there are only two or so of those on the island.

• Mossfell Confluence (the northern part, not the area where you can buy a Syrupy Apple)
• Reveler’s Road (east of Mossui Town)

You also have a chance of encountering Poltchageist in Tera Raids, though we’ve yet to come across one ourselves.

Like Sinistea, Poltchageist come in two forms, Counterfeit and Artisan, and the only difference between them is a tiny mark on the bottom. There’s no stat or IV difference between the two forms.

You can sort of make the mark out if you tilty the camera close to the ground when you start a battle against a wild Poltchageist, but it’s still almost imperceptible. The easier way to tell is when you’re trying to evolve Poltchageist, which we go into more depth about in our Poltchageist evolution guide.

How to get Poltchageist

Normally, you’d have to wait until night to find wild Poltchageist, though you can’t explore Kitakami at night until well until the DLC’s story. If you don’t want to wait that long, head to this area in Mossfell Confluence.

You’ll find a fixed Tera Poltchageist spawn there at any point during the day or night.

The other way to find Poltchageist early is more random: mass outbreaks. There’s a chance every 24 hours that Poltchageist will feature in one of Kitakami’s mass outbreaks, and in my experience, these tend to happen in the same places you’d normally find the Pokemon – bamboo groves.

I got exceptionally lucky and found an outbreak on my first day of Poltchageist hunting, but if your outbreaks don’t include the ghostly green liquid, you can adjust the Switch’s clock forward to the next day to force another mass outbreak spawn.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Poltchageist weakness

Before heading into battle, make sure you’ve got at least one Pokemon that won’t get wrecked in the fight. Poltchageist is a Ghost and Grass type, and depending on what level you encounter it at, it may know:

• Foul Play
• Mega Drain
• Hex
• Life Dew
• Shadow Ball
• Memento

Mega Drain is the big threat under level 30, so avoid bringing Water types along to this battle. Your best bet is actually not a type advantage anyway, since Poltchageist has pretty weak defenses. A Fairy type is a generally solid choice, one that won’t knock Poltchageist out and isn’t weak to any of its moves.

Is Poltchageist good?

Poltchageist itself is like any other pre-evolved Pokemon. It's decent, but you really won't get much out of it until you have it evolve into Sinistcha. Sinistcha's big draw is an excellent special attack stat with a respectable defense stat as well. It also boasts slightly higher speed, attack, and HP stats compared to Polteageist, so if you're in the market for a good Ghost type, consider adding Sinistcha to your team.

Make sure to keep up with the active Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Mystery Codes for a chance at free items and some rare Pokemon.