Understanding Pixelmon’s General Spawn Settings

The General Spawning section controls broad rules that affect how wild Pokémon are generated, scaled, transformed, refreshed, and removed. Control despawning, Shiny and Hidden Ability rates, player-level scaling, Ditto transformations, Gigantamax factors, lure effects, generation restrictions, spawn collection timing, and dimension lists.

Pixelmon General Spawn Settings

The settings below are listed in the same order as they appear in general.yml. The table preserves each default and identifies the accepted value type. The Setting column shows a reader-friendly name first, followed by the matching general.yml key for reference.

Setting and Config Key	Default and Accepted Values	Description
Despawn Radius despawn-radius	Default: 80 Values: whole number	The minimum number of blocks away from the nearest player a Pokémon can be when despawned.
Shiny Rate shiny-rate	Default: 4096.0 Values: decimal number	Modifies the rarity of shiny Pokémon.
Shiny Charm Rate Multiplier shiny-charm-rate-multiplier	Default: 3.0 Values: decimal number	The amount the shiny charm will multiply the shiny chance
Hidden Ability Rate hidden-ability-rate	Default: 150.0 Values: decimal number	Modifies the rarity of Pokémon with hidden abilities.
Spawn Levels Closer To Player Levels spawn-levels-closer-to-player-levels	Default: true Values: true or false	If enabled, wild Pokémon and trainers will spawn closer to the level range of the player. For example, a party where the highest level is 5 will never see Pokémon or trainers above level 15 unless through fishing.
Spawn Levels Increase In Caves spawn-levels-increase-in-caves	Default: true Values: true or false	If enabled, the y-value of the position a Pokémon spawns at will affect the Pokémon level proportionately, such that lower y-values will have higher level Pokémon.
Spawn Levels Increase In Ultra Space spawn-levels-increase-in-ultra-space	Default: true Values: true or false	If enabled, the Ultra Space Pokémon will be set at a higher level than the maximum level in your party MaxPartyLevel * ultra-space-level-multiplier
Cave Max Multiplier cave-max-multiplier	Default: 4 Values: whole number	The max level multiplier when you're at a lower level in caves
Transform To Ditto On Catch transform-to-ditto-on-catch	Default: 0.001 Values: decimal number	Chance for a wild Pokémon to turn into a Ditto on capture.
Can Transform To Ditto On Catch can-transform-to-ditto-on-catch	Default: [Pidgey, Rattata, Gastly, Zubat, Mankey, Yanma, Hoothoot, Sentret, Zigzagoon, Gulpin, Whismur, Taillow, Remoraid, Starly] Values: list	Pokémon which can transform to Ditto upon capture
Gigantamax Factor Rate gigantamax-factor-rate	Default: 512.0 Values: decimal number	Chance of a wild Pokémon spawning with the Gigantamax Factor (1/rate). 0 disables Gigantamax Factor spawns.
Use Recent Level Moves use-recent-level-moves	Default: false Values: true or false	If set to true, Pokémon will spawn with the most recent moves in their level-up movepools. If false, Pokémon will spawn with random moves from their level-up movepools.
Despawn On Flee Or Loss despawn-on-flee-or-loss	Default: false Values: true or false	Whether or not wild Pokémon will despawn if the player flees from them or loses against them.
Lure Flute Duration lure-flute-duration	Default: 180 Values: whole number	How long the effects of the Black/White Flute last for in seconds once used.
Lure Flute Level Modifier lure-flute-level-modifier	Default: 10 Values: whole number	By how many levels the Black/White Flute can affect spawns by.
Blocked Generations blocked-generations	Default: [] Values: list	Whether or not Pokémon from a specific generation can spawn. All generations enabled by default.
Player Tracking Spawner Spawn Collection Rate player-tracking-spawner-spawn-collection-rate	Default: 2 Values: whole number	The rate at which the player tracking spawner will refresh the spawns around the player. If you're on a server you want this number to be higher. This will mean less spawns per player but is important as it will impact your server's performance if too low. For single player the performance is irrelevant as you're just the one player.
Auto Tag Specs auto-tag-specs	Default: {gen1: generation:1; gen2: generation:2; gen3: generation:3; gen4: generation:4; gen5: generation:5; nonlegendary: islegendary:false; gen6: generation:6; legendary: islegendary:true; gen7: generation:7; gen8: generation:8; shiny: shiny} Values: mapping of keys and values	Controls the auto tag specs value used by Pixelmon.
Interval Seconds interval-seconds	Default: {wormhole_overworld: 1200; wormhole_ultra_space: 400} Values: mapping of keys and values	Controls the interval seconds value used by Pixelmon.
Always Aggressive Dimensions always-aggressive-dimensions	Default: [pixelmon:ultra_space] Values: list	Indicates which dimensions that all Pokémon will be aggressive.
Horde Battle Dimensions horde-battle-dimensions	Default: [pixelmon:ultra_space] Values: list	Indicates which dimensions a Horde Battle may occur in.
Spawning Disabled Dimensions spawning-disabled-dimensions	Default: [] Values: list	Indicates which dimensions that Pokémon spawning are disabled in.

Important General Spawn Setting Notes

Defaults and Value Types

Rates, multipliers, timers, lists, and Boolean toggles behave differently. Keep decimal values in decimal form, preserve list syntax, and use true or false only for Boolean options.

Settings That Work Together

Level scaling, Shiny and Hidden Ability chances, Ditto transformations, lure effects, and dimension restrictions can overlap. Review related settings together before judging a single change.

Testing Spawn Changes

Spawn changes are easiest to evaluate when only one group of values changes at a time.
Test with representative party levels and in every dimension affected by the edited lists.
Keep a copy of the previous values so an overly aggressive rate or refresh interval can be reversed quickly.

Final Thoughts

General spawn settings touch many systems at once, so small, measured adjustments are easier to balance than a full migration of the Pokémon population overnight.

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