How to catch Barboach in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet

An essential monster for whisker enthusiasts

Unlike past Pokemon games, Scarlet & Violet feature absolutely no fishing. If you want a Water-Type Pokemon, you’ll often need to get your feet wet and capture it yourself. Barboach falls into this category, which makes it easy to miss during a casual playthrough.

Fortunately, once you know where to look, Barboach isn’t terribly difficult to find. While Wooper steals its thunder a bit by sharing its killer Water/Ground-Type combo, you may prefer the higher speed and more balanced bulk of Barboach’s evolved form Whiscash. Additionally, Wishcash learns powerful moves like Earthquake early without the need of TMs. If you’re looking for this monster to use during your playthrough, or you’re just trying to fill out your Pokedex, here’s where you should look.

Where to find Barboach

Barboach’s habitat is listed in the Pokedex as “ponds and deep underwater.” While it’s located in a few spots across Paldea, there is no need to explore the Paldean Sea like some Water-Type Pokemon force you to. In fact, one of the easiest spots to find Barboach is close to where you start the game.

In South Province Area Four, you’ll see several bodies of water clustered together. The Pokemon here are around level 18, which you should exceed by the time you defeat the second gym leader. Keep looking in these bodies of water until you see Barboach’s relatively small body poke out of the water. Toss a Pokeball at it to begin the encounter.

That said, Barboach can be a bit tricky to nab if you haven’t unlocked swimming yet. Fortunately, you can get this objective out of the way if your team is around level 18 already. To the northwest of Cortondo is the objective to face the Titan Pokemon Bombirdier. This is a Flying/Dark-Type monster, so any Rock or Electric-Type Pokemon will counter it handily. Once you’ve finished this fight, watch the cutscene unfold and your companion Pokemon will learn how to swim. This will make it much easier to search for Barboach, especially if it insists on hanging out near the middle of a body of water.

If you’re still having trouble finding Barboach, consider preparing a sandwich that boosts the encounter rate of Ground-Type Pokemon. This should boost Barboach’s appearance rate relative to the other Water-Types swimming around. With all these steps in mind, Barboach shouldn’t be able to hide from you for long. Good luck catching it!