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In Pokémon, Ditto is a pink blob that you can use to transform into enemy Pokémon during battle. But can a Ditto transform into other things? For instance, can it transform into a person and impersonate them?

Code Pink! Ditto spy!

Full comic on creator's website

Thunderforge
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4 Answers4

38

Yes, and they do in the anime.

Duplica's Ditto, in Episode 37: Ditto's Mysterious Mansion, turns into pictures of people, and in the Professor Oak lecture below, it turns into Oak.

Ditto Portrait
(source: nocookie.net)

Note: Ditto's beady eyes in this episode are originally said to be abnormal, and he later learns to transform perfectly. Due to its popularity, however, this abnormal transformation was retconned into being the norm.

Dittos are described as being able to reconstitute their cellular structure into the appearance of whatever they see -- be it organic or otherwise.

Furthermore, Duplica's Ditto, when impersonating Team Rocket's Meowth, showed the ability to speak. As Ditto normally can't talk, this means he lifted the ability from his taken form. That would mean, in turn, that a Ditto transformed into a human would similarly be capable of imitating speech. This, combined with their appearance, would allow near-perfect impersonation of people.

As jpmc26 stated in the comments, Transform changes the user's current type, current stats, current stat modifications, current moves, current species, and current cry to that of the target's as well. This establishes a basis for transformation into a person in-game, as well -- it just hasn't happened yet.

Glorfindel
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    Lifting the ability from the source form has some basis in game canon, too, since Transform gives Ditto the full type, stats, move set, etc. – jpmc26 Feb 19 '16 at 20:43
  • @jpmc26 Added it. Thank you! –  Feb 19 '16 at 23:31
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    Is there any evidence that Ditto gains the knowledge of the form he takes? IIRC, Meowth said at some point that he learned to speak. Does this mean that if Ditto takes on Oak's form, he has all the knowledge that Oak had? – Arc676 Feb 20 '16 at 08:43
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    @Arc676 since he gains the moves of the Pokemon he copies, and most of those are learned, I would say yes. – Martin Epsz Feb 20 '16 at 11:53
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    Also your video is blocked. – Valorum Jan 05 '21 at 20:47
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Yes.

In Ultra Sun/Moon, there's a sidequest that begins in Route 9's police station wherein you're tasked with tracking down five Dittos impersonating human npcs. While visually they're indistinguishable from the actual humans around them (they don't have "ditto face"), the only sounds they make are still permutations of "ditto".

The officer who issues you the sidequest explains that the Dittos in question "love humans so much that they transform into humans," and they're almost all found filling in for people who are late or absent from their work, to varying degrees of success. He talks about it as if it's an uncommon, but not unheard of, nuisance. At the conclusion of the sidequest, it's implied the other officer in the building is also a Ditto, but has mastered speech and successfully passes as human.

Video of the sidequest:

Incredible Frown
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    Pokémon GO also had a sidequest just a few days ago that involved Ditto impersonating both Professor Willow and the player. They didn't have the "Ditto face" but they were similarly incapable of speech. – F1Krazy Apr 05 '22 at 06:43
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Ditto demonstrates a capacity to replicate not one, but several humans in Detective Pikachu (2019).

Valorum
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  • This Ditto is notable in numerous ways, and was most likely a product of the villain's experiments: it can transform into something that isn't right in front of it, and perhaps even a form it invents on its own (depending on if you think the girl with the pink hair is real and out there somewhere). I don't think its capabilities are reflective of all Ditto. – Exal Jan 06 '21 at 00:06
  • @Exal - Possibly not, but it's certainly a ditto and it's certainly able to replicate a human. That seems to meet the criteria posed by the question. – Valorum Jan 06 '21 at 00:18
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As of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, they canonically can, though they (well, most of them anyways) aren't very good at it, and can only say their own name.

MisterJ
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