The Ultra Wormhole is the big new feature of the post-game in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. Riding on the back of Solgaleo or Lunala, you speed through a cosmic tunnel dotted with colored portals. Each one opens onto a small world where a Pokémon awaits: a Pokémon absent from Alola, an Ultra Beast or, with a bit of luck, a Legendary. Almost all the Legendary Pokémon of previous generations are found this way. This page explains how this Ultra Warp Ride works, the probabilities behind it and what each type of wormhole contains.
Unlocking the Ultra Warp Ride
The Ultra Warp Ride opens up during the main story. After the first battle against Necrozma, the Ultra Recon Squad lends you a Legendary Pokémon to cross the wormhole and reach Ultra Megalopolis: Lunala in Ultra Sun, Solgaleo in Ultra Moon. For this first trip, you must aim for a white wormhole. Once Ultra Necrozma has been defeated at the top of the tower in Ultra Megalopolis, the Ultra Warp Ride becomes free to use: it starts from the Altar of the Sunne (Ultra Sun) or the Altar of the Moone (Ultra Moon), and Ultra Megalopolis is then offered directly as a destination.
You can switch mounts at any time by going back to Ultra Megalopolis and talking to a member of the Ultra Recon Squad. The choice of mount is purely cosmetic: it does not change the Pokémon you encounter.
How a trip works
The trip is a race. Your mount moves forward through the tunnel and the counter shows the distance traveled, in light-years. Two things matter:
- Orange bubbles give energy and speed. There are plenty at the start of the run, then they become scarcer: collect as many as you can in the first few seconds.
- Electrified blue orbs slow your mount down and make it lose energy. Avoid them.
Portals exert a pull. A fast mount passes by without being sucked in and can even go through some portals at top speed; a slow mount ends up swallowed by the next portal that comes along. The trip ends as soon as you enter a portal: the distance reached then determines the shape of the wormhole and therefore your chances.
The rings: the key to Legendary Pokémon
The farther you go, the more likely portals are to be surrounded by one or two rings, or even a rosette-shaped aura. This decoration is not cosmetic: the more a portal has, the better its chances of hiding a Legendary Pokémon. A portal with two rings and an aura is guaranteed to contain a Legendary, as long as one is still left to catch behind that color. The shape of the portals is randomly drawn according to the distance:
| Distance | No ring | 1 ring | 2 rings | 2 rings + aura |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 light-years | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 1,000 | 78% | 20% | 2% | 0% |
| 1,500 | 66% | 30% | 4% | 0% |
| 2,000 | 52% | 40% | 8% | 0% |
| 2,500 | 33% | 50% | 16% | 1% |
| 3,000 | 32% | 50% | 16% | 2% |
| 3,500 | 31% | 50% | 16% | 3% |
| 4,000 | 30% | 50% | 16% | 4% |
| 4,500 | 29% | 50% | 16% | 5% |
Beyond 3,000 light-years, each 500 light-year step removes 1% from the ringless portals and adds it to the aura portals. In practice, aiming for 3,000 to 5,000 light-years before diving into a ringed portal is the most effective method.
Shiny Pokémon
The Ultra Wormhole is also the best shiny-hunting ground in the game, for the ordinary Pokémon found in the colored wormholes. The probability climbs with the distance and with the number of rings: an aura portal reaches about 36% from 5,000 light-years, compared with 1% for a ringless portal. Whether these Pokémon are shiny is decided at the moment you pass through the portal. If the Pokémon is shiny, it will stay shiny even if you restart the game, which lets you re-roll its Nature and stats. If it isn’t, restarting is pointless.
Ultra Beasts and Legendary Pokémon follow a different rule: their odds are normal and are decided when the battle is triggered. You can therefore save in front of them and retry until you get a shiny one, with a lot of patience. Our older guide Finding Shiny Pokémon covers this further.
White wormholes: the worlds of the Ultra Beasts
White portals lead to the home worlds of the Ultra Beasts already present in Sun and Moon. Unlike Legendary Pokémon, they reappear on every visit: you can catch as many as you like, one per trip. The best Ball to use is the Beast Ball, designed especially for them.
| World | Ultra Beast | Version | Rarity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ultra Deep Sea | Nihilego | Both | Common |
| Ultra Jungle | Buzzwole | Ultra Sun | Common |
| Ultra Desert | Pheromosa | Ultra Moon | Common |
| Ultra Plant | Xurkitree | Both | Uncommon |
| Ultra Forest | Kartana | Ultra Sun | Uncommon |
| Ultra Ruin | Celesteela | Ultra Moon | Uncommon |
| Ultra Megalopolis | Guzzlord | Both | Rare |
The new Ultra Beasts of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are not found here. Poipole is given to you in Ultra Megalopolis at the end of the story, and Blacephalon (Ultra Sun) or Stakataka (Ultra Moon) can be caught during the Ultra Recon Squad missions after the Pokémon League.
Colored wormholes: the Ultra Space Wilds
The red, blue, green and yellow portals all lead to the Ultra Space Wilds, a series of small L-shaped worlds at the end of which a Pokémon appears. Each color has its own scenery and its own list. All the Pokémon there are Level 60 and have at least three perfect IVs. Because these worlds are not part of Alola, this is the only place in the game where Pikachu, Exeggcute and Cubone appear in their regular form rather than their Alolan form.
Red wormholes (cliff)
Ordinary Pokémon in red wormholes
#0277SwellowNormalFlying
#0334AltariaDragonFlying
#0469YanmegaBugFlying
#0561SigilyphPsychicFlying
#0581SwannaWaterFlying
| Legendary | Version | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres | Both | None |
| Cresselia | Both | None |
| Ho-Oh | Ultra Sun | None |
| Tornadus | Ultra Sun | None |
| Thundurus | Ultra Moon | None |
| Yveltal | Ultra Moon | None |
| Rayquaza | Both | Groudon and Kyogre in your party |
| Landorus | Both | Tornadus and Thundurus in your party |
Blue wormholes (waterfall)
Ordinary Pokémon in blue wormholes
#0195QuagsireWaterGround
#0271LombreWaterGrass
#0419FloatzelWater
#0618StunfiskElectricGround
#0689BarbaracleWaterRock
| Legendary | Version | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf | Both | None |
| Latios | Ultra Sun | None |
| Latias, Lugia, Kyogre | Ultra Moon | None |
| Suicune | Both | Raikou and Entei in your party |
| Kyurem | Both | Reshiram and Zekrom in your party |
Green wormholes (plain)
Ordinary Pokémon in green wormholes
#0274NuzleafGrassDark
#0326GrumpigPsychic
#0452DrapionPoisonDark
#0531AudinoNormal
#0695HelioliskElectricNormal
| Legendary | Version | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Mewtwo | Both | None |
| Cobalion, Terrakion, Virizion | Both | None |
| Raikou, Dialga, Reshiram, Xerneas | Ultra Sun | None |
| Entei, Zekrom | Ultra Moon | None |
Yellow wormholes (cave)
Ordinary Pokémon in yellow wormholes
#0219MagcargoFireRock
#0308MedichamFightingPsychic
#0450HippowdonGround
#0460AbomasnowIceGrass
#0558CrustleBugRock
| Legendary | Version | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Regirock, Regice, Registeel | Both | None |
| Groudon, Heatran | Ultra Sun | None |
| Palkia, Regigigas | Ultra Moon | None |
| Giratina | Both | Dialga and Palkia in your party |
The inverted world and the second Cosmog
The altar also serves as a gateway to the inverted world, where day and night are swapped. After the Pokémon League, with Solgaleo or Lunala in your party, this passage lets you reach the Lake of the Sunne (Ultra Sun) or the Lake of the Moone (Ultra Moon) and collect a second Cosmog there, which joins your party without a battle. The page on the Legendary Pokémon of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon details this encounter and all the other Legendary Pokémon in the game.
