How to Catch a Ditto in ‘Pokémon Scarlet’ and ‘Pokémon Violet’

You’ll have to start battles with all of the Pokémon you encounter in that area, as Ditto won’t reveal itself until the start of the battle. This also means you’ll want to turn off the auto battle feature as you conduct your search.

Since this is such a tedious process, some Pokémon fans have shared their own hacks online to help make this process easier. For starters, if you hold down the ZL button while in the region, it’ll lock onto the nearest Pokémon, displaying its name and level.

Source: https://www.distractify.com/p/how-to-catch-ditto-pokemon-scarlet-violet