The Rose Incense is a highly desirable item to be held by a Pokémon in battle and breeding in Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl. Incense are held items that were originally introduced in Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire, and, at the time only the Sea Incense and Lax Incense were part of the series. These Incense boosted Water-type moves and reduced opponents' accuracy, respectively, making them perfect additions to the Hoenn region with its many Water-type Pokémon.
The original Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl introduced seven new Incenses, the Full, Luck, Odd, Pure, Rock, Rose, and Wave. Like the Incenses that came before them, these seven were designed to help with breeding in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl in addition to their various battle effects. The Rose Incense is for Grass-type moves and for use when breeding the Pokémon Roselia and Roserade.
The Rose Incense in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl boosts the damage of Grass-type moves by 20%, for any user. This means that, for example, an Empoleon that knows the move Grass Knot could benefit from holding the Rose Incense in battle. Additionally, if a Grass-type Pokémon is holding the Rose Incense and uses a Grass-type move, the Pokémon's attack would be boosted by 80% thanks to the addition of the STAB bonus. The Rose Incense provides the same battle bonus for Grass-type moves as the Miracle Seed in Pokémon BDSP, which can really strengthen the offensive power of a Grass-type Pokémon team.
Find Rose Incense Outside Trophy Garden in Pokémon BDSP
Players can find the Rose Incense in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl outside the Trophy Garden property. This area requires the move Surf to access, however, which means players will also have to defeat the Hearthome City Gym Leader after acquiring the HM in Celestic Town. After gaining the ability to use Surf, players should head south from Hearthome City towards the Trophy Garden. There is a patch of flowers with an item laying in it near a small body of water. Players can Surf and pick up the item to receive the Rose Incense.
Breeding any Pokémon with a female Roselia or Roserade while one parent is holding the Rose Incense will result in Budew hatching from the egg. Budew is one of the baby Pokémon in BDSP, and, while baby Pokémon normally have unique egg moves that make them desirable to hatch, Budew actually has the same egg moves as Roselia. Furthermore, Roselia can actually learn more egg moves than Budew. Since Budew can be caught in the wild or in the Grand Underground, the Rose Incense has little real utility for breeding in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are available for Nintendo Switch.