|
-
Intimidate
- Lowers the foe's Attack 1 stage. Decreases wild encounter rate.
|
Statistics
|
Min- |
Min |
Max |
Max+ |
| HP |
50
|
- |
241 |
304 |
- |
| Atk |
95
|
203 |
226 |
289 |
317 |
| Def |
95
|
203 |
226 |
289 |
317 |
| SpA |
35
|
95 |
106 |
169 |
185 |
| SpD |
110
|
230 |
256 |
319 |
350 |
| Spe |
70
|
158 |
176 |
239 |
262 |
In standard, try to come in on something that cannot do much damage to you or that you can scare off: Tyranitar and Rest / Sleep Talk Heracross are the best examples of this. Try to hit Special hard-hitters like Zapdos and Gengar on the switch with your third and fourth moves. Rock Slide hits Zapdos quite hard and does decent damage to Gengar. In addition, it does some damage to Salamence and Gyarados. Hidden Power Ghost really hurts Gengar and lets you do some damage to Dusclops.
Mach Punch could be used in standard to 2HKO any Tyranitar, but Brick Break / Hi Jump Kick will OHKO them, so if they are at full health, you might as well Brick Break, but it helps to finish off a weakened Tyranitar. Hitmontop makes quite a decent counter to Dragon Dance Tyranitar with Intimidate and Rock resistance. In UU, you want Earthquake for Muk, Vileplume, and the OHKO on Lanturn and Manectric after a Bulk Up. Mach Punch is handy to keep for nasty things like Belly Drum Clefable and Flail / Reversal Pokémon though. Don't bother with Earthquake in standard; all it's really good for is Metagross. When using Hitmontop in UU, you can come in on Kangaskhan, Solrock and Golem to an extent as long as you won't repeatedly take their strongest assaults. Like in standard, predict switches and attack accordingly, while saving Bulk Up for later on. Rock Slide in UU isn't that good, as there are more Psychics like Grumpig there than Fliers, and the Fliers that are there are either not resistant to Fighting (Fearow) or not weak to Rock (Gligar). Rock Slide can still help for Pinsir, though, so it's not completely useless.
If you're decent at prediction and don't mind the loss of Leftovers recovery, you can try this one out. Same deal as with last set, except this time you might even OHKO Tyranitar. Jolly can be useful in UU so you can outspeed Poliwrath. This set can do quite some damage, like any Fighter with Choice Band, as long as you pick the right move on the right turn. As before, only use Earthquake in UU. Hi Jump Kick's power is probably better with a Choice Band, but you can use Brick Break if you really hate to miss.
A funny surprise that might screw up one or two enemies if they don't see it coming. Get to trigger that Salac at low HP by using Substitute or Endure, then Endeavor them to that some low amount of HP. If you can, try to Substitute on a switch to a faster Pokémon. Keep up the Substitute by using it every time they attack you to break the Substitute, and you should end up at low HP with Salac activated and a Substitute up. Now you can actually finish them off with Mach Punch or Hidden Power Ghost and Endeavor the next Pokémon. Note how even with Jolly and max Speed, Hitmontop can not outspeed max Speed Aerodactyl, Crobat and Jolteon after Salac Berry. Don't give Hitmontop HP EVs when using Substitute, you'll want to be able to Substitute four times. Tyranitar with Sand Stream might foil this strategy.
Hitmontop is pretty good at Countering. With these EVs, he can come into a Salamence Dragon Dance, Intimidate it, and then live through a Hidden Power Flying to Counter for the KO. You can also Counter things like Heracross Megahorn or Brick Break, Skarmory Drill Peck, Aerodactyl Hidden Power Flying, or in UU, Gligar Hidden Power Flying, Muk Sludge Bomb, you can go on and on. Protect is to scout for moves and Mach Punch for its usual uses described before. Use Salac Berry and Endeavor to hurt one more Pokémon after Countering a nearly deadly hit, otherwise go with Leftovers. Brick Break is probably better than Hi Jump Kick on this set, as you don't want to lose HP to High Jump Kick, since you'll need all the HP you can get for Counter.
Other Options
Hitmontop can Rapid Spin, but isn't any good at it. It's easily blocked by Ghosts and loses to Skarmory more often than not. If you really need it on your team, it's a good filler though. Triple Kick makes Hitmontop one of the best Substitute Tyranitar counters in the game; he resists Crunch, has nice Special Defense for Thunderbolt and Intimidate to take Rock Slide and Focus Punch, and Triple Kick will hit Tyranitar twice after breaking his Substitute. The only way Hitmontop will eat a Focus Punch is on the switch. Toxic and Thief are always funny fillers. Hidden Power Ice is one of the few ways for Hitmontop to hit Gligar hard in UU, but it's more likely you get more mileage from Toxic or Counter. Substitute isn't bad for Bulk Up sets to protect against status from slower Pokémon. Revenge becomes 120 base power if you get hit first, and can be used instead of Counter to beat up Special attackers. Hitmontop can combine Revenge with Focus Punch to be able to do a 120 power or 150 power Fighting Attack on any given turn, provided your prediction is right. This set will need a lot of HP to take hits for Revenge.
EVs
Each set has its own useful EVs. For the most part, Hitmontop should stick with focusing on Attack, and then either try to live through hits by stacking HP, or get some Speed. Somewhere around 200 Speed is a good number, but if you really want to build up Speed you can use 222 or 244 to beat Adamant or Jolly Tyranitar respectively. Max his low HP before working on Defenses.
Opinion
Hitmontop is a somewhat potent UU Fighter with many tricks up his sleeve. He is somewhat outclassed in the sweeping department by Hitmonlee and Primeape, though. In standard he is mostly novelty, though he is one of the few Pokémon who can come in on any kind of Tyranitar and screw him up before he can think of doing anything thanks to Mach Punch and Triple Kick. Fun to use, but may not be suited for serious teams.
Counters
As touched in the first set description, Hitmontop has a lot of trouble with standard Fighting resists. Zapdos, Salamence and Gyarados all come in relatively easily on about any move and really put a hurting. Weezing can Will-O-Wisp him and doesn't take much damage at all from any of his hits. Skarmory can lay Spikes and hit with super effective STAB Drill Peck / Hidden Power Flying. It and Salamence / Gyarados have to be wary of Counter though. The same goes to Heracross: it can shrug off most of Hitmontop's hits and, despite Hitmontop's Megahorn resistance, hurt him, but Counter is deadly. Gengar will be fine against Hitmontop as long as it doesn't repeatedly take Rock Slides and stays away from Hidden Power Ghost in general. Dusclops shrugs off anything.
In UU, Gligar is his main fear, kind of in the same way Salamence is in standard. Its high Defense and Fighting resistance make it easy to bring in, and Swords Danced Hidden Power Flying is a major hurting for Hitmontop. Muk and other Poisons are hard to get past if you don't have Earthquake, while Misdreavus is going to be a pain in the ass without Hidden Power Ghost. Even if you have it, Misdreavus has a good chance of beating you with Mean Look, Perish Song, and then stalling with Protect. Solrock can Reflect upon you and generally tank, but on the other hand, Brick Break owns the Reflect and Hitmontop resists Rock Slide.