Terrain in SS DOU

By Noelle. Released:2025/06/04

1.1 - What are Terrains?

Terrains are field conditions that can be activated by using the corresponding move or switching in a Pokémon with the corresponding ability, similarly to weather. All Terrains excluding Misty Terrain boost the damage of moves matching their respective type by 1.3x (1.5x in generations prior to generation 8) while having at least one completely unique effect: Grassy Terrain recovers 1/16th of each Pokémon's HP each turn and halves the damage of Earthquake, Bulldoze, and Magnitude; Psychic Terrain blocks priority attacks used on opposing Pokémon; Electric Terrain prevents all Pokémon from falling asleep; and Misty Terrain halves the damage of all Dragon-type moves and prevents all status conditions. Only one Terrain can be active at a time, and using a Terrain move or ability while another Terrain is active will override the previously active Terrain in favor of the new one. Unlike weather, Terrains only affect grounded Pokémon. Flying-types and Pokémon with Levitate will not be affected by any Terrain.

1.2 - A Brief History of Terrains

Terrains were introduced in generation 6, where they were almost immediately found to be virtually useless. While some Terrain effects were technically useful, the abilities that activate Terrains did not exist yet, and they could only be used manually through the moves Electric Terrain, Grassy Terrain, and Misty Terrain. The opportunity cost of having to spend a turn setting up the Terrain was not worth the comparatively small reward of gaining HP recovery or a temporary status immunity for five turns. The idea of Terrains had promise, but they weren't very accessible to most teams and never saw any serious competitive use.

In generation 7, the abilities Electric Surge, Grassy Surge, Misty Surge, and Psychic Surge were introduced, which set up Electric, Grassy, Misty, and Psychic Terrain, respectively, upon switching in. Terrains in this generation were significantly better. Part of this was due to the Terrain abilities being exclusively on the Tapu group this generation. These were all good Pokémon based on their individual merits due to their high base stats and, for the most part, good movepools. Additionally, Terrains in this generation are more powerful than in later generations due to the power boost granted by Terrains being a 1.5x multiplier rather than 1.3x. This allows the Tapu group as well as any other Pokémon with Electric-, Grass-, or Psychic-type moves to gain a rather sizable power boost as well as the benefits from the other unique effects of each Terrain. Virtually every viable generation 7 team uses at least one member of the Tapu group. Many even opt for two, as unlike weathers, Terrains don't directly counter each other, allowing you to more easily slot two Island Guardians onto a team and still have a coherent wincon.

Going into generation 8, Terrains were hit with a pretty sizable nerf. The 1.5x damage boost was reduced to 1.3x, almost half of what it was originally. To compensate, the Terrain abilities were all given to at least one additional Pokémon: Pincurchin for Electric Terrain, Rillaboom for Grassy Terrain, Galarian Weezing for Misty Terrain, and both Indeedee formes for Psychic Terrain. Pincurchin and Indeedee-M never saw any serious competitive use in DOU because of low base stats and limited movepools, and while Galarian Weezing would end up seeing some use, it was almost never as a Misty Terrain setter. Rillaboom and Indeedee-F on the other hand would end up becoming metagame staples after gaining access to Grassy Glide and Expanding Force, respectively, new moves introduced in the first DLC.

Four new moves were introduced in the Isle of Armor DLC that were designed to synergize with Terrains: Rising Voltage, Grassy Glide, Expanding Force, and Misty Explosion. Aside from Misty Explosion, which was useless in competitive play, all of these moves were amazing and would go on to see at least some use, with some of them even defining entire team archetypes. Terrains were nerfed going from generation 7 to 8, but they are arguably more impactful in generation 8 in large part because of how amazing these new moves were. With the mechanics and history of Terrains established, we can now examine the effects of each of them on the SS DOU metagame.

2.1 - Psychic Terrain

Psychic Terrain teams this generation became a very strong offensive archetype through a series of direct and indirect buffs. The priority-blocking effect enables strong attackers like Pheromosa and Naganadel that would otherwise be susceptible to being played around through Fake Out and Extreme Speed. While the damage boost to Psychic-type attacks was nerfed, it was more than made up for by the addition of Expanding Force. Expanding Force is an 80-Base Power Psychic-type attack that increases in power by 1.5x and hits both targets under Psychic Terrain. Expanding Force still gains Psychic Terrain's 1.3x damage boost on top of this, making it one of the best moves at breaking through unprepared teams. While Expanding Force wasn't given to many Pokémon relevant to DOU in the DLC, it was given to Necrozma, a strong attacker with high natural bulk.

Indeedee-F also gives Psychic Terrain teams a lot more dimension. It's a great user of the Eject Button item due to its higher bulk compared to Tapu Lele, allowing it to pivot around other Terrain users more easily, and Follow Me allows it to sponge damage for frail teammates like Pheromosa and Naganadel and guarantee an Eject Button activation. Additionally, it gained access to Expanding Force, which allows it to spread damage on important targets when needed. While Indeedee-F has much higher defensive utility for Psychic Terrain teams, Tapu Lele's higher damage output and access to Taunt allow it to remain a competitive option that's worth picking depending on user preference.

Psychic Terrain teams have a relatively simple wincon. Necrozma's damage output under Psychic Terrain combined with fast late-game cleaners such as Pheromosa and Naganadel contributes to a playstyle where you attempt to end games as quickly as possible. The rest of the team exists to enable this offensive core. Heatran removes or forces out Rillaboom to gain as much of an advantage as possible in Terrain wars, as well as removing Steel-types, which resist Expanding Force. Amoonguss takes advantage of the fact that Psychic Terrain can be used to override Misty Terrain and allow Amoonguss to use Spore freely. In return, Amoonguss's Rage Powder pulls damage away from Pheromosa and Naganadel and allows them to attack freely.

There's some variation with the sets and team composition here. The choice between Indeedee-F and Tapu Lele just comes down to whether you value Indeedee-F's defensive options or Tapu Lele's damage output and utility in Taunt. Trick Room Necrozma can be used to have a better matchup into Whimsicott teams while enabling Amoonguss more. Structures using Whimsicott over Naganadel have seen some use but are still relatively niche, as the team loses damage output from not having Naganadel on the team, and Whimsicott loses its ability to use some pretty important utility moves like Fake Tears and Encore. Psychic-type spam is a very strong archetype, but needing to compete with Rillaboom and Tapu Fini for Terrain control while relying on Terrain much more than teams featuring Rillaboom or Tapu Fini limits its viability in the current meta.

2.2 - Grassy Terrain

Grassy Terrain is easily the most used Terrain. Ever since Rillaboom got Grassy Glide in the DLC, it's been the #1 most used Pokémon in the tier. Grassy Glide is the single strongest priority attack in the tier, giving Rillaboom great utility while also threatening teams with a high-damage STAB attack that ignores speed control. This strong role compression of a strong priority attacker and potent utility option makes Rillaboom one of the easiest Pokémon to slot onto teams.

Because Grassy Terrain enables the use of priority Grassy Glide, as well as providing a boost to other Grass-type attacks, some teams can even opt for two Grass-types. Rillaboom + Kartana was a core that dominated the tier for a period of time, with Rillaboom enabling Kartana by providing additional multipliers to Kartana's already good damage output while supporting it with Fake Out and Grassy Terrain recovery. The "Grass-type spam" core of Rillaboom and Kartana invalidated Pokémon like Diancie and Tapu Fini when Kartana was in the tier and warped the entire meta around beating it. Kartana was banned for many reasons, but one of the more prevalent ones was its synergy with Rillaboom.

Grass-type spam cores still exist in current SS, but in a much tamer form. Lurantis is often used alongside Rillaboom. The idea is that Lurantis is a strong attacker Trick Room, but it has no way of using the boosts it acquires from Contrary Superpower when Trick Room ends, forcing you to either immediately get Trick Room up again or switch out and lose the boosts. Grassy Glide allows Lurantis to continue to threaten KOs outside of Trick Room. The main weakness of Trick Room is the fact that it takes so many resources to get set up, and you can get reverse swept by your opponent after Trick Room ends if they successfully deny a second Trick Room, as the average Speed of your opponent's Pokémon is higher than yours. Lurantis being able to get around this with very strong priority attacks is huge for the Trick Room archetype, and it contributes to this core being used on one of the most popular variations of Trick Room in the tier.

Grassy Terrain's passive recovery can also be combined with recovery from items like Leftovers, giving some Pokémon an absurd amount of passive recovery at the end of each turn, similar to the recovery granted by Poison Heal. Tapu Fini and Zygarde are the main Pokémon that take advantage of this mechanic. Zygarde gains the ability to alternate between Substitute and Protect with essentially zero risk until its Substitute survives, as it gains enough passive recovery to use Substitute every two turns without actually losing any HP. Calm Mind Tapu Fini is a slow wincon that takes a lot of time to get into a position where it can win games, and the passive recovery from Grassy Terrain + Leftovers allows it to more comfortably take weaker hits to set up more Calm Minds without the damage sticking as much. Even relatively frail Pokémon like Spectrier can exploit this by running a more supportive Snarl + Will-O-Wisp set with Leftovers to give itself large amounts of free recovery every turn, making it surprisingly hard to remove.

Tapu Bulu pretty heavily fell off this generation. While it does in theory enable all of the things Rillaboom does by virtue of having Grassy Surge, it's just not as good of a Pokémon overall and struggles to find any real niche where it's worth using over Rillaboom. Rillaboom's damage output and coverage is similar to Tapu Bulu while also having access to Grassy Glide (none of the Island Guardians received the moves that synergize with their respective Terrains) and much better utility options in Fake Out, Knock Off, and Taunt. Rillaboom does a lot of the same things Tapu Bulu did while having much better role compression and a deeper movepool, making it easier to slot onto teams than Tapu Bulu is. Even in DUU where Tapu Bulu is the best Grassy Terrain user in terms of stats, Eviolite Thwackey is often used over it due to having better utility options.

2.3 - Misty Terrain

Misty Terrain has the most situational effects out of the four. Unlike the other three Terrains, which provide unconditional damage boosts to their respective type, Misty Terrain doesn't boost the damage of any type and instead has two unique effects. Preventing status is a very nice thing to have and frees up item slots on your team from not needing to use the Safety Goggles item for Amoonguss, but it's also useless if your opponent does not bring Amoonguss or a Will-O-Wisp user. Halving the power of Dragon-type moves is also a nice effect that makes pivoting around Pokémon like Naganadel and Dragapult easier, but it's also reliant on your opponent bringing those Pokémon. Misty Terrain's effects aren't bad, but its utility is almost entirely reliant on what your opponent brings. You're usually running Misty Terrain because Tapu Fini is a good Pokémon individually rather than for the ability itself. Misty Terrain's main application in a lot of matchups is actually to neutralize other Terrains and improve matchups like Psychic-type spam with the added benefit of blocking status and preventing hax from moves like Ice Beam in matchups where it's relevant.

Misty Terrain's lack of impact means that Calm Mind sets are incentivized to be used with Rillaboom to give it additional recovery from Grassy Terrain. The combination of Leftovers and Grassy Terrain gives Tapu Fini a lot of passive recovery each turn and provides more consistent utility to it than Misty Terrain's status immunity. Running two Terrain users also makes the Psychic-type spam matchup heavily skewed in your favor, allowing you to almost always have a pivot to switch in and override Psychic Terrain.

Tapu Fini is also a staple on Whimsicott teams. The reasons for this are mostly because of Tapu Fini's merits as a Pokémon independently of its Terrain, but Misty Terrain does provide a very unique utility to Whimsicott teams that nothing else in the tier can provide. Misty Terrain blocking Spore means you don't actually have to run Safety Goggles at all, allowing you to run items that boost your damage output like Life Orb or Choice items instead. Whimsicott also gains the ability to call Moonblast from Nature Power, giving it what is effectively a priority Moonblast that it can use to pick off weakened targets late-game. It can also become Energy Ball if your opponent brings Rillaboom, which can be a useful thing to keep in mind in some matchups, albeit quite niche.

On teams reliant on defensive setup strategies like Cosmic Power Metagross and Iron Defense Ferrothorn, a more supportive Tapu Fini set is often a go-to option due to its deep supportive movepool and the utility Misty Terrain provides to these Pokémon. Heal Pulse can be used to keep Metagross or Ferrothorn healthy, and Nature's Madness allows Tapu Fini to secure guaranteed chip damage on important targets. Misty Terrain blocking status is relevant here to block Will-O-Wisp from Mew and Spectrier, a strategy often relied on to make the damage output of Metagross and Ferrothorn more manageable.

2.4 - What Happened to Electric Terrain?

Tapu Koko has struggled to see any serious competitive use due to the fact that Electric-types are generally not very good in SS DOU. Rillaboom being the most popular Pokémon in the tier and resisting Electric and the Ground-types being as widespread as they are make Electric-types in general hard to fit on teams, let alone something like Tapu Koko that is relatively frail and struggles to do any meaningful damage. The nerf to Electric Terrain's damage boost means Tapu Koko can struggle to find KOs with the special sets it ran in previous generations, and its limited physical movepool caused physically offensive sets to get overlooked for most of the generation.

There is one team where Tapu Koko is generally agreed to be a good option however, and that's on Electric Hail. The idea of Electric Hail is pretty simple. Tapu Koko's Electric Terrain allows Regieleki to output ludicrous damage with Rising Voltage to anything that doesn't resist it. The problem with this core historically has been that Grass- and Ground-types are very common this generation and shut down this strategy pretty hard. Pairing these two Pokémon with Alolan Ninetales and Kyurem-B allows you to remove the Electric-immune or -resistant Pokémon to enable Regieleki to pick up OHKOs consistently. It's the same idea as BoltBeam coverage but with said coverage being spread out across the entire team rather than one Pokémon. Tapu Koko's role on this team is essentially to just set Electric Terrain for Regieleki, but a Choice Band set allows it to hit Rillaboom hard on the switch with U-turn or Brave Bird. The easy-to-understand synergy between the Pokémon and Regieleki's absurd damage output make this an effective team that's easy to pick up, which has led to it seeing niche use in tournaments. While this is widely considered a solid team, this is the only team Tapu Koko has ever seen serious use on, and the consensus on Tapu Koko's viability for general use is unfavorable to say the least.

3.1 - Conclusion

Terrain is a very impactful part of the SS DOU tier. With the exception of Electric Terrain, which got significantly worse, every other Terrain got better and was made more impactful through a series of indirect and direct buffs. Terrains were nerfed going into this generation, but the compensating buff of the signature moves' introduction for each Terrain more than makes up for this and makes playing against Terrain-based teams feel more nuanced and fairer.

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