Resource Almost Any Ability Resources [OLD]

[Gambit]

Certain sample sets for AAA are a bit outdated, so I wanted to suggest some new updated sets for certain Pokemon in addition to some new sets that I think should be added.

Great Tusk

Physically Defensive (Great Tusk) @ Rocky Helmet / Leftovers / Eject Button
Ability: Fluffy / Scrappy / Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def or 252 HP / 148 Def / 108 Spe (Outspeeds no Speed EVs Zapdos)
Impish Nature
- Body Press / Earthquake
- Knock Off / Ice Spinner / Taunt
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock / Taunt / Earthquake

Fast Defensive (Great Tusk) @ Leftovers / Eject Button
Ability: Scrappy / Earth Eater
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake / Close Combat / Headlong Rush
- Knock Off / Ice Spinner
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock

Offensive (Great Tusk) @ Leftovers
Ability: Scrappy / Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Headlong Rush / Earthquake / Ice Spinner
- Rapid Spin
- Bulk Up / Taunt

Roaring Moon

RegenVest (Roaring Moon) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Earthquake / Stone Edge / Throat Chop
- Throat Chop / Dragon Tail / Dragon Claw

MGLO (Roaring Moon) @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Earthquake / Taunt
- Roost
i know UT just wrote this like a couple months ago, but Taunt is pretty valuable and DClaw is pretty rare now.

Dragon Dance (Roaring Moon) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Sword of Ruin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant or Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Knock Off
- Acrobatics
- Earthquake / Stone Edge

Manaphy

RegenVest (Manaphy) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD or 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed or Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Scald
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Ice Beam

Take Heart Sweeper (Manaphy) @ Leftovers
Ability: Stamina
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Serious Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Stored Power
- Take Heart

Tail Glow (Manaphy) @ Booster Energy
Ability: Protosynthesis / Motor Drive
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe or 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Energy Ball / Psychic
- Tail Glow

Gholdengo

Physically Defensive (Gholdengo) @ Leftovers / Colbur Berry / Air Balloon
Ability: Well-Baked Body / Levitate / Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 HP / 228 Def / 28 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Make It Rain
- Shadow Ball / Hex
- Recover
- Nasty Plot / Thunder Wave

Deoxys-Speed

PsySurge (Deoxys-Speed) @ Life Orb
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive or Rash Nature
- Expanding Force
- Ice Beam / Thunderbolt / Shadow Ball
- Superpower
- Knock Off

SFLO (Deoxys-Speed) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid or Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt / Focus Blast / Energy Ball
- Shadow Ball / Nasty Plot / Knock Off

Libero (Deoxys-Speed) @ Life Orb
Ability: Libero
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive or Rash Nature
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Superpower / Shadow Ball
- Knock Off / Shadow Ball

Hadron Engine (Deoxys-Speed) @ Life Orb
Ability: Hadron Engine
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest or Timid Nature
- Psychic / Psycho Boost
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam / Shadow Ball
- Shadow Ball / Nasty Plot

Swampert

RegenVest (Swampert) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Flip Turn
- Ice Beam

Zapdos

Primordial Sea (Zapdos) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Primordial Sea
EVs: 120 HP / 252 SpA / 136 Spe (outspeeds Adamant Ceruledge) or 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
- Hurricane / Weather Ball
- Thunder / Weather Ball
- U-turn / Volt Switch
- Roost

Scream Tail

Offensive Support (Scream Tail) @ Leftovers / Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Boomburst
- Wish
- Protect / Psychic Noise
- Stealth Rock / Psychic Noise

Choice Scarf (Scream Tail) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Boomburst
- Wish
- Trick
- Stealth Rock / Psychic Noise

Heatran

Desolate Land (Heatran) @ Leftovers
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 252 HP / 196 SpD / 60 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Will-O-Wisp
- Stealth Rock
- Solar Beam / Earth Power / Power Gem

Skarmory

Physically Defensive (Skarmory) @ Rocky Helmet / Leftovers / Nothing
Ability: Fluffy / Well-Baked Body / Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish or Bold Nature
- Brave Bird / Body Press
- Roost
- Spikes / Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind / Taunt

Empoleon

Specially Defensive (Empoleon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb / Vessel of Ruin / Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Knock Off
- Flip Turn
- Roost
- Stealth Rock / Roar

Iron Hands

Physically Defensive (Iron Hands) @ Leftovers / Heavy-Duty Boots / Punching Glove
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Swords Dance
- Drain Punch
- Thunder Punch
- Ice Punch

Latios

Choice Specs (Latios) (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Dragon's Maw / Adaptability / Tinted Lens
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Luster Purge
- Flip Turn
- Dragon Pulse / Psyshock / Trick / Shadow Ball

 

[April]

Abilities: The Good, The Bad, and how to pick one!

Abilities. You can use a lot of them. You can use almost any, actually. But how many are actually good, and more importantly, how many are good for you and your team? If you're a new player struggling to build a team, here's a guide on what abilities to use and on what Pokemon!

The viability rankings are your friend. Though all Pokemon listed here are, at least on a surface level, viable users of these abilities, sometimes a lower ranked Pokemon may be better suited to take advantage of an ability. Pokemon are ranked by overall viability on this guide, not necessarily their viability with a certain ability. If an ability is bolded on the viability rankings, that means that Pokemon is most useful with that ability and it may be a better option for your team than a more niche user.

1: Regenerator + Magic Guard

1a: Yeah, these get their own category.

Regenerator:
Every time this Pokemon leaves the field, 33.3% of it's HP (rounded down) is restored. This is not blocked by Psychic Noise.

Regenerator is another of the most widely useful abilities in the game. Almost any Pokemon appreciates being able to restore a third of it's health without spending a turn or a moveslot on a recovery move. On offensive Pokemon, this ability shines for giving a powerful threat another chance at life, letting it safely switch in and eat a hit, force the opponent out, then heal off the damage. Defensively, this ability really shines, giving bulky Pokemon like Manaphy and Swampert a form of reliable recovery and letting them consistently check powerful offensive threats. Similar to Magic Guard, most Pokemon could justify running Regenerator, but because you can only use it once per team, Pokemon dependent on it for recovery or utility should be prioritized.

Viable RegenVest users:
RegenVest users you might consider: Sturdy special walls that otherwise lack recovery or appreciate the extra moveslot, or physical walls that appreciate the additional utility of a Special Defense boost.

Other viable defensive users:
Defensive Regenerator users you might consider: Sturdy physical/mixed walls that don't have a moveslot to spare for a recovery move, especially pivot-heavy ones.

Viable offensive users:
Offensive users you might consider: Bulkier attackers than can afford to take a hit or two and heal off the damage.

Magic Guard:
This Pokemon can only be damaged by direct attacks. Moves that damage over time like Leech Seed or Whirpool, volatile status conditions like Poison and Burn, entry hazards, and recoil from moves like Steel Beam and Head Smash will all do no damage. Life Orb recoil is also removed, but the damage boost remains. Substitute, Pain Split, Belly Drum, and Ghost-type Curse will still damage the user.

Magic Guard is generally regarded as the best ability in the game, and that's no different here. Ignoring passive damage is huge for both offensive and defensive Pokemon; it gives offensive Pokemon more opportunities to switch in or set up and lets them take advantage of Life Orb and recoil moves with no drawback, while making defensive Pokemon much harder to wear down with status or entry hazards. Almost any Pokemon can justify running Magic Guard, but Pokemon that plan to switch in and out of battle often benefit the most, as they ignore the entry hazards that define the tier.

Viable offensive users:
Offensive users you might consider: Any offensive Pokemon that benefits from ignoring recoil, ignoring entry hazards, or no-drawbacks Life Orb.

Viable defensive users:
Defensive users you might consider: Any bulky Pokemon that switches in often and highly appreciates ignoring passive damage from hazards or status.

1b: Prioritizing your ability slot
Magic Guard and especially Regenerator are incredibly high demand abilities. Barring the most hyper offensive structures possible (and even those appreciate them), almost every team will have at least one of these abilities and many will have both. Many Pokemon can viably run these abilities, but not all are created equally. Pokemon like Swampert, defensive Manaphy, and Hisuian Goodra are pretty much solely dependent on Regenerator for their niche in the metagame, and likewise for Pokemon like Hisuian Electrode and Cobalion with Magic Guard. If you want to effectively utilize these Pokemon, you have to sacrifice using these abilities on another teammate. They will not function well without them, and your team will almost inarguably be worse unless you have a good reason for stepping off the beaten path.

Once again, the viability rankings are your friend, here. Though all Pokemon listed here are indeed viable users of these abilities, some Pokemon are more dependent on them than others and indeed, a lower ranked Pokemon may be better suited to take advantage of an ability. Swampert may be slightly lower than Great Tusk on the viability rankings, for example, but RegenVest Swampert is arguably more viable than RegenVest Great Tusk. If an ability is bolded on the viability rankings, that means that Pokemon is most useful with that ability and it may be a better option for your team than a more niche user.

2: Field Condition Abilities

2a: The Good

Desolate Land:
Desolate Land amplifies the power of Fire-type moves, nullifies all damaging Water-type moves (including Hydro Steam!), and remains in effect until either this Pokemon switches out or a Pokemon with either Primordial Sea or Delta Stream switches in.

Good Desolate Land users tend to be either fast, offensive Fire-types who chiefly click Fire-type moves, slower and bulkier ones looking to counter Primordial Sea, or non Fire-types who appreciate Weather Ball becoming a 100BP Fire-type move. Pokemon who are less slated to take advantage of it include Pokemon who simply want a Water immunity (Water Absorb) or Pokemon like Volcanion with important Water-type moves they want to click.

Viable users:
Users you might consider: Fast, powerful Fire-types, Pokemon that benefit from Fire-type Weather Ball or 1-turn Solar Beam

Primordial Sea:
Primordial Sea amplifies the power of Water-type moves, nullifies all damaging Fire-type moves, and remains in effect until either this Pokemon switches out or a Pokemon with either Desolate Land or Delta Stream switches in.

Good Primordial Sea users tend to be offensive Water-types who mainly want to click powerful Water moves, bulkier Water-types looking to switch-in on Desolate Land users, or non Water-types who appreciate permanent Rain boosting their coverage or the accuracy on Thunder or Hurricane. Primordial Sea should not be used on Pokemon who simply want a Fire-immunity (Well-Baked Body) or on Pokemon who need Fire-type coverage.

Viable users:
Users you might consider: Powerful Water-types, Pokemon that benefit from Water-type Weather Ball or 100% accurate Thunder and Hurricane.

Psychic Surge:
Psychic Surge sets Psychic Terrain every time the user enters the field, overriding any existing terrain, nullifying priority against grounded Pokemon, boosting all grounded Psychic moves by 30%, and turning Expanding Force into a 120 BP move before the terrain boost.

Psychic Surge is near exclusively used on fast Psychic-types who want to use powerful Expanding Force while giving themselves and their teammates an immunity to opposing priority use at the cost of not being able to use any of their own. If you simply want a priority immunity, it may be better to run Dazzling instead to allow your other teammates to still use powerful priority moves.

Viable users:
Users you might consider: Speedy special-attacking Psychic-types with access to Expanding Force.

Hadron Engine:
Hadron Engine sets Electric Terrain on switch in, overriding any existing terrain and multiplying the power of a grounded Pokemon's Electric-type moves by 30%. In addition, Hadron Engine users get 1.33x Special Attack in Electric Terrain.

Hadron Engine is most often used by fast, grounded Electric-type Pokemon, as they essentially get a 73% boost to their STAB Electric moves. Other fast special attackers, especially those with Electric-type coverage, can also make use of Hadron Engine's 33% Special Attack boost. Hadron Engine should not be used by Flying-type Pokemon such as Zapdos and Thundurus, as they do not receive the 30% boost to Electric moves.

Viable users:
Users you might consider: Any powerful special attacker, especially ones with access to Electric-type coverage.


2b: The Maybe
Delta Stream:
Delta Stream removes the weaknesses from Flying-type Pokemon (not their secondary type) and remains in effect until this Pokemon switches out or a Pokemon with either Desolate Land or Primordial Sea switches in.

Delta Stream is incredibly niche, entirely reserved for defensive Flying-types who want to nullify their weaknesses to common moves or who want to counter other Primal Weather users by turning their Weather Ball into a 50BP Normal-type move.

Viable users:
Users you might consider: bulky Flying-types that appreciate nullifying opposing primal weather

Grassy Surge:
Grassy Surge sets Grassy Terrain on switch in, overriding any existing terrain, amplifying the power of grounded Grass-type moves by 30%, weakening Earthquake, Bulldoze, and Magnitude by 50%, and restoring 1/16th of all grounded Pokemon's health at the end of the turn.

Grassy Surge is by far the most niche of the terrains so far and currently has no common users, but some Pokemon like Gholdengo and Pecharunt may be able to take advantage of extra recovery, nullifying opposing terrain, and lowering the damage of Earthquake, while Pokemon like Ogerpon formes and Roaring Moon may appreciate the power boost to Grass-type moves or the existence of Grassy Seed + Acrobatics, respectively.

Users you might consider: (all formes)

2c: The Bad

Other Terrain:
Misty Surge might seem like a good option to reduce the power of opposing Dragon-type moves and prevent status conditions. In actuality, though, no viable users currently exist, as Misty Terrain's applications are usually far too niche or far too detrimental to your own teammates to justify running it.

Electric Surge, meanwhile, is entirely outclassed by Hadron Engine. Even if a physical attacking Electric-type wanted to set terrain to boost its Electric move, there's absolutely no benefit to running Electric Surge over Hadron Engine.

Non-Permanent Weather:
Drought and Drizzle may seem viable on paper. However, the near omnipresence of Primal Weather combined with being outclassed by more standard offensive boosting abilities mean they have no place in the metagame.

Likewise, Sand Stream seems to have potential on bulky Rock-type Pokemon like Garganacl; in practice, the Special Defense boost is not worth running Sand Stream over an immunity ability or a damage reducing ability like Vessel of Ruin, especially when Primal Weathers completely nullify it.

Snow Warning might seem appealing on Aurora Veil users such as Alolan Ninetales and Frosslass, but in practice, they are entirely outclassed by Prankster screens users such as Corviknight and Deoxys-S, as these Pokemon can get screens up reliably even in the face of primal weather.

3: Physical Damage Amplification

3a: The Good

Sword of Ruin:
Sword of Ruin multiplies the Defense of any Pokemon without the ability by 0.75x, effectively giving the user 1.33x power on their physical moves.

Sword of Ruin is the most common physical amplification ability, and almost any physical attacker can take advantage of it. Sword of Ruin is the best option for physical attackers running non-contact moves and/or coverage moves (read: Earthquake users). Pokemon without these moves can still use Sword of Ruin, but may prefer one of the below abilities. Pokemon only running STAB moves may prefer Adaptability, as it does not reveal itself upon switch-in, hiding valuable information from your opponent.

Viable users:
Users you might consider: Any physical attacker

Tough Claws:
Tough Claws boosts the power of the user's contact moves by 1.3x.

Tough Claws is one of the most common alternatives to Sword of Ruin, as it trades a small amount of power and a lack of a boost on specific moves for concealing the ability and potentially allowing another teammate to run Sword of Ruin. Tough Claws should only be used on Pokemon that primarily use contact moves, as non-contact moves have no damage boost, meaning Ground- or Rock-types like Garchomp or Terrakion, as well as the Ogerpon formes should not use this ability.

Viable users:
Users you might consider: Any physical attacker that primarily runs contact moves

Sharpness:
Sharpness boosts the power of slicing moves by 1.5x, allowing lower base power moves to rival the most powerful options in the game.

Sharpness is nearly exclusively used on Pokemon who have multiple slicing moves, including reliable slicing STAB. Pokemon who only have one or two relevant slicing moves should not use this ability, as the power boost on one move rarely justifies the lack of a boost on other important moves.

Common users:
Users you might consider: Pokemon who primarily use slicing moves


3b: The Bad

Outclassed:
Alternate amplification abilities that seem usable on paper such as Iron Fist, Reckless, or Skill Link (among many others) are all in practice outclassed by one of the above abilities. The damage boost is either too low, exclusive to too few moves, or both to be justifiable over a consistent choice such as Sword of Ruin.

Long Reach might appear to be an option on physical attackers to ignore Fluffy and Rocky Helmet, but is usually outclassed by direct amplification or by Mold Breaker to ignore Fluffy altogether alongside immunity abilities.

Technician is a good ability, but even the most powerful Technician-boosted moves tend to be weaker than the competition, so this ability struggles to justify itself. The same applies to Strong Jaw, as while a 50% boost to biting moves is potentially very powerful, biting moves tend to be either weak or have better alternatives that can be boosted by other abilities.

Inconsistent:
Abilities that depend on the user to fulfill a condition or for the opponent to make a specific moves are not consistent enough to see use. Abilities like Moxie or Beast Boost that rely on the user getting a free K.O. are bad, as it is much harder to faint the opposing team without a boosting ability, and the boost itself is not enough to justify this drawback. Do not use these abilities.

Intrepid Sword, while having a niche on Hyper Offense teams, is generally outclassed by the above abilities due to the boost only applying one time. Critical hit focused abilities like Super Luck and Sniper are also very inconsistent and should not be used, as an occasional big reward is not generally worth trading consistent power. Abilities that rely on your opponent carrying a certain ability like Guard Dog are also inconsistent, making the risk not worth the reward.

4: Special Damage Amplification

4a: The Good

Sheer Force:
Sheer Force boosts the power of any move with a secondary effect by 1.3x, at the cost of removing the effect. In addition, this Pokemon ignores Life Orb recoil if using a Sheer Force boosted move.

Though it does apply to a few physical moves, Sheer Force is the quintessential special amplification ability, and almost any special attacker can effectively run it in tandem with Life Orb. Any Pokemon with it's primary STAB moves being Sheer Force boosted or with enough Sheer Force-boosted coverage can justify running this ability. A Pokemon who wants to run a Choice item instead of Life Orb may prefer the larger boosts of an ability such as Adaptability or Beads of Ruin.

Viable users:
Users you might consider: Any special attacker that runs moves with secondary effects.

Hadron Engine:
Hadron Engine sets Electric Terrain on switch in, overriding any existing terrain and multiplying the power of a grounded Pokemon's Electric-type moves by 30%. In addition, Hadron Engine users get 1.33x Special Attack in Electric Terrain.

Hadron Engine is most often used by fast, grounded Electric-type Pokemon, as they essentially get a 73% boost to their STAB Electric moves. Other fast special attackers, especially those with Electric-type coverage, can also make use of Hadron Engine's 33% Special Attack boost. Hadron Engine should not be used by Flying-type Pokemon such as Zapdos and Thundurus, as they do not receive the 30% boost to Electric moves.

Viable users:
Users you might consider: Any powerful special attacker, especially ones with access to Electric-type coverage.

Beads of Ruin
Beads of Ruin multiplies the Special Defense of any Pokemon without the ability by 0.75x, effectively giving the user 1.33x power on their special moves (barring Psyshock).

Beads of Ruin is best for special attacking Pokemon who want to run multiple coverage moves without secondary effects, but not very many Pokemon fit into this category. Pokemon who only run STAB moves prefer Adaptability or a type-specific ability, while those with plentiful coverage may prefer Sheer Force. Almost any special attacker can effectively run Beads of Ruin, but other options are often more valuable, as Beads of Ruin reveals information to your opponent that they otherwise would not have.

Viable users:
Users you might consider: Most special attackers

4b: The Bad

Alternate amplification abilities that seem usable on paper such as Punk Rock, Mega Launcher, or Technician are all in practice outclassed by one of the above abilities. The damage boost is either too low, exclusive to too few moves, or both to be justifiable over a consistent choice such as Sheer Force.

Abilities like Grim Neigh or Beast Boost that rely on the user getting a free K.O. are inconsistent and shouldn't be used, as the more consistent damage boost of an ability like Sheer Force or Adaptability is far preferable. Likewise, abiltiies such as Competitive that demand the opponent make a specific move are also very inconsistent, and a more consistent choice is almost always worth it.

5: Mixed / Type-based offensive Amplification

5a: The Good
Abilities in this section, if applicable, will be split into physical/special users

Adaptability:
Adaptability boosts the power of any move that shares a type with the user by 1.333x; the STAB boost becomes 2x instead of 1.5x.

Adaptability is the quintessential boosting ability for both physical and special attackers. Adaptability can be effectively wielded by any Pokemon that primarily attacks using STAB moves, though a Pokemon that very often clicks coverage may prefer the overall boost of Sword/Beads of Ruin. Adaptability's primary advantage over the Ruin abilities is not revealing itself on switch in, hiding crucial information about your ability from your opponent. Likewise, a Pokemon that primarily spams STAB moves of a single type may prefer a type-based damage amplifying ability, as the boost is oftentimes greater.

Viable physical users:
Viable special users:
Users you might consider: Any powerful attacker with spammable STAB moves

Tinted Lens:
Tinted Lens boosts the power of any move resisted by the opponent by 2x. This turns normal resistances into neutralities, and 4x resistances into 2x weaknesses.

Tinted Lens is primarily used by powerful attackers with typings that have multiple common resistances. Tinted Lens allows these Pokemon to spam their powerful moves even in the face of resisting foes, but the lack of damage boost against neutral or even weak targets means that a Pokemon with sufficient STAB coverage or plentiful coverage may prefer the boost of Adaptability or a Ruin ability.

Viable physical users:
Viable special users:
Users you might consider: Any powerful attacker with good STAB moves with unfortunate typings

Mold Breaker
This Pokemon's moves ignore the opponent's ability.

Mold Breaker is primarily used by attackers looking to ignore opponent's immunity abilities or defensive amplification abilities like Fluffy and Vessel of Ruin. This ability most often finds use on powerful Fire-types looking to dodge Well-Baked Body, but offensive Ground-, Electric-, and Water-type attackers as well as users of bullet moves may also find themselves using this ability.

Viable users:

-ate Abilities:
Aerilate, Pixilate, Refrigerate and Galvanize turn Normal-type moves into Flying-, Fairy-, Ice-, and Electric-type moves respectively, and apply a 20% power boost to them.

-ate abilities are primarily used by Pokemon with poor coverage but powerful Normal-type moves, or by Pokemon looking to take advantage of powerful Normal-type moves in their arsenal to hit specific foes. Due to only boosting one, often non-STAB type, these abilities are generally quite niche and are often outclassed by more generalized damage amplification, but they can often be worthwhile if the boost or type-change is significant enough.

Viable Pixilate users:
Viable Galvanize users:
Viable Refrigerate users:
Users you might consider: Pokemon with poor coverage but powerful Normal-type moves, or Pokemon looking to hit a specific target like Corviknight or Roaring Moon

Type-boosting Abilities:
Type-boosting abilities boost the power of a specific type of move by 50%.

Type-boosting abilities are usually highly specific, relegated nearly exclusively to Pokemon with one powerful STAB move they click more than any other. Pokemon that value boosting moves of multiple types should not run a type-boosting ability, and should instead run for a more generalized boosting ability like Sword/Beads of Ruin or Adaptability.

Viable Dragon's Maw users:
Viable Rocky Payload users:
Viable Steelworker users:
Users you might consider: Pokemon with one powerful move they want to boost above all.

Protean:
Once per switch-in, this Pokemon's type changes to the type of the move it's using. STAB boost is applied to this move. A single-typed Pokemon can use a move of it's original type before using a move of another type to activate Protean.

Protean has fallen from glory, as activating only once per switch-in has left it a shell of it's former self. Protean should only be used on Pokemon that absolutely require the 50% STAB boost on a coverage move as opposed to the more generalized boost of Sheer Force or a Ruin ability. Pokemon who switch moves often should also opt for the more generalized boost, as this allows them far more versatility in their damage.

Viable Protean users:
Users you might consider: Pokemon that really need that extra "oomph" on a coverage move.

5b: The Bad

Just like in the above section, most alternate amplification abilities are just not optimal choices. Good abilities like Technician or Sniper, while they aren't awful, are not viable due to their inconsistency or general lack of damage. Type-enhancing abilities that boost the opponent like Dark Aura or Fairy Aura are not viable. There is no reason to give your opponent a damage boost. Instead, opt for an ability like Adaptability instead, as the damage boost is equal without revealing your ability or boosting your opponent's damage output.

The starter abilities + Swarm are all unviable choices, for much of the same reason as abilities like Moxie and Grim Neigh. Being dependent on your opponent's moves to deal boosted damage is inconsistent and not worth it, especially when abilities like Desolate Land or Sword of Ruin provide a similar or equal boost without being dependent on your opponent's choices to work.

In general, type-enhancing abilities should be used lightly. While it's tempting to boost one type by 50%, you should ask yourself if a more general 33% boost is more valuable, and it almost always will be.

6: Immunity/Resistance Abilities

6a: The Good

Ground Immunity Abilities:
Levitate ignores damage-dealing Ground-type moves, while also granting an immunity to Spikes and Toxic Spikes. Earth Eater grants an immunity to all Ground-type moves, restoring 25% health to the user if hit by one.

Levitate and Earth Eater are extremely similar, and most Pokemon running one can also viably run the other. Levitate is more useful on Pokemon prone to getting worn down by Spikes, while Earth Eater is preferred on Pokemon that don't much mind entry hazards and would prefer the 25% health buff. Ground immunity abilities are best utilized by Pokemon either weak to Ground or bulky neutral Pokemon looking to become a sudden check to threats like Great Tusk and Sandy Shocks.

Viable Ground-immunity ability users:
Users you might consider: Ground-weak walls or generally bulky Pokemon that greatly appreciate an additional immunity.

Well-Baked Body:
Well-Baked Body grants an immunity to Fire-type moves and, when hit with one, raises the user's Defense by 2 stages.

Well-Baked Body is naturally very prominent thanks to the popularity of powerful Fire-type attackers like Cinderace, Moltres, and Volcarona. Any Fire-weak or generally bulky Pokemon is able to take advantage of the additional immunity to switch in on both powerful attackers as well as stray Will-o-Wisps. This move also synergizes well with Body Press thanks to the +2 Defense boost.

Viable Well-Baked Body users:
Users you might consider: Fire-weak walls or generally bulky Pokemon that greatly appreciate an additional immunity.

Electric-immunity Abilities:
Volt Absorb grants an immunity to Electric-type moves and, when hit with one, heals the user by 25% of it's HP. Motor Drive grants an immunity to Electric-type moves and grants a +1 Speed boost if hit by one, while Lightning Rod grants a +1 Special Attack boost.

Similar to Well-Baked Body, the prominence of powerful Electric-types like Zapdos leads to the rise of Electric immunity abilities to counter them. Volt Absorb is by far the most common, especially on bulky Pokemon and walls that heavily appreciate the health increase, but Motor Drive and Lighting Rod have their use cases on fast-paced offensive teams on threats like Manaphy and Gholdengo.

Viable Electric-immunity ability users:
Users you might consider: Bulky walls that appreciate an additional immunity for Volt Absorb, powerful offensive threats that appreciate a Speed/Special Attack boost for Motor Drive / Lightning Rod.

Water-immunity Abilities:
Water Absorb grants an immunity to Water-type moves and, when hit with one, heals the user by 25% of it's HP. Storm Drain grants an immunity to Electric-type moves and grants a +1 Special Attack boost if hit by one.

Water-immunity abilities are slightly more niche without the omnipresence of Walking Wake, but powerful Water-types like Ogerpon-Wellspring and offensive Manaphy give them a place in the metagame. Water Absorb is by far the most common, especially on bulky Pokemon and walls that heavily appreciate the health increase, but Storm Drain can see use on offensive threats that more greatly value the increased damage.

Viable Water-immunity ability users:
Users you might consider: Water-weak walls or generally bulky Pokemon that greatly appreciate an additional immunity or Special Attack boost.

Bulletproof:
Bulletproof grants an immunity to certain "bullet" moves, a list of which can be found here.

Bulletproof stands out from it's contemporaries by not granting an immunity to not just a certain type of move, but rather moves from several types. Moves like Shadow Ball, Focus Blast, Weather Ball and Energy Ball are all extremely widespread and are all blocked by Bulletproof, alongside slightly rarer but still relevant moves like Sludge Bomb, Pyro Ball, Aura Sphere and Zap Cannon. Bulletproof can be used by nearly any Pokemon looking to check a wide variety of special attackers, especially primal weather users dependent on Weather Ball for their STAB move.

Viable Bulletproof users:
Users you might consider: Bulky Pokemon looking to act as a check to a wide variety of attackers.

6b: The Maybe?

Purifying Salt:
Purifying Salt grants an immunity to volatile status conditions and halves the damage of Ghost-type moves.

Purifying Salt is relatively rare, but it sees use on Pokemon who appreciate the resistance to Ghost-type moves but especially on physical attackers who use it as an immunity to Burn. It's usually a hard ability to justify, as while resisting Ghost-type moves is certainly valuable, a full immunity ability or an offensive amplification ability can often be preferable.

Viable Purifying Salt users:
Users you might consider: Bulky Pokemon who appreciate the additional resistance, or attackers that appreciate the immunity to

Soundproof:
Soundproof grants an immunity to certain "sound" moves, a list of which can be found here.

Not too dissimilar from Bulletproof, Soundproof grants an immunity to several moves from several different types. Where Soundproof differs, though, is that sound moves affects relatively few and rarer moves. The only viable Pokemon who primarily attack with sound moves are Pixilate Scream Tail, Volcarona, and Kommo-o, as well as Pecharunt with Parting Shot and RegenVest Primarina with Psychic Noise. While these are all common foes, it can be risky to dedicate an entire ability slot just to checking them. Despite this, Soundproof still sees rare use to turn near any Pokemon into a perfect counter to Scream Tail.

Viable Soundproof users:
Users you might consider: Bulky attackers on teams that really hate Pixilate Scream Tail

6c: The Bad

There is essentially zero scenarios where Flash Fire is even a sidegrade to Well-Baked Body, as it is normally strictly worse. Similarly, Dry Skin has very few use cases over Water Absorb, as the Fire-type weakness is too notable to justify healing in rain.

Sap Sipper may seem appealing, especially on Swampert, but Grass-type moves are rare enough to make it a poor use of an ability slot, especially when Swampert gets so much more value out of RegenVest. Wind Rider is also a poor use of an ability slot, as wind moves are relatively rare and that ability slot is better spent on a guaranteed value ability like Regenerator.

Resistance abilities such as Thick Fat and Heatproof are strictly worse than either general defensive amplification abilities like Vessel of Ruin or their full immunity counterparts. There is nearly zero benefit to resisting a hit instead of absorbing it.

7: Defensive Amplification Abilities

7a: The Good

Intimidate:
Upon entering the field, the opponent's Pokemon's Attack lowers by one stage. Pokemon with the ability Scrappy are unaffected, and Pokemon with Defiant, Rattled, or Competitive receive a stat boost.

Intimidate is the premier physically defensive amplification ability. The utility of lowering a foe's Attack by a consistent 1 stage is fantastic, allowing Pokemon with Intimidate to check huge swathes of the metagame as well as dissuade users of Attack-boosting moves by resetting their progress. Intimidate is justifiable on any Pokemon looking to tank big physical hits, but Pokemon with plentiful resistances or pivoting moves benefit more.

Viable Intimidate users:
Users you might consider: Physical walls looking for a boost to their defensive prowess that can't be dodged by Mold Breaker.

Fluffy:
This Pokemon receives 1/2 damage from contact moves, but takes 2x damage from Fire-type moves.

Fluffy is another fantastic defensive amplification ability, but it's slightly more niche than Intimidate. Fluffy is preferable on Pokemon who would rather sit on the field for a while and check multiple foes on a single switch-in, or take advantage of the Defense boost to easily set up. Fluffy isn't perfect, though, as common physical moves like Stone Edge and Earthquake as well as the Mold Breaker ability completely bypass it. The Fire weakness is also a major point against it, as you have no amplification against contact Fire-type moves and are actively forced out by any non-contact ones.

Viable Fluffy users:
Users you might consider: Physical walls looking for a boost to their defensive prowess, setup sweeperts that appreciate the ease in setting up

Unaware:
This Pokemon ignores any of the foe's stat changes when dealing or receiving damage. Draco Meteor drops and Swords Dance boosts are equally ignored.

Unaware turns any Pokemon into a counter for dangerous set-up sweepers. Suddenly, +3 is hitting exactly as hard as unboosted. Unaware is especially useful in Calm Mind wars, as you get stronger while outright ignoring your opponent's boosts. Unaware is a valuable ability on Pokemon with plentiful resistances or neutralities, as they can check many setup sweepers without a dedicated immunity ability, but it's worth noting that ignoring Draco Meteor drops means it's risky to use it as a check to Dragon-types if you aren't a Fairy-type.

Viable Unaware users:
Users you might consider: Bulky walls or setup sweepers that appreciate checking set-up sweepers.

Vessel of Ruin:
This Pokemon lowers the Special Attack stat of all Pokemon on the field without Vessel of Ruin by 25%

Vessel of Ruin is a great catch-all defensive amplification ability. Vessel of Ruin essentially provides a 33% Special Defense boost to the user, making it easy to slap onto any special wall, but it's slightly more niche than the Attack reduction abilities because most special walls will either prefer RegenVest, Unaware, or a type-immunity ability.

Viable Vessel of Ruin users:
Users you might consider: Special walls that don't want RegenVest and don't need an immunity ability.

7b: The Bad

Multiscale and it's upgraded cousin Shadow Shield are always worse than a general defensive amplification ability. There is no benefit to taking less damage on a single hit when you could take less damage on every hit. Don't use either, but especially don't use Multiscale, as Shadow Shield strictly outclasses it

Dauntless Shield is a strictly inferior version of Intimidate, as it only applies once per switch-in in Gen 9. The boost to Body Press does not justify the complete waste of an ability slot if forced out even once.

Mirror Armor is an awful ability, don't try. Using it to counter Intimidate is appealing until you remember Intimidate is used by Pokemon who usually don't care enough about their own Attack to justify wasting an ability slot on Mirror Armor.[/B]

8: Utility + Speed Amplification Abilities

8a: The Good

Prankster:
Status moves used by this Pokemon have +1 added to their priority. Dark-types are immune to Prankster-boosted moves.

Prankster is the quintessential suicide lead ability: come out turn 1, get up hazards or screens, then faint or switch out to your powerful sweepers. It also sees use on more defensive Pokemon looking to take advantage of boosted priority on moves like Toxic, Destiny Bond, and Parting Shot. Any utility-heavy Pokemon that values the increased priority of status moves can justify running Prankster.

Viable Prankster users:
Users you might consider: Entry hazard leads or status spreaders that appreciate the consistency of moving first

Corrosion:
This Pokemon can poison a target even if it's a Steel- or Poison-type.

Corrosion instantly turns any Pokemon with Toxic into a dangerous status spreader. Suddenly, Corviknight or Pecharunt can't come in for free on Toxic and now they're getting worn down remarkably quickly. Corrosion is relatively niche, as Toxic is a rarer move in Gen 9 and the utility of poisoning Steel- and Poison-types doesn't bring consistent value every single game, but on Pokemon who can afford the ability slot it's often worthwhile.

Viable Corrosion users:
Users you might consider: Pokemon with the primary goal of spreading Toxic damage

Aroma Veil:
Protects the user from the effects of Taunt, Torment, Encore, Disable, Cursed Body, Heal Block / Psychic Noise, and infatuation.

Aroma Veil is a niche option on hyper offense leads over Prankster, choosing to sacrifice the utility of moving first in exchange for a slight advantage in the hyper offense ditto, ignoring the opponent's Taunt and getting your own Taunt, screens or hazards up for free. Aroma Veil, of course, does not guarantee you move first and has little value if your opponent doesn't click Taunt or Encore, but the instant advantage versus other hyper offense teams occasionally makes it worth it.

Viable Aroma Veil users:
Users you might consider: Hyper offense leads that don't necessarily need Prankster

Scrappy:
Scrappy allows the user to hit Ghost-types with Normal and Fighting moves, while also ignoring the effect of Intimidate.

Scrappy is almost always seen on Fighting-type Pokemon, as hitting Ghost-types with Close Combat (or Rapid Spin, if you're Great Tusk) is an invaluable trait. Ignoring Intimidate is also invaluable, as Intimidate is otherwise one of the most reliable ways to check physical attackers-- effectively making Scrappy a damage amplification ability in that matchup.

Viable users:
Users you might consider: Powerful Fighting-types or Rapid Spin users that appreciate the ability to hit Ghost-types

Normalize:
All moves used by this Pokemon are Normal-type and receive a 20% power boost.

This ability is here and not with the other type-boosting abilities because the only use case is Normalize Gengar, a set consisting of Skill Swap and Mean Look to trap and effectively neutralize an opponent, rendering them completely unable to hit Gengar barring moves like Weather Ball. This gives Gengar the freedom to either set up Toxic Spikes or set up to +6 with Nasty Plot. No other Pokemon should use Normalize. It is a garbage ability and the only use case is giving it to your opponent.

Viable Normalize users:
Users you might consider: No.

Protosynthesis / Quark Drive
When a Pokemon with Protosynthesis / Quark Drive is in harsh sunlight/Electric Terrain or holds a Booster Energy, it's highest stat is boosted by 30% unless the highest stat is Speed, in which case it's boosted by 50%. The Booster Energy item is consumed.

Protosynthesis / Quark Drive should only, and I mean only, be used on hyper offense teams looking for a one-time Speed boost with the Booster Energy. The 30% boost to another stat is not ever worth it. Protosynthesis/Quark Drive are niche abilities on setup Pokemon with middling-but-acceptable Speed that really appreciate the Speed boost allowing them to outspeed faster threats like Roaring Moon.

Viable Protosynthesis/Quark Drive users:
Users you might consider: Setup Pokemon on hyper offense that need the one-time 50% Speed boost.

Surge Surfer:
This Pokemon's Speed is doubled on Electric Terrain. If the terrain changes or runs out, the Pokemon returns to it's normal Speed stat.

Surge Surfer is a niche option on teams sporting powerful Hadron Engine sweepers, acting as powerful speed control complementing the Hadron wallbreaker. Surge Surfer is useful for Pokemon with low of middling Speed that highly appreciate the 2x boost putting them either on par with or outright faster than speedsters like Roaring Moon and base 110 Pokemon. Surge Surfer users often appreciate having either Electric-type STAB or powerful Electric-type coverage, allowing them to make full use of Electric Terrain offensively.

Viable Surge Surfer users:
Users you might consider: Slow/middling Speed Pokemon on Hadron Engine teams

new resource just dropped, have fun x2

 

[MaskedRide12]

Typhlosion-Hisui @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Infernal Parade
- Focus Blast
- Calm Mind

Kilowattrel @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Serene Grace
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Air Slash
- Discharge
- Roost
- U-turn

Chesnaught @ Leftovers
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 228 Def / 28 Spe
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Synthesis
- Body Press
- Knock Off
- Spikes

Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Well-Baked Body
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Body Press
- U-turn
- Roost
- Defog

Pecharunt @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Prankster
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Malignant Chain
- Parting Shot
- Recover
- Destiny Bond

Swampert @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Flip Turn
- Knock Off
- Mirror Coat
First time user poster here(in general,actually. I have no idea how to properly post teams and stuff). I wanted a to play AAA and wondered if this team here is good. Wanted to try sheer force orb Typhlosion and Serene Grace Kilowattral. Mind you I don’t how to team build,so please go easy on me and give me some changes I need to do.

 

[April]

Typhlosion-Hisui @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Infernal Parade
- Focus Blast
- Calm Mind

Kilowattrel @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Serene Grace
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Air Slash
- Discharge
- Roost
- U-turn

Chesnaught @ Leftovers
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 228 Def / 28 Spe
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Synthesis
- Body Press
- Knock Off
- Spikes

Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Well-Baked Body
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Body Press
- U-turn
- Roost
- Defog

Pecharunt @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Prankster
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Malignant Chain
- Parting Shot
- Recover
- Destiny Bond

Swampert @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Flip Turn
- Knock Off
- Mirror Coat
First time user poster here(in general,actually. I have no idea how to properly post teams and stuff). I wanted a to play AAA and wondered if this team here is good. Wanted to try sheer force orb Typhlosion and Serene Grace Kilowattral. Mind you I don’t how to team build,so please go easy on me and give me some changes I need to do.

Hi, you're in the wrong thread. This thread is for discussion and maintenance of our permanent resources.

For help with team-building and general metagame discussion, you'll have more help in the main thread or the OM Discord.

 

[April]

Don't sleep in my little lady. She has been known to cause some serious trouble in AAA.

Misdreavus (F) @ Heavy-Duty Boots/Covert Cloak
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 1
Tera Type: Ghost
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Pain Split
- Destiny Bond
- Trick Room
- Curse/Will-O-Wisp

I was thinking about Custap, but as I played I realized two important things. 1. Being brought down to Sturdy and using Trick Room gives you Pain Split first next turn, minus priority. And if the opponent has priority, Custap won't matter anyways. 2. 9/10 times, using DBond on T1 and being brought down to Sturdy almost always just gives you a free move, because your opponent doesn't want to sac their mon to a lvl 1 Misdreavous. Before they're even aware of Pain Split.
Curse is good to guarantee the KO earlier, but you have to lose your Misdreavous in the process. This is the one example where Custap can work; On a turn one Will-O (if you don't miss).
It's also nice to have Destiny Bond under Trick Room, just in case the situation gets difficult. I.e. your Misdreavous gets status'd. That's the reason I opt for Covert Cloak over HDB sometimes. Misdreavous is almost always the lead in my team comp.
This set probably isn't getting you any 6-0 sweeps, but, using Curse, it's all but guaranteed to remove an opposing mon of your choice. Usually the one most threatening to the rest of your team.

Also enjoying the tram structure around this; Perish Trap Volt Absorb Prima, a super fun Mega Launcher Latios or Lucario, both getting access to aura sphere, Dragon Pulse, Water Pulse, with Luc also getting Dark Pulse. Nasty Plot Luc, Agility CM lati, they're fun. One more fun one I use is 0IV Quiet Desolate Land Heatran with Zoom Lens; Magma Storm, Fire Blast, Solar Beam, Steel Beam. Ofc there's Air Balloon with rocks instead of Fire Blast, but never missing Blast, and almost never missing Storm, is a beautiful thing (as long as you're still the leee min with 143 Spe).

If you want to talk about a set or a team you find cool or interesting, please take it to the main thread, this thread is for discussion and maintenance of our permanent teambuilding resources.

 

[April]

The Role Compendium, Ability Use Guide, and Common Ability Index have all been updated with the Volcarona ban! The Role Compendium and Common Ability Index will, as usual, receive a full update at the beginning of December.

Edit: So have the Speed Tiers!

 

[April]

SV AAA - Common Ability Index
AKA the dummie's guide to ladder cheese
Last Updated: 12/02/2024


Many people find themselves struggling to get into Almost Any Ability due to a perception of "jankiness" and being unable to immediately tell which Pokemon are likely to use which abilities. This index intends to serve, alongside our Viability Rankings, as a resource to index the most common abilities a given Pokemon will run, as well as some more niche options you may find during a laddering session. Abilities are listed roughly in order of how common they are. Bolded abilities are, according to the official VR, the most viable and generally the best to consider using for yourself. Abilities generally considered unviable or outclassed will be marked with italics. Many of the abilities listed here are not considered viable, but because they are common, they are listed here to help new players getting into the tier understand what they may be running into.

To be considered for this ability index, a Pokemon has to either:
- Be ranked on our official Viability Rankings
- Reach 3.41% usage

If a VR ranked Pokemon has under 1.8% Usage at 1500, it will not be featured due to lack of data

This index will be updated roughly every month to use the most up-to-date data possible. All data used is sourced directly from the index of stats. As a general rule-of-thumb, if something achieved over 3% usage in at least one of the monthly data sets for AAA, it is considered for this index.

Scrappy, Fluffy, Regenerator, Refrigerate, Water Absorb, Tough Claws, Mold Breaker, Magic Guard

Sword of Ruin, Magic Guard, Regenerator, Tough Claws, Fluffy


Fluffy, Well-Baked Body, Intimidate, Volt Absorb, Prankster

Adaptability, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Well-Baked Body, Magic Guard, Bulletproof, Tinted Lens, Hadron Engine

Prankster, Corrosion, Earth Eater, Fluffy, Intimidate, Regenerator

Regenerator, Sap Sipper

Sword of Ruin, Scrappy, Tough Claws

Primordial Sea, No Guard, Drizzle, Unaware

Sword of Ruin, Adaptability, Magic Guard, Serene Grace, Supreme Overlord

Psychic Surge, Sheer Force, No Guard, Hadron Engine, Protean

Regenerator, Motor Drive, Surge Surfer, Protosynthesis, Unaware

Pixilate, Unaware

Sword of Ruin, Adaptability, Prankster, Desolate Land, Surge Surfer, Sharpness, Anger Shell, Chlorophyll

Desolate Land, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Magic Guard, Water Absorb, Regenerator

Regenerator, Galvanize, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Surge Surfer, Iron Fist, Pixilate

Desolate Land, Sheer Force, Earth Eater, Hadron Engine, Beads of Ruin, Serene Grace, Mold Breaker

Bulletproof, Regenerator, Well-Baked Body, Refrigerate, Water Absorb, Ground-Immunity Abilities

Sniper, Sword of Ruin, Adaptability, Mega Launcher, Tinted Lens, Tough Claws

Desolate Land, Magic Guard, Drought

Primordial Sea, Regenerator, Stamina, Electric-Immunity Abilities, Punk Rock, Sheer Force, Beads of Ruin

Well-Baked Body, Intimidate, Flame Body, Fluffy, Volt Absorb

Psychic Surge, Tinted Lens

Desolate Land, Magic Guard, Mold Breaker, Drought, Sword of Ruin, Prankster

Sharpness, Rocky Payload, Sword of Ruin

Hadron Engine, Adaptability, Tinted Lens, Dragon's Maw, Sheer Force, Beads of Ruin

Desolate Land, Grassy Surge, Adaptability, Mold Breaker, Chlorophyll, Tinted Lens

Primordial Sea, Adaptability, Swift Swim, Grassy Surge, Sword of Ruin, Surge Surfer

Hadron Engine, Refrigerate

Regenerator, Fluffy, Water Absorb, Magic Guard, Prankster, Stamina

Magic Guard, Well-Baked Body, Regenerator, Stamina, Fluffy, Tinted Lens

Magic Guard, Hadron Engine

Volt Absorb, Vessel of Ruin, Regenerator, Ground-Immunity Abilities

Weak Armor, Adaptability, Technician, Anger Shell, Dragon's Maw, Regenerator, Sword of Ruin, Tinted Lens, Surge Surfer

Tinted Lens, Magic Guard, Hadron Engine, Psychic Surge, Regenerator, Well-Baked Body

Adaptability, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Tinted Lens, Dark Aura, Tough Claws, Supreme Overlord

Unaware, Magic Guard, Corrosion, Fluffy, Delta Stream, Prankster, Intimidate

Primordial Sea, Sword of Ruin, Adaptability, Tinted Lens, Supreme Overlord

Unaware, Magic Guard, Stamina, Regenerator, Prankster, Fluffy, Vessel of Ruin, Sticky Hold

Fluffy, Sand Stream, Water Absorb, Unaware, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Regenerator, Vessel of Ruin

Sheer Force, Normalize, Merciless, Prankster, Adaptability

Regenerator, Earth Eater, Unaware

Fluffy, Aerilate, Regenerator, Desolate Land, Mold Breaker

Tinted Lens, Adaptability, Sword of Ruin

Steam Engine, Storm Drain, Fluffy, Stamina, Beads of Ruin, Tinted Lens, Regenerator



Primordial Sea, Swift Swim, Drizzle, Mega Launcher

Fluffy, Flame Body, Grassy Surge, Well-Baked Body, Iron Barbs

Unaware, Regenerator, Prankster, Fluffy, Drought, Magic Guard

Galvanize, Punk Rock, Pixilate, Fluffy, Anger Shell, Guts, Harvest

Technician, Adaptability

Refrigerate, Pixilate, Hadron Engine, Galvanize

Prankster, Iron Barbs, Sturdy, Truant, Tinted Lens, Magic Guard

Fluffy, Bulletproof, Well-Baked Body, Prankster
Prankster, Sturdy, Weak Armor, Aroma Veil

Hadron Engine, Primordial Sea, Beads of Ruin, Sheer Force, Aerilate

Well-Baked Body, Steely Spirit, Prankster, Regenerator, Earth Eater
____
Regenerator, Well-Baked Body, Steelworker
Surge Surfer, Sharpness

Updated with the November stats!

 

[Subsonic72]

Nominating Latios for A or A- and Zarude for C or B-.

Latios with specs tinted lense has exactly 0 reliable switchins. In addition to its fair speed tier, defensive utility and neutral power, the ability to smoke the few resists that can take a boosted Draco makes it a great mon to support via pivots. Scream Tail can take one psyshock and force latios out and prim/Moon cores can force it into 50/50s but the latios is very favored in those. They need to be right all the time, you only once.

I wouldn't put it higher than A, since it does do worse against offense but it can still abuse Tusk, non scarf Ghold and the Kanto birds to get KOs.

This isn't even going into the other sets. Adp, or Hadron with Soul dew and Cm are strong progress makers into slower teams and Dragons Maw Draco is the singularly strongest attack in the format, though it has less 2hko potential than specs weatherball from strong users.

For Zarude. I assume the reason it's not ranked because Meow exists. That's a fair point but it is 1. very viable and 2. Fulfills a very different role in a team.

The only good set I found was Grassy Surge cb. It's the strongest priority in the format game with grassy glide first and foremost. It's also reasonable bulky and can thus take a few hits in a pinch and do stuff like come in on Ghold, Treads or Prim Water move or eat a +2 Pgeist shadowball after taking hazards one or two times. It's speed tier is just high enough to get the jump on the base 100 crowd and Garchomp to make the most of stabs outside of revenge killing.
Power Whip dents anything that doesn't 4x resist it hard (though a lot 4x resists it), knock is also strong into non mons and uturn let's it pivot after forcing a sweeper out.

In the tour today I won the semifinals game in part because zarude Ohko offensive Moon with a crit power whip after rocks. 156bp coming of 506 attack ain't no joke.

It's great against offense but sadly doesn't do anything as long as fluffy corv is alive. Well, almost nothing. Grassy terrain can be really good for you and annoying for the enemies if you make use of the recovery and they planned to use eq.


Got runner up in the aaa tour today using a Lati/Zarude balance team and I felt the core was doing really well with support from talonflame, Corv, Pert and treads. Sadly I forgot to put rocks on treads the whole tour and not being able to get up rocks (plus some other blunders, a really good opponent and bad Cafe wifi) cost me the win in the finals.
Especially Latios being unwallable allowed me to win an early stall mu and Zarude saved me from a cheesy Ho team. Latio should be higher yo. It's almost always the deciding factor of the game due to how well it forces KOs and how often it can come in.

Thanks for reading and if you did, considering.

 

[LordBox]

Nominating Latios for A or A- and Zarude for C or B-.

Latios with specs tinted lense has exactly 0 reliable switchins. In addition to its fair speed tier, defensive utility and neutral power, the ability to smoke the few resists that can take a boosted Draco makes it a great mon to support via pivots. Scream Tail can take one psyshock and force latios out and prim/Moon cores can force it into 50/50s but the latios is very favored in those. They need to be right all the time, you only once.

I wouldn't put it higher than A, since it does do worse against offense but it can still abuse Tusk, non scarf Ghold and the Kanto birds to get KOs.

This isn't even going into the other sets. Adp, or Hadron with Soul dew and Cm are strong progress makers into slower teams and Dragons Maw Draco is the singularly strongest attack in the format, though it has less 2hko potential than specs weatherball from strong users.

For Zarude. I assume the reason it's not ranked because Meow exists. That's a fair point but it is 1. very viable and 2. Fulfills a very different role in a team.

The only good set I found was Grassy Surge cb. It's the strongest priority in the format game with grassy glide first and foremost. It's also reasonable bulky and can thus take a few hits in a pinch and do stuff like come in on Ghold, Treads or Prim Water move or eat a +2 Pgeist shadowball after taking hazards one or two times. It's speed tier is just high enough to get the jump on the base 100 crowd and Garchomp to make the most of stabs outside of revenge killing.
Power Whip dents anything that doesn't 4x resist it hard (though a lot 4x resists it), knock is also strong into non mons and uturn let's it pivot after forcing a sweeper out.

In the tour today I won the semifinals game in part because zarude Ohko offensive Moon with a crit power whip after rocks. 156bp coming of 506 attack ain't no joke.

It's great against offense but sadly doesn't do anything as long as fluffy corv is alive. Well, almost nothing. Grassy terrain can be really good for you and annoying for the enemies if you make use of the recovery and they planned to use eq.


Got runner up in the aaa tour today using a Lati/Zarude balance team and I felt the core was doing really well with support from talonflame, Corv, Pert and treads. Sadly I forgot to put rocks on treads the whole tour and not being able to get up rocks (plus some other blunders, a really good opponent and bad Cafe wifi) cost me the win in the finals.
Especially Latios being unwallable allowed me to win an early stall mu and Zarude saved me from a cheesy Ho team. Latio should be higher yo. It's almost always the deciding factor of the game due to how well it forces KOs and how often it can come in.

Thanks for reading and if you did, considering.

The VR won't likely be updated for a while as there is quite a lull in competitive play (and thus development) as playoffs occur and the next big tour like Open won't happen until next year I believe, however I will leave my thoughts on the two nominations.

Latios can probably rise to A- (being in the same tier as Iron Boulder is weird... but I guess Boulder could potentially go down). Its offensive profile is quite good (though blowing up Stall isn't a great plus as the playstyle is in the complete dumpster) but I don't think Tinted Lens is really a great set, the majority of Latios I have seen are Hadron Engine for the larger damage boost on very common checks like Manaphy and Swampert while also retaining enough power to still threaten resists like Gholdengo and Corviknight especially with boosted TBolt if you choose to run it. I don't think it really deserves A tier though, its powerful but fairly a straightfoward mon that is limited by its ok but not great speed, sometimes fragile nature and resists can be leveraged to play around Latios, particularly STail (you can argue about Scream Tails overall viability and effectiveness as a check but it is one of the more common mons in tours and remains a steadfast check to Specs that would really prefer to spam Draco Meteors). Its Dragon-typing and Scarf allow it some flexibility that I could see make it rise but it obviously trades off a lot of pressure against the Vests and you compete with Roaring Moon in terms of similar defensive utility as a Dragon-type. Other mons in higher tiers generally have higher flexibility as defensive options or have fantastic speed-tiers (Chien-Pao, Deo-S) that let it function and fit more flexibly compared to Latios at times.

Zarude isn't great, we already did sweep through C-tier before to try to eliminate some unmons that are only barely justified in theory which you can do with a lot and Zarude even unlike some of these unique options competes very heavily with Meowscarada. Grassy Surge to make up for the extreme speed-difference isn't particularly convincing given Grass isn't a good offensive typing against many fast mons in the tier like Roaring Moon especially with the BP nerf, Grassy Surge also means your Knock Off is unboosted making you even more limited versus Corviknight and means something like Pecharunt can even check you especially with the extra recovery. The extra bulk is something but hardly anything special given the defensive typing isn't special, as a Dark-type competing against tier-king Roaring Moon and as a Water-resist competing with the many good Desolate Land users (and also RMoon still, lmao). Its speed-tier is still ok but really not important, outspeeding Garchomp (rarely used) and with Grassy Surge you still struggle to even properly threaten out something like Zapdos. In comparison, Meowscarada's speed-tier is overwhelmingly key in being able to be used, being able to threaten and pivot on Roaring Moon effectively and a myriad of other mons such as Scream-Tail, Latios, all the Ogerpons, Cinderace, Moth and more. In theory it can leverage some utility with GSurge against random ETerrain teams + SD can differentiate it somewhat but like I said before, you can make up a lot of theoretical cases and edges for random mons but I'm not particularly convinced until I see it in practice.

 

[April]

SV AAA - Common Ability Index
AKA the dummie's guide to ladder cheese
Last Updated: 01/02/2025


Many people find themselves struggling to get into Almost Any Ability due to a perception of "jankiness" and being unable to immediately tell which Pokemon are likely to use which abilities. This index intends to serve, alongside our Viability Rankings, as a resource to index the most common abilities a given Pokemon will run, as well as some more niche options you may find during a laddering session. Abilities are listed roughly in order of how common they are. Bolded abilities are, according to the official VR, the most viable and generally the best to consider using for yourself. Abilities generally considered unviable or outclassed will be marked with italics. Many of the abilities listed here are not considered viable, but because they are common, they are listed here to help new players getting into the tier understand what they may be running into.

To be considered for this ability index, a Pokemon has to either:
- Be ranked on our official Viability Rankings
- Reach 3.41% usage

If a VR ranked Pokemon has under 1.8% Usage at 1500, it will not be featured due to lack of data

This index will be updated roughly every month to use the most up-to-date data possible. All data used is sourced directly from the index of stats. As a general rule-of-thumb, if something achieved over 3% usage in at least one of the monthly data sets for AAA, it is considered for this index.

Scrappy, Fluffy, Regenerator, Refrigerate, Water Absorb, Sword of Ruin, Tough Claws, Wandering Spirit

Sword of Ruin, Regenerator, Magic Guard, Tough Claws, Fluffy,


Fluffy, Well-Baked Body, Intimidate, Volt Absorb, Prankster, Water Absorb

Adaptability, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Well-Baked Body, Magic Guard, Bulletproof, Hadron Engine, Beads of Ruin

Prankster, Corrosion, Intimidate, Earth Eater, Fluffy

Regenerator, Sap Sipper

Sword of Ruin, Scrappy, Magic Guard, Tough Claws

Primordial Sea, No Guard, Drizzle, Fluffy

Sword of Ruin, Adaptability, Serene Grace, Magic Guard, Sheer Force, Anger Shell

Psychic Surge, Sheer Force, Hadron Engine, No Guard, Protean, Neuroforce

Regenerator, Motor Drive, Surge Surfer, Unaware, Fluffy, Protosynthesis

Pixilate, Unaware, Fluffy, Prankster

Sword of Ruin, Desolate Land, Adaptability, Prankster, Sharpness, Purifying Salt

Ground-Immunity Abilities, Desolate Land, Water Absorb, Magic Guard

Regenerator, Galvanize, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Surge Surfer, Weak Armor

Desolate Land, Sheer Force, Serene Grace, Hadron Engine, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Beads of Ruin

Bulletproof, Well-Baked Body, Regenerator, Water Absorb, Refrigerate, Ground-Immunity Abilities

Sniper, Sword of Ruin, Adaptability, Grassy Surge, Tinted Lens

Desolate Land, Magic Guard

Primordial Sea, Regenerator, Stamina, Electric-Immunity Abilities, Sheer Force, Unaware

Well-Baked Body, Volt Absorb, Fluffy, Iron Barbs, Flame Body, Intimidate

Psychic Surge, Refrigerate, Protean

Magic Guard, Desolate Land, Sheer Force, Prankster, Drought

Sharpness, Rocky Payload, Chilling Neigh, Sniper

Hadron Engine, Adaptability, Beads of Ruin, Tinted Lens, Dragon's Maw, Sheer Force

Desolate Land, Grassy Surge, Chlorophyll, Mold Breaker, Adaptability, Sword of Ruin

Primordial Sea, Sword of Ruin, Adaptability, Grassy Surge, Swift Swim

Hadron Engine

Regenerator, Fluffy, Water Absorb, Stamina, Tablets of Ruin, Unaware, Prankster



Magic Guard, Hadron Engine, Grassy Surge

Volt Absorb, Vessel of Ruin, Bulletproof, Regenerator

Toxic Chain, Adaptability, Weak Armor, Regenerator, Dragon's Maw, Beast Boost, Tinted Lens

Well-Baked Body, Tinted Lens, Magic Guard, Psychic Surge, Hadron Engine, Regenerator

Adaptability, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Tinted Lens, Dark Aura, Well-Baked Body, Sword of Ruin

Well-Baked Body, Unaware, Fluffy, Delta Stream, Corrosion, Magic Guard, Regenerator

Rocky Payload, Sword of Ruin, Grassy Surge, Adaptability, Sand Surge

Primordial Sea, Sword of Ruin, Adaptability, Supreme Overlord

Unaware, Magic Guard, Stamina, Regenerator, Water Absorb, Fluffy

Water Absorb, Fluffy, Sand Stream, Intimidate, Regenerator, Unaware

Normalize, Merciless, Sheer Force

Regenerator, Earth Eater, Unaware

Aerilate, Fluffy, Mold Breaker, Regenerator, Desolate Land, Water Absorb

Tinted Lens, Adaptability, Magic Guard, Sword of Ruin

Steam Engine, Storm Drain, Adaptability, Quick Draw, Pixilate



Primordial Sea, Swift Swim, Drizzle

Unaware, Drought, Fluffy, Prankster, Regenerator, Stamina

Galvanize, Punk Rock, Anger Shell, Supreme Overlord, Sheer Force, Pixilate, Hydration

Technician, Adaptability

Queenly Majesty, Anger Shell, Normalize, Psychic Surge

Refrigerate, Pixilate, Hadron Engine, Galvanize, No Guard

Prankster, Magic Guard, Sturdy, Truant

Adaptability, Regenerator, Sharpness, Dark Aura, Prankster

Fluffy, Bulletproof, Well-Baked Body, Tablets of Ruin, Prankster, Unaware

Prankster, Sturdy, Weak Armor

Magic Guard

Hadron Engine, Primordial Sea, Slush Rush

Regenerator, Sturdy, Steely Spirit, Well-Baked Body, Prankster

Magic Guard, Sword of Ruin, Wind Rider, Adaptability, Gale Wings
____
Regenerator, Well-Baked Body, Fluffy, Steelworker

updated with december stats, happy new year!

 

[April]

SV AAA - Common Ability Index
AKA the dummie's guide to ladder cheese
Last Updated: 01/02/2025


Many people find themselves struggling to get into Almost Any Ability due to a perception of "jankiness" and being unable to immediately tell which Pokemon are likely to use which abilities. This index intends to serve, alongside our Viability Rankings, as a resource to index the most common abilities a given Pokemon will run, as well as some more niche options you may find during a laddering session. Abilities are listed roughly in order of how common they are. Bolded abilities are, according to the official VR, the most viable and generally the best to consider using for yourself. Abilities generally considered unviable or outclassed will be marked with italics. Many of the abilities listed here are not considered viable, but because they are common, they are listed here to help new players getting into the tier understand what they may be running into.

To be considered for this ability index, a Pokemon has to either:
- Be ranked on our official Viability Rankings
- Reach 3.41% usage

If a VR ranked Pokemon has under 1.8% Usage at 1500, it will not be featured due to lack of data

This index will be updated roughly every month to use the most up-to-date data possible. All data used is sourced directly from the index of stats. If an ability reached 300 uses in a month and at least 3% usage on a particular Pokemon, it is considered for this index. Huge thanks to Chessking345 for automating the majority of this!

Scrappy, Fluffy, Regenerator, Refrigerate, Water Absorb, Tough Claws

Sword of Ruin, Regenerator, Magic Guard, Tough Claws, Adaptability


Well-Baked Body, Fluffy, Intimidate, Volt Absorb, Prankster, Water Absorb

Ground-Immunity Abilities, Adaptability, Well-Baked Body, Magic Guard, Hadron Engine, Bulletproof

Prankster, Corrosion, Intimidate, Earth Eater, Fluffy, Regenerator

Regenerator, Sap Sipper

Sword of Ruin, Scrappy, Tough Claws, Magic Guard, Tinted Lens

Primordial Sea, No Guard, Drizzle, Hadron Engine

Sword of Ruin, Adaptability Magic Guard, Serene Grace

Psychic Surge, Sheer Force, Hadron Engine, No Guard, Tinted Lens

Regenerator, Motor Drive/Protosynthesis, Unaware, Surge Surfer

Pixilate, Unaware, Fluffy

Sword of Ruin, Adaptability, Desolate Land, Fluffy

Desolate Land, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Water Absorb

Regenerator, Weak Armor, Galvanize, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Iron Fist, Surge Surfer

Sheer Force, Desolate Land, Serene Grace, Hadron Engine, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Beads of Ruin, Magic Guard

Bulletproof, Regenerator, Water Absorb, Well-Baked Body, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Refrigerate

Sword of Ruin, Sniper, Adaptability, Sheer Force, Tinted Lens

Desolate Land, Magic Guard

Regenerator, Primordial Sea, Stamina, Electric-Immunity Abilities, Sheer Force, Punk Rock

Well-Baked Body, Volt Absorb

Psychic Surge, Refrigerate

Magic Guard, Desolate Land, Mold Breaker, Prankster, Drought

Sharpness, Rocky Payload

Hadron Engine, Dragon's Maw, Tinted Lens, Adaptability, Beads of Ruin, Sheer Force

Desolate Land, Chlorophyll, Surge Surfer, Grassy Surge

Primordial Sea, Sword of Ruin, Adaptability, Swift Swim, Drizzle, Grassy Surge

Hadron Engine, Refrigerate, Mold Breaker

Regenerator, Fluffy



Magic Guard, Hadron Engine

Volt Absorb

Adaptability, Dragon's Maw, Toxic Chain, Mold Breaker, Regenerator, Weak Armor, Technician

Well-Baked Body, Tinted Lens, Regenerator, Psychic Surge, Magic Guard, Hadron Engine, Steelworker

Adaptability, Tinted Lens, Tough Claws, Well-Baked Body, Ground-Immunity Abilities

Well-Baked Body, Fluffy, Unaware

Primordial Sea, Sword of Ruin

Unaware, Magic Guard, Fluffy, Prankster, Regenerator

Water Absorb, Fluffy, Sand Stream, Regenerator

Sheer Force, Normalize, Merciless, Adaptability

Regenerator

Fluffy, Aerilate, Mold Breaker

Tinted Lens, Magic Guard, Sword of Ruin, Adaptability,

Steam Engine



Primordial Sea, Swift Swim

Flame Body, Fluffy

Drought, Prankster, Fluffy, Regenerator

Primordial Sea

Galvanize, Punk Rock, Download, Refrigerate, Hydration

Technician, Adaptability

Prankster, Regenerator

Queenly Majesty, Anger Shell

Refrigerate, Pixilate, Hadron Engine, Galvanize

Prankster, Sturdy, Oblivious

Regenerator, Adaptability

Fluffy, Well-Baked Body, Bulletproof

Prankster

Magic Guard

Sheer Force, Primordial Sea, Hadron Engine, Aerilate

Regenerator, Prankster, Steely Spirit

Magic Guard, Sword of Ruin, Tough Claws

Sorry for the delay, this has been updated with the January stats! Huge thanks to Chessking345 for writing a script to automate the data collection, such an amazing help for this resource

 

[April]

AAA Role Compendium
​

This is the Role Compendium for the AAA tier. Each Pokemon that is here is, to varying degrees, viable in the AAA metagame, and as such, it will change as the viability rankings get updated. Feel free to discuss below whether a Pokemon should be added to or removed from a certain role; however, please refrain from discussing the order of a given subsection aside from glaring issues.

Each role will be split into 3 subsections: Common, Uncommon, and Niche. Common is for Pokemon that are well, common. A commonly seen Pokemon that also commonly runs the relevant move/ability. Uncommon is for Pokemon that are either overall common but uncommonly run a particular option or uncommon Pokemon that commonly run the same option. Niche is where any Pokemon ranked B- or lower (aka, AAA UU legal Pokemon) will be placed by default. There's no strict definition for this, so this will be updated regularly to fit the metagame at any given time.

Also, I keep forgetting to edit this in, but a big thanks to Greybaum for the original version of this!

Last Updated: 11/2/2024​

Hazard Setters

Hazard Setters

Stealth Rock:
Common Users:
Uncommon Users:
Niche Users:

Spikes:
Common Users:
Uncommon Users:
Niche Users: | (Ceaseless Edge)

Toxic Spikes:
Common Users:
Uncommon Users:
Niche Users:

Sticky Web:
Niche Users:

Hazard Control

Hazard Control

Defog:
Common Users:
Niche Users:

Rapid Spin:
Common Users:
Niche users:

Other removal:
(Court Change)

Spinblockers:
Common:
Niche:

Momentum

Momentum

U-turn:
Common Users:
Niche Users:

Volt Switch:
Common Users:
Uncommon Users:
Niche Users:

Flip Turn:
Common Users:
Niche Users:

Parting Shot:
Common Users:
Niche Users:

Set-up Sweepers

Set-up Sweepers

Swords Dance:
Common Users:
Uncommon Users:
Niche Users:

Nasty Plot:
Common Users:
Uncommon Users:
Niche Users:

Bulk Up:
Common Users:
Niche Users:

Calm Mind:
Common Users:
Uncommon Users:
Niche Users:

Iron Defense / Acid Armor:
Common Users:
Uncommon Users:
Niche Users:

Dragon Dance:
Common Users:
Niche Users:

Quiver Dance:
Niche Users:

Other:
(Fiery Dance) (Tail Glow) (Take Heart) (Belly Drum) (Cosmic Power) (Shell Smash)

Status Afflictors

Status Affilictors

Burn - Direct (Will-O-Wisp):
Common Users:
Uncommon Users:
Niche Users:

Burn - Indirect (Lava Plume/Scald/Matcha Gotcha):
Common Users:
Uncommon Users:
Niche Users:

Paralysis - Direct (Thunder Wave/Stun Spore/Zap Cannon):
Common Users:
Uncommon Users:
Niche Users:

Paralysis - Indirect (Discharge/Thunder):
Common Users:
Uncommon Users:

Bad Poison - Direct (Toxic):
Common Users:
Niche Users:

Bad Poison - Indirect (Malignant Chain):
Common Users:

Utility

Utility

Knock Off:
Common Users:
Uncommon Users:
Niche Users:

Wish:
Common Users:

Heal Bell:
Niche Users:

Wallbreakers

Wallbreakers

Physical Amplification (Sword of Ruin, Adaptability, etc.):
Common:
Uncommon:
Niche::

Special Amplification (Sheer Force, Adaptability, Hadron Engine, etc.):
Common:
Uncommon:
Niche:

Magic Guard - Physical:
Common:
Uncommon:
Niche:

Magic Guard - Special:
Common:
Uncommon:
Niche:

Magic Guard - Mixed:
Uncommon:
Niche:

Weather - Desolate Land:
Common:
Niche:

Weather - Primordial Sea:
Common:
Uncommon:
Niche:

Dedicated Walls

Dedicated Walls

Physically Defensive Amplification (Intimidate, Fluffy, etc.):
Common:
Uncommon:
Niche:

Type Immunity Walls (Well-Baked Body, Volt Absorb, Earth Eater etc.)
Common:
Uncommon:
Niche:

Regenerator - PhysDef:
Common:
Uncommon:
Niche:

Regenerator - SpDef:
Common:
Uncommon:
Niche:

Speed Control

Speed Control

Naturally Fast:
Common:
Niche:

Choice Scarfers:
Common Users:
Uncommon Users:
Niche Users:

Extreme Speed:
Uncommon:
Niche:

Sucker Punch:
Common:
Uncommon:
Niche:

Rapid Spin:
Common:
Niche:

Surge Surfer:
Common:
Uncommon:

Other (Amplification):
(Protosynthesis)

Other (Priority):
(Aqua Jet) (Fake Out) (First Impression) (Shadow Sneak) (Vacuum Wave)

Abilities: The Good, The Bad, and how to pick one!

Abilities. You can use a lot of them. You can use almost any, actually. But how many are actually good, and more importantly, how many are good for you and your team? If you're a new player struggling to build a team, here's a guide on what abilities to use and on what Pokemon!

The viability rankings are your friend. Though all Pokemon listed here are, at least on a surface level, viable users of these abilities, sometimes a lower ranked Pokemon may be better suited to take advantage of an ability. Each ability will be split into 3 subsections: Common, Uncommon, and Niche, using the same qualifications as the above role compendium.​

1: Regenerator + Magic Guard

1a: Yeah, these get their own category.

Regenerator:
Every time this Pokemon leaves the field, 33.3% of it's HP (rounded down) is restored. This is not blocked by Psychic Noise.

Regenerator is another of the most widely useful abilities in the game. Almost any Pokemon appreciates being able to restore a third of it's health without spending a turn or a moveslot on a recovery move. On offensive Pokemon, this ability shines for giving a powerful threat another chance at life, letting it safely switch in and eat a hit, force the opponent out, then heal off the damage. Defensively, this ability really shines, giving bulky Pokemon like Manaphy and Swampert a form of reliable recovery and letting them consistently check powerful offensive threats. Similar to Magic Guard, most Pokemon could justify running Regenerator, but because you can only use it once per team, Pokemon dependent on it for recovery or utility should be prioritized.

Common RegenVest users:
Uncommon RegenVest Users:
Niche RegenVest Users:
Other RegenVest users you might consider: Sturdy special walls that otherwise lack recovery or appreciate the extra moveslot, or physical walls that appreciate the additional utility of a Special Defense boost.

Common defensive users:
Uncommon defensive users:
Niche defensive users:
Other defensive users you might consider: Sturdy physical/mixed walls that don't have a moveslot to spare for a recovery move, especially pivot-heavy ones.

Common offensive users:
Uncommon offensive Users:
Niche offensive users:
Other offensive users you might consider: Bulkier attackers than can afford to take a hit or two and heal off the damage.

Magic Guard:
This Pokemon can only be damaged by direct attacks. Moves that damage over time like Leech Seed or Whirpool, volatile status conditions like Poison and Burn, entry hazards, and recoil from moves like Steel Beam and Head Smash will all do no damage. Life Orb recoil is also removed, but the damage boost remains. Substitute, Pain Split, Belly Drum, and Ghost-type Curse will still damage the user.

Magic Guard is generally regarded as the best ability in the game, and that's no different here. Ignoring passive damage is huge for both offensive and defensive Pokemon; it gives offensive Pokemon more opportunities to switch in or set up and lets them take advantage of Life Orb and recoil moves with no drawback, while making defensive Pokemon much harder to wear down with status or entry hazards. Almost any Pokemon can justify running Magic Guard, but Pokemon that plan to switch in and out of battle often benefit the most, as they ignore the entry hazards that define the tier.

Common offensive users:
Uncommon offensive users:
Niche offensive Users:
Other offensive users you might consider: Any offensive Pokemon that benefits from ignoring recoil, ignoring entry hazards, or no-drawbacks Life Orb.


Common defensive users:
Uncommon defensive Users:
Niche defensive users:
Other defensive users you might consider: Any bulky Pokemon that switches in often and highly appreciates ignoring passive damage from hazards or status.

1b: Prioritizing your ability slot
Magic Guard and especially Regenerator are incredibly high demand abilities. Barring the most hyper offensive structures possible (and even those appreciate them), almost every team will have at least one of these abilities and many will have both. Many Pokemon can viably run these abilities, but not all are created equally. Pokemon like Swampert, defensive Manaphy, and Hisuian Goodra are pretty much solely dependent on Regenerator for their niche in the metagame, and likewise for Pokemon like Hisuian Electrode and Cobalion with Magic Guard. If you want to effectively utilize these Pokemon, you have to sacrifice using these abilities on another teammate. They will not function well without them, and your team will almost inarguably be worse unless you have a good reason for stepping off the beaten path.

Once again, the viability rankings are your friend, here. Though all Pokemon listed here are indeed viable users of these abilities, some Pokemon are more dependent on them than others and indeed, a lower ranked Pokemon may be better suited to take advantage of an ability. Swampert may be slightly lower than Great Tusk on the viability rankings, for example, but RegenVest Swampert is arguably more viable than RegenVest Great Tusk. If an ability is bolded on the viability rankings, that means that Pokemon is most useful with that ability and it may be a better option for your team than a more niche user.

2: Field Condition Abilities

2a: The Good

Desolate Land:
Desolate Land amplifies the power of Fire-type moves, nullifies all damaging Water-type moves (including Hydro Steam!), and remains in effect until either this Pokemon switches out or a Pokemon with either Primordial Sea or Delta Stream switches in.

Good Desolate Land users tend to be either fast, offensive Fire-types who chiefly click Fire-type moves, slower and bulkier ones looking to counter Primordial Sea, or non Fire-types who appreciate Weather Ball becoming a 100BP Fire-type move. Pokemon who are less slated to take advantage of it include Pokemon who simply want a Water immunity (Water Absorb) or Pokemon like Volcanion with important Water-type moves they want to click.

Common users:
Niche users:
Other users you might consider: Fast, powerful Fire-types, Pokemon that benefit from Fire-type Weather Ball or 1-turn Solar Beam

Primordial Sea:
Primordial Sea amplifies the power of Water-type moves, nullifies all damaging Fire-type moves, and remains in effect until either this Pokemon switches out or a Pokemon with either Desolate Land or Delta Stream switches in.

Good Primordial Sea users tend to be offensive Water-types who mainly want to click powerful Water moves, bulkier Water-types looking to switch-in on Desolate Land users, or non Water-types who appreciate permanent Rain boosting their coverage or the accuracy on Thunder or Hurricane. Primordial Sea should not be used on Pokemon who simply want a Fire-immunity (Well-Baked Body) or on Pokemon who need Fire-type coverage.

Common users:
Uncommon users:
Niche users:
Other sers you might consider: Powerful Water-types, Pokemon that benefit from Water-type Weather Ball or 100% accurate Thunder and Hurricane.

Psychic Surge:
Psychic Surge sets Psychic Terrain every time the user enters the field, overriding any existing terrain, nullifying priority against grounded Pokemon, boosting all grounded Psychic moves by 30%, and turning Expanding Force into a 120 BP move before the terrain boost.

Psychic Surge is near exclusively used on fast Psychic-types who want to use powerful Expanding Force while giving themselves and their teammates an immunity to opposing priority use at the cost of not being able to use any of their own. If you simply want a priority immunity, it may be better to run Dazzling instead to allow your other teammates to still use powerful priority moves.

Common users:
Other users you might consider: Speedy special-attacking Psychic-types with access to Expanding Force.

Hadron Engine:
Hadron Engine sets Electric Terrain on switch in, overriding any existing terrain and multiplying the power of a grounded Pokemon's Electric-type moves by 30%. In addition, Hadron Engine users get 1.33x Special Attack in Electric Terrain.

Hadron Engine is most often used by fast, grounded Electric-type Pokemon, as they essentially get a 73% boost to their STAB Electric moves. Other fast special attackers, especially those with Electric-type coverage, can also make use of Hadron Engine's 33% Special Attack boost. Hadron Engine should not be used by Flying-type Pokemon such as Zapdos and Thundurus, as they do not receive the 30% boost to Electric moves.

Common users:
Uncommon users:
Niche users:
Users you might consider: Any powerful special attacker, especially ones with access to Electric-type coverage.


2b: The Maybe
Delta Stream:
Delta Stream removes the weaknesses from Flying-type Pokemon (not their secondary type) and remains in effect until this Pokemon switches out or a Pokemon with either Desolate Land or Primordial Sea switches in.

Delta Stream is incredibly niche, entirely reserved for defensive Flying-types who want to nullify their weaknesses to common moves or who want to counter other Primal Weather users by turning their Weather Ball into a 50BP Normal-type move.

Uncommon users:
Users you might consider: bulky Flying-types that appreciate nullifying opposing primal weather

Grassy Surge:
Grassy Surge sets Grassy Terrain on switch in, overriding any existing terrain, amplifying the power of grounded Grass-type moves by 30%, weakening Earthquake, Bulldoze, and Magnitude by 50%, and restoring 1/16th of all grounded Pokemon's health at the end of the turn.

Grassy Surge is by far the most niche of the terrains so far and currently has no common users, but some Pokemon like Gholdengo and Pecharunt may be able to take advantage of extra recovery, nullifying opposing terrain, and lowering the damage of Earthquake, while Pokemon like Ogerpon formes and Roaring Moon may appreciate the power boost to Grass-type moves or the existence of Grassy Seed + Acrobatics, respectively.

Users you might consider: (all formes)

2c: The Bad

Other Terrain:
Misty Surge might seem like a good option to reduce the power of opposing Dragon-type moves and prevent status conditions. In actuality, though, no viable users currently exist, as Misty Terrain's applications are usually far too niche or far too detrimental to your own teammates to justify running it.

Electric Surge, meanwhile, is entirely outclassed by Hadron Engine. Even if a physical attacking Electric-type wanted to set terrain to boost its Electric move, there's absolutely no benefit to running Electric Surge over Hadron Engine.

Non-Permanent Weather:
Drought and Drizzle may seem viable on paper. However, the near omnipresence of Primal Weather combined with being outclassed by more standard offensive boosting abilities mean they have no place in the metagame.

Likewise, Sand Stream seems to have potential on bulky Rock-type Pokemon like Garganacl; in practice, the Special Defense boost is not worth running Sand Stream over an immunity ability or a damage reducing ability like Vessel of Ruin, especially when Primal Weathers completely nullify it.

Snow Warning might seem appealing on Aurora Veil users such as Alolan Ninetales and Frosslass, but in practice, they are entirely outclassed by Prankster screens users such as Corviknight and Deoxys-S, as these Pokemon can get screens up reliably even in the face of primal weather.

3: Physical Damage Amplification

3a: The Good

Sword of Ruin:
Sword of Ruin multiplies the Defense of any Pokemon without the ability by 0.75x, effectively giving the user 1.33x power on their physical moves.

Sword of Ruin is the most common physical amplification ability, and almost any physical attacker can take advantage of it. Sword of Ruin is the best option for physical attackers running non-contact moves and/or coverage moves (read: Earthquake users). Pokemon without these moves can still use Sword of Ruin, but may prefer one of the below abilities. Pokemon only running STAB moves may prefer Adaptability, as it does not reveal itself upon switch-in, hiding valuable information from your opponent.

Common users:
Uncommon users:
Niche users:
Other users you might consider: Almost any physical attacker

Tough Claws:
Tough Claws boosts the power of the user's contact moves by 1.3x.

Tough Claws is one of the most common alternatives to Sword of Ruin, as it trades a small amount of power and a lack of a boost on specific moves for concealing the ability and potentially allowing another teammate to run Sword of Ruin. Tough Claws should only be used on Pokemon that primarily use contact moves, as non-contact moves have no damage boost, meaning Ground- or Rock-types like Garchomp or Terrakion, as well as the Ogerpon formes should not use this ability.

Common users:
Niche users:
Other users you might consider: Any physical attacker that primarily runs contact moves

Sharpness:
Sharpness boosts the power of slicing moves by 1.5x, allowing lower base power moves to rival the most powerful options in the game.

Sharpness is nearly exclusively used on Pokemon who have multiple slicing moves, including reliable slicing STAB. Pokemon who only have one or two relevant slicing moves should not use this ability, as the power boost on one move rarely justifies the lack of a boost on other important moves.

Common users:
Users you might consider: Pokemon who primarily use slicing moves


3b: The Bad

Outclassed:
Alternate amplification abilities that seem usable on paper such as Iron Fist, Reckless, or Skill Link (among many others) are all in practice outclassed by one of the above abilities. The damage boost is either too low, exclusive to too few moves, or both to be justifiable over a consistent choice such as Sword of Ruin.

Long Reach might appear to be an option on physical attackers to ignore Fluffy and Rocky Helmet, but is usually outclassed by direct amplification or by Mold Breaker to ignore Fluffy altogether alongside immunity abilities.

Technician is a good ability, but even the most powerful Technician-boosted moves tend to be weaker than the competition, so this ability struggles to justify itself. The same applies to Strong Jaw, as while a 50% boost to biting moves is potentially very powerful, biting moves tend to be either weak or have better alternatives that can be boosted by other abilities.

Inconsistent:
Abilities that depend on the user to fulfill a condition or for the opponent to make a specific moves are not consistent enough to see use. Abilities like Moxie or Beast Boost that rely on the user getting a free K.O. are bad, as it is much harder to faint the opposing team without a boosting ability, and the boost itself is not enough to justify this drawback. Do not use these abilities.

Intrepid Sword, while having a niche on Hyper Offense teams, is generally outclassed by the above abilities due to the boost only applying one time. Critical hit focused abilities like Super Luck and Sniper are also very inconsistent and should not be used, as an occasional big reward is not generally worth trading consistent power. Abilities that rely on your opponent carrying a certain ability like Guard Dog are also inconsistent, making the risk not worth the reward.

4: Special Damage Amplification

4a: The Good

Sheer Force:
Sheer Force boosts the power of any move with a secondary effect by 1.3x, at the cost of removing the effect. In addition, this Pokemon ignores Life Orb recoil if using a Sheer Force boosted move.

Though it does apply to a few physical moves, Sheer Force is the quintessential special amplification ability, and almost any special attacker can effectively run it in tandem with Life Orb. Any Pokemon with it's primary STAB moves being Sheer Force boosted or with enough Sheer Force-boosted coverage can justify running this ability. A Pokemon who wants to run a Choice item instead of Life Orb may prefer the larger boosts of an ability such as Adaptability or Beads of Ruin.

Common users:
Uncommon users:
Niche users:
Users you might consider: Any special attacker that runs moves with secondary effects.

Hadron Engine:
Hadron Engine sets Electric Terrain on switch in, overriding any existing terrain and multiplying the power of a grounded Pokemon's Electric-type moves by 30%. In addition, Hadron Engine users get 1.33x Special Attack in Electric Terrain.

Hadron Engine is most often used by fast, grounded Electric-type Pokemon, as they essentially get a 73% boost to their STAB Electric moves. Other fast special attackers, especially those with Electric-type coverage, can also make use of Hadron Engine's 33% Special Attack boost. Hadron Engine should not be used by Flying-type Pokemon such as Zapdos and Thundurus, as they do not receive the 30% boost to Electric moves.

Common users:
Uncommon users:
Niche users:
Users you might consider: Any powerful special attacker, especially ones with access to Electric-type coverage.

Beads of Ruin
Beads of Ruin multiplies the Special Defense of any Pokemon without the ability by 0.75x, effectively giving the user 1.33x power on their special moves (barring Psyshock).

Beads of Ruin is best for special attacking Pokemon who want to run multiple coverage moves without secondary effects, but not very many Pokemon fit into this category. Pokemon who only run STAB moves prefer Adaptability or a type-specific ability, while those with plentiful coverage may prefer Sheer Force. Almost any special attacker can effectively run Beads of Ruin, but other options are often more valuable, as Beads of Ruin reveals information to your opponent that they otherwise would not have.

Uncommon users:
Niche users:
Other users you might consider: Most special attackers, but check if another ability is more valuable first

4b: The Bad

Alternate amplification abilities that seem usable on paper such as Punk Rock, Mega Launcher, or Technician are all in practice outclassed by one of the above abilities. The damage boost is either too low, exclusive to too few moves, or both to be justifiable over a consistent choice such as Sheer Force.

Abilities like Grim Neigh or Beast Boost that rely on the user getting a free K.O. are inconsistent and shouldn't be used, as the more consistent damage boost of an ability like Sheer Force or Adaptability is far preferable. Likewise, abiltiies such as Competitive that demand the opponent make a specific move are also very inconsistent, and a more consistent choice is almost always worth it.

5: Mixed / Type-based offensive Amplification

5a: The Good
Abilities in this section, if applicable, will be split into physical/special users

Adaptability:
Adaptability boosts the power of any move that shares a type with the user by 1.333x; the STAB boost becomes 2x instead of 1.5x.

Adaptability is the quintessential boosting ability for both physical and special attackers. Adaptability can be effectively wielded by any Pokemon that primarily attacks using STAB moves, though a Pokemon that very often clicks coverage may prefer the overall boost of Sword/Beads of Ruin. Adaptability's primary advantage over the Ruin abilities is not revealing itself on switch in, hiding crucial information about your ability from your opponent. Likewise, a Pokemon that primarily spams STAB moves of a single type may prefer a type-based damage amplifying ability, as the boost is oftentimes greater.

Common physical users:
Uncommon physical users:
Niche physical users:

Common special users:
Uncommon special users:
Niche special users:
Users you might consider: Any powerful attacker with spammable STAB moves

Tinted Lens:
Tinted Lens boosts the power of any move resisted by the opponent by 2x. This turns normal resistances into neutralities, and 4x resistances into 2x weaknesses.

Tinted Lens is primarily used by powerful attackers with typings that have multiple common resistances. Tinted Lens allows these Pokemon to spam their powerful moves even in the face of resisting foes, but the lack of damage boost against neutral or even weak targets means that a Pokemon with sufficient STAB coverage or plentiful coverage may prefer the boost of Adaptability or a Ruin ability.

Common physical users:
Uncommon physical users:
Niche physical users:

Common special users:
Uncommon special users:
Users you might consider: Any powerful attacker with good STAB moves with unfortunate typings

Mold Breaker
This Pokemon's moves ignore the opponent's ability.

Mold Breaker is primarily used by attackers looking to ignore opponent's immunity abilities or defensive amplification abilities like Fluffy and Vessel of Ruin. This ability most often finds use on powerful Fire-types looking to dodge Well-Baked Body, but offensive Ground-, Electric-, and Water-type attackers as well as users of bullet moves may also find themselves using this ability.

Common users:
Niche users:
Users you might consider: Powerful attackers looking to dodge either an immunity ability or Fluffy

-ate Abilities:
Aerilate, Pixilate, Refrigerate and Galvanize turn Normal-type moves into Flying-, Fairy-, Ice-, and Electric-type moves respectively, and apply a 20% power boost to them.

-ate abilities are primarily used by Pokemon with poor coverage but powerful Normal-type moves, or by Pokemon looking to take advantage of powerful Normal-type moves in their arsenal to hit specific foes. Due to only boosting one, often non-STAB type, these abilities are generally quite niche and are often outclassed by more generalized damage amplification, but they can often be worthwhile if the boost or type-change is significant enough.

Common Pixilate users:
Niche Galvanize users:
Niche Refrigerate users:

Users you might consider: Pokemon with poor coverage but powerful Normal-type moves, or Pokemon looking to hit a specific target like Corviknight or Roaring Moon

Type-boosting Abilities:
Type-boosting abilities boost the power of a specific type of move by 50%.

Type-boosting abilities are usually highly specific, relegated nearly exclusively to Pokemon with one powerful STAB move they click more than any other. Pokemon that value boosting moves of multiple types should not run a type-boosting ability, and should instead run for a more generalized boosting ability like Sword/Beads of Ruin or Adaptability.

Common Dragon's Maw users:
Uncommon Dragon's Maw users:
Common Rocky Payload users:
Uncommon Steelworker users:
Users you might consider: Pokemon with one powerful move they want to boost above all.

Protean:
Once per switch-in, this Pokemon's type changes to the type of the move it's using. STAB boost is applied to this move. A single-typed Pokemon can use a move of it's original type before using a move of another type to activate Protean.

Protean has fallen from glory, as activating only once per switch-in has left it a shell of it's former self. Protean should only be used on Pokemon that absolutely require the 50% STAB boost on a coverage move as opposed to the more generalized boost of Sheer Force or a Ruin ability. Pokemon who switch moves often should also opt for the more generalized boost, as this allows them far more versatility in their damage.

Common Protean users:
Users you might consider: Pokemon that really need that extra "oomph" on a coverage move.

5b: The Bad

Just like in the above section, most alternate amplification abilities are just not optimal choices. Good abilities like Technician or Sniper, while they aren't awful, are not viable due to their inconsistency or general lack of damage. Type-enhancing abilities that boost the opponent like Dark Aura or Fairy Aura are not viable. There is no reason to give your opponent a damage boost. Instead, opt for an ability like Adaptability instead, as the damage boost is equal without revealing your ability or boosting your opponent's damage output.

The starter abilities + Swarm are all unviable choices, for much of the same reason as abilities like Moxie and Grim Neigh. Being dependent on your opponent's moves to deal boosted damage is inconsistent and not worth it, especially when abilities like Desolate Land or Sword of Ruin provide a similar or equal boost without being dependent on your opponent's choices to work.

In general, type-enhancing abilities should be used lightly. While it's tempting to boost one type by 50%, you should ask yourself if a more general 33% boost is more valuable, and it almost always will be.

6: Immunity/Resistance Abilities

6a: The Good

Ground Immunity Abilities:
Levitate ignores damage-dealing Ground-type moves, while also granting an immunity to Spikes and Toxic Spikes. Earth Eater grants an immunity to all Ground-type moves, restoring 25% health to the user if hit by one.

Levitate and Earth Eater are extremely similar, and most Pokemon running one can also viably run the other. Levitate is more useful on Pokemon prone to getting worn down by Spikes, while Earth Eater is preferred on Pokemon that don't much mind entry hazards and would prefer the 25% health buff. Ground immunity abilities are best utilized by Pokemon either weak to Ground or bulky neutral Pokemon looking to become a sudden check to threats like Great Tusk and Sandy Shocks.

Common Ground-immunity ability users:
Uncommon Ground-immunity ability users:
Niche Ground-immunity ability users:
Users you might consider: Ground-weak walls or generally bulky Pokemon that greatly appreciate an additional immunity.

Well-Baked Body:
Well-Baked Body grants an immunity to Fire-type moves and, when hit with one, raises the user's Defense by 2 stages.

Well-Baked Body is naturally very prominent thanks to the popularity of powerful Fire-type attackers like Cinderace, Moltres, and Iron Moth. Any Fire-weak or generally bulky Pokemon is able to take advantage of the additional immunity to switch in on both powerful attackers as well as stray Will-o-Wisps. This move also synergizes well with Body Press thanks to the +2 Defense boost.

Common Well-Baked Body users:
Uncommon Well-Baked Body users:
Niche Well-Baked Body users:
Users you might consider: Fire-weak walls or generally bulky Pokemon that greatly appreciate an additional immunity.

Electric-immunity Abilities:
Volt Absorb grants an immunity to Electric-type moves and, when hit with one, heals the user by 25% of it's HP. Motor Drive grants an immunity to Electric-type moves and grants a +1 Speed boost if hit by one, while Lightning Rod grants a +1 Special Attack boost.

Similar to Well-Baked Body, the prominence of powerful Electric-types like Zapdos leads to the rise of Electric immunity abilities to counter them. Volt Absorb is by far the most common, especially on bulky Pokemon and walls that heavily appreciate the health increase, but Motor Drive and Lighting Rod have their use cases on fast-paced offensive teams on threats like Manaphy and Gholdengo.

Common Electric-immunity ability users:
Uncommon Electric-immunity ability users:
Users you might consider: Bulky walls that appreciate an additional immunity for Volt Absorb, powerful offensive threats that appreciate a Speed/Special Attack boost for Motor Drive / Lightning Rod.

Water-immunity Abilities:
Water Absorb grants an immunity to Water-type moves and, when hit with one, heals the user by 25% of it's HP. Storm Drain grants an immunity to Electric-type moves and grants a +1 Special Attack boost if hit by one.

Water-immunity abilities are slightly more niche without the omnipresence of Walking Wake, but powerful Water-types like Ogerpon-Wellspring and offensive Manaphy give them a place in the metagame. Water Absorb is by far the most common, especially on bulky Pokemon and walls that heavily appreciate the health increase, but Storm Drain can see use on offensive threats that more greatly value the increased damage.

Common Water-immunity ability users:
Uncommon Water-immunity ability users:
Niche Water-immunity ability users:
Users you might consider: Water-weak walls or generally bulky Pokemon that greatly appreciate an additional immunity or Special Attack boost.

Bulletproof:
Bulletproof grants an immunity to certain "bullet" moves, a list of which can be found here.

Bulletproof stands out from it's contemporaries by not granting an immunity to not just a certain type of move, but rather moves from several types. Moves like Shadow Ball, Focus Blast, Weather Ball and Energy Ball are all extremely widespread and are all blocked by Bulletproof, alongside slightly rarer but still relevant moves like Sludge Bomb, Pyro Ball, Aura Sphere and Zap Cannon. Bulletproof can be used by nearly any Pokemon looking to check a wide variety of special attackers, especially primal weather users dependent on Weather Ball for their STAB move.

Common Bulletproof users:
Uncommon Bulletproof users:
Users you might consider: Bulky Pokemon looking to act as a check to a wide variety of attackers.

6b: The Maybe?

Purifying Salt:
Purifying Salt grants an immunity to volatile status conditions and halves the damage of Ghost-type moves.

Purifying Salt is relatively rare, but it sees use on Pokemon who appreciate the resistance to Ghost-type moves but especially on physical attackers who use it as an immunity to Burn. It's usually a hard ability to justify, as while resisting Ghost-type moves is certainly valuable, a full immunity ability or an offensive amplification ability can often be preferable.

Uncommon Purifying Salt users:
Users you might consider: Bulky Pokemon who appreciate the additional resistance, or attackers that appreciate the immunity to status

Soundproof:
Soundproof grants an immunity to certain "sound" moves, a list of which can be found here.

Not too dissimilar from Bulletproof, Soundproof grants an immunity to several moves from several different types. Where Soundproof differs, though, is that sound moves affects relatively few and rarer moves. The only viable Pokemon who primarily attack with sound moves are Pixilate Scream Tail and Kommo-o, as well as Pecharunt with Parting Shot and RegenVest Primarina with Psychic Noise. While these are all common foes, it can be risky to dedicate an entire ability slot just to checking them. Despite this, Soundproof still sees rare use to turn near any Pokemon into a perfect counter to Scream Tail.

Uncommon Soundproof users:
Users you might consider: Bulky attackers on teams that really hate Pixilate Scream Tail

6c: The Bad

There is essentially zero scenarios where Flash Fire is even a sidegrade to Well-Baked Body, as it is normally strictly worse. Similarly, Dry Skin has very few use cases over Water Absorb, as the Fire-type weakness is too notable to justify healing in rain.

Sap Sipper may seem appealing, especially on Swampert, but Grass-type moves are rare enough to make it a poor use of an ability slot, especially when Swampert gets so much more value out of RegenVest. Wind Rider is also a poor use of an ability slot, as wind moves are relatively rare and that ability slot is better spent on a guaranteed value ability like Regenerator.

Resistance abilities such as Thick Fat and Heatproof are strictly worse than either general defensive amplification abilities like Vessel of Ruin or their full immunity counterparts. There is nearly zero benefit to resisting a hit instead of absorbing it.

7: Defensive Amplification Abilities

7a: The Good

Intimidate:
Upon entering the field, the opponent's Pokemon's Attack lowers by one stage. Pokemon with the ability Scrappy are unaffected, and Pokemon with Defiant, Rattled, or Competitive receive a stat boost.

Intimidate is the premier physically defensive amplification ability. The utility of lowering a foe's Attack by a consistent 1 stage is fantastic, allowing Pokemon with Intimidate to check huge swathes of the metagame as well as dissuade users of Attack-boosting moves by resetting their progress. Intimidate is justifiable on any Pokemon looking to tank big physical hits, but Pokemon with plentiful resistances or pivoting moves benefit more.

Common Intimidate users:
Uncommon Intimidate users:
Niche Intimidate users:

Users you might consider: Physical walls looking for a boost to their defensive prowess that can't be dodged by Mold Breaker.

Fluffy:
This Pokemon receives 1/2 damage from contact moves, but takes 2x damage from Fire-type moves.

Fluffy is another fantastic defensive amplification ability, but it's slightly more niche than Intimidate. Fluffy is preferable on Pokemon who would rather sit on the field for a while and check multiple foes on a single switch-in, or take advantage of the Defense boost to easily set up. Fluffy isn't perfect, though, as common physical moves like Stone Edge and Earthquake as well as the Mold Breaker ability completely bypass it. The Fire weakness is also a major point against it, as you have no amplification against contact Fire-type moves and are actively forced out by any non-contact ones.

Common Fluffy users:
Uncommon Fluffy users:
Niche Fluffy users:


Users you might consider: Physical walls looking for a boost to their defensive prowess, setup sweepers that appreciate the ease in setting up

Unaware:
This Pokemon ignores any of the foe's stat changes when dealing or receiving damage. Draco Meteor drops and Swords Dance boosts are equally ignored.

Unaware turns any Pokemon into a counter for dangerous set-up sweepers. Suddenly, +3 is hitting exactly as hard as unboosted. Unaware is especially useful in Calm Mind wars, as you get stronger while outright ignoring your opponent's boosts. Unaware is a valuable ability on Pokemon with plentiful resistances or neutralities, as they can check many setup sweepers without a dedicated immunity ability, but it's worth noting that ignoring Draco Meteor drops means it's risky to use it as a check to Dragon-types if you aren't a Fairy-type.

Common Unaware users:
Uncommon Unaware users:
Niche Unaware users:
Users you might consider: Bulky walls or setup sweepers that appreciate checking set-up sweepers.

Vessel of Ruin:
This Pokemon lowers the Special Attack stat of all Pokemon on the field without Vessel of Ruin by 25%

Vessel of Ruin is a great catch-all defensive amplification ability. Vessel of Ruin essentially provides a 33% Special Defense boost to the user, making it easy to slap onto any special wall, but it's slightly more niche than the Attack reduction abilities because most special walls will either prefer RegenVest, Unaware, or a type-immunity ability.

Common Vessel of Ruin users:
Uncommon Vessel of Ruin users:
Niche Vessel of Ruin users:
Users you might consider: Special walls that don't want RegenVest and don't need an immunity ability.

7b: The Bad

Multiscale and it's upgraded cousin Shadow Shield are always worse than a general defensive amplification ability. There is no benefit to taking less damage on a single hit when you could take less damage on every hit. Don't use either, but especially don't use Multiscale, as Shadow Shield strictly outclasses it

Dauntless Shield is a strictly inferior version of Intimidate, as it only applies once per switch-in in Gen 9. The boost to Body Press does not justify the complete waste of an ability slot if forced out even once.

Mirror Armor is an awful ability, don't try. Using it to counter Intimidate is appealing until you remember Intimidate is used by Pokemon who usually don't care enough about their own Attack to justify wasting an ability slot on Mirror Armor.[/B]

8: Utility + Speed Amplification Abilities

8a: The Good

Prankster:
Status moves used by this Pokemon have +1 added to their priority. Dark-types are immune to Prankster-boosted moves.

Prankster is the quintessential suicide lead ability: come out turn 1, get up hazards or screens, then faint or switch out to your powerful sweepers. It also sees use on more defensive Pokemon looking to take advantage of boosted priority on moves like Toxic, Destiny Bond, and Parting Shot. Any utility-heavy Pokemon that values the increased priority of status moves can justify running Prankster.

Common Prankster users:
Uncommon Prankster users:
Niche Prankster users:
Users you might consider: Entry hazard leads or status spreaders that appreciate the consistency of moving first

Corrosion:
This Pokemon can poison a target even if it's a Steel- or Poison-type.

Corrosion instantly turns any Pokemon with Toxic into a dangerous status spreader. Suddenly, Corviknight or Pecharunt can't come in for free on Toxic and now they're getting worn down remarkably quickly. Corrosion is relatively niche, as Toxic is a rarer move in Gen 9 and the utility of poisoning Steel- and Poison-types doesn't bring consistent value every single game, but on Pokemon who can afford the ability slot it's often worthwhile.

Common Corrosion users:
Uncommon Corrosion users:
Niche Corrosion users:
Users you might consider: Pokemon with the primary goal of spreading Toxic damage

Aroma Veil:
Protects the user from the effects of Taunt, Torment, Encore, Disable, Cursed Body, Heal Block / Psychic Noise, and infatuation.

Aroma Veil is a niche option on hyper offense leads over Prankster, choosing to sacrifice the utility of moving first in exchange for a slight advantage in the hyper offense ditto, ignoring the opponent's Taunt and getting your own Taunt, screens or hazards up for free. Aroma Veil, of course, does not guarantee you move first and has little value if your opponent doesn't click Taunt or Encore, but the instant advantage versus other hyper offense teams occasionally makes it worth it.

Uncommon Aroma Veil users:
Niche Aroma Veil users:
Users you might consider: Hyper offense leads that don't necessarily need Prankster

Scrappy:
Scrappy allows the user to hit Ghost-types with Normal and Fighting moves, while also ignoring the effect of Intimidate.

Scrappy is almost always seen on Fighting-type Pokemon, as hitting Ghost-types with Close Combat (or Rapid Spin, if you're Great Tusk) is an invaluable trait. Ignoring Intimidate is also invaluable, as Intimidate is otherwise one of the most reliable ways to check physical attackers-- effectively making Scrappy a damage amplification ability in that matchup.

Common Scrappy users:
Uncommon Scrappy users:
Users you might consider: Powerful Fighting-types or Rapid Spin users that appreciate the ability to hit Ghost-types

Normalize:
All moves used by this Pokemon are Normal-type and receive a 20% power boost.

This ability is here and not with the other type-boosting abilities because the only use case is Normalize Gengar, a set consisting of Skill Swap and Mean Look to trap and effectively neutralize an opponent, rendering them completely unable to hit Gengar barring moves like Weather Ball. This gives Gengar the freedom to either set up Toxic Spikes or set up to +6 with Nasty Plot. No other Pokemon should use Normalize. It is a garbage ability and the only use case is giving it to your opponent.

Common Normalize users:
Niche Normalize users:
Users you might consider: No. No, don't use this on anything else.

Protosynthesis / Quark Drive
When a Pokemon with Protosynthesis / Quark Drive is in harsh sunlight/Electric Terrain or holds a Booster Energy, it's highest stat is boosted by 30% unless the highest stat is Speed, in which case it's boosted by 50%. The Booster Energy item is consumed.

Protosynthesis / Quark Drive should only, and I mean only, be used on hyper offense teams looking for a one-time Speed boost with the Booster Energy. The 30% boost to another stat is not ever worth it. Protosynthesis/Quark Drive are niche abilities on setup Pokemon with middling-but-acceptable Speed that really appreciate the Speed boost allowing them to outspeed faster threats like Roaring Moon.

Common Protosynthesis/Quark Drive users:
Uncommon Protosynthesis/Quark Drive users:
Users you might consider: Setup Pokemon on hyper offense that need the one-time 50% Speed boost.

Surge Surfer:
This Pokemon's Speed is doubled on Electric Terrain. If the terrain changes or runs out, the Pokemon returns to it's normal Speed stat.

Surge Surfer is a niche option on teams sporting powerful Hadron Engine sweepers, acting as powerful speed control complementing the Hadron wallbreaker. Surge Surfer is useful for Pokemon with low of middling Speed that highly appreciate the 2x boost putting them either on par with or outright faster than speedsters like Roaring Moon and base 110 Pokemon. Surge Surfer users often appreciate having either Electric-type STAB or powerful Electric-type coverage, allowing them to make full use of Electric Terrain offensively.

Common Surge Surfer users:
Uncommon Surge Surfer users:
Niche Surge Surfer Users:
Users you might consider: Slow/middling Speed Pokemon on Hadron Engine teams

SV AAA - Common Ability Index
AKA the dummie's guide to ladder cheese
Last Updated: 02/05/2025


Many people find themselves struggling to get into Almost Any Ability due to a perception of "jankiness" and being unable to immediately tell which Pokemon are likely to use which abilities. This index intends to serve, alongside our Viability Rankings, as a resource to index the most common abilities a given Pokemon will run, as well as some more niche options you may find during a laddering session. Abilities are listed roughly in order of how common they are. Bolded abilities are, according to the official VR, the most viable and generally the best to consider using for yourself. Abilities generally considered unviable or outclassed will be marked with italics. Many of the abilities listed here are not considered viable, but because they are common, they are listed here to help new players getting into the tier understand what they may be running into.

To be considered for this ability index, a Pokemon has to either:
- Be ranked on our official Viability Rankings
- Reach 3.41% usage

If a VR ranked Pokemon has under 1.8% Usage at 1500, it will not be featured due to lack of data

This index will be updated roughly every month to use the most up-to-date data possible. All data used is sourced directly from the index of stats. If an ability reached 300 uses in a month and at least 3% usage on a particular Pokemon, it is considered for this index. Huge thanks to Chessking345 for automating the majority of this!

Scrappy, Fluffy, Regenerator, Refrigerate, Water Absorb, Tough Claws

Sword of Ruin, Regenerator, Magic Guard, Tough Claws, Adaptability


Well-Baked Body, Fluffy, Intimidate, Volt Absorb, Prankster, Water Absorb

Ground-Immunity Abilities, Adaptability, Well-Baked Body, Magic Guard, Hadron Engine, Bulletproof

Prankster, Corrosion, Intimidate, Earth Eater, Fluffy, Regenerator

Regenerator, Sap Sipper

Sword of Ruin, Scrappy, Tough Claws, Magic Guard, Tinted Lens

Primordial Sea, No Guard, Drizzle, Hadron Engine

Sword of Ruin, Adaptability Magic Guard, Serene Grace

Psychic Surge, Sheer Force, Hadron Engine, No Guard, Tinted Lens

Regenerator, Motor Drive/Protosynthesis, Unaware, Surge Surfer

Pixilate, Unaware, Fluffy



Desolate Land, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Water Absorb

Regenerator, Weak Armor, Galvanize, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Iron Fist, Surge Surfer

Sheer Force, Desolate Land, Serene Grace, Hadron Engine, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Beads of Ruin, Magic Guard

Bulletproof, Regenerator, Water Absorb, Well-Baked Body, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Refrigerate

Sword of Ruin, Sniper, Adaptability, Sheer Force, Tinted Lens

Desolate Land, Magic Guard

Regenerator, Primordial Sea, Stamina, Electric-Immunity Abilities, Sheer Force, Punk Rock

Well-Baked Body, Volt Absorb

Psychic Surge, Refrigerate

Magic Guard, Desolate Land, Mold Breaker, Prankster, Drought

Sharpness, Rocky Payload

Hadron Engine, Dragon's Maw, Tinted Lens, Adaptability, Beads of Ruin, Sheer Force

Desolate Land, Chlorophyll, Surge Surfer, Grassy Surge

Primordial Sea, Sword of Ruin, Adaptability, Swift Swim, Drizzle, Grassy Surge

Hadron Engine, Refrigerate, Mold Breaker

Regenerator, Fluffy



Magic Guard, Hadron Engine

Volt Absorb

Adaptability, Dragon's Maw, Toxic Chain, Mold Breaker, Regenerator, Weak Armor, Technician

Well-Baked Body, Tinted Lens, Regenerator, Psychic Surge, Magic Guard, Hadron Engine, Steelworker

Adaptability, Tinted Lens, Tough Claws, Well-Baked Body, Ground-Immunity Abilities

Well-Baked Body, Fluffy, Unaware

Primordial Sea, Sword of Ruin

Unaware, Magic Guard, Fluffy, Prankster, Regenerator

Water Absorb, Fluffy, Sand Stream, Regenerator

Sheer Force, Normalize, Merciless, Adaptability

Regenerator

Fluffy, Aerilate, Mold Breaker

Tinted Lens, Magic Guard, Sword of Ruin, Adaptability,

Steam Engine



Primordial Sea, Swift Swim

Flame Body, Fluffy

Drought, Prankster, Fluffy, Regenerator

Primordial Sea

Galvanize, Punk Rock, Download, Refrigerate, Hydration

Technician, Adaptability

Prankster, Regenerator

Queenly Majesty, Anger Shell

Refrigerate, Pixilate, Hadron Engine, Galvanize

Prankster, Sturdy, Oblivious

Regenerator, Adaptability

Fluffy, Well-Baked Body, Bulletproof

Prankster

Magic Guard

Sheer Force, Primordial Sea, Hadron Engine, Aerilate

Regenerator, Prankster, Steely Spirit

Magic Guard, Sword of Ruin, Tough Claws

Ceruledge has been removed from all of these following its ban :) The role compendium will be receiving an overhaul next time we do a VR slate!

 

[April]

SV AAA - Common Ability Index
AKA the dummie's guide to ladder cheese
Last Updated: 03/01/2025


Many people find themselves struggling to get into Almost Any Ability due to a perception of "jankiness" and being unable to immediately tell which Pokemon are likely to use which abilities. This index intends to serve, alongside our Viability Rankings, as a resource to index the most common abilities a given Pokemon will run, as well as some more niche options you may find during a laddering session. Abilities are listed roughly in order of how common they are. Bolded abilities are, according to the official VR, the most viable and generally the best to consider using for yourself. Abilities generally considered unviable or outclassed will be marked with italics. Many of the abilities listed here are not considered viable, but because they are common, they are listed here to help new players getting into the tier understand what they may be running into.

To be considered for this ability index, a Pokemon has to either:
- Be ranked on our official Viability Rankings
- Reach 3.41% usage

If a VR ranked Pokemon has under 1.8% Usage at 1500, it will not be featured due to lack of data

This index will be updated roughly every month to use the most up-to-date data possible. All data used is sourced directly from the index of stats. If an ability reached 300 uses in a month and at least 3% usage on a particular Pokemon, it is considered for this index. Huge thanks to Chessking345 for automating the majority of this!

Scrappy, Fluffy, Regenerator, Water Absorb, Refrigerate, Intimidate, Wandering Spirit

Sword of Ruin, Regenerator, Magic Guard, Fluffy, Tough Claws


Well-Baked Body, Intimidate, Fluffy, Volt Absorb, Prankster, Water Absorb

Ground-Immunity Abilities, Adaptability, Well-Baked Body, Magic Guard, Prankster, Bulletproof, Hadron Engine

Prankster, Corrosion, Intimidate, Earth Eater, Fluffy, Beads of Ruin, Regenerator

Regenerator, Sap Sipper

Sword of Ruin, Scrappy, Pressure, Tough Claws, Mind's Eye, Magic Guard

Primordial Sea, No Guard, Drizzle, Swift Swim

Sword of Ruin, Magic Guard, Adaptability, Serene Grace, Sheer Force

Sheer Force, Psychic Surge No Guard, Hadron Engine, Protean

Regenerator, Motor Drive, Unaware, Weak Armor, Surge Surfer, Fluffy

Pixilate, Unaware, Fluffy, Stamina



Desolate Land, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Water Absorb

Regenerator, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Weak Armor, Galvanize, Surge Surfer

Desolate Land, Sheer Force, Beads of Ruin, Hadron Engine, Magic Guard, Serene Grace

Bulletproof, Regenerator, Magic Guard, Water Absorb, Well-Baked Body, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Refrigerate

Sniper, Sword of Ruin, Adaptability, Tinted Lens, Hustle

Desolate Land, Magic Guard

Regenerator, Primordial Sea, Stamina, Electric-Immunity Abilities, Sheer Force, Fluffy

Well-Baked Body, Fluffy, Unaware

Psychic Surge, Pixilate

Magic Guard, Desolate Land, Sheer Force, Mold Breaker

Sharpness

Hadron Engine, Adaptability, Dragon's Maw, Tinted Lens, Beads of Ruin, Sheer Force

Desolate Land, Grassy Surge, Mold Breaker, Chlorophyll, Sword of Ruin

Primordial Sea, Sword of Ruin, Grassy Surge, Adaptability, Surge Surfer, Swift Swim

Hadron Engine, Refrigerate, Ground-Immunity Abilities

Regenerator, Water Absorb, Fluffy, Unaware



Magic Guard, Hadron Engine

Volt Absorb

Adaptability, Dragon's Maw, Sword of Ruin, Regenerator, Weak Armor, Technician, Mold Breaker, Toxic Chain

Well-Baked Body, Tinted Lens, Magic Guard, Regenerator, Hadron Engine, Psychic Surge

Adaptability, Tinted Lens, Ground-Immunity Abilities, Tough Claws, Well-Baked Body

Fluffy, Unaware, Volt Absorb, Magic Guard

Primordial Sea, Sword of Ruin

Unaware, Magic Guard, Stamina, Regenerator, Fluffy, Vessel of Ruin, Prankster

Fluffy, Sand Stream, Water Absorb, Ground-Immunity Abilities

Normalize, Sheer Force, Merciless, Prankster

Regenerator

Fluffy, Aerilate, Desolate Land, Water Absorb

Tinted Lens, Sword of Ruin, Adaptability

Water-Immunity Abilities, Fluffy



Primordial Sea, Swift Swim

Well-Baked Body, Flame Body, Fluffy

Regenerator, Unaware, Hadron Engine, Drought, Drizzle

Corrosion, Regenerator, Fluffy, Intimidate

Galvanize, Punk Rock, Download, Refrigerate, Hydration

Technician, Adaptability

Prankster, Regenerator

Normalize, Queenly Majesty

Refrigerate, Pixilate, Hadron Engine, Galvanize

Prankster, Sturdy, Oblivious

Regenerator, Adaptability

Fluffy, Well-Baked Body, Bulletproof

Sheer Force, Primordial Sea, Hadron Engine, Aerilate

Ground-Immunity Abilities, Regenerator, Steelworker

Magic Guard

updated with february stats!