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Moves that Pokemon should/should not be able to learn

Recently I was helping my sister put together a Coil Serperior set for her Super Mystery Dungeon team (which included a tipoff on Vine Whip's reach) and made a discovery in the process that honestly irks me now. Why, oh why, can't Serperior learn Power Whip? It's literally the perfect move for this idea; a physical Grass move with iffy accuracy. I know Contrary is all the rage right now but what if it's somehow unavailable to you?

At least this serpentine Pokémon does get Coil though. Dragonair and Steelix on the other hand...
 
Probably an unpopular opinion, but I feel that we are at a point in time where we should make Volt Tackle available for Electric-types that can learn Wild Charge.

It's just straight up ridiculous that the Electric-type version of Flare Blitz/Double-Edge isn't being distributed because they want to have the franchise's mascot to have an actual signature move no other mon has, while other mons already lose their signature moves to other mons the next game.
 
Probably an unpopular opinion, but I feel that we are at a point in time where we should make Volt Tackle available for Electric-types that can learn Wild Charge.

It's just straight up ridiculous that the Electric-type version of Flare Blitz/Double-Edge isn't being distributed because they want to have the franchise's mascot to have an actual signature move no other mon has, while other mons already lose their signature moves to other mons the next game.
Absolutely agreed. There's Electric types like Luxray and Electivire who could do way better than simply Wild Charge. I never actually see a lot of Pikachu or Raichu put Volt Tackle to significant use anyway; most of the ones I've seen were Nasty Plot + Lightning Rod attackers.

Even if I understand why it's their signature thing (Pikachu's Volt Tackle -> Pulseman's Volteccer), this genuinely good move is still being more or less wasted on its only users.
 
I never actually see a lot of Pikachu or Raichu put Volt Tackle to significant use anyway; most of the ones I've seen were Nasty Plot + Lightning Rod attackers.

Giving a primarily special Pokémon a physical signature move was also a strange choice.
Volt Tackle could have a wider distribution with Pichu/Pikachu/Raichu getting a new special signature move.
 
Giving a primarily special Pokémon a physical signature move was also a strange choice.
Volt Tackle could have a wider distribution with Pichu/Pikachu/Raichu getting a new special signature move.
In fairness though, it was a special move at the time of creation. Electric type moves did fall on that side of the physical/special grouping. Nowadays... yeah.
 
Was just looking through Jynx's moveset for a Crystal team. Why the hell doesn't it learn Psychic through level up? Or any Psychic type move period until Heart Stamp in 5th gen? It's Ice/Psychic type and you can't even take advantage of its Psychic type without using TMs (which again, its Crystal, so no infinite TMs and I'm a lot more stingy on using them) or breeding. Brilliant moveset design there Game Freak.
 
Not necessarily a mon needing to learn it, but why the heck is Dragon Rush 75 percent accurate still? Yes, a 100 base move for the Dragon-type is maybe a bit too much, but we have Fairy now, and 75 is just straight up to low for its base power.

I don´t even ask for it to be a flawless 100, but just 90 or 95 is fine. For all I care, give it 100 accuracy but a drawback. All fine with me, but it having 75 percent accuracy is just absurd to me.
 
Was just looking through Jynx's moveset for a Crystal team. Why the hell doesn't it learn Psychic through level up? Or any Psychic type move period until Heart Stamp in 5th gen? It's Ice/Psychic type and you can't even take advantage of its Psychic type without using TMs (which again, its Crystal, so no infinite TMs and I'm a lot more stingy on using them) or breeding. Brilliant moveset design there Game Freak.
It does get Confusion from Smoochum's level up movepool, at least. Not like this changes anything though because that's a rather weak move.
 
To go back to Volt Tackle for a minute... regardless of whether its physical or special, the recoil alone is a regrettable choice for Pikachu's signature move. I'm not a super meta person, and I hardly battle other people, but something like Pikachu or Raichu should not be dealing with a bunch of recoil. No Reckless, Rock Head, or Tough Claws, and no recovery move... There is Volt Switch, so the switches might help you be a bit less vulnerable, but for the most part it's just not that great. Their signature move shouldn't just be some shout-out or emulating some other move, it should be designed to cater to the strengths of Pikachu and Raichu.

Also, given that Pikachu and Raichu are lower-tier anyway, I think Gamefreak was too hung up on their logic that most of the strongest moves need harsh downsides. If the only Pokemon who gets it is far from OP in the first place, what's the harm in a good move without a huge downside?


But, something else that's bothered me (sorry if anyone has already mentioned it, I didn't go through everything): Why can't any of the Lycanroc forms use Earthquake, and yet Earth Power can be tutored despite all Lycanroc forms having way crappier Special Attack?

I've seen people try to use "logic" and say it's because Lycanroc is too small and light or whatever, but you can't give me that when stuff like Bunnelby (who is still only a Normal type until it evolves), Ekans, Snubbull, Altaria, Croagunk, and freaking Yungoos can learn it. Yungoos alone is proof that even in Gen 7, it wouldn't be out of place for them to make this call... and yet they simply didn't.
 
But, something else that's bothered me (sorry if anyone has already mentioned it, I didn't go through everything): Why can't any of the Lycanroc forms use Earthquake, and yet Earth Power can be tutored despite all Lycanroc forms having way crappier Special Attack?
This is a problem I do have with the Midday and Midnight forms. Dusk though... it gets Drill Run by tutoring and Tough Claws makes the move stronger than Earthquake, so I wouldn't really say it's something that form urgently needs. You're still right however, it definitely should get Earthquake anyway. There's not really a good reason against it when Pineco of all things can.

Ok, bear with me for a bit on this idea cause it might be a bit too much from a competitive standpoint. Strength Sap Amoonguss. Why not? It seems thematically appropriate and USUM has already given this signature move of Shiinotic to the Oddish, Bellsprout, and Hoppip lines as an egg move.
 
Blaziken is stated to have amazing jumping abilities, I feel it should be able to learn Bounce.
It does, but only by tutoring. Why it isn't a level-up move is beyond me too.


Ok, here's something that's seriously been annoying me in these last couple of days. It has nothing to do with a certain Pokémon but it's still move related, so what better place to spell it out?

Hidden. Power.
Why in the everloving h-e-double-l is it still determined by IVs?!

With Legendaries, Mythicals, and Ultra Beasts having three guaranteed perfect IVs, there's some Hidden Power types that they can't legitimately obtain any more, a big one being Fighting (the requirement for this type is impossible to meet when at least three IVs are always 31). What's usually an amazing bonus has actually been making my ongoing hunt for a Modest HP Rock Pheromosa even harder and more tedious than usual. I know it's still possible, but I swear it's driving me mad. I never noticed how much of a problem this is.

Between the now unavailable types for these Pokémon, its power being fixed at 60, how Hyper Training eventually makes the IV arrangement redundant by retaining its type, in addition to the continued lack of Hidden Power Fairy, I think it's high time for this move to be separated from IVs entirely just like Shiny odds had been in Gen III. The mechanic behind this useful move is becoming more outdated and unwieldy with each passing generation.
 
It's especially weird given Game Freak's approach to IVs -someone said they wanted to keep them hidden to keep players from viewing Pokemon as numbers, and Masuda has his recent quote about not wanting Pokemon to be about breeding. I think it's weird to have IVs at all, but especially in the case of Hidden Power.
 
It's especially weird given Game Freak's approach to IVs -someone said they wanted to keep them hidden to keep players from viewing Pokemon as numbers, and Masuda has his recent quote about not wanting Pokemon to be about breeding. I think it's weird to have IVs at all, but especially in the case of Hidden Power.
Normally I don't have a lot of beef with IVs. Call me a weirdo with way too much time on his hands but I actually like being able to combine all the best parts/genes/traits of both parents into one child and so on; I happen to find it an engaging exercise and do take some pride in a successful attempt. It's really just the relation between IVs and Hidden Power that I'm growing to dislike.
 
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