Introduced in Generation III, Pokemon abilities provide each Pokemon with a little extra oomph that helps make them more unique. While many newer players tend to focus on which moves a given Pokemon knows, Pokemon abilities can be integral to giving a Pokemon an added edge.
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While there are many blatantly excellent abilities such as Levitate that provide immunity to ground type attacks and Intimidate which can lower an opposing Pokemon's attack stat without using a move, there are lesser-known abilities that can be much more useful than a player may expect. So today, we're going to examine ten Pokemon abilities that are much better than players given them credit for!
10 Mummy
Appearing only on Yamask and Cofagrigus, Mummy is an excellent ability that can interfere with an opponent's ability-related plans. Whenever a Pokemon makes contact with an ability with Mummy, their ability is changed to Mummy as well. When facing a team that relies heavily on physical attacks, Mummy can spread like a plague, removing any useful abilities opposing Pokemon may have.
9 Contrary
Contrary is a potent ability that if built around correctly, can have incredibly impressive results. This ability reverses any stat raising and lowering a Pokemon may have from effects caused by both an opponent's moves as well as their own. As there are numerous incredibly powerful moves that are balanced by having their user's stats be lowered after the attack, these moves can be exploited, causing a Pokemon's stats to be raised rather than lowered!
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A prime example of this can be seen with a Serperior, as when a Serperior with Contrary uses Leaf Storm, its special attack raises greatly instead of being reduced!
8 Shadow Tag
Available on Mega-Gengar, Gothitelle, and Wobbuffet, Shadow Tag is an ability that can be used to trap an opposing Pokemon into a terrible situation. As long as a Pokemon with Shadow Tag is active, an opposing Pokemon cannot be switched out. In double battles, this allows for a player to set up numerous harmful status effects, or even use the ever-excellent Perish Song.
7 Moxie
Few abilities are as perfectly catered to a sweeper Pokemon that attempts to blow through an entire opposing team like Moxie. Available for some offensive Pokemon like Honchkrow, Krookodile, and Salamance, when a Pokemon with Moxie KOs an opposing Pokemon, its attack stat is raised. This can help a Pokemon with high speed and attack snowball out of control as they become more and more deadly the more Pokemon they KO.
6 Sheer Force
While many offensive moves come along with additional effects they can cause, potentially altering stats of a Pokemon or inflicting a status effect, Sheer Force is an ability that strips these factors away, focusing only on damage. If a Pokemon with Sheer Force uses any damaging attack, any and all secondary effects are removed, while the attack deals 1.3 times more damage. This makes it an excellent ability for players looking to play hyper-aggressive offense-based teams.
5 No Guard
Similar to Sheer Force, No Guard is an ability that simplifies one's moves to some extent.
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While all abilities are maintained, No Guard ensures that all attacks from an opposing Pokemon will hit the Pokemon with No Guard, but all of its attacks will have guaranteed hits as well. This allows a player to make use of many of the strongest moves in the game that deal massive amounts of damage, only being held back by risky and low hit rates.
4 Prankster
On the exact opposite end of the ability spectrum from Sheer Force, Prankster is an ability that will often appear underwhelming to new players who simply want to deal as much damage as possible. A Pokemon with Prankster provides all of its status-effect-based moves with priority, allowing them to automatically be used first in the manner of Quick Attack. This allows Pokemon to reliably inflict statuses such as Paralysis and Burn from the word go with moves like Will-o-Wisp.
3 Rivalry
Rivalry is the epitome of a move that at first glance appears to not bring much to the table, but can rack up substantial damage over a battle. This ability causes a Pokemon to deal more damage to Pokemon of the same gender and less damage to Pokemon of the opposite gender. When using this ability, a player can hypothetically keep their Pokemon with Rivalry in reserve, and switch into it at the right time, when its damage can be optimized based on the gender of opposing Pokemon.
2 Receiver
Receiver is currently only available on a single Pokemon, as it is the personal ability of Passimian. While this ability doesn't do anything immediately, if a Passimian's partner is KO'd in a double battle, it gains the KO'd pokemon's ability. With the right setup, this can provide Passimian with some of the best abilities in the game such as Huge Power, all without requiring it to use any moves like Skill Swap.
1 Telepathy
Though lacking any utility in solo battles, Telepathy is among the most useful abilities a Pokemon can have in a double battle. This is because a Pokemon with this ability negates all damage to itself that would be deal from moves used by its ally. This means that with Telepathy, a player can use as many powerful universally damaging moves like Earthquake and only affect one's opponent!