8 Pokemon Abilities That Completely Broke The Games

When it comes to Pokemon battling, newcomers may prioritize some of the more obvious elements of a Pokemon, like its typing, stats, or move pool. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but seasoned players can corroborate that a Pokemon’s ability is what will actually determine if they’re competitively viable or not (most of the time, at least).

Abilities were introduced in Pokemon’s third generation, and they basically work as passive effects that give these creatures a much-needed boost in battle. Some abilities are almost useless, others are quite solid, but the following eight are so overpowered that they broke both casual and competitive play. Yes, a few of these abilities were eventually nerfed, but others were left intact, which is why their names strike fear in the hearts of even the most skilled players.

Intimidate

Lowers The Opponent’s Attack Stat Upon Entering Battle

• Introduced in: Generation Three (Hoenn)
• Pokemon That Have It: Incineroar, Gyarados, Arcanine, Krookodile, and many more.

Given Pokemon is a franchise that often falls victim to power creep (the practice of adding so much new content that it makes previous games obsolete), one would think that abilities that debuted in Generation Three would not be worth using today, and yet, Intimidate is infamous for being one of the most broken abilities in the franchise.

Something as simple as lowering the opponent’s Attack stat can go a long way towards helping the player secure a victory, especially when considering that Intimidate can affect both opponents during Double Battles and that its effect is reactivated every time the Pokemon is switched in and out of a match. This ability has been dominating the competitive scene for decades, which is why, in Generation Eight, Game Freak changed the way certain abilities (like Inner Focus or Scrappy) work, just to stop Pokemon with Intimidate (especially Incineroar).

Drought & Drizzle/Desolate Land & Primordial Sea

Automatically Summons Sunlight Or Rain Upon Entering Battle

• Introduced in: Generation Three/Generation Six (Hoenn)
• Pokemon That Have It: Groudon and Kyogre/Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre

In Pokemon, weather conditions like sunlight or rain can completely change the tide of a battle, as they have different effects that either boost or debilitate Pokemon of specific types. However, being forced to use an entire turn to summon weather with moves is not really viable, which is why Groudon and Kyogre’s signature abilities, Drought and Drizzle, became such a mainstay of competitive play.

Being able to summon weather automatically without wasting a turn is so practical that entire team compositions were created with this strategy in mind. Additionally, some non-legendary Pokemon (like Torkoal and Pelipper) received these abilities in later generations, making these weather-centric strategies even more viable in competitive formats that don’t allow Legendaries. To make things even better, Groudon and Kyogre’s Primal Reversion came with brand-new abilities in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire called Desolate Land and Primordial Sea. These not only summon their associated weather condition, but they also nullify Water and Fire-type attacks, respectively.

Protean/Libero

The Pokemon Changes Its Type To The Type Of The Move That It’s Using

• Introduced in: Generation Six (Kalos), Generation Eight (Galar)
• Pokemon That Have It: Greninja, Meowscarada/Cinderace

Back in Generation Six, Game Freak started a new trend of giving Starter Pokemon exclusive hidden abilities that, most of the time, ended up turning them into huge threats in the competitive scene. One of the most famous examples of this phenomenon is Protean, the signature hidden ability of Greninja. Being able to change typing with the press of a button made this Pokemon extremely unpredictable, especially because it’s so fast that it can almost always change types before the opponent has a chance to react.

On top of that, the Generation Eight Fire-type Starter, Cinderace, had the hidden ability Libero, which is basically a copycat of Protean but with a different name that better fits this Pokemon’s soccer aesthetic. All in all, Protean and Libero were excellent abilities, but all good things must eventually come to an end. They were both unfortunately nerfed in Generation Nine, and now they can only make the Pokemon change types once per battle. This was most likely done so these abilities wouldn’t clash with Scarlet and Violet’s Terastallization mechanic, which means they may be reinstated in their original forms at some point in the future.

Parental Bond

Causes All Damaging Moves To Strike Twice

• Introduced in: Generation Six (Kalos)
• Pokemon That Have It: Mega Kangaskhan

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Mega Evolutions broke the game when they were introduced in Generation Six. While most of them did so due to their absurdly high stat distribution, Mega Kangaskhan became one of the most overpowered (and, by extension, most frequently used) Mega Evolutions in the game thanks to its exclusive new ability, Parental Bond.

Upon Mega Evolving, Kangaskhan’s baby comes out of its pouch and fights alongside its mother, which is why every move they use strikes twice, with the second hit doing half the damage of the first. This ability was already incredibly convenient in and of itself, but players began to use it alongside the move Power-Up Punch, which boosts Mega Kangaskhan’s Attack stat by two instead of by one. Parental Bond was so broken that it was eventually nerfed in Sun and Moon, and baby Kangaskhan’s second strike now deals 25% damage instead of 50% (which is admittedly still quite good).

Delta Stream

Changes The Weather And Eliminates All Of Flying Type Weaknesses

• Introduced in: Generation Six (Hoenn)
• Pokemon That Have It: Mega Rayquaza

As the Legendary Pokemon in charge of stopping Groudon and Kyogre’s weather-altering clashes, the fact that base Rayquaza’s signature ability, Air Lock, can eliminate all weather conditions makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, it was never particularly impressive in the competitive scene. After all, several non-Legendary Pokemon (like Golduck or Lickilicky) have an ability called Cloud Nine, which does the exact same thing.

That’s precisely why Game Freak knew that they needed to give Rayquaza’s Mega Evolution a truly broken ability that could compete against the abilities of Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre. The result was Delta Stream, not only one of the few ways of nullifying Desolate Land and Primordial Sea, but also an ability that deactivates all the weaknesses of the Flying-type, which in turn makes this Pokemon near unstoppable (since it no longer has a double weakness to the Ice type). Delta Stream’s existence is one of the many reasons why Mega Rayquaza is considered one of the most overpowered Pokemon in the entire franchise.

Electric Surge/Psychic Surge/Grassy Surge/Misty Surge

Automatically Summons A Specific Terrain Upon Entering Battle

• Introduced in: Generation Seven (Alola)
• Pokemon That Have It: Tapu Koko, Pincurchin/Tapu Lele, Indeedee/Tapu Bulu, Rillaboom/Tapu Fini, Galarian Weezing

Generation Six introduced the concept of terrains (Electric, Psychic, Grassy, and Misty), which act as counterparts to weather conditions and boast their own individual effects. They’re able to exist in battle at the same time as rain, sunlight, or sandstorm. This was an interesting idea, to say the least, but none of these terrains saw much usage in competitive play because, similar to the weather, they need to be summoned with moves that take an entire turn to use.

Nevertheless, Generation Seven changed everything by introducing the Guardian Deities (AKA the “Tapus”), all of whom had an exclusive ability that could automatically summon a terrain: Electric Surge, Psychic Surge, Grassy Surge, and Misty Surge. Similar to weather back in Generation Three, these four abilities redefined competitive battles, and players began creating entire team compositions just to take advantage of them. While the Guardian Deities unfortunately did not return in Sword and Shield, Game Freak gave these terrain-summoning abilities to various non-Legendary Pokemon (with Rillaboom being one of the biggest standouts), thus allowing them to keep breaking the game to this day.

Unseen Fist

The Pokemon Can Ignore Protective Moves If It Makes Contact

• Introduced in: Generation Eight (Galar)
• Pokemon That Have It: Urshifu (Single Strike Style and Rapid Strike Style)

Protect (and all of its variations) is arguably one of the most important moves in all of Pokemon, as it allows a Pokemon to become immune to all incoming attacks for one turn. The entire competitive scene relies solely on the existence of protective moves like Protect or Detect, which is why the sudden introduction of a Pokemon that’s able to break through them changed everything.

The Isle of Armor DLC centers on Urshifu, a powerful Legendary Pokemon with the exclusive ability Unseen Fist, which can ignore moves like Protect when using an attack that makes direct contact. To no one’s surprise, both forms of Urshifu were very useful in Generation Eight, but they completely broke the competitive meta in Generation Nine when Dynamax Pokemon were no longer around. How could they not? After all, being able to shatter one of the main gameplay mechanics in this long-running franchise was something completely unprecedented ND still takes players by surprise today.

As One

Combines The Effects Of Two Abilities At The Same Time

• Introduced in: Generation Eight (Galar)
• Pokemon ttat have it: Calyrex (Shadow Rider and Ice Rider)

It wouldn’t take long for Game Freak to break their own competitive scene with yet another overpowered ability. Sword and Shield’s second DLC expansion, The Crown Tundra, marked the debut of the Legendary Pokemon known as Calyrex. While it’s not very strong by itself, the King Pokemon can mount Spectrier or Gastrier to unlock its Shadow Rider and Ice Rider forms, both of which possess an incredible new ability called As One.

As a result, Calyrex has access to the effects of both its innate ability, Unnerve (which prevents enemies from consuming berries), and the abilities of its steeds, Grim Neigh and Chilling Neigh, which boost its Special Attack or its Attack after taking down an opponent, respectively. That’s right: Shadow Rider/Ice Rider Calyrex can basically use two completely different abilities at the same time, something that no other Pokemon introduced either before or after it has been able to mimic.