EMPOLEON STRATEGY IN COMPETITIVE POKÉMON

Well, I decided that since it was raining, I would bring you Empoleon ‘s strategy and that’s how we closed the trio of Sinnoh starters. Empoleon is a Pokémon that as far as design is concerned, I must say that I find it quite elegant and powerful in terms of aesthetics and others.

The thing is that while it’s true that it gives the impression of being a really powerful Pokémon, when it comes to Competitive and others… let’s face it, it’s not the best Pokémon, in fact it’s pretty lousy to compete against someone, but I don’t Don’t worry, we’ll find something for him to make it decent.

It doesn’t stand out offensively and on the special side we can get some shine from it, but not much either, since even its Hidden Ability works against it. Defensively, it’s a Pokémon with potential, but it can’t compare to walls like Toxapex , Ferrothorn , or Duraludon to mention a few examples. In addition, let’s add his lousy speed, but it is true that he has very few weaknesses… the poor guy has everything to never win the race to be the best in the Competitive. But anyway… let’s swim a little to get to the domain of this emperor penguin.

? EMPOLEON STATS

Its stats add up to a total of 530 points , which is more or less what all the initial Pokémon have, which must be said that in terms of stats they are quite sucked.

• Health: 84.
• Attack: 86.
• Defense: 88.
• Special Attack: 111.
• Special Defense: 101.
• Speed: 60.

We have some pretty mediocre stats, but let’s take a closer look at them: Offensively, it’s not too bad with that 111 Special Attack; It’s fine and stuff but it’s not anything to write home about either. What does weigh him down a lot and as I said above is his low Speed, but he is a penguin and on top of steel, what did you expect.

Defensively, it’s not that he stands out much either, perhaps his Special Defense. Anyway, not bad, a low health, a decent Defense and a quite acceptable Special Defense being a Steel type.

Overall, we have a Pokémon that doesn’t stand out too much offensively or defensively, and that’s something that will weigh heavily on us in Competitive.

TYPE, RESISTANCES AND WEAKNESSES

Empoleon is a Steel Water Type , which gives it the following weaknesses and resistances:

• He is immune to Poison.
• It is very resistant to Ice and Steel.
• It is resistant to Bug, Flying, Dragon, Water, Normal, Ghost, Psychic, Fairy and Rock.
• It is weak to Electric, Fighting and Ground.

Poison immunity is the best, so a plus point. In addition, we have resistance to two interesting types, such as the Fairy type and the Dragon type, which are quite present in the competitive one.

However, it has some weaknesses that weigh heavily on it; the weakness to Ground is a pain, but even worse if they take out a Fighting or Electric type since they are usually very common moves as coverage. Although it would be worse to have a x4 weakness, grateful to Arceus that it is x2.

SKILLS OF EMPOLEON

Now let’s take a look at his skills:

TORRENT

When at 1/3 health, our Water-Type moves will deal 50% more damage. It is not bad as such, but it is true that it is difficult for us to coincide that we are in that health stretch; On top of that, as we are slow, it will cost even more to take advantage of it.

COMPETITIVE

Competitive increases the user’s attack by two levels when an opponent lowers any of its characteristics. If the reduction is done by moves used by the Pokémon itself or by a partner, the ability will not activate.

This ability activates once for each different characteristic reduced.

IV’S, EV’S AND NATURE

The perfect Iv’s, seldom will it be like that… let’s get to the interesting thing, which are the EV’s and Nature:

• EV’s : Offensively it is a chestnut, so we are going to make it Defensive, which is where I think it will stand out the most since the Steel type will give us the defense we need and the Water will reinforce it. His thing would be to distribute his EV’s, between his Health and Special Defense, the few that you have left over you can put them in Defense.
• Nature : Calm (+Special Defense, -Attack). We will not use physical attacks, so it does not matter to us, what remains we can put it to raise its defense.

RECOMMENDED ITEM

These are the items I recommend for Empoleon:

• Remnants : The quintessential defensive item. Each turn we will recover a little health, so it is great for us to endure better.
• Serrated Helmet : The alternative to the alternative. It does not give us healing, instead the opposing Pokémon will lose 1/6 of its health when making a contact attack, which is actually quite good for wearing down rivals.
• Berry Acardo : When the pokémon receives an effective ground-type move, it reduces its power by 50%.

BEST MOVES FOR EMPOLEON

The movements that I recommend the most for Empoleon:

• Scald : STAB movement, special, with power 80 and 100 accuracy, with which you will shoot a jet of boiling water that will hit the opponent and if you are very lucky you will be able to burn it, thus reducing its attack.
• Clear: With this movement you will reduce the opponent’s evasion by one level and you will also eliminate all the effects that are on him from the field, including elemental fields.
• Ice Beam : Ice-type movement, special, with 90 power and 100 precision, as its name indicates, you will launch an ice beam capable of freezing the target in order to immobilize it for a while.
• Glow Focus : Steel-type STAB move, special with a power of 80 and 100 accuracy that is capable of lowering the opponent’s Special Defense if we hit them.
• Rocks Trap : We will put a trap on the rival team that will damage the Pokémon that enter the field. The damage will be higher or lower depending on its resistance or weakness to Rock.
• Toxic : Seriously poisons the opponent, he will lose more and more health for each turn that passes.
• Protection : We will avoid the damage we receive that turn with the highest priority. If we use it twice in a row it is almost certain that it will fail.

EMPOLEON STRATEGIES

Now I will assemble some strategies that may be worth a lot, you can assemble yours with all the data that I have given you, but it can serve as examples:

EMPOLEON SPECIAL DEFENSIVE

• IVs: Perfect.
• EVs: All in Health, 180 in Special Defense and the rest in Defense.
• Nature: Serene.
• Object: Remains.
• Ability: Torrent.
• Movements:
  • Clear.
  • Scald.
  • Rock Trap.
  • Roar.

What I would do with this strategy is to throw Trap Rocks as soon as they enter and if they haven’t defeated us, throw Roar to get them out of the field and damage the Pokémon that enters in their place. We would take Scald as a STAB move to deal damage and burn the enemy since it has a high chance of that happening. Clear would help us remove traps such as Spikes, Toxic Spikes or pieces of steel along with the elemental fields.

Other moves we could put in would be Ice Beam to deal a little more damage or Toxic to be even more annoying.

CLEAR OFFENSIVE EMPOLEON

• IVs: Perfect.
• EVs: All in Special Attack and Health, remaining in Special Defense.
• Nature: Modest.
• Item: Leftovers/ Acardo Berry.
• Ability: Torrent.
• Movements:
  • Scald/Hydropump.
  • Ice Lightning.
  • Clear.
  • Glow Focus.

With this strategy we will become much more offensive by carrying STAB attacks like Scald or Hydro Pump with much more power, although in this case using Clear will not be as recommended but it will be necessary at some point in the fight. With Ice Beam we will get rid of rivals like Torterra and with Radiance Focus we will eliminate the Fairies from the field (pun intended).

Remnants will make us passively recover health while the Acardo Berry will make the Torterra, Mamoswine or Hippowdon Earthquake deal half damage.

HOW TO DEFEAT EMPOLEON AND COUNTERS

It doesn’t matter how defensive we make our emperor penguin because ultimately having the 3 types that are usually the biggest covers as a weakness will be very lucky that we find someone who doesn’t have them.

Since pretty much everyone always carries Pokémon with some kind of Ground move, even a Pokémon like Blaziken can give us the day if it uses a High Hook or a well-timed Point Blank. On top of that, it’s slow, so it will be even easier for him to send us to the Pokémon Center.