Pokémon X and Y/Species Strategies (Generation IV Families)

This page contains information on every Pokémon family first introduced in Generation IV, including stats, recommended movesets and evolutionary lines. All evolutionary lines are put together, even if an evolution or pre-evolution was not introduced in the same Generation as other members of its evolutionary family.

Starly, Staravia and Staraptor
Despite being the early-game bird of the Sinnoh region, Staraptor separates itself from its counterparts with its sheer power. It has fairly high Attack and Speed stats, but what really makes Staraptor great is its excellent movepool. It has strong STAB options for both of its types, getting Brave Bird through leveling up and Double-Edge as an egg move. Combined with its hidden ability Reckless, and Staraptor's attacks will really hurt, at the cost of doing high recoil damage to itself as well. While two Reckless boosted recoil attacks are good enough, Staraptor also gets the wonderful Close Combat by leveling up, letting it punch holes in Rock and Steel types that resists its STAB move. Finally, it can learn Roost if it can find a turn to heal off its recoil damage, Quick Attack as an option against faster threats and U-turn for efficiently switching out when it encounters a foe it has difficulty with.

Staraptor's weakness, like any other fast attacker, is its poor survivability. Its defensive stats are average at best, its Normal/Flying is quite average defensively and it relies heavily on two attacks that deal recoil damage, as well as one that lowers it defenses. This means that Staraptor can lose a lot of its health quickly, most of which is dealt by itself, and will likely go down if it can't manage to defeat its foe quickly enough. Staraptor is also slower than a few common offensive threats like Garchomp, and its Speed doesn't matter at all against strong priority attackers, which can limit it can deal as it can't hit first. All in all, Staraptor is a strong but also almost suicidal Pokémon. Fainting is an inevitable fate for the bird with the mohawk, but it will most certainly take down a few of its opponents with it.

Chatot
Chatot's one of the more obscure Pokémon that doesn't really stand out, with an uninteresting stat spread and generic typing. However, it did gain some minor buffs in this generation to make it slightly more usable. Its signature move, Chatter, can no longer record and playback voices, but has gained the ability to always confuse. It also receives Boomburst as an egg move, giving it a very strong STAB move that uses its fairly high Special Attack. Unfortunately, Chatot is still riddled with weaknesses, being terribly frail and having poor Speed to compete with many offensive threats. Its typing also leaves it with some common weaknesses, including to Stealth Rock. While Chatot has certainly gotten a bit better, it still has a long way to go before it can match the power and reputation of some of its fellow Flying-types.

Chatot has two essential moves, Chatter and Boomburst. Boomburst is Chatot's main attack, with an excellent 140 Base Power and the ability to hit through Substitutes, it is without a doubt the strongest and most reliable move Chatot can use. Chatter is the strongest special Flying-type attack Chatot can learn, but its main use is to inflict confusion status. For coverage options, Chatot's movepool is pretty disappointing. It can learn Heat Wave from a move tutor in a previous generation, which is valuable against Steel-types, and U-Turn as more of a utility move to let it scout and switch efficiently. It can also use Roost for longevity, Defog and Tailwind for team support, and Nasty Plot or Agility for a potential sweep, but its bulk is too poor for it to do any of these things reasonably effectively.

Gible, Gabite and Garchomp
Ever since its conception, Garchomp has been consistently one of the best and most used Pokémon for battling. The reasons its a huge threat are quite obvious. With high Attack and Speed, as well as awesome STAB coverage, its a threatening offensive Pokémon that is fully capable of sweeping. It is not too bad in the defensive side either, with good stats for survivability and an awesome Dragon/Ground typing that leaves it with few weaknesses. Additionally, it has a wonderful array of moves to let it run a variety of sets, and Rough Skin is just icing on the cake. As powerful as it is, Garchomp's type weaknesses are a major flaw, with Ice, Dragon and Fairy types all being commonly-used attacking types.

As if Garchomp wasn't scary enough, it even gained a Mega Evolution, raising its stats to legendary levels, but giving it a significant 10-point drop in base Speed. This minor reduction is enough to stop Mega Garchomp from sweeping teams, but grants it frightening power instead. 170 Attack means Garchomp can hit as hard as Black Kyurem, and it also has a usable 120 Special Attack to turn it into a capable mixed attacker. Its defenses also got an overall buff, and it also gained the ability Sand Force, which powers up some of its moves to obscene levels during Sandstorms.

Owing to its good overall stats, Garchomp is quite versatile with the moves it can run. Earthquake is a staple STAB attack, giving it good Super Effective coverage. Outrage is another common STAB move, with its high base power and excellent coverage that can let Garchomp sweep unprepared teams. Dragon Claw can also be used if you're wary of Fairy or Steel-types, but does noticeably less damage. Stone Edge and Fire Blast are good coverage moves, even though the latter uses Garchomp's lower Special Attack. Swords Dance can often be found on sweeper Garchomps to double their Attack given the opportunity.

Riolu and Lucario
Lucario is a pretty popular Pokémon, and its stats are nothing to scoff at. With great offensive stats, good Speed, an awesome movepool and, in this generation, a devastating Mega Evolution. It has access to the coveted Extreme Speed, letting it get the first attack against just about any Pokémon, Swords Dance for sweeping, Close Combat as a deadly STAB option and useful coverage moves like Bullet Punch, Crunch and Ice Punch. If you want to use its rich special movepool, it has Aura Sphere as a main STAB option, Vacuum Wave as a substitute to Extreme Speed, Nasty Plot as a boosting move, and Dark Pulse, Dragon Pulse and Psychic for coverage. In double or triple battles, it has Quick Guard and Heal Pulse for added utility.

Defensively, its type combination gives it useful neutralities to Psychic, Flying and Fairy, along with a quad resistance to Bug and Rock, and an immunity to Poison. A resistance to Dark-type attacks helps it secure an Attack boost from Justified by switching into a predicted Dark-type attack. Watch out for other Fighting-types as well as Ground and Fire types, as they can easily break through Lucario's mediocre defenses. If you have a free mega slot on your team, Mega Lucario is an excellent choice, giving it a boost in its offensive stats as well as the ability Adaptability, which means an Aura Sphere or Close Combat will hit even harder. All in all, Lucario is an amazing sweeper, with the right typing and strong priority attacks to make it an extremely dangerous foe.

Phione and Manaphy
Manaphy is a mythical Pokemon with great all-around stats, with its most notable feature being one of the only two Pokemon to learn Tail Glow. This powerful boosting move boosts Manaphy's Special Attack by 3 stages, or 2.5 times, in a single turn, instantly making it an exceedingly powerful Special Attacker that can tear through teams. Manaphy also has a solid movepool that grants it amazing coverage. It's not too shabby defensively either, being one of the best users of Hydration that can use rain to both boost its attacks and effortlessly shrug off status, while its pure Water typing gives it plenty of nice resistances. Manaphy's main weakness is its rather average Speed, which it can't boost with an item if it's using Tail Glow, so most faster attackers can take it down before Manaphy starts launching its powered-up attacks.

Tail Glow is a mainstay on Manaphy's moveset, being the only offensive boosting move that boosts a stat by three stages, and Manaphy can find ample opportunities to set up with its solid bulk and typing. Scald is Manaphy's main STAB move, since its usually middling Base Power becomes stronger than most Hydro Pumps after a boost, and it has a very helpful burn chance to weaken any Pokemon that manages to survive a hit. Ice Beam has excellent coverage with Scald, being highly effective against Grass and Dragon-types. Being one of the few Water-types to learn Energy Ball lets it hit other Water-types hard too. It can also mix up its attacks for specific targets, the common candidates being Psychic, Hidden Power Fire, and Shadow Ball. Rain Dance is a great move on more defensive Manaphy sets, activating Hydration to protect Manaphy from status ailments. Rest can also be used to great effect with Hydration, letting Manaphy completely restore its health for no cost. Keep in mind that the more moves Manaphy runs to improve its survivability, the less coverage moves it can use.

Darkrai
Darkrai fits into the archetype of a Dark-type glass cannon, with incredible Special Attack and great Speed, making it a capable attacker. However, its true danger comes from its signature move, Dark Void, a move deemed so powerful it has seen bans in official competitions due to the possibility of Smeargle learning it. This debilitating status move has great accuracy for a sleep-inducing move, just behind Spore, and it's the only Sleep move that can affect multiple foes in a double or triple battle. This gives it the potential to incapacitate a huge chunk of the opponent's team, and Darkrai's excellent Speed makes it a great status spreader. Darkrai can take advantage of sleeping foes well, able to boost with Nasty Plot or rapidly wear them down with attacks and Bad Dreams. Darkrai is a glass cannon and its typing is not very good defensively, so a decently strong attack can quickly bring it down, assuming the foe isn't hit by sleep. It also relies heavily on its speed for its offense and sleep-spreading, so paralysis can render it virtually useless.

Dark Void is Darkrai's signature move and what seperates it from other fast but frail attackers. Having a fairly accurate Sleep move on such a fast Pokemon is a huge boon, and can dramatically cripple the enemy team with a bit of luck. Dark Pulse is its main STAB move, being a decently strong special Dark attack with a very helpful chance to flinch. Darkrai has a decent selection of coverage moves to choose from. Psychic stops Fighting-types, Focus Blast is effective against opposing Dark-types and Sludge Bomb deals with Fairies. Ice Beam and Thunderbolt provides good coverage overall. For utility moves, Darkrai can use Nasty Plot to heavily boost its Special Attack, while a fast Taunt is useful for shutting down opposing utility Pokemon. Thunder Wave and Will-O-Wisp are more permanent status effects for crippling powerful foes, but they are rather situational.