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.

Turtwig, Grotle and Torterra
Torterra is a solid bulky attacker that sports a unique Grass/Ground typing, giving it rather uncommon coverage with its STAB moves. It has moderately balanced defenses and a respectable Attack stat at the cost of Speed, so it is well suited for dishing out heavy hits while sponging up enemy attacks. It has a nice movepool that includes a well-rounded range of physical attacks, boosting moves as well as important status moves. Torterra's typing is slightly below average defensively, as it is weak to very common offensive and utility attacks with Bug, Flying and most severely Ice moves being its bane. Its STAB combination is also totally resisted by Bug, Flying and Grass-types, making coverage moves a necessity.

For it Grass-type STAB move, Wood Hammer is a strong choice, having very high base power without sacrificing accuracy, though it inflicts recoil damage on itself. Seed Bomb is an alternative that lacks any negative effects, but has a major drop in damage compared to Wood Hammer. Earthquake is the obvious choice for its Ground STAB move, smashing Fire, Poison and Steel types that Wood Hammer has trouble breaking down. Stone Edge is a vital coverage move for Torterra, letting it hit Bugs and Flying-types that resist both of its STAB moves. Synthesis helps Torterra tank attacks, healing away some of the damage it sustained. Rock Polish and Swords Dance are excellent boosting moves to patch up Torterra's Speed or overwhelm bulky foes respectively. Stealth Rock provides a strong entry hazard for Torterra's team, while Wide Guard protects against common spread moves in doubles and triples.

Chimchar, Monferno and Infernape
With balanced mixed attacking stats and excellent Speed, Infernape is a versatile and threatening offensive Pokemon. It has an uncommon Fire/Fighting typing that grants it a range of helpful resistances and excellent STAB coverage. It also has an amazing movepool, featuring plenty of useful attacks both physical and special not to mention boosting moves for sweeping, and it has the Iron Fist ability to give some attacks some extra oomph. Given the sheer variety of Infernape's movepool, it can pull off a dedicated physical set, a mostly special set and even a mixed set, making it quite unpredictable for the opponent at the start of any match. Infernape suffers from the same issue as many other fast but frail attackers, in that any Pokemon that moves before it can easily take it out due to its terrible defenses.

For Inferhape's Fire move, Flare Blitz is the physical move of choice while Fire Blast is the best special attack. They have comparable power, with Flare Blitz dealing recoil damage while Fire Blast having slight issues with accuracy. For its Fighting move, Close Combat is often preferred for being a high power move with a negligible drawback, as Infernape isn't affected much by the defense drop. Focus Blast is rarely used even on special sets as it has similar power but poor accuracy. Mach Punch or Vacuum Wave are other valuable Fighting moves that give Infernape a priority move to take on faster Pokemon. On the physical side, Infernape has Gunk Shot, Earthquake or Stone Edge as coverage moves, while Grass Knot is its best special coverage move. U-turn lets it maintain momentum on predicted enemy switches. Swords Dance and Nasty Plot boosts its physical and special attacking stats respectively, facilitating its sweep. It also has several support moves like Stealth Rock, Taunt, Will-O-Wisp, Quick Guard and Fake Out, though Infernape's moveslots are typically at a premium, so it has trouble fitting these moves in.

Piplup, Prinplup and Empoleon
Empoleon is a Pokemon used primarily due to its strong defensive typing, an exclusive combination of Water and Steel. In addition to a Poison immunity, this typing gives Empoleon a whopping 10 resistances, two of which, Ice and Steel, are doubly resisted. Empoleon also has appreciable bulk particularly on the special side, so it is suited for a bulky support role focused on sponging moves it resists. Empoleon also has a usable Special Attack stat, giving it some offensive presence for a support. Unfortunately, Empoleon lacks a form of reliable recovery, so it can get chipped down after repeatedly taking hits. Its low Speed doesn't do it any favors, and as good as its typing is, it still has weaknesses to fairly common Electric, Fighting and Ground moves.

Scald is Empoleon's primary STAB attack, being the preferred Water move of every specially attacking Water-type. While it's not too strong, its propensity to spread burns is a powerful perk, and weakening physical attackers always helps due to Empoleon's inferior Defense stat. Flash Cannon is its best Steel move, though it doesn't hit anything Empoleon is particularly weak to. Ice Beam is a much better coverage move, blasting Dragons, Ground and Flying-types. Grass Knot is another coverage move that lets Empoleon hit other Water-types hard. Stealth Rock is an excellent entry hazard, and Empoleon is a good candidate for setting it due to its typing. Roar lets Empoleon force out its foe, which can help cut a sweep short or rack up entry hazard damage. Defog is cumbersome to obtain, but Empoleon is a great user of it compared to many other Defoggers due to its Rock resistance.

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.

Shaymin
Shaymin is a mythical pixie Pokemon with a twist. While it has the usual balanced stat spread in its Land Forme, it can change into its Sky Forme for increased offense at the cost of bulk. Land Shaymin is a nice special attacker with a good range of attacks to make use of, appreciable speed, good bulk and capable of being a status absorber due to its Grass type and Natural Cure. In its Sky Forme, Shaymin is a threatening offensive Pokemon with high attacking stats and excellent speed, not to mention gaining the powerful and annoying Serene Grace ability. Another great feature of Shaymin is its Seed Flare attack, which does a lot of damage and has a huge chance of lowering Special Defense, up to a whopping 80% with Serene Grace. Land Forme Shaymin lacks power to wear down special walls and also has trouble dealing with faster offensive Pokemon, especially due to its numerous weaknesses. Meanwhile, Sky Forme Shaymin suffers from horrendous bulk, and losing Natural Cure makes it much more susceptible to status, particularly paralysis.

No matter which Shaymin forme is used, Seed Flare is its go-to STAB move. This attack has great Base Power, but more importantly a high 40% chance to lower Special Defense, so Shaymin can potentially muscle through Pokemon that can otherwise comfortably sponge its attacks. Due to Seed Flare's poor accuracy and limited PP, Energy Ball is a nice alternative or addition. Air Slash is Sky Shaymin's secondary STAB with a high 60% flinch chance, though it can still be used by Land Shaymin to defeat other Grass-types. Earth Power deals with Fire and Steel types that resist Ground, Psychic takes down Poison-types, and Dazzling Gleam can be used for fighting Dragons. For more defensive builds, Leech Seed and Synthesis can be used to keep Shaymin healthy. Shaymin also has several support options. Aromatherapy and Healing Wish heals teammates, while Tailwind boosts the speed of Shaymin and its teammates.

Arceus
As the creator of the Pokemon universe, one would be correct to assume that Arceus would be a mighty force. With impressive stats in every category and the ability to change its typing according to its held item, even the newly-added Fairy, Arceus is an extremely versatile Pokemon that can fit into practically every team. A massive movepool gives Arceus impressive coverage no matter if it's playing as a physical or special attacker, while great bulk and speed enable it to be a potent support Pokemon as well. Perhaps Arceus's greatest strength is its Multitype ability, letting it change its type to cover its team's defensive or offensive shortcomings, while having no indication of its altered type to the opponent until it is actually sent into battle. Even without a type change Arceus is still a major threat, with the notorious Extreme Killer set being one of the most infamous among Arceus archetypes.

For special attacking sets, Arceus will be using Judgement as its STAB move in most cases. This useful move has 100 power, higher than most standard special moves, and changes its type along with Arceus. Other notable special moves it gets are Flamethrower, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Energy Ball, Surf, Earth Power, Shadow Ball, Dark Pulse, Psychic, Focus Blast, and so forth. Physical attacking Arceus is more uncommon, most of them using Extreme Speed as Normal Arceus while with a power boosting item and Swords Dance. Its physical movepool is not as large as its special one, with Earthquake, Stone Edge, Shadow Claw, Poison Jab, Iron Head and Outrage being some notable ones. Support Arceus have plenty of choices as well, getting Recover and Refresh for healing itself. Will-O-Wisp, Thunder Wave and Toxic are all good status spreading moves. It can set up Stealth Rock, though Defog to remove hazards entirely is also a common choice.