8 Pokemon Abilities That Completely Broke The Games

When people start playing Pokemon battles, they often focus on things like a Pokemon’s type, stats, and moves. That’s a perfectly fine way to begin! However, experienced players know that a Pokemon’s ability is usually the key to whether it can truly compete at a high level.

Abilities were added to Pokémon games in the third generation as a way to give Pokémon helpful, automatic effects during battles. While some abilities aren’t very strong, eight of them were so powerful that they significantly impacted both casual and competitive gameplay. Some of these abilities have been weakened over time, but others remain incredibly strong, and are feared by experienced players.

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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.

The Pokemon series is known for constantly adding new, more powerful content, which often makes older games feel outdated. Despite this, the ability Intimidate, which first appeared in Generation Three, remains incredibly strong and is considered one of the most powerful abilities in the entire franchise.

Even a small reduction in an opponent’s Attack power can significantly improve a player’s chances of winning. The Intimidate ability is particularly strong because it lowers the Attack of both opponents in Double Battles and gets reset every time the Pokémon is brought into the battle. This ability has been consistently powerful in competitive Pokémon for many years. In the eighth generation of games, the developers, Game Freak, adjusted how some abilities work—like Inner Focus and Scrappy—specifically to counter the effectiveness of Pokémon with Intimidate, most notably 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 Pokémon battles, the weather – like sun or rain – can dramatically shift the advantage, as certain types of Pokémon become stronger or weaker. While moves can change the weather, they take up a whole turn, making them impractical. That’s why the abilities Drought (used by Groudon) and Drizzle (used by Kyogre) became so popular in competitive battling – they automatically set the weather when the Pokémon enters the fight.

As a competitive Pokémon player, I can tell you that automatically setting up weather – without losing a turn to do it – is huge. It’s so good, in fact, that people actually build entire teams around it! What’s even cooler is that later on, some non-Legendary Pokémon like Torkoal and Pelipper got abilities that let them do this too, which really opened things up for competitive battles where Legendaries aren’t allowed. But the best part? When Groudon and Kyogre got their Primal Reversions in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, they got brand new abilities – Desolate Land and Primordial Sea – that not only bring the sun or rain, but also completely shut down Fire and Water attacks, respectively. It’s a game changer!

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

Starting with the Pokemon games of Generation Six, Game Freak began giving starter Pokemon special hidden abilities that often made them very powerful in competitive battles. A prime example of this is Greninja’s ability, Protean. This ability allows Greninja to change its type with each move, making it incredibly unpredictable. Combined with its high speed, Greninja can usually switch types before its opponent even has time to respond.

Cinderace, the Fire-type Starter from Generation Eight, had a special ability called Libero, which worked very similarly to the Protean ability, but was themed around soccer. Both Protean and Libero were powerful abilities, but they were adjusted in Generation Nine. Now, Pokémon with these abilities can only change type once per battle. This change was likely made to ensure they worked well with the new Terastallization feature in Scarlet and Violet, and it’s possible the abilities could be restored to their original strength later on.

Parental Bond

Causes All Damaging Moves To Strike Twice

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

It wasn’t surprising when Mega Evolutions proved to be unbalanced in Generation Six. While many were powerful due to their high stats, Mega Kangaskhan stood out as particularly overpowered—and therefore very popular—thanks to its unique ability, Parental Bond.

When Kangaskhan Mega Evolves, its baby Pokémon emerges from its pouch to battle alongside it. This is why every attack Kangaskhan uses appears to hit twice – the second hit deals half the damage of the first. This ability, called Parental Bond, was already very strong, but players discovered it became even more powerful when combined with the move Power-Up Punch, which sharply increases Kangaskhan’s attack power. Parental Bond was so effective that it was eventually weakened in the Sun and Moon games; now, the baby Kangaskhan’s second hit only deals 25% damage instead of 50%—though it’s still a significant boost.

Delta Stream

Changes The Weather And Eliminates All Of Flying Type Weaknesses

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

Rayquaza, the Legendary Pokemon tasked with stopping the battles between Groudon and Kyogre, has an ability called Air Lock that cancels out all weather effects – which makes sense, given its role. However, Air Lock never really stood out in competitive battles. Several other, non-Legendary Pokemon, such as Golduck and Lickilicky, have a similar ability called Cloud Nine that does the same thing.

Game Freak understood that Rayquaza’s Mega Evolution needed a remarkably powerful ability to match the strengths of Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre. They created Delta Stream, which not only cancels out the effects of Desolate Land and Primordial Sea, but also eliminates the Flying-type’s weaknesses – especially its double weakness to Ice – making Rayquaza incredibly difficult to defeat. This is a major reason why Mega Rayquaza is widely considered one of the most overpowered Pokémon in the series.

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

As a Pokémon fan, I thought the introduction of terrains in Generation Six was a really cool idea! They’re like weather conditions, but with different effects – Electric, Psychic, Grassy, and Misty. What’s neat is that you can even have a terrain and weather happening at the same time! Unfortunately, even though they were interesting, I didn’t see terrains used much in competitive battles. It seemed like a lot of the moves that set them up took a whole turn, which is a big disadvantage when you’re trying to win.

However, Generation Seven completely changed the competitive landscape with the introduction of the Guardian Deities, known as the Tapus. Each Tapu had a unique ability that instantly created a special terrain – Electric Terrain, Psychic Terrain, Grassy Terrain, and Misty Terrain. Like the weather effects in Generation Three, these terrains dramatically impacted battles, and players started building entire teams around them. Although the Tapus didn’t appear in Sword and Shield, Game Freak gave several non-Legendary Pokémon these terrain-setting abilities – Rillaboom being a prime example – meaning they continue to be powerful forces in competitive play.

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 moves that work like it – is incredibly important in Pokémon, letting a Pokémon avoid all damage for a single turn. Competitive battles depend heavily on these kinds of protective moves, so when a Pokémon appeared that could bypass them, it completely changed the game.

The Isle of Armor expansion focuses on Urshifu, a strong Legendary Pokémon with a unique ability called Unseen Fist. This ability allows Urshifu to bypass moves like Protect when using a direct attack. While both of Urshifu’s forms were helpful in the eighth generation of Pokémon games, they became overwhelmingly powerful in the ninth generation after the removal of Dynamax Pokémon. This was almost inevitable, as being able to defeat a core game mechanic like Protect was a new and surprising development that continues to impact players 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)

Game Freak quickly disrupted the competitive Pokémon scene with a new, incredibly powerful ability. Introduced in The Crown Tundra, the second expansion for Sword and Shield, was Calyrex, a Legendary Pokémon. While Calyrex isn’t particularly strong on its own, it can team up with either Spectrier or Glastrier to become its Shadow Rider or Ice Rider form, respectively. Both of these forms feature the amazing new ability, As One.

Because of this, Calyrex benefits from its own ability, Unnerve (which stops opponents from using berries), as well as the abilities of its steeds, Grim Neigh and Chilling Neigh. These steeds increase either Calyrex’s Special Attack or Attack when it defeats an opponent. Essentially, Shadow Rider or Ice Rider Calyrex can use two abilities simultaneously – a unique trait that no other Pokémon, past or present, possesses.

2026-03-23 21:08