Although many Pokémon are judged based on their base stats alone, it's easy to forget that the majority of Pokémon in the series are able to learn moves that can 💟increase or decrease those stats in battle. S🔜ometimes these moves aren't worth the space on a moveset, since they can only learn a maximum of four moves at a time, but in some cases, these stat-boosting moves mean the difference between a good Pokémon and a great one.
Not all stat-boosting moves are created equally, however, as there are ju🌼st as many useless or underpowered stat-boosting moves as there are amazing ones. Some of these moves are also tied to attacks that have the secondary effect of increasing or decreasing stats when executed, though they are usually far weaker than other attacks to make up for this.
10 🐼 Best: Geomancy
The signature move of Xerneas, Geomancy has proven to be not only one of the most annoying stat-boosting moves to deal with in competitive battles but is easily one of the best stat-boosting moves in the game. At the cost of having💦 to wait one turn for the effects to take place, Geomancy boosts the special attack, special defense, and speed of Xerneas by two stages. This need to wait one turn is supposed to be a major downside for such a strong move, but it is offset entirely by just giving Xerneas a Power Herb to hold, which allows two-turn moves to be executed in just one. The only thing that really holds Geomancy back from being the best is that it can only be🔥 learned by Xerneas or a Smeargle that has used Sketch.
9 💛 Worst: Acupr﷽essure
Acupressure has the potential to be a great stat-boosting move, but it is let down by the fact that the stat that it boosts is entirely random. While the ability Moody has a similar effect, it is much better than Acupressure since it doesn't take up one of the player's turns to use and can be used in conjunction with other stat-b☂oosting moves. It also doesn't help that Acupressure isn't a very common move that is only usable on Pokémon like Dodrio, who has much more consistent stat-boosting moves, as well as the likes of Drapion and Shuckle, neither of which benefit greatly from boosted stats.
8 💖 Best: Dragon Dance 𒁏
Probably the most common stat-boosting move around, Dragon Dance is easily one of the best moves around in both casual and compeওtitive battling. Boosting both speed and attack by one stage is often enough to ensure a Pokémon is not only outspeeding every other Pokémon around but also defeating opposing Pokémon in fewer hits.
For the most part, Dragon Dance is only learnable by 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dragon-type Pokémon or Pokémon who are a part of the dragon breeding group, such as Tyranitar, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Charizard, and Gyarados. Strangely, this egg group also extend🦩s out to the likes of Onix, Whiscash, and Sandaconda, meaning they canꦦ all learn Dragon Dance as well, though are less able to utilize it.
7 Worst🌳: Swagger
Swagger used to be a great stat-boosting move, even if they worked on the opponent instead of the player's Pokémon, but subsequent generations and changes to game mechanics made Swagger a worse option on Pokémon that employ 𒆙stalling tactics. At the cost of increasing the target Pokémon's attack by two stages, Swagger would also confuse the Pokémon, meaning that they would also take increased damage from confusion damage. Until generation seven, confusion wou♏ld result in recoil 50% of the time, but this was reduced to 33% largely because of Swagger, severely reducing its reliability in stall tactics.
6 Best: Calmꦯ Mind
Calm Mind is to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Psychic-type Pokémon what Dragon Dance is to Dragon-type Pokémon. While they both 🌃boost different stats, Calm Mind works just as well for its typing, as it boosts special attack and special defense rather than attack and speed. This means that Calm Mind is not only used offensively on Pokémon like Gardevoir but also defensively on bulkier Pokémon like Reuniclus. It has also seen a great deal of usage on Slowbro an🦹d Slowking, as they are both naturally slow Pokémon with decent special attack and special defense even before Calm Mind is used.
5 Worst: Fell St𒆙inger
Fell Stinger could have been a great stat-boosting attack but is severely let down by its low power and requirements to activate its stat-boost. When used to defeat a Pokémon, it will increase the user's attack by a whopping three stages. Fell Stinger would have been a great move on Pokémon like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Scyther and Scizor, which are both able to have Technician as an ability that would power up Fell Stinger from 50 base power to 75, but was most widely seen very briefly on🌌 Mega Beedrill. Unfortunately, even Mega Beedrill couldn't use this move to its advantage and was dropped in favor of U-Turn instead.
4 🍨 Best: Power-Up Punch
Any Pokémon fans who played online battles during generation six will probably still be having nightmares about this attack. Although it only has a base power of 40, Power-Up Punch will increase the user's attack by one stage every time it hits. This would be OK on the majority of Pokémon but was nearly broken on 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mega Kangaskhan.
Because of its signature ability, Parental Bond, that allowed all of its attacking moves to be used twice, with the second hit being at reduced damage, 🏅this meant that one turn would increase Mega Kangaskhan's already great attack to astronomical heights while also dealing great damage.
3 ꦏ Worst:🐻 Flame Charge
Flame Charge was something of a trial run for Power-Up Punch, though it hasn't been able to be used quite as effectively. With a base power of a measly 50, it has largely the same problem as Fell Stinger, as there are no Pokémon that can learn it who are able to increase its damage output to make it worth using over any other Fire-type move. It also doesn't help that many of the Fire-type Pokémon that can learn Flame Charge are already quite fast to begin with and don't necessarily need the increase i🅠n speed enough to warrant using such a weak at♎tack.
2 ༺ Best: Beꦜlly Drum
When it comes to stat-boosting moves, none are as high-risk, high-reward as Belly Drum. At the cost of half of the Pokémon's total HP, this move will increase their attack by six stages, the highest possible increase it can reach. This move is particularly deadly on Pokémon like Snorlax, whose hidden ability, Gluttony, allows 𒐪it to eat a healing berry when its HP goes below 50% rather than 33%, meaning it will be closer to full health when it 🀅does attack.
1 Wors🐼t: Sharpen
As one of Porygon's many signature moves, Sharpen should have been along the same lines as Geomancy in terms of effectiveness, but it is let down substantially by a few factors. For one, it only increases Porygon's attack by one stage, making it one of the less useful stat-boosting moves𓃲 that doesn't deal damage. It is also hurt by the fact that Porygon's best attacking moves all fall into the special attack category, which Sharpen doesn't increase. This move became later became available on newe🔜r Pokémon such as Cryogonal, Avalugg, and Carbink, none of which are able to utilize Sharpen to a great degree either.