To say that there are a lot of Water Type Pokémon in the franchise would be an understatement. Fromꦏ as early as Generation I, Water Pokémon have always had a massive ✱presence in the franchise. Generation III just capitalized on that all the more, with each subsequent Generation always introducing a healthy amount of Watᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚer Pokémon.
Naturally, with so many different Water Pokémon to choose from, there are dozens of Water Type moves & abilities to sel🐭ect– but which ones are actually worth it? With nearly 1000🍨 Pokémon in the Pokédex and 8 Generations & counting, Pokémon isn’t the mosꦇt balanced franchise. But that just results in some overwhelmingly powe💧rful attacks.
10 Sparkling Aria (90 Power, 100% Accuracy)
Signature moves has been a staple of Pokémon since Generation I. Attacks, abilities, and techniques exclusive to specific Pokémon, signature moves are a ni✱ce way of incentivizing trainers to use Pokémon they otherwise may have ignored. At the same time, locking a signa꧙ture move to a mediocre Pokémon can be a death sentence for a technique.
That isn﷽’t quite the case with Sparkling Aria as it’s tied to Sun & Moon’s Water starter, Popplio, but its final evolved form, Primarina, is a rather mediocre Pokémon. Not helping matters is the fact that Sparkling Aria has the same Power and Accuracy as Surf, a move trainers are almost certain to teach Primarin🔯a.
9 Splishy Splash (90 Power, 100% Accuracy)
Al༺though it made the game anime accurate,𒅌 locking Pikachu as trainers’ starter in Pokémon Yellow ultimately 💎resulted in a fairly difficult early game in comparison to Red or Blue. To circumvent this, Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! both feature unique m𝔉oves for the titular starter Pokémon that help them cover their weaknesses𝓡.
Should trainers be playing Let’s Go, Pikachu! their partner Pikachu will be able to learn Splishy Splash from the Move Tutor in Fuchsia Ciཧty. Not only does Splishy Splash hit with 100% accuracy and 90 power (the exact same as Surf,) it has a 30% chance of paralyzing foes. Surfing Pikachu, eat your heart out.
8 Surf (90 Power, 100% Accuracy)
Far and away the most useful HM in the franchise, most Water Type Pokémon essentially demand Surf be one of their four moves, if only because it’s just so 🍰overpowered.♉ At least in comparison to other HMs. Surf can basically elevate any Water Type to some semblance of competence.
The fact it can’t be removed is kind of a sore spot in the earlier games, but Surf circumvents the iss✅ues other HMs have by just being an all around good move. Perfect accuracy, high power, and learnable by a bunch of non-Water Type Pokémon, Surf is an all aro🦹und excellent move.
7 Crabhammer (100 Power, 90% Accuracy)
Crabhammer actually used to be Krabby and Kingler’s signature move in Generations I and II, before🐼 Corphish and Crawdaunt were introduced in Generation III. All the same, Crabhammer’s woꦡrth comes from its high critical rate (offset by the 90%, of course.) Worth noting, Crabhammer’s accuracy used to be 85% before getting a bump in Gen V.
In theory, Crabhammer could make a monster out of a Gmꦚax’d Kinglerꦿ, but competitive play makes it very risky to rely on moves that aren’t sure to hit. That said, the potential damage output that would c🐬💙ome from Crabhammer landing would likely be worth it considering Kingler’s high attack stat.
6 Hydro Pump (110 Power, 80% Accuracy)
Pokémon Stadium 1 and 2 notably refer to Hydro Pump as “the strongest Water Type attack.” Of course, th♊ose games released ages ago so this no longer applies, but it’s worth pointing out. It’s also worth pointing out that thiജs little blurb is followed by both games stating the harsh truth: “while it is powerful, it may miss the target.”
May should be read as “will,” more often than not. That 80% accuracy doe🤡s Hydro Pump no favors whatsoever, but the real shame is the fact Hydro Pump has a base PP of 5. Missing in Pokémon already is♏n’t somethꦅing you want to happen, but missing with Hydro Pump just hurts.
5 Origin Pulse (110 Power, 85% Accuracy)
There once was a time where Legendary Pokémon primarily existed in the background like a myth to uncover. But that was a long time ago, and one that didn’t last par🍸ticularly long. By Gen III, Legendaries had become the de facto faces of the games while also integrating themselves into the story. It’s only fitting that one of the Gen’s sign🅺ature monsters, Kyogre, get a signature move in the Gen III remakes.
Origin Pulse is an attempt at beef๊ing up Kyogre for OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire, 🌄and it works in spite of the low accuracy. I🍸nterestingly, despite being introduced in the same generation as X and Y, Origin Pulse is locked specific⭕ally to Kyogre in ORAS as far as Gen VI is concerned.
4 Steam Eruption (110 Power, 95% Accuracy)
While Generation V🌠II wasn’t the kindest to Volcanion, the Pokémon saw a lot of competitive play in Generation VI, and for good reason. A Fire♔/Water hybrid, Volcanion’s relatively high and well balanced stats paired well with its unique move pool, but especially its signature move: Steam Eruption.
A Water T𝔍ype move, Steam Eruption is almost certain to hit despite its lack of 100% accuracy. Not only does it hit hard, it has a 30% chance of burning on impact. The base attack, plus the damage from burn, make Steam Eruption quite a powerful move even if Volcanion’s seen better days.
3 Hydro Cannon (150 Power, 100% Accuracy)
More or less the signature move of all fully evolved Water Type starter Pokémon ꧙as a group, Hydro Cannon was introduced in Generation III and is learned exclusively through Move Tutors. Up to Generation VII, players even needed to have max friendship with their starters (albeit a relatively easy feat to accomplish.💟)
Worth noting, while Hydro Cannon is ferociously strong with insanely high accuracy, it’s basically a water version of Hyper Beam. If the attack lands, the Pokémon who used Hydro Cannon will need to w♔ait the next turn out. Whether or not Hydro Cannon works in a trainer’s favor will depend on when they use it in battle.
2 Water Spout (150 Power, 100% Accuracy)
Interestingly, despite the fact that Water Spout has a set power stat, how much damage it does is ultimately based on both the current health of the Pokémonꦬ using Water Spout, and theꦑir maximum health. Depending on how much health a trainer’s Pokémon has, Water Spout can be quite the overwhelming move.
Thankfully, it’s mainly locked to Pokémon who have a lot of health: Wailmer, Wailord, and Kyogre all have relatively high HP stats, with Wailord & Kyogre of course making the most usಞe of the move. Jellicent also has access to Water Spout, but its low HP more or less makes the move worthless in its hands. Or tentacles.
1 Oceanic Operetta (195 Power, -% Accuracy)
As the single strongest Water Type attack in the franchise (currently,) it perhaps goes without saying that there Oceanic Operetta has some fixtures holding it back. While that 195 Power is quit꧑e enticing, Oceanic Operetta is merely an upgraded version of Sparkling Aria, which can be triggered so long as Primarina is holding Primarium Z.
As is the exact same case with Sparkling Aria, the move’s downsides come from being locked to Primarina. While the Water/Fairy is quite unique and has a nice design, it’s held back by a lackluster stat spread and surprisingly bad speed. For☂ the strongest Water Type move in the series, Oceanic Operetta is a real double edged sword.