While they’re newer to the Pokemon series than most other types, Dark-type Pokemon are an important staple of competitive Pokemon battles. Very few existed early in Pokemon history, but 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon Sword & Shield contains more powerful tricksters and sweepers than 🌳ever before.
Like all Pokemon types, there are somꦆe that you should never bother using, but there’s an especially large number of effective fighters for online battles this time around. These are just some of the Pokemon you can use in your teams if you dream of being a true Dark-type expert in online play.
Updated May 20, 2021, by Gene Cole: With Galar featuring the first-ever Dark-type Gym in the series, it's impossible to stress how powerful and numerous some of the Dark-types are in this game. There are undoubtedly some Dark-types we missed from across the game's massive variety, and a few of them are worth mentioning as some could be argued as the best Pokemon in Sword and Shield overall.
15 Obstagoon
Of all the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:new additions to the Pokedex 𝔍in Pokemon Sword & Shield, few people could have expected Obstagoon to be a dominant force. However, its strength is pretty familiar to veterans of competitive Pokemon, as it's capable of becoming what's known as a Guts Sweeper.
The strategy is to have your Obstagoon hold an item like a Flame Orb whi🌃le it has an ability called Guts, which will give a major attack boost to the user when inflicted with a status ailment. Just use itꦆs signature protection move Obstruct to get it going, and you've got an absolute menace that can slam with Facade and Night Slash with zero trouble.
14 🦂 Alolan Pers🌠ian
Originally treated as a meme, it's clear by now that Alolan Persian is one of the best Dark-types in Sword and Shield thanks to some wonderfully unusual stats. Its healthꦆ and damage are relatively fine, but its defenses 🍃grow immensely with items like the Assault Vest and the ability Fur Coat, and as a result it can be deceptively hard to defeat.
This is coupled with some intense speed, as well as some unusual moves to mess with an opponent's strategy like Fake Out, Parting Shot, and even th🗹e Isle of Armor move tutor's new Burning Jealousy. It has tons of versatility in m🔥ove types, and that helps make up for its questionable damage rates.
13 ⛦ I✃ncineroar
Incineroar is not only one of the best Fire-types in Sword & Shield, but also one of the best Dark-types as well. Its combination causes it to have a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:disappointing number of weaknesses, but in turn it also resists a lot of Fa𒁏iry and Psychic-type moves that often have a firm hold on the competition in online battles.
It gets even 💧better with its Hidden Ability, Intimidate, making it one of the bulkiest ways to suddenly drop your opponent's Attack stat without spending🌠 a turn. Much like Alolan Persian, it gets a ton of disruption as well in the form of moves like Fake Out and Parting Shot, meaning you can bounce it between an aggressive luchador or a technical tag team partner.
12 Spiritomb
It might not be as powerful as it was in the original Poke🌱mon Diamond & Pearl, but Spiritomb is still worth being aware of for its unusual type combination and wide number of resistances. Its only weakness is Fair🍰y-type moves, and despite its low speed it has some solid defenses to keep it alive against nearly any opponent.
It really excels if you have a Pokemon that can use Trick Room to give it some better legs, but you can also hit with a surprising amount of strong speed priority moves like Sucker Punch and Shadow Sneak to get around its fla𒀰ws. Few Pokemon🔯 learn multiple priority moves that share its native typing, so you can easily fool your opponents who expect a sluggish monstrocity.
11 Umbreon
Umbreon is widely considered one of the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:more underrated Eeveelutions, and it makes a huge statement as one of the best Dark-types in Sword and Shield. Its Defense and Special Defense are horrifyingly large for its size, and with Moonlight in its movepoo♐l to restore its health, you can potentially build Umbreon as an invincible defensive fighter over the course of a long battle.
However, Umbreon thrives best thanks to some great moves it can learn across the other Eeveelutions, such as Copycat. This move will let you use any move used right beforehand, and so long as ꧙you have a Pokemon with only slightly higher speed than Umbreon, you can often get it to use absurd status moves like No Retreat to boost its stats and become a monstrous sweeper.
10 𝔍 ♏ Krookodile
Krookodile is one of the most straightforward Pokemon you can use in any team, being built with great overall stats and a wide number of use🍸ful abilities. Intimidate is likely to be the most powerful by decreasing your foe’s Attack stat, but others like Moxie give Krookadile 𝓰a huge power boost when it assuredly knocks down a foe.
It’s somewhat limited in strategies since it’s primarily just a physical attacker, but 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:attaching useful items 💙like the Assault Vest to raise its Special Def🤪ense can give some more staying power. It also suffers from many weaknesses, but elemental moves like Thunder Fang and Fire Fang let you deal with any frightening Water or Grass-types with ease.
9 Tyranitar
Tyranitar suffers from many more weaknesses than even Krookadile thanks to its Rock-type body, but that’s not to say it isn’t worth the risk. This strong defensiv💛e tank is most known for its Sand Stream ability, putting a damaging sandstorm into play as soo🌱n as it enters battle.
This ability not only boosts your other Pokemon with abilities like Sand Force or Sand Rush, but will most likely deal damage to yo🌠ur foes and counter defensive items like the popular Focus Sash. Tyranitar also makes a good choice to use your Dynamax on, since the extra health will likely help it survive at least one Super Effective move.
8 Hydreigon
Few special attackers can ever stand close to Unova’s own Hydreigon, a remarkable🍃 Dark and Dragon-type with more speed and offense than it needs. With great stats and a wide set of unusual moves for Dark-types like the powerful Earth Power and Draco Meteor, your opponent will have to deal with it almost immediately to not lose their entire team.
Hydreigon, alongside many other Dark and Dragon-type Pokemon, did receive an 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:unfortunate nerf in Pokemon X & Y due to the introduction of Fairy-type P🔯okemon, but Hydreigon’s Speed stat is high enough to outrun most Fairy-types that might give it trouble. If you still fear these moves, Hydreigon makes a great carrier for the Choice Scarf to help it fly eve👍n faster.
7 Absol
Absol was never originally an all-star Pokemon in competitive play. Despite learning a wide variety of moves,𒐪 this popular version-exclusive from Pokemon Ruby has always lacked high Speed or defenses to carry it past its Dark-type peers. That all changed in Pokemon Diamond & Pearl when it received a huge buff in the form of the ability Super Luck.
This rare ability is most known for its attachment to Farfetch’d, granting a higher Critical Hit chance to all a Pokemon’s moves. Absol makes debatably better use of this by having several moves that have a naturally high Critical Hit rate, such as Night Slash and Stone Edge, which can comඣbine even further with the Scope Lens item to provide near-guarante🏅ed Critical Hits with every attack for some ludicrous damage.
6 Bisharp
Similar to Tyranitar, Bisharp has several unfortunate features that make it seem much less effective than it is. Its poor Special Defense can make its 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Steel-type weaknesses to Fire moves a liability, a💧nd its Speed is barely able to deal with powerful Fighting-type Pokemon.
However, these are primarily countered by an incredibly strong ability, Defiant, which doubles the user’s Attack stat when any of its stats are lowered by opponents. This is easy to activate through opponents using Max Moves, but this ability is especially powerful for countering the popꦯular Intimidate ability that lowers the target's attack. As a result, Bisharp’s strength will very often outweigh its vulnerabꦯilities.