Far and away one of the most popular game franchises of all time,Pokemonis now on its ninth generation and isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. And, while many gamers considerPokemonto be one of the most influential and iconic RPG franchises of all time, the games are, frankly, riddled with glitches, exploits, and moves and techniques so powerful that they’re basically game-breaking.
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While not all players will use these techniques out of principle, it’s hard to deny that they can make playingPokemongames even more enjoyable. This is a list of 10 of the most game-breaking techniques in thePokemonfranchise.
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10Rare Candy
This one probably speaks for itself. In a video game almost entirely focussed on organically training one’s Pokemon and slowly helping them grow stronger and more powerful, whose idea was the Rare Candy?
Players can feed Rare Candies to their Pokemon at any time to cause them to level up. While Rare Candies are, like the name implies, relatively rare in the game, they can be used strategically to induce Pokemon to evolve, which just about makes them game-breaking in its own right. No judgement against players who use Rare Candies, of course, but their inclusion in the games in the first place genuinely feels questionable.
9Grinding For Levels
While it takes a fair amount of effort and time, players can pretty much grind for levels for any of their Pokemon at any point in the game. In fact,thePokemonfranchise is known for how prevalent grinding is among players of the games. If they so choose, they could remain within the bounds of a game’s first area and level their starting Pokemon up to 100 before even progressing with the story.
Sure, most players don’t actually have the patience for this. But the fact that this is even an option says a lot - playing through anyPokemongame with an over levelled Pokemon is so easy that the game basically feels broken.
8Spamming Heal Items
When coming up against the most powerful trainers in anyPokemongame, it’s fairly common for players to come unstuck. Trainers like the Elite Four in each game represent a massive spike in difficulty, and can easily sweep players' Pokemon teams without issue.
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That is, of course, unless players have sufficient healing items. The use of healing items in Pokemon isn’t limited in any way, so players can basically stall out opponents' attacking moves and protect their Pokemon from fainting by simply continuing to heal. This basically jars with the whole point of thePokemongames (and inPokemon Legends: Arceus,players can even craft healing items, so they don’t need to pay for them).
7Moves That Never Miss
There is a handful of moves that Pokemon can learn that never miss. When used in conjunction with stat-boosting moves or items, these techniques can quickly become totally overpowered, to the extent that they’re almost game-breaking.
In the face of, say, Shock Wave or Magical Leaf, there’s no point trying to evade or mitigate damage, because the move will always hit its target. This makes it difficult to devise any sort of strategy to deal with moves like these, other than trying to boost the defensive stats of the Pokemon targeted by the move.
6Using Moves Like Dig Or Fly To Evade Damage
Certain moves, like Fly and Dig, take two turns for the Pokemon using it to hit their target. While this might seem like an inconvenience at first, it’s often actually a blessing in disguise, especially if the opposing Pokemon uses an attacking move. Plus, these moves are powerful in their own right (withFly being one of the best Flying-type moves in the franchise).
This is because, on the turn that these moves are used, the Pokemon using them will be invulnerable to almost any attack. So, players can time their usage of moves like Dig or Fly to almost always evade damage from the opposing trainer (especially with moves like Future Sight, which also take multiple turns to hit their target).
5Spamming Double Team
Is there any move more annoying to deal with than Double Team? It can be employed multiple times to increase the user’s Evasiveness, with each subsequent use stacking on the Evasiveness bonus of the last.
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This can make the Pokemon using it almost impossible to hit. If this Pokemon is also significantly more powerful than the Pokemon it’s fighting against, then the battle can quickly feel incredibly lopsided and almost broken as a result. While stat-boosting moves like Double Team should still exist, being able to spam them definitely feels questionable in the wider context of the games.
4Using The Master Ball
ExcludingPokemonLegends: Arceus, every one of thePokemongames has a Master Ball in it that players can obtain. The Master Ball is a Pokeball that has a 100% catch rate, so players can use it to catch any Pokemon they want without fail (orhilariously use it by accident on a Pokemon that they didn’t mean to use it on).
One of thePokemongames' core mechanics is catching Pokemon, which is often a challenge that revolves around managing the health and status of the Pokemon players are trying to catch, as well as their own. Simply using a Master Ball completely eliminates this whole process and sort of defeats the purpose simultaneously.
3Earthquake
There are few moves inPokemonthat are as overpowered as Earthquake. In fact, the move is so powerful, that it’s not a stretch to call it game-breaking altogether, especially when used by thestrongest Ground-type Pokemon in the franchise.
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Not only does Earthquake have an accuracy rating of 100%, but its base damage is also 100. The move’s base PP is 10, but this can be increased all the way to 16 with the use of the PP Up item. Add in the fact that Earthquake hits both opposing Pokemon when used in double battles, and it’s hard to argue that this move isn’t seriously overpowered.
2Using Skill Swap On Slaking
Slaking is an incredibly offensively powerful Pokemon that can learna variety of very effective movesets. But, by default, it will always have the ability Truant. This makes Slaking very difficult to use effectively, as the Pokemon will ‘loaf off’ every other turn, rather than actually performing the move it is instructed to use.
However, players can use Skill Swap on Slaking in double battles in order to deal with this. One way of doing so is by bringing in a weaker Pokemon to complement Slaking which also knows Skill Swap. Skill Swap then swaps the second Pokemon’s ability with Slaking’s Truant, meaning Slaking is free to wreak havoc on the opposing team.
