Hey everyone, I made a lot of mistakes in this video, especially ones that could impact an entry's potential ranking, and I appreciate the corrections made by all of you in the comments, so I'd like to correct them here. 19 - For Arena trap/Illuminate/No Guard, these are actually great for shiny hunting when you are intentionally trying to encounter wild Pokémon, more so than I thought. I would bump these up a few ranks. 18 - For Immunity, you could also get poisoned if your ability gets changed or nullified in battle, giving its outside of battle effect a little more of a use. 9 - For Sticky Hold/Suction Cups, they do not decrease the time it takes for a bite to occur, but rather the overall chance that a bite will occur at all. Bulbapedia does in fact have these numbers by the way, which vary by generation, it was just not on the page for Sticky Hold or Suction Cups, rather on the fishing section. 6 - For Static and Magnet Pull, these abilities have been in effect since Pokémon Emerald, while the others had the effect added in Sword and Shield. Lightning Rod also has a different effect in Pokémon Emerald which was having the Pokénav Match Call functions twice as often as normal, so this should have been an additional separate entry lower on the list. 4 - In gen 4, when Cute Charm forces a Pokémon to be a certain gender, it does so by changing its personality value to one of the 25 possible values that correspond with the gender that is forced. Depending on the player's trainer ID and secret ID, this can increase or decrease the odds of a Pokémon that can be either male or female (so all male, all female, and gender unknown Pokémon are unaffected) to as low as 0.004% to as high as 21.34%. While I don't feel that this changes the ability's ranking, it is still very interesting. 3 - In Ruby/Sapphire and FireRed/LeafGreen, Pickup did not change what items were picked up based on level, so the only items that were able to be picked up were some of the highest level items for later generations. These items included things like rare candies, nuggets, ultra balls, revives, and full restores, so I think this version of Pickup should be ranked higher than Synchronize. 1 - For Flame Body/Magma Armor/Steam Engine, the numbers for steps in egg cycles are incorrect. The correct numbers are 256 for gens 2, 3, and 7, 255 for gen 4 and BDSP, 257 in gens 5 and 6, and 128 in gens 8 and 9. If you have any other corrections, please add them in a reply and I will add them to this pinned comment. I want to edit this list to make it more accurate and am open to having my mind changed!
In Gen 7 SOS Battles, there are separate rates for if a pokemon calls for help, and if the call for help is answered. No ability affects call rate, but if a pokemon with Intimidate, Unnerve, or Pressure is on the field, call *answer* rate is increased by 20% (multiplicative, not additive). This is obviously great for SOS chaining, as waiting out calls can get annoying. Also in regards to Gen 7 SOS Battles: Synchronize still affects the odds of a wild pokemon having a specific nature, but, due to an oversight or coding error, the game checks and applies the nature of the pokemon initially leading the battle...whether it was your Synchronize mon or not. So if you only have 1 Synchronize mon and don't want to go hunting for specific natures, you can just lead with a different pokemon with the desired nature and switch in your Synchronize mon once you've got the chain high enough. (But don't forget to have a new pokemon be called *after* you send out the Synchronize mon, or else it won't have the chance to apply at all.) Can you tell I've been replaying Ultra Sun? 😅
If you're going by the best game for the ability, you're underrating Pick up. In Ruby and Sapphire Pick up only had the highest level item table, meaning you would get items like PP Ups and Rare Candies from level 2 Zigzagoons.
Or in Pokémon XD getting Ultra Balls WAY earlier than you're intended to get them, I had that happen to me, iirc I got my first Ultra Ball before entering the Shadow Pokémon Lab, which happens before you can normally obtain one.
Pickup does actually work in Ruby & Sapphire and Firered & Leafgreen, and is absurdly better in those games because Emerald added the level requirement for some items! If ranking these abilities by their peak, I think that should boost it at least a little for sure
For Pokemon Firered or Leafgreen, I love using Meowth with pickup ability, and never evolving him, of course. Moves 1 - cut 2 - flash 3 - thief 4 - payday That make a very utilitarian pokemon !
exactly! when he was going through the criteria for ranking and said "how good the ability's effect is at doing what it does" I immediately thought he put that in specifically for illuminate-like abilities since they could be seen as a negative a lot of the time.
Totally agreed, when you are looking for 10k encounters on full odds in gen III and IV, it can SIGNIFICANTLY reduce time between battles and save your thumbs lol. I would definitely say I use it more than most of the abilities on this list.
@@389OpiEGens 7/8 don’t have the sweet scent effect. Still, think it deserves a higher ranking since it’s useful for shiny hunting, something people care about. As for speed, I actually don’t know, maybe with White Flute + encounter increase would be faster than Sweet Scent?
20:35 Nature Mints were introduced in Gen 8 when Synchronize still had its effect, so that's not why it was removed. All abilities which effect wild encounters were removed in Gen 9 because Pokémon are generated when the area loads, not at the start of battle. The sandwich powers get around this because picnics force the area to reload.
The overworld encounters in Gen 8 are also determined before the battle starts, while being effected by the abilities. They simply decided to remove them in SV.
I am aware that nature mints were added in Gen 9 when Synchronize was still in effect outside of battle, but I was more so saying that even if they were in effect, nature mints would still essentially make them useless.
@@YOM2_UBi was about to say... It would be the most lazy development apologism excuse possible. Shinies aren't tied to IVs and nature anymore, gen 1 is long gone. There's nothing they can't selectively reroll on the fly as the battle starts (or ball hits the target in legends). Gen 9 just feels worse on so many levels.
@x_bell1142 I would actually argue that synchronize and a few other abilities are more useful than you gave them credit for because in a regular playthrough basically none of these ever matter. But in nuzlocks and other randomized limited resources rulesets they get used much more. You even made an argument for farming xp. When does anyone farm levels on wild encounters? You just suicide onto the elite 4 for the last few levels you need to beat them. Unless you're playing with extra rules you chose. So you care much more about encounters' rates, levels, typing, ect.
I wanna start a drinking game for Pokémon videos. Take a shot every time you hear that a feature was removed. Guaranteed to severely lower your life expectancy.
@@ZoofyZoof Pikaclones, Kanto remakes, animation and model recycling, and the fact that the core mechanics of pokemon have been unchanged for almost 30 years show that Game Freak has no issue with reusing things.
@@georgejpg Yeah, that... that doesn't disprove anything I said. In fact, those are the words of GameFreak employees themselves. They remove mechanics because they want to constantly introduce new and unique ones each generation.
@@georgejpgThree out of the five things you said aren't even "game mechanics". Heck I can argue Pikaclone isn't a game mechanic either, it is a design trend. And if you mean "core mechanics have been unchanged", then either you are ignoring Megas, Agile/Strong style, Tera etc. Or you mean the basic battle system in which yes? That is how Pokemon is Pokemon and not any other RPG? Not to mention that actually has had some changes like the Gen 4 physical/special split and both Gen 2 & Gen 6 introducing new types and adjusting the Type Chart as a result so while it is a game mechanic, you're wrong with saying it hasn't changed.
Static and Magnet Pull have their out of battle effects since emerald In Gen 4 Cute Charm sets 25 personality values that you will see 66% of the time. Depending on your Trainer ID and Secret ID, certain personality values are always shiny. You can get a set of IDs that guarantees 8 of the personality values will be shiny. This can boost your shiny rate for pokemon with multiple genders to 21%
I'm using Illuminate in BDSP while fishing to guarantee that I get a bite Also, the worst is without a doubt Lightning Rod's original effect. In Emerald it made it so that you'd receive calls on your PokéNav twice as often
11:45 there's also how ghost types as a whole have this ability, so you can also just choose between having a very specific pokemon on the team for this trait, just using a smoke ball, or just using a ghost type. now, what we really need is a ghost type with run away so we can give it a smoke ball lol
To be fair, ghost pokemon didn't gain that feature until gen 6, so from RSE through B2W2, you either needed the ability, or a Smoke Ball. Also, Gimmighoul Roaming Form (which can only be caught in Pokemon GO, but can be transferred to SV by using HOME) is a ghost type with Run Away as its only ability.
I think an interesting buff for Ball Fetch, as far as in-battle, would be to make it act like a Lightning Rod / Storm Drain for ball, bomb and bullet moves, and have it grant +1 to Speed upon being hit by one.
arena trap and the others can be really good for shiny hunting and completing the pokedex since some pokemon have really low encounter rates. Immunity, swarm, hyper cutter are literally useless while arena trap has a fairly decent use and should be placed in #7 IMO
Run Away for its credit is typically availably way earlier than a smoke ball. However, Ghosts also all have the ability innately so it’s even worse in that situation. To make matters even worse, most run away Pokémon tend to have way better alternatives too lol
The info for egg cycles is incorrect for some generations: Eggs weren't even in gen 1, gen 5 wasn't mentioned but it is 257 steps, and gen 7 is actually 256 steps.
I think the ability synchronise still has a good reason to exist, especially now that nature mints exist, and I'm saying that from a gen9 competitive standpoint. Besides oran and sitrus, there are berries that heal for 33%, but confuse the Pokemon if they have a specific nature. And the main issue with these berries is that they check the *original nature* of the Pokemon. So if you give one of your "now adamant nature" Pokemon a figi berry for example, and it ate that berry during the battle, it would still confuse that Pokemon, if that Pokemon was timid/modest/etc when it was initially caught.
Cute Charm Shiny - Normally, a Pokémon is given random PID. But... In Gen 4, any Cute Charmed Pokémon will only get one of in a set of 25 PIDs, with Gender and Gender Ratio affecting which set of 25 is used. PID affects Gender, Natures, Abilities, Characteristic, Spinda's Spots, Wurple Evolution, and Shiny (and more!). Actually Shiny is determined by a combination of the Pokémon's PID, and the Trainers ID number and SID. So if your ID no and SID are within a certain combinations, some of Shiny PIDs possible will be the exact same ones that a Cute Charm will summon. (It's unconfirmed, but I think a Male Cute Charm/Female Target Hardy Dunsparce caught in Gen 4, will almost always will be 3 segment.)
17:37 Cute Charm in Gen 4 sets a Pokemon's personality value to one of a small few preset values, I forget how many exactly but I think its about 15 per gender. The way this works with shiny Pokemon is that, since we know the small amount of preset personality values, certain trainer IDs have a higher (or lower, unfortunately) chance of lining up with those personality values to produces shinies. This is the most simple way to explain how Cute Charm works and why it effects shinies.
Intimidate/keen eye can be used to hunt certain Pokémon unlike white smoke,stench,etc. if you want a Pokémon with the highest level in that area, you can have a Pokémon higher than the rest, but lower than the desired mon. In generation4 I used this to get the lv 100 magikarp.
one thing to note about suction cups/sticky hold is that it's great for chain fishing, a feature that was present in gen vi and gen viii. gen vi chain fishing guaranteed better shiny odds, while gen viii guaranteed better brillant pokémon chances. (brillant pokémon was the yellow aura that sometimes popped up for the overworld mons, higher levels, 2-3 perfect ivs, one egg move, and i believe it too has a higher shiny chance the more fish youre able to chain) not sure if this was ever present in gen vii though!
I used the ability “run away” for like 1 hour in my most recent White 2 play through with Eevee before evolving it and switching to a smoke ball. I felt so big brain using it 😂
I know the Cute Charm ability in Gen 4 has been addressed, but I just wanted to mention a couple things. In the earlier gens, RNG manipulation was much easier. In Gen 4 it was mostly based on the DS Clock and Date. You could easily (within a few tries) manipulate your Trainer ID and Secret ID so that for the rest of the game, if you have a Cute Charm pokemon in the lead of your party (Male or Female depending on how you set up the IDs), you can find shinies like they were normal in the game.
Meowth and Persian became one of my favorite mons for post game thanks to pickup and payday, over the couse of you going arround capturing every mon and doing every battle the money and items add up
Don't agree with all the rankings - for one, type-boosting abilities would rank in second or first for me because of its shiny hunting utility - but greatly enjoyed this longer video from you :D
As an avid shiny hunter, him putting illuminate and Co. last on the list under three abilities that are absolutely, undeniably useless irked me lmao. Illuminate is the single BEST ability for shunting, with synchronize and cute charm being the only ones that come close (but not quite)
Torchick and 5x zigzagoon with pick up was my first playthrough. So much fun. Also used hypercutter a lot in emerald. Had a mission of destroying all tall grass I saw.
Nature mints don't make Synchronize's out of battle ability necessarily useless. For one thing, you don't have to go out of your way to obtain the correct mint, just find the pokemon with the correct nature. But the other is a fun fact i learned more recently, the original nature of a pokemon still matters in very specific instances. The mint does not change the actual nature the pokemon has, but sets the adjusted stats to the new nature. This means that certain berries, when eaten by pokemon with the wrong nature can still inflict the confusion condition.
15:02 for Static, it has had this effect since Emerald, not just SwSh/BDSP. Idk if this also applies to the other related abilities, but it’s definitely incorrect for Static
Cute charm glitch outclasses everything in gen 4. That Sinnoh, Johto and Kanto mons with genders. Its basically a 1/3 change to encounter a wild shiny.
Great video, completely agree with this ranking. I guess if we needed to be technical if the enemy trainer used gastro acid or skill swap with their last pokemon and then used toxic, immunity would also have some value
Illuminate has come in useful for me in platinum specifically a number of times while looking for pokemon with low encounter rates (while doing the repel trick mostly). It's not the most useful ability for sure but when you're trying to fill up your pokedex it can make encounters go by a lot faster particularly when you're getting unlucky with sparse encounters
I've used illuminate to boost the encounter rate many times, and pokemon with immunity can be poisoned if their ability is disabled in battle, making it far easier to achieve than you suggest.
The sad thing is that Poison Heal didn't negate the HP drain when walking, so if you wanted to use a Toxic Orb Poison Heal Breloom you'd be dealing with constant HP drain even when in battle Breloom gets healed. Now that would actually have been a practical use for Immunity's out of battle effect, it makes so sense either to boot. Also Suction Cups from my experience in gen7 (completing the Ultra Sun dex) pretty much guaranteed that I'd get a bite, this made fishing less of a chore. Particularly for getting Gorebyss and Huntail without trading by slaughtering Clamperl. Pickup was surprisingly useful for me in Pokémon XD, there wasn't any level requirements so my Tediura picked up an Ultra Ball before the Shadow Pokémon Lab, which happens VERY early into the game. I might be wrong about this since it's been a while but I'm pretty sure that I couldn't buy Great Balls at the time in-game, that or you only get access to them at that time. Flame Body is a godsend, no arguing that it isn't the best, made the ungodly amount of breeding that I did late 2023 and early 2024 such much more manageable.
This is so incredibly niche but maybe someone else has done something similar to this, in FR/LG in the Safari Zone area 3 I believe, chancey is a 4% encounter rate. You don’t want to waste steps as to maximize chancey encounters so you use a level 26 illuminate Pokémon to only see certain encounters. So illuminate does have SOME use despite how niche 😭
Never thought about that, that's actually a genuinely good use. I added some corrections to the pinned comment and looking back at it, I would bump up those abilities a few spots
You missed one small detail - Lightning Rod in Emerald only has the additional effect outside battle that it doubles the rate at which trainers call you on the Pokénav.
I use Illuminate Shiinotic to shiny hunt in tall grass in swsh. Doesn’t increase the rates hugely but over a few hundred encounters it adds up a bit. But it’s more about the Spore that the Illuminate lol.
There's a use for arena trap for catching pokemon but it's super niche. If you are trying to catch a roaming suicune in fire red/leaf green, arena trap will prevent it fleeing. That is the only roaming legendary that doesn't learn roar, or have levitate, or is a flying type. It's just in that game that suicune roams and doesn't learn roar. Also, to use arena trap you would need to use a ground type vs suicune.
That would be the inside battle effect of arena trap though, and since it's the same as how it would function during a trainer or online competitive battle, that would not count.
I figured if you were counting run away as out of battle, this is basically its inverse. Instead of you always being able to escape, the other pokemon can't (with exceptions).
Honestly I'd say arena trap much better than you think as the extra encounter rate helps with stuff like shiny hunting,item grinding, finding rare pokemon,grinding pokerus if you are insane enough to try it and just normal level grinding. ya finding more can be annoying but the upsides are undeniably good.
I think I used No Guard in Diamond while fishing for Feebas, as Suction Cups/Sticky Hold don't work in those games. It can also be useful for shiny hunting if you're not using any other party lead abilities and want to get through random encounters quicker (especially when used in conjunction with a repel trick). Definitely better than the absolutely useless Immunity and purely cosmetic Swarm functions, at the very least. Also, I don't think Suction Cups/Sticky Hold have any effect on the time it takes for something to bite. Rather they guarantee that *something* appears, instead of the "Nothing seems to be biting..." text. It's a must-have when chain fishing. They're also non-functional in Platinum and Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, not just Diamond and Pearl.
you can use intimidate on a pokemon with just the right level range in ten carat hill in base sun and moon to force necrozma to spawn, as everything else in the area will be too low. i dont remember if repels also care about your level, but either way, this means it is not a strict downgrade from abilities that decrease the encounter rate. i actually used this to catch necrozma without having to go through a bunch of junk encounters (oh and maybe its not strictly worse because if your level is high enough you can cancel wild encounters entirely in most areas, unlike an ability that lowers the rate of but cannot Block wild encounters but who cares)
Essentially, if you have a certain Trainer ID and Secret ID, Cute Charm can make your Shiny Rate 1/20, or out right impossible, it's not something you can easily control without constantly restarting your save tho so i don't think it should affect its ranking.
I've seen intimidate and keen eye used in speed runs to encourage a particular pokemon encounter knowing the level spreads of an area. I guess this could be used for shiny hunting too. It's niche but it is another use.
I use illuminate for all of my wild shiny hunts, I wouldn’t say the effect is even negative when playing casually, because the ability has limited distribution, the Pokémon who do have it usually have another ability, and you can just not have them lead or use repels
For RSE afaik static or lightning rod has another effect, if the one having this ability is in the lead, the amount of calls you get in the pokenav increases. If for playthrough i feel pickup is way better than both your rank 1 and rank 2, specially in gen3 games. Odds are low but getting rare candies or better yet another earthquake TM specially in older games where it is only 1 copy available. When i do start playing in gen3 games specially rse i put like a whole team of zigzagoons for pickups. Synchronize for me has significantly dropped in value with the advent of mints.
I think illuminate can be used for more efficient shiny hunting and grinding low level pokemons more efficiently. I’ve personally seen the time difference it’s a massive time save.
12:20 Actually it does... on the page for Fishing. Emerald - Suction Cups adds an 85% chance for a bite rolled before the standard 50/50 Gen 4 - aside from Diamond and Pearl (and BDSP because they literally kept it broken), doubles the chance of a bite, which guarantees one with anything other than the Old Rod Gen 5 - Same as above, but it is simply flat guaranteed because only the Super Rod exists Gen 6 - Same as Gen 4, but since there is now a catch rate bonus for fishing near rocks, Suction Cups isn't actually necessary Gen 7 - it stops mentioning suction cups so I can't actually say for sure, bulbapedia has "needs more detail" notes about the whole fishing up items thing but they have gone unanswered Gen 8 - still doesn't mention anything The footage you show also seems to suggest the SPEED of getting a bite rather than the incidence rate. Suction Cups has only ever affected the chance of whether there will actually be a bite or not.
In gen 5 a pokemon with the ability stench being in your party will grant the player a masterball by farting into the speaker. Please update the pinned comment to accomidate this underappreciated effect.
Yes you can, that's the whole point of Mold Breaker. Immunity and other similar status condition preventing abilities will immediately heal that status condition though which is the point I was trying to make.
So, in the intro when mentioning useless abilities, why'd you choose to show Plus, sure it is horribly situational, but it still has a use. Personally, I feel a better example of a useless ability would be Klutz, as it literally makes the pokemon worse by preventing it from benefitting from an item.
Hey everyone, I made a lot of mistakes in this video, especially ones that could impact an entry's potential ranking, and I appreciate the corrections made by all of you in the comments, so I'd like to correct them here.
19 - For Arena trap/Illuminate/No Guard, these are actually great for shiny hunting when you are intentionally trying to encounter wild Pokémon, more so than I thought. I would bump these up a few ranks.
18 - For Immunity, you could also get poisoned if your ability gets changed or nullified in battle, giving its outside of battle effect a little more of a use.
9 - For Sticky Hold/Suction Cups, they do not decrease the time it takes for a bite to occur, but rather the overall chance that a bite will occur at all. Bulbapedia does in fact have these numbers by the way, which vary by generation, it was just not on the page for Sticky Hold or Suction Cups, rather on the fishing section.
6 - For Static and Magnet Pull, these abilities have been in effect since Pokémon Emerald, while the others had the effect added in Sword and Shield. Lightning Rod also has a different effect in Pokémon Emerald which was having the Pokénav Match Call functions twice as often as normal, so this should have been an additional separate entry lower on the list.
4 - In gen 4, when Cute Charm forces a Pokémon to be a certain gender, it does so by changing its personality value to one of the 25 possible values that correspond with the gender that is forced. Depending on the player's trainer ID and secret ID, this can increase or decrease the odds of a Pokémon that can be either male or female (so all male, all female, and gender unknown Pokémon are unaffected) to as low as 0.004% to as high as 21.34%. While I don't feel that this changes the ability's ranking, it is still very interesting.
3 - In Ruby/Sapphire and FireRed/LeafGreen, Pickup did not change what items were picked up based on level, so the only items that were able to be picked up were some of the highest level items for later generations. These items included things like rare candies, nuggets, ultra balls, revives, and full restores, so I think this version of Pickup should be ranked higher than Synchronize.
1 - For Flame Body/Magma Armor/Steam Engine, the numbers for steps in egg cycles are incorrect. The correct numbers are 256 for gens 2, 3, and 7, 255 for gen 4 and BDSP, 257 in gens 5 and 6, and 128 in gens 8 and 9.
If you have any other corrections, please add them in a reply and I will add them to this pinned comment. I want to edit this list to make it more accurate and am open to having my mind changed!
Can we get Out Of Combat moves next?
In Gen 7 SOS Battles, there are separate rates for if a pokemon calls for help, and if the call for help is answered. No ability affects call rate, but if a pokemon with Intimidate, Unnerve, or Pressure is on the field, call *answer* rate is increased by 20% (multiplicative, not additive). This is obviously great for SOS chaining, as waiting out calls can get annoying.
Also in regards to Gen 7 SOS Battles: Synchronize still affects the odds of a wild pokemon having a specific nature, but, due to an oversight or coding error, the game checks and applies the nature of the pokemon initially leading the battle...whether it was your Synchronize mon or not. So if you only have 1 Synchronize mon and don't want to go hunting for specific natures, you can just lead with a different pokemon with the desired nature and switch in your Synchronize mon once you've got the chain high enough. (But don't forget to have a new pokemon be called *after* you send out the Synchronize mon, or else it won't have the chance to apply at all.)
Can you tell I've been replaying Ultra Sun? 😅
Good response to being corrected.
appreciate the transparency and open-mindedness! :)
static and magnet pull were ranked 6 on here, not 8 btw, good video though
If you're going by the best game for the ability, you're underrating Pick up. In Ruby and Sapphire Pick up only had the highest level item table, meaning you would get items like PP Ups and Rare Candies from level 2 Zigzagoons.
This comment made me think Pickup was rated low, not in top 3.
3rd is fair because the other two abilities are necessities for competitive building.
Pickup didnt give earthquake in ruby/sapphire
tms were added to the loot table in Emerald, and rare candies are a 5% chance, pretty weak compared to most games high level loot
Or in Pokémon XD getting Ultra Balls WAY earlier than you're intended to get them, I had that happen to me, iirc I got my first Ultra Ball before entering the Shadow Pokémon Lab, which happens before you can normally obtain one.
Pickup does actually work in Ruby & Sapphire and Firered & Leafgreen, and is absurdly better in those games because Emerald added the level requirement for some items! If ranking these abilities by their peak, I think that should boost it at least a little for sure
Plus it's just such a fun ability to have on one of your playthrough 'mons! Got a lot of nice items early-game in swsh with my Galarian Zigzagoon
FRLG nerfed Pickup quite a bit, RSE allowed to grad Full Restores and Proteins in the early game while FRLG gives you Berries.
@jesuisunstroopwafel FRLG also gives you infinite Hidden Power TMs, which is still pretty solid albeit not as broken
Thanks for the correction, just added this info to a pinned comment
For Pokemon Firered or Leafgreen, I love using Meowth with pickup ability, and never evolving him, of course.
Moves
1 - cut
2 - flash
3 - thief
4 - payday
That make a very utilitarian pokemon !
Illuminate and friends are great for shiny hunting wild encounters!
exactly! when he was going through the criteria for ranking and said "how good the ability's effect is at doing what it does" I immediately thought he put that in specifically for illuminate-like abilities since they could be seen as a negative a lot of the time.
Totally agreed, when you are looking for 10k encounters on full odds in gen III and IV, it can SIGNIFICANTLY reduce time between battles and save your thumbs lol. I would definitely say I use it more than most of the abilities on this list.
Isn't it faster to just use sweet scent
@@389OpiEGens 7/8 don’t have the sweet scent effect. Still, think it deserves a higher ranking since it’s useful for shiny hunting, something people care about. As for speed, I actually don’t know, maybe with White Flute + encounter increase would be faster than Sweet Scent?
And suction cups/sticky hold is good for chain fishing in gen 6
This is the only list where anyone will ever unironically assert that Quick Feet is better than Intimidate
True
20:35 Nature Mints were introduced in Gen 8 when Synchronize still had its effect, so that's not why it was removed. All abilities which effect wild encounters were removed in Gen 9 because Pokémon are generated when the area loads, not at the start of battle. The sandwich powers get around this because picnics force the area to reload.
The overworld encounters in Gen 8 are also determined before the battle starts, while being effected by the abilities. They simply decided to remove them in SV.
I am aware that nature mints were added in Gen 9 when Synchronize was still in effect outside of battle, but I was more so saying that even if they were in effect, nature mints would still essentially make them useless.
@@YOM2_UBi was about to say... It would be the most lazy development apologism excuse possible.
Shinies aren't tied to IVs and nature anymore, gen 1 is long gone. There's nothing they can't selectively reroll on the fly as the battle starts (or ball hits the target in legends).
Gen 9 just feels worse on so many levels.
@x_bell1142 I would actually argue that synchronize and a few other abilities are more useful than you gave them credit for because in a regular playthrough basically none of these ever matter.
But in nuzlocks and other randomized limited resources rulesets they get used much more. You even made an argument for farming xp. When does anyone farm levels on wild encounters? You just suicide onto the elite 4 for the last few levels you need to beat them. Unless you're playing with extra rules you chose.
So you care much more about encounters' rates, levels, typing, ect.
@@x_bell1142Pretty sure that the confusion berries factor in the ORIGINAL NATURE, it’s wild but technically gives synchronize a use case
Gen 8 try not to remove cool and quirky efects challenge: impossible
Can't have type-boosting abilities hampering our precious sandwich mechanics after all...
me when in a removing content for no reason contest and my opponent is game freak:
You have sandwiches now...
True
I wanna start a drinking game for Pokémon videos.
Take a shot every time you hear that a feature was removed.
Guaranteed to severely lower your life expectancy.
They remove features because they want to keep the games fresh and introduce new mechanics. They do not like reusing things.
@@ZoofyZoof Pikaclones, Kanto remakes, animation and model recycling, and the fact that the core mechanics of pokemon have been unchanged for almost 30 years show that Game Freak has no issue with reusing things.
@@georgejpg Yeah, that... that doesn't disprove anything I said. In fact, those are the words of GameFreak employees themselves. They remove mechanics because they want to constantly introduce new and unique ones each generation.
@@ZoofyZoof Judge people by their actions, not their words. Game Freak are serial recyclers, and haven't innovated at all for decades.
@@georgejpgThree out of the five things you said aren't even "game mechanics".
Heck I can argue Pikaclone isn't a game mechanic either, it is a design trend.
And if you mean "core mechanics have been unchanged", then either you are ignoring Megas, Agile/Strong style, Tera etc. Or you mean the basic battle system in which yes? That is how Pokemon is Pokemon and not any other RPG? Not to mention that actually has had some changes like the Gen 4 physical/special split and both Gen 2 & Gen 6 introducing new types and adjusting the Type Chart as a result so while it is a game mechanic, you're wrong with saying it hasn't changed.
You missed one:
Lightning Rod increases the chance of getting called with the PokeNav in Emerald
True, I did forget that one - just added it to the pinned comment
Static and Magnet Pull have their out of battle effects since emerald
In Gen 4 Cute Charm sets 25 personality values that you will see 66% of the time. Depending on your Trainer ID and Secret ID, certain personality values are always shiny. You can get a set of IDs that guarantees 8 of the personality values will be shiny. This can boost your shiny rate for pokemon with multiple genders to 21%
Thanks for the correction, just added this info to a pinned comment
I'm using Illuminate in BDSP while fishing to guarantee that I get a bite
Also, the worst is without a doubt Lightning Rod's original effect. In Emerald it made it so that you'd receive calls on your PokéNav twice as often
I definitely missed that when doing the research for this video, so thanks for pointing that out - just added that to a pinned comment
11:45 there's also how ghost types as a whole have this ability, so you can also just choose between having a very specific pokemon on the team for this trait, just using a smoke ball, or just using a ghost type. now, what we really need is a ghost type with run away so we can give it a smoke ball lol
To be fair, ghost pokemon didn't gain that feature until gen 6, so from RSE through B2W2, you either needed the ability, or a Smoke Ball.
Also, Gimmighoul Roaming Form (which can only be caught in Pokemon GO, but can be transferred to SV by using HOME) is a ghost type with Run Away as its only ability.
True
I think an interesting buff for Ball Fetch, as far as in-battle, would be to make it act like a Lightning Rod / Storm Drain for ball, bomb and bullet moves, and have it grant +1 to Speed upon being hit by one.
So better bulletproof?
That could be cool
arena trap and the others can be really good for shiny hunting and completing the pokedex since some pokemon have really low encounter rates. Immunity, swarm, hyper cutter are literally useless while arena trap has a fairly decent use and should be placed in #7 IMO
Good point, you and some others have convinced me. I added a pinned comment making this correction.
Run Away for its credit is typically availably way earlier than a smoke ball. However, Ghosts also all have the ability innately so it’s even worse in that situation. To make matters even worse, most run away Pokémon tend to have way better alternatives too lol
My wifi cut out when you mentioned internet issues haha
I honestly didn't know they removed most OoB effects in SV
a lot of them were removed because they switched the way in which wild encounters worked.
So instead of reworking the abilities, they just removed it in S/V?
No wonder why those games feel so empty.
illuminate is the only ability whose effect was exclusively overworld-related and they DID rework it, it's now identical to keen eye
There's nothing to rework them into. it doesn't even make sense what you could do with them.
yeah the problem with Pokémon S/V was that snow cloak no longer reduce wild encounters in 2 routes of the games
A lot of them wouldn't make sense to have due to the different way in which you encounter wild Pokémon
The info for egg cycles is incorrect for some generations: Eggs weren't even in gen 1, gen 5 wasn't mentioned but it is 257 steps, and gen 7 is actually 256 steps.
Thanks for pointing that out - I just added the correct info to a pinned comment
I think the ability synchronise still has a good reason to exist, especially now that nature mints exist, and I'm saying that from a gen9 competitive standpoint.
Besides oran and sitrus, there are berries that heal for 33%, but confuse the Pokemon if they have a specific nature. And the main issue with these berries is that they check the *original nature* of the Pokemon.
So if you give one of your "now adamant nature" Pokemon a figi berry for example, and it ate that berry during the battle, it would still confuse that Pokemon, if that Pokemon was timid/modest/etc when it was initially caught.
True, I didn't think of that
Scarlet and Violet removing most of these effects was a mistake
alot of them just wouldnt work
Due to the way that wild battles now work in the overworld, a lot of them wouldn't really make sense to have
Cute Charm Shiny - Normally, a Pokémon is given random PID.
But... In Gen 4, any Cute Charmed Pokémon will only get one of in a set of 25 PIDs, with Gender and Gender Ratio affecting which set of 25 is used. PID affects Gender, Natures, Abilities, Characteristic, Spinda's Spots, Wurple Evolution, and Shiny (and more!). Actually Shiny is determined by a combination of the Pokémon's PID, and the Trainers ID number and SID. So if your ID no and SID are within a certain combinations, some of Shiny PIDs possible will be the exact same ones that a Cute Charm will summon.
(It's unconfirmed, but I think a Male Cute Charm/Female Target Hardy Dunsparce caught in Gen 4, will almost always will be 3 segment.)
Thanks for the explanation - just added this to a pinned comment
17:37 Cute Charm in Gen 4 sets a Pokemon's personality value to one of a small few preset values, I forget how many exactly but I think its about 15 per gender. The way this works with shiny Pokemon is that, since we know the small amount of preset personality values, certain trainer IDs have a higher (or lower, unfortunately) chance of lining up with those personality values to produces shinies. This is the most simple way to explain how Cute Charm works and why it effects shinies.
Thanks for pointing this out - I just added some new info for this in a pinned comment
Great video! ❤️
Thanks!
5:45 woooo! Hyper cutter mentioned, almost completely useless but kinda cool?
True
Intimidate/keen eye can be used to hunt certain Pokémon unlike white smoke,stench,etc. if you want a Pokémon with the highest level in that area, you can have a Pokémon higher than the rest, but lower than the desired mon. In generation4 I used this to get the lv 100 magikarp.
Learning this has elevated my appreciation for pokémon
one thing to note about suction cups/sticky hold is that it's great for chain fishing, a feature that was present in gen vi and gen viii.
gen vi chain fishing guaranteed better shiny odds, while gen viii guaranteed better brillant pokémon chances. (brillant pokémon was the yellow aura that sometimes popped up for the overworld mons, higher levels, 2-3 perfect ivs, one egg move, and i believe it too has a higher shiny chance the more fish youre able to chain)
not sure if this was ever present in gen vii though!
I used the ability “run away” for like 1 hour in my most recent White 2 play through with Eevee before evolving it and switching to a smoke ball. I felt so big brain using it 😂
I know the Cute Charm ability in Gen 4 has been addressed, but I just wanted to mention a couple things.
In the earlier gens, RNG manipulation was much easier. In Gen 4 it was mostly based on the DS Clock and Date. You could easily (within a few tries) manipulate your Trainer ID and Secret ID so that for the rest of the game, if you have a Cute Charm pokemon in the lead of your party (Male or Female depending on how you set up the IDs), you can find shinies like they were normal in the game.
Meowth and Persian became one of my favorite mons for post game thanks to pickup and payday, over the couse of you going arround capturing every mon and doing every battle the money and items add up
True! Maybe I should make a video on that too
Don't agree with all the rankings - for one, type-boosting abilities would rank in second or first for me because of its shiny hunting utility - but greatly enjoyed this longer video from you :D
Thanks
nice vid. the immunity condition made me lol
Thanks
As an avid shiny hunter, him putting illuminate and Co. last on the list under three abilities that are absolutely, undeniably useless irked me lmao. Illuminate is the single BEST ability for shunting, with synchronize and cute charm being the only ones that come close (but not quite)
I change my mind - you and some others have convinced me
Torchick and 5x zigzagoon with pick up was my first playthrough. So much fun.
Also used hypercutter a lot in emerald. Had a mission of destroying all tall grass I saw.
Nature mints don't make Synchronize's out of battle ability necessarily useless. For one thing, you don't have to go out of your way to obtain the correct mint, just find the pokemon with the correct nature. But the other is a fun fact i learned more recently, the original nature of a pokemon still matters in very specific instances. The mint does not change the actual nature the pokemon has, but sets the adjusted stats to the new nature. This means that certain berries, when eaten by pokemon with the wrong nature can still inflict the confusion condition.
One thing that wasn't mentioned is that magnet pull is absolutely insane in nuzlockes, and to my knowledge it's worked for way longer than gen 7
good video as usual :)
Thanks!
15:02 for Static, it has had this effect since Emerald, not just SwSh/BDSP. Idk if this also applies to the other related abilities, but it’s definitely incorrect for Static
same for magnet pull
Thanks for pointing that out - just added this and other corrections to the pinned comment
Cute charm glitch outclasses everything in gen 4. That Sinnoh, Johto and Kanto mons with genders. Its basically a 1/3 change to encounter a wild shiny.
Illuminate is nice when combined with the repel trick. Useful for shiny hunting a specific target
Here's a reminder that u make great content. Thanks
Thanks!
Great video, completely agree with this ranking. I guess if we needed to be technical if the enemy trainer used gastro acid or skill swap with their last pokemon and then used toxic, immunity would also have some value
True, thanks for pointing that out. I just added that and some other corrections to the pinned comment
BDSP are such faithful remakes, that Sticky Hold & Suction Cups have their outside of battle effects, due to programming error, just like the og DP.
That's because they literally just copypasted the code
Interesting
Love ur vids man keep up the good work
i love watching your videos
Thanks!
Illuminate has come in useful for me in platinum specifically a number of times while looking for pokemon with low encounter rates (while doing the repel trick mostly). It's not the most useful ability for sure but when you're trying to fill up your pokedex it can make encounters go by a lot faster particularly when you're getting unlucky with sparse encounters
I've used illuminate to boost the encounter rate many times, and pokemon with immunity can be poisoned if their ability is disabled in battle, making it far easier to achieve than you suggest.
Thanks for pointing that out - I just added that info to the pinned comment
The sad thing is that Poison Heal didn't negate the HP drain when walking, so if you wanted to use a Toxic Orb Poison Heal Breloom you'd be dealing with constant HP drain even when in battle Breloom gets healed. Now that would actually have been a practical use for Immunity's out of battle effect, it makes so sense either to boot.
Also Suction Cups from my experience in gen7 (completing the Ultra Sun dex) pretty much guaranteed that I'd get a bite, this made fishing less of a chore. Particularly for getting Gorebyss and Huntail without trading by slaughtering Clamperl.
Pickup was surprisingly useful for me in Pokémon XD, there wasn't any level requirements so my Tediura picked up an Ultra Ball before the Shadow Pokémon Lab, which happens VERY early into the game. I might be wrong about this since it's been a while but I'm pretty sure that I couldn't buy Great Balls at the time in-game, that or you only get access to them at that time.
Flame Body is a godsend, no arguing that it isn't the best, made the ungodly amount of breeding that I did late 2023 and early 2024 such much more manageable.
I have personally found Cute Charm to be dramatically useful in my playthroughs because of my pension for breeding.
Oddly, Pokémon with Magic Guard and Poison Heal still took poison damage outside of battle.
That is odd
This is so incredibly niche but maybe someone else has done something similar to this, in FR/LG in the Safari Zone area 3 I believe, chancey is a 4% encounter rate. You don’t want to waste steps as to maximize chancey encounters so you use a level 26 illuminate Pokémon to only see certain encounters. So illuminate does have SOME use despite how niche 😭
You and the others have convinced me, I would bump it up a few ranks
@ unique video idea though and you had a pretty thorough analysis/follow up in the comments. You earned a sub from me broski
@@brokeboyjohnn Thanks!
Arena Trap and its family are extremely useful when paired with Repels, and are almost essential when hunting certain Shinies
Never thought about that, that's actually a genuinely good use. I added some corrections to the pinned comment and looking back at it, I would bump up those abilities a few spots
You missed one small detail - Lightning Rod in Emerald only has the additional effect outside battle that it doubles the rate at which trainers call you on the Pokénav.
Thanks for pointing that out - I added this and other missed information to the pinned comment
I use Illuminate Shiinotic to shiny hunt in tall grass in swsh. Doesn’t increase the rates hugely but over a few hundred encounters it adds up a bit. But it’s more about the Spore that the Illuminate lol.
I was thinking Illuminate was so useful for encounters for shinies in Gen 3… I’ve actively used it many times
You and some others have convinced me, looking back on it I would bump those abilities up a few ranks
3:28 erm shiny hunt maybe?
There's a use for arena trap for catching pokemon but it's super niche. If you are trying to catch a roaming suicune in fire red/leaf green, arena trap will prevent it fleeing. That is the only roaming legendary that doesn't learn roar, or have levitate, or is a flying type. It's just in that game that suicune roams and doesn't learn roar. Also, to use arena trap you would need to use a ground type vs suicune.
That would be the inside battle effect of arena trap though, and since it's the same as how it would function during a trainer or online competitive battle, that would not count.
I figured if you were counting run away as out of battle, this is basically its inverse. Instead of you always being able to escape, the other pokemon can't (with exceptions).
For the increased encounter abilities, they are great for shiny hunting. In emerald I use it to find dittos to breed with.
I enjoyed the video
Honestly I'd say arena trap much better than you think as the extra encounter rate helps with stuff like shiny hunting,item grinding, finding rare pokemon,grinding pokerus if you are insane enough to try it and just normal level grinding. ya finding more can be annoying but the upsides are undeniably good.
I've definitely changed my mind on this - you and some others have convinced me
I think I used No Guard in Diamond while fishing for Feebas, as Suction Cups/Sticky Hold don't work in those games. It can also be useful for shiny hunting if you're not using any other party lead abilities and want to get through random encounters quicker (especially when used in conjunction with a repel trick). Definitely better than the absolutely useless Immunity and purely cosmetic Swarm functions, at the very least.
Also, I don't think Suction Cups/Sticky Hold have any effect on the time it takes for something to bite. Rather they guarantee that *something* appears, instead of the "Nothing seems to be biting..." text. It's a must-have when chain fishing. They're also non-functional in Platinum and Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, not just Diamond and Pearl.
That would make more sense for Suction Cups/Sticky Hold, I guess I was just misinterpreting them
you can use intimidate on a pokemon with just the right level range in ten carat hill in base sun and moon to force necrozma to spawn, as everything else in the area will be too low. i dont remember if repels also care about your level, but either way, this means it is not a strict downgrade from abilities that decrease the encounter rate. i actually used this to catch necrozma without having to go through a bunch of junk encounters
(oh and maybe its not strictly worse because if your level is high enough you can cancel wild encounters entirely in most areas, unlike an ability that lowers the rate of but cannot Block wild encounters but who cares)
Essentially, if you have a certain Trainer ID and Secret ID, Cute Charm can make your Shiny Rate 1/20, or out right impossible, it's not something you can easily control without constantly restarting your save tho so i don't think it should affect its ranking.
Thanks for pointing that out - I just added this and some other additional info to the pinned comment.
I've seen intimidate and keen eye used in speed runs to encourage a particular pokemon encounter knowing the level spreads of an area. I guess this could be used for shiny hunting too. It's niche but it is another use.
True
I use illuminate for all of my wild shiny hunts, I wouldn’t say the effect is even negative when playing casually, because the ability has limited distribution, the Pokémon who do have it usually have another ability, and you can just not have them lead or use repels
Compound eyes is really useful for getting 6 lucky eggs in Oras from wild pelliper
For RSE afaik static or lightning rod has another effect, if the one having this ability is in the lead, the amount of calls you get in the pokenav increases.
If for playthrough i feel pickup is way better than both your rank 1 and rank 2, specially in gen3 games. Odds are low but getting rare candies or better yet another earthquake TM specially in older games where it is only 1 copy available. When i do start playing in gen3 games specially rse i put like a whole team of zigzagoons for pickups.
Synchronize for me has significantly dropped in value with the advent of mints.
That's a good point. I never shiny hunted in Sword and Shield so I can't say and didn't realize that those abilities had some decent use.
As someone who never use repels, ya, I use the increase encounter rate to grind
no guard is super useful for fishing since it guarantees an encounter in certain games.
No Guard also has the same function as Suction Cups when fishing so is more useful
I think illuminate can be used for more efficient shiny hunting and grinding low level pokemons more efficiently. I’ve personally seen the time difference it’s a massive time save.
That is a good point - you and some others have convinced me. I added this and some other errors to the pinned comment
Pickup did work Pre emerald, and there’s an important distinction between the Emerald version of Pickup & the pickup from the earlier Gen 3 games.
Thanks for pointing that out. I just added this and some other corrections to the pinned comment
Compound eye
You forgot to mention the ultra elusive gen 7 ultra games razor claw
The only benefit I can think of for Intimidate over abilities like quick feet is to do a poor approximation of a repel manip
I think you're underestimating abilities like Static. It was a godsend to me to chain Shinx with the poke radar until I got an easy shiny.
I just know your going to get commitments about the in battle effects of moves like intimidate
4:25 Or Gastro Acid.
That is true, thanks for pointing that out. I added this error and others in the pinned comment
Illuminate I’ve used for shiny hunting
i can see #19 working out for shiny hunters
1. Incineroar in the lineup ready to switch in
True
12:20 Actually it does... on the page for Fishing.
Emerald - Suction Cups adds an 85% chance for a bite rolled before the standard 50/50
Gen 4 - aside from Diamond and Pearl (and BDSP because they literally kept it broken), doubles the chance of a bite, which guarantees one with anything other than the Old Rod
Gen 5 - Same as above, but it is simply flat guaranteed because only the Super Rod exists
Gen 6 - Same as Gen 4, but since there is now a catch rate bonus for fishing near rocks, Suction Cups isn't actually necessary
Gen 7 - it stops mentioning suction cups so I can't actually say for sure, bulbapedia has "needs more detail" notes about the whole fishing up items thing but they have gone unanswered
Gen 8 - still doesn't mention anything
The footage you show also seems to suggest the SPEED of getting a bite rather than the incidence rate. Suction Cups has only ever affected the chance of whether there will actually be a bite or not.
Thanks for pointing that out - just added a correction in the pinned comment
What a horrendous take on the last place ability
I changed my mind, read the pinned comment
Yoooo pressure can help me find the Uberkarp in the resort area. Cool!
In gen 5 a pokemon with the ability stench being in your party will grant the player a masterball by farting into the speaker. Please update the pinned comment to accomidate this underappreciated effect.
Then if your Intimidate user is lev 100 then the wild spawn chances are 0?
TIL Immunity has an out-of-battle effect.
Me too
Magnet pull works in B2W2 so the comment on which games they work was wrong here
Thanks for pointing that out, I just added a pinned comment for some corrections
Ah yes. I remember catching a stable of synchronize abras to usr for catching other mons in gens 3 and 4. Good times
I used Synchronize Ralts
Almost all of these cool effects being removed in SV just makes me annoyed at those games even more than I already was
It wouldn't really make sense to have a lot of them though since wild encounters are so different
4:16 Mold Breaker does not bypass abilities that prevent status conditions. You cannot poison an Immunity Pokemon with Mold Breaker.
Yes you can, that's the whole point of Mold Breaker. Immunity and other similar status condition preventing abilities will immediately heal that status condition though which is the point I was trying to make.
Wait Flame Body and similar still work in SV?
why wouldnt it?
Yes
can you rank the top 20 Pokemon Rom Hacks
from worst to best
Seeing as I haven't played a single one, I don't think I would be the best person to do a ranking like this. I appreciate the idea though.
@x_bell1142 thanks
also, you can just look at some footage and images online
Chris Piché reference!
Ain't no way you're actually ranking swarm and immunity higher than arena trap.
I changed my mind and added some corrections to the pinned comment
I used swarm for hunting latias in emerald.
2:48 Pwnytits lmao
That's Haydunn!
illuminate is useful if you are hunting relicanth in pokemon emerald since the encounter rate underwater is super low
That's true, didn't think of that
Well the smoke ball only has one use
So, in the intro when mentioning useless abilities, why'd you choose to show Plus, sure it is horribly situational, but it still has a use. Personally, I feel a better example of a useless ability would be Klutz, as it literally makes the pokemon worse by preventing it from benefitting from an item.
Fair enough
Illuminate is good for shiny hunting and finding low odd mons