Dugtrio, The Mole Pokémon. Its three heads move alternately, driving it through tough soil to depths of over 60 miles. Its three heads bob separately up and down to loosen the soil nearby, making it easier for it to burrow. Dugtrio are actually triplets that emerged from one body. As a result, each triplet thinks exactly like the other two triplets. They work cooperatively to burrow endlessly.

Overview

Dugtrio has really fallen from grace. 1st gen had those dodgy crit mechanics which made Dugtrio really dangerous. 3rd gen brought abilities to the table, giving Dugtrio the amazing Arena Trap. Basically, 3rd gen was its peak of power. It was so feared as a revenge killer and was a top OU threat. 4th gen came and Dugtrio didn't really get much... I don't really know why Dugtrio started to go downhill in 4th gen. Was it the lack of physical Hidden Power? The fact Pursuit was physical, making Tyranitar much more threatening? I'm not sure, but it was a good few things that made Dugtrio fall into obscurity. It's a shame, I always liked Dugtrio. 5th gen didn't give him too much either, but it did get the underrated Memento, a move that can perfectly set your next Pokémon. Hopefully Dugtrio starts to see some more use, but I can't see it happening soon.

Abilities

Sand Veil: Useless next to Arena Trap. Don't even consider it. Evasion isn't worth being nearly uncounterable.
Arena Trap: A watered down Shadow Tag, but that doesn't really matter. This is basically Mean Look on Pokémon that are touching the floor. Levitate and Flying Pokémon avoid it, but who cares? Don't try and revenge kill them! Seriously, this ability is so good it is unreal.
Sand Force: Sand Force is better than Sand Veil, but no where near as good as Arena Trap. Sand Force I guess can be useful as Dugtrio is the fastest user of it, the next fastest being Landorus, with a huge 19 base Speed difference. It's an option, as a lot of people just assume you run Arena Trap and don't try to switch.

Revenge is patient. Dugtrio is not.

- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Sucker Punch / Night Slash / Shadow Claw
- Aerial Ace / Substitute
Item Attached: Choice Band / Life Orb
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk) / Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

Hello 3rd gen, with some new toys. Let's start off with your STAB move; Earthquake. Earthquake is reliable, powerful, and has no downsides at all really. One of the best physical moves in the game. Stone Edge is way stronger than Rock Slide, but at the cost of a little accuracy. Dugtrio only has base 80 Attack, so it needs all the power it can get. Sucker Punch gets priority, which you'd think would be pointless on Dugtrio, but don't forget that Choice Scarf exists now, not to mention a load more priority moves. Priority is always useful, no matter what your base Speed is. Night Slash provides a more reliable alternative, as Sucker Punch fails if the opponent doesn't use a direct attacking move against you the turn you Sucker Punch. Shadow Claw is the exact same as Night Slash, just Ghost type. Aerial Ace smacks Breloom around, but be careful of Mach Punch. Substitute gives you some protection and works with Dugtrio's great Speed perfectly.

Leave a lasting memory

- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Sucker Punch / Night Slash / Shadow Claw
- Memento
Item Attached: Life Orb
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk) / Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

Earthquake is your most powerful move. Leaving it off of any Dugtrio set is ridiculous. Stone Edge gives great coverage when combined with Earthquake, and is a great attack in general. Sucker Punch gets priority, Night Slash and Shadow Claw are less powerful more reliable regular attacks. Memento is where things get interesting. It kills Dugtrio, but it lowers the opponent's offensive stats by 2 stages, basically halving them. This can lead to some game winning set ups, which I'll go through in the partners section. Basically though, Memento is an awesome, awesome move, that is practically perfect on Dugtrio.

ToxiTrapper

- Toxic
- Substitute
- Protect
- Earthquake
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 HP / 40 SDef / 216 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

With Arena Trap, nothing except Flying types and Pokémon with Levitate can switch out of Dugtrio. Kill them everything else with Toxic! Yeah, that's the goal of this set. Toxic deals huge damage once it gets going, as it doubles each turn. Substitute protects you from damage and stalls Toxic for another turn. Protect protects you from damage and stalls Toxic for another turn. Earthquake protects you fro... sorry. Earthquake hits Steels and Poisons who would be able to avoid your Toxic hard.

LeadTrio

- Earthquake
- Stone Edge / Toxic
- Sucker Punch / Toxic
- Stealth Rock
Item Attached: Focus Sash
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

This set capitalises on Dugtrio's great Speed. Earthquake is the best, blah blah. Stone Edge gets amazing coverage and hits hard. Sucker Punch gets priority, allowing you to beat other Focus Sash leads. Toxic is a nice way of hitting something hard for the remainder of the battle, after you have set up the crazy powerful Stealth Rock. Free damage on anything switching in? Yeah! A move that cripples Bug/Flying, Ice/Flying, Fire/Flying, and Bug/Fire Pokémon completely by taking 50% off whenever they switch in? Awesome! Yeah, Stealth Rock is pretty damn good.

Dugtrio has claws?

- Hone Claws
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Sucker Punch
Item Attached: Life Orb / Focus Sash
Ability: Arena Trap / Sand Force
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

Dugtrio finally got a boosting move. Hone Claws adds +1 Attack and +1 Accuracy. Not ideal, but better than most. Earthquake doesn't need the Accuracy boost, but the Attack boost is welcome. Stone Edge loves both the Attack and Accuracy boosts, as it has a sub-par 80% chance of hitting. Sucker Punch is nice for though Choice Scarf Pokémon who think they can revenge kill you. It's also nice for coverage.

EVs & Natures

Every set that isn't based around stalling
Max Speed and max Attack is the way to go. 4 in Special Defence could go into Defence if you liked. Don't put it into HP though. Dugtrio happens to be on a Life Orb number.

ToxiTrapper
Max HP gives you maximum survivability. The Speed beats all base 115s. The rest is in Dugtrio's not-ideal-but-better-than-its-Defence-Special Defence. You could add it to Attack, but whatever.

Other Options

Choice Specs, Beat Up, Charm, Pursuit, Return, Rock Slide
Choice Specs with Earth Power, Hidden Power, Sludge Wave... yeah, moving on.
Beat Up is mostly useful in doubles on a Justified Pokémon.
Charm is a miniature Memento, but it doesn't kill you.
Pursuit can catch floating Pokémon switching out.
Return has 102 base power and 100 accuracy. It's pretty good, but adds no super effective coverage.
Rock Slide is an alternative to Stone Edge. Hate Stone Edge's accuracy? Rock Slide is a much, much, much, much, much weaker option.

Double & Triple Battle Options

I feel Dugtrio's talents would be wasted in doubles and triples. Not only can it not take a hit, but switching isn't often seen in multi Pokémon battles, at least from my experience. The only switching done is through U-turn and friends. I guess it gets STAB Earthquake, which is nice.

Partners

Memento adds a lot of strategy to your team. One tactic is breaking something with Dugtrio, then using Memento on the next Pokémon. They have crazy lowered offence now, allowing you to bring something in to set up. How about... Shadow Tag Gothitelle? Calm Mind up whilst they can't touch you. Shadow Tag Chandelure is also an option, if you are playing with it legal. You could switch something in and use Substitute. Hey, what about BellyZard? They will most likely switch out after you Memento them, so Substitute on the switch and Belly Drum when you can. These are a few examples of Memento being cool. Otherwise, Dugtrio is quite splashable. It's one of the best revenge killers, thanks to Arena Trap. It can easily break weakened walls as they have no where to go once you switch in, so use Pokémon that will benefit from this.

Countering Dugtrio

Flying and Levitating Pokémon. Skarmory, Gliscor, there's plenty of Flying Pokémon to ruin your day. Priority really hurts Dugtrio, no matter what tier it is in. Scizor, Azumarill, Hitmontop, again, the list is big. Although Dugtrio can't technically be countered, stopping it once it has revenge killed something isn't that hard. It is crazy frail, so even neutral attacks will deal a lot of damage. Bulky Grass Pokémon work well as counters, just watch out for Aerial Ace (if you are really scared of it for some reason). Rotom and its alternate forms do well as they are immune to Earthquake, can burn Dugtrio, and they can simply hit it hard enough to beat it. Trace can trap Dugtrio, allowing you to get a free kill on it. Bulky Waters do well too, but do take some damage from Earthquake.

Pre-Evolution Corner

Diglett can run any set Dugtrio uses. You'd only use it in Little Cup, as it has nice Speed and Arena Trap. It's pretty useful. Eviolite does boost its defences a bit, but there are some better choices for items for it to use.

Locations in Games

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Trade from FireRed/LeafGreen/XD.

FireRed/LeafGreen:
Diglett Cave .

Colosseum/XD:
Snagged from Cipher Peon Stron in Citadark Isle (XD)
Trade from FireRed/LeafGreen (Colosseum).

Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Route 228 .

HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Diglett's Cave .

Black/White:
Transfer from Diamond/Pearl/Platinum/HeartGold/SoulSilver

Animé Appearences

Dugtrio has appeared a few times in the anime, but most of its appearances were cameos. However, it was used by Katie in the Hoenn League in her battle against Ash # -English Episode Name- -Jp. Episode Name- Pics 31 Dig Those Diglett Full of Diglett Pics 62 Clefairy Tales Clefairy Vs. Jigglypuff Pics P1 Pikachu's Vacation Pikachu's Summer Vacation Pics P2 Pikachu's Rescue Adventure Pikachu's Exploration Party Pics 116 The Underground Round Up Electrode's Tremendous Blast!? Pics P3 Pikachu & Pichu Pichu & Pikachu Pics 171 Beauty and the Breeder Sayonara Vulpix! Beauty Contest! Pics 206 Right on, Rhydon! Chase the Swimming Rhydon! Lake of a Battle! Pics 209 Got Miltank! Mother Miltank! Desert Secret!! Pics C1 Legend of Thunder Raikou! Legend of Thunder! Pics 299 Gone Corphishin' Roughneck of the Sea! Corphish Enters! Pics 346 Balance of Power Petalburg Gym! The Fifth Badge!! Pics 347 A Six Pack Attack! Prof. Oak & Prof. Birch! Secret Base Battle!! Pics 396 The Ribbon Cup Caper Mysterious Thief Brody & The Ribbon Cup! Pics 405 Shocks and Bonds To The Tournament Finals! Every Day A Heated Battle! Pics 432 Green Guardian Pokémon Ranger Appears! Celebi Rescue Operation! Pics S22 Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Darkness Pokémon Mystery Dungeon - Time & Darkness Expedition Pics M11 Giratina & The Sky Warrior Giratina & The Bouquet of the Sky - Shaymin Pics 559 One Team, Two Team, Red Team, Blue Team! The Final Showdown! Pokémon Triathlon! Pics 613 A Rivalry to Gible On! Gible...Get! Pics M15 TBC Meloetta's Sparkling Recital Pics 920 Making Friends and Influencing Villains! The Forest's Curse and the White Phantump!! Pics 966 Getting the Band Back Together! Here's a Real Shocker! A Dugtrio Split-Up?! Pics 985 Alola, Kanto An Alola! in Kanto! Brock & Misty! Pics 998 The Professors' New Adventure! Thank You, Solgaleo! You are Our Nebby!! Pics 1014 Dewpider Ascending! Dewpider Gets Lana!? Pics 1022 Showering the World With Love! Minior and Poipole: A Promise that Got Lost in the Starry Skies! Pics 1024 A Young Royal Flame Ignites! The Young Flame of Alola! The Birth of Royal Ash!! Pics 1053 Keeping Your Eyes on the Ball! Hole in One at PokéGolf Pics 1068 A Timeless Encounter! Ash: A Timeless Encounter! Pics 1072 Battle Royal 151 Brawl! Battle Royal 151!! Pics 1090 Enter Pikachu! Pikachu is Born!! Pics 1095 Working My Way Back To Mew! I'm Gonna Get a Ton of Pokémon! The Road to Mew!! Pics 1109 Dreams are Made of These! Go Towards Your Dream! Ash and Goh!! Pics 1126 The New Old Gang of Mine I Am Back! Nice to See You, Alola! Pics M22 Pokémon: Secrets of the Jungle Pokémon: Koko   1141 How Are You Gonna Keep 'Em Off of the Farm? Hands-On Agriculture Studies! Where is Diglett?! Pics 1181 The Winding Path to Greatness! Gengar Does Its Best! The Road to Gigantamax!! Pics 1209 Infinite Possibilities! The Possibilities are Endless for Chloe and Eevee! Pics 1224 Heroes Unite! Pokémon! I Am Glad I Got To Meet You Pics 1225 These Could be the Start of Something Big! Ash and Goh! Setting Off Anew!! Pics