Pok�mon of the Week

Crobat, The Bat Pok�mon. It flies so silently through the dark on its four wings that it may not be noticed even when nearby. The development of wings on its legs enables it to fly fast but also makes it tough to stop and rest. The transformation of its legs into wings made it better at flying, but more clumsy at walking. A Pok�mon that gained vastly enhanced flying performance by having its legs turn into wings. Having four wings enables it to fly faster and more quietly. It turns active when the night comes. Over the course of evolution, its hind legs turned into wings. By alternately resting its front and rear wings, it can fly all day without having to stop.

Crobat is the parent of Zubat, a Pokemon who is easily one of the most annoying in the game. Countless Zubats have infuriated players with Supersonic spam that always seems to make you hit yourself. It evolves into Golbat who isn't much less annoying. It doesn't help that probably 90% of Team Rocket has one (that or something from the Raticate family). Sure you could catch Zubat yourself but all it knew was the horribly weak Leech Life until about 10 levels after you caught it, where it would learn the almost as weak Bite and remain useless for basically the rest of the game. It eventually learned Wing Attack, but back in the day that was no better than a Flying type Tackle. Oh did I mention it learned no useful TMs and NO HMs (not even Fly in Red / Blue). Yeah, Zubat was a classic case of total useless junk. Gamefreak was kind enough to give Golbat an evolution in Gold and Silver. Sadly they didn't really do anything to help with its move issues. In Ruby / Sapphire Crobat received some desperately needed love. It got Choice Band as well as a ton of new physical attacks added to its movepool such as Sludge Bomb, Shadow Ball, Hidden Power and Aerial Ace. Crobat's biggest boost was in the 4th generation as the moves Roost and Brave Bird became available. Crobat also got use of Nasty Plot, and in Platinum it got Heat Wave. This is by far the strongest Crobat has ever been and probably ever will be. Now adays Crobat isn't nearly as good as it was last generation. The game has become more powerful while everyone's favorite bat hasn't really changed at all. It still has blistering speed and good stats everywhere else. While Crobat isn't amazing its still far better than its humble beginnings in Red and Blue. It may never relive its glory days of Diamond and Pearl but it can still make a name for itself.

Inner Focus: This Pok�mon will not flinch. Does not prevent flinching with Focus Punch. A decent ability. It can come in handy against Serene Grace Air Slash or Iron Heads and makes you laugh off Fake Outs. It protects against Rock Slide flinches too.
Infiltrator: The protections and defense boosts caused by the moves Reflect, Light Screen and Safeguard used by the opponent are ignored. This is kind of cool for the offensive Crobat but utterly useless for any defensive sets.

- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Taunt
- Super Fang
Item Attached: Black Sludge
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 168 HP / 192 Atk / 4 SDef / 144 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

Batman references were too obvious (and more suited to Gliscor or Zubat) so... Bane anyone? Crobat is a pretty decent stall-breaker. It has decent defenses and enough speed to outrun entire stall teams. Taunt prevents defensive Pokemon from doing much of anything to you while Super Fang literally cuts their HP bar in two. Roost keeps Crobat alive over a long game and reduces the damage you take from Electric, Rock, and Ice moves. Brave Bird is a solid STAB move that breaks apart Fighting and Grass types easily enough. The EVs look weird but they serve a specific purpose. 168 HP helps capitalize on bulk and hits an odd HP number meaning Stealth Rocks does less damage. 192 Attack guarantees Brave Bird OHKOs Scrafty after Stealth Rock damage and gives it about 22% more power than you would have with no Attack EVs. 4 Special Defense makes sure Download Pokemon like Porygon Z or Genesect get an Attack boost against you. 144 Speed outruns base 115s like Azelf as well as Scarf Tyranitar. This set is effective in standard battles or Underused matches. Black Sludge is the item of choice to punish Trick users but if you have trouble with the sludge being Tricked back on you Leftovers is a fine item.

- Nasty Plot
- Sludge Bomb
- Heat Wave
- Giga Drain / Hidden Power Fighting
Item Attached: Life Orb / Black Sludge
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)

70 base Special Attack isn't very high but Crobat has excellent speed and a movepool to compliment it. After a Nasty Plot Crobat has nearly 500 Special Attack which is good enough to do some respectable damage. Sludge Bomb has high killing power, enough to instantly wipe out anything with moderate bulk such as Hydreigon or Conkeldurr. Heat Wave should melt any Steel not named Heatran usually in one shot provider it isn't raining. The last slot is up to you. Giga Drain hits Water and Ground types extremely hard, destroying them and restoring your HP in the process. If you are using this in UU Giga Drain is almost always the better option. If this is being used in a standard battle Hidden Power Fighting is the better option to possibly OHKO Tyranitar and Heatran after Stealth Rocks. Hidden Power Fighting doesn't really hit anything else though so if you can handle those two Pokemon otherwise Giga Drain may be better to help beat Hippowdon. Life Orb is the item you should use if you're playing in standard. Crobat NEEDS the boost to compete in standard play. In UU you can afford a little bit of a power drop so Leftovers is passable, but Life Orb is still suggested. Max Speed is nice to outrun Choice Scarf Politoed and Dragon Dancing Dragonite and Gyarados but if you use this in UU 136 Speed is basically all you need. Just enough to outrun Azelf.

- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Steel Wing / Pursuit
- Cross Poison
Item Attached: Choice Band
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

Crobat has passable Attack, great Speed, and a decent movepool. It runs a Choice Band set fairly well. Compared to other Choice Banders like Terrakion, Dragonite and Haxorus Crobat is pretty much obsolete. This set is much better suited to Underused battles where Steels and super-strong physical walls don't really exist. Brave Bird has surprising power, enough to drop Blastoise in two hits. U-turn is great for scouting counters and can rack up a ton of damage with Stealth Rock support. Steel Wing completely sucks as despite a Super Effective hit its only 4HKOing Rhyperior. Something a little more useful you can try is Pursuit. Crobat is an absolute terror to Grass and Bug types and easily forces them to switch. Its only really useful for hitting Roserade though as most other Pokemon don't even take 40% from it. Cross Poison is the final attack to make some sort of attempt at damaging Electric types like Zapdos.

- Curse
- Acrobatics / Brave Bird
- Roost
- Substitute / Cross Poison
Item Attached: White Herb
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 120 HP / 252 Atk / 136 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

First off let me get this out of the way. This is a gimmick that should only be used for fun. It will not beat most teams unless they are significantly weakened. The idea is to use Curse first. Your Attack and Defense will go up but Speed will drop... until White Herb restores the Speed loss! Now you are nearly impervious to physical attacks and can attempt a sweep with your solid Attack stat. Acrobatics has 110 base power with no drawback after the White Herb has been consumed. If you have trouble with Intimidate Pokemon or want Crobat battle-ready without being reliant on White Herb being used you can also run Brave Bird which actually hits harder despite having a slight drawback of recoil. Roost keeps Crobat going even in the face of Bronzong Gyro Balls and numerous Stone Edges. Substitute blocks Thunder Wave and helps stall out the PP of some weaker attacks with the ever annoying "SubRoost" strategy. Cross Poison is another option to try and take out Electric types in a pinch. 136 Speed outruns Azelf while Max Attack helps attempt a sweep. 120 HP improves bulk a bit.

Screech, Confuse Ray, Haze, Mean Look / Toxic, Air Slash, Hypnosis, Acrobatics / Flight Gem, and Sleep Talk.
While not perfect, Screech can force your opponent to switch out or else they may be destroyed by your Brave Bird. If they switch you can hit them with Pursuit!
Confuse Ray is always usable for the same reason you hated those endless Supersonic Zubats... It's really annoying.
Haze can end any threat from Swords Dancers or Cursers immediately. Crobat doesn't really have the free move-slots for that though.
Mean Look can be hilarious with Toxic especially if your opponent doesn't switch immediately. There are better options.
Air Slash is usable on the Nasty Plot set and has great coverage with Hidden power Fighting. It is very weak though.
Hypnosis will miss almost half the time but when it does hit a counter may be eliminated.
Acrobatics can be paired with Flight Gem for a strong attack but this is still much weaker than a Choice Band Brave Bird.
If Spore is slowing you down Sleep Talk can be a good move to make sure Breloom and Amoonguss learn their place.

Crobat is immune to Fake Out flinches, is extremely fast, gets Sunny Day / Rain Dance, has acceptable bulk, learns Heat Wave, and Tailwind. If that wasn't enough it's a perfectly capable user of Flight Gem + Acrobatics. It can Taunt Trick Room users and smash tanks like Cresselia and Metagross with Super Fang. Crobat has a TON of Doubles options.

Rapid Spin is extremely helpful to get rid of Stealth Rocks. Blastoise can spin and absorb Rock and Ice hits for Crobat while the bat protects Blastoise against Grass hits. In standard play Tentacruel or Starmie can perform similarly. Hard hitters that take advantage of walls being damaged are great partners for the stall-breaker set. Swampert and Bronzong resist Rock and Electric / Ice respectively. They also set up Stealth Rocks to aid in Crobat's sweep. Nasty Plot Crobat has a lot of trouble breaking through dedicated walls like Chansey or Snorlax so Toxic Spikes or things to trap them like Gothitelle or Dugtrio are excellent. Choice Band Crobat is almost incapable or beating Rock and Steel types so they need to be eliminated or at least hurt before Crobat tries anything fancy. Fighting types can switch in on Steel and Rock types, fainting them easily.

Repels. Lots of Repels. Avoid making a slow Pokemon the lead in your party otherwise you will get the message "can't escape" and just end up annoyed. Try to avoid Team Rocket too. Flash helps get through those caves faster to help limit your exposure to Zubats. Proper use of Town Maps may very well allow you to avoid those caves entirely. If you must travel through Zubat territory have your lead Pokemon hold a Cleanse Tag to ward them off, preferably with the ability "Stench". Sadly, no matter how much we try sometimes fighting the bats are unavoidable.
Electric types in general have little to fear from Crobat, Golbat, or Zubat and can quickly dispatch them with STAB attacks. Rotom is probably the best example as it is also immune to Super Fang. Static Electric types are also good as they force Crobat into a dangerous situation... Super Fang, Brave Bird and U-turn all have a chance of activating Static which will effectively ruin Crobat. Geodudes are found in caves and take little from Zubat's moves. This applies to most Rock types as well, even Steel types. Be careful though, Nasty Plot Bats will cut through most of its traditional counters easily. Luckily they are fairly weak otherwise and will have no shot of breaking into an Umbreon, Chansey, Snorlax, or defensive Zapdos.

Pre-Evolution Corner - Golbat

Bat to the bone.

- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Taunt
- Super Fang
Item Attached: Eviolite
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 40 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)

Golbat is surprisingly bulky with Eviolite. Shockingly in fact. So much so that it survives Banded Outrages, Stone Edge critical hits and Specs Thunders from certain Pokemon. Like Crobat this set attempts to use its good-ish typing to get multiple chances to Super Fang and prevent recovery with Taunt. Brave Bird has solid base damage while Roost keeps Golbat alive longer. Though not widely regarded as an important tier Golbat is incredibly useful in Middle Cup. Its also effective in NU and RU tiers, hard countering most physical threats.

Pre-Evolution Corner - Zubat (Little Cup)

Adam West is not here at the moment.

-Brave Bird
-Super Fang/Steel Wing
-Bite/Pursuit
-Heat Wave/U-Turn/Pursuit
Item Attached: Choice Scarf/Choice Band
Ability: Inner Focus/Infiltrator
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 36 HP/236 Atk/236 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd � Sp. Atk)

Zubat is very underrated in Little Cup as is it's a very potent counter to one of the best LC Pokemon, Mienfoo. The advent of Choice Scarf also makes it useful for revenge killing, boosting it's decent speed of 16 up to 24. Brave Bird, or should I say, �Brave Bat� is a great STAB move that can destroy Fighting-Type like Mienfoo and Scraggy with ease. Super Fang helps out in cutting walls done to size like Bronzor and Lileep. Steel Wing helps if you want coverage against Rock-Type like Dwebble, but Super Fang is usually better. The choice between Bite and Pursuit is tricky but Bite usually comes out on top more times than not. With Choice Scarf Bite can flinch opponents and really annoy them. Pursuit helps if your opponent is �switch happy�, but going against common Ghost-Types like Misdreavus is risky, because they usually carry Will-o-Wisp. Of course you can have Bite and Pursuit if you want. Heat Wave is a much better answer to Steel-Types like Ferroseed than Super Fang is. U-Turn adds switch advantage, which is great on Choice Pokemon like Zubat. Inner Focus is usually better, since there's more Fake Outs than Dual-Screens in Little Cup. Choice Band may sound like a good idea, since Brave Bird will hit even harder, but Choice Scarf is more applicable since Little Cup relies on your offensive Pokemon hitting high speeds. Adamant nature can also be used but with Jolly, Zubat will always outspeed Scraggy after a Dragon Dance, assuming you're using Choice Scarf with Zubat. With Adamant you risk a speed tie and you could take a Crunch, Zen Headbutt, or Ice Punch to Zubat's non-existing face.

Batman's costume is too bulky .

-Super Fang
-Toxic/Taunt/Whirlwind
-Roost
Item Attached: Eviolite
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 236 HP/32 Atk/236 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -Sp. Atk)

Stall is basically unheard of in Little Cup, but Zubat is a Pokemon that can pull it off decently. It can also be a troublesome pest to even the most prepared teams. Basic strategy is to start off with Taunt or Toxic to break down walls, or to stop other Pokemon from crippling you. Then you use Super Fang enough to bring down the opponent's health to very miniscule amounts that even a Not Very Effective Brave Bird will kill it. You use Roost to heal any time your HP is low. This can be a real bugger if not taken care of correctly as healing with Roost can really ruin your day. This set is great if you have trouble with walls. Just keep in mind that Roost doesn't get rid of your Poison-Type so Pokemon like Abra can kill Zubat no problem. Also Zubat still only reaches 16 speed, so faster Pokemon like some Mienfoo can hit you with a Stone Edge and end you. Zubat also tends to be a bit of set-up fodder, so Pokemon like Dwebble and Tirtouga can set-up and hit you for Super-Effective damage. For this reason Whirlwind is an ok option. Eviolite helps a little with bulk, but Zubat can still have problems taking hits with a Base 35 Defense and Base 40 Special Defense. If you do want a Pokemon to stall out others and want it to be very, very annoying, Zubat's your Pokemon.

Locations in Games

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Evolve Golbat .

FireRed/LeafGreen:
Evolve Golbat

Colosseum/XD:
Evolve Golbat (XD) Trade from Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed or LeafGreen (Colosseum)

Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Evolve Golbat.

HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Evolve Golbat

Black/White:
Route 13, Giant Chasm
Evolve Golbat

Black 2/White 2:
Dreamyard
Evolve Golbat