Nidoqueen, The Drill Pokémon. Tough scales cover the sturdy body of this Pokémon. It appears that the scales grow in cycles. It is adept at sending foes flying with harsh tackles. This Pokémon is at its strongest when it is defending its young. It uses its scaly, rugged body to seal the entrance of its nest and protect its young from predators.
Overview
Nidoqueen, alongside its partner Nidoking, is a pokemon that embodies versatility. However, unlike its mate who is an offensive threat with Sheer Force and Life Orb, Nidoqueen is a bit more defensive with its great Poison/Ground typing and access to both Stealth Rock and Toxic Spikes. These two moves combined with Nidoqueen's great offensive movepool makes it a terror in lower tier formats, and it can sometimes find a niche in some higher tier formats outside of standard play. While it tends to be similar to Nidoking, the nuanced stat changes ultimately make it a far more effective tank.
Positives
Utility - Nidoqueen is an immensely flexible Pokemon able to flex both offensively and defensively, having a wide movepool in both areas. Defensively, Nidoqueen is one of the best Toxic Spikes setters due to her access to both Toxic Spikes and Stealth Rock, which is shared by few others such as Omastar, Forretress, and Nihilego. Of these Pokemon, Nidoqueen is the only one to resist Stealth Rock making it easier to come in regularly and set them itself.
Fantastic Coverage - Offensively with Sheer Force and Life Orb, Nidoqueen has access to great coverage options such as Thunderbolt, Fire Blast, Ice Beam, Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, and Focus Blast while great having STAB options in Sludge Bomb, Poison Jab, and Earth Power. This gives Nidoqueen a lot of offensive pressure that can really punish foes trying to remove hazards on it with usual hazard removers such as Blastoise, forcing them to play a bit aggressively.
Negatives
Lack of Recovery - Being an offensive pivot with no access to recovery outside Rest makes Nidoqueen easy to wear down, especially in combo with Nidoqueen's low Speed which is also a noticeable problem. This can be slightly remedied with Black Sludge but the loss in damage is often not worth and if you play Nidoqueen well it should last for quite a while.
Borderline Stats - Nidoqueen's stat spread is good enough to fill its roles, but only barely. This means you can't really rely on Nidoqueen to fill too many roles at once and it can't handle all the pressure of switching in constantly. This also means it is heavily reliant on its EV spread to tank or deal enough damage.
Abilities
Poison Point - 33% chance to poison the opponent on contact - Decent ability overall but with access to Sheer Force, not worth using due to its inconsistency and regular poison not being overly useful.
Rivalry - Increases damage by 1.25x against same gendered opponents, but .75x to opposite gender opponents - This is a very niche ability with no worthwhile consistency, and with access to Sheer Force there's no reason for this.
Sheer Force - Increases power of moves with secondary effects by 33% but removes the secondary effect - This is one of the best offensive abilities in Pokemon and there is no real reason to not use it. Even if Nidoqueen is filling a tank role, this is a huge damage boost and it's ultimately why Nidoqueen is dangerous at all.
Movesets
Offensive Support
-Earth Power
-Ice Beam
-Stealth Rock
-Taunt / Toxic
Item Attached: Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs and Nature:
252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
Nidoqueen's regular role is being an offensive support Pokemon that can do a bit of wallbreaking as well as providing some team support. More at home on offensive teams, Stealth Rock is a mandatory move as Nidoqueen will force a lot of switches and gets many chances to set them up. Earth Power is a great STAB option in general and combos nicely with Ice Beam to hit common Defoggers such as Mandibuzz for decent damage. Last slot is open to Toxic to break bulky Pokemon such as Mega Blastoise, or Taunt to cripple walls and stop boosting threats such as Umbreon and Bewear respectively.
Timid nature with maximum offensive investment gives Nidoqueen as much as offensive presence as possible, while a Life Orb is necessary for Nidoqueen to be as threatening as it is. Note that Life Orb's recoil is cancelled by Sheer Force so it is essentially a free damage boost, which Nidoqueen desperately needs.
Defensive Support
-Stealth Rock
-Toxic Spikes
-Earth Power
-Sludge Wave
Item Attached: Black Sludge
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs and Nature:
252 HP / 124 Def / 132 Spe
Bold Nature
This is a more defensive take on Nidoqueen, better suited to balanced teams that want Nidoqueen to tank stuff more reliably for the team. Stealth Rock is mandatory as it's one of the main reasons you want Nidoqueen with Toxic Spikes for when Nidoqueen forces something out. Only set up one layer against more offensive teams as standard poison hurts more than Toxic due to their nature to only be in for short periods, while 2 layers is great for defensive teams. Earth Power and Sludge Wave are used to maximize Nidoqueen's damage and allows it to beat common threats it wants to switch into such as Mega Manectric, Cobalion, Emboar, Diancie, and Bewear.
The given Speed EVs also allow it to outpace Sylveon and Adamant Bewear, while the defensive investment with a Bold nature makes it as physically bulky as possible to take advantage of Nidoqueen's solid defensive typing. Black Sludge provides Nidoqueen with some much needed recovery and is worth the power loss from not having Life Orb, since this set is more about providing support than raw power.
Other Options
All Out Attacker - Basically a lower tier Nidoking, Nidoqueen can work ok as a full offensive attacker due to its wide coverage pool, Sheer Force, and decent base attacks. Nidoqueen can hit hit reasonably hard physically but as with Nidoking, it has better coverage specially and is best off utilizing those instead.
Partners
Bulky Waters - Being great walls overall and sponging Ice and Water attacks that Nidoqueen fears, these make excellent options as part of a defensive core. Alomomola is one of the best due to it being able to Wish pass to Nidoqueen and fix one of its major issues in lacking recovery, while really abusing Nidoqueen's ability to spread poison or Toxic. Suicune is great for more offensive teams with its flexibility to run Substitute + 3 attacks or Calm Mind sets, all bringing a lot of pressure to the table. Finally, Mega Blastoise is nice as Nidoqueen hates Spikes, and it brings a lot of offensive pressure with its Mega Launcher coverage or some defensive utility with a bulky Roar set.
Sweepers - Very general but with reliable hazards and easily spreading status, Nidoqueen is a huge boon for any sweeper, though the ones that can boost on bulky Waters are the best. Suicune and Latias take the top places here with Calm Mind and Suicune making excellent use of Substitute to dodge Toxic from Pokemon such as Milotic. Flygon and Haxorus can work but both fear being burned with Scald or hit with a stray Ice Beam, especially Flygon. Finally, Lilligant resists Scald and doesn't care a ton about being burned, and with access to Quiver Dance can get threatening very quick.
Countering Nidoqueen
Kyurem - In lower tier formats, Kyurem is a major threat for Nidoqueen that aren't carrying Focus Blast as it wont take a lot of damage from Sludge Wave and can threaten back with Ice Beam. Kyurem can also look to set up Substitute on the switch out which can be a huge problem for some teams, or just fire a Choice Specs Draco Meteor to punch holes in Nidoqueen's team.
Bulky Waters - While fantastic partners for Nidoqueen, they are equally good at answering it. Milotic is one of the best with Marvel Scale to gain a buff from being Poisoned and has access to Recover and Refresh. Alomomola and Suicune are good for similar reasons, Alomomola being a very bulky fish with Wish and Regenerator and Suicune having high defense and can create 101 health Substitutes with good Speed, dodging Toxic and can set up Calm Mind or just start attacking. Finally Mega Blastoise can just blow Nidoqueen up, even spinning away Stealth Rock, but it really doesn't like Toxic as it has no recovery either.
Locations in Games
Red/Blue/Yellow:
Evolve Nidorina.
Gold/Silver/Crystal:
Evolve Nidorina.
Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Trade from FireRed/LeafGreen.
FireRed/LeafGreen:
Evolve Nidorina
Colosseum/XD:
Trade from FireRed/LeafGreen.
Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Evolve Nidorina.
HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Evolve Nidorina.
Black/White:
Evolve Nidorina (White)
Trade from White, Black 2 & White 2 (Black).
Black 2/White 2:
Evolve Nidorina.
X/Y:
Evolve Nidorina
Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire:
Trade from X/Y.
Sun/Moon:
Transfer from Generation 6.
Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon:
Transfer from Generation 6
Let's Go, Pikachu!/Let's Go, Eevee!:
Route 23.
Animé Appearences
