Milotic, the Tender Pokémon. Its lovely scales are described as rainbow- colored. They change color depending on the viewing angle. It lives at the bottom of clear lakes. In times of war, it shows itself, which soothes people's minds and hearts.
Overview
Milotic has been enchanting trainers with its beauty, prowess, and difficulty to obtain ever since its debut in the third generation and it is easy to see why. The quintessential bulky water type, Milotic has everything you would expect from such a role. 95 HP and 125 Special Defense is immense, enabling Milotic to repeatedly soak Special Attacks without issue. It is also one of the lucky Pokémon to retain access to Scald, offering an easy STAB answer to its otherwise lacking Defense, and is a fantastic deterrent to physical attackers switching. Add onto all this reliable recovery in Recover, easy pivoting in Flip Turn and Haze to put a stop to setup Sweepers before they begin and Milotic has just about every tool that a defensive Pokémon could ask for. Even offensively, Milotic is no slouch. Base 100 Special Attack is quite usable and access to Dragon and Fairy coverage alongside Ice STAB and Competitive to nab free boosts and Milotic has not only the wide coverage, but the boosting power to back it up into quite the threat.
However, the bulky Water type is a role that has existed ever since the first generation, with each new one adding more and more competition, having Milotic struggle to standout. Slowbro and Slowking, Toxapex, Tentacruel, Gastrodon, Primarina and Empoleon all offer secondary typings that give valuable resistances that Milotic misses out on. Alomomola, and Dondozo offer far superior physical bulk, arguably more important than Special bulk given the many Ground and Rock types Water types are called to handle. This contrasts with Milotic that must hope for a Scald Burn to effectively handle such physical attackers. The fact that Milotic is stuck with Competitive for boosting leaves it very reliant on the opponent and luck to be an offensive threat while Suicune can easily ramp itself up with Calm Mind, while Empoleon is a far better competitive abuser thanks to its Steel subtyping offering extra STAB and resistances. While Milotic boasts a plethora of tools that no single competitor has in full, this beauty queen’s glory days seem a distant memory.
Positives
Base 95 HP and 125 Special Defense along with pure Water typing make for an excellent Special Wall with few exploitable weaknesses.
Scald access is quite invaluable offering an incredible STAB and a way to permanently cripple physical attackers.
Fantastic defensive movepool with access to Haze, Dragon Tail, Flip Turn and Recover, alongside decent coverage in addition to Water STAB gives Milotic a move for most situations.
Negatives
Base 79 Defense is rather lackluster, and without Scald Burns, Milotic struggles to tank physical attacks.
Incredible competition with numerous other Pokémon that offer a similar role make it hard to justify Milotic over them.
Both abilities, while good, are situational and can be rather luck-based.
Movesets
Burn and Dive
-Scald
-Recover
-Flip Turn
-Dragon Tail
Ability: Marvel Scale
Item: Leftovers
EVs and Nature:
252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
Milotic’s standard defensive set has Milotic excel as a blanket wall, stopping Special and Physical attackers alike with its combination of natural special bulk and Scald. Scald is the crux of the set and one of Milotic’s greatest claims to fame, offering appreciable damage and a good Burn chance that can defang opposing physical attackers for the remainder of the battle. Recover is just as important to Milotic, giving it absurd longevity and enabling it to repeatedly tank attacks as well is giving it more opportunities to burn the opponent. Flip Turn gives Milotic important pivoting ability, punishing predicted switches for Milotic counters to safely get in checks for your opponent’s Milotic counters. Dragon Tail rounds out the set as a Taunt proof answer to setup sweepers, forcing them out and wiping their boosts while racking up further chip damage.
Tera Types:
Given that Water is a popular Tera Type, it is unsurprising that Milotic gets a lot of mileage out of its base typing. Milotic is surprising in how flexible when it comes to Terastalization, benefiting out of just about any defensive Tera. As such Tera Grass and Tera Dragon are invaluable, given that both provide resistances to Milotic’s base weaknesses. Tera Dragon is generally preferred given it boosts any Dragon coverage Milotic has. Tera Poison is another great option since it negates Milotic’s Grass weakness and Milotic’s Water STAB discourages Ground attackers. Tera Fairy is another standard defensive Tera that doesn’t have any overlapping weaknesses and bolsters Milotic’s Fairy coverage. Tera Steel is another great option for the sheer number of resistances it provides including a resistance to Grass.
EVs and Items:
Max HP and Special Defense are recommended to emphasize Milotic’s role as a special wall, leaving physical walling to teammates. Alternatively, one can invest fully in Defense to have Milotic act as a blanket sponge, giving Milotic more opportunities to scald the competition. Speed investment is also important, giving Milotic more opportunities to land Scalds, Recover, pivot out with Flip Turn and more. 12 Speed surpasses defensive Metagross, 88 Speed outstrips bulky Great Tusk, 116 for Gliscor, 120 for defensive Landorus-Therian, and 128 speed outruns Max Speed neutral Emboar. Leftovers is recommended as the item for continual recovery, but Heavy-Duty Boots is great for ensuring Milotic enters the field healthy and dodge Toxic Spikes.
Partners:
Physically defensive Ground types work great with Milotic, offering an Electric immunity and high Defense to compliment Milotic’s Water and Ice resistances and high Special Defense, forming a small but efficient backbone. Ground types not weak to Grass are especially valuable, so Pokémon like Gliscor, Landorus-Therian, and Iron Treads all make for fantastic partners with Milotic. The fact that such Pokémon often are a team’s hazard setter, pairing well with Dragon Tail and Flip turn in forcing switches and racking up even more damage. Other excellent options include Donphan and Mudsdale.
Defensive Defoggers often pair well with defensive Milotic as well, given most offer a Grass resistance to cover for Milotic and greatly appreciate Milotic threatening most Rock types and hazard setters in turn, while removing hazards so that Milotic can continue walling. Excellent examples include Galarian Weezing, Mandibuzz, Corviknight and Drifblim, all of whom have options to punish physical attackers with Will-O-Wisp or Iron Defense, greatly easing Milotic’s walling duties.
Other Options:
Haze is Milotic’s other option for resetting stat boosts and is often better than the negative priority Dragon Tail, outside of being completely shut down by Taunt.
Mirror Coat is a great way to eliminate Special Attackers, especially given Milotic’s fantastic Special Bulk ensures it will survive most Special Attacks and Haze prevents setup sweepers from running Milotic over.
Ice Beam has incredible synergistic coverage with Water outside of opposing Water types and is always a great option for coverage.
RestTalk is niche, but gives Milotic a reliable way to abuse Marvel Scale and cleanse itself of other status like Toxic./p>
Doubles and VGC Options
As much as Milotic has lauded acclaim for its defensive prowess in Singles, in Doubles its Competitive ability is what really lets Milotic shine. Stat dropping moves and abilities, especially Intimidate, are extremely prevalent in Doubles, making it easy for Milotic to grab Competitive boosts and start threatening the opposing team with its wide array of coverage. Milotic’s great natural bulk lends itself to well to such a role, making it obnoxious to remove and disincentivizing Intimidate while Milotic remains on the field. Milotic still faces strict competition in this role from Empoleon, whose Steel subtyping makes it fantastic in taking on Flutter Mane, as well as Defiant users such as Kingambit, Teal Mask Ogerpon, and Annihilape whose Defiant ability produces similar results and have more base power up front and doing poorly against popular Grass types such Wellspring Ogerpon and Rillaboom does not help matters either.
Beautiful Ward
-Scald
-Icy Wind
-Recover
-Protect
Ability: Competitive
Item: Grassy Seed
Tera Type: Poison/Fairy/Grass
EVs and Nature:
252 HP / 92 Def/ 156 SAtk / 4 SDef / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
Milotic provides passive support, active disruption, and speed control with this set, all the while chipping down the opponent with its own attack. As with other Defiant and Competitive users, Milotic’s very presence acts as an active deterrent for Intimidate, getting an effective Nasty Plot boost every time your opponent switches in an Intimidate user. Scald provides not only appreciable damage as Milotic’s Water STAB, but Scald burns are fantastic for shutting down the many physical attackers running around, making Milotic and its team effectively more physically bulky on that front. Icy Wind provides chip damage and speed control, while being able to hit the many popular Grass types is a nice bonus. Recover maximizes Milotic’s longevity, enabling it to deter Intimidate users as long as possible and get the most out of any Competitive boosts it can nab. Protect rounds out the set as the doubles staple, blocking Fake Out, stall out for support, stall out opposing field conditions, scout for information, Protect’s uses are innumerable.
Grassy Seed is preferred as the item for dealing with opposing Rillaboom and benefiting from your own, patching up Milotic’s weaker Defense and making it particularly stubborn for removal. EVs are to make Milotic near impossible to be 2HKO’d by Assault Vest Rillaboom’s Grassy Glide as well as Tera Normal Banded Dragonite’s Extremespeed and Urshifu’s Close Combat (after the Grassy Seed boost). Almost everything else goes into Special Attack for the most bang out of Competitive. Milotic is as flexible with Tera’s as it is in Singles. Tera Poison provides valuable Grass, Fighting and Fairy resistances, handling many prominent attackers and resolving one of Milotic’s key weaknesses. Fairy is an all around excellent defensive type and gives Milotic an excellent buffer against Roaring Moon and Urshifu-Single. Tera Grass is another safe pick, giving resistances to both Grass and Electric, stymying both popular Grass attackers as well as Raging Bolt.
Other Options & Partners:
Rillaboom is a vital partner for this set, being a reliable trigger for Grassy Seed and getting that all important defense boost and passive recovery along with excellent Fake Out Support. Rillaboom in turn loves Milotic, forming a Grass-Water core, Milotic’s Intimidate punishing, speed control with Icy Wind and just ability to completely shut down Incineroar.
Intimidate users also work well with Milotic, given that all of them are physical attackers as well and are just as hampered by Intimidate. Landorus-Therian deserves serious consideration, for much of the same reason as in singles with just extremely synergistic typings and its ability to threaten Raging Bolt.
Leftovers is always worth consideration on Milotic. Milotic’s job is to stick around as long as possible, and Leftovers synergizes with that well. Sitrus Berry is another option, providing burst healing that well aid Milotic in surviving otherwise lethal blows.
Muddy Water is Milotic’s best spread STAB move and great for spreading damage, especially after a competitive boost.
Ice Beam offers superb coverage into the many Grass and Dragon types, especially Raging Bolt.
Countering Milotic
As a quintessential bulky Water type, Milotic is famed for being able to handle a wide variety of threats, greatly hindering normal would-be answers.
Physical wallbreakers, especially Electric and Grass ones would normally be recommended given Milotic’s lower defense, but faster ones can only come in as a revenge KO, since switching into a Scald and being burned is ruinous. Guts users like Heracross, and Conkeldurr are noticeable exceptions, welcoming the Scald burn, having the special bulk to stand up to unboosted attacks and cleanly 2HKO Milotic. Milotic’s speed is decent for a defensive Pokémon, but not overbearing, leaving Banded Tera Staraptor, Banded Pawmot, Tsareena and Iron Leaves all able to pick off a slightly weakened Milotic.
Special wallbreakers can work too, but it is imperative that they get the one hit knock out, as Mirror Coat can easily turn such a trade into Milotic’s favor, even if it is compromised afterwards. Specs Toxtricity, Specs and Thundurus-Therian are some of the few special breakers that can cross that wall.
Checking Milotic defensively is far easier, provided you do not give it a Competitive boost, as any serious offense from Milotic otherwise requires investment that it would have to sacrifice bulk for. Water types tend to fare well, though they need neutral coverage to outpace Milotic’s own neutral coverage. Milotic does not always run Ice Beam, and sets lacking that tend to struggle against Grass types like Venusaur, Brute Bonnet, and Chestnaught, but these must be wary of Mirror Coat and Scald respectively.
Toxic and Toxic Spikes are another way to keep Milotic in check; outside of the extremely rare Rest and Refresh, these are great in compromising Milotic’s bulk and bringing it down to thresholds where it can be KO’d.
Determining Milotic’s EV spread can be just as important for taking it out. Milotic cannot cover every possible threat and can become more manageable depending on whether it invested in Defense or Special Defense, if at all.
Locations in Games
Red/Blue/Yellow:
Not in game
Gold/Silver/Crystal:
Not in game
Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Evolve Feebas
FireRed/LeafGreen:
Trade from Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald
Colosseum/XD:
Trade from Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald
Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Evolve Feebas
HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Evolve Feebas
Black/White:
Route 1
Black 2/White 2:
Route 1
X/Y:
Trade from Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire
Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire:
Evolve Feebas
Sun/Moon:
Evolve Feebas
Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon:
Evolve Feebas
Let's Go, Pikachu!/Let's Go, Eevee!:
Not in game
Sword/Shield:
Lake of Outrage, South Lake Miloch, Giant's Bed
Max Raid Battles: Bridge Field, East Lake Axewell, Lake of Outrage, West Lake Axewell, Giant's Bed, Giant's Foot, Frigid Sea, Ballimere Lake
Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl:
Evolve Feebas
Legends: Arceus:
Not in game
Scarlet/Violet:
Evolve Feebas
Tera Raid Battles: 5 Star Raid Battles, 6 Star Raid Battles
Anime Appearences
