Empoleon, the Emperor Pokémon. If anyone were to hurt its pride, it would slash them in two with wings that can cleave through an ice floe. It avoids unnecessary disputes, but it will mercilessly decimate anything that threatens the safety of its colony.
Overview
Empoleon’s return in the ninth generation has come with several incredible buffs that enable the second coming of the Emperor. Swapping out its Hidden Ability from Defiant to Competitive finally allows Empoleon to make use of its far stronger Special Attack and more robust Special coverage to apply pressure when its stats are dropped. Additions to Empoleon’s movepool make it a far more robust and flexible Pokémon as well. Vacuum Wave gives offensive sets additional coverage and badly needed priority, while slotting in with Empoleon’s existing coverage options including Grass Knot, leaving Empoleon one of the rare Water Pokémon with a positive match up into other Water types. Roost on the other hand, finally allows Empoleon to excel as a bulky water type, giving it the longevity to take repeated hits and make excellent use of Empoleon’s good defenses and the myriad of resistances Empoleon’s unique Water Steel typing provides.
Like any ruler, Empoleon cannot do everything by itself. While Water Steel is overall a great typing, it offers unfortunately common Electric, Fighting and Ground weaknesses. This is only exasperated by Empoleon’s lackluster Speed, leaving Empoleon checked by the Ground types you would expect a bulky Water type to handle. Quite unfortunate given how intensely competitive a team’s bulky Water slot is, with all stars like Dondozo, Alomomola, Milotic, Tentacruel, Toxapex, Gastrodon, Slowbro and Slowking all cajoling for the same spot. Empoleon lacking any offensive boosting outside of Competitive leaves it reliant on the opponent to escalate, leaving its prowess wanting against dedicated sponges. The loss of Scald is another blow, worsening Empoleon’s matchup in physical attackers that are already looking to prey on its lower defense. Overall, the ninth generation has been a second coming of the emperor amidst a sea of power creep.
Positives
Base 111 Special Attack coupled with STABs and impressive coverage in Grass Knot, Ice Beam and Vacuum Wave ensure Empoleon is far from passive.
Water Steel typing is incredible defensively, granting a whopping 10 resistances and immunity, allowing Empoleon to switch in on many attacks.
84/88/101 Defenses combined with Roost give Empoleon impressive staying power, allowing it to tank multiple hits throughout a match.
Negatives
Water Steel also provides common Electric, Ground and Fighting weaknesses, greatly reducing the number of Pokémon Empoleon can wall.
Base 60 Speed is awful, usually forcing Empoleon to soak an attack before acting.
Competitive is unreliable and Empoleon’s offense can be underwhelming without it.
Movesets
Tempestuous Ruler
-Surf
-Flash Cannon
-Ice Beam
-Flip Turn
Ability: Competitive
Item: Choice Specs
EVs and Nature:
4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
Specs Empoleon makes for a bulky attacker, using its great typing to switch in and pile on damage to the opposing team, with Choice Specs making up for Empoleon’s initial lack of power. Surf is Empoleon’s go-to STAB, dealing great damage and boasting great neutral coverage, greatly limiting switch-ins. Flash Cannon is secondary STAB and great for obliterating Fairies and Tera Fairy Pokémon like Primarina, Alolan Ninetails, and Fezandipiti. Ice Beam boasts incredible synergy with Surf, striking down would be Grass and Dragon switch ins as well as Tera Grass Pokémon, like Goodra, Cyclizar, Hydregion, Serperior, and Amoonguss. Flip Turn, while physical allows Empoleon to provide utility as a bulky pivot, countering would be switch-ins for a slow Double Switch that keeps momentum in your favor while chipping your opponent’s check for Empoleon’s teammate to follow up.
Tera Types:
Empoleon is often not wont to Terastalize due to the sheer number of resistances its base typing provides. Empoleon’s common weaknesses do provide a powerful impetus for Terastalizing, so when considering Terastalization, make sure you aren’t opening a hole in your team’s defense and whether you would be better served by switching instead. Tera Water is incredibly effective, bolstering Empoleon’s already spammable Water STAB to dangerous heights while removing Empoleon’s onerous Fighting and Ground weaknesses. Tera Flying is a more defensive alternative, providing resistance/immunity to Empoleon’s Fighting and Ground weaknesses and providing protection to non-Stealth Rocks hazards, though the shared Electric weakness is painful. Tera Fairy is another all around excellent defensive type
EVs and Items:
Standard offensive investment of Max Special Attack and Speed are recommended. While Empoleon does ply a lot of its trade around its bulk, there are numerous threats hovering around the base 60 Speed benchmark that Empoleon likes outspeeding, like both Ursalunas, Primarina, Kingambit, Hisuian Goodra, Conkeldurr, and Magnezone. HP EV investment is not without merit, especially if looking to exploit Empoleon’s bulk instead. 180 Speed EVs with Neutral nature is required to outspeed neutral Ursaluna, while 196 Speed is needed for Ursaluna Bloodmoon, while 136 Speed outruns Adamant Conkeldurr. Choice Specs is the raison d’ętre for this set, providing Empoleon an immediate power boost not contingent on Competitive. Assault Vest is a fantastic alternative, which in conjunction with Empoleon’s high Special Defense enables it to soak up large amounts of special attacks with ease and easily winning out in the grind game against such attackers.
Partners:
:
Allies that can tank Empoleon’s few weaknesses are greatly appreciated. Flying types are a natural pick given their resistance to Flying and immunity to Ground, while Empoleon’s quadruple Ice resistance and Rock resistance make it a great partner to them as well. Noivern is an excellent example, able to keep up a pivot core thanks to its access to U-Turn, while Intimidate Salamence greatly facilitate’s Empoleon’s time by ruining opposing attackers. Both also love Empoleon for its Fairy resistance.
Ground types make for a natural partner to Empoleon nullifying Electric attacks and their usually high defense works wonders against the oft physical Ground and Fighting attacks, while Empoleon’s Ice and Water resistances and Grass neutrality make it an effective pivot for them in turn. Krookodile is an excellent example with Intimidate helping Empoleon tank physical attacks while Moxie Krookodile can use the holes Empoleon blows in its checks to enable a sweep. Hippowdon is a more defensive example, but between Stealth Rocks and Sandstream it is excellent in helping grind opponents down into lethal ranges for Empoleon.
Other Options:
Grass Knot offers invaluable coverage against opposing Water types, who can tank Empoleon’s STABs and Ice Beam with ease. However, one must either sacrifice a STAB in Flash Cannon, or Surf, or coverage in Ice Beam, none of which are easy choices.
Vacuum Wave is Empoleon’s lone priority option, and offers valuable Fighting coverage, but its pitiful power is far from ideal.
Hydro Pump is a brutal alternative to Surf, possessing incredible power at the cost of reliability.
Doubles and VGC Options
While the addition of Competitive is a niche, but exciting change for Empoleon in singles, the ramifications in doubles have propelled Empoleon into a niche as an active deterrent to Intimidate. Empoleon’s very presence on the field places opponents in a difficult position, either Intimidate and allow Empoleon to run over the opposing team, or don’t Intimidate and let Empoleon’s physical teammates run wild instead. This is not even getting into other popular tools like Icy Wind, Snarl or Parting Shot. Empoleon’s Water Steel typing helps it in this regard too, allowing it to act as a ward for multiple turns, while its access to Haze is invaluable in formats dominated by setup sweepers like Annihilape, Archaludon, Commander Dondozo, Kingambit and more. Sadly, Empoleon suffers competition with the extremely similar Milotic, who pulls ahead in most instances thanks to Empoleon’s lack of a good Water STAB having to settle for Water Pledge, the ally hitting Surf or the unreliable Hydro Pump. Empoleon’s markedly low speed also complicates matters, leaving it exposed to many more attackers, which can have Empoleon struggle to apply pressure.
Steely Emperor of the Mists
-Water Pledge
-Flash Cannon
-Haze
-Protect
Ability: Competitive
Item: Leftovers
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs and Nature:
252 HP / 220 SAtk / 36 Spe
Modest Nature
An offensive support set, Empoleon applies provides a passive deterrence to stat dropping while applying pressure with its STABs. Water Pledge is here as the most reliable single target Water STAB Empoleon has, irrespective of other Pledge users on the team, boasting invaluable coverage into opposing Fire and Ground types like Incineroar, Armarouge, Ursaluna, and Volcarona. Flash Cannon is Empoleon’s secondary STAB, great into Fairy and Tera Fairy Pokémon, especially Primarina, who Empoleon otherwise struggles to damage, as well as Sylveon and Alolan Ninetails as well as the Water resistant Baxcalibur. Haze is invaluable in this format, primarily wiping away Commander Dondozo’s boosts, Annihilape’s Bulk Ups, Archaludon’s Electro-Shots and Stamina boosts, but can wipe away allied drops such as Hydreigon’s Draco Meteor. Protect earns its place as the doubles staple, stalling for allied setup, scouting for Terastalization and switches, stalling out for Leftovers recovery and opposing field condition expiration, Protect’s utility is invaluable.
EVs are to make Empoleon relatively bulky so it can stick around and ward off Intimidate as long as possible. 36 Speed EVs outruns Min Speed Incineroar, Min Speed Primarina, as well as most Dondozo (228 Speed EVs) sans Commander boosts, with everything else going into Special Attack to make Empoleon less passive. Tera Fairy is the preferred Tera Type, granting Empoleon an invaluable Fighting resistance, helpful against boosting threats like Annilape and Archaludon as well as neutrality to Ground and Electric.
Other Options:
Hydro Pump is far stronger than Water Pledge, making Empoleon less passive, though the shaky accuracy can decide a battle.
Ice Beam offers fantastic coverage, especially into opposing Grass and Dragon types.
Surf offers Spread STAB damage but requires careful planning and execution not to backfire.
Preferred Partners:
Alolan Ninetales makes for a fantastic partner for Empoleon, offering additional durability with Aurora Veil, speed control with Icy Wind and warding off opposing Water and Ground types with STAB Freeze Dry and Fighting types with Fairy STAB. Empoleon makes for a good pivot into opposing Steel and Poison attacks, while offering the snow teams Alolan Ninetails finds itself on a Steel type not further exasperating the team’s Fire weakness.
Rillaboom makes for a great partner, its Grassy Surge weakening Earthquake and the passive recovery makes Empoleon that much more durable. Rillaboom in turn loves Empoleon warding off opposing Intimidate users allowing it to exercise more offense.
Serperior is viable if one wants to take advantage of the Pledges, especially given the Grass + Water Pledge’s swamp effect is incredibly potent speed control that does a lot to address Empoleon’s poor speed.
Countering Empoleon
While Empoleon’s Water Steel typing is fantastic defensively, the gaps in its offense and exploitable weaknesses make it far more manageable. If Empoleon can’t get a Competitive boost, special sponges perform well against it. Assault Vest Hisuian Goodra, Chansey, and Umbreon can all easily outlast Goodra and grind it down with their own offenses, though Umbreon may struggle against defensive sets with Roost.
Empoleon’s coverage is far from perfect either, with Water types natively resisting both STABs and Ice Beam, and while Empoleon does have Grass Knot and Roost to deal with them, it can struggle to fit either move onto a set. Volcanion does well against non Specs Grass Knot sets, able to overwhelm Empoleon with Body Press or Earth Power. Assault Vest Azumarill also does well irrespective of Grass Knot, though needs Superpower to down Empoleon quickly. Ironically enough, opposing Empoleon are one of the best walls to Empoleon, but need a super effective Terastalization to break the stalemate. If not running Grass Knot, other Water types like Keldeo, and Basculegion can deal with Empoleon, though to Empoleon’s credit, a lot of Water types struggle to hurt it as well. Preying on Empoleon’s low speed makes offensive checks viable, with Pokémon like Mienshao, Krookodile, Galarian Zapdos, and Thundurus all able to strike Empoleon down. Magnezone can be incredibly efficient against defensive sets by trapping them in with Magnet Pull, but needs Assault Vest to directly switch into offensive non Specs sets and speed ties with Empoleon, requiring Magnezone to either stay healthy or have more Speed invested. Forcing Empoleon to Terastalize is often still a win as its new type will inevitably more exploitable than Empoleon’s base typing.Locations in Games
Red/Blue/Yellow:
Not in game
Gold/Silver/Crystal:
Not in game
Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Not in game
FireRed/LeafGreen:
Not in game
Colosseum/XD:
Not in game
Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Evolve Prinplup
HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Trade from Diamond/Pearl/Platinum
Black/White:
Transfer
Black 2/White 2:
Transfer
X/Y:
Trade from Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire
Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire:
Evolve Prinplup
Sun/Moon:
Trade from Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon
Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon:
Evolve Prinplup
Let's Go, Pikachu!/Let's Go, Eevee!:
Not in game
Sword/Shield:
Not in game
Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl:
Evolve Prinplup
Legends: Arceus:
Cobalt Coastlands: Islespy Shore or nearby, Massive Mass Outbreak
Scarlet/Violet:
Evolve Prinplup
Anime Appearences
