Male Basculegion, the Big Fish Pokémon. This Pokémon is cloaked in the souls of its comrades who perished during a punishing journey to the river of their birth. It can jump with incredible power. Parts of its body are tinged red by the rage of its fallen friends.

Overview

Basculegion was revealed in Legends Arceus with great aplomb, being a regional evolution buoyed by the souls of its fallen comrades and your dedicated Surf user. With it finally joining the fray proper in the ninth generation, Male Basculegion proves to live up to the hype with the game warping Last Respects. The strongest move in a 6v6 battle, Male Basculegion is more than capable of reverse sweeping teams, given an unimpaired huge base power STAB attack that few Pokémon resist. That is not all to Male Basculegion’s tale either; its Water STAB is respectably potent as well, Wave Crash thrashing most reliable switch ins to Last Respects, further reducing counterplay, while Aqua Jet and Flip Turn provide valuable priority and utility respectively. Even Basculegion’s abilities get in on the action, with Adaptability pushing Basculegion’s STABs to ludicrous extremes while Swift Swim is an incredible answer to Basculegion’s lacking Speed.

Like Houndstone, Male Basculegion too revolves around Last Respects, with VGC and Battle Spots limited team sizes limiting Last Respects power and effectively leaving it without viable Ghost STAB in the early game. Additionally, its good HP is undermined by poor defenses, leaving Basculegion only marginally bulkier than fellow Swift Swimmers Floatzel and Barraskewda. This leaves Basculegion’s slightly below average Speed a liability when not using Swift Swim, leaving it incredibly exposed against many offensive Pokémon. Basculegion’s Attack, while not bad, is not overwhelming either, leaving it reliant on Adaptability or boosts from Rain for its power. Basculegion is still a Pokémon to be feared, and victory is rarely ascertained with this fish waiting in the wings to pay its Last Respects.
Positives
Last Respects is insane, easily reaching OHKOing power with no drawbacks and is hard to resist due to its Ghost typing.
Potent Water STAB with Wave Crash for killing power and Aqua Jet and Flip Turn for utility.
Two amazing abilities in Adaptability and Swift Swim that provide extra power and speed respectively.

Negatives
Unimpressive Speed without boosting leaves Basculegion exposed to faster attackers
65/75 defenses greatly limit Basculegion’s hit taking ability.
Power can be lacking without Adaptability and/or Last Respects.

Movesets

Unstoppable Upstream

-Agility
-Wave Crash
-Last Respects
-Aqua Jet
Ability: Adaptability
Item: Life Orb
EVs and Nature:
252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature

Agility Adaptability Male Basculegion endeavors to get the best of both worlds with supreme power and speed after setup for a late game reverse sweep. Agility is required as Basculegion’s Speed is wholly unimpressive otherwise and the boosts lets it threaten any late game Pokémon. Wave Crash is the preferred Water STAB, taking advantage of Basculegion’s high HP to absorb recoil. With this, Male Basculegion can cleanly 2HKO Extremekiller Arceus and Kingambit, while annihilating Ting-Lu, two of the most prominent resists into Last Respects. Last Respects is what gives Male Basculegion its fame, quickly skyrocketing in power as more team members drop and going to outright absurd levels with Adaptability. Have 4 teammates fallen is enough to threaten physically bulky Arceus forms and defensive Groudon with a OHKO, while more offensive Pokémon like Koraidon and Kyogre are threatened after a mere two teammates are taken out. Aqua Jet provides answers for the few priority users that can threaten Male Basculegion, like Chien-Pao as well as clean up faster opponents if Male Basculegion can’t setup. The presence or possibility of Aqua Jet itself can be enough to force a switch, allowing time for an Agility setup.

Male Basceulgion stands out from other game ending sweepers by being immune or resistant to most forms of priority. Extreme Speed, Aqua Jet, Ice Shard and Mach Punch either do nothing or are resisted by Basculegion and thus unlikely to get a KO until it is very low on health, making it incredibly reliable at what it does.

Tera Types:
The sheer power of Last Respects is often all Male Basculegion needs, and indeed, it gets a lot of mileage out of its base typing for the immunities and resistances it provides. Male Basculegion’s place is cemented is a late game sweeper, which makes it even more unlikely Terastalization will be around by the time it comes out. Male Basculegion does prefer offensive Teras for when Last Respects just does not cut it. Tera Water is amazing for pushing Wave Crash to absurd levels, capable of wiping out 2/3 of ExtremeKiller Arceus’ health and close to 4/5 of Kingambit’s. The boost to Aqua Jet is also significant, cleanly taking off a 1/4 of Kingambit’s health. Tera Fighting is also invaluable, cleaning OHKOing Extremekiller Arceus while providing invaluable resistance to Kingambit’s STABs, though be warned of being exposed to further Extreme Speed users.

EVs and Items:
Standard sweeper allotment of Max Speed and Max Attack to outspeed as much as possible and KO as many targets as possible. Jolly is especially important, enabling Basculegion to outspeed Pokémon like Koraidon, Miraidon, Flutter Mane and Chien Pao after a Sticky Web drop, greatly facilitating opportunities to setup Agility and sweep. Even after Agility, Basculegion being able to outspeed Protosynthesis Walking Wake, Scarf Mewtwo, Max Speed Regieleki, neutral Scarf Miraidon and Koraidon and Dragon Dance Roaring Moon with Jolly is invaluable, further reducing counterplay. Life Orb provides a massive power boost, enabling Basculegion to easily reach KOs, but between Wave Crash recoil and Life Orb, Basculegion wears itself down quickly. Mystic Water and Spell Tag are good alternatives for boosting STABs while keeping Basculegion healthy. If not running Agility, Choice Scarf is enough for ensuring Basculegion outspeeds as many targets as possible.

Partners:
As mentioned beforehand, Sticky Web support goes a long way in helping Basculegion remain viable, the speed drop instrumental in helping Basculegion outspeed a wide variety of threats. Ribombee is heads and shoulders the best Sticky Web setter, its high speed and access to Stun Spore make it excellent at speed control. Galvantuala would be second, thanks to its access to Thunder Wave being like Stun Spore. Lures for ExtremeKiller Arceus are incredibly valuable given its immunity to Last Respects. Setup Miraidon and Koraidon are good examples, given how ExtremeKiller Arceus is often called to revenge KO them. Give them Tera Steel to stomach the revenge Extreme Speed and turn the tables, if not KOing Arceus, compromising it for Basculegion to blast through it with Wave Crash or Tera Blast Fighting. Their being setup sweepers also helps with Basculegion’s end plan, often compromising or taking down a few opponents with them, softening up the opposing team for the end game.

Other Options:
Psychic Fangs is niche, but good in the early game for breaking past Toxapex. Phantom Force is Basculegion’s only other Ghost STAB, so if Last Respects is unavailable or unviable, this is an alternative but the drop in power is extreme. Flip Turn is fantastic on Choice sets, doing significant damage repositioning, and can counter predicted Terastalizations or switches for Last Respects enabling Basculegion’s remaining teammates to clean up the last few obstacles to its sweep.

VGC & Doubles Options

Last Respects is just as tantalizing a force in Doubles as it is in Singles, though it does suffer from the smaller team size and being only able to take out one target at a time. Male Basculegion at least avoids the same rut that Houndstone falls into thanks to its Water STAB providing viable offense all throughout the battle. The increased strength of Rain in Doubles also serves Basculegion well, making the most of both Swift Swim to outspeed just about everything and boosting its Water STAB to terrifying heights. Basculegion’s Ghost subtyping also comes out in force, providing invaluable immunity to both Fake Out and priority in Extreme Speed, making Basculegion far more difficult to disrupt. However, Male Basculegion is constantly fighting against the current, for as much as it excels against most of the game with its STABs, many of the most popular threats like Flutter Mane, Raging Bolt, Urshifu-Single, Incineroar, Chien-Pao, Gholdengo, Rillaboom, Ogerpon, Kingambit, Roaring Moon and more threaten it right back.

Against the Tide

-Wave Crash
-Last Respects
-Aqua Jet
-Protect
Tera Type: Water
Ability: Swift Swim
Item: Life Orb
EVs and Nature:
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature

Male Basculegion is a ghastly Swift Swim Sweeper, both in the early game with the power of Rain Boosted Wave Crashes and in the late game where teammates have fallen boosting up Last Respects. Wave Crash is wonderful early on, when Basculegion has the health to absorb the recoil, capable of compromising Incineroar, and annihilating offensive Pokémon like Flutter Mane, Urshifu Single, Tornadus in the Rain. Last Respects wallops Grass types like Amoonguss and Ogerpon Wellspring, but it takes 2 downed allies to 2HKO Amoonguss and to nearly OHKO Ogerpon-Wellspring. Aqua Jet provides valuable priority, picking off faster opponents before they can act and bypassing most forms of speed control such as opposing Tailwind and Trick Room. Protect is as always, recommended for the sheer utility it provides, protecting Basculegion as Rain gets setup, stalling out opposing Tailwind and Trick Room, scout for Terastalization and switches and keeping Basculegion around longer to get the most out of Last Respects.

Standard offensive EV spread here. While dropping down to Adamant does leave Basculegion vulnerable to being outsped by Speed Booster Energy Flutter Mane, it more than makes up with the extra power provided likely KOing with Aqua Jet in the Rain, barring significant bulk investment. Tera Water is recommended since Wave Crash and Aqua Jet are far more applicable throughout the battle, though Tera Ghost is great for removing Grass weaknesses, maintaining the immunity to Fake Out and pushing Last Respects into a nigh guaranteed delete button.

Other Options and Preferred Partners:

As with any Weather Sweeper, setters of that Weather are required to excel. As such Rain setters in Pelipper and Kyogre are needed if running Swift Swim Basculegion Male. Pelipper is generally preferred for the additional utility in blocking attacks with Wide Guard while just outright annihilating Grass types like Wellspring Ogerpon, Amoonguss and Rillaboom with Hurricane, all of whom Basculegion struggles with without its team being wiped out. Tornadus also stands out, having Prankster Rain Dance to turn the tables on any passive setter while possessing the selfsame Flying STAB as Pelipper to ruin opposing Grass types. Tornadus’ Prankster Tailwind also works well with Adaptability sets, addressing Male Basculegion’s speed problems and enabling game ending reverse sweeps. Chien-Pao is also a notable partner, providing a valuable Defense drop that makes Basculegion even more ridiculously lethal, while wrecking the many Grass types that give Basculegion trouble.

Assault Vest is a fantastic option giving Basculegion a surprising amount of Special Bulk enabling it to survive even something as powerful as Calyrex-Shadow Rider’s Astral Barrage (albeit without Life Orb) Phantom Force is a more viable Ghost STAB in the early battle and can act as a pseudo Protect given the turn of invulnerability. Its ability to bypass Protect is also invaluable, helping guarantee the removal of a target unless they switch out.

Countering Basculegion

Handling Basculegion means handling Last Respects, which is such an overwhelming move, that even resists struggle to handle it. Arceus is notable for its immunity and naturally running Shadow Claw for other Ghost types but needs to remain healthy to stomach Wave Crash or possibly Tera Fighting Tera Blast. Kingambit can tank anything other than a fully powered Last Respects or Rain Boosted Wave Crash and will OHKO with Sucker Punch barring Tera Fighting.

Speaking of Sucker Punch, given Basculegion many ways to outspeed the competition, priority is heavily recommended to deal with it given its low defenses. Sucker Punch from Chien-Pao, Urshifu and Kingambit as well as Raging Bolt’s Thunder Clap are amazing given that their exploitation Basculegion’s weaknesses but can fall prey to Aqua Jet. Rillaboom’s Grassy Glide is by far the most reliable method given Rillaboom’s natural resistance to Aqua Jet.

Basculegion’s speed is far from peerless as well and as such relies on speed control to outspeed most opponents. Swift Swim sets are marginally easier to handle if one is able to outlast the Rain and their generally lower power, but they don’t mandate setup in turn. Basculegion is incredibly reliant on Sticky Web support to outspeed the majority of its competition, so removing Webs once the setter has been knocked out can stop Basculegion before it starts.

Agility Basculegion desperately needs opportunities to setup, so continuously applying offensive pressure to deny those opportunities is vital. Naturally Faster Pokémon able to ignore Webs, either via Heavy Duty Boots or by floating can also work well. Any Pokémon able to outspeed Basculegion will quickly expose its lacking defenses and will KO it, especially if it has taken prior damage from Wave Crash or Life Orb recoil.

Female Basculegion

Female Basculegion, the Big Fish Pokémon. The souls of its comrades cloak its body and propel it effortlessly through even raging rapids. It can afflict a target with terrifying illusions that are under its control. The deeper the sadness in its friends' souls, the paler Basculegion becomes.

Overview

Basculegion’s appearance in Legends Arceus withheld one more surprise. In addition to be a regional evolution of Basculin, Basculegion’s base stats vary significantly depending on its gender. Female Basculegion trades the above average Attack its Male boasts for significantly higher Special Attack. This makes Female Basculegion far more stable; instead of being regulated to late game, it hits consistently hard throughout the game with its offensively synergistic Water Ghost typing providing wide coverage with single typed common resist, while better handling Grass types with access to Ice Beam. Couple this with Adaptability for sheer power or Swift Swim to bolster its speed and Female Basculegion like the Male can excel as both wallbreaker and weather sweeper. Even more so given the fewer Special Swift Swim sweepers with neither Kingdra or Ludicolo possessing the same base power Female Basculegion boasts.

What Female Basculegion gains in stability, it sacrifices in ceiling. While Female Basculegion can utilize Last Respects as well, you would never use it over its male counterpart given its lower Attack. It isn’t just Last Respects either; Female Basculegion is noticeably weaker than the Male, with lower Special Attack to the Male’s attack, and Hydro Pump to Wave Crash. While Adaptability and Rain Boosted Water STAB do a lot to alleviate this, Female Basculegion is cursed with the same poor defenses and middling speed of its Male form, forcing it to find ways to outspeed the competition or be KO’d. While Female Basculegion has defined niche’s, its overall impact is ephemeral in comparison to its Male counterpart.
Positives
Water Ghost typing is fantastic offensively with few resists and decent amount of resistances and immunities.
Two amazing abilities in Adaptability and Swift Swim that provide extra power and speed respectively.
Usable Base 100 Special Attack that pushes to great with Adaptability or Rain Boosted Water STAB.

Negatives
Unimpressive Speed without boosting leaves Basculegion exposed to faster attackers
65/75 defenses greatly limit Basculegion’s hit taking ability.
Power can be lacking without Adaptability and/or Last Respects.

Movesets

Swim Goggles

-Hydro Pump
-Shadow Ball
-Ice Beam
-Flip Turn
Ability: Swift Swim
Item: Choice Specs
EVs and Nature:
4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
Modest Nature

Specs Swift Swim Female Basculegion is a wallbreaker and revenge killer, finding advantageous matchups in most scenarios. Hydro Pump is the star of the show, pulling off stunts like OHKOing Cobalion out of rain, good chance of OHKOing Fezandipiti after Rocks in Rain OHKOing Enamorus-Therian in Rain, and doing at least 2/3 to Salamence in Rain leaving nothing but outright immune or specially defensive resists as viable switch ins. Shadow Ball compliments Hydro Pump, being a reliable secondary STAB that often hits what Hydro Pump can’t, especially Pokémon like Iron Leaves, Slowbro, Kingdra, and Gastrodon, greatly reducing the number of safe switch-ins to Female Basculegion. Ice Beam provides further coverage against most non-Iron Leaves Grass and Dragon types, especially Hisuian Lilligant, Chesnaught and Amoonguss. Flip Turn closes out the set for its utility value rather than coverage. Cover for opponents switches and retain advantage to prevent your opponent from running down Rain’s clock.

Tera Types:
Much like other Swift Swim Sweepers, Tera Water is the way to go. Stacking the boosts from Tera Water, Rain, STAB and Choice Specs can pull off feats evocative of Dracovish’s reign of terror back in Gen 8, such as 2HKOing Max Special Defense Empoleon after Stealth Rocks. Losing the Dark weakness is also invaluable against Sucker Punch users like Kingambit as well as Shadow Sneak from Mimikyu. Tera Ghost for boosting Shadow Ball is also an option, and probably Female Basculegion’s best option against Gastrodon, outside of Tera Grass Tera Blast but the sheer power Tera Water provides is hard to pass up.

EVs and Items:
Max Special Attack and Speed investment are recommended for as much power and speed as possible. Modest Nature is recommended over Timid, being important for reaching OHKOs and 2HKOs on many Pokémon such as Chesnaught, Blastoise post Shell Smash, and 3HKOing Gastrodon. Timid is helpful for outspeeding Pokémon like Scarf Azelf, Scarf Iron Jugulis, Scarf Gengar, and Scarf Hisuian Zoroark. Choice Specs is the namesake of the set and provides Female Basculegion much of its stopping power. Life Orb can offer move flexibility, but the power drop is painful.

Partners:
Rain setters are vital for this set, as without the speed boost from Swift Swim, is far inferior to Adaptability sets. Passive setters like Politoed and Pelipper are again king since they can do so without giving up momentum, and multiple times through a battle, which is invaluable for a Specs user like Female Basculegion who by necessity will be switching in and out a fair bit. Allies that can handle Water Immune Pokémon, especially Gastrodon are invaluable given how much Tera Water Basculegion goes out of control once removed. Iron Leaves is a good pick, enjoying the reduction in Fire weakness thanks to the rain, while forming a Water Grass core. Its ability to handle Empoleon as well as the Rain disrupting Hippowdon with Close Combat and Leaf Blade respectively is an added bonus. Steel types also deserve mention for their advantageous matchup into opposing Grass types as well as handling Trace Gardevoir, a huge problem for Rain teams as well as having a positive matchup into Snow teams. Revaroom is particularly noticeable given that it naturally outspeeds Gardevoir and threatens both it and Grass types with its Poison STAB.

Other Options:
Surf is a far more reliable Water STAB for when you don’t need to click Hydro Pump to delete something.

Jumping Bass Fast

-Hydro Pump
-Shadow Ball
-Ice Beam
-Flip Turn
Ability: Adaptability
Item: Choice Scarf
EVs and Nature:
4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
Timid Nature

Scarf Female Basculegion trades out dependence on rain for consistent STAB power, using Choice Scarf to act as vicious revenge killer, outspeeding everything unboosted up to max Speed Dragapult. Hydro Pump offers vicious power, often blasting nonresistant targets down from half health while Shadow Ball covers the targets that Hydro Pump can’t. Ice Beam provides valuable coverage into the Water-resistant Grass and Dragon types that resist Female Basculegion’s STABs, especially Cyclizar and Wo-Chien. Flip Turn provides valuable utility, punishing predicted switches with a pivot to the switch’s counter.

Tera Types:
Terastalization is rather odd with Adaptability, with only the Terastalized Type getting the Adaptability boost, and if the Tera Type matches the base type, only pushing the boost up to 2.25x times from the normal 2x times Terastalization normally grants matching types. So Terastalizing into alternative types literally defangs Female Basculegion of its boosted STABs. As a result, Tera Ghost is by far the more popular of its Terastalization options, still affording a slight power boost to Female Basculegion’s much harder to resist Ghost STAB while keeping valuable immunities to popular priority like Mach Punch and Extreme Speed and removing Female Basculegion’s weakness to Grass and Electric moves.

EVs and Items:
Max Speed and Special Attack are again recommended for as much power and speed as possible. Timid is recommended given the less drastic boost Choice Scarf provides in comparison to Swift Swim. Going for Modest gets Female Basculegion outsped by Max Speed Barraskewda out of rain, neutral Scarf Regidrago, and Max Speed Kilowattrel, greatly cutting into its efficacy as a revenge killer. Choice Scarf is the namesake of this set, helping Female Basculegion excel as a revenge killer, but this can be easily swapped out for Choice Specs to acts as a terrifying wallbreaker.

Partners:
Thundurus Therian is a standout partner for Basculegion, being able to overwhelm Cyclizar with Nasty Plot/Knock Off while threatening Gastrodon with Grass Knot and Empoleon with Electric STAB, all notable walls and common switch ins for Basculegion on top of Electric attacks looking to eliminate it. Works better with Specs Female Basculegion who is able to compromise bulkier walls to enable sweeping, but Scarf Female Basculegion still provides utility in cleaning up foes Thundurus-Therian rends with its attacks.

Other Options:
Surf is a far more reliable Water STAB for when you don’t need to click Hydro Pump to delete something. .

Countering Basculegion

Female Basculegion is far more manageable given the unlikelihood of Last Respects, though Water Ghost STAB is tricky to navigate, with few Pokémon resisting both. Assault Vest Cyclizar is by far the best, given its immunity to Ghost and resistance to Water with even Specs Adaptability Hydro Pump failing to 2HKO, and permanently blunting Female Basculegion’s power or speed with Knock Off, though Specs Ice Beam can 2HKO. Specially Defensive Empoleon is also a massive brick wall for Female Basculegion, with even Specs Shadow Ball struggling to 2HKO without a Special Defense drop, but can’t deal much damage in turn without Grass Knot.

Tera Water Swift Swim Specs Female Basculegion is a different wrinkle, with its overwhelming Water defense being tricky to navigate. Water Immune Pokémon like Gastrodon shine in such a matchup, often forcing it to switch. Gastrodon in general does well, able to tank multiple Shadow Balls and Ice Beams while wearing Female Basculegion down with its Ground STAB. Alternatively, removing the Rain makes Swift Swim Female Basculegion far more manageable, but Sun and Sand setters cannot switch into Basculegion’s powerful Water STABs regardless.

Offensively checking Female Basculegion often requires naturally Pokémon. Scarf Gardevoir is amazing for revenge KOs, with Trace invalidating Swift Swim or dealing insane damage thanks to the adaptability boost, though it does require Female Basculegion to have been softened up first. Other Swift Swim users in Barraskewda and Overqwill can beat Basculegion in the mirror match thanks to their faster base Speed and Super Effective coverage, though Barraskewda can’t switch in at all and Overqwill needs good prediction to avoid taking a Hydro Pump on the way in. Scarf Hisuian Zoroark is another pain point for Female Basculegion, as it outspeeds even Swift Swim in the Rain unless Female Basculegion is Timid and bluffing a Pokémon that is weak to Ghost can spell the end for Basculegion.

Anime Appearences

Basculegion has made an anime appearance. This was in a flashback to the times of the Hisui region # -English Episode Name- -Jp. Episode Name- Pics PLA1 The Arceus Chronicles Arceus, the One Called a God: Ash & Goh! To the Sinnoh Fes They Go!!