Crawdaunt, The Rogue Pokémon. A rough customer that wildly flails its giant claws. It is said to be extremely hard to raise. A brutish Pokémon that loves to battle. It will crash itself into any foe that approaches its nest.
Overview
Crawdaunt has been around since even before the Isle of Armor DLC, and throughout that time it has remained consistent as a Pokémon that's more than powerful enough and yet quite good enough to put that power to use. Between its high Attack, Adaptability, and powerful STAB combination, Crawdaunt has a lot going for it, but at the end of the day it will always be held back by its awful special bulk and low Speed. Make no mistake though, Adaptability is a deadly ability for anything with two STAB options and Crawdaunt is lucky to have such a powerful ability to help it out. While it may not shine at the top of the pack, Crawdaunt's power is not something to be underestimated.
Positives
An impressive base 120 Attack gives Crawdaunt plenty of power to work with, especially when combined with Adaptability and Swords Dance.
Water/Dark is a strong offensive typing to utilize Adaptability, as the two types complement each other very well and also grant Crawdaunt with STAB Aqua Jet to help offset its awful Speed a bit.
Crawdaunt has some interesting boosting options between Swords Dance and Dragon Dance, giving it various options to boost its wallbreaking or sweeping potential. However, Dragon Dance tends to be harder to utilize due to its Speed being so low in the first place.
Negatives
It should be clear by now that Crawdaunt is not very fast, as base 55 Speed isn't outspeeding a ton beyond bulky walls. This is fine for wallbreaking, but makes it harder to use Crawdaunt against fast teams.
Crawdaunt is not very durable defensively, between low HP and Special Defense, which makes it very hard for Crawdaunt to switch in safely on its own. Water/Dark has no shortage of weaknesses either, which does not help.
While Water/Dark is a solid STAB combo, Crawdaunt doesn't really have a whole lot else for coverage beyond Close Combat. Adaptability lessens the need for this, but this makes it difficult for Crawdaunt to deal with anything that resists its STAB combination, such as Primarina and Azumarill.
Movesets
Focus Sash Lead
- Crabhammer / Liquidation
- Knock Off
- Close Combat / Endeavor
- Aqua Jet
Item Attached: Focus Sash
Ability: Adaptability
EVs and Nature:
252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
Crawdaunt's main use in the Battle Stadium metagame is fairly niche, but a proven success in early seasons. Focus Sash sets are Crawdaunt's main draws, as it boasts fantastic power and priority to force trades. Crabhammer is its strongest STAB move and has a boosted critical hit chance, though Liquidation is a bit safer due to the better accuracy and can follow up well with Aqua Jet in case of a Defense drop. Crawdaunt is one of the lucky ones to still have Knock Off access in Battle Stadium, and it serves to provide a strong Dark-type STAB for Crawdaunt. Close Combat gives it a way to threaten Lapras, Snorlax, and Ferrothorn, though Endeavor pairs well with a Focus Sash to break down a bulky Pokémon that Crawdaunt would struggle with otherwise. Aqua Jet gives Crawdaunt strong priority to pick off foes and win the trade, which is sometimes all it needs to do to be useful.
DYNAMAX
Due to the nature of Focus Sash leads, Dynamaxing is actually not a good idea for Crawdaunt in most cases since it loses out on priority and Endeavor utility. However, in the event that it does Dynamax, Crawdaunt does have some insanely powerful attacks due to Adaptability. This is not very reliable unless Crawdaunt is your last Pokémon and you don't have any other choice though.
EV and Items
Crawdaunt wants as much power as it can get, so maximum Attack investment with Adamant nature is ideal. On a Focus Sash set there's no point in bulk, so boosting up Speed is the only real option and has the benefit of letting it outspeed slow Pokémon in its Speed range. Adaptability is a no-brainer, there's no reason to use Hyper Cutter or Shell Armor over it.
Wallbreaker
- Crabhammer / Liquidation
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance
- Aqua Jet
Item Attached: Lkife Orb
Ability: Adaptability
EVs and Nature:
252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
In more drawn out battles, Crawdaunt can prove to be an effective wallbreaker with a Life Orb. Ultimately not much changes in the set, Crabhammer and Liquidation are both powerful STAB options with their own benefits though Crabhammer has the higher power overall. Knock Off has increased item removal utility in longer battles and is otherwise still the strongest Dark-type STAB it has, while Aqua Jet provides useful priority that hits very hard with Adaptability boosting it. Swords Dance is the main selling point on this set, as it allows Crawdaunt to boost its Attack further to insane levels that few walls can handle.
DYNAMAX
Crawdaunt is basically never going to have a reliable way to set up Swords Dance in a Dynamax metagame due to its awful bulk and Speed, so this set as a whole is not going to be very good when Dynamax is a consideration. You're best off using the Focus Sash set but ultimately Crawdaunt is not a great user of Dynamax.
EV and Items
Crawdaunt wants power on this set even more than the Focus Sash set does, so nothing really changes for its EV spread. Crawdaunt also wants to outspeed as many bulky Pokémon as possible so maximum Speed investment is still desirable, with an Adamant nature to give its Attack an extra push. Life Orb boosts damage output further, and the recoil here means that investing in bulk is mostly pointless.
Partners
Cinderace: Helps Crawdaunt deal with Grass-types like Tangrowth that otherwise can tank a hit from Crawdaunt, also an easy teammate for any team on Battle Stadium
Volt Switch and U-turn users: Crawdaunt appreciates any teammate that can help it come in safely, so teammates like Magnezone, Rotom-Heat, Rotom-Wash with Volt Switch are very helpful. U-turn users such as Urshifu, Rillaboom, and Scizor are also worthwhile considerations.
Flip Turn and Teleport: Same deal as the above, Flip Turn and Teleport users are other options that can help pivot into Crawdaunt safely. Flip Turn users are mostly Water-type so they overlap a bit with Crawdaunt, though Dragalge is a valid consideration that can switch into some of the types that threaten Crawdaunt. Clefable is also a popular Teleport user that can help Crawdaunt, though note that most Teleport users do not have access to the move in Battle Stadium.
Ferrothorn: For the wallbreaker set, Crawdaunt appreciates hazard support from the likes of Ferrothorn to help it break through more defensive teams and provide a switch-in to Rillaboom's Grassy Glide. Crawdaunt can also threaten the Fire-types that punish Ferrothorn,
Other Options
Crawdaunt doesn't really have other moves to utilize, Dragon Dance is about the only other valid alternative to any of its moves though the Speed boost is generally worse than Swords Dance boosting Attack even more.
Countering Crawdaunt
Crawdaunt is very slow, so the best way to deal with it is by being faster than it and not being so vulnerable to Aqua Jet. Rillaboom is the prime answer to it for both of these reasons, and also for Grassy Glide giving it powerful priority of its own to shut down Crawdaunt. Both Urshifu forms can also deal with Crawdaunt with their Fighting-type STAB, especially Rapid Strike Urshifu due to resisting both of Crawdaunt's STABs.
Pokémon that resist Crawdaunt's STAB moves are effective against it due to Crawdaunt not having much else for options, Primarina and Azumarill come to mind here as well as Keldeo and the aforementioned Rapid Strike Urshifu. The former two may need to be careful switching in multiple times though since Crawdaunt may have the Speed investment to outspeed and break them down if switching in directly.
Other Fairy-types such as Mimikyu, Clefable, and Togekiss can also threaten Crawdaunt and have enough bulk to handle an Aqua Jet, especially if Dynamax is an option available to you. Pokémon that outright resist Water-type moves can also prove problematic for Crawdaunt since it reduces the effectiveness of the Aqua Jet option, so Gyarados, Kingdra, invested Lapras, and Dracovish are major problems for Crawdaunt. None of these like switching into a Knock Off though.
Locations in Games
Red/Blue/Yellow:
Not in game
Gold/Silver/Crystal:
Not in game
Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Evolve Corphish
FireRed/LeafGreen:
Trade from Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald
Colosseum/XD:
Trade from Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald
Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Celestic Town
HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Trade from Diamond/Pearl/Platinum
Black/White:
Evolve Corphish (White)
Black 2/White 2:
Route 3, Striaton City
X/Y:
Route 3, Friend Safari
Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire:
Route 117, Route 123
Sun/Moon:
Trade from Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon
Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon:
Vast Poni Canyon
Let's Go, Pikachu!/Let's Go, Eevee!:
Not in game
Sword/Shield:
Axew's Eye, Giant's Seat, South Lake Miloch, Turffield, Forest of Focus, Challenge Beach, Training Lowlands
Max Raid Battles: Dusty Bowl, Giant's Mirror, South Lake Miloch, Stony Wilderness, West Lake Axewell, Fields of Honor, Soothing Wetlands, Courageous Cavern
Anime Appearences
