That One Attack / Pokémon

Four-Moveslot Syndrome isn't likely to save you from these moves.

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Core Games

Introduced in/exclusive to Generation I

• Teleport is a bane of existence for capturing a Pokémon, as it will make the wild Pokémon escape. It doesn't help that the main user of this move, Abra, is very fast, so it will get the chance to use Teleport before you can even attack it. Teleport was eventually made somewhat less frustrating by giving it -6 priority, meaning you're guaranteed to get one move in before the user Teleports away.
• Gen I Amnesia is this, since there is only one Special stat, covering both Special Attack and Defense. This means sharply increasing the Special stat back then is like using two Calm Minds in one turn. Note that the Psychic-type of Gen I is assigned to the Special stat. Trying to counter them with a physical attacker is difficult, since they usually have poor Special stats to hold out in battle. Amnesia was promptly slaughtered by the Special split in Gen II, which made it boost Special Defense only.
• Psychic (the move), especially in Gen I. A 90-base power attack with no drawbacks, 10 PP, wide availability as a TM, and a 10% chance to lower the Special Defense of the target make it a popular and powerful move. Psychic was even more feared in Gen I thanks to the aforementioned Special stat, no Dark-types, having a 33% chance of lowering the target's Special stat, and being the STAB move of resident Game Breakers Alakazam and Mewtwo meant that there was next to no Pokémon in the game that could withstand more than two shots of it.
• In Gen I, Wrap, especially if your Pokémon is slow enough. It does Scratch Damage every turn while preventing you from attacking. If the opponent is faster, they will use Wrap once again as soon as it wears off. Over and over again. This made Mons such as Dratini, which could cause Paralysis (which all but guaranteed that Pokémon to go second) even deadlier than their level would have you believe. The moves Bind, Clamp, and Fire Spin behave the same way as Wrap, with Clamp and Fire Spin adding the potential for each attack to be super-effective against certain opponents. This was fixed in the later games. Wrap no longer holds your Pokémon to keep it from attacking.
  
  On the other hand, Wrap (as well as the HM Whirlpool and Heatran's Magma Storm) continues to be That One Attack in a different sense in later games. While it no longer prevents the opponent from acting, it does trap the opponent on the field, preventing them from swapping out^note it notably did not do this in Gen I, while providing constant damage between turns. With a properly bulky user, the victim can do little but watch their health get whittled away.
• Metronome enables the Pokémon to pick almost any move in the game with it, unleashing powerful moves such as Volt Tackle or Sacred Fire. On the other hand, it could also select useless moves or even moves that would KO itself.
• The wild Mew used Transform! Only applicable in Red, Blue, and Yellow, as any wild Pokémon that uses Transform will turn into a Ditto upon capture.
• Sheer Cold and other OHKO attacks, like Fissure, only have 30% accuracy, though its accuracy can scale up depending on how high-leveled the user is compared to the opponent. Articuno can get around this, however, with Mind Reader, a move that makes the next move used an Always Accurate Attack. Especially Sheer Cold, since no Pokémon are immune to Ice type moves, unlike the other three OHKO attacks which are Normal type (Guillotine and Horn Drill) or Ground type (Fissure) and have no effect on Ghost types or Flying types, respectively. Gen VII changed this by making Ice-type Pokémon immune to Sheer Cold.
• On the topic of attacks hitting more often than they should, Hydro Pump, Blizzard, and Thunder are notorious for not always hitting. However, the computer will typically connect these moves if you're at all weak to the attack. In Generation I, while the other 120 power moves had 70% accuracy, Blizzard, for some reason, had 90%. It was brought in line with the other moves in Gen II.
• Earthquake is a move with 100 power, a strong offensive type, and 100% accuracy with no drawbacks whatsoever (aside from also hitting the user's partner(s) in Double and Triple Battles). With an immense amount of Pokémon being able to learn the move, it is pretty much everywhere. The chances of a high-skilled team not having the move are slim.
• Self-Destruct, and its stronger counterpart, Explosion, do tons of damage thanks to their high Power. They also cause the user to faint, making capturing some wild Pokémon harder than necessary if they happen to have these moves. Also, prior to Gen V, these moves did even more damage because the move's power was calculated to do damage as if the opponent had half of their actual defense, effectively doubling the moves' already massive base power. Though a Ghost-type Pokémon (immune to Normal-type moves) or a Pokémon with the Damp ability (prevents these moves from activating) will solve this.
• In Gen I, anything with Poison Sting. It has an irritatingly high chance of poisoning Pokemon if you don't KO the opposing 'mon within a couple turns, sending you straight back to the nearest Pokémon Center if there's no Antidote.
• Double Team, which raises the user's Evasion stat. There's a reason why it's almost universally hated, and if there are any moves that people agree to ban from a battle, that one's right at the top of the list. Worst of all, the AI gives that move out to their Pokémon like Halloween candy and it has a tendency to make even your 100% accurate moves miss after just one use.
• Minimize, since Generation 5, doubles the Evasion Stat. Chansey is the most notorious purveyor of the move, as it has boundless bulk with the Eviolite item^note raises defensive stats by 50% if a Pokémon is not fully evolved and reliable recovery in Softboiled. Generation VI nerfed it somewhat by allowing moves such as Stomp^*has countered Minimize since Gen II, Steamroller, Body Slam, Dragon Rush, Flying Press, and Heavy Slam (from Generation VII onwards) to not only do double the usual damage to a Pokémon using Minimize, but also never miss when said moves are used.
• Substitute: at the cost 1/4 of its HP, the Pokémon throws out a decoy to shield them from incoming attacks, negating the damage they would potentially take instead. Entire strategies and movesets have been built around Substitute, the most common being Subseeding (Substitute+Leech Seed), Subpunching (Substitute+Focus Punch), abusing status buffs freely under protection, or using Substitute to deliberately cut down your HP to abuse pinch berries (Berries that provide a quick Status Buff when HP is low). If an opponent has a substitute, you'd better act fast, or be in for a world of pain. Fans rejoiced when new mechanics introduced in Gen VI allowed sound-based moves to bypass substitutes and hit opponents directly.
• Body Slam. It packs a punch and has a whopping 30% chance to cause paralysis. Paralysis is annoying because it reduces you to a crawl on top of having a 25% chance of not being able to attack. On top of that, a ton of mons could learn it in the first generation, and there it was the equivalent of Stealth Rock — hard to deal with and very widespread.
• Any sleep-inducing move, especially in Gen I when waking up used up an entire turn. Cue your enemy putting you right back to sleep. Doubly so if the user is a Psychic or Ghost-type.^note Nearly all Psychic and Ghost-types learn the immensely powerful Dream Eater, which also heals the user but requires the opponent to be asleep. Unless your Pokémon knows Snore or Sleep Talk (which didn't exist in Gen I), they will be completely defenseless. Thankfully, in Generation VI, Grass-type Pokémon gained an immunity to Spore, as well as any Pokémon holding the Safety Goggles item. In addition, the abilities Insomnia, Vital Spirit, Magic Bounce, and Comatose made Pokémon immune to sleep-inducing moves.
• Reflect and Light Screen. They halve damage from opponents' physical and special attacks for 5 turns, respectively, and, while they are not permanent, they won't fade just because you switch Pokémon. If used by a Pokémon holding Light Clay, they last a whopping 8 turns. Setting up both of these moves is called dual-screening. Thankfully, this is another thing that Defog dispels. Brick Break and Psychic Fangs can also shatter screens.
  Lucian's Mr. Mime used Reflect! Lucian's Mr. Mime used Light Screen!
• Thunder Wave, a popular status move even after over 20 years, and for good reason. It inflicts paralysis, which halves your Pokémon's speed and keeps it from acting 25% of the time, severely crippling most attackers. It's even worse prior to Generation VII, where paralysis quartered your speed instead. Thankfully, nerfs to the Paralysis condition over the generations, plus having its accuracy nerfed to 90%, have toned down its abusiveness, although it's still rather annoying.

Introduced in/exclusive to Generation II

• Whitney's Miltank used Rollout!^note Rollout attacks over 5 turns, starting out with 30 base power and doubling in power every turn. On the fifth turn, it has a whopping 480 attack power, a destructive force rivaled only by Explosion in Gen II. And if you're playing HeartGold/SoulSilver? Miltank used Stomp. *insert Pokémon you're using here* flinched. Even if it's a Ghost-type, due to its Scrappy ability.
• Destiny Bond is a move that, when used, takes the opposing Pokémon down if the user is knocked out that turn. Mercifully nerfed in Generation VII by making it eventually fail, much like Protect, if one tries to use it consecutively in a row. However, its Z-Move effect gives a Follow Me effect, luring any opponent to attack it and potentially taking anyone down along with the user.
• Swagger, while not 100% accurate, also causes confusion. It also doubles the target's attack. So, in the event that you hurt yourself, you'll do twice as much damage to yourself as normal. And the damage boost stacks. Oh, and anyone that can use TMs can use it! Fortunately, if your mon has the confusion-preventing Own Tempo ability, it simply gives them a free Attack doubling. If not? Good luck. It's even worse when combined with Foul Play, which uses the target's Attack stat instead of the user's to deal damage... and that includes any stat increases.
• Protect, while not nearly as bad as the others, is still really annoying and makes you waste a turn and PP. If the AI at least used it strategically, it'd be one thing, but since it's purely A.I. Roulette, they end up using it just because, even when it's obvious that you've already won and it won't help them, thus they just delay the inevitable. Also, in multiplayer Single matches, it guarantees a turn a Pokémon can be on the field (making it common alongside Earthquake spammers, or in conjunction with things like Wish or Speed Boost, or even just stalling until a status condition KOs an opponent). There are a few moves that get around Protect and its variations, but all are either weak, require a charge turn, or are exclusive to Mythical Pokémon.
• Encore forces the Pokémon that's affected by it to keep using the same move in a row for 3 turns. If the Encore user is faster or it has Prankster, now do it all over again! Of course, this can backfire if the move that was Encored happens to be a super-effective move.
• Attract makes opposite gender Pokémon fall in love, which leads to a high chance of being immobilized by love! What's worse is that unlike moves that cause confusion, Attract doesn't wear off after a few turns. You have to switch out in order to cancel out its effects while in battle, or be holding a Mental Herb. This is one reason why Whitney's Miltank is so notorious. Luckily, it is negated by the fact that Attract doesn't work on genderless Pokémon or Pokémon with the Oblivious ability, or Pokémon of the same gender as its user. If you're playing Ruby and Sapphire, Emerald, or the remakes or Heartgold and Soulsilver, however, you can get your hands on the Red Flute, which makes the attraction status effect nothing more than losing one turn.
• Buffed in Gen IV, Outrage was this to the point that people think the Fairy-type exists to check it. As a Dragon-type move, it had great coverage and some very powerful users, and a base power of 120 — an absurdly good number — and the user is locked into that 120 base power attack for 2 or 3 turns. The only downside was that it confused them after use, but you could just switch them out and then put them back in whenever needed — and as mentioned, Outrage's coverage was so good that there was never any reason not to use it; even against Steel-types, it still usually hit hard enough to punch through them. Add in the common mixing of Outrage with a Choice Band or Choice Scarf (locks the user into a move, but drastically increases attack/speed) and you had what competitive players called "buttoning": simply sending in Salamence/Dragonite/Garchomp/Haxorus, selecting Outrage once, and then watching your grotesquely overpowered dragon rip the opponent's team apart, with no strategy beyond hammering the attack button. Since arrival of the Fairy-type, "buttoning" is no longer a luxury^note it just leads to getting revenge killed at best or completely wiped out at worst by a fairy who gets a free turn or two to do whatever it wants while you're locked into using a completely ineffectual attack, and players are forced to play smart with the (still very powerful) move.
• Dynamic Punch is a powerful Fighting-type move that always causes confusion. Mercifully, it only has 50% accuracy... and that's where Machamp comes into play, with No Guard ensuring Dynamic Punch will always land.
• Belly Drum cuts your HP in half in exchange for maxing out your Attack. If you can take it out before it gets to do anything afterwards, great. However, it often gets paired with a Sitrus Berry to restore some of the lost HP. Paired with an Action Initiative move or Unburden, it makes for a Total Party Kill. Additionally, Z-Belly Drum gives a full health refill to the user before its effects take place.

Introduced in/exclusive to Generation III

• Skill Swap is a move that switches the abilities of the user and the target, potentially crippling anyone that relies on their abilities. In double battles, it's one of the few ways to remove any ability that cripples the user, such as Truant on Slaking, Slow Start on Regigigas or Defeatist on Archeops.
• Dragon Dance boosts the user's Attack and Speed. Two stats that are vitally important for physical sweepers. If used by the right Pokémon, it can set them up to sweep entire parties.
• Focus Punch, assuming you can make sure your opponent won't hit you before the attack is complete. This can be ensured with smart use of Substitute with mostly all those who can learn FP, and worse... Spore with Breloom. Both at once? Don't even get us started.
• Slaking used Facade! Thought you'd wear it down by using a Status Effect? Too bad! Now it's twice as powerful! Oh, and Generation VI made Facade ignore the attack reduction caused by a burn regardless of its user's Ability. There's also the fact that Ursaring and Zangoose, two Pokémon with abilities that boost their Attack when afflicted with a status effect (though only with Poison in Zangoose's case), also learn Facade. That, combined with their normally high physical offense stacked with their STAB boost on said move, make these two become terrifying battlers. Ursaring might need a speed boost to make use of it, however.
• Knock Off got a major buff in Generation VI. Before, it was a wimpy attack with 20 base power that just nullified the item of what it was used against. Afterwards, it not only got a decent power boost (to 65), but also inflicted 50% more damage against anything that has an item while still retaining the ability to remove items. In the competitive scene, everybody has an item, and some Pokémon are quite reliant on theirs. Furthermore, you can't use your Steel-types to tank it, as they lost their resistance against Dark moves. And then it's also ridiculously widespread and can easily be run as a primary damaging move on Dark-type attackers, a coverage option on non-Dark-types, or even a utility move on tanks and walls. It quickly got a reputation as "Gen VI's Scald". Thankfully, with the introductions of Mega stones in Gen VI, Mega pokemon can be switched in to tank the hit, and the power boost the move gets upon hitting a Pokémon with an item is not applied to mega stones. It took a bigger hit in Gen VII, where the same rules apply to Z-crystals, which any Pokémon can hold, giving most teams a shield against Knock Off.

Introduced in/exclusive to Generation IV

• Stealth Rock. It creates an "entry hazard", which means that any Pokémon who get switched in after they are set up will be affected. At least Spikes and Toxic Spikes could be dodged with a Flying-type or somebody with Levitate... but not Stealth Rock, as they are described to float in the air around the opposing team. Unlike dealing a set amount of damage, like Spikes, it factors type matchups into the damage done. This means that someone who is weak to Rock loses a quarter of its health, and someone with a double weakness losing half, just from being sent in. It's absolutely everywhere. Entire teams have to be made just to survive (and use) it. It's the only reason anybody uses the otherwise pathetic move Rapid Spin (there are even specific Pokémon whose sole reason for usage is to use Rapid Spin). It's made many Pokémon that are weak to Rock seen as unusable (mostly). The metagame, when it doesn't centralize around weather, centralizes around this move. No other move is as infamous or game-changing as Stealth Rock. Even the introduction of the entry hazard ignoring Heavy Duty Boots in Generation 8 couldn't dent Stealth Rocks' oppressive presence in the metagame leading to Generation 9 introducing a handfull of new hazard clearing moves (Tidy Up, Mortal Spin) and handing out Rapid Spin to a slightly wider group of Pokemon.
• Roost. A Flying-type move introduced in Gen IV. It became especially annoying in Black 2/White 2; where Tranquill just adores spamming it to no end. What would normally be a quick and easy battle turns frustratingly long since Tranquill will constantly use it whenever its HP starts running low. Plus, Roost eliminates the user's Flying-type until the end of that turn, so that super-effective move you were planning on using next could no longer deal super-effective damage.
• Draco Meteor. A 140 (later slightly nerfed to 130) base damage Dragon-type special attack with a respectable 90% accuracy, only at the cost of halving your special attack afterwards (and again like Outrage, it's easily fixed by switching out). Dragon-types with sizeable Special Attack can put it to very good use, and worse, both dragon attacks can be freely used together to ensure no matter what defensive stat your Pokémon favors, it's going down.
• Dark Void. It's a move that puts all opposing Pokémon to sleep if it connects. This means that it can completely incapacitate the enemy team in Doubles and possibly Triples. It's especially nasty when considering who can use it: Darkrai. Darkrai is incredibly fast, and most players will use Dark Void to put you to sleep before you move. However, Darkrai has an ability that causes damage to Pokémon that are asleep. This one move is what makes Darkrai such a major threat. Smeargle, who can use nearly any move in the game, can also learn this move (at least until Gen VII, where the move flat-out fails unless Darkrai is using it). If you get hit by Dark Void from Smeargle, prepare to be helpless as Smeargle buffs up its stats in front of both your Pokémon and Baton Pass those buffs to let an ally demolish your team. Dark Void was banned in past VGC tournaments for exactly this reason (and in Gen VII, got nerfed to 50% accuracy for good measure).
• Bullet Punch, if used by Scizor that has Technician, which boosts the power of attacks that have 60 or less base power. Include the STAB as well and Scizor has a priority move with a power of 90 instead of 40 and a ton of PP.
• Trick Room. You've got a really powerful Pokémon. It can take hits really well and dish out huge amounts of damage in return. Their main weakness? They're pretty slow. But Trick Room takes care of that problem by enabling the slowest Pokémon on the field to always attack first (though it doesn't inverse priority, so moves like Quick Attack can go first), turning your Mighty Glacier into a straight-up Lightning Bruiser. Entire teams have been created to center around this move — especially in doubles, where setting up Trick Room doesn't waste turns.
• Several high-power recoil moves fall under this category. A good number of them have 100% base accuracy,^note  meaning under normal circumstances, they don't miss meaning if you can't get the jump on your opponent and knock 'em out quick, you're in for a world of pain. Special mentions go to Brave Bird and Head Smash.
  • Brave Bird's users are usually pretty quick, including the infamous Talonflame and nothing is immune to the Flying type. It still hits like a truck in Pokémon GO, and is one of the fastest special moves in the entire game,^note  it's about 2 seconds long compared with a rough average of 3.5 for other special moves leaving almost no window to dodge between your attacks. Even your Golem/Rhydon/Tyranitar/whatever will suddenly have a huge chunk of health missing, especially if the user has good Attack, such as Raid Ho-Oh.
  • Head Smash is the strongest recoil move in the entire game, having the same power as Hyper Beam.^note  150 It's also Rock type, giving it excellent coverage and again, nothing is immune to it. Thankfully, the recoil damage is very severe, and it is also one of the more inaccurate ones, with 80% accuracy. Though Tyrantrum and Aggron have Rock Head to patch the former issue.
• Close Combat, a 120 Power Fighting-type move with 100% accuracy that's pretty much run on every Pokémon ever that can learn the move. And the amount of Pokémon that can learn it is wide, especially after it became a Technical Record in Generation VIII. Its only downside is reducing the user's Defense and Special Defense, which doesn't mean a whole lot if they're simply one-shotting everything that comes their way.
• Sucker Punch is a fairly powerful Dark-type priority move that only succeeds if the target attempts to use an attacking move. This opens up a litany of annoying mind games, especially on Pokémon that run boosting moves alongside it, such as Kingambit. This means that, if a player picks the wrong move, the opposing Pokémon either gets a free boost or KOs their Pokémon. The move did receive a slight power Nerf in Generation VII, but that hasn't stopped players from groaning whenever they see it.

Introduced in/exclusive to Generation V

• Scald. Not only is it an extremely widespread move (obtainable on most Water-types that aren't part-Ice) with acceptable power, but it has an annoyingly high chance to burn, which cripples physical attackers. To make matters worse, since the only type immune to burn, Fire, is weak to Scald, there’s no reliable way to prevent burns from Scald outside of certain abilities and items. As such, Scald is very commonly used on both Water-type attackers for its decent base power (plus a STAB boost) and on defensive Pokémon to fish for the burn chance. Gen IX outright removed Scald from most Pokémon's learnsets and replaced them with the newly-introduced Chilling Water, a much weaker move that replaces the burn chance with the guaranteed but less impactful effect of lowering the opponent's Attack by one stage. Scald was later brought back as a TM in the Teal Mask DLC, albeit with a reduced distribution that left out some of its most notorious abusers, such as Toxapex.
• If there's one move that trainers dread seeing Zebstrika use, it's "Flame Charge". This is because not only is Flame Charge super-effective against Grass-type Pokémon (which normally have a resistance against Electric-type attacks), but it also boosts Zebstrika's already very high Speed stats. Oh, and it loves to spam this move several times. This means that now it is insanely fast and can easily strike with moves like Spark, Thunderbolt, and Charge Beam several times (and paralyze your Pokémon with said attacks) before you get a chance to do much damage.
• Volt Switch is an attack with a decent power that causes the user to switch out after it hits. With a majority of Pokemon being able to learn Volt Switch are fast Electric-type Pokemon, they typically will switch out and safely avoid the intended attack. It is also one of the few times where the AI would switch out their Pokemon.
• Psyshock. It's a special attack, but it targets the opponent's Defense rather than Special Defense. Add this to the moveset of a good special attacker to allow them to hit hard against a much wider range of opponents. Blissey runs scared from Psychic-types now. Mewtwo has Psystrike, a more powerful version of this.
• Quiver Dance. It boosts the user's Speed, Special Attack, and Special Defense. So not only does it work like a special version of Dragon Dance, it gives your Pokémon some special bulk as well. Quiver Dance is such a good move that it made otherwise mediocre and outclassed Pokémon like Lilligant, Venomoth, and Masquerain some much-needed utility and use, while turning already good Pokeacute;mon like Volcarona and Pheromosa into absolute monsters.
• Cotton Guard, for anybody who relies on physical attacks. It drastically boosts the user's defense, which essentially means that a mere two turns of use maximize Defense. Which means a 4× boost. This basically means that, unless you get lucky enough to get a Critical Hit, even super-effective attacks will do Scratch Damage. Oh, and guess who can learn it? That's right, Whimsicott!
• Watchog used Retaliate! ^note Retaliate doubles in base power (from 70 to 140) if a Pokémon on the user's team fainted in the previous turn, and when you factor in STAB, that jumps up to 210. It would be one thing if it appeared late in the game, but instead, it appears in Black and White's second gym, and Lenora will plow through your team if you're not ready for it. Thought you could force away Herdier and take down Watchog first? Herdier has Retaliate, as well. Even worse: Norman's Slaking used Retaliate! ^note Thought Lenora's Watchog hurt? Slaking has almost twice as much attack. Thank goodness for that Truant ability.
• Acrobatics is a very widespread 55-base power Flying-type move that doubles in power if the user isn't holding anything. And if that user is a Flying-type, it gets a STAB as well, resulting in a move with an effective 165 power! Very few Trainer battles have their Pokémon holding items, meaning many, many birds can hit you with a doubled Acrobatics. It's also very accurate and has 15 PP. Oh, and if it holds a Flying Gem, the Gem boosts the move and vanishes before it checks for an item, bringing the effective power up to 248. That's a bigger punch than most Z-Moves, only 2 shy of Explosion, and is likely a major contributor to all of the elemental Gems barring Normal Gem becoming unavailable in-game after Generation V.

Introduced in/exclusive to Generation VI

• Sticky Web is yet another annoying entry hazard. Once set, all your grounded Pokemon will suffer a speed drop upon switching in. This can heavily cripple a team filled with frail Pokemon who depend on outspeeding their opponents to accomplish anything. Ribombee in particular has seen considerable use as a lead, even in Ubers, simply for being the fastest Pokemon that can use it.
• Generation VI introduced Steam Eruption, Volcanion's Secret Art. It's Scald, except it exchanges just a little bit of accuracy for an increase in power that makes it just as powerful as Hydro Pump.
• Aegislash's King's Shield. What King's Shield does is protect Aegislash from any attack, with a nasty effect being able to harshly lower the attacker's attack if they use a contact move on King's Shield. In addition, Aegislash using King's Shield also means it can switch from Blade Forme, which has daunting offences, into Shield Forme, which has massive defenses. Played right, King's Shield effectively makes Aegislash a 720 BST Pokémon.^note For comparison, that is Arceus's BST. Aegislash's Blade form's base stats are 60 HP / 150 Atk / 50 Def / 150 SAtk / 50 SDef / 60 Speed, while its Shield form has 60 HP / 50 Atk / 150 Def / 50 SAtk / 150 SDef / 60 Speed. A well-played King's Shield Aegislash effectively switches between the highest stats of both forms at once — that is 60/150/150/150/150/60. On the other hand, King's Shield doesn't block Status moves. Aegislash's stats got nerfed in Gen VIII (bringing its 150 base stats down to 140) and King's Shield nerfed to lower attack by one instead of two levels in an effort to make this more manageable.
• Geomancy, Xerneas's Secret Art. It's a two-turn move which gives double the Status Buff as Quiver Dance after the charge-up turn. With the help of a Power Herb, Xerneas can skip the charge-up turn and boost instantly. Cue Total Party Kill.
• Oblivion Wing, Yveltal's Secret Art, has a power of 80... and restores 75% of all damage dealt as health, allowing Yveltal to heal to nearly full HP within a few usages (even 1 if it's super-effective). It's particularly nasty when you're trying to capture it (provided you aren't using a Master Ball), as it will just heal itself to a reasonable amount with this move.
• Dragon Ascent, the Secret Art of Rayquaza. It's a very powerful 120 Power move that comes off of Rayquaza's great Attack stats and STAB, with the drawback being lowering its Defense and Special Defense by one stage with each use, much like Close Combat. But what ''really" makes it terrifying is that having it being the requirement for Rayquaza to Mega Evolve rather than a Mega Stone, and Mega Rayquaza brings a whole other set of problems to the table.

Introduced in/exclusive to Generation VII

• Generation VII added a new ice-type move called Aurora Veil, which acts like both screens at once, but only works in hail. One of the Pokémon that can learn it is Alolan Ninetales with Snow Warning, which starts hail automatically at the beginning of battle. Go figure.
• Z-Moves can give some status moves a new lease on life by bestowing additional effects. Some of them become much more powerful than others, though, and most cannot be blocked by Taunt.
  • Extreme Evoboost, the exclusive Z-Move of Eevee. It sharply boosts all the user's stats (other than accuracy and evasion). To make matters worse, Eevee can use Baton Pass to transfer these boosts onto a more potent sweeper, causing the recipient to become a Lightning Bruiser to the extreme. In double battles, it can be combined with a Follow Me or Wide Guard user to protect Eevee from damage, before passing the boosts onto a Stored Power user such as Necrozma to go on a rampage. ^note Because of how Stored Power works, this causes the move to have 220 Power, enough to peel the face off of anything not Dark-type, and then they'll usually have coverage for those.
  • Amusingly enough, Splash of all things becomes this because a Normalium Z will drastically increases the user's Attack stat.
  • Z-Conversion. Normal Conversion, a Secret Art of the Porygon line, simply changes the user's type to match that of the move in its first moveslot and really isn't worth the effort. When powered up by a Normalium Z, however, Conversion also raises all of the user's stats, turning Porygon-Z from a Glass Cannon into a Lightning Bruiser and allowing it to gain STAB (which, with Adaptability, translates into a 2x damage boost) on any one of its attacking moves, potentially making it very dangerous.
• Pokémon Sun and Moon gained the signature move of Necrozma, Prismatic Laser. Due to its high level when you encounter it and high special attack stat and its 160 power and 100% accuracy, anything that's not a Dark-type is going to faint pretty quickly, and it has 10 PP. While it does give you a chance to throw a Poké Ball thanks to it being a better Hyper Beam, due to the 3 catch rate, it's unlikely to catch it. This attack can quickly turn the Prism Pokémon into That One Boss.
  • Necrozma gains another signature move in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Moon called Photon Geyser. It is a Psychic-type attack that has no drawbacks with 100 power and 100% accuracy, and can either be physical or special, meaning unless you know what EVs are in the Ultra Necrozma boss fight, you don't know where it will hit you from. In the boss fight itself, this move is considered a Nuzlocke Destroyer due to being able to one-shot almost all Pokémon in the game at that point. It's also partially what makes Ultra Necrozma a case of That One Boss. That's not even getting into the fact that it ignores abilities such as Sturdy and Disguise.
• Spectral Thief, Marshadow's Secret Art, is a decently powerful physical Ghost-type move... that also steals any stat boosts. All those efforts pulling off Status Buff belongs to Marshadow now, and it's about to destroy your entire team with these. To add insult to injury, the damage takes place after the stealing, meaning Spectral Thief will deal massive damage if Marshadow steals any attack boosts. This single move, among many other factors, is the main reason why Marshadow was promoted to Smogon's to Ubers within a week of its release.
• Double Iron Bash, Melmetal's Secret Art. It's a 60-power Steel-type physical punching move that hits twice and a 30% chance to flinch a slower opponent per hit, giving it an approximately 51% chance to flinch. Coupled with Melmetal's STAB, very high attack stat, and Iron Fist ability to boost its damage further, this move will hurt a lot — and forget about substitutes since if the first hit destroys the sub, the second will hit the target for a lot of damage. Finally, unlike several other high-power moves like Close Combat, Brave Bird, or Stone Edge, Double Iron Bash has 100% accuracy and zero drawbacks other than low PP. It was one of the reasons why Melmetal was banned to Ubers within two days of being accessible in Gen VIII.

Introduced in/exclusive to Generation VIII

• Fishious Rend, a physical 85 power, 100 accuracy Water-type move that doubles in power if the user attacks first, used by Dracovish and Arctovish. What the description doesn't tell you is that its a biting move (the Japanese name is "Gill Bite") and is thus boosted by Dracovish's Strong Jaw. With Dracovish attacking first it gets an insane 255 power before factoring in STAB, becoming one of the strongest, if not the strongest Water-type move in the game. And with rain, Sticky Web support and a Choice Band, the abomination of nature can easily sweep enemies lacking Water Absorb, Storm Drain or Dry Skin, even if they are 4x resistant to Water.
  • While overall less effective, its cousin Bolt Beak, used by Dracozolt and Arctozolt, has the same power and the same "double-damage if the user goes first" property. Boosted by Electric Terrain, Hustle and a Choice Band/Scarf (depending on whether the user wants to always have a 1.5x boost to attack or guarantee to outspeed a large number of the competition), Dracozolt can rip through anything that's not Ground-type or doesn't have Volt Absorb or Lightning Rod, and while Arctozolt lacks Hustle, it makes up for it with secondary Ice stab that almost nothing outside of itself resists.
• Max Airstream is widely considered to be the best Max Move in the game. As well as doing immense damage (140 BP when converted from Brave Bird, which is used rather frequently), this move increases the user's speed as well. So the user can Dynamax, use this move and sweep multiple 'mons in the process, then turn back to normal and continue sweeping with its now blistering speed. Max Knuckle, the default Fighting-type Max Move, is formidable in its own right for boosting the user's attack (potentially up to 3 times in optimal circumstances), although unlike Max Airstream a canny opponent can nullify it completely simply by swapping in a Ghost type. The Poison-type equivalent that boosts special attack, on the other hand, is not used as frequently due to Poison being resisted by 4 types and outright nullified by Steel.
• Three of the four terrain-based moves introduced in the Isle of Armor DLC are this, since they utilize their respective terrain's abilities for a massive impact:
  • Expanding Force starts off with a base power of 80, and that power is multiplied by 1.5 if Psychic Terrain is up, on top of the boost that Psychic-type attacks get with said terrain (1.3). This gives Expanding Force a base power of 156 with Psychic Terrain without factoring in STAB. This turns Indeedee into an absolute powerhouse, since they summon the terrain as soon as the enter the battle and blast the opposition to pieces with a move that only Dark types are safe from.
  • Grassy Glide. When used on Grassy Terrain, it becomes a strong priority move, basically a Grass-type Extreme Speed, only with more power (91, to be exact, not including STAB). Any Pokemon lucky enough to have the ability that summons Grassy Terrain and this move can turn the tables on any opponent that isn't resistant to Grass. As of Sword and Shield, only the Rillaboom line gets both Grassy Surge and this move.
  • Rising Voltage only has 70 base power when used normally. On Electric Terrain (and with the target on the ground), it doubles, and with the 1.3x boost on top of that, this move's power comes out at 182, not including STAB! However, as of Sword and Shield, the only Pokémon capable of using Rising Voltage that also summons Electric Terrain upon entry is, of all things, the otherwise unremarkable Pincurchin.

Introduced in/exclusive to Generation IX

Similar to the creatures themselves, Game Freak overcorrected some of the bad design moves from previous generations have suffered from, and the game's immense Power Creep also extends to the new move options.

• Last Respects is a Ghost-type attack that starts off with a low base power of 50. However, its power also increases by 50 whenever a teammate is defeated. If the user is the last Pokémon in a full team of six, the move's power reaches a whopping 300 before factoring in STAB, and even before that point it can still maim anything that isn't outright immune. On Smogon, Houndstone was already strong enough with this move to be banned to Ubers, and when Basculegion gained access to it, it resulted in the move being banned from Ubers (with a whopping 95.3% majority) — something Smogon tends to reserve for only the most broken Pokémon and mechanics, like Mega Rayquaza. It's not anything like as much of a threat in Battle Stadium Singles or VGC, though, due to the lower maximum team size limiting its power.
• Rage Fist, the Secret Art of Annihilape. It's a physical Ghost-type move which starts out with a meager 50 base power, but gains 50 power every time the user gets hit with an attack, up to a maximum of a whopping 350 power. It has no drawbacks to its use, so once Annihilape has survived a few hits — not hard to do, considering its high HP stat, solid defenses, and access to Bulk Up — it can start tossing out brutally powerful Rage Fists which can crush even the bulkiest of Pokémon.
• Shed Tail switches the user out, and gives a Substitute to the Pokémon that switches in. This allows a teammate to get in essentially for free, especially if the Shed Tail user goes last or the opponent fails to break the Substitute on the switch. It does take away half of the user's health instead of the usual 1/4 for Substitute, but there are ways to mitigate that, and Cyclizar, the most prominent Shed Tail user, has Regenerator.
• All three of the starter's Secret Arts fall under this category:
  • Flower Trick, Meowscarada's signature move. A 70 power Grass-type move running off of the kitty's 110 Attack isn't that bad, but this move never misses and always lands a critical hit. Factoring in the same-type attack bonus, that's two 50% boosts folded into it (barring unusual Tera types). This move is going to hurt absolutely anything, and even those that resist it will take a sizable damage from it.
  • Torch Song and Aqua Step are both 80 Base Power STAB moves for Skeledirge and Quaquaval respectively, and both boost a given stat^*Special Attack for Torch Song, Speed for Aqua Step that gives these two immense snowball potential. Both pair nicely with their Hidden Abilities; Skeledirge denies basically every Calm Mind user thanks to Torch Song and Unaware, while Quaquaval can quickly sweep a team with a combination of Aqua Step and Moxie.
• Salt Cure, Garganacl's signature attack, is one of the biggest reasons why it's such a dangerous Pokémon. This move has low base power, but inflicts a status effect that drains 1/8th of the target's HP each turn until they switch out. This alone would already make it pretty strong, but the move deals twice its regular damage if it's used on a Water- or Steel-type, which are normally some of the best counters to Rock Pokémon like Garganacl. The Scissors Cuts Rock potential of Salt Cure makes it much harder to exploit Garganacl's weaknesses, and gives even defensively-built ones a way to break through foes. Fortunately, Pokémon with the Shield Dust ability or ones holding a Covert Cloak are immune to the damage over time.
• All three of the Paradox Legendary Beasts' Secret Arts are incredibly obnoxious to fight against:
  • Hydro Steam is Walking Wake's signature move that's quite powerful, come rain or shine - literally. Unlike other Water-type moves, which get their power sliced in half during harsh sunlight, Hydro Steam's power gets a 50% boost, surpassing even Hydro Pump in power. This synergizes perfectly with Walking Wake's Protosynthesis ability, which boosts its highest stat in the sun. Whether boosted by Choice Specs or Protosynthesis (or both), Hydro Steam will sting anything that doesn't resist it. And you can't dampen it with rain either, since it still receives the damage boost all Water-type moves get from the weather condition too.
  • Burning Bulwark is a Zig-Zagged example. It's basically the already-maligned King's Shield on steroids, burning anything that makes contact rather than providing a simple stat drop. This lets Gouging Fire permanently cripple physical attackers rather than merely forcing them out. The problem? Gouging Fire just doesn't use it much; it usually prefers running Dragon Dance (even on bulkier sets) or an all-out attacker set with Choice Band. As such, it's usually relegated to more niche sets or Doubles metagames, but it can be surprisingly obnoxious when it does show up.
  • Rounding out the trio is Thunderclap, Raging Bolt's signature move. It's essentially an Electric-type variant of the aforementioned Sucker Punch, which has all of the annoying mind games that come with it, especially since most Raging Bolts run Calm Mind. Not to mention that it comes off of a very meaty 137 base Special Attack.

Spinoff Games

Exclusive to Pokémon Mystery Dungeon

• Agility, especially in Monster Houses. Increases the speed of every enemy in the room (they all get to go an extra time per turn), giving them more than enough time to wreck your party without you being able to counterattack. Even worse, the user of Agility is also granted a second turn, letting them use Agility again. It stacks three times, up to quadruple speed.
• Moves that hit all opposing Pokémon, like Discharge. Wonderful when you're using it, ungodly painful when fighting against it, and an enemy manages to hit you with 3 or 4 of them before coming into range. The worst variation is easily Silver Wind (used by Venomoth/Dustox/etc) and Ominous Wind (used by Drifblim for example), which not only hits you from all the way across the room, but also has a chance of raising all the opponent's stats, INCLUDING SPEED. Getting through dungeons filled with Silver Wind or Ominous Wind users turns into a Luck-Based Mission.
• Think Discharge is bad? How about Earth Power where it can hit you anywhere in the dungeon. Yes, where the enemy is off-screen - meaning they can use this move anytime from endless range in the dungeon. This is the prime reason as to what makes the World Abyss dungeon That One Level.
• You thought Roar of Time was an awesome move? You won't during the final battle with Dialga. It can hit you from anywhere on the battlefield and has the incredibly annoying tendency to do triple-digit damage. Just when your team is beginning to get triple-digit health, not helped by the fact that it's a Dragon-type attack that cannot be resisted by any of the playable characters, meaning you're basically always going to be taking full damage from it. If you lose, you'll get sent all the way back to the bottom of Temporal Tower, which means you have to climb the whole damn thing again just to try your luck at Dialga one more time. Combine that with Dialga's Intimidator IQ Skill (which often keeps you from moving altogether), and good old Roar of Time isn't looking so cool anymore...
• Palkia's Spacial Rend is even worse. It shares Roar of Time's ability to hit all targets on the field and deals a similarly high (but slightly lower) amount of damage, along with having its signature heightened crit rate and the unresistable Dragon typing. The problem with it is that unlike Roar of Time, it doesn't need a turn to recharge after, letting Palkia spam it all day and night during his boss battle until he runs out of PP, by which time he's likely to have wiped out your party several times over. Combine this move with Palkia's various other advantages and it can quickly turn the Spatial Pokemon into That One Boss.
• Teeter Dance confuses everyone in the room. Confusion is arguably even more annoying in PMD than the main series; 50% to hit yourself? Try 12.5% chance of even hitting what you're aiming at! So you and your party members are running around in random directions and hitting thin air or each other when trying to attack.
• Any multi-strike moves like Fury Swipes or Bullet Seed can be very annoying. Unlike in the main core games, each attack can inflict a good amount of damages and you can lose a lot of HP from about 2-5 turns of it. Granted their accuracy weren't the best and usually you would take about 2 or 3 turns from it, but it can be frightening as you can either dropped to a very low HP or be taken out from those moves. They are awesome moves to use, but very tough going against it to survive out of a dungeon.
• The Grudge Trap is That One Trap. Trip it, and every Pokémon on the floor is warped to where you are and given the Grudge status. In other words, when they go down, it drains the PP of the move you used to finish them to 0. Unless you have Warp Orbs/Seeds or Max Elixirs, you will die very quickly.
• Memento, especially so in the Mystery Dungeon series. It gives a nasty offensive debuff but at the cost of the user fainting... except it's worse in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, where everyone in the room gets this debuff, and the user simply teleports away (with only 1 HP), instead of fainting, free to use it again.
• The Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team games make Attract even worse because these games do not factor in genders. Every Pokémon will be effected by Attract no matter what. It has been nerfed in later games; in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers by adding genders meaning it can't just be spammed willy-nilly, while Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity onwards, gender system is removed in favor of making Attract cancel an attack only half the time.
• Perish Song is made even worse in the Mystery Dungeon series. While in the normal games you can switch yourself out to heal, here you can't, resulting in it being mission-ending unless you have some way to cure status or are a few steps away from the stairs. Since it can be learned by Lapras and Politoed, expect certain Water-type dungeons to be especially annoying to get through and requiring you to stock up on Heal Seeds.
• Sonic Boom is a relatively weak Fixed Damage Attack (20 damage) with 90% accuracy in the main game, in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team, it's a 100% accurate, ranged attack that deals 55 damage. Couple that with the high PP, a Pokémon using this attack can quickly wipe out your team before you even get within striking distance. The only ways to deal with a Pokémon using this move are to engage in a Sniper Duel with a ranged attack (or throwing item) of your own, corner it in a hallway and then pummel it or use an attack that hits the entire room (assuming it's actually in the room with you and not sniping you from a hallway). Thankfully, all subsequent games dropped its power to 20, making it more in-line with the main series games and Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon changed it to a melee attack instead of a ranged one.

Exclusive to other spin-offs

• In Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness:
  • If you aren't using Shadow Pokémon against Ardos, then you'll loathe his Snorlax's Shadow End. It's the Shadow equivalent of Double-Edge, and since Shadow is super-effective against everything else, anything that's non-Shadow will take a lot of damage. And despite having only 60% accuracy, the opponent seems to land it all the time, no matter what.
  • Shadow Sky is another groan-worthy Shadow move. Unlike the raw power of Shadow End, it instead sets a special weather condition that pelts all non-Shadow Pokémon similar to Sandstorm or Hail. Oh, and it makes the already-painful Shadow moves sting even more by giving them a 50% power boost.
• Dragon Rage early on in Pokémon Conquest. Like in the main series, when it hits it does 40 damage, regardless of enemy type or relative strength - but at the start of most campaigns, the average Pokémon health is less than 30. It becomes a bit less of a hassle in long campaigns when your Pokémon generally become able to take two or three hits from it, but it's a total Game-Breaker before then.
• In Pokémon Rumble:
  • Any move that causes the Reprisal status is this. Reprisal causes 100% of the damage dealt to the Pokémon with the status to be returned back to the Pokémon that caused the damage. In a game where the basic format consists of Multi Mook Melees that play Health/Damage Asymmetry very much straight. Against mobs that have moves like Bide, Counter, or Mirror Coat, a single spread attack from the player can wind up One Hit Killing themselves from full health. It's telling that Kricketot is considered a high-order Demonic Spider in this game, just because its primary move is Bide.
  • Moves that strike from afar and briefly flinch the target can and will put you into a Cycle of Hurting, turning flocks of even Com Mons like Pidove into nightmarish swarms. Some examples of this include Gust, Whirlpool and Fire Spin, Thunderbolt, Leaf Tornado, and Hurricane. The latter two are especially gruesome due to their secondary effects; Leaf Tornado can lower your Hit Ratio (which is how fast a Pokémon can attack), while Hurricane inflicts the Confusion status, causing the player to wander in random directions.
  • Fake Out retains its 100% flinch rate from the core games. Unlike in the core games however, it can be spammed ad infinitum. Better dispose of those Meowth and Glameow clowders quick, unless you want to be flinched to death.

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