Pokémon Scarlet And Violet’s Powerful New Moves, Explained

Pokémon Scarlet And Violet are the second open-world games in the Pokémon series, but the basic premise remains the same: raise terrifying creatures and sic them on both the enemy AI and your online friends. While I’m getting my ass kicked by wild Pokémon who are twenty levels above mine, I’ve noticed that they’re using a lot of new moves. Most of them are slightly buffed versions of older attacks, or the elemental typings are different.

I’ve excluded five attacks from the list because they’re “Torque” attacks, which are special moves that can only be used by special bosses. The rest of the new moves can be learned by Pokémon that you obtain in the game. Most of them are the signature moves of Paldea-exclusive Pokémon, but not all of them (Thanks, Serebii!).

Tera Blast — A basic attack for Terastallized Pokémon, which uses its Tera type. Also uses the attack or special attack depending on the higher stat.

Silk Trap — A Bug-type version of Protect that also lowers speed on contact. (Spidops)

Axe Kick — A weaker High Jump Kick that has a chance of confusing the opponent. (Medicham, Lilligant, Lokix)

Last Respects — A Ghost-type move that deals more damage if more Pokémon in your party have fainted. (Houndstone)

Lumina Crash — A weaker Psychic, but lowers the opponent’s special defense by two whole stages. Terrifying. (Espathra)

Order Up — A Dragon-type move that also raises the user’s stat depending on which type of Tatsugiri is also on the field. (Dondozo)

Jet Punch — It’s a more powerful Aqua Jet. (Palafin)

Spicy Extract — Grass-type Screech, but with the drawback of sharply boosting the opponent’s attack stat. Honestly, just use a Pokémon with Screech. (Scovillain)

Spin Out — A hefty damaging Steel-type move that also lowers your Pokémon’s speed. But hey, Steel-types weren’t going to win any marathons anyway. (Varoom, Revavroom)

Population Bomb — Fury Attack, except the Pokémon can hit one to ten times. So this attack is either really underwhelming or horrifyingly powerful. (Tandemaus, Maushold)

Ice Spinner — This Ice-type move does a hefty amount of damage and removes terrain like Grassy Terrain. Nice. (Cetoddle, Cetitan)

Glaive Rush — A devastating Dragon-type move that also causes your opponent’s next move to auto-hit and deal double damage. This means attacks from any Pokémon, and not just your last victim. So expect a ton of retaliatory damage if you spam this. (Baxcalibur)

Revival Blessing — Revives and heals a fainted Pokémon by half health. It’s a single free Revive item, since it comes with exactly one power point. (Rabsca, Pawmot)

Salt Cure — A Ground-type move that deals additional damage every turn in addition to some modest base damage. Water and Steel types take more damage, which is bullshit because you know this move was specifically for Lechonk. (Naclstack, Garganacl)

Triple Dive — Solid damage, and hits three times in a row. A solid Water-type attack for breaking substitutes. Too bad it’s the signature move of the weirdest looking Pokémon in the entire generation. (Wugtrio)

Mortal Spin — For years, players have been tormented by the awful combination of Wrap, Leech Seed, and Bind. Mortal Spin removes all those and poisons the opponent. (Glimmora)

Doodle — Changes both the user’s ability and the ally’s ability to that of its opponent. (Grafalai)

Filet Away — A Normal-type Quiver Dance that raises both attack stats and speed, except the user sacrifices HP for the gains. (Veluza)

Kowtow Cleave — Man, just call it dogeza since it’s the signature move of a samurai Pokémon. This poorly localized move is a smidge more powerful than False Surrender, but it’s pretty much the same thing—Dark-type, and deals decent damage. (Kingambit)

Flower Trick — Assuming that you can land critical hits (not blocked by Lucky Chant), this Grass-type move deals a ton of damage. Maybe I should have picked the weed cat! (Meowscarada)

Torch Song — Never mind, I’m happy with my choice of starter. This Fire-type move raises the special attack stat every time it hits. (Skeledirge)

Aqua Step — A Water-type move that also boosts speed. (Quaquaval)

Raging Bull — Brick Break for Tauros. The base type is Normal, but can also be Fighting, Fire, or Water if you’ve got one of those fancy version-exclusive breeds. (Tauros)

Make It Rain — The mad lads at Game Freak went and asked themselves “What if Pay Day was Steel-type and did 120 base damage?” Make It Rain is the result. Use responsibly. (Gholdengo)

Ruination — A Dark-type move that halves HP, like Super Fang. (Ting-Lu, Chien-Pao, Wo-Chien, Chi-Yu)

Collision Course — This Fighting-type move deals additional damage if it’s a supereffective hit. (Koraidon)

Electro Drift — Same as above, but Electric-type. (Miraidon)

Shed Tail — Creates a substitute before switching out. (Orthworm, Cyclizar)

Chilly Reception — Tells a joke so bad that a snowstorm starts and the user is forced to switch out with a different party member. Basically, imagine what happens any time Ari Notis would tell a joke in the Kotaku Slack channel. (Slowking)

Tidy Up — Removes entry hazards like Toxic Spikes and Stealth Rock. It also raises attack and speed. (Maushold)

Snowscape — Snowstorm is a new weather effect that raises the defense of Ice-types for five turns without the pesky chip damage. (Snorunt, Glaceon, Froslass, Cubchoo, Frosmoth, etc…)

Pounce — A Bug-type move that also lowers speed. (Venonat, Pineco, etc.)

Trailblaze — A Grass-type move that also raises speed. Think Flame Charge, but with Grass Same-Type Attack Bonus (STAB). (Toedscool, Smoliv, Bramblin)

Chilling Water — Deals some Water-type damage and lowers attack. (Jigglypuff, Vezula, Wiglett)

Hyper Drill — A Normal-type move that pierces Protect and Detect. (Dunsparce, Dudunsparce)

Twin Beam — A Psychic-type attack that hits twice in a row. Great for breaking Substitutes. (Girafarig, Farigiraf)

Rage Fist — Raises attack power with the number of times the user has been hit. Ghost-type. (Primeape)

Armor Cannon — A powerful Fire-type move that lowers both defense stats. It’s Close Combat. (Armarogue)

Bitter Blade — A Fire-type move that heals half of the damage dealt. Look at the flavor text, though: “The user focuses its bitter feelings toward the world of the living.” That’s so cool, what the hell. (Ceruledge)

Double Shock — A powerful Electric-type attack that also removes the Electric typing from the user afterward. Note that this isn’t turning a Pokémon into the Normal-type. If used by a pure Electric-type (via Copycat or some other method), it will be type-less afterwards. (Pawmot)

Gigaton Hammer — An immensely powerful Steel-type move that can’t be used consecutively, (Tinkaton)

Comeuppance — Doubles the damage dealt in the same turn. This is just Counter, but Dark-type. This attack was probably created so that players could actually use its effect against Ghost-type Pokémon, which are immune to Counter. (Houndour, Honchkrow, Mabosstiff)

Aqua Cutter — A Water-type move that can more easily crit. Similar to Psycho Cut and Leaf Blade. (Gallade, Quaxly, Veluza)

I’m actually kind of bummed that most of these moves are exclusive to one Pokémon or evolution line! To be fair, it’s been nine whole generations, the series doesn’t need as much balancing as it once did. Most of these new moves provide new counters to the existing meta so that competitive Pokémon will feel fresh.