Zapdos Analysis - PokéCheats Pokémon #145, Analysis, Movesets


05/10/24, 07:45
Zapdos Analysis
#144 Articuno Pokédex Strategy Moves Database Moltres #146

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This article gives you ideas of how to use Zapdos in battle in the Pokémon Black, Pokémon White and Pokemon B2W2 Games. It lists popular movesets used by competitive battlers, as well as a description on how to use each set to help you understand why the moves were chosen. These popular sets are usually the best to use in battle and so reading this guide will help you in your team building.

Gen 5: Overview

Zapdos, Starmie and Gengar. The three pokemon that have survied the test of time and has been on the OU tier for all five generations. Zapdos got a nice, but small buff this generation. On the Dream World tier, it has the Lightningrod ability that gives it a second immunity and a special attack boost. As you can see, it has some great stats offensively and, suprisingly, defensive. Offensively, it has 125 Special Attack which is amazing, reaching 383 when max. It also has that 100 speed that can outspeed, even with little investment, threats like max Speed Tyranitar, Breloom, Standard Tentacruel, Scizor, Gyarados... Defensively, he has 80/75/80 defenses which let it take a lot of hits if it has invesment. He also has only two weaknesses, which helps on the defensive side. Take note that it is resistant to Fighting and immune to Ground (two of the most common STABs in the game). Zapdos doesn´t have an amazing offensive movepool but it really doesn´t matter; Heat Wave, Hidden Power Ice and Thunderbolt is all that you will ever need. They have near perfect neutral coverage (except Lanturn, which is not common at all) and incredible super-effective coverage, hitting a lot of threats super-effectively. What makes Zapdos so versatile is its balanced stats and it´s great non-attacking movepool.


 
Ability Nature Item HP Atk. Def. SpAtk. SpDef. Speed
Pressure Bold Nature (+Def -Atk) / Calm Nature (+SpDef -Atk) leftovers 248 0 220 0 220 32
There are no current set statistics analysed






This is your standard defending Zapdos. The purpose of this set is to take hits from the foe while you attack and then recover with Roost. Leftovers is the prefered item because you will recover a bit of HP every turn, meaning that you will have more bulk to take hits. The EV´s and nature can really change the purpose of set. You can either have Physically Defensive EV´s or nature or Specially Defensive ones. Both are extremely viable, though Physically Defensive is preferable since physical threats are now more common than special threats. The physically defensive spread (252 HP, 220 Defence and a Bold Nature), can actually take a lot of hits, like getting 3HKOed by Excadrill´s Rock Slide and Garchomp and Dragonite´s Outrages. Also take note that this is also very effective because of what I previously said; that Zapdos is resistant to Fighting and immune to Ground (two of the most common STABs in the game). The specially defensive spread (252 HP, 220 Special Defence and a Calm nature) can also prove very helpful, since it can take special hits very well, like Starmie´s Ice Beam and Latios´s Draco Meteor. Finally, you want to put 32 EV´s onto speed to outspeed max speed Tyranitar. The combination of Thunderbolt, Heat Wave and Hidden Power Ice gets incredible neutral coverage while hitting a lot of threats for super-effective damage, most imporatantly, threats like Garchomp, Excadrill, Gliscor, Scizor and other threats that will be covered later (on the offensive set). Finally, Roost is used to recover the damage that you possibly took from the foe´s attacks and from Steath Rock (which Zapdos is weak to).

 
Ability Nature Item HP Atk. Def. SpAtk. SpDef. Speed
Pressure Timid Nature (+Spe -Atk) leftovers / life orb 4 0 0 252 0 252
There are no current set statistics analysed






This set looks nearly the same as the last set, but with a completely different purpose. Unlike the previous set, this moveset is not used for defensive purposes. Instead, it is used for offensive purposes. This set uses your three attacking moves to do a lot of damage to the opponent´s team. As for the item, Leftovers can be used to recover some damage every turn, ot Life Orb, so that your attacks do even more damage (30% more, to be exact) but with the consequence of losing 10% of your health every time that you attack. The EV´s and Nature are incredibly simple, you want as much EV investment on Special Attack and Speed, since you want to do as much dmage as possible and outspeed as many threats as possible. A Timid nature is recommended to speed tie with max speed Volcarona, Salamence and other Zapdos and also outspeeding threats that you couldn´t outspeed if you didn´t have the Timid nature, like max speed Lucario and Excadrill. The combination of Thunderbolt, Heat Wave and Hidden Power Ice get incredible neutral coverage. Thunderbolt hits Jellicent, Starmie, Gyarados, Politoed, Cloyster, Vaporeon, Tentacruel, etc. super-effectively, while also being an incredibly powerful STAB move. Heat Wave hits Ferrothorn, Scizor, Excadrill, Skarmory, Foretress, Metagross, Breloom, Jirachi, etc. for super-effective damage. Finally, Hidden Power Ice hits Garchomp, Gliscor, Dragonite, Latios, Salamence, Hydreigon, Hippowdon, Thundurus, Haxorus, opposing Zapdos and Togekiss super effectively. For the last move, you can choose between three moves. Roost can be ued to recover damage, Agility can be used to outspeed everything common on the game (except Terrakion with a Rock Polish) or you could use Charge Beam to boost your already amazing Special attacking capabilities.

 
Ability Nature Item HP Atk. Def. SpAtk. SpDef. Speed
Pressure Timid Nature (+Spe -Atk) leftovers 184 0 72 0 0 252
There are no current set statistics analysed






At first glance, this set may seem incredibly similar to the defending set, but its purpose is both defending (like the first set) but also pressure stalling, scouting and spreading the badly poison status (if you carry Toxic) to the opponent´s team. The bad thing about this set which the defender set does a much better job at is the lack of coverage, only having 1 or 2 attacking moves, which can let some pokemon beat Zapdos just for the lack of coverage and not having a super-effective move against that Pokemon. The item should be Leftovers for an obious reason; to recover some damage every turn, plus recovering the damage that you will lose for setting up Substitutes. The EV´s may seem a little strange at first, but then you will understand why they are there. Max investment (252 EV´s and a Timid Nature) should be placed onto speed to try to set up Substitutes before the opponent attacks you before. Firstly, Roost is recommended to recover half of your damage, so that you can survive for a much longer time plus stalling the opponent if the damage is below 50%. Then, Substitute should be used to scout what move the opponent is gonna do, plus if the opponent switches out, it does a status move or it does a move which does less than 25% damage, you basically have a free turn withput taking any damage. For the third slot, Thunderbolt is the preffered option so that you get, even without investment, a very powerful STAB move. Finally, for the last slot, you can either use Toxic to get some residual damage to the opponent, plus since you will be wasting turns using Roost and Substitute, the damage will increase a lot. You can also, use either Heat Wave or Hidden Power Ice for some added offensive coverage.

 
Ability Nature Item HP Atk. Def. SpAtk. SpDef. Speed
Pressure Timid Nature (+Spe -Atk) choice scarf / choice specs 4 0 0 252 0 252
There are no current set statistics analysed






This is similar to the special attacking set, but with a little twist. This is mainly because of the item that you are going to use, which is Choice Scarf or Choice Specs. Choice Scarf can be used to get that pretty good speed to incredible speed. With this, you can outspeed Pokemon like a speed-tie with Salamence and Volcarona with a speed boost, scarfed Genosect (on Dream World), scarfed Hydreigon, Ludicolo, scarfed Darmartian, scarfed Chanteclure (on Dream World, very important), Scarfed Heatran, scarfed Tyranitar, Starmie, Gengar and Latios. Choice Specs can be used to boost Zapdos´s already massive special attack to an incredible powerhouse, at least 2HKOing everything that doesn´t resist the move. The EVs and nature are fairly simple. Zapdos wants max speed and max attack, along with an Timid nature, to have the best possible sweeping stats to aid in its sweeping potental. Even if it has Choice Scarf, timid is the prefferable nature to outspeed Scarf Hydreigon and Ludicolo. The combination of Thunderbolt, Hidden Power Ice and Heat Wave get perfect neutral coverage and hit the threats that I previously mentioned for super-effective damage. Finally, Volt Change is the thing that makes this set different. It is used to scout what the opponent is going to do. This is especially good if the opponent switches out because you can basically switch out on a good matchup. U–Turn is also an option if you want to also, predict Ground types, but Volt Change will be much more powerful than U–Turn.

 
Ability Nature Item HP Atk. Def. SpAtk. SpDef. Speed
Pressure Bold Nature leftovers 248 0 168 0 88 4
There are no current set statistics analysed






Unlike the previous sets, this one is a supporting one. The whole purpose of this set is to, with the help of Substitute, set up Agilities (and Charge Beams, if you have it) and then you use the move Baton Pass to transfer the boosts to another Pokemon. These boosts are especially good on Pokemon like Tyranitar, Heatran, Latios, Metagross and Dragonite, since they have low speed but mass¡ve attack/special attack. EV wise, 248 EV´s are put to HP so that you can take more hits while setting up. 168 EV´s and a Bold nature is put onto defense to take better the physical hits that are dominant. 88 EV´s are put to Special Defense to still take those special hits nicely. Finally, 4 EV´s are put onto Speed to outspeed other base 100´s that have no investment. Agility, as I said previously, is used to set up to an amazing number of speed that can be passed with Baton Pass. Thunderbolt is going to be your main attacking move, though you can use Charge Beam if you want to get some extra Special Attack boosts. Finally, Substitute is used to scout and, if the opponent doesn´t kill your substitute or switches out, you get an extra boost.

Team Mates

Ferrothorn is a very good teammate to Zapdos; it can cover Zapdos´s rock weakness, while Zapdos covers its fighting weakness. Ferrothorn also takes care of Blissey, Tyranitar, sometimes Garchomp and sometimes Excadrill. It also takes those physical hits that Zapdos (especially on the specially defensive set) hates taking. Scizor and Excadrill is also a great teammates since they cover Zapdos´s weaknesses. Scizor can take care of Blissey, Tyranitar, sometines Garchomp, Latios and Reniclus while Excadrill can take care of Blissey, Tyranitar, sometimes opposing Excadrill, Latios, Infernape, Volcarona and Terrakion. Both ca also do a lot of physical damage to the opposing team. Any great physical sweeper/wall that can take care of some counters mentioned previously is a good teammate. If you are using a defensive set, the combination of Zapdos, Jellicent and Ferrothorn have excellent defensive synergy and resist all 17 types. Finally, if you are using the Baton Pass set, any sweeper is an option to recieve the boosts that Zapdos sets up.

Other Options

Hidden Power Flying: If you just want a STAB options, also hitting fighing types hard.

Light Screen: This could be a viable option for the physically defensive set so you can take both physical and special hits well.

Thunder Wave: If you hate the speed that Zapdos has to offer, go for it. This can also be paired with Swagger to inflict massive hax.

Rest: This can be paired with a Chesto Berry so that you can recover all of your HP. Outclassed by Roost.

Wild Charge: You can take use of Zapdos´s good 90 base attack to rum a mixed set, or even a physical set.

Thunder: If you are running a rain team, then go for it.

Signal Beam: To hit Grass, Dark and Psychics super-effectively.

Rain Dance: If you want Zapdos to be a rain inducer, then go for this. Also, use Thunder if you are using this.

Tailwind: An alternative to Agility.

Roar: To phase opponents. Very useful if you have entry hazards up.

On the Dream World, Zapdos has an amazing ability, Lightningrod. Not only you are immune to electric-type moves, but you recieve a Special Attack boost if you are hit by them! This is especially good on offensive sets, since having extra power is always great. If on the Baton Pass set you are passing the boosts to a special sweeper, this is very good since you can get an extra boost to the pokemon. In general, having an extra immunity is ALWAYS good. Take note that Signal Beam and HEAT WAVE are illegal with Lightningrod.

Usual Counters

Like with many special sweepers and walls, Blissey can take Zapdos´s hits all day. Remember that Blissey also has the Natural Cure ability, so Toxic is not an option. Choice Band Tyranitar, even if you are running the defensive set, will OHKO. The Choice Scarf variant can also outspeed Zapdos and 2HKO. That is also said with other variations of Tyranitar if you are not using a physically defensive set. Yache and Choice Band Garchomp can either take the Hidden Power Ice and 2HKO back (yache) or they can OHKO directly (choice band). Excadrill, if you´re not using an offensive set, can be an incredible threat since if you are using a defensive set, Heat Wave will not KO and Excadrill will 2HKO back. Choice Specs Latios can ouspeed and KO with Draco Meteor (this is a reason why the special defensive set is still very good). If it has enough Calm Mind boosts, Reniclus can stall out Zapdos. Similar to Excadrill, Infernape is a problem since it can 2HKO Zapdos. You can only OHKO Infernape if you have an offensive set. Volcarona can set up on Zapdos and OHKO him. Terrakion, if it has a Sword Dance up, will OHKO any variant of Zapdos.

Opinion

Zapdos has always been an amazing and very versatile pokemon. With amazing movepool and attacking coverage, with an amazing typing making you resist two of the most common physical STABs of the game, with amazing stats, both offensively and defensively, Zapdos is a force to be reckoned with.

Dream World

On the Dream World, Zapdos has an amazing ability, Lightningrod. Not only you are immune to electric-type moves, but you recieve a Special Attack boost if you are hit by them! This is especially good on offensive sets, since having extra power is always great. If on the Baton Pass set you are passing the boosts to a special sweeper, this is very good since you can get an extra boost to the pokemon. In general, having an extra immunity is ALWAYS good. Take note that Signal Beam and HEAT WAVE are illegal with Lightningrod.











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