What Pokémon Move Ignores Abilities?
The short answer is: no single Pokémon move inherently ignores abilities. Instead, it’s the Ability Mold Breaker (and similar Abilities like Teravolt and Turboblaze) that allows a Pokémon to effectively bypass the Abilities of its target. Therefore, it’s not about a specific move having this property but rather a Pokémon’s Ability modifying the effects of its moves. When a Pokémon with Mold Breaker uses a move, it essentially ignores many of the target’s defensive or disruptive Abilities. This means moves will hit and/or cause status changes as if the target had no Ability to interfere.
How Mold Breaker Works
Mold Breaker is an Ability introduced in Generation IV. It allows a Pokémon to use its moves unimpeded by a wide range of defensive Abilities of its target. The Abilities that Mold Breaker ignores are primarily those that grant immunity, status resistance, or stat changes to the opponent. Specifically, these include (but are not limited to): Battle Armor, Big Pecks, Clear Body, Cloud Nine, Damp, Dry Skin, Filter, Flower Veil, Hyper Cutter, Inner Focus, Insomnia, Keen Eye, Leaf Guard, Levitate, Light Metal, Magic Bounce, Magma Armor, Marvel Scale, Oblivious, Own Tempo, Sand Veil, Shell Armor, Shield Dust, Simple, Snow Cloak, Solid Rock, Soundproof, Sturdy, Tangled Feet, Thick Fat, and Unaware.
Essentially, if a target possesses one of these Abilities, a Pokémon with Mold Breaker can disregard that Ability’s effect. For example, a Pokémon with Levitate is normally immune to Ground-type attacks, but if it’s facing a Pokémon with Mold Breaker that uses a Ground-type move, the attack will hit and deal damage as normal. Similarly, a Pokémon with Sturdy is normally immune to being knocked out in one hit, however a Mold Breaker Pokémon can still one shot the Sturdy Pokémon with a powerful move.
Key Similar Abilities
There are a couple of other Abilities that work almost exactly like Mold Breaker: Teravolt and Turboblaze. These Abilities, mainly found on Legendary Pokémon, function identically to Mold Breaker, negating a large variety of defensive and disruptive Abilities of the target. The effect, in practice, is the same: the Pokémon’s move is used as though the target had no Ability at all. These Abilities, along with Mold Breaker, are pivotal in battling to neutralize defensive strategies of the opponent.
Understanding the Nuances
It’s important to note what Mold Breaker doesn’t ignore. It doesn’t bypass Abilities that activate after a move makes contact or that only affect the user. For instance, Abilities like Static or Rough Skin, which inflict status or damage to the attacker after contact, are not negated. Furthermore, Mold Breaker does not eliminate Abilities that affect the Pokémon using the move, such as Flash Fire which boosts Fire moves after being hit with a Fire-type move. The primary focus of Mold Breaker is to ignore Abilities that prevent moves from making contact or being effective on the target.
FAQs about Abilities and Move Interactions
1. What is Power Nullification or Negation?
Power Nullification or Negation is the ability to simply nullify the powers and abilities of others, negating their effects. This is distinct from Mold Breaker, which isn’t an inherent move but an Ability that modifies the effects of moves used by the Pokémon possessing it. Power Nullification as a concept does exist in Pokemon, but not as a direct move or ability.
2. Can moves be used on a target regardless of its Abilities?
Yes, generally, moves can be used on a target regardless of its Abilities, but their effects might be altered by those Abilities. This is where Mold Breaker becomes significant because it makes moves have their intended effects by ignoring a large range of abilities.
3. Which Abilities are ignored by Mold Breaker?
Mold Breaker ignores a wide range of defensive abilities including, but not limited to: Battle Armor, Big Pecks, Clear Body, Cloud Nine, Damp, Dry Skin, Filter, Flower Veil, Hyper Cutter, Inner Focus, Insomnia, Keen Eye, Leaf Guard, Levitate, Light Metal, Magic Bounce, Magma Armor, Marvel Scale, Oblivious, Own Tempo, Sand Veil, Shell Armor, Shield Dust, Simple, Snow Cloak, Solid Rock, Soundproof, Sturdy, Tangled Feet, Thick Fat, and Unaware.
4. Does Mold Breaker ignore paralysis?
Yes, Mold Breaker can ignore the Abilities of Pokémon other than the target to help status moves work. If a Pokémon with Mold Breaker uses Thunder Wave on a Grass-type Pokémon whose ally has Flower Veil, the target will still be paralyzed as Flower Veil doesn’t protect the target from moves of other Pokémon..
5. Can Mold Breaker hit a Pokémon with Levitate?
Absolutely. Mold Breaker negates Levitate, allowing a Pokémon with the ability to hit a Pokémon with Levitate using Ground-type moves.
6. What is the weakest Pokémon move?
The weakest attacking move in Pokémon is Constrict, a Normal-type move with only 10 base power.
7. What Pokémon move never misses?
Several Pokémon moves have 100% accuracy, such as Swift, Aerial Ace, Aura Sphere, and Yawn.
8. What is the rarest Pokémon move?
Some of the rarest move sets include Starmie with Quick Attack, Voltorb with Signal Beam, and Doduo with Swift. These are due to being exclusive to a certain time period or Pokemon.
9. What is the strongest Pokémon Ability?
Strong Pokémon Abilities include Huge Power, Intimidate, Speed Boost, and Libero/Protean. These abilities drastically increase the pokemon’s strengths in battle.
10. Does psychic terrain stop Spore?
Yes, Psychic Terrain prevents grounded Pokémon from being affected by status moves, including Spore.
11. What Pokémon move prevents a target from using its held item?
The move Embargo prevents the target from using its held item and also prevents the trainer from using items on the target.
12. What does the Unnerve Ability do?
Unnerve prevents opposing Pokémon from eating their held Berries. It is an ability designed to stop Pokemon from recovering lost HP in battle.
13. What is Aura Break ability?
Aura Break inverts the effects of Fairy Aura and Dark Aura, causing those types to deal decreased damage as opposed to increased damage.
14. What Ability is immune to paralysis?
The Ability Limber makes a Pokémon immune to paralysis.
15. Is Mold Breaker a rare ability?
Mold Breaker is a moderately rare ability that some Pokemon naturally possess in the wild.
Conclusion
In the world of Pokémon battles, Abilities play a crucial role. While no single move ignores Abilities, the Ability Mold Breaker, and its counterparts Teravolt and Turboblaze, empower a Pokémon to bypass many defensive and disruptive Abilities, making battles more dynamic and unpredictable. Understanding these nuances is essential for becoming a truly skilled Pokémon trainer. By understanding how Mold Breaker works you can better build your team for battle.