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Close Combat

Fighting · Physical · 47 Pokémon in Reg M-B
Fighting
Close Combat
TypeFighting
CategoryPhysical
Base power120
Accuracy100%
PP5
Priority0
PokémonTypes Its usageCarries it
Incineroar 33.9% 5.6% Sneasler 20.9% 99.7% Mega Staraptor 12.9% 98.9% Annihilape 4.8% 65.3% Ceruledge 4.5% 1.1% Mega Blaziken 3.5% 90.6% Lycanroc-Dusk 2.7% 98% Mega Scrafty 2.4% 40.2% Arcanine-Hisui 1.2% 5.5% Mega Scizor 1.2% 42.3% Mega Lopunny 0.89% 98.2% Aegislash 0.82% 12.4% Mega Eelektross 0.78% 11.6% Mudsdale 0.63% 4.3% Kleavor 0.51% 68.7% Palafin 0.48% 27.4% Mega Lucario 0.43% 60.4% Decidueye-Hisui 0.32% 31.1% Mega Golurk 0.30% 5% Arcanine 0.27% 7.6% Tauros-Paldea-Aqua 0.26% 63.5% Conkeldurr 0.25% 32.8% Krookodile 0.24% 7.1% Mega Crabominable 0.23% 23%

What it does

Lowers the user's Defense and Special Defense by 1 stage.

At 120 base power it is the 2nd strongest of the 42 damaging physical moves that appear in this format.

Who carrys it

47 of the 282 Pokémon measured on the Regulation M-B ladder carry Close Combat. The one that matters most is Incineroar, which is on 33.9% of teams and carrys it on 5.6% of its sets. The full list is above, ordered by how much of the format each one is.

What it hits

As a Fighting move it is super effective against Dark, Ice, Normal, Rock and Steel, resisted by Bug, Fairy, Flying, Poison and Psychic, and does nothing at all to Ghost. 12 other Fighting moves appear in this format: Low Kick, Detect, Aura Sphere, Quick Guard, Focus Blast, Bulk Up and others.

Who could and does not

49 Pokémon legal in this regulation can learn Close Combat at all, against the 47 that actually bring it. The gap is the interesting number: it is the set of Pokémon that have the option and decline it. The most-played of those are Kommo-o and Machamp — each of them measured on the ladder, each of them leaving this move on the shelf.

How concentrated it is

Across the ladder, Close Combat accounts for an expected 0.50 of the six slots on an average team, which makes it the 7th most-brought of the 126 moves this format runs. 4% of that comes from Incineroar alone, so it is spread across the field rather than propped up by one Pokémon. Its carriers are mostly Fighting (26), Fire (8) and Rock (7).

Where these numbers come from

Usage is Smogon's published statistics for the Regulation M-B VGC ladder, and the description is the one shipped in the Pokémon Showdown data set. Both are regenerated on every build rather than written by hand, so this page follows the format instead of trailing it. Take any of it to the team builder or the damage calculator.