pkmnlab

Dark Pulse

Dark · Special · 14 Pokémon in Reg M-B
Dark
Dark Pulse
TypeDark
CategorySpecial
Base power80
Accuracy100%
PP15
Priority0
PokémonTypes Its usageCarries it
Archaludon 14.3% 0.2% Mega Blastoise 8.5% 93.2% Hydreigon 4.5% 93.2% Mega Pyroar 1.6% 1.2% Greninja 0.35% 59.4% Mega Sableye 0.29% 45.2% Mega Houndoom 0.23% 59.9% Rotom-Frost 0.13% 19.3% Clawitzer 0.08% 80.9% Spiritomb 0.06% 10.6% Mega Meowstic F 0.05% 60% Polteageist 0.03% 4.8% Sharpedo 0.03% 4.4% Zoroark 0.03% 19.3%

What it does

Has a 20% chance to make the target flinch.

At 80 base power it is the 24th strongest of the 40 damaging special moves that appear in this format.

Who carrys it

14 of the 282 Pokémon measured on the Regulation M-B ladder carry Dark Pulse. The one that matters most is Archaludon, which is on 14.3% of teams and carrys it on 0.2% of its sets. The full list is above, ordered by how much of the format each one is.

What it hits

As a Dark move it is super effective against Ghost and Psychic, resisted by Dark, Fairy and Fighting. 8 other Dark moves appear in this format: Sucker Punch, Throat Chop, Nasty Plot, Knock Off, Taunt, Foul Play and others.

Who could and does not

67 Pokémon legal in this regulation can learn Dark Pulse at all, against the 14 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 Kingambit, Incineroar, Grimmsnarl, Ninetales-Alola, Rotom-Wash and Meowscarada — each of them measured on the ladder, each of them leaving this move on the shelf.

How concentrated it is

Across the ladder, Dark Pulse accounts for an expected 0.13 of the six slots on an average team, which makes it the 44th most-brought of the 126 moves this format runs. 0% of that comes from Archaludon alone, so it is spread across the field rather than propped up by one Pokémon. Its carriers are mostly Dark (7), Water (4) and Ghost (3).

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.