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Substitute

Normal · Status · 23 Pokémon in Reg M-B
Normal
Substitute
TypeNormal
CategoryStatus
Base power—
Accuracynever misses
PP10
Priority0
PokémonTypes Its usageCarries it
Basculegion 30.2% 1.6% Archaludon 14.3% 0.6% Mega Delphox 8.6% 8% Mega Raichu Y 7.0% 1.1% Mega Gengar 4.9% 7.7% Mega Froslass 3.7% 2.7% Mega Glimmora 1.8% 0.7% Mega Sceptile 0.85% 1% Aegislash 0.82% 4.6% Araquanid 0.63% 21.8% Klefki 0.43% 58.8% Mega Chandelure 0.41% 3.4% Mega Golurk 0.30% 3.8% Bellibolt 0.29% 4.1% Malamar 0.22% 5.5% Empoleon 0.18% 6.8% Serperior 0.17% 9.4% Leafeon 0.06% 3.6% Trevenant 0.05% 7.7% Passimian 0.03% 14.1% Garbodor 0.03% 13.3% Glalie 0.01% 5.7% Eelektross 0.01% 9.3%

What it does

The user takes 1/4 of its maximum HP, rounded down, and puts it into a substitute to take its place in battle. The substitute is removed once enough damage is inflicted on it, if the user switches out or faints, or if any Pokemon uses Tidy Up. Baton Pass can be used to transfer the substitute to an ally, and the substitute will keep its remaining HP. Until the substitute is broken, it receives damage from all attacks made by other Pokemon and shields the user from status effects and stat stage changes caused by other Pokemon. Sound-based moves and Pokemon with the Infiltrator Ability ignore substitutes. The user still takes normal damage from weather and status effects while behind its substitute. If the substitute breaks during a multi-hit attack, the user will take damage from any remaining hits. If a substitute is created while the user is trapped by a binding move, the binding effect ends immediately. Fails if the user does not have enough HP remaining to create a substitute without fainting, or if it already has a substitute.

Who carrys it

23 of the 282 Pokémon measured on the Regulation M-B ladder carry Substitute. The one that matters most is Basculegion, which is on 30.2% of teams and carrys it on 1.6% of its sets. The full list is above, ordered by how much of the format each one is.

What it hits

As a Normal move it is super effective against nothing, resisted by Rock and Steel, and does nothing at all to Ghost. 16 other Normal moves appear in this format: Protect, Fake Out, Weather Ball, Encore, Hyper Voice, Helping Hand and others.

Who could and does not

233 Pokémon legal in this regulation can learn Substitute at all, against the 23 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, Garchomp, Sinistcha, Whimsicott and Sneasler — each of them measured on the ladder, each of them leaving this move on the shelf.

How concentrated it is

Across the ladder, Substitute accounts for an expected 0.02 of the six slots on an average team, which makes it the 107th most-brought of the 126 moves this format runs. 20% of that comes from Basculegion alone, so it is spread across the field rather than propped up by one Pokémon. Its carriers are mostly Ghost (7), Steel (4) and Grass (4).

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.