One of Pokémon‘s oddest additions is held items that have negative effects for the user, but even those can be used to the player’s advantage. At first glance, many players will likely assume that they are jokes, or sell them for a small payout because they don’t see a use for them. However, these odd items have their own niches where they can be useful.
Most of the time, held items in Pokémon have positive effects for the holders. For example, Oran Berries heal 10 HP, a decent amount in the very early game, but quickly become irrelevant as Pokémon levels and HP rise. There are other items that power up a Pokémon’s moves, such as Charcoal, which increases the power of Fire-type moves. However, there are other items like the Iron Ball, which slows the user and nullifies Flying-type and Levitate’s immunity to Ground. Unlike items that make Pokémon battles too easy, these sorts of items are normally complete downgrades, but certain moves and abilities can make them useful.
Giving Negative Items In Pokémon To The Opponent Transfers Their Effects
Held items are a common sight in competitive Pokémon battles, and are frequently vital to the user’s strategy. Ironically, the same can be said of some of the worst held items in Pokémon. However, most players don’t plan to slow their own Pokémon with an Iron Ball, or poison them with a Toxic Orb. Rather, the point of bringing those items into a fight would be to bestow those effects onto the opponent.
There are two moves, Switcheroo and Trick, that will trade the items of the user and target. Not only can this potentially take a good item from the opponent, but it’s also a chance to give them a bad item in return. They sound like some of the weirdest moves a Pokémon could learn, but there is a trick to them. The player can trade an Iron Ball to slow the opponent, or offer them a Toxic or Flame Orb to afflict them with poison or a burn. There is also the move Bestow, which gives the opponent the user’s item, but fails if they already have an item, so it almost never sees use competitively. There is also the Sticky Barb, which damages the user every turn while also having a Bestow-like effect on contact.
The main disadvantage to Switcheroo and Trick strategies is that the user needs to bring a bad held item into battle. In addition, very few Pokémon that are immune to Poison or Burn can learn either move, so using it with a Toxic or Burn Orb is fairly limited in options. Even in Sword & Shield‘s simplified competitive scene, it’s a combo that won’t win a lot of matches, but it can be a fun trick to use in battle nonetheless.
Fling Turns Pokémon’s Items Into Weapons
As stated previously, almost all held items provide passive benefits to the user, but there are a couple of examples where they come directly into play. For example, Natural Gift consumes a held berry to deal damage, and Belch is a powerful Poison-type move that requires the user to have eaten a berry earlier in the battle. Unlike those moves, Fling lets the user directly attack the opponent with its item.
To be fair, Fling is not a very good move in most cases, since most items do very little damage. However, the player can use a few tricks that are almost as unusual as Pokémon‘s oddly powerful F.E.A.R. strategy. Just like Switcheroo or Trick, Flinging a Flame or Toxic Orb will burn or badly poison the target, respectively. In addition, a King’s Rock or Razor Fang can make the opponent flinch. The biggest reason to use Fling would be the Iron Ball, though. Using Fling while holding an Iron Ball will give the move a base power of 130, making it one of the strongest Dark-type moves in the game, only 20 points away from Hyper Beam.
Fling has a major disadvantage that severely affects its usefulness. Once Fling is used, the Pokémon’s held item is consumed. In multiplayer matches, this just keeps it from being used again for that battle, but in regular gameplay, the item will be lost forever. Considering that Fling can be used with rare and even unique items, it can potentially be the worst move in Pokémon if it costs the player something rare and valuable. If one does intend to use Fling, it should only be with the Iron Ball method for the incredible damage output.
Guts And Facade Make Pokémon’s Status Conditions Into A Good Thing
Most of the time, one will not want their Pokémon to be burned or badly poisoned. Burns do constant damage and lower the user’s attack, while being badly poisoned does increasing damage each turn. This can make the Flame and Toxic Orbs look like very questionable options to equip to one’s Pokémon. Despite what one may think, there are a couple of circumstances where one may actually want their Pokémon to be afflicted by these status conditions, and the results can be stunning.
Abilities are incredibly important for Pokémon, and Guts is a powerful one. Guts is an ability that increases a Pokémon’s attack by 50% when it is affected by a negative condition such as burn or poison. Not only that, but it also prevents burns from lowering their attack power. When applied to an already strong Pokémon such as Ursaring or Conkeldurr, the resulting attacks can be devastating. In addition, Facade is a move that doubles in power if the user is burned, poisoned or paralyzed, and some Pokémon with Guts can also learn Facade to further stack the damage. If a Pokémon with this ability and attack combination were to equip a Flame Orb or Toxic Orb, it would be able to wreak havoc on enemy teams.
The Flame Orb and Toxic Orb make the Guts and Facade combination a far easier way to inflict massive damage than Pokémon‘s highest possible damage result. For this purpose, the Flame Orb is preferred over the Toxic Orb, due to the self-damage not increasing and Guts canceling out the burn’s attack penalty. For players looking to quickly do a lot of damage, this could be the combo for them.
To be fair, even with their combos, the negative held items in Pokémon are only fit for marginal use at best. Most of the time, gimmicky tactics tend to be a tier below legitimately powerful movesets and strategies. Even so, when it comes to planning out fun, unexpected strategies to experiment with, the worst items in Pokémon are a surprising source of inspiration.