Determining which item your Pokémon should hold is a major factor in winning competitive battles and doing well in PvE in the Pokémon series. There are a lot of options and obviously having any item on your Pokémon is better than nothing, but there are some items that give you more of an edge than others.
Whether you’re looking for something to help you beat a hard boss in the games or you’re looking to do better when fighting your friends, items are a must-have to help turn the tide of battle. Some provide healing, some increase damage, and some are just kind of odd. Regardless of their purpose, trainers should be on the lookout for these great items.
Updated November 25th, 2020 by Tanner Kinney: Each new addition to the Pokemon series tends to add new held items and rework old ones. Over time, they change and evolve like Pokemon themselves to become either really good or continue to just be terrible. Held items also provide a way for GameFreak to balance certain aspects of the game without outright changing the mechanics in place. It’s always good to think about which held items are the most useful in any situation, so we’ve included a few more.
15 Safety Goggles
One of the most effective status moves in Pokemon is Spore, a grass-type move that guarantees putting an enemy to sleep. Few Pokemon can learn it, but those that can instantly jump up in viability. It’s annoying having to deal with sleep, even when it only can be used on one Pokemon in PvP. However, there are counters to not just Spore, but other powder moves and even dangerous weather conditions.
The Safety Goggles, an addition from Gen 6, grants the holder immunity to powder and spore moves along with damage from weather. Against teams that rely on Spore users or Sand/Hail teams, these Goggles are reliable to carry. Their niche makes it so that they aren’t super effective in every situation, but they’re useful enough that it’s great to have them in the pack for safekeeping.
14 Terrain Extender
Terrain was a new addition to the game added in Gen 7. The various types of terrain each alter the battlefield, along with boosting the power of specific attacking types. In high tiers of play, terrain plays a vital role in many team compositions, and Pokemon that gain the ability to summon terrain passively are important pieces of the team. However, terrain only sticks around for five turns normally, limiting its use.
Fortunately, the Terrain Extender helps to alleviate that problem. Added alongside terrain in Gen 7, the Terrain Extender increases the number of turns terrain lasts up to 8 from 5. Pokemon that are built to set up terrain, like some sets of Tapu Lele, benefit tremendously from this item in being useful. Even in casual play, for those who like to use terrain to their advantage, adding in the extender will help keep the battle in your favor.
13 Light Clay
Reflect and Light Screen have been parts of Pokemon since the beginning with Red and Blue. And, unlike other status moves, they actually worked as intended. These moves reduce the damage dealt by the opponent’s physical or special attacks, depending on which screen was used. The effect is a field effect, and all Pokemon on one side benefit from it. Dual Screen Pokemon exist to set up screens, and their usefulness cannot be overstated.
So, how about making those screens last a bit longer? The Light Clay, like the Terrain Extender, increases the duration of Reflect, Light Screen, and also Aurora Veil by three turns. Pokemon that set up screens need this item to really shine, as long as attacks like Brick Break aren’t used. Getting more mileage out of screens is useful in all levels of play, so make sure to pick this item up.
12 Choice Items
Choice Items are the bread and butter of competitive play. Each of these items has a particular niche for various Pokemon, and they help bring weaker Pokemon into the realm of viability. Their usefulness cannot be overstated in the realm of competitive, and even casual, play.
Choice Items lock a Pokemon into only using one attack but greatly increase a particular stat. The Band increases Attack, the Specs increases Sp. Attack, and the Scarf increases Speed. There are a ton of scenarios where these items are useful, so experiment if you find that you need a little bit more kick in your attacks. As long as you can play around the move lock, these items are vital in gaining momentum in competitive battles.
11 Heavy-Duty Boots
Like terrain and screens, entry hazards have been a part of Pokemon for some time, starting with Spikes in Gen 2. However, with the addition of Stealth Rocks and Toxic Spikes in Gen 4, entry hazards became something every trainer had to contend with. Certain Pokemon had their viability completely nuked due to their weakness to Stealth Rocks, and it altered the metagame in a huge way. In single battles, Stealth Rocks defined the meta.
So, what if there was a way to overcome the dangerous rocks? GameFreak finally answered the prayers of every flying-type enthusiast with the Heavy-Duty Boots, added in Gen 8. These fashionable boots completely negate the effects of all entry hazards, allowing for safer switches and pivots. Rocks still play a huge role in matches, but the Heavy-Duty Boots were a great addition to open up the metagame for new Pokemon. They’re even okay in casual play for the few NPC’s that set up entry hazards.
10 Rocky Helmet
Rocky Helmet is a great item for improving your overall DPS passively. Whenever an opponent strikes one of your Pokémon wearing this item they’ll receive damage equaling a sixth of their total health. This is a fantastic item to have when facing tough hitters or if your Pokémon is very tanky and can handle the damage.
Where this item really shines is when the opponent uses a multistrike attack. Each attack will trigger the item’s effect and can shred their health. Keep in mind this object only works with moves that make contact, but there are a lot of strong moves that fit the bill.
9 Lucky Egg
Lucky Eggs aren’t useful for PVP situations, but they have tremendous use in PVE which is where you’re going to be training your PVP team. When a Pokémon is holding a Lucky Egg they will receive 150% of the experience they normally would.
This saves a tremendous amount of time spent grinding and when combined with other methods can make leveling your Pokémon a breeze. Unfortunately, they’re hard to come by; generally speaking a Lucky Egg is found on a wild Chansey, Happiny, Pelipper, and Blissey 5% of the time. It’s a bit ironic that an item that saves you grinding time requires quite a bit of grinding to find.
8 Expert Belt
Even the most casual Pokémon gamer understands the inherent rock, paper, scissors gameplay going on behind the scenes. There’s a reason you don’t typically throw a fire type at a water type and this same basic principle plays out in PVP matches.
Expert Belt augments this consideration even further by increasing the damage super effective attacks do by 20%. This means a water type doing double damage against a fire type will get another 20% tacked on top of that. Often times this 20% boost is enough to one-hit kill certain enemies.
7 Zoom Lens
Many of the most powerful attacks in the game come with horrible accuracy. In PVP having moves as close to 100% as possible is critical for disrupting attacks, locking down opponents, and dealing heavy blows, so many of these powerful moves are rejected in favor of guaranteed hits.
Zoom Lens shakes things up a bit by increasing the holder’s accuracy by 20% assuming their opponent has already made a move. This is a handy item for heavy hitters that can take a lot of damage and patiently wait for prime opportunities to strike.
6 Elemental Gems
Elemental Gems are great for giving extra power to your elemental attacks. A Fire gem will improve the damage of a fire attack by 30% for example. If you’re prepared to deal heavy damage with a single attack an Elemental Gem can nudge it high enough to do severe damage or outright obliterate some opponents.
The only reason it doesn’t rank higher is because it’s a one-time use. Your Pokémon will hold this item until they use a move of the chosen elemental type where it will be consumed. Again if you’re strategy utilizes one-hit strikes or first move sweepers then absolutely use these.
5 Life Orb
If you need to seriously ramp up your attack damage then it’s hard to go wrong with Life Orbs. These items will raises the power of any move that deals damage by 30% and unlike Elemental Gems this is a recurring item.
The only catch is that each time it activates it consumes 10% of the Pokémon’s health. This requires some method of healing or a suicidal attacker that deals as much damage as possible before they burn through their own health points.
4 Sitrus Berry
The Sitrus Berry can be seen as a second chance in battle. Whenever the Pokémon holding it has their health go below 50% they will consume the berry to heal by 25% of their max health. This is great when facing one-hit killers as your Pokémon can come back from the brink and take them off guard.
It doesn’t rank higher as it’s a single-use item and afterward your Pokémon will be reliant upon their skills alone. But your tanky Pokémon will become a major pain for the enemy when 25% of their health magically regenerates before their eyes.
3 Assault Vest
If your Pokémon is going up against someone that focuses on special offense or if your Pokémon just has really weak Special Defense than the Assault Vest is a powerful item. It raises the holder’s Special Defense by a whopping 50%.
The one downside is that your Pokémon will be restricted to attack moves only and be unable to use status effect or non-offensive moves. This isn’t too big of a downside if the Pokémon wearing it is mostly offensive anyway and as long as the move does some kind of damage it’s usable so you can still have access to some moves like Fake Out for instance.
2 Mega Stones
Love ’em or hate ’em, there is no denying that Mega Evolutions dramatically ramp up a Pokemon’s potential which makes Mega Stones a powerful item for Pokémon to hold. In some cases they can even change elemental types and grant access to new powerful abilities.
At best it will take your opponent off guard and give you an elemental advantage you wouldn’t normally have. At the very worst it’ll increase some important stats and make your creatures more dangerous in battle. It’s a shame the Mega Evolutions are no longer a possibility due to their replacement in Gigantamax Pokemon, but these items are still useful in games that have them.
1 Leftovers
Incredibly the items that appear to be literal garbage are the best held items your Pokemon can possess. When a Pokemon is holding a Leftover they will passively regenerate 6% of their health every turn.
Spongy Pokemon can regenerate a good chunk of the damage their opponent’s dealt to them and some crafty players can lock down the opponent with moves like Wrap and simply wait for the health to regenerate while they damage the opponent. Unfortunately it’s tough to obtain this item, short of a wild Snorlax or Munchlax and a handful of places you must grind it out with Pickup which only has a 1% chance of finding one.
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