Abilities in Pokémon were first introduced in Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire, providing each Pokémon with passive effects to make each one more distinct. Ever since, each generation of Pokémon has introduced new ones for both new and old Pokémon, and it’s added a huge layer of complexity to a series that was already exceptionally deep.
However, many of these abilities did not start off as powerful as they began. Many of them have started flavorful and unique, but have received several buffs to keep them relevant in the ever-expanding world of Pokémon. These are just a few abilities that have received the most substantial changes and additional effects.
10 Sturdy
The traditionally Rock and Steel-type ability Sturdy has likely received one of the most significant buffs in the series, being hardly similar whatsoever to the original. The initial effect was to prevent moves that defeat it in one hit, but this only applied to one-hit-KO moves like Sheer Cold and Horn Drill.
With Pokémon Black & White, this ability was given a massive upgrade by preventing any attack from causing the user to faint while at full health. This no longer was just a corner-case effect, and instead made every Rock-type with this ability significantly more durable to Super Effective moves.
9 Plus & Minus
One of the stranger buffs of the game involves a pair of abilities that rarely used to appear. Plus & Minus used to be the signature abilities of Hoenn’s Plusle & Minun respectively, and were designed to provide additional strength to each other in Double Battles. As more Pokémon received these abilities, coordinating a team became more difficult.
To avoid this challenge, Plus & Minus were changed so that Pokémon with Minus could boost the strength of other Pokémon with Minus, and vice-versa. This might not match the flavor of compatible Pokémon but made it significantly more usable.
8 Weak Armor
Weak Armor is one of the rarer instances where, rather than receiving additional effects, the move was given a numerical buff to its power. Originally, receiving any physical attack would result in a decrease of its Defense stat by one stage, while increasing its Speed by one stage.
This tradeoff makes sense on paper, but in practice, the ability didn’t provide enough of a boost, as tanks like Mandibuzz were still too sluggish against most opponents to justify being weakened. To solve this, the Speed boost was upgraded to add two stages, functionally doubling the user’s speed when it triggers.
7 Overcoat
Another of Mandibuzz’s abilities, Overcoat, received a different buff only a generation after its debut in Pokémon Black & White. The original ability was meant to act as a harsh weather protector, preventing damage from effects like Sand and Hail.
Unfortunately, preventing these forms of damage didn’t provide enough of a defensive boost compared to other defensive abilities. To give it a unique advantage, as well as countering the rise of Grass-type Pokémon using stat effects like Sleep Powder, the move was given an extra effect to nullify powder moves.
6 Keen Eye
Keen Eye received a relatively secretive boost of power, not appearing in the description of the move while still being fairly substantial. Its original effect was to simply prevent its accuracy from being decreased, but since most evasive threats using Evasiveness stat boosts, this ability was relatively useless.
This ability had to keep up with this strategy, so in Pokémon X & Y it was improved to also ignore the opponent’s Evasiveness stat changes. Abilities like Sand Veil and items like Bright Powder, however, are still unaffected by Keen Eye.
5 Oblivious
Oblivious is one of the even rarer abilities to have received several buffs over the years, and much like Keen Eye, this was primarily to give useless abilities more value. One of these was Oblivious, which would normally prevent less intelligent Pokémon from receiving the rare and conditional status ailment of falling in love.
Since these Pokémon were flavorfully intended to be blind to an opponent’s emotional states, it was given tons of additional effects. This included the move Captivate, the move Taunt, and even the ability to block Intimidate in Pokémon Sword & Shield. These aren’t immense buffs, but are significant enough to have made it finally worth using.
4 Infiltrator
With the rise of defensive moves like Aurora Veil, Reflect, Light Screen, and the new G-Max Resonance, having ways to counter them has been greatly necessary in competitive play. Infiltrator is an ability that lets Pokémon negate each of these, and when attached to Pokémon like Whimsicott it provides a huge offensive boost.
There was only one common defensive effect that this couldn’t work against, and that was against Pokémon using the move Substitute. This was finally fixed in Pokémon X & Y, making it finally able to encompass nearly every form of defensive battlefield effect.
3 Super Luck
The heavy majority of buffs to abilities usually concern their in-battle effects, but several Pokémon have also received additional effects that affect trainers outside of battle. It’s far from unusual for abilities to affect other aspects of the game, and many abilities have been given these effects after their debut.
One of these involves the ability Super Luck, which originally just boosted the Critical Hit ratio of the Pokémon with the ability. In Pokémon Sword & Shield, this was given a greatly useful effect of increasing the odds of finding Wild Pokémon holding items, meaning rare items like the Light Ball found on Pikachus could be found way easier.
2 Inner Focus
Inner Focus was one of many abilities to receive a common buff in Pokémon Sword & Shield. While this ability has always prevented the user from flinching, its buff was intended to neutralize a separate and overpowered ability called Intimidate, which decreases the attack stat of all foes by one stage when entering battle.
Inner Focus, Oblivious, Scrappy, and even Own Tempo received full immunity to Intimidate, as their abilities should dictate how they shouldn’t be easily-frightened. However, this detail is lacking in most of these descriptions’ abilities, meaning that this effect can easily catch many trainers by surprise.
1 Rattled
Rattled also gained a significant boost to its effects by blocking Intimidate, but in a far less clear way than abilities like Inner Focus and Oblivious. Initially, this ability was meant to play on easily-frightened Pokémon, who would gain a Speed boost when hit with Dark, Ghost, and Bug-type moves.
To improve this ability further, it seemed fitting by the developers to make the ability Intimidate trigger it too, since that ability is meant to represent frightening an opponent into being weaker. As a result, Rattled has become one of the only abilities that benefits from Intimidate, rather than just ignoring it.
NEXT: 10 Pokémon That Received Buffs
