For most battles in the Pokémon series, the winner is often the battler who attacks first. This is often determined by each Pokémon’s Speed stat, and while it can be improved through training and items, using moves that raise your Speed in battle is often the quickest way to get a huge boost.

This is an undoubtedly vital stat in both casual and competitive play, and increasing it can easily change the pace of battle in Pokémon Sword & Shield. Whether you’re trying to help a slow Pokémon keep up the pace, or help fast Pokémon outrun the competition, there are several moves your Pokémon can learn for a quick boost.

12 Agility & Rock Polish

Unlike most other stats, Speed is rarely increased on its own or in a minor way. Most moves that raise it tend to improve other offensive stats as well, while others will increase it in unusually dramatic amounts. The latter is where Agility and Rock Polish fall under, as both raise the user’s Speed stat enough to essentially double it.

These moves might initially seem quite different, but both are mechanically identical. The main difference is that most Rock and Steel-type Pokémon are too heavy for Agility to seem natural, so Rock Polish is mostly to fit with the flavor of the Pokémon. Nonetheless, both moves are great speed-enhancers that nearly any Pokémon can learn.

11 Shift Gear

Another sharp increase to speed comes in the much rarer move, Shift Gear, first introduced in Pokémon Black & White as a signature move of Klinklang. This not only doubles the user’s speed stat, but it also raises its Attack stat by one stage, meaning future physical attacks will deal fifty percent more damage.

While still attached to Klinklang, Galar’s new Poison and Electric-type Toxtricity is also capable of learning this odd move. Considering it lacks physical gears in its body, the reason it can learn such a move is somewhat of a mystery.

10 Automatize

For one other way to double your Steel-type Pokémon’s Speed Stat, Automatize is a strange method that also provides an extremely unusual secondary benefit. At the same time as sharply raising its Speed, the user will substantially lower its weight.

The size of a Pokémon rarely comes up for most Pokémon, but usually, it means that moves like Heat Crash and Heavy Slam will be weaker and deal more damage to the user. That said, these moves are fairly rare and inconsistent, so few trainers often use them in the first place.

9 Quiver Dance & Dragon Dance

Not every move that increases Speed will double it, but most moves that increase it by a single-stage will do so while raising other stats. One of the best of these is Quiver Dance, a move exclusive to Bug-types that raises a Pokémon’s Speed, Special Defense, and Special Attack stats in a single go.

Dragon Dance is a much older move that’s quite similar, raising the user’s physical Attack and Speed stat with no defensive buffs. Nonetheless, both of these moves do a similar job of improving a Pokémon’s offense alongside its speed, meaning it’ll hit hard and fast with whatever its next move is.

8 Shell Smash

Shell Smash is very close to the dance moves in terms of higher speed and offensive power, but it comes at a more significant cost for the shelled users like Dwebble and Cloyster. This would be huge cut in the user’s defensive stats, which in turn allows the Pokémon to double its Speed and two offensive stats.

This can potentially make a Pokémon quite fragile, but there are tons of ways to mitigate this effect on its stronger users. For example, Held Items like the Focus Sash can prevent the user from fainting in one hit, while the White Herb can reset any decreased stat.

7 No Retreat & Clangorous Soul

If you wish to raise all of your stats at once alongside your Speed, there are worse ways to do it than with Clangorous Soul or No Retreat. Much like Shell Smash, these moves come with a unique sacrifice, but will raise all stats by one stage immediately with little risk of failure.

These moves aren’t too common, though, as Clangorous Soul is exclusive to Kommo-o while No Retreat is exclusive to Falinks. The first will increase stats at the expense of the user’s health, while the other stops the user from escaping battle. These costs can be significant, but the increased Speed and Defense stats help avoid any major risks.

6 Rapid Spin

In addition to raising other stats, another secondary benefit to most moves that raise Speed is damage. There are several moves that many Pokémon can learn that will help it move faster while hurting your opponent, making them much more efficient than blander status moves like Agility.

One of the newest members of this club is Rapid Spin, which deals Normal-type damage while raising the user’s Speed and eliminating hazards like Stealth Rock and Leech Seed. This stat increase was given as a significant buff in Pokémon Sword & Shield, making it more useful than it already was.

5 Ancient Power

Originally one of multiple similar moves like Silver Wind and Ominous Wind, Ancient Power has a remarkable secondary effect to raise all the user’s stats by one stage. This also comes with some solid Rock-type damage, making it seem like an efficient move on the surface.

However, the odds of this stat increase are remarkably low, only occurring ten percent of the time. This doesn’t make Ancient Power unusable, but it’s undoubtedly less effective than it seems and is easily the least reliable way of raising one’s Speed.

4 Scale Shot

Scale Shot is much more reliable than Ancient Power, but it’s certainly one of the more risky moves on this list. This new move from the Isle of Armor’s new move tutor will always raise the user’s speed on impact, but will also lower the user’s defense and damage the foe several times.

What makes it unreliable is its accuracy rating, as it will miss ten percent of the time. This isn’t a huge risk, but failing to hit means you miss a turn of damage as well as your desired stat boost, so using this move can be an occasional liability.

3 Flame Charge

For a more consistent combination of damage and speed, Flame Charge is a great go-to move for all sorts of Fire-types. This physical attack simply raises the user’s Speed on impact, and thanks to its typing it can deal Super Effective damage to many different opponents.

Unfortunately, this move is not as common as it used to be, as it’s only learnable through leveling up and breeding due to it no longer appearing as a TM. That said, any Fire-type physical attackers that learn it can easily keep getting faster and stronger with every use.

2 Aura Wheel

Aura Wheel is very similar to Flame Charge, but is far more complicated as it’s the signature move for the Dark and Electric-type Morpeko. This move deals a large amount of damage and will raise the user’s speed, but its typing will depend on Morpeko’s form.

This doesn’t make it a bad move, but it can be very frustrating to use as it’ll change each turn with Morpeko’s form. As a result, opponents can usually plan around it to avoid being hit with Super Effective damage, but its utility to raise Speed will thankfully remain regardless of how hard it hits.

1 Max Airstream

The real most consistent way to improve a Pokémon’s Speed is through Dynamax, as each Max Move will deal damage while altering the battlefield or cause a certain stat change. For Flying-type moves, this would be Max Airstream, which deals great damage and increases the user’s speed by one stage.

It’s a relatively low boost, but due to the high damage that comes with Max Moves, it’s often a great extra benefit. Plus, having the health boost from Dynamax means you’ll rarely faint before getting to swing with a fast move next turn.

NEXT: Pokémon: 5 Moves That Make No Sense (& 5 HMs That Never Did)