In the third generation of Pokemon, battling was spiced up with the introduction of double battles. Double battles are exactly as they sound: two of your Pokemon are sent out at the same time against two of your opponent’s.
Ever since the introduction of double battles, some moves and abilities have been designed with them in mind. While some are pretty obvious, some combinations exist that have substantial synergy when used in conjunction on the same team.
10 Plus & Minus (Abilities)
Plus and Minus used to be the signature abilities of Plusle and Minun in Gen III. Since then, a couple of other Pokemon have adopted these abilities, making them slightly more widespread. These abilities don’t even function in single battles and can only activate in double or triple battles.
When a Pokemon with Plus or Minus is out on the field at the same time as one with the opposite ability, they both gain a 50% boost to their Special Attack. While this ability combo isn’t an ideal one for traditional single battles, they’re both quite literally built for each other.
9 Area-of-Effect Moves & Protect
Protect by itself is an extremely common move in competitive battles, while it often gets sidelined in casual runs. Using it allows you to avoid damage entirely for a turn, with some exceptions. Naturally, this means there are a plethora of strategies that rely on Protect in double battles.
Used quite often in the double battle-focused Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon XD, this tactic is one of the most simple out there. Moves such as Surf and Earthquake are very powerful moves but have the downside of attacking your allies on use. Luckily, with Protect or similar moves on the field, that won’t be such an issue.
8 Area-of-Effect Moves & Mirror Move
Area of Effect moves find great use in the format of double battles. Plenty of them are strong enough to warrant frequent use even in single battles, such as Earthquake and Rock Slide. Hitting the enemy’s team hard enough with them could even take both opposing Pokemon out of the fight at the same time.
Mirror Move would allow you to double up on that if your second Pokemon normally couldn’t. A Pokemon that uses Mirror Move is able to copy and use the last move of its target on that turn. It’s more ideal to copy a move like Rock Slide where it’d only target both of your enemies so you don’t hit your partner, however.
7 Stat Lowering Moves & Contrary
Contrary is a very rare ability among Pokemon. Most of the ‘mons that can obtain it need to go through the necessary steps to get their hidden ability, save for the Inkay line. Any time an ability or move would lower a stat, said stat is raised instead. In the same vein when a stat would normally increase, the ability lowers it.
In double battles, this is an ability that’s very easy to exploit in your favor. Moves such as Charm, Cotton Spore or Captivate can heavily impact foes because of their harsh stat drops. For this specific case, it’d be the opposite. Simply use these stat-decreasing moves on the ally Pokemon and its stats will be on the rise.
6 Stat Boosting Moves & Psych Up
Psych Up is a move that a wide variety of Pokemon can learn. Because of how little it’d be used in standard runs of Pokemon games, it’s underutilized, but it certainly has potential. Using it enables a Pokemon to entirely copy the stat changes of its target.
Moves such as Dragon Dance, Quiver Dance, and Tail Glow are famous for how extremely good they are. They either increase several stats that go hand in hand with one another, or in the case of Tail Glow, boost one stat exponentially. With the use of Psych Up, after setting up one of your Pokemon, the other can easily grab the very same boosts as its partner.
5 Follow Me & Focus Punch
Follow Me is yet another move highly popular for use in double battles. It lets any Pokemon that uses it draw in any attacking moves toward itself for that turn. While this can be used for a long list of strategies, the one this entry focuses on will be Focus Punch.
Focus Punch by itself is kind of a joke due to the fact it outright fails if the user takes damage. Behind that joke is a move packing a devastating 150 base power, not including STAB if the one using it is Fighting type. Paired with Follow Me this move can go off more often than it would normally thanks to its teammate. The ally Pokemon that uses Follow Me draws in any damaging moves, preventing them from hitting the Focus Punch user, ensuring Focus Punch will activate.
4 Water, Fire, and Grass Pledge
Introduced in the Unova region alongside triple and rotation battles, the pledge moves were made to follow up with one another. They don’t have any effect aside from dealing raw damage of that respective type and are pretty good on that front, but there are better options.
Their true potential shines when used on the same turn as other Pledge moves. In the most recent generations, if a pledge move is used with another, its power nearly doubles from 80 to a mighty base 150. Depending on which order the pledges are used in, the field also undergoes a change unique to the combination.
3 Stamina & Multi-Hit Moves
Stamina is an ability currently exclusive to Mudbray and its evolution, Mudsdale. Whenever it takes any kind of attack, its Defense raises by a single stage. Paired with its high natural bulk, this ability can make Mudsdale a daunting wall to take down.
In double battles, this ability can be rather easily exploited by multi-hit moves from allies. Being hit by things like Double Slap or Fury Swipes triggers Stamina as many times as there are hits. That means Mudsdale can get up to five Defense boosts in one turn for minimal damage!
2 Lightning Rod & Storm Drain
Lightning Rod and Storm Drain are two abilities that are very powerful in double battles. Lightning Rod draws in any and all Electric-type moves used on the battlefield and negates them, raising the Pokemon’s Special Attack instead. Storm Drain serves the same purpose, drawing in Water-type moves instead.
These two abilities don’t necessarily have to be on the field at the same time to be an effective combo. They have excellent synergy with any Pokemon they’re fighting with, especially if said partner is weak to one of the two types.
1 Regigigas/Slaking & Ability Changing Moves
Regigigas and Slaking have two of the most infamous abilities in the entire franchise. Regigigas has Slow Start, which halves its Attack and Speed stats for five turns. Meanwhile Slaking has Truant, which forces it to skip every other turn it’s in battle.
Neither of these abilities are ideal as they only serve to hold the Pokemon back and have zero benefits. Fortunately, several moves exist that are capable of removing Slow Start, such as Worry Seed or Simple Beam. Sadly Truant ignores those moves, but it can still be overwritten by a smaller list of options. Only with their abilities gone can these monsters truly be let loose.
NEXT: Pokemon Sword & Shield: 10 Best Rental Teams You Can Use In Online Double Battles
