Pok�mon of the Week

Hypno, The Hypnosis Pok�mon. Seeing its swinging pendulum can induce sleep in three seconds, even in someone who just woke up. When it is very hungry, it puts humans it meets to sleep, then it feasts on their dreams. Always holding a pendulum that it swings at a steady rhythm, it causes drowsiness in anyone nearby. It carries a pendulum-like device. There once was an incident in which it took away a child it hypnotized. When it locks eyes with an enemy, it will use a mix of PSI moves such as Hypnosis and Confusion.

In the time Pokemon has been around there have been a fair number of disturbing Pokemon released. We've battled the horrors of Mr.Mime, Jynx, Cubone and others, yet Hypno will always stand strong as one of the most horrifying. It steals children, eats dreams and for some reason can expel poison gas for some reason. Hypno truly is a beast of nightmares. Sadly this frightening design does not translate into battle prowess. Hypno is slow, very weak and doesn't have great defense. Its HP is ok and Special Defense is great. It has an incredible movepool sporting Baton Pass, Nasty Plot and a ton of support moves. Sadly its still not very good offensively and it has to compete with dozens of other defensive Psychics, most of which "do it better". Hypno, while not without positive attributes, will probably always be regulated to the depths of Neverused tiers.

Insomnia: The Pok�mon cannot be under the SLEEP condition while having this ability. Despite preventing the use of Rest Insomnia is a great ability. Having a safe switch in to annoying Vileplumes and Exeggutors is incredible.
Forewarn: Reveals the foe�s strongest move. Pretty cool for scouting out your opponent, but most of the time you will know the foes strongest move anyway. Charizard has Fire Blast, Skuntank knows Sucker Punch etc. Despite some moments where it will help most of the time Insomnia is better.
Inner Focus: This Pok�mon will not flinch. Does not prevent flinching with Focus Punch. Useless. Kind of helpful against a very lucky Rotom Fan but in NU you won't see Iron Head Jirachi or Air Slash Togekiss.

- Wish
- Protect
- Thunder Wave / Toxic
- Seismic Toss / Future Sight
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Insomnia
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)

While Hypno is terrible in most ways it does get Wish along with great Special Defense and good HP. Hypno gets Wish as a 3rd generation event move so actually getting one will be incredibly hard (of course... you can always just hack it...). But Wish passing is always a good strategy. Hypno has the defenses to take most STAB Special hits, even Choice Specs hits. Wish is your main method of healing while Protect prevents you from taking a hit while Wish heals you on the second turn. Protect also stalls for potential poison damage, scouts choice items and allows some free Leftovers recovery. Thunder Wave is a great move to completely destroy the many physical attackers that love to set up on Hypno, such as Cinccino, Braviary and Emboar. Toxic on the other hand seriously damages Alomomola and Golurk. The only attacking option I suggest is Seismic Toss as Hypno's offenses are too low to really use. If you want to do STAB damage Future Sight is a cool option. Use Future Sight, then switch out to say.. a Sawk (or really anything). Now have Sawk attack. Your opponent will probably switch to something to take the Close Combat and do so successfully but then take a second hit from Future Sight (in this example your opponent's Garbodor will faint instead of Spiking all over you).

- Nasty Plot
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Trick Room / Baton Pass
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Insomnia
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)

While Hypno's offenses aren't that high it does have Nasty Plot. This is just enough to push Hypno's Special Attack a little past 500, which is respectable. Even without max Special Defense Hypno can take a hit which should give it time to set up. Psychic is the STAB move and main sweeping attack. Don't use Psyshock... the power loss is too high despite letting Hypno hit Special walls harder. Hidden Power Fighting smashes stuff like Probopass and Absol hard but doesn't really hit much else. What separates Hypno from other Nasty Plotting sweepers (like Mr Mime and Misdreavus) is the final move slot option. Trick Room puts Hypno's bad speed to good use and allows the hypnotist to run a form of "double dancer". It also can support a slow team. The other option is Baton Pass. Hypno's low speed will let it take a hit, then safely Baton Pass +2 Special Attack out so something that can really use it like Charizard or Rotom Fan.

Hypnosis, Disable, Assist, Drain Punch, Fire Punch / Thunder Punch / Ice Punch, Belly Drum and Trick.
Hypno can use its signature move Hypnosis. Its accuracy is bad but Hypno has the bulk to stick around until it hits.
While a weird option Disable is nice to utterly screw up Choice Specs and Choice Scarf Pokemon.
Drain Punch is a weak move but can hit Absol and Probopass hard and heals a little.
The elemental punches are all useful for hitting 4x weak things though Hypno usually has better moves to run.
Belly Drum isn't completely useless with a bulky set. You could use Wish, then use Belly Drum as Wish heals all the damage. Too bad Hypno is so slow... and weak... and bad. Also Belly Drum is impossible to get with Baton Pass.
Trick could be useful on a Choice Band set, getting over 400 attack and giving you a weapon against defensive Pokemon like Alomomola.

I'll be completely honest here - there are none. Hypno's only good stat is Special Defense. It has no useful double / triples moves and horrible offenses. Just use Alakazam instead.

Garbodor is one of the best. It takes advantage of physical sweepers to Spike and Toxic Spike all over them. Hypno on the other hand absorbs Psychic hits and can Wish pass to keep Garbodor alive. Armaldo and Torkoal both Rapid Spin and take physical hits for Hypno while, again, Hypno can keep them healthy with Wish. Alomomola is another physical wall that partners with Hypno well. Amoonguss can't use Wish but it takes physical attackers well and can Spore something, and absorb Toxic Spikes so Hypno isn't worn down. Misdreavus can lure in and burn Absol while keeping Hypno healthy with Heal Bell. Offensive Hypno benefits from being on a slow team that likes Trick Room, or just by having some quick sweeper teammates ready to accept a +2 Nasty Plot Baton pass it can sweep with.

Absol is the main reason most people use Lickilicki for their Wish passing wall. It Pursuits the Wish passer and Night Slashes the offensive sets. Besides that Skuntank does the same thing, except it has nothing to fear from Hidden Power Fighting or Toxic. Speaking of Toxic, poisoning Hypno is a surefire way of destroying it. Any physical attack should make a dent in it. Braviary, Emboar, Golurk, Cinccino, Samurott, Golem etc. Pick something and it will probably at worst 2HKO Hypno. be aware Hypno can carry Thunder Wave or Toxic, but when it comes to actually KOing something it comes up short. So much so that even at +2 Nasty Plot it fails to OHKO anything with even a little bulk.

Locations in Games

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Trade from FireRed/LeafGreen/XD.

FireRed/LeafGreen:
Berry Forest

Colosseum/XD:
Trade from FireRed/LeafGreen/XD (Colosseum)
Snagged from Cipher Admin Gorigan in Cipher Key Lair (XD)

Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Evolve Drowzee.

HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Evolve Drowzee.

Black/White:
Evolve Drowzee

Black 2/White 2:
Dreamyard (Swarm)