Pidgeot, The Bird Pokémon. It spreads its gorgeous wings widely to intimidate enemies. It races through the skies at Mach-2 speed. When hunting, it skims the surface of water at high speed to pick off unwary prey such as Magikarp. It has gorgeous, glossy feathers. Many trainers are so captivated by the beautiful feathers on its head that they choose Pidgeot as their Pokémon. By flapping its wings with all its might, it can make a gust of wind capable of bending tall trees.
Overview
Of the many Normal/Flying Pokémon, Pidgeot, sadly, is stuck at the bottom of the ladder. Outclassed by almost every other Bird Pokémon, with the exception of Farfetch'd perhaps, it doesn't have much that sets it apart from the rest. However, it does have a few aspects that make it more appealing.
Ability
Keen Eye: a fairly useless Ability as barely any moves have Accuracy decreasing side effects. However, that doesn't mean it won't come in useful sometimes, for a surprising Muddy Water or any other Accuracy draining attack.
Tangled Feet: Due to confusion being much more common than Accuracy lowering moves, this Ability can save you in a pinch. The Evasion boost is always welcome in a luck influenced game like this, and really can save your Pidgeot for one more turn.
Move Sets
Choice
- Brave Bird
- Return
- U-turn
- Quick Attack / Pursuit /Steel Wing
Item Attached: Choice Band / Choice Scarf
Ability: Tangled Feet
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) / Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
With a Choice item, Pidgeot's attacking abilities are enhanced dramatically. Brave Bird is Pidgeot's strongest attack and, although it has recoil, should never be replaced. Not to mention no other Pokémon is immune to it, unlike Return which is blocked by Ghosts. However, it doesn't have recoil, so is still a nice and reliable move. U-turn is there for scouting and getting extra damage. Pidgeot is pretty frail, so getting out of a tough match up is majorly useful. Quick Attack is used with Choice Band as a revenge killing tool as it bypasses Pidgeot's average Speed. However, Pursuit must also be considered as it can also revenge kill, and catches opponents on the switch. Steel Wing lets Pidgeot hit pure Rock types hard, which makes it harder for them to switch in, making it an acceptable choice.
Choice Band or Choice Scarf is down to what you want Pidgeot to do, hit hard or hit fast. Choice Band is probably the better item as Pidgeot has pretty low Attack but a nice Speed at base 91. However, either item can be used with the same set.
Toxic-Roost
- Toxic
- Roost
- Substitute / Protect
- Brave Bird / Return
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Tangled Feet
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 HP/36 Atk/220 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
Pidgeot has much nicer base defensive stats compared to other NU Normal / Flying Pokémon like Fearow. This allows Pidgeot to use a bulky set more effectively. Toxic is Pidgeot main form of offence. It hits fifteen of the seventeen types in the game, making it a pretty reliable and constant way of dealing damage. Roost is arguably the best recovery move in the game, and easily the best recovery move for Flying types. It allows Pidgeot to last much longer in battle, which means more Toxic damage. Substitute is the best option here as it gives Pidgeot free moves and protects it from damage, which stalls even more, resulting in Toxic build up. However, Pidgeot has a weakness to Stealth Rock, which really doesn't help it as it then has 75% of its health at max every switch in. Substitute costs 25% of maximum health and, with Stealth Rock damage, that is half of Pidgeot's health gone. Protect is an option to stall Toxic without losing health, but it only lasts one turn unless you get very lucky. Substitute is the better option. For an offensive attack, Brave Bird is Pidgeot's best option. It is Pidgeot's strongest attack and the recoil is nullified by its low Attack thanks to the small EV addition and Roost.
Mixed
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Heat Wave
- Hidden Power [Ground]
Item Attached: Life Orb
Ability: Tangled Feet
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 104 Atk / 252 Spd / 152 SAtk
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef) / Hasty Nature (+Spd, -Def)
This set allowed Pidgeot to beat many of the Pokémon that would normally counter it. Heat Wave and Hidden Power [Ground] together beat pretty much every NU Steel out there, the majority of which can switch into Pidgeot easily. They also put Pidgeot's base 70 Special Attack to use, which makes Pidgeot, to an extent, unpredictable and harder to counter. Brave Bird is the only physical attack on the set, and is used once the Steel types have been removed by Heat Wave and Hidden Power [Ground]. It will hurt anything it hits neutrally as it has a high base power and STAB, making it Pidgeot's best attack from the physical perspective. The recoil from Life Orb and Brave Bird makes Roost an incredible move. Not only does it recover 50% of Pidgeot's health, it removes the troublesome Flying type for a turn.
Life Orb is really the only option for this set. It gives Pidgeot the power it needs to land the 2HKO's on the various Steel types and boosts its average offences. As mentioned, the recoil is taken care of by Roost, so there isn't really a downside to using Life Orb.
EVs and Nature:
Choice
Offence, offence, offence. There is no point in investing in anything but Attack and Speed because that is all you want Pidgeot to do; attack hard, attack fast. The nature is debatable, between Jolly and Adamant, but I'd lean towards Adamant, as 91 base Speed is hardly slow, and Pidgeot's Attack needs as many boosts as possible. However, Jolly is without a doubt a usable option.
Toxic-Roost
Speed and bulk are the main factors here. As Pidgeot will be getting most of its damage out of Toxic, getting the move itself used is the biggest priority. 300 Speed lets Pidgeot beat any base 100 Pokemon, although you could put all 252 EVs in Speed to be on the safe side; the leftover EVs are only going in Attack which doesn't matter to the set. 252 EVs in HP is required so Pidgeot can take hits with its base 83 HP, 75 Defence and 70 Special Defence, none of which are that bad, in all honesty. Any leftover should be thrown into Attack, just to give Brave Bird that little bit more power.
Mixed
The EVs for this set are pretty specific. They allow Pidgeot to out speed any base 90 Pokémon, and any Pokémon trying to out speed them by one point. The Special Attack EVs give a 2HKO on most Bastidon, so therefore more or less every other Steel or Rock type due to the generally lower Special Defence. Heat Wave handles pure Steel types anyway. The Attack EVs are leftover but give a significant boost to Brave Bird's power, which is fantastic after the Steel type has been removed with Heat Wave or Hidden Power [Ground].
Other Options
Double Edge, Mirror Move, Tailwind, Hidden Power [Grass], Air Slash, Sunny Day, Rain Dance
Double Edge is the Normal version of Brave Bird, which can be used instead of Return. Sadly, this means sacrificing Brave Bird itself, which is a massive downside as the next best Flying attack is Aerial Ace.
Tailwind can be used on an experimental lead Pidgeot. Thanks to Pidgeot's nice Speed, Tailwind is easy to pull off and, thanks to U-turn, easy to use effectively. Pidgeot can be a real team player with a Roost / Tailwind / U-turn / Brave Bird set, getting in quickly, using Tailwind and getting out to a strong Pokémon.
Hidden Power [Grass] is an option to remove bulky Water / Ground types from standing up against Pidgeot's mixed set. It also hits the few Rock / Ground types that will love switching in to Pidgeot. However, the loss of hitting Rock / Steel types is far too great for this to be a major option.
Air Slash is a good move for Pidgeot, mainly for turning the Toxic-Roost set into a special set. The flinch effect works well with Pidgeot's Speed, making it a usable option.
Countering Pidgeot
Rocks and Steel types are the way to go. They resist Pidgeot's STAB attacks as well as having high Defence. Good examples are Bastiodon, Golem, Relicanth and Probopass, although there are many other Rocks and Steels that make the grade. Even Pokémon that don't resist Normal and Flying moves work, as long as they have great Defence, such as Torkoal and Cloyster. Intimidate also ruins Pidgeot, as it loses a huge amount of power from its already average Attack. However, more or less all of these counters lose to the Mixed set, which gives Pidgeot an air of unpredictability about it. The best way to deal with the Mixed set is with a bulky Water like Quagsire, Gastrodon and Lapras. Pidgeot's offensive stats aren't high enough to cause any major damage to most things, but don't switch anything in thinking it can take the hit; a 120 base power STAB attack from more or less anything will always leave a dent.
Locations in Games
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Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Trade from FRLGXD Colosseum/XD Evolve Pidgeotto (XD) Trade from FRLG (Col) Fire Red/Leaf Green Evolve Pidgeotto Diamond/Pearl/Platinum Evolve Pidgeotto HeartGold/SoulSilver Evolve Pidgeotto
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Animé Appearences
