Palkia, The Spatial Pokémon. It has the ability to distort space. It is described as a deity in Sinnoh-region mythology. It is said to live in a gap in the spatial dimension parallel to ours.
Overview
Palkia, the signature legend of Pearl. Like it's counterpart, Dialga, Palkia has exceptional stats and an exceptional move-pool to match, placing it firmly in the “Uber Tier” of competitive battling.
Palkia is tailored towards offence more than defence, although as a defensive Pokémon it performs quite adequately. Its Speed sets it just above several of the slower Ubers and its offensive stats are impressive. Water isn't a particularly potent offensive type in the Uber environment (due to the large number of Dragons), but it benefits from Rain Dance, which can be set-up by Kyogre.
Trait
Pressure: is an adequate trait. A large number of Uber Pokémon share this trait, but it's good nonetheless. Chipping off twice as much PP per attack can be crippling on low PP moves.
Move Sets
Choice Specs
- Surf
- Thunder
- Draco Meteor / Spacial Rend / Aura Sphere
- Draco Meteor / Spacial Rend / Aura Sphere
Item Attached: Choice Specs
Trait: Pressure
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 80 HP / 176 Spd / 252 SAtk
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
Without Calm Mind or Nasty Plot, Choice Specs is your best bet for boosting that huge Special Attack. It lacks a wide cross-section of resistances like its counterpart, but it performs decently and the prospect of a Rain Dance boosted Surf is quite frightening.
Surf is the main STAB move. A lot of Ubers resist it and only two are weak to it (Groudon and Ho-oh), but with Kyogre providing some Drizzle support and the boost from Choice Specs, it's frighteningly powerful.
Thunder helps supplement Surf. It's super-effective against any opposing Kyogre as well as any Water typed Arceus.
Draco Meteor and Spacial Rend are ideal for dealing with the many opposing Dragons (who resist Surf). Draco Meteor provides the one-off 'big hit' and works well with fast switching whilst Spacial Rend provides a consistent attack (and the added Critical Hit increase is handy). Both can be used on the same set or one could be dropped in favour of Aura Sphere, which is super-effective against Dialga and Blissey (as well as Plate-less Arceus).
EVs and Nature:
You need enough Speed EVs to outrun the Base 90 Speed Ubers (Dialga, Kyogre, Groudon, Deoxys (Defence), Ho-oh and Giratina), all of which reach a maximum of 306. 308 is the goal (since 307 is skipped by a stat jump).
You can go a little faster though, Rayquaza reaches a limit of 317 Speed whilst Modest variants of Latias, Latios and Lugia reach a limit of 319. If you want to outrun Rayquaza you need 216 Speed EVs (assuming Max IVs) and to outrun the Lati twins and Lugia, you'll need 220 Speed EVs (assuming Max IVs).
Alternatively, if you'd prefer Palkia to use a Modest Nature, 290 Speed (216 EVs) will outrun an Adamant Rayquaza and 280 Speed (176 EVs) will outrun Adamant/Modest variants of Groudon and co.
Aside from Speed, maxing Special Attack will be the next priority with whatever is leftover being dumped in its HP.
Mixed Sweeper
- Surf / Aqua Tail
- Spacial Rend / Dragon Claw
- Focus Punch /Thunder / Stone Edge
- Focus Punch /Thunder / Stone Edge
Item Attached: Life Orb / Expert Belt / Lustrous Orb
Trait: Pressure
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 80 Atk / 176 Spd / 252 SAtk
Hasty Nature (+Spd, -Def)
Palkia has a good Attack stat and a move-pool that gels nicely with it. Combined with its already impressive Special Attack, Palkia can become a formidable mixed sweeper.
Surf or Aqua Tail represent the two most reliable Water STAB moves. Aqua Tail has lower accuracy and (slightly) lower power, but aside from that, the difference lies solely one being physical and one being special.
Spacial Rend and Dragon Claw represent the two most reliable Dragon STAB moves. Spacial Rend has more power, less accuracy and the notable high critical-hit ratio, making it generally better. Once again, one is physical and one is special and the choice should come down to which is preferred.
Focus Punch is powerful when used with appropriate prediction, although if the prediction is mistimed it'll fail. Thunder takes down Kyogre as well as any flying types. Stone Edge can also take out flying types and comes with a high critical-hit ratio, although it has poor accuracy.
A multitude of other options exist for the mixed sweeper set. Draco Meteor is always an option for its power, Aura Sphere and Focus Blast present Special alternatives to Focus Punch, Earth Power and Earthquake are also options as well as Flamethrower and Fire Blast.
As far as items are concerned, Life Orb gives a straight boost but costs 10% HP per turn. Expert Belt gives a boost to super-effective attacks whilst Lustrous Orb boosts Palkia's Dragon and Water attacks.
EVs and Nature:
Versatile move-sets allow for versatile EV spreads. If the move-set is primarily physical, more Attack will be favoured over Special attack, and vice versa. The Speed can be lowered to free up a Nature boost following the same EV schemes as the previous move-set.
Rain Support Mixed Set
- Surf
- Spacial Rend
- Aqua Tail
- Thunder
Item Attached: Lustrous Orb
Trait: Pressure
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 80 Atk / 176 Spd / 252 SAtk
Hasty Nature (+Spd, -Def)
This set has been enjoying a lot of popularity with Drizzle support form Kyogre. Aqua Tail, Surf and Thunder all benefit from Rain Dance whilst covering different opponents whilst Spacial Rend provides STAB and the means to deal with Dragon types opponents.
EVs and Nature:
Similar to the previous mixed set but with a bit more of an emphasis on Special Attack, since that's the offence being primarily used.
Choice Band
- Aqua Tail
- Dragon Claw
- Focus Punch / Earthquake
- Stone Edge
Item Attached: Choice Band
Trait: Pressure
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
Its Attack stat is inferior to its Special Attack but still strong enough to form a Choice Band move-set.
Aqua Tail and Dragon Claw provide STAB. Focus Punch or Earthquake can eliminate Dialga whilst Stone Edge can take out Lugia.
EVs and Nature:
The EV spread can modified to the same possibilities as the Choice Specs set, with Attack and Special Attack reversed. Adamant is of course, the main change available, for the added Attack boost.
Other Options
Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Focus Blast, Earth Power, Trick Room, Heal Block, Toxic, Thunder Wave, Bulk Up, Roar, Rest, Sleep Talk, Choice Scarf.
Flamethrower and Fire Blast provide Fire attack options. Palkia does best during Rain though, which lowers their effectiveness.
Ice Beam is a decent option, but Surf covers Ground types whilst Dragon Attacks deal with opposing Dragons. With other moves covering the other types that Ice Beam deals with, there's little reason to bother using Ice attacks.
Thunderbolt provides a more reliable alternative to Thunder.
Focus Blast provides a more powerful but less accurate alternative to Aura Sphere.
Earth Power is a good move for taking out Dialga, but Aura Sphere does the same job just as effectively.
Trick Room is reasonably effective, but there's several slower Ubers who would be more effective users of this move.
Heal Block prevents the likes of Lugia and Blissey from using their Recovery moves.
Toxic and Thunder Wave provide some status options.
Bulk Up is a reasonably effective option that provides Palkia with offence and defence, although lacking a reliably recovery makes this a less attractive option.
Roar can provide a pseudo-hazing options for wiping out stat boosts (and causing some passive damage with Spikes or Stealth Rock), but there are more effective users available.
Rest and Sleep Talk can combine to give Palkia its best healing option.
Choice Scarf is reasonably effective on Palkia, since it allows Palkia to get a surprise hit in against faster opponents.
Countering Palkia
Most variants of Palkia are hard to deal with. Its STAB combination is un-resisted and it has a nice array of moves to supplement them. With Choice Specs (or Band) equipped it comes down to prediction, whilst up against other variants it's a matter of getting the right Pokémon in whilst taking the minimal amount of damage possible (which also requires prediction).
Arceus has a multitude of plate options. Grass and Water variants resist Water attacks whilst Steel variants resist Dragon attacks. In all cases, it has Dragon Pulse or Dragon Claw to hit back with and has the potential to be faster.
Blissey can withstand most of Palkia's Special Attacks. It can set-up Calm Minds or throw up a Light Screen to support its team with and can paralyse Palkia with Thunder Wave. Lugia has similar possibilities but needs to watch out for Thunder.
Latias and Latios can switch in against all of Palkia's attacks except for its Dragon attacks. Both are faster and are capable of KOing Palkia with their own Dragon attacks.
Locations in Games
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Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Not in Game Colosseum/XD Not in Game Fire Red/Leaf Green Not in Game Diamond/Pearl Spear Pillar (Pearl), Trade from Pearl (Diamond)
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Animé Appearences
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Palkia has had a couple of Animé Appearences. First was a cameo, showing Palkia's presence within the Sinnoh creation legends. After that, it appeared in a town and started battling Dialga & Darkrai
Episode 504: The Sinnoh Space-Time Legend! |
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