Gigalith, The Compressed Pokémon. This hardy Pokémon can often be found on construction sites and in mines, working alongside people and Copperajah. Although its energy blasts can blow away a dump truck, they have a limitation- they can only be fired when the sun is out.

Overview

Gigalith is a Pokemon with decent bulk that provides itself as an alternative to Tyranitar on Sand teams thanks to its access to Sand Stream. As a pure Rock type it lacks the quadruple weakness to Fight Tyranitar has and lacks a weakness to Fairy and Bug. However, Gigalith lacks the versatility Tyranitar has and it is still rendered as an inferior Pokemon to the rock lizard. Tyranitar's higher special bulk allows it to switch into more attacks and its decent special attack supported by an expansive movepool, makes it the superior weather setter when it comes to support Sandstorm teams. Even Hippowdon offers a better niche due to its better typing, access to self-recovery and hazards. It's quite difficult to justify the use of Gigalith over Tyranitar or Hippowdon unless you want a secondary Sand Stream user on your team. You should only consider using this Pokemon on the lower tiers... or perhaps for meme material.
Positives
Base 85 HP, base 130 Defense and base 80 Special Defense provides Gigalith with decent bulk and thanks to Sand Stream increasing its Special defense even further, it becomes quite a durable Pokemon capable of setting hazards multiple times.
A base 135 Attack is no slouch either as it allows Gigalith to hit decently hard even without a significant investment in Attack.

Negatives
It's inferior to Tyranitar as a sand setter due to its lack of versatility and its predictable movepool. Compared to Hippowdon, it has an inferior typing and the lack of recovery hurts Gigalith's options.
A base 25 Speed makes it extremely slow meaning that most of the time it will be forced to take hits first.
Gigalith's movepool is extremely limited and outside its STAB attacks or Earthquake, it can't really do much with the tools at its disposal.
It is affected heavily by hazards if it's not running Heavy-Duty Boots. Without Leftovers, it lacks any form of recovery and it is heavily affected by status ailments.

Movesets

THE ROCK

- Stealth Rock
- Rock Blast / Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Toxic / Explosion / Gravity
Item Attached: Leftovers / Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs and Nature:
252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature

Stealth Rock is the main reason of Gigalith's presence in your team, as otherwise it would be completely ridiculous to ditch Tyranitar in favor of this Pokemon (Not that Tyranitar is unable to set up Rocks anyways). Rock Blast allows Gigalith to bypass Substitute users, breaks through Dragonite's Multiscale and deals solid damage as a STAB move (as long as you're able to land more than three hits). Stone Edge is also another alternative in case that the higher power is needed, at the expense of accuracy. Earthquake is a complementary coverage move that allows Gigalith to hit Metagross, Aegislash and Magearna for decent damage on the switch-in. Lastly, the 4th slot is completely dependant on what you want to run. Toxic allows Gigalith to hinder Pokemon such as Landorus-Therian and Tangrowth. Explosion allows Gigalith to prevent a Defogger from gaining momentum in the switch and remove its hazards for free. Gravity is also an interesting choice that allows it for partners like Excadrill to hit Levitators or Flying types with its STAB Earthquake.

DYNAMAX:
Normally, you will want to reserve your Dynamax for another sweeper like Excadrill since Gigalith is strictly a support Pokemon. Stealth Rock allows Gigalith to support its team and it doesn't really gains anything notable from Dynamax since its ability allows it to set up Sand for its teammates.

EVs and Items:
Max HP and Special Defense maximizes Gigalith's defensive power and allows it to stay on the match as much as it can. It's Defense it's so ridiculously huge that it barely needs any investment on that stat and therefore it's preferred to invest on its weaker Special Defense to fully take advantage of the boost Sand Stream provides. Leftovers is required to give Gigalith some form of passive recovery. However, if you are concerned about hazard damage or Toxic Spikes, Heavy-Duty Boots can do the trick.

Partners:
Excadrill should be on your team as otherwise you should slap yourself and think why are you using an inferior Pokemon to Tyranitar. Partners like Rotom-Wash and Tapu Fini are great Pokemon as the former is able to threaten opposing Water types while the latter provides Misty Terrain which protects Gigalith from status ailments. Kartana takes fully advantage of Stealth Rock and being able to threaten Water types, it makes for a great teammate despite sharing the Fighting weakness with Gigalith. Rillaboom deserves a shout-out since Grassy Terrain provides an additional passive recovery while weakening opposing Earthquakes which makes Gigalith even more durable throughout the match. Pokemon like Heatran and Toxapex are very important as they are able to provide an additional check against opposing Grass types. Zapdos deserves a mention for being able to check opposing Rillaboom effectively.

Other Options

A Choice Band can provide some sort of surprise factor since Gigalith's Attack stat is pretty high but the lack of coverage moves makes it difficult to justify.
Iron Defense + Body Press is also a decent option to surprise Ferrothorn but I doubt you'll want to use it on something as slow as Gigalith taking into account its multiple weaknesses.
A Cutsap Berry and Sturdy can provide as an alternative option for a more suicide lead role and explode on a hazard remover.

VGC & Double Battle Options

Eye of the Sandstorm

-Protect
-Rock Slide
-Stomping Tantrum/Earthquake
-Body Press
Item Attached: Weakness Policy
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs and Nature:
252 HP/252 DEF/4 SDEF
Brave Nature

Gigalith’s qualities as the slowest Sandstream setter make it an attractive pick for Trick Room teams, providing chip damage as well as a dangerous attacker that can punch holes in the opposing team. Protect is near mandatory, allowing one to scout out for moves, avoid teammates dangerous spread attacks and stall for Sandstorm chip damage. Rock Slide is the preferred STAB here, with Gigalith able to abuse its Flinch chance in Trick Room and spread damage offering consistency. Stomping Tantrum and Earthquake offer Ground coverage. Stomping Tantrum doesn’t hit teammates and is stronger if you mispredict and hit a target that Protects, while Earthquake is stronger baseline and does hit both opponents. Body Press provides coverage against Ferrothorn and is not impacted by Intimidate, enabling Gigalith to remain an offensive threat even if it has been Intimidated several times.

DYNAMAX:
Gigalith is meant to aggressively use Dynamax in doubles, as the health boost enables it to withstand a super effective hit to trigger Weakness Policy and proceed to have it and its team snowball with the boosts from Max Knuckle and Max Quake.

EVs and Items:
EVs are to max out Gigalith's physical bulk and the damage from Body Press due to the prevalence of Intimidate as well as ensure Gigalith can survive a super effective hit. Weakness Policy is to be used in tandem with Dynamax to buff Gigalith's attack to enormous heights and have it crush the opposing team. Nature and IVs are meant to bottom out Speed as so Gigalith can outslow the competition in Trick Room.

Partners:
Porygon2: The king of Trick Room unsurprisingly works well with Gigalith, its BoltBeam coverage fending off Water, Ground, and Grass types while enjoying the SDEF boosts from Max Quake.
Amoongus: Can redirect dangerous Water, Grass and Fighting moves away from Gigalith with Rage Powder, decimate the former two with STAB, or act as Cleric with Pollen Puff to keep Gigalith alive longer.
Celesteela: Floats over Gigalith’s Earthquake, and enjoys the anti Electric support, isn’t chipped by Sandstorm and provides special offense that dispatches Grass and Fighting types easily.
Rotom Heat: Threatens both Grass and Water types with STABs, floats over Earthquake, and its Special Offense compliments Gigalith’s physical offense
Cresselia: Another stellar Trick Room setter that floats over Earthquake, threatens Fighting, Grass and Ground types with STAB Psychic and Ice Beam and can utilize Ally Switch to prevent super effective hits from landing.
Excadrill: An established and still recommended pick, the combo of Sand Stream and Sand Rush is just too good. Though not as heavily recommended as normal as Trick Room ruins Excadrill and Trick Room is where Gigalith shines best.

Other Doubles Options

Gravity - Removing many flying types immunity to Ground (Celesteela, Corviknight, etc.) make them much easier to dispatch with Ground moves and ensures Rock Slide hits.
Wide Guard -Blocks Earthquake, Muddy Water, Surf, Discharge and others, which may be enough to block out some Pokémon entirely

Countering Gigalith

Nailing Gigalith's weaknesses is key to defeat this Pokemon. Urshifu-Rapid Strike is able to bypass Gigalith's Iron Defense boost and score a super-effective critical hit Surging Strike while not taking a lot of damage outside Toxic. Rotom-Wash can hinder Gigalith with Will-o-Wisp and bring it down with Hydro Pump.

Rillaboom can easily cut through Gigalith's defenses thanks to the boost of Grassy Terrain and KO it with Wood Hammer. Kartana similarly doesn't takes a lot of damage from it and it can use Gigalith as set-up fodder.

Hippowdon can take for days whatever Gigalith throws at it and it only fears Toxic. You can pretty much say the same for Swampert or Seismitoad. Nidoking's Sheer Force allows it to cut through it with Earth Power although it has to be wary of Earthquake.

Corviknight can pretty much outstall Stone Edge and combined with Bulk Up and Pressure, it will be able to overwhelm Gigalith. Steel types like Melmetal can also overwhelm Gigalith with its STAB move while taking a pittance from Earthquake.

Anime Appearences

Gigalith has made several appearances, most of which were cameos. # -English Episode Name- -Jp. Episode Name- Pics 713 Ash Versus The Champion Ash VS Champion Alder! Pics 715 The Four Seasons of Sawsbuck! Sawsbuck: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, All Present!! Pics S30 Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Magnagate & The Infinite Labyrinth Pics 767 Strong Strategy Steals the Show! Sawk Enters! Ash VS Stephan! Pics