Blissey, The Happiness Pokémon. The eggs it lays are filled with happiness. Eating even one bite will bring a smile to anyone. This kindhearted Pokémon nurses sick Pokémon to health. It senses feelings of sadness. Anyone who takes even one taste of Blissey's egg becomes unfailingly caring and pleasant to everyone. It has a very compassionate nature. If it sees a sick Pokémon, it will nurse the sufferer back to health.
Overview
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 15 years, odds are you know about the pink blob known as Blissey. Ever since its debut in Generation 2, Blissey has been heralded as one of the greatest special walls and clerics in the history of Pokemon. Unfortunately, Blissey’s been dealt a lot of blows over the years, and has since fallen from grace a bit. In Gen 5, Blissey had its role usurped by its pre-evolution Chansey, thanks to the advent of Eviolite giving Chansey superior special bulk in addition to decent physical bulk, and Gen 6 hasn’t given Blissey anything worthwhile, except for even more competition for a team slot thanks to the addition of Fairy types. You’d think that a fluffy, pink Pokemon like Blissey would be a natural choice to receive the blessing of fairy typing, but alas, unlike its formerly normal type cousins, Clefable and Wigglytuff, it was not so fortunate, and thus it remains a normal type. As a result, not only does Blissey still have to suffer the embarrassment of being outclassed by its pre-evolution Chansey, but now in Gen 6, Blissey has to compete with bulky fairies like Sylveon and Florges, who have much better defensive typing that Blissey would kill for, in addition to a bit more offensive presence as well. That said, Blissey is still good at what it does, even if it finally has Pokemon that can do the job better. As such, you may want to take a look at Chansey before you put Blissey on a team.
Positives
-It has the highest HP in the game at a staggering base 255, and a fantastic base 135 special defense, which makes it ridiculously bulky on the special side and allows it to pass the largest Wishes in the game
-Natural Cure helps Blissey absorb status without being crippled by it
-It has a fantastic support movepool that lets it be a great team player
-It possesses reliable recovery that can make it hard to wear down
Negatives
-Truly horrid base 10 defense means it can’t take physical attacks without being maimed
-An awful base 10 attack and an underwhelming base 75 special attack often forces it to rely on Seismic Toss and Toxic for damage, despite a decent offensive movepool
-A poor base 55 speed leaves it outsped by a lot of standard threats, especially offensive Pokemon
-It typing affords it only one immunity and zero resistances to fall back on, unlike its Fairy type competition
-Its high HP makes percentage-based damage from things like Pain Split and Super Fang very effective against it
-Wish is only available through a Gen 3 Event, so getting it legitimately can be tricky and not viable in official competitions due to not being Kalos native
-It suffers the embarrassment of being outclassed by its pre-evolution thanks to Eviolite making Chansey much bulkier than Blissey
Abilities
Natural Cure: The Pokémon’s status (BURN, PARALYZE, SLEEP, POISON, FREEZE) is healed when withdrawn from battle. - A fantastic ability for a defensive Pokemon like Blissey that prevents it from being screwed by status, especially since it tends to switch out a lot to escape physical attackers. This is the only ability you will ever want to use on Blissey.
Serene Grace: The chances of a move having a secondary effect is doubled. - This ability is normally fantastic, and Blissey does have a few moves that could theoretically make good use of it, but being slow and having awful offenses makes it a something of a gimmick. Stick to Jirachi or Togekiss if you want to abuse this ability to its fullest.
Hidden Ability (Available):
Healer: At the end of the turn, there is a 30% chance of either Ally being healed from a status condition. - A completely useless ability in singles, and a highly situational ability in doubles/triples. Blissey doesn’t fare all that well in doubles or triples, so you’re usually better off sticking with Natural Cure.
Movesets
Ignorance is Blissey
-Soft-boiled/Protect
-Aromatherapy/Wish
-Toxic/Thunder Wave
-Seismic Toss
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SDef
Bold Nature
Blissey’s standard set hasn’t changed much since Gen 3, when it acquired Seismic Toss as a tutor move. This thing’s ability to sponge special attacks is top notch, with Soft-Boiled’s reliable healing allowing it to keep itself healthy versus special attacks almost indefinitely. Aromatherapy allows it to keep its teammates healthy by ridding them of annoying status, making it a fantastic cleric, especially due to the opportunities to cleanse status that it gets since its special bulk forces switches on special attackers. Alternatively, if you don’t need the status cleansing, you can opt for Wish instead, since Blissey passes some gargantuan Wishes that will almost fully heal most Pokemon. You can also opt for Protect to allow Wish to act as your only form of healing, and lets you get an extra turn for Leftovers recovery/Toxic Damage, although sometimes its preferable to have the immediate healing of Soft-Boiled as well. Toxic is essential in allowing Blissey to stall out special attackers and opposing walls, and is usually the most common status effect you’ll see it carrying. However, Thunder Wave can screw a large variety of offensive Pokemon thinking they can switch in and set up, so it does have merit. Seismic Toss lets Blissey do some direct damage despite its underwhelming offensive stats, which can help it beat the Special Attackers it’s trying to wall by adding on damage when its already done everything else it needs to do before switching out. Just watch out for 101+ HP Substitutes, as Seismic Toss fails to break them in one turn.
The EV spread and nature maximizes Blissey’s bulk on both sides of the spectrum, allowing it to stomach weaker Physical Attacks such as Landorus’s Knock Off, and also prevents Psyshock from obliterating it in one fell swoop. While investing in HP may seem tempting, due to its already absurdly high HP, HP EVs cause diminishing returns with respect to overall bulk; investing in both defense and special defense gives marginally less special bulk but significantly more physical bulk.
Other Options
Heal Bell, Stealth Rock, Flamethrower, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Calm Mind, Counter, Sing, Shed Shell
Heal Bell is exactly the same as Aromatherapy. Since Gen 5 removed the restriction of Heal Bell failing against Soundproof users (which are rare to the point of almost being non-factors as is), there’s literally no difference as to whether you pick Aromatherapy or Heal Bell. Choose whichever one you prefer.
Stealth Rock is always handy, and given Blissey can force switches, it can theoretically find time to set up rocks. That said, there are a lot of other options for hazards setters, and not as many options for clerics like Blissey, so it may not be worth giving up another moveslot.
Flamethrower, Ice Beam, or Thunderbolt can potentially lure in things with 4x weakness that might think they can set up, such as Scizor/Ferrothorn, Landorus/Garchomp, or Gyarados, respectively. That said, if the right Pokemon you’re trying to lure isn’t on their team, you may end up wasting a moveslot, since Blissey's base 75 special attack isn't going to get you very far. Packing one of these moves has situational uses (and also lets Blissey differentiate itself from Chansey), but using more than one is a horrid idea, as offensive Blissey is just bad. Don’t do it.
Calm Mind may seem tempting to try and set up on the special attackers that Blissey already walls, letting it further mitigate their attacks while also bolstering Blissey’s special attack to make it usable. However, being slow and having pitiful physical defense, Blissey gets forced out a lot, so you’ll usually lose your boosts, making this a bit gimmicky. And, to reiterate, offensive Blissey is bad. Don’t do it. Stick to Clefable if you want to run a Calm Mind set.
Counter is a total gimmick, but I’ll mention it for the sake of covering all bases. Counter is something of a one-shot wonder; with Blissey’s low physical bulk, it attracts physical attacks, which, if you survive and use Counter upon, will probably 1HKO whatever attacked you. That said, it’s a gimmick, and often only works once, and considering Blissey’s job is to wall special attackers, having it potentially kill itself by eating a physical attack is pretty counterproductive.
Sing inflicts Sleep, which is arguably the best status effect in the game, so it may seem tempting. However, its accuracy is horrid at 55%, meaning it'll miss almost as often as it hits. This move is just too unreliable, and Blissey really cannot afford to miss, so you're better off looking elsewhere for your Sleep-inducing needs.
Shed Shell has some situational usage in formats where Mega Gengar and Gothitelle are common. Being trapped by these things sucks, so Blissey can utilize Shed Shell to escape, possibly switching in a Pursuit user to counter-trap them. That said, if your opponent is not using one of these Pokemon, then Shed Shell is completely and utterly useless, and you’ll miss out on the Leftovers recovery.
Double & Triple Battle Options
Blissey is not something I would consider using outside of Singles. Blissey's main selling point is the fact that it can take special hit exceptionally well and heal the damage off. The trade off being that it's physical stats are practically non existent. As in Caterpie hits three times as hard as Blissey on the physical side, in case you were considering running Double-Edge on Blissey.
Having such lopsided stats usually isn't a problem in singles, but in doubles and triples, unless the opponent is running exclusively Specially Attacking Pokemon, Blissey is always going to be in danger of being KOed. This isn't even factoring in moves like Psyshock or Secret Sword.
Moveset wise, there's nothing Blissey can do properly in Doubles/Triples that Miltank couldn't. Whatever unique set of four moves that ONLY Blissey can learn will have Blissey's EVs all over the place hitting for pitiful damage and half heartedly doing what it was built to do in supporting it's partner, leaving the user disappointed and frustrated more often than not. I know there is some skilled player out there (LYM) who might prove me wrong in the future.
SO! Unless there's a ridiculously powerful Special Attack you're desperate to make a 4KO 100% of the time, there isn't a strong reason to use Blissey at all.
What would make Blissey a sound pokemon to use in Doubles/Triples without drastically altering it's stats?
-I would say if it had Oblivious as an ability that would help it immensely as a support option, being immune to Taunt and Encore
-If it were part or pure Fairy Type it would gain a useful immunity and VERY useful resistances while at the same time the weaknesses it has are to things it wouldn't stay in on anyway.
-Not that it changes much, but having access to Wish outside of Gen 3 would be nice too.
But as of XY going into ORAS, I can't recommend one use this pokemon seriously in Doubles/Triples. Miltank, Sylveon and Audino are all stronger, more consistent choices.
Countering Blissey
If you want to counter Blissey no matter what set it’s running, look no further than Conkeldurr. Thanks to Guts, it loves to switch into Toxic or Thunder Wave, and it can force Blissey out with the threat of its fighting STAB. In general though, most physically oriented Pokemon can 1HKO or 2HKO Blissey without much difficulty, especially fighting types like Terrakion and Mega Medicham (whose STAB obliterates Blissey), steel types like Metagross and Lucario (who are immune to Toxic), and Ground types like Garchomp and Krookodile (who are immune to rarer Thunder Wave). Watch out for the semi-rare lure moves though. Things that carry Taunt, such as Mega Gardevoir, Terrakion, Gliscor, and Crobat can generally shut down Blissey, which will usually force a switch. Blissey also hates things that utilize Trick, such as Rotom forms, since being tricked a Choice Item generally makes Blissey useless due to locking it into whatever move it uses. Blissey has difficulty stalling out things like Ferrothorn and Gliscor who are immune to Toxic and can outheal Seismic Toss, although the appropriate lure move (Flamethrower and Ice Beam, respectively) can screw them over. Some special attackers can get around Blissey by utilizing Psyshock and Secret Sword to strike at its lower defense stat, such as Mega Gardevoir and Keldeo. It’s worth noting that Choice Specs Keldeo’s Secret Sword has a 100% chance to 1HKO even max defense Blissey, so you might want to think twice about putting your Blissey in the path of Keldeo unless it’s already locked into another move. Aegislash is noteworthy for being immune to Seismic Toss and Toxic, and has no trouble plowing through Blissey with Sacred Sword. Gengar shares the same immunities to Blissey’s standards as Aegislash, although it has trouble breaking through Blissey’s bulk outside of Substitute + Pain Split variants. And of course, given that Blissey relies on status to cripple a lot of Pokemon, ironically other clerics such as opposing Blissey can be an annoyance by ridding the status that Blissey spreads.
Pre-Evolution Corner - Chansey
When talking about Blissey, you HAVE to mention Chansey. For almost 11 years after Gen 2 was released, Chansey was nothing more than a “mini-Blissey”. That is of course, until Gen 5 came along, and flipped this notion on its head by introducing Eviolite. Now Blissey is effectively a mini-Chansey.
Take a Chansey
-Soft-boiled/Protect
-Aromatherapy/Wish
-Toxic/Thunder Wave
-Seismic Toss
Item Attached: Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SDef
Bold Nature
Look familiar? As it so happens, Chansey runs pretty much the same set as Blissey, except for the fact that it does it better due to Eviolite giving it superior bulk, both specially and physically. To put it in perspective, this set gives Chansey 178 defense and 463 special defense, as compared to Blissey’s identical set having 130 and 369. Although Chansey lacks Leftovers’ steady recovery, the access to reliable healing makes this a moot point with Chansey’s superior bulk. Its better bulk is so significant that it actually outclasses Blissey 9 times out of 10. It does have to be more cautious about Knock Off though, since without its Eviolite, it becomes a mini-Blissey once again. It’s also unable to utilize special attacks at all due to its pitiful base 35 special attack, so don’t even consider packing a special attack on Chansey; even Farfetch’d makes a better special attacker than Chansey.
Locations in Games
Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Trade from FireRed/LeafGreen/XD
FireRed/LeafGreen:
Evolve Chansey
Colosseum/XD:
Evolve Chansey (XD)
Trade from FireRed/LeafGreen/XD (Colosseum)
Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Evolve Chansey
HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Evolve Chansey
Black/White:
Evolve Chansey (White)
Trade from White/Black 2/White 2 (Black)
Black 2/White 2:
Evolve Chansey
X/Y:
Evolve Chansey
Animé Appearences
