Pangoro, The Daunting Pokémon. Although it posses a violent temperament, it won't put up with bullying. It uses the leaf in its mouth to sense the movements of its enemies. It charges ahead and bashes its opponents like a berserker, uncaring about any hits it might take. Its arms are mighty enough to snap a telephone pole.
Overview
Pangoro is an interesting Pokémon. It's a badass Panda, afterall and there is nothing more awesome than a panda. With a unique evolution method, it brings in the almost unique typing of Fighting/Dark, matched only by Scrafty's Dark/Fighting, and has a decent Attack stat to back it up. Unfortunately, that's where the awesomeness ends. While it does have a decent movepool, it is marred somewhat by its Speed which is middling to poor...too low to work well outside of Trick Room and a little too high to excel in Trick Room. It also has the horrible duty of coming at the time when Fairy-type is starting to dominate the metagame a little, and that results in a horrific 4* weakness to our new pink overlords. That said, it does have potential, especially with its signature move
Positives
+ Base 124 Attack is nothing to scoff at and when you combine it with Iron Fist this bear is really fierce and can take down just about anything with right team backing it up.
+ With ORAS it has become alot more viable thanks to the addition of Gunk Shot. Finally it's not entirely useless against Fairy Types
+Thanks to its Speed, it can properly take advantage of Payback
+ Its signature move, Parting Shot, is a good way to screw with an opponent and return Pangoro to safety
+ Decent Hit Points
Negatives
- 4X FAIRY TYPE WEAKNESS. This mon really wishes those darn things only existed in fairy tales like they're supposed to.
- It's incredibly slow sporting a measly base 58 speed stat.
- Its defenses are mediocre at best, coming in at a 78/71, which while having the capability of being worse, could also be a lot better
- Has a relatively decent Special movepool, but doesn't have the Special Attack stat to support it.
Abilities
Iron Fist: The power of punching moves is increased by 20 percent. Very nice power boost , and this will really always be your ability of your choice.
Mold Breaker: The Pokemon's moves are not affected by the opponent's abilities. Not a bad ability for sure , but Iron Fist is just better because of the power boost in most cases.
Hidden Ability:
Scrappy: Normal/Fighting attacks hit Ghost types. You will almost never see Pangoro with this ability since its part Dark Type and can just take out Ghost types with one of its stab Dark Type moves.
Movesets
Pandamonium
-Hammer Arm
-Knock Off
-Gunk Shot
-Drain Punch
Item Attached: Choice Band
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
With a base 124 Attack + Iron Fist and Choice Band this Panda's attack is just downright scary. Hammer Arm deals a ton of damage even to mons that are able to resist it. Knock Off is a must on every Pangoro set and gives it a nice secondary stab to compliment Hammer Arm. Gunk Shot allows you to catch those annoying fairy types off guard and can even OHKO alot of them after Stealth Rock damage except bulkier ones like Granbull for example. I like Drain Punch for the last slot. It's a much more reliable fighting stab and it restores some of your hp as well which is especially nice.
The EV's and Nature spread are pretty self explanatory. It gives Pangoro as much power as possible so it can get those important OHKO/2HKO's and with Max Speed it has no problem getting ahead of those defensive mons and taking them out.
Caped Panda
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Gunk Shot / Poison Jab / Iron Head
- Parting Shot
Item Attached: Choice Scarf
Ability: Iron Fist or Scrappy
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 Att / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
This set is essentially trying to boost Pangoro's Speed up to an acceptable level. Drain Punch gives STAB while also healing Pangoro. With Iron Fist it gets a boost, or with Scrappy you'll be able to hit Ghosts...your choice, but having a Super Effective move against a Sableye or Spiritomb can be handy. Knock Off also gives STAB and is a vital move in the current metagame. Gunk Shot & Poison Jab are both Poison moves which can be used to take out any incoming Fairy-types, as can Iron Head, so that's all your choice, and finally Parting Shot will lower both your opponents Attack and Special Attack stats, before returning Pangoro to you
Other Options
-Brick Break is weaker than other options on Pangoro, but being able to break Reflect/Light Screen with STAB is a nice little thing to have
-Pangoro has recently been gifted with the Elemental Punches: Fire Punch, Ice Punch and Thunder Punch, which can give Pangoro a wide range of coverage, as well as getting the boost from Iron Fist. That can always be handy
-Low Sweep can be used to help bring down an opponent's Speed onto a level akin to that of Pangoro
-Other physical moves like Earthquake, Dragon Claw, Zen Headbutt etc. can also be used on Pangoro for some decent damage
-Sky Uppercut can be used for decent STAB damage, but is weaker than Hammer Arm
-Swords Dance can be used to boost Pangoro's Attack. Always handy.
Double & Triple Battle Options
It's difficult to look at Pangoro without first looking at Scrafty, as both are Dark/Fighting and share the same base speed (58). Scrafty is usually the more popular choice because it has Fake Out, AND Intimidate giving it strong presence when it hits the field. Shoot, the only thing Scrafty truly wishes it had from Pangoro is Parting Shot. On that note, between the two Pangoro has only Parting Shot over Scrafty. Perhaps Pangoro shines elsewhere?
Bamboo Hunting
Superpower
Parting Shot
Knock Off / Crunch
Taunt / Rock Slide / Ice Punch / Quick Guard
Item Attached: Lum Berry
Ability: Scrappy
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Atk, 4 Def
Brave Nature
Pangoro finds itself in an awkward spot between its stats and its movepool. It's stats suggest to build offensively with Trick Room in mind, but certain moves available seem to contradict that entirely. Moves like Entrainment, Quash, and Helping Hand have close to no use on an offensively minded Pokemon. And even when Trick Room is up, you'll still move last with Circle Throw's negative priority, having Scrappy as an ability here is just kicking Pangoro when it's down. Parting Shot should be in the bunch too, but being a signature move and a very disruptive one at that gives us something to build on.
Superpower is Pangoro's strongest Fighting type STAB, and combos well with Parting Shot to rid itself of the stat drop and hopefully keep momentum up. Knock Off is secondary STAB with a very disruptive side effect, but Crunch can be used for more consistent damage. The last slot is up to your team at that point, the ones listed shouldn't be too uncommon when facing one online.
Pangoro's best partners will likely benefit from Trick room too and scare away Fairies, so Aegislash comes to mind immediately, but Bisharp wouldn't be bad either as Intimidate is very common and will slow down Pangoro's offensive game.
If Pangoro got Fake Out, then Scrafty would be in for some serious competition. Offesnsive Scrappy Fake Out with Parting shot? or Bulky Intimidate Fake Out? We'll cross that bridge when and if we get there, but for now, Pangoro brings more risk to the team than reward.
Countering Pangoro
Essentially, Fairy-type Pokémon. Fairy-types resist both of Pangoro's STABs and their STAB moves will do 4* damage on Pangoro, so a simple Moonblast, Draining Kiss, Play Rough from any Fairy-type Pokémon, or even any Pokémon in general, will do serious damage on Pangoro, if not completely knock it out, even now it has Gunk Shot to deal with it. Alternatively, you should go for Fighting or Flying-type moves to hit Pangoro's other weaknesses. It won't hit as hard as Fairy-type moves, but it'll work. Talonflame with Brave Bird, for example, will easily OHKO a Pangoro long before Pangoro even tries to make a move.
Pre-Evolution Corner - Pancham
Kung Fu Pancham
-Knock Off
-Drain Punch
-Parting Shot / Swords Dance
-Gunk Shot / Zen Headbutt
Item Attached: Eviolite
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 180 Atk / 100 Def / 212 Sp Def / 12 Spe
Adamant
Nature
Come on, we had to
That's it. Those are the only six moves you'll ever really see on Pancham, and you will pretty much always see the same item and EV Spread. Although it has a lot of other options, this set is its most reliable, and thus must used. Knock Off and Drain Punch are standard on every set, with Drain Punch being the obvious STAB, with the healing complimenting the bulk of Eviolite well, and Knock Off offers not only valuable coverage by destroying things such as Ghosts and Psychic types who might try to switch in, but also strips foes of their item, which, in the item-dependent LC, is a very big deal. It can use Parting Shot to take more of a pivoting role, especially since its decent bulk and low speed allow it to take most hits prior to using Parting Shot, effectively giving whatever you bring in a free switch in. On the other hand, if you wanna take a more offensive approach, SD can be used to boost up Pancham's wall-breaking prowess... just be aware that it's really too slow to sweep. Its final move really depends on what you'd like to cover. Gunk Shot manages to 2HKO fairy types Spritzee and Snubbull, while you can use Zen Headbutt to beat Croagunk and deal a little more damage to the other fighting types in the tier. In general though, Gunk Shot is more important, as Pancham can manage to beat some of the other fighting types through attrition with its bulk and Drain Punch, while Fairy types are insurmountable without Gunk Shot.
The nature EVs allow Pancham to maximize its attack by hitting 18 attack. The defensive EVs allow it to reach 14 in each defensive stat, which, with Eviolite, climbs up to a staggering 21 in each defensive stat, along with 23 HP, making it hard to break with Drain Punch's healing. Finally, the 12 speed EVs may not seem significant, but they do allow Pancham to outspeed Spritzee and Snubbull, which is essential if you want to be able to 2HKO them with Gunk Shot reliably. Mold Breaker is pretty standard due to its ability to break through Sturdy and various other abilities, although if you want, you can power up Drain Punch with Iron Fist. In general though, you get more mileage out of Mold Breaker. Scrappy's generally not used because Ghost types are pretty rare in LC, and the two most common, Gastly and Honedge, both hate eating Knock Off more.
Locations in Games
Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Not in game
FireRed/LeafGreen:
Not in game
Colosseum/XD:
Not in game
Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Not in game
HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Not in game
Black/White:
Not in game
Black 2/White 2:
Not in game
X/Y:
Evolve Pancham
Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire:
Trade from X & Y
Animé Appearences
