Most Powerful Hidden Abilities in 'Pokemon Sword & Shield' Competitive Battle [2022]

Mainline Pokemon games only feature Abilities at first, but as the competitive battling evolves, the developer noticed that something needs to be added.

Since Gen V, Hidden Abilities have become a staple ingredient of the success of every player who regularly engaged in ranked battles. In "Pokemon Sword & Shield," there are many them that can change the tempo of the game.

If you're planning to build a "comp" team in this game, you should first know the best Hidden Abilities that you can take advantage of to maximize your wins inside the arena.

Best Hidden Abilities in 'Pokemon Sword & Shield'

Most Powerful Hidden Abilities in 'Pokemon Sword & Shield' Competitive Battle [2022]

(Photo : David McNew/Getty Images)
Check the best Hidden Abilities in "Pokemon Sword and Shield" competitive gaming.

Turning the tides of the battle in their favor is what a player needs to practice. A good competitive Pokemon gamer can easily dictate how the fight will fare in just a single hazard set-up or sacrificial strategy.

Of course, Hidden Abilities have a huge impact on the current meta. Each of them is special. Some of them complement the Pokemon's movesets, while others are not suited to the gameplay.

Check these out for reference.

Moody

Moody is one of the most annoying Hidden Abilities that could flip the fate of a battle when put to good use. This particularly increases a random stat of a Pokemon by two. On the other hand, a decrease of one stat level will be a trade-off, per Fandom Spot.

The most famous handler of this Ability is Bibarel. Some players incorporate Moody to Smeargle, but it still depends on your strategy in the competitive building.

Protean

For Greninja spammers, this Hidden Ability is an explosive (and exclusive) ability for lizard Pokemon. Aside from this Water/Dark Pokemon, you can also spot this ability on Kecleon.

It's one of the best of its kind since it can change the user's type through the prior attack that it launches. It's nearly identical to Cinderace's Libero.

This Hidden Ability can transform almost all moves into a STAB attack for a competitive ecosystem, making it a dangerous wallbreaker to the opposing team.

Poison Heal

In "Pokemon Sword & Heal," Poison Heal is one of the most used Hidden Abilities that is status-based. It's been famous in the previous mainline games over the past years because of its effect.

Although the user is poisoned in the process, it will instead heal it instead of taking a DPS or damage per second because of the toxicity.

The common strategy here is giving a Pokemon with Toxic Orb so you can maximize its impact. Once this item poisons your Breloom or Gliscor, it will just immediately revert 1/8 of its HP every turn.

Magic Bounce

If you're already annoyed against your opponent's hazard setters, you can cancel them right away using a Pokemon with Magic Bounce as the Hidden Ability.

Some users consider it to be OP since it can reflect almost all non-attacking moves, including status conditions, entry hazards (stealth rock, spikes, toxic spikes), and even stat-lowering maneuvers.

With Magic Bounce, you can easily shut down the staller/setter and ruin its plan of placing hazards on your team.

Unaware

Unaware is often underestimated as a Hidden Ability not just in "Pokemon Sword and Shield," but also in previous games. For casual gamers, this Ability is so bad to the point that they cannot find its usage.

However, competitive players always take advantage of this. Its effect includes completely neglecting the stat changes of the enemy.

Regardless if a Scizor sword-dances and hits your Furret, your Pokemon will only receive a normal calculation of its damage. If you attack a Snorlax who uses Curse with your Swoobat, it will automatically ignore its Attack and Defense changes.

In another story, check Gamerant's article about the best Pokemon with Hidden Abilities that you can use in competitive gaming.

This article is owned by GameNGuide

Written by Joseph Henry