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Worst Moves Ever

8,571
Posts
14
Years
I will forever say that Memento is my least favorite move of all time. All it does is knock out your own Pokemon, and lowers your opponent's Attack and Special Attack by 2 stages (which can easily be nullified by switching their Pokemon). If my Pokemon's going to faint anyway, I'd much rather go out with a Self Destruct or something over Memento.
 
50,218
Posts
12
Years
Fake out, it was so annoying

Fake Out does have a useful niche against things with Sturdy or a Focus Sash.

And yeah I do agree with whoever mentioned Reflect Type. I don't get the point of it. And I also agree with Brendan on Memento, the stat drops can be easily nullified but it can come in handy in the opponent is down to their last Pokemon.
 

Sirfetch’d

Guest
0
Posts
I'd have to say Stealth Rock in all honesty. Was going to say Splash too but someone else beat me to it.


In-game yes Stealth Rock is useless, but competitive it is probably the most useful move of all time.

In my opinion though, Splash is obviously the most useless move. There is no point in even suggesting anything else because this move literally does nothing at all.
 

Elaitenstile

I am legend
1,908
Posts
11
Years
  • Age 24
  • Seen Feb 27, 2015
Have to say Memento, and maybe Selfdestruct because every selfdestructer can use Explosion.

Oh, and Mud Sport isn't that bad, but it still fits in the description. If you're say a ground type battling along with a flying type, this can be useful. Also, the flying type won't be affected by your Earthquake, so yeah.
 
1,103
Posts
11
Years
  • Age 31
  • Seen Feb 20, 2024
I know everyone says Cut is a bad move and all, but I went out of my way in my Crystal normal Mono and taught Cut to one of my team members. And it was actually quite decent, getting STAB and all. Like a mini-Slash. It actually saved my butt a few times.
 

Dark Zapdos

Arose from Darkness
58
Posts
10
Years
Fury cutter is useless as its very weak, takes more then 3 moves to do any real damage, easy to switch into steel/fire types, and most pokemon that can learn it can have x-Scissor
 
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Starlight Sprite

Resident Moon Fairy
213
Posts
10
Years
Absorb / Leech life have a nice secondary effect, but with such a low power you won't be healing much, if you manage to do more than a couple points of damage anyway.

Splash.... Enough said.

Sleep Talk's usage is so limited too. It's only close to reliable use is coupled with Rest. Even then, there is a chance that Rest will be selected causing it to fail.

Metronome and Assist are both too random to be of practical use. They're a ton of fun to use though. So is Present
 
7,741
Posts
17
Years
  • Seen Sep 18, 2020
Mud Sport was introduced at the same time as double battles and presumably designed for them. However, like many moves of its kind, it is still useless with how weak monsters are in battle anyway.

I would say Slam is the worst move that isn't simply weak, a joke or obviously useless, with Cut right behind it.
 
6,266
Posts
10
Years
Other than what's already been mentioned, there are two moves that haven't been mentioned yet that I feel should be:

Incinerate - 30 power Fire-type attack that burns the opponent's berry. Even if you used that, they'd probably take just as much damage in the time that you knock them down to their berry. And 48 BP in the original Black and White? Really? Thankfully it was knocked down to only 6 BP in Black 2 and White 2, but it's still hardly worth anything. The only purpose this move serves is for those dang Pansear in Kilionea Road in PMD: Gates to Infinity to annoy the fudge out of you. (Interestingly, when I went through that dungeon, I found some Pansear, but didn't get hit with Incinerate once.)

Feint - Cited by Aquablade11 as the second most pointless move in the game (after Odor Sleuth and Foresight). In Generation IV, the fact that it only works if the foe uses Protect or Detect means that if you predict the opponent to do that, you'd be better off using, say, Swords Dance, or switching out, not using a weak, situational attack. In Generation V, it works even if the opponent doesn't do that, but it got weaker as a result.

Yep.
 
4,181
Posts
10
Years
Splash is usually as good as obvious.

I am quite surprised that Quash and Ally Switch have not even been mentioned at all in this thread. Outside of doubles and triples where even then they still have an extremely situational use, they're both literally as good as Splash, and no, I'm not exaggerating.
 

SkyRyder

'That Guy'
151
Posts
12
Years
Encore, never understood the meaning of it.

Encore is viable in competitive battling. It's usually seen by Prankster users such as Whimsicott or Pokemon like Politoed in order to trap and put pressure on the opponent. Allows for a free switch in if used correctly. Other than that it's almost pointless in the main games.


List of moves I've never used due to their sheer uselessness(even in the in-game): Mud Sport, Water Sport, Quash, Ally Switch, Imprison, Grudge, Heal Pulse(useful in VGCs/doubles), Bestow, Feint, Memento, Fury Cutter, and Razor Wind.
 
50,218
Posts
12
Years
Splash is usually as good as obvious.

I am quite surprised that Quash and Ally Switch have not even been mentioned at all in this thread. Outside of doubles and triples where even then they still have an extremely situational use, they're both literally as good as Splash, and no, I'm not exaggerating.

Yeah I do agree there, in fact what makes Quash even worse is that it's a move introduced in 5th Generation, yet absolutely none of the new Pokemon in that generation even learn it. Also, the Murkrow line are the only ones who learn it through level-up. Talk about shallow distribution.

I never even see these moves in action, so they are quite forgettable.
 
284
Posts
10
Years
In-game, Substitute is totally useless... Sure it's useful in competitve battling sometimes (when combined with Protect it is awesome) but you never need to use it in game... Just a bit useless.
 

Jip

Hipster Jipster
10
Posts
10
Years
  • Age 26
  • Seen Jun 1, 2020
bullet seed always seemed weak to me. But that might just be because I dislike bug type in general.
 
12,284
Posts
11
Years
  • Seen Oct 22, 2023
Feint is a pretty bad move. This move was introduced in generation 4, and it has a base power of 30. It does damage only if your opponent uses either Protect or Detect. Since Protect and Detect are not used very often, this move was kind of useless to me. ^^" Another bad move is Focus Energy. This move increases the chances of your critical hits by two stages, but the critical hit ratio still remains very low even after you use it. It wouldn't be a good idea to use this move when you're battling competitively. Bestow is also useless, because the only thing it does is give your item to your opponent. The move will fail if the target is already holding something.
 
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TreeKangaroo

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
277
Posts
10
Years
Sleep powder-Spore outclasses it in every way, with 100% accuracy
Swagger/Flatter-If they hit and you're using a move that is physical(swagger) or special(flatter) and you hit and have great (SP)attack, it's a guaranteed OHKO. And especially if you're holding a persim berry.
Defog-Be a TM please and not an HM, even gust is better than you
That's about it
 
15
Posts
10
Years
Besides the obvious ones mentioned here, honestly, I think Transform's kind of useless. It's fun and all but why would you waste a spot in your party for a Ditto unless you know what Pokemon your enemy is using and are Transforming into one that is its weakness?

sn: When I was 9, I thought Teleport was useless. It's currently my favorite move, saving me buttloads of time in Black.
 
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