Strange moves you never knew Pokemon could learn

In the early days of Pokemon – we’re talking back on Game Boy – many Pokemon suffered from incredibly small movepools. For example, Scyther didn’t have access to a single Flying-type move in Red and Blue despite being a half Flying-type itself. Fortunately, the developers have fixed this issue over the years, and now many Pokemon have huge movepools. That being said, certain move decisions are questionable at best. Some Pokemon have access to certain moves that don’t make a ton of sense thematically, and today we’re going over a big list of some of the strangest movepool additions in the Pokemon series.

Staraptor with Struggle Bug

This has to be the craziest example of a Pokemon that learns an odd move. For other moves on this list, the attack in question has a different Japanese name, which explains why certain Pokemon learn it. That’s not the case here, though – Struggle Bug’s Japanese name is Insect Opposition. Sure, you could argue that Staraptor is a bird, and birds eat insects. In that case, why would Staraptor be the only bird to learn Struggle Bug? We’re not sure if this is a mistake or some kind of odd purposeful addition to Staraptor’s moveset, but it’s a worthy inclusion on this list either way.

Goomy with Iron Tail

It makes sense that Goomy’s final form, Goodra, can learn Iron Tail – it has a pretty large tail, after all. Goomy, on the other hand, doesn’t make much sense because it doesn’t have a tail at all. Despite this, Goomy could learn Iron Tail in every game it appeared in prior to Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. It seems the developers caught wind of their mistake, because Goomy currently cannot learn Iron Tail.

Gastly and the elemental punch attacks

Though this is no longer the case, Wooper can learn Ice Punch despite not having arms. You’d think, then, that Pokemon would’ve fixed the same issue with Gastly. Except in Gastly’s case, it learns Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, and Sucker Punch. Here’s a fun fact: Sucker Punch doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with punching, which is why Gastly and Dugtrio can learn the move despite not having arms. The move’s Japanese name is Surprise Attack, which as you can see does not directly correlate it to being a punching move. It’s also not boosted by the Iron Fist Ability, which further confirms this.

Cryogonal, Attract, and Triple Axel

Cryogonal is a peculiar Pokemon, because it learns two particularly strange moves. It can no longer learn Attract, which makes sense – but a few generations ago, it could. And it would always fail, because Cryogonal is genderless – Attract always fails when used by a genderless Pokemon, even if the opponent is also genderless. Cryogonal also learns Triple Axel, which is specifically stated to be a kicking move. Cryogonal has a distinct lack of extremities needed to perform this move, but it can learn them anyway.

Pelipper with Shock Wave

In all generations where Shock Wave is a move tutor, Pelipper can learn it. This is despite its crippling quadruple weakness to electricity! You can see this strange movepool addition in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, where Pelipper can also learn it. Lots more Pokemon can learn Shock Wave, too, but some of the more odd ones are Lapras, Qwilfish, Aggron, Bibarel, and Jellicent. Shock Wave isn’t a very powerful or prominent move, so it’s strange to see so many Pokemon who can somehow learn it regardless.

Umbreon with Synchronoise

This is a strange case, because in some games Eevee can learn Synchronoise as an egg move. Synchronoise is a 120 base power move that only works on opponents who share the same type as the user. The problem is, it’s a Psychic-type move. So if Eevee evolves into Umbreon, Synchronoise only works on Dark-type opponents… who are immune to Psychic-type moves, and therefore take no damage from Synchronoise at all. This makes Synchronoise completely useless on Umbreon unless it Terastallizes, and even then it isn’t a very good candidate for offensive Terastallization thanks to its low offenses.

Odd Pokemon that can learn Surf

As an HM move, Surf has a wide distribution. In some cases, strange Pokemon learn the move. Some particularly odd examples include Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Rhydon, all three forms of Tauros (the Aqua Breed makes sense, though), Miltank, Zigzagoon, Aggron, Rampardos, Garchomp, Weavile, Haxorus, Diggersby, Gogoat, Slurpuff, and Heliolisk. After the sixth generation, most of the new Pokemon who learn Surf make sense and are Water-type. That rule clearly isn’t in place for previous-gen Pokemon!

Beheeyem with Steel Wing

This is a classic case, and one of the most well-known odd move inclusions. Beheeyem doesn’t have any wings, but some say the reason it can learn Steel Wing is because it could learn TM51 Ally Switch in Pokemon Black and White. Maybe the developers forgot to remove TM51 from Beheeyem’s compatible move list when they changed TM51 to Steel Wing instead of Ally Switch. Considering Beheeyem can still learn Steel Wing in Sword and Shield (where it is TM30 instead of TM51), this was almost certainly on purpose. Maybe it just uses its arms as wings for the attack?

Dugtrio with Slash

There are a few Pokemon who learn Slash that don’t have hands or arms. That said, not only does Dugtrio lack hands and arms, it lacks any sharp points whatsoever with which to Slash opponents. This doesn’t appear to be a mistake, either; Slash’s Japanese name is the exact same as its English one, so there’s no issue of mistranslation here as was the case for Sucker Punch. This is a bizarre case through and through, and we still have no idea how exactly Dugtrio is slashing its enemies to this day.

Shedinja with Substitute

As if it’s some kind of cruel joke, Shedinja has access to a bunch of moves it cannot possibly use thanks to its only having 1 base HP. For one, it has Rest, which only works if the user’s health isn’t full. Shedinja’s health is either completely full or completely empty, so it cannot use this move. It also gets Sandstorm, which will go on to KO Shedinja if it isn’t holding Safety Goggles. Perhaps its most egregious move, however, is Substitute. It doesn’t have enough HP to create a Substitute, so it will not be able to under any circumstance. Why they bothered giving Shedinja these unusable moves remains a mystery!

That’s our list of Pokemon with odd movepool inclusions! Are there any cases that you think should’ve made the list? If so, feel free to share them with us in the comments down below.

If you want to try out Struggle Bug Staraptor for yourself, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available now. You can check out the official site here.