Palafin Competitive Guide

How To Use Palafin In Pokemon SV

Palafin is a water-type Pokemon that resembles an adorable bottlenosed dolphin. Its gimmick centers around friendship bringing out the best in itself.

Triggering its ability and evolving it from its base form, all require evoking the tenants of socialization. And although I am certainly no fan of socializing, I am a huge fan of this Pokemon.

To successfully use Palafin, you'll want to activate its "Zero to Hero' ability as soon as possible. It's a simple feat as all you need to do is bring Palafin into battle and switch it out.

The best way to do this is to let it learn the move Flip Turn. It gains this move upon evolving from Finizen, so you won't have to grind crafting materials for a TM.

Palafin' base speed is 100 so you should be able to outspeed and launch Flip Turn at your opponent before they can strike you.

Once you bring Palafin back into the fight, he will be in Hero mode. In this mode Palafin' base stat total increases by over 200.

Its attack goes from 70 to a whopping 160. This is basically giving it a mega evolution without sacrificing an item slot to do so.

Can Palafin use Hero mode in raid battles?

If you are wondering if Palafin can activate Zero to Hero in raide battles, ponder no longer...you cannot. Unfortunately, you need to swtich out to activate the abiltiy.

There is no way to switch Pokemin out in a Tera Raid Battle and fainting does not count. If you want to use Palafin, you will have to stomach in its Zero form.

What is best ev build for Palafin?

Palafin has a god-like physical attack stat and a good speed tier so setting it us as a speedy physical attacker is a natural fit.

If you want to go that route the best nature for Palafin is either Jolly (+Speed /-Special Attack) or Adamant (+Attack /- Special Attack). And then invest 252 EVs in Attack and 252 EVs in Speed, with the 4 remaining points going to its HP.

However, since Palafin in Hero mode has 107 Special Attack, it can also function as a mixed attacker. Palafin has access to powerful special moves like Hydro Pump, Surf, Blizzard, Aura Sphere, and Ice Beam.

These will come in handy to help Palafin deal with common physical walls that may come in to counter its onslaught. For a mixed attacking build, there are numerous options when it comes to Palafin's ev spread.

Here is a sample spread that works well with either a Mild (+Special Attack / -Defense) or Naughty nature (+Attack / - Special Defense), 172 HP / 84 Atk / 252 SpA. Feel free to experiment with the spread to see what works best for your team.

The best move set for Palafin

Given the different builds and diverse movepool Palafin has, there are a number of viable sets you can run with it. Here are some of my favorites along with the best held item for Palafin.

This move set works best with either a Life Orb or a Choice Band. You may opt out of using a Life Orb alongside Wave Crash since it will deplete Palafin's HP fast.

Muscle Band is another viable alternative, however the dip in power is certainly noticeable in comparison to the other 2 power boosting options.

If you want to run a mixed attacker, slap a Life Orb on your favorite dolphin hero and use this moveset.

Palafin can also learn the move Bulk Up to boost its Attack and Defense. It certainly has the bulk (pun intended) to pull it off given its 100 HP/ 97 Defense / 87 Special Defense defensive stat spread.

As you can see, Palafin is probably the most powerful non pseudo-legendary, common Pokemon we've seen to date. Its ability gives it a Mega Evolution-esque stat boost without losing the ability to run something like Life Orb or Choice Band.

The one, very small downside to Palafin is that it requires a switch out to get activated. However, it is a small price to pay to turn this adorable dolphin into a sea-faring Hulk.

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