Best Hidden Abilities in Pokémon Sword & Shield

Let's talk hidden abilities! It used to be so difficult to get them and heck, it still is hard, but the ultimate power and prowess they wield is off the charts, they are actual firecrackers of abilities to discover! It stands to reason that these abilities take some effort to get is because of how powerful they are. Here is a list ranking the most powerful hidden abilities in Pokemon Sword and Shield, the strongest hidden abilities to hunt down, for your entertainment!

11. Scrappy

A move that enables the player to make Normal-type moves hit Ghost-type Pokémon, Scrappy allows the user to hit ghost-type Pokémon with moves that otherwise couldn’t. In other words, it allows you to False Swipe ghosts. Potentially a very useful ability, lucky Pangoro has both Scrappy and False Swipe, making it a staple of many post-game Pokédex filling and shiny hunting teams, including my own. In addition Pangoro can also learn Taunt, making it one of the best Bear Pokemon to have on your side in combat. It also gets a mention in Best Dark Type Pokemon Ranked for its impressive typing!

10. Moody

Moody is a niche hidden ability known to raise one stat and lower another, that can turn weaker Pokémon into monsters. On every turn, Moody will raise one random stat by +2 and decrease another by -1, an ability that is both powerful and fun, even if it isn't quite OU territory. It’s limited to a handful of weak critters, but both Bidoof and Bibarel can get this ability, which is awesome and adorable! The concept of a staller Bidoof with Eviolite, Substitute, and Toxic that has Moody is incredibly amusing. Imagine the terror in your opponent’s eyes when they realize their Ubers team can’t do a thing to touch your buff beaver.

9. Poison Heal

A clever move that interacts nicely with the Toxic Orb ability to become pretty incredible! It pretty much restores HP if the Pokémon is poisoned instead of losing HP and allows your Pokémon to heal 1/8 of its health every turn. The naturally exclusive signature ability of Shroomish and Breloom, Poison Heal has been around for a good few years now, but age hasn’t dampened the effectiveness of it in the least. The Toxic Orb-Poison Heal combination is formidable to say the least!

8. Multiscale

A hidden ability exclusive to Flying-type Pokémon Dragonite and Lugia, introduced in Generation 5, Multiscale reduces damage the Pokemon takes when its HP is full. Both Dragonite and Lugia are uber powerful so we will forgive it on that front. The ability decreases damage by half when your Pokémon takes damage at full health. Given that Dragonite is a powerfully stylish Dragon Dancer, this ability effectively gives you a free turn to use it. That’s the extent of the ability’s use, unless you use a stalling Lugia. But still an incredible use all the same.

7. Protean

Exclusive to Kecleon and the Greninja evolutionary line, Protean is known to change the Pokémon's type to that of its previously used attack! A lizard exclusive ability, it kind of sucks that other Pokémon can’t obtain the ability, but maybe it's best as that would result in a whole lot of chaos. Protean makes your Pokémon’s type change to whatever attack it uses prior to the attack hitting, meaning that every single attack becomes a STAB attack. It means that Greninja becomes formidable, with huge effect both in competitive and casual!

6. Contrary

A move that has the rather niche ability to make stat changes have the opposite effect. If this Pokemon has a stat stage raised it is lowered instead, and vice versa. Although it may be more of a niche ability than others on this list, it’s still pretty powerful. It reverses the stats changing effects applied to the Pokémon with the ability - for example, if you used Swords Dance on a Contrary Pokémon, it would lower its attack instead of increasing it. But the most interesting way to use this ability is to turn it on its head! You know those powerful attacks that lower your stats when you use them? Well, worry no more, with Contrary, those attacks would boost stats instead! A truly epic ability that can turn everything around when used properly.

5. Unburden

Unburden is unusual in how it works. When the user loses its held item, the ability doubles its speed. This includes items like berries and focus sash, as well as moves like Knock Off. There’s a good range of Pokémon that can learn the move and it includes items that were lost via Knock Off, Thief, Incinerate, Bug Bite, and Pluck, as well as if an Air Balloon popped. If there is no held item to begin with or if a held item is traded for another, Unburden will not be activated. This boost is lost if the Pokémon is switched out, loses Unburden, or gains a held item. Definitely a nice trick to have up your sleeve!

4. Unaware

Unaware is potential firecracker of a hidden ability as it ignores the opponent’s stat changes in damage calculation. This includes defense buffs when you attack, and any attack buffs when you get attacked. It completely nullifies moves like Swords Dance, Dragon Dance, Calm Mind, and many, many more. If you’ve ever even dabbled in competitive, then you know how absurdly powerful this is. It is the kind of ability with little-to-no Pokémon in a position to take advantage of it, which is for the best. However, Swoobat does have access to the ability, which makes it a particularly powerful battler!

3. Magic Bounce

What does Magic Bounce do? It is a hidden ability that reflects the effect of all stat-lowering status moves (excluding Memento), status condition-inducing status moves, entry hazard moves, moves like Taunt and Torment, and so on back to the user. As it has such an insane level of coverage, it is a move that has defined team compositions ever since it was introduced in Generation 5. Reflecting entry hazards alone would be enough to earn a spot on the list, but Magic Bounce takes it to another level entirely. It allows your Pokémon to effectively be a hard counter to the majority (if not all) setup Pokémon. Countering with Magic Bounce can effectively completely destroy your Opponent’s strategy straight out of the gate. On top of that, it can be wielded by a number of mega evolutions, giving it even more competitive viability. One of the strongest hidden abilities for sure!

2. Technician

When we talk about Technician, we have to talk about Breloom. Technician is known to increase the power of your Pokémon’s weaker moves, increasing the power of moves which have a power of 60 or less by 50%. For moves with variable power, Technician will only apply if the power is 60 or less when used. For example, Low Kick and Grass Knot will only get a Technician boost if the target's weight is 110.0 lbs. And then Breloom has access to it. This powers up both its Bullet Seed and Mach Punch, the latter gives Breloom priority to deal with faster threats, but it’s more impactful when we’re talking about Bullet Seed. Having an increased power on each individual hit that Bullet Seed makes, which can be up to five, along with a strong attack stats, turns Breloom into an actually formidable opponent and both a defensive and offensive monster!

1. Speed Boost

This hidden ability in Sword and Shield is so powerful that it’s exclusively the reason Blaziken is useable in the Ubers category. It looks pretty simple on paper and pretty much its job is to raise the speed stat of the user by one stage each turn. That’s all an ability needs to do, though. Especially when it’s on an attacker like Blaziken. It turns everyone’s favorite Kung-Fu chicken into one of the biggest threats in the game. Blaziken already has a great attack stat, but its speed was a few points short of being phenomenal. Speed Boost negates that completely. If a hidden ability by itself is powerful enough to put a Pokémon into Ubers, then you know it’s good. Rule of thumb, don't overlook simple moves, they can be the most devastating in combat and the ones you can have the most fun with!

What's the best hidden ability in Pokemon Sworld & Shield? Let me know in the comments below! If you liked this definitely check out the Best Fairy Type Pokemon Moves, Best Grass Type Pokemon Moves, Best Water Type Pokemon Moves and Best Beautiful Flower Pokemon Designs!