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┣ Tier List / Doubles Tier List / Movesets / Rental Teams
┗ Competitive Battle Guide
This is a strategy guide for using Nidoking in competitive play for the games Pokemon Sword and Shield. Read on for tips on the best Nature, EV spreads, Movesets, and Held Items to use with Nidoking, as well as its strengths and weak points.
| Nidoking - Related Guides | |
|---|---|
 Evolution and Learnset |
 Build for Ranked Battle |
List of Contents
| Pokemon | Type 1 | Type 2 |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
| Abilities | ||
| Poison Point | Contact with the Pokemon may poison the attacker. | |
| Rivalry | Deals more damage to a Pokemon of same gender. | |
| Sheer Force (Hidden) | Removes added effects to increase move damage. | |
| Type | |
|---|---|
| Takes 4x damage |
|
| Takes 2x damage |
|
| Takes 0.5x damage |
|
| Takes 1/4x damage |
|
| Takes 0x damage |
|
| HP | Attack | Defense | Sp. Atk | Sp. Def | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 81 | 102 | 77 | 85 | 75 | 85 |
| Best Natures | ||
|---|---|---|
| Timid (+Spd, -Atk) |
||
| Nature | Timid (+Spd, -Atk) |
|---|---|
| EV Spread | Sp.Atk 252 / Sp.Def 4 / Spd 252 |
| Final Stat Values | HP 156 / Def 97 / Sp.Atk 137 / Sp.Def 96 / Spd 150 |
| Ability | Sheer Force |
| Held Item | Life Orb |
| Moveset | ・Sludge Wave ・Earth Power ・Thunderbolt ・Ice Beam |
Despite its immediate stats will tell you, Nidoking works best as a special sweeper thanks to its plethora of special moves that get a boost from its Sheer Force ability.
Sludge Wave is Nidoking's strongest STAB move, hitting Fairy-types and Grass-types hard and even potentially KOing them. Earth Power is its secondary STAB move, and provides great coverage alongside its other STAB move.
Nidoking's remaining two moves are Thunderbolt and Ice Beam, giving it the fabled "BoltBeam" coverage. This allows Nidoking to hit a variety of different Pokemon for super effective damage!
We're using a basic special attacking EV spread with full investment in Speed and Special Attack. The remaining EVs are placed in Special Defense to round off its bulk.
We're using Sheer Force for this build. This ability boosts the power of all moves that have additional effects by 30%, but removes the additional effects.
Note: Sheer Force doesn't work when the Pokemon is in a Gigantamax state.
We're giving Nidoking Life Orb for this build. This item boosts the power of Nidoking's attacks by 30% at the cost of some recoil damage.
Since Nidoking has Sheer Force as an ability, the Life Orb recoil is ignored but the item still provides a damage boost. This gives Nidoking a total 60% damage boost with Sheer Force and Life Orb combined!
| Focus Blast | An alternative to either Ice Beam or Thunderbolt that allows Nidoking to hit Dark-types harder. |
|---|---|
| Shadow Ball | An alternative to either Ice Beam or Thunderbolt that allows Nidoking ti hit Psychic-type Pokemon. |
| Sludge Bomb | A weaker alternative to Sludge Wave but is the better choice in Doubles. |
Nidoking's advantage over other special sweepers is its unmatched coverage thanks to its wide special movepool. It's main STAB moves alone hit the very common Fairy, Grass, Steel, and Fire-types that dominate the metagame, while its BoltBeam coverage give it great neutral coverage.
As a result, Nidoking is played not as a straigtforward wallbreaker but as a check that can threaten certain Pokemon and force switches.
Nidoking faces stiff competition from stronger special sweepers, but its unmatched coverage alone is enough to give it a spot in most teams - especially Monotype Teams that are in need of good coverage.
Nidoking excels in Monotype teams where it provides valuable team support thanks to its impressive coverage. Since Nidoking is a dual-type Poison/Ground Pokemon, it can fit in either Monotype Poison or Monotype Ground teams!
Check out our full article below to learn more about building a Monotype Team.
How to Build a Monotype Team
| Weakness |
|
|---|
Despite its great move coverage, Nidoking has one glaring weakness: it's rather lackluster speed for a sweeper. Even with full investment, it is still outsped by faster sweepers in the Metagame and some can outright KO Nidoking if given the chance!
| Pokemon | Description |
|---|---|
 Starmie
|
Ranking: ★★★★★ ・Faster than Nidoking and can KO with Hydro Pump or Psychic ・Rivals Nidoking in sheer coverage thanks to its STAB and access to BoltBeam Moveset & Best Build for Starmie |
 Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style
|
Ranking: ★★★★★ ・Faster than Nidoking and can KO with Surging Strikes Moveset & Best Build for Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style |
All Competitive Builds for Ranked Battle
| Competitive Pokemon Battle Guides | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Tier List |
 Best Builds |
 Series 10 List of Contenders |
|||
 Doubles Tier List
|
 Team Building |
 Rental Teams |
|||
It doesn't have many powerful physical moves with other effects the article says it too. And you'll be seeing it more than physical nidoking so physically its not as good as it sounds.
Nidoking - Moveset & Best Build for Ranked Battle
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I feel like Physical Attacker get penalized the most, Static, and Poison Point, and Flame Body As well as Rocky Helmet. I saw this build elsewhere. Calling it a "Wall breaker" Lol When a lot of common threats like Ground, Rock, Ghost, Steel types are very common in sword and shields Meta. Nidoking's stats are not exactly tanky and it will also not Outspeed most Jolly, Timid pokemon in the meta. The build however would be decent for casual raids. But I'd advise against using this mon in Comp.