Cresselia - Movesets & Best Build for Ranked Battle

This is a strategy guide for using Cresselia 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 Cresselia, as well as its strengths and weak points.

Cresselia - Related Guides
Evolution and Learnset	Build for Ranked Battle

Basic Information for Cresselia

Types and Abilities

Pokemon	Type 1	Type 2
Cresselia
Abilities
Levitate	Gives immunity to Ground type moves.

Cresselia Weaknesses and Resistances

	Type
Takes 4x damage	-
Takes 2x damage
Takes 0.5x damage
Takes 1/4x damage	-
Takes 0x damage

What is Type Effectiveness?

Base Stats

Best Nature for Cresselia

Singles Movesets for Cresselia

Bulky Calm Mind Moveset & Best Build

Cresselia's great mixed bulk and reliable recovery make it a great Calm Mind user with Stored Power.

About Cresselia's Moves

Stored Power's base power increased by 20 every time it gets a stat boost. With one Calm Mind, this moves becomes a 60 Base Power move.

Thanks to Cresselia's great bulk, it has plenty of chances to set up with Calm Mind to further boost the damage of Stored Power. Moonblast is its main coverage move while Moonlight provides reliable healing, allowing Cresselia to stay in battle for a longer time.

About Cresselia's EV Spread

We're using a standard physically defensive EV spread with full investment in HP and Defense, with the remaining 4 EVs placed in Speed.

About Cresselia's Ability

Levitate is Cresselia's only ability. This allows it to freely switch into Ground-type Pokemon such as Excadrill and Mamoswine, and distrupt their sweep with Trick Room.

About Cresselia's Held Item

Cresselia has two options for held item.

Kee Berry raises Cresselia's Defense by one stage if it gets hit by a physical move.

Leftovers provides great residual healing and, when used in conjunction with Moonlight, helps keep Cresselia healthy throughout long protracted matches.

Other Viable Moves

Physically Defensive Moveset & Best Build

Cresselia's massive defense make it one of the best physical walls in the game, letting it easily handle some of the strongest physical sweepers in the current metagame.

About Cresselia's Moves

Psychic is Cresselia's main STAB move, while Ice Beam is for coverage. The latter allows it to hit common physical attackers such as Dragonite, Garchomp, and Landorus for super effective.

Thunder Wave is a good support move that lets Cresselia threaten faster setup sweepers, such as Dynamax Pokemon using Max Airstream. It's last move is Moonlight, which provides reliable healing and lets Cresselia stay for longer in a match.

About Cresselia's EV Spread

We're using a standard physically defensive EV spread with full investment in HP and Defense, with the remaining 4 EVs placed in Special Defense to round off its bulk.

About Cresselia's Ability

Levitate is Cresselia's only ability. This allows it to freely switch into Ground-type moves.

About Cresselia's Held Item

Rocky Helmet causes opposing Pokemon that hit Cresselia with a contact move to receive some residual damage.

Other Viable Moves

How to Use Cresselia Effectively

A Physically Defensive Wall

Cresselia high mixed defenses make it a great all-round physical wall that can stop common physical attackers in the metagame. Access to Moonlight makes it a great counter to Dynamax users as it can reliably heal off damage while weathering down the opposing Pokemon with its moves.

A Powerful Calm Mind Sweeper

With the role of Defensive Pokemon going to Pokemon with more attractive resistances and immunities, Cresselia can instead fill the role of a bulky Calm Mind sweeper. While often used in Singles, it flourishes in Doubles where it's great mixed bulk allows it to naturally withstand hits from both physical and special attacks.

How to Build a Team with Cresselia

Cresselia faces very stiff competition from the plethora of tougher defensive Pokemon in the metagame who can provide more utility to the rest of the team. It does have a niche in Doubles though as a bulky Calm Mind sweeper.

Sweep with Stored Power

Cresselia finds many chances to switch in due to its good bulk and can freely set up in front of most Pokemon in the Doubles metagame. The Lunar Pokemon becomes a very real threat to frailer teams, especially if it's accumulated three or more Calm Mind boosts!

Learn how to build a Doubles Team by reading our full article below!
How to Build a Doubles Team

Counters for Cresselia

Weakness

Counter it with a Dark-type Pokemon

Both Defensive and Offensive variants of Cresselia struggle against Dark-type Pokemon as it lacks a coverage move to even threaten them.

Best Pokemon to Use

Pokemon	Description
Galarian Moltres	Ranking: ★★★★★ ・Immune to Stored Power ・It's high Special Defense lets it withstand Cresselia's coverage moves ・Can wear down Cresselia using a combination of Fiery Wrath and Hurricane Moveset & Best Build for Galarian Moltres
Spectrier	Ranking: ★★★★★ ・Outspeeds Cresselia and 2HKOs with Shadow Ball
Urshifu Single-Strike Style	Ranking: ★★★★ ・Immune to Psyshock and Stored Power ・Choice Band variants can 2HKO Cresselia with Wicked Blow ・Needs to be wary of Moonblast Moveset & Best Build for Urshifu Single-Strike Style

Overwhelm it with Powerful Super Effective Attacks

Despite Cresselia's great bulk, it can still be worn down by powerful attacks - especially ones that deal super effective damage to it. Mimikyu and Dragapult, in particular, can check Cresselia and force it to switch or risk getting worn down.

Best Pokemon to Use

Pokemon	Description
Mimikyu	Ranking: ★★★★★ ・Disguise lets it set up with Swords Dance and can KO with Max Phantasm ・Mimikyu is easy to use and fit into most teams, which means Cresselia needs to be wary about a Mimikyu check all the time Moveset & Best Build for Mimikyu
	Ranking: ★★★★★ ・2HKOs Cresselia with Black Glasses boosted Shadow Ball ・Physical variants can also threaten it with Poltergeist ・Dragapult is easy to use and fit into most teams, which means Cresselia needs to be wary about a Dragapult check all the time Moveset & Best Build for Dragapult

Related Links

All Competitive Builds for Ranked Battle

Competitive Guides for Pokemon Sword and Shield

Competitive Pokemon Battle Guides
Tier List		Best Builds		Series 10 List of Contenders
Doubles Tier List		Team Building		Rental Teams

Best Builds for The Crown Tundra Pokemon

Movesets & Best Builds for The Crown Tundra Pokemon
Galarian Articuno	Galarian Zapdos	Galarian Moltres
Raikou	Entei	Suicune
Articuno	Zapdos	Moltres
Tornadus	Thundurus	Landorus
Tapu Koko	Tapu Lele	Tapu Bulu
Tapu Fini	Regieleki	Regidrago
Latios	Latias	Heatran
Cresselia	Glastrier	Spectrier
Nidoking	Swampert	Dragonite
Salamence	Garchomp	Metagross
Galarian Slowking	Nihilego	Naganadel
Pheromosa	Buzzwole	Celesteela
Kartana	Stakataka	Blaziken
Kyogre	Yveltal	Xerneas
Necrozma (Dusk Mane)	Calyrex (Shadow Rider)	Mewtwo
Calyrex (Ice Rider)	Dialga	Lugia
Black Kyurem	Zekrom	Ho-Oh
Rayquaza	Zygarde	Reshiram
White Kyurem	Groudon	Regirock
Palkia	Regigigas	Registeel
Regice	Giratina	Solgaleo
Lunala	Kyurem	Necrozma
Uxie	Mesprit	Azelf
Calyrex