Pokémon Legends: Z-A — New Mega Abilities
Pokémon Showdown finally has abilities listed under the new Mega Evolutions. I'm not sure what their source is, if I'm being honest, but I still wanted to document what these abilities are to plan around them now (if true) or document the misstep (if false).
Pokémon are sorted by Serebii's list of new Mega Evolutions in this generation. Just making my life easier and double checking I found them all.
Pokémon Showdown-Based Abilities
| Mega Pokémon | Ability | Effect | New? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raichu X | Levitate | Immunity to Ground-Type Moves | Yes |
| Raichu Y | Transistor | Increases Electric Move damage by 30% | Yes |
| Clefable | Prankster | +1 Priority to Status Moves. Fails when used on Dark-Type Pokémon. | Yes |
| Victreebel | Triage | +1 Priority to Healing Moves | Yes |
| Starmie | Pure Power | 2x Atk | Yes |
| Dragonite | Sheer Force | Moves lose bonus effects, but gain 30% BP | Yes |
| Meganium | Flower Veil | Ally Grass-Types are protected from Status Conditions and Stat Drops | Yes |
| Feraligatr | Dragon's Maw | 150% damage to Dark-Type Moves | Yes |
| Skarmory | Tough Claws | 130% damage to moves that make direct contact | |
| Chimecho | Levitate | Immunity to Ground-Type Moves | |
| Absol Z | Technician | Increases 60 BP or weaker moves by 50% (e.g. 60 BP → 90 BP, 65 BP Unchanged) | Yes |
| Staraptor | Tough Claws | 130% damage to moves that make direct contact | Yes |
| Garchomp Z | Rough Skin | Physical moves used on this POkémon take ⅛ maximum HP in recoil damage | |
| Lucario Z | Mind's Eye | Ignores opponent's accuracy stat changes, & can hit Ghost-Type Pokémon with Normal- and Fighting-Type Moves | Yes |
| Froslass | Snow Warning | Snow Weather Effect | Yes |
| Heatran | Filter | Supereffective damgage taken reduced by 25% (150% without STAB, 225% with STAB) | Yes |
| Darkrai | Dark Aura | 133% damage to Dark-Type Moves (Field-Wide) | Yes |
| Emboar | Supreme Overlord | For each knocked out ally, Atk +1 & Sp. Atk +1 | Yes |
| Excadrill | Sand Rush | Doubles Speed in Sandstorm Weather | |
| Scolipede | Tinted Lens | "Not Very Effective" Moves are doubled (½ treated as ¹⁄₁, ¼ treated as ½) | Yes |
| Scrafty | Shed Skin | ⅓ chance to heal Status Conditions per turn | |
| Eelektross | Hadron Engine | Sets Electric Terrain & +1 Sp. Atk | Yes |
| Chandelure | Magic Guard | Prevents damage from non-Direct Attack moves | Yes |
| Golurk | Adaptability | Increases STAB to 2x | Yes |
| Chesnaught | Grassy Terrain | Sets Grassy Terrain | Yes |
| Delphox | Levitate | Immunity to Ground-Type Moves | Yes |
| Greninja | Protean | Changes Pokémon's Type to match the first move used (first time applicable per battle). | Yes |
| Pyroar | Drought | Intense Sun Weather Effect | Yes |
| Floette | Regenerator | 33% HP Gain when Swapped In | Yes |
| Meowstic | Psychic Surge | Sets Psychic Terrain | Yes |
| Malamar | Contrary | Inverses Stat Changes | |
| Barbacle | Tough Claws | 130% damage to moves that make direct contact | |
| Dragalge | Regenerator | 33% HP Gain when Swapped In | Yes |
| Hawlucha | Stamina | When hit by an attack, + Def | Yes |
| Crabominable | Ice Scales | ½ Sp. Atk Damage Received | Yes |
| Golisopod | Heatproof | ½ Fire-Type Damage Received | Yes |
| Drampa | Adaptability | Increases STAB to 2x | Yes |
| Zeraora | Volt Absorb | Electric-Type Attacks increase HP rather than damage HP, up to ¼ | |
| Falinks | Dauntless Shield | +1 Def first time entering field | Yes |
| Scovillain | Contrary | Inverses Stat Changes | Yes |
| Glimmora | Levitate | Immunity to Ground-Type Moves | Yes |
| Tatsugiri | Drizzle | Rain Weather Effect | Yes |
| Baxcalibur | Thermal Exchange | Boosts the Attack stat when the Pokémon is hit by a Fire-type move. The Pokémon also cannot be burned. |
Unknown Abilities
I don't know why these two Pokémon in particular do not have abilities listed in Showdown while the rest do. The only two things I noticed is that they're the only special Pokémon specifically in the base game that received a new Mega Evolution, but there are special Pokémon in the DLC that have listed abilities. Who knows?
| Mega Pokémon | Ability | Effect | New? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zygarde | |||
| Magearna |
Notes
Don't be fooled by the section title, this is an over-glorified Fun Facts section with some actual meaningful notes sprinkled in.
On Signature Abilities...
Legendary Signature Abilities
- Mega Raichu Y took Regieleki's ability, Transistor
- Mega Feraligatr took Regidraco's ability, Dragon's Maw
- Mega Darkrai took Yveltal's ability, Dark Aura
- Mega Eleektross took Miraidon's ability, Hadron Engine
Non-Legendary Signature Abilities
- Mega Victreebel took Comfee's ability, Triage (though Comfee does have another, alternative ability)
- Mega Starmie took the Meditite line's ability, Pure Power
- Mega Lucario Z took Bloodmoon Ursaluna's ability, Mind's Eye
- Mega Emboar took Kingambit's ability, Supreme Overlord
- Mega Crabominable took the Snom line's ability, Ice Scales
On a similar note, regarding Greninja in particular, Mega Greninja's ability becomes the same as its Battle Bond counterpart. Technically this ability was a Signature Ability, but it in practice functions almost exactly like Cinderace's Signature Ability, Librero. I think this is a bad sign for anyone hoping Battle Bond Greninja will return, since this would practically render Battle Bond Greninja moot outside of collection.
On Field Abilities...
Surprisingly, exactly three Pokémon in this list were given an ability setting move, one for each weather type: Froslass (Snow), Pyroar (Sun), and Tatsugiri (Rain). Instead of a new Pokémon that sets the weather to Sandstorm, Base Excadrill sets the weather to Sandstorm and then Mega Excadrill doubles its own speed in Sandstorm.
Likewise, only three of the four terrains were represented in this list (presuming none of the missing Pokémon in that second section get these abilities for some reason): Eelektross sets Electric Terrain, Chesnaught sets Grassy Terrain, and Meowstic sets Psychic Terrain. Unlike Weather moves, however, no Pokémon in this list has a weird ability that further boosts a Misty Terrain Set-Up ability.
Pokémon That Stand Out to Me
Raichu will either become a Budget Regieleki or become a Pokémon with so many possible builds that you have to play mind games during team selection. It has generic support options if you just want to run Lightning Rod Raichu. It has a No Weakness option if you decide to run a physical Mega Raichu X. It's a nuke if you run Mega Y. Three completely different builds that all sound intriguing to me that give Raichu a back-of-team role despite how frail it can be.
The heavy hitters will always stand out, but notably the ones with hyper-specific abilities like Feraligatr and Emboar will probably see some play during at least a few Mega Seasons.
Depending on how the timing will work with Dondozo and Mega Tatsugiri attempting to set rain, that might see a fair bit of play.