NationalDex
nidoking
#034

Nidoking

Drill Pokémon

PoisonGround

One swing of its mighty tail can snap a telephone pole as if it were a matchstick.

Base Stats

HP 81
Attack 102
Defense 77
Sp. Atk 85
Sp. Def 75
Speed 85
Total 505

Type Effectiveness

Abilities

Evolution Chain

Moves

Details

Category Drill Pokémon
Height 1.4 m
Weight 62.0 kg
Base Exp 227
Growth Rate Medium Slow
Capture Rate 45
Base Happiness 70
Gender 100% ♂ / 0% ♀
Habitat Grassland
Egg Groups Monster ,Ground

Sprites

nidoking Front Front
nidoking Back Back
nidoking Front Shiny Front Shiny
nidoking Back Shiny Back Shiny
nidoking Official Art Official Art
nidoking Official Art (Shiny) Official Art (Shiny)

Competitive

Special Attacker
Item
Life Orb
Ability
Sheer Force
Nature
Modest
EVs
HP 4
SpA 252
Spe 252

Strategy Overview

Nidoking finds great strength in his Dream World ability, Sheer Force, which not only boosts the power of moves that have secondary effects, but also negates recoil damage from Life Orb when said moves are used. Base 85 Speed isn't the greatest for a sweeper, but with enough investment, it suffices for Nidoking's purposes. To add to this, Nidoking has an amazing special movepool, which includes powerful moves such as Thunderbolt and Ice Beam; one can even use Nidoking on a weather team in order to use moves such as Blizzard and Thunder. However, Nidoking is fairly frail, and will fold to nearly any attack that comes its way. This is a huge drawback of using Nidoking, but if you can work around its issues, you will clearly see how much of a monster he can be for your opponent.

Competitive data from Smogon University via data.pkmn.cc