Haunter
Gas Pokémon
It strikes at humans from total darkness. Those licked by its cold tongue grow weaker with each passing day until they die.
Base Stats
Type Effectiveness
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Details
Sprites
Competitive
Strategy Overview
Haunter is an overall decent offensive threat, being able to serve as a wallbreaker with its Life Orb set or as a revenge killer with its Choice Scarf set. This is mostly thanks to its good base 95 Speed tier, which allows it to outspeed Pokemon such as Oricorio-E and Rotom-F and Speed tie with Pokemon such as Jynx and Primeape, and its threatening Special Attack. Furthermore, Haunter’s good Ghost / Poison typing allows it to hit almost the entire metagame neutrally with STAB attacks and combines with Levitate to give Haunter three useful immunities in Ground, Normal, and Fighting. Haunter also has a vast utility movepool that includes moves such as Destiny Bond, Trick, Will-O-Wisp, and Substitute, which allows it to better handle its checks and support its teammates. Despite this, Dark-types are always a large problem for Haunter, as Skuntank resists both of its STAB moves while Spiritomb can bypass Substitute, and both can Pursuit trap Haunter or threaten it with Sucker Punch, although they do fear certain utility or coverage moves. Haunter's abysmal defenses leave it unable to switch into even most resisted hits, and it can be easily revenge killed by faster threats and priority users assuming it does not have a Substitute up. This also makes it tricky to use as a spinblocker, as it fears moves such as Hitmonchan's Thunder Punch. Finally, Haunter faces competition from Oricorio-G, which boasts access to Calm Mind, better bulk, reliable recovery in Roost, and Dancer to give it an even better matchup against Bellossom.
Most Used Moves
Competitive data from Smogon University via data.pkmn.cc