Pokémon Rillaboom

[astralydia]

(I couldn't find a model image so please do tell me once one is available)
Rillaboom

Type(s) - [Grass]
Base Stats - 100 HP / 125 Atk / 90 Def / 60 SAtk / 70 SDef / 85 Spe

Abilities: Overgrow / Grassy Surge

full moveset

Level Up:
- Drum Beating
- Branch Poke
- Double Hit
- Grassy Terrain
- Growl
- Noble Roar
- Scratch
- Taunt
- [12] Razor Leaf
- [19] Screech
- [24] Knock Off
- [30] Slam
- [38] Uproar
- [46] Wood Hammer
- [54] Endeavor
- [62] Boomburst

TMs:

00 Mega Punch
01 Mega Kick
08 Hyper Beam
09 Giga Impact
10 Magical Leaf
11 Solar Beam
12 Solar Blade
16 Screech
21 Rest
24 Snore
25 Protect
26 Scary Face
28 Giga Drain
31 Attract
34 Sunny Day
39 Facade
40 Swift
43 Brick Break
50 Bullet Seed
53 Mud Shot
56 U-turn
58 Assurance
59 Fling
63 Drain Punch
76 Round
78 Acrobatics
81 Bulldoze
85 Snarl
88 Grassy Terrain
94 False Swipe
97 Brutal Swing
98 Stomping Tantrum

TRs:

00 Swords Dance
01 Body Slam
07 Low Kick
10 Earthquake
13 Focus Energy
20 Substitute
26 Endure
27 Sleep Talk
35 Uproar
37 Taunt
39 Superpower
42 Hyper Voice
48 Bulk Up
64 Superpower
65 Energy Ball
67 Earth Power
71 Leaf Storm
77 Grass Knot
85 Work Up
93 Darkest Lariat
94 High Horsepower
99 Body Press

Tutor:
Grass Pledge

Egg by Grookey:
- Fake Out
- Growth
- Hammer Arm
- Leech Seed
- Nature Power
- Strength
- Worry Seed

Notable Moves

- Drum Beating
- Knock Off
- Wood Hammer
- Boomburst
- Bulk Up
- High Horsepower
- Superpower
- Swords Dance
- Taunt
- U-turn
- Hammer Arm

Drum Beating - 80 BP, 100% Acc, 10 BP, Has a 100% chance to lower the target's Speed by 1 stage.

General overview of the Pokemon, positives/negatives

Rillaboom may remind you of one of our fallen brethren, Tapu Bulu, which has already proved itself to be very strong in the past metagame. Rillaboom is however in new surroundings and has its Grassy Surge ability locked out for now - sadly this means that Rillaboom may have some difficulties getting started in the metagame. Right now, Rillaboom has decent coverage backed up by a solid 125 base Attack stat and some solid defenses of 100/90/70 which can allow it to switch in to monsters like Barraskewda and Excadrill. It also appreciates new surroundings, as good pivots to Tapu Bulu like Tornadus-T, Celesteela and Heatran are now gone, with the only Pokemon giving it trouble alike those three being Corviknight. Sadly, unlike Tapu Bulu, Rillaboom does not have access to Synthesis, meaning that it doesn't have any good forms of recovery except Protect + Grassy Surge, and this can be detrimental to its overall effectiveness, especially starting out. However, it does have strong Ground coverage not effected by Grassy Terrain, and it also has access to U-turn and Knock Off, which give it a more of a utility role in Sword and Shield.

TL;DR:

Pros:
Has a decent set of coverage options, Wood Hammer, Knock Off, Superpower covers a fair majority of the metagame.
Strong bulk allows it to be a pivot to multiple potent Pokemon in SwSh.

Cons:
Its main redeeming ability, Grassy Surge, is locked behind an event which means that Rillaboom's recovery and damage are gimped
No recovery options mean that it will tend to die to chip very easily
Rillaboom has no coverage for Flying types

Dynamaxing potential

Rillaboom is a fairly solid strategy with access to two brilliant Max moves in Overgrowth and Knuckle as well as very high BP stabs backing them up. Given the form of a Substitute + Bulk Up set it is capable of potentially smashing through counters like Corviknight because of Max Knuckle's Attack increase and the 2x HP boost that Dynamaxing gives allowing it to easily live Corviknight's Brave Birds. Other than this however, Corviknight's relatively low base Speed and the lack of a speed boosting Max move other than Acrobatics may give it some hard competition over other Dynamaxxers.

Potential Movesets

Pre-Grassy Surge

Rillaboom @ Leftovers
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Drum Beating / Wood Hammer
- Superpower / Hammer Arm / Knock Off
- Bulk Up
- Substitute

Sub Bulk Up Rillaboom is possibly the big monkey's biggest niche right now. As a standalone Pokemon it's able of switching into Barraskewda once and capable of switching into Toxapex and stalemating it with Substitute. Bulk Up with a large Defense investment makes Corviknight unable to break its Substitute with a U-turn and Brave Bird will not break it guaranteed at +2. The primary issue here is that Rillaboom finds it difficult to harm innate resistances like Gengar, Aegislash and Dragapult without Knock Off and is less capable of Dynamax if it drops Fighting coverage for Knock Off.

Rillaboom @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Superpower
- Knock Off
- U-turn

This has a bit more potential in a Dynamax metagame as an anti-Dynamax option. Wood Hammer still hits very strong against neutral targets and Rillaboom's innate bulk gives it the power to switch into Max Geyser users. It still has trouble dealing with Gyarados however and struggles to deal enough damage to Gengar and the other threatening new Nasty Plot users to be capable of fully killing them. The potential of this set may likely only be realized post Grassy Surge.

Post Grassy Surge
(these will include the old sets)
Rillaboom @ Choice Band
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Superpower
- Knock Off
- U-turn

Backed with significantly more power, Rillaboom can now effectively damage a good portion of its resistances like Dracovish and Dragapult even hitting it with Wood Hammer. Be prepared to watch out for this one if Grassy Surge gets released.

Rillaboom @ Leftovers / Miracle Seed
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Superpower
- Substitute / Knock Off
- Swords Dance

Also potentially very scary to see. Slow speed does really screw this mon over but its excellent initial power + the improved recovery from Grassy Surge gives this mon tons of potential switchins to disrupt opponents. Substitute can still be used as always against Toxapex but Knock Off may prove more useful for Aegislash and Dragapult if they continue to stay in the metagame.

 

[lydian]

serebii has a really good image. id recommend checking there. but yeah this mon looks really good! bulu v2 once it's ha drops.

this post was made by grookey gang!

 

[Revelation]

Is Drain Punch not worth mentioning? Works well with Bulk Up and it’s some recovery.

 

[astralydia]

Is Drain Punch not worth mentioning? Works well with Bulk Up and it’s some recovery.

Given Rillaboom's high HP and access to stronger coverage I figured it wasn't really worth it considering it really wants that power increase

 

[Flarowak]

This Pokemon looks extremely promising, especially after it gets grassy surge. One of the pros it will have over bulu that I really appreciate is keeping momentum with U-Turn. That and knock off make up for it not being bulu in my book lol. Not to mention the slightly better speed tier. Banded sets will be very good when he can finally be his true self in terrain. Idk if I will ever go back to bulu unless I really just need a fair lol.

 

[mikelos]

it has fake out on egg move. i am surprised nobody has that

 

[Flarowak]

it has fake out on egg move. i am surprised nobody has that

Because dynamax can't be flinched is what my assumption would be tbh.

 

[jmcdavid]

Honestly, I feel like Drum Beating should be practically mandatory. One or two uses, and the Speed debuffs on the enemy will make it easy to outspeed the enemy Pokemon..

 

[Matleo]

weird that they didn't give other grass types grassy surge instead?

Ok looks cool, stats good, moves are boomburstic, Drum Beating should be a sound move by the way.
Taking its signature moves and jap name is Drum attack would make it a sound move to let it take down Substitutes.
A grass sound move, hope they make that small change happen in future. The sound waves control the roots but could also send sound energy with them and through them like in game animations shown.

It looks part steel or rock to me(dark too). Waste oportunity to make a grass/rock, grass/electric or grass/steel pokemon here. Would got so much potential here. Those grey or silver parts would make fantastic excuse for steel typing to protect it from the speedy ice overpowered Inteleon, part rock would give a little Cinderace coverage on psychic terrain.

Realy needs some rock and steel moves and Spiky Shield could be done with that hair of it.(Chesnaught could get Feint and moves to break through, Decidueye has Phantom Force)

weird it didnt get a move to switch oponents out like Circle Throw or Roar actually taking it learn 2 roar like moves.
U-turn for self switching is nice too.

weak special defense... it can use fake out, drain punch and boomburst atleast and reduce oponents speed(1 stage), they could have made it a sound move and a priority move that drum beating or make it harsh reduce speed 2 stages... and boost from speed into sp.def 10 points.

Hope for secondary ability Soundproof or a new better sound ability?(immunity to sound and sending it back to oponent similar like dancer)

 

[Krawdaunt]

Starters don't get secondary abilities. Only HA.

weird that they didn't give other grass types grassy surge instead?

Ok looks cool, stats good, moves are boomburstic, Drum Beating should be a sound move by the way.
Taking its signature moves and jap name is Drum attack would make it a sound move to let it take down Substitutes.
A grass sound move, hope they make that small change happen in future. The sound waves control the roots but could also send sound energy with them and through them like in game animations shown.

It looks part steel or rock to me(dark too). Waste oportunity to make a grass/rock, grass/electric or grass/steel pokemon here. Would got so much potential here. Those grey or silver parts would make fantastic excuse for steel typing to protect it from the speedy ice overpowered Inteleon, part rock would give a little Cinderace coverage on psychic terrain.

Realy needs some rock and steel moves and Spiky Shield could be done with that hair of it.(Chesnaught could get Feint and moves to break through, Decidueye has Phantom Force)

weird it didnt get a move to switch oponents out like Circle Throw or Roar actually taking it learn 2 roar like moves.
U-turn for self switching is nice too.

weak special defense... it can use fake out, drain punch and boomburst atleast and reduce oponents speed(1 stage), they could have made it a sound move and a priority move that drum beating or make it harsh reduce speed 2 stages... and boost from speed into sp.def 10 points.

Hope for secondary ability Soundproof or a new better sound ability?(immunity to sound and sending it back to oponent similar like dancer)

 

[Matleo]

Starters don't get secondary abilities. Only HA.

and thats very bad and sad because so much potential would be in something better then grassy surge.
Especially when it could have gotten soundproof or something even better like Echo Drum(immunity +sending back sound moves at the same time)

 

[Krawdaunt]

and thats very bad and sad because so much potential would be in something better then grassy surge.
Especially when it could have gotten soundproof or something even better like Echo Drum(immunity +sending back sound moves at the same time)

Are you kidding? Soundproof would have been not great. There aren't thaaaaat many sound moves. Grassy Surge is excellent ability. Between his HA, his stats, and movepool he is like Tapu Bulu, without fairy typing, but much better movepool. Rillaboom with HA is one of the best starters this gen along with Libero Cinderace.

Getting up grassy Surge simply by existing is fantastic. It Powers up grass moves, decreases the power of Earthquake, and gives passive recovery to the team.

 

[Matleo]

Are you kidding? Soundproof would have been not great. There aren't thaaaaat many sound moves. Grassy Surge is excellent ability. Between his HA, his stats, and movepool he is like Tapu Bulu, without fairy typing, but much better movepool. Rillaboom with HA is one of the best starters this gen along with Libero Cinderace.

Getting up grassy Surge simply by existing is fantastic. It Powers up grass moves, decreases the power of Earthquake, and gives passive recovery to the team.

till it meets other generations outside... Yeah but as grassy terrain setter?
Hope they give that role to a new mega.
I wouldn't complain if it would be part rock(less weaknesses) or steel(immunity to poison and resistances)
here then the Bulldoze and Erthquake reduction matters
(High Horse Power warning here)
Comparing it to Tapu Bulu isn't making it better.

It's speed and sp. defense lets wishing.

Also compare it to all other pokemon, other pure grass types... 5 weaknesses?
Its nice but feels unfinished especially ability and weak learnset wise.
Bullet Punch or Smart Strike would be nice here.

 

[Krawdaunt]

till it meets other generations outside... Yeah but as grassy terrain setter?
Comparing it to Tapu Bulu isn't making it better.

It's speed and sp. defense lets wishing.

Also compare it to all other pokemon, other pure grass types... 5 weaknesses?
Its nice but feels unfinished especially ability and moveset wise.

It actually has quite a few merits compared to Bulu tbh. Namely his movepool and better speed. Either way being comparable to Tapu Bulu is definitely a boon considering how present it was last gen.

I honestly don't know what you mean by the last part of your statement.

 

[Matleo]

It actually has quite a few merits compared to Bulu tbh. Namely his movepool and better speed. Either way being comparable to Tapu Bulu is definitely a boon considering how present it was last gen.

I honestly don't know what you mean by the last part of your statement.

Rillaboom meets Venusaur? who wins and why?
Rillaboom meets Talonflame?
Rillaboom meets Serperior or Sceptile using a physical flying, poison or bug move... you get what I mean.

Fake Out and attack rescues it here actually I think.
Oh my gosh forgot Gale Wings, First Impression and psychic terrain here... my bad here...

You know if they would make Drum Beating a sound move I would not complain...
could make it reduce speed and work like Throat chop at least.

It even didn't got Throat Chop.

Grassy surge and drain punch are good if You can use them before the oponent does by right switch in and out.

Speed and move pool are nice but immunity(via type or ability), resitance would give it more usage.

Take Cinderace with Libero and Bounce or a flying move, it outspeeds ground moves and gets immunity against them in the same turn, you get what I mean here? Greninja?

Before it can move Inteleon will finish it of with Sniper and a Blizzard...

If we would have a full dex with every pokemon, move, ability, mega, z-move, how good would it really be next to Tapu Bulu that has a immunity?

Compare it to other monotype grass types then it will shine, compare it too all pokemon that ever where created...

I hope in future there will be more sound moves, seeing it's Drum and appearance hoped for something more here then a strong physical monotype grass type again.

 

[Flarowak]

Rillaboom is going to be just fine, it's going to be bulu but maybe even better imo. Not only it bumped up to a usable speed tier at the cost of a bit of atk, but it also gets access to U-Turn which will help it maintain momentum for the team. (Bulu couldn't do this) Combine this with a strong knock off, superpower for ferro and a signature move that can bring a lot of moms down to your speed tier (or even just wood hammer to bring the pain) and you've got a great wallbreaker. As life orb sets did work for me when I toyed with him as well.

 

[jfowls]

Rillaboom merts Venusaur? who wins and why?
Rillaboom mrets Talonflame?
Rillaboom meets Serperior or Sceptile using a physical flying, poison or bug move... you get what I mean.

Fake Out and attack rescues it here actually I think.
Oh my gosh forgot Gale Wings, First Impression and psychic terrain here... my bad here...

You know if they would make Drum Beating a sound move I would not complain...
could make it reduce speed and work like Throat chop at least.

It even didn't got Throat Chop.

Grassy surge and drain punch are good if You can use them before the oponent does by right switch in and out.

Speed and move pool are nice but immunity(via type or ability), resitance would give it more usage.

Take Cinderace with Libero and Bounce or a flying move, it outspeeds ground moves and gets immunity against them in the same turn, you get what I mean here? Greninja?

Before it can move Inteleon will finish it of with Sniper and a Blizzard...

If we would have a full dex with every pokemon, move, ability, mega, z-move, how good would it really be next to Tapu Bulu that has a immunity?

Compare it to other monotype grass types then it will shine, compare it too all pokemon that ever where created...

I hope in future there will be more sound moves, seeing it's Drum and appearance hoped for something more here then a strong physical monotype grass type again.

I don’t understand your point with Venusaur and Talonflame (it’s not even in this game and wasn’t even OU last gen?) or the grass types because those are checks and counters, every mon has them. At least Rillaboom has U-turn to keep momentum if his counters/checks try switching in and will do super-effective damage against most opposing grass types. Grassy surge is also a very good ability, providing a boost to STAB grass moves, supporting teammates that are weak to Earthquake, and providing extra passive recovery. Drum Beating is also a solid signature move that I can see having some merit because it can slow down an opponent for him to be able to get an extra attack off on or for one of his teammates to be able to handle better, plus 80 bp boosted by Grassy Surge will hit fairly hard coming off a base 125 atk.

Once his HA is realeased I think he will most commonly function as a Choice Band wallbreaker with some use as a bulky Pivot/Set-up or Choice Scarfer, similar to how Tapu Bulu did. He still has powerful STAB moves in Wood Hammer/Drum Beating and good coverage with Superpower/Drain Punch, but also has extra utility in Knock Off and U-turn as well as Ground type coverage in High Horsepower that Bulu did not have. Not to mention he only has 5 less in attack, similar bulk, and 10 extra points of speed (this is very important because with Choice Scarf he can actually out speed huge threats such as +1 Jolly Gyarados and max speed Timid/Jolly Dragapult) compared to Bulu. With grassy surge I think he will perform on a comparable level as Tapu Bulu did last gen, if not better in some cases.

 

[illistraex]

Rillaboom will be OU once his hidden ability is released. Grassy Terrain is important because of the interaction with Hawlucha. Rillaboom opens Grassy Terrain then use U-Turn to bring out Hawlucha. Grassy Seed boosts Hawlucha's defense while Unburden boosts Hawlucha's speed. Dynamax into Max Knuckle and it just snowballs from there. This likely won't be a centralizing combination but it is quite deadly and should see OU play. And this isn't even getting into Rillaboom's status as a bulky physical attacker with his amazing movepool that he can pull from.

Yes he's got quite a few weaknesses but him being a mono-grass type isn't the end of the world. Every mon has checks and counters but his aren't so bad that it will render him useless and I too think he's just as good as Tapu Bulu, if not better due to all these factors. I don't think you give his bulk enough credit. 100/90/70 and then you factor in Grassy Terrain and Leftovers and uh.. he's not going to be quite that easy to kill as you might think.

 

[Matleo]

Rillaboom will be OU once his hidden ability is released. Grassy Terrain is important because of the interaction with Hawlucha. Rillaboom opens Grassy Terrain then use U-Turn to bring out Hawlucha. Grassy Seed boosts Hawlucha's defense while Unburden boosts Hawlucha's speed. Dynamax into Max Knuckle and it just snowballs from there. This likely won't be a centralizing combination but it is quite deadly and should see OU play. And this isn't even getting into Rillaboom's status as a bulky physical attacker with his amazing movepool that he can pull from.

Yes he's got quite a few weaknesses but him being a mono-grass type isn't the end of the world. Every mon has checks and counters but his aren't so bad that it will render him useless and I too think he's just as good as Tapu Bulu, if not better due to all these factors. I don't think you give his bulk enough credit. 100/90/70 and then you factor in Grassy Terrain and Leftovers and uh.. he's not going to be quite that easy to kill as you might think.

Depends if he gets a chance to move and escape.

 

[Capriciousmistress]

Would Assault Vest be worth trying?

 

[G-Luke]

and thats very bad and sad because so much potential would be in something better then grassy surge.
Especially when it could have gotten soundproof or something even better like Echo Drum(immunity +sending back sound moves at the same time)

Pass me the blunt of what you are smoking, for thinking that Grassy Surge is worse than Soundproof.

Rillaboom merts Venusaur? who wins and why?
Rillaboom mrets Talonflame?
Rillaboom meets Serperior or Sceptile using a physical flying, poison or bug move... you get what I mean.

Fake Out and attack rescues it here actually I think.
Oh my gosh forgot Gale Wings, First Impression and psychic terrain here... my bad here...

You know if they would make Drum Beating a sound move I would not complain...
could make it reduce speed and work like Throat chop at least.

It even didn't got Throat Chop.

Grassy surge and drain punch are good if You can use them before the oponent does by right switch in and out.

Speed and move pool are nice but immunity(via type or ability), resitance would give it more usage.

Take Cinderace with Libero and Bounce or a flying move, it outspeeds ground moves and gets immunity against them in the same turn, you get what I mean here? Greninja?

Before it can move Inteleon will finish it of with Sniper and a Blizzard...

If we would have a full dex with every pokemon, move, ability, mega, z-move, how good would it really be next to Tapu Bulu that has a immunity?

Compare it to other monotype grass types then it will shine, compare it too all pokemon that ever where created...

I hope in future there will be more sound moves, seeing it's Drum and appearance hoped for something more here then a strong physical monotype grass type again.

I do not get the point of these. Talonflame, Serperior and Sceptile don't exist and ofc Venusaur beats Grass types (it beats every Grass type outside of Ferrothorn and itself). Even still Serperior does not use physical moves and Sceptile is unviable.

Why does it need Throat Chop when it learns the significantly better and more useful Knock Off?

You mentioning things like needing an immunity is pretty arbritray - every Pokemon gets better with more immunities.

Drum Beating being a sound move would be cool, but regardless if it had it or not it would not make or break Rillaboom's viability.

Like some of these comparisions are just weird. Rillaboom is kinda weird to compare to Bulu, since Bulu lacks tools lile Ground coverage and Knock Off and U-turn.

 

[Divine Retribution]

Pass me the blunt of what you are smoking, for thinking that Grassy Surge is worse than Soundproof.



I do not get the point of these. Talonflame, Serperior and Sceptile don't exist and ofc Venusaur beats Grass types (it beats every Grass type outside of Ferrothorn and itself).

Why does it need Throat Chop when it learns the significantly better and more useful Knock Off?

You mentioning things like needing an immunity is pretty arbritray - every Pokemon gets better with more immunities.

Drum Beating being a sound move would be cool, but regardless if it had it or not it would not make or break Rillaboom's viability.

Like some of these comparisions are just weird. Rillaboom is kinda weird to compare to Bulu, since Bulu lacks tools lile Ground coverage and Knock Off and U-turn.

This user's posts are all horribly uninformed barely coherent nonsense. There's no point responding to him when he clearly fundamentally has no idea what he's talking about to begin with.

 

[Its_Lorelei]

This user's posts are all horribly uninformed barely coherent nonsense. There's no point responding to him when he clearly fundamentally has no idea what he's talking about to begin with.

See what I mean?

 

[Matleo]

Pass me the blunt of what you are smoking, for thinking that Grassy Surge is worse than Soundproof.



I do not get the point of these. Talonflame, Serperior and Sceptile don't exist and ofc Venusaur beats Grass types (it beats every Grass type outside of Ferrothorn and itself). Even still Serperior does not use physical moves and Sceptile is unviable.

Why does it need Throat Chop when it learns the significantly better and more useful Knock Off?

You mentioning things like needing an immunity is pretty arbritray - every Pokemon gets better with more immunities.

Drum Beating being a sound move would be cool, but regardless if it had it or not it would not make or break Rillaboom's viability.

Like some of these comparisions are just weird. Rillaboom is kinda weird to compare to Bulu, since Bulu lacks tools lile Ground coverage and Knock Off and U-turn.
[/Spoiler] like you said. Its a good mono type galar mon. Steel would help it in future. It has Fake Out?

still many bugs can handle it easy. Without fake out its very vulnerable.

 

[G-Luke]

still many bugs can handle it easy. Without fake out its very vulnerable.

**Looks for Bug types in OU**