[overview]
**Draft Order**: Round 7 onwards
**Price Range**: 6-4 points
**Overview**: Golurk is a solid piece to round out teams that are in need of an offensive Ground type, Ghost type, or Rapid Spin blocker. Its decent bulk allows it to survive most attacks and hit back with a devastating attack coming off of one of its two high BP STAB attacks: Poltergeist and Earthquake. This, paired with great coverage options, make Golurk a very hard pokemon to switch into. However, due to its bulk only being “decent” and its speed being pitiful at best, Golurk often has trouble finding its way safely onto the field. It thrives versus less offensive teams, where it’s able to find more opportunities to switch in and wreak havoc with its dual STABs. Versus offensive teams, it can often only switch in after a slow pivot, after an allied pokemon faints, or into an electric, fighting or normal type attack. Out of the other low-tier Ground and Ghost options, Golurk is definitely one of the most offensively potent to choose from.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Wallbreaker**: Golurk holds the Choice Band item and clicks Poltergeist/Earthquake to 2HKO or OHKO nearly everything that shows up on its screen.
**Bulky Offensive**: This is the classification for any set Golurk runs that isn’t a Choice Band one. Since Normal and Flying/Levitate Pokémon are immune to Golurk’s STAB combination of Ghost and Ground respectively, being able to switch up moves can be extremely valuable, as using a banded move into an immunity can be a huge momentum sink for your team. These sets still often run 4 attacks, but sometimes move slots can be replaced by options like Stealth Rock and Substitute.
**Klutz Troll**: Golurk’s offensive options almost always yield greater results than cheesing with Klutz, but tricking a defensive Pokémon Assault Vest or Sticky Barb can be funnier than 2HKOing them with a banded move.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Poltergeist, Earthquake
**Setup Moves**: Iron Defense
**Utility Moves**: Brick Break, Bulldoze, Stealth Rock, Substitute, Trick, Knock Off
**Coverage**: Close Combat, Dynamic Punch, Drain Punch, Body Press, Fire Punch, Heat Crash, Heavy Slam, Ice Punch, Stone Edge, Thunder Punch, Zen Headbutt
Niche Moves
========
**High Horsepower**: High Horsepower can be used over Earthquake in games where Rillaboom or Seed Sower Arboliva can set Grassy Terrain.
**Smack Down**: A Golurk who doesn’t want to be choice-locked can run Smack Down versus defensive Pokémon that would otherwise wall Golurk’s stab attacks, like Skarmory or Corviknight. Choice Band Poltergeist would be able to 2HKO either of these Pokémon if they are holding an item, but a team very weak to Golurk may opt to run no item on Pokémon like Skarmory or Corviknight to check it. A Corviknight with Pressure and Roost can also stall out Poltergeist’s PP to beat it.
**Psych Up**: Psych Up can be used to copy the stats of a boosting Pokémon. For Golurk, this is pretty much only useful versus Curse boosting Pokémon like Snorlax, since other boosting Pokémon will likely outspeed Golurk and KO it before it can use Psych Up.
**Curse**: In a pinch, Curse can be used on defensively-boosted Pokémon getting out of hand, like a tera’ed Deoxys-Defense, to eventually take them out or force a switch. Curse can also be used as a set-up option if Golurk is to be tera’ed out of its Ghost typing.
**Endure**: Endure can be used in combination with a Custap Berry to near-ensure Golurk gets an extra attack off before going down.
**Shadow Punch**: Shadow Punch would only ever be used as an alternative Ghost STAB move while using Iron Fist over No Guard. Due to its much lower base power however, the 10% miss risk on Poltergeist is almost always worth dealing with over using Shadow Punch.
**Focus Punch**: Focus Punch is an alternative to running Dynamic Punch on sets that include substitute and Iron Fist. Getting up a Substitute on a switch and using Focus Punch with an Iron Fist boost can end up doing more damage than either of your STAB attacks.
Common Items
========
**Choice Band**: Using a Choice Band alongside STAB options of 100+ BP turn Golurk into a fearsome wallbreaker that is extremely hard to switch into, potentially even OHKOing frail targets that take its attacks neutrally.
**Resistance Berry**: Although Golurk’s bulk is solid, it often isn’t enough to live strong super effective attacks. Resistance berries can surprise your opponent and turn what otherwise would be a OHKO for them into an OHKO for you. The most common of these berries is Colbur Berry, which protects Golurk from going down to a strong Knock Off, sometimes even protecting it from being 2HKOed by Knock Off.
**Assault Vest**: Since Golurk often likes to run 4 attacks, running an Assault Vest can help it stand up to threats like Raging Bolt and Dragapult. In conjunction with Klutz, using Trick with an Assault Vest can be debilitating to any Pokémon who wants to use primarily status moves, like Prankster Pokémon or defensive Pokémon such as Gastrodon.
**Expert Belt**: One big positive of Golurk is that it has incredible coverage options, nearly covering all options that can switch into its main two STAB attacks. Holding an Expert Belt takes advantage of this elite coverage, turning potential 2HKOs into OHKOs.
Niche Items
========
**Debilitating items**: With Klutz, Golurk can Trick a debilitating item onto an enemy without the usual drawback that it would put on itself. Items like Sticky Barb, Lagging Tail, and Toxic Orb are options for this. Again, running Klutz on Golurk is often worse than going with its other two offensive abilities.
**Custap Berry**: Custap Berry can be used alongside endure to insure Golurk gets off one more attack before fainting. Because of Golurk’s solid bulk, Endure is sometimes not needed to reach the HP threshold needed to activate Custap Berry.
**Rocky Helmet**: Golurk’s resistance to Bug and a myriad of other types allow it to chip opponents overtime with Rocky Helmet, especially versus Pokémon using U-Turn.
**Life Orb**: Due to Golurk’s exceptional coverage options, Expert Belt is often better than Life Orb, but sometimes the extra 0.1x damage can be the difference between a 2HKO and an OHKO.
**Leftovers/Sitrus Berry**: Leftovers usually aren't worth bringing on Golurk, since its “OK” bulk only allow it to live a few hits at most. However, Golurk has no way to recover its health outside of using items. Leftovers can be useful on sets utilizing Substitute. Sitrus Berry can sometimes be used to turn a 2HKO into a 3HKO.
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: Golurk doesn’t usually want to run Heavy-Duty Boots due to its resistance to Stealth Rock, but versus a hazard stacking team and not great options for hazard removal, Golurk may need Heavy-Duty Boots to stay healthy throughout a game.
Tera
========
Due to Golurk’s natural typing of Ground and Ghost having a whopping three immunities and three other resistances, Golurk is not a great option to choose as your tera captain. However, Golurk can use tera to its advantage, either patching up some of its 5 weaknesses or to bolster its wallbreaking power to ridiculous heights. Offensively, Ground and Ghost are both good options, the former allowing you to still wall Electric moves and the latter allowing you to still spin-block and stop Fighting types in their tracks. For a mix of defensive and offensive, tera Fighting can be solid to both resist Dark and boost the power of Dynamic Punch. To tera purely defensively, options like tera Steel, Fairy, and Poison can all work situationally.
Draft Strategy
========
A player should never plan their draft around Golurk unless the format is low-tier only. Golurk is often taken towards the end of the draft to grab a needed Ground or Ghost type for their team. It can also serve as a good physical wallbreaker on a team that is lacking one.
**Slow pivots**: Golurk's bulk just being “alright” is a huge thorn in its side, as it has a hard time making its way safely onto the field. Slow pivots such as Slowking, Slowking Galar and Corviknight can allow Golurk to get onto the field and start doing what it does best: punching holes in the enemy team.
**Electric/Fighting weak Pokémon**: Pokémon that are especially weak to electric and fighting type attacks appreciate having Golurk around, as its immunities to both types make enemies think twice about clicking their super-effective moves. One easy entry point for Golurk can result in a game-losing scenario for an opposing team, as its wallbreaking power can overwhelm a lot of unprepared teams.
**Entry hazards**: As a Ghost type, Golurk can serve as a Rapid Spin blocker, allowing your hazards to stay on the field. Dedicated hazard setters like Ting-Lu and Hisuian Samurott would appreciate a more reliable spin blocker like Gholdengo, but Pokémon like Scream Tail, Jirachi or Tinkaton who aim to quickly get up rocks can benefit from having a Ghost type like Golurk that can also function as an offensive threat.
**Limiting item removal on surrounding teammates**: Because of Poltergeist failing when used on a Pokémon with no item, when using Poltergeist Golurk, the rest of your team shouldn’t aim to Knock Off Pokémon that you would otherwise want to hit with a Poltergeist. You shouldn’t look to draft Golurk on a team with something like Tornadus-Therian; a Pokémon who wants to spam Knock Off throughout a game.
**Hazard control**: Golurk prefers to not run Heavy-Duty Boots, and it has no way to recover damage that it may take throughout a game. Having a way to remove hazards, especially Spikes, can go a long way for Golurk’s longevity.
Checks and Counters
========
**Strong super-effective attacks**: Because of Golurks aforementioned “alright” bulk, it usually doesn’t have what it takes to withstand a strong offensive attack without a resist berry. The worst part is, because of Golurks pitiful speed, those strong super-effective attacks don’t necessarily have to be coming off of fast Pokémon; they can come off of other bulky wall breakers that have a higher speed stat than Golurk.
**Normal/Flying/Levitate Pokémon**: Golurk’s two STABs both have immunities attached to them. Because of this, there are a lot of Pokémon that can take advantage of a Choice Band STAB attack from Golurk. There are also a few pokemon that either resist or are immune to both of Golurk’s STAB, like Hydregion, and Staraptor. Playing versus these Pokémon require you to have to play very predictive instead of just being able to click your main two attacks that you want to be clicking.
**Knock Off**: Knock Off is an extremely common move found on many Pokémon. Colbur Berry is the best way to deal with knock-off, and without it, knock off can seriously hamper Golurk. Not only does it threaten an OHKO or 2HKO; it also can take a Choice Band off Golurk, hampering its ability to wallbreak.
**Single-use items/no item**: An easy way to check Golurk is by bringing a defensive Pokémon resistant or immune to Earthquake and not bringing an item on it to make Poltergeist fail and essentially wall Golurk easily. Skarmory and Corviknight are the easiest Pokémon to pull this off with. Lower tier Pokémon like Uxie, Chesnaught and Weezing can do the same thing.
**Chip damage**: Since Golurk has no way to recover health, and doesn’t have access to Pain Split like a lot of other Ghost Pokémon, it is easy to whittle down Golurk slowly. Its low speed doesn’t help with this, meaning when Golurk gets too low, it will often turn into a sacrifice. Because of this, stacking hazards versus Golurk or chipping it slowly with pivoting moves can eventually get Golurk low enough to KO in one hit.
[credits]
Written by https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/children-game-pro.677970/
Quality checked by:
Grammar checked by:
**Draft Order**: Round 7 onwards
**Price Range**: 6-4 points
**Overview**: Golurk is a solid piece to round out teams that are in need of an offensive Ground type, Ghost type, or Rapid Spin blocker. Its decent bulk allows it to survive most attacks and hit back with a devastating attack coming off of one of its two high BP STAB attacks: Poltergeist and Earthquake. This, paired with great coverage options, make Golurk a very hard pokemon to switch into. However, due to its bulk only being “decent” and its speed being pitiful at best, Golurk often has trouble finding its way safely onto the field. It thrives versus less offensive teams, where it’s able to find more opportunities to switch in and wreak havoc with its dual STABs. Versus offensive teams, it can often only switch in after a slow pivot, after an allied pokemon faints, or into an electric, fighting or normal type attack. Out of the other low-tier Ground and Ghost options, Golurk is definitely one of the most offensively potent to choose from.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Wallbreaker**: Golurk holds the Choice Band item and clicks Poltergeist/Earthquake to 2HKO or OHKO nearly everything that shows up on its screen.
**Bulky Offensive**: This is the classification for any set Golurk runs that isn’t a Choice Band one. Since Normal and Flying/Levitate Pokémon are immune to Golurk’s STAB combination of Ghost and Ground respectively, being able to switch up moves can be extremely valuable, as using a banded move into an immunity can be a huge momentum sink for your team. These sets still often run 4 attacks, but sometimes move slots can be replaced by options like Stealth Rock and Substitute.
**Klutz Troll**: Golurk’s offensive options almost always yield greater results than cheesing with Klutz, but tricking a defensive Pokémon Assault Vest or Sticky Barb can be funnier than 2HKOing them with a banded move.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Poltergeist, Earthquake
**Setup Moves**: Iron Defense
**Utility Moves**: Brick Break, Bulldoze, Stealth Rock, Substitute, Trick, Knock Off
**Coverage**: Close Combat, Dynamic Punch, Drain Punch, Body Press, Fire Punch, Heat Crash, Heavy Slam, Ice Punch, Stone Edge, Thunder Punch, Zen Headbutt
Niche Moves
========
**High Horsepower**: High Horsepower can be used over Earthquake in games where Rillaboom or Seed Sower Arboliva can set Grassy Terrain.
**Smack Down**: A Golurk who doesn’t want to be choice-locked can run Smack Down versus defensive Pokémon that would otherwise wall Golurk’s stab attacks, like Skarmory or Corviknight. Choice Band Poltergeist would be able to 2HKO either of these Pokémon if they are holding an item, but a team very weak to Golurk may opt to run no item on Pokémon like Skarmory or Corviknight to check it. A Corviknight with Pressure and Roost can also stall out Poltergeist’s PP to beat it.
**Psych Up**: Psych Up can be used to copy the stats of a boosting Pokémon. For Golurk, this is pretty much only useful versus Curse boosting Pokémon like Snorlax, since other boosting Pokémon will likely outspeed Golurk and KO it before it can use Psych Up.
**Curse**: In a pinch, Curse can be used on defensively-boosted Pokémon getting out of hand, like a tera’ed Deoxys-Defense, to eventually take them out or force a switch. Curse can also be used as a set-up option if Golurk is to be tera’ed out of its Ghost typing.
**Endure**: Endure can be used in combination with a Custap Berry to near-ensure Golurk gets an extra attack off before going down.
**Shadow Punch**: Shadow Punch would only ever be used as an alternative Ghost STAB move while using Iron Fist over No Guard. Due to its much lower base power however, the 10% miss risk on Poltergeist is almost always worth dealing with over using Shadow Punch.
**Focus Punch**: Focus Punch is an alternative to running Dynamic Punch on sets that include substitute and Iron Fist. Getting up a Substitute on a switch and using Focus Punch with an Iron Fist boost can end up doing more damage than either of your STAB attacks.
Common Items
========
**Choice Band**: Using a Choice Band alongside STAB options of 100+ BP turn Golurk into a fearsome wallbreaker that is extremely hard to switch into, potentially even OHKOing frail targets that take its attacks neutrally.
**Resistance Berry**: Although Golurk’s bulk is solid, it often isn’t enough to live strong super effective attacks. Resistance berries can surprise your opponent and turn what otherwise would be a OHKO for them into an OHKO for you. The most common of these berries is Colbur Berry, which protects Golurk from going down to a strong Knock Off, sometimes even protecting it from being 2HKOed by Knock Off.
**Assault Vest**: Since Golurk often likes to run 4 attacks, running an Assault Vest can help it stand up to threats like Raging Bolt and Dragapult. In conjunction with Klutz, using Trick with an Assault Vest can be debilitating to any Pokémon who wants to use primarily status moves, like Prankster Pokémon or defensive Pokémon such as Gastrodon.
**Expert Belt**: One big positive of Golurk is that it has incredible coverage options, nearly covering all options that can switch into its main two STAB attacks. Holding an Expert Belt takes advantage of this elite coverage, turning potential 2HKOs into OHKOs.
Niche Items
========
**Debilitating items**: With Klutz, Golurk can Trick a debilitating item onto an enemy without the usual drawback that it would put on itself. Items like Sticky Barb, Lagging Tail, and Toxic Orb are options for this. Again, running Klutz on Golurk is often worse than going with its other two offensive abilities.
**Custap Berry**: Custap Berry can be used alongside endure to insure Golurk gets off one more attack before fainting. Because of Golurk’s solid bulk, Endure is sometimes not needed to reach the HP threshold needed to activate Custap Berry.
**Rocky Helmet**: Golurk’s resistance to Bug and a myriad of other types allow it to chip opponents overtime with Rocky Helmet, especially versus Pokémon using U-Turn.
**Life Orb**: Due to Golurk’s exceptional coverage options, Expert Belt is often better than Life Orb, but sometimes the extra 0.1x damage can be the difference between a 2HKO and an OHKO.
**Leftovers/Sitrus Berry**: Leftovers usually aren't worth bringing on Golurk, since its “OK” bulk only allow it to live a few hits at most. However, Golurk has no way to recover its health outside of using items. Leftovers can be useful on sets utilizing Substitute. Sitrus Berry can sometimes be used to turn a 2HKO into a 3HKO.
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: Golurk doesn’t usually want to run Heavy-Duty Boots due to its resistance to Stealth Rock, but versus a hazard stacking team and not great options for hazard removal, Golurk may need Heavy-Duty Boots to stay healthy throughout a game.
Tera
========
Due to Golurk’s natural typing of Ground and Ghost having a whopping three immunities and three other resistances, Golurk is not a great option to choose as your tera captain. However, Golurk can use tera to its advantage, either patching up some of its 5 weaknesses or to bolster its wallbreaking power to ridiculous heights. Offensively, Ground and Ghost are both good options, the former allowing you to still wall Electric moves and the latter allowing you to still spin-block and stop Fighting types in their tracks. For a mix of defensive and offensive, tera Fighting can be solid to both resist Dark and boost the power of Dynamic Punch. To tera purely defensively, options like tera Steel, Fairy, and Poison can all work situationally.
Draft Strategy
========
A player should never plan their draft around Golurk unless the format is low-tier only. Golurk is often taken towards the end of the draft to grab a needed Ground or Ghost type for their team. It can also serve as a good physical wallbreaker on a team that is lacking one.
**Slow pivots**: Golurk's bulk just being “alright” is a huge thorn in its side, as it has a hard time making its way safely onto the field. Slow pivots such as Slowking, Slowking Galar and Corviknight can allow Golurk to get onto the field and start doing what it does best: punching holes in the enemy team.
**Electric/Fighting weak Pokémon**: Pokémon that are especially weak to electric and fighting type attacks appreciate having Golurk around, as its immunities to both types make enemies think twice about clicking their super-effective moves. One easy entry point for Golurk can result in a game-losing scenario for an opposing team, as its wallbreaking power can overwhelm a lot of unprepared teams.
**Entry hazards**: As a Ghost type, Golurk can serve as a Rapid Spin blocker, allowing your hazards to stay on the field. Dedicated hazard setters like Ting-Lu and Hisuian Samurott would appreciate a more reliable spin blocker like Gholdengo, but Pokémon like Scream Tail, Jirachi or Tinkaton who aim to quickly get up rocks can benefit from having a Ghost type like Golurk that can also function as an offensive threat.
**Limiting item removal on surrounding teammates**: Because of Poltergeist failing when used on a Pokémon with no item, when using Poltergeist Golurk, the rest of your team shouldn’t aim to Knock Off Pokémon that you would otherwise want to hit with a Poltergeist. You shouldn’t look to draft Golurk on a team with something like Tornadus-Therian; a Pokémon who wants to spam Knock Off throughout a game.
**Hazard control**: Golurk prefers to not run Heavy-Duty Boots, and it has no way to recover damage that it may take throughout a game. Having a way to remove hazards, especially Spikes, can go a long way for Golurk’s longevity.
Checks and Counters
========
**Strong super-effective attacks**: Because of Golurks aforementioned “alright” bulk, it usually doesn’t have what it takes to withstand a strong offensive attack without a resist berry. The worst part is, because of Golurks pitiful speed, those strong super-effective attacks don’t necessarily have to be coming off of fast Pokémon; they can come off of other bulky wall breakers that have a higher speed stat than Golurk.
**Normal/Flying/Levitate Pokémon**: Golurk’s two STABs both have immunities attached to them. Because of this, there are a lot of Pokémon that can take advantage of a Choice Band STAB attack from Golurk. There are also a few pokemon that either resist or are immune to both of Golurk’s STAB, like Hydregion, and Staraptor. Playing versus these Pokémon require you to have to play very predictive instead of just being able to click your main two attacks that you want to be clicking.
**Knock Off**: Knock Off is an extremely common move found on many Pokémon. Colbur Berry is the best way to deal with knock-off, and without it, knock off can seriously hamper Golurk. Not only does it threaten an OHKO or 2HKO; it also can take a Choice Band off Golurk, hampering its ability to wallbreak.
**Single-use items/no item**: An easy way to check Golurk is by bringing a defensive Pokémon resistant or immune to Earthquake and not bringing an item on it to make Poltergeist fail and essentially wall Golurk easily. Skarmory and Corviknight are the easiest Pokémon to pull this off with. Lower tier Pokémon like Uxie, Chesnaught and Weezing can do the same thing.
**Chip damage**: Since Golurk has no way to recover health, and doesn’t have access to Pain Split like a lot of other Ghost Pokémon, it is easy to whittle down Golurk slowly. Its low speed doesn’t help with this, meaning when Golurk gets too low, it will often turn into a sacrifice. Because of this, stacking hazards versus Golurk or chipping it slowly with pivoting moves can eventually get Golurk low enough to KO in one hit.
[credits]
Written by https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/children-game-pro.677970/
Quality checked by:
Grammar checked by:
Last edited: