Assist (move)

Assist ねこのて Cat's Paw

The user hurriedly and randomly uses a move among those known by other Pokémon in the party.

Battles Type  Normal Category  Status PP  20 (max. 32) Power  — Accuracy  —% Priority  {{{priority}}} Does not make contact Not affected by Protect Not affected by Magic Coat Not affected by Snatch Not affected by BrightPowder Not affected by King's Rock

Target Foe Foe Self Ally Affects all Pokémon on the field

Availability Introduced  Generation III Not a TM, HM, or move tutor move.

Contests Category  Cute Appeal  1 ♥ Jam  0 Changes the appeal points to 1, 2, 4, 6, or 8.

Super Contests Category  Cute Appeal  2 ♥♥ Makes the order of contestants random in the next turn.

Assist on Legendary Pokémon MoveDex Assist on Eevee's Movedex

Assist (Japanese: ねこのて Cat's Paw) is a non-damaging Normal-type move introduced in Generation III.

Effect

Assist calls up a move randomly known by one of the fellow Pokémon in its party and fully executes the attack. An attack called up by Assist counts as the last move used.

If Assist successfully calls Hyper Beam or a partial trapping move and has 0 PP before the move fully executes, its PP can roll over in the same manner as the move is called. If Assist calls Counter, Mirror Coat, or Sketch, it will always fail. A Pokémon will be able to use a move that is disabled in its own moveset if called via Assist.

Learnset

Generation III

By leveling up

#   Pokémon Type Level 300 Skitty Normal 19 Bold indicates a Pokémon which gets STAB from this move. Italic indicates a Pokémon whose evolution or alternate form gets STAB from this move.

By breeding

#   Pokémon Type Father 052 Meowth Normal Skitty 096 Drowzee* Psychic Spinda 161 Sentret Normal Skitty 327 Spinda Normal Skitty Bold indicates a Pokémon which gets STAB from this move. Italic indicates a Pokémon whose evolution gets STAB from this move. *Indicates Pokémon that can only learn the move through chain breeding.

Generation IV

By leveling up

#   Pokémon Type Level 300 Skitty Normal 19DP 300 Skitty Normal 22PtHGSS 431 Glameow Normal 29 432 Purugly Normal 29 Bold indicates a Pokémon which gets STAB from this move. Italic indicates a Pokémon whose evolution or alternate form gets STAB from this move.

By breeding

#   Pokémon Type Father 052 Meowth Normal Skitty Glameow, Purugly 096 Drowzee* Psychic Spinda 161 Sentret Normal Skitty Glameow, Purugly 215 Sneasel Dark Ice Skitty Glameow, PuruglyHGSS 327 Spinda Normal Skitty Glameow, Purugly 390 Chimchar Fire Skitty Glameow, PuruglyHGSS Bold indicates a Pokémon which gets STAB from this move. Italic indicates a Pokémon whose evolution gets STAB from this move. *Indicates Pokémon that can only learn the move through chain breeding.

In the anime

	Skitty	String Shot
Pokémon	Method
User	First Episode Used In		Notes
Skitty	Skitty's front paw glows and it randomly selects an attack known by one of its Trainer's Pokémon. Skitty then uses the attack.
May's Skitty	Game Winning Assist!		Debut

Trivia

• The original Japanese name for this attack is neko no te (ねこのて), which literally means "cat's paw". However, this is probably a play on words; the attack calls for the assistance of a random team member's attack to help defeat the opponent. In Japanese, there is a saying for when assistance is greatly needed; "neko no te mo karitai" (猫の手も借りたい), or "I would even like to borrow a cat's hands / I would even like a cat to assist me", or "I need all the help I can get". And since the only Pokémon who can use this move by leveling up are cat-like (with an animation of scattered cat pawprints), it works as a double-entendre.

In other languages

• Spanish: Ayuda
• German: Zuschuss
• Italian: Assistente
• Hindi: Madad
• Brazilian Portuguese: Auxílio
• Dutch: Bijstand

This move article is part of Project MoveDex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each move.