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Substitute みがわり
The user makes a copy of itself using some of its HP. The copy serves as the user's decoy.
Battles
Type	Normal
Category	Status
PP	10 (max. 16)
Power	—
Accuracy	—%
Does not make contact Not affected by Protect Not affected by Magic Coat Affected by Snatch Not affected by BrightPowder Not affected by King's Rock
The user creates a copy of itself using 25% of its maximum HP.
Contests
Category	Smart
Appeal	2 ♥♥
Jam	0
???
Super Contests
Category	Smart
Appeal	1 ♥
Earn +3 if the Pokémon gets the lowest score.
Substitute on Legendary Pokémon MoveDex Substitute on Eevee's Movedex

Substitute is a non-damaging Normal-type move introduced in Generation I.

Contents 1 Effect 2 Learnset 2.1 Generation I 2.1.1 By leveling up 2.1.2 By TM50 2.2 Generation II 2.2.1 By leveling up 2.3 Generation III 2.3.1 By leveling up 2.3.2 By breeding 2.3.3 By move tutor 2.3.3.1 In Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen 2.4 Generation IV 2.4.1 By leveling up 2.4.2 By TM90 2.4.3 By breeding 3 In other languages

Effect

Using 25% of its maximum HP, the user creates a substitute with 1 HP more than the amount of HP lost by the user. If the user's max HP is 3 or less, it will not lose any HP when the substitute is made. A Pokémon with only 1 max HP (such as Shedinja) will be unable to make a Substitute. A substitute will have the same current type(s) and current stats of the Pokémon that has it. Once created, all stat modifying attacks and side effects used by the opponent against the user will fail, though all current stat modifiers will remain in effect, and any stat modifiers used by the user will also be applied to the substitute. Until it breaks, a substitute will absorb all damage done by the opponent (even if the damage done exceeds the remaining HP of the substitute), but will not reduce the actual amount of damage that the opponent's attacks do. A one-hit KO will break a substitute on contact.

Substitute will not protect the user from primary sleep, primary paralysis, secondary confusion, or self-inflicted status ailments, but it will protect the user from poison, secondary burns, secondary freeze, secondary paralysis, and primary confusion.

Substitute will not alter the execution of Bide, Counter, Disable, Haze, Leech Seed, Super Fang, Transform, or partial trapping moves, and it will not absorb crash damage, recoil damage, or recurrent damage. However, a substitute will absorb self-inflicted confusion damage and prevent the user from flinching.

If a Pokémon breaks a substitute with Hyper Beam, it will not need to recharge. If a Pokémon breaks a substitute with Explosion or Selfdestruct, it will not faint, though its picture will no longer be visible until it switches out or uses Substitute. If a Pokémon breaks a substitute with a recoil move, it will not take any recoil damage. If a Pokémon breaks a substitute with a draining move, no HP will be restored to it. Note that in each of these cases, the substitute has to be broken, not merely damaged, by the referenced attack.

If the user's current HP is less than 25% (rounded down) of its maximum HP, it will be too weak to make a substitute. If the user's current HP is exactly equal to 25% (rounded down) of its maximum HP, it will create a substitute, and then faint.

In Stadium, Substitute will protect the user from Absorb, Dream Eater, Leech Life, Leech Seed, Mega Drain, and all status ailments inflicted by the opponent. If the user's current HP is exactly equal to 25% (rounded down) of its maximum HP, it will be too weak to create a substitute. If a Pokémon breaks a substitute with Explosion or Selfdestruct, it will faint.

A substitute can be Baton Passed.

Learnset

Generation I

Generation II

Generation III

By move tutor

Generation IV

In other languages

• French: Clonage
• Spanish: Sustituto
• Italian: Sostituto
• German: Delegator

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

Generation I TMs
01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25
26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50
Generation I HMs
01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05

Generation IV TMs
01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25
26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50
51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75
76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92
Generation IV HMs
01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08