Intimidate (Ability)

Intimidate	いかく
	Intimidation
Flavor text Generation III Lowers the foe's Attack. Generation IV Lowers the foe's Attack stat. Generation V Lowers the foe's Attack stat. Generation VI Lowers the opposing Pokémon's Attack stat. Generation VII The Pokémon intimidates opposing Pokémon upon entering battle, lowering their Attack stat. Generation VIII The Pokémon intimidates opposing Pokémon upon entering battle, lowering their Attack stat.

Intimidate (Japanese: いかく Intimidation) is an Ability introduced in Generation III.

Effect

In battle

Generation III

When a Pokémon with Intimidate enters the battle, it lowers the Attack stat of all adjacent opponents by one stage.

In Generations III and IV, Intimidate's activation message reads, "<Pokémon>'s Intimidate cuts <opponent>'s attack!" In Generation V, the message changed to "<Opponent>'s Attack fell!"

Intimidate has no effect on Pokémon who are immune to Attack stat reductions, such as Pokémon with Clear Body, Hyper Cutter, or White Smoke. This Ability will not affect a target with a substitute.

Generation IV to VII

Intimidate now also activates when a Pokémon gains the Ability, such as via Skill Swap or Mega Evolution.

In a Triple Battle, Intimidate does not affect non-adjacent Pokémon.

Intimidate does not affect Pokémon with the Full Metal Body Ability.

Wild Pokémon are more likely to call for help when facing a Pokémon with Intimidate. It shares this effect with Pressure and Unnerve.

If a Pokémon holding an Adrenaline Orb is affected by Intimidate, the item will be consumed and increase the holder's Speed by one stage.

Generation VIII

Intimidate no longer affects Pokémon with Inner Focus, Oblivious, Scrappy, or Own Tempo. Intimidate also now triggers Rattled.

Outside of battle

From Pokémon Emerald onwards, if a Pokémon with Intimidate is in the first place in the party (even if fainted), there is a 50% chance it will prevent a random wild encounter that would have occurred if the wild Pokémon would be at least 5 levels lower than the Pokémon with Intimidate. It shares this effect with Keen Eye.

Pokémon with Intimidate

#	Pokémon	Types		First Ability	Second Ability	Hidden Ability
	Ekans	Poison		Poison	Intimidate	Shed Skin	Unnerve
	Arbok	Poison		Poison	Intimidate	Shed Skin	Unnerve
	Growlithe	Fire		Fire	Intimidate	Flash Fire	Justified
	Arcanine	Fire		Fire	Intimidate	Flash Fire	Justified
	Tauros	Normal		Normal	Intimidate	Anger Point	Sheer Force
	Gyarados	Water	Flying	Intimidate	None	Moxie
	Snubbull	Fairy		Fairy	Intimidate	Run Away	Rattled
	Granbull	Fairy		Fairy	Intimidate	Quick Feet	Rattled
	Qwilfish	Water	Poison	Poison Point	Swift Swim	Intimidate
	Stantler	Normal		Normal	Intimidate	Frisk	Sap Sipper
	Hitmontop	Fighting		Fighting	Intimidate	Technician	Steadfast
	Mightyena	Dark		Dark	Intimidate	Quick Feet	Moxie
	Masquerain	Bug	Flying	Intimidate	None	Unnerve
	Mawile	Steel	Fairy	Hyper Cutter	Intimidate	Sheer Force
	Manectric Mega Manectric	Electric		Electric	Intimidate	None	None
	Salamence	Dragon	Flying	Intimidate	None	Moxie
	Staravia	Normal	Flying	Intimidate	None	Reckless
	Staraptor	Normal	Flying	Intimidate	None	Reckless
	Shinx	Electric		Electric	Rivalry	Intimidate	Guts
	Luxio	Electric		Electric	Rivalry	Intimidate	Guts
	Luxray	Electric		Electric	Rivalry	Intimidate	Guts
	Herdier	Normal		Normal	Intimidate	Sand Rush	Scrappy
	Stoutland	Normal		Normal	Intimidate	Sand Rush	Scrappy
	Sandile	Ground	Dark	Intimidate	Moxie	Anger Point
	Krokorok	Ground	Dark	Intimidate	Moxie	Anger Point
	Krookodile	Ground	Dark	Intimidate	Moxie	Anger Point
	Scraggy	Dark	Fighting	Shed Skin	Moxie	Intimidate
	Scrafty	Dark	Fighting	Shed Skin	Moxie	Intimidate
	Landorus Therian Forme	Ground	Flying	Intimidate	None	None
	Litten	Fire		Fire	Blaze	None	Intimidate
	Torracat	Fire		Fire	Blaze	None	Intimidate
	Incineroar	Fire	Dark	Blaze	None	Intimidate
Please note that this is only 100% accurate to Generation VIII games. For Generation III games, ignore Abilities introduced in Generation IV or later and Hidden Abilities. For Generation IV games, ignore Hidden Abilities. For Generation V games, ignore Abilities introduced in Generation VI or later. For Generation VI games, ignore Abilities introduced in Generation VII or later. For Generation VII games, ignore Abilities introduced in Generation VIII or later.

In other games

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series

When an adjacent enemy Pokémon attacks a Pokémon with the Ability Intimidate, the power of physical moves are reduced by 20%.

Description

Games Description MDRB Lowers the Physical Attack power of attackers. MDTDS Reduces the Physical Attack power of attackers. BSL こうげきしてきた ポケモンの ぶつりこうげきの いりょくを さげてしまう Conq. Reduces nearby enemies' Attack. MDGtI Reduces damage from physical moves used by attackers next to the Pokémon.* It reduces damage from physical moves of attackers who are next to it!* SMD It reduces damage from physical moves of attackers who are next to it! MDRTDX When the Pokémon is attacked with a physical move by an enemy next to it, the damage is reduced.

In the anime

	Krookodile
Lowers the attack of all adjacent opponents upon entering battle.
Pokémon	Method
User	First Used In		Notes
Krookodile	Krookodile emits a shadowy purple and black aura that lowers the attack of its opponent and enrages it.
Nanu's Krookodile	Tough Guy Trials!		Debut

In the manga

In the Pokémon Adventures manga

	Gyarados
When the user is sent out in battle, it reduces the opponent's attack strength.
Pokémon	Method
User	First Chapter Used In		Notes
Gyarados	When Gyarados is sent out, the opponent's attack strength is lowered automatically.
Red's Gyara	Red and Blue Make Purple Opponents		Debut

• In Pinsir Me, I Must Be Dreaming, the rental Mawile that Noland used during his Battle Factory match against Emerald was revealed to have Intimidate as his Ability by Emerald's Pokédex.
• In Omega Alpha Adventure 3, Zinnia's Salamence was mentioned to have Intimidate as its Ability, but it wasn't shown activating it.
• In volume 40, Pearl's Rayler was revealed to have Intimidate as his Ability.
• In volume 42, Crystal's Archy was revealed to have Intimidate as his Ability.
• In volume 42, Silver's Gyarados was revealed to have Intimidate as his Ability.
• X's Élec was revealed to have Intimidate as his Ability when Mega Evolved in the PokéSPedia data-book.
• Blue's Arcanine was revealed to have Intimidate as his Ability.
• Ruby's Nana was revealed to have Intimidate as her Ability.
• Lance's Gyarados's was revealed to have Intimidate as its Ability.
• Winona's Masquerain was revealed to have Intimidate as her Ability.
• Spenser's Salamence was revealed to have Intimidate as its Ability.
• Lenora's Stoutland was revealed to have Intimidate as its Ability.
• Staravia used by Team Galactic Grunts were revealed to have Intimidate as their Ability.

In the Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure! manga

	Luxio
The opponent's attack is lower when the user is sent out.
Pokémon	Method
User	First Chapter Used In		Notes
Luxio	Luxio makes an intimidating face that decreases the opponent's attack.
Hareta's Luxio	A Novel Test!!		Debut

Trivia

• Prior to becoming an Ability, Intimidate appeared as a TCG Attack.

In other languages

Language Title Chinese Cantonese 威嚇 Wāihaak Mandarin 威嚇 / 威吓 Wēi​hè​ Finnish Pelottelu French Intimidation German Bedroher Italian Prepotenza Korean 위협 Wihyeop Polish Zastraszenie Portuguese Intimidação Spanish Intimidación Vietnamese Hăm dọa

This article is part of Project Moves and Abilities, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on two related aspects of the Pokémon games.