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.

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 onward

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.

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 that a Pokémon that would be encountered will not appear if its level would be 5 levels or more below the leading Pokémon's. It shares this effect with Keen Eye.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series

In the Mystery Dungeon series, Pokémon attacking a Pokémon with this Ability with a physical attack will have a 20% attack penalty.

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 VII 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.

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 its Ability by Emerald's Pokédex.
• 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.
• In Omega Alpha Adventure 3, Zinnia's Salamence was mentioned to have Intimidate as its Ability, but it wasn't shown activating it.

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​ French Intimidation German Bedroher Italian Prepotenza Korean 위협 Wihyeop Portuguese Intimidar 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.