How to Plan Around Ekans’s Weaknesses in Scarlet and Violet
Ekans takes 2× damage from Ground and Psychic attacks. Learn how its resistances and abilities inform Scarlet and Violet team planning.
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If you want your team to safely switch into Ekans, you’ll need a teammate that can cover its weaknesses to Ground and Psychic types. But what about the rest of Ekans’ typing? We’ll explore Ekans’ coverage plan in more depth.
Ekans Weaknesses and Resistances
Ekans is primarily a Poison type Pokémon with some Grass resistance. Its primary weaknesses are Ground and Psychic types, but it does also take damage from Fighting, Poison, Bug, and Fairy as well.
However, there are other types of defensive considerations: status recovery abilities, Intimidate ability usage, and even the possibility of evolution!
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
Type
Ground and Psychic: 2× incoming damage
Fighting, Poison, Bug, Grass, and Fairy: ½× incoming damage
Ground and Psychic: 2× incoming damage
Fighting, Poison, Bug, Grass, and Fairy: ½× incoming damage
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
Type
Normal: 1×
Grass: ½×
Poison: ½×
Ghost: 1×
Ground: 2×
Psychic: 2×
Dark: 1×
Rock: 1×
Steel: 1×
Dragon: 1×
Ice: 1×
Fairy: ½×
Fighting: ½×
Bug: ½×
Flying: 1×
Water: 1×
Fire: 1×
Electric: 1×
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
Type
Normal: 1×
Grass: ½×
Poison: ½×
Ghost: 1×
Ground: 2×
Psychic: 2×
Dark: 1×
Rock: 1×
Steel: 1×
Dragon: 1×
Ice: 1×
Fairy: ½×
Fighting: ½×
Bug: ½×
Flying: 1×
Water: 1×
Fire: 1×
Electric: 1×
Teammate Selection
To safely switch into Ekans, you’ll want to pick a teammate that covers its weaknesses to Ground and Psychic-type attacks. That means looking at how much damage your candidate takes from those two types.
There are a few key candidates to consider: Rhyperior, Mamoswine, and Hippowdon don’t have resistances or immunities to Ground or Psychic-type attacks; Rhyperior is even weak to Ground. So, don’t choose them on the assumption that they provide defensive type coverage against those attacks.
But just because your teammate can cover those two weaknesses doesn’t mean that they don’t have their own weaknesses, too! Be aware of any added weaknesses from the types your chosen teammate may take additional damage from. If so, look to see whether Ekans’ own resistances can provide reciprocal coverage. This isn’t always guaranteed, though.
In this case, we’re looking at the following potential teammates:
Rhyperior – weak to Ground and Ice, and takes neutral damage from Psychic and Fairy
Mamoswine – check its complete defensive matchups before choosing it; don’t count it as resistance or immunity coverage for Ground and Psychic
Hippowdon – check its complete defensive matchups before choosing it; don’t count it as resistance or immunity coverage for Ground and Psychic
These three don’t provide resistance or immunity coverage for Ekans’ Ground and Psychic weaknesses, so we’ll need to verify other candidates for that role!
Ekans Abilities
Now, there’s another factor to consider: what abilities does Ekans have?
Intimidate lowers an opponent’s attack stat by one stage if they enter battle or receive the ability, and works in Double Battles. However, Clear Body, Hyper Cutter, and White Smoke make a Pokémon immune to Intimidate.
Shed Skin has a 1 in 3 chance each turn to heal a status condition; the only problem is that recovery isn’t guaranteed!
Unnerve prevents opponents from using Berries while Ekans is on the battlefield. This seems very useful!
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
Intimidate
Clear Body
Hyper Cutter
White Smoke
Shed Skin
Unnerve
None
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
Intimidate
Clear Body
Hyper Cutter
White Smoke
Shed Skin
Unnerve
None
Evolution
One final consideration is how Ekans evolves! While not necessary for a good defense, it could potentially help out depending on your strategy.
Ekans evolves into Arbok at level 22, and remains a Poison-type. Since both of these Pokémon have identical typings (Poison), the same coverage checks still apply!
So, the conclusion is that these three don’t cover Ekans’ weaknesses through resistances or immunities! Look for verified Ground and Psychic coverage, then check whether Ekans’ resistances help with that teammate’s own weaknesses; no pairing guarantees a safe switch-in.
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