Fixing Pokémon's WORST Held Items

Not all held items were created equal. These are some of the worst items in Pokémon and I theorized ways that they could be fixed to be a little more usable.

Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
0:56 - Utility Umbrella
2:36 - Cell Battery, Snowball, Luminous Moss, and Absorb Bulb
5:47 - Grip Claw and Binding Band
7:53 - Micle, Apicot, Ganlon, and Enigma Berries
11:55 - Ring Target
13:22 - Outro

[lafusion]

1/4 is an absurd buff for the Binding Band, Toxapex or Heatran could use Infestation or Magma Storm and then Protect, there goes 50% of your health, it would be too oppresive. If the Pokémon you're up against doesn't threaten you that's 75% of their health, conbine it with the status moves that these Pokémon like to use and that's really dangerous.

[Maszt]

Utility umbrella has been used in a format called 35 pokes
2 of very good and top tier pokemon are pelipper and ninetales. In the finals of the season 0 of the 35 premier league Belluno who played for THE WALL used Utility Umbrella Audino. The reaction of the opposing team was priceless when pelipper missed a hurricane in rain

Just for context, 35 pokes i a metagame where each month 35 random pokemon are chosen to be playable, it's a very cool community based metagame

[timmyreobed]

This is a personal thing, but I always found it odd how backwards the two Binding items feel in terms of effects. The claw is the one that increases duration while the rubber band is the one that does more damage? That feels so counter intuitive.

[sperryyoungerjr.]

I like the idea for the Luminous Moss, but I have a better idea for the Cell Battery, Snowball, and Absorb Bulb. These three should work like one use item versions of Lightning Rod and Storm Drain. That can grant a one time immunity to that type and boost said stat and draw in that move. With this change I can see these items getting way more use.

[oliverhees]

Possible buff to the Ring Target could be removing the holder's resistances (e.g. double the damage you take in from resisted moves). Not sure how broken this would be or how easy/hard it would be to prevent relative to the risk the original holder takes.

[superfrubblez]

The big root has always been outclassed by sitrus berry or leftovers. To buff it I’d make it have draining moves do 1.3x damage instead of 1.3x healing, making it a sort of anti life orb. 1.3 is a big boost but most draining moves are only 75bp or less so I think it balances out

[lasercraft]

Ring Target should just make it impossible to miss, whether it be immunities, abilities, low accuracy, or anything in-between. You already have to give it to your opponent to make use of it, so the reward should be really good (the only think it shouldn't apply to is OH-KO moves like Fissure or Guillotine).

[LocalPlagueDoc]

10:40 If the Ganlon Berry did work like that, we'd see Body Press users running it 24/7. A free +2 boost to defense AND attack would be insane.

[mystery]

i actually used the enigma berry on lunala in sword and shield vgc. the logic goes like this:

lunala is only weak to two types, ghost and dark, and both are 4x weaknesses. it also has the ability shadow shield, which reduces damage by 50% when its at max hp.

if lunala always starts at full hp, there are three scenarios in which the enigma berry will activate: a super effective attack deals 25% or less damage, 25-50% damage, or over 50% damage.

first, if the attack deals over 50% through shadow shield, then the enigma berry acts the same as a sitrus berry.

second, if the attack deals 25% or less damage, the enigma berry will heal lunala back to full hp, reactivating shadow shield. the sitrus berry cannot do this.

third, if the attack deals 25-50% damage, lunala will heal some hp from the enigma berry earlier than the sitrus berry would activate, and if the super effective deals about 41.7% or less damage, then lunala will survive that same attack a second time because of the berries early activation.

in sword and shield, this happened more often than you might expect. an incineroars snarl deals less than 25% to lunala, so it would heal back to full from that attack. stab foul play will almost always deal over 50%, making it the same as sitrus berry, while non-stab foul play will always do less than 40%, allowing lunala to survive two of them with the enigma berry. knock off from sableye will also deal less than 40%. you get the idea.

obviously, the enigma berry wont activate if lunala only takes neutral attacks. however, lunala is so bulky that it can heal off any damage it takes from neutral attacks with moonlight. so, for this one pokemon, in this one meta, the enigma berry was a niche but borderline acceptable option.

[thoughtprism]

For the Micle berry, I feel like keeping the one-time nature but changing the boost to make the next move used automatically hit, like with Lock-on, is more interesting. It becomes interesting on mons with OHKO moves, since you now want to try and either one-shot them or ensure they don't hit the 25% range.

[maverickw]

Great video! If I had to add anything I would also buff destiny knot to cause the opposing pokemon to get taunted, encored, etc. if they gave that effect to the holder

[RadicalJawz]

I did a shuckle run recently and binding band was actually quite nice for that run XD

[TurboJesus]

Honestly, I’d just make the ring target get rid of all immunities, no matter where they come from. You’d think it’d be overpowered, but think about it: you need a move that can transfer the item. You run the risk of somebody calling you out on that and hitting you hard, or making a failed predict that you’re now paying for because you stayed in. Additionally, you also need to deal with the opponent’s item, which could definitely be a bad thing. Not to mention this is a one-time strategy🤣

[EllieBee]

I would bet the utility umbrella doesn’t work for snow/sandstorms because you wouldn’t use an umbrella in that type of weather, and not for any balancing reasons.

[KanderUdon]

The utility umbrella idea is actually really good. I’ve thought about utility umbrella before but I completely forgot about snow and sand.

[Cochu]

I'm thinking about stuff like Absorb Bulb Aqua Jet into your own Weakness Policy mon. Super effective hit activates both items. That would be crazy

[viciousvalentina]

sometimes i use these little informative videos to help me fall asleep. keep up the good work!!

[everettw.]

One thing I’ve always wanted grip claw to do is keep the effects of binding moves when the user switches out. It might be a little OP, but most binding moves have been irrelevant pretty much since gen 1 anyways. I played around with the idea of infestation araquanid for a bit in OU, and it would certainly make not just grip claw but binding moves as a whole viable, maybe too viable…

[KanderUdon]

Yeah binding band would get immediately banned in singles. With protect thats 50% and the damage itself likely did over 25% so it would ko. Even if the move didn’t one can use a priority move to easily do 25% and just get completely free kos. If there are no priority moves it is still really easy to just use a regular move especially if the mon outspeeds.

[KuriMaster]

Okay.... Want to give ideas that come to my mind.

Utility Umbrella.... I can understand why an Umbrella wouldn't logicaly work in blocking out a Sandstorm, but not why it doesn't work against Hail/Snow... as for actual buffs, beyond what you gave, the only things that come to mind would be if they made more moves/abilities that are hindered by weather instead of just stuff that get boosted by weather. The ability would be used to combo with those tools.

For those "Hit by X type to boost Y stat" items... well, I'm thinking that on the move where the item procs, the item's holder takes no damage... that way, you could give them to someone weak to those attacks, and thus get a stat buff the first time an opponent tries to exploit the weakness... OR if you can predict your opponent well, you could switch into an attack that sets it off for both a free switch and free stat buff... IF you can predict your opponent well. Or set it off yourself with less repercussions in double battles.

Grip Claw and Binding buff the binding moves and they will be fine. They don't need to be Gen 1 style to work, they just need to do decent damage and hit consistently.... If the moves they support are good, the items will be good.

The berrys... Make the Micel a stat boost, grant the defensive boosting ones an HP recovery bonus effect... and the Enigma.... I would go further then you did... make the Enigma a total 100% HP restoration, you still need to survive the hit, but if you do, your back up to full like it never hit you (or maybe even better if you took hits earlier).

For Ring I would say to keep the original effect and add in your first idea of stripping the holder from their secondary in fact, lets combo it with BOTH of your ideas... the goal is to give it to your opponent anyway, and it's effectiveness varies depending on who it is given to no matter what... might as well make it flexible since you can't control what the options on who to trick it to, and it's not like it will be doing your mon any favors until you give it away.