Intimidate (Ability)

Intimidate	いかく
	Intimidate
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. Generation IX When the Pokémon enters a battle, it intimidates opposing Pokémon and makes them cower, lowering their Attack stats.

Intimidate (Japanese: いかく Intimidate) 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!"

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

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

Generations V to VII

In Generation V, the message changed to "<Opponent>'s Attack fell!"

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 onward

Intimidate no longer affects Pokémon with Oblivious, Own Tempo, Inner Focus, or Scrappy. Intimidate also now triggers Rattled. Intimidate raises the Attack stat of a Pokémon with Guard Dog by one stage, instead of lowering it.

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.

Generation VIII onwards

Intimidate appears to have no effect outside of battle.

Pokémon with Intimidate

#	Pokémon		Types		First Ability	Second Ability	Hidden Ability
0023		Ekans	Poison		Poison	Intimidate	Shed Skin	Unnerve
0024		Arbok	Poison		Poison	Intimidate	Shed Skin	Unnerve
0058		Growlithe	Fire		Fire	Intimidate	Flash Fire	Justified
0058		Growlithe Hisuian Form	Fire	Rock	Intimidate	Flash Fire	Rock HeadGen IX+
0059		Arcanine	Fire		Fire	Intimidate	Flash Fire	Justified
0059		Arcanine Hisuian Form	Fire	Rock	Intimidate	Flash Fire	Rock HeadGen IX+
0128		Tauros	Normal		Normal	Intimidate	Anger PointGen IV+	Sheer Force
0128		Tauros Paldean Form (Combat Breed)	Fighting		Fighting	Intimidate	Anger Point	Cud Chew
0128		Tauros Paldean Form (Blaze Breed)	Fighting	Fire	Intimidate	Anger Point	Cud Chew
0128		Tauros Paldean Form (Aqua Breed)	Fighting	Water	Intimidate	Anger Point	Cud Chew
0130		Gyarados	Water	Flying	Intimidate	None	Moxie
0209		Snubbull	Fairy		Fairy	Intimidate	Run Away	Rattled
0210		Granbull	Fairy		Fairy	Intimidate	Quick FeetGen IV+	Rattled
0211		Qwilfish	Water	Poison	Poison Point	Swift Swim	Intimidate
0211		Qwilfish Hisuian Form	Dark	Poison	Poison Point	Swift Swim	Intimidate
0234		Stantler	Normal		Normal	Intimidate	FriskGen IV+	Sap Sipper
0237		Hitmontop	Fighting		Fighting	Intimidate	TechnicianGen IV+	Steadfast
0262		Mightyena	Dark		Dark	Intimidate	Quick FeetGen IV+	Moxie
0284		Masquerain	Bug	Flying	Intimidate	None	Unnerve
0303		Mawile	Steel	Fairy	Hyper Cutter	Intimidate	Sheer Force
0310		Manectric Mega Manectric	Electric		Electric	Intimidate	None	None
0373		Salamence	Dragon	Flying	Intimidate	None	Moxie
0397		Staravia	Normal	Flying	Intimidate	None	Reckless
0398		Staraptor	Normal	Flying	Intimidate	None	Reckless
0403		Shinx	Electric		Electric	Rivalry	Intimidate	Guts
0404		Luxio	Electric		Electric	Rivalry	Intimidate	Guts
0405		Luxray	Electric		Electric	Rivalry	Intimidate	Guts
0507		Herdier	Normal		Normal	Intimidate	Sand Rush	Scrappy
0508		Stoutland	Normal		Normal	Intimidate	Sand Rush	Scrappy
0551		Sandile	Ground	Dark	Intimidate	Moxie	Anger Point
0552		Krokorok	Ground	Dark	Intimidate	Moxie	Anger Point
0553		Krookodile	Ground	Dark	Intimidate	Moxie	Anger Point
0559		Scraggy	Dark	Fighting	Shed Skin	Moxie	Intimidate
0560		Scrafty	Dark	Fighting	Shed Skin	Moxie	Intimidate
0645		Landorus Therian Forme	Ground	Flying	Intimidate	None	None
0725		Litten	Fire		Fire	Blaze	None	Intimidate
0726		Torracat	Fire		Fire	Blaze	None	Intimidate
0727		Incineroar	Fire	Dark	Blaze	None	Intimidate
0899		Wyrdeer	Normal	Psychic	Intimidate	Frisk	Sap Sipper
0904		Overqwil	Dark	Poison	Poison Point	Swift Swim	Intimidate
0931		Squawkabilly Green Plumage	Normal	Flying	Intimidate	Hustle	Guts
0931		Squawkabilly Blue Plumage	Normal	Flying	Intimidate	Hustle	Guts
0931		Squawkabilly Yellow Plumage	Normal	Flying	Intimidate	Hustle	Sheer Force
0931		Squawkabilly White Plumage	Normal	Flying	Intimidate	Hustle	Sheer Force
0942		Maschiff	Dark		Dark	Intimidate	Run Away	Stakeout
0943		Mabosstiff	Dark		Dark	Intimidate	Guard Dog	Stakeout
Please note that Abilities marked with a superscript are only available in the stated generation or later. For Generation III and IV games, ignore Hidden Abilities.

Starmobiles with Intimidate

Revavroom Segin Starmobile  Dark  Intimidate Serious Nature HP Atk Def SpA SpD Spe 160 36 47 35 38 129

• The stats shown above are the exact stats, not base stats. The values are custom set rather than derived from base stats, level, Nature, IVs, and EVs.

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
The Pokémon intimidates the opposing team upon entering battle, lowering their attack power.
Pokémon	Method
User	First Used In		Notes
	Krookodile emits a shadowy purple and black aura that unnerves its opponent and lowers its attack power.
Nanu's Krookodile	Tough Guy Trials!		Debut

In the manga

Pokémon Adventures

Gyarados
The Pokémon intimidates the opposing team upon entering battle, lowering their attack power.
Pokémon	Method
User	First Chapter Used In		Notes
	When Gyarados is sent out, the opposing team'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 Salamence Evolves, Zinnia's Salamence was mentioned to have Intimidate as its Ability, but it wasn't shown activating it.
• In volume 40, Pearl's Luxray, Rayler, was revealed to have Intimidate as his Ability.
• In volume 42, Crystal's Arcanine, Archy, was revealed to have Intimidate as his Ability.
• In volume 42, Silver's Gyarados was revealed to have Intimidate as his Ability.
• Blue's Arcanine, Ruby's Mightyena, Nana, X's Mega Manectric, Élec, and Lysandre Gyarados were revealed to have Intimidate as their Ability in the PokéSPedia data-book.
• Lance's Gyarados, Winona's Masquerain, Spenser's Salamence, Lenora's Stoutland, and Staravia used by Team Galactic Grunts were revealed to have Intimidate as their Ability.

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure!

Luxio
The Pokémon intimidates opposing Pokémon upon entering battle, lowering their attack power.
Pokémon	Method
User	First Chapter Used In		Notes
	Luxio makes an intimidating face that decreases the opponent's attack power.
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 Wēihè Finnish Pelottelu French Intimidation German Bedroher Italian Prepotenza Korean 위협 Wihyeop Polish Zastraszenie Portuguese Brazil Intimidação Portugal Intimidar Spanish Intimidación Thai ข่มขู่ 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.