Empoleon: Best Moveset, Weaknesses & Counters, Stats, and Evolution

The world of Pokémon has been a growing phenomenon since 1996, when the first pair of video games came out in stores. Pokémon started off as a video game series and although new creatures are primarily introduced in the video games, the anime series has become as popular as the video games. As of December 2021, there are almost 900 individual Pokémon identified by the PokéDex and in this article, we are going to tell you everything you need to know about one of them – Empoleon.

Empoleon is a dual Water- and Steel-type Pokémon first introduced in Generation IV of the core video games as one of the generation’s three Starters. Empoleon is the second and final evolution stage of Piplup and Prinplup. As a dual Water- and Steel-type Pokémon, it is weak to Electric-, Fighting-, and Ground-type moves, and is super effective against Fire- and Fairy-type Pokémon.

In this article, we are going to tell you all the information you’ll need if you want to breed an Empoleon in any of the games. You’ll find out about its type, its powers, its strengths and weaknesses, its evolutions, and its moves. We’re going to focus on both the core games, as well as other popular video games based on the Pokémon franchise.

Best moveset

In the Pokémon GO videogame, the best moves for your Empoleon are Metal Claw and Hydro Cannon if you’re battling Pokémon in Gyms. Namely, this moveset gives you the highest total DPS and is, likewise, the best moveset for PVP battles. The official description for Metal Claw reveals the following: “The target is raked with steel claws. This may also raise the user’s Attack stat”; as for Hydro Canon, the attack is described as follows: “The target is hit with a watery blast. The user can’t move on the next turn.”

Weaknesses and Counters

As dual Water- and Steel-type Pokémon, Empoleon is weak against Fighting-, Ground-, and Electric-type moves, and is super effective against Fire- and Fairy-type Pokémon. It is immune to Poison-type moves. It receives normal damage from Ghost-, Fire-, Grass-, Dark-type moves.

Powers and Abilities

Empoleon’s Stats, based on the most recent available data, are:

In Pokémon GO, Empoleon has a Base Stamina of 197, a Base Attack of 210, and a Base Defense of 186.

As for its abilities, they are:

• Torrent: Powers up Water-type moves when the Pokémon’s HP is low.
• Defiant: Boosts the Pokémon’s Attack stat sharply when its stats are lowered. (Hidden Ability)

Evolutions

Empoleon is the second and final evolution of Piplup, the Water-type Starter Pokémon from Generation IV. In order to get an Empoleon, you first have to evolve your Piplup into Prinplup by leveling up, starting at Level 16. After that, you need to level up your Prinplup to Level 36, at which it is going to evolve into an Empoleon. Empoleon doesn’t have any additional stages.

In Pokémon GO, Empoleon is also obtained by evolving Piplup into Prinplup first, for which you need 25 Piplup Candy, and after that, by evolving Prinplup into Empoleon, for which you need 100 Piplup Candy.

Moves

As of Generation VIII, the movies that Empoleon can learn are:

• Bold indicates a move that gets STAB when used by Empoleon
• Italic indicates a move that gets STAB only when used by an evolution of Empoleon
• × indicates a move that cannot be used in Generation VIII

By leveling up

By TM

In Pokémon GO, Empoleon can learn Waterfall and Metal Claw as Fast Attacks, and Hydro Pump, Blizzard, Flash Cannon, Drill Peck, and Hydro Cannon as Charged Attacks. Some of these attacks depend on when you caught and evolved your Empoleon, as they are event-only attacks.