Honchkrow Pokémon: Best Moveset and Nature Guide

Honchkrow was introduced in Pokémon generation IV, a bird Pokémon that has Dark- and Flying-type attributes. With a stylish hat, Honchkrow is relatively easy to find and a solid option for battling. So what is the best moveset for Honchkrow in Pokémon GO?

One of the best attacking movesets for Honchkrow is Brave Bird, Sucker Punch, Superpower, and Taunt. To best match, this playstyle, make sure you get your Honchkrow with Jolly nature.

So let’s look at the best way to train your Honchkrow for maximum power and utility, and also consider some of the best moves that you can give them to lean into the strengths of this dark bird.

Is Foul Play a Good Move for Honchkrow?

Foul Play relies on the target’s power against it, thus meaning that the higher the target’s Attack stat, the greater the damage Foul Play deals.

This of course means you’re going to get some inconsistency, and if you go up against a Special Attack-based Pokémon you will do almost no damage.

Given Honchkrow’s available pool of moves, there are many different options that are going to give your Pokémon consistency, power, and coverage over Foul Play.

Foul Play does have the advantage of having 100 accuracies and a nice 15 PP, while you’ll also get a solid 95 base power but this doesn’t mean much considering the mechanics of this move.

You’ll also get the great damage boost for Dark moves from Foul Play, but this can be much better utilized via moves like Night Slash.

Is Honchkrow Any Good?

With great attack and special attack stats, Honchkrow has the advantage of being flexible when wanting to make a Pokémon with your own approach.

You’ll also get a solid range of STAB or the same type of attack bonus, meaning that as Honchkrow is both Flying– and Dark-type, you can use many powerful Flying- and Dark-type moves to get the move’s damage increased by 50%.

Honchkrow also takes advantage of being a great wall breaker, that is it can take down defensive Pokémon that tend to be damaged sponges or just exist to tank hits.

However, the massive damage dealers of Brave Bird, Superpower when combined with the stat booster Ability of Moxie makes these already deadly moves even harder hitting that will scale over the battle.

What Is Honchkrow Best Moveset?

Generally, you will want to go with Brave Bird, Sucker Punch, Superpower, and Taunt while holding Darkinium Z and having the Moxie ability.

For the EV spread, dump them all into Attack and Speed with the remainder in Defense.

In terms of strategy, Honchkrow uses Moxie to boost Attack per every KO of a Pokémon, which can quickly turn your Honchkrow into a type of positive feedback loop machine, getting more powerful as the battle goes on.

Sucker Punch is perfect for revenge kills or mopping up weak Pokémon due to its forced priority.

Taunt can help give you coverage over slow teams that try to whittle you down with Status changes.

The item will give a huge boost to Dark-type moves but is limited to certain versions of Pokémon such as Sun and Moon.

Otherwise, another great option is the Power Herb variety, with the Ability Super Luck

and again dumping EVs into Attack and Speed combined with Jolly nature. Keep in mind that this nature penalizes Special Attack.

Taking advantage of STAB attacks, go with Sky Attack, Night Slash, and then round out the Pokémon with Superpower, Steel Wing.

Power Herb enables you to use Sky Attack once without the need to spend a turn charging up. Super Luck will raise your critical hit chance for Honchkrow by one stage.

Keep in mind that Brave Bird will have a recoil effect, and Honchkrow is not the sturdiest Pokémon around, so you’ll want to use this judiciously.

Sucker Punch is a great damage dealer, but its lower PP means you’ll want to try and boost this but it is still a solid option. 

Superpower is not possible for a generation VIII Honchkrow but is a great option for older versions of Honchkrow. With a massive 120 Attack value, this is great but keep in mind that the Attack and Defense of your Honchkrow get lowered by one stage per use.

Steel Wing is a great substitute for Superpower, as not only do you get great Steel-type coverage but you’ll get a 30% chance of a Defense boost per use, although keep in mind the lower 90% Accuracy.

Dark Slash plays into the STAB strategy, and when combined with Moxie will give your Honchkrow some serious one-hit KO power that will only increase over the course of the battle.

What Nature Is Best for Honchkrow?

Jolly is almost always the best choice, as you’re increasing Honchkrow’s Attack and limiting the Special Attack, but you generally have to make a choice to go with one or the other, so Jolly will maximize the damage output of the moveset.

This is particularly the case when using Sucker Punch, as you’ll get priority in any case so it is not worth it to pump up the Speed.