MOTW (Move of the Week): Earthquake

Considered one of the most powerful moves in the video game, Earthquake has become one of the most widely used moves across the field of battle. You honestly can’t go wrong with choosing it to add to your team. Who doesn’t want a move that has 100 power and 100% accuracy? Well, I’m going to try and break down the do’s and dont’s of this super powerful move.

Earthquake is one of the oldest moves in the game, dating all the way back to generation I where only 5 Pokemon could learn it by leveling up, Diglett, Dugtrio, Geodude, Graveler, and Golem. 30 other Pokemon were able to learn earthquake via the 26th TM as well. Now in generation IV, and now quickly approaching is generation V, there are 28 who can now learn it by leveling up, as opposed to the original 5, and 172 who can learn it by TM now! 35% of all Pokemon can now learn this move, but for as common of a move as it is, I’ll show you why it can be such a force to be reckoned with.

Well, needless to say, just based on the stats alone Earthquake is a good choice for almost any Pokemon on your team. I personally, on my own team, choose move sets that have at least 90%< accuracy and power 80 or greater, depending on what it’s paired with. Based on that, it fits right within my needs for a move for pretty much anybody, but, if you were to pair it with a ground type Pokemon you also get a STAB (same-type attack bonus) as well. This becomes immensely important when you are using weaker type moves because it makes a move like Confusion, which only has 50 power normally, but when paired with a Psychic type that attack all of a sudden becomes a move of 75 power, no matter what, and then it’s not so bad a choice sitting at 100% accuracy. So a ground type Pokemon with earthquake suddenly has a power 150 move with 100% accuracy. Not bad considering there are 48 Pokemon with a ground type STAB.

A few other facts that you may or may not know about Earthquake. If you’re looking around for a ground type move to use in a team you’re not going to find a ground type move any better, as Earthquake is the most powerful move, 10 higher than it’s next closest, earth power. If you were holding a muscle band you could even squeak up the power of Earthquake (with an STAB) up to 165. There wouldn’t be any conditions to that either, that would be it’s standard damage.

Now you’re hearing all this fantastic stuff about Earthquake but you may be thinking, “Ok, I know Earthquake is a powerful move, BUT, it’s not all you crack it up to be! What about levitate, huh?! Or what about Flying type Pokemon! This guy is such a dumb%@*.” 

You would be right, and a smart#*@. But I digress... It’s true that if you tried to use a Ground type move against a flying type you’d be wasting your time as flying type Pokemon are completely immune to Ground type moves, also any Pokemon that knows levitate is also completely immune to ground type moves. You should use this knowledge in planning a move that works well against these type of Pokemon, so you don’t come across a Pidgy and freak the f out when the only type of moves you have are ground type. Although, if you do have that instance saved on video, I’d love to see it, lol.

Now this being the first of many MOTW’s (move of the week) to come, this one is a little bit lengthy. There is a number of things I covered in here that will come up again, like SATB’s and what types are weak against what. Please leave any feedback or comments you might have below if I missed anything or mis-spoke on anything please let me know and I’ll leave an edit with a reference to you as well.