AOTW: Rock Head

Everything in life has pros and cons, trainerinos and trainerettes. For every decade with Dexter’s Laboratory, there’s another one with Dude, What Would Happen? Shame on you, Cartoon Network for allowing such an epic failure. The same goes for Pokémon. Sometimes you find yourself with the opportunity to pack a wicked powerful attack, but the recoil cost is too high, and you don’t even get the comedy value of emasculating Will Smith. And there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

G’night, everybody!

Okay, c’mon, you guys know my schtick by now, I gotta mess with you a little bit! This is Ability of the Week: Rock Head!

One of the original Abilities from generation three, Rock Head prevents recoil damage from damage from all attacks except for a missed Jump Kick, Hi Jump Kick, or Struggle. Eighteen pokémon can gain Rock Head as their Ability legitimately, and one special case, but we’ll get to that.

There’re plenty of noteworthy Rock Head users, such as Steelix, and Aggron. The most common use of Rock Head you’ll find is negating the recoil of Double Edge, which all of the pokémon with the Ability can acquire. The other notable attacks you’ll likely use with Rock Head are Take Down and Head Smash, but you can also use Wood Hammer with Sudowoodo. When it comes to Take Down, you’re probably going to want to go with Double Edge over it, but hey, it’s an option. Let’s talk about the meat and potatoes, though, which is Head Smash. While it only has 80% accuracy, Head Smash sits pretty at 150 base damage, and normally inflicts recoil damage equal to half of the damage dealt to the opponent. Fortunately for you, Relicanth learns it naturally and has access to Rock Head, and Aron (and by proxy, the big beast Aggron) can get Head Smash by breeding.

I did also find an interesting item while researching for this article that I’d like to share. There’s a hidden bonus Rock Head-user lurking in one of the in-game trades in Pokémon White Version. In Driftveil City in both Black and White, there is a trainer who will offer a Basculin in exchange for a Minccino. In each version, the less common version of Basculin will be traded to you, but only in White will you receive the blue-striped version that has Rock Head as its Ability, and this is the only way that one can be acquired.

That does it for me this week, folks! Have a week!

-Wil
www.wheretheresawil.com