I wan't to keep Skitty in my main team for the majority of the game, but I'd like to know what moves should I teach or remove in order to make it as useful as possible?

If it matters I'm going to be playing Pokemon White 2.

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4 Answers

The moves you teach it may largely depend on what ability your Skitty has;

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Normalize

This ability will give all of Skitty's attacks Same-type attack bonus, so priority moves like Sucker Punch (must be bred in) can get a little extra power behind their speed. It will also let Skitty use moves like Thunder Wave (TM73) on the otherwise immune ground types.

A downside to normalize is that ghost types will be immune to all your direct damage - this can be mitigated using Foresight (learned at lvl4). Additionally, Rock and Steel types will be highly resistant to your attacks.

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Cute Charm or Wonder Skin (hidden ability)

Zen Headbutt (must be bred in) is a good counter to normal types' greatest weakness - fighting. High priority moves like the previously mentioned Sucker Punch or Fake Out (move relearner) are still a good choice.

Skitty can also learn Baton Pass and Wish though breeding - combined with Calm Mind (TM04), this can make for a fairly decent support (combine those three with a special attack like Ice Beam (TM13) or Thunderbolt (TM24) to let skitty take advantage of its own stat boosts.

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Smogon University goes into further details on specific builds, giving suggested EVs, natures, and items as well as strategies. You can copy those movesets to the letter, or modify them to your liking.

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EDIT: If you are looking solely to teach moves to an existing Skitty, and not do any fancy breeding;

• Swagger (TM87) and Psych Up (TM77) have an interesting, if risky, dynamic - Confuse the target, raise its attack two stages, and then copy the attack up buff. To make use of this buff, Return (TM27) is a good STAB move that has a base power of 102 at maximum friendship, and round it out with Faint Attack (lvl 29) for a little type coverage.
• You could try for Sing (lvl 11), Dream Eater (TM85), and Wakeup Slap (lvl 32) - but sing's low accuracy makes this a risky strategy.
• Toxic (TM06) - if you aren't fighting a steel or poison type this strategy can work wonders, poison them with toxic and then stall - Protect (TM17) Double Team (TM32), and for a fourth move Attract (TM45) or Swagger
• Para-fusion - the idea here is to minimise the enemy's chance to do anything useful and hit themselves Thunder Wave (TM73) and Swagger should set it up nicely - The danger to using swagger (particularly after several applications to keep the enemy confused) is that if they manage to get by both statuses (37.5%, I believe) and actually hit you it will HURT - You might consider Double Team to make yourself even harder to hit.
• Heal Bell (lvl 39) could be worked in to many of the above possibilities - it's a nice team support ability to clear the rest of your team's status ailments - particularly useful during some of the longer routes, means you don't have to be too vigilant about stocking up on the various curative items that may be in short supply and on the pricy side. (although by lvl 39 the cost and availability of the items may no longer be an issue)
• If you go for Calm Mind to buff your SpAtk, Echoed Voice's (TM49) power increases by 40 with each application (up to 200), and it's normal, so STAB bonus applies. If your Skitty is durable enough to survive a few hits it could build up quite nicely against trainers with more than two pokemon.

And if this is just against the NPC's throughout the story, always remember that there's nothing a little back-tracking and grinding out a few levels won't cure.

9

I use Skitty as a support Pokemon.

I'd put

• Fake out (for flinch)
• Protect
• Something with priority
• Thunder Wave if you have normalize, otherwise swap it with Helping Hand.

But be prepared for quick knockouts.

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You guys are crazy, I run Skitty in competitive VGC and it does fine.

For doubles:

• Fake out
• Helping Hand
• Thunder Wave
• and a preference move suited to your team.

Give it an Eviolite, max it's HP and defense and I guarantee he'll be useful.

In single battles run:

• Baton Pass
• Cosmic power
• Wish
• Protect

This is a simple cleric build but 90% of the time you wall Pokemon very easily. I've walled Garchomps, Dragonites, Cresselias, anything short of Focus Blast Mega Alakazam I've had little trouble setting up on.

Good luck!

Side Note: Purrloin is another great option. Similar idea, but run

• Foul Play
• Yawn
• Attract
• and preference move

Prankster really helps here and Purrloin outclasses Thunderus defense wise. Foul play has the possibility of 1hko-ing Landorus, Metagross and most base 150 attack pokemon. Just another useful cat for you.

1

Ignoring the fact that Skitty isn't a good pokémon, the best way is to use Choice Specs. This has the disadvantage that you can only use one attack, but this one will be more powerful (increased by 50%).

By TMs, you can teach:

• Ice Beam
• Thunderbolt
• Shadow Ball
• Grass Knot

Cute Charm would be better here, 4 normal attacks are useless. In general, normal attacks are not useful, because there are no types it's effective against.

The best nature is Modest, but you can't influence it anymore.

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