Now that Pokemon Platinum has been out for a couple of weeks, it's a great time to start taking on challengers for a good ol' fashion Pokemon battle. If your friends aren't very far in Platinum and don't want to battle your level 100 Garchomp, then you might be able to convince them into a single-pokemon battle against your powerful level one Rattata. If Platinum is your first Pokemon game of this generation, and your friends are bragging about how they have a powerful Dialga or Palkia in Diamon/Pearl, use this tricky little guy to put them in their place.
FEAR stands for Focus Sash, Endeavor, Quick Attack, Rattata. A level one FEAR can easily beat any pokemon your opponent may throw at you, providing that they don't already know the trick behind the FEAR. This guide will explain how the FEAR works, how to get one, and how to fight against one in case your friends also read this article.
What makes it FEARful?
The Rattata being level one is actually very important for this whole thing to work. The reason is that a stronger pokemon might not receive as much damage as a level one Rattata would. Normally, you should be expecting a level one Rattata to be knocked out on the very first hit. This would be the case, except that the FEAR Rattata will be holding the Focus Sash item. Focus Sash allows your Rattata to survive any knock out attack, keeping only 1 HP. If your Rattata is already at 1 HP, then it will faint. However, at the very start of a battle, your Rattata should be at full health and will survive the first hit.
On the very first turn, select Endeavour as your attack. Your opponent's pokemon, being higher level and faster, will no doubt attack first and take your Rattata down to 1 HP before your Rattata uses Endeavour. Endeavour is a normal-type attack that has a special effect. Instead dealing damage based on a set stat, it always deals just enough damage to make your opponent's HP equal to your Rattata's current HP. If your opponent attacked first and brought your HP down to 1 HP, Endeavour will take his pokemon's health to 1 HP as well! Even if your opponent doesn't attack first, Endeavour will still take his pokemon's HP to a very low number, around 12 HP.
After attacking with Endeavour, you must use Quick Attack on the next turn. You should be familiar with Quick Attack, a move that lets you go first, regardless of your pokemon's speed. As long as your opponent doesn't use a faster move, like ExtremeSpeed, your FEAR Rattata will attack first and will deal at least one damage, allowing you to knock out your opponent's best pokemon! Even if your opponent switches to a new pokemon or attacks first somehow, his best pokemon is still reduced to just 1 HP.
If you're afraid of your opponent switching out to a new pokemon, you can always teach your FEAR Rattata Pursuit so that it can take care of run-away pokemon. If you want to add a fourth move to the FEAR, you should add Sucker Punch, which is great for handling pokemon that are holding leftovers and/or have more than 1 HP.
Raising your own Miniature Terror
In order to get a level one pokemon, you must hatch one from an egg in Diamond, Pearl or Platinum (older Pokemon games hatch baby pokemon at level five). You can easily find Raticates that already know Endeavour around Route 225 and 226. Visit the Move Relearner in Fallarbor or Pastoria City and give up a heart scale to teach your breeding Raticates Quick Attack. You get heart scales from capturing Luvdiscs that are holding them, mining the underground area, or searching underwater.
If your two Raticates both know Endeavour and Quick Attack, then there is a very good chance that the Rattata that they breed will know the two moves as well. Just keep hatching eggs until you find one that you can use. You should get a good number of them if you are planning to use them for in game battles, like against your Rival or the Final Four. Remember that level one FEARs are the best.
If you don't have a Focus Sash already, you can get one from the Old Man in the house on Route 221. Simply show the Old Man the pokemon that he asks for and hope that he gives you what you want. You can also buy Focus Sash from the battle tower for 48 BattlePoints. Don't bother using Focus Bands because they don't always work.
Fighting against the Nightmare
You should always be prepared in case someone tries to use the FEAR Rattata against you. Even if your friends don't know any of these tricks, you still need to be aware in case your opponent accidently uses a good move that will prevent your FEAR from doing its job properly. Just as using the FEAR Rattata is about being sneaky and tricky, you must also be aware of your opponent trying to be sneaky and tricky as well.
One thing that your opponent might do to render your FEAR useless without even knowing it is to use a ghost pokemon. Ghosts, being immune to normal-type attacks, is naturally immune to Endeavour, which ruins the whole trick. Unless you somehow change your opponent's element type, you should not use a FEAR Rattata against any ghost pokemon.
As well, you should not use it if there is a Sandstorm or Burn effect happening, because that will kill your 1 HP Rattata before it can deliver the final Quick Attack. Similarly, it is not wise to attack anything with a Spike or similar effect since that might make your Focus Sash useless.
If your opponent has a pokemon holding leftovers, it might be hard to deliver the knock out attack, but at least their pokemon will have very little health left. If you are facing a FEAR Rattata, you should be using a pokemon that has Extremespeed, Sucker Punch, Ice Shard, or even Quick Attack itself, so that it can always attack first. If you are using a FEAR Rattata, just be aware of these moves since they can hamper your success.
Other Potential Spooks
Although Rattatas are readily available and great to use with this trick, they aren't the only pokemon that are able to be this scary. You can use any other pokemon that can learn Endeavour and a fast attack. Good attacks include Extreme Speed, Quick Attack, Sucker Punch, and Ice Shard. In Diamond and Pearl, you can use a level one Doduo, Phanpy (with Ice Shard), Smeargle, Treecko, Taillow, or Starly. In Pokemon Platinum, the Move Tutor can teach Endeavour, which will greatly expand this list of FEAR pokemon. While you can take advantage of this and create a FEAR pokemon that your opponent might not immediately recognize, you should be aware that they can do the same to you. So be careful when facing a level one or similarly low-leveled pokemon!
These FEAR pokemon are not only great for battling and showing off to your friends, but they work well in game, especially for capturing legendary pokemon, since you can easily knock them down to 1 HP before throwing a pokeball. As well, if a story character has one or two pokemon that is giving you a lot of trouble, consider throwing a FEAR pokemon into the fray and letting them do some major damage. Once your opponent learns about FEAR, they are not as useful, but they are still fun to throw out now and then.
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