What is a good moveset for Golduck?

If you have a good competitive moveset for Golduck,post an answer below and upvote the best ones. Movesets for any of its pre-evolutions can also be shared on this thread.

Be sure to includefull set details in your post, e.g. items, abilities, natures and EVs. Some explanation, including the intended game mode for your set, is also appreciated.Access the full list of guidelines here.

Golduck Pokédex and learnsetfor reference.

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Role: Weather Patrol

Golduck (M) @ Life OrbAbility: Cloud NineEVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 SpeTimid Nature- Surf- Hidden Power [Fighting]- Psyshock- Hypnosis

Very similar to Trachy’s, only special with different coverage. Surf taking down Hippowdon and Ninetales, and HP [Fighting] taking down Tyranitar and Abomasnow. Psyshock for any left Special Defenders, and Hypnosis is just plain annoying.

Gen V

Golduck (M) @ Expert BeltAbility: Cloud NineEVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 SpeJolly Nature- Low Kick- Waterfall- Shadow Claw- Psych Up

Low Kick takes down Tyranitar and Abomasnow. Waterfall deals with Hippowdon and Ninetales. Shadow Claw is just there for type coverage, and Psych Up can make Golduck more formidable sometimes. Expert Belt helps you deal more damage to the instant weather Pokemon (except for Politoed, that Pokemon will be a bit more difficult, hopefully Shadow Claw gets a crit). Your EVs should allow you to outspeed them and then take them down.

No one ever sees it coming.

Golduck @ Life OrbAbility: Swift SwimEVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SpeAdamant Nature- Hone Claws- Aqua Tail- Cross Chop- Shadow Claw

Who uses Physical Golduck? I DO! It surprises the heck out of everyone. Most people will switch to a special wall like Slowking upon seeing Golduck, but this allows it to set up Hone Claws. And of course, with Rain support, Golduck outspeeds a heck of a lot of stuff. Water-/Fighting-/Ghost- is an unresisted type combination, as well. If you can set this up properly, it can absolutely wreck unprepared teams.

Gen 9 UU Nasty PlotGolduck @ Leftovers / Heavy-Duty-BootsAbility: Swift SwimTera Type: Grass / FairyEVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 SpeModest NatureIVs: 0 Atk- Nasty Plot- Hydro Pump- Ice Beam- Grass Knot

Golduck gets Nasty Plot in Gen 9, meaning it has more potential on Rain teams. This set is used on Rain teams with Drizzle Pelipper since Gen 9 UU is in Alpha at the time of this post. Nasty Plot is used to boost your special attack, allowing you to break through/sweep teams. Hydro Pump is used as a powerful Water STAB if you don’t Tera. Ice Beam is used for coverage against Pokemon such as Noivern and Salamence. Grass Knot, another new move Golduck gets in Gen 9, allows Golduck to get rid of bulky Water-types that would otherwise wall it such as Slowbro, Slowking, Gastrodon, and Quagsire. Leftovers is used for a little HP recovery. Heavy-Duty Boots can be used instead to have Golduck avoid taking chip damage from entry hazards. For the Tera Type, you can use Grass to help take out Bulky Waters, or you can use Fairy to help tank the priority moves First Impression and Sucker Punch.

Gen III

Golduck (M) @ LeftoversAbility: Cloud NineEVs: 88 HP / 128 Def / 64 SpA / 128 SpD / 100 SpeModest Nature- Calm Mind- Ice Beam- Hydro Pump- Substitute___

I’m gonna be quick with this one hopefully, as he’s pretty self explanitory.

He can Use substitute, and get a decently beefy sub, He has Calm Mind to make him bulkier, and have higher Special Attack, which is a great thing to have.

HeneedsHydro Pump to actually do something to most opponents, so we just have to ignore the lame accuracy, and Ice Beam is a high accuracy coverage move for Grass types, Flying types, and those annoying Dragons.

Double/Triple Battle

Golduck (M) @ Life OrbAbility: Cloud NineEVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 SpeTimid Nature- Surf- Soak- Ice Beam / Blizzard- Hidden Power [Electric]

There are better Water types out there, but Golduck gets Cloud Nine, so yeah… Surf is STAB and hits multiple Pokemon. HP Electric and Ice Beam are coverage. Blizzard can be used over Ice Beam due to more power and hitting multiple Pokemon. However, you won’t be getting Hail to help out that accuacy, so you’ll have to rely on Victini, Gravity, or 70% accuracy. Soak is used to help out Pokemon with a crippling x4 weakness.

Well, here’s a Golduck no one would really expect

Bulky Stall Golduck

Golduck @ LeftoversAbility: Cloud NineEVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpABold Nature- Scald- Mud Bomb- Calm Mind- Substitute

Scald: STAB, chance to burn, and will increase your DefenseMud Bomb: lowers accuracy, annoying the opponent so they can hardly ever attack and deals with Electric typesCalm Mind: Boosts Sp. Atk. and Sp. Def with Scald and Mud BombSubstitute: Creates a temporary replacement so you can be safe while attacking and gaining stats and HP.

Okay, not everyone would okay with a Golduck that can pass off as Bulky, but it can. Here, you attack by getting your defenses up. Scald takes care of those who are NOT Fire type or have Water Veil as an ability, those will be your counters that can NOT get burned. Well, we can resort to Mud Bomb as well, so long as they are NOT Flying type and/or have Keen Eye/White Smoke/Clear Body as their Ability. So if you are lucky to bypass with a Burn and/or lowered accuracy, then you can utilize by setting up Calm Mind to enhance the Special side offensively and defensively, and Substitute, so you can have a decoy, especially when the opponent is struggling to make an attack, try to use a defensive/supportive move, or switch out, at least the Special Boost and Substitute will aid you there.

I use mine competitively in my ORAS Battle Box, it functions as a destroyer of weather activators:

Golduck @ Zoom LensAbility: Cloud NineEVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpDSassy NatureIVs: 0 Spe- Aqua Tail- Hypnosis- Wonder Room- Focus Blast

My Golduck is built to take out the Pokemon whose abilities activate a weather condition (Drought, Drizzle, Sand Stream). I did the research, and Water- and Fighting- moves have the best super-effective coverage (ex. Tyranitar, Hippowdon, Ninetales, Mega Charizard Y, Abomasnow, etc.). Since Cloud Nine negates the effects of weather, these two types of moves hit for full power – seeing as Sandstorm and Sun would usually raise Rock-type’s SpD and Sun would reduce Water-type damage.

I chose a physical Water-type move because a majority of the weather activators that are weak to Water- had lower Defense than SpD. I chose Focus Blast because a majority of the weather activators weak to Fighting had lower SpD than Def. For the weather activators whose other defense is higher than the majority, I chose Wonder Room to swap their defenses and proceed to take them out. Hypnosis is to put the weather activator to sleep so you can comfortably proceed to KO them.

Max HP and SpD is necessary to prevent being OHKOed by Special Attacking Electric- and Grass-types. Since Golduck’s Special Attack is higher than its Attack, it makes sense to teach it a non-STAB special move for maximum power and a physical STAB move.

Gen 8 RU, with Damp Rock Politoed as a partner

Golduck @ Life OrbAbility: Swift SwimEVs: 252 SpA / 4 Def / 252 SpeModest Nature- Hydro Pump- Ice Beam- Focus Blast- Psyshock

Hydro Pump is rain-boosted STAB. Ice Beam covers Grass types and Dragon types. Focus Blast is coverage. Psyshock is coverage that hits specially defensive Pokemon hard.

Golduck @ Choice ScarfAbility: Cloud NineEVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 SpeNaive Nature- Hydro Pump- Ice Beam- Clear Smog- Flip Turn

The only job this thing has is knocking out Primal Groudon on teams struggling with it since Kyogre can’t really switch into his Precipice Blades.Hydro Pump for STAB, you know.Ice Beam is pretty much necessary for all Dragon- around.Clear Smog is just there cause I wasn’t able to find any good move.Flip Turn for momentum.

Hope it Helped!