10 Worst Non-Signature Abilities In Pokémon Games

Sometimes, all a Pokémon needs in order to do well in battle is a good ability.

Take, for example, Blaziken, who spent the first two generations of its life as a serviceable Fire/Fighting-type, but then upgraded itself to a deadly sweeping machine in Generation V, once it got access to Speed Boost.

The very opposite fate befell poor Gengar, who lost the ability Levitate and had it replaced with Cursed Body, as of Generation VII. Thankfully, though, its Mega Evolution has Shadow Tag, which is leagues better.

Point is, an ability can either buff a Pokémon or make it infinitely worse. This is precisely why some Pokémon have unique, gimmicky abilities - to balance out their stats. For Pokémon like Regigigas with Slow Start, this is debilitating, but for Pokémon like Shedinja with Wonder Guard, it offers a little more hope.

But those aren't the abilities we'll be talking about.

No, too many "worst Pokémon abilities" lists talk extensively about signature abilities, such as the Skitty line's Normalize and the Archen line's Defeatist. This list, however, is going to be about those other bad abilities; the ones that aren't exclusive to one Pokémon, or one evolutionary line.

Hell, some of these abilities are actually pretty common and widespread.

Heavy Metal is a hidden ability of both the Aron and Bronzor lines. All it does is double the weight of the Pokémon.

Now, there are a couple of benefits to this, such as increased damage when using Heavy Slam and decreased damage from the move Heat Crash (a move exclusive to the Tepig line). On the other hand, this ability doubles the damage taken from common moves like Low Kick and Grass Knot.

While Low Kick only does neutral damage to Bronzor or Bronzong thanks to its dual Psychic typing, it deals 4x damage to Aron, Lairon, and Aggron because of their dual Rock typing. To continue being fair, Grass Knot won't be too effective against a Bronzong, but it will do neutral damage to an Aggron. But even still, these moves are going to do more damage to these two than they normally would have.

Ultimately, the bad outweighs the good with this ability, but it's not a horrendous one.