Luxray Movesets & Competitive Sets

Luxray after a Guts boost can do a solid amount of damage even with a weaker primary attack like Wild Charge. However, Luxray is easily revenge killed, and Wild Charge and Flame Orb continuously rack up so much recoil damage that Luxray won’t be able to offensively pressure the opponent too much until it takes itself out. Luxray also ends up facing large competition against physical wallbreakers such as Stoutland and Kangaskhan, who aren't the fastest but hit far harder, and Electric-types like Alolan Raichu who is faster and carries better coverage moves.

Moves Despite its recoil damage, Wild Charge basically hits everything that isn't immune to it hard; it's mainly useful against Pokemon such as Pelipper and Politoed. Ice Fang provides excellent coverage with Wild Charge, hitting common Grass-types and bulky Ground-types such as Roselia and Gabite. Superpower hits Normal- and Steel-types, as well as Chinchou. Because Wild Charge, Ice Fang, and Superpower provide good coverage, Luxray can easily afford to run Volt Switch as its last move. Volt Switch lets Luxray scout for switches against disadvantageous foes, giving you momentum, so it's really useful in tandem with Intimidate, as it makes Luxray a viable pivot. Set Details The EV spread and Choice Band maximize Luxray's Attack, allowing it to wallbreak as effectively as possible. An Adamant nature further boosts Luxray's attack, although a Jolly nature in conjunction with the Speed investment allows Luxray to outspeed Adamant Stoutland and Monferno. Intimidate is useful to soften up damage from physical attackers; it can be used to weaken and force out physical attackers, easing the job of revenge killers. Intimidate can also somewhat muzzle threats such as Swords Dance Leafeon and Choice Band Stoutland; while Luxray by no means counters these Pokemon, it can use Intimidate to weaken them and make them less scary. Finally, Volt Switch is just too important to Luxray's role as a bulky pivot to give up and is nice for pivoting out of Pokemon such as Tangela. Usage Tips Luxray, especially when running Intimidate, should be brought in on weak attackers and other Pokemon to force them out, therefore gaining momentum. It's better to use Volt Switch against bulkier teams to wear down foes and gain momentum, but be careful when pivoting in against Defiant users, as giving them a free Attack boost is dangerous. Luxray should be used to break down walls with its powerful attacks, but don't expect it to sweep with its mediocre Speed. Also, Luxray must be used in a slow VoltTurn team, as this will allow it to safely switch into strong attackers, especially specially based ones. Even if Luxray could revenge kill many Pokemon such as Raichu and Rotom-F, it can't switch in safely against them. Team Options Stealth Rock setters such as Probopass and Golem make it easier for Luxray to wallbreak, especially against Raichu and Regice. Spikes setters such as Roselia are really appreciated as well. Roselia can also take advantage of opposing Tangela rather easily. Even Toxic Spikes support works, especially against bulky Ground-types. Thunder Wave support slows down foes and makes it easier for Luxray to handle them. Pokemon that are immune or resistant to Ground-type attacks, such as Jumpluff, Swanna, and Leafeon, are also good teammates because Luxray is weak to Ground. Setup sweepers such as Ninetales, Leafeon, and Jumpluff or weather sweepers such as Rain Dance Golduck are good teammates, as Luxray can help them find setup opportunities with Intimidate. Luxray fits well in VoltTurn cores, where it can be switched in safely.

This is Luxray's best set. Using its great coverage and base 120 Attack, Luxray can put massive holes in opposing teams. Luxray stands out among other status abusers, such as Zangoose and Swellow, due to its decent bulk and great coverage. Luxray also sports a higher Attack stat than both of these Pokemon and is also able to break through Alomomola. This allows Luxray to serve as an excellent mid-game attacker, hitting the opposing team hard and giving its teammates opportunities to sweep through the remaining Pokemon. Wild Charge is Luxray's STAB move of choice and, while the recoil does not pair up well with the burn damage, it hits fairly hard after a Guts boost. Superpower provides more coverage, maiming Pokemon like Regirock and Golem that would otherwise take little to no damage from Wild Charge. Facade benefits from Guts and hits Grass-types such as Tangela for decent damage. Finally, Crunch is chosen as a final coverage move to pummel incoming Exeggutor and Golurk, both of which don't mind Wild Charge. A Jolly nature allows Luxray to Speed tie with positive natured Samurott and Ludicolo. An Adamant nature will help Luxray hit Alomomola harder, but being able to tie with Ludicolo and Samurott is important. Flame Orb activates Guts, which is needed to attain the needed Guts boost. Using a Toxic Orb instead will lessen the initial damage, but the net damage will be greater than Flame Orb after the third turn. Ice Fang can be used over Facade to better handle Altaria, but a boosted Facade is generally stronger and has more utility. Luxray is not easy to switch into the battlefield, so a slow Volt Switch user, such as Probopass or Baton Pass Musharna, can get Luxray in safely and also activate Guts quickly. Spikes support from the likes of Cacturne or Garbodor is useful to help Luxray net some KOs it would otherwise miss out on. A Rapid Spin user can be used to remove entry hazards to prevent Luxray from being worn down more easily, but the majority of viable spinners aren't too useful outside of removing entry hazards. Sawk is a great offensive partner, dealing with both Regirock and Golem. Finally, Articuno and Regice both make good offensive teammates, checking Tangela and opposing Dragon-types, such as Altaria and Fraxure.

With a Choice item, Luxray can become an effective wallbreaker or revenge killer. Unlike the Guts set, this does not suffer from residual damage and provides a more immediate threat. Choice Band Luxray faces stiff competition from Eelektross, which packs U-turn, Aqua Tail, and an immunity to Ground-type moves, but Luxray stands out with its greater power and higher Speed stat. Wild Charge is the obligatory STAB move, heavily damaging targets that do not resist it. Superpower is the coverage move of choice, hitting Golem and Regirock, two Pokemon that don't mind Wild Charge. Ice Fang provides decent coverage with Wild Charge and hits Dragon-types and Tangela. Finally, Volt Switch is chosen to scout switch-ins and to allow a more immediately threatening teammate to switch in. However, Crunch can be used to hit Golurk, which takes little from Luxray's other moves. When using a Choice Band, a Jolly nature allows Luxray to Speed tie with positive natured Samurott and Ludicolo. However, an Adamant nature offers more power and works well with a Choice Scarf. The choice between a Choice Band and Choice Scarf depends on the role that Luxray will play on your team. Intimidate is useful to soften up damage from physical attackers, such as Sawk and Zangoose. However, Guts can be useful to absorb Will-O-Wisp from the likes of Misdreavus. Sawk is a solid teammate to KO Regirock and Golem while providing solid offensive synergy with Luxray. Golurk is in a similar boat and can also come in on opposing Sawk. Articuno and Regice can be useful as well, as they check Tangela and Altaria, and again provide great offensive synergy. Additionally, Samurott and Ludicolo handle Regirock effectively. Luxray also appreciates Spikes support to help it net some KOs. Cacturne and Garbodor are both excellent options for this.

This set uses Luxray's Special Attack stat alongside its Attack stat to get past certain threats that Luxray can't beat otherwise. Thunderbolt is Luxray's main attack, as it is a reliable STAB move that can get past threats such as Gorebyss while giving Luxray a way to break down Alomomola. Superpower is in the second moveslot, because it's ridiculously powerful coming off Luxray's base 120 Attack stat, nailing Regice and Lickilicky for OHKOs, the former after Stealth Rock and the latter after a Thunderbolt. Superpower cleanly OHKOes Audino and Bastiodon right off the bat. Hidden Power Grass gives Luxray the power to OHKO Seismitoad and Golem, the latter if Sturdy has been broken. This means that Seismitoad in particular no longer walls Luxray to no end. In the last moveslot, it's down to personal preference. Volt Switch lets you scout for switches against Pokemon Luxray checks, such as Braviary, giving you momentum. On the other hand, Signal Beam hits almost every Grass-type hard as well as Psychic-types such as Duosion. Ice Fang could be used in the last slot in order to hit Altaria, who walls this set otherwise, and it is also the only way to hit Roselia and Vileplume for super effective damage. However, it is not listed because it doesn't make as good use of the EV spread as the other two options do. The EV spread lets Luxray hit with as much power as possible on the special side, giving it a way to hit physical walls, who are this set's main targets, hard while still hitting like a truck on the physical side. The remaining EVs are dumped into Speed to let Luxray outpace max Speed Gorebyss before a Shell Smash and OHKO it with Thunderbolt. Life Orb is used to let Luxray hit hard on both the physical and special side, and a Rash nature boosts Luxray's Special Attack further while not lowering its Attack stat. Intimidate is used due to Guts only boosting Luxray's Attack stat, as well as for its ability to turn Luxray into a half-decent bulky pivot. However, if you are paranoid about Superpower not being weakened by burn, Guts is still viable, but it's too unreliable to be recommended. Entry hazard setters are vital to Luxray's success, gaining it many OHKOs and 2HKOs after they have been set up, such as an OHKO on Regice with Superpower. This makes Pokemon such as Garbodor, Cacturne, and Probopass very good teammates For Luxray. Strong special attackers, such as Choice Specs Altaria, make good partners for their ability to lure Pokemon such as Regice in, ready to be KOed or crippled by Superpower. Ice-types such as Regice and Articuno complement Luxray with their typing and ability to hit Vileplume, Roselia, and Tangela hard, coming in on a Volt Switch or a well predicted double switch. Water-types such as Carracosta, Samurott, and Ludicolo make good teammates for Luxray, hitting Piloswine and Golurk harder than Hidden Power Grass. Fast and frail sweepers such as Swellow and Choice Scarf Charizard make good partners for Luxray as well because it breaks down walls, opening up a late-game sweep for the said Pokemon.

Although Luxray lacks a reliable recovery move such as Recover or Wish, he can utilize the RestTalk combo to recover health and cure status. Luxray's support movepool leaves much to be desired, so he doesn't really mind giving up moveslots for Rest and Sleep Talk. Since Luxray doesn't have room for Toxic or Thunder Wave on this set, Discharge is the primary option for the first move. Roar is useful to prevent threats from setting up on Luxray and works well in conjunction with entry hazards such as Stealth Rock and Spikes. Thanks to Rest and Sleep Talk, Luxray will be able to utilize Roar repeatedly, racking up a lot of entry hazard damage. Hidden Power Grass is still an option to 2HKO Rhyperior and Quagsire, but has little use other than that. This set has the potential to function well on a stall team, where its purpose is to cause entry hazard damage with Roar. Once you have eliminated Luxray's counters and any Rapid Spin users, you can pull off a late-game cleanup by utilizing Roar repeatedly, while healing yourself with Rest when necessary. As such, it is recommended that your team be able to use at least two types of entry hazards. Uxie, Claydol, and Torterra deserve a mention because they can set up Stealth Rock and switch in on the Ground-type attacks that Luxray is weak to. Unfortunately, the only UU Spikes user who resists Ground is Cacturne, who is too frail to take more than a couple of resisted hits. However, Cloyster's high Defense lets him take Earthquakes from Donphan and Rhyperior, making him an excellent candidate for an entry hazard-laying teammate. Cloyster is also the only user of Toxic Spikes in UU who isn't either weak to Ground or physically frail.

Intimidate is a great ability for Luxray, despite his rather average defensive capabilities. A few useful resistances allow him to take quite a few hits before fainting. When factoring in Intimidate, Luxray is capable of surviving Swords Dance-boosted Bug Bite from Scyther and Stone Edge from Kabutops to hit them back with Discharge. Unfortunately, with the removal of Crobat, Honchkrow, and Staraptor from the UU tier, this set has lost some of its relevance. Still, he makes a decent switch against physical Water-types, Scyther, and Swellow, while keeping the useful Electric-type STAB and acting as a status platform. Toxic cripples walls, while Discharge has a chance to cripple fast sweepers with paralysis. Thunder Wave is an option over Toxic if you prefer a more reliable way of spreading paralysis. Thunderbolt is an option over Discharge if you are using Thunder Wave, or if you don't want to accidentally paralyze something that you want to poison with Toxic. It also has more power, but against the aforementioned threats, both are equally good. Luxray's support movepool is lackluster, but Protect works nicely with Toxic and helps recover health, while forcing Swellow to take another turn of poison or burn damage if he tries to use U-turn to escape. Roar is nice on any defensive Pokemon, but has poor synergy with Intimidate. This Luxray set faces competition from Arcanine's defensive set, which works similarly. Arcanine may seem to overshadow Luxray due to the advantages of Morning Sun, Will-O-Wisp, and more powerful attacking choices; however, Luxray's two move coverage, Thunder Wave, and lack of a Stealth Rock weakness allow him to do some things that Arcanine can't. Crucially, Luxray can take on physically based Water-types, while Arcanine cannot. Again, Luxray needs teammates to take Ground-type attacks. Entry hazards support this set well if you're using Roar, so Cloyster, Omastar, and Qwilfish are good considerations to lay down Spikes, while Stealth Rock users are plentiful. Dugtrio doesn't OHKO this set, but Luxray cannot OHKO him either, so having something to lure and deal with Dugtrio is also very helpful. This set counters physical Water- and Flying-types, so Fire-type sweepers like Ninetales, Houndoom, and Moltres, who fear users of Aqua Jet and being revenge killed by Swellow or Scyther, are ideal teammates. While adding more Pokemon to your team who are liable to getting trapped by Dugtrio may seem like a bad idea, equipping Ninetales or Houndoom with a Shuca Berry or using Sucker Punch on Houndoom can give Luxray the Dugtrio lure he needs.

Luxray has a high Attack stat and excellent type coverage, so a Choice Band set can work well. Electric / Ice and Dark / Fighting are well known two-move coverage combinations, and having both together is one of the main draws of this set. Superpower is your most powerful move here, and it helps that Slowbro and Flying-types are not likely to switch in on Luxray for fear of an Electric-type attack. Spark is better than Thunder Fang for physical STAB, as the 30% paralysis rate can really help Luxray with his low Speed stat. The Speed EVs give Luxray 230 Speed, which is enough to outrun base 95 Pokemon who don't invest in Speed, such as Uxie. Since Luxray isn't going to outspeed many important Pokemon, an Adamant nature is preferable to hit as hard as possible, while a small HP investment helps make use of Intimidate. Like the other sets, Luxray needs teammates who can switch in on Ground-type attacks. Due to the hit-and-run nature of Choice sets, it is recommended that you include immunities and 4x resists, so that revenge killers do not become too much of a liability. This is standard practice for highly offensive teams, which is where Choice Band Luxray is likely to fit in.

This set takes advantage of Luxray's mixed attacking stats, making him a good wallbreaker in UU. Thunderbolt deals with bulky Water-types, while Superpower decimates most special walls and does good damage to Rock- and Steel-types. Crunch damages Uxie and Claydol and OHKOes Rotom and Mismagius. There are many options for the final moveslot. Hidden Power Grass and Hidden Power Water both cover Ground-types, with Donphan and Rhyperior being 2HKOed by a combination of Superpower and Hidden Power. Hidden Power Grass covers Quagsire, while Hidden Power Water allows Luxray to 2HKO Steelix with Superpower followed by Hidden Power Water. Ice Fang hits Venusaur and Altaria on their weaker Defense stat, while dealing hefty damage to Torterra, though you lose the ability to significantly damage most Ground-types. Hidden Power Ice is a final option to maintain coverage on Ground-types while still having decent coverage against Venusaur. Superpower is the best move to open with, as Milotic, Rhyperior, Donphan, and Steelix are all 2HKOed by Superpower followed by the appropriate special move, while special walls expecting Thunderbolt or a weak Spark are 2HKOed or OHKOed. If you discover that your opponent is using a Ghost- or Psychic-type to wall Superpower, choose Crunch (or Thunderbolt for Spiritomb) next time Luxray is in. As a wallbreaker, Luxray faces heavy competition from Blaziken, Nidoking, and Magmortar. As such, if you are using Luxray, make sure you are taking advantage of what sets him apart from other wallbreakers. Blaziken generally has a lot more power than Luxray, with STAB on Superpower, higher Special Attack, and Fire Blast as a special move. Luxray's main advantage over Blaziken is his ability to deal with bulky Water- and Flying-types, who often give Blaziken trouble. In comparison to Nidoking, Luxray's main advantage is that he has much higher attacking stats, which allow him to easily defeat Pokemon such as Clefable. Magmortar boasts more power and better type coverage on the special side, but has significantly less physical power. Luxray also has higher defenses than Blaziken, Nidoking, and Magmortar, especially when considering Intimidate, and lacks the Water-type weakness that the three of them share. The EVs give a nice balance to Luxray's offenses. The Special Attack EVs are enough to always OHKO Slowbro after Stealth Rock damage, while a heavy investment in Attack powers up Superpower as much as possible. The Speed EVs allow Luxray to reach 213, outspeeding every UU wall except for Uxie, who will likely paralyze Luxray with Thunder Wave anyway. When choosing teammates for Luxray, be sure to include a Ground-type immunity or resist. Flying-types and Pokemon with the ability Levitate can range from bulky Pokemon like Claydol and Altaria to offensive threats such as Mismagius and Moltres. Dugtrio can revenge kill Luxray, so have something such as SubPunch Aggron or a Ground-weak Choice Scarf user who can lure Dugtrio. Luxray also works well with Pokemon who appreciate the removal of certain walls. Arcanine and Moltres enjoy having Luxray take out Water-types and Rhyperior, while special sweepers such as Alakazam appreciate having Registeel and Chansey gone.