Bronzong Guide: Ding, Dong, Is This Pokemon Strong?

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Jesus Cruz, Lifelong Pokémon Fan

It all started in 2010 when Jesus was 10 years old. His dad gifted him a Nintendo DS and let him choose a game for it. A weird, enormous, and grey serpent caught my attention on the box art for Pokémon Platinum, and since that moment he's been hooked! He can only thank his 10 years old self for choosing the game that he loves the most in the series

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Bronzong, the bronze bell Pokémon, is a dual Steel/Psychic-type Pokémon introduced in Gen 4, and its the evolution of Bronzor. 

Bronzong is based on a Dōtaku, a Japanese bronze bell used for agriculture-related rituals, and its face is based on Tlāloc, the god of the rain. It is said that Bronzong’s presence gave good luck to the harvests; that’s why it has a wheat drawing on its back.

Bronzong can live more than 1000 years; the oldest Bronzongs are really intelligent and learn many battle strategies. To learn, it likes to habitat in desolated mountains to get no interruptions. 

Bronzong is a big, bell-shaped Pokémon with two flexible arms. It has several dark turquoise patterns in its body and two big red eyes in the front accompanied by a big set of three teeth. In addition, it has a green/blue-colored and hollow body. 

Bronzong’s name comes from the union of Bronze and the Dong onomatopoeia of a bell reverberation. 

Bronzong Summary of Appearances in Pokémon Versions and Media (Games, Anime, Movies)

In the games, you can find Bronzong in the following places: 

• Gen 4: In Diamond, Pearl and Platinum, Bronzong appears in the Turnback Cave and in Mt. Coronet, while in HGSS, you can find it in the Safari Zone.
• Gen 5: You can find Bronzong in the Abundant Shrine, and in B2W2, it will only appear in the dark grass.
• Gen 6: You can find a wild Bronzong in a Steel-type Friend Safari. In ORAS, Bronzong is only obtainable by breeding Bronzor, which can be found in the Mt. Pyre exterior as a hidden Pokémon.
• Gen 7: This Pokémon is unobtainable in both SM and USUM.
• Gen 8: Bronzong can be found in several places: In Route 8, Axew’s Eye, Dusty Bowl, and in Lake of Outrage, while you can find it as a wanderer in the Bridge Field, Dusty Bowl, East Lake Axewell, Giant’s Seat and in Stony Wilderness.
  
  Bronzong can also appear in the Expansion Pass in the Giant’s bed, in Giant’s foot, and in the Three-Point Pass. 

Bronzong’s debut in the anime was in the episode An Elite Meet and Greet! under the ownership of Lucian, one of the Elite Four members of Sinnoh. Lucian’s Bronzong had a battle against Dawn’s Buizel, winning. It later appeared in Top-Down Training, losing a battle against Cynthia’s Garchomp. 

In the manga, Bronzong debuted in Pokémon Adventures, two of them under the ownership of Byron, in Brash Bronzong I. It also appeared in Arceus and the Jewel of Life, in Pocket Monsters Platinum: Aim to Be Battle King!! And in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure!

Bronzong has a lot of cards in the TCG. Starting with the normal ones, Bronzong has a Rare or Rare Holo in the following expansions: 

• Mysterious Treasures (As a Rare Holo)
• Majestic Dawn
• Stormfront
• Arceus
• Triumphant
• Next Destinies
• Phantom Forces
• BREAKthrough
• Fates Collide
• Team Up
• Battle Styles 
• Chilling Reign (as a Secret Rare). 

Bronzong also has Uncommon cards in the following expansions: 

• Arceus 
• Ultra Prism 
• Rebel Clash

And it also has special cards. For example, there’s a Team Galactic’s Bronzong (as an uncommon), a Bronzong 4 (which is Rare), and a Bronzong BREAK in Fates Collide (which is rare like all BREAK cards). 

Bronzong Evolution Line: When Does Bronzong Evolve?

Bronzor can evolve into Bronzong at level 33, and Bronzong can’t evolve. 

Bronzong Stats

You can probably tell Bronzong’s role in a team only by seeing its stats and the fact that it is pretty bulky; Bronzong can work perfectly as a wall and as a hazard setter. 

Its stats only made him highlight in the NU (Never Used) tier, but that doesn’t mean it is a bad Pokémon at all. Its defenses are really high, and getting it down is pretty hard, mostly because of its ability (Sadly, it got severely nerfed after Gen 6 when Steel-type lost its resistance against the Dark and the Ghost-type). Let’s check its stats: 

Stats

The only thing Bronzong needs to be basically perfect as a wall is to have more HP. Unfortunately, those base points are mixed in HP, Attack, and Special Attack, which can be useful if you have an aggressive playstyle.  The thing that highlights the most about Bronzong is its Defense and Special Defense stats; it can be perfect for all Pokémon types, which is pretty cool! 

Lastly, It was obvious a Pokémon like Bronzong would be pretty slow. It only has 33 base points on speed, and it will attack first only if it uses a priority move or you slowed down your foe’s Pokémon enough for Bronzong to attack first. 

Anyways, let’s see Bronzong’s abilities! 

Abilities

Bronzong can have the following abilities: 

• Heatproof: Bronzong will only receive half of the damage from every Fire-type attack it receives. Also, the burning status will inflict half of its damage.
• Levitate: Bronzong isn’t touching the ground, which means it is immune to Ground-type attacks. Also, Bronzong is immune to every single hazard in the field: Arena Trap, Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Sticky Web, and Stealth Rocks.
• Heavy Metal (as its Hidden Ability): A Bronzong with Heavy metal will weigh double a normal Bronzong. This is useful for attacks like Heat Crash and Heavy Slam, which measure their power based on the target’s weight and of the user. The heavier the user is, compared with the target, the greater its power will be. With this ability, Bronzong will have a weight of 824.6 lbs. The problem will come when Bronzong receives a Low Kick or a Grass Knot; the attack will have a power of 120. 

Heavy Metal is a cool ability but only if you are going to use Heavy Slam, but there’s a problem with it; Bronzong isn’t the heaviest Pokémon in the game (having a weight of 412.3 lbs), so it will not always inflict the most damage it can do. Also, there are many better attacks than Heavy Slam (we will see them in the moves list per level). 

Discarding Heavy Metal leads us to two options: Heatproof or Levitate. To see which one can set Bronzong better, we have to check how many Fire-type Pokémon are in NU. 

Fire-type attackers aren’t common in this tier, but they are pretty strong; Charizard, Arcanine, Salazzle, or Talonflame. So, Heatproof can be a really good option if you are aiming for a highly defensive Bronzong. But, if you are going to use this ability, it would be better to enhance its HP with some EVs and a good nature because Ground-type attackers are common here. 

Lastly, Levitate can be a good option if your Bronzong is exposed to a Ground-type attack, and this is good because there’s a lot of Earthquake users in the lower tiers, and it is also a good strategy against Stealth Rock setters.

Now, let’s check the natures Bronzong can use. 

Natures

We want to buff Bronzong’s defenses if we are going for a Physically Defensive Bronzong, which will be the best option because there are many physical threats in the low tiers. 

Bronzong can work with the following Natures: 

• Bold (Increases Defenses, decreases Attack)
• Relaxed (Increases Defenses, decreases Speed)
• Impish ((Increases Defenses, decreases Special Attack)
• Lax (Increases Defenses, decreases Special Defense)

From these four options, we have to discard two; Lax will decrease the Special Defense of Bronzong, which can faint if it gets a Dark Pulse like that, and Relaxed is also a problem to use because there will be moments where we can attack first with Bronzong as there are slower Pokémon in the tiers. 

That leads us with two natures; Bold or Impish. This is up to the move set you’ll use; if you are going for Heavy Slam or something like that, you have to use Impish, but if you are going to use Psychic or any other Special Attack, then your option has to be Bold. 

Moves per level (Gen 8)

According to Serebii, Bronzong can learn the following levels by leveling up: 

We have many options if you are aiming for an aggressive Bronzong, like Gyro Ball, Future Sight, or Iron Defense. 

Now, let’s check the moves list by using a TM/TR. 

Moves list per TM/TR (Gen 8) 

Bronzong can learn the following moves through the use of a TM/TR: 

If you are aiming for a Special Attacker Bronzong, a good option has to be Flash Cannon, while Zen Headbutt can work perfectly for it if you are aiming for a Physical Attacker. Shadow Ball can also be a great option if you want to cover Bronzong from its Ghost-type weakness; the problem is that it is pretty slow, so your only hope is to see if Bronzong can handle a hit from a Ghost-type attacker. 

Bronzong Strengths

Bronzong is a dual Steel/Psychic-type Pokémon, which means it can resist the following types: 

• It only gets ½ of the damage against Steel, Dragon, Fairy, Ice, Normal, Grass, Rock, and Flying-type attacks.
• It only gets 1/4 of the damage against Psychic-types.
• It is immune to the Poison-type. 

Also, its attacks will be effective against the following types: 

• With Steel-type attacks, it will inflict x2 damage against Fairy, Ice, and Rock-types. 
• With Psychic-type attacks, it will inflict x2 damage against Fighting and Poison-types. 

The Steel-type is perfect for the defensive Pokémon since it can handle a lot of damage sources. However, Bronzong can cover many types, and its Poison-type immunity messes up the only consistent way to take a wall down because Toxic will not work against it. 

Also, Bronzong’s Steel-type attacks will be perfect against various Pokémon in this tier; it will do x2 damage to Aerodactyl, Gigalith, and Omastar while doing x4 damage to Diancie. 

Also, a good Psychic will sweep out menacing Pokémon like Passimian, Salazzle, Dragalge, and specially Toxicroak, which will take an x4 damage against it. Also, there’s a Pokémon that will have a bad time against Bronzong too, which is Sirfetch’d; this pokémon is a natural Wallbreaker since it has a lot of damage Bronzong can tank it while sweeping it out. 

Let’s check out the weaknesses Bronzong has. 

Bronzong Weaknesses

Bronzong’s dual types will make it weak against the following types: 

• It takes x2 damage against Ghost, Fire, Dark, and Ground-types. 

Also, its attacks will not do a good amount of damage against the following types: 

• Its Steel-type attacks will only inflict ½ of its damage against Steel, Water, Electric, and Fire-types.
• Its Psychic-type attacks will only inflict ½ of its damage against Steel and Psychic-types. 

Bronzong doesn’t have a lot of weaknesses, and it can cover them easily.

Bronzong can handle a Ghost-type attack while attacking with a strong Shadow Ball, and it can probably OHKO its target since most of the Ghost-type attackers don’t have good defenses unless you are facing a Golurk; in that case, just switch to another Pokémon. 

You can easily cover Bronzong’s Fire and Ground-type weaknesses by using its Abilities, as we explained before. 

Lastly, its main problem will be facing a Dark-type. Before Gen 6, Steel was resistant to Dark-type attacks, but that changed, so it is a big problem against Bronzong. 

Pokémon like Zoroark, Absol, Guzzlord, or Drapion can be potential issues because they are faster than Bronzong. So, as it happens with the Ghost-type, you can cover it by using Body Press on them, which is a great attack that we will explain in its move set. So your only option is to hope for handling a Dark-type attack and then using Body Press on them. 

Now here comes the dilemma; if you cover your Dark-type weakness with Body Press, then you can’t cover your Ghost-type weakness and vice-versa. So, this is up to you. To solve this doubt, let’s check its move set! 

Bronzong Best Moveset

Bronzong can perfectly work with the following moveset: 

• Stealth Rock
• Body Press
• Toxic
• Psychic / Shadow Ball / Protect / Flash Cannon

With Leftovers as its item, Levitate or Heatproof as its ability, and Bold as its nature.

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD. 

Bronzong will work perfectly with Stealth Rock as it can handle enough in the field to throw Stealth Rocks and help its companions with them. 

Body Press is a great attack because it has a base power of 80, and it measures its total power with the Defense stat; this is cool because Bronzong has a lot of that. So this move works perfectly to counter its Dark-type weakness with a potent attack. 

Toxic is a great companion to every single wall Pokémon because their main objective is to weaken all of the foe’s Pokémon enough to bring out a sweeper to end with the opposite team. Toxic will be inflicting damage passively while you can use Protect to spend a turn and Leftovers to heal yourself easily. Be careful with those Pokémon with Guts since they get an attack buff when they get poisoned. 

The last move slot can be up to you. Psychic will work against Poison and Fighting-types, while Shadow Ball will protect you from Ghost-types. Protect will help you handling more in the field, and Flash Cannon will help you get rid of the Fairy, Rock, and Ice-types. 

Leftovers will be its item, and it will be healing Bronzong in every turn, which is pretty helpful. 

Levitate as your ability is a good option, but Bronzong’s Ability will depend on which Pokémon you choose to give some company to Bronzong. For example, suppose you have Pokémon with Ground-type immunity (like a Flying-type or other Pokémon with Levitate). In that case, it’s better to use Heatproof, but if you have a Ground-type Pokémon that can resist Fire-type attacks, then it’s better to use Levitate. 

The EVs are set to buff Bronzong’s HP and Defense the most you can, and the last 4 EV points can be set in Special Defense or in Speed, as you want to. 

Bronzong in a video

As usual, we want to share some fun builds you can find on youtube, and in this case, there are many ways to build a Bronzong. 

This video shows a strategy buildup that suits Bronzong perfectly while we get a good explanation of the build. 

In this video, we get to the action, and in this case, with a Bronzong with a cool item: Weakness Policy. 

FAQs

Bronzong Guide: Conclusion

If you want to have a fun time seeing how your rivals get infuriated because they can’t take your defensive wall down, then Bronzong is your perfect option. This is one of those Pokémon you don’t see often, and it’s cool to bring it here for you all because it deserves a spot as one of the best walls in the low tiers of Pokémon.