Ferrotorn Guide: A Prickly and Powerful Pokemon

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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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Ferrothorn, the thorn pod Pokémon, is a dual Grass/Steel-type Pokémon introduced in Gen 5. It’s the evolution of Ferroseed. 

Ferrothorn’s design takes inspiration in various things; starting with the most obvious, Ferrothorn’s shape is based on a Durian, an edible fruit mostly findable in Thailand which is pretty recognizable because of its covered-on-thorns rind. The word “Durian” comes from the Malay language word dûrî, which means thorn.

Ferrothorn’s vines’ inspiration probably comes from the flails (or the mace and chain), which are old weapons used by the Germans, and they are composed of a ball with thorns chained to a stick. Ferrothorn’s vines also resemble the Tribulus, a plant genus, part of the Zygophyllaceae family, characterized by their spiky flowers. 

About its shape, Ferrothorn looks exactly like a Durian but slightly flattened. It has two yellow eyes with black pupils, and those eyes are surrounded by green shapes. Also, Ferrothorn doesn’t have a mouth. Its body has many thorns, and it is said that its material is stronger than steel. It has three vines, and a spike on the top of its head tipped on a spiked mace that Ferrothorn uses to walk, climb, or attack. 

Ferrothorn’s name comes from the union of the Latin word Ferrus (which means iron) and Thorn. 

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

In the games, Ferrothorn can be found in the following places or by the following methods: 

• Gen 5: Ferrothorn can only be obtainable by evolving Ferroseed. Ferroseed can be found in the Chargestone Cave (in Black, White, and B2W2).
• Gen 6: In X & Y, we also have to evolve Ferroseed to get Ferrothorn. Ferroseed can be found in the Reflection Cave, Glittering Cave, or a Steel-type Friend Safari. Unfortunately, this Pokémon can’t be obtained in ORAS; you must transfer it from X & Y.
• Gen 7: Ferrothorn is unobtainable in SM and in USUM. The only way to have it in those games is through the Pokémon Bank.
• Gen 8: Ferrothorn can be found as a wild Pokémon in the Dusty Bowl, while you can find it as a wanderer in the Bridge Field. Lastly, you can have a Max Raid Battle against it in the Bridge Field, Dappled Grove, Dusty Bowl, Giant’s Mirror, Giant’s Seat, Hammerlocke Hills, and Stony Wilderness.
  
  Also, Ferrothorn appears in the Expansion Pass; you can find it as a wanderer in the Lakeside Cave and have a Max Raid Battle against it in the Slippery Slope. 

In the anime, Ferrothorn debuted in Iris and the Rogue Dragonite! under Officer Jenny’s ownership. It was used to catch a wild Dragonite which was messing around Undella Town. 

Another recognizable Ferrothorn’s appearance is under Cameron’s ownership. It appeared in The Road to Humilau! Where it got used in Cameron’s gym battle against Marlon. It won against Marlon’s Jellicent but got fainted against Marlon’s Mantine. 

The last major Ferrothorn appearance was in the Sword and Shield saga, where Chairman Rose has a Ferrothorn. It appeared in Sword and Shield: From here to Eternatus! Where it got used to battle alongside Rose’s Coppeajah to battle against Ash’s Pikachu and Riolu. In the next chapter, Sword and Shield… The Legends Awaken! Where Ferrothorn and Copperajah got defeated. 

In the manga, Ferrothorn has only appeared once, in Hallway Hijinks. It was a brief appearance, and it was under the Hopper’s ownership. Hopper is part of the 32 participants of the Unova Pokémon League. 

In the TCG, Ferrothorn has cards in the following expansions: 

• Emerging Powers (With a Rare and an Uncommon card)
• BREAKpoint (Rare)
• Team Up (Rare)
• Sword and Shield (Uncommon)
• Vivid Voltage (Uncommon) 

In all these cards, Ferrothorn is a Steel-type Pokémon. 

Ferrothorn Evolution Line: When Does Ferrothorn Evolve?

Ferroseed (Ferrothorn’s pre-evolution) evolves into Ferrothorn at level 40. Ferrothorn doesn’t evolve. 

Ferrothorn Stats

Ferrothorn is one of the best Pokémon to use in your teams because of its main objective: setting Spikes and being annoying and the counter of the entry hazards setter into its tier; OU (OverUsed).  

Ferrothorn’s Defense, combined with its good dual typing, makes it one of the most dangerous Pokémon when your strategy is based on setting Spikes and messing up your rival’s strategy while extending Ferrothorn’s presence in the field for the most you can.

In fact, Ferrothorn can learn a lot of utility moves. But first, let’s check its stats since they are pretty interesting: 

Stats

As you can see, it has standard HP and Attack points, while its Speed and Special Attack are basically useless. But Ferrothorn’s prime is when we talk about Defense and Special Defense; in fact, this base stat is the main reason why Ferrothorn is such a useful Pokémon in high-end tiers like OU and Ubers. 

Forget about attacking first if you have a Ferrothorn; the idea behind this stat being so low is to be a wall in the field while annoying and punishing every single pivot or sweeper that comes in. Now, it’s time to design a strategy to use Ferrothorn. We are going to start by looking at its possible abilities: 

Abilities

Ferrothorn can have the following abilities: 

• Iron Barbs: With this ability, Ferrothorn will inflict 1/8 of the damage it receives, but only if it gets hit by a Physical move. If Ferrothorn is attacked by a Multi-shot move, then Iron Barbs will get active in every hit. This was Ferrothorn’s signature ability before Gen 7 and Togedemaru’s inclusion into the game.
• Anticipation (as its hidden ability): This ability makes Ferrothorn able to detect if there’s a Pokémon with an effective move against it, and (in the case there’s an effective move) also will notify you about the possible moves the rival’s Pokémon might have. 

There’s obvious we only have an option here, which is Iron Barbs. Anticipation is a cool ability, but it’s rather useless when you have a lot of time competing since you can know which moves the opponent’s Pokémon have if you know enough about the Pokémon facing you and which kind of moves can it learn. 

We have decided on Ferrothorn’s ability, but now we have to study this Pokémon to know which Nature will suit Ferrothorn the most. 

Natures

If we think about it, the only problem Ferrothorn can have against Fire-types, which has mostly Special moves. Also, we will not have a real need to buff Ferrothorn’s defense since it is outstanding by itself.

Regarding the rest of its stats, we will not directly attack with Ferrothorn (only with one of its moves, but we are going to use it because of what it does instead of the damage Ferrothorn can inflict with it), so there’s no need to buff its Attack or its Special Attack. Buffing its HP can be useful, but we are letting that job to the EVs. Lastly, using its Nature to upgrade Ferrothorn’s Speed is useless because Ferrothorn doesn’t need to attack first. 

This led us to choose a Nature that buffs Ferrothorn’s Special Defense. These are the options: 

• Calm (Increases Special Defense, decreases Attack)
• Gentle (Increases Special Defense, decreases Defense)
• Sassy (Increases Special Defense, decreases Speed)
• Careful (Increases Special Defense, decreases Special Attack)

Using Gentle is a bad option and Calm and Sassy since even if we are not meant to attack first with Ferrothorn, it will always be satisfying if it happens, so our only option is to choose Careful. Now, we have to choose which moves can work perfectly with Ferrothorn. 

Moves per Level (Gen 8)

Ferrothorn can learn the following moves by leveling up: 

Moves per TM/TR (Gen 8)

Ferrothorn can learn the following moves through the use of a TM or TR: 

You can have access to many great moves for Ferrothorn; there are many great options if you want to build it as an attacker. But first, we will showcase the build that made Ferrothorn popular into OU, and for this, we have to use Spikes, Knock Off, Leech Seed, and Body Press (which is particularly great on Ferrothorn; we will explain why later). 

It’s time to learn the strengths and weaknesses of Ferrothorn; this is useful because we need to know the perfect moment for Ferrothorn to get into the field. 

Ferrothorn Strengths

Ferrothorn is a dual Grass/Steel-type Pokémon, which means it can resist moves of the following types: 

• It only gets 1/2 of the damage against Steel, Dragon, Water, Electric, Fairy, Normal, Psychic, and Rock-type moves.
• It only gets 1/4 of the damage against Grass-types (and will be immune to Leech Seed and every powder move, like Sleep Powder, Poison Powder, or Stun Spore).
• It is immune to the Poison-types. 

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

• With Grass-type attacks, it will inflict x2 damage against Water, Ground, and Rock-types.
• With Steel-type attacks, it will inflict x2 damage against Fairy, Ice, and Rock-types. 

Having a big weakness against Fire-type doesn’t mean Ferrothorn is useless as a defensive Pokémon. On the contrary, the Steel-type is great for a defensive Pokémon because it can resist many types. Also, Grass-type let it resist other types and have a neutral resistance against Ground-type, which is really helpful since Ferrothorn can handle Earthquake with any sort of problem. 

Also, Ferrothorn can inflict a good amount of damage against those Water-types that are the most in this tier, as well as the Ground and Fairy-types. 

Ferrothorn Weaknesses

Ferrothorn dual types will make it vulnerable against the following types: 

• It takes x2 damage against Fighting-types.
• It takes x4 damage against Fire-types. 

As you can see, Ferrothorn only has two weaknesses. Fighting-types aren’t common in OU, so they will not be a problem, but you can find several Pokémon with Fighting-type moves, so be careful with it. You can probably resist hits from them, though, so they aren’t a big menace to Ferrothorn. 

The real deal is the Fire-type. But you don’t have to worry since you have many options to face against them with your Ferrothorn, like using Stealth Rocks or simply switching. 

After looking at what can Ferrothorn do, it’s time to build the perfect moveset for it! 

Ferrothorn Best Moveset 

Ferrothorn can perfectly work with the following build: 

• Spikes/Stealth Rock
• Knock Off
• Leech Seed
• Body Press 

With Leftovers as its item, Iron Barbs as its ability, and Careful as its nature. 

EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD. 

Let’s start with Ferrothorn’s moveset and how it will be its functions in the field.

This Pokémon is designed specially to be the Lead, the first Pokémon to get in the field. So after getting out, the first thing it has to do is to use Spikes and spam them the most it can. Spikes is a great option if you face defensive Pokémon, but it’s better to have Stealth Rock against Pivots or Sweepers.

Decide whichever you want to use, but we recommend having a Stealth Rock setter in your team and leave Ferrothorn with the Spikes setter role. 

Knock Off will work against walls. However, every Pokémon that uses an item as a vital part of its build has to be careful against Ferrothorn since it can just demolish a strategy with Knock Off. Use it with those Leftovers users.  Leech Seed, alongside Leftovers, will be Ferrothorn’s main sustain, healing it in every turn. It’s the second thing you have to try to set after the Spikes. 

Lastly, Body Press is your attacking option. This move is really cool since it uses Ferrothorn’s Defense instead of its Attack to calculate the damage it will inflict; considering the amount of Defense Ferrothorn has, you can expect a lot of damage. 

The EVs are set to compensate Ferrothorn’s HP, which is low compared with its other stats, and completely protect Ferrothorn from Special attacks, thinking of handling a Firethrower or something like that. 

Lastly, if we talk about a team for Ferrothorn, we can say Ferrothorn is like the black color because it can combine with everything! For example, it will set the Spikes that are really helpful to the Sweepers and will use Knock Off to make the Wallbreakers have a way easier job taking out wall Pokémon. 

Ferrothorn In A Video

We highly recommend seeing this video since it shows how you can build an entire team with Ferrothorn as the main idea but in Double Battles. 

In this video, we can see a funny and alternative way to build your Ferrothorn; we recommend it if you want to have some fun sweeping Pokémon! 

Ferrotorn Guide: Conclusion

Ferrothorn is such a beast, and it is capable of giving you the win on a hard battle or annoy your rival a lot by draining its life with its ability and Leech Seed. We highly recommend using Ferrothorn as it will not let you down, never. Good luck in your battles!