Phantump Guide: The Spooky Tree Stump Pokemon

Latest posts by Jesus Cruz, Lifelong Pokémon Fan (see all)

Phantump, the Stump Pokémon, is a dual Ghost/Grass-type Pokémon introduced in Gen 6, and it is the pre-evolution of Trevenant. Phantump’s design takes inspiration from the Kodamas, spirits that habit trees. So exactly, we can say Phantump is a stump of an old tree that got possessed by a Kodama. 

This Pokémon has a mysterious origin; a Phantump is created when a child gets lost in the woods and dies there. But, really, Phantump is a solitary Pokémon that loves to make friends, so it is pretty kind to people, even if people get scared by it. 

Phantump’s most characteristic features are its red eyes, black body, and its mouth, which is just a black point. Phantump’s stump has two little branches on both sides, and those branches have two green leaves. Phantump doesn’t have legs, but it has two little arms. 

Phantump’s name comes from the union of Phantom and Stump

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

Phantump Summary of Appearances in Pokémon Versions and Media

In the Games

Phantump can be found in the following places: 

  • Gen 6: In X & Y, Phantump can be found on Route 6 or in a Ghost-type Friend Safari, while in ORAS, Phantump can be found on the Petalburg Woods as a hidden Pokémon.
  • Gen 7: In SM, Phantump can be found in Memorial Hill, while in USUM, you can find it in Memorial Hill and in the Tapu Village.
  • Gen 8: You can find Phantump as a wild Pokémon in Glimwood Tangle, while you can find it in a Max Raid Battle in Dappled Grove, Watchtower Ruins, Stony Wilderness, and in Giant’s Mirror.

Phantump also made it into the Expansion Pass, where you can find it in Slippery Slope, Old Cemetery, Snowslide Slope, Giant’s Foot, and Three-Point Pass. 

In the Anime

Phantump is one of the few Pokémon appearing as a Shiny. Its debut was in Making Friends and Influencing Villains! When a Shiny Phantump got lost, and Ash helped him find his friends. After that, Phantump has only had a few minor appearances in episodes and movies. 

In the Manga

Phantump debuted in PS553 under the ownership of a Hex Maniac. Its other appearance in the manga was in PS560 when Essentia (Team Flare member) attacked the Tower of Mystery with a Phantump and a Trevenant. 

In the TCG

Phantump has common cards in the following expansions:

  • XY
  • BREAKpoint 
  • Guardians Rising
  • Cosmic Eclipse
  • Rebel Clash

In these expansions, Phantump appeared as a Grass or as a Psychic-type Pokémon. 

Phantump Evolution Line: When does Phantump Evolve?

trevenant

Phantump can evolve into Trevenant, but only by trading it. Trevenant can’t evolve. 

Phantump Stats

Phantump obviously has to compete in LC (Little Cup), the tier designed to encompass every baby Pokémon in the game. 

In this tier, Phantump is a decent Pokémon that can work as a sweeper, and it’s usable if you are looking for a Physical Sweeper, but it is very fragile, and every hit can potentially get it down. Its move pool doesn’t help it much either. 

Let’s take a look at its stats: 

Stats

 HPAttackDefenseSp. AtkSp. DefSpeed
Base Stats437048506038
Favorable Nature290262214218240192

As you can see, Phantump looks like a crystal cannon: a Pokémon that can give powerful attacks, but if it gets touched, it will fall. 

If its Attack is good and its defenses are bad, then the only viable option to use it is as a Pivot, a Pokémon that enters the field making strong attacks and gets out every time it feels in problems. But, a Pivot needs to be fast, and Phantump isn’t. So, our only option is to buff its Speed with a favorable Nature and a good EV spread that benefits its Speed. 

Being fragile by having only 48 base points on Defense is a problem too. But, at least, it can defend itself from Special moves since it has a decent 60 base points in Special Defense; this means that, at least, it isn’t totally vulnerable. 

Now, let’s check Phantump’s abilities since they will determine what we can do with this Pokémon. 

Abilities

  • Natural Cure: If a Phantump with this ability gets a status condition (paralyzed, poisoned, slept, or frozen), it can heal itself if you switch it out of the field.
  • Frisk: a Phantump with this ability will be able to identify the Foe’s Pokémon held item. This will happen only when Phantump gets into the field.
  • Harvest (Hidden Ability): If you equip a berry to a Phantump with this ability, and Phantump uses it, there’s a 50% chance of having it once again in the following turn. Also, if a Phantump with this ability gets exposed to harsh sunlight, the ability will always work.

Phantump has a problem; it has great abilities, but they are functional only in the adventure. 

We have two options; Natural Cure or Frisk. 

Harvest is a great Ability, but it is pretty useless to Phantump since it will be getting in and out of the field, so it’ll not have any time for Harvest to get activated. Also, for this ability to be useful, Phantump has to withstand a hit, which is unlikely to happen. 

So, Natural Cure is a great option, but it is pretty conditional too. You can use it if you are a conservative player that prefers to be covered instead to predict and disarm a strategy. 

Frisk is your option if you want to be a bit risky with Phantump as it will not have any kind of chance of getting back to the battle if it gets paralyzed or poisoned, but, on the other hand, you have the opportunity to detect the held item of a Foe’s Pokémon, and therefore, try to disarm that strategy. 

Now, it’s time to determine which Nature can be worth for Phantump. 

Natures

Phantump Natures

We need Phantump to be fast. For that, we will give it one of the following Natures: 

  • Timid (Increases Speed, decreases Attack)
  • Hasty (Increases Speed, decreases Defense)
  • Jolly (Increases Speed, decreases Special Attack)
  • Naive (Increases Speed, decreases Special Defense) 

Timid isn’t an option since we will use the Attack as it is the main purpose of Phantump; getting rivals down.  Hasty and Naive aren’t options either since they will make Phantump weaker, and we need it to withstand at least a hit. 

This lets us choose Jolly since we will not use the Special Attack in any way. All of the Phantump moves will be Physical. 

Talking about moves, we have to check out the move pool for Phantump. 

Moves per Level (Gen 8) 

Phantump can learn the following moves by leveling up: 

LevelMoveTypeCategoryPowerAccuracyPP
1AstonishGhostPhysical30100%15
1TackleNormalPhysical40100%35
4Branch PokeGrassPhysical40100%40
8Leech SeedGrassStatus90%10
12Confuse RayGhostStatus100%10
15Will-O-WispFireStatus85%15
20HexGhostSpecial65100%10
24GrowthNormalStatus20
28Horn LeechGrassPhysical75100%10
32CurseGhostStatus10
36Phantom ForceGhostPhysical90100%10
40IngrainGrassStatus20
44Wood HammerGrassPhysical120100%15
48Destiny BondGhostStatus5
52Forest’s CurseGrassStatus100%20

Moves per TM/TR (Gen 8)

Phantump Moves per TM TR (Gen 8)

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

TM/TR (GEN VIII)MoveTypeCategoryPowerAccuracyPP
TM10Magical LeafGrassSpecial6020
TM11Solar BeamGrassSpecial120100%10
TM15DigGroundPhysical80100%10
TM18ReflectPsychicStatus20
TM19SafeguardNormalStatus25
TM21RestPsychicStatus10
TM22Rock SlideRockPhysical7590%10
TM23ThiefDarkPhysical60100%25
TM24SnoreNormalSpecial50100%15
TM25ProtectNormalStatus10
TM28Giga DrainGrassSpecial75100%10
TM31AttractNormalStatus100%15
TM34Sunny DayFireStatus5
TM38Will-O-WispFireStatus85%15
TM39FacadeNormalPhysical70100%20
TM44ImprisonPsychicStatus10
TM65Shadow ClawGhostPhysical70100%15
TM70Trick RoomPsychicStatus5
TM76RoundNormalSpecial60100%15
TM77HexGhostSpecial65100%10
TM81BulldozeGroundPhysical60100%20
TM86Phantom ForceGhostPhysical90100%10
TR11PsychicPsychicSpecial90100%10
TR20SubstituteNormalStatus10
TR26EndureNormalStatus10
TR27Sleep TalkNormalStatus10
TR33Shadow BallGhostSpecial80100%15
TR38TrickPsychicStatus100%10
TR40Skill SwapPsychicStatus10
TR57Poison JabPoisonPhysical80100%20
TR58Dark PulseDarkSpecial80100%15
TR59Seed BombGrassPhysical80100%15
TR65Energy BallGrassSpecial90100%10
TR77Grass KnotGrassSpecial100%20
TR81Foul PlayDarkPhysical95100%15
TR83Ally SwitchPsychicStatus15
TR91Venom DrenchPoisonStatus100%20

Now, it’s time to check out Phantump’s weaknesses and strengths. 

Phantump Strengths

Phantump is a Ghost/Grass-type Pokémon, this means it can resist moves from the following types: 

  • It only gets 1/2 of the damage against Water, Electric, and Ground-type moves.
  • It is immune to Normal and Fighting-type moves. 

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

  • With Grass-type attacks, it will inflict x2 damage against Water, Ground, and Rock-types.
  • With Ghost-type attacks, it will inflict x2 damage against Ghost and Psychic-types.

The Ghost/Grass combination isn’t defensive at all; in fact, you are combining two types known for being aggressive. Anyway, it can cover some common types in LC, like Water, Electric, Normal and Fighting-type. Its immunity to the last two moves above is a good advantage in LC since those are really common; usually, LC is full of the first Pokémon you can find on the first routes in the adventure. 

Phantump Weaknesses

Phantump Weaknesses

Phantump will not do much against the following types: 

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

Phantump has many weaknesses, being the most important ones the Fire and Flying-types since they are common in LC. Luckily, Phantump has a great move into its short move pool to cover its weaknesses against those types. So, the only problem with Phantump is if it gets beaten in Speed. 

Also, it doesn’t have any good thing to cover itself from the Dark-type, so switching it out is the only secure way to avoid a sweep. 

Phantump Best Moveset

Phantump can work perfectly with the following build: 

  • Will-O-Wisp
  • Horn Leech
  • Shadow Claw
  • Rock Slide

With Heavy-Duty Boots as its item, Frisk or Natural Cure as its Ability, and Jolly as its Nature. 

EVs: 196 Atk / 52 Def / 36 SpD / 224 Spe 

Let’s start with its move set. 

Will-O-Wisp is a great move on Phantump since it will weaken the opposite’s attacks by a half and will deal a little amount of damage in every turn. This will also give Phantump another utility besides hitting its opponents hard.  Horn Leech will be used for those moments when Phantump resisted a hit, and you need to heal it. Also, it is a strong Grass-type move with 100% accuracy. 

Shadow Claw is here to use the Ghost-type STAB in your favor and sweep other Ghost-types like Gastly or Psychic-types. Rock Slide is a great move to cover Phantump from Fire, Ice, and Flying-type weakness. It only needs to hit first. The only bad thing about it is that it only has 85% accuracy but don’t be afraid and use it. 

Heavy-Duty Boots will help Phantump not get hit by the upcoming hazards in the field like the Sticky Web that can demolish our strategy. Poison Spikes are a problem that gets solved with the Boots. 

Its ability will be up to what you want; if you want to protect and have Phantump as a viable option through all the battle, then Natural Cure is a great option; otherwise, if you want Phantump to have a great utility by constantly detecting the opposite’s items, then Frisk is ideal. 

Lastly, the EVs are set like that to give Phantump some defensive strength while buffing its Speed. It will not be the faster Pokémon alive, but it will be capable of beating in Speed various Pokémon on the field.  Phantump will get many benefits if it has a Sticky Web setter in its team since it will help Phantump be faster than the opponents. Also, a staller Pokémon will be perfect; a Pokémon that can set Stealth Rocks will be ideal! 

Phantump in a Video

Surprisingly, Phantump has an alternative strategy, but it isn’t common to see something like this in a battle. It is more to have a lot of fun while playing! 

In this video, we can see great use of Harvest as Phantump’s ability. Tt will be hurting the Foe’s Pokémon with Curse and get instantly healed by a berry. The twist on this build is its Harvest since it will restore Phantump’s berry and lets it use the strategy once again. 

Phantump Guide: Conclusion

Phantump isn’t the best Pokémon to be an offensive pivot; in fact, its counterpart, Pumpkaboo, is excellent on this labor. But, you can allow this tree stump to be in your team, and it will deliver! 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *