The items you give your Pokémon to hold have a huge impact in battles against other Trainers. Held items can help your Pokémon deal extra damage, endure more attacks in battle, or even perform tricky strategies that aren’t possible through a Pokémon’s moves and Abilities alone. Held items are a great way to complement your Pokémon’s natural strengths to help them perform better in battle.

In most competitive battles, including those in most Pokémon Global Link tournaments, on Battle Spot, and in the Pokémon Video Game Championships, each of your Pokémon is required to hold a different item. Also, unlike during your adventures, one-time-use items like Sitrus Berry and Focus Sash will be restored after battles against other Trainers. You don’t have to worry about using them up, so don’t be afraid to use them.

Making sure each of your Pokémon has an item that suits it is one key to building a winning team. You can’t just give all of your defensive Pokémon a Sitrus Berry or all of your offensive Pokémon a Life Orb. With dozens of items to choose from, it can be tricky to figure out which item to give each Pokémon to hold. And beware—many items, especially damage-increasing items, give the Pokémon that hold them an advantage coupled with some sort of drawback. Many of these items are still extremely valuable in battle, but be sure to fully understand how they work.

Let’s take a look at some of the categories of held items, as well as the strongest ones available in battles against other Trainers. Throughout, these items will be related to Pokémon that are popular in the current competitive environment, but these are all items that can pair well with a variety of Pokémon.

Making the Choice

Players looking to add some offensive flair to their teams often give their Pokémon Choice items to hold. Choice Band boosts the holder’s Attack by 50%, Choice Specs does the same for Special Attack, and Choice Scarf boosts Speed. Those are some powerful stat boosts, but those boosts come with a penalty. When a Pokémon is holding a Choice item, it must choose one move to use exclusively until it switches out. Being locked into one attack can be dangerous if your opponent has Pokémon with resistance to the move you choose. Pokémon holding Choice items are not capable of switching between attacking and defending themselves with Protect, which can put them in a lot of danger in the Double Battles of the Video Game Championships. These Pokémon typically aren’t taught non-attacking moves, since being locked into using a non-damaging move by holding a Choice item tends to be a losing situation.

Despite these limitations, Choice Scarf remains a popular item in most battle formats, as it is the only item that increases Speed. Trainers often give a Choice Scarf to a Pokémon that can get quick, surprising knockouts with boosted Speed—notably Tyranitar and Politoed in the current environment.

Pokémon that know moves that allow them to switch out, such as U-turn or Volt Switch, can benefit from Choice Scarf and the other Choice items while evading the move lock. For example, Landorus Therian Forme could use U-turn to deal damage and then be recalled to your party, able to freely choose a different attack on its return to battle.

Choice Band and Choice Specs are typically given to Pokémon that can deal huge damage with attacks that aren’t resisted by many other Pokémon. Sylveon’s Hyper Voice and Hydreigon’s Draco Meteor can do devastating damage with the help of Choice Specs, while Talonflame can use its Gale Wings Ability to fire off extremely fast and powerful Choice Band-boosted Brave Bird attacks.

Going On the Offense

Beyond Choice Specs and Choice Band, held items that increase the damage a Pokémon deals are always popular. An item whose effect never activates is an item wasted, and almost every Pokémon uses at least one damaging move. In other words, virtually every Pokémon has a good reason to have a damage-increasing item.

One of the most popular damage-increasing items is Life Orb. It increases the damage dealt by any attacking move by 30%, making it much more flexible than the Choice items. That flexibility comes at a hefty cost: each time a Pokémon holding Life Orb deals damage with an attacking move, it loses 10% of its own maximum Hit Points! Despite the high cost, the freedom of boosting the damage of any attacking move (whether physical or special) is so worthwhile that Life Orb appears on most teams. A Life Orb is usually given to Pokémon that know strong attacks of many different types, or to offensive Pokémon trained to use non-attacking moves, especially Protect. Blaziken and Tyranitar can learn a variety of attacks, making them good candidates for Life Orb, while Pokémon such as Sylveon hold a Life Orb rather than a Choice item in order to preserve the option of using a defensive move like Protect when needed.

Other damage-increasing items are less common but still have their place. Weakness Policy boosts the Attack and Special Attack of a Pokémon hit by a supereffective attack, but it does nothing in battles where the Pokémon doesn’t endure a supereffective hit. Trainers most frequently give Weakness Policy to Dragonite and Aegislash, who are hard to knock out with a single supereffective hit because of their Abilities (Multiscale and Stance Change, respectively). Expert Belt boosts the damage of all of a Pokémon’s supereffective attacks, but it doesn’t boost the damage of other attacks. It’s rarely used, but Trainers occasionally give it to Pokémon with many different types of attacks if Life Orb is already being used by another Pokémon in their party. Items like Pixie Plate and Charcoal boost the damage of one type of move by 20%, but they tend to be too inflexible for competitive battles. For example, a Pokémon will seldom know more than one attacking one Fire-type move. Sylveon is a rare exception: it spends most of its turns using Fairy-type attacks, so it’s occasionally given Pixie Plate to avoid Life Orb’s recoil.

Shielding Pokémon with Items

Defensive items, including ones that recover health, tend to be a little safer than offensive items in that they typically provide only positive effects. One defensive item that is used by almost all Double Battle teams is Sitrus Berry. With battles typically lasting under 10 turns, the simple act of healing a Pokémon for 25% of its maximum HP (the effect of Sitrus Berry) is extremely powerful. It can even activate in the middle of a turn, allowing a stout Pokémon like Cresselia or Wash Rotom to survive a powerful hit from both opponents in a single turn. Sitrus Berry triggers immediately when the Pokémon holding it falls below half of its maximum health, so it’s nearly guaranteed to activate in every battle.

Leftovers heals only 1/16 of a Pokémon’s maximum health per turn, so a Pokémon must stay on the field for four turns for it to be as effective as Sitrus Berry. As a result, it’s usually a weaker choice than Sitrus Berry for Double Battles, but in some Single Battle formats, it’s the stronger choice because the battles last more rounds. In Double Battles like those in the Video Game Championships, it’s most often seen with Pokémon that know Protect and Substitute, where the effect of Leftovers  can be triggered without the Pokémon taking further damage that round. Over the course of a long battle, Entei and Garchomp can sometimes cycle between the two moves to stall for long enough that Leftovers heals them more than Sitrus Berry would have.

One of the more intriguing defensive held items is Focus Sash. Frail Pokémon such as Smeargle, Raichu, Whimsicott, and Weavile are often given Focus Sash to hold. Focus Sash guarantees that the holder will survive with 1 Hit Point remaining against a single hit that would otherwise have knocked it out—but only if it has full HP before the attack lands. Focus Sash may not sound that impressive, but lasting through that hit allows some disruptive Pokémon the extra turn they need to help their teams win games.

Assault Vest is sort of a defensive version of the Choice items. Assault Vest doesn’t restrict the Pokémon to a single move like Choice items do, but in exchange for boosting the holder’s Special Defense by 50%, it prevents the holder from using moves that don’t deal damage. Trainers tend to use Assault Vest either to complement Pokémon with high HP and Defense, or to strengthen Pokémon that can deal damage when using support moves for their teams. For example, Ludicolo and Scrafty can still help their teams while holding an Assault Vest by using Fake Out in Double Battles—a support move that can be used by Pokémon holding an Assault Vest because of the minor damage Fake Out does. And while Assault Vest aids in defending against special moves, Pokémon such as Scrafty and Landorus Therian Forme may possess the Intimidate Ability, which lessens physical damage against them and their teammates.

The strangest defensive item may be Eviolite. Eviolite boosts the Defense and Special Defense of the Pokémon holding it by 50%, but only if the Pokémon isn’t fully evolved. Eviolite allows some defensive Pokémon that aren’t fully evolved, such as Clefairy and Tangela, to battle against fully evolved Pokémon on even ground. A Misdreavus holding Eviolite even made it to the finals of the US National Championships in the Masters Division in 2013, while a Magmar made it to the Top 8 of the World Championships in the same year. Pokémon holding Eviolite typically can’t deal much damage, but they can be some of the toughest support Pokémon to knock out in Double Battles.

Digging Deeper into the Bag of Tricks

Some items aren’t used to increase or reduce damage directly, but instead allow Pokémon to do something very different than normal. Mega Stones, for instance, completely change the function of a Pokémon by allowing it to Mega Evolve. As a rule, all competitive teams have at least one Mega Stone, and some even opt for two.

Many items aren’t likely to work in every battle; instead, they help against specific attacks. Safety Goggles grants the holder immunity to weather-related damage and powder moves, making the holder effective against the pesky Spore and Rage Powder of Amoonguss. Mental Herb negates the effect of Taunt once, as well as the effects of the moves Disable, Attract, and Encore. It’s a valuable item for Pokémon dedicated to setting up Trick Room, which is easily disrupted by Taunt.

Lum Berry performs a similar protective function by helping Pokémon avoid being burned or made to fall asleep (as well as all other major status effects), and it is often held by Garchomp or by a Conkeldurr that doesn’t have the Guts Ability.

Pokémon that use contact moves against a Pokémon holding Rocky Helmet take 1/6 of their maximum HP in damage. Rocky Helmet is mostly used by Pokémon trained to counter Mega Kangaskhan, such as Amoonguss and Volcarona. Mega Kangaskhan attacks twice per turn thanks to its Parental Bond Ability, so it takes damage from Rocky Helmet twice.

Finally, there are Berries to reduce the damage of a supereffective attack of each type. In the Video Game Championships, Heatran is frequently given a Shuca Berry to hold (which halves the damage of a supereffective Ground-type attack), since enemy Heatran and Landorus are likely to use Ground-type attacks against it during most battles. These Berries are risky items to hold, since the Pokémon holding one may faint anyway, and in many battles the Berry may not be activated at all. But lasting through a supereffective attack can mean a win, so items like the Yache Berry (which halves the damage of a supereffective Ice-type attack) and Shuca Berry can be worth using if you expect to see a lot of attacks of the type they defend against.

With practice, it becomes easier to see which items fit best for each particular Pokémon. Never be afraid to experiment: every classic combination of Pokémon and held item was new once. When you feel confident with your team, try it out on the Pokémon Global Link or in a Play! Pokémon tournament. And remember, stay tuned to Pokemon.com/Strategy for all the most up-to-date strategy content!