Kabutops, The Shellfish Pokémon. In the water, it tucks in its limbs to become more compact, then it wiggles its shell to swim fast. With sharp claws, this ferocious, ancient Pokémon rips apart prey and sucks their body fluids. It is thought that this Pokémon came onto land because its prey adapted to life on land. It swims freely through water. It catches prey with its scythe-like arms and drains the victim's fluids. It once swam underwater to hunt for prey. It was apparently evolving from being a water dweller to living on land as evident from changes in its gills and legs.

Overview

Kabutops looks crazy awesome. Those blade arms look sick. Regardless of looks, Kabutops is great. He has great sweeping capabilities, with a nice Speed, good movepool, great Attack, and Swift Swim. It can be a complete monster in UU, and OU if you really want to. But basically, Kabutops is great in both aesthetics and actual usefulness.

Ability

Swift Swim: amazing for sweeping, as Kabutops is just a complete beast with it. Its Water gets boosted in rain, so it can pretty much destroy everything.

Battle Armor: useful on a set for a team that isn't centred on the rain. Helps on the supporting set as well. Otherwise, Swift Swim is better.

Move Sets

Swords Dance

- Swords Dance
- Waterfall / Aqua Tail
- Stone Edge
- Return / Aqua Jet
Item Attached: Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 72 HP / 252 Atk / 184 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

Oh my, what a beast. Performs best in rain, but it isn't required, just recommended. Swords Dance raises the Attack of Kabutops by a lot. Doubles it, in fact. Waterfall, combined with STAB, Swords Dance, Life Orb, and probably Rain Dance is positively devastating. Aqua Tail is a stronger option if you want it, but Waterfall has that tasty flinch. Stone Edge is always a great attack, and it hits really hard due to STAB. Return has amazing coverage with Water and it helps hit any counters that want to beat Kabutops into the ground. However, Aqua Jet is awesome and it hits really hard with boosts, and is useful for revenging stuff like Blaziken and Houndoom.

Choice Band

- Waterfall / Aqua Tail
- Stone Edge
- Return
- Aqua Jet
Item Attached: Choice Band
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 72 HP / 252 Atk / 184 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

Don't feel like boosting? You'd rather have obscene power straight away? Well, you may want to try this set. The Water STAB is obviously going to be strong, so pick whether you want reliability and flinch or a bit more power for less accuracy. Stone Edge hits like a truck, as always. Return partners really well with Water, and is a good move anyway. Aqua Jet will be great for revenging anything with Choice Band's extra power.

Flail

- Swords Dance
- Flail
- Waterfall
- Endure / Substitute
Item Attached: Salac Berry
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) / Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

This set is something different and fun, but still effective. Swords Dance makes Kabutops hit twice as hard, obviously. Flail not only pairs well with Waterfall, but at 1 HP, it has 200 base power, which is insane. Waterfall is your standard attack for nice and reliable damage. Endure is an easier way to get to 1 HP, but Substitute gives Kabutops potential time for Swords Dance.

Support

- Stealth Rock / Waterfall
- Knock Off / Waterfall
- Rapid Spin / Waterfall
- Stone Edge
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 236 HP / 228 SDef / 44 Spd
Careful nature (+SDef, -SAtk)

A new look at a formerly one dimensional Pokémon. Support Kabutops has a surprisingly good supportive movepool, setting up the (arguably) best move in the game, Stealth Rock, ruining walls and possibly offensive powerhouses with Knock Off, and saving your team with Rapid Spin. It also still hits hard with Stone Edge and potentially Waterfall.

EVs and Nature:

Swords Dance
As it is, 184 Speed outruns any base 60 Pokémon, but if you are running rain, you only need enough to outspeed +Speed base 95s, which is 168 EVs. Max Attack for obvious reasons and the rest goes into HP. You could go 252/252/4 if you really wanted.

Choice Band
Exactly the same as Swords Dance, to be honest. They do the same job; they hit stuff hard till it crumbles.

Flail
No need for anything other than 252/252/4 here. The 4 should not go into HP as an odd number is required so four Substitutes takes Kabutops down to 1 HP.

Support
44 Speed beats out neutral no Speed base 85s like Cresselia, so you can really mess them up with a Knock Off. 236 HP hits a Leftovers number and the 228 Special Defence is leftover but, especially when paired with sandstorm, really adds up to a lot of Special Defence..

Other Options

Mixed, Brick Break, Rain Dance, Rock Slide, Superpower, X-Scissor

Mixed Kabutops works to take out its common counters, so bulky Water types mainly. It uses a Grass move, Hidden Power [Grass] normally, although Giga Drain is an option, and a strong Surf ideally backed up by rain. It attacks from both sides of the spectrum, so it can be hard to wall.

Brick Break is a pretty good choice for a filler move with good coverage, especially in OU for Empoleon.

Rain Dance can be used so Kabutops can support itself.

Rock Slide is a more accurate but weaker version of Stone Edge, but it can flinch.

Superpower is another option for a Fighting attack. Stronger than Brick Break, but you lose Attack and Defence after each use.

X-Scissor is a good choice for OU as it ruins Celebi. It can be used in UU to hurt Grass types and other types that can take the other attacks.

Countering Kabutops

Quagsire and Poliwrath are the two best Pokémon to counter Kabutops. Immunity to Water and resistance to Rock just makes them ridiculous. Weezing works well with Thunderbolt and can ruin Kabutops with Will-o-wisp. Bulky Grass types work well as they can destroy Kabutops in one hit and take a Waterfall. Other Pokémon that take physical hits well and aren't hit for super effective damage from Water or Rock work. Registeel, Hitmontop, Miltank are just a few worth mentioning. Toxicroak, although not defensive, does resist Rock and Water as well as removing Kabutops from existence with Cross Chop.

Locations in Games

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Trade from FRLG Colosseum/XD Trade from FRLG Fire Red/Leaf Green Evolve Kabuto Diamond/Pearl/Platinum Evolve Kabuto HeartGold/SoulSilver Evolve Kabuto

Animé Appearences

Kabutops has had a few Animé Appearences. Almost all of its appearances have been cameos featuring a variety of other Fossil Pokémon Episode 17: The Island of Giant Pokémon Episode 46: Attack of the Pre-historic Pokémon Heroes - Latios & Latias Episode 278: A Ruin With A View The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon Episode 484: A Gruff Act to Follow Episode 485: Wild in the Streets Episode 576: Dealing With Defensive Types