Sheer Force (ability)

Effect

Sheer Force increases the power of moves that have beneficial secondary effects by 30%, but removes those additional effects.

Beneficial effects are defined as those that are positive for the user, such as:

  • Causing a status condition on the opponent (e.g. Thunderbolt)
  • Reducing the opponent's stats (e.g. Crunch)
  • Increasing the user's stats (e.g. AncientPower)

Non-beneficial effects, that Sheer Force will not activate for, include:

If the user is holding a Life Orb and uses an attack that activates Sheer Force, it will not receive the 10% damage from Life Orb, but it gets boosts from both Life Orb and Sheer Force (total of 69% base power increase).

Example

Flamethrower normally has a 10% chance to burn the opponent. With Sheer Force, Flamethrower's base power is boosted from 95 to 124, but it will never cause a burn.

Note that if a move has an advantageous and disadvantageous side-effect, Sheer Force still boosts the move but only the advantageous effect is removed. For example, Flare Blitz may cause a burn but also has recoil damage. A Pokémon with Sheer Force using the move would gain the power increase and still receive recoil damage, but it would never cause a burn.

Moves affected

Here are the moves that increase in power under Sheer Force, listed alphabetically:

Game descriptions

Black​/​White
Black 2​/​White 2
Removes added effects to increase move damage.
X​/​Y
O.Ruby​/​A.Sapphire
Removes additional effects to increase move damage.
Sun​/​Moon
Ultra Sun​/​Ultra Moon
Removes additional effects to increase the power of moves when attacking.
Sword​/​Shield
B.Diamond​/​S.Pearl
Removes additional effects to increase the power of moves when attacking.
Scarlet​/​Violet Removes any additional effects from the Pokémon’s moves, but increases the moves’ power.

Other languages

English Sheer Force
Japanese ちからずく (Chikara Zuku)
German Rohe Gewalt
French Sans Limite
Italian Forzabruta
Spanish Potencia Bruta
Korean 우격다짐
Chinese (Simplified) 强行
Chinese (Traditional) 強行