What is a good moveset for Greninja?

Question

Share your best competitive movesets for Greninja on this thread! Movesets for Mega Greninja can also be posted here, as well as for Froakie and Frogadier.

Check the submission guidelines before posting! Only competitive movesets with all relevant details (item, nature, exact EVs, ability, moves) and a solid explanation will be accepted.

Greninja Pokédex and learnset for reference.

Answer 1

PHYSICAL GRENINJA? YOU WOT M8?

Greninja @ Focus Sash
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Water Shuriken
- Gunk Shot
- Ice Punch
- U-turn

252 Atk Greninja Water Shuriken (3 hits) vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Talonflame: 162-198 (54.5 - 66.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Greninja outspeeds Talonflame, so its priority will go first. Assuming you get 3 hits on the first turn, you take out about half, and you live the Brave Bird with Focus Sash. Water Shuriken KO's next turn.

This set was honestly just for the lolz.

Comments

Yayayayaya another ice Punch user!

Answer 2

This is a standard sweeping set:

Greninja @ Choice Specs / Life Orb
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Water Shuriken
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam / Extrasensory

Hydro Pump is a move that destroys anything that doesn’t resist it. Water Shuriken is enourmously powerful after Battle bond and can break through sturdy or a focus sash. Dark pulse is for STAB and has a chance to flinch. Ice beam is for coverage against grass types. Extrasensory can be used over Ice beam for coverage against fighting types.

Have fun with this set!

Answer 3

Mixed Attacker
Greninja @ Life Orb / Focus Sash
Ability: Protean / Battle Bond
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature / Timid Nature
- Scald / Hydro Pump / Water Shuriken (Ash-Greninja Only)
- Dark Pulse
- Gunk Shot
- Ice Beam

Gunk Shot is a risky move but it can really put Fairies out of business (but of course, Mega Mawile).
Scald/Hydro Pump/Water Shuriken (Ash-Greninja only) and Dark Pulse are good STAB moves.
Ice Beam for Grass Types.

Comments

Cool moveset! I upvoted :)

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thanks

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Hasty should be the only recommended nature here since this Greninja is a mixed attacker and Timid lowers physical attack.

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If you using ice beam solely to kill grass types, then just gunk shot since it covers grass as well, allowing you to free up an extra moveslot for more coverage.

Answer 4

Greninja @ Petaya Berry
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 12 HP / 244 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Surf / Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Water Shuriken / Ice Beam / Extrasensory / Grass Knot

Substitute knocks you down into HP range. HP EVs make sure you get to exactly 25% HP to activate Petaya Berry. Factoring in STAB, the Petaya Berry boost, and Torrent, the STAB Water move of your choice will be absolutely obliterating things. Dark Pulse is your secondary STAB move that is still strong. Water Shuriken is priority for a tough situation, and the other three options are coverage.

Answer 5

Greninja @ Wide Lens / Life Orb
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- Hydro Pump / Scald
- Ice Beam
- Gunk Shot
- Water Shuriken / Dark Pulse / Spikes / Toxic Spikes

I’ve used this set quite a bit in Gen 7 OU, and it works quite well. Wide Lens sacrifices extra damage for more accuracy on Gunk Shot and Hydro Pump, and Life Orb give more power but makes Gunk Shot less accurate. If you aren’t running Wide Lens, I suggest using Scald instead of Hydro Pump but it’s your choice to make. Hydro Pump / Scald is your Water STAB, Ice Beam is coverage, Gunk Shot takes out all 4 Tapus, and most aren’t expecting to take a physical Poison move from a Greninja anyway. The last move is personal preference. Water Shuriken is nice since it’s a 60 power STAB priority multi-hit move. Helpful against sturdy, Mimikyu and Focus Sash, although Sash isn’t too common from my experience. Dark pulse is just some nice STAB, and both Spikes variants are there if you want to run Greninja as a lead. I personally run Water Shuriken, but I’m not 100% on it. Again, personal preference is what matters. A few other moves you could run are Grass Knot, HP Fire, U-Turn, Low Kick, Toxic Spikes, etc. Greninja is incredibly versatile and incredibly strong, making him one of my favorite Pokémon to use right now. Hope this set helps, let me know if you have any improvements!

Answer 6

Gen 7 NFE

Frogadier @ Choice Scarf / Choice Specs
Ability: Protean
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Electric]
- U-turn

All moves become STAB moves thanks to Protean. Hydro Pump is water STAB. Ice Beam is for grass types. HP Electric deals with oppsing water types and forms the BoltBeam combo. U-Turn is for pivoting.

Answer 7

Gen 7 OU

Greninja @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Water Shuriken
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam / Spikes / Toxic Spikes / U-Turn / Gunk Shot / Extrasensory
- Hydro Pump / Surf

- Water Shuriken for priority STAB, can be used in the rain where it gets a monsterous power boost, and helps you deal with faster opponents and priority users.
- Dark Pulse for Dark Type STAB. Destroys opposing Psychics and Ghosts like Aegislash, Gengar, and Bulky Mew.
- Hydro Pump is meant to be taken advantage of in rain to bust crazy amounts of damage that is able to OHKO almost anything that doesn't resist it, not to mention if they are weak to it.
- The 3rd move slot is completely customizable to provide ample versatility to whatever coverage, pivoting, or hazards you require.
- Ice Beam provides the much needed Grass coverage and allows Greninja to become an effective Dragon and Flying Type killer as well, KOing the likes of Mega-Latios and Tornadus-Therian. It is also a good method to threaten the majority of common defoggers like Zapdos, and Giratina-Origin, allowing you to keep your hazards up and further pressure the opposing team.
- Spikes and Toxic Spikes are also amazingly good options to consider if you don't have a hazard setter on your team. Hazard support complements Greninja's assault and helps him weaken down his own checks and counters to pickup certain KOs on mon's he was unable to before.
- U-Turn is also a good Momentum Tool and Pivoting option. You can also pair this with a Volt Switch user to make a nice Offensive VoltTurn Core.
- Gunk Shot packs in the grass coverage along with a nice way to deal with your fairy checks like Clefable, Tapu Fini, and Azumarill.
- Extrasensory can be substituted for an ample coverage option against those nasty fighting and poison types like Keldeo, Mega-Venusaur, Toxapex, Kommo-o, and Amoongus.
- Surf A more accurate but less powerful alternative to Hydro Pump. Trust me when I say that I know the pain experienced when your Greninja misses a key hit with Hydro Pump that ends up sacrificing your win.

This set was developed to maximize Ash-Greninja's firepower and take advantage of priority, extensive coverage, and high power STAB to decimate your opponents. Not to mention, this Greninja can be used on Rain Teams to bolster it's already powerful Water STABs for almost broken amounts damage.

Comments

Gunk Shot is better than Aerial Ace or Ice Punch as it covers Fairy-types as well as Grass-types, so is U-turn for pivoting and momentum.

Answer 8

Mixed lure for National Dex / Gen 7

Greninja @ Life Orb / Expert Belt
Ability: Protean
EVs: 24 Atk / 252 SpA / 232 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Extrasensory
- Gunk Shot
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Fire] / Low Kick

Ash-Greninja is one of the most frequently seen Pokemon in the meta, so checks and counters have appeared to beat it. These include Ferrothorn, Toxapex, Tapu Fini, Blissey, and Chansey. This set takes advantage of most players' tendency to expect Ash-Greninja and can lure them all in and beat them or make them take uncomfortable damage. Extrasensory is for Toxapex, Gunk Shot is for the pink blobs and Tapu Fini, Ice Beam is to be better against Dragons, Hp Fire is for Steels (especially Ferrothorn), Low Kick is for more damage against SpD Ferrothorn and to beat Heatran which will beat HP Fire Greninja after the set is discovered. This set is a great offensive mon in its own right, but is also a great partner for Pokemon who appreciate Greninja luring in their checks. I suggest making this set Male and not shiny, so that it is harder to see through the disguise.

Answer 9

National Dex Monotype (Water)

Greninja @ Expert Belt
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Electric]
- Grass Knot
- Low Kick

This set is used as a lure for Pokemon such as Kyurem, who can be a nuisance for Water-type teams. Ice Beam lets you deal with Pokemon such as Kommo-o, Dragonite, Garchomp, Tapu Bulu, Landorus, Tornadus-T, and Thundurus-T. Hidden Power Electric lets you deal super effective damage to Pokemon like Pelipper, Corviknight, Celesteela, and Mantine, as well as forming the BoltBeam combo. Grass Knot is used for Ground-types and Pokemon who can live Ice Beam such as Mamoswine, Seismitoad, Slowbro, Mega Swampert, and Gastrodon. Low Kick is what allows Greninja to deal with Pokemon such as Kyurem. Kyurem can switch into Greninja's Ice Beam, and then you use Low Kick to eliminate Kyurem. Low Kick also allows Greninja to OHKO Tyranitar, Mega Tyranitar, Weavile, and Bisharp. Low Kick also lets Greninja either OHKO or 2HKO Heatran, depending on what the Heatran set is and wheter or not Stealth Rock is up.

Answer 10

Gen 9 National Dex UU Choice Specs + Battle Bond

Greninja @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Water Shuriken
- Surf

A Choice Specs set with Battle Bond for Gen 9 NatDex UU. This set should be used on Rain teams, as Rain teams are the only time you would use Battle Bond over Protean on Greninja in Gen 9 NatDex UU.

Hydro Pump is incredibly powerful STAB, especially since it gets boosted from rain and Choice Specs. Dark Pulse is used for Dark STAB that is useful against Pokemon such as Gastrodon, Pokemon who are immune to water moves. Water Shuriken is used for priority Water STAB that allows you to revenge kill faster Pokemon. Surf is used for an accurate Water STAB that is useful late game.

Battle Bond makes this thing scary in rain. In Gen 9, should a Battle Bond Greninja knock out a Pokemon, it will gain +1 boosts to Attack, Special Attack in, and Speed. This means Greninja can have a Water STAB boosted by rain, Choice Specs, and the boost from Battle Bond. And should you use Tera Water, your Water STAB will have a x2 boost instead of 1.5, which makes it even scarier with rain, Choice Specs, and the boost from Battle Bond. Do note that Battle Bond only works once per battle, however.

If you hadn't already noticed, this set has 3 Water STABs on the same set. Please hear me out. The Water STABs have different purposes in the game. Hydro Pump is used early game to have a powerful move to secure OHKOs on opposing Pokemon. Water Shuriken is used to revenge kill weakened fast Pokemon. Surf is used for an accurate STAB move that is used late game. For those wondering if I should have coverage, these calcs show how scary Water STAB in rain is despite being resisted:

+1 252 SpA Choice Specs Tera Water Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 204+ SpD Amoonguss in Rain: 299-352 (69.3 - 81.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

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+1 252 SpA Choice Specs Tera Water Greninja Surf vs. 248 HP / 204+ SpD Amoonguss in Rain: 245-289 (56.8 - 67%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

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252 SpA Choice Specs Tera Water Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Dondozo in Rain: 326-384 (64.6 - 76.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Anyways, enjoy using this set in rain!

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Answer 11

Here's a Gen 9 NatDex OU set for Greninja-Bond. Note: Ash-Greninja has been removed from the games upon the release of SV.

Not Green Ninja (Greninja-Bond) (M) @ Loaded Dice
Ability: Battle Bond
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dark Pulse (Great STAB, a lucky flinch might save you the game)
- Water Shuriken (Incredibly good STAB, Loaded Dice helps a lot)
- Extrasensory (Coverage against Fighting types, flinching is great)
- Ice Beam (Great coverage and can decimate Gliscor)

This is used as a sweeper set (if you didn't notice) in Gen 9 NatDex OU. Water Shuriken and Dark Pulse is great STAB and this set centers off of Water Shuriken. Loaded Dice helps Water Shuriken a lot, and if you can get the KO you can start sweeping.

Answer 12

Greninja @ Flying Gem
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Taunt
- Hydro Pump
- Acrobatics / Spikes
- U-turn

Probably a stupid Idea, but maybe anti-lead? A special biased mixed attacker that can taunt common SR leads, and U-turn out. Acrobatics with Flying gem packs quite a punch, and Hydro pump is great STAB. One more thing, Protean makes Acrobatics ultra powerful.

Comments

Water Shuriken > Hydro Pump so you can run full physical. Just makes more sense in my mind anyway.

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Waterfall over water shuriken, and it's physical too!

Answer 13

Mixed Sweeper

Greninja @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
EVs: 128 Atk / 128 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Ice Beam
- Scald / Hydro Pump
- Rock Slide
- Night Slash

Shenanigans.

Answer 14

Greninja @ No item / Flying Gem
Ability: Protean
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Rock Slide
- Acrobatics
- Night Slash

Waterfall and Rock Slide are good for flinching.
Acrobatics without an item is still pretty good. If you can manage to get a Flying Gem, even better. Also is coverage for being Water, Rock Type or Dark type.
Night Slash has high crit ratio

Comments

No item is awful. In competitive battling, a Flying Gem should always be used. Most competitive battling is done on simulators or wi-fi battling where the items that are used up come back after the battle.

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Haven't come across one yet, and haven't seen location either.
I'll k eep that in mind for next time though.

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Internet research tells me they can be found via Rock Smash in a certain cave, but they're really rare.

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There is no flying gem in gen 6 yet, and you cannot transfer items over.

Answer 15

Ok, so I came up with this set when I visited showdown and noticed that they had Gen 6 up. This is similar to many of the other sets posted. I hope to show you their advantages:

Greninja @ Life Orb

Ability: Protean
EVs: 44 Atk / 212 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- U-turn
- Dark Pulse
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam

OK, so the key differences between my set and a few of the others is: Firstly, Life Orb helps boost the power of the moves so that, with Protean, his attacks will be dealing a lot of damage, ensuring KO's. This works very well for the scout / revenge killing nature that this set has. Secondly, 44 Atk EV's helps the power of U-turn, maybe his most used move. Thirdly, Naive nature evens out his defenses more, though he isn't going to be able to take much either way. All in all, Greninja is an amazing Pokemon that might make it to OU.

Answer 16

Physical sweeper
Greninja @ Expert Belt
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Night Slash / Power-Up Punch
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
- Waterfall / Water Shuriken / Aerial Ace

Night Slash / Power-Up Punch: Weak but good as finisher or if it's super effective to gain attack while attacking
Rock Slide: Flinch+Coverage
U-Turn: Escape!! Coverage
Waterfall / Water Shuriken / Aerial Ace: Coverage

Answer 17

Torrent Moveset
Greninja @ Mystic Water / Scope Lens
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
Water Shuriken- Can do great damage
Waterfall- Does 80 damage, can make target flinch
Night Slash- 70 damage, higher critical hit rating
Power-Up Punch- Raises Attack
Mystic Water powers up Water Shuriken & Waterfall, or Scope Lens raises crit ratio

Answer 18

Well there is mine:
Special Sweeper
Greninja @ LIfe Orb
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Grass Knot / Scald
- Extrasensory
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam

You don't need to run Water-type moves anymore and Grass Knot makes you beat another water-type Pokemon easily with Protean making STAB in all moves.

Answer 19

Greninja @ King's Rock
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Scald
- Dark Pulse
- Extrasensory
- Ice beam

With Protean he gets STAB for each move and with King's Rock if you open with either Dark pulse or Extrasensory you will most likely get a flinch. Scald is a good water type move which can also burn and Ice beam can also freeze.

Comments

king's rock only has a boosted flinch rate if the move that you are using doesn't have a flinch rate.

Answer 20

Lead
Greninja @ Red Card
Ability: Protean
EVs: 64 HP / 64 Atk / 64 Def / 64 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-Turn (TM 89)
- Spikes (Lv. 28)
- Toxic Spikes (Egg Move)
- Waterfall (HM 05)