What is the best way to teach Smeargle moves in USUM?

Question

I think it is important to note that I have reached the Battle Tree and battled through the endgame content on my Ultra Sun game. I would like to teach Smeargle specific moves with Sketch. I know double battles are the ideal format for this, however, I'm not sure where I can find double battles to teach him moves without him fainting prematurely (I don't mind if he faints but I at least want him to sketch the move I want before he does). My smeargle is at level 72 currently. Any ideas?

Answer 1

There is exactly one repeatable double battle in the overworld, that being the match against Shigeki Morimoto and Kazumasa Iwao in the Game Freak office in Heahea City. You can challenge them once per day, and can set up a faster teammate to use a move and then Smeargle Sketches it. Note that Morimoto's lead Gengar has 183 speed and full Special Attack EVs, so you'll either need Smeargle to be faster than that, or at least bulky enough to take a hit so it doesn't get KO'd before it can Sketch.

If getting up to a high enough level that you can use them to sketch one move per day isn't appealing, another thing you can do is use wild Ditto. Delete all moves off of some Pokemon except the one you want to sketch (and it can be low leveled so as not to pose a threat), then search the grass on Mount Hokulani for a Ditto and bring in the Pokemon that only has that move when you find it. Ditto will Transform, then you switch to Smeargle and it uses that move, then you Sketch. In a few cases you'll need a more complicated setup, such as if the move you want to sketch is Explosion.

Comments

if you want to use the first method and you need a priority move, you can give smeargle quick claw, save right before entering the battle, and hope for a quick claw.

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If you picked up the event that gave out Custap Berries and other kinds of rare berries (one of the last events ever released for USUM), and have farmed up a decent supply of them, you could whittle Smeargle down to red health against weak Pokemon, end the battle, and let it hold a Custap Berry outside of battle, then it will fire at the first turn of the next battle Smeargle selects a move in. For the cost of one Custap Berry, you can make it a guarantee instead of having to fish for a lucky Quick Claw. Or, for *two* Custap Berries, you can do the same for the Pokemon that Smeargle is going to sketch from (as long as it's faster than Smeargle) and that will work to sketch even a *non*-priority move (although, if it's a damaging move, you'll have to watch out for Kecleon's Sucker Punch which can snipe them before they get a chance to use the move).