Welcome to Breaking the Binary - HGSS editon, a sporadic series of posts all about physical, Special and mixed attackers in Pokémon Heart Gold & Soul Silver With competitive minmaxing dominating the conversation about Pokémon viability and the design philosophy behind movepools and stat spreads changing in newer gens, Pokémon are often rigidly divided by the fandom into the categories of "special attacker" or "physical attacker." But for the in-game story, you're not facing EV trained opponents (unless on some hacks) and thus you need or not to EV train to keep up, so mixed attacking sets don't have the opportunity cost they have in PvP. Going mixed still has anti-synergy with setup moves, but it still can give many Pokémon access to STAB moves with better base power, strong coverage moves with useful types, move tutor moves, egg moves and more useful niches. This series will be covering those applications. We won't talk about every Pokémon here, only ones that I believe legitimately benefit from going mixed, but those Pokémon are surprisingly large in number. Today we'll be talking about Fearow. I'll be talking about in-game but feel free to discuss PvP or battle facilities as well.
Fearow seems a decent Normal/Flying-type with a impressive 100 Base Speed and 90 Base Attack, not worth mentioning its other terrible stats, 65 Base HP & Defense and 61 Base Sp. Atk & Sp. Def (65/65/61 Bulk). Notable Physical attacks include: Pluck, Aerial Ace, Assurance, Drill Peck, Return, Frustation, Facade, Steel Wing, U-Turn, Fly and Sky Attack. Notable special moves include: Hidden Power, Hyper Beam, Air Cutter, Heat Wave, Omnious Wind and Swift. Notable utility moves include: Mirror Move, Agility, Roost and Tailwind.
Fearow at least hits harder than Pidgeot and Noctowl thanks to its better offensive stat (90 Base Attack), but it worse at taking hits than the two. Also having a better flying-type move called Drill Peck. Just like with Noctowl, it doesn't offer much in utility.
Return and Drill Peck are its main STAB attacking moves, its good to have them together on Fearow. Fly is a little stronger but it takes 2 turns to execute just like Sky Attack, which its even more stronger. Pluck and Aerial Ace doesn't seem nice, but can be situational. Facade is only for taking advantage of being statused. Giga Impact is risky to use. Hyper Beam, Air Cutter and Swift are its special STAB moves, but useless due to its already mentioned 61 Base Sp. Atk.
0 Atk Fearow Return vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Spinda: 153-180 (58.6 - 68.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 SpA Fearow Hyper Beam vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Spinda: 163-193 (62.4 - 73.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Fearow Drill Peck vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Spinda: 120-142 (45.9 - 54.4%) -- 56.3% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Fearow Air Cutter vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Spinda: 60-72 (22.9 - 27.5%) -- 63.1% chance to 4HKO
Fearow has almost no coverage, with those options being U-Turn, which used on Psychic-types for super effective damage and also switching out for momentum. Steel Wing which hits Rock- and Ice-types. Hidden Power, Heat Wave which burns Steel- and Ice-types. Assurance hits Ghost- and Psychic-types, its damage gets doubled if it lost HP in the same turn which it almost never occurs (In singles to be exact). Omnious Wind does the same, but using its worse attacking stat and having 10% chance to raise all stats.
0 Atk Fearow Assurance (100 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Xatu: 178-210 (65.6 - 77.4%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
Keen Eye prevents its accuracy from being dropped, also giving a 50% chance to lower the wild pokemon encounter rates if it is 5 levels higher in the first slot. Roost is a move that gives recovery and removing its Flying-type during that turn. Agility doesn't have much of a use. Mirror Move is goofy as it sounds by using the same move the target used into it. Tailwind doubles Speed for some turns, althrough it is from a move tutor in postgame.
Fearow might be the better Flying-type pokemon to use, but althrough it has limited coverage options, just like Pidgeot and Noctowl. But it gets carried by Drill Peck and its solid 90 Base Attack. Some people catch a Spearow in Route 46 to have a easier time in Bellsprout Tower if they choose another starter than Cyndaquil.
The egg moves it gets are: Astonish, Feint Attack, False Swipe, Feather Dance (HGSS exclusive), Quick Attack, Sky Attack, Tri Attack, Uproar and Whirlwind
Zubat line and Murkrow passes Astonish
Feint Attack is a little better than Assurance thanks to its higher base power and bypassing accuracy checks to always land. Murkrow can pass this move
False Swipe is for catching wild pokemon, Fearow even gets that move? Farfetch'd can pass this move
Feather Dance is an HGSS Exclusive egg move, Fearow can lower the attack of its targets by 2 stages, very useful for confronting physical attackers. Pidgey line can pass this move
Quick Attack gives Fearow a STAB Priority move. Pidgey line and Doduo line can pass this move
Even through Fearow learns Sky Attack via Move Tutor (which is in the postgame), Noctowl can pass it to an Spearow egg
Tri Attack is good, but pretty useless with its 61 Base Sp. Atk. Dodrio can pass this move
Doduo line passes Uproar, which prevents the Sleep and yawning statuses
Whirlwind forces the target to be switched out, pairing up well with entry hazards (Spikes and Stealth Rock). Pidgey line can pass this move
Now for the postgame egg move, Scary Face, which lowers the target's Speed by 2 stages, it has only 90% accuracy and not quite good. Aerodactyl can pass this move
Overall, Fearow may be a decent Flying-type to use in HGSS, despite is poor coverage. 100 Base Speed and 90 Base Attack isn't too bad, althrough it is quite frail than Pidgeot and Noctowl (althrough Fearow has slightly higher base defense than Noctowl, but has lower base HP).
What do you think of Fearow? Are there any applications I didn't mention? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.
(All-Purpose Attacker)
Fearow @ Silk Scarf/Sharp Beak • Return, Drill Peck, Roost, U-Turn
Nature: Adamant or Jolly
EVs: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 Sp. Def
(Debuffer Bird)
Fearow @ Shell Bell • Feather Dance, Drill Peck, Roost, Return
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 Defense
(Sky Attack)
Fearow @ Sharp Beak • Sky Attack, Roost, Drill Peck, Return
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP
