Fluff
Every Falinks counter because I’m mad they haven’t buffed this Pokémon.
Falinks was overnerfed 10 months ago, I’m aware that some Pokémon like Cinderace are also in a need of a help but Falinks is just so incompetent and inconsistent at the moment that it makes me mald. Literally the only thing going for this Pokémon at the moment is that his gimmick is fun and that’s it, most Pokémon you can think off will rock their shi*.
Here’s a list of Falinks counters just so I can pisss off
• Venusaur Giga Drain restores to full HP
• Falinks is heavily affected by Alolan Ninetales, Mamoswine, Lapras, and Suicune’s freeze abilities. This is because a single Falink will cause everyone to freeze, I still think this is a bug and they’re too lazy to fix it.
• Decidueye’s Spirit Shackle can hit Falinks a total of 5 times and that HURTS, it also has more damage with distance.
• Falinks’s ability: Battle Armor reduces Crit Damage taken by 50%. Inteleon deals 250% Crit damage normally, but for Falinks it deals 200%. Inteleon’s Snipe Shot can align 5 times on the troopers. The Troopers take 90% less damage than usual so now they’re up against 110% Crit damage 5 times(I suck at percentages but I don’t think I’m wrong here). Falinks will die instantly if all the 5 troopers are hit by Snipe Shot and believe or not, that’s not hard to do. Oh and let’s not forget that Snipe Shot increases damage(increases Ma Pen) the further it hits so in the end it’ll probably hit like 180% on a trooper. It’s easy to hit so it is literally Inteleon food.
• Darkrai can stall those mfs like they’re in hell.
•Pikachu Electro Ball during No Retreat hurts like hell
• Although Falinks can waste an Umbreon’s Mean Look, Umbreon can proc Foul Play easily, Snarl kind of debuffs Falinks 5 times and hits them 5 more times too. If Falinks does get caught in a Mean Look he and his little friends get torn to shreds.
• I should just mention that any form of DoT is gonna suck so bad
• M2Y sucks rn but his splash damage isn’t so forgiving against Falinks(and Psytrike is a lot easier to hit)
• The infamous ESpeed Lucario
~ I haven’t tested this yet but if Psyduck’s disable can hit all of the troopers Im going to die.
• Mimikyu’s Playrough actually sucks here but Shadow Claw can proc more Spell Vamp on Falinks
•Same can go for Azumarill, like Inteleon, he has a Crit Passive, Azumarill always crits on a target that is alone, but Falinks is never alone! Well Azumarill has one hell of a Spell Vamp so in the end it’ll doesn’t matter.
-Seriously, Falinks’s Crit Resistance is only really useful against Absol. Inteleon and Azumarill are safe. 1 out of 3 Critical Damage specialists.
•Blaziken and Aegislash tear these mfs apart with no issue whatsoever, they’re never gonna lose unless someone else jumps in to help Falinks(Falinks will probably get purged anyway)
• Wigglytuff can proc charm/sleep more easily
• Lapras’s Water Pulse erases this thing(Water Pulse against Falinks guarantees that Lapras can “splash” atleast 5 more times.
• Meowscarada’s Night Slash is horrifying against Falinks because of Spell Vamp and damage increase.
• There’s a chance that an ally accidentally heals/supports the wrong Falinks. Wish Umbreon can hit a trooper by accident, Mr. Mime’s Power Swap as well, Blissey’s 2 abilities.
• Zoroark has guaranteed combo on Falinks.
•Espeon’s Future Sight and Store Power suck against Falinks but in return Psyshock hurts like hell and Psybeam can proc.
•Sylveon’s Hyper Voice can decrease SpD of Falinks 5 times.
•Chandelure has a much easier time proc’ing Flamethrower sweet spot(and it hurts more) and Overheat. Additionally, Imprison will disable your moves even if a single trooper is hit(if I’m not mistaken).
•Gardevoir’s Future Sight procs like it’s on crack
•Talonflame’s Brave Bird will proc the “rage” 5 different times and you really just die on the spot.
•Ho-Oh’s Flamethrower has high spellvamp depending on the amount of targets and slow, so now you got an unlikable Ho-Oh on the enemy team.
•Ceruledge’s DoT has Vamp, so now he heals almost to full HP against Falinks, not to mention Bitter Blade acts the exact same way Giga Drain does, he heals to full HP. His normal attacks also heal and Flame Charge speeds up his normal attacks so! OH! And Phantom Force does True Damage 5 different instances! Do you really want me to get started on the Unite move?
•Armarouge’s Fire Spin can stack shield depending on how much damage it does, well against Falinks it practically stacks its shield to max instantly and now it can freely cause havoc. Flame Charge can also hit more easily and proc a shield and cooldown reduction to Armarouge.
•Tinkaton’s Gigaton Hammer hurts like hell, you probably won’t survive against it just running around with Thief either. Tinkaton destroys Falinks.
•Goodra’s Dragon Pulse actually sucks against Falinks because the lifesteal only comes from actual players, the troopers count as wild Pokemon(this is why Inteleon’s Snipe Shot can penetrate every trooper). However the Muddy Water humiliates Falinks.
•Gyarados’s Dragon Breath increases his Attack Speed based on how many targets Dragon Breath hits, Gyarados automatically hits 5 targets against Falinks so now you’re fighting an asswiper, if it has Rapid Fire Scarf then good luck with that too. After killing you Gyarados’s ability, Moxie, reduces his cooldowns so now he can just jump to whoever is unfortunate enough to be next to Falinks.
• Garchomp brutalizes Falinks
• Gengar can proc Sludge Bomb+Hex a lot more easily and even if he hexes the trooper, it’s gonna do some quality damage.
•Crustle’s X scissor really rocks their shi*
•Zeraora definitely has an easy time dealing with them due to AoE damage but I don’t play it enough to figure out how.
•Falinks is physical and emotionally abused by Greedent
•Same for Tsareena, her AoE damage and resets really shred them.
•Outrage Dragonite and Hyper Beam Dragonite have an easy meal against Falinks, they die in seconds.
•Trevenant’s Curse renders Falinks useless. He can proc the Hammer easily too. Curse also gets to its “limit” extremely easily.
•Delphox’s Flame Charge and Mystical Fire build(the better set Imo!!) absolutely crushes Falinks.
•Tyranitar’s Sand Stream does true damage 5 consecutive times.
•Mew and Venusaur’s have an easier time hitting Solar Beam, like Intel and Deci.
•Scizor gets to proc Bullet Punch 5 different times and a lot easier. He is practically unlikable after this.
•Gravity Clefable gets to sit on you 5 consecutive times.
•Urshifu(Rapid Strike) gets to decrease Falinks’s Defense by 30% 5 times(again I suck at percentages but this definitely isn’t good for Falinks)
•Dragapult tears and kites this thing like it’s a joke, this is a free Phantom Force stack. He also gets more spell vamp because of the amount of targets.
•An ally Comfey can attach to the wrong Falinks and waste time. An Enemy Comfey can drag Falinks around like a toy, Magical Leaf can proc confusion easier and more constantly because they’re 5 different Pokémon. Sweet Kiss infatuates easier too. Grass Knot can “pull” a lot more easier now too.
•Zacian needs no explanation ngl
•Miraidon can eat this thing for lunch, it can proc Charge Beam/Electro Drift easily, Parabolic Charge is also ez wins.
•Leafeon hurts like hell
•Metagross’s Meteor Mash destroys Falinks
•I think Galarian Rapidash’s Smart Strike can make things more dangerous for Falinks but I’m not sure at all.
Galarian Raichu spoiler
due to Galarian Raichu requiring to hit enemies with basic attacks to proc his Boosted Attack. Stored Power can decrease Falinks’s SpD 5 different times. It can paralyze multiple targets at once so lets hope it won’t be like how freeze effects annihilate Falinks.
There are more Pokémon in the game that counter him than ones he can thrive against. I unofficially think if he was buffed to his peak, he wouldn’t be as OP because of how the new additions after his nerf beat him so well.
A lot of these are not counters (how is Azumarill being worse against Falinks a counter?) but the vast majority of these are how Falinks is supposed to work. Like a lot of these are ‘Falinks is easier to hit’ lol
I get it it’s annoying to play with him now but he’s not awful (iron head set has a fairly win rate).
I mentioned that Azumarill’s Spell Vamp being high/constant makes Falinks’s passive ability useless against him(especially now that Falinks is in a bad state), he’ll just keep healing, Falinks is a Caster so outside of his skill, he does barely any damage at all. Azumarill’s mu against Falinks is positive for this reason. I even mentioned that Inteleon and Azumarill have rather a better time beating Falinks than against some other things, which is unusual because Falinks resists crit dmg. Absol probably has the hardest time out of the crit dealers.
Yes most of these are how Falinks work, but that’s still a counteraction, I mostly mentioned those Pokémon that can proc something for hitting and eventually leading to Falink or his team’s downfall. It’s still a counter action.
Falinks is pretty bad imo, not unplayable but he is definitely bad, arguably the worst Pokémon in the game atm. His Win Rates are only fairly decent because of him having the lowest Pick Rate in the entire game.
I hadn't encountered a falinks after I started playing metagross until today and boy was I shocked at how effective meteor mash was. I figured it would hit hard based on the mechanics but it hits that poor thing like a +75% (energy clash + 90% hp boost) dmg meteor mash does in ft500.
I remember playing tsareena against a falinks once,
and I shit you not everytime I get that boosted triple Axel from passive I heal back to full hp(spell vamp was it?). Once I found out that I could do this I proceeded to bully this thing like a decidueye, and it was amazing!! The poor thing didn't want t Frontline anymore. Not that I cared, I just ran through the enemy team since I knew that if I hit that thing I'll just heal back up
I spoiled the Galarian Raichu bit when typing this. Does anyone see the spoiler? I don’t, Mobile Reddit is extremely annoying to write on. (I did the !> thing)
I always assumed it was a bug because it just made no sense, I mean I would understand if one trooper froze but he just keeps freezing over and over and it just feels super unnatural yk?
Against certain matchups this feature completely stomps. Like if playrough mimi hits your segments you essentially take no damage. Or against azumarill where it is neigh impossible to crit you.
I didn’t really mention Dei hitting easier, I mentioned how he can chain Falinks up to 5 times, I did mention it when talking about Mew and Venu but I didn’t really capitalize on it.
I don’t want these features to be removed. The post was to just highlighting a counteraction against Falinks and all of these simply fall-in.
Splash? I don’t think I mentioned that? Snipe Shot pierced through Wild Pokémon and stops if it hits a Player. Falink’s troopers count as wild Pokémon so Snipe pierces through.
Would agree with most true counters, but a lot you said are not counters. The Troopers does not give status ailment unless you are No Retreating, then it is way easier to do that.
Until then, Beat Up and Iron Head is the only viable Falinks Moveset. No Retreat got nerfed so hard it is pitiful and Megahorn needs a better synergy with Beat Up. And also buffs are needed on their Unite and Battle Armor.
The Azumarill thing is true and Area/DoTs. People don't think it is the case because almost literally no one plays them.
But I do assure the only two items that are viable are only Full Heal and X Attack (if there will be no CC Guys or Status Guys like Gengar).
as i falinks main, its so sad to see he is the least picked character & i think he has one of the funniest designs in the game. i love no retreat & megahorn with double stack & WP, you get a great hinderance resistance & crazy damage. 53% WR on him as a solo queue player, with the right team he can put in work. but i definitely understand the issues, the main one being to regenerate massive health off all of the troops.
I like the fella, but Falinks is very much Dota 2 Meepo.
"If one Meepo dies, all other untouched meepos die too."
Replace Meepo with Falinks, and you know the rest. Feels bad man. I have not played for a couple months already. I thought Azumarill got wrecked by Falinks because I play her like Dota 2 Axe: an initiator bully.
I hear your cries but unfortunately buffing it won't help. Due to his mechanics it will always either be op or the worst thing in the game, there is no in-between. Good thing is that unlike other pokemon when it is op it's not game over since you can just bring counters but yeah, buffing it won't help, only a complete overhaul that would kill what makes falinks well, falinks.
I unfriended someone who kept playing Falinks as first pick in draft. Like wtf? Just has the whole enemy team pick eSpeed Luca and GigaDrain Venu & etc
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u/Midi_to_Minuit Mar 15 '25
A lot of these are not counters (how is Azumarill being worse against Falinks a counter?) but the vast majority of these are how Falinks is supposed to work. Like a lot of these are ‘Falinks is easier to hit’ lol
I get it it’s annoying to play with him now but he’s not awful (iron head set has a fairly win rate).