Sceptile is a pure Grass-type Pokémon that evolves from Grovyle and is the final form of Treecko. He is a playable Pokémon in Pokkén Tournament. Alongside Blaziken, he is a final evolution of one of the Hoenn Starter Pokemon.
Sceptile is a Speed-oriented Battle Pokemon with move variety reminiscent of a Technical Battle Pokemon. He has above-average HP and damage output relative to the other Speed Battle Pokemon, but relies more heavily on trap-based gameplay than them as well. He possesses an extremely robust and varied arsenal of mix-up tools in the form of traps such as Bullet Seed and Leech Seed, Command Grabs with unique properties such as Giga Drain and Leaf Storm, and Command Counters with high spatial coverage such as Leaf Blade and Detect. Despite all these options, Sceptile excels as a mid-range fighter that keeps opponents just far away enough to avoid their attacks, yet close enough to strike them with Sceptile's.
Sceptile possesses ground mobility only surpassed by Weavile whilst being able to limit the mobility of his opponents via the aforementioned traps on the ground, extendable Command Grabs and powerful Anti-Air options such as Leaf Storm and Toxic. While his base damage output is not incredibly high, the secondary effects of both Toxic and Detect allow it to debuff his opponent's Defense for a short period.
Furthermore, Sceptile's Burst Mode - Mega Sceptile's Poke Combo and Leaf Blade end in the large-range, highly-damaging Dragon Breath that strikes both grounded and airborne opponents. In this state, the number of traps Sceptile can lay increases, as does their growth speed. His standard Grabs also become overwhelmingly damaging, with Mega Sceptile possessing the most-damaging Duel Phase Grab, and second-most-damaging Field Phase Grab after Mega Gengar.
Despite the plethora of tools and strengths at its disposal, Sceptile still has major weaknesses. He lacks any true projectile options in both phases, relying heavily on punishing mistakes and Okizeme setups. This leaves Sceptile highly vulnerable to long-range zoners like Chandelure and Gardevoir. Additionally, high-HP Power fighters can give Sceptile difficulty due to his relatively average damage output outside of Synergy Burst, and his need to stay at a specific optimal range. Ultimately, Sceptile is only as good as a player's ability to ensure the opponent remains at mid-range, only changing distance briefly to deliver more devestating attacks.
Special Characteristics[]
Leech Seed Bullet Seed[]
Leaf blade
Giga Drain[]
Leaf Storm: A route to shutdown airborne opponents. However, does debuff attack for some time.[]
if you use back Y immediately after transitioning to field phase, the time for the attack debuff will go decrease tremendously, however; you need to cancel it, and not let the whole animation play.
Detect: Counter trap that debuffs opponent's defense for a short amount of time[]
In Burst Mode, Sceptile will Mega Evolve into Mega Sceptile, gaining all the corresponding appearance changes in the process. Mega Sceptile gains leaf-like on his shoulders and torso resembling armored pauldrons, and additional leaves appear on his now-elongated tail. The tail now ends in a red, stinger-like point that may be forcibly shot by detonating the extra orange and red seeds now appearing on the base of Sceptile's tail along with several red rings. The leaves on Sceptile's arms lengthen, adopting a crescent-shaped notch in each as well as a red tip on the frontal leaf. Finally, Sceptile grows in height and takes on the Dragon-type as a secondary typing.
Character-Specific Burst Mode Effects[]
Sceptile's Standard Grab Attacks in both Duel Phase and Field Phase receive extra animations and much greater damage output. Specifically, the Field Phase Grab Attack now ends with Seed Bomb, and the Duel Phase Grab Attack ends with Leaf Storm launched from Mega Sceptile's tail. This renders Mega Sceptile's Standard Grab damage for both Grabs highest and second-highest in the game, with one falling short of just Mega Gengar's Grab.
Sceptile's tail grows longer as Mega Sceptile. This extends the reach of its Backward Strong Attack (4X).
If A is pressed again after performing his Poke Combo or Forward Pokemon Attack (Leaf Blade), Mega Sceptile will add Dragon Breath to the end of the attack. This move is a Counter Attack that manifests as circular swirling energy with a large hitbox that strikes both airborne and grounded opponents. Its animation is also lengthy enough to outlast many competing Counter Attacks.
Burst Attack - Forest's Flash[]
Sceptile's Burst Attack is a Counter Attack known as Forest's Flash. The move's base damage 211, and it deals extra damage at close range. As a Burst Attack, it counts as a fully-charged attack and will pierce opposing Counter Attacks. Furthermore, if successfully used while an opponent is performing a Normal Attack, the move will land a Critical Hit.
During the startup animation, Mega Sceptile gains Counter Armor and crouches and produces an enormous Leaf Blade on one arm, then dashes forward at high speed. If the top or front of the Leaf Blade come in direct contact with the opponent, the full animation will ordinarily occur. However, if Sceptile makes contact after travelling the maximum distance Forest's Flash will allow, the animation will not play and the opponent will simply be knocked back.
Worthy of note is that Sceptile is completely invulnerable during the early portion of his forward rush. This actually enables him to rush through opposing Burst Attack startups such as the large orb produced by Mega Gardevoir's Fairy Tempest.
Move List[]
Input
Name
Notes
Damage
A
Bullet Seed
The seeds do not actually activate until A is pressed again. Trajectory can be modified in Field Phase with the D-Pad.
44
Forward + A
Leaf Blade
Functions as a counter. Stops opponent. Can combo into Dragon Breath if A is pressed again during Synergy Burst.
101 (regular), 118 (Synergy Burst with Dragon Breath)
Back + A
Detect
Acts as a counter that activates on hit. Holding A puts Sceptile into a hanging motion. Lowers Opponent's defense.
32
A (Midair)
Leech Seed
Absorbs HP. Cannot KO.
38
Up + A (Duel Phase)
Leaf Storm
Only hits opponents in midair. Lowers Sceptile's Attack. Increases Synergy Gauge.
163
Down + A (Duel Phase)
Giga Drain
Functions as a grab. Can transition into a dash step before the attack if R and a side direction on the D-Pad are pressed. Absorbs opponent's HP and Synergy Gauge.
28
Burst Attack
Forest's Flash
Pierces counters. Deals most damage at close range.
The extra animations added to Mega Sceptile's standard Grabs during Synergy Burst are direct references to how Mega Sceptile performed Leaf Storm and Seed Bomb in both the Pokemon X&Y Mega Evolution Journal Segment, and the Pokemon XY&Z series of the anime.
Dragon Breath is a move described in the main series as being performed by releasing a stream of energy from the user's mouth, and has always been depicted as such in the anime. Despite this, Mega Sceptile performs the move by swinging his arm. However, the colour of the move (a mixture of light purple and various rainbow-associated colours) is faithful to the move's portrayal in the Pokemon XY&Z series of the anime.
Sceptile's High Stance animation and effect, in which the seeds on his back glow and it gradually recovers Recoverable HP, is a reference to the main series and anime where it is both stated and shown that the seeds glow when absorbing sunlight and "bursting with energy".
Sceptile's Burst Attack, Forest's Flash, appears to be a combination of the moves Leaf Blade (to initiate the attack), and Frenzy Plant (to complete the attack). However, the second portion resembling Frenzy Plant is less reminiscent of more recent portrayals of the move, in which he summons large thorny vines to attack the opponent (as it does when Decidueye uses it). That being said, the fact the vines form a tree at the end of Sceptile's Burst Attack may be a reference to how the move's original description in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen involved dropping a colossal tree on the opponent, rather than summoning vines.
Sceptile is the only Pokemon in the game whose Pokemon moves include both a grounded Command Grab (Giga Drain) and an aerial Command Grab (Leaf Storm). [Verify]
