Pokémon X and Y Walkthrough, Pokémon Move Sets: Blaziken

(Please note that the recommendations below are largely made for in-game play. A Blaziken in a competitive environment will likely make use of different moves to accommodate for smarter, more adaptive opponents. If you have different suggestions for moves, let us all know in the comments.)

Blaziken is a pretty popular pokémon, and it's not difficult to see why. It hits really hard, has a great ability, and just plain looks cool in general. Having a Mega Evolution doesn't hurt either. This article will help you craft a Blaziken of your own which you can use to dominate the Pokémon League and beyond. Trust me, raising a Blaziken will make Pokémon X and Y reeeeeeal easy.

Type: Fire / Fighting

Evolution

Blaziken starts off as the tiny starter Torchic. Like all starters, all you need to do is level to evolve. Torchic becomes Combusken at level 16, and Combusken evolves into Blaziken at level 36.

Resistances

Bug, Dark, Fire, Grass, Ice, Steel.

Weaknesses

Flying, Ground, Psychic, Water.

Stats

Blaziken is fairly typical for a starter in that it has some pretty awesome stats. It's heavily weighted towards offense, with a killer Attack stat, a lower-but-still-pretty-sweet Special Attack, and some rather mediocre defenses. Speed and HP clock in at reasonable, but not outstanding. In short, Blaziken is a pretty obvious sweeper that just needs some help in the Speed department.

Ability

Blaze: If reduced to one-third of its total HP, this pokémon receives a boost to its fire-type moves. The standard ability for starters, and decent enough... though Blaziken's got a better one, one that helps with its primary statistical weakness.

Speed Boost: Every round, the pokémon receives a boost to its Speed. Filched from Ninjask, Speed Boost will slowly but surely give Blaziken an insurmountable lead in the Speed department. So long as you're fast enough to outpace the first pokémon, you'll probably outrun the rest of them as well. This is a hidden ability, but it's much easier to get than the hidden abilities of other pokémon in X and Y - just download the Torchic that comes with a new copy of the game. It, and all its kin thereafter, will have Speed Boost.

Moves

Blaziken's a sweeper, and it deserves moves befitting a sweeper. Your primary weapons here will be Flare Blitz (or Blaze Kick if you really don't want to sacrifice HP) and Hi Jump Kick. Follow up with Brave Bird and another non-STAB move - Return and Earthquake are ever reliable options that will cover a wide variety of pokémon. If you really want that killing touch and think your Blaziken can survive a round, Swords Dance is wise. (Though if you want a boost without sacrificing your attack, you can also attach Blazikenite and let Mega Blaziken handle the killing instead. Preeeeetty popular alternative online.) Attach Leftovers to regain a bit of health each round after using these self-sacrificing attacks.

Note that all of the moves listed above rely on Attack. You can get away with using Special Attack moves and still do extremely well with Blaziken, but Attack is ultimately the superior stat (and it's supported by generally stronger moves anyway). Note, too, that if you go with transforming into Mega Blaziken, Attack gets a much bigger increase than Special Attack.

EV / Super Training

Attack and Speed are your primary concerns, particularly Speed. Blaziken needs to go first if it's to be an effective sweeper. Beyond that, you have mainly defensive concerns; what few EV points you'll have left can go into Defense or Special Defense. Based on its weakness spread I'd say that Defense is more likely to come up than Special Defense, though you don't really want your Blaziken to get hit either way.

Catching a Blaziken

There's no such thing as a wild Blaziken in Pokémon X and Y, aside from the occasional appearance in someone's Friend Safari. Fortunately, everyone who bought Pokémon X and Y will receive a download code for a Torchic with Speed Boost. Download it and you can begin training it as, essentially, your third starter.