How to Use Terrain Effects in Cobblemon Battles

Terrain effects are an often overlooked yet powerful mechanic in Cobblemon battles. By controlling the terrain, you can provide significant boosts to certain types, trigger abilities, and even protect your team from status conditions. Understanding how to use terrain strategically can give you an edge in battle, making your team stronger and harder to defeat. In this guide, we’ll explore the four main terrain types in Cobblemon—Grassy Terrain, Electric Terrain, Misty Terrain, and Psychic Terrain—and how to maximize their effects.

What Are Terrain Effects?

Terrain effects are field conditions that last for five turns (eight with the right item) and impact all Cobblemon on the ground. Unlike weather effects, which can impact all Cobblemon regardless of their position, terrain effects specifically influence grounded Cobblemon. These terrains provide various benefits to Cobblemon and can activate or boost abilities and moves.

The four main terrain types are:

1. Grassy Terrain: Boosts Grass-type moves and heals grounded Cobblemon each turn.
2. Electric Terrain: Boosts Electric-type moves and prevents grounded Cobblemon from falling asleep.
3. Misty Terrain: Reduces the damage of Dragon-type moves and prevents status conditions for grounded Cobblemon.
4. Psychic Terrain: Boosts Psychic-type moves and prevents priority moves from being used.

1. Grassy Terrain

Effect:

• Boosts the power of Grass-type moves by 50% for grounded Cobblemon.
• Heals all grounded Cobblemon for 1/16th of their max HP at the end of each turn.
• Weakens Earthquake, Bulldoze, and Magnitude by 50% in damage.

Best Users:

• Rillaboom (Grass): With its Grassy Surge ability, Rillaboom automatically sets Grassy Terrain upon entering the battlefield, boosting its own moves like Grassy Glide and providing passive healing for itself and allies.
• Tapu Bulu (Grass/Fairy): Another user of Grassy Surge, Tapu Bulu can use Wood Hammer for massive damage while recovering health each turn.

Strategic Tips:

• Grassy Glide: In Grassy Terrain, Grassy Glide becomes a priority move, meaning it often goes first. This makes it one of the most powerful moves for a Grass-type Cobblemon in terrain.
• Healing Stall: Use Grassy Terrain to stall opponents, especially if your Cobblemon can recover HP each turn while slowly wearing down your opponent’s team.
• Defensive Play: Grassy Terrain weakens Earthquake, one of the most common and powerful moves in the game. This allows you to safely switch in Cobblemon that would normally struggle against Ground-type moves.

Counters:

• Use Fire, Poison, or Flying-type Cobblemon to overpower the Grass-type advantages Grassy Terrain provides.
• You can also bring a terrain setter of your own, like Tapu Koko with Electric Terrain, to override Grassy Terrain.

2. Electric Terrain

Effect:

• Boosts the power of Electric-type moves by 50% for grounded Cobblemon.
• Prevents all grounded Cobblemon from falling asleep.
• Activates the Surge Surfer ability, doubling the Speed of Cobblemon with this ability (like Alolan Raichu).

Best Users:

• Tapu Koko (Electric/Fairy): With its Electric Surge ability, Tapu Koko automatically sets Electric Terrain, which boosts its powerful Electric-type moves like Thunderbolt and Wild Charge.
• Alolan Raichu (Electric/Psychic): Alolan Raichu benefits from Surge Surfer, doubling its Speed in Electric Terrain, making it one of the fastest Cobblemon on the battlefield.

Strategic Tips:

• Boosting Speed: Pair Electric Terrain with Alolan Raichu or other Cobblemon with Surge Surfer to create a fast-paced, high-damage strategy. The Speed boost can help your Electric-type Cobblemon outspeed and KO threats before they can react.
• Electric Immunity: Cobblemon with abilities like Lightning Rod or Volt Absorb can further capitalize on Electric Terrain, becoming immune to Electric-type moves while receiving boosts or healing.
• Status Immunity: Since Electric Terrain prevents Sleep, it can be an effective counter against status-inducing strategies that rely on moves like Spore or Sleep Powder.

Counters:

• Ground-types like Garchomp and Excadrill are immune to Electric-type moves, allowing them to ignore the boosts provided by Electric Terrain and hit back with powerful Ground-type moves like Earthquake.

3. Misty Terrain

Effect:

• Reduces the damage of Dragon-type moves by 50% for grounded Cobblemon.
• Prevents all status conditions (Burn, Poison, Paralysis, Sleep, Freeze) for grounded Cobblemon.

Best Users:

• Tapu Fini (Water/Fairy): Tapu Fini sets Misty Terrain with its Misty Surge ability, protecting itself and its team from status conditions while reducing the damage of Dragon-type moves.
• Sylveon (Fairy): Sylveon can benefit from Misty Terrain’s protection while using Hyper Voice boosted by Pixilate, turning it into a powerful Fairy-type attack.

Strategic Tips:

• Dragon Counter: Misty Terrain is an excellent counter to Dragon-type Cobblemon, as it cuts the damage of Dragon-type moves in half. Use this terrain to mitigate the impact of moves like Draco Meteor and Outrage.
• Status Prevention: Preventing status conditions is a huge advantage in long battles. Cobblemon like Togekiss or Gardevoir can avoid being paralyzed or burned, which helps them maintain their effectiveness throughout the match.
• Pair with Status Moves: Since Misty Terrain only protects against status conditions for grounded Cobblemon, you can use status moves like Thunder Wave or Toxic on Flying-type opponents, keeping them vulnerable to status while your grounded Cobblemon remain safe.

Counters:

• Replace Misty Terrain with a different terrain to negate its effects, or use Flying-type Cobblemon to ignore the terrain’s protection.

4. Psychic Terrain

Effect:

• Boosts the power of Psychic-type moves by 50% for grounded Cobblemon.
• Prevents the use of priority moves (like Quick Attack, Sucker Punch, or Bullet Punch) for all grounded Cobblemon.

Best Users:

• Tapu Lele (Psychic/Fairy): Tapu Lele sets Psychic Terrain with its Psychic Surge ability, giving a significant boost to its Psyshock or Psychic attacks.
• Indeedee (Psychic/Normal): Indeedee benefits from the boosted Psychic-type moves and can also provide support with moves like Helping Hand while Psychic Terrain protects it from priority attacks.

Strategic Tips:

• Prevent Priority Moves: Psychic Terrain’s prevention of priority moves makes it an excellent choice for stopping Fake Out or Sucker Punch strategies. This ensures your Cobblemon can safely set up or attack without being interrupted by faster priority users.
• Power Up Psychic Moves: Take advantage of the 50% boost to Psychic-type moves by building a team around powerful Psychic-types like Alakazam or Espeon, who can devastate opponents with terrain-boosted attacks.
• Sweep Safely: Since priority moves are blocked, your setup sweepers (like Alakazam with Calm Mind) can use this terrain to safely power up and begin sweeping teams without worrying about being KO’d by a faster move.

Counters:

• Dark-type Cobblemon like Umbreon and Tyranitar are immune to Psychic-type moves, making them excellent counters to Psychic Terrain teams. You can also replace Psychic Terrain with another terrain to remove its benefits.

Using Terrain-Extending Items

To make terrain last longer, Cobblemon can hold items like Terrain Extender, which increases the duration of terrain effects from five turns to eight. This provides more time to benefit from the terrain boosts and prevents opponents from stalling out the terrain before you can fully capitalize on it.

Conclusion

Mastering terrain effects in Cobblemon battles gives you a significant strategic edge, allowing you to boost your team’s performance and neutralize certain threats. Whether you’re using Grassy Terrain to heal your team and power up Grass-type moves or Psychic Terrain to block priority attacks, terrain effects provide unique advantages that can shape the outcome of any battle. As Cobblemon continues to evolve, understanding and utilizing these terrain effects will be key to becoming a top trainer.

Which terrain do you plan to build your team around? Let us know in our Discord!