What is a good moveset for Hawlucha?

Question

If you have a good competitive moveset for Hawlucha, post an answer below and upvote the best ones. Movesets for its pre-evolutions, if any, can also be shared on this thread.

Be sure to include full set details in your post, e.g. items, abilities, natures and EVs. Some detail, including the intended game mode for your set, is also appreciated. Access the full list of guidelines here.

Hawlucha Pokédex and learnset for reference.

Answer 1

Hawlucha @ Choice Band
Ability: Limber
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- Toxic
- U-turn

obviously a very gimmicky set

This is mainly to bring immediate power, and beat Pokemon that counter the Unburden set (Unaware Clefable, Quagsire, Hippowdon, Toxapex, etc.)

Brave Bird and Close Combat are STAB. Toxic is to beat the few Pokemon that will take banded attacks like Hippowdon. U-turn for momentum/a predicted switch.

Calcs:

252+ Atk Choice Band Hawlucha Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 136-162 (44.7 - 53.2%) -- 31.3% chance to 2HKO (chance to 2HKO and doesn't get affected by Haze)

252+ Atk Choice Band Hawlucha Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Quagsire: 204-241 (51.7 - 61.1%) -- 96.1% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery (almost always 2HKOs and doesn't get affected by Unaware)

252+ Atk Choice Band Hawlucha Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Clefable: 223-264 (56.5 - 67%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery (2HKOs phys def clef and doesn't get affected by Unaware, although this is incredibly risky staying in on Clefable considering that Moonblast will always OHKO)

252+ Atk Choice Band Hawlucha Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Clefable: 331-390 (84 - 98.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (can OHKO sp def clef with a bit of damage on it and doesn't get affected by Unaware)

Answer 2

Hawlucha (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flying Press
- High Jump Kick
- Brave Bird
- Throat Chop

Before you start straining your eyes out, screaming in pain, and smashing your device, calm down. It’s not the end of the world. A HAWLUCHA without unburden, and with a choice band??? How could this work?

Well, the choice band is there to boost Hawlucha’s mediocre attack (Base 92 pretty mediocre). Adamant nature further boosts it, making it fairly decent. High jump kick is a powerful move with STAB, but the rest can be whatever you like. The main reason I didnt use unburden Hawlucha with power herb and sky attack is because I would be missing out on a significant amount of attack power.

Strategy is to just spam high jump kick, or throat chop for any psychic types. Just watch out for protect, as if opponent protects on high jump kick you still take whopping recoil damage.

Answer 3

Gen 9
Hawlucha @ Focus Sash
Ability: Unburden
EV’s: 252 Attatck/ 252 Speed/ 4 Spd
Nature Adamant
Moves:
-Swords Dance
-Drain Punch
-Acrobatics
-Upper Hand

I love this set. It is used as a reverse sweeper on my mono flying team and always puts in work. The main idea is that if the opponent has a stacked mon (hopefully with no multi hitting moves) you go in and set up a swords dance. Since it’s used as a reverse sweeper it should be brought down to the sash giving it and unburden boost. Then the fighting flying type combo can hit almost anything and does huge damage with the sword dance boosts. Now drain bunch is used to recover hp but there will be times when the opponent can use a priority move before you recover so Upper Hand is there to prevent any priority. If you don’t feel the need to heal you can always go for a different fighting move like close combat but I would keep Upper Hand just in case.

Answer 4

Skydiver (Hawlucha) @ Leftovers
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 104 HP / 200 Atk / 204 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Aerial Ace
- Flying Press
- Brick Break
- X-Scissor

Hawlucha's may be unable to actually fly (why is it even a flying type then) but it can skydive with the best of em. So boom. Enter: Skydiver the Hawlucha. The resident Fighting/Flying type on my team with a hint of Bug coverage. Aerial Ace may not be the best Flying move, but there are actually 3 stronger moves that would be possible. Reasons behind not choosing them are item (Acrobatics) recoil (Brave Bird) and power output (Dual Wingbeat). Brick Break is a solid Fighting move in general and Flying Press combines two types STAB coverage and is stronger than Aerial Ace and Brick Break individually. X Scissor is simply to cover against Psychic types and is stronger than the alternative Throat Chop. The Leftovers can help with how squishy Hawlucha is and will help sustain it that much more. The Jolly nature helps to increase Speed a good bit. Mold Breaker can make Hawlucha a weapon in general and The Tera Type makes sense for Hawlucha because there's no real Flying type move that could work well with Flying Tera type

Answer 5

Hawlucha @ Leftovers
Ability: Mold breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe/ 4 HP
Nature: Jolly
- Protect
- Wing Attack / aerial ace
- Fire Punch / Bulk Up
- Brick Break / Close combat

Nobody else has done this, so here. I’m surprised, seeing as how good it is. Leftovers/protect is constant healing and walling. EVs make this thing hit HARD and FAST. fire punch is coverage. Wing attack and brick break are stabs. Mold breaker is just good. This set works as of Gen 9. Hope you like it!

Comments

Have you tried these sets in competitive?

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What does Fire Punch hit super-effectively that your STAB moves don't? Most of the types that Fire Punch would be super effective against are already covered by Flying or Fighting. I think you would be better off replacing Fire Punch here with a more useful move such as Swords Dance. Also consider replacing Brick Break with Close Combat, it has much higher BP to the point where I think the defense drops would be worth it.

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I might be missing something but isn't Aerial Ace just better Wing Attack

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They are functionally identical in competitive because they have the same BP and evasion moves are usually not allowed in competitive, so just use whichever you like more. (Aerial Ace and Wing Attack)

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All this talk about Aerial Ace or Wing Attack... Are either option even viable on Hawlucha?

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Normally I see Hawlucha using Acrobatics in competitive in conjunction with a Electric or Psychic Seed as its Flying STAB, but that's not really an option here because this set doesn't use a consumable item and Acrobatics is very weak without that. Aerial Ace is really weak at 60BP, but I don't see a lot of better options in Hawlucha's movepool either.

Answer 6

I'll use this instead (note: Gen 8 only),
Hawlucha @ White Herb
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 252 Atk + 252 Speed + 6 Sp. Def
Nature: Adamant

Moves:
1. Close Combat
2. Acrobatics
3. Fire Punch / Stone Edge (coverage move slap it of your choice)
4. Swords Dance

Basically it doesn't rely heavily on high jump kick that has a high recoil when missed or sky attack cause you won't click sky attack after your item is gone, that makes space for a coverage move like stone edge. And yeah you can use flying press instead of CC but you then have to find a way to remove your item. I'd say use fling + King's rock / iron ball / black sludge. I don't know your choice.
This is kinda is usable set you may modify it too.

Comments

You use close combat