If you have spent any time playing Pokemon Champions, you know that the competitive meta is constantly shifting. New Pokemon and abilities arrive to shake up the rankings, but one constant remains: you are almost guaranteed to see an Incineroar lurking on your opponent's team. Now, a newly discovered exploit is making the Heel Pokemon even more difficult to deal with than before.
The Parting Shot Glitch Explained
Parting Shot is already a premier support move, allowing a Pokemon to lower a target's attack and special attack stats before pivoting out of battle. However, a bug—recently highlighted by Twitter user DaWoblefet—allows the user to bypass the standard limitations of the move.
Under normal conditions, after using Parting Shot, a player would be forced to bring in a different Pokemon from their party. This exploit changes that, allowing the Incineroar user to switch the same Pokemon back into the fray immediately by simply waiting out the timer. To trigger it, you need at least three Pokemon in your party and must switch out your other active Pokemon at the same time Incineroar executes Parting Shot.
Why This Matters for the Competitive Meta
This interaction is more than just a minor visual error. By looping the move, players can refresh the effect of Fake Out, securing a free hit every time the Pokemon re-enters the field. More aggressively, it allows a player to stack the Intimidate ability up to three times in a single sequence, effectively crippling an opponent's physical attackers before they have a chance to respond.
While this strategy is highly effective, it is worth noting that it is widely considered an exploit. If you are worried about potential account action from Nintendo or Game Freak, it is probably best to avoid using this maneuver in ranked play. As of now, the community is well aware of the bug, and while it was still reproducible following recent server maintenance, it remains a major point of frustration for the player base.