Disguise (Ability)

This article is about the Ability. For a list of Team Rocket disguises, see List of Team Rocket's disguises.

Disguise	ばけのかわ
	Disguise
Flavor text Generation VII Once per battle, the shroud that covers the Pokémon can protect it from an attack. Generation VIII Once per battle, the shroud that covers the Pokémon can protect it from an attack. Generation IX Once per battle, the shroud that covers the Pokémon can protect it from an attack.

Disguise (Japanese: ばけのかわ Disguise) is an Ability introduced in Generation VII. It is the signature Ability of Mimikyu.

Effect

In battle

Generation VII

If a Mimikyu in its Disguised Form is hit by a damaging move or hits itself in confusion, Disguise prevents the move from calling the damage formula. The move will thus deal no damage, and type effectiveness will not be calculated (except in case of immunity, which prevents Disguise from triggering since the move will not hit in the first place). When this effect activates, the message, "Its disguise served it as a decoy!" is displayed, Mimikyu changes to its Busted Form, and finally the message, "<Name>'s disguise was busted!" is displayed. If Mimikyu's type had been changed beforehand, it is restored to Ghost/Fairy when it changes to its Busted Form.

Mimikyu remains in Busted Form if it is switched out, but reverts to Disguised Form outside of battle. If a Mimikyu faints and is revived, it will be revived in its Disguised Form and Disguise will be able to activate again.

Disguise will not protect against entry hazards or weather damage. Disguise activates at the first strike of a multi-strike move such as Water Shuriken and will not block damage from remaining strikes. Disguise only blocks the damage from moves; additional effects of damaging moves like paralysis from Nuzzle are not prevented. If Mimikyu has a substitute, the substitute will take damage before Disguise.

Because a Disguise-busting hit skips the type effectiveness check as well as the rest of the damage formula, Weakness Policy will not activate regardless of the move's type. A held Air Balloon will be popped even if Disguise negates the damage. Busting a Disguise with Rollout or Ice Ball results in the Rollout storage glitch.

Gastro Acid, Worry Seed, and Simple Beam fail if the target has the Ability Disguise. Role Play, Skill Swap, Entrainment, and Doodle fail if either Pokémon has Disguise. Disguise cannot be copied by Trace, Power of Alchemy, or Receiver. Disguise cannot be replaced by Mummy or Lingering Aroma, traded by Wandering Spirit, or suppressed by Core Enforcer or Neutralizing Gas; if a Pokémon that has its Ability suppressed passes that effect to a Pokémon with this Ability via Baton Pass, that effect fades. If a Pokémon obtains Disguise with Imposter or Transform, the Ability will never activate.

Pokémon with Mold Breaker, Teravolt or Turboblaze will ignore Disguise, hitting through the disguise without busting it. The same is true for the moves Moongeist Beam, Sunsteel Strike, and Photon Geyser as well as the Z-Moves Searing Sunraze Smash, Menacing Moonraze Maelstrom, and Light That Burns the Sky.

Generation VIII

When a Disguised Form Mimikyu's Disguise is busted, upon changing to its Busted Form it now loses HP equal to 1/8 of its maximum HP, rounded down, and not factoring in any increase in maximum HP due to Dynamax. If a Disguised Form Mimikyu faints from the damage, nothing special occurs. The moves G-Max Drum Solo, G-Max Fireball, and G-Max Hydrosnipe will ignore Disguise.

Generation IX

If a damaging move is absorbed by a Disguised Form Mimikyu's Disguise in a Tera Raid Battle, the player's Tera Orb will not be charged.

Outside of battle

Disguise has no effect outside of battle.

Pokémon with Disguise

#	Pokémon		Types		First Ability	Second Ability	Hidden Ability
0778		Mimikyu	Ghost	Fairy	Disguise	None	None
Please note that abilities marked with a superscript are only available in the stated generation or later. For Generation III and IV games, ignore Hidden Abilities.

In the anime

Mimikyu
The Pokémon's shroud takes the damage for it instead of its body.
Pokémon	Method
User	First Used In		Notes
	When Mimikyu gets hit by an attack, its disguise takes the damage instead of its actual body.
Jessie's Mimikyu	Loading the Dex!		Debut Revealed in A Battle Hand-Off!

In the manga

Pokémon Adventures

Mimikyu
The Pokémon's shroud takes the damage for it instead of its body.
Pokémon	Method
User	First Chapter Used In		Notes
	When Mimikyu is hit by an attack, its shroud takes the damage instead of the body. After taking the hit, the shroud flops over.
Sun's Penny	A Photoshoot and the Abandoned Thrifty Megamart		Debut

In other languages

Language Title Chinese Cantonese 畫皮 Wahpèih Mandarin 畫皮 / 画皮 Huàpí Finnish Valepuku French Fantômasque German Kostümspuk Italian Fantasmanto Korean 탈 Tal Polish Przebranie Portuguese Disfarce Russian Маскировка Maskirovka Spanish Disfraz Vietnamese Ngụy Trang

This article is part of Project Moves and Abilities, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on two related aspects of the Pokémon games.