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Thunderbolt does damage and has a 10% chance of paralyzing the target. Thunderbolt can't paralyze a target that has a Substitute or already has a major status ailment.
In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, it affects all adjacent enemies.
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| style="background: #FFF" | Mareep
| colspan="2" style="background:#FAC000; text-align: center;" | Electric
| style="background: #FFF" | Pikachu, Raichu
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| colspan="6" | Bold indicates a Pokémon which gets STAB from this move. Italic indicates a Pokémon whose evolution gets STAB from this move. *Indicates Pokémon that can only learn the move through chain breeding.
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Electabuzz releases powerful bolts of yellow lightning from its horns or its body, or Electabuzz puts its hands out and fires a blast of yellow lightning from its hands at the opponent.
Ampharos releases a powerful bolt of yellow lightning from its ears or body at the opponent. Sometimes, yellow sparks appear around its ears before it uses the attack.
Delcatty crouches down and its body becomes surrounded in yellow sparks. It then releases a powerful bolt of lightning from its body into the air that strikes the opponent.
A bolt of lightning comes down from above Pikachu and strikes it. When the lightning hits Pikachu, it causes a large explosion of electricity around itself.
In some copies of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, using Thunderbolt or Thunder may freeze the game during the animation sequence. This may be rectified by turning off the battle animations.
Another, less harmful variation also exists, which causes the sound of the attack gets stuck in a loop and plays as long as the game is turned on, even after the battle is over.
In the console games, Thunderbolt is shown going straight forward to the foes' Pokémon, while in the handheld games it is shown going straight down. This was most likely done to prevent confusion with Thunder.
Because of Pikachu's early mastery of this move in the anime, it is by far one of the most used moves throughout the entire series, being used since even the earliest episodes. However, such episodes would also use moves simply called "Electric attack" or even "lightning" attack.
Both ThunderShock and Thunderbolt were translated to Portuguese as "Choque do Trovão".
Thunderbolt's Japanese name corresponds with Raichu's Pokédex entries which state that its Electric attacks can reach up to 100,000 volts of electricity.
As of Generation IV, only members of the Pichu or the Elekid evolutionary families can learn Thunderbolt by leveling up.
In other languages
Chinese: 十萬伏特100,000 Volts
Dutch: BliksemstraalLightning Ray
Finnish: Ukkosisku
French: Tonnerre
German: Donnerblitz
Italian: Fulmine (Superfulmine in the anime)
Korean: 10만볼트100,000 volts
Norwegian: Tordenkile
Portuguese:
Brazilian Portuguese: Choque do TrovãoThunder Shock / RelâmpagoLightning
European Portuguese: Choque do Trovão
Spanish (Latin American dub): Impactrueno (in Get your Rotom Running! is dubbed as Rayo, like in the Castilian Spanish.)