Shield Dust (Ability)

Shield Dust

りんぷん

Moth Scales

Flavor text

Generation III
Prevents added effects.


Generation IV
Blocks the added effects of attacks taken.


Generation V
Blocks the added effects of attacks taken.


Generation VI
Blocks the additional effects of attacks taken.


Generation VII
Currently unknown


Generation VIII
Currently unknown


Generation IX
Currently unknown

Shield Dust (Japanese: りんぷん Moth Scales) is an Ability introduced in Generation III. Seven Pokémon can have this Ability, all of which are Bug types.

Effect

In battle

When the Pokémon is damaged by an attack, any side-effects are negated (similar to the attacker having Sheer Force, but without increasing damage). For example, Body Slam would only deal damage and not have its usual 30% chance of causing Paralysis. It does not stop moves that don't cause damage, like Thunder Wave.

Outside of battle

Shield Dust has no effect outside of battle.

Pokémon with Shield Dust

#		Types		First Ability	Second Ability	Hidden Ability
0010	Caterpie	Bug		Bug	Shield Dust	None	Run Away
0013	Weedle	Bug	Poison	Shield Dust	None	Run Away
0049	Venomoth	Bug	Poison	Shield Dust	Tinted Lens	Wonder Skin
0265	Wurmple	Bug		Bug	Shield Dust	None	Run Away
0269	Dustox	Bug	Poison	Shield Dust	None	Compound Eyes
0664	Scatterbug	Bug		Bug	Shield Dust	Compound Eyes	Friend Guard
0666	Vivillon	Bug	Flying	Shield Dust	Compound Eyes	Friend Guard
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.

Trivia

Shield Dust essentially prevents the Pokémon from being frozen in battle by any Pokémon (except those with Mold Breaker or one of its variants), as the Freeze status ailment is always caused as a secondary effect of an opponent's move, and the status cannot be passed to another Pokémon via Baton Pass or Synchronize.

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		鱗粉 Línfěn
French		Écran Poudre
German		Puderabwehr
Italian		Polvoscudo
Korean		인분 Inbun
Portuguese		Escudo de Poeira
Spanish		Polvo Escudo

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.