Sniper (Ability)

Sniper スナイパー
Sniper
Flavor text
Generation IV
Powers up moves if they become critical hits.
Generation V
Powers up moves if they become critical hits.
Generation VI
Powers up moves if they become critical hits.
Generation VII
Powers up moves if they become critical hits when attacking.
Generation VIII
Powers up moves if they become critical hits when attacking.
Generation IX
If the Pokémon's attack lands a critical hit, the attack is powered up even further.

Sniper (Japanese: スナイパー Sniper) is an Ability introduced in Generation IV.

Effect

In battle

Sniper increases critical hit damage by 50%.

Generation IV

Critical hits will do 3× damage instead of 2× damage. Sniper cannot be activated by Beat Up.

Generation V

Sniper can now be activated by Beat Up. Additionally, rather than changing the critical hit multiplier directly, Sniper now multiplies by 1.5 the damage dealt by a move that deals a critical hit, applied last to damage as part of the "final" modifiers that get applied to the damage, resulting in virtually the same effect.

Generation VI onward

Critical hits will now effectively do only 2.25× damage, as a result of the critical hit multiplier being lowered to 1.5×.

Outside of battle

Sniper has no effect outside of battle.

Pokémon with Sniper

# Pokémon Types First Ability Second Ability Hidden Ability
0015   Beedrill
Bug Poison Swarm None Sniper
0021   Spearow
Normal Flying Keen Eye None Sniper
0022   Fearow
Normal Flying Keen Eye None Sniper
0116   Horsea
Water Water Swift Swim SniperGen IV+ Damp
0117   Seadra
Water Water Poison Point SniperGen IV+ Damp
0167   Spinarak
Bug Poison Swarm Insomnia Sniper
0168   Ariados
Bug Poison Swarm Insomnia Sniper
0223   Remoraid
Water Water Hustle SniperGen IV+ Moody
0224   Octillery
Water Water Suction Cups SniperGen IV+ Moody
0230   Kingdra
Water Dragon Swift Swim SniperGen IV+ Damp
0451   Skorupi
Poison Bug Battle Armor Sniper Keen Eye
0452   Drapion
Poison Dark Battle Armor Sniper Keen Eye
0688   Binacle
Rock Water Sniper Tough Claws Pickpocket
0689   Barbaracle
Rock Water Sniper Tough Claws Pickpocket
0816   Sobble
Water Water Torrent None Sniper
0817   Drizzile
Water Water Torrent None Sniper
0818   Inteleon
Water Water Torrent None Sniper
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 other games

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series

In Explorers of Time, Darkness, and Sky, Sniper makes critical hits do 2× damage instead of 1.5× damage.

Description

Games Description
MDTDS Boosts the damage the Pokémon inflicts with critical hits.
BSL きゅうしょに こうげきを あてたときの ダメージが おおきくなる
Conq. Powers up moves if they become critical hits.
MDGtI Unavailable
SMD Damage when an attack results in a critical hit goes up!
MDRTDX This Ability increases the damage of moves that result in critical hits.


In the manga

Pokémon Adventures

Trivia

In other languages

Language Title
Chinese Cantonese 狙擊手 Jēuigīksáu
Mandarin 狙擊手 / 狙击手 Jūjíshǒu / Jūjīshǒu
  French Sniper
  German Superschütze
  Italian Cecchino
  Korean 스나이퍼 Sniper
  Brazilian Portuguese Franco-atirador
  Spanish FrancotiradorVI+
Francotirad.IIIV
  Thai สไนเปอร์
  Turkish Keskin Nişancı
  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.