Garbodor

Using Garbodor in a Playthrough

Trubbish evolves into Garbodor at level 36, producing a pure Poison Pokemon with balanced physical bulk, base 95 Attack, and excellent access to entry hazards. Gunk Shot or Poison Jab provides STAB, while Seed Bomb, Drain Punch, Rock Blast, Body Slam, Stomping Tantrum in later games, and Explosion or utility coverage give it enough offense to avoid complete passivity. Spikes and Toxic Spikes are the family's most distinctive support tools, allowing Garbodor to weaken entire opposing teams over repeated switches. Stench can cause flinches with damaging moves, Weak Armor trades Defense for Speed after physical hits, and the Hidden Ability Aftermath damages a contact attacker when Garbodor is knocked out, although the last effect is naturally undesirable in a Nuzlocke. Poison typing grants resistances to Grass, Fighting, Poison, Bug, and Fairy from Generation VI onward and automatically absorbs Toxic Spikes upon switching in while grounded. Adamant or Impish are sensible depending on whether the player values offense or physical durability.

Garbodor in Competitive Pokémon

Garbodor was one of BW NU's premier Spikes users and one of the few fully evolved Pokemon in the tier with access to both Spikes and Toxic Spikes. Its Poison typing, respectable physical bulk, lack of a Stealth Rock weakness, and ability to punish contact through Rocky Helmet plus Aftermath made it especially effective at repeatedly setting hazards against Fighting-types and passive defensive Pokemon. Clear Smog prevented setup sweepers from exploiting it freely, while Pain Split in relevant generations gave limited recovery and Gunk Shot ensured that Taunt did not make it useless. Later generations preserved this identity, with Garbodor repeatedly appearing in lower tiers as a durable hazard setter rather than a conventional sweeper. Gigantamax Garbodor has a separate Generation VIII doubles-oriented niche because G-Max Malodor damages all opposing targets and poisons them, but Gigantamax does not alter Garbodor's base statistics and is tied to Dynamax formats rather than representing a permanently stronger evolution.

Garbodor in Nuzlockes

Garbodor is a useful Nuzlocke support Pokemon because pure Poison typing provides several resistances, removes Toxic Spikes simply by entering the field, and its defenses are solid enough to handle many physical neutral attacks. Spikes can make long trainer battles progressively safer by weakening every grounded opponent that switches in, while Toxic Spikes can wear down bulky teams without requiring Garbodor to stay exposed. Gunk Shot is powerful but inaccurate, so Poison Jab or another reliable move is usually safer when the extra damage is unnecessary. Weak Armor can become dangerous because a physical hit lowers Defense even while increasing Speed, and Aftermath only activates when Garbodor faints, so neither should be treated as a primary survival plan. Gigantamax Garbodor is considerably safer in formats where Dynamax is available because of the temporary HP increase, while G-Max Malodor adds guaranteed teamwide poison pressure without changing its underlying weaknesses to Ground and Psychic.

Garbodor consumes garbage and incorporates the waste into its own body, with the exact composition of its poison changing according to what it has eaten. It sprays extremely toxic liquid from the fingertips of its right hand and uses its heavier left arm to seize or strike opponents. The species thrives around landfills and other heavily polluted areas. In Alola, introduced Grimer and Muk preyed on Garbodor so heavily that the population declined, with surviving individuals reportedly becoming stronger.