Pokédex · V (Unova)

Cobalion#638

Strong point: Defense — higher than 95% of species. Overall it is one of the stronger species — above 91% of the Pokédex. It does not evolve: it does not come from anything and does not change into anything. On defense it has 3 weaknesses, 8 resistances and 1 full immunity. Poison-type moves do nothing to it at all. This is a Legendary Pokémon: one per game, no offspring. Very hard to catch — bring plenty of Poké Balls and something that puts it to sleep or paralyzes it.

Cobalion
Shiny version
Steel Fighting
Height: 2.1 m (6′11″) Weight: 250.0 kg (551.2 lbs)

Base stats

HP
91
83%
Atk
90
65%
Def
129
95%
SpA
90
73%
SpD
72
57%
Spe
108
91%
TOTAL
580
91%

Last column: what percentage of 1084 species and regional forms have a lower value. Strong point: Defense.

A nature can improve this entry further: its boost hits hardest on Defense, the stat in which this species already leads. Which nature does that — see the list of natures.

Which nature to choose

Attack (90) and Sp. Atk (90) are nearly equal, so neither of these two stats can be lowered for free. The price has to be paid in defense — in the weaker one, because Sp. Def does not stop anything here anyway.

  • Naive +Spe · −SpD A mixed set that does not intend to take any hits: all that matters is striking first.
  • Naughty +Atk · −SpD The same price, but the boost goes into the stronger of the two offensive stats.

A conclusion drawn from base stats alone — a specific moveset can reverse it. All 25 natures.

Legendary
Regional numbers 4

The header shows the national number. Inside the game the Pokédex counts from the beginning — below is the number you will see in your version.

Unova #144 Black / White
Unova #225 Black 2 / White 2
Crown Tundra #205 Sword / Shield , Sword/Shield: The Crown Tundra
Hyperspace #115 Legends: Z-A , Legends: Z-A: Mega Dimension

Abilities

  • Justified Raises Attack one stage upon taking damage from a dark move.

How players use it

Data from 44,274 ranked battles on Smogon (Gen 9 UU, 2026-07). These are not numbers from the game — they are player habits. Gen 9 UU is one tier lower: it is played without the Pokémon most often used in OU, so the same species hold completely different places here.

Rank 37 among 274 Pokémon in use — it is on 5.89% of teams.

Tera Type Ghost 41.9% Water 22.3% Fairy 15.2% Steel 5% Ground 4.4% Dragon 2.7%
EV spreads Timid · 252 Spe / 144 Def / 112 HP 41.5% Impish · 252 Def / 240 Spe / 16 HP 11.4% Jolly · 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP 7.5% Timid · 252 HP / 252 Spe / 4 SpD 4.5% Jolly · 252 Spe / 140 Atk / 112 HP / 4 Def 4.1%

Each row is a separate distribution, not a single set: the most common item and the most common move do not have to appear on the same Pokémon.

Pokédex entry

This legendary Pokémon battled against humans to protect Pokémon. Its personality is calm and composed.

Egg Group: Undiscovered Gender: Genderless Catch difficulty: very hard (3/255) Base friendship: 35/255 Base EXP: 261
Evolution line

Resistances and weaknesses

Type chart →

How much damage Cobalion takes when it is hit by a move of each type. The multipliers of both its types are already combined here.

Weak to Fire ×2 Fighting ×2 Ground ×2
Resistant to Bug ×¼ Rock ×¼ Normal ×½ Grass ×½ Ice ×½ Dragon ×½ Dark ×½ Steel ×½
Immune to Poison ×0

How it was drawn

2010–2016

The sprites come straight from the games in which Cobalion appeared — one from each release.

Gen 5 2010
Cobalion in Black / White
Black / White
Gen 6 2013
Cobalion in X / Y
X / Y
Cobalion in Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire
Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire
Gen 7 2016
Cobalion in Ultra Sun / Ultra Moon
Ultra Sun / Ultra Moon

Variant gallery

The gallery shows only the appearance variants that exist for this Pokémon. Every image shows the same character and differs in source — a Pokémon HOME render or a pixel sprite — and in coloring, regular or shiny.

Cobalion — large render in its regular coloring
Pokémon HOME
Cobalion — large render in its shiny coloring
Pokémon HOME shiny
Cobalion — small pixel sprite in its shiny coloring
Shiny pixel sprite

TCG cards (12)

All Cobalion cards →

Cobalion has 12 cards in 8 sets. The oldest of them are shown below.

Cobalion does not breed. You cannot get an Egg from it — this is how the games treat almost all Legendary and Mythical species.

Where to catch it (6)

All locations →

The levels shown are the widest range across all game versions — in a specific release it may be narrower. The exact area, catch method and chance are on the page of each location.

Alola

Galar

Hoenn

Unova

Below are the moves learned by leveling up. The rest (73 via TM/TR, 14 via tutor) are on the full list.

Lv. Move Type Cat. Power Acc. PP
1 Helping Hand Normal Status — — 20
1 Leer Normal Status — 100% 30
1 Quick Attack Normal Physical 40 100% 30
1 Work Up Normal Status — — 30
7 Metal Claw Steel Physical 50 95% 35
14 Quick Guard Fighting Status — — 15
21 Double Kick Fighting Physical 30 100% 30
28 Retaliate Normal Physical 70 100% 5
35 Metal Burst Steel Physical — 100% 10
42 Take Down Normal Physical 90 85% 20
49 Sacred Sword Fighting Physical 90 100% 15
56 Swords Dance Normal Status — — 20
63 Iron Head Steel Physical 80 100% 15
70 Close Combat Fighting Physical 120 100% 5