In Pokemon Legends Arceus, Lilligant is one of the lucky Pokemon to be granted a Hisuian form, and is even a Noble Pokemon. Gaining the Fighting type isn’t all the Flowering Pokemon has in store, but a brand new spread for its stats, too. Whereas traditional Lilligant is a special attacker, Hisuian Lilligant is a purely physical attacker. Let’s see if Hisuian Lilligant is better than your ordinary little Grass-type buddy.

First off, the spread between the stats of normal Lilligant and Hisuian Lilligant is quite different. While Lilligant retains the same 480 base stat points in Hisui, there are some major differences. 

Lilligant: 70 HP, 60 ATK, 75 DEF, 110 SP. ATK, 75 SP. DEF, 90 SPD

Hisuian Lilligant: 70 HP, 105 ATK, 75 DEF, 50 SP. ATK, 75 SP. DEF, 105 SPD

As we stated in the outset, Lilligant is a purely physical attacker in Hisui. Its below average defenses remain, but the remainder of its stat points were dumped into speed. This is huge for a Pokemon that relies on striking first due to its meager defensive stats and unfortunate defensive typing. Speed is everything in Pokemon battling, and now Hisuian Lilligant can now outspeed many of its former biggest threats.

Before we continue on gushing about Hisuian Lilligant’s offensive abilities, we must address the defensive shortcomings. Being mono Grass-type already meant Lilligant was weak to Flying, Poison, Bug, Fire, and Ice attacks. Hisuian Lilligant becomes 4x weak to Flying and gains additional Weaknesses to Fairy and Psychic. It does lose the Bug-type weakness, though, as well as gaining Dark and Rock type resistances. 

The new movepool for Hisuian Lilligant is really where she shines. Unlike regular Lilligant, who learns no new moves by level up after evolving from Petilil, Hisuian Lilligant learns quite a few things.  Its first two best moves are Rock Smash and Leafage, along with Poison Powder, Sleep Powder, and Stun Spore for status infliction. Eventually, however, it does learn both Drain Punch and Leaf Blade, two very strong same-type attack bonus moves. The last move it learns, in fact, is Close Combat, which is great in competitive play, but Drain Punch is likely all you’ll need in your main adventure.

More importantly, Hisuian Lilligant learns Recover by level up. Yes, the original Lilligant learns Synthesis, but Recover has more power points, plus doesn’t need the benefit of harsh sunlight. Additionally, instead of Swords Dance, Hisuian Lilligant learns Victory Dance at level 42, and masters it by level 55. It’s a similar move in that it boosts attack, but instead of raising attack by two stages, it raises attack and defense by one stage. Then, it increases the damage of the user’s moves by fifty percent. 

Also, at the Training Grounds – Legends Arceus’ Move Tutor – Hisuian Lilligant can learn Aerial Ace, Poison Jab, and Giga Impact. While it learns a slew of other moves, most are special moves that Hisuian Lilligant shouldn’t bother learning.

In the competitive scene, Lilligant is a rarely used Pokemon, typically used as a support lead. It usually packs After You, Sleep Powder, Protect, and Petal Blizzard. Some will run Helping Hand or Leaf Storm.  Using After You is particularly good for slower teammates in doubles, such as Glastrier, Porygon2, or Incineroar. Your typical Lilligant would pack a Coba Berry to reduce the damage from a super-effective Flying type attack or a Focus Sash to survive what would otherwise be a one-hit KO.

Unfortunately, power creep in Generation 8 has forced Lilligant to fall into the lowest tier of competitive play, PU, which stands for exactly how it sounds. Even there, its usage is about one-fourth of a percent. The best Pokemon in the tier is another Grass-type in Tsareena, who’s much bulkier and a strong physical attacker.

Hisuian Lilligant is going to play entirely differently than its traditional counterpart once it becomes legal during Generation 9 competitive play. It may still run Sleep Powder, especially considering it’s going to outspeed a lot more things. Then, it will undoubtedly run Close Combat or Drain Punch and Leaf Blade. The fourth slot will very likely be Victory Dance. It clearly outclasses Tsareena from Sword and Shield PU, and could run Poison Jab instead of Sleep Powder just to hit it hard. It doesn’t outspeed Ribombee, but it can also hit it hard with Poison Jab and perhaps even Aerial Ace. Hisuian Lilligant still has problems with Weezing’s Sludge Bomb, though. Scrafty can’t do much to it, fortunately, and Togedemaru is quite weak to the Fighting-type moves.

While it would be good to see Hisuian Lilligant move up into Never Used for Generation 9, that format has most recently been dominated by Talonflame, Diancie, Sylveon, and Bronzong. Yeah, no thanks. In Rarely Used, the format right above it, the matchups against Flygon and Cobalion are fine, but no good against Crobat, Reuniclus, or Mimikyu.

As powerful as Hisuian Lilligant looks, its defensive typing still gives it issues in even lower tiers. On the plus side, the 105 base Speed stat gives it some hope. It now out-speeds Flygon (105 vs 100) and Mimikyu (96 speed). Heck, it even out-speeds Togedemaru (96) and Charizard (100)!

One hopes Hisuian Lilligant gets played just enough to warrant Under Used placement, a tier where it fits a lot better. Amoonguss is certainly a threat with Sludge Bomb, but Aegislash, Excadrill, and Swampert do nothing to it. Thundurus-Therian is a problem with Psychic, but Hisuian Lilligant is now faster (105 vs 101). Heck, it now out-speeds Jirachi (100) and Hydreigon (98)!

While defensively and offensively, Hisuian Lilligant still seems destined for bouncing around lower tiers, the new speed tier (105) affords Hisuian Lilligant the possibility of sneaking into UU. Overused is still dominated by big threats such as Weavile, Heatran, Dragapult, Corviknight, and more. Still, watching a Pokemon gain a new form and catapult from PU to possibly Underused is phenomenal.

However, in Legends Arceus alone, Hisuian Lilligant has another Grass/Fighting type competing for a team spot in Hisuian Decidueye. Fortunately for Hisuian Lilligant, it’s much faster than its starter counterpart. In competition, it’s even possible for this Lilligant to outperform the new Decidueye. From a stats perspective, Hisuian Decidueye VS Hisuian Lilligant still looks like a win overall for the starter. Decidueye’s 112 Attack is significantly higher than Lilligant’s 105 Attack; however, having just 60 Speed makes Decidueye far slower than the 105 Speed Lilligant. While in Legends Arceus speed is a bit less important thanks to Agile style moves, that difference is quite significantly. Trading some Attack power for that much speed may actually be a point in Hisuian Lilligant’s favor.

On defense, Hisuian Decidueye still outpaces Hisuian Lilligant, too. Lilligant has 75 points each in Defense and Special Defense, whereas Decidueye has 80 Defense and 95 Special Defense. The biggest advantage Hisuian Decidueye has is its 95 Special Attack, so it’s capable of a mixed attack moveset whereas Hisuian Lilligant must be all in on physical attacks.

Then again, let’s compare the best moveset for Hisuian Lilligant with that of Hisuian Decidueye. The best moves Decidueye learns in Legends Arceus are Leaf Storm, Leaf Blade, Brave Bird, and Aura Sphere. Likely you would use Roost over one of the Leaf moves for recovery. Lilligant also learns Leaf Storm, but as a Special Attacking move, it doesn’t hit anywhere as hard as Decidueye’s. Petal Dance and Energy Ball are also Special moves. Still, Hisuian Lilligant does learn the physical attack Leaf Blade, a boosting move in Victory Dance, and Close Combat. Having Recover as well as a suite of potential status moves in Poison Powder, Sleep Powder, and Stun Spore makes for a nice mix of moves to choose from. 

From a purely offensive perspective, Hisuian Decidueye is more powerful, but Hisuian Lilligant is simply faster, and after using Victory Dance, is just as formidable on physical attacks. As it turns out, Hisuian Decidueye leans more on its Special Attacks anyway to get its full value from Same-Type Attack Bonus, meaning the two are more comparable than they otherwise would seem at first glance.

Hisuian Lilligant VS Hisuian Decidueye

Hisuian Lilligant: 70 HP, 105 ATK, 75 DEF, 50 SP. ATK, 75 SP. DEF, 105 SPD; Leaf Blade, Close Combat, Recover, Victory Dance

Hisuian Decidueye: 88 HP, 112 ATK, 80 DEF, 95 SP. ATK, 95 SP. DEF, 60 SPD; Leaf Storm, Brave Bird, Aura Sphere, Roost

Personally, I’ll take the Hisuian Lilligant, as while it’s a bit more one-dimensional, the Speed means it’s going to hit first far more often without needing to lean on Decidueye’s over-reliance on Agile-style moves. Either Pokemon is a solid team choice, though, but you really only need one or the other. 

Hisuian Lilligant is easily one of the best designs from Pokemon Legends Arceus. Because of its new Speed tier, it’s possible competitive players give the new Lilligant a chance to shine. Still, only time will tell just how much the Flowering Pokemon has gained with its Hisuian form, especially when it comes to competitive play, where its Speed may truly be the deciding factor on the teams it ends up making.

Pokémon and All Respective Names are Trademark & © of Nintendo 1996-2022