Overview

Vulffy is a versatile Tem than can fill both an offensive role and a more defensive one, whilst also being able to provide some utility. With access to powerful Earth and Nature attacks, multiple self-healing options, and an incredible typing, Vulffy can be difficult to counter effectively. The interaction between Plague and Handcuffs gives Vulffy the ability to lock in the opponent's boardstate, trapping opponents into bad situations. The Team Elusive trait makes Vulffy immune to all spread moves, including Cage. This means Vulffy can almost always safely swap out when threatened or swap in on a predicted spread move.

What is Vullfy's role in PvP ?

Vulffy is a solid pivot thanks to its high special defense, excellent defensive typing, and access to recovery through Lifeful Sap. Its Team Elusive trait and access to Jinxed Whisper also makes it able to avoid a lot of moves during a match, making it pretty hard to catch and KO. Plague also loads Vulffy with utility, allowing it to trap opponents with Handcuffs and cripple the opponent's Stamina with on-demand exhausts.

What kind of teams appreciate Vulffy ?

This particular set takes a bulky approach to playing Vulffy. The build makes Vulffy particularly good in mid-range and stall-oriented teams that can afford to run Kinu or other Stone Wall users to stack defensive boosts on it. Having another earth type is also great, because it allows for Bush to also become a defensive setup tool, but that is easier said than done as there aren't plenty of great earth types currently. Other Bush users also like being with Vulffy for the same reason.

What is the best way to play Vulffy ?

Vulffy can be a decent lead, especially alongside Kinu, as it can use its resistances to wall electric and crystal types while threatening earth and water types with Plague. Its resistances and Team Elusive also make it able to pivot into many moves. When on the field, you can either use Lifeful Sap into a switch out, take decent trades with Plague's Exhaust and priority, or hit crystal, electric and fire types with Dust Vortex.

What is the goal of this specific build ?

This set aims to maximize Lifeful Sap and Revitalize recovery, and gives Vulffy balanced bulk through a high defense investment.

The stamina investment on this set ensures Vulffy can use Plague three times in a row without overexerting, thanks to Sweatband. A small Speed investment is also run so Vulffy can outspeed the slower end of the priority 2 metagame with Jinxed Whisper, namely Zaobian.

Leftover TVs are dumped into Special Attack, allowing Vulffy to KO most Temtem that are weak to Plague in two or three hits. It also secures a KO on Half-full Scaravolt at +2 Special Defense, as long as they don't have a huge Special Defense investment.

While most Vulffy sets would run Handcuffs for the obvious Plague traping synergy, this set runs Sweatband instead, granting vulffy great staying power when combined with its Lifeful Sap regen and stalling capabilities through Jinxed Whisper.

What can actually deal with Vulffy ?

Melee moves are an obvious way to deal with Vulffy as it's its only weakness. Banning Kinu is also an option, as Vulffy quickly snowballs out of control if it gets its defenses boosted. Without defensive boosts, despite having a good chunk of defense investment, strong double-ups from physical attackers can threaten Vulffy.

(1.3 DUKE'S NOTES - I DUNNO MAN MY CLUBMATES WON'T SHUT THE HELL UP ABOUT SLUDGE GIFT VULFFY. I THINK IT'S ASS BUT "YOU DON'T LOOK A SLUDGE GIFT IN THE ROCK, RIGHT?" <- ACTUAL IN-GAME QUOTE. BURGLAR IS OKAY BUT VULFFY CAN BE HELLA FRAGILE WITHOUT TEAM ELUSIVE.)

Vulffy is a speedy, disruptive tem who leverages one of the most annoying movesets and traits in the entire game to trap, dodge, and destroy its opposition. It's often more resilient than expected, though if cornered, can be felled quickly.

For a tem with only 50 base HP, Vulffy has quite a bit of defensive value going for it. It has only one weakness, shared with Tyranak and the mono-neutrals and mono-winds. Team Elusive keeps it from being hit by many of the game's most dangerous techniques, as well. Offensively, Vulffy is a notorious trapper-killer, using Plague and Handcuffs to lock down a threat to be finished by it or its allies. Dust Vortex and Sand Storm add a strong earth damage presence, with Bush as an escape mechanism that lets Vulffy dodge attacks. It's possible to play a much tankier Vulffy that uses Lifeful Sap, but for starters let's stick with offensive Vulffy.

Sparks users make good partners for Vulffy, but two other tems are great partners for it in particular: Hazrat, who loves Vulffy's ability to trap and kill earths and winds, and Myx, who has an odd defensive synergy with Vulffy. Vulffy can't be hit by spread moves, and a Puppet Master activated Myx can only be hit by spread moves.

Vulffy can find itself at home in fast-pased offensive teams despite its somewhat average base speed; thanks to its consistent access to 3 priority and good utility it makes a good offensive support. A fast Vulffy can outpace a large number of opponents, and deal reasonable damage in the process.

Plague is Vulffy's bread and butter - high priority and good damage, alongside applying exhaustion, and with Handcuffs also trapping. Plague is almost never a bad option to click, providing both damage and utility in one move. With our high speed investment, the exhaustion from Plague will be able to affect a very large number of opponents before they move. Dust Vortex is our hardest hitting move, mostly used for its typing to hit Tems weak to earth or that resist Plague (if the exhaust/trap is not more useful). Sand Storm is Vulffy's spread damage option - useful for finishing one low slot or breaking evasion on one slot whilst still chipping the other, taking out Myx, or covering swaps on both slots. Also useful to retain Earth coverage on turns Dust Vortex is down. Jinxed Whisper gives Vulffy strong sleep utility, essentially disabling itself and an opponent for 2 turns. It also synergises well with Plague Handcuffs, as the asleep Tem will also be unable to swap out.

Vulffy operates excellently as a solo unit, with no synergy requirements. Its typing is incredibly useful for providing synergy however, being both Nature type for Hasty Lunge users, and Earth type for Blackhole users. Vulffy is more of a support to its teammates, trapping in opponents to allow easily removing them, and sleeping opponents that threaten them out. Vulffy tends to struggle to deal with Toxics the most, and appreciates teammates that can cover them.

This spread runs max 69 stamina TVs for using 3 Plagues in a row. 495 speed puts Vulffy 1 speed above max speed Monkko, letting us Jinxed Whisper or hit it before it can move. The remaining points are all into Spatk for Vulffy to deal as much damage as possible. Handcuffs is our gear to get even more value out of Plague - as it allows Vulffy to trap in opposing tems giving an easy swap for a counter. Adrenaline shot is also a consideration to allow Vulffy to move after using Jinxed Whisper. Drill also has niche applications against evasion and especially Garyo, who Vulffy can deal 4x damage to.