Is Piplup Good in Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl Playthrough?
Water starter. Empoleon's unique Water/Steel typing gives it 10 resistances and only three weaknesses. The Steel addition is the defining trait in BDSP.
Piplup resists most of Roark's coverage and hits back hard.
Prinplup trades roughly evenly with Gardenia's team.
Prinplup has the type edge here and should clean up Maylene's team.
Crasher Wake's typing presses Prinplup's defenses.
Prinplup trades roughly evenly with Fantina's team.
Empoleon has the type edge here and should clean up Byron's team.
Empoleon has the type edge here and should clean up Candice's team.
Empoleon trades roughly evenly with Volkner's team.
Empoleon has the type edge here and should clean up Aaron's team.
Empoleon has the type edge here and should clean up Bertha's team.
Empoleon has the type edge here and should clean up Flint's team.
Empoleon trades roughly evenly with Lucian's team.
Empoleon trades roughly evenly with Cynthia's team.
Piplup is given to you as a gift on Lake Verity at Lv 5. Choose as starter from Professor Rowan at Lake Verity
Your Piplup should hit Level 16 before you reach Gardenia, at typical leveling pace.
Your Prinplup should hit Level 36 before you reach Byron, at typical leveling pace.
How to Get Piplup in Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl
moderate rates for Piplup across 6 locations in endgame routes. Nothing complicated. Check the sorted list below, compare the top few options, and head to whichever is closest.
Where To Catch Piplup in BDSP
The path to Piplup starts with Piplup at Lv. 58-63 via walking encounters. 1 catchable stage total, with locations listed for each one below.
Piplup Weakness
Electric and Grass moves hit Piplup for super-effective damage. It resists 4 types, giving it decent defensive coverage. Only 2 weaknesses makes it relatively easy to build around defensively.
| Damage | Types |
|---|---|
| 2x (Weak) | Electric, Grass |
| 0.5x (Resist) | Fire, Water, Ice, Steel |
What is Piplup Weak Against
GoodBest Pokemon Against Piplup
 Roserade GrassPoison | B | |
 Vileplume GrassPoison | C | |
 Victreebel GrassPoison | C | |
 Abomasnow GrassIce | C | |
 Cacturne GrassDark | C | |
In Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, Raikou can KO Piplup with Thunderbolt (140-165%). Breloom's Bullet Seed hits Piplup for 44-52%.
 Raikou Electric | B | |
Recommended Build AbilityPressure ItemLeftovers NatureTimid Moves
Damage vs Piplup View Raikou builds →Thunderbolt 2x140-165%KO Scald21-24% Aura Sphere41-49% | ||
 Breloom GrassFighting | B | |
Recommended Build AbilityTechnician ItemFocus Sash NatureJolly Moves
Damage vs Piplup View Breloom builds →Bullet Seed 2x44-52% Mach Punch35-41% | ||
Piplup Evolutions
Piplup is the start of a three-stage chain. It evolves into Prinplup first, then eventually reaches Empoleon. For breeding, average hatch time with a massive partner pool via two egg groups. The evolved forms gain up to 216 total stats over Piplup. View every chain in the Evolution Chart.
How to Evolve
Breeding
Breed Piplup easily with 131 breeding partners from the Ground and Water1 egg groups. Pass egg moves like Agility, Aqua Ring, Double Hit and 8 more to offspring.
BDSP Piplup Best Moveset
Water pre-evo with hidden AbilityCompetitive boosting Sp. Atk when stats are dropped, punishing AbilityIntimidate users. 61 Sp. Atk at 40 Speed can't compete. The moveset waits for Empoleon where Water/Steel TermStab at 111 Sp. Atk was S-tier in the original Gen 4.
Best Build
Piplup best EVs are HP and Attack
Physical Tank Moveset
- Whirlpool
- Drill Peck
- Bubble Beam
- Hydro Pump
Recommended Teammates
Moves List
Don't skip the egg moves. Piplup picks up Agility and Aqua Ring only through breeding, and both fill gaps the natural movepool can't. STAB runs through Hydro Pump and Surf while coverage across 8 types adds range.
How to Read the Moves Table
Tabs
- Level-Up
- Learned by leveling up.
- TM
- Taught by a Technical Machine.
- Egg
- Inherited via breeding.
- Tutor
- NPC tutor (cost: items, BP, money).
- Reminder
- An NPC reteaches any move this Pokemon could have learned by leveling up.
- Transfer
- Carried over from an older game using Pokemon HOME.
- Event
- Given out through Mystery Gift events.
Visual Signals
CAT (Category)
How the move deals damage and which stats it uses.
A small dot on the icon's corner marks the move as contact. That triggers abilities like Static, Flame Body, Rough Skin, or Iron Barbs, plus items like Rocky Helmet and Sticky Barb.
Tier (S to D)
Each move's competitive rank in RankedBoost's system. TM, Egg, and Tutor sort by tier by default (best first). On Level-Up, click the Tier header to do the same.
PWR (Power)
Base damage. Numbers shown in a type color include STAB (base × 1.5). Hover any colored number to see the math.
— means no power (status moves) or variable power.
Sorting & Filter
Click any column header to sort. Level-Up opens with Lv 1 at the top. TM, Egg, and Tutor open with the highest-tier moves at the top.
Search filters by move name or type. The Filter button limits the list to STAB, Physical, Special, or Status moves.
Level-Up Moves
TM Moves
Egg Moves
Tutor Moves
Base Stats
Because it is very proud, it hates accepting food from people. Its thick down guards it from cold.
It lives along the shore in northern countries. A skilled swimmer, it dives for over 10 minutes while hunting.
Piplup Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl Guide
In Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, Piplup does the job early-game if you need a Water type on your team. Evolve it into Prinplup before the later gyms and it holds up fine through the story.
Game Availability
Piplup first appeared in Diamond & Pearl and has been available in 12 games across 7 generations. Obtainable through catching or hatching as a base form in most titles where it appears.
Click a game to view version-specific details
- Gen 1RB
Red & Blue - Gen 1Y
Yellow - Gen 2GS
Gold & Silver - Gen 2C
Crystal - Gen 3RS
Ruby & Sapphire - Gen 3E
Emerald - Gen 3FRLG
FireRed & LeafGreen - Gen 4DPDebut
Diamond & Pearl - Gen 4Pt
Platinum - Gen 4HGSS
HeartGold & SoulSilver - Gen 5BW
Black & White - Gen 5B2W2
Black 2 & White 2 - Gen 6XY
X & Y - Gen 6ORAS
Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire - Gen 7SM
Sun & Moon - Gen 7USUM
Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon - Gen 7LGPE
Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee - Gen 8SwSh
Sword & Shield - Gen 8BDSP
Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl - Gen 8PLA
Legends: Arceus - Gen 9SV
Scarlet & Violet - Gen 9LZA
Legends: Z-A - Gen 10WW
Winds & Waves