Pokken Tournament Guide: Gengar Basics and Combos

Gengar is the master of trickery in Pokken Tournament. He isn’t that fast, he doesn’t have long combos, and it his attacks are not normally as strong as a Power character.

He has many deceptive attacks that can make him disappear to avoid damage and come back with a punch to make you think twice about what just happened.

His Synergy Gauge takes a while to build — but when it does, he will be ready to steam roll you with powerful attacks and a Synergy Burst that is the stuff of nightmares.

If you like to be sneaky and keep your opponent guessing, Gengar is for you. Please visit my Pokken Tournament Beginner Tips and Tricks for other help with the game.

This guide will go over everything about Gengar in Pokken Tournament including:

• Gengar Basics – How he plays, strengths, and weakness. Also, good support and cheer skills to use with this Pokemon.
• Gengar Combos – Example combos you can use.

Gengar Basics

Gengar is a Technical type and excels keeping your opponent guessing. One moment Gengar is throwing shadow balls, the next he is avoiding attacks by sneaking around in the shadows.

Just when you think you have Gengar figured out, he disappears then comes back with a punch. Make use of his “canceling” to avoid attacks. Just like in the handheld games, once Gengar mega-evolves, his attack is off the charts.

Gengar can do a lot in field phase. Shadow Punch (Back+A) is great for catching opponents off guard and initiating duel phase from a distance.

You can also cancel (Press and Hold R during an attack) many attacks into a Shadow Stealth. This makes Gengar go underground and avoid many attacks. Using Astonish and canceling into Shadow Stealth is great.

A huge strength of Gengar is Hypnosis (Forward+A). When in duel phase, you can use this to set up combos or just to stop an opponents counter/blocking.

When you activate Synergy Burst, all bets are off and you become Gengar, Reaper of Souls.

Besides his low health (510) a weakness is his unpredictability. If you don’t practice enough, Gengar can get away from you when battles start getting intense. Getting hit by Attack decrease statuses really hurts as well, especially if you are in Synergy Burst.

Support Pokemon and Cheer Skill

I almost always go with Reshiram and Cresselia Support because Synergy Burst with Gengar is God tier. Cresselia can only be used once per round, but it gives a great Synergy Gauge boost, as well as HP.

Jirachi and Whimsicott wouldn’t be bad either. Jirachi gives a boost to Synergy Burst and medium recovery to the Synergy Gauge. Whimsicott can also help if you are having a hard time with ranged opponents.

I go with Synergy Focused Cheer Skill because of the reliability. Pressure Focused can be really good, but the match has to go a 3rd round for it to activate.

Special is also pretty good if you win, but the support boost it gives for losing is also helpful if you run slower charging support.

Gengar Combos

Below are some examples of combos for Gengar.

• Forward+A, Y+B
• This is standard and great for dealing damage and recovering Synergy and HP. He does Hypnosis, then the opponent is stunned and vulnerable for a grab.
• You can also do a Y,Y combo after Hypnosis, then try for another Hypnosis. This is harder to do, but it lets you get in a few extra attacks before going for the throw.
• Counter (critical hit), Down+A
• While in duel phase, a counter critical hit from Gengar will stun the opponent and leave them vulnerable to a quick Down+A followup. 
• Down+A does a ton of damage if you land all the hits, but it cannot finish an opponent off.
• Midair Down+X, X, R cancel, Up+Y
• This requires precise timing, like Jedi senses timing, to pull off reliably in battle, but it is nice if you can.
• Gengar does a downward spiral attack into an Astonish, then disappears into another attack.
• You want to cancel at the right time to stop the 3rd attack, then use his High Stance Y attack to hit the opponent while they are still in the air.
• Forward+Y,X, Down+X,X
• This is a reliable combo when you are able to initiate the first attack.
• The first two hits will hit the opponent into the air, then you can use his low stance X attack to get a couple of extra hits in that can possibly cause a phase shift.
• (Synergy) Forward+A, L+R
• This is used while you are in Synergy Burst. It is really is just a reliable way to make sure your Synergy Burst attack hits by stunning them with a Hypnosis first.

That’s all for the Gengar Basics and Combo guide for Pokken Tournament. Let me know if you have any questions or Gengar tips of your own!