THE BEST GRENINJA BUILD GUIDE - POKEMON UNITE

Provided by @Crazy

Items for Surf:

– Muscle Band + Scope Lens

These Items go hand in hand for every ADC and this one is no exception. Muscle contributes exceptional poke damage as well as clear speed on wilds. Frog loves to crit so you need Scope always as well. It is important to remember that on every single crit you deal an additional 75% of your attack stat (with a 1 second cooldown), and Scope also increases your chance to crit and the damage of all your crits. But wait it gets even better – Greninja’s melee auto attacks roll for crit twice, once for the attack and once for the missing HP portion. This means you’re twice as likely to get a crit per auto attack and will likely be activating scope off cooldown. Getting a crit on the execute damage of your boosted attack also means you will be dealing 21.2% of the enemy’s missing hp instead – that’s no joke.

–  Energy Amplifier

Greninja now has a 100s cooldown unite move which means spam ult good kill lots. This is exceptionally potent when paired with X-Attack and/or Smokescreen+ and their 20% attack bonuses allowing you to deal incredible AOE damage. The 6% unite recharge rate is extremely useful with how fast Greninja is able to get farm, letting you have it up for basically every fight so you do not feel the ult downtime as badly. Don’t forget about the 4.5% CDR stat either, giving you just under half a second (or one ranged auto attack) less cooldown on surf, as well as just over half a second off of Smokescreen. No other item can give the same kind of value in fights with ult as Amp, but your fights outside that are noticeably weaker. Because of its strengths Amp is the default 3rd item for Surfninja, but is not the only option.

– Rapid-Fire Scarf

Greninja has a pretty weak early game, and RFS helps out a lot with it. You get a lot of momentum from the attack speed and can also fight without ult a lot more confidently. More auto attacks means more Surf CDR from ranged auto attacks, as well as incredibly fast melee attacks delivering a ton of execute damage. You have to be careful because a higher attack speed on ranged auto attacks makes you less mobile but this is made up for the more frequent slow of the boosted attack and surf CDR. Oh and of course, the damage. Your value from attack speed is also slightly diminished later in the game, as ult grants you 35% attack speed and X-Atk is also on the table.

The increased attack speed from RFS is not for everyone but can be an alternative to Energy Amp if you need a better early game, like brawling often, or do not want to have to rely on your ult.

Honorable Mention:

– Charging Charm

 This is an okay item that contributes damage when your ult is not up, similar to RFS. It also is the worst of both worlds in a way however, providing neither the strong early game of RFS or the powerful late game of Amp. There is nothing wrong with it and you absolutely can play it, but give Amp and RFS a shot first.

– Attack Weight /Float Stone /Focus Band etc.

These and any other items are not viable, trust me they were not just forgotten. Greninja is one of the worst stackers in the game, and your scalings on surf and ult are not good enough for Attack Weight. Surfninja does not have the application for Curse Bangle and other items provide more value. You will not benefit from a defensive item more than killing enemies faster. The movespeed from Float Stone is not going to help you and if you are getting hit enough for Weakness Policy to get value you’re doing something wrong. Before you ask, Razor Claw does not slow with melee autos and is a worse version of Charm.

X-Attack and Full Heal are both very good battle items. In general go X-Attack and if the enemy team has a lot CC like a volt tackle Pikachu etc, you should go full heal.

Shuriken Items:

– Muscle Band

This is still required, shocker I know. The remaining hp damage on every auto really helps you clear wilds and chunk tanks, with the attack speed itself also being pretty useful.

– Scope Lens

Oh but shuriken can’t crit, Scope must be bad! Wrong. You still auto attack 4 times in-between every single Shuriken and the Scope proc is stronger than something like Charm or Razor. You get very consistent damage that is not reliant on stacks or your ult, which can help you snowball levels harder especially if you are in the jungle.

– Attack Weight

Shuriken+ has an attack scaling of 675%, as well as its healing value on top of that. This means the value from attack weight is exceptional, but it is very hard to stack as Greninja due to its terrible laning phase and low bulk.
This will always be the number one damage increase for Shuriken if you get the stacks.

– Energy Amplifier

With the ult buffs it’s hard not to at least consider Amp as an option, having more ults to spam is nice and amp boosted shuriken does hurt. The synergy isn’t the best however because you do not want to get too close to the enemies and ult is counterintuitive to that, but it’s still able to provide decent value and can help clean enemies. It does not provide much value outside of fights with ult and your early game is weaker than other options.

– Focus Band/Aeos Cookie /
These items might sound useful on paper to Greninja and are far from useless, but in reality contribute less than you might expect them to. Focus band is highly likely to lose its value entirely in a lot of situations due to the risk of being one-shot entirely with your very low bulk. Aeos Cookie does not have this problem but makes you even more reliant on stacks and leads to a very weak early game. Both of these items lose out on a significant portion of your damage from another item like Scope Lens in this slot instead, and are nothing more than crutches for poor positioning most of the time. If you kite well enough you can avoid hits and heal up with Shuriken so you do not need these.

Your default battle item is Eject Button , with Full Heal and X-Attack both following up closely behind. If you feel like the enemy has high stuns you cannot avoid with eject, go full heal. If you feel safe without eject button then X-Atk can provide a significant damage bonus.

How to Play Greninja in Pokemon Unite

Pre level 7:
Greninja’s jungle clear is one of the fastest in the entire game, with the ability to weave ranged and melee autos as needed. If you are concerned about being invaded, prioritize the red buff first as it will help you kite any invaders and potentially even kill them.

Your level 5 gank is nothing special and pales in comparison to others like Urshifu etc, but still can be a potent threat if played correctly. Make good use of your red buff slow and ranged auto spam paired with bubble to punish enemy laners who overextend, with melee autos to finish anyone who gets low. If you are playing X-Attack this also provides immense value to your first gank. Be very attentive to the enemy jungler, what move they have chosen, and when they might show up. Frogadier has very good damage output but is extremely squishy and will die in moments if you are careless and get jumped.

After helping to secure 8:50 birds and making sure the lane is not being pushed start to head into the middle where a Baltoy will have spawned. You have few options here, you can take the Baltoy, go back to jungle immediately, or take both speed berries and rotate to help the bottom lane if it is being pushed. If you rotate bottom and secure a kill from a double gank it is always worth it, do not be afraid of leaving your jungle temporarily as kills will get you exp and help the lane simultaneously. You should not just be blindly rotating down however, if the lane looks fine you should be focusing on hitting your level 7 asap.

Level 7 and Beyond:
Congratulations you got your move that actually makes your character good, now take advantage of it as much as possible. As soon as you hit level 7 you want to find fights, take duels, and push lanes anywhere possible. You are stronger than most other mons in the game at this point but if you do not maintain a lead this will not last long. The first good place to fight is at the middle Altaria at the 8 minute mark, and you should be able to pick up a kill or two there on average.

After that you continue pushing one of the lanes, and prioritize exp to get level 9 for your ultimate before the first objective. During the first objective fight try to use your ult to your advantage, and don’t hesitate to rip the objective if you are given the opportunity as your rip is very good and your secure is decent at worst if the enemies break through your frontline.

After this you want to maintain good map presence with your high mobility, being at as many fights as possible and clearing either side’s jungle or other miscellaneous farm between fights. Focus on staying alive above all else to prevent feeding exp and to contribute an impact to fights, it is better to leave and survive than die trying to save a teammate.

What Matchups are the Best for Surf? Are there times I should be taking Shuriken?

There are no matchups in particular where you have to take shuriken, and no individual mon will sway the decision singlehandedly. This chart is only a guideline of individual matchups and does not reflect an entire enemy team composition. In general Surf is best when there are squishy targets that are easy to get resets off of, and has trouble if the enemy team is exceptionally tanky and not vulnerable to assassins. 

On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are also no exceptionally bad matchups for shuriken but it cannot output pressure on the enemy backline like surf. Your focus on Shuriken is the frontline, and you are exceptional at ripping through bulky comps.

Bear in mind your role in your own team also can hold a factor as to which moveset is better, not just the enemy composition. Being able to flex between the various Greninja movesets is extremely useful if a draft does not go as you expect. Make sure to look carefully at the entire enemy team and adjust your moveset and items accordingly each time.

All Greninja sets will struggle against a few assassins, as they can kill you with very little counterplay available. There are also plenty of mons like Garchomp that are easily kited regardless of your moveset or otherwise do not provide any reason not to pick a specific moveset, these will be relatively easy matchups for the most part.

Lategame:
Do not lose sight of your wincon, whether it is shredding the enemy frontline on Shuriken or assassinating the backline on Surf. Make sure you’ve been farming enough to maintain a level lead, as an ADC you scale very well with levels and want to absolutely make sure you are the highest level in the game.

You are quite literally the squishiest Pokemon in the entire game so focus on your positioning and do not get caught out. Always look for a good opportunity to use your unite move, and do not be hesitant to use it if one presents itself. Be extremely careful around bushes and have your tanks clear them for you, a single enemy camping is all it takes to turn Greninja into a plate of frog legs.

Make sure your ultimate is recharged in time for Rayquaza, and you are positioned around the pit as well. Greninja’s ult contributes a significant amount of pressure and the buffs are absolutely crucial for the fight.

Miscellaneous tips:
Be sure to make good use of your special auto attack properties, reducing your cooldown with ranged autos or dealing execute damage with melee autos is very powerful. Your boosted attack also takes you through the enemy to the other side of them. Keep this in mind and use it to dodge moves or reposition instead of outplaying yourself by not paying attention to it.

When ripping objectives it is actually better sometimes to use ranged autos instead of your melee autos. Shuriken always wants ranged autos for CDR, while Surf might seem intuitive to always rip with melee autos but this is actually not the case. The total damage of melee autos is capped at 500, and will limit your damage after the first few objectives instead of helping it. Higher levels as well as X-Atk make it so your average damage on a ranged auto factoring in crits is higher than 500, meaning you are limited by the cap imposed on melee autos for no additional benefit.

Your crit rate increases by 15% at both level 5 and 9, and you also gain some lifesteal at those levels as well. Level 9 is good for more than just ult, and level 5 should not be looked down on just because it is not your level 7 spike.

Both move 2’s are unstoppable on the startup, and can even dodge the damage of moves entirely sometimes for a few frames. On demand unstoppable is very useful for a Pokemon as squishy as Greninja, and if you use it to its fullest you will be rewarded.

Greninja’s passive ability Torrent might seem underwhelming at first glance because it’s pretty simple, but it is far from useless. An additional 5% Attack is pretty small and might put in some work in close fights, but 12% movement speed on the other hand is actually extremely useful. It helps an enormous amount when trying to outrun enemies, regardless if you are trying to escape or chase one last kill. Pay attention to when Torrent is active and utilize the movement speed to its fullest.

Greninja’s Unite Move – Waterburst Shuriken

Your ultimate is an AOE nuke with tons of reach that does tons of damage and knocks up enemies on its 2nd hit. This is extremely good at cleaning up low enemies and punishing enemies who clump together. You are able to reach enemies from very far away, and just by having ultimate up your threat range to the enemy backline is massively increased. Be extremely careful of ulting into large crowds of high health enemies however, because you are playing the squishiest Pokemon in the entire game and will die without help from your team.

Greninja’s unite move is multipurpose and good for more than just cleaning up low enemies, its cooldown is now low enough you don’t have to be afraid of using it suboptimally. There’s more to it than just the damage too, the buffs from your ultimate are incredible and provide 35% attack speed and 30% movement speed, along with a 20% max hp shield.

Your unite move cooldown is 100 seconds which means it will take 1m 40s before it comes back naturally without any farming or Energy Amplifier. You can get it back in around a minute if you are farming and or scoring actively, meaning the last possible time to use it before Rayquaza is around 3:00 to 3:10 on the clock. If you have Amp and plenty of farm you can use it as late as 2:50 if you are presented with a very good opportunity, just bear in mind it might be a tiny bit late.

Provided by @Crazy

Water Shuriken + Double Team

This moveset is exceptional at dishing out tons of damage and kiting anyone who gets close with its movespeed, dashes, and slows. Regardless of what you hit, be it a tank, an all-rounder or an objective you will be sure to see its health rapidly deplete as you stick it full of throwing stars. Greninja has never been this annoying before, slipping away right when you think you’ve finally caught it.

Water Shuriken: What does it do?

On cast Water Shuriken launches 4 shurikens at enemies in a fixed direction, dealing damage and slowing in a small AOE when they hit, as well as providing healing per enemy hit. While throwing the shurikens you get bonus movement speed, which combined with the slow from Shuriken hits and red buffed autos allow you to completely kite melee mons. The scaling on this move is incredibly high, and you benefit greatly from levels and attack increases.

When you hit level 11 you get Water Shuriken+, which launches an extra shuriken for a total of 5. This is an extremely strong upgrade giving you 25% more damage and healing. Remember to pay attention to when you unlock this move, as the difference between base Shuriken and Shuriken+ is very important and should be prioritized.

Shuriken has a relatively low cooldown that is further reduced by your ranged auto attacks. You can reduce the cooldown entirely within 4 auto attacks so make sure you are always auto attacking whenever possible to get your move back sooner. This helps you maintain a very low downtime and lets you boast some of the best sustained damage in the entire game. Do not forget that your auto attacks deal pretty considerable damage as well even if it is not as much Shuriken. You absolutely want to prioritize pressure on the enemy team’s frontline at all times and only let up if absolutely necessary.

It is important to remember that when trying to hit enemies with Shuriken that you aim a little bit ahead of where they are moving, as the shurikens have travel time and you need to account for it. Hitting your shuriken shots is extremely important and one of the biggest forms of skill expression on this moveset. Try to match the movement of enemies and move with them. Every single miss costs a considerable amount of damage as well as some healing so make sure you’re paying attention and aiming carefully.

Escaping is always pretty easy if things get dicey, with the movespeed and slow from Shuriken preventing anyone from catching you and punishing them with a modest amount of damage. Be careful still however, as getting caught once might be the end of you. Greninja has a lot of utility to keep itself from being hit but is extremely reliant on vigilant play paired with exceptional positioning. 

Double Team: What are its uses?

A dash is a dash and will do most of the normal things you can expect from a dash. Double Team is a relatively long dash that is very good at repositioning in the middle of a fight and keeping your distance from enemies. The cooldown is very generous, especially with blue buff, and when you get to level 13 the cooldown is reduced further by one second. Don’t be afraid to use it frequently but make sure you aren’t able to accomplish the same value from regular kiting.

Another characteristic of Double Team that is extremely useful for Greninja is the fact that it essentially grants you access to unstoppable on demand. Getting stunned once on Greninja is usually a death sentence, and having the ability to dodge stuns on a short cooldown is a blessing. Even though you will still take the damage, using the unstoppable on something like a Blastoise ult or similar long CC move can be crucial to winning the fight. 

Double Team also unsurprisingly makes two clones of Greninja on the cast, appearing diagonally backwards from the direction you dashed with one on each side. The clones will wander around until they disappear unless a wild Pokemon or an enemy player enters their range. The clones will immediately cast your move 1 slot on anyone entering their range, and then remain aggroed on them and do a few auto attacks afterwards. They deal 18% of your damage each for a combined total of 36%, leading to a noticeable contribution in damage. 

If you have Shuriken learned the clones also provide considerable slows to anyone they target, this is because only the damage of the clones is decreased and you still get the full slowing effect of Shuriken on enemies. This is yet another tool in your kit to help you kite enemies and maintain a speed advantage over them, make sure to remember that the dash is not all that it can contribute to your positioning.

The clones inherit Greninja’s hp stat as well as your defenses but take massively increased damage, letting them be destroyed pretty easily. Even still this can allow them to eat a couple of hits that would otherwise hit you or your allies and have a considerable effect over time. You can block some things such as Inteleon snipe shot or mew boosted attack, as well as drawing the targeting for sure hits and auto attacks. The impact is largest on auto attacks but they can still tank a good bit of damage from something like mystical fire.

With some crafty planning you can potentially even bait other cooldowns from enemies on clones instead of only auto attacks etc. If you use Double Team while in a bush and have one of the clones walk out of it then it is at least possible to very briefly confuse an enemy and get them to use a cooldown on it. Even if they do not fall for the bait it is not a big deal, and if you do manage to get Glaceon for example to lock onto a clone with either an icy wind auto or icicle spear then they will have lost a lot of damage they could have used elsewhere.

If the enemies do not fall for the ruse you still get yet another piece of value from Double Team, which is the ability to get vision for free on enemies. The clones provide vision just like normal players and can maintain vision on enemies for longer, or reveal the location of an enemy who was hiding by accident. 

There is not a consistent method to get clones to walk in a direction you want however, but try to go into a practice game and pay attention to where they go after clicking it each time. You will not be able to know where they go exactly but you will get a feeling for it and can make more accurate predictions.

Sidenote: Clones will proc neither scope lens or muscle band on their autos. This means their actual damage output will tend to be smaller than indicated.

Other tips for playing Shuriken:

It should go without saying but just in case I will say it. You want to be playing safely in the back and poking with your moves, not rushing in to play around with your melee autos. If you find this to be a serious problem you might be better off picking Surf or playing a different mon.

The main glaring problem this set has is its counter-synergy it has with the Unite move. Your whole life mission is to maintain distance at all costs, and the Unite move immediately does the exact opposite of that. Because of this desired playstyle, you want to be more conscious of that second hop-off portion of the Unite, and be sure to hop away into the safest direction possible to immediately re-establish that distance you had before ulting in. Because of this, Shuriken Gren will tend to keep ult for more defensive “oh crap” purposes more often than Surf Gren would, but it still very much can be used offensively, especially if you are successful in getting the stacks you are working towards with this build.

Another really good use for Shuriken is bush-checking, as you can throw shurikens into a bush to find out whether or not an enemy is inside of it. You can tell both based on a sound cue, along with checking to see if the shurikens you threw exploded or not. Your cooldown is so low that you absolutely should NEVER be walking into a bush you do not know to be clear without chucking a few shurikens in there to make sure it is safe first.

If you are playing stacking you do not have to int for stacks and it is far better to stay alive and play for exp to hit level 7 so that when you do you will then be able to get the stacks you need. You should try to get stacks early if possible of course but do not be afraid to call it quits if the enemy team is trying to deny them from you.

Provided by @Crazy

Surf + Smokescreen

This frog is a little bit of ADC and a lot bit of an assassin. You start most fights by peppering the enemy frontline with auto attacks filled with little chunks of muscle band and scope lens procs to make them hurt. Once you or your team have gotten some of them low it’s time to go in, get some Surf resets, and get out if necessary.

Surf : What does it do?

Surf is incredible at cleaning enemies that are low, and has a lot of upfront damage to burst squishies to death. This move is unmatched in how quickly it can turn one low hp enemy into a springboard to deliver large amounts of damage to the entire enemy team. Your ranged auto attacks reduce the cooldown of surf by 0.5s each allowing you to get it up faster if you do not get a reset, and your melee auto attacks deal execute damage to get enemies that are low into kill range.

When you hit level 11 you get Surf+ which gives bonus healing on surf hits. The actual increase is not the biggest, but is still noticeable and can really help your sustain.

Surf turns things that are low hp into weapons, including wild mons. This is extremely prevalent around Altaria spawns where Greninja becomes a force to be reckoned with, all but guaranteeing most of the secures and maybe even a kill or two if enemies are foolish enough to wander too close.  The more things you hit with Surf the more you heal; this can add up quickly and you can use a flock of Swablu and turn them into health.

Even taking an auto or two to lower a Baltoy mid fight to Surf reset off of it is worth it, letting you get an extra instance of Surf damage on an enemy alongside two instances of Surf healing. Always be aware of wild spawns on the map and what range you’re able to Surf reset off of them; if you are having trouble, go practice in a custom game.

It is important to note that if you hit something below 50% of their hp with Surf then you will deal half of Surf’s damage again as additional damage. This applies to both wilds and players, and will trigger as long as they are 50% or lower AFTER surf’s initial damage, even if they were not before. Keep this in mind when planning your Surf resets, and remember to only use Surf against things that are below half health to get maximum value.

The Surf reset is actually a bit more generous than you would expect, and sometimes you are able to get a reset when you shouldn’t have. To be precise, Surf does not actually reset on Surf kills, it applies a hidden status to yourself that tells the game that if you get a kill before it wears off that your cooldown should be reset. This means if you Surf an enemy who is very low and deliver a melee auto attack quickly enough you can oftentimes still get a Surf reset. This gets easier the higher your attack speed is and tends to be more common later in the game, as well with any other AS buffs such as RFS, X-Attack, or your unite move buffs.

You can also play Surf a bit differently in 1v1s or similar situations where you are not as afraid of being collapsed on by enemies, and are more concerned about winning the battle in front of you. Because Surf reaches its maximum value in a single fight as soon as the enemies are below half health, you have no reason to save it for a reset if you do not need it. In these situations it is always better to use Surf as soon as possible to get the damage out along with gap-close and a bit of healing so that you’re able to take advantage of the execute on your melee autos.

What if there are no Surf resets available?

If enemies are not low enough for you to Surf reset off of them, you have a few options available to you. The first is poke with ranged autos, they hurt more than you’d expect and you can provide considerable pressure on the enemy frontline by doing this. You need to be doing this as often as you are able to as it helps your team’s damage considerably and lines up with the traditional “Front to back” approach of ADCs.

If you have ultimate available you also have the option of going in big and bursting down anyone who is squishy, followed up with melee auto attacks. You can kill squishy mons from very high hp with ult and a few melee autos into Surf, so always be on the lookout for any particularly juicy ults on the backline.

If it is not safe to auto attack at the moment and you do not have ult or a good opportunity to use it, then the best option is usually just to wait patiently. Your team can provide damage and create an opening to go in for you to clean the enemies, remember you can not contribute anything if you are dead. It is very easy to wind up this way as well, as Greninja does not have the hp stat to take many hits. Try not to bait harder than you have to, but remember that sometimes patience is an essential to playing Greninja optimally.

Smokescreen: What does it do and how good is it?

Smokescreen is the bread and butter for Surfninja and provides almost everything it could ever want. Smokescreen gives you unstoppable on cast, as well as leaving behind a cloud of smoke that blinds enemies. You immediately become invisible for 3 seconds and have a special boosted attack prepared that deals extra damage.

When you hit level 13, Smokescreen+ gives you 20% attack for 2 seconds after leaving stealth. This duration is laughably short, however the attack bonus is quite powerful and can make your damage incredibly strong while it lasts. This is an incredible upgrade and you are always happy to see it once you get it.

Three seconds of invisibility does not sound like much but you can make a lot happen with it if you know what you’re doing. Smokescreen allows you to catch enemy backliners off guard and slip past the frontline to kill them before their teammates even realize. Between bushes and invisibility you should have no problems closing the gap between you and your targets.

Your escape options with Smokescreen are almost as plentiful as you can imagine them to be, this is one of the strongest escape tools in the game. The invisibility and extra movespeed from Smokescreen is incredible on its own of course, but the blind from the smoke cloud really prevents enemies from seeing you at all and lets you go so far as to Smokescreen away and instantly double back towards the enemies and slip away behind them.

Be careful while invisible however, because using an attack of any kind (or attempting to score) will break the invisibility. This means you cannot use Surf as a dash while invisible to gain distance away from enemies, you will want to save it until the invisibility wears off.

The invisibility is granted instantaneously upon clicking the move, and enemies will not see you even if you are at the absolute edge of a bush. Be careful however, as if you are too close to the edge of a bush then the smoke cloud will not be obscured by the bush and the enemies will know that you have used it. Make sure to keep this in mind and use it to your advantage to refine your timings.

If you are mid-fight and know you are about to be stunned, the unstoppable startup on Smokescreen is incredibly useful for preventing the stun. You will still take the damage, but dodging the stun on something like a Blastoise ult is going to have a massive impact. Be extremely careful when Smokescreen is on cooldown because you’re very vulnerable to CC and cannot easily escape or reposition.

Smokescreen gives a special boosted attack that deals 140% of Greninja’s attack instead of 120%. This is really useful for giving you upfront damage when trying to assassinate a target, and does not sound like a lot but can be deceptively strong. Something to keep in mind is the melee auto execution damage is calculated AFTER your initial auto attack damage, meaning the more damage your melee boosted attack deals the stronger its execution damage as well. With buffs such as X-Atk, Smokescreen+, and Amp being factors, you can pump this boosted attack to deal a ton of damage that even further increases the execute damage on it. 

I could not write a long enough section to describe every potential use for smokescreen if I tried, so go wild and get creative with it. The opportunities are endless and this move truly has the most outplay potential out of any of them in the game.

Smokescreen’s Weakness:

Now I unfortunately do have to talk about what Smokescreen is bad at, and it has a grand total of one weakness but it is a very big one. This is the fact it has a 13 second cooldown, one of the longest cooldowns in the entire game. This is reduced slightly by blue buff and energy amp, but is still extremely punishing and you have to be very careful about when to use it.

While figuring out how to use Smokescreen is extremely important and a very good skill to learn, it is equally important to figure out WHEN to Smokescreen. The value on this move is incredibly high and because of it you are very reliant on it for both your engage and disengage, and is even useful to have in the middle of a fight. Do not use it carelessly and make sure you do not take a fight you cannot handle without it up. 

It is very acceptable and encouraged to use Surf to kite instead of Smokescreen sometimes. Surf has a lower cooldown and is reduced by ranged auto attacks unlike Smokescreen, so you are able to get it back way faster. Surf is a faster and longer dash as well, sometimes being necessary to dodge some moves instead of the slower, shorter dash, of Smokescreen. Be sure to think carefully which move you want to use in each situation, and don’t waste the wrong one when you do not have to.

Something else to keep in mind when in stealth is that you are fully invisible, not invincible. You can absolutely still take damage and you are absolutely still the squishiest mon in the game. Do not do anything stupid like walk in front of a Venusaur or hang around melee mons that are likely to use a move that might hit you.

Should I Smokescreen before or after ulting?

This might sound like a really simple question to answer but it is also probably the number one asked question about Surfninja I have ever been asked. The short answer is sometimes and the longer answer is well, we’ll get into that…

The pros and cons of using Smokescreen before ult are:
+ Can get closer to enemies to line up better ults with better timing
+ Smokescreen+ gives you a 20% attack bonus on the ult
+ Sometimes you might NEED to in order to reach something like a Decidueye in the backline
– Your cooldown on Smokescreen is very long, you will not have it up in order to escape.
– Much riskier because of the above problem, Smokescreen is very useful to have in the middle of a fight even when not trying to run. 

To sum it up, do not use Smokescreen unless you have to before ulting because it is very important for escape or repositioning. Once you get Smokescreen+ it is much more warranted to use it before ulting for the damage bonus, but do not forget about the tradeoffs and only do it when you are confident you will be able to kill the enemies you are ulting.

Surf Double Team???

This moveset aims to put pressure on the backline primarily through ult instead of Smokescreen, while maintaining exceptional ADC pressure with Double Team’s drastically shorter cooldown compared to Smokescreen. Smokescreen’s long cooldown and short dash makes it a poor option for playing like a traditional ADC so it can struggle with consistent damage output.

This moveset is completely viable and even preferred in some situations, although it is not nearly as good overall like Smokescreen and is purely to flex into specific scenarios. Be careful to neither Overestimate or Underestimate it, as it has valid uses but is worse overall.

You want to consider this option in situations where the enemy team comp is bulkier than you would like for Surf, but you still have a backliner you want to eliminate and are hesitant to play Shuriken.

Another very important point to remember when considering Double Team is its ability to sway matchups against other ADCs as the clones will eat their hits and allow you to kill them for free. This is especially relevant against Dragapult as it has invisibility of its own and you are unlikely to get the jump on it, and you are too squishy to win against it in a pure 1v1. 

Against Inteleon and to a lesser extent Comfey you should strongly consider going Double Team, as Smokescreen’s invisibility can be negated by their kits and leave you vulnerable. 

A quick TLDR for Double Team is:
+ Shorter cooldown (most important)
+ Longer dash
+ Clones eat all kinds of auto aims and some skill shots
+ Is good when invisibility is nullified (Inteleon/Comfey)

To read more of what Double Team can do check out the page before this on Shuriken, where its uses are covered in detail.

Favourable Matchup:

These are Pokémon that our team has determined GRENINJA is strong against. GRENINJA will generally be able to shut down these opponents playstyle's or have the advantage in a one on one fight.

VENUSAUR

DURALUDON

TYRANITAR

BLISSEY

BUZZWOLE

DECIDUEYE

Unfavourable Matchup:

These are Pokémon that our team has determined GRENINJA is weak against. These Pokémon will have the upper hand in a fight or be able to exploit GRENINJA's weaknesses.

MIMIKYU

TALONFLAME

NINETALES

TSAREENA

ABSOL

SLOWBRO