To obtain TM79 Frost Breath, you need to climb up a muddy slope in Shoal Cave during low tide. Shoal Cave is located north of Mossdeep City on Route 125, so you’ll need a Mach Bike and a Pokémon that knows HM03 Surf to acquire the TM.
And Shoal Cave is only at low tide during specific times, so you’ll want to plan your trip during one of these timeframes:
- 3:00 AM – 8:59 AM
- 3:00 PM – 8:59 PM
Prerequisites & Shoal Cave Mechanics
Shoal Cave features a high tide and low tide mechanic, which means that specific areas can only be reached during a particular time of day.
During low tide, more sections of the cave are accessible, including the section with TM79.
Here’s a table listing the time windows when Shoal Cave is at low tide or high tide:
| Low Tide | High Tide |
|---|---|
| 3:00 – 8:59 (3:00 AM – 8:59 AM) | 9:00 – 14:59 (9:00 AM – 2:59 PM) |
| 15:00 – 20:59 (3:00 PM – 8:59 PM) | 21:00 – 2:59 (9:00 PM – 2:59 AM) |
To obtain TM79 Frost Breath and explore deep into Shoal Cave, you will also need to have a Mach Bike with you.
If you currently have an Acro Bike, you can exchange it for the Mach Bike at Rydel’s Cycles located on the east side of Mauville City. You can switch bikes at any time during the main storyline.
To summarize, here’s all the prerequisites you’ll need before heading over to Shoal Cave:
- Have access to Mossdeep City
- Bring a Pokémon that knows HM03 Surf
- Bring your Mach Bike
- Time your visit during Low Tide (adjust your 3DS or emulator’s time if needed)
Tip: To leave Shoal Cave quickly after you get the TM, bring a Pokémon with Dig or bring an Escape Rope.
TM79 Frost Breath Location (Step-by-Step)
Now that you’re ready, go to Mossdeep City’s Pokémon Center to get started.
Step 1: To reach Shoal Cave, head south from Mossdeep City’s Pokecenter towards the shore.
Follow the path down until you reach a set of stairs leading down to the beach.
Step 2: From there, begin traveling north along the shoreline, staying close to the water’s edge.
Step 3: When you reach the very northern end of the beach, use Surf to travel east across the water.
Step 4: Continue surfing east and then turn north to move up towards Route 125. Keep going north until you see the entrance to Shoal Cave.
Step 5: When you’ve reached Shoal Cave’s entrance, disembark and enter the cave.
Step 6: If you’ve arrived during low tide, the water inside the cave will be dried up.
From the entrance, go down the stairs in front of you and begin heading north through the cave.
Step 7: Eventually you’ll come to a cave entrance on the north wall of the cave. Enter it to head deeper inside Shoal Cave.
Step 8: In the next room, you’ll see another cave entrance on your left (directly to the left of the staircase). Go through this entrance too.
Step 9: After you enter the next room, continue heading north until you come across a muddy slope on your right-hand side.
Use your Mach Bike to climb up the slope.
Step 10: Once you’ve reached the top of the slope, you’ll find the TM for Frost Breath waiting for you on the ground.
Frost Breath Details + Uses
| Frost Breath Move Details | |
|---|---|
| Type | Ice |
| Category | Special |
| Power | 60 |
| Accuracy | 90 |
| PP | 10 (max. 16) |
TM79 Frost Breath is a Special Ice-type move that always results in a Critical Hit – unless the target is under the effect of abilities and moves that prevent the Pokémon from being struck critically.
Because it always crits, Frost Breath’s base power is effectively always at 90.
And just like other moves that crit, its damage cannot be reduced by stat changes from either attacker or defender.
Frost Breath vs. Ice Beam
Another Special Ice-type move comparable to Frost Breath is the move Ice Beam.
Unfortunately, there is little reason to use Frost Breath over Ice Beam. Here are some of the reasons why:
- Ice Beam is more consistent than Frost Breath. Even with similar base power, Frost Breath has a 10% chance of missing unlike Ice Beam’s perfect accuracy.
- Ice Beam can still land a Critical Hit. While unlikely, Ice Beam’s base power can still be boosted by 45 when it crits. Meaning, Ice Beam deals more damage overall on most occasions.
- Ice Beam has a chance to Freeze the target. Unlike Frost Breath, Ice Beam has a 10% chance to Freeze the target. This effect can single handedly turn the tide of any battle.
- Ice Beam has a wider distribution in comparison to Frost Breath. Only 28 Pokémon are able to learn Frost Breath, all except Mew are Ice-types. Unlike Ice Beam, in which a wider variety of Pokémon have access to the move.
In conclusion:
For a typical playthrough of Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, Ice Beam is essentially almost always better than Frost Breath. Especially since almost every Pokémon that can learn Frost Breath can also learn Ice Beam.
Only use Frost Breath when you don’t have access to the TM for Ice Beam.
How Critical Hits Work
Mostly all attacks have a chance to land a Critical Hit in battle. This increases the damage dealt by 50%.
Additionally, Critical Hits ignore the attacker’s negative stat stages and the defender’s positive stat stages.
In addition, Critical Hits can bypass the damage reduction from Reflect or Light Screen. However, Burn’s Attack reduction is still applied to the damage calculation even if the attack lands as a Critical Hit.
Critical Hit probability is calculated in stages, with each stage increasing the chances of landing one.
Most attacking moves will always begin at Stage 0, but sure Critical-Hit Ratio moves like Frost Breath are already at Stage 3.
The stages and their chances of landing a Critical Hit are listed below:
| Stage | Chance of Critical Hit (Gen 6) |
|---|---|
| 0 | 6.25% |
| +1 | 12.5% |
| +2 | 50% |
| +3 and above | 100% |
Tip: In Double Battles, Frost Breath can be used with Anger Point, an ability that boosts the user’s Attack Stat to maximum (+6 stages) when it’s hit by a Critical Hit. To activate this combo, use Frost Breath on your ally with Anger Point.
To avoid causing too much damage on your ally with this combo, make sure that your Frost Breath user has a Nature that reduces its Special Attack, and that it has the smallest possible Special Attack IV.
The following is a list of all the Pokémon that have the Anger Point ability:
| Pokémon | Hidden Ability |
|---|---|
| Mankey, Primeape | No |
| Tauros | No |
| Camerupt | Yes |
| Sandile, Krokorok, Krookodile | Yes |
Guide Navigation
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Pokémon ORAS
- How To Get TM79 Frost Breath in Pokémon ORAS
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