TM72 Avalanche is given to you as a reward for beating Snowpoint City’s Gym Leader Candice.
You’ll get this as part of the main storyline in Platinum, but there are no other ways to get any other copies of this TM.
As for the move itself: Avalanche is a damage-dealing Ice-type physical move. Its power doubles if the user is hurt by the target in the same turn.
TM72 Avalanche Location
To get TM72 Avalanche, you simply need to beat Leader Candice at the Snowpoint City Gym.
Candice uses Ice-type Pokémon, which means her biggest weaknesses are Fighting-, Rock-, Fire-, and Steel-type moves.
Fire is a particularly helpful type to bring along, since one of Candice’s bulkiest Pokémon, Abomasnow, has a 4x weakness against it.
It would be helpful to bring some Revives and Potions.
Ice Heals are also recommended, just in case one of your Pokémon becomes frozen. Although this is rare, it’s one of the most debilitating status conditions in the game.
Once you have triumphed over Candice in battle, she will congratulate you and offer two rewards:
The Icicle Badge and TM72 Avalanche.
Avalanche Details and Uses
Avalanche is a damage-dealing Ice-type physical move. It inflicts double the damage if the user has been hurt by the target in the same turn.
Avalanche Move Details | |
---|---|
Type | Ice |
Category | Physical |
Power | 60 |
Accuracy | 100% |
PP | 10 (max. 16) |
Priority | -4 |
Avalanche has a priority of -4, meaning this move will almost always go last in a turn.
This makes it especially dangerous, since Avalanche’s base power jumps to 120 if the target attacks the user before Avalanche has a chance to be used.
The downside to this dynamic is that it relies on the user to take damage during each turn.
Because of this, you can forget about Avalanche being effective moves for many of the most-used Ice-type Pokémon, like Weavile, Glaceon, and Froslass, who lack the bulk to sustain that kind of consistent damage. Weavile’s astronomical speed stat would also be wasted on a move that relies on acting last in order to work properly.
The best Avalanche user has a decent Attack, is bulky with HP and Defense/Special Defense, and preferably is an Ice type itself in order to benefit from STAB damage.
Some Pokémon that fit these criteria well include:
- Mamoswine
- Lapras
- Abomasnow
Additionally, Tyranitar and Wailord also make decent Avalanche users; although they aren’t Ice types, their high stats and considerable bulk make them capable with the move while sneakily expanding type coverage (especially against Dragon types).
Although Avalanche can be tricky to use, it’s an extremely powerful move that would do well in plenty of teams and strategies.
Miscellaneous Info about Avalanche:
- A copy of TM72 Avalanche can be sold for 1,500 PokéDollars.
- If Avalanche is used in a Pokémon Contest, it will earn the user 2 Appeal Points and double the score on their final performance.
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Pokémon Platinum
- How To Get TM72 Avalanche in Pokémon Platinum