Gotta Review 'Em All - Abilities [Generation III]

Abilities! Halfway across talking about the Generation III moves, I realized how much a lot of the Pokemon introduced from then on did rely a lot on abilities to bring out the full design flavour. And Generation III was the generation that introduces them as a mechanic, essentially adding a passive ability that's so integral to how the Pokemon functions that other than a few specific moves like Gastro Acid, the effects of these abilities are always active. It's similar to the Poke-Powers and Poke-Bodies for all you TCG players. The origin of abilities actually goes all the way to Shuckle from Generation II, where it has a unique property (not actually translated into a proper Ability!) where a Shuckle holding a berry will sometimes transform it into Berry Juice. 

And again, it is kind of understated since abilities have been with us for quite a while, and a lot of the newer abilities have been synonymous with the Pokemon that have them, but I do really like these abilities for sure. Not all abilities are beneficial either, though the concept of debilitating abilities clearly isn't that popular and I think Regigigas might be the last one they did it for.

Some abilities interact with the overworld outside of battle, and I honestly wished that they introduced a bit more of these! Some abilities also reinforce the idea of Pokemon 'sets', like the starter Pokemon and certain legendary/sub-legendary Pokemon having the same abilities.

Each Pokemon can spawn with one of two abilities, which adds to the "uniqueness" factor of your specific representative of the species. In practice it just makes breeding for a specific "perfect" Pokemon just that bit harder, but it does lead to some fun situations like, say, a random Bronzong you meet might have Heatproof or Levitate, meaning it has protection to one of its two weaknesses (Fire or Ground respectively) but which one? Also, some Pokemon -- like Shedinja, Aegislash and many cocoon bugs -- just have a single ability regardless. 

Later generations, particularly Gen V's Dream World, would introduce the concept of Hidden Abilities, which would grant powerful abilities to seemingly innocuous Pokemon (like Politoed getting Kyogre's Drizzle) but the difficulty of this and the fact that a lot of newer Pokemon tended to already be designed with a specific ability in mind meant that hidden abilities didn't really get too much or an expansion in future generations.

Abilities are introduced much more sparingly after Generation IV, so I can tell you for sure that instead of a generation's worth of abilities being split across multiple articles, eventually we'll have multiple generations in a single article.

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Generation III Abilities:

I think because there really isn't a convenient way to really categorize abilities, we'll just play it by ear. First up, we'll talk about four very similar abilities that, in the description, 'powers up [X]-type moves in a pinch', which is to say that they give and extra 50% boost to the power if the Pokemon has less than a third of its power left. Very simple ability to understand, not particularly game-breaking while not being insignificant, and definitely gave us a lot of epic moments in the anime particularly in regards to Ash's Infernape. There's definitely a great underdog feel when the Pokemon seems to be weak, pushed back up against the wall, and suddenly it wins by putting an extra oomph into it! 

• Overgrow (Shinryoku/Fresh Greenery), Blaze (Moka/Raging Flames), Torrent (Gekiryu/Raging Rapids): So we've got Overgrow for Grass-types, Blaze for Fire-types and Torrent for Water-types, and all three of these abilities are exclusives to the starters of the respective types of each generation. Discounting Hidden Abilities, these are the only abilities that the starters can have. In fact, the only Pokemon that's able to have these abilities are only starter Pokemon, and the Unovan Elemental Monkeys -- and even that is as a Hidden Ability. With how many other signature moves and abilities have been relegated to non-uniqueness, it's surprising how much Pokemon's been keeping to this particular gimmick. 
• Swarm (Mushi no Shirase/Bug Notification) Also introduced in the same generation is a similar ability for Bug-types, though with the lack of good Bug-type moves it really wasn't all that useful. I think the idea is that when you attack a single member of the colony, the rest of the colony appears to help out, but it's a battle fantasy that really would be realized much better with actual Pokemon like Vespiquen and Wishiwashi. 

And I'll just rapid-fire a lot of these "immune to status effect" abilities. A lot of them are relatively simple to understand. Your Pokemon has some quality or other that makes them unable to be affected by a certain condition. Unfortunately, a lot of these aren't anywhere as useful as many of the other abilities we'll see later on, and while I do understand the need for them from a flavour and balance standpoint, it does make a lot of these abilities a bit less exciting. Particularly since Generation VI onwards, Poison-types are immune to poisoning, Electric-types are immune to Paralysis, etc.

• Limber (Junan/Flexible) You can't be paralyzed, because the Pokemon's body is so limber. It goes from Pokemon based on invertebrates (Mareanie, Clobbopus) to cats (Liepard, Persian, Glameow but not Purugly, hilariously) to martial artists (Hitmonlee, Hawlucha). The Electric-type Stunfisk also has this, which makes sense, but it's also redundant since Gen VI.   
• Immunity (Men'eki/Immunity) Prevents poisoning. Only owned by three Pokemon, surprisingly -- Snorlax, who eats so much junk he's immune to poison; Zangoose, who has evolved to fight the Poison-type Seviper; and Gligar as a Hidden Ability, since it really should be Poison-type itself.
• Insomnia (Fumin/Insomnia) and Vital Spirit (Yaruki/Willingness) These both prevent sleep. Oh boy, if only I, too, can weaponize Insomnia! But I like that they split these two apart, since they're differently flavoured. Insomnia tends to be given to Pokemon that are nocturnal (Hoothoot, Murkrow, Spidops) or based on spooksters (Banette, Gourgeist). Meanwhile, Vital Spirit is about Pokemon that are so pumped up by their own energy that they literally can't fall asleep. It's not just Fighting-types at all, but just energetic Pokemon in general like Electabuzz or Vigoroth or Magmar. 
• Water Veil (Mizu no Beru/Veil of Water) Prevents burning, and this one is obviously owned by a lot of Water-type Pokemon. It is a bit interesting how many times this was relegated into a hidden ability, with only the Wailmer, Finizen and Goldeen lines having it naturally. 
• Magma Armor (Maguma no Yoroi/Armour of Magma) Prevents freezing. Pretty simple, and exclusive to Slugma, Magcargo and Camerupt, the three volcanic Pokemon right now... Heatmor doesn't count, I guess! But in addition to preventing freezing, it's also one of the two abilities that allow faster hatching of eggs, which is extremely crucial in the GBA and DS era of games. 
• Own Tempo (Mai Pesu/My Pace) Prevents confusion, borrowing a term from Japanese, 'my pace'. Again, we get a lot of the dorky suspects like the Slowpoke and Lotad lines, but also a lot of Pokemon themed around music like Spinda or Spoink who can presumably literally keep their own tempo.
• Oblivious (Donkan/Thickheaded) Prevents attraction. The trope is that the Pokemon is one of those anime characters that's so oblivious to social cues that they can't be attracted, which... considering attraction is kind of a niche ability anyway, makes this ability not the most interesting. We've got a lot of the expected goobers like Numel and Slowpoke and Whiscash.
• Inner Focus (Seishin Ryoku/Force of Will) Prevents flinching. I really do keep forgetting flinching is a status condition in a way. Honestly, the wielders of this ability is pretty varied, going from martial artists to seasoned warriors to, uh, I guess Girafarig can see the attack coming with its second head, huh?

Let's take a break from the status condition related abilities, and talk about some of the abilities that I kind of consider to be rather... 'filler'-y, for lack of a better term. These do really feel like they're just things that animals do, translated into a passive ability. 

• Early Bird (Hayaoki/Early Riser) An ability that several Pokemon associated with the daytime have, Early Bird Pokemon awakens from sleep twice as fast. So basically a less-useful version of Insomnia or Vital Spirit. It's kind of interesting that out of all the Pokemon there, the Dark-type Houndour and Seedot lines have this ability? Interesting. 
• Keen Eye (Surudoi Me/Keen Eye) Keen Eye basically is assigned to Pokemon that has good vision, mostly birds but also certain animals who would need good vision (Furret and Watchog who watches over things; hunters like Sneasel; cave-dwellers like Stunky or Sableye). This ability prevents loss of accuracy from moves like Sand Attack. There's also an interesting little tidbit where Keen Eye and Intimidate would reduce encounters with lower-leveled Pokemon if you have them in the front of your party. 
• Hyper Cutter (Kairiki Basami/Superpowerful Claws) Hyper Cutter, or 'superpowerful claws', prevents the Attack stat from being lowered. I guess when you have huge claws like Pinsir or Crawdaunt or Mawile, you can't reduce the pain caused by something that physically large? 
• Battle Armor (Kabuto Ama/Helmet Armour) and Shell Armor (Sheru Ama/Shell Armour) does the same thing, where they prevent critical hits from happening. It's just the flavour, I guess, where Shell Armor is given to, well, Pokemon with shells like turtles, molluscs and crustaceans; whereas Battle Armor -- or more accurately, its Japanese name, kabuto or Helmet Armor -- is given to Pokemon with helmet-like head ornaments, like Marowak, Type: Null, Falinks and... well, of course, Kabuto.
• Hustle (Harikiri/Enthusiasm) Kind of a generic ability that they seem to just randomly give most random animals, Hustle is an ability that boosts the Attack stat but lowers the accuracy, almost permanently. I get the flavour, it's like a Rattata or Nidoran or something hustling along to quickly defend its territory or forage for food and it doesn't care about accurately hitting the enemy. I do like that this is the only ability Deino and Zweilous can get, since they're blind until they achieve their final form, highlighting how destructive they are at that. 

Let's go back to status ailments, now, because these abilities don't confer immunity, but actually cause them. These are probably the most memorable because these are probably a lot of your first experiences with Abilities where you try to just do damage and then get punished for making contact with the enemy. Or at least, I definitely remember being surprised when these abilities bamboozled me. Very memorable, though these don't really need a lot of explanation. These abilities need your enemy to do a 'contacting' move, which is different from just a 'physical' move as introduced in subsequent generation. 

• Static (Seidenki/Static Electricity) Owned by a lot of Electric-type Pokemon, this one causes paralysis on contact! There's also a bonus effect here where the static electricity increases the likelihood of encountering Electric-type Pokemon. 
• Poison Point (Doku no Toge/Poison Spikes) Same thing, but with Poison-type. Makes absolute sense. You touch a caterpillar or a porcupine, and you get pricked. You poke a Nidoran or a Qwilfish, you get Poisoned! 
• Effect Spore (Hoshi/Spore) An ability somewhat exclusive to the mushrooms, Effect Spore causes a random spore effect inflict the enemy -- causing paralysis, poisoning or sleep, based on the three original spore attacks. It is interesting, again, that while all of the fungal Pokemon can have this, while the two outliers, the plant-based Vileplume and Eldegoss, can only have it as hidden ability. 
• Flame Body (Hono no Karada/Flame Body) This one causes burn on contact, and also has the same 'hatch eggs quicker' as Magma Armour. A lot less restrictive, though I am kind of surprised that not more Fire-type Pokemon have this as an ability.
• Cute Charm (Meromero Bodi/Love-love Body) And this one causes Attraction, obviously given to a lot of the Fairy-types and other cutesy Pokemon like Minccino or Stufful. There's also a minor extra effect of attracting Pokemon of the opposite gender.

And these are a bunch of abilities that confer some sort of immunity to a move type. I feel like these are much more useful, and potentially far more punishing. 

• Water Absorb (Chosui/Water Storage) The Pokemon will restore HP instead of be damaged if it's hit by a Water-type move. Which kind of makes sense, I guess. Vaporeon's made out of water, frogs like the Poliwag and Tympole lines can breathe from water, and the two cactus Pokemon Maractus and Cacnea both have it. Pretty cute little ability!
• Volt Absorb (Chikuden/Electrical Storage) Volt Absorb also makes sense, too, and obviously it's Electric-themed, and a lot of Electric and Steel types have this. The idea is that you get zapped by electricity, which powers up your internal motors or whatever.
• Lightning Rod (Hiraishin/Lightning Rod) And this one is an ability that's only useful in double battles originally, and only useful when attached to a Ground-type Pokemon as depicted here with Rhydon in the Adventures manga. It draws in all Electric-type attacks and neutralizes it... which isn't particularly useful if you're a Pikachu or Manectric, since you still take damage. Generation V really buffed this ability, not only conferring Lightning Rod Pokemon full immunity to damage, but it also boosts Special Attack. Okay! (It also draws in Electric Pokemon in the overworld, like Static). Always one of the coolest old abilities to me. 
• Flash Fire (Moraibi/Received Fire) As opposed to Lightning Rod, Flash Fire always neutralizes the Fire damage, and then boosts any Fire-type moves that the Pokemon subsequently uses. A different interpretation of 'hitting me with my own element powers me up!'
• Liquid Ooze (Hedoro Eki/Oozing Liquid) A bit more unique compared to the previous four, but I like Liquid Ooze. It confers immunity and punishment to any Pokemon that likes to use absorbing moves like Giga Drain or Leech Life, where whatever is being drained from the Tentacool and Gulpin lines (the only two families to have it at the time of writing) is so toxic that it harms the Pokemon that's trying to restore health. 

Here's another batch of abilities that I feel are pretty common, but a bit more exciting than the 'filler' abilities. 

• Levitate (Fuyu/Floating) Probably another one that makes everyone remember a lot is Levitate, which delivers the same immunity from Ground-type moves that the Flying-type does... as explained delightfully by this manga panel of Groudon doing Earthquake and knocking out the Heatran and Vaporeon while the Bronzong hovers over it. A lot of Pokemon have this, and it's kind of neat to give the 'flying' sobriquet to a lot of Pokemon that otherwise isn't Flying-type... Pokemon like Latias or Claydol or Flygon or Hydreigon or Vikavolt, who are otherwise dual-typed. Plus a bunch of ghosts that don't really embody 'flying'. I do wonder why we never got an equivalent ability for 'underwater', but I suppose you can levitate anywhere and you can't submerge in land. Levitate also allows the Tynamo line to have absolutely no weaknesses, since the Electric-type is only weak to the Ground type. 
• Intimidate (Ikaku/Intimidation) Also another one that's pretty, heh, intimidating, Intimidate activates immediately when the Pokemon enters the battlefield, and it reduces the Attack stat of the foe. It's also drives away weaker Pokemon in the overworld. A lot of predatory and scary Pokemon like Gyarados, Arcanine, Mightyena, Krookodile and Mabosstiff have this ability, but it is a running gag in the community that Staravia with its derpy face has Intimidate. I also really like that Masquerain, whose whole point is that it's an adaptation of those insects that have giant eyeball patterns on their wings, have this ability.
• Sturdy (Ganjo/Sturdy) Oh yeah. This ability was completely useless in the generation it debuted, being protected from 1-hit-KO moves like Sheer Cold and Guillotine. The problem is, no one really ever uses them. Ever since Generation V, however, Sturdy now functions differently, stopping the Pokemon from being knocked down from full HP to zero and leaving it with 1 HP. A lot of inorganic Pokemon have this, but most notably are the cave Pokemon. Like all those Geodudes, Gravelers, Roggenrolas and Boldores that infest the caves of Unova and Kalos. It's even more terrifying in later levels, too, when the middle stages of the Geodude and Roggenrola lines can have Explosion! Anyway, pretty cool ability, and one that's definitely memorable for making everyone's overworld exploration just that bit much more annoying. 

• Soundproof (Bo'on/Soundproof) This one gets its own section, because I love Soundproof. It just gives a brand-new category to a bunch of moves that's independent of its typing or the physical/special/status split. It's something that other future abilities would kind of have, in a way, with the introduction of 'wind-based' and 'cutting-based' and 'hado/pulse-based' moves, but Soundproof was here first! Given to Pokemon that generate loud noises (like the Whismur line, the poster boy of this ability, as well as the Jangmo-o and Voltorb lines), Pokemon that live in loud environments (the Snover line, who lives in blizzards) and Mr. Mime (get it, because mimes act without sound), Soundproof confers complete immunity to any and all sound-based moves, which is a separate category of moves that range across different types. There are already a lot of sound-based moves in Normal-type, like Growl, Howl, Roar, Screech, Snore, Uproar and the rest... but there are also a bunch in other typings, too. Snarl. Bug Buzz. Metal Sound. Disarming Voice. Toxtricity's signature Overdrive. Very fun that we have this one ability that a player can literally go through entire playthroughs without encountering, and they bothered to make a separate category just for 'sound-based moves'!

And here we get another batch of abilities that interact with status conditions and the raising/lowering of stats. For the most part, I really don't have too much to say here? 

• Synchronize (Shinkuro/Synchro) An ability almost exclusively given to Psychic-type Pokemon (the only outlier is Umbreon), this one passes Poison, Paralysis or Burn to the Pokemon that inflicted it to them. Again, another way to 'punish' your opponent, and one that has proven to be much less useful now that the Poison, Electric and Fire types have immunity towards their respective status conditions. Presumably, this is like an automatic, weaker version of Psycho Shift?
• Clear Body (Kuria Bodi/Clear Body) This ability prevents the lowering of stats, and I guess the body of these Pokemon are so 'pure' or just so... 'transparent' that you can't alter anything in it? Most Pokemon that have it are inorganic and are purely metal or rock (the Beldum line, Dianice, Carbink, the Hoenn Regis, the Klink line) but also several that are just straight up 'clear', which are the ghostly Dreepy line and the jellyfishes that are the Tentacool line. 
• White Smoke (Shiroi Kemuri/White Smoke) Originally Torkoal's signature ability, and later given to Heatmor (as a hidden ability) and Sizzlipede, White Smoke has the exact same effect as Clear Body but a different flavour, though I confess I'm not sure how a white-coloured smoke is able to cancel out the effects of stat-altering moves. I guess it's like permanent Haze?
• Natural Cure (Shizen Kaifuku/Natural Recovery) This one causes the curing of status conditions when your Pokemon switches out, a bit of a niche ability. You really don't want to switch out too many times, particularly in competitive battling. With overworld status effects being severely less debilitating since Generation VI onwards, this one ends up just being kind of one of the less-interesting abilities out there. This ability's mostly owned by Grass-types, but also a bunch of creatures that are related to healing (Chansey and Pawmi lines) or can recover naturally (Corsola and Staryu).
• Shed Skin (Dappi/Molting) One that brings to mind the glorious visual imagery of Naruto's Orochimaru shedding his own skin like a snake to give a 'rebirth' of himself, Shed Skin allows a Pokemon, at any point in the field, to heal its own status conditions. And I guess it's something that's based in nature too, though not exactly 'shedding skin' and more akin to the original Japanese name, 'molting', where spiders and many other arthropods can actually regenerate lost limbs after a molt due to how their bodies reconstruct themselves during the pre-molting process. Every single snake Pokemon line has this, as well as a lot of lizards and cocoons. 
• Guts (Konjo/Gutsy) When the Pokemon is afflicted with a status condition, its Attack stat is boosted, which... plays into the role of 'the more you hurt me, the harder I will fight'. Not too much to really say here, I'm actually surprised this ability isn't more widespread than I thought it was. 
• Marvel Scale (Fushigina Uroko/Marvelous Scale) Marvel Scale does the opposite of Guts, boosting the Defense stat (but not Special Defense) when afflicted with a status condition. Which... isn't the best thing out there because you can't really guarantee that you'll be facing off against a physically defensive Pokemon all the time. This is Milotic's signature ability, and later given to Dratini and Dragonair (not Dragonite, though!) as a hidden ability. Poor Milotic, this one isn't really all that good. 

• Rock Head (Ishi Atama/Rock Head) Oh, I like this one. It protects the Pokemon from recoil damage, a very simple way to nullify the recoil impact done by powerful-but-with-a-drawback moves like Double-Edge and Head Smash and Take Down. As its name implies, a lot of Rock-types have this ability, but also non-Rock types that clearly have a rocky head like, well, Bagon! Bizarrely, the Cranidos line, which is based on a pachycephalosaur, doesn't have this, despite having a whole ton of recoil damage in its repertoire. Is that why it went extinct? 
• Trace (Toresu/Trace) Whereas Synchronize copies status ailments, Trace copies the enemy's Ability. I kinda get it, in a generation where Abilities are everywhere, you do want something to really counter the stronger ones. Trace is also originally only owned by the Ralts line (an empath) and the Porygon line (who can virtually 'scan' anything!) and at the time of writing only Mega Alakazam has ever received this ability afterwards. But as the generations go on, more and more abilities get added to the pool of abilities that can't be copied by Trace, so as to make it not broken or to not give Porygon an ability it literally can't use, like Stance Change, Gulp Missile or Zen Mode. 
• Huge Power (Chikaramochi/Muscleman) and Pure Power (Yoga Pawa/Yoga Power) And we get two abilities that do the same thing, where it sharply raises the Pokemon's Attack stat. Huge Power is the signature ability of the Marill line (later on, Mega Mawile and Bunnelby get this), while Pure Power is that of the Meditite line. The Japanese names make them a bit more distinct from each other, with Marill's Huge Power being more explicitly a MUSCLEMAN ability  while Meditite's Pure Power is obtained by the power of yoga training.

• Pickup (Monohiroi/Pickup) Soundproof gets its own category, and I will give Pickup its own category, too! It's a very cute ability, where a Pokemon can just pick up random items and give it back to you, and anyone that has kept a cat or a dog can tell, your pets really want to impress you by bringing back random sticks, dead birds, discarded water bottles and oh god what the hell is that in your mouth Bell-Bell spit it out right now! Your Zigzagoon or Munchlax or whoever aren't that disgusting, though, bringing back berries and potions instead. The specifics change over the generations, but when your Pokemon is high-leveled enough and you're lucky enough, you can even get weird items like King's Rock or Max Revives or Leftovers or TM's. Again, this ability stops being useful at approximately two gyms into playing the game, since resource management isn't really a particularly huge part of this franchise, but I love the flavour and the idea of Pickup so much. Also, practically quintessential if you want to do a no-items-Nuzlocke challenge. 

• Illuminate (Hakko/Luminescence) Yeah, this one is kind of useless, yeah? It increases the chance of encountering wild Pokemon, something that... you can kind of already do with moves like Sweet Scent. Pokemon Emerald and later on Generations IV and V would boost a lot of the abilities I've described above like Static or Cute Charm or Intimidate, which already have effects of their own, to interact with Pokemon encounters, so Illuminate only having encounter-boosting as its usage isn't particularly useful. It doesn't even do anything with how the HM move Flash lights up dark rooms!
• Stench (Akushu/Stench) Originally the signature ability of Grimer, and later given to other smelly Pokemon like Stunky, Trubbish, Gloom and Koffing, Stench originally had merely just the opposite effect of Illuminate, which is to keep wild Pokemon away. But they buffed it in Generation V (coincidentally the same generation they gave it to Gloom and Koffing as hidden abilities) to also add a percentage of flinching when a Pokemon with Stench attacks. That makes sense! Grimers are smelly!
• Compound Eyes (Fukugan/Compound Eyes) Oh, I love this one. Given to a lot of Bug-types, Compound Eyes functions similarly to how a lot of anime and manga exaggerate the capabilities of an insect's compound eyes -- by boosting the accuracy of their moves. It's not really all that practical since Butterfree or Yanma or Dustox doesn't really run too many moves that are inaccurate, but I had so much fun with a Compound Eyes Galvantula spamming Thunder in Generation V. 
• Shield Dust (Rinpun/Scales) Owned exclusively by butterfly/moth Pokemon and their pre-evolutions, Shield Dust prevents any secondary effect from hitting them. So, for example, being paralyzed by Thunderbolt will never happen to a Pokemon with Shield Dust, but a move that only does the paralyzing, like Thunder Wave, can still paralyze them. Very sure that a butterfly's shed scales can't do something as epic as this, but it's neat! 
• Serene Grace (Ten no Megumi/Heaven's Blessing) Serene Grace is the opposite of Shield Dust, in a way, where it increases the likelihood of your Pokemon's secondary effects from happening. As the 'serene' and 'heaven' vibes have, Serene Grace is owned by a lot of the more 'angelic' Pokemon, like Togepi, Chansey, Jirachi, Shaymin, and, gloriously, DUNSPARCE! Rock on, my angel tsuchinoko. I had a Togekiss with Serene Grace and King's Rock in Platinum and I just kept making everyone flinch with Air Slash. 

• Damp (Shimerike/Moisture) This one is cute! Damp plays on the trope of gunpowder being so wet that they can't ignite, which translates to preventing the usage of Self-Destruct and Explosion. Both moves have severely been nerfed in recent generations, though, making Damp itself kind of useless. Interestingly, while a lot of Pokemon with damp are the expected aquatic Pokemon like Wooper, Frillish, Poliwag and Tadbulb lines, one Pokemon line that has Damp as a hidden ability? The Paras line. Huh!
• Thick Fat (Atsui Shibo/Thick Fat) A lot of jokes are made about this one, where Thick Fat just provides resistance to Fire and Ice type moves. You're so fat you're unaffected by the weather, I guess, and, well, a lot of chonkier Pokemon obviously have this as an ability. Not much to say beyond that.  
• Sticky Hold (Nenchaku/Adhesion) An ability that's given to a select few Pokemon like Grimer, Swalot, Shellos, Trubbish and Accelgor, Sticky Hold has the Pokemon be so sticky that any Item it's holding can't be removed with moves like Thief or Covet or Bug Bite or Knock Off. It has the funny additional effect of increasing bites in fishing, I guess because the Grimer or whatever sticks to the fish and helps me pull it up? 
• Rough Skin (Samehada/Shark Skin) This one is Carvanha's signature ability, as you can tell by its Japanese name, 'shark skin'. The other Pokemon that can use this is the shark-dragon Gible line, and the shark-poser Druddigon. This one is neat! Any time the opponent makes physical contact with your Pokemon, they get damaged by rubbing against the shark's extremely rough skin. It's honestly rather interesting that we don't get more Pokemon or abilities that do this... you'd think touching a cactus would be painful? Lava? Acid? No? 

Okay, now we have a batch of abilities that deal with fleeing and staying in battle! This is going to be the last of our more 'generic' abilities before we get to some more exciting ones!

• Arena Trap (Arijigoku/Antlion) Probably the first such ability you'll meet when playing through Generation III games, due to how ubiquitous Trapinch are in the desert area. Exclusive to Trapinch and the Diglett line, Arena Trap basically behaves like an antlion trap, where a swirling funnel of sand just holds the prey in place as they struggle and are unable to escape. This makes encounters with Trapinch rather exhausting as you are forced to spend PP and maybe even HP as you traverse through the desert. I do like that, since the flavour is a swirling antlion trap on the ground, Arena Trap doesn't affect Flying Pokemon or those with Levitate!
• Shadow Tag (Kagefumi/Stepping on Shadows) The godsend to anyone that's ever had to deal with roaming legendary Pokemon, Shadow Tag is an ability exclusive to the Wobbuffet line. Anytime Wobbuffet is in the field, the enemy can't flee or switch out, which suddenly makes Wobbuffet and its Counter/Mirror Coat strategy suddenly surprisingly terrifying. Later on a handful of other Pokemon -- Gothita as a hidden ability and Mega Gengar with its permanent Mean Look on its forehead -- get this. The Japanese name is 'stepping on shadows', which really does give the mental image of an anime-esque ability of someone locking in the enemy's shadow. 
• Magnet Pull (Jiryoku/Magnetism) This one is neat! Obviously exclusive to all Pokemon that are magnetic -- Magnemite, Nosepass and Alolan Geodude -- Magnet Pull just locks in an enemy Steel-type Pokemon and prevents them from escaping. It actually used to also affect your allies in Generation III, but was quickly removed from subsequent iterations. Magnet Pull also increases your likelihood in encountering Steel-type Pokemon in the wild.
• Suction Cups (Kyuban/Suction Cups) Suction Cups is the inverse of all these abilities that want to keep you in. It prevents moves that push you away, like Roar or Whirlwind... though the Pokemon can still use its own moves like Baton Pass or whatever to voluntarily and consensually switch out. This one is only given to the cephalopods like Octillery, Inkay and Malamar, as wel as the rooted-to-a-spot Lileep and Cradily. Wait, Clobbopus and Grapploct don't get this ability? Cephalopod posers, I tell you! POSERS!
• Run Away (Nigeashi/Run Away) NIGERUNDAYOOO! Run Away allows your Pokemon to, well, run the hell away regardless of any of these abilities up above, or any other moves that might prevent them from switching out like Mean Look or Sticky Web. Not super useful, and honestly entirely useless in competitive, but it's cute that a lot of the more 'prey' Pokemon like Wooloo, Rattata and Sentret have it, as well as a lot of unevolved dog Pokemon. Get it? Because a tiny dog is very yappy but will run away if you make any half-decent growling sound at them?

And now we're going to close this off with two categories of abilities. Man, this took a while for me to write. We've covered some signature (or previously signature) abilities above like Marvel Scale and Stench, but these are different! We're going to go through a bunch of signature abilities that are very evident in how they really make the Pokemon work in a unique way. 

• Speed Boost (Kasoku/Acceleration) It seemed a bit innocuous, isn't it? This Pokemon is so fast that every turn, its speed is gradually increased by one stage each. This was originally exclusive to two Bug Pokemon, the underwhelming Yanma and Ninjask -- the latter of which was at least somewhat able to make use of Speed Boost. But then time come the time when Nintendo started distributing hidden abilities to everyone, and among the Pokemon that got this ability is good ol' fire-chicken Blaziken. And an already-fast Pokemon gaining speed every turn? That's pretty devastating. While I don't really think Blaziken deserves Speed Boost any more than a lot of the other Fighting-types out there, it does really help to give the fire chicken that extra oomph compared to so many other Fire/Fighting starters out there. 
• Wonder Guard (Fushigina Mamori/Wondrous Protection) Oh yeah. Ninjask's 'twin', Shedinja, is a glorious gimmick Pokemon in that it has only 1 HP. A single HP, because it's a husk. But its ability, Wonder Guard, allows it to be completely and utterly immune to any move that isn't super-effective. Now this sounds amazing, for sure, but this does mean that anything that isn't a damaging move can bypass Wonder Guard. Stealth Rock, poison damage from Toxic, burn damage from Will-O-Wisp... and it's not like Shedinja's Bug/Ghost itself doesn't have a lot of weaknesses. Eventually, come the next couple of generations with abilities that ignore abilities (like Mold Breaker) being a bit more common, it's a bit harder for Wonder Guard to be pulled off. Finally, for balancing reasons more than any lore, moves like Role Play and Skill Swap can't get Wonder Guard. 
• Truant (Namake/Lazy) And while the previous two abilities are beneficial, Truant is an ability exclusive to two members of the Slakoth line -- the first and final stages, Slakoth and Slaking. Later on, Durant gets this as a joke hidden ability (Durant, truant, get it?). And the ability has your Pokemon miss every second turn... and anyone can tell you, skipping a turn in competitive battle for anything beyond setup isn't worth a move, let alone an entire ability! Sure, there are cheeky ways of using, like, Skill Swap or Gastro Acid on your own Slaking to get rid of Truant, but not every move can work on Truant. And it really is interesting. As a Pokemon with a base stat total of 670, Slaking exceeds a lot of the game's most powerful Pokemon, having the same base total as cover legendaries like Groudon, Zacian and Miraidon... but where those Pokemon are considered higher-tier legendaries that are often banned, Slaking itself is often banished to 'unused' or 'barely used' due to the sheer damage of loafing around every other turn. 

• Plus (Purasu/Plus) and Minus (Mainasu/Minus). Originally exclusive to Plusle (who has Plus) and Minun (who has Minus) and if you send both of them in with Plus and Minus in a double battle, they each get a boost in Special Attack. Which... isn't very useful because Plusle and Minun aren't particularly powerful. Later generations would give the Plus/Minus duo to Klinklang and Toxtricity (as well as a smattering of other Electric-type Pokemon as hidden abilities) but they really don't manage to pan out thanks to the specificity of the ability. 
• Color Change (Henshoku/Colour Change) Kecleon's signature move, it's meant to represent Kecleon transforming in that chameleon style to blend in to the surroundings. I suppose it's meant to represent Porygon's Conversion moves, but automatic, but Color Change changes Kecleon to the type of the move that it's been hit with. Which theoretically means that Kecleon resists the next usage of the same move, except most Pokemon have, like, four moves and they're all usually of different typings. Not to mention that Kecleon itself doesn't have the highest amount of defensive and HP stats, meaning that this is a pretty gimmicky -- but neat -- Ability. 
• Pressure (Puressha/Pressure) And before we go to the weather moves, let me just consider Pressure, which is an ability initially just given to almost every Legendary Pokemon out there (though Aerodactyl, Dusclops and Absol have them too), and the idea is that the Pokemon exudes such a great aura, like One Piece's Haki or something, that it terrifies the opponent Pokemon into spending double the PP when they use their moves. It's honestly a bit boring, yes, and they did ease up on giving Pressure to everyone -- they have to, considering the number of Legendaries in Generations IV-V -- but I still like that it exists as a bit of an unifying gimmick. 

The weather conditions Sunny Day, Rain Dance, Sandstorm and Hail are highlighted a lot in the third generation, what with the main plot of Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald revolving around Groudon and Kyogre, legendaries that could control the weather of the region itself. And in addition to those, we do get a handful of abilities that synergize with the weather, like...

• Forecast (Tenkiya/Temperamental) Castform's signature ability, this is basically the ability that allows Castform to transform from its regular form to its sunny, rainy and snowy forms. It's something that the franchise is actually kind of inconsistent about, and I'm somewhat interested in doing a write-up about all the form changes in Pokemon, but I think the consistent part of it is that if a Pokemon can change form in the middle of battle like Castform or Cherrim, it's usually tied to an ability. Unfortunately for Castform, this just deprives him of another potentially useful ability it could've had, like any of these weather-related abilities...
• Rain Dish (Ameukezara/Rain Saucer) Originally exclusive to the Lotad line thanks to its name, the fourth and fifth generation gave Rain Dish as a hidden ability to a lot of other Water-type Pokemon. Basically, Rain Dish will continually heal your Pokemon in the rain weather condition. Interestingly, the fungus-based Morelull line is one of the few Pokemon that could have this. I guess the fungi do like the rain! 
• Swift Swim (Suisui/Smooth Swimming) Meanwhile, Swift Swim gives a boost to the Pokemon's Speed if it's raining, which is a lot more common and seems to be a rather generic ability they give to a lot of Water-type Pokemon, with it currently being the most common ability overall, at 45 Pokemon being able to have Swift Swim! I'm not sure about it, I don't think fishes get particularly faster when it's raining, right?
• Sand Veil (Sunagakure/Hidden in Sand) I do get the fantasy of this very well! Sand Veil boosts the Pokemon's evasion in a Sandstorm, and it also grants immunity to sandstorm damage. Which I think is basically just an excuse for them to have Cacnea hang around in sandstorm areas without it getting hurt by its most common habitat. A lot of desert-dwelling Pokemon have this, and in the GBA/DS-era games, Sand Veil will decrease the chances of meeting Pokemon in sandstorm-y areas. 
• Chlorophyll (Yoryokuso/Chlorophyll) The Sunny Day equivalent to Swift Swim above, Chlorophyll boosts the speed of Pokemon in sunlight, and, obviously, only plant-based Grass-type Pokemon have this Ability! Not much to say here. 

And now we get to the legendary abilities, which all summon or negate the weather. Three of these five abilities are tied to the three cover legendaries of Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, and prior to Generation VI, the weather effects last indefinitely and weather teams kind of dominated the competitive scene when they snuck Drought and Drizzle into the hidden abilities of certain Pokemon. Since Generation VI, Drizzle, Drought and Sand Stream have all been nerfed to only last five turns. 

• Drizzle (Amerfurashi/Rainfall) Kyogre's signature ability, summoning the power of rain and storms onto the battlefield. The other Pokemon that get this from hidden abilities are Politoed, already associated with Rain Dance itself, and... Pelipper? Okay? It makes sense that rain can happen almost anywhere that there are clouds, although of course in the main storyline of the games and the manga, Kyogre's presence doesn't just cause rain but entire storms and the oceans being whirled and churned. But that's nothing compared to...
• Drought (Hideri/Drought) Groudon's signature ability, Drought. It's also naturally the ability of Mega Charizard Y, and the hidden abilities of Torkoal and the Vulpix line. And... the anime and manga depict this happening differently. The games only ever show the sun shining brightly and drying up all the ocean and rivers, but the anime show Groudon shooting a gigantic white pillar into the sky that instantly clears the sky from all clouds, whereas the Adventures manga interprets this as Groudon literally creating a ball of fire in the sky that functions as an artificial sun that forces the region of Hoenn that Groudon is affecting to be afflicted by perpetual daylight. 
• Sand Stream (Suna Okoshi/Sand Raising) The same effect as the two legendary Pokemon up there, but it's for Sandstorm, and it's tied to Tyranitar! Hippopotas and Gigalith can later get these too, but I am actually quite happy that they decided to give ol' Tyranitar, the pseudo-legendary from the previous game, some love instead of slapping this premium weather effect on one of the newer Pokemon. 
• Air Lock (Ea Rokku/Air Lock) And as his role of the 'peacekeeper' that stands above Groudon and Kyogre, we've got Rayquaza, who arrives with the mighty power of Air Lock, and disables all effects of weather. Not much to say, it's basically the counter to a bunch of weather shenanigans. But while Air Lock is the signature ability of Rayquaza even until now, that's just because there's a second ability that non-legendary Pokemon are able to have, with the exact same ability, and it is:
• Cloud Nine (No Tenki/No Weather) Cloud Nine! Exclusive to the... Psyduck line? Which is a pun because notenki could be read as 'no weather' or 'carefree'. Later on, it's given as hidden abilities to Lickitung, Swablu and Drampa. I guess the 'cloud' pun ended up being carried over to Swablu and Drampa in this case!