How Terrains Work — Electric, Grassy, Psychic & Misty
How Electric Terrain, Grassy Terrain and the other 5-turn field effects work, plus the moves built to take advantage of each one. (updated: 2026-07-24)
What terrains are
Moves like Electric Terrain set a field-wide effect that lasts 5 turns. It works a lot like weather, but with one key difference: only grounded Pokémon are affected. Flying-types and Pokémon with Levitate are untouched by any terrain.
The four terrains
- Electric Terrain: boosts Electric-type move power, and prevents grounded Pokémon from falling asleep (based on the mainline series' rules).
- Grassy Terrain: boosts Grass-type move power, heals grounded Pokémon a little each turn, and halves the power of Earthquake and Bulldoze.
- Psychic Terrain: boosts Psychic-type move power, and blocks priority moves from hitting grounded Pokémon.
- Misty Terrain: weakens Dragon-type moves, and prevents grounded Pokémon from getting a status condition.
Moves built around terrain
Some moves change their power or effect depending on the active terrain.
- Terrain Pulse: doubles in power under any terrain, and its type shifts to match the terrain.
- Rising Voltage: doubles in power under Electric Terrain.
- Grassy Glide: gains priority (+1) under Grassy Terrain.
- Misty Explosion: gets ×1.5 power under Misty Terrain (at the cost of fainting the user).
Moves that clear terrain
Steel Roller and Ice Spinner both clear the active terrain (Steel Roller actually fails if there's no terrain to clear). Keep one of these in mind as a counter if the opponent sets up a terrain that favors them.
Playing around terrain
Unlike weather, terrain always expires automatically after 5 turns, so timing when to reset it is a real part of team building. Apply the same thinking used for weather teams — pair a terrain-setter with moves and abilities that actually benefit from it.