Espio vs Greninja (Sonic the Hedgehog vs Pokemon)

Espio VS Greninja


“Only a ninja can stop a ninja.”

- Sho Kosugi


Espio, the ninja chameleon and detective of the Team Chaotix Detective Agency.


Greninja, the Water and Dark-Type Ninja Pokémon and guardian of the Kalos region.


What comes to mind upon hearing the word: “Ninja”? Morally dubious masters of stealth and assassination? Kunai and shurikens flying through the air? Or maybe… small reptiles and amphibians? To master the art of ninjutsu typically requires years of dedication and discipline. But, to these two, becoming experts practically comes naturally to them, making them prideful, yet instilled with a desire to help those who cannot help themselves. How would these swift and powerful ninja warriors fare against one of equal skill in battle? Let’s find out!


DISCLAIMER: There is some flashing imagery in the gifs used below, though they’re not too strong, a warning in advance is fair at least. For this blog, we will be soft compositing Greninja with content from the games, movies, anime, and manga, meaning scaling between media will be considered at times with justifications. As for Espio, considering the odd nature of Sonic scaling, his power scaling will also be looked at between canon media carefully and with selective reasoning.


Background

Espio

“Born in the Darkness to live in the darkness, that's the ninja's creed…”


On one faithful day, an island floated up from the sea. The island was affected by something known as the Master Emerald, which quickly turned it into a lush paradise. This caught the eye of a certain private eye, who sought out evidence of an old civilization on that island. Unfortunately for this detective, the island was already under the influence of one named Dr. Eggman. Now captured by a foe he had no hope of beating on his own, Espio the Chameleon found himself in an utterly tragic situation, or at least it would have been…had one called Knuckles the Echidna not shown up. Being freed from his containment, Knuckles and Espio began to liberate more captives of Eggman in Vector the Crocodile, Charmy the Bee, and Mighty the Armadillo. As a group of five, they called themselves the Chaotix and successfully defeated not only Dr. Eggman, but his most powerful robot of all: Metal Sonic.


Except probably not.


Regardless of the canonicity of those events, Espio eventually found himself in a detective agency consisting of himself, Vector, and Charmy. The three managed to form names for themselves, and Espio was the stoic ninja detective of the group. One day, Charmy brought in a package from a mysterious client containing a transceiver. On the other end of a transceiver was a supposed captive, who claimed to be held by Dr. Eggman. During their attempts to solve the case, Espio and the team battled Dr. Eggman repeatedly and faced some of the other major teams in the Sonic Franchise, with Espio even having survived an encounter with someone like Shadow the Hedgehog. At the end of this case, the trio were…admittedly not actually that shocked to discover their client was Dr. Eggman himself. Eggman had been replaced by Metal Sonic, who had evolved to a machine far more powerful than that of his Knuckles Chaotix iteration. Despite this, Espio teamed up with everyone and helped battle the newly empowered Metal Sonic, now called Metal Madness, and bought enough time for Team Sonic to bust out their super forms and defeat Metal Sonic for good.


With that out of the way, Espio became a more mainstream part of the entire group that was Sonic and his friends. Espio would show up to assist Shadow the Hedgehog on multiple occasions, track down and chase Silver the Hedgehog with a false accusation of stealing Chao, investigate Eggman’s massive theme park, and even become friendly enough with Sonic to get invited to his birthday party. However, it was not all happy times for Espio and Team Chaotix. Espio eventually found himself within a Resistance against Eggman, who managed to conquer almost the entire earth after making everyone think he had killed Sonic. Despite being on the losing end of a war for six months, Espio managed to survive long enough to see Sonic return and would later take part in the final battle against Eggman’s forces. In the end, Espio remained an important part of Team Sonic and repeatedly showed his reliability in a life or death situation.


And then he became a poet and murdered Sonic the Hedgehog. Oops.


Greninja

“Only one thing mattered to it: Whether or not its companion was worth risking everything for.”


Growing up as a Pokémon Trainer in the Kalos region, based on real world France, aspiring Pokémon Masters have the choice between three starter Pokémon: Chespin, Fennekin, and Froakie. Those that choose the ever popular Water-type frog, Froakie, would have a loyal and powerful partner with them on their journey to challenge all eight Gym Leaders. Armed with adhesive, squishy frubbles along their chest and back, typical Wild Froakie are rather sociable Pokémon, often growing up around small bodies of water and hopping from lily pad to lily pad. However, every so often there is a different kind of Froakie in the group, one that keeps to themselves and trains for combat practically since they broke out of their egg. It’s these kinds of Froakie that often have the special potential needed to reach some of the greatest heights non-Legendary Pokémon can possibly reach.


Yet, these kinds of Froakie have incredibly high standards for their trainers. The trainers don’t end up choosing these frogs, the frogs end up choosing the trainers they believe can push them to be stronger and provide genuine care and love. If these conditions are met, these special Froakie will dedicate their lives to these select few trainers, with a particularly impressive one ending up as the Kalos starter of the famous, ambitious Ash Ketchum. Eventually upon reaching Level 16, Froakie will evolve into a swift and stealthy Frogadier, with its frubbles now forming into a kind of scarf that flows behind them in battle. These Frogadier are even stronger and speedier than before, to the point that Ash’s Frogadier got the attention of the psychic Olympia, the 7th and Psychic-Type Gym Leader of Kalos, who was able to sense something different about this Frogadier. Even in a region full of powerful Mega Evolutions, which the Kalos starters lacked, she could sense incredible potential power in this Frogadier, thanks, in part, to the powerful bonds they shared with Ash himself.


This prophecy would soon come true as, upon reaching Level 36, Frogadier would evolve into Greninja, the Water/Dark-type Ninja Pokémon. Yet, when Ash’s Greninja reached this point, it went beyond this evolution. Surrounded by a swirling pillar of water and synced to the fighting spirit of their trainer, their appearance shifted, much like the Greninja that once defended Ninja Village long ago. This was a form on par with and even surpassing other Mega Evolutions: Ash-Greninja. It would take some trial and error, but eventually Ash was able to master the Bond Phenomenon which allowed Greninja to take this powerful form and wield it effortlessly. Their bond could be felt beyond even regional borders and caught the attention of Professor Sycamore and the nefarious Lysandre.


Eventually, this Greninja would come face to face with one of the most powerful trainers in the world and former lab assistant to Sycamore, Alain and his Mega Charizard X. Upon defeating all the Gyms, and even contending with the Champion’s Mega Gardevoir, Ash-Greninja found themselves sweeping through the Kalos League Tournament and finally meeting this Mega Charizard X again in a final confrontation. Though the battle was hard fought and incredibly close, Ash-Greninja fell before the Charizard could. Despite this, while the region all had their eyes on this fight, Lysandre and his plans to control Zygarde, protector of the ecosystem, ended up threatening not just Lumiose City or Kalos, but the entire world. If the Megalith Zygarde golem reached an enormous Mega Stone, the Sundial, in Anistar City, it’d all be over. With the help of Ash’s Pikachu, Alain’s Mega Charizard X, and 100% Zygarde, Ash-Greninja reached power thought impossible for ordinary Greninja and was able to put a stop to this global threat.


In the end, this formidable Greninja had to bid farewell to Ash, taking on the mission of becoming the guardian of the Kalos region with Zygarde to locate and defend against the remnants of the Megalith’s power. Even so, Ash Ketchum would meet back up again with his old Greninja to train his new Lucario to finally be able to master its aura and fight in the Masters Eight Tournament to help him become the most powerful trainer in the world! So, if any trainer is lucky enough to have a Greninja on their team, they’ll soon find out just how unmatched this Pokémon’s combative prowess and how unwavering their bond will really be.


Equipment

Espio

Kunai

Like all good Ninja, Espio is shown to use Kunai on multiple occasions. A Kunai is a sharp metal object meant to be thrown at an opponent and pierce their skin, and Espio can use it with enough precision to catch a falling bag from the air and stick it to the wall. However, Espio does not just tend to stick with regular kunai, and has demonstrated the usage of kunai with rope attached to the end. The purpose of these kunai is to contain enemies to a certain area by limiting their space that they can move, as shown in the screenshot above. Kunai are not necessarily Espio’s go to projectile, but are ones that he is favorable towards.

Shurikens

Espio’s go to weapon of choice for long range combat would have to be his trusty Shurikens, and for good reason. First things first, these things are capable of shredding through Eggman’s machines with ease as shown above, but are also noticeably massive in size giving them a large area of affect. Espio can use them whenever, but Sonic Heroes has shown that he has an affinity for using this weapon while turned invisible.


These Shurikens don’t just pack a punch on the basic enemies, either, as Espio has even demonstrated his ability to hurt Eggman’s greater machines such as the Egg Hawk with these very same Shurikens.


Power-Ups

Espio has a variety of Power-Ups at his disposal that he can use. However, he uses them through randomized boxes and does not know what Power-Up is within the container until he has opened it. Each power up has an offensive and defensive capability, with Espio being able to use either at his leisure.


The power-ups that Espio can use from these boxes are:

Fire, which can be used as a homing fireball or a fire shield.

Glue Trap, which sticks an opponent in place via a splotch left behind as a trap or a homing glue shot.

Ice, which can be fired out as a freezing bolt or dropped as a trap in the form of an ice cube.

Illusionary energy, which can distort a foe’s vision or leave a ball of energy behind that does so when touched.

Lightning, which paralyzes foes in a homing shot or drops a decoy ring that zaps whoever touches it.

Ring Magnet, which attracts nearby rings to Espio.

Mine, which shoots a homing mine at an enemy or can be laid as a trap to catch foes.

Oil Slick, which can be fired as a homing blob or left behind to cause an opponent to trip.

Wind, which either fires or leaves behind a tornado that can send an opponent flying into the air.


Bound Ring

A pair of rings that are connected by an invisible magical tether, and act unlike regular rings in the Sonic Universe. These bound rings keep the two users together, and make it impossible for them to be separated. If one user steps far enough away from the other, the other is slingshotted at them with great force.


Espio owns a pair of these rings, but has never demonstrated usage of them without having another member of the Chaotix with him.


Rings

The most common item in the Sonic the Hedgehog universe, and a tool Espio is no stranger towards. Rings act as a health system, and can be absorbed by the touch and can take lethal hits for whoever has absorbed them. Espio is capable of holding and harnessing these rings.


In some Sonic media, rings are even shown to physically amplify the user’s abilities.


Wisps

Wisps are small aliens that Espio is capability of using to achieve specific forms. While there are a fair amount of wisps in the Sonic universe, Espio has only ever showed usage of three of them:


Shamisen

A plucked string instrument that originates from Japan! While seeming normal at a first glance, Espio is capable of using the shamisen for destructive purposes. When playing alongside the fellow Chaotix, Espio’s playing has demonstrated the ability to obliterate Eggman’s robots and convert them into rings. It’s unknown what his potency would be if he played by himself, however.


Smoke Bombs

Espio has been shown to use smoke bombs on occasion, using them to blind and confuse his foes thus granting himself and whoever is with him an opportunity to attack.




Greninja

Water Shuriken

Greninja’s signature move! They can summon throwing stars made of pressurized water and can throw at least around 2 to 5 at a time as a priority move, meaning it will always go first. However, these shurikens are far more versatile than they appear at first glance. They can split metal in two, create enormous steam explosions on impact, get a 1.33x boost in power from Battle Bond, and absorb Double Team clones for a boost in power and size.


They’re also able to smash down and create massive splits across the ground to upend it in a straight line, erupting energy blasts from below. They can also be used defensively, such as blocking electric attacks without conducting anything, charge up to grow in size and spin like a saw blade, clash with Shadow Balls, and even block beam attacks like Hyper Beams.


Aerial Ace

Aerial Ace is a Flying-type move with the explicit advantage being that this move bypasses accuracy by confounding the foe with their speed. Thus, it will never miss. As one of the moves on Ash’s Greninja’s final moveset, it has been shown to be incredibly helpful in amping up melee attacks from the Pokémon. Typically, it’ll imbue a glowing power into Greninja’s fists or feet during punches or kicks to deal devastating physical attacks to the opponent. However, sometimes it’ll morph their arms into twin blades to slice at their intended target with the flair of a flashy anime ninja. It could even break through Diantha’s Mega Gardevoir’s Reflect with clones and nullify attacks if they overpower them.


Cut

Quite possibly one of the most puzzling additions to Ash’s Greninja’s arsenal. Given that Cut is a Normal-type, sapling-slashing move typically reserved for Pokémon that’ll never be a part of your real team, viewers were surprised to see Greninja make expert use of it. They can use pressurized water to create kunai, which have been shown to be powerful enough to clear rain with shockwaves, and can also manifest as an extended, glowing white blade reminiscent of a katana. Slices can be sent out as projectiles, nullify and cut Shadow Balls in half somehow, and split Electro Balls from Ash’s Pikachu in half. Defensively, it can block continuous fire, ice energy, be frozen solid and improvised with, and even slice through Dark Pulses.


Double Team

As one of the most iconic Pokémon anime moves, Ash’s Greninja often made use of Double Team, a move that essentially creates Shadow Clones. Despite being fragile enough to break upon one strike, Ash-Greninja could summon ridiculous amounts of them at once. These clones can attack the target as they wish, though often doing so at the same time and even helping to overpower and overwhelm opponents this way. They can also be absorbed into Water Shurikens to power it up. In the games, this move also raises the Evasion stat of a Pokémon with a 1.33x multiplier, capped at a 3x multiplier if these boosts are spammed and stacked. Notably, if the enemy has enhanced senses, they can detect which are the fakes if they’re running along the ground by listening for their footsteps.


Stat Buffs and Debuffs

In the games and anime, some Pokémon have demonstrated knowledge of moves that can give their stats much needed buffs or even lower the stats of opponents. Greninja is no stranger to this. Though, it’s important to note that Pokémon doesn’t always raise or lower attack and defense together, so they can be independently higher or lower than each other. However, stacking stat boosts and debuffs are capped at a 4x modifier for most stats and a 3x modifier for evasion and accuracy. Below is a list of stat manipulating moves that Greninja have access to:

  • Swords Dance: 2x Modifier to Physical Attack.

  • Power-Up Punch: Fighting-type. Damaging. 1.5x Modifier to Physical Attack.

  • Confide: Lower Special Attack of target by 33% and breaks the target’s concentration.

  • Growl: Lower Physical Attack of target by 33%.

  • Rain Dance: 1.5x Modifier to Water-type Attacks with a summoned rainstorm.

  • Trailblaze: Grass-type. Damaging. 1.5x Modifier to Speed.

  • Work Up: 1.5x Modifier to Physical and Special Attack.

  • Snowscape: 1.5x Modifier to Defense of Ice-types.

  • Rock Smash: Damaging. 50% Chance to Lower Defense by 33%.

  • Chilling Water: Water-type. Damaging. Lower Physical Attack of target by 33%.

  • Icy Wind: Ice-type. Damaging. Lower Speed of target by 33%.

  • Mud Shot: Ground-type. Damaging. Lower Speed of target by 33%.

  • Rock Tomb: Rock-type. Damaging. Lower Speed of target by 33%.

  • Low Sweep: Fighting-type. Damaging. Lower Speed of target by 33%.

  • Double Team: 1.33x Modifier to Evasion.

  • Smokescreen: Lower Accuracy of target by 25%.

  • Water Sport: Weakens Fire-type Attacks by 67%.

  • Mud Sport: Weakens Electric-type Attacks by 67%.

  • Snatch: Steals Effects of Healing or Stat-Changing Moves.

  • Haze: Nullifies All Stat Changes for Both the Opponent and User.

  • Swagger: Confuses the target and Doubles the target’s Attack.


Priority/Unmissable Moves

Some Pokémon can use Priority Moves, attacking moves or powers that allow them to always move first ahead of an opponent, or Unmissable Moves that even bypass the need to be accurate and will always hit their mark. Greninja has several moves that fall into either category and are listed below:

  • Shadow Sneak: Extends the user’s shadow to either attack with the shadow directly, from behind, or teleport to where it traveled for utility purposes. Always moves first.

  • Quick Attack: Always attacks first. Allows priority while sleeping or frozen.

  • Aerial Ace: Confounds the foe with speed and never misses.

  • Feint Attack: Draws up close to the foe and lands a sucker punch that never misses.


Defensive Moves

Other moves Greninja has access to focus solely on taking as little damage as possible, either through trickery or sheer endurance through the powers they offer. Notable ones include:

  • Mat Block: Flips a mat to block damaging attacks. Can summon multiple tiles at once. Enough damage can bypass this move’s protection to deal a fraction of the power. Can be used to flip enemies into the air. Only works if used on the first turn. No priority.

  • Substitute: Replaces the user with a decoy that can take the form of a plushie, logs, and frubbles. Protects the user from all attacks and effects aside from status ailments. This requires 25% of the user’s maximum HP to summon and grant to the decoy. No priority.

  • Protect: Priority Move. Protects the user from all manner of attack and effects. However, it becomes more likely to fail the more it’s spammed. Moves that deal enough damage will bypass this but deal a fraction of the power.

  • Endure: Priority Move. Endures any fatal attack with 1 HP. Can fail if spammed.


Other Notable Moves

Some of Greninja’s vast movepool doesn’t fit into a neat little category and will instead be listed below to explain notable moves, their unique properties, and their utility:

  • Hydro Pump: Blasts the target with highly pressurized, continuous water. Can be used to maneuver into and through the air.

  • Water Pulse: Attacks with a pulsating, ultrasonic blast of water. Can fire two at a time. Has a chance to confuse the target. Can cancel out Shadow Balls, fly faster than lightning and beams of light, and block psychic energy blasts.

  • Surf: Attacks with a huge tidal wave of water, or even in orb form, for an AOE attack.

  • Night Slash: A Dark-type move that slashes with a dark energy. High critical hit chance.

  • Extrasensory: A Psychic-type move that attacks with an unseeable power, although in the anime it is fired as a rainbow beam. Can sometimes make the target flinch.

  • Ice Beam: An Ice-type move that attacks with an icy-cold beam of energy. Sometimes it can leave the target frozen.

  • Gunk Shot: A Poison-type move that shoots garbage at the target. Can poison.

  • Smack Down: A Rock-type projectile move that forces airborne targets to the ground.

  • Round: A Normal-type move that attacks the target with a song.

  • Fling: A Dark-type move where the user flings its held item at the target.

  • Dig: A Ground-type move that lets the user burrow underground and strike from below.

  • Dive: The user dives underwater to attack from below with a wave or a strike later. This can even be done on dry land…somehow.

  • Counter: A Fighting-type move where, if the user tanks a hit, they will deal double the damage they received back to the attacker.

  • Taunt: Temporarily forces the target to only use attacking moves.

  • Toxic: Badly poisons the target with exponentially damaging toxins.

  • Rest: Fully recovers the user’s HP by falling asleep on command. Wakes up later.

  • Sleep Talk: Randomly uses a move from the user’s moveset and fights while asleep, including, unfortunately, Rest, which will fail upon use.

  • Brick Break: A Fighting-type attack that can break defensive energy barriers.

  • Facade: A Normal-type attack that doubles in power if poisoned, paralyzed, or burned.

  • Thief: A Dark-type move that deals damage and steals a target’s held item.

  • Bestow: Transfers the user’s held item to the target.

  • Switcheroo: Swaps held items with the target.

  • Attract: Not touching this one.

  • Role Play: Replaces the user’s ability with the target’s ability.

  • Camouflage: Changes the Pokémon’s typing and blends into the battlefield terrain.

  • Mind Reader: Reads and predicts the target’s actions and ensures the next attack hits.

  • Spikes: Lays Ground-type spiky hazards along the ground, which leaves splinters and can stack to deal up to 25% of the target’s maximum HP.

  • Toxic Spikes: Scatters poison spikes along the ground, which can poison or, if stacked twice, can badly poison the target.


Frubbles

Despite seemingly having ditched their frubbles for the tongue scarf, Greninja can still use the squishy white bubbles that it had back when it was a young Froakie and Frogadier. They act as adhesives that can be flung around as shots to stick targets onto surfaces or halt their movements. Frubbles are also able to be used in the form of rope or even to cushion against attacks. One time, a Greninja even used them to swiftly create a full Substitute replica of Trevor that fooled a Bisharp and Team Flare member into attacking it.


Tongue Scarf

Haunting to see Greninja like this, isn’t it? That’s not quite a scarf around Greninja’s neck. This long, frog tongue is capable of extending at long ranges to act as a grip or a lasso to catch or restrain targets with their physical strength. It can also be used to tie around the Greninja’s ears to protect against auditory powers or attacks, such as a powerful Hypnosis from a Malamar in the manga that covered an entire mountain area.


Abilities

Espio

Camouflage 

Also called Chroma Camo, this ability grants Espio the ability to blend his body in with the surroundings to effectively invisible. His invisibility is potent enough to even fool Eggman’s machines consistently. A more advanced version of Espio’s camouflage is referred to as Ninja Arts: Camouflage grants Espio his usual invisibility with a layer of intangibility to go along with it! However, people with adept senses can detect Espio, and he can be knocked out of this form entirely if his focus is broken by anything, as shown with Sonic pulling him out of the form with blinding spotlights.


Hacking

Although never used during combat, Espio has displayed the ability to hack into technology before. The example shown above has him hacking into some of Eggman’s technology.


Mind Reading

More recently, Espio has demonstrated the ability to read minds. Although the ability has not been well explained or very well developed, Espio can seemingly read minds with ease and casually does so with the player character of The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog.


 

Hyper Mode

Using the seven chaos emeralds, Espio is capable of entering into a unique form known as “Hyper Mode”. Unlike the usual transformations that appear in the Sonic series, Espio’s is shown to only increase his speed and attack and actually lowers the amount of hits he’s able to take. 


He noticeably, at most, only has about thirty seconds of experience with this form. It also unclear how it compares to other Hyper forms in the series.



Homing Attack

Par the course, Espio is also capable of using one of the most recognizable attacks in the Sonic universe: the homing attack!


As shown, Espio is capable of hurling himself into enemies with a precision homing strike and instantly destroying them. Aside from his kunai and Shurikens, this is Espio’s most common method of attacking.






Greninja

Battle Bond

Also called the Bond Phenomenon, certain Greninja have access to this Ability, which transforms them, through a massive, swirling pillar of water, into the incredibly powerful Ash-Greninja! This form isn’t exclusive to just one Greninja, despite what its namesake implies. According to Pokémon history and Professor Sycamore, this form is granted to Greninja based on their “latent skills”, high trainer trust, and strong bonds, meaning that all peak Greninja should be locked to the Battle Bond Ability. It also grants a 1.33x boost in power to Water Shuriken in Generations 7 and 8.


Plus, with how often Ash-Greninja could routinely match the power of numerous Mega Evolved Pokémon, this form is, basically, an unofficial Mega Evolution, even coming with the boosts to their own base stats as well. According to Clemont’s machine’s analysis on Korrina’s Mega Evolved Lucario, which isn’t even a top tier Mega Evolution in the show, this process “almost doubled” their power output, which means Battle Bond could potentially add a 2x multiplier to Base Greninja’s respective stats in general as well.


The most powerful Ash-Greninja shown to date belongs to… Who else? Ash Ketchum. Their bond was so impressive, Greninja could maintain their perfectly synced connection to him even across entire regions. Because of this, they’re also able to sense other Pokémon who’s fighting auras are connected directly to Ash, and should be able to maintain the same stamina and tactical mind as him. Since, before they mastered it, Ash feeling overwhelmed, fainting, feeling pain, or gesturing for certain techniques would result in the same for Greninja and vice versa. This would grant Ash-Greninja some level of mind control resistance, high reaction times, and hours-long stamina. Even without Ash, Greninja could do crazy things like combining Fairy Wind with Water Shuriken to work on Steel-types on its own, so it’d boost those tactics even more.


In the games, Battle Bond is activated upon causing an opponent to faint. But, in the anime, this form can be accessed through pure willpower and fighting spirit with the trainer it’s connected to, once they feel the need to go full power, of course. But, for some odd reason in Generation 9, this doesn’t turn Greninja into Ash-Greninja anymore. It just gives their Attack, Special Attack, and Speed a boost when they knock out a Pokémon instead. This removal is lame and redundant in this debate, so this won’t be taken into consideration.


Protean

Protean was an Ability so blatantly powerful for Greninja in Generation 6’s meta that it was banned to Ubers, where mostly Legendary Pokémon reside, and got nerfed in Generation 9. Whenever a Greninja had this ability before the nerf, their Typing would change to the singular Type of a move instantly upon use, granting them the STAB, resistances, immunities, and weaknesses of the one they swapped to. This could be done an unlimited number of times until Generation 9 (starting with Scarlet and Violet), where Greninja could only change its type with a move once because the developers realized how broken it was.


Torrent

A staple of Water Starter default abilities. When Greninja with this ability are below a third of their total health, all their Water-type moves are given a 1.5x multiplier to their power.


Same-Type Attack Bonus

Also known as STAB, a core part of the Pokémon series has been that a 1.5x modifier is applied to all damage dealt by moves that are of the same type as the user. For Greninja, this would apply to Water and Dark moves, and potentially any type in their attacking movepool they have access to through Protean, though at the cost of their original boosts.


Gliding

Once in their Ash-Greninja form, Greninja form a large Water Shuriken on their back. If they’re in the air, they can use this shuriken as a kind of glider to control their descent and maneuverability while airborne. Effectively, this is a soft form of flight.


Enhanced Senses

Ever since Ash’s Greninja was a Froakie, it had an absurdly powerful form of Enhanced Senses that Ash sometimes called using their “instinct”. What this does is, even while their eyes are closed, grant Greninja the ability to be able to scan the environment, such as within dense forests and towards enormous crystalline beasts they’ve never seen the inside of. This allows them to pinpoint exactly where their intended target, or objects that look like them, are located. They can even detect ninjas that are entirely hidden from sight seemingly without them even needing to move to give away their position.


Even if there’s obstacles, walls, or under attack while whirlwinds blocking their view, Greninja can find opponents hiding from them. This ability was so impressive, Zygarde asked Ash’s Greninja specifically to aid them in searching for remnants of negative energy throughout Kalos with this power. It stands to reason that if their Battle Bond aura and bond detection can reach even beyond Pokémon regions, that Greninja’s Enhanced Senses should have a similar range.


Ninja Stealth

Naturally, as ninjas, Greninja are masters at stealth. They’re able to silently hop between trees while tailing Team Flare and leaving a trail of frubbles, cling to surfaces such as a moving plane without losing their grip, run on water, consistently move faster than the eye can see, and detect other entirely hidden ninjas.


Type Resistances

As a Water/Dark type, Greninja’s supereffective multipliers likely don’t extend to characters from different series unless they have similar weaknesses. However, this doesn’t get rid of their natural resistances to attacks that can be categorized as Fire, Ice, Steel, Water, Dark, Ghost, and an immunity to Psychic attacks and techniques. Of course, these advantages can change to different types with the effects of Protean in play, and also come with the weaknesses both types come with.


Feats

Espio

Overall

  • A founding member of the Team Chaotix Detective Agency.

  • Has solved many cases as a ninja detective.

  • Mastered ninjutsu despite only being sixteen.

  • Played a pivotal part in the defeat of Metal Sonic.

  • Partook in the rebellion against the Eggman Empire.

  • Survived fights against the like of Team Dark and Team Rose.

  • Successfully snuck through the Egg Fleet without being captured.

  • Considered one of the fast characters in the series.

  • Helped defeat Ifrit.

  • Helped defeat Eggman Nega and save the Chao he had planned to feed to Ifrit.

  • Has an absolutely banger theme song.

  • Murdered Sonic the Hedgehog…except not really.

Power

Speed



Durability



Greninja

Overall


Power


Speed


Durability


Weaknesses

Espio

As great of a fighter as Espio is, he’s got some clear problems going for him. His biggest issues all pertain to his trademark invisibility, which despite how busted it may be, has been countered multiple times within the series itself. Firstly, being taken out of focus is a clear method towards knocking Espio back into being visible. Secondly, enhanced senses like that of Rouge have been shown capable of discovering Espio as well.


Espio is also noticeably lacking in versatility compared to other Sonic characters. Despite the reputation the Sonic Series has for having a ton of power ups, Espio is noticeably only playable in some of the games with the least varied amount of power ups in the franchise, giving him an arsenal that pales in comparison to other speedsters in the series like Sonic and Shadow.


Greninja

Being a Water/Dark-type, Greninja naturally takes double damage from attacks that fall under the following types: Grass, Electric, Fighting, Bug, and Fairy. Plus, despite the overwhelming power and punishment they can take as Ash-Greninja, a similar Pokémon, Alain’s Mega Charizard X, has nearly been killed by Primal Groudon’s Precipice Blades. Now, this moment definitely factors in the fact that the move was supereffective against the Charizard. But, given that this is one of the higher limits of durability Ash-Greninja scales to, attack power in that ballpark will definitely start to wear on the ninja frog. It should also be noted that, like nearly all Pokémon, Greninja is susceptible to status effects like Paralysis, Burn, and Poison, so they don’t really have a defense against that other than dodging attacks that induce those effects.


It’s also worth mentioning that all the moves that alter Greninja’s Speed, such as Trailblaze, or the opponent’s Speed need to actually hit the opponent first to activate, unlike their Attack Power boosting moves. Also, unfortunately, Greninja should be Ability-locked to just having access to Ash-Greninja, instead of being able to make use of Protean and Torrent, thanks to Professor Sycamore effectively confirming that peak Greninja have Battle Bond. This means that top tier Greninja normally wouldn’t be able to constantly switch between Type Resistances and Advantages with Protean, which disallows it from making use of its only Defense-boosting move: Snowscape.


Fight Script

Please enjoy the fight!


Summary

Espio

“Impossible feat! Ultimate ninja power.”



Advantages:

  • Holds a massive strength advantage assuming his strength hasn’t been lowered.

  • Massively more durable.

  • Holds a minor speed advantage initially.

  • Leaf Whirl can hit for super effective damage.

  • Rings can act as a shield to protect him from deadly damage.

  • Intangibility would make it impossible to be hit by typical attacks.

  • Could fool Greninja with electrified rings.

  • Can curse.


Disadvantages:

  • Greninja has methods to counter nearly every ability or item that he has.

  • Could become much slower from speed debuffs.

  • Completely susceptible to having his strength lowered by Greninja.

  • No resistance against Toxic, which would quickly kill him.

  • Hasn’t been playable in a mainline game since Sonic Rivals 2.

  • Wtf even are his origins anymore


Greninja

“You always became stronger to help someone else!”


Advantages:

  • Can get faster and close in power with priority moves, stat boosts, and debuffs…

  • Counters Camouflage/Chroma Camo with Enhanced Senses and Confide

  • Counters most traps with AOE attacks and blocking

  • Counters Shamisen with the Tongue Scarf

  • Counters kunai and shurikens with Water Shuriken

  • Incredible reaction speeds and stealth

  • Got into Smash Bros

  • Has that Pokémon Unite drip


Disadvantages:

  • …but stats specifically would need to be set up and hit first.

  • Initially weaker and slower

  • Large durability gap and weak to Leaf Whirl

  • Limited to Battle Bond for peak Greninja

  • Would not see electrified decoy rings coming

  • Smokescreen + Double Team countered by Leaf Whirl + Indigo Asteroid

  • Was totally robbed of that Kalos League win by the writers

  • French delicacy


Verdict


Stats

Starting off with stats, we’ve got Espio who’s got a little bit of a problem in that his direct feats are somewhat lacking and the majority of his good stats come from the people he’s battled with or kept up with. On his own, Espio has dodged bullets and outran explosions, but his abilities to keep up with fellow speedsters like Sonic and Shadow are what make his speed so impressive. Shadow has demonstrated the ability to control himself at lightspeed, and Sonic’s boosting is fast enough to propel himself eleven times faster than light! Given that Espio has battled a copy of Shadow during the events of Forces and is able to tag a boosting Sonic with a shuriken in Sonic Generations, his ability to keep up with both of them in combat has a lot of clear cut evidence. Espio doesn’t just scale in speed, however. Espio has demonstrated the ability to harm Sonic, Shadow and people like Big the Cat with his basic attacks. This is important, because Sonic and Big both battled a six chaos emerald infused Chaos! Chaos 6 should realistically be channeling all of their energy, while a single emerald’s worth of energy was capable of moving continents! This puts Espio around 81 Yottatons of TNT for both his attack potency and durability in base! While he may not have many direct amazing feats, Espio’s scaling is clear to those who do.


As a potential higher end, Espio’s Hyper Mode might be comparable to Knuckles and Tails with their Hyper Forms. If this is true, Espio would be at bare minimum stronger than Eggman’s non chaos emerald star busting Final Egg Blaster and Sonic’s ability to dodge attacks from Solaris, which would be putting him at multi-solar system level and massively faster than light.


For Greninja, let’s talk about speed first, as it’s a bit more clearcut. They have explicitly dodged beams of light and scale to Pokémon that dodged beams of light, such as Steven’s Mega Metagross dodging the Origin Pulse beams from Primal Kyogre. This would put Greninja at Faster Than Light speeds, along with some help from his priority and unmissable moves. However, with the multipliers from speed boosting moves (4x) and evasion boosting moves (3x), he should reliably be at 12c when all boosts are applied, and speed debuffs on enemies (1/3x their speed at maximum) help this out even further. This makes Greninja way faster, so long as those moves can go off. Steven’s Mega Metagross is also capable of reacting down to the attosecond with its supercomputer brain, putting Ash-Greninja at least around this ballpark thanks to Alain’s Mega Charizard X clashing with those two helping to scale to that level.


For power and durability, the highest that Greninja scales to is through their rival in the anime, Alain’s Mega Charizard X again, who was nearly killed by a supereffective Precipice Blades from Primal Groudon. This also allowed him to scale to Steven’s Mega Metagross, who could damage and smack around Primal Kyogre. This puts them at 448.265 Zettatons of TNT for power and durability, and while that feat is for breaking the Delta Meteor is from the manga where they and Greninja don’t meet, the manga does imply that both Primals need to work together to achieve this where Mega Rayquaza can do it by themselves. This is backed up by other sources than the manga, such as the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire where they destroy the meteor and by the fact that Primal Kyogre and Primal Groudon were able to tank hits from Mega Rayquaza in the anime as well. Now, Greninja does get boosts to power (4x) thanks to moves such as Swords Dance, which boosts power only (as these moves boost stats independently of each other). Other boosts to maximize Greninja’s potential includes Rain Dance (1.5x) and STAB (1.5x), getting them to around 4.03 Yottatons of TNT, possibly higher with Double Team clones helping. Unfortunately, Greninja can’t boost durability with the one move that can do so for Ice Types, Snowscape, thanks to being Ability-locked to Battle Bond.


Abilities / Equipment

Espio’s main abilities all pertain to his ability to turn invisible. As a chameleon, Espio can change his colors to blend into the environment, which is so strong that it takes someone with heightened senses such as Rouge to be able to detect him. With the more advanced version, Ninja Arts: Camouflage, he also gets the added benefit of being completely intangible as long as he can maintain his focus. Espio often uses these abilities in tandem with the Leaf Swirl, where he creates a tornado of leaves and promptly disappears inside of it. This tornado is powerful enough to send foes into the air, meaning they’ll eventually crash down only to discover their foe is missing! Espio has more outside of this, however. Firstly, via using his selection of wisps, Espio has the capabilities to move as a light speed laser, dig under the ground, and become a giant matter eating asteroid with his Indigo Asteroid wisp! These are the limits of the Wisps that Espio chooses to use, and the rest of his abilities and skills all pertain to his status as a ninja. Espio has Shurikens, Kunai, Rope Kunai, Smoke Bombs, and a Shamisen for whenever he needs them! His Shamisen can seemingly even turn defeated enemies into rings, rejuvenating him if he manages to get a kill with it. Aside from these, he also received a large variety of power ups that he can use both offensively and defensively from Sonic Rivals 2. Espio is capable of messing with his opponent’s vision, slowing them down with glue, paralyzing them with lightning, covering himself with a fire shield, or use decoy paralyzing rings or land mine to score more damage against his foe. Espio also has some more niche abilities, such as reading minds thanks to ninjutsu somehow. Despite his small number of appearances, Espio still has a somewhat handy tool kit to work with that fit him as a ninja.


Greninja’s versatility lends him a large movepool that tends to eclipse Espio’s equipment and techniques, however, this doesn’t mean that they aren’t countered to some extent. Greninja’s main evasion techniques, Double Team, Substitute, and Smokescreen, are explicitly countered by Espio being able to simply use his Leaf Swirl to blow them away or, even more definitely, use the Indigo Asteroid form to wipe these out. Greninja, being a simple Pokémon frog, would very much not be able to see electrified decoy rings coming, even with Enhanced Senses.


This would grant Espio a way to inflict supereffective damage, along with Leaf Swirl doing the same. Also, peak Greninja, thanks to Professor Sycamore’s explanation, are usually all locked into Battle Bond abilities, and some stat boosting/debuffing moves, such as Trailblaze or Icy Wind, need to actually hit their target to activate, which is a problem when Espio is initially faster. While moves like Counter could potentially close the power gap to deal devastating damage back to Espio, Greninja would have to actually survive the hit first, and Mind Reader is simply canceled out by Espio’s own mind reading abilities. However, Greninja can counter some of Espio’s own abilities, such as using the tongue to cover their ears for auditory resistance against the Shamisen, slicing through the Kunai and Shurikens with Water Shuriken, and counters Chroma Camo and Intangibility with Enhanced Senses and Confide to break concentration. They could also counter traps with AOE attacks such as Surf, slice through energy-based attacks with Cut and Water Shuriken, Toxic to wear Espio down over time to win, and even use their stealth and priority moves to buy them some time to stat boost.


Tertiary Factors

In terms of tertiary factors, Greninja has a lot more going for him. Espio may have more actual experience thanks to the odd Sonic timeline and how vague the passage of time is within, but Greninja takes the other factors. Greninja is as intelligent as his owner Ash, who has plenty of combat intelligence showings. Espio’s somewhat vague ninjutsu training must have been nothing like the real thing, because it somehow granted him the ability to read minds. Based on this vagueness, Greninja’s training and combat intelligence has much more going for it. Lastly, Espio and Greninja match each other in long range combat with both being able to strike at a distance. However, Greninja’s close range combat has a much greater reach than that of Espio, especially with his tongue and how long it is. Greninja also has a wide variety of area of effect moves, trouncing Espio’s measly one. 


In all of these categories, Espio either matches up to what Greninja has…or being completely eclipsed by it. If this was a fight of skill and intelligence, Greninja would be leaving the detective chameleon in the dust, funnily enough.


Conclusion

Overall, Greninja and Espio are incredibly skilled and powerful ninjas in their own rights, but a few factors tend to make this match lean to one side more often than not. In terms of abilities, both Greninja and Espio tend to have tons of counters to multiple abilities, so only a few are left in “neutral territory”, so to speak. There isn’t exactly one key ability that would let them win over the other without banking on stalling the fight out with Toxic or using electrified decoy rings and Indigo Asteroid to lead to specific win conditions. And while there are many ranged weapons, stealthy techniques, combat intelligence, and unpredictable strategies both could use, their arsenals would only feed into how much speed and power they can dish out first.


The real meat and potatoes of the fight is in their stats. Their speed tends to lean towards a more even match as Espio is initially faster, but Greninja has the tricks and capability to get even faster, leaving this effectively a stat that can lean either way for them. They can get close in power, with Greninja being only about 5 times weaker, which isn't a huge gap. No, the large gap is in their durability.


Greninja, at their full, honest potential, is still a glass cannon in this fight just like how they are in their games. Espio is simply too durable, being 81 Yotattons of TNT tough while Greninja is only around half a Yottaton tough. No matter the speed that Greninja can get, all Espio would need are some clean hits and they’d be able to wear down the Pokémon faster than they could wear him down. While Greninja is certainly nothing to scoff at, being in the upper echelon of powerful, non-legendaries in the anime and in the games, Espio’s own prowess, stats, and tricks are more than enough to be able to take even the most peak Greninja down for the count.


The winner is Espio.


(Art by Macarena Vizuete)


Calculations can be found here.


Blog Written by: SpaceJellO and Robin

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