Fast TM

Overview

A Fast TM is a training item that replaces a Pokémon’s current Fast Attack with a randomly chosen alternative from its standard move pool. Because you cannot pick the new move directly, it works best when a Pokémon has the wrong Fast Attack for its role and a small pool of standard options. A Fast TM cannot normally teach event-exclusive or legacy moves, which require an Elite Fast TM instead, so always check a species’ available Fast Attacks before spending several Fast TMs.

How to get it

• Win Raid Battles, claim GO Battle League item rewards, complete Research tasks, or battle other Trainers and Team Leaders.

• Battle and activity rewards are random drops rather than a guaranteed Fast TM after every match or raid.

• Top PokéStop Showcase placements can award Fast TMs. The current leveling system also unlocks the item and awards one at Level 19.

How to use it

1. Open the Pokémon’s summary screen, choose Items, select a Fast TM, and confirm, or select a Fast TM directly from your Item Bag and tap the Pokémon. It teaches an eligible Fast Attack other than the one currently known; a Pokémon with only one available Fast Attack cannot use it.

Worth knowing

A Fast TM cannot teach an event-exclusive or legacy Fast Attack outside the standard move pool. On Pokémon with three or more standard Fast Attacks, repeated uses can cycle back to moves you have already seen.

Shadow Pokémon can use Fast TMs at any time. Because Frustration is a Charged Attack, changing a Shadow Pokémon’s Fast Attack does not require a Team GO Rocket event.

Why several TMs may be needed

A Fast TM always picks from the eligible standard Fast Attacks the Pokémon does not currently know. If a Pokémon has only one Fast Attack in its pool (such as Magikarp with Splash), the item cannot be used at all.

If a Pokémon has exactly two standard Fast Attacks and already knows one, a single Fast TM is guaranteed to give it the other. Randomness only begins when a species has three or more standard Fast Attacks: with N total standard Fast Attacks, each Fast TM chooses uniformly among the N − 1 remaining options, meaning a later Fast TM can return a move you just replaced.

When every alternative has an equal chance, the probability p of landing on one specific target Fast Attack on a single use is p = 1 / (N − 1), where N is the total number of standard Fast Attacks in that Pokémon’s pool and N − 1 is the number of eligible replacements.

Across k uses, the probability of missing the desired move every time is (1 − p)^k, so the chance of getting it at least once in k uses is 1 − (1 − p)^k. For example, if a Pokémon has N = 5 standard Fast Attacks (giving N − 1 = 4 eligible alternatives on each attempt, assuming the pool stays constant), each Fast TM has a p = 1/4 (25%) chance of rolling your target move and a 1 − p = 3/4 (75%) chance of picking one of the other three.

After k = 4 Fast TMs, the chance of still missing the target move is (3/4)⁴ = 81/256, or about 31.6%, giving you a 68.4% chance of having rolled it at least once. Four Fast TMs is the average number needed for that pool size, not a guarantee.

Fast Attacks can also change a Dynamax attack

For an ordinary Dynamax Pokémon, the type of its attacking Max Move matches the type of its currently equipped Fast Attack. Using a Fast TM therefore changes both how the Pokémon performs during the standard phase of a Max Battle and which type of Max Attack it uses while Dynamaxed.

Hidden Power is a notable exception: even though Hidden Power deals a specific individual type of damage in standard battle, it always turns into the Normal-type Max Strike on a Dynamax Pokémon, and using a Fast TM cannot reroll which Hidden Power type an individual Pokémon has.

Changing the Fast Attack does not erase Max Move upgrades. A Gigantamax Pokémon follows different rules: its species-specific G-Max Attack does not change with its Fast Attack.

Check the final form and battle role

Evolving a Pokémon assigns it a new Fast Attack and Charged Attack drawn from the evolved form’s move pool. If you plan to evolve a Pokémon, finish evolving it before spending any Fast TMs on its final moveset. In addition, check whether the Fast Attack you are about to replace is an event-exclusive or legacy move: the game displays a confirmation warning before overwriting it, and once replaced, you will need an Elite Fast TM to get that move back.

Choose the attack for the battle format you intend to play. Raid damage and Trainer Battle energy generation use different move parameters. For a Dynamax attacker, check the resulting Max Attack type as well as ordinary damage; for Gigantamax, the species-specific G-Max Attack stays fixed.