What it does
Rain Dance sets rain for 5 turns (8 with Damp Rock). While active: Water-type move damage increases by 50%; Fire-type moves deal half damage; Thunder hits 100% accuracy; recovery moves like Synthesis heal only 25% max HP.
Several abilities activate under rain: Swift Swim users double their Speed; Dry Skin Pokémon recover HP each turn; Hydration Pokémon cure status each turn; Rain Dish provides small per-turn recovery.
Most standard rain teams use Drizzle Pokémon like Politoed to auto-set rain on switch-in. That means Rain Dance is primarily used for two things in practice: reclaiming rain after an opponent's weather override, or in configurations that want rain effects without running a Drizzle setter.
Using Rain Dance manually costs you an attack action for that turn. That opportunity cost is real — only spend it when the rain effect recovery is worth more than the foregone output.
Who runs it
Sableye at 42% uses it in support configurations that need weather flexibility. Meowstic at 20% uses it as a reset tool on support builds.
Politoed at 8% mostly relies on Drizzle, but sometimes carries Rain Dance for edge cases where it needs to manually extend rain.
Heliolisk at 8% uses Dry Skin to become immune to Water and recover HP under rain. Manual Rain Dance lets it maintain that condition when Drizzle isn't available.
Manectric at 7% benefits from rain through Thunder's 100% accuracy — a high-power Electric move that becomes fully reliable in rain.
Slowbro, Farigiraf, and Talonflame round out lower-usage cases, all appearing in specialized support roles.
How to use it
The optimal timing is when rain has been overwritten by an opponent's weather and your team needs it back immediately — specifically because a Swift Swim sweeper needs that Speed back or because a Water-type attack needs the damage boost next turn.
If your Rain Dance user holds Damp Rock, the 8-turn duration makes the action investment worth considerably more. Three extra turns of rain at a critical tempo point is meaningful.
Don't waste Rain Dance as an opener when Drizzle already handles that. Save it as a reset button.
Tips & strategy
Sunny Day and Sandstorm are rain's natural enemies — they override rain instantly and cut your Swift Swim users' Speed advantage. Manual Rain Dance is the counter-measure.
Thunder's accuracy jump to 100% in rain is easy to underestimate. An otherwise unreliable 70% move becomes a locked hit. Rain teams that include an Electric attacker with Thunder (like Manectric) get this for free.