What it does
Sacred Sword is a Fighting-type physical move that ignores the target's stat stage changes when calculating damage — their Defense boosts, evasion raises, even Accuracy drops on your side. What it does NOT ignore is their raw Defense stat itself: base stats, EV investment, and nature all still apply normally. The mechanic specifically strips out multipliers from stat stages.
In a doubles environment, the cases where this matters are concrete. If your opponent's Dragonite just used Dragon Dance and now sits at +1 Attack and +1 Speed, a follow-up switch to a physically bulky partner behind a Defense boost would normally blunt your attacks. Sacred Sword doesn't care — it reads those +1 Defense stages as zero. Same story against Stamina targets that piled up Defense through repeated hits, or any setup sweeper that's been stacking Iron Defense turns.
Command rate 100 accuracy, decent base power in the stable-output range, contact move. Rocky Helmet and Rough Skin will chip you back.
Who runs it
Gallade (98% usage) runs Sacred Sword as essentially its default Fighting-type move. High base Attack, naturally inclined toward physical contact coverage — when it faces setup targets that accumulated Defense boosts, Sacred Sword is the answer without needing a separate Special coverage slot. Gallade's Speed sits in a useful midrange; paired with appropriate EV investment you can reliably move first and cut through staged-up targets before they act again.
Aegislash (26% usage) uses it differently. In Sword Form, Aegislash's Attack is extreme — Sacred Sword here functions more as coverage insurance, ensuring that an opponent who managed to accumulate Defense buffs still takes meaningful damage from the hit rather than stalling through it.
How to use it
Sacred Sword is single-target. The targeting decision matters: if neither opponent has any stat stage boosts up, the mechanic does nothing special — it's just a mid-power Fighting move with no bonus. Aim it at the target that's actually benefiting from accumulated stages.
In doubles the ideal setup is pairing Sacred Sword with redirection support — Follow Me or Rage Powder draws the opponent's attack away from Gallade, letting it fire Sacred Sword freely at the most staged-up target on the board. Fake Out from a partner achieves similar isolation, locking one opponent out of action while Gallade attacks the other.
Tips & strategy
The biggest misuse of Sacred Sword is firing it at a target with no stat stage changes. When that happens it's just a mid-power Fighting move — nothing special. Before clicking it, check the stage change row.
The evasion bypass is a small but real edge in specific matchups. Against anything running Double Team or benefiting from sandstorm accuracy pressure, your Sacred Sword lands at true 100% — no accuracy check manipulation applies.
As a contact move, watch for Rocky Helmet and Rough Skin on the target. Neither is a reason to stop using Sacred Sword outright, but if the opponent is deliberately fishing for contact chip (like a Garchomp set built around passive chip), factor that into the math before committing.