What it does
String Shot deals no damage. It lowers the target's Speed by 2 stages — both opponents in doubles can be hit simultaneously. No damage, just the Speed drop.
A 2-stage Speed drop brings the target to roughly 50% of its original Speed. That's enough to push most Pokémon that would naturally outspeed you into acting after you instead. Compared to a 1-stage drop, 2 stages is harder to compensate for with EV investment or a positive Speed nature.
But String Shot has no priority — it runs on the user's natural Speed. If the target is faster, it acts first and Ariados takes a hit before landing the drop.
Who runs it
Ariados runs it on 32% of its Champions sets — its highest single-move adoption rate. Ariados has 40 base Speed, so using String Shot before the opponent acts is unreliable against most of the field. Its real value is in slow-team contexts: a Trick Room team that wants to stack Speed drops and make the reversed Speed order harder to break. Under Trick Room, Ariados acts first anyway — landing a 2-stage drop just pushes the opponent further down the priority list.
How to use it
The straightforward use: lower the opponent's Speed before they can execute their strategy. In doubles, both targets dropping 2 stages at once shuffles the action order in your favor — Pokémon that would have moved before yours now move after.
Unlike Tailwind, String Shot directly reduces the opponent's Speed rather than boosting your side. The drop persists until the opponent switches out — no timer running down. In a long doubles game, that persistence has more value than an 8-turn boost that opponents can outlast.
Tips & strategy
Ariados's 40 base Speed means getting String Shot off first is the main challenge. A Choice Scarf helps reliability but locks you to one move. More commonly, Ariados pairs with Trick Room — under reversed Speed, it acts first naturally, and landing String Shot there makes the reversed order even harder to break.
One edge case: Contrary turns Speed drops into Speed boosts. Using String Shot against a Contrary user gives them +2 Speed instead. Rare but worth checking.