Best Held Items in Pokémon UNITE

The Held Items you carry on your Pokémon in Pokémon UNITE are a huge part of how your champion will perform throughout a match. Some of them are good in almost every character, while other Held Items are purely situational.

Held Items can be selected before the match begins and each of them provides a different bonus to your Pokémon. Every trainer can carry a maximum of three Held Items once they reach level 10 in UNITE.

When the 10-minute MOBA game first came out in 2021, very few trainers could upgrade their preferred Held Items all the way to level 30 by just playing the game and gathering Item Enhancers, which made part of the community label the game pay-to-win. With the introduction of the Super Item Enhancers, however, every new trainer can have at least three level 30 Held Items in a matter of days.

Related: All Held, Battle Items in Pokémon UNITE and how to get them

This guide will help you upgrade the best Held Items in Pokémon UNITE and not commit the mistake that trainers did in 2021 when the game launched. The Super Item Enhancers and Item Enhancers are too precious for you to be spending on Held Items that are simply not good enough.

The three Held Items you should upgrade to level 30

Muscle Band

This is one of the best Held Items in the game, especially for Pokémon that are constantly using their basic attacks, like Eldegoss, Decidueye, Garchomp, Charizard, Blastoise, Cinderace, Dragonite, Greninja, Lucario, Machamp, Pikachu, Alolan Ninetales, and Venusaur.

• Deal additional damage with basic attacks by one percent (below level 10), two percent (between level 10 and 19), or three percent (level 20 onwards) of the targets remaining HP.
• Attack +15, Basic Attack Speed +7.5 percent (when at level 30)

Buddy Barrier

It’s simply one, if not the most broken item in Pokémon UNITE. Not only will you provide a shield to your nearby ally with the lowest HP when you use your UNITE move, but you’ll also gain a shield. Buddy Barrier is an important asset in teamfights, especially the one at Zapdos at the two-minute mark. There’s not a single Pokémon in the game that can’t potentially benefit from having Buddy Barrier equipped.

• Grant a shield to you and a nearby ally Pokémon with the lowest HP for 20 percent (below level 10), 30 percent (between level 10 and 19), or 40 percent (level 20 onwards) max HP when using your UNITE Move.
• HP +600 (at level 30)

Scope Lens

The deadliest Held Item in Pokémon UNITE. Scope Lens increases your Pokémon critical hit rate, so the odds are you’ll deal more damage when you have it equipped. Unlike Muscle Band and Buddy Barrier, Scope Lens is more situational, but overall you want to have it equipped in a bunch of carry-type champions that already have a high critical hit rate such as Absol, Charizard, Cinderace, Decidueye, Dragonite, Greninja, Machamp, and Zeraora.

• Deals additional damage equal to 45 percent (below level 10), 60 percent (between level 10 and 19), or 75 percent (level 20 onwards) of the Pokémon’s Attack stat when dealing a critical hit with a basic attack.
• Critical hit rate +six percent, critical hit damage +12 percent (at level 30)

The fourth and fifth-best Held Items

The items listed above are universally good on almost every Pokémon, especially in solo queue. One of them heals your HP during the battle and the other allows you to score in your opponent’s face even if they’re dealing damage to you. They’re Focus Band and Score Shield, respectively.

Focus Band

The Held Item that effectively heals your Pokémon over and over during the battles, unless you receive too much damage and it pops for a while, depending on how much you upgrade it. If Scope Lens wasn’t too much of an excellent item on carries, Focus Band would be our third pick to evolve all the way to level 30 too before other Held Items. If you can’t decide on a third item for your Pokémon, you can’t go wrong with Focus Band.

• While below 25 percent HP, recover HP each second for three seconds by eight percent (below level 10), 11 percent (between level 10 and 19), or 14 percent (level 20 onwards of your missing HP.
• Defense +30, Sp. Defense +30 (at level 30)

Score Shield

The one item that is objectively against one of the principles of the game: stopping opponents from scoring. Score Shield will provide you a shield while scoring every six seconds. It’s an especially good item for solo queue because this way you can keep scoring throughout the game. It works better on Pokémon that already have a good amount of HP such as Blastoise, Blissey, Crustle, Dragonite, Eldegoss, Greedent, Lucario, Mamoswine, Mr. Mime, Slowbro, Snorlax, Trevenant, Tsareena, and Wigglytuff. The shield will be broken if the enemy deals more damage than its protection.

• It shields you while you attempt to score a goal. The shield value is equal to five percent (below level 10), 7.5 percent (between level 10 and 19), or 10 percent (level 20 onwards) max HP. Scoring cannot be interrupted while the shield remains active.
• Max HP +10 percent, HP +450 (at level 30)

Held Items that are situationally good

The Held Items listed above are good, but they’re not good in every situation nor are they made for every Pokémon. We’ll let you know in which Pokémon they work well.

Attack Weight

One of the three stacking items in Pokémon UNITE. Your Pokémon’s Attack stat will raise every time you score. The maximum number of stacks you can hold is six. Once you got it stacked, it’ll remain like that throughout the rest of the match, despite you dying or not. It works well on Pokémon that benefit from Attack such as Lucario, Greedent, Machamp, and Tsareena. We’d advise you to also run Score Shield if your strategy is stacking an item.

• When you score a goal, your Attack is raised by six (below level 10), nine (between level 10 and 19), or 12 (level 20 onwards) for the rest of the match.
• Attack +18 (at level 30)

Special Attack Specs

It works similar to Attack Weight, but for Pokémon that rely on Special Attack. It’s a really good Held Item for Blastoise, Blissey, Gengar, and Mr. Mime. You can also run on someone like Cramorant and Gardevoir, but there are better options for them.

• When you score a goal, your Special Attack is raised by eight (below level 10), 12 (between level 10 and 19), or 16 (level 20 onwards) for the rest of the match.
• Special Attack +24 (at level 30)

Choice Specs

A really good item if you’re playing a Pokémon that has a high Special Attack stat and want to do more burst damage to your opponents. Choice Specs work well on Cramorant, Gardevoir, Gengar, Mr. Mime, Alolan Ninetales, Pikachu, and Sylveon.

• When dealing damage with a move, Choice Specs deal +40 (below level 10), +50 (between level 10 and 19), or +60 (level 20 onwards) plus 30 percent (below level 10), 35 percent (between level 10 and 19), or 40 percent (level 20 onwards) Special Attack as additional damage. This additional damage done by Choice Specs only applies to one target and has an eight-second cooldown.
• Special  Attack +39 (at level 30)

Wise Glasses

The third and final item for Pokémon that has Special Attack. It doesn’t scale well in every Pokémon but works well in Cramorant, Gengar, and Sylveon. It doesn’t have a cooldown like Choice Specs.

• Increase Special Attack by three percent (below level 10), five percent (between level 10 and 19), or seven percent (level 20 onwards)
• Special Attack +39 (at level 30)

Razor Claw

It deals additional damage after you hit an attack, bumps up the Pokémon Critical-Hit rate, and also slows down enemies. Razor Claw is a good Held Item for Absol, Cinderace, Talonflame, Tsareena, and Zeraora.

• After the Pokémon uses a move, its next basic attack deals +10 (below level 10), +15 (between level 10 and 19), or +20 (level 20 onwards) plus 40 percent (below level 10), 45 percent (between level 10 and 19), or 50 percent (level 20 onwards) Attack additional damage. When used by a melee Pokémon, this basic attack also slows enemies for two seconds.
• Attack +15, Critical-Hit rate +2.1 percent (at level 30)