Some moves and abilities can steal, swap, or transfer held items. These effects can disrupt an opponent by removing recovery, changing a choice lock, or giving them an unwanted item. They can also support special strategies that benefit from a particular item exchange. Item transfer has many exceptions: some items cannot be moved, a target may have no item, and abilities or battle rules can interfere. Do not use an item-stealing move without considering what your own Pokémon will receive. In some formats, a simple damaging move is safer, while in others an item swap can decide the match.
