The Air Balloon makes the holderungrounded, which means that the holder is immune to damagingGround-typemoves and several related effects. If the holder or itssubstitute is hit by a damaging move (even if it hasDisguise), the Air Balloon is destroyed. A message is displayed when a Pokémon is sent into battle while holding an Air Balloon (if its effect is not negated).
The Air Balloon does not make the holder ungrounded whileGravity is in effect or if it is under the effect ofIngrain,Smack Down, orThousand Arrows (but this does not prevent it from bursting).
An Air Balloon will not burst whileMagic Room is in effect, if the holder has theAbilityKlutz or is under the effect ofEmbargo. A burst Air Balloon cannot be recovered withRecycle orPickup. The Air Balloon bursts before it can be stolen byThief,Covet, orMagician. Whether a Pokémon is affected byterrain is determined before the Air Balloon bursts, so terrain cannot prevent a Pokémon holding an Air Balloon from being afflicted by astatus condition from the move that bursts the Air Balloon.
The Air Balloon was introduced as aPokémon Tool card in thePokémon Trading Card Game during the English Sword & Shield Series (the Japanese Sword & Shield Era). It was first released in the JapaneseSword expansion before debuting in English in theSword & Shield expansion, with artwork byYoshinobu Saito. It was also released as aSecretFull Art card in the same Japanese and English expansion, with artwork by the same artist. It reduces the Retreat Cost of the holder by (2 Energy).
