How to unlock Iron Thorns
Getting Iron Thorns means pulling the Paldea banner and hitting its 4★ slot. The 4★ band takes 6.5% of all pulls and holds 211 partners, so one specific Iron Thorns works out to about 0.0308% per draw. The 70-pull pity counter only applies to 5★ results, so Iron Thorns has no floor of its own and no targeted pull. A duplicate Iron Thorns refunds 120 coins at the 4★ rate.
Iron Thorns stats and rank
Iron Thorns carries 115 HP, 108 speed, a ×1.44 attack multiplier, ×1.44 physical, ×1.08 special, 110 defense and 84 special defense, 570 in total. On the three-stat percentile this is 80.2 out of 100, which puts Iron Thorns at rank 74 of 966 and in tier S. What separates it from its neighbours is shape, not size: its strongest slot is physical multiplier (96th percentile) and its weakest is special multiplier (55th percentile), so it is a specialist rather than an all-rounder.
Best moves in Iron Thorns's pool
At move level 5 the pool is led by Body Slam at 75.6 damage per 0.71s (152.8 effective DPS, ×1.44 multiplier), then Tackle at 33.6 damage per 0.38s (129.0 effective DPS, ×1.44 multiplier), then Ancient Power at 31.2 damage per 0.28s (120.5 effective DPS, ×1.08 multiplier). 8 of its 17 damaging moves scale with the physical multiplier and 9 with the special one, alongside 4 support moves. Its physical multiplier is the higher of the two (×1.44 against ×1.08), so physical moves convert better. The top option beats the second by 23.8 DPS, which decides slot one and leaves slot two as a judgement call.
Evolution cards for Iron Thorns
Its starting move, Rock Throw, evolves into Stone Edge once the move is at level 5 and you hold the Power card, which boosts attack for that run. Menu upgrades use a separate system and never stand in for Power. 17 of its 21 moves carry an evolution card, across 5 distinct cards (Vigor, Sprint, Power, Reflexes and Armor). The strongest of them is Body Slam at 152.8 effective DPS, so that is the one worth holding a card for first.
Iron Thorns compared to similar partners
The two closest stat lines in the roster are Tyranitar (+0 HP, -4 speed, same attack multiplier, +30 total) and Baxcalibur (+7 HP, +7 speed, +0.06 attack, +30 total). Against Tyranitar, Iron Thorns is 4 speed faster and the two carry an identical ×1.44 attack multiplier, and the rank gap is 38 places. Read those deltas as swap costs, because a gain on one line is usually paid for on another, so neither side is a strict upgrade and the move pools have to break the tie.