---------------------------------------
---------Pokemon Game Mechanics--------
-------------by Rain_Dance-------------
----Email me at [email protected]
-----Make checks payable to "cash"-----
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Before we get started:
You almost have to read this guide in a fixed-width font like Courier New.
There are several charts contained in this guide which would be distorted
otherwise.
This guide covers game mechanics for only the 'advance', or third,
generation of pokemon games. This includes the games Ruby, Sapphire,
FireRed, LeafGreen, and Emerald. This does NOT include such games as Red,
Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, or Crystal. In past generations, the mechanical
structure of the game was different in several key areas from the current
generation. These mechanics may change again in the future. So don't use
this for anything except Advance play.
This guide is mainly written for in-game play, but will contain tips
relevant to competitive battle simulators like Netbattle. If you want to
know more about netbattle, then I can't really help you because I don't
have the program and I can't keep up with all the location changes and
stuff.
=================
Table of Contents
=================
Table of Contents
Version
1. Intro
2. How the game calculates your stats
-2a. A touch of Base Stats
-2b. A helping of IVs
-2c. A few EVs
-2d. A dash of Nature
-2e. The formula the game uses to calculate a pokemon's stats
-2f. Various inquiries
3. How the game calculates damage
-3a. The formula the game uses to calculate the damage from an attack
-3b. The offense vs. the defense
-3c. Solving for X
-3d. Confusion Damage
-3e. Other Stuff
4. Applications
-4a. EV Spreading
5. Finding your IVs in-game
-5a. Finding your EVs
-5b. A method involving Rare Candies
-5c. Why this way works
-5d. My method involving vitamins
-5e. Other Stuff
6. Hidden Power
-6a. Hidden Power's type
-6b. Hidden Power's power
-6c. HP 70 listings
7. Other Stuff
-7a. Weird evolutions
-7b. Pokemon-specific Hold Items
-7c. Common rates
-7d. Deoxys
-7e. Level Up growth rates
-7f. 2v2 stuff
-7g. Weather
-7h. Move Priority
-7i. End-of-turn effects
-7j. Specific Move Mechanics
8. Ending
-8a. Credits
-8b. Contact Info
-8c. Copyright Info
=======
Version
=======
v 1.11, 8/16/06: Made the Sunkern example slightly clearer and touched up
the Hidden Power section. School starts the 21st.
v 1.1, 8/2/06: For my one month anniversary, I have added a section on Move
Priority and end-of-turn effects at the suggestion of particle_theorist.
Also corrected a small technical error, and shaved down the section on
damage modifiers that are unexplained by the game.
v 1.04, 7/25/06: Fixed two hugely stupid errors in the EV Spreading section
*hides face*. Also added stuff to the contact section, and did some more
random error/grammar fixing. I'm almost done with these rapid-fire updates.
v 1.03, 7/14/06: Redid the Doom Desire section and fixed some minor errors.
v 1.02, 7/12/06: Experimented a little and added to the Weather section, and
added the rates for paralysis, confusion, and attraction. Added some stuff
about Mud Sport and Water Sport, and updated the credits.
v 1.01, 7/10/06: Submitting the guide to Gamefaqs today. *crosses fingers*
v 1.0, 7/2/06: Finally, after months of compiling I've got this put
together.
/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. Intro ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/
So now you're thinking 'What are game mechanics and how can they help
me?' Well, I'll show you how.
Watch this battle and see if you can find anything unusual.
===
Mechanics sent out Slowbro (Lv.100 Slowbro)!
ClUeLeSs sent out Salamence (Lv.100 Salamence)!
Begin Turn #1
ClUeLeSs withdrew Salamence!
ClUeLeSs sent out Heracross (Lv.100 Heracross)!
---------------------------------
Slowbro used Calm Mind!
Slowbro's Special Attack rose!
Slowbro's Special Defense rose!
---------------------------------
End of turn #1
Mechanics's Slowbro: 100% HP
ClUeLeSs's Heracross: 100% HP
===
Slowbro has to switch, right? No way he's going to take the Megahorn
that is probably coming.
===
Begin Turn #2
Heracross used Megahorn!
(99% damage)
It's super effective!
---------------------------------
Slowbro used Psychic!
(100% damage)
It's super effective!
Heracross fainted!
===
Do you know how to ensure your Slowbro will take a Megahorn from
Heracross, and KO back with a Calm Minded Psychic? If not, then this
guide is for you.
This guide will assume several things, among them that you know
what pokemon is and you know a lot about the game, like how to battle
and what most of the moves and abilities do. It will also be significantly
easier to read if you have a basic grasp of algebra.
Now for an algebra review!
1. Computer algebraic signs
+ means plus (addition)
- means minus (subtraction)
* means times (multiplication)
/ means divided by (division)
() parentheses
Letters are either variables or constants.
X(Y) means X times Y (so 2(4) equals 8).
XY also means X times Y (so 3X means 3 times X).
~ means rounded to. 4.5 * 9.2 = ~41. (In this guide, ~ will usually
mean rounded DOWN to.)
~ can also mean 'approximately equal to' or 'converges at'. 7.9999 ~ 8
> means greater than (6 > 4 > -12)
< means less than (6 < 8 < 15)
=> means greater than or equal to (4 + 5 => X => 0, so X can be any
number from 9 to 0)
<= means less than or equal to
2. Order of operations
It's called PEMDAS. PEMDAS is an acronym for
- parenthesis
- exponents
- multiplication and division
- addition and subtraction
which is the order in which one should perform algebraic operations in a
math problem. It's sold to little kids as
- Please
- excuse
- my dear
- Aunt Sally
so they can remember it. Apparently it worked.
A. Whatever is inside a parentheses comes first. Then exponents. Note
that a radical sign acts as parentheses, also whatever is on one side of
a division sign is treated as within parentheses.
B. Multiplications and divisions are next. These are next because they
only occur within terms. For example, 3 * 4 + 2 * 8 = 28, not 144.
C. Additions and subtractions are last. These are last because they
separate terms (unless within parentheses or the like). Do whatever
operation comes first in the formula first. For example, 3 + 8 - 7 + 6
equals 10, because 3 plus 8 equals 11, 11 minus 7 equals 4, and 4 plus 6
equals 10.
3. The Distributive property
This says that A(B+C) = AB + AC, and the opposite is true as well. [so
2(X+3) equals 2X+6]
That's about the extent of what you need to know. Really really basic
right?
/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2. How the game calculates your stats ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/
This section tells you exactly how the game of Pokemon calculates your
stats. That's right, no more wondering why your buddy's pokemon has
higher stats than yours! YOU can be the pokemon master! Huzzay!
The formulas that the game uses to calculate your pokemon's stats are as
follows:
For HP:
((( 2 * BS ) + IV + ( EV / 4 )) * L / 100 ) + 10 + L
For Stats:
(((( 2 * BS ) + IV + ( EV / 4 )) * L / 100 ) + 5 ) * N
The variables may have different names depending on who you ask, but
the formula always stays the same.
Now I realize that this will be gibberish to anybody who doesn't know
what a BS or an IV is, so now I must go through with the explanations of
what the different parts are.
=========================
2a. A Touch of Base Stats
=========================
The first and most important of the stat formula variables are the
pokemon's Base Stats, which I'll now explain to you. Base Stats are the
'BS' in the stat formulas.
For HP:
((( 2 * BS ) + IV + ( EV / 4 )) * L / 100 ) + 10 + L
For Stats:
(((( 2 * BS ) + IV + ( EV / 4 )) * L / 100 ) + 5 ) * N
[Remember, you don't have to know what these mean yet]
Okay. We are humans, you and I. As such, we have various qualities
unique to our species. For example, we have the most fully developed
brain of all animals. We also are among only a few animals to walk on
two feet. These basic characteristics of Homo Sapiens, common to all
humans, are like a Pokemon's Base Stats. Each species of pokemon has a set
of concrete base stats that you can't do anything about: they come with the
species! You can never, no matter how much you stretch, be twenty feet
tall, can you? Pokemon are like this. Blaziken, for example, has these
Base Stats:
HP - 80
Attack - 120
Defense - 70
Sp. Atk - 110
Sp. Def - 70
Speed - 80
As you can see, Blaziken will probably dish out a lot of damage no
matter what attack he uses, with high stats in both Attacks. He's also
not *too* slow, but the average defenses mean he probably won't take more
than one strong hit, if that. Why not take a moment to look at your Blaziken
now, if you have one?
Anyway, every Pokemon has a set of base stats like this one. There are
base stat guides all over the place: find one and study it. Seriously,
any experienced player has pretty much memorized the base stats of some
of the most common pokemon, or at least gotten a feel for their general
stat structure. If you want an accurate Base Stats guide, I would check
the Smogon.com pokedex or pokemonelite2000's pokedex before anything at
either Gamefaqs or Serebii.net.
So what does a base stat mean? Well, if you understood the stat formula
(it's not hard), you could see that _one base stat point equals two stat
points at level 100_. So Blaziken, with a base stat of 120 in Attack,
gets 240 stat points in Attack from base stats when he is at Level 100.
Of course, this is not necessarily his final stat in Attack, it's just
the main bulk of it. Base stats are the single most important factor the
game uses to determine your pokemon's stats.
====================
2b. A Helping of IVs
====================
(Note: IVs are also known as DVs. I believe the syntax is that if you
have 31 IVs in a stat, then you have a DV of 31 in that stat. IV means
Individual Value, and DV means Diversification Value, or something.
They're the same thing though.)
For HP:
((( 2 * BS ) + IV + ( EV / 4 )) * L / 100 ) + 10 + L
For Stats:
(((( 2 * BS ) + IV + ( EV / 4 )) * L / 100 ) + 5 ) * N
IVs are arguably the most important determinant of pokemon stats within
species. You already know that any pokemon has six stats: HP, Attack,
Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. What you didn't
know is that for every pokemon you have, the game stores six numbers
(one for each stat), called IVs. These IVs can be any integer from 0 to
31. So, for example, I might have one Swampert with IVs of
HP: 31
Attack: 2
Defense: 17
Special Attack: 14
Special Defense: 28
Speed: 30
and another Swampert, at the same level, from the same game file, with
IVs of
HP: 4
Attack: 29
Defense: 21
Special Attack: 31
Special Defense: 16
Speed: 10.
These IVs are randomly set when you catch the pokemon, or (in the case
of pokemon eggs) when you obtain the egg that it will hatch from (as
opposed to when it hatches), and they never ever change as long as you or
your pokemon may live. Now, if you looked at the stat formula, you could
see that _one IV point equals one additional stat point at level 100_.
So, for example, if all other things are equal, the first Swampert will
have 27 more stat points in HP than the second one, at level 100. Remember
this now.
So how do you know what your IVs are? That's a hard one. The game, or,
more specifically, the game programmers from Nintendo, didn't want it to
be obvious how the IV system worked. So they did what they could to keep
it from being known. Therefore, they didn't tell us in English what our
pokemon's IVs are. But they DID tell us in mathish. I explain at length in
chapter five how to decode this and figure out what your pokemon's IVs are,
so don't worry about it right now.
Anyway, you obviously want good IVs. The theoretical 'perfect' pokemon
with 31 IVs in each stat is very rare, and would require a lot of work
to get. However, 31 stat points in each stat is quite a lot, so putting
in the time and effort to get good IVs should prove worthwhile. Even if
you don't get a PERFECT pokemon, you could be close (having 25 or more
IVs in each stat is exceptionally good).
But how to go about getting good IVs for your pokemon? Well, let's
assume for a minute that you already know how to check what your
pokemon's IVs are. You would find a female of the pokemon that you
want, with at least one stat with a good IV value, and then find any
male in her egg group who has the highest IVs you can find (and any egg
moves that you want to breed onto your final pokemon too). You would
then take them both to your game's daycare center (West of Mauville in
R/S/E, or Four Island in FR/LG). They would then go in the back and
produce eggs. Meanwhile, you would hop on your bike, collect lots of
eggs, then find a nice brain-dead route to ride around that you could do
in your sleep. As you hatch these eggs, check the youngling's IVs, and
determine whether it has any value as either a pokemon you would use in
battle, or a pokemon that is better than one of the current ones you
have in the day-care. If not, release it (you'll be hatching a LOT of
these eggs - no time for sentiments). Also, you should have some kind
of nickname indexing system for those pokemon with IVs that are good for
something; my grandpa uses a simple Letter-Number system, where the
letter signifies the parents and the number is what number egg it was
(so the fourth egg from the second set of parent pokemon would be B4).
As for me, I just give them random, usually apt nicknames. Anyway, as
you progressively replace your current breeding pokemon with better
stock, you'll gradually see an increase in the overall IVs of your eggs.
Eventually you'll hit the jackpot, and you can use the runoff for
breeding with different species. Once you get a lot of runoff pokemon in
diverse egg groups, getting better IVs in new species becomes easier and
easier. Eventually you have a box full of good, quality pokemon, then
two boxes, then three, and then you get bored with Pokemon and you go to
the store and buy a tropical fish. But that's life.
=============
2c. A Few EVs
=============
(Note: EVs are also known as EPs. EV means Effort Value, and EP means
Effort Point. They're still the same thing.)
For HP:
((( 2 * BS ) + IV + ( EV / 4 )) * L / 100 ) + 10 + L
For Stats:
(((( 2 * BS ) + IV + ( EV / 4 )) * L / 100 ) + 5 ) * N
Okay. If Peyton Manning married Mia Hamm, chances are their child would
be fairly athletic, don't you think? However, being a human and coming
from an athletic family is not enough to ensure skill in sports. The
child has to PRACTICE TO GET BETTER. EVs try to simulate this. When
you defeat any enemy pokemon, any pokemon that GAINS EXPERIENCE from
that pokemon gets a certain type and amount of EVs. The type and amount
varies with the pokemon defeated. For example, beating a Slaking earns
each pokemon that got experience 3 EVs in HP, while offing a Zubat gets
you 1 EV in speed. Each pokemon that participated in battle against a
pokemon, even if it didn't attack, gets the FULL amount of EVs from that
pokemon (as opposed to splitting them up). There are plenty of guides
for which pokemon give which EVs, so find one and read it over.
The fundamental definition of an EV, as defined by the stat formula, is
that _four EVs equal one stat point at level 100_. Remember that now.
So you can customize the stats of your pokemon, to a certain extent, by
only battling pokemon that give EVs that you want that pokemon to have.
It would be completely redundant to gain any Attack EVs on Wobbuffet,
no? It would be even worse to give HP EVs to Shedinja. On the other
hand, something like Heracross probably likes Attack EVs, and Blissey
certainly wants Defense EVs (A Basestat of 10 is not lovely at all).
There are a few more rules about EVs. One, no pokemon can have more
than 510 total EVs. Two, no pokemon can have more than 255 EVs in a
single stat. Two things can be inferred from this: (a) Since 4 EVs
equal one stat point at level 100, and 510 max EVs/4 equals 127.5, you
can customize your pokemon's stats by strategically placing up to 127
stat points, and (b) since 255/4 equals 63.75, you can put 63 additional
stat points in any stat, for up to two different stats. Of note is that
it is useless to give a pokemon 255 EVs in a single stat. 63.75 is
rounded down to 63, and you've wasted 3 EVs. There is no need to use
more than 252 EVs in one stat, since 252/4 equals 63 exactly, and you're
not wasting any EVs. In fact, giving 252 EVs to two different stats
leaves 6 EVs left, which is enough to get one stat point in a different
stat (like giving Venusaur 6 EVs in speed to outspeed standard no-speed
Venusaur). Three, if your pokemon is holding the item 'Macho Brace', or
has Pokerus, it will gain double the normal EVs from battle. If it has
Pokerus AND holds the Macho Brace, it will gain four times the normal
EVs! (Pokerus is a randomly occuring 'virus' that affects your party
pokemon. It is very rare, and in my 5ish years of playing I have gotten
it twice, first in Pokemon Gold, and recently in LeafGreen. It does
nothing to your pokemon except double the EVs they get from battle. The
nurse at the pokemon center will tell you if you get it.) Four, pokemon
with the Exp.Share gain the same amount of EVs as they would had they
participated in the battle holding nothing. So if your front pokemon
has the Macho Brace, and you think you can get double EVs on another
pokemon by giving it the Exp.Share, guess again. Finally, one vitamin
(Protein, Iron, etc.) gives you 10 EVs in the stat that it 'raises'.
But the use of vitamins comes with a restriction. You can't use
vitamins in a stat that already has 100 or more EVs.
This restriction, along with the fact that one pokemon can't have more
than 510 EVs, has given pretense to several false 'limits', including
'you can't use more than ten vitamins in a single stat' and 'you can't
use more than 51 vitamins in total on a single pokemon'. While these
limits may have been for all intents and purposes true at one point, in
Emerald they have been disproved once and for all.
Why? Because Emerald has changed the effects of six berries (Numbers
#21 through #26). They now [raise a Pokemon's happiness and] lower a
specific stat. To be specific, they lower the EVs in a stat by ten.
What's the use, you ask? Well, if you EV train a pokemon, then decide
you screwed up, you can use these berries to reverse it and start anew.
Pomeg lowers HP, Kelpsy lowers Attack, Qualot lowers Defense, Hondew
lowers Sp.Atk, Grepa lowers Sp.Def, and Tamato lowers Speed.
Anyway, the point is that if you use one of these berries on a stat with
vitamins, the game doesn't care whether you've used vitamins, so you
could use another one. Which means that conceivably one could use more
than 51 total vitamins on a single pokemon, or more than ten in a single
stat.
There are a couple more tricky circumstances which may be confusing.
For example: If an enemy uses Selfdestruct/Explosion/Destiny Bond, and
kills your pokemon even as it dies, your fainted pokemon doesn't get any
EVs from that battle because it didn't get any experience. Or, if your
pokemon faints to an enemy's attack, and you send in someone else, and
Revive the fainted pokemon, and kill the enemy without sending the
fainted pokemon back in, it still gets EVs because it still gets
experience.
One more thing (for Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald only): There is a girl in
Slateport City standing in the marketplace, next to the Energy Guru. If
your front pokemon in your party has all 510 EVs, she will give it a
ribbon (the Effort Ribbon) because it 'went for it stupendously'. If it
doesn't have all 510 EVs, she will tell you to 'go for it a little
harder'.
The placement of a pokemon's 510 EVs across its six stats is called its
EV spread. Experienced players have devised several EV spreads for
certain overused pokemon (like Salamence and Tyranitar) that have become
popular enough that they are considered 'standard'. EV spreads are
important, and entire strategies can be based around them, but if you
aren't using a pokemon with whom there is no other good EV spread than
the standard, then you can be as creative as you like. Just remember
that the goal of EV spreading is the final stat, not the spread itself,
and if your IVs are less than perfect, you'll have to adjust your
calculations to compensate.
====================
2d. A Dash of Nature
====================
(Natures are also called Personalities. Nature is the more correct term
though.)
Natures are those little 'Brave', 'Modest', 'Jolly' at the bottom of
your pokemon's description, in that little box called 'Trainer Memo'.
If you ever wondered if they mattered, well... they do.
A nature raises one stat to 110% and lowers another stat to 90%. Simple
as that. Natures can't affect HP though. Aside from HP, there is one
and only one nature for any given Raise/Lower combo, and five neutral
natures. For example, Adamant raises Attack and lowers Sp.Atk. Here's
a list of natures. It may seem intimidating at first, but you'll
eventually memorize it, everyone does :)
------------------------------------------------------
Nature | What it does
------------------------------------------------------
Lonely | +Attack -Defense
Brave | +Attack -Speed
Adamant| +Attack -Sp.Atk
Naughty| +Attack -Sp.Def
------------------------------------------------------
Bold | -Attack +Defense
Relaxed| +Defense -Speed
Impish | +Defense -Sp.Atk
Lax | +Defense -Sp.Def
------------------------------------------------------
Timid | -Attack +Speed
Hasty | -Defense +Speed
Jolly | +Speed -Sp.Atk
Naive | +Speed -Sp.Def
------------------------------------------------------
Modest | -Attack +Sp.Atk
Mild | -Defense +Sp.Atk
Quiet | -Speed +Sp.Atk
Rash | +Sp.Atk -Sp.Def
------------------------------------------------------
Calm | -Attack +Sp.Def
Gentle | -Defense +Sp.Def
Sassy | -Speed +Sp.Def
Careful| -Sp.Atk +Sp.Def
------------------------------------------------------
Quirky |
Hardy | These don't do anything!
Serious| They're called neutral natures.
Bashful| Only a few pokemon can use these well.
Docile |
------------------------------------------------------
So hey, that's it. Just remember that a +Nature equals 110% and a -Nature
equals 90%, and you'll be fine.
Now back to the breeding thing I was talking about in the IV section.
If you have a pokemon with good IVs, the main reason that you might use
it for breeding over battling would be if it had a bad nature (Timid
Machamp, for example). So you also have to consider the nature of a
given pokemon when you are hatching eggs. It is one of the worst
feelings in the world when you get a pokemon with absolutely great IVs
but a nature that renders it useless.
HOWEVER... In Emerald, you CAN engineer to an extent the nature of your
pokemon during breeding. You can give the FEMALE breeding pokemon an
Everstone. This will make her eggs have a 50% chance of having her
nature. So if you get a female Milotic with a Modest nature, it might
not be a bad idea to put her into breeding regardless of her IVs, at
least until you get a better female with said Modest nature.
UPDATE: I have just read a breeding thread from Smogon.com and tested
the theory, and it works. So naturally I've added the theory to this
guide. Here it is.
If you leave two pokemon in the day-care, normally you will wait until
you see the old man step outside of the fence, and then pick up your
egg. However, some lucky lover of mice of the electric variety has
found out that the Nature of the baby, as well as its Gender and
Ability, are set when the old man steps out of the fence. The IVs of
the pokemon are not set until you receive the egg. This means that if
you see the old man standing outside the fence, you can save, and then
pick up the egg. Hatch it, and if it has your preferred nature/ability/
gender then reset and get the egg again, and you will have the same
characteristics, but different IVs. I'm currently using this in
Emerald to hatch female Koffings with Relaxed natures. I really like
this thought as you only have to get your correct nature/ability combo
once and then you don't have to worry about them anymore. There are only a
few drawbacks to this that I can see:
(1) If you find the pokemon with the correct nature/ability early,
while you have crap pokemon in the daycare, then it won't be easy to get
better IVs than you are already getting.
(2) You can only hatch one egg at a time with this method, where
normally you are hatching five.
(3) You won't get many good runoff pokemon to use for breeding with
other species from this.
Anyway, if you want to read the thread I got this from, here's the site.
The author is Pokefab.
http://www.smogon.com/community/showthread.php?t=10136
============================================================
2e. The formula the game uses to calculate a pokemon's stats
============================================================
Alright, I think I've explained everything relevant. Now here's the
formula again.
For Stats:
(((( 2 * BS ) + IV + ( EV / 4 )) * L / 100 ) + 5 ) * N
For HP:
((( 2 * BS ) + IV + ( EV / 4 )) * L / 100 ) + 10 + L
Where
BS = Basestat
IV = IV
EV = EV
L = Level
N = Nature (This equals 1.1 if a plus nature, 0.9 if a minus nature)
Now you actually understand it, no? But for our younger viewers, here's
an explanation.
The formula is actually not hard. What you're actually doing when you
do this formula is basic arithmetic. You first multiply the Basestat of
the pokemon, in the stat that you're checking, by 2. Simple, right?
Now you divide the pokemon's current EVs in that stat (EVs can change,
remember) by 4 (and don't forget to round down). Then you just add
those totals up, not forgetting the IVs of the pokemon in that stat.
Now, you have a sum. You must now multiply that sum by your Level, and
divide the product by 100. This will never be higher than your original
sum, and in fact, at Level 100, the quotient IS your original sum. Now
all that remains is to add the appropriate constant for your stat (5 for
stats, or [10+L] for HP), and apply the nature effect (if applicable).
It's not hard. In fact, I normally suck at algebra, but this formula
even I can grasp well enough that I on occasion manipulate it for my own
ulterior motives which will remain undisclosed. But why don't we try an
example now?
Let's find a Blaziken's Attack stat. In this example, let's make
Blaziken have 27 IVs and 252 EVs in Attack, and be level 100, and have a
Lonely nature (that's +Atk and -Def).
Let's put the formula up on the big board now, to remind our viewers.
(((( 2 * BS ) + IV + ( EV / 4 )) * L / 100 ) + 5 ) * N
First there's the base stats. For finding Blaziken's Attack, we have to
know what his base stat in Attack is. (It's 120) The first thing we do
is multiply the base stat by two, because of the ( 2 * BS ) part of the
formula. 120 times 2 is 240, so now the formula becomes
((( 240 + IV + ( EV / 4 )) * L / 100 ) + 5 ) * N.
Now add the IVs. Remember, our Blaziken has 27 IVs in Attack. Now, 240
plus 27 equals 267. Our formula is now
((( 240 + 27 + ( EV / 4 )) * L / 100 ) + 5 ) * N =
((( 267 + ( EV / 4 )) * L / 100 ) + 5 ) * N.
Now, the EVs. Our Blaziken has 252 EVs in Attack. 252/4 equals 63, so
our formula is
((( 267 + ( 252 / 4 )) * L / 100 ) + 5 ) * N =
((( 267 + 63 ) * L / 100 ) + 5 ) * N =
((( 330 ) * L / 100 ) + 5 ) * N
Now, we have to multiply 330 by Blaziken's level, and then divide that
by 100. Since we're at level 100, we don't have to do anything here.
So, we're left with
((( 330 ) * 100 / 100 ) + 5 ) * N =
( 330 + 5 ) * N.
Adding 330 and 5,
335 * N.
So now we're down to just one operation, the nature. If the nature of
your pokemon raises the stat you're working with, N = 1.1. If it lowers
the stat, N = 0.9. If it doesn't affect the stat, N = 1. Our Blaziken
has a Lonely nature (+Atk, -Def), so
335 * 1.1 =
335 + 33.5 = 368.5 which is rounded down to 368.
So our final total stat is 368.
Remember, when doing this formula, you have to immediately round down
the total from ( EV / 4 ) and the total after * L / 100, and the final
total after applying the nature effect.
Let's re-examine what I already told you about the variables:
- 1. One Basestat point equals 2 stat points at level 100.
- 2. One IV equals one stat point at level 100.
- 3. 4 EVs equals one stat point at level 100.
Well do you notice the one similarity between it all? They all say "at
level 100". Well what about level 53 or 29 or X or 2X?
The first part of the formula, (2BS + IV + EV/4), contains all of the
variables that are not made immediately obvious by the game. But that's
not my point. My point is that after adding all of these up (the total of
which will hereafter be referred to as the Stat Variable Total, or SVT),
you multiply the SVT by Level/100. Which means that the formula uses
all of the SVT at level 100 and at any given level only uses Level% of
it. That's how the game makes your stats higher at higher levels :)
So the steps you will go through in working this formula are:
1. Find the SVT (That's 2 times the base stat, plus your IVs in that
stat, plus one quarter of your EVs in that stat)
2. Multiply that by Level/100
3. Add five (For HP, add [10 + Level] instead)
4. Multiply by the nature effect (1.1 if upped or 1 if neutral or .9 if
dropped).
Here's another example. We will find the stats of a level 86 Tyranitar.
In our example, Tyranitar's IVs will be perfect (that's 31 in
everything) and he will have 252 EVs in Attack, 252 EVs in Speed, and 6
EVs in HP. His Nature will be Adamant. Tyranitar's natural base stats
are [100 HP/134 Atk/110 Def/95 Sp.Atk/100 Sp.Def/61 Spd]. That's all we
need to know.
Now to find his Level 86 Stats.
For HP:
2 * 100 = 200 Two times the Base Stat:
200 + 31 = 231 Plus the IVs:
231 + ( 6 / 4 ) = ( 231 + 1 ) = 232 Plus EV/4:
232 * 86 / 100 = ~199 SVT * Level / 100 equals:
199 + 10 + 86 = 295 Plus ten, plus Level.
So this Tyranitar will have 295 HP at level 86.
For Attack:
2 * 134 = 268 Two times the Base Stat:
268 + 31 = 299 Plus the IVs:
299 + ( 252 / 4 ) = ( 299 + 63 ) = 362 Plus EV/4:
362 * 86 / 100 = ~311 SVT * Level / 100 equals:
311 + 5 = 316 Plus five:
316 * 1.1 = ( 316 + 31.6 ) = ~347 The nature is upped.
So it has 347 Attack at level 86.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leaving the other stats as practice for the reader, we find that this
Tyranitar has these stats:
Level 86
--------
HP: 295
Atk: 347+
Def: 220
SA: 175-
SD: 203
Spd: 190
(the plus and minus symbolize the nature effects)
The point of all this is to get you to understand the L/100 part of the
formula. If you think you get it, then okay, let's move on.
By now, you should understand how the formula works. If you actually
did the Tyranitar problems above, you should be thoroughly familiar with
it. Now from a competitive battling standpoint, (ie netbattle) you will
almost never deal with a pokemon of any level other than 100, with any
IVs other than 30 or 31 in each stat. This leads to a few shortcuts.
First, if you're finding a level 100 pokemon's stat when it has no EVs
and maximum IVs. This is equal to 2BS + 36. Figure out why. If you
want a stat when it has max EVs and max IVs, the formula is 2BS + 99.
These are of course not counting natures. For an HP stat with no EVs
and Max IVs, use 2BS + 31 + 110. For HP with max EVs and IVs, use 2BS +
204.
If natures should affect the stats here, then apply the appropriate
nature effect to the result of these formulas. Obviously HP is not
affected by natures though.
=====================
2f. Various inquiries
=====================
These are just some things that you might want to do with your pokemon's
stats.
Special sweepers- Smart players give special sweepers like Alakazam 0
IVs in Attack. This is because since these pokes don't use any physical
Attacks, they don't need it. This would normally be a useless tactic
except for the fact that confusion damage works off the confused one's
Attack power and Defense. So lowering your Attack would also lower the
damage you take from confusion :) Of course, in the Game Boy pokemon
games you can't 'set' your IVs per se, but if you're ever on netbattle,
you should do this. Or if you're ever breeding Jolteons, and you have a
choice between two, one with higher Attack IVs than the other, you know
which one to take.
Speed Boosters- Usually, if you have a pokemon that can use a speed-boosting
move like Dragon Dance or Agility to boost its speed in an effort to sweep
the opponent's team, you want to be able to outspeed the fastest common
pokemon in the metagame you are playing, after one speed boost. So, for
example, the fastest commonly used pokemon in the Full Advance metagame are
Jolteon and Aerodactyl, who have a top speed of 394. So if you have a
Salamence with Dragon Dance, you may want to get it to at least 264 speed to
beat these two. Of course, you could always go a bit higher to try and beat
other Dragon Dancers to it, or a bit lower to add to your defenses.
Gyarados, another good Dragon Dancer, could use 264 speed, but although if
it outspeeds Jolteon it will KO it with an Earthquake, Gyarados still cannot
defeat Aerodactyl even if it is faster. This is why many trainers opt to
trade down to 249 speed for their Gyaradi. Tyranitar is another story.
It's rather slow when compared to the other Dragon Dancers, maxing out at
221 speed (unless you have a +Spd nature [don't]), which only gets up to 331
after a single Dragon Dance, which isn't that fast. This is why many
trainers only give Tyranitar 200 to 202 speed, to beat almost any Salamence
after 1 Dragon Dance, and to beat EVERYTHING (short of Electrode) after 2
Dragon Dances. Metagross usually has about the same speed as Tyranitar,
but since it uses Agility instead of Dragon Dance, it only needs one free
turn to max out and beat everything. The many 'Salac sweepers', that is,
pokemon that use a Salac berry to max out their speed so they can sweep
either with Reversal or Swords Dance/Calm Mind, need 264 speed (just like
Salamence) so they can beat Jolteon and Aerodactyl after their Salac berry
activates.
Berries- Berries that activate 'in a pinch' (Salac, Liechi, etc.) are
activated when HP <=25%. There are a few ways of exploiting this. For
example, suppose you have a Charizard with 296 HP. You switch in on an
enemy Dugtrio using Earthquake. You aren't affected by the attack, and
you know the Dugtrio has a Choice Band, so it can't change moves. You
use Substitute while the opponent switches in Starmie. Your current HP
is now 222, exactly 3/4 of your maximum. Starmie, being faster than you,
uses Surf and breaks your Substitute, but you use Belly Drum to lose
exactly 1/2 of your maximum HP (148), so you are now at 74 HP, exactly 1/4
of your maximum. It would seem that you are in a bad position, being
slower than the enemy and having only 1/4 of your life left, but! You
were holding a Salac berry! Since you are now at exactly 1/4 of your life,
it activates, allowing you to outspeed the Starmie and sweep through the
opponent's team, being faster than them and having a Belly Drum to your
credit. This is one tactic that has gained some popularity in competitive
battling. Anyway, to use tactics that require a berry to activate after
using Substitute and Belly Drum, or three consecutive Substitutes, your
maximum HP has to be exactly a multiple of 4.
Note: In some versions of the game, and I'm not exactly sure how this
works, but it apparently used to be that these berries were activated
when your HP reached 50%. I want to say that this has something to do
with that 'berry program' that you may have heard about that gets
updated if you get the Colosseum bonus disc or trade with XD. I'm not
sure though. Anyway, don't email me saying 'In my game the berries
activate at 50% oh my gosh do I have a virus?'. No, you just have an old
game. If you want to tell me something I don't know about this then please
do so I can have better information for this guide.
Leftovers- Leftovers restore 1/16 of your max HP each turn. This is why
sometimes players put just enough EVs into HP to make the poke's final HP
a multiple of 16 (or a multiple of 16, plus one), to maximize the Leftovers
return without wasting EVs.
Seismic Tosses- At Level 100, Seismic Toss always does 100 damage. This
is used as Blissey's main attacking move, as well as some Dusclops.
Thus it follows that a few ways of exploiting this 100 damage have been
devised. Here are some:
1. 101 HP Subs: If a pokemon has at least 100 Base HP, it can create 101
HP Substitutes. Figure out why. Now a Substitute takes 1/4 of your max
HP and puts it into a Substitute, which takes the enemies' attacks. If
your Substitute has 101 HP, then it will TAKE TWO SEISMIC TOSSES TO
BREAK (because at Level 100, Seismic Toss does 100 damage). Which means
you can really smash in Blisseys and stuff. These are mainly used by
Tyranitar and Jirachi and sometimes Rhydon or Celebi or Vaporeon in
regular battling, but a LOT of ubers (Kyogre, Lugia, etc.) use them.
The well-known TyraniBoah moveset for Tyranitar uses a 101 HP Substitute
in conjuntion with Focus Punch to REALLY kill off Blisseys.
2. Leftovers: Leftovers give you back 1/16 of your max HP at the end of
each turn. So? So, you can set this so that you will have exactly 1 HP
after taking x Seismic Tosses (and then you get the Leftovers). Here's
a short list:
To live You need this
through: much maximum HP:
---------------------------------------------------------
3 tosses = 267 HP (17 HP per turn from Leftovers/2 turns)
4 tosses = 338 HP (21 HP per turn/3 turns)
5 tosses = 401 HP (25 HP per turn/4 turns)
6 tosses = 456 HP (29 HP per turn/5 turns)
For 267 HP, Metal Sound Magneton MIGHT use this... Possibly Alakazam as
well.
A lot of pokemon can use 338 HP. Anything with an HP base stat of close to
100 in HP that doesn't need significant amounts of speed EVs could try this.
Pokemon with at least base 100 HP, that don't use substitute, might want 401
HP. The big one that comes to mind is Suicune. More often though these
pokemon will use substitute and have 404 HP.
456 HP is not so much a practical HP to reach as a list filler. But if you
have something like Hariyama or Wigglytuff that has REALLY high HP, like a
Base Stat of 126 to 158, then you could use this to help against Blissey.
3. *01 HP: Just give yourself EVs to put your final HP equal to a
multiple of 100, plus one. This would be used if you didn't use
Leftovers, to survive one more Seismic Toss. 401 HP is notable because
it takes exactly 4 Seismic Tosses without Leftovers and exactly 5
Seismic Tosses with Leftovers.
/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3. How the game calculates damage ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/
=====================================================================
3a. The formula the game uses to calculate the damage from an attack
=====================================================================
Well, there are no mystery variables in this one *whew* so I'll just
give you the formula, and you should understand it just fine.
(((((( 2L / 5 ) + 2 ) * A * P ) / D ) / 50 ) + 2 ) * M * STAB * R / 255
where
L = the Level of the attacking pokemon
A = the effective applicable Attack power of the attacking pokemon
P = the effective Power of the move used
D = the effective applicable Defense of the pokemon hit by the attack
M = Multipliers, which means type advantages and nothing else
STAB = Same Type Attack Bonus. If you use a move with a pokemon which
is the same type as that pokemon, the damage goes up by 1.5x. So STAB
is equal to 1.5 when it applies and 1 when it does not apply.
R = a random number from 217 to 255 inclusive
Now when doing these formulas, you should round down this total:
( 2L / 5 ) + 2
and the totals that come after you divide by
D
and
50,
and the final total after
* M * STAB * R / 255.
Also, (and I didn't put this in the formula because it would make it too
confusing) if your total after dividing by 50 is more than 997, you take
997 instead of what you have. Your total will NEVER be more than 997
though unless you have something like a thrice Swords Danced Thick Club
Marowak using Earthquake on a Screech'd Alakazam or a Linoone Baton
Passing a Belly Drum + Salac to a Medicham with 2% HP who uses a Choice
Band Reversal on a Luvdisc.
Now that's all fine and dandy, you say, but I haven't said anything
about things like Choice Band or Rain Dance that raise the damage from
your moves. Things like this almost always fall under 'raising the stat
directly' or 'raising the power directly'. For example, for a Charcoal
on a pokemon using a Fire Blast, the effect in the formula would be that
instead of the normal power of 120 that Fire Blast usually has, the
Charcoal adds 10% to make the 'effective' power 132. Here's a short
list of things that raise your damage and where they go in the formula:
~
Charcoal/Mystic Water/Miracle Seed/etc - Add 10% to the power of the
(type X)-move in question
Sunny Day - Add 50% to the power of the Fire-move in question and
cut 50% from the power of the Water-move in question
Rain Dance - Add 50% to the power of the Water-move in question and
cut 50% from the power of the Fire-move in question
Choice Band - Add 50% to the ATTACK stat of the holder (NOT Special Attack)
Reflect - Cut 50% from the ATTACK stat of the offending pokemon
Light Screen - Cut 50% from the SP. ATK stat of the offending pokemon
Helping Hand - Add 50% to the power of the move your partner is using
(assuming it's an offensive move, it doesn't matter what attack type it is)
Mud Sport - Cut 50% from the power of any Electric-move used by anyone on
the field (assuming the user of Mud Sport is still on the field).
Water Sport - Cut 50% from the power of the Fire-move used by anyone on the
field (assuming the user of Water Sport is still on the field).
Charge - Doubles the power of your Electric-move, assuming you used Charge
last turn.
~
When you raise/lower these powers/stats, round your product DOWN. Choice
Band on a pokemon with 405 Attack raises its Attack to 607.5, which is
rounded down to 607.
===============================
3b. The offense vs. the defense
===============================
Now this is a fundamental concept for higher-level play, so listen up.
THE GRAPH OF THE HP DAMAGE OF AN ATTACK WITH RELATION TO THE TARGET'S
DEFENSE IS A HYPERBOLA
high
H | ,
P |
|
D | *
A |
M | ,
A | ,
G | *
E | *
| *
| *
| * .
0------------------------high
Defense of the target
THE GRAPH OF THE HP DAMAGE OF AN ATTACK WITH RELATION TO THE ATTACKER'S
ATTACK POWER IS A LINE
high
H |
P |
|
D |
A |
M |
A | *
G | *
E | *
| *
| *
| *
|*
0------------------------high
Attack of the offender
That is, a point in attack is a point in attack, no matter how high the
attack stat is. However, a point in a low defense is worth more than a
point in a high HP, and vice versa.
You don't understand?
What I mean is that one stat point in attack is worth the same HP damage
whether placed in a high or low stat, but one PERCENTAGE point in
defense is worth the same whether placed in a high or low stat. So 35
stat points added to an Attack stat of 70 adds the same HP damage to the
attack as adding 35 stat points to an Attack stat of 245, when attacking the
same pokemon with the same move. But 35 stat points added to a DEFENSE stat
(by which I mean HP or either Defense) of 245 is only worth 10 stat points
added to a defense stat of 70.
So what does this matter? Well I'll tell you. If you're Skarmory and
you want to defend against physical attacks, and your HP is 200 and your
Defense is 300, then putting all your EVs into HP would do more good
than in Defense, simply because the Defense is already higher. If you're
Blissey and you want to defend against physical Attacks, and your HP is
600 and your Defense is 40, then you'll want to put them all in Defense.
If you're Swampert and you want to defend against BOTH types of attacks,
you'd want to put everything into HP UNTIL THE POINT THAT THE HP IS
HIGHER THAN THE SUM OF THE DEFENSES. After that, one point in each
defense is better than two points in HP.
So the main thing to take out of this is that whichever defensive stat
is higher, HP or Defense, raise the lower one first. But if you want to
defend against both types of attacks, well, look at this.
Swampert
(physical side) (special side)
341 HP 341 HP
216 Defense 216 Sp. Def
So there is your defensive stats. Now, let's assume you have 240 EVs to
blow and you want to stick them in his defenses. You can either:
(A) split the EVs between the two defenses
(B) stick all the EVs in HP
If you take (A), the result is:
341 HP 341 HP
246 Defense 246 Sp. Def
That's 30 extra points in each defense. If, on the other hand, you go
with (B), you get:
401 HP 401 HP
216 Defense 216 Sp. Def
That's 60 extra points in HP. So which would you rather have, 60 points
in HP or 30 points in Defense? Until your HP is twice as high as your
defense, 2 points in HP is worth more than 1 in defense. So there's
something to think about.
Remember though, this is only if you want to cover both defenses equally.
If you only care about defeding against physical attacks, then putting
all 240 EVs into your lower physical defense would certainly do more than
putting them in HP.
Another thing to remember is that the addition of EVs can change which stat
is higher, and thus, which stat to put EVs in. If your HP is 300 and your
Defense if 280, after putting 84 EVs in Defense, your Defense is now higher
than your HP, and you should be putting EVs into HP!
=================
3d. Solving for X
=================
Now let's work out one of these damage formulas step-by-step. Hmm...
what's an interesting hit? How about Medicham Reversal against Weezing?
What we need to know before we start is:
Medicham's Attack stat
Weezing's Defense stat
Weezing's HP
Always calculate hits in percentages of the defender's HP!
Also we need the level of Medicham, the power of Reversal, and whether
or not Medicham has any offensive modifiers or Weezing has any defensive
modifiers, but usually these are assumed to be Lv.100, Power 200, and
none respectively.
Now let's post the formula to remind our viewers:
(((((( 2L / 5 ) + 2 ) * A * P ) / D ) / 50 ) + 2 ) * M * STAB * R / 255
Alright, assuming an Adamant Medicham, with maximum EVs/IVs in Attack,
his attack stat after Pure Power (which doubles effective attack during
battle) is 480. So the first part of the formula, the offensive part,
((((( 2L / 5 ) + 2 ) * A * P ), is equal to
42 (this is [2L/5 + 2] at level 100) * 480 * 200 (the power of Reversal)
which equals 4032000. I don't have to tell you that's incredibly high.
((( 4032000 / D ) / 50 ) + 2 ) * M * STAB * R / 255 =
Anyway, now we're set to divide by the defense of Weezing. Good thing
Weezing isn't the average pokemon. Assuming Weezing has 334 HP and 345
defense (the stats I like on Weezing), after you divide by the defense
you're left with 11686.956. This rounds down to 11686.
((( 4032000 / 345 ) / 50 ) + 2 ) * M * STAB * R / 255 =
(( 11686 / 50 ) + 2 ) * M * STAB * R / 255 =
Now we divide by 50. This equals 233.72, which is rounded down to 233.
(( 11686 / 50 ) + 2 ) * M * STAB * R / 255 =
( 233 + 2 ) * M * STAB * R / 255 =
Now we add 2 to get 235.
( 233 + 2 ) * M * STAB * R / 255 =
235 * M * STAB * R / 255.
So 235 is our 'base' damage. Now we just need to find the effect of the
multipliers.
First of all, Weezing resists fighting. That brings the damage down
to 117.5 (by cutting it in half; that's what a resistance does). This is
rounded down to 117.
Now we apply STAB, if it is applicable. It is, since Medicham is a Fighting
type, and Reversal is a Fighting move, so we multiply 117 by 1.5 to get
175.5, which rounds down to 175.
Finally we apply R. Remember R? It's a random number from 217 to 255,
which is immediately divided by 255. Now what R number we apply depends
on what point of view we are calculating from: If we want OUR Weezing to
survive the Reversal no matter what R number, we would usually assume
max damage. If WE have the Medicham, and want to consistently kill the
enemy, we should probably assume minimum damage. But from a completely
neutral standpoint, we are going to assume average damage. 175 times
236/255 (average R) equals 161.960. This rounds down to 161, and we
have our final average damage.
161 HP out of Weezing's 334 brings him down to 173 HP. In percentages,
Weezing takes 48.2% damage 'on average'.
Now we would apply Leftovers if they were applicable. (Leftovers
restores to the holder 1/16 of their maximum HP) This Weezing has
334 HP, and since 1/16 of 334 equals 20.875, Weezing gets 20 HP back
in Leftovers recovery. This means that this Weezing will easily take
two average damage Medicham Reversals, and even two max damage Reversals
will leave him with 4 HP after Leftovers (assuming he has 334 HP and 345
Defense).
A quick note: Some websites have *slightly* different damage formulas,
the main differences being where to round down and where to put things
like STAB and Choice Band. I have included the information that I
believe to be correct, but depending on round downs and placement of
boosters, a normal calculation may be off by as many as ten points. It
probably won't make much of a difference, but you might get screwed
someday, and I don't want anyone cussing me out because they lost a big
battle over faulty information in my guide.
====================
3e. Confusion Damage
====================
It really sucks when you hit yourself in confusion, no? Well, if you ever
cared how that damage is calculated, here's how.
It's exactly the same as a standard damage calculation, but you use your
own level, physical defense, and physical attack. The power of the
'move' you hit yourself with is 40.
That's all. So if you have like a Regice or Alakazam or something, you
know, that doesn't use any physical attacks, it's always a good idea to
get their Attack as low as possible to minimize confusion damage.
===============
3f. Other Stuff
===============
A list of stat modifiers is in order now. This is for MOVES that boost
or lower your stats ONLY. Other stuff, like Choice Band or Swift Swim,
have their own effects independent from the pokemon's stat boosts. That
is, Swift Swim doubles your speed in rain. If you have one Agility
already, then since +2 speed from Agility = 2x speed, and Swift Swim =
2x speed, then after both you'll have 4x speed, whereas two Agilitys
will only get you 3x speed.
[Stats] Multiplier | [Acc. & Evade] Multiplier
------------------------------------------------------------------
+6 8/2, or 4 | +6 9/3, or 3
+5 7/2, or 3.5 | +5 8/3, or 2.66
+4 6/2, or 3 | +4 7/3, or 2.33
+3 5/2, or 2.5 | +3 6/3, or 2
+2 4/2, or 2 | +2 5/3, or 1.66
+1 3/2, or 1.5 | +1 4/3, or 1.33
0 2/2, or 1 | 0 3/3, or 1
-1 2/3, or .66 | -1 3/4, or .75
-2 2/4, or .5 | -2 3/5, or .6
-3 2/5, or .4 | -3 3/6, or .5
-4 2/6, or .33 | -4 3/7, or .428571
-5 2/7, or .285714 | -5 3/8, or .375
-6 2/8, or .25 | -6 3/9, or .33
If a move says "X stat rose!" or "Y stat fell!" then it changes it by
one stage. If the words "Sharply" or "Harshly" are used, then it has
been changed by two stages. Belly Drum MAXES OUT ATTACK, so you will go
automatically to the +6 rung no matter where you are on the ladder.
Now remember, these boosts change your STAT. They do not go under the
'multipliers' section of the formula. If your stat is changed to a decimal
number by these or any kind of modifiers, round down your product to the
next lowest integer.
Also, Burn and Paralysis do not use this ladder. Burn cuts the burned
one's Attack in half (as opposed to lowering it by one stage per turn as
some guides have claimed), and Paralysis quarters the paralyzed one's
Speed.
~~~~~
On a completely different note, take a look at my in-game Swampert:
Swampert
-Earthquake
-Ice Beam
-Substitute
-Focus Punch
Alright. You all know that Earthquake is a Power 100 Ground move, and
that Focus Punch is a Power 150 Fighting move. You also know that
Swampert gets STAB on Earthquake. STAB is equal to 1.5x, so it follows
that Earthquake for all practical purposes is power 150, equal to Focus
Punch. Right...?
Wrong. Let's have one more look at that damage formula.
((((((2L/5)+2)*A*P*B)/D)/50) +2 )*M*STAB*(R/255)
STAB APPLIES TO THE +2 AS WELL. This means that for Earthquake, it's
not +2, it's +3. And Focus Punch still has +2. This means that a
STABed Earthquake will always do exactly 1 more damage than an unSTABed
Focus Punch. Just for your greedy information grubbing brain.
By the way, don't actually use that moveset, it sucks.
/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 4. Applications ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/
================
4a. EV spreading
================
Well now I'm gonna get medieval on you. Kick it to the old school beat
of your favorite crazi tunes as I show you how to spread EVs with a
purpose (as in finding the minimum EVs needed to survive X attack from Y
enemy pokemon, while not having to rely on a damage calculator for
assistance).
EV spreading is deciding how to distribute your 510 EVs across your six
stats, keeping in mind that four EVs equal one stat point at level 100,
for your pokemon's maximum battle effectiveness.
First I'll show you how to spread to survive a specific hit.
The first thing you should know (and I think I've said this) is that
whichever is higher, HP or Def/Sp.Def, raising the lower one by x amount
is always worth more living power in that stat than raising the higher
one. For example, maxing out Hariyama's Sp.Def will go a lot further
than maxing his HP as far as defending against special attacks are
concerned. But Dusclops wants more HP than Defense for defending
against physical attacks. This is the first rule of defensive
spreading.
Technically you want your HP to be 2 points higher than your given
defense, if you can get it; 300 HP and 300 Defense, for example, does
not offer *quite* as much protection as 301 HP and 299 Defense. This is
because of the +2 that comes after dividing by the target's defense in
the damage formula. I could prove it, but it would just take up a lot
more of your time. On a related note, having your HP 1 point higher than
your defense has exactly the same effect as having your HP 3 points
higher (300 HP and 299 Defense versus 301 HP and 298 Defense), but the
extra points in HP also go toward the other defense, so having 3 points
more HP is better.
If you want to defend against both types of attacks (and this is
assuming you have the same Defense as Sp.Def) and you have X EVs left to
spread across your defenses, putting all X EVs into HP will do more for
your total staying power than putting X/2 EVs into each defense, UNTIL
the point at which your HP is higher than 2 times a given defense. That
is, putting 2 stat points in HP is worth more than putting 1 stat point
in each Defense, as far as defending against physical OR special attacks
goes.
The second rule of defensive spreading is to plan to defend against
specific moves from specific (and hopefully common) pokemon who have
specific (or 'standard') EV spreads. For example, it does no good to
say "I'll find out how much defense I need to survive a power 75
physical attack from a pokemon with 350 Attack" as how many pokemon have
exactly 350 Attack and commonly use a power 75 physical move? You
should plan to survive a strong hit from a pokemon which you can beat.
For example, Snorlax might plan to survive a couple of Focus Punches
from Gengar, as this is a pokemon which can be easily KO'd by Snorlax's
Shadow Ball. If, on the other hand, you choose to use Earthquake
instead of Shadow Ball on your Snorlax, it would do no good to plan to
survive Gengar, because you still couldn't hit him back.
The more common the pokemon you spread to beat, the better. Another
point to remember is to choose according to your team. For example, you
wouldn't worry about whether your Dusclops can take a Slaking assault if
you already had Weezing and Skarmory in the wings, would you?
Let's work an example. How about finding what EVs Zapdos needs to be able
to live through a Rock Slide coming from a Metagross wearing a Choice Band?
We'll assume that this Metagross has 252 EVs and 31 IVs in Attack and has
an Adamant nature (+Attack, -Sp.Atk). (This is the absolute highest Attack
any Metagross can ever have. I like to call this kind of stat 'supermax',
but whatever. The point of using the highest attack stat possible for the
enemy is so you can ensure that in NO case [barring any Critical Hits] will
you ever be ohko'd by this attack.)
Now I have found a method for finding the most efficient EV spread to take
a hit. It's kind of complicated, so listen up.
First I take the damage formula.
((((42 * A * P) / D ) / 50 ) + 2) * M = (HP - 1)
I set it up so that the maximum damage of the attack is one less than
my HP (I don't know what my HP is yet either). That is, if I want to
live through only one hit. If I want to live through two, or three, or
X hits, then I should set the maximum damage of the attack equal to
(HP - 1) / X.
Next I find the offensive product, (42*A*P), and leave myself with this:
(((Offensive product / D) / 50 ) + 2 ) * M = (HP - 1) / X
Now, at this point, I usually divide by 50 and just skip dividing by D
for now. Doing it this way might not end up being EXACTLY correct, but
worst-case scenario, you're off by a couple of points, which is probably
going to happen anyway. Plus the convenience factor and the fact that
getting rid of that 50 simplifies the problem considerably.
I'm going to call (42*A*P)/50 the Offensive quotient for the rest of this
example.
((Offensive quotient / D) + 2) * M = (HP - 1) / X
Now I find what the M, the multipliers, are (including STAB), and I
apply it. That is, I multiply the Offensive quotient by M, as well as
the constant 2. Then, if I have divided the (HP - 1) on the right-hand side
by anything (X), I multiply both sides by that number.
((Offensive quotient * M * X / D) + 2MX) = (HP - 1)
Now at this point, 2MX is usually equal to 2, 3, 4, or 6. I now subtract
both sides by 2MX to get
Offensive product * M * X / D = (HP - (1 + 2MX))
So on the right side, now I usually have [HP - 3], [HP - 4], [HP - 5],
or [HP - 7]. On the left side, I have a really big number in [Offensive
product * M * X], divided by D, my ideal Defense, which I don't know what
is. Now I multiply both sides by D to get
Offensive Product * M * X = (HP - (1 + 2MX)) * D
Now I know, from the rules of defensive spreading, that I want
(HP - (1 + 2MX))
to be as close to D as possible, even equal to it. So I take the SQUARE
ROOT of (Offensive product * M * X), and round up, and make that equal to
both (D) and (HP - (1 + 2M)). So I now know D, my ideal Defense, and all I
have to do is find my ideal HP, which is (1 + 2M) higher than D. If you
find that either of these ideal values, HP or Defense, is actually lower
than your pokemon's minimum in that stat, then just go back to the last
formula and assign your pokemon's minimum value to the correct stat and
divide both sides by it to find the other stat. I use this method all the
time, and it has always put me at least within a few points of my ideal
stats. Just remember that this method will NOT always find your exact ideal
stats, but it will be close.
To check your result, which I do recommend doing, you should just run a
standard damage calculation and set your HP and Defense equal to whatever
you got as a result from the above method, and ensure that you can
(A) Live through the hits you set out to live through, and
(B) Make sure you're not taking the hit TOO well (living with more than
2-3 HP after taking a move that you didn't need to live through with more
than 1 HP), which is a sign that you have invested a bit too many EVs.
This will ensure that you and the formula are functioning properly and
aren't wasting EVs or using too few. I always always check my result,
unless I forget.
Now back to our example. We want our (level 100) Zapdos to always be able
to live through a Metagross's Rock Slide, even when he is wearing a Choice
Band. So first of all, we need to know the base stats of the pokemon in
question. Metagross has a base stat of 135 in Attack, and Zapdos has base
stats of 90 in HP and 85 in Defense. We want to survive a Rock Slide from
ANY Metagross, so we're going to assume the one we're facing is Adamant and
has 252 EVs and 31 IVs in Attack. This means his Attack will be 405 before
Choice Band, which is 607 after.
The first thing to do is to set up the damage formula for our particular
situation. We only need to live through one Rock Slide, so
((((42 * A * P) / D) / 50) + 2) * M = (HP - 1) =
((((42 * 607 * 75) / D) / 50) + 2) * M = (HP - 1)
The first thing to do is to multiply all those numbers together. They equal
1912050.
((((1912050) / D) / 50) + 2) * M = (HP - 1)
Now we divide 1912050 by 50. This equals 38241.
((38241 / D) + 2) * M = (HP - 1)
Now comes the time to find the M, the Multipliers. Rock Slide is super
effective against Zapdos, so M equals 2. We'll apply that now:
((38241 / D) + 2) * 2 = (HP - 1)
(76482 / D) + 4 = (HP - 1)
76482 / D = (HP - 5)
Now we multiply both sides by D...
76482 = (HP - 5) * D
...and now we know, from the rules of defensive spreading, that we want
(HP - 5) and D to be equal. So we find the square root of 76482, which
is 276.55, and round up to 277.
277 = (HP - 5) = D
HP = 282
Defense = 277
However, Zapdos has 90 base HP. This means that Zapdos has a minimum of 321
HP when it has 31 IVs. So, we reset the formula,
76482 = (HP - 5) * D
76482 = (321 - 5) * D
76482 = 316 * D
76482 / 316 = D
238.2 = D
and find that if we have at least 239 Defense, we can survive this hit.
HP = 321
Defense = 239
Since Zapdos has a base stat of 85 in defense, it has a minimum of 206
Defense. From 239 to 206 is 33 stat points, or 132 EVs. So if this method
is correct, then we know the EVs we need to survive this hit. However, I
really never trust this method to be 100% accurate. Therefore I always
check my results by running a standard damage calculation to check if my
results are correct. Checking the results of this calculation, I find that
with 239 Defense, the maximum damage from a Metagross Rock Slide is 324.
Oops. Trial and error from this point finds that the actual Defense needed
to take less than 321 damage from this hit is 241, two more stat points and
eight more EVs than indicated by the method.
So any Zapdos with 31 IVs in both HP and Defense can survive a Rock Slide
from any Metagross, regardless of its IVs, EVs, Nature, or even if it has a
Choice Band or not, as long as it has at least 138 EVs placed in its
physical defense. Now, there are other ways to reach this selected goal of
defense, but the main thing to remember is that whatever combination of HP
and defense EVs you use, they must make your final stats such that you can
live through the Rock Slide. For example, Zapdos might not use any Defense
EVs at all. It could simply max out its HP to get the same result, as well
as adding HP for the special side of its defenses. So you can either use
less EVs to get your desired result on the physical side, or use more EVs to
get the same result on the physical side, and a bonus on the special side,
not to mention having more Leftovers recovery. The trade is in the amount
of EVs you have to use.
Another thing that is VERY IMPORTANT to remember is that in most cases
ingame and in some cases online, your HP and Defense IVs may not be perfect.
This is especially true with Zapdos, who almost always uses either Hidden
Power Ice or Hidden Power Grass, and some IV combinations of those force you
to use an IV of 30 instead of 31 for HP or Defense. So you have to take
into account your defensive IVs with the pokemon you are spreading for,
because if you don't, your EV spread may be rendered useless.
~
To spread offensively, you pretty much do the same thing as spreading
defensively, just the other way. You pick a pokemon you want to get
past, assign a convenient value to their HP and appropriate defense, and
see how much attack you are going to need to get past them. The only
difference is that you'll need to use the minimum R value when spreading
offensively, since you want to KO the enemy no matter what your random R
value turns out to be.
~
Sorry if this section was confusing for you.
/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 5. Finding your IVs In-Game ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/
Note: For ANY method of finding your IVs, you have to know your
pokemon's base stats. So check a base stats guide for your pokemon's
base stats.
Alright, you've read my ranting about how to breed pokemon to get good
IVs, and you want to know how to test your pokemon's IVs so you can get
started. Well, this section will show you how.
====================
5a. Finding your EVs
====================
To find your IVs in-game, you're first going to have to find your EVs.
There are a couple of ways to do this, and if you can be innovative and
have a little patience you shouldn't have much trouble with this.
Obviously, if the pokemon has never been in a battle, it doesn't have
any EVs. So if you just hatched the pokemon from an egg, for example,
you can skip this part.
But if you are going to check the IVs of a pokemon which you have used,
you have to know its EVs. One way of doing this is to reduce its EVs to
zero by using those Emerald stat reducing berries I told you about.
If you don't have Emerald though, then obviously this won't work. Now
if you have EVs which you don't know what are, and you can't cancel them
out, then chances are, you're not going to care what its IVs are. But
if you do, there is one other way that I can think of. Save, and give
the pokemon vitamins in its stats until you can give no more. Restart,
and give the pokemon one more EV in each stat (through a pokemon
battle), then repeat with the vitamins. Keep going until the number of
vitamins it takes in any given stat is one less than when you started.
Since you can't give a pokemon a vitamin if it already has 100 or more
EVs, then when the number of vitamins you can give goes down by one, you
know you now have an EV value of Something * 10. It will be apparent
what Something is depending on how many vitamins the pokemon will take.
Of course, this won't work if you already have 100 or more EVs in one or
more stats.
These are just a couple of ways off the top of my head on how to find
your EVs. I'm sure there are others, so just be innovative. If you have
a pokemon with whom you can't find its EVs period, then I would simply
not use that pokemon.
Now we can talk about actually finding your IVs.
===================================
5b. A method involving Rare Candies
===================================
Here is one way to find your IVs:
1. get lots of Rare Candies
2. save
3. level up your pokemon with the Rare Candies, preferably to a round
number such as 15 or 20, or 40 or 50 if you can manage it.
4. find what the pokemon would have in all of its stats if it had 0 IVs
using this formula:
( ( ( 2 * BS ) + ( EV / 4 ) ) * L / 100 ) + 5
where BS equals the Basestat of the pokemon in that stat, EV equals EVs,
and L equals the level of the pokemon. These are your '0 IV' stats.
5. HP uses a different formula:
( ( ( 2 * BS ) + ( EV / 4 ) ) * L / 100 ) + 10 + L
6. Determine what your pokemon's actual nature-modified stats would be
had they not been changed. Modest with 51 in Attack and 92 in Sp.Atk,
if they had not been changed, would be 57 in Attack and 84 in Sp.Atk.
Pretend these are your actual stats.
7. Compare the 0 IV stats with your actual stats:
Actual stat - 0 IV stat
8. take these differences and for each difference,
diff * 100 / L
This number is your minimum IV value in the stat you calculated for.
9. Repeat for the other five stats (if you care about them; you don't
need to find Slowbro's Attack if you don't plan on giving it any
physical attacks).
10. Once you have found your IVs in all six stats, shut off the game
without saving to conserve your Rare Candies for another pokemon.
The margin of error in this method is +#, where # is equal to (100/L),
minus one. For example, at Level 50, 100/L = 100/50 = 2, minus 1 = 1 so
the margin of error is +1, meaning that you could have up to 1 more IV
than you calculated. At level 12, 100/L = 100/12 = 8.33333, minus 1 =
7.33333, so the MOE is +7.33333, so you could have up to 7.333 more IVs
than calculated. This is why you need the Rare Candies; The higher the
pokemon's level, the less the margin of error.
======================
5c. Why this way works
======================
Okay. Here's the stat formula, if you have no EVs:
( ( ( 2BS + IV ) * L / 100 ) + 5 ) * P
This formula must represent your actual stat, since every stat is
represented by the stat formula. Now, if you have no IVs, the formula
becomes
( ( 2BS * L / 100 ) + 5 ) * P.
So, the first formula represents your stat with IVs, and the second
formula is your stat with no IVs. Now, watch this.
( ( ( 2BS + IV ) * L / 100 ) + 5 ) * P =
( ( 2BS * L / 100 ) + ( IV * L / 100 ) + 5 ) * P
because of the distributive property. So the formula with IVs becomes
( ( 2BS * L / 100 ) + ( IV * L / 100 ) + 5 ) * P
and without IVs is
( ( 2BS * L / 100 ) + 5 ) * P.
So, the first thing you were to do was to level up your pokemon to
minimize the margin of error. Then you were to find out what your
nature modified stats would have been had they not been nature modified.
This serves the purpose of eliminating the P from the formulas.
( ( 2BS * L / 100 ) + ( IV * L / 100) + 5 )
( ( 2BS * L / 100 ) + 5 )
THEN you should have subtracted the result you got after calculating the
bottom formula (your stat had it not had any IVs) from your actual stat
(represented by the top formula).
( ( 2BS * L / 100 ) + ( IV * L / 100 ) + 5 )
-( ( 2BS * L / 100 ) + 5 )
=============================================
( IV * L / 100 )
This subtraction results in the stat points that you have that are
purely IVs. All you need to do now is find how many IVs are in X stat
points at your current level.
IV * L / 100 = IV stat points (which will be abbreviated as SP), so
IV * L / 100 = SP (the 'difference' from earlier)
Now we need to isolate the variable. Multiplying both sides by 100,
IV * L = 100 * SP.
Dividing both sides by L,
IV = 100 * SP / L,
and now, just replace SP with whatever SP equals, and poof! there's your
IVs.
What if you have EVs, you ask? Well, assuming you know your EVs, have
ANOTHER look at the stat formula.
( ( ( 2BS + IV + ( EV / 4 ) ) * L/100 ) + 5 ) * P
The term involving the EVs gets the L/100 distibuted to it too, so
( ( 2BS * L / 100 ) + ( IV * L / 100 ) + ( EV * L / 400 ) + 5 ) * P
So basically doing the same process, the first thing to do is still to
eliminate the P by altering the nature modified stats to what they would
have been had they not been modified.
( 2BS * L / 100 ) + ( IV * L / 100 ) + ( EV * L / 400 ) + 5
Now, subtract your zero IV zero EV stat from your actual stat:
( ( 2BS*L/100 + IV*L/100 + EV*L/400 ) + 5 )
-( ( 2BS*L/100 ) + 5 )
--------------------------------------------
IV*L/100 + EV*L/400
so instead of getting just the stat points caused by IVs, you get the
stat points caused by EVs as well as IVs. If you know your EVs, it's no
problem, just set EV in the formula equal to the number of EVs in that
stat, and set the whole thing equal to your actual stat, and figure out
your IVs. If you DON'T know your EVs, well, you're screwed. But you
can only have up to 31 IVs and 252 EVs, and if you're smart you can use
that to get an idea of your IVs (For example, if you have 83 total stat
points from EVs and IVs at level 100, you know you have at least 20 IVs.
Since you can only have 63 stat points from EVs in any one stat, then at
least 20 of your 83 stat points must be from IVs.)
MY POKEMON'S 0 IV 0 EV STAT IS A DECIMAL NUMBER. WHAT DO I DO NOW?
Don't worry, this is common. Just go through the processes like normal,
except keeping the decimal. DON'T ROUND AWAY THE DECIMAL!!! Suppose
for example your 0 IV stat (at level 5) is 10.5, and your actual stat is
11. Since your actual stat could be anything from 11 to 11.9999999, the
difference between your actual stat and your 0 IV stat could be anything
from 0.5 to 1.49999999. Now at level five, 0.5 stat points corresponds
to 10 IVs, and 1.5 stat points equals 30 IVs. This means that you could
have any IV value from 10 to 29. If you had rounded away the decimal,
you would have calculated 20 to 31 IVs for yourself, a grievous error.
==================================
5d. My method involving vitamins
==================================
Note: This method is specifically for finding the IVs of newly-hatched
level 5 pokemon, in case you can't get your hands on 35 to 95 rare
candies. If you're looking to catch already leveled-up pokemon, such as
Mewtwo or Kyogre, then this method is not really necessary, unless you
need to be REALLY REALLY accurate, like if you absolutely MUST have a
certain Hidden Power. But I wrote this section for Level 5 pokemon with
no EVs, and if you have a pokemon of a different level, you'll have to
completely disregard most of it.
You see, when the game calculates your stats, it takes into account
Basestats, IVs, and EVs, then multiplies by L/100. Then it rounds down.
So if there is a very slight change in any of the stat variables (or
even a large change if the level is low enough), then sometimes the stat
won't change even though you've changed the variables. For example, you
know that 4 EVs at level 100 makes one stat point. But 3 EVs alone are
worthless. So you could just as easily have 0, 1, 2, or 3 lone EVs and
never know the difference because your visible stat stays the same.
However, if you get that fourth EV, even if you don't actually watch the
battle in which it was gained, you know it's there because you gained a
stat point. In the same way, at level five, 20 IVs (or 80 EVs) makes
one stat point. So you could just as easily have anywhere from 0-19 IVs
and never know which because your visible stat stays the same. Now, we
can't change IVs, so we can't just keep adding them until we gain a stat
point, so we're going to use EVs. More specifically, we're going to use
vitamins.
When you have 0 IVs and 0 EVs (and no nature effect), your stat is
always the same at the same level. The significance of this tool is
that it is the absolute lowest stat that the pokemon can reach without
having a negative nature effect. Now, this '0 IV' stat will not always be
an integer. 20 IVs or 80 EVs is one stat point, but it is EXACTLY one
stat point. If your 0 IV stat is 9.2, for example, and you have 20 IVs,
then the game will call your stat 10.2 (and you will see the stat as
10). You only have to have 16 IVs (64 EVs) to raise a 0 IV stat of 9.2
to an actual stat of 10.
If your 0 IV stat is 9.2, and you have exactly 3 IVs, then the game will
calculate your stat at 9.35 before rounding down. Now you'll still only
see your actual stat as 9. For all you know, you have 15 IVs and your
stat is 9.95 before rounding. You can't tell the difference between
different IV values that round down to the same stat point, because the
game still displays the same thing as your stat.
Now obviously you can't add to your IVs, but if we add to our EVs, then
we can actually tell something. See, one vitamin is worth 10 EVs, which
is worth exactly 2.5 IVs, 20 of which make one stat point. So if the
game calculates your stat as 9.35 before it rounds down (your 0 IV stat
being 9.2), and you give the pokemon 1 vitamin for that stat, the game
recalculates and puts the stat at 9.475. Another vitamin brings you to
9.6, then another puts you at 9.725, then at 9.85. Through all of this
your visible stat remains at 9. Another vitamin brings your stat up to
9.975. Now, one more vitamin puts you at 10.1. When the game
recalculates this time, your visible stat will be raised to 10. Now at
this point the facts become apparent. Before, you didn't know whether
the game had calculated your stat at 9.20 or 9.99 or anywhere in
between. All you knew was that it was rounded down to your visible stat
of 9. But now, you know several things. For one, you used 6 vitamins,
or a total of 0.75 stat points, to get to a visible stat of 10. Knowing
this, you can deduce that your original stat-before-rounding could not
have been less than 9.25, since if it was, the 0.75 of a stat point (the
six vitamins you gave) would not have sufficed to raise the visible stat
to 10. However, you also know that your original stat could not have
been more than 9.375, since if it were, then your stat would have raised
after the fifth vitamin, and you wouldn't have needed to give the sixth
vitamin.
Since you could only have had an original stat of between 9.25 and
9.375, it's time to lay out some charts.
9.2 <- Your 0 IV stat (the absolute lowest possible)
9.25 <- The bottom limit of your actual stats as determined by the vitamins
9.25 Your actual stat assuming it has 1 IV
9.3 Your actual stat assuming it has 2 IVs
9.35 Your actual stat assuming it has 3 IVs
9.375 <- The top limit of your actual stats as determined by the vitamins
9.4 Your actual stat assuming it has 4 IVs
From this chart it is clear that in this case, we can know that we
either have an IV value of 1, 2, or 3 in the stat that we're measuring.
So that's my method. The goal is to find a limited range of possible IV
values by using vitamins to slowly raise the calculated stat until the
visible stat goes up. But there are some other things you may need to
know to use this.
Let's assume you have a 0 IV stat of 9.2. Now, it obviously takes 16
IVs worth of IVs and EVs to reach a visible stat of 10. But what if you
are ALREADY at a visible stat of 10? Well, that's simple. It means you
have at least 16 IVs. So write down '16' off to the side, or remember
it, and move on. Now you have no need for the 0 IV stat, since its only
use was as a tool for accurate calculation, since your calculated stat
could not be lower than the 0 IV stat. So our new absolute minimum, or
'16 IV' stat, as it were, is 10. Since the game is TELLING us that we
have a stat of 10, we obviously can't be lower than that, can we?
So now we know that it takes 20 IVs worth of IVs and EVs to get from the
visible stat of 10 to the visible stat of 11. We also now that since we
already have 16 IVs, because we're at a stat of 10, that there are only
another 15 IVs to be had. So we'll give the vitamins, each worth 2.5
IVs, and hope that the stat rolls over to 11 soon, because the sooner it
goes, the more IVs it means we have. Since you can't have more than 15
IVs on this stat point, you know you're going to have to use at least 2
vitamins (= 5 IVs) to get your stat to roll over to 11.
Now this is an all-purpose chart designed to help. It's not always
applicable, but it usually has at least some use. It assumes that your
0 IV stat is an integer, which is true in about 50% of cases. (It actually
assumes your 0 IV stat is 10, but if your actual 0 IV stat is an integer,
you can just pretend it says [your 0 IV stat] instead of 10)
11.55 <- Your 31 IV stat (so your 0 IV stat is 10, let's assume)
11.5 30 IV
Having the above IVs will raise the visible stat to 12 after 4 vitamins
11.45 29 IV
11.40 28 IV
Having the above IVs will raise the visible stat to 12 after 5 vitamins
11.35 27 IV
11.30 26 IV
11.25 25 IV
Having the above IVs will raise the visible stat to 12 after 6 vitamins
11.20 24 IV
11.15 23 IV
Having the above IVs will raise the visible stat to 12 after 7 vitamins
11.10 22 IV
11.05 21 IV
11.00 <- Your 20 IV stat
Having the above IVs will raise the visible stat to 12 after 8 vitamins
10.95 19 IV
10.90 18 IV
Having the above IVs will raise the visible stat to 11 after 1 vitamin
10.85 17 IV
10.80 16 IV
10.75 15 IV
Having the above IVs will raise the visible stat to 11 after 2 vitamins
10.70 14 IV
10.65 13 IV
Having the above IVs will raise the visible stat to 11 after 3 vitamins
10.60 12 IV
10.55 11 IV
10.50 <- Your 10 IV stat
Having the above IVs will raise the visible stat to 11 after 4 vitamins
10.45 9 IV
10.40 8 IV
Having the above IVs will raise the visible stat to 11 after 5 vitamins
10.35 7 IV
10.30 6 IV
10.25 5 IV
Having the above IVs will raise the visible stat to 11 after 6 vitamins
10.20 4 IV
10.15 3 IV
Having the above IVs will raise the visible stat to 11 after 7 vitamins
10.10 2 IV
10.05 1 IV
10.00 <- Your 0 IV stat
Having the above IVs means you suck
Now, you will almost never run into a pokemon with a 0 IV stat of
exactly 10. But the chart does illustrate a point.
And there's the scheme of things for you. So a basic rundown would be:
(and I shouldn't have to mention that before you start, you should find
what your nature modified stats would be had they not been changed)
1. Find all 0 IV values for the stats you want to check the IVs of.
2. Find any pre-existing IVs that you know you have because your visible
stat is an integer above your 0 IV stat (you know you have at least 16
IVs when your visible stat is 10 and your 0 IV stat is 9.2). If there
are no pre-existing IVs (your visible stat is 9 and your 0 IV stat is
9.2), then move on.
3. Find the maximum number of IVs it would take to raise your visible
stat by one. If you have any pre-existing IVs, then this is 20, but if
your 0 IV stat is a decimal and your visible stat has the same integral
value, then it will be less than twenty (this minimum is 16 when your
visible stat is 9 and your 0 IV stat is 9.2). Basically, if your 0 IV
stat has a decimal at the end, take that decimal, multiply it by two, and
subtract the result from 20 to get the number of IVs your stat needs to
roll over. So 9.2 has a decimal of 2, multiply that by two to get four,
and subtract that from 20 to get 16.
4. Give the pokemon vitamins in the stat you're measuring until your
visible stat raises. Remember how many vitamins it took.
5. Use the data from step 4 to figure out your final total IVs.
Now I'll work one example for you. Let's say we have a Sunkern at level
5 with the following stats:
HP: 19
Attack: 8
Defense: 9
Sp.Atk: 10 (nature upped)
Sp.Def: 7 (nature dropped)
Speed: 9
(Sunkern has a basestat of 30 in each stat.)
First off, we cancel out the nature effects. So we pretend that our
Sp.Atk is 9 and our Sp.Def is 8.
For step 1, well, that's easy. The 0 IV stats of Sunkern are 18 in HP and
8 in every other stat.
For step 2, we can easily deduce the pre-existing IVs:
HP: 20
Attack: 0
Defense: 20
Sp.Atk: 20
Sp.Def: 0
Speed: 20
For step 3, since every 0 IV stat in this problem is an integer, we need
20 IVs worth of IVs and EVs to raise each of our current visible stats
to the next integral stat value.
Step 4 is the vitamin infusion stage. Let's just pretend that it took this
many vitamins to raise each of our visible stats to their next integer:
HP: 6 (20 pre-existing IVs)
Attack: 3 (0 pre-existing IVs)
Defense: 4 (20 pre-existing IVs)
Sp.Atk: 8 (20 pre-existing IVs)
Sp.Def: 8 (0 pre-existing IVs)
Speed: 5 (20 pre-existing IVs)
Step 5 is more counting than anything. Since it took 6 vitamins, or .75
of a stat point to raise the visible HP stat, then you know that your
actual stat before giving any vitamins was at least 18.25. You also know
that your actual stat could not have been 18.375 or higher, because if it
were, your stat would have only taken 5 vitamins to roll over. So, since
1 IV is worth .05 of a stat point, you know you have from 5 to 7 IVs on
this stat point. Add that to your pre-existing IVs, and your final IV
range for your HP is
25-27 IVs
for HP. Leaving the rest as practice for the reader, we get these IV
values:
HP: 25-27
Attack: 13-14
Defense: 30-31
Sp.Atk: 20-22
Sp.Def: 0-2
Speed: 28-29
Now I'd like to talk a bit about natures, since they can get tricky.
Say we have a pokemon with a stat of 356, and then it is nature upped.
What is the final stat? The correct way to find this is to add ten
percent. So upping 356 adds 35.6, not 35, not 36. So the final total
for this stat is 391.6. HOWEVER, this stat is then rounded down. So
you have a finished stat of 391.
For minused natures, same deal. 356, minused, is 356 - 35.6 = 320.4.
This is then rounded down for a final stat of 320.
So on a stat of 356, an upped nature gains you 35, but a minused nature
loses you 36.
Get it? Good.
So what if you know your finished stat, and what the nature does, but
you don't know what it was before it was nature altered (as happens 100%
of the time in-game)?
Well, let's say we have a finished Attack stat of 405 on a Salamence,
and we know it's Adamant, but what was it before it was upped?
The correct method in these cases is NOT to just subtract 10%. What you
have to do is find X such that
X * 1.1 = FinalStat.
This means that
X = FinalStat/1.1.
So to return to our example. 405/1.1 = 4050/11 = 368.181818, which is
the MINIMUM needed to get to 405 after a nature boost. That means that
368 won't get you to 405 after a nature boost. Which means that you
don't have 368. So you know you have 369.
Once again, same deal for minused natures. If you have a final Attack
stat of 121 on a Gengar, and you know your nature minuses Attack, but
you don't know what it was before it was minused, the correct procedure
is to divide the stat by 0.9. 121/0.9 = 1210/9 = 134.44444, so
134.44444 is the least you can have to stay at 121 or above after a
nature minus. This means that you have a pre-nature stat of 135.
So here's something tricky which may occasionally thwart you.
Let's say you have a minus nature which makes the minused stat nine,
then reversing the effect of the nature can either leave you with 10 OR
11 (10 - 1.0 = 9, 11 - 1.1 = 9.9 which is rounded down). Supposing you
have 0-19 IVs, then your stat would be 10 had it not been minused, so
after 8 vitamins it would go up to 11 which is still minused to 9. This
is really the only situation where this would happen. If you're clever
you can get around this (like you could just use 8 vitamins on the stat,
and if it doesn't roll over you know it's 10 and not 11) but more likely
it will screw you up. But why would you care about your IVs in a stat
with a minused nature anyway?
Another thing, about nature upped stats with this method. Except in the
case of a stat of 10 or 11 being minused to 9, natures do not affect
when the stat rolls over. Because the nature altered stat is a function
of the unchanged stat, when the stat changes, the the nature changed
stat changes as well. For example
20 (the stat were it not upped) * 1.1 = 22 (the visible stat)
When and only when the EVs become enough so that 20 rolls over to 21,
21 * 1.1 = 23
so they change at the same time.
Don't let it confuse you!
But didn't I say this would be extremely accurate? As in Hidden Power
calculatable? I think I did. Anyway, all you have to do is just go get
individual EVs by battling wild pokes. A vitamin is worth 2.5 IVs,
which is why there's a margin of error, but 4 EVs is equal to just 1 IV.
So all you need to do is find your range of IVs using vitamins, then
start over and give the pokemon one less vitamin than it takes to get
the stat to roll over. At this point it cannot take less than 10 EVs to
make the stat change. Now there's a bit of a sticky. Looking back up
at the big chart I showed you *looks up* sometimes with vitamins you'll
have a range of three possible IV values, while sometimes you'll only
have two possible. For example, having the stat roll over after two
vitamins can mean you have 15, 16 or 17 IVs, while if it takes three
vitamins, the IV is either 13 or 14. Now then,
-If the IV range is of three different values then the stat may roll
over after gaining 2, 6 or 10 additional EVs
2 means that you have the highest IV value of the three
6 means that you have the middle IV value of the three
10 means that you have the lowest IV value of the three
-If the IV range is of two different values then the stat may roll over
after 4 or 8 EVs
4 means that you have the higher of the two values
8 means that you have the lower of the two values
If you don't see why, then, just look at this.
IVs EVs needed to
raise the stat
from that IV
value (assuming
you have an
integral 0 IV
value)
--- --------------
19 needs 4 EVs
18 needs 8 EVs
17 needs 12 EVs (which is 2 EVs plus one vitamin)
16 needs 16 EVs (which is 6 EVs plus one vitamin)
15 needs 20 EVs (which is 10 EVs plus one vitamin)
14 needs 24 EVs (which is 4 EVs plus two vitamins)
13 needs 28 EVs (which is 8 EVs plus two vitamins)
12 needs 32 EVs (which is 2 EVs plus three vitamins)
11 needs 36 EVs (which is 6 EVs plus three vitamins)
10 needs 40 EVs (which is 10 EVs plus three vitamins)
9 needs 44 EVs (which is 4 EVs plus four vitamins)
8 needs 48 EVs (which is 8 EVs plus four vitamins)
7 needs 52 EVs (which is 2 EVs plus five vitamins)
6 needs 56 EVs (which is 6 EVs plus five vitamins)
5 needs 60 EVs (which is 10 EVs plus five vitamins)
4 needs 64 EVs (which is 4 EVs plus six vitamins)
3 needs 68 EVs (which is 8 EVs plus six vitamins)
2 needs 72 EVs (which is 2 EVs plus seven vitamins)
1 needs 76 EVs (which is 6 EVs plus seven vitamins)
0 needs 80 EVs (which is 10 EVs plus seven vitamins)
Do you see now? It's kind of hard not to :) What was hard to put into
words, a pattern shows beautifully.
Please note that:
1. If you level up while gaining individual EVs (by battling wild pokes)
then it kinda screws you up so take care about that. (hint: try
switching all six of your pokemon in to minimize the experience the
pokemon you're testing gets)
2. When fighting wild (or any) pokemon, the EVs are not immediately put
into the stat. They are put into a storehouse where they are kept until
you level up, at which point they are released as part of the level-up
gain. To release the EVs without leveling up, and force the game to
recalculate your stats, you have to put the pokemon in the PC. This is
what you should do whenever you reach an EV increment which could make
your stat roll over. (You don't have to do this with vitamins, I hope
that was clear.) Put simply, stick them in the box whenever you've
gotten enough EVs that there's a chance that your stat could raise.
Anyway if done properly this can let you know EXACTLY your IVs. Which
is admittedly only useful if you're a real freak, or if you need a
specific Hidden Power.
===============
5e. Other Stuff
===============
When hatching eggs, I find that very often, three values are all that
are necessary to determine at least whether an egg is worth IV testing
more in-depth. These are: 10 IVs = 0.5 stat points at level 5, 20 IVs =
1 stat point, and 30 IVs = 1.5 stat points. 95% of all pokemon have
level 5 0 IV stat values of (integer) or (integer.5), so everyone
attempting to hatch eggs, no matter what test method they use, should
know these conversions.
It should be possible to use Netbattle's Team Builder to help with these
IV calculations; I wouldn't know exactly how to use this, or what benefits
it might bring, except maybe to help people who aren't good at remembering
numbers, but I'm sure it could be useful somehow. Thanks to Darkestlight
for bringing this up.
/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 6. Hidden Power ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/
=======================
6a. Hidden Power's type
=======================
Type Formula
(T1 + T2 + T3 + T4 + T5 + T6)*15/63 = Type value
If your IV It's Which is
in this worth this worth this
stat is odd T-Value much
HP T1 1
Atk T2 2
Def T3 4
Spd T4 8
Sp.Atk T5 16
Sp.Def T6 32
(Yes, this is the correct order; The Speed IV is in 4th position, not
6th)
If any of these IVs are even, then their T-value is worth 0. Run your
IVs through the above formula, then compare the result with this chart to
find what type your Hidden Power is. Round EVERYTHING DOWN - 6.9 rounds
down to 6, 7.2 rounds down to seven, etc.
0 = Fighting
1 = Flying
2 = Poison
3 = Ground
4 = Rock
5 = Bug
6 = Ghost
7 = Steel
8 = Fire
9 = Water
10 = Grass
11 = Electric
12 = Psychic
13 = Ice
14 = Dragon
15 = Dark
So basically, all you do is add up all the values of the T-values, the sum
of which we can call the T-Total, and then multiply that by 15/63 and round
down to get an integer, and then compare your integer with the above chart
to find your Hidden Power's type. Pretty simple.
Note that the maximum possible T-total is 63, since 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 32
is 63. Now, since 63 * 15 / 63 equals 15, but any T-total less than 63
times 15 / 63 cannot reach 15 (because the answer is rounded down), then
it is technically harder to get a final integer of 15 than any other. It
probably won't matter though because getting an integer of 15 means you have
a Dark-type Hidden Power, which sucks as an attacking type anyway.
So let's say you have IVs of 16, 12, 30, 11, 17, 9 and you want to know
what type Hidden Power this is. Well, the first thing is to see which
ones are even and which are odd. The HP, Atk, and Def IVs are even, and
thus worth zero. The Spd, Sp.Atk, and Sp.Def IVs are odd. Their T-values
are respectively, 8, 16, and 32. So, the T-total is 56. Now, multiplying;
56*15/63 = 13.33333
which rounds to 13. On the chart, 13 is Ice, so we have an Ice type
Hidden Power. Lovely.
That's not really that hard. But doing it in reverse is slightly
harder, especially to explain :*
Say you would rather have a grass type Hidden Power, and you are willing to
breed pokemon as long as it takes to get one. What even-odd IV combos will
give us HP Grass? Well, you need the result of the formula to be from 10
to 10.999999 (because Grass is 10 on the chart, and you round the result
down). So this is a bit complicated:
To determine all the even-odd combos that will give us a Grass type
Hidden Power, we first need to determine what the possible range of the
T-totals are (to simplify matters). The range of the T-totals that will
give a formula result that corresponds to Hidden Power grass is equal to
10 <= (T1 + T2 + T3 + T4 + T5 + T6)*15/63 < 11.
Since 10 is the lower limit of the result of the formula, 11 is the upper
limit (even though 10.99999 is technically the limit, it "converges" at 11
and thus we can just run the calculations as though 11 were the limit,
keeping in mind that the Ts cannot actually be such that the result of the
formula is 11, because then it would be HP Electric).
So we know that we need the T-total to be such that the result of the
formula is greater than or equal to 10, but less than 11. Therefore, we
find the range of the possible T-totals that will give a HP Grass.
(T1 + T2 + T3 + T4 + T5 + T6)*15/63 = 10
(T1 + T2 + T3 + T4 + T5 + T6)*15 = 63*10 = 630
(T1 + T2 + T3 + T4 + T5 + T6) = 630/15 = 42
(T1 + T2 + T3 + T4 + T5 + T6) = 42
This means that the lowest possible sum of the T-values is 42, if we want a
Hidden Power Grass. Next, we find the highest limit.
(T1 + T2 + T3 + T4 + T5 + T6)*15/63 = 11
(T1 + T2 + T3 + T4 + T5 + T6)*15 = 11*63 = 696
(T1 + T2 + T3 + T4 + T5 + T6) = 696/15 = 46.2
(T1 + T2 + T3 + T4 + T5 + T6) = 46.2
So the range of the sum of the Ts, the T-total, is 42 - 46.2, for HP Grass.
We set out originally to find all of the even-odd combos for our IVs that
would give a Hidden Power Grass. So, we need to find all of the even-odd
IV combos that will result in the T-total being between 42 and 46.2. Note
that the T-total is always an integer, so we have 5 possible totals: 42, 43,
44, 45, and 46. Now we just need to find what these mean in binary. Do you
know what binary is? If not, go ask someone who does. Anyway, all you need
to do is find the binary expressions of these numbers (42 through 46). They
happen to be
101010 = 42
101011 = 43
101100 = 44
101101 = 45
101110 = 46.
Now apply these binary numbers to your six IVs. The 32's digit, the first
number on the left, represents your Special Defense IV. The 1's digit, the
first number on the right, represents your HP IV. Now, if the binary digit
representing a given IV is 1, that IV must be odd, and thus activated. If
the binary digit representing a given IV is 0, that IV must be even, and
thus not activated.
So five possibilities present themself:
Stat A B C D E
------------------------------------ Even=0
HP Even Odd Even Odd Even - Odd=1 for this row
Atk Odd Even Even Odd Odd - Odd=2 for this row
Def Odd Odd Odd Even Even - Odd=4 for this row
Spd Odd Odd Odd Odd Odd - Odd=8 for this row
Sp.Atk Even Even Even Even Even - Odd=16 for this row
Sp.Def Odd Odd Odd Odd Odd - Odd=32 for this row
------------------------------------
Totals 46 45 44 43 42
So finally we have all the even-odd combos. All Hidden Power Grasses
have one of these even-odd IV combos. Of course it takes less time to
actually do this than it does to read about it.
On a side note, it may be useless to find your Hidden Power type from your
IVs in-game, since you can always just go fight several wild pokemon of
different types to find it (or a single Kecleon), but this formula has
another use. You can actually find your IVs from your Hidden Power type.
See, if you have narrowed down your possible IVs to a range of 2 ('level 50'
accuracy), for example a range of 26-27, then if by using this formula in
reverse you determine that that IV value must be either even or odd because
of the type of your Hidden Power, then you know your IV exactly. So if you
have worked out that you either have an IV value of 26 or 27 in Special
Defense, and you know because of your Hidden Power type that your Special
Defense IV must be odd, then you know your IV in Special Defense must be 27.
This can help to find the exact power of your Hidden Power as well.
========================
6b. Hidden Power's power
========================
And now, the more important part of this section, the power section.
(P1 + P2 + P3 + P4 + P5 + P6) * 40/63 + 30
The Ps act exactly like the Ts, except in activation. To activate a
P, its corresponding stat IV must have a remainder of two or three,
after being divided by four. So, for example, an IV of six activates its P
because 6/4 = 1, remainder two. So basically, these IV values activate
their Ps
2 3 6 7 10 11 14 15 18 19 22 23 26 27 30 31
and the rest don't. You want as many Ps activated here as possible
because the number that comes out of the formula is the power of your
Hidden Power (there's no chart like with the types). Looking at the
formula,
(P1 + P2 + P3 + P4 + P5 + P6) * 40/63 + 30
we see at the end that we're guaranteed at least 30 final power. Here's
a chart to see approximately how much extra power each P value gives in
addition to your guaranteed 30 final power when they are activated.
P1 (HP) - .635
P2 (Atk) - 1.27
P3 (Def) - 2.54
P4 (Spd) - 5.08
P5 (SA) - 10.16
P6 (SD) - 20.32
So to get a good power, it's essential that your Sp.Def P is activated.
Getting that one means a guaranteed 50 power. Getting Sp.Atk as well puts
you at a guaranteed 60. On a scale of 30 to 70, 60 isn't bad. However,
if you don't get the Sp.Def P, the highest power you can get is 49. On
a side note, I have an in-game Zapdos with Hidden Power Water of power
58. It's probably the third best type I could've gotten, behind Grass
and Ice, but Water is nice too as it gets boosted by rain. But that's
nothing compared my grandpa's Hitmontop with a power 68 HP Rock :(
Back on topic, and looking again at the IVs that activate the power Ps,
2 3 6 7 10 11 14 15 18 19 22 23 26 27 30 31
we see at the end 30 and 31. ONE OF THESE IS ODD, AND ONE OF THESE IS
EVEN. This means that with these two values only, you can create ANY
even-odd type combo and keep max power. Which means that on Netbattle,
you can get any Hidden Power you want by sacrificing no more than one
stat point in each stat. How cool :) This is why Hidden Power is abused
so much.
Which brings me to the next part, HP 70s. A chart which you can find at
a number of places, and now I'll propagate the species by putting it in
here. These are just the different 30-31 IV combos you can use to get any
given Hidden Power in Netbattle. Note that not all of the possible 30-31
IV combos are listed here; the ones that have less IVs than other are
left out. For example, if one IV combo is 30/30/31/31/31/31 and another IV
combo is 30/30/30/31/31/31, for the same Hidden Power type, the second one
would be left out.
==================
6c. HP 70 listings
==================
hehe copy and paste straight out of blueshirt's moveset guide :)
Remember, DV is another name for IV.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~Excerpt-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
- Any DV of 31 can be replaced by any other number which is equivalent
to 3 mod 4, or 3/7/11/15/19/23/27.
- Any DV of 30 can be replaced by any other number which is equivalent
to 2 mod 4, or 2/6/10/14/18/22/26.
- DVs are listed in the following order: HP, Att, Def, Speed, SA, SD.
- The most commonly used DV is marked with a ***. By most commonly
used, one generally takes into account the most likely archetype of such
a poke (namely, a poke using HP Bug probably wants more Att DVs and is
willing to sacrifice SA DVs to get so).
- Any "dominated" DV combinations have been excised.
HP Fighting 70
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
31,31,30,30,30,30 ***
30,30,31,30,30,30
HP Flying 70
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
31,31,31,30,30,30 ***
30,30,30,31,30,30 <--use this for Jolly Aerodactyl, to counter Timid Jolt.
HP Poison 70
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
31,31,30,31,30,30 ***
30,30,31,31,30,30
lol HP Poison
HP Ground 70
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
31,31,31,31,30,30 ***
30,30,30,30,31,30
HP Rock 70
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
31,31,30,30,31,30 ***
30,30,31,30,31,30
HP Bug 70
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
31,31,31,30,31,30 ***
31,30,30,31,31,30
Go Pinsir.
HP Ghost 70
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
31,31,30,31,31,30 ***
31,30,31,31,31,30
HP Steel 70
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
31,31,31,31,31,30 ***
31,30,30,30,30,31
HP Fire 70
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
31,30,31,30,30,31 ***
31,31,30,30,30,31
The only things which use HP Fire are Grumpig and Sunnybeam anyway.
HP Water 70
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
31,31,31,30,30,31 ***
31,30,30,31,30,31 <-- note the 31 speed for Timid Jolt
HP Grass 70
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
30,31,31,31,30,31
31,31,30,31,30,31 ***
31,30,31,31,30,31
HP Electric 70
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
31,31,31,31,30,31 ***
31,30,30,30,31,31
30,31,30,30,31,31
HP Psychic 70
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
31,30,31,30,31,31 ***
31,31,30,30,31,31
30,31,31,30,31,31
Go Unown.
HP Ice 70
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
31,31,31,30,31,31 ***
31,30,30,31,31,31 <-- again, 31 in Speed for Timidjolt.
30,31,30,31,31,31
HP Dragon 70
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
31,31,30,31,31,31
31,30,31,31,31,31 ***
30,31,31,31,31,31
HP Dark 70
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
31,31,31,31,31,31 ***
Hehehehe. If I had a nickel for every time someone accidentally used HP
Dark because they forgot to change their DVs, I might have a dollar or two.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~End of Excerpt-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
One more note: If you're using a special sweeper with a Hidden Power,
and you want to lower its Attack to reduce confusion damage, you should
use an Attack IV of 2 or 3 instead of zero because 2 and 3 activate
their power Ps whereas zero does not.
Oh, yeah, one MORE thing. Even though Hidden Power can be any type (except
Normal), the moves Counter and Mirror Coat always treat it like a
Normal-type move. So Counter will always work on Hidden Power and Mirror
Coat will always fail. This WILL result in your HP Ice Zapdos getting
KO'd by Donphan's Counter at least once.
/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 7. Other Stuff ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/
Little stuff that falls under mechanics has been thrown in here.
====================
7a. Weird evolutions
====================
Pokemon that evolve by some way other than level up.
Stones-
These pokemon evolve when you use an 'elemental' stone on them.
These Pokemon evolve when you use a Fire Stone on them:
Growlithe > Arcanine
Eevee > Flareon
Vulpix > Ninetales
These Pokemon evolve when you use a Water Stone on them:
Poliwhirl > Poliwrath
Shellder > Cloyster
Staryu > Starmie
Eevee > Vaporeon
Lombre > Ludicolo
These Pokemon evolve when you use a Leaf Stone on them:
Gloom > Vileplume
Weepinbell > Victreebel
Exeggcute > Exeggutor
Nuzleaf > Shiftry
These Pokemon evolve when you use a Thunderstone on them:
Eevee > Jolteon
Pikachu > Raichu
These Pokemon evolve when you use a Moon Stone on them:
Nidorino > Nidoking
Nidorina > Nidoqueen
Clefairy > Clefable
Jigglypuff > Wigglytuff
Skitty > Delcatty
These Pokemon evolve when you use a Sun Stone on them:
Sunkern > Sunflora
Gloom > Bellossom
Trades-
These Pokemon evolve when traded.
These Pokemon evolve when traded:
Haunter > Gengar
Machoke > Machamp
Kadabra > Alakazam
Graveler > Golem
These Pokemon evolve when traded while holding a Metal Coat:
Scyther > Scizor
Onix > Steelix
These Pokemon evolve when traded while holding a King's Rock:
Poliwhirl > Politoed
Slowpoke > Slowking
Other items:
Seadra > Kingdra when traded with a Dragon Scale.
Porygon > Porygon2 when traded with an Upgrade.
Clamperl > Huntail when traded with a Deepseatooth.
Clamperl > Gorebyss when traded with a Deepseascale.
Happiness-
These Pokemon evolve when their Happiness is maxed out. Note that if a
Pokemon is traded its happiness resets to neutral.
Smoochum > Jynx
Igglybuff > Jigglypuff
Magby > Magmar
Elekid > Electabuzz
Togepi > Togetic
Chansey > Blissey
Golbat > Crobat
Azurill > Marill
Cleffa > Clefairy
Odd-
These are Pokemon that evolve under unusual conditions.
Eevee > Umbreon: In Ru/Sa only, max out Eevee's happiness and gain a
level IN THE AM. There's a bit of a controversy right now about the
other games, different sites have different info, but I'll try and get
that information sorted out for you.
Eevee > Espeon: Same deal, except evolve IN THE PM. This is not a
typo, yes I am aware of what I'm saying, Espeon in the PM and Umbreon in
the AM. Argue and die.
Tyrogue > Hitmon*: Tyrogue evolves at level 20 into Hitmonlee if his
Attack stat is higher than his Defense stat, Hitmonchan if his Defense
stat is higher than his Attack stat, and Hitmontop if they're both the
same.
Wurmple > *coon: It's random. Actually, I was flipping through a
player's guide at Wal-Mart and it said that it was somehow tied in with
the game clock, but it was such a complex tie that it might as well be
random. So, whatever, nobody cares about Beautifly or Dustox anyway.
Shedinja: Evolve Nincada when you have a free space in your party.
Nincada will evolve into Ninjask as normal, but Shedinja will appear in
the free space with the same moves that Ninjask has. So yes, you get
two for one, which combined with Sheddy's Pokedex entry IMO proves that
Shedinja does not really evolve from Nincada but is instead a distinctly
different species (but who really cares anyway).
Feebas > Milotic: Max out Feebas' contest stat 'Beauty' with Dry
tasting Pokeblocks and then raise it a level. To accomplish this, it
helps to have a +Sp.Atk nature. Don't even try it with a -Sp.Atk
nature. If you want to know more, there is a pretty good Feebas/Milotic
guide on Gamefaqs, so just look there!
===============================
7b. Pokemon-specific Hold Items
===============================
Light Ball- Doubles Pichu and Pikachu's Sp.Atk (no Raichu). If you give
a Female Pikachu a Light Ball and breed it with a male Pikachu or a
Ditto then the baby Pichu will have a move called Volt Tackle (Power
120-Accuracy 100-1/3 recoil).
Stick- Raises Farfetch'd's critical hit ratio.
Thick Club- Doubles Cubone and Marowak's effective Attack during battle.
Ouch.
Metal Powder- Multiplies Ditto's Defense and Special Defense by 1.5x.
Deepseatooth- Doubles Clamperl's Sp.Atk. Deepseascale doubles
Clamperl's Sp.Def, but no one uses that.
Lucky Punch- Raises Chansey's critical hit ratio (no Blissey). Better
than the Stick at least :*
================
7c. Common Rates
================
Okay, these are just various rates for things.
Paralysis has a 25% chance of immobilizing the target.
Attraction has a 50% chance of immobilizing the target.
Confusion has a 50% chance of immobilizing the target.
Quick Claw has a 24% chance of activating.
Leech Seed takes 1/8 of the target's HP each turn.
Leftovers restores 1/16 of the holder's HP each turn.
Shell Bell restores to the holder 1/8 of the damage done when they attack.
Sandstorm/Hail/Shadow Sky takes 1/16 of the pokemon's HP each turn.
Normal Poison takes 1/8 of the target's HP each turn.
Toxic takes 1/16, 2/16, 3/16, 4/16, 5/16, 6/16, etc. HP each turn.
Fire Spin/Whirlpool/Wrap etc. take 1/16 of the target's HP each turn.
Set Damage Moves-
Sonicboom does 20 damage.
Dragon Rage does 40 damage.
Night Shade and Seismic Toss do the user's level in damage.
Psywave does randomly from .5 to 1.5 of the user's level in damage.
HP Moves-
(Thanks to a_v's guide on IGN for these)
Water Spout and Eruption work on this formula:
Remaining HP * 150 / Max HP = Power
But the power can't be lower than 1. In simpler terms, multiply your
current percentage of HP by 150 to get your power. So if you're at 50%
HP then the power of Water Spout is 75.
Reversal and Flail work on this formula:
Remaining HP * 48 / Max HP
and then you take that number and look at this chart to find the power
of your move:
-----------------------
Result Base Power
-----------------------
0 - 1.9999 200
2 - 4.9999 150
5 - 9.9999 100
10- 16.999 80
17- 32.999 40
33+ 20
-----------------------
Analysis on this formula yields these results:
---------------------------------------------------
If you have _LESS_
than this much HP: You have this base power:
---------------------------------------------------
4.16667% (1/24 of max) 200
10.4167% (5/48 of max) 150
20.8333% (5/24 of max) 100
35.4167% (17/48 of max) 80
68.75% (33/48 of max) 40
If you have 68.75% or more then it's only power 20.
---------------------------------------------------
So if that helps at all.
Critical Hit rate-
(Thanks to a_v's guide on IGN for these as well)
First, find the result of this formula. PEI means Pokemon Exclusive
Item (like Stick), SL means Scope Lens, HCHR means High Critical Hit
Ratio, and FE/L means Focus Energy/Lansat (you can't have both).
1 + (PEI * 2) + (SL * 1) + (HCHR * 3) + (FE/L * 1)
Each of these variables equal 1 if activated and 0 if not activated.
For example, having a Stick on a Farfetch'd activates PEI, making the
result of the formula 3. If that Farfetch'd then used Slash, a move
with a high-critical hit ratio, the result of the formula is 6.
Anyway, once you know the result of the formula, look at this chart to
find your CH rate.
--------------------------
If you have Then you have
this number this CH rate
--------------------------
1 6.25%
2 12.5%
3 25%
4 33.2%
5 or higher 50%
--------------------------
Return/Frustration-
The max power is 102. The formula is
Happiness Points/2.5
or for Frustration,
(255 - Happiness Points) / 2.5
where you can't have more than 255 happiness points. The problem is
that you never know exactly how many happiness points you have.
However, if you just traded the pokemon, its happiness resets to
neutral. I would assume this 'neutral' to be 127 happiness points, or a
Return with power 50. It is possible to have 0 happiness points, by the
way.
A quick sidebar: Slash will NEVER be better than a max power Return.
Let's take a mundane example first: Your Ursaring can either have
Slash or Return. Well, Slash has a 33.2% chance of a CH while Return
only has a 6.25% shot. This means that Return has an average power of
over 108 per turn while Slash has an average power of around 93 per
turn. This means that in the long run, Return will do about 16% more
damage than Slash.
Now let's take an extreme example: you give Farfetch'd a Stick, and
Skill Swap Serene Grace onto him. His CH ratio with Slash is now 100%.
However, his Return CH ratio is still a cool 50%. This means that Slash
has an average power of 140 per turn, while Return has an average power
of 153. So Return is 9% better. The maths do not lie.
Oh and don't say 'well if you give him a Scope Lens instead of a Stick
then Slash if better' because why would you give him an inferior item in
the first place?
However (and this is a big however), in-game it may not be possible to
get a max power Return for your pokemon. In these cases, I guess Slash
could be usable. I'd still prefer Body Slam or Double-Edge though, by a
wide margin.
Rollout-
Rollout's respective powers are 30, 60, 120, 240, and 480. Using
Defense Curl immediately before starting a Rollout doubles those powers.
Magnitude-
Magnitude has these powers:
-----------------
Magnitude! Power
-----------------
4 10
5 30
6 50
7 70
8 90
9 110
10 150
-----------------
Thus Magnitude has a 2/7 chance of being more powerful than
Earthquake. Statistically, Earthquake does 37% more damage than
Magnitude in the long run.
|-------Serene Grace doubles the rates for everything following:-------|
Hey, that reminds me. Serene Grace is an ability that doubles the chances
of any added effects FOR THE POKEMON WITH SERENE GRACE ONLY. IT DOES NOT
TRANSFER TO YOUR PARTNER IN A DOUBLE BATTLE.
The critical hit ratio we've already discussed, but Serene Grace does
double the chances of a critical hit.
Flamethrower/Thunderbolt/Ice Beam/Fire Punch/Thunderpunch/Ice Punch
have 10% chances of their added effects.
Fire Blast/Blizzard have a 10% chance of their added effects.
Thunder has a 30% chance of Paralysis.
Sludge Bomb has a 30% chance of poisoning the target.
Effect Spore/Poison Point/Cute Charm/Static/Flame Body have 30%
chances of activation. (Well technically Serene Grace doesn't double the
chances of abilities' effects but I had to put these somewhere)
Headbutt/Rock Slide/Rolling Kick/Bite have 30% chances of flinching
the target (assuming you're faster of course).
Rock Smash has a 50% chance of dropping the target's Defense.
Psychic has a 10% chance of dropping the target's Sp.Def.
Shadow Ball has a 20% chance of dropping the target's Sp.Def.
==========
7d. Deoxys
==========
Deoxys is a pokemon that shifts forms depending on which version of the
game it is in.
In Ruby/Sapphire/Colosseum/XD, it is known as Deoxys and its Base stats
are
50 HP/150 Atk/50 Def/150 Spd/150 SA/50 SD
In FireRed it is known as Deoxys-FR(or Attack Deoxys) and its Base stats
are
50 HP/180 Atk/20 Def/150 Spd/180 SA/20 SD
In LeafGreen it is known as Deoxys-LG(or Defense Deoxys) and its Base
stats are
50 HP/70 Atk/160 Def/90 Spd/70 SA/160 SD
In Emerald it is known as Deoxys-E(or Speed Deoxys) and its Base stats
are
50 HP/95 Atk/90 Def/180 Spd/95 SA/90 SD
But that's basically it to Deoxys.
=========================
7e. Level Up growth rates
=========================
The most useless thing in the game to know is this. Level up rates.
Anyway there are four level up groups for which the rates are known and
two groups for which the rates are not known.
=Quickly=
.8L^3
=Medium=
L^3
=Medium-Slow=
1.2L^3 - 15L^2 + 100L - 140
=Slow=
1.25L^3
where L is the level, and the result of the formula is the experience
needed to get to that level. ^3 means cubed, and ^2 means squared, in
case you hadn't heard this unnecessarily explained enough.
There are also Fluxuating and Erratic groups for which the formulas are
not known. However, we do know that to get to level 100 they take
600,000 exp. and 1,500,000 exp. I'm not sure which is which, but does
it matter?
=============
7f. 2v2 Stuff
=============
In 2v2 battling, a lot of stuff is different. There are three
principles you need to know:
1- Any move that only hits both enemies has its power halved
2- Any move that hits everyone on the field keeps its normal power
3- Light Screen and Reflect reduce damage taken by 2/3 instead of by 1/2
That's it. If you want to know more just check out shiny zangoose's 2v2
guide.
===========
7g. Weather
===========
There are four weather effects in the pokemon series, and they have lots
of effects.
Sunny Day-
1. Raises the power of Fire moves by 1.5x
2. Cuts the power of Water moves by 1/2.
3. Makes Solarbeam a one-turn move.
4. Cuts the Accuracy of Thunder to 50%.
5. Doubles the current effective Speed of pokemon with the Chlorophyll
ability.
6. Makes pokemon with the Forecast ability Fire-type.
7. Makes Weather Ball a power 100 Fire-type move.
8. Makes Moonlight and Morning Sun restore 3/4 of the user's max HP.
Sunny Day does NOT cut the power of Thunder, I don't care what you've heard.
Rain Dance-
1. Raises the power of Water moves by 1.5x
2. Cuts the power of Fire moves by 1/2.
3. Cuts the power of Solarbeam to 60.
4. Makes Thunder have perfect accuracy. (Perfect, not 100%)
5. Doubles the current effective Speed of pokemon with the Swift Swim
ability.
6. Restores 1/16 HP to pokemon with the Rain Dish ability.
7. Makes pokemon with the Forecast ability Water-type.
8. Makes Weather Ball a power 100 Water-type move.
9. Makes Moonlight and Morning Sun restore 1/4 of the user's max HP.
Sandstorm-
1. Hurts all pokemon with 1/16 HP unless they are Rock/Ground/Steel
types or have the ability Sand Veil.
2. Cuts the power of Solarbeam to 60.
3. Makes Weather Ball a power 100 Rock-type move.
4. Doubles the current effective evasion of pokemon with the Sand Veil
ability.
5. Makes Moonlight and Morning Sun restore 1/4 of the user's max HP.
Hail-
1. Hurts all pokemon with 1/16 HP if they are not Ice types.
2. Cuts the power of Solarbeam to 60.
3. Makes Weather Ball a power 100 Ice-type move.
4. Makes Moonlight and Morning Sun restore 1/4 of the user's max HP.
Hail does NOT raise the accuracy of Blizzard, or power up Ice moves.
=================
7h. Move Priority
=================
This section deals with the 'priority' of moves. You see, a faster pokemon
will normally move before a slower pokemon. However, if the slower pokemon
uses a move with boosted priority, like Quick Attack, OR if the faster
pokemon uses a move with negative priority, like Revenge, the slower pokemon
will move first, because move priority overrides speed advantages.
For example, if my Trapinch uses Quick Attack, and your Ninjask with 2 Speed
Boosts, and a Quick Claw activation, uses Aerial Ace, my Trapinch will still
move first because my move had a higher priority than yours.
If we are both using Trapinches, and we both use Quick Attack, the faster
one will move first. If one of us happens to get a Quick Claw activation
on this turn, they will move first. If it turns out that we are both the
same speed, it will be a 50/50 coin flip who moves first.
Anyway, here is a basic list borrowed from a Smogon thread. I haven't
tested it thoroughly yet, but it looks fine.
--------------------------------------------------------------
+6 | Helping Hand
+5 | Snatch and Magic Coat
+4 | Follow Me
+3 | A user of Focus Punch will begin to start focusing...
+2 | Protect, Detect, and Endure
+1 | Quick Attack, Mach Punch, Extremespeed, and Fake Out
== | Every single move not mentioned here including Sleep Talk
-1 | Vital Throw
-2 | Focus Punch OH NOOOO!!!!!
-3 | Revenge
-4 | Counter and Mirror Coat
-5 | Roar and Whirlwind
--------------------------------------------------------------
Anyway, to sum up what I've already said. A higher priority move will
ALWAYS go before a lower priority, no exceptions. Speed only applies when
two or more pokemon are using moves that are in the same speed bracket.
But something interesting is that apparently you can use Sleep Talk to
effectively bump up the priority of -speed moves. For example, a Crobat
could switch into an enemy Spore or Sleep Powder, and use Sleep Talk.
If the Crobat had only two moves, Sleep Talk and Whirlwind, and it used
Sleep Talk, the move would have no choice but to select Whirlwind. Since
Sleep Talk is a normal priority move, the 'randomly' selected Whirlwind is
bumped up to normal priority, and Crobat's lighting speed takes over.
Crobat is fast enough to Whirlwind out foe after foe while they can do
nothing about it because they aren't fast enough. Now imagine pairing this
with Spikes. (hehehehehe) More of a novelty, but it gets the point across
about Sleep Talk.
Sleep Talk, however, will not work to bump up Focus Punch. In-game, if
Sleep Talk randomly chooses Focus Punch, the move will 'fail'. On netbattle
though, Sleep Talk will simply never pick Focus Punch randomly (so a set of
Sleep Talk + Roar + Focus Punch would still always pick Roar, at least on
Netbattle).
=======================
7i. End-of-turn effects
=======================
This is a list of the order in which end-of-turn effects like Burn, Leech
Seed, and Doom Desire will occur. I borrowed the basic frame for this list
from Smogon, but tested it and corrected it, resetting the Pinch Berry
location and adding the Yawn location.
~
Tier 1
--------------------------
A - Reflect wears off
B - Light Screen wears off
C - Safeguard fades
Tier 2
------------------
A - Wish activates
Tier 3
-----------------------------------
A - Hail, Sandstorm, Rain, and Sunlight remind you that they are active
(or maybe they will fade now), and Hail and Sandstorm will do their damage.
Tier 4
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
A - Shed Skin heals the user
B - Ingrain recovers HP
C - Leftovers
D - 'Pinch Berries' like Ganlon and Salac go into effect if the user's HP
is <= 25% at this point; if the holder's HP is not <= 25% at this point,
but goes under later, because of something like Leech Seed, the berry will
not activate this turn.
E - Leech Seed
F - Burn, Poison
G - Wrap
Tier 5
-------------------------------------
A - Yawn (puts the opponent to sleep)
Tier 6
---------------------------
A - Doom Desire, Future Sight
~
Now the idea is that something a tier above something else will always go
before it, but within the tiers, speed comes into play. That is, Wish will
always activate before a Sandstorm tears into you, because Wish is a tier
above Sandstorm. However, if a fast pokemon is burned, it will incur Burn
damage before a slower pokemon gets its Leftovers recovery. So the 'speed'
compared for these end-of-turn effects is usually that of the afflicted
pokemon or the holder of the item. There's really not too much more to
say...
===========================
7j. Specific move mechanics
===========================
Just various mechanics for moves that might be confusing, or little
known effects of moves.
- A. Substitute mechanics
1. Substitute takes 1/4 of your maximum HP. If your maximum HP is not
divisible by 4, it takes 1/4 of the number that is divisible by 4, that
is immediately lower than your max HP. Thus if you have a max of 299
HP, substitute will take 74 HP.
2. The HP taken is placed in a 'substitute' which will take attacks for
you. If you are attacked, the substitute takes the attack instead of
you. Thus you cannot take damage while you have a substitute up.
3. The substitute has your type and defensive stats. Thus a move that
is 'super-effective' on you is super-effective on your substitute as
well.
4. When the damage done to the substitute meets or exceeds its HP, it
will 'break' and you can no longer use it.
5. If a move hits multiple times, and the substitute breaks in the
middle of the attack, the attack may continue hitting, and thus you will
directly take damage. This is the only way you can directly do damage
to a pokemon with a substitute.
6. Substitute also blocks several things.
- Status effects (poison, Toxic, burn, sleep, etc.)
- Leech Seed
- Mean Look
- Confuse Ray
- Moves and abilities that drop your stats (Intimidate, Screech, etc.)
- Knock Off/Thief/Covet/Trick's effect of making your pokemon lose its
item
- Rapid Spin's extra effects
7. Substitute does not block a few important things though.
- Skill Swap/Role Play/Trace
- Encore
- Attract
- Roar/Whirlwind
- Haze
8. HP restoring moves/items and pre-existing status effects will affect
the pokemon directly and not its substitute.
9. If you Baton Pass a substitute, it will keep the original creator's
HP, but will get the recepient's type and defensive stats.
- B. Rapid Spin mechanics
Rapid Spin blows away Spikes. It also cancels out any vortex moves used
on the Spinner, namely, Wrap, Whirlpool, Fire Spin, Bind, etc. It also
blows away Leech Seed. HOWEVER, none of these effects work against a
Ghost type, or against a pokemon with a substitute up.
- C. Snatch mechanics
Snatch always goes first. What it does is steal any move that only
affects the pokemon that used it (namely, stat moves). These include
Calm Mind, Light Screen, Substitute, Swords Dance, Recover and Rest. It
will not Snatch Protect or Endure though. It only affects the first
pokemon to use a stat move that turn (so if Ninjask uses Substitute the
same turn Slowbro uses Calm Mind, you'll steal the substitute). Snatch
can and will steal something from your partner in a 2v2 match. Finally,
Snatch cannot steal Speed Boost, or other such things (eg a Meteor Mash
attack boost).
- D. Assist mechanics
Assist will randomly use a move that one of your other party pokemon
has. So it's like Metronome, but restricted to the twenty moves of your
other five pokemon. It will never choose Sketch though.
- E. Sketch mechanics
Sketch will permanently copy the move that the target used last. This
might be obvious, BUT!!! Sketch cannot be Mimic'd, or chosen by Assist
or Metronome, or Sketched (lol).
- F. Transform mechanics
When a pokemon transforms, it retains its own IV and EV values.
However, it changes its Base Stats and ability to those of the pokemon
it transforms into. But it doesn't change its HP, that stays the same.
So yes, you can transform into Shedinja and keep your higher-than-one
HP. I have done it. This applies to all pokemon that can use Transform
(namely, Mew/Smeargle/Ditto).
- G. Baton Pass mechanics
Baton Pass passes all stats and invisible status. This includes:
Stat boosts
Stat drops
Substitute
Mean Look (both being Mean Looked, and using Mean Look yourself)
Leech Seed
Confusion
Torment
This does NOT include status like Paralysis, or Attraction.
- H. Torment mechanics
Torment keeps the opponent from using the same move twice in a row. It
stays until the Tormented pokemon switches. It will NOT cancel an
opponent's move if they had used it last turn (eg Gengar can't switch in
on a Snorlax Return, use sub to block the first Shadow Ball, then
Torment to stop the Shadow Ball that's almost certainly coming).
- I. Taunt mechanics
Taunt keeps the opponent from using any non-attacking moves for 2 turns.
That is, the turn you use it and the turn after. This is how Tyranitar
sets up Dragon Dances against a Mean Looked Skarmory. Taunt WILL stop
non-attacking moves that were used on the same turn, assuming the
Taunter is faster (and against a Roarer, the Taunter is always faster).
- J. Imrison mechanics
Imprison keeps all pokemon in the opponent's party from using a move
that the Imprisoner knows, until the Imprisoner switches or dies. How
annoying. Like those AIs in Colosseum/XD that pair an Imprison/Ice Beam
Dusclops with five Dragon types. Ugggh.
- K. Beat Up mechanics
(Can't believe I forgot this)
Don't laugh, Houndoom uses this to beat up Blisseys. The damage from
Beat Up is calculated this way:
It's a standard damage calculation, and the power of the move is 10, but
the attacker's attack power (the A) is equal to each pokemon's BASE
PHYSICAL ATTACK and the defense of the target (the D) is that pokemon's
BASE PHYSICAL DEFENSE. So, for example, Houndoom (Base 90 Attack) uses
Beat Up on Blissey (Base 10 Defense). So his attack does
((( 42 * 90 * 10 ) / 10 ) / 50 ) + 2 * 1.5 (STAB) = ~115
and the same goes for each other living pokemon in the attacker's party,
with their own base Attack for the A. So if you have Slaking (base 160
Atk) and Metagross (base 135 Atk) and Salamence (base 135 Atk) and
Breloom (base 130 Atk) and Aerodactyl (base 105 Atk) as the other
pokemon in your party, you will really do a load of damage against
someone like Blissey or, well... Blissey is really the only one. You
might slip one past Alakazam or Jynx, but don't count on it.
Some other notes about Beat Up: STAB applies, but type advantages do
not. Also, if you use Beat Up on your own partner in a 2v2 battle, they
will hit themselves. The randomization factor (the R/255) is skipped
entirely for Beat Up too.
- L. Doom Desire and Future Sight Mechanics
Doom Desire is power 120 with 85% accuracy. Future Sight is power 80 with
90% accuracy.
Doom Desire is a Steel type move and Future Sight is a Psychic type move.
However, their type has no effect in battle. They are super-effective
against nothing and ineffective against nothing. So Future Sight will hit
Fighting types and Dark types with exactly the same amount of damage.
STAB does not apply for these moves either. However, the applicable
attacking stat still applies (Doom Desire runs off ATTACK and Future Sight
runs off SP. ATK).
They hit at the end of the turn, after any Leftovers have been applied.
This means that several things don't work against these moves, including
Destiny Bond, Grudge, Counter/Mirror Coat, Protect, and Endure.
When calculating damage for these moves, the [R/255], the 'randomization'
part of the formula, is skipped entirely.
They both hit Shedinja, despite not being "super-effective" against him.
They do not activate the holder's Shell Bell.
They cannot be stacked. That is, you can't have two of these out against
the same pokemon at the same time. Even in a 2v2 battle, you can't use
two of these moves against the same pokemon. You can use one of these
moves against each of your opponent's pokemon, but you can't have two out
against the same pokemon (even if you use it with two different pokemon).
Using two different moves against the same pokemon makes no difference
(using Future Sight and Doom Desire against the same pokemon will still
fail).
-----
If you can think of any other moves that should go in here, give me a yell.
===========
8a. Credits
===========
Thanks to the following:
God (you rock, dude!) for always being there for me (lol)
My Grandpa for being cool like that
Serebii.net because that's where I was weaned on Game Mechanics. THE
place to go for in-game players.
Netbattle for being cool, and inadvertently telling me about the effects
of Reflect/Light Screen in a double battle.
Fog on Netbattle for telling me about the rates of Fire Blast/Blizzard.
Marek14 for informing me of a small error (I called a hyperbola a parabola).
particle_theorist for reminding me about priority moves.
The people from Smogon for being very useful indeed and having lots of data
for me (WAY too much to list, but some of the key things included most of
the data used in the entries in the 'specific move mechanics' section, the
breeding method that allows you to set your nature/gender/ability, Quick
Claw/Metal Powder mechanics, and Rollout).
blueshirt32's Moveset guide because that's where I got the HP 70
listings.
Special thanks to albino_vulpix's Formulae guide on IGN. I've never
been to IGN, but when I Googled 'How do Water Spout and Eruption work?'
and hit [I Feel Lucky], sure enough, it popped up with the answer. It
also had the formulae for Flail/Reversal, Critical Hit rates, and
Confusion damage, so I immediately incorporated those into my guide.
Thanks.
Gamefaqs for being the first site to host this guide, and being generally
cool.
And finally, uber special thanks to egervari. His _USELESS_ mechanics
guide was the sole inspiration for me to write this one. I couldn't
have done it without you man :) Although, to give him credit, I got info
on the Macho Brace from his guide.
================
8b. Contact Info
================
If you find something I missed, or something that I didn't put in the
guide, or think I did a poor job of explaining something, or found a
typo, or if you just have a suggestion, or ESPECIALLY if you think I'm wrong
somewhere, you can email me at [email protected]. Note that I don't
have home internet access, so it may take a few days or more for me to get
back to you. If you help out with this guide in any way I will put you in
the credits, if you include your screenname. If you have the rare ability
and requisite interest to rewrite confusing articles, and you apply that ability
to this guide, any submissions will be given serious consideration, and
credit will be given in abundance. I know I'm not the greatest author in
the world and sometimes I can be confusing. So thanks.
By the way, please check Gamefaqs.com for the latest version of this guide
before contacting me. If you don't, and you email me about a problem I've
already fixed, I won't be mad, but I will be DISAPPOINTED.
==================
8c. Copyright Info
==================
This guide is Copyright 2006 Rain_Dance. Please don't steal it and
claim it as your own, or rip off major sections of it. Don't make any
money off of it whatsoever. However, I have no problem if you want to post
it on your website. The public has a right to quality information and as
such, I hereby give ANYONE the authority to post this guide anywhere on the
internet. Just please please PLEASE don’t try to make any money off of it.
It doesn’t matter if you do try, because I wouldn’t have the means or the
interest to hire a lawyer and sue you, but just for the sake of the public
good, DON’T CHARGE MONEY. And please TELL me you're putting it on your
site.
If you want to take anything from this guide and incorporate it into one
of your own, I don't care. Just please credit me and this guide.
Now here's my part. I don't own Pokemon or any of the Pokemon related
game mechanics or items or moves or any of the pokemon. I had nothing
to do with the making of the game and I wrote this guide 50% from memory
and 50% from research. All trademarks and copyrights contained within
this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright
holders. Which according to the opening credits of the game is
Nintendo/Creatures/Game Freak/Pokemon. So there.
---
.___.
(O,O)
(```)
-O-O--- Beware of the Owl