Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire - Attack Explanations

This page is a supplement and an integral part of the Ruby/Sapphire attack list. For an explanation of terms used in this page, see the Glossary.

PP

PP Up increases the maximum PP of a move (up to 3 times). A move's maximum PP is equal to X+int(X*Y/5), where X is the move's original maximum PP and Y is the number of uses of PP Up on that move. (PP Max increases a move's Y variable to 3, the highest possible.) PP Up and PP Max won't have any effect if the move's maximum PP wouldn't be increased by at least 1 through a single use.

Stacking Effects

Generally, moves with the same function code don't stack with each other. For example, the moves Mean Look, Spider Web, and Block share the same effect. Once any of these moves is used, they will fail against the same target until the effect is removed. Multi-turn attacks such as Wrap and Whirlpool also share the same effect for a given target and don't stack with the use of different kinds of multi-turn attacks.

Effects of the same move also don't stack with each other unless noted otherwise. For example, Ingrain can't be used multiple times on the same Pokemon. However, Stockpile and Spikes can be used multiple times for a bigger effect (Spikes says "Can be used up to three times", and Stockpile increases the user's Stockpile count up to a maximum of 3).

Two-turn attacks

In a two-turn attack, the user prepares for the attack on the first turn, and hits the opponent on the second turn. The user can't take any action in between. If the opponent is replaced or faints in between, the attack will hit the Pokémon currently on the opponent's position if possible; otherwise the opposing Pokémon closest to the (trainer's) left. On both turns, the user uses the two-turn attack.

A two-turn attack is not a multi-turn attack, and vice versa.

A two-turn attack remains a two-turn attack even if the attack would not take two turns.

For the two-turn attacks Dig, Fly, Dive, and Bounce, all attacks other than the exceptions given in the attack descriptions, even those that "cannot be evaded", will miss the user while it is using any one of these two-turn attacks.

Pokemon Colosseum Locations

For the purposes of Camouflage, Nature Power, and Secret Power, Phenac Stadium is treated as "underwater", Pyrite Colosseum is treated as "rocks", Under Colosseum, Deep Colosseum, Tower Colosseum, and Mt. Battle areas 1 through 30 and 61 through 99, are treated as "elsewhere", Orre Colosseum is treated as "sand", and Mt. Battle areas 100 and 31 through 60 are treated as "rocks."

Reducing stat stages

An effect that merely changes stat stages without necessarily reducing them, such as Haze and Psych Up, is not an effect that reduces a Pokémon's stat stages.

Transform

Even if Transform is in effect for the user, its stats are recalculated according to its level and original IVs when it levels up.

Pay Day

In FireRed/LeafGreen, the amount of money gained per use is 10 times the user's level rather than 5 times the user's level.

User "can't take any action"

No extra PP is spent when Thrash, Petal Dance, Outrage, Rollout, Ice Ball, Uproar, and Bide continue to be used during their effects, or at the second turn of a two-turn attack or Hyper Beam and equivalent moves. In these situations, the moves are still considered to be moves the user "chose for use", even though the user couldn't take any action as the round began. Moreover, the user doesn't choose these moves for use as their effect continues. However, these attacks can't be used if they have 0 PP. (In the case of Hyper Beam and equivalent moves, the game will still say that the user "must recharge.")

An effect where a Pokemon "can't take any action" is not an effect that prevents that Pokemon from switching.

Using a move "with no target"

If an effect causes a Pokemon to use a move "with no target" and the move has a target of "single non-user", "no target", or "opposing Pokemon selected at random", the target is chosen randomly among the opposing Pokemon. For all other target types, the move targets all Pokemon that fit the targeting criteria.

Last move used

Whenever a Pokémon uses an attack, even if it fails, the game sets a variable to that move at the end of that Pokémon's turn. This variable is called the "last move used" and each Pokémon has a "last move used".

The "last move used" is set to 0xFFFF, an invalid identifier for a move, if the move used is Mimic, Sketch, or Transform, if the move can't be used because it has zero PP, or if the move is prevented from being used.

This variable doesn't change when the Bag command is used to use an item or when the Run command is used and fleeing is unsuccessful. The variable is reset when the Pokemon is replaced.

The use of Pursuit while a Pokémon is being switched doesn't count as the "last move used".

Sketch uses a different version of the "last move used". The differences are that this variable does not change on the first turn of a two-turn attack, when a move is prevented from being used by a Pokémon, or when a Pokemon is replaced with Baton Pass, and that the variable changes to a move even if it can't be used because it has zero PP.

Another version of the "last move used" is the "last move called", which each Pokemon has. Whenever a Pokemon uses a move, even if it fails, the game sets the "last move called" to that move at the end of that Pokémon's turn. The variable can even be set to Mimic, Sketch, or Transform, or to moves used by other moves, but not to a move that uses another move if it does use another move. This variable doesn't change when the Bag command is used to use an item or when the Run command is used and fleeing is unsuccessful. The variable is reset when the Pokemon is replaced. The use of Pursuit while a Pokémon is being switched doesn't count as the "last move called". The "last move called" is set to 0xFFFF, an invalid identifier for a move, if the move is prevented from being used or if it can't be used because it has zero PP.

Weather

The weather moves can be used at any time, even during weather. A weather move fails if the weather condition associated with that move is already in effect. For example, Rain Dance fails while the weather is rainy.

The effects of Rain Dance, Sunny Day, Sandstorm, and Hail are weather effects.

In some battles, a particular weather condition already comes in effect before the first round of the battle. This condition lasts indefinitely. If a Pokémon has an ability that makes the weather change to a different condition, it then takes effect.

Multi-hit attacks

The multi-hit attacks are labeled "Multi-hit attack" and "Strikes twice" in the attack descriptions, as well as Triple Kick and Beat Up. For all multi-hit attacks except Triple Kick, an accuracy check is performed only once, namely, before the attack hits the opponent multiple times.

If the user is asleep when it would perform a hit of a multi-hit attack, the attack stops unless the multi-hit attack was used with Sleep Talk.

When the target of a multi-hit attack faints, the attack stops.

Twineedle's additional effect occurs after all hits of the attack have resolved.

Moves that use other moves

In the Ruby/Sapphire games, the moves Mirror Move, Nature Power, Assist, Metronome, and Sleep Talk can use other moves.

For all these moves, the move being used is not considered the "last move used" during the user's turn; unless noted otherwise, the move being used can be used even if it is disabled. Moves used this way have no target; thus they will target a random opposing Pokemon if the move used has a target of "single non-user", "no target" or "opposing Pokemon selected at random".

Assist

For Assist, the original, unmodified list of moves is used in move selection. Also, in Pokémon Colosseum, a move from a fainted Pokémon is not chosen.

Transform

When a wild Pokémon using Transform is caught, the effect of Transform ends.

In internal battles, the player's Pokémon gain Exp. Points based on the species that the enemy Pokémon was when it was defeated.

Mirror Move

Mirror Move uses a variable X. X is set to the last move that was used and that targeted the user for which all of the following are true:

• The move succeeded in affecting Mirror Move's user (i.e. didn't miss, fail, or be ineffective against it).
• The move has a target of "single non-user", "all opposing Pokémon", "all non-users", "opposing Pokémon selected at random", or "no target".
• The move has flag "e" in the Attack List.

Special targeting cases:

• A two-turn attack targets a Pokémon on both turns of use.
• Snatch targets the opposing Pokémon closest to the trainer's left.

The variable X is set separately for each Pokémon and does not change as rounds end. When a Pokémon is replaced, its value for X is reset, as well as those of all of its opposing Pokémon.

For a move that uses another move, these variables are not modified during that move's use even if the move being used meets the criteria.

Descriptions of Common Effects

Common effects of attacks include status problems, confusion, and flinch. These effects are described below. A status problem is one of burn, poison, paralysis, sleep, or freeze. Status problems do not go away by replacing Pokémon, and they linger after battle. (However, a Pokémon's status problem will be cured when it's placed in a PC storage box.) The status monitor also indicates fainting (FNT), when a Pokémon runs out of HP. Because of this, fainting overwrites other status problems. A status problem cannot be inflicted on a Pokémon if it already has a status problem.

Burn (BRN)

If a Pokémon is burned, the effectiveness of physical attacks it uses is halved, and it loses 1/8 of total HP at the end of every round. Fire-type Pokémon cannot be burned by any means.

Poison (PSN)

If a Pokémon is poisoned, it loses 1/8 of total HP at the end of every round. Poison- and/or Steel-type Pokémon can't be poisoned by any means. Outside of battle, a poisoned Pokémon loses 1 HP every four steps the player walks.

Toxic poisoning differs from normal poisoning in the HP loss method during battle. When a Pokémon becomes badly poisoned or a badly poisoned Pokémon becomes active, a variable, T, is set to 0. At the end of each round, if the Pokémon is badly poisoned, T increases by 1 (up to a maximum of 15) and the Pokémon loses 1/16 of its total HP, rounded down, times T. T is reset to 0 whenever the Pokémon becomes active. Since "toxic" poisoning is treated as a different status problem from normal poisoning, it does not revert to normal poisoning by any means, even when a battle ends.

Unless otherwise noted, poison includes being normally poisoned and badly poisoned.

Paralysis (PAR)

If a Pokémon is paralyzed, its Speed is multiplied by 1/4 (see Priority) and there is a 1/4 chance that it will be unable to attack during its turn. Ground-type Pokemon can't be paralyzed by Electric type attacks, but can be paralyzed by all other means.

Sleep (SLP)

If a Pokémon is asleep, it cannot attack during its turn. When a Pokémon falls asleep, it receives a sleep count of 2 to 7. At the beginning of the Pokémon's turn, its sleep count declines by 1, and then it wakes up if the sleep count equals 0. The game stores the current duration of a Pokémon who is asleep, in case the Pokémon leaves battle and becomes active in another one.

Frozen (FRZ)

If a Pokémon is frozen, it cannot attack during its turn. Ice-type Pokémon can't be frozen by any means. At the beginning of the Pokémon's turn, it may be defrosted at a 10% chance. If the Pokémon loses HP due to a Fire-type attack (not just those that cause burns; Hidden Power is considered as Normal), it becomes defrosted.

Confusion

When a Pokémon becomes confused, it receives a count of 2 to 5. At the beginning of the Pokémon's turn, this count declines by 1, then if it is greater than 0, there is a 50% chance that the Pokémon will deal damage to itself rather than use an attack. The self-inflicted confusion attack is a physical attack, has a power of 40, has no type, cannot be a critical hit, and ignores the effects of Reflect and Helping Hand. Confusion is removed from the Pokémon when it is switched.

Flinch

After another Pokémon uses a move that causes a Pokémon to flinch in the same round, the opponent can flinch and thus skip its attack this round.

Conversion 2

Conversion 2 takes into account the last move that targeted the user after the user's last turn. This move is represented by a variable (separate for each Pokémon) that is reset at the end of that Pokémon's turn and when that Pokémon is replaced.

This variable is set if the attack was successful against a Pokémon, meaning it didn't miss, fail, or be ineffective against it. If the variable is set to a move, the game also stores the type of that move. (The determined types of Hidden Power and Weather Ball are used.) If the attack was used, but wasn't successful against a Pokémon, the variable is set to 0xFFFF, an invalid identifier for a move, for that Pokémon.

Special targeting cases:

• A two-turn attack targets a Pokémon on both turns of use.
• Spikes and Snatch target the opposing Pokémon closest to the trainer's left.
• Future Sight and Doom Desire target a Pokémon only when the attack is used.
• Counter, Mirror Coat, and Bide target a Pokémon when an attack is returned.
• Magic Coat does not have a target.
• Curse targets a Pokémon only in its Ghost version. (Its type stored will be "???".)
• The variable will be set to any moves that a move uses, when appropriate.

To avoid misunderstandings, abilities of Pokémon are ignored when determining whether a type is resistant or immune to another type. Furthermore, the effects of Foresight and Odor Sleuth are ignored in this determination.

Substitute

Substitute creates a copy of the user called a substitute; to make a substitute, the user loses 1/4 of its total HP. This attack fails if the HP reduced would faint the user or if the user already has a substitute. The substitute has life points equal to the HP lost this way. (The term "life points" is used here to differentiate it from HP, to avoid confusion when describing Substitute's effect.)

If an effect (such as a move, item, or ability) is absent in this description, it is assumed to work as normal both with and without Substitute's effect.

These are the main effects that happen while the user has a substitute:

• Attacks by non-users can't inflict status problems, confusion, or flinching against the user. (Effects of attacks can still do so. If an item or an ability causes one of these effects, the description will say whether Substitute prevents it.)
• Attacks and abilities by non-users, other than Haze or Tickle, can't reduce the user's stat stages.
• If user would lose HP due to an attack by a non-user, the user's substitute loses that many life points instead.

Note that the last effect listed above is a replacement effect. If damage is intercepted to the substitute, Counter, Mirror Coat, Bide, and Rage are not affected by it.

When the substitute has no life points left, it breaks and Substitute's effect ends.

Any other effects that affect the user's HP do not involve the substitute in any way. This applies to reductions of the user's HP from poison, Leech Seed, Sandstorm, recoil, and so on.; to effects that cause the user to gain HP; and to effects that need to know the user's HP (Super Fang, Reversal, Flail, Eruption, and so on.). (This is why "life points" is used instead of HP to describe the substitute's vitality.)

The substitute will be removed when the user is switched or if the user faints before the substitute breaks. If the user uses Baton Pass, the substitute retains its current life points.

Other notes regarding Substitute are given below.

• While the user has a substitute, attacks and confusion damage can deal damage equal to or greater than the user's HP even if an effect prevents it from fainting (False Swipe, Endure, Focus Band).
• The game checks whether a substitute breaks after every hit of a multi-hit attack. The multi-hit attack will continue even after the substitute breaks.
• Damage due to the user's confusion is given to the user.
• While user has a substitute, its held item cannot be removed from it by non-users. (The user may use Trick normally.)
• If an opponent misses when using Jump Kick or Hi Jump Kick, it loses HP as normal.
• Pain Split and Dream Eater will fail for non-users that target the user. The user may use these attacks normally.
• The attack from Future Sight and Doom Desire is passed to the substitute instead of the user.
• Swagger and Flatter will miss against the user.
• Pay Day will not cause the opponent to gain money if it hits the user's substitute.
• While user has a substitute, non-users' use of SmellingSalt against the user does not increase in effectiveness if the user is paralyzed, and will not heal the user's paralysis if the attack is successful.
• Protect, Detect, and Endure work as normal for the user and non-users.
• If the user has a substitute when a non-user begins to use a multi-turn attack, the secondary effect of that attack will not occur. The effect of multi-turn attacks will end when the user creates a substitute.
• Trick will fail against the user. The user may use Trick normally.
• When an opponent uses Absorb, Mega Drain, Leech Life, Giga Drain, or a recoil attack against the user, it loses or gains HP according to the number of life points lost by the substitute. (For example, if the opponent uses Absorb on the user and the substitute loses 10 life points, the opponent gains 5 HP.)
• Block, Mean Look, and Spider Web will fail against the user.
• Lock-on and Mind Reader will fail against the user. The user can use these attacks normally.
• If a non-user is of Ghost type, Curse will fail for that non-user when used against the user.
• Nightmare and Leech Seed will fail against the user.
• Mimic and Sketch will fail against the user.
• Yawn will fail against the user.
• Transform, Grudge, Taunt, and Magic Coat will work as normal for the user and non-users.
• The substitute will absorb damage from Pursuit if the user attempts to switch.

Endure/Protect/Detect

As a bug, the game doesn't set a maximum for the number of consecutive uses of these moves. Thus, in the rare case that more than four consecutive uses is achieved, the success rate can take on strange values as it accesses other data structures. For example, in the Ruby/Sapphire version, the next two values after these four are 118 and 165.

Of the moves that don't target an opponent (Bide, Haze, Milk Drink, Wish, Hail, Grudge, Imprison), only Bide is affected by Protect and Detect, namely when Bide returns an attack to a Pokémon.

The effect of Endure doesn't modify the damage calculated when Future Sight or Doom Desire is used, and neither does Focus Band's effect, since in both cases the opponent doesn't actually lose HP.

Destiny Bond/Grudge

The effect of these two moves ends when the Bag command is used to use an item on the user or when the Run command is used and the user fails to flee.

Magic Coat

This explanation will clarify how Magic Coat works.

If only one Pokémon is targeted by an attack, Magic Coat's effect bounces back the entire attack, making Magic Coat's user the user of that attack and targeting the attack's original user.

If only one Pokémon is targeted by an attack affected by Magic Coat and Soundproof (such as Supersonic), Soundproof's effect overrides Magic Coat's effect.

If more than one Pokémon is targeted by an attack, as can be the case with Leer and String Shot, for example, Magic Coat works differently depending on where the user is located. If the user is the one on the (trainer's) left, Magic Coat's effect bounces back the entire attack, making Magic Coat's user the user of that attack and thereby affecting all opposing Pokémon. (If one of the opposing Pokémon used Magic Coat, the attack's effect on it will be bounced back [that user of Magic Coat will then be treated as the user of that portion of the attack].) If the user is the one on the right, the attack executes as normal, the user's partner is affected as normal, and the attack's effect on the user is bounced back. (If Magic Coat is in effect for both the user and its partner the one on the left's Magic Coat effect will be used against attacks like these.)

If both opposing Pokémon are targeted by an attack affected by Magic Coat and Soundproof (the only such attack is Growl) and the target on the left has Soundproof and had used Magic Coat, Soundproof will block the attack for the first target and the attack will move on to the target on the right as usual.

The attack's target and user are changed before an accuracy check is made for the attack.

Lock-On/Mind Reader

When the user uses either of these moves, the effect begins, two variables, X and Y, are set for the opponent's position: X is set to the user's position, and Y is set to 2. (Each position has a different set of variables.)

During the effect, upon reaching an accuracy check for an attack against the opponent, the game checks if the attacker's position is equal to X. If so, the attack succeeds automatically. (Even a returned attack from Doom Desire and Future Sight can succeed this way, and the attack is successful even if the opponent is using Fly, Dig, Dive, or Bounce, and in the case of Fly or Bounce, even if the attack is Earthquake, Fissure, or Magnitude.) However, the effect of Protect or Detect, or the effect of Dream Eater when the opponent isn't asleep, will override this effect. At the end of each round, Y is decreased by 1, and then if Y equals 0, the effect ends.

The effect ends when the user is switched or the opponent is switched. If either Pokémon uses Baton Pass, Y is reset to 2.

If a Pokémon uses Lock-On or Mind Reader against the opponent during the effect, the effect resets (X is set to the Pokémon's position and Y is set to 2).

Snatch

If an attack affected by Snatch targets an opponent (the only such attack is Psych Up), the attack's new target becomes the attack's original user when the attack is taken due to Snatch. (Follow Me can't affect this.)

If more than one Pokémon uses Snatch in a round, the effect will create a chain if an attack affected by Snatch is then used: A Pokémon uses, for example Psych Up. Then the first user of Snatch takes the attack, then the second user of Snatch takes it, and finally the third user of Snatch, which will be the true user of Psych Up, targeting the second user of Snatch.