Pokémon/Pokédex/Moves

Pokémon moves are the techniques that Pokémon can use in or out of battle. Like most role-playing games (RPGs) where a player controls characters, battling them and leveling them up, Pokémon are able to learn certain moves that are used to inflict damage and status problems, restore health, or perform actions that in some way affect the overall battle. The moves that one Pokémon may learn are different from another depending on the species of Pokémon. For example, the feline Pokémon Skitty is able to learn the move Assist, while the similarly feline Pokémon Meowth cannot. Because each Pokémon may only know a total of four moves at any one time, some strategy is involved in move selection. Moves are learned through leveling up, TMs and HMs, breeding, and move tutors (NPCs that teach moves either once or infinitely). Each move has a Power value, type, Accuracy value, amount of PP, and description. Starting from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, each move is also listed as a Physical Attack, Special Attack, or Status, which determines the stats that affect damage.

The Power of a move can range from 10 to 250 (the moves Explosion and Selfdestruct, however, essentially have 500 and 400 power, respectively, because they halve defense; this effect is not mentioned in the game). This number is used in a complex equation that determines how many hit points are taken away from the target Pokémon. Other factors that are used in this equation include the defense and attack statistics of each Pokémon, the types involved with both the Pokémon and the moves used, items being held by either Pokémon, and even weather.

Some moves are listed with a Power value of "---". This is most commonly associated with moves that do not directly deal damage but perform an effect, such as inflicting a status condition or healing a Pokémon. However, there are cases where the Power is not listed because either the damage is variable or the damage is caused in a specific manner (e.g., Sonicboom is listed without a Power while its effect says that it "always inflict[s] 20 HP damage"). The latter case of how the game treats moves that deal set amounts of damage is inconsistent because some, like Dragon Rage, will be listed with their damage amounts in the Power.

Pokémon moves may be one of 17 Pokémon types. Of these, the Normal type is the most prevalent. The effectiveness of a move is dependent on the move's type versus the target's type - or rather, how susceptible the target Pokémon's type is to the move's type. Common phrases associated with this aspect are "Super effective," "Not very effective," and "No effect." Super effective moves will do twice the normal amount of damage to their target while "Not very effective" moves will only do half. Some Pokémon are of two types and damage results are affected by each; as a result "Super effective" and "Not very effective" can refer to a move doing quadruple or one quarter of the normal amount. Moves that have "No effect" are of a type that the target Pokémon is immune to. An example of this would be using Earthquake, a Ground-type move, against a Pokémon that is a Flying-type. Flying-type is immune to Ground-type so the move would have "No effect." Some moves that cause status conditions are exceptions to this rule. For example, Confuse Ray, a Ghost-type move, should be unable to affect Normal-type Pokémon, but it can in fact confuse any Pokémon regardless of type.

Another aspect of move types is dependent not on the target, but on the Pokémon using the move. In cases where a move type is the same as the Pokémon's type, the total damage inflicted is increased by 50 percent.^[1] This is commonly called Same Type Attack Bonus (STAB) and is used in jargon describing strategies.

Accuracy is an aspect of the Pokémon battling mechanics that helps to add a level of variability to the game. Often, a very powerful move is offset by having a very low Accuracy. A good example is in the case of certain moves that cause a Pokémon to faint with one hit, also called a One Hit KnockOut (OHKO), like Sheer Cold or Fissure. These moves are typically listed with an Accuracy of 30 (out of a possible 100), but the lower the target Pokémon's level in respect to the attacker, the more accurate the attack. OHKO moves cannot be used on a Pokémon of a higher level than the one using the move. This maintains a balance of power versus accuracy because theoretically weaker moves could be used against the opponent to accomplish the same goal.

The antithesis of OHKO moves are those described in the game as 100% accurate. These are different from moves that have a listing of 100 under Accuracy because 100% accurate moves are unaffected by other moves or items that may raise the target's evasiveness or decrease the user's accuracy. These moves instead are listed with a "---" under Accuracy similar to the Power listings of certain moves. In addition, moves that either have no target or only affect the Pokémon using it are listed in this manner.

Accuracy is also an unseen characteristic of Pokémon themselves. No Pokémon is innately more accurate or evasive than another, but similar to moves that lower and raise innate stats like Speed and Defense, several moves can increase or decrease a Pokémon's accuracy or evasiveness, thereby working in tandem with a move's Accuracy. Like stat-altering moves, they can only raise or lower accuracy or evasiveness six levels, capping the amount a player may raise their own abilities or damage an opponent's. It is important to remember that accuracy and evasiveness are two distinct properties when discussing how much a Pokémon can be affected. For example, a Pokémon could use the move Smokescreen six times to lower its opponent's accuracy to the minimum, but if that same Pokémon had been affected by the move Sweet Scent six times, it would have such lowered evasiveness that even though the opponent's accuracy was reduced — the net effect created is that moves hit with normal accuracy.

Power Points, also referred to as PP, indicate how many times a Pokémon may use a given move. The amount of PP for a given move is usually dependent on how powerful the move's strength or effect is. The mechanic shares similarities with the RPG staple, the Magic Point (MP), but is fundamentally different in certain ways. The main difference is that in most RPGs MP functions as a "pool" of energy from which any number of special moves may be used as many times as possible, but when MP runs out, no special moves may be used at all. In Pokémon, once a Pokémon uses up all the PP for a certain move it can no longer use that move, but it may use other moves with remaining PP. (An exception is made for Shadow attacks in Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, which do not have PP.) If a Pokémon uses all the PP for all of its moves, it then resorts to a move called Struggle. It is defined as a Normal-type attack that deals recoil damage. However, it is never strong or weak against anything, including Ghost-types. This has led some to believe that Struggle is a ??? type like the move Curse. PP can be restored by using Elixirs and Ethers or by going to a Pokémon Center. The maximum PP for a move may be increased by use of the item PP Up or PP Max.

Typically, the Pokémon that AI controlled opponents use also have this limitation. However, in the first generation games, this rule did not apply to AI controlled Pokémon, enabling their trainers to use powerful moves an abnormal amount of times. Whether this was intentional in order to make the game more challenging or an oversight of the programmers remains unclear, but it has been remedied since the release of Pokémon Stadium.

Almost every move in Pokémon is coupled with some sort of effect beyond the simplistic mechanism of inflicting damage. Many of these secondary effects include a chance that the move will induce a certain status condition. Each of these status conditions negatively affects how the afflicted Pokémon performs in battle — for example, poison damages the Pokémon over a long period, while a paralyzed Pokémon's Speed is drastically reduced, and there is a chance it will be unable to attack during its turn. While there are many moves that cause status conditions as a secondary effect, many exist that don't cause any damage but are solely used for this purpose.

Other moves affect the statistics of the battling Pokémon. Like moves that cause status conditions, some moves both cause damage and affect the target's stats (The base power of the move Acid is 65 but it can also lower the opponent's Special Defense), while others only alter stats (the move Harden raises the user's Defense). These changes are temporary and are canceled when the Pokémon is switched out of battle, when it faints, or when the match ends.

Move effects can also change the fundamental rules, drastically altering the way that the game is played. For example, Normal- or Fighting- type moves used against a Ghost-type Pokémon will fail because the Ghost-type is immune to both Fighting-type and Normal-type moves. However, a move called Foresight renders this immunity undone. This significantly affects gameplay because now the Ghost-type can be affected by a large number of moves that it previously was impervious to.

Many other different types of moves exist that can alter the battle in other ways.

1. ↑ "Damage calculation". Retrieved 2007-02-10.