------------- BATTLE STRATEGY LEAFLET VERSION 2.0 ------------- BATTLE ROUTINE ======================================================================================= Fight --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The objective of engaging in a Pokémon battle, of course, is to best the opponent in terms of offense and defense. Battle, however, is far more complicated than it appears, and it takes a very skilled trainer to take advantage of this sophistication. The main battle menu consists of four functions: Fight, PKMN, Item (or Pack or Bag), or Run. You may use only one of these functions on one turn. The Fight function takes you to the list of your Pokémon’s attacks. What the attacks may do depend entirely on the Pokémon that uses the attack and against whom it is used. Some abilities that any of the combatants have may affect the efficacy or productivity of the attack in base form, while type advantages, weather conditions, or effects of attacks previously used have their share of influences. PKMN --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This function enables you to switch your Pokémon. This can be done once per turn, mean- ing that the surrogate battler won’t get a chance to battle on the turn. Before you de- cide to switch out, use the Summary (or Stats) function to view what condition that your Pokémon is in. If your Active Pokémon is ailing from poison or a burn, it may be a good idea to withdraw it. However, since the new Pokémon cannot attack on that turn, it will absorb any effects of attacks from the opponent immediately. Therefore, you may want to think twice before switching out for a Pokémon with a low Speed rating. — Summary. Called “Stats” on older cartridges, this allows you to view the status of your Pokémon, which must be taken into consideration before it is released into battle. On the Red, Blue, and Yellow cartridges, the stats screen is spread out on two screens: the first screen informs you of the Pokémon’s health status, area stats, experience required to gain another level, and its biological types, while the second screen lists the Pokémon’s attacks and their remaining Power Points. On the Gold, Silver, and Crystal cartridges, the screens are spread out onto three screens: the first explains its types, health status, and experience level; the second lists the attacks of that Pokémon and their remaining Power Points and identifies the Pokémon’s held item; the third screen explains area stats and capture information (the trainer that caught it and that trainer’s ID number). The Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire summary is spread out over four screens: the first identifies the Pokémon’s biological types, ability, and capture infor- mation (name of trainer that caught it, the ID number of that trainer, the gen- der of that trainer [the name of the trainer will be highlighted in blue if male and pink if female], the level the Pokémon was at when caught, and the location at which it was caught); the second screen counts the ribbons that it received, identifies its held item, determines its experience level, and gives its area stats; the third screen lists the Pokémon’s attacks with their types and battle effects, potencies, and hit rates; the fourth screen lists the attacks with their contest types, contest effects, appeal values, and jam penalties. The Fire Red and Leaf Green screen is broken down into three pages: the first page states trainer and capture information like in the Ruby and Sapphire screens; the sec- ond screen lists base stats, tracks experience, and identifies the Pokémon’s ability; the third screen lists the attacks. o Attack. This area stat rates the potential of physical attacks used by that Pokémon. Attacks of the Normal, Fighting, Ground, Flying, Poison, Bug, Rock, Ghost, and Steel types are considered physical. (Poison-type attacks are non- physical on Red, Blue, and Yellow.) o Defense. This area stat rates the Pokémon’s vulnerability to physical at- tacks. o Special Attack. This area stat rates the potential of nonphysical attacks used by that Pokémon. Attacks of the Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Ice, Psy- chic, Dragon, and Dark types are considered nonphysical. Special Attack and Special Defense are consolidated into “Special” in Red, Blue, and Yellow. o Special Defense. This area stat rates the Pokémon’s vulnerability to nonphys- ical attacks. o Speed. Pokémon are assigned an area stat of Speed to determine turn order. The Pokémon with the highest Speed goes first, the one with the second high- est rating goes afterward, and so on. o HP. The vitality of a Pokémon is measured by Hit Points. When this measure falls to zero for any reason, the Pokémon can’t fight until a Revive, Max Re- vive, Revival Herb, or Sacred Ash is administered, the Pokémon is moved to Bill’s PC (except in Red, Blue, or Yellow) or Lanette’s PC, or the Pokémon is healed at a Pokémon Center or by anyone willing to rest them. o Sleep. This status abnormality prevents the Pokémon from attacking except with Snore or Sleep Talk. Administering an Awakening, Mint Berry, Lava Cook- ie, Full Heal, Chesto Berry, or Lum Berry or playing the PokéFlute or Blue Flute will alleviate this condition. o Paralysis. This status abnormality may prevent a Pokémon from attacking, and the affected Pokémon’s Speed plummets. Administering a Paralyz Heal, PrzCure- Berry, Lava Cookie, Full Heal, Cheri Berry, or Lum Berry, using Refresh, or being attacked with Smellingsalt will alleviate paralysis. o Poison. This status abnormality causes a Pokémon to lose HP even outside of battle, and being attacked with Toxic or Poison Fang may cause poisoning that worsens with time. Administering an Antidote, PsnCureBerry, Lava Cookie, Full Heal, Pecha Berry, or Lum Berry or using Refresh will detoxify the Pokémon. o Burn. This status abnormality causes a Pokémon to lose HP in battle, and the affected Pokémon’s Attack plummets. Administering a Burn Heal, Ice Berry, Lava Cookie, Full Heal, Rawst Berry, or Lum Berry or using Refresh will heal a burn. o Hoarfrost. This status abnormality completely immobilizes a Pokémon. Admini- stering an Ice Heal, Burnt Berry, Lava Cookie, Aspear Berry, or Lum Berry, using a physical attack, Sunny Day, Flame Wheel, Heat Wave, Fire Blast, or Overheat or being attacked with a Fire-type move will defrost a Pokémon. A Pokémon cannot be frozen in sunlight, so sending out a Groudon will defrost any Pokémon. o Confusion. This status abnormality may cause a Pokémon to attack itself in- stead of executing a desired move. This can be alleviated with Bitter Berry, Yellow Flute, or Persim Berry or simply switching out. o Infatuation. This status abnormality, induced by Attract or effect of the ability Cute Charm, may cause a Pokémon to not attack. This is remediable with a Mental Herb or Red Flute or switching either combatant out. o PKRS. If on Ruby or Sapphire this icon appears below the Pokémon’s level and ball, the Pokémon has contracted the Pokérus virus. This can also happen on Gold, Silver, or Crystal, but it won’t be readily denoted. This affliction multiplies experience gained from battle by 1.5, but it eventually resolves itself. If a black dot appears between the level and ball in a Pokémon’s sum- mary, the Pokémon is immune to Pokérus. o PP. Power Points are the number of times that a certain move can be used, de- pending on its potential. If the move’s Power Points run out (from overuse or subjection to Spite or Grudge), the move becomes inoperable until an Ether, Max Ether, Elixir, Max Elixir, Mysteryberry, or Leppa Berry is administered, the Pokémon is moved to Bill’s PC (except in Red, Blue, or Yellow) or La- nette’s PC, or the Pokémon is healed at a Pokémon Center or by anyone willing to rest them. Administering PP Up will cause a move’s Power Point maximum to increase by 20 percent. Once the base maximum is increased by 60 percent, it cannot be increased further. If all of the moves’ Power Points are gone, the Pokémon will be forced to use Struggle, which has no type and deals recoil equal to ten percent of the damage done to the foe. o Experience. If the foe has fainted, Pokémon that participated in battle, ex- cept those that fainted, as well as those holding Exp Shares are doled an amount of experience points summing up to a predetermined total, divided equally. If a Pokémon holding an Exp Share battled, that Pokémon receives an additional share of experience. If in Red, Blue, or Yellow you carry an Exp All, each Pokémon will receive an additional share equal to one third of the sum. Pokémon that you did not capture will receive 50 percent more experience in all cases. Most Pokémon require one million points to reach level 100, while starter Pokémon require Pokémon require 1,059,860 and legendary Pokémon (as well as Salamence, Exeggutor, and a few others) require 1,250,000 points. o Shiny Pokémon. Any Pokémon that is discolored is called a “shiny Pokémon” and will be denoted by three stars next to the level in Gold, Silver, and Crystal summaries or the Pokédex number being highlighted in gold in Ruby or Sapphire summaries. Obtaining this sort of Pokémon in the wild is difficult, and only certain games will give you this opportunity. When sent into battle, a series of sprites will be emitted from the figure. — Switch. This is called “Shift” on Ruby and Sapphire. This function will cause the active Pokémon to be withdrawn for the Pokémon you selected. The new Pokémon will take all effects of the foe’s attack. However, if you defeated the foe or your Active Pokémon fainted, you may be prompted to switch Pokémon; if the Bat- tle Style setting in the Options menu is set to “Set” or you have no other heal- thy Pokémon, no prompt will be made. If you have no Pokémon left and your Active Pokémon fainted, you will be transported to the Pokémon Center that your Pokémon were last healed at and you will lose half of your money rounded down to the nearest dollar unless you engaged in a Secret Base or link battle. If this hap- pens in the Battle Tower or you shut off the game there without saving, your victory streak is broken. Item --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is “Pack” in the Gold, Silver, and Crystal versions and “Bag” in Ruby and Sap- phire. Unless engaged in a Battle Tower or link battle, you may opt to administer items to your Pokémon. You may use one item on a turn, and your turn is over once you do this. You cannot attach items, administer PokéBlocks, or teach Technical Machines in battle, and some items can only be used in Wild Pokémon battles. In Red, Blue, and Yellow, all items are consolidated into one pocket, and you can carry up to twenty at a time. In Gold, Silver, and Crystal, the Pack is broken down into four pockets: the first for general items and berries, twenty of which you can carry at once; the second for balls; the third for key items, or those that cannot be discarded or sold; the fourth for Technical Machines. In Ruby and Sapphire, the Bag is divided into five areas by adding the Pack’s pockets and a pocket exclusively for Berries. In a Wild Pokémon battle, throwing a ball and successfully capturing a Pokémon denies your Pokémon any experience. You cannot capture an opponent’s Pokémon. In the National Park in Gold, Silver, and Crystal, “Park Ball” will replace this op- tion. You cannot administer items to your Pokémon in the National Park. In the Safari Zone in Red, Blue, and Yellow, this option, as well as “Fight” and “PKMN,” will be re- placed by “Ball,” “Rock,” and “Bait.” The Ball function launches a Safari Ball, the Bait function sends out food for the Pokémon to distract it, and the Rock function launches a pebble at the Pokémon to anger it, making it apt to flee, but making it easier to cap- ture. In the Ruby and Sapphire Safari Zone, these options will be “Ball,” “PokéBlock,” and “Go Near,” which serve similar functions. Run ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you are engaged in a Wild Pokémon battle, you have the option to run away. Doing so increases your chances of your Pokémon contracting Pokérus, and your Pokémon are denied any experience. You cannot run from a Trainer battle, and you lose the battle if you se- lect this option in a link battle. USING YOUR POKÉMON ======================================================================================== 1. One-hit KO moves ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- True to their collective name, these moves have the potential to deplete the vitality of the foe completely. However, these moves — Fissure, Guillotine, Horn Drill, and Sheer Cold — are effective rarely in standardized battle, and their efficiency increases against weaker Pokémon. And they don’t hit higher-level Pokémon. For beginning trainers it is conventional to institute these moves as a supplement to prominent competencies, but experienced trainers use these moves only if the Pokémon to know one has low offen- sive stats. Generally, these attacks do little more than provide a booster to offensive potential, and that’s where it stands. 2. Fly, Dig, Dive, and Bounce ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Red, Blue, and Yellow versions, these moves protected the user completely from attack. However, this now gives your opponent a free turn to make up for a wasted attack or item administration to no avail. If your Pokémon used Dig and is in the dormitory stage, your opponent can simply switch out for a Flygon or Articuno, and Dig will be in- effective in that case. If the foe is a Dugtrio or Camerupt, it can simply pull a Magni- tude or Earthquake, maybe even a Fissure, and they will still hit. In fact, Earthquake’s power will double when used against a Pokémon using Dig. If your Wailord used Dive, it would be vulnerable to Surf. I’m not finished with you yet. Using Fly or Bounce (in Grumpig’s case) will not protect you from Gust, Sky Uppercut, Thunder, or Twister. The power of these attacks will double in this case. When hit by Twister in this situation, your Pokémon definitely still can flinch, annulling Fly or Bounce at the expense of the Power Points. These moves do not let you administer items without penalty, which is a common misconception. Use these moves only if you know your opponent can’t find the loophole. 3. Same-type Multiplier ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If the type of an attack matches one of those of the Pokémon using it, the final damage is increased by 50 percent. This is pretty well known, but difficult to pin down effi- ciently. Teaching Magnitude, Earthquake, Mud Shot, and Fissure to your beloved Whiscash will involve this multiplier, granted, but if it happens to run into a Parasect, it’s screwed: all of these attacks are Ground-type, and since Parasect is of the Grass and Bug types, the attacks won’t do much, if anything, and one timed Solarbeam can put Whis- cash out of its misery. 4. Held Items ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Remember that administering an item directly from the Pack or Bag takes up one turn; so make a habit of equipping eligible items to your Pokémon. Keep in mind that Pokémon can use not all items. You may have noticed that a Hyper Potion restores 200 HP, but this does its job only when you, the trainer, administer it. Attaching a Hyper Potion won’t help your Pokémon at all, but an attached Berry/Oran Berry or Gold Berry/Sitrus Berry can be used by your Pokémon to restore HP between turns. Another sort of held item is the power-up item, which can be Silk Scarf/Pink Bow, Char- coal, Mystic Water, Miracle Seed, Magnet, Metal Coat, Soft Sand, et cetera. These moves will raise the potency of certain types of attacks, but you should be careful about whom you attach it to. Remember that an Electric-type move’s power when used by an Electric- type Pokémon will increase by 50 percent, so it would be obstreperous to attach a Magnet for more effect. Invest instead in a move that isn’t the type of the user, such as a Shadow Ball on a Mewtwo being powered up by Spell Tag. 5. Evolution ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Evolving a Pokémon will cause an increase in stat rates, but your Pokémon will learn moves later on. In some cases evolved Pokémon may not learn moves that the basic form could. Let’s have a look at Numel and Camerupt’s move schedule: Name and Type | Battle and Contest Description | Pot. Acy. App. Jam PP Level 101 102 Growl Normal/Cute Lowers the foe’s Attack (This attack can be deflected by the ability Soundproof.) ------------------------------------ Appeal rises to 6 if performed last --- 100 2 0 40 Egg Tackle Normal/Tough 35 95 4 0 35 Egg Ember Fire/Beauty May burn 40 100 4 0 25 11 Magnitude Ground/Tough Strikes in magnitude of 2 to 10 ------------------------------------ The more the crowd is excited, the better the appeal Var 100 1 0 30 19 Focus Energy Normal/Tough Raises chances of next hit being critical --- --- 2 3 30 25 Take Down Normal/Tough User receives recoil equal to one eighth of damage done ------------------------------------ Appeal loss from user is tripled 95 80 6 0 20 29 Amnesia Psychic/Cute Raises the user’s Special Defense ------------------------------------ Raises the user’s condition --- --- 1 0 20 31 Rock Slide Rock/Tough May prevent foe from attacking 75 90 2 3 10 No 33 Earthquake Ground/Tough Hits both foes and ally in Double Battle; can hit Pokémon using Dig 100 100 2 3 10 35 37 Flamethrower Fire/Beauty May burn 95 100 4 0 15 41 No Eruption Fire/Beauty The higher the user’s HP, the more damage inflicted ------------------------------------ The later performed, the better the appeal 150 100 1 0 5 No 45 Double-Edge Normal/Cool User receives recoil equal to one eighth of damage done ------------------------------------ Appeal loss from user is tripled 120 100 6 0 10 49 No Fissure Ground/Tough Automatically defeats foe if suc- cessful; can hit Pokémon using Dig (As with all other one-hit KO at- tacks, this attack is inefficacious against Pokémon at higher levels than the user.) ------------------------------------ Pokémon that appealed lose marks equal to half of final appeal round- ed up to the nearest one KO 30 2 1 5 No 55 As we can see, Numel can learn Flamethrower at level 41 and Double-Edge at level 49, but Camerupt can’t learn either move through experience. Camerupt learns Rock Slide at level 33, as soon as it evolves, Eruption at level 45, and Fissure at level 55, but Numel can’t learn those moves through experience. Notice that Numel learns Earthquake at two levels earlier than Camerupt. Now let’s take a look at the move schedule of Pichu, Pikachu, and Raichu: Name and Type Pot. Acy. App. Jam PP Level Learned of Move Pichu Pikachu Raichu Thundershock Electric/Cute 40 100 4 0 30 Egg Egg Tutor Charm Normal/Cute --- 100 3 2 20 Egg No No Growl Normal/Cute --- 100 2 0 40 No Egg No Tail Whip Normal/Cute --- 100 2 0 30 6 6 No Thunder Wave Electric/Cool --- 100 3 2 20 8 8 Tutor Sweet Kiss Normal/Cute --- 75 3 0 10 11 No No Quick Attack Normal/Cool 40 100 3 0 30 No 11 No Double Team Normal/Cool --- --- 2 0 15 No 15 Tutor Slam Normal/Tough 80 75 2 1 20 No 20 No Thunderbolt Electric/Cool 95 100 4 0 15 No 26 Tutor Agility Psychic/Cool --- --- 3 0 30 No 33 No Thunder Electric/Cool 120 70 2 3 10 No 41 No Sun: 30 Rain: No miss Light Screen Psychic/Beauty --- --- 1 0 30 No 50 No Notice that Pichu alone can learn Charm and Sweet Kiss through experience, whereas Pika- chu and Raichu can’t. Raichu can learn Thundershock, Thunder Wave, Double Team, and Thunderbolt through the Move Tutor, but it can’t learn anything else through experience. 6. Hidden Machines ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Trainers often labor under the delusion that Hidden Machines are great because they’re indispensable. In most cases, they’re not. First, Flash is rendered unnecessary on Poké- mon Ruby and Sapphire because you are given sufficient light in dark caves to navigate, and all it does in battle is reduce accuracy. Double Team serves you better that way. Second, Cut is relatively weak and has an accuracy of 95 percent, and isn’t necessary unless you’re in bad need of items. Third, Dive and Fly are counted among these ma- chines. Fourth, Waterfall is less efficient than Surf. The only reliable Technical Ma- chines are: — Surf. This HM is good all around and the most efficient of its lot. It has a re- spectable potency — 95 — has an accuracy of 100, and hits both foes in Double Battle as well as those using Dive. — Strength. This is one of the stronger Normal-type moves, and it’s a good way to jam others in a Contest. The problem remains, though, that it’s a Normal-type move and therefore not super-effective against any type. — Whirlpool. Available as HM06 in Gold, Silver, and Crystal, this move traps and harms the foe for two to five turns straight. However, its base power is 15 and its accuracy is 70. Plus which, Hidden Machines can’t be dropped at all in Red, Blue, and Yellow, and in those versions the Daycare Man won’t accept Pokémon that know an HM move. In later ver- sions, you will have to talk to the Move Deleter to erase these moves. 7. Mindful Implementation ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All-out offense is the implementation of a completely offensive move set that does not take into account any type matches, battle effects, accuracies, or abilities. All-out offense may sometimes win, but that’s only if the victor’s stats are elevated so much that effects aren’t relevant. To battle effectively, you will need to take into consid- eration the general environment: weather conditions, your Pokémon’s stats, the general competencies of the foe(s), and the effect of your attacks. — Attack effects. Status abnormalities, stat reduction, and other things are ef- fects of attacks, and they are a very crucial part of the outcome. If your Po- kémon is poisoned, it will continue to lose vitality every five paces on the field. Any reduction of Defense or elevation of your Pokémon’s Attack will open the door to a quick KO. In all-out offense, these effects are either not used judiciously or even disregarded, and your Pokémon can come up short as a result. Remember what I said about one-hit KO attacks? Those moves can’t hit higher-lev- el Pokémon in the Gold version or later, and the moves’ accuracies are generally 30 percent, but all-out offense endorses insensible use of these moves. o Attack power. A misleading figure is the base power of an attack. For exam- ple, Hyper Beam, Frenzy Plant, Blast Burn, and Hydro Cannon have a base dam- age figure of 150, but their accuracies are 90 percent and the user cannot do anything on the next turn. (For Hyper Beam, the fact that it’s a Normal-type move makes it even more unreliable because it can’t be super-effective.) Mul- tiply the power figure by 0.9 to get 135, and then halve that to get the out- come damage, which turns out to be 67.5, even less than Strength, Heat Wave, Waterfall, and Leaf Blade. Here is a list of high-potential moves broken down to their outcome damage: · Solarbeam: 120 × 1 ÷ 2 (for charge without sun. Divide by 2 again in rain, and eliminate division in sunlight) = 60 (30 in rain, 120 in sun) · Dynamicpunch/Zap Cannon: 100 × 0.5 = 50 · Thunder: 120 × 0.7 (for fair weather. Multiply by 0.3 instead of 0.7 in sun, and eliminate multiplication in rain) = 84 (36 in sun, 120 in rain) · Doom Desire: 120 × 0.85 ÷ 2 = 51 — Abilities. Most of the time, abilities aren’t apparent, and one Trapinch can have the ability Arena Trap while another has Hyper Cutter. These factors, pre- sent in Ruby and later only, have the power to negate certain effects complete- ly. For example, all Rayquaza have the ability Air Lock, which suspends effects of the weather on battle as long as they’re in battle. Beldum has the ability Clear Body, which prevents any of the opponent’s attacks from lowering its stats. A part of all-out offense is using any offensive move without paying at- tention to these attributes. — Weather conditions. Except if a Rayquaza is in play, weather conditions, if pre- sent, will have an effect on the battle in Gold or later. All weather conditions last for five turns when activated by an attack. o Hail. Triggered by TM07 (Hail) in Ruby or later, this weather condition sum- mons a hailstorm that will dole damage to all combatants except Ice-type Po- kémon. o Sandstorm. Triggered by TM37 (Sandstorm) and present in the Desert on Route 111 in Hoenn, a sandstorm will dole damage to all combatants except Rock- and Ground-type Pokémon, Cacnea, or Cacturne. o Sunlight. Triggered by TM11 (Sunny Day) or Groudon’s Drought ability and pre- sent in eastern Hoenn in Ruby after the removal of Team Magma from the Sea- floor Cavern and before you capture or defeat Groudon, this weather condition will increase the power of Fire-type attacks by 50 percent, halve the potency of Water-type attacks, cause Synthesis, Moonlight, and Morning Sun to restore the user’s HP completely, defrost any frozen Pokémon and negate effects that would freeze a combatant, allow for the use of Solarbeam without charging, and cut Thunder’s accuracy to 30 percent. o Rain. Triggered by TM18 (Rain Dance) or Kyogre’s Drizzle ability and present periodically on Routes 119 and 123 and invariably on Route 120 and in eastern Hoenn in Sapphire after the removal of Team Aqua from the Seafloor Cavern and before you capture or defeat Kyogre, this weather condition will increase the power of Water-type attacks by 50 percent, halve the power of Fire-type at- tacks and Solarbeam, cause Synthesis, Moonlight, and Morning Sun to restore HP equal to only one quarter of the user’s maximum HP, and cause Thunder to al- ways hit. — Moves you should teach. This is a list of moves that you should teach, and for good reason. o Offensive attacks that elevate the user’s stats. Stat changes are in effect as long as the affected Pokémon is in combat. Moves in this category include An- cientpower, Meteor Mash, Metal Claw, and Steel Wing. o Light Screen, Mist, and Reflect. Reflect halves the power of physical attacks, Mist prevents stat reduction, and Light Screen halves the power of all non- physical attacks. These attacks can be used simultaneously to halve the power of all offensive attacks (except Brick Break in the case of Reflect and Light Screen), and they fade only after five turns, not if a combatant switches out. o Brick Break. If your foes manipulated Light Screen and Reflect, Brick Break can shut down these effects, but not before bypassing them. It also inflicts a respectable amount of damage. o Flamethrower and Ice Beam. These are more efficient than Fire Blast and Bliz- zard, and they have the same effects. (On Red, Blue, and Yellow, Blizzard’s accuracy is 100 percent.) o Focus Energy. Focus Energy raises the chances of the next move being a crit- ical hit. The foe can’t switch out to negate this. o Karate Chop, Air Cutter, Razor Leaf, Slash, and Cross-Chop. Karate Chop, Air Cutter, Razor Leaf, Slash, and Cross-Chop have respectable outcome figures (Cross-Chop’s figure is 80 since it has a power figure of 100 and an accuracy of 80 percent) and have a very high critical hit ratio. o Gust, Sky Uppercut, Thunder, Twister, Magnitude, Earthquake, Fissure, and Surf. Gust, Sky Uppercut, Thunder, and Twister hit Pokémon using Fly and a Spoink or Grumpig using Bounce. Magnitude, Earthquake, and Fissure can hit Pokémon using Dig. Surf can hit a Pokémon using Dive. (But don’t get carried away with Fissure, buddy.) o Moves that cause flinching. This includes Twister, Bite, Headbutt, and Rock Slide. o Future Sight and Doom Desire. These moves take two turns to work, but types don’t matter in this case. o Wish. Wish takes two turns to work, but if the user fainted, it will restore the current Active Pokémon’s HP. But don’t start martyring your Xatu or Ji- rachi. o Baton Pass. Since Baton Pass is seen as merely switching out the Pokémon us- ing the attack, it also causes any stat changes to be carried over to the new Pokémon. Doing this will also carry over stat reductions, so do not use in lieu of regular withdrawal. — Moves you should never teach. This is a list of moves you should never teach un- der any circumstances. o Any non-offensive attacks that lower the foe’s stats. These attacks affect only the foe that is in combat at the time. Once it is withdrawn or if it faints, these effects go away. Attacks in this category include Sand-Attack, Sweet Scent, Memento, Growl, Tickle, Rock Smash, Screech, and Metal Sound. In- stead, teach moves that will elevate your stats. o Overheat and Psycho Boost. Overheat is available as TM50 in Ruby and later, and Deoxys learns Psycho Boost at level 45. Both attacks will cause the user’s Spe- cial Attack to plummet if successful, and in Contests these moves will cause the user to become startled more easily. o Hyper Beam, Blast Burn, Hydro Cannon, and Frenzy Plant. See above. o Perish Song. Perish Song will cause all combatants to faint after three more turns. If you use Mean Look to “complement” this move, your Pokémon will have to faint if you want the target to faint, and your foes can simply switch out to relieve themselves of the effects of Perish Song. o Teleport. This is effective only in Wild Pokémon battle. You have the Run func- tion set up for you in most cases. o Flash (except in Crystal or earlier). Again, the foe’s stat is being lowered, and in caves in Ruby and later there is sufficient light to navigate. o Mind Reader and Lock-On. These moves allow for the next hit to be successful, but the foe can simply switch out to ruin the user’s focus. o Focus Punch. Focus Punch (available as TM01 in Ruby and later) takes two turns to process. If between these turns the user takes any direct damage, the attack doesn’t go, and you’ve just wasted a Power Point. o Sky Attack. This may be the strongest Flying-type attack, but it has to charge on the first turn, and it has an accuracy of 90. This means that, compared to its power figure of 140, it has an outcome figure of just 63, even less than that of Hyper Beam. o Return and Frustration (especially Frustration). These moves are based on the morale of the user in your party, and this morale is bound to fluctuate. If you martyr your Pokémon and give them Energy Root, Energypowder, Heal Powder, or Revival Herb, or trade them away, their morale will plummet, and Frustration’s potential goes up. If you let your Pokémon battle often, let them hold items, groom them in the Underground in Goldenrod City, or administer items that are not bitter, their morale goes up, and so does Return’s power. Based on train- er’s battle styles, this scale of morale will fluctuate, and when engaged in link battle or when your Secret Base is saved to your friend’s cartridge after mixing records, Return and Frustration will do little more than squat. If you really feel that you should teach these moves, don’t teach Frustration — bat- tling with a Pokémon often makes the Pokémon’s morale go up and Frustration’s power go down, and this takes place very quickly. Oh yeah — they’re Normal-type moves, too. — Moves that certain Pokémon really shouldn’t know. This is a common problem and it’s really worked into the ground. Each Pokémon is different, and that means that there are moves that it would be really stupid to teach to them. Yeah, it’s conventional, but inefficient. o Kyogre and Sheer Cold and Groudon and Fissure. These Pokémon’s offensive com- petencies are phenomenal, so there is no need to teach one-hit KO moves to them. I have a lot of friends that look for excuses to teach these moves, and they’re not just on the Internet. o Rayquaza or Golduck and Fire- and Water-type attacks or Solarbeam or Thunder. All Rayquaza and most Golducks share the ability Air Lock and Cloud Nine, which suspend weather conditions as factors, and these attacks capitalize on the weather for desirable effect, each in different ways. Why apply these moves to these Pokémon (well, for Golduck I can see why it would know Surf) when one of their pieces is missing? o Regirock, Regice, or Registeel and Superpower. These three titans don’t have the greatest Attack in the world, and Superpower drags it down even further. And it takes their Defense with it. o Latios and Luster Purge when it knows Psychic. This is one of my biggest pet peeves. Luster Purge is actually a minuscule equivalent to Psychic. It actual- ly knows these two moves at the same time when it’s captured. Psychic beats it out. No arguments. Facts prove it. o Deoxys and Psycho Boost. I’ve said it before; Deoxys has a very bad Defense and Special Defense. You wouldn’t want its Special Attack going to those lev- els too, do you? o Muk and Thunder. This is just one of the many really bad combinations out there. In this example, Muk is weak to Ground-type attacks, and if the foe is a Ground-type Pokémon, Thunder isn’t going to help you, even if it is raining. — Moves that certain Pokémon really should know. Again, each Pokémon is different, and so one move that’s bad for one Pokémon could be beneficial for another. o Kyogre and Thunder. This is one combination that, thankfully, is popular. Kyo- gre’s Drizzle ability activates rain, and in rain Thunder can’t miss. o Groudon and Solarbeam. Luckily, you don’t have to apply a TM19 to Groudon to get this move — Groudon learns it at level 65. Groudon’s ability Drought acti- vates sunlight, and when it’s sunny Solarbeam doesn’t have to charge. o Dragons and Ice- or Rock-type moves. Dragon-type moves usually don’t deliver much an effect as Ice-type attacks on other Dragons. Ice Beam should work fine, if your Pokémon can learn it. (If you’re facing a Kingdra, you may have to switch to Dragon-type moves because it’s a Water-type Pokémon.) o Deoxys and Cosmic Power. If you paid attention, you’d know why this combo is good. While Deoxys’ defenses are abysmal, Cosmic Power gives it footing for these area stats. It is advisable to teach moves whilst keeping its strengths and weaknesses in mind. For example, you should consider teaching Thunderpunch to Typhlosion to ward off Water-type enemies. Teaching moves for no reason or creating a haphazard move set will get you no- where; teaching Thunder to a Muk may not be the best decision. Let’s take a look at two move sets and fix them up: ---------------------- | Charizard | | Ember | | Fire Blast | | Hyper Beam | | Flamethrower | | Item: Dragon Fang | ---------------------- Problem An immediate indicator that this Charizard is incompetent is in that it has no use for its held Dragon Fang, which powers up Dragon-type moves. The second inconvenience is that three of its moves are of the Fire type, which means that Charizard won’t stand a chance against Water- or Rock-type guys. The third inconvenience is in that it knows Hyper Beam, and in a battle with a Rock-type Pokémon this will do little for Charizard except immobil- ize it on the next turn. Solution So let’s fix this up. There are three Fire-type moves, and two have to go. Since Flame- thrower is the most efficient of the three, let Charizard maintain that. Hyper Beam also can go. Dragon Fang definitely has to be taken off if this move set stays, but careful with that Charcoal — Flamethrower’s power is already increased by 50 percent for same-type multiplier, so attaching a Charcoal will only make this increase 75 percent, which isn’t much of a difference and could hamper Charizard’s reliability if the surrogate moves don’t do much for a start. Let’s move on to the three empty attack spaces. Since we know Chari- zard is vulnerable to Water-, Rock-, and Electric-type attacks, Rock being the biggest threat, we come to the necessity of Earthquake and Thunderbolt. Then, since Charizard is a Flying-type Pokémon, add Aerial Ace for the same-type multiplier. Since Earthquake is the most necessary move, attach Soft Sand. ---------------------- | Kyogre | | Surf | | Thunder | | Sheer Cold | | Hydro Pump | | Item: Mystic Water | ---------------------- Problem This move set is only slightly more sensible. However, in many areas it is still ineffi- cient. Sheer Cold is unnecessary since Kyogre’s Special Attack rating is generally high. The second inconvenience is in that Mystic Water is attached — rain increases the power of Water-type attacks by 50 percent, and this increase is bumped up to 75 percent due to same-type multiplier, so attaching Mystic Water will bump this up to only 875‰. Look back at the Charizard we tuned up. The third thing is that there are two offensive Water-type moves present. Solution Since Surf is more efficient than Hydro Pump, let’s have our Kyogre forget Hydro Pump. Sheer Cold can go as well, even if it does knock out the foe if successful. Since Thunder is invariably successful in a downpour, we will maintain that. For its weak points, being vulnerable to Grass- and Electric-type attacks, we will need Earthquake and Ice Beam — Blizzard has an accuracy of 70 percent and, since Kyogre’s Special Attack is generally high, hence the reason we deleted Sheer Cold, unnecessary. For the held item, let’s add Magnet for Thunder. (You can also attach Soft Sand to give Earthquake a little help.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This publication is copyright © 2004 by William Gresham. All rights reserved.