Damage modification
From Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia.
Damage modification is a system of multipliers used to change the damage dealt in a battle. These modifiers affect how the damage is calculated by multiplying the move's base power in various ways. These modifiers range from doubling to halving and even negating the damage done.
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Super effective
When a move is super effective, it does double the damage it would normally do. For example, a move like Megahorn used against a Psychic-type Pokémon will be super effective because Bug-type moves are super effective against Psychic-types. This effect can stack up; for example, a Pokémon that is Rock/Ground and is hit by a Water-type move like Surf will be damaged four times as much by the move as it would normally be, because both Rock and Ground Pokémon are weak to Water moves.
Not very effective
When a move is not very effective, it does half of the damage it would do. This works exactly like super effective moves, and can stack up. For example, a Steel/Rock Pokémon will be damaged by a quarter of the amount by a Normal-type move. Likewise, a Normal/Flying Pokémon hit by a Fighting-type move will be damaged normally, as the super-effectiveness of Fighting against Normal is canceled out by the not-very-effectiveness of Fighting against Flying.
Not effective
When a move is not effective, it does not damage the Pokémon at all and that Pokémon is "immune" to that type. This immunity includes status moves of that type. For example, the Electric-type move Thunderbolt will have no affect on a Ground-type Pokémon such as Garchomp. Likewise, using the move Thunder Wave will prove useless and yields a "It does not affect Garchomp" (whereas a Confuse Ray that simply missed yields "It did not affect Garchomp"). Certain types are immune to specific moves, such as Grass-type Pokémon being immune to Leech Seed.
Critical hit
A move will sometimes get a critical hit against another Pokémon, some moves more than others. This will double the damage done after super effective/not very effective calculations occur, leading to the ability for a doubly-super effective move that gets a critical hit to do a whopping eight times as much damage as it would.
When a move is a critical hit, damage is calculated based on either the modified or unmodified attack and defense stats, whichever is more advantageous to the attacker. For example, an attacker who has used Swords Dance and them makes a critical hit will get the benefit of the increased Attack, while one affected by Charm will use its normal Attack score. Another example would be if a team had Light Screen or Reflect on it and the attacker scored a critical on the team with the certain wall; the defense added by the wall would then be ignored, and will do double normal damage.
Same-type attack bonus
- Main article: Same-type attack bonus
A move used by a Pokémon that is of the same type as the move itself will do 150% of its normal damage, such as a Fire-type move used by a Fire-type Pokémon. Dual-typed Pokémon will receive this bonus for both of their types, and a Pokémon whose type can change in-battle will receive the bonus for whatever type they are when they make the move.
Weather
- Main article: Weather conditions
Water-type and Fire-type moves' damage will be modified by rain and sunshine. If Rain Dance causes a downpour, Water-type moves will do 50% more damage and Fire-type moves will do 50% less damage. If Sunny Day causes harsh sunlight, Fire-type moves will do 50% more damage and Water-type moves will do 50% less damage.
Abilities
- Main article: Abilities
Abilities come in a wide variety, and have various effects on damage modification. These affects range from increasing and decreasing the power of moves of a specific type, granting immunities, and even changing the power of moves affected by other damage modifiers. These abilities include:
- Blaze, Overgrow, Torrent and Swarm increase the power of Fire-type, Grass-type, Water-type and Bug-type moves by 50% when the user's HP falls below 33%, respectively.
- Thick Fat decreases the power of the opponents' Fire-type and Ice-type moves by 50%. Heatproof decreases the power of opponents' Fire-type moves by 50%.
- Levitate provides immunity to Ground-type moves, and Soundproof provides immunity to sound-based moves.
- Volt Absorb and Water Absorb grant immunity to Electric-type and Water-type moves respectively, healing the user's HP by 25% instead. Dry Skin is similar to Water Absorb, but also doubles the power of opponents' Fire-type moves.
- Flash Fire negates the effect of opponents' Fire-type moves and instead increases the power of the ability's user's own Fire-type attacks. Similarly, Motor Drive negates the effect of opponents' Electric-type moves and instead causes the ability's user's Speed to increase. These abilities include status moves like Will-O-Wisp and Thunder Wave.
- Mold Breaker removes all immunities to the user's moves.
- Scrappy removes Ghost-type Pokémon's immunity to the Normal-type and Fighting-type moves of the user.
- Drizzle, Drought, Sand Stream and Snow Warning all cause different weather conditions.
- Adaptability doubles the power of moves of the same type as the user.
- Hustle boosts the power of the user's moves by 50%.
- Pure Power doubles the power of the user's physical attacks.
- Technician increases the power of the user's moves with base power 60 or less by 50%.
- Super Luck increases the user's critical hit ratio.
- Battle Armor and Shell Armor block critical hits.
- Sniper increases the power of the user's critical hits.
- Tinted Lens doubles the power of the user's moves that are not very effective.
- Solid Rock and Filter each reduce the power of super effective moves on the ability's user by one third.
- Wonder Guard reduces the power of the opponent's attacks that are not super effective to zero.
