Triple Battle

File:Triple battle.png

A triple battle

Triple battles are one of the many forms of Pokémon battling, being popular with Trainers in the region of Unova. As the name suggests, triple battles are a type of battle where each Trainer sends out three Pokémon at once. Due to this, they can be considered the successor to double battles, with the only difference seemingly being the number of Pokémon. However, there are some restrictions that differentiate it from its predecessor other than the amount of Pokémon, such as placement.

In the games

Placement

The placement of the Pokémon is now a major attribute of triple battles, as a Pokémon's positioning will affect how certain moves and abilities will work. Generally, Pokémon on the left-side of the field cannot attack any one on the right-side (including allies), and vice-versa. This also means a Pokémon in the center is free to hit any Pokémon on the field, but at a cost of being vulnerable to every other Pokémon.

There are some moves however, that allow non-adjacent Pokémon to attack each other.

Effect of moves

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: List needs to be checked and may be missing some moves

Effects on moves
Affects both adjacent opponents	Affects all opponents	Affects all adjacent opponents and partners	Affects all Pokémon in battle	Affects any opponent or partner	Randomly affects any opponent	Randomly affects adjacent opponent	Affects self	Affects all partners
Acid	Spikes	Discharge	Perish Song	Acrobatics	Outrage	Petal Dance	Rage Powder	Light Screen
Air Cutter	Stealth Rock	Magnitude	Rain Dance	Air Slash	Uproar		Ally Switch	Safeguard
Blizzard	Toxic Spikes	Teeter Dance	Trick Room	Brave Bird	Thrash		Destiny Bond	Aromatherapy
Bubble	Heal Block	Earthquake	Magic Room	Dragon Pulse			Follow Me	Quick Guard
Dark Void		Selfdestruct	Hail	Sky Drop			Helping Hand	Lucky Chant
Eruption		Sludge Wave	Sandstorm	Hurricane				Mist
Tail Whip		Explosion	Water Sport	Pluck				Heal Bell
Snarl		Surf	Wonder Room	Wing Attack				Reflect
Electroweb		Lava Plume	Haze	Aerial Ace				Tailwind
Growl		Bulldoze	Sunny Day	Aura Sphere				Wide Guard
Heat Wave		Searing Shot	Mud Sport	Chatter
Hyper Voice		Synchronoise	Gravity	Drill Peck
Icy Wind				Gust
Leer				Peck
Muddy Water				Sky Attack
Twister				Counter
Glaciate				Aeroblast
Incinerate				Bounce
Powder Snow				Dark Pulse
Razor Wind				Fly
Razor Leaf				Heal Pulse
Rock Slide				Water Pulse
String Shot				Mirror Coat
Sweet Scent
Water Spout
Swift
Relic Song
Struggle Bug

Most moves have the same effect in triple battles as with single and double battles, the only restriction is that they can only affect adjacent Pokémon. Moves that hit both opponents or all Pokémon in double battles will only affect adjacent Pokémon in triple battles, except Perish Song. (i.e. a Pokémon on the left-side which used Earthquake will not affect any Pokémon on the right-side.) Moves that hit multiple Pokémon will still have their power reduced unless all other Pokémon have fainted at that point.

There are, however, some moves that can affect non-adjacent Pokémon, such as Wide Guard and Tailwind which affect all Pokémon on the user's side.

The following lists moves that can target non-adjacent Pokémon:

Move Type Cat. Acrobatics  Flying  Physical Aerial Ace  Flying  Physical Aeroblast  Flying  Special Air Slash  Flying  Special Aura Sphere  Fighting  Special Bounce  Flying  Physical Brave Bird  Flying  Physical Chatter  Flying  Special Dark Pulse  Dark  Special Dragon Pulse  Dragon  Special Drill Peck  Flying  Physical Fly  Flying  Physical Sky Drop  Flying  Physical Gust  Flying  Special Heal Pulse  Psychic  Status Hurricane  Flying  Special Peck  Flying  Physical Perish Song  Normal  Status Pluck  Flying  Physical Sky Attack  Flying  Physical Water Pulse  Water  Special Wing Attack  Flying  Physical

Effect of abilities

Most abilities' effect remain the same and are not affected by the Pokémon's placement. For example, a Mold Breaker Pokémon on the left-side of the field which used Water Pulse can still damage a Pokémon with Wonder Guard on the right-side of the field. Also, a Magic Bounce Pokémon can still reflect entry hazards even if the user of the entry hazard and itself are at opposite corners of the field.

However, some abilities such as Intimidate might still be affected Pokémon's placement, and can only lower the attack of opposing, adjacent Pokémon on the field.

Moving

The Pokémon on the left and right have the option to 'move'. This option allows the user to switch with the Pokémon currently in the middle. Moving has no priority and none of the effects of switching apply to moving. A Pokémon can move even if it is the last Pokémon on its team. When there are only two Pokémon left on the field and they are non-adjacent to each other, then both Pokémon will automatically be moved to the center of the field.

In Pokémon Battrio

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it.

Triple battling as a mechanic was introduced in Pokémon Battrio, an arcade game using three Pokémon pucks on each side.

In the manga

Pokémon Master Black and White

In the second chapter, Monta was shown in a triple battle with Cheren, using Snivy, Panpour, and Roggenrola. Cheren used Basculin, Tepig, and Pansage.

Trivia

• Interestingly, the introduction of this form of battling keeps the pattern of every odd generation since the first adding one more Pokémon to the maximum amount to be sent out at one time in a battle.
• Air Cutter is the only Flying-type damage-dealing move that cannot hit a non-adjacent Pokémon.
• In The Battle of the Badge, Jessie and James send out three Pokémon at once to battle Ash, the first unofficial triple battle in the series.
• All the moves that contain the word "pulse" are able to hit non-adjacent opponents.