Power: Difference between revisions

If you were looking for the performance stat, see Performance.

Power is a property of moves that helps determine how much damage they deal. It is seen primarily in the games, but it is touched upon in the Pokémon anime.

Overview

Moves with more power inflict more damage. Statistically, the more damage a move inflicts, the more likely it will either have a lower accuracy, a negative effect for the user like recoil damage, or a lower PP (though some strong outliers exist, such as Extrasensory; these are often signature moves). How much power a move has can be seen in the Pokémon stats screen*, in the move section, along with accuracy.

Damage modification

Main article: Damage modification

Power can be altered by some degree by damage modification that depends on the current status of the battle.

Type effectiveness

Main article: Type chart

The type of the defending Pokémon affects the power of the move. If a move is super effective, the base power is doubled. If it is not very effective, damage is halved. These can stack to ¼ or 4×. If a move doesn't affect an opponent's type, all that move's power is 0. For example, if a Noctowl used Shadow Ball on a Gallade, it would be super effective, because Gallade is Fighting (normal protection) and Psychic (weak protection) and would have a power of 160. However if Noctowl were to use the move Silver Wind on a Gallade, the Psychic type's weakness to Bug moves and fighting's resistance to them would cancel out, and the attack would deal out 60 power.

Same-type attack bonus

Main article: Same-type attack bonus

Same-type attack bonus also affects a move's power. If a Water-type Pokémon used a Water-type move, it would gain STAB, which increases power by 50%. For instance, if a Gyarados used Waterfall, instead of 80 power, it would be 120.

Abilities

Main article: Ability

Some Abilities can increase a user's power as well. Pure Power is one example that boosts Attack, thus indirectly boosting power. Abilities can also boost a specific type's power.

Items

Several hold items can also boost power. Stat-enhancing items can increase Attack or Special Attack, while type-enhancing items increase moves of a certain type's power.

Critical hits

Main article: Critical hit

Critical hits have a 6.25% chance of occurring under normal circumstances, and double a move's power for one hit. This can also stack with effectiveness and other modifiers.

Moves with varying or no power

For moves that deal no damage, deal damage with varying power, deal fixed damage, or deal varying damage, the power is indicated by "—".

No damage

Almost all status moves, such as Growl and Confuse Ray, deal no damage. Instead, they have a different effect like inflicting a status ailment.

Fixed damage

Moves that deal a fixed amount of damage do not display power, and are not modified by the above. SonicBoom, for example, has a power of "—" because it always does 20 damage if it hits.

Variable damage

When a move varies in damage, it will also have "—". Psywave is a prime example, as it deals a randomly-selected amount of damage (based on the user's level), therefore its power rating cannot be predicted. Pain Split is another move that inflicts variable damage, as both the user's and the target's Hit points affect it. In addition, one-hit knockout moves make the opponent faint if they hit.

Variable power

Variable power moves, such as Reversal or Rollout, are affected by STAB and type effectiveness modifiers, just like regular moves with fixed power, but also have another factor like using a different move beforehand.

Range

The power of damaging moves currently ranges (inclusively) between 10 and 250, with many different amounts in between. The highest powered move in the games, as of Generation V, is Explosion, with a permanent base power of 250. The lowest powered moves include Constrict, Fury Cutter* and Triple Kick* with base powers of 10. However, in Generation I, there is a glitch move with a base power 255.

However, the aforementioned varying moves can have higher powers than this. For example, Spit Up has a base power of 300 when Stockpile has been used three times beforehand.

As of Generation IV, the average move power across the set of all moves with a set power (for example, excluding Magnitude) is 72.15. The most frequent move power is 80.

Trivia

• In Generation I, there was no way to see a move's power on-screen. This was rectified in Generation II, though.
• In both Generations I and II, however, there was no way to see a move's power while in battle through the battle summary. This was fixed in Generation III.
• As of Generation V, the move with the highest consistent power after all damage modifications is V-create. If a Fire-type Pokémon has the Ability Adaptability (which is impossible without Ability or type changing), is holding a Fire Gem, and uses V-create against a Pokémon with the Dry Skin Ability that has a double weakness to Fire (such as Paras) while it is sunny, the move will reach an effective power of 4050.

See also

• Accuracy
• Move

This game mechanic article is part of Project Games, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon games.