Pokemon Gold and Silver - Attack Process

This page details the Attack Process, the series of steps the game takes when handling each round of a Pokemon battle.

Round phases

The phases of a round are: use of items (with the Bag command); voluntary switching; use of attacks; and end of round. At the beginning of the round, the menu of commands appears with "Fight", "Pokemon", "Pack", and "Run."

• Fight: Choose an attack from the list of moves that appears. This move chosen is called the move "chosen for use" for this round. In some cases, during an attack's effect, the list of moves doesn't appear, usually when an attacker "cannot use any other move, but may switch." In these cases, this is a signal that the attack should continue.
• Pokemon: Check data on Pokemon in party or switch the active Pokemon. Switching is not usable if a Pokemon "cannot switch" because of a move's effect.
• Pack: Use an item on the active Pokemon, who skips its attack this round.
• Run: Attempt to flee from a wild Pokemon battle. See the Chance of Escape page for how the game calculates the escape rate.

Priority

After both Pokémon choose an attack the attack initiative (who gets to use the attack first) is determined. All attacks are categorized in four priority levels:

Endure, Protect, Detect -> Quick Attack, Mach Punch, Extremespeed -> All other attacks -> Counter, Mirror Coat, Whirlwind, Roar, Vital Throw

• The attack with the higher priority strikes first.
• If both attacks have the same priority, the holder of Quick Claw may strike first, a 23.4% chance. If this chance succeeds and both Pokemon hold a Quick Claw, the one who strikes first is randomly determined (in internal battles, the player's Pokemon always strikes first in this case).
• Otherwise, the Pokemon with the higher Speed strikes first.
• If both Pokemon have the same Speed, the one who strikes first is randomly determined.

Calculating Speed

This process is followed to calculate a Pokemon's Speed in battle.

1. In internal battles, if the player has earned the appropriate badge, multiply the original speed by 9, and divide by 8.
2. Multiply the Speed by the Speed multiplier derived from the Pokemon's Speed stat stage.
3. If the Pokemon is paralyzed, divide the Speed by 4.

Process

After the initiative is determined, the following steps are taken for each Pokemon about to use an attack.

First checks

If the Pokemon flinches and isn't asleep or frozen, it skips its attack.

If the Pokemon used Hyper Beam on its previous turn, it "must recharge" and skips its attack. (If the Pokemon also flinches, the "X must recharge!" message isn't shown but Hyper Beam's effect will still end.)

Obedience check

In internal battles, only after choosing an attack, the game checks to see if the Pokémon is of a different ID from that of the player. If so, and its level is greater than the player's "badge level" (see "Notes" below), a random number is chosen (from 0 to (Pokemon's level + "badge level")). If this number is greater than the badge level, then it'll disobey the command (it might go to sleep, ignore the order, hit itself with confusion damage, or use a different move). If the Pokemon uses a different move, it isn't considered an attack that it last used if it's the first turn of its use . When disobedient, the Pokemon no longer has an attack it last used. It could not use a different move while asleep, during the effect of Disable, or if it has zero PP, but it could while frozen .

Sleep and Freeze Checks

Then, the game checks to see if the attacker is asleep. If so, the attack is not executed unless either Snore or Sleep Talk was chosen: [something goes here] Next, if Pokémon is asleep, ("[Name] is fast asleep!") the game checks if the Pokemon has waken up. Sleep duration is from 1 to 7 turns and is random.
If the Pokemon is frozen, the Pokemon won't use the attack unless it's Flame Wheel or Sacred Fire.

Other Pre-Attack Checks

• If the attacker is confused, there is a 50% chance for the attacker to hit itself instead.
• If the attacker is in love, there is a 50% chance for the attack to be canceled.
• The attacker can't use the move if it is disabled.
• If the attacker is paralyzed, there is a 50% chance for the attacker to be unable to move.
• If the attacker is disobedient, it may do something other than attack. If so, it happens now. Sometimes, the attacker may use a different move instead if it is disobedient.

Attacker uses the attack

"[Name] used [Attack]!"

Check PP (Power Points)

If there is no PP remaining for all attacks ("There's no PP left for this move!"), the attack Struggle is used instead. Otherwise, the attack's PP is reduced by 1. Fly, Dig, Petal Dance, Thrash, Rollout, and the like use up 1 PP only when selected. If a different attack is used due to disobedience, 1 PP is spent for the attack actually used.

Is it a Critical Hit?

Critical Hits are decided using the Critical Hit process.

Damage calculation

After that, the damage is calculated. See the Damage Formula. In this step, the game also checks if an item is attached to a Pokémon.

After the damage is calculated, the amount of damage is revised by these four factors:

• Weather. Sunny Day increases the damage of fire-type attacks by 50% and decreases the damage of water-type attacks by 50%. Rain Dance increases the damage of water-type attacks by 50%, decreases the damage of fire-type attacks by 50%, and halves the damage done by Solarbeam.
• Badges. In the Gold/Silver/Crystal version, the Johto and Kanto badges increase damage of the appropriate attack type to 9/8 (multiply damage by 9; divide by 8) (in internal battles only). For instance, the Hive Badge increases damage from the player's Bug-type attacks.
• Same Type Attack Bonus. If the attack type shares a type with one of the user's types, then damage is multiplied by 1.5.
• Types of attacker and defender. The damage calculated is multiplied by the number that is extracted. See the Type Effectiveness page. As an exception, after the attacker uses Foresight, normal and fighting attacks become normal-effective to the Ghost type.

Finally, in a process called "damage weighting", a random number from 217 through 255 is multiplied in the currently calculated damage, and divided by 255.

Accuracy

The following situations are checked in order.

• Using Dream Eater when opponent is not sleeping will fail.
• If opponent had used Protect or Detect, attack will fail.
• If attacker had used Mind Reader or Lock-on, attack will not hit Pokémon using Fly if attack is Earthquake, Fissure, or Magnitude. Otherwise the attack will succeed. Either way, the effect of Mind Reader and Lock-on now ends.
• Life-draining moves (Dream Eater, Absorb, etc.) on a substitute will fail.
• Gust, Thunder, Twister, and Whirlwind are effective to Pokémon using Fly; Earthquake, Fissure, and Magnitude are effective to Pokémon using Dig. All other attacks will fail in either case.
• During Rain Dance, Thunder will not miss.
• Swift will not miss.
• Other effects that cause attacks to fail or always hit are explained in the attack descriptions.

Then, the accuracy ratio is decided. See Accuracy/evasion ratio

If the opponent has Brightpowder attached, the calculated accuracy is reduced by 20 (or about 7.8% of 256).

In the Gold/Silver generation, if the calculated accuracy equals 255, the attack hits.

If a random number from 0 through 255 is less than the calculated accuracy, the attack will hit.

Additional effects

If the attack has an additional effect such as a stat stage modification or a status problem, the probability of the effect happening is determined in this last step. For instance, for Blizzard, there is a 9.8% chance the opponent will become frozen. The additional effect will not occur if the opponent faints due to damage (this is significant only for Steel Wing, Metal Claw, and Ancientpower).

• 9.8 - Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, Acid, Ember, Flamethrower, Ice Beam, Blizzard, Psybeam, Bubblebeam, Aurora Beam, Thundershock, Thunderbolt, Confusion, Psychic, Bone Club, Fire Blast, Constrict, Bubble, Hyper Fang, Flame Wheel, Powder Snow, Steel Wing, Metal Claw, Ancientpower
• 19.9% - Twineedle, Dizzy Punch, Tri Attack, Twister, Crunch, Shadow Ball
• 29.7% - Stomp, Rolling Kick, Skull Bash, Body Slam, Poison Sting, Bite, Low Kick, Thunder, Lick, Sludge, Rock Slide, Snore, Sludge Bomb, Spark, Dragonbreath, Iron Tail
• 39.8% - Smog
• 49.6% - Octazooka, Sacred Fire, Rock Smash
• 99.6% - Thief, Mud-Slap, Zap Cannon, Icy Wind, Swagger, Dynamicpunch

Multi-hit attacks

The attack process, in its short form, for multi-hit attacks is below.

1. Check accuracy and success
2. For each hit:
   1. Calculate damage
   2. Stop multi-hit attack if opponent fainted
3. Check for additional effect

End of turn

After a Pokemon's turn, any end-of-turn effects trigger for that Pokemon. These effects are invoked even if a Pokemon doesn't choose a move for use at the beginning of the round. These effects are, in order:

1. HP loss from poison/burn
2. HP loss and recovery from Leech Seed
3. Effect of Nightmare
4. Effect of Curse

End of round

These effects are invoked at the end of the round, after all Pokemon take their turns. The effects are, in order:

1. Future Sight
2. Sandstorm/Sunny Day/Rain Dance
3. Multi-turn attacks
4. Perish Song
5. Recover with Leftovers
6. Check if defrosted
7. Check end of Reflect/Light Screen/Safeguard
8. Check for condition based on Berry (for both players)
9. Check end of Encore

Notes

*The "badge level" depends on the badges the player has:

• No badges: Badge level=10
• Hive Badge: Badge level=30
• Fog Badge: Badge level=50
• Storm Badge: Badge level=70
• Rising Badge: Badge level=100