Research Scarlet & Violet Battle Mechanics Research

[DarkFE]

Hi again. I have a lot of tests today and a lot of information to share.

Some miscellaneous tests requested by the DOU Discord and also just ones I wanted to try:
1. Hard Press is a contact move. I am not exactly sure what the base power looks like, as I noticed it seems to be slightly weaker than a straight-up Steel-type Crush Grip, but I have a limited number of tests on this so that could easily be wrong. This needs more research.
2. Sketch works on Shed Tail, Spore, and Last Respects. Sketch fails on Revival Blessing and Dark Void.
3. Hacking Dark Void on to a Smeargle still results in the "Smeargle can't use this move!" message and a failure.

2) Dragon Cheer
I'm unclear how this move works, and nobody seems to be talking about it. What does it actually *do*? It says it boosts the Critical Hit rate of allies, but what is the nature of this effect, exactly? Like does it apply its own unique effect when viewed on the battle info screen, or does it simply give allies the Focus Energy effect? If so, can this be stacked through repeated use, or is it capped at one boost like Focus Energy is? Also, how much more of a boost do Dragon-type allies get versus other types?

3) Dragon Cheer
Is this move considered a Sound move? If so, can it be blocked by your own ally's Sound Proof?

Does Dragon Cheer just fail in Singles? Kind of a weird move tbh.

Luckily, DOU was asking me about Dragon Cheer just last night, so I can answer a lot of this now.

1. Dragon Cheer's effect shows as a "Getting Pumped" and as far as I can tell appears the same as Focus Energy on the status screen.
2. Dragon Cheer seems to provide a +1 crit rate to non-Dragons, and a +2 crit rate to Dragons after testing. It does not provide its boost to the user, only the target.
3. Dragon Cheer cannot be used on the same Pokemon multiple times, even if the target Pokemon becomes a Dragon between uses.
4. If a Pokemon is boosted by Dragon Cheer and then later becomes the Dragon Type, then the increased crit rate from Dragon Cheer on a Dragon does not apply. In other words, Dragon Cheer's boost acts like the Pokemon is not a Dragon unless it was a Dragon at the time Dragon Cheer was used on it.
5. Dragon Cheer fails in a singles battle.
6. Dragon Cheer does not appear to be a Sound move. It can't activate Throat Spray, for instance. I guess they're cheering pretty quietly.

3) Psychic Noise
Similar to above, I'm confused about what actual effect this move applies. Is this simply giving Pokemon the Heal Block effect, except only for 2 turns instead of 5? Or is it a unique effect? Does this count as a "added effect" and thus suppressed by Sheer Force?

Psychic Noise seems to be boosted by Sheer Force and the Heal Block effect is suppressed appropriately. I don't have enough knowledge on how Heal Block worked in older games to say if it's an exact duplicate, but you can see the turn count ticking in the video provided since I showed the status screen if that is of any interest to anyone. It does trigger Throat Spray, which lines up with Liquid Voice working with it before.

1) Supercell Slam
This move sounds like it's pretty much a reskin of High Jump Kick, or other crash damage moves. If this is the case, is it prevented by Gravity like those moves are?

Jumping on this, does attacking into a Ground type (or other immunity) cause crash damage?

Supercell Slam is not negatively affected by Gravity and can be used normally while Gravity is present. Attacking into a Ground-type with Supercell Slam does cause a "Kept going and crashed" message and the user of Supercell Slam takes 50% recoil like Jump Kick, as does attacking into Volt Absorb. Electivire stays losing.

Hope this helps.

 

[Lectrys]

With Tera Stellar, if you use a status move, does that use up your boost for that move's type?

Relevant for Metronome Battles:

With Tera Stellar, if you use a move that calls another move (say, an actual attack), is the type boost for the caller move or the called move used up?

 

[G-Luke]

Assuming it is indeed a secondary effect, is it safe to assume that Psychic Noise is blocked by Shield Dust and Covert Cloak?

 

[Elkos]

SNIP

Thanks for the answer! Pardon asking a little extra Dragon Cheer thingy, does it stack with Focus Energy for +3?

 

[DaWoblefet]

Tera Stellar doesn't modify the user's base typing in any way. A Krookodile Terastallized to Stellar type is immune to Psychic, Thunder, Prankster-boosted status moves, and takes only 1/16 damage from Stealth Rock. A Pokemon that is Terastallized to Stellar type can't have its type changed via other ways while Terastallized (e.g. Conversion, Double Shock).

Tera Blast appears to behave as a 120 BP non-STAB move on a Pokemon Terastallized to Stellar type. Once you use up the initial one-time type boost on Stellar Tera Blast, it starts becoming treated as a 100 BP non-STAB move. The initial one-time type boost doesn't get used up if you whiff an attack into Protect. Struggle doesn't get boosted at all. The Attack and Sp. Atk drop occurs regardless of whether or not the target was Terastallized.

Level 50 141 Atk, 71 SpA Krookodile using Tera Stellar Tera Blast into 96 Def 98 Sp. Def Reuniclus dealt 68 and 72 damage with the one-time Stellar boost, and 57 damage after using Tera Stellar Tera Blast, then switching in and out to remove the stat drop.

Adaptability didn't impact damage rolls from Earthquake while Terastallized to Stellar type. With the one-time boost, Earthquake from the same Krookodile into the same Reuniclus dealt 96 damage, and without the one-time boost it dealt 66 damage. It also didn't impact the damage of Tera Blast; that same Tera Blast with the one-time boost and Adaptability dealt 70 damage.

Also mentioning that the Tera Shift Ability activates very early, before Unnerve, which itself is before hazards and other standard entrance Abilities like Intimidate. Tera Shell cannot be Skill Swapped, but it can be suppressed via Gastro Acid.

With thanks to Karthik for helping test!

Following up on this with more details (and recorded footage this time that should capture tests from both this post and my last).

• The one-time Tera Blast boost while Terastallized to Stellar-type appears to be a ~1.2x damage modifier, not a BP modifier.
• Moves below 60 BP that ordinarily get a BP change to 60 BP if they were below 60 also receive that same change when the user is Terastallized to Stellar (e.g. Mud-Slap is bumped up to 60 BP)
• When Terapagos Terastallizes, it counts as a form change (so things like changed type from Soak is reverted to Normal-type)
• When Terapagos Terastallizes, Normal-type moves have 2x STAB, being the same type as the base type, but all other moves have a general ~1.2x damage modifier. Unlike regular Tera Stellar, you can get the damage boost on these indefinitely; they don't have a one-time limit.

Other:

• Confirming that Smeargle cannot Sketch Revival Blessing. Sketch has the same general pastgens behavior of working in PvP, but Sketch reverts back after the battle concludes.
• Burning Bulwark behaves like King's Shield, where status moves can bypass its protection.

 

[Anonymous_snorlax]

When Terapagos Terastallizes, Normal-type moves have STAB, but all other moves have a general ~1.2x damage modifier. Unlike regular Tera Stellar, you can get the damage boost on these indefinitely; they don't have a one-time limit.

Does the normal move have 1.2*STAB or does it not receive the additional Stellar boost? Also does Terapagos' Tera Startsorm change type or power exactly like Tera Blast (besides the .75 spread move)?

The one-time Tera Blast boost while Terastallized to Stellar-type appears to be a ~1.2x damage modifier, not a BP modifier.

So all move types are STAB boosted 1.5x once (save terapagos, raids) except tera blast, which is boosted 1.2x damage?

Burning Bulwark behaves like King's Shield, where status moves can bypass its protection.

Does Urshifu get burned attack Burning Bulwark?

 

[Anonymous_snorlax]

Adaptability didn't impact damage rolls from Earthquake while Terastallized to Stellar type. With the one-time boost, Earthquake from the same Krookodile into the same Reuniclus dealt 96 damage, and without the one-time boost it dealt 66 damage. It also didn't impact the damage of Tera Blast; that same Tera Blast with the one-time boost and Adaptability dealt 70 damage.

I want to make sure I'm understanding this - when terastallized to stellar, adaptability is nullified?

 

[Demon Queen]

Attacking into a Ground-type with Supercell Slam does cause a "Kept going and crashed" message and the user of Supercell Slam takes 50% recoil like Jump Kick, as does attacking into Volt Absorb.

What about Lightning Rod? Also, thanks for the hard work.

 

[pyuk]

If a Pokémon has Tera Shell and is terastallized (I believe this requires hacking), what effectiveness does Stellar Tera Blast have against it?

Can Tera Starstorm be Sketched, and if it can, how does it behave when used by a Terastallized Smeargle? Would it become, say, Fire type if used by a Tera Fire Smeargle? Does it become Stellar type if used by a Stellar Tera Smeargle?

EDIT: tested it myself, you cannot Sketch Tera Starstorm, so the question of a Terastallized non-Terapagos Pokémon using Tera Starstorm may require hacking as well.

 

[Joseph Gomes]

Does Tera Starstorm for Terapagos, in tera stellar form, also hit opponent's tera for super effective damage like terablast?

 

[Blitz]

• Confirming that Smeargle cannot Sketch Revival Blessing. Sketch has the same general pastgens behavior of working in PvP, but Sketch reverts back after the battle concludes.

Wait, does this mean that Smeargle can only have 1 move on its set? Since you can’t teach it multiple copies of Sketch.

 

[R_N]

Wait, does this mean that Smeargle can only have 1 move on its set? Since you can’t teach it multiple copies of Sketch.

What they mean is that in PVP battles if you used Sketch reverts after the battle, like in previous generations.

 

[Blitz]

OH ok yea now I get it. I was about to say lol

 

[DaddyBuzzwole]

(Difficult to test since it's not in the game) If a Pokémon with Tera Shell has two types, will it cause a x4 resistance?

i haven't tested this because i'm lazy, but i think it is testable. using soak + forest's curse will effectively make terapagos into a water/grass type, which you can use for multiple purposes:

• finding out if tera shell causes quad-resistance if a mon has 2 types
• if not, finding out whether quad-resists (water move) are turned into normal resists or stay quad-resists
• find out how quad-effective moves interact with it (freeze-dry)

unless, of course, terapagos's type can't be changed by soak for whatever reason. with all the type wackiness going on around it, i wouldn't count out that possibility either

 

[Aden and N]

Wait, does this mean that Smeargle can only have 1 move on its set? Since you can’t teach it multiple copies of Sketch.

Smeargle can relearn sketch, so it can still build a moveset like before. You just can't use pvp to do it.

 

[DarkFE]

Hi again. Plenty more information this time.

Unseen Fist Urshifu using a contact move will not be afflicted with a Burn when it attacks into Burning Bulwark. Thanks to the goat Charlotte for the testing suggestion.

On the Sketching side of things: Smeargle cannot Sketch Hyperspace Fury, but it can still Sketch Hyperspace Hole.

Thanks for the answer! Pardon asking a little extra Dragon Cheer thingy, does it stack with Focus Energy for +3?

Focus Energy and Dragon Cheer fail in any combination when attempting to affect the same Pokemon. So for instance all of:
Dragon Cheer targeting an ally followed by that ally using Focus Energy
Using Focus Energy followed by being targeted by an ally's Dragon Cheer
Being a Dragon-type using Focus Energy followed by being targeted by an ally's Dragon Cheer

result in "But it failed!" messages.

What if Pecharunt itself sets the Toxic Spikes?

Sorry I forgot to reply to this earlier. I would test it, but Pecharunt actually doesn't learn Toxic Spikes itself, so this will have to wait until Pokemon editing tools are updated unless someone more skilled than me at doing this sort of stuff directly wants to take it on.

I was also asked on Discord to test if Pecharunt phasing a Pokemon into Toxic Spikes would activate Poison Puppeteer, but this is similarly untestable by me for the same reason of movepool limitations. Something to remember for the future, perhaps.

What about Lightning Rod? Also, thanks for the hard work.

Lightning Rod works the same as Volt Absorb, meaning that a Supercell Slam user will activate the Lightning Rod +1 SpAtk effect, then "Keep going and crash" and take 50% recoil. Thanks for your question!

Hope this helps.

 

[TrainerX493]

A lot of confusion over Stellar because even reliable sources are leaving out details leaving uncertainty. I'm going to post below what I understand is the current mechanics, marking uncertain stuff with (?), and someone can verify I understand correctly:

Stellar Type boost
1.2x damage boost to any given type once, unless in a Terra Raid or the Pokémon is Terapagos.

STAB Stellar Type boost (?)
1.5 + 1.2 = 1.7x damage

Adaptability Stellar Type boost (?)
Adaptability is unaffected by this Tera? So 1.5 + 1.5 + 1.2 = 2.2x (STAB + Adaptability + one time Stellar boost).

Tera Blast (?)
Tera Blast becomes a 100bp move, along with the 1.2 Stellar boost. It's super effective against Terastallized targets. It lowers the users Attack/Sp.Attack by 1 stage, regardless of if the target is Terastallized. But the stat drop only happens once?

Tera Terapagos
Has a 2x boost on Normal moves between both Stellar boost and STAB.

 

[DaddyBuzzwole]

Sorry I forgot to reply to this earlier. I would test it, but Pecharunt actually doesn't learn Toxic Spikes itself, so this will have to wait until Pokemon editing tools are updated unless someone more skilled than me at doing this sort of stuff directly wants to take it on.

I was also asked on Discord to test if Pecharunt phasing a Pokemon into Toxic Spikes would activate Poison Puppeteer, but this is similarly untestable by me for the same reason of movepool limitations. Something to remember for the future, perhaps.

so i'm guessing that poison puppeteer can't be copied or skill swapped, then? or does it just not work if it's on any other mon? i can't seem to find any info on that anywhere on the forum, but it'd make sense since it has pecharunt's name in the ability description. i assume this was already considered and tested, but i can't find any concrete info so it's always good to make sure

 

[Anubis]

Guess I'll throw in my findings about Stellar Tera Type.

I set up my game with a debugger last night so I could print out exact values for modifiers and damage. This is what I found:

Stellar Terapagos had 4915 STAB multiplier on Tera Starstorm, Zen Headbutt, and Earth Power, first and second click. They were all their original BP.

Using Tera Stellar Espathra:
It had a 4915 STAB multiplier on Pluck and Tera Blast on first click, 4096 STAB on second click. Tera Blast was 100 BP.
It had a 8192 STAB on Lumina Crash on first click, 6144 STAB on second click. Lumina Crash was 80 BP.

Using Tera Stellar Porygon-Z with Adaptability
It had a 4915 STAB multiplier Tera Blast on first click, 4096 STAB on second click. Tera Blast was 100 BP.
It had a 8192 STAB multiplier Double-Edge on first click, 6144 STAB on second click. Double-Edge was 120 BP.

And sanity check with Tera Normal Adaptability Porygon-Z
It had a 9216 STAB multiplier with Double-Edge. Double-Edge was 120 BP.

4915 is approximately 1.2x, 6144 is 1.5x, and 8192 is 2x.

My conclusion is that Stellar Tera Type upgrades the current STAB multiplier by one level. Adaptability becomes ineffective, and Terapagos isn't limited to one time only. In other words, upgrading by one level means:
- Moves with no STAB bonus that would normally have a 4096 modifier now have a 4915 modifier.
- Moves with STAB bonus that would normally have a 6144 modifier now have a 8192 modifier.
- For Pokemon besides Terapagos, this drops down to the original modifier after the first use.

I've attached my debug logs from last night's session for each of these cases. Hopefully this explains all the numbers everyone is getting.

 

[Talpr0ne]

How does Mold Breaker interact with Tera Shell?

 

[barv]

Has anyone tried seeing if Neutralizing Gas prevents the baby Terapagos from transforming into its Terastal form? I just think it’d be funny if it did.

 

[TPP]

Covert Cloak ignores the Heal Block effect from Psychic Noise:

1. First video with Covert Cloak Hydrapple
2. Second video with Amulet Coin Gholdengo getting hit by Psychic Noise
3. Second half of second video where Gholdengo is unable to heal after being hit by Psychic Noise

Videos

https://twitter.com/x/status/1735781202454553003

https://twitter.com/x/status/1735781449905905763

https://twitter.com/x/status/1735781640700600734

 

[Anonymous_snorlax]

Has anyone tried seeing if Neutralizing Gas prevents the baby Terapagos from transforming into its Terastal form? I just think it’d be funny if it did.

old post confirmed it is not affected by NG, like As One isn't

 

[DarkFE]

Hi. Another round.

How does Mold Breaker interact with Tera Shell?

Mold Breaker can bypass Tera Shell. You can see in the video there's no message like there usually would be saying "It made its shell gleam! It's distorting type matchups!" and the damage checks out.

so i'm guessing that poison puppeteer can't be copied or skill swapped, then? or does it just not work if it's on any other mon? i can't seem to find any info on that anywhere on the forum, but it'd make sense since it has pecharunt's name in the ability description. i assume this was already considered and tested, but i can't find any concrete info so it's always good to make sure

Poison Puppeteer cannot be Skill Swapped, but it can be suppressed by Gastro Acid. Edit because I realized I neglected this aspect earlier: Doodle can't copy Poison Puppeteer either.

Has anyone tried seeing if Neutralizing Gas prevents the baby Terapagos from transforming into its Terastal form? I just think it’d be funny if it did.

NGas doesn't prevent the baby Terapagos's transformation. You can see the post on that earlier in the thread here.

Hope this helps.

 

[Joseph Gomes]

- Moves with STAB bonus that would normally have a 6144 modifier now have a 8192 modifier.

I assume that Tera Starstorm doesn't count as STAB, in stellar tera? So it doesn't even get standard 1.5x STAB, but just 1.2x? And 2x is for regular normal type moves?