Battle Mechanics Research

[BlakDragon]

Grassy Terrain halves the power of Earthquake, but not Earth Power.

GZ4G-WWWW-WWW6-P9KH*

Only the first three turns are important.
Honedge survived the earthquake thanks to Grassy Terrain,
Bellossom took less damage from Earthquake after Grassy Terrain was activated,
and Earth Power dealt the same damage to Bellossom before and after Grassy Terrain was activated.

Shoutouts to Fireworks for posting his Terrain research on NB

Edit: Bulldoze and Magnitude have their power halved on Grassy Terrain as well.
Drill Run and Dig do not.

proof for Bulldoze and Drill Run:
8KPG-WWWW-WWW6-PARZ

proof for Magnitude:
BRDW-WWWW-WWW6-PAS5

Magnitude 6 would normally deal 11-13 damage to my Bellossom according to Showdown!'s damage calculator,
but on Grassy Terrain, Bellossom only took 6 damage.
252 Atk Whiscash Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 100 Def Bellossom: 11-13 (6 - 7.1%) -- possibly the worst move ever
(11, 11, 11, 11, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 13)
Magnitude isn't a listed move on that calc so I had to pick Earthquake and manually change its BP to 50.

 

[Slayer95]

I recently learned something cool about Flower Veil.

Not only does the bearer of the ability protect its grass-type allies from stat reduction,
it protects them from non-volatile status ailments as well (burn, poison, paralysis, sleep, freeze).
I read an article on Nugget Bridge and the author mentioned how FV protects his gourgeist from such ailments such as Smeargle's Dark Void.
I then went into Le Nah with those two guys and had florges try to toxic gourgeist. It failed due to her ability.

Regarding Lightning Rod: ground-type bearers of the ability will draw in the move Electrify and receive the special attack boost, despite ground guys being immune to electric-type attacks.

Does it cause Yawn to fail?

Grassy Terrain halves the power of Earthquake, but not Earth Power.
Have not tested with other ground-type attacks.

GZ4G-WWWW-WWW6-P9KH*

Only the first three turns are important.
Honedge survived the earthquake thanks to Grassy Terrain,
Bellossom took less damage from Earthquake after Grassy Terrain was activated,
and Earth Power dealt the same damage to Bellossom before and after Grassy Terrain was activated.

Shoutouts to Fireworks for posting his Terrain research on NB

Edit: Bulldoze and Magnitude have their power halved on Grassy Terrain as well.
Drill Run and Dig do not.

proof for Bulldoze and Drill Run:
8KPG-WWWW-WWW6-PARZ

proof for Magnitude:
BRDW-WWWW-WWW6-PAS5

Magnitude 6 would normally deal 11-13 damage to my Bellossom according to Showdown!'s damage calculator,
but on Grassy Terrain, Bellossom only took 6 damage.
252 Atk Whiscash Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 100 Def Bellossom: 11-13 (6 - 7.1%) -- possibly the worst move ever
(11, 11, 11, 11, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 13)
Magnitude isn't a listed move on that calc so I had to pick Earthquake and manually change its BP to 50.

A possible pattern is that spread Ground moves are weakened. If that were the case, then Land's Wrath would be the only other move weakened by Grassy Terrain.

 

[slayerx725232]

Does it cause Yawn to fail?

Firstly, other statuses do occur, such as burning and the likes.though the attack drop that comes with a burn may not occur. That being said, Yawn also works as intended to, Flower Veil not preventing it from falling asleep.

 

[BlakDragon]

Slayer95 , yes it does.

slayerx725232 , Flower Veil does prevent those aforementioned status ailments from being applied to its allied grass-type Pokemon, as long as they are on the field. If their allies already have them applied before the Flower Veil bearer comes into play, the status is there to stay. Flower Veil won't remove them.

 

[The Legend Waker]

Grassy Terrain halves the power of Earthquake, but not Earth Power.

GZ4G-WWWW-WWW6-P9KH*

Only the first three turns are important.
Honedge survived the earthquake thanks to Grassy Terrain,
Bellossom took less damage from Earthquake after Grassy Terrain was activated,
and Earth Power dealt the same damage to Bellossom before and after Grassy Terrain was activated.

Shoutouts to Fireworks for posting his Terrain research on NB

Edit: Bulldoze and Magnitude have their power halved on Grassy Terrain as well.
Drill Run and Dig do not.

proof for Bulldoze and Drill Run:
8KPG-WWWW-WWW6-PARZ

proof for Magnitude:
BRDW-WWWW-WWW6-PAS5

Magnitude 6 would normally deal 11-13 damage to my Bellossom according to Showdown!'s damage calculator,
but on Grassy Terrain, Bellossom only took 6 damage.
252 Atk Whiscash Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 100 Def Bellossom: 11-13 (6 - 7.1%) -- possibly the worst move ever
(11, 11, 11, 11, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 13)
Magnitude isn't a listed move on that calc so I had to pick Earthquake and manually change its BP to 50.

Does this mean Land's Wrath does have a shot after all?

 

[The Legend Waker]

You can't record Chatter anymore. Or at least, not that I can tell. I'm pretty sure (from experience and the in-game description) that it is straight up 100% chance of confusing anyone it hits.

e: By extension, Chatot can now be used over wi-fi

Does that mean that Chatot has become even more predicable since his signature move is now essential?

 

[Afti]

We won't be able to test this for a while, but it's still a question worth adding to the big list:

How exactly does Thousand Waves work? Does it expire after a certain amount of turns pass, or is it permanent like Block, Mean Look, and Spider Web?

Better still: Does it remain in effect after the user switches out? Because, if so - oh man.

 

[CPU]

Recently it's come to my attention that Roost may no longer remove the flying-type on the turn used. Tested on Lugia v. Glaceon. on the same turn Roost was used, glaceon used Ice Beam and it still delivered the "Super Effective" message.

More research needs to be done to understand if this is a graphical glitch, or really did SE damage.

I can confirm that Roost still removes the Flying Type. I was trying to catch a Hawlucha and Rock Smash not only did more damage but also didn't have the "it's not very effective" message after it used Roost.

 

[BlakDragon]

Does this mean Land's Wrath does have a shot after all?

Fireworks and Wyrm's Eye of NB tested this, and they confirmed that Land's Wrath still keeps its damage.
W8VW-WWWW-WWW6-PE56

 

[Slayer95]

Do Pluck/Bug Bite still double the damage when they steal a berry? If so, does Sticky Hold still prevent the doubling of the damage?

Apparently that's what happened in Platinum, according to Veekun, but I can't find any more info about it.

 

[AJC]

pluck/bug bite never doubled in damage if a berry was present their only effect was destroying a berry on the foe and using the berry's effect it has for the user of pluck/bug bite if the user could use one itself.

 

[klvkboom]

I'm not sure if this is considered a "mechanic" or anything, but I think I've found something of an "illegal moveset combination" for gen 6. As gen 6 did change a lot on how breeding egg moves work, getting multiple egg moves is easier and simpler, but there is a small exception that I found particularly involving baby Pokemon. Being an avid breeder myself, I thought I'd share them since I don't really see them implemented on the PS server. Excuse me if this has been mentioned before though.

The biggest example is Azumarill. Some of the more unique egg moves that Azu can learn include Encore, Fake Tears, Soak, Tickle, Sing, and Slam. What makes these attacks unique though is that they can only be attained if the egg hatches as an Azurill. Azurill on the other hand can't learn some egg moves that Marill can learn otherwise. This list includes most notably Aqua Jet, Belly Drum, Perish Song, and a few others.

What this means is that some egg move combinations are unobtainable on the same Pokemon. For example, the combination of having both Encore and Aqua Jet on the same Azumarill is impossible, since you can only have Encore if the egg hatches as an Azurill and the latter if the egg is a Marill. The list of Pokemon this applies to is very limited though (I think only Azumarill and possibly Mantine). It won't really affect much, but I think it should be noted.

 

[Slens]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/unratedrandombattle-113649439

Not sure if this has been pointed out or looked at but in my battle, Conkledurr didn't take Life Orb recoil using Mach Punch when I switched in Red Card Slurpuff. Also, Red Card forced out my opponent's Heracross and it immediately Mega-evolved on the switch in. This was all in Turn 4 of the match.

 

[Pyritie]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/unratedrandombattle-113649439

Not sure if this has been pointed out or looked at but in my battle, Conkledurr didn't take Life Orb recoil using Mach Punch when I switched in Red Card Slurpuff. Also, Red Card forced out my opponent's Heracross and it immediately Mega-evolved on the switch in. This was all in Turn 4 of the match.

that looks like a showdown bug, report it in the showdown forum. There's a sticky for bugs

 

[Eievui-Nymphia]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/unratedrandombattle-113649439

Not sure if this has been pointed out or looked at but in my battle, Conkledurr didn't take Life Orb recoil using Mach Punch when I switched in Red Card Slurpuff. Also, Red Card forced out my opponent's Heracross and it immediately Mega-evolved on the switch in. This was all in Turn 4 of the match.

Sheer Force negates Life Orb They could put one in random battles.

 

[RotomPoison]

Sheer Force negates Life Orb They could put one in random battles.

if the move also has a secondary effect that was cancelled*

 

[Slens]

Sheer Force negates Life Orb They could put one in random battles.

Mach Punch has no secondary effect.

 

[The Immortal]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/unratedrandombattle-113649439

Not sure if this has been pointed out or looked at but in my battle, Conkledurr didn't take Life Orb recoil using Mach Punch when I switched in Red Card Slurpuff. Also, Red Card forced out my opponent's Heracross and it immediately Mega-evolved on the switch in. This was all in Turn 4 of the match.

Red Card activates before LO recoil in-game.

 

[Pyritie]

Two questions that are more mechanics related so I figured this would be a better place to ask than the simple questions thread:

1) If a pokemon with a normal-to-other-type ability (such as refrigerate or pixilate) holds a normal gem and uses a normal move, is the normal gem consumed and does it boost the power of the move, even though its type is changed?

2) Since Pickup picks up items that have been used via things like fling and natural gift, but it can't pick up an item that the pickupper itself flung, if you have two pokemon in a doubles battle, both with fling and pickup but one with king's rock and the other with razor fang, will they pick up each other's item so you can constantly fling them and keep the opponents flinched if they're slower?

 

[Slayer95]

Two questions that are more mechanics related so I figured this would be a better place to ask than the simple questions thread:
2) Since Pickup picks up items that have been used via things like fling and natural gift, but it can't pick up an item that the pickupper itself flung, if you have two pokemon in a doubles battle, both with fling and pickup but one with king's rock and the other with razor fang, will they pick up each other's item so you can constantly fling them and keep the opponents flinched if they're slower?

Pickup only recovers items used by a foe.

 

[Pyritie]

Pickup only recovers items used by a foe.

not according to https://www.smogon.com/bw/abilities/pickup it doesn't

 

[Pyritie]

1) If a pokemon with a normal-to-other-type ability (such as refrigerate or pixilate) holds a normal gem and uses a normal move, is the normal gem consumed and does it boost the power of the move, even though its type is changed?

Tested this myself with a pixilate hyper voice sylveon against a wild durant horde. The normal gem was not consumed and I still had it after the battle.

 

[BlakDragon]

Since Pickup picks up items that have been used via things like fling and natural gift, but it can't pick up an item that the pickupper itself flung, if you have two pokemon in a doubles battle, both with fling and pickup but one with king's rock and the other with razor fang, will they pick up each other's item so you can constantly fling them and keep the opponents flinched if they're slower?

Tested with a mock battle file I saved awhile back.

Pokemon with the Pick Up ability that fling King's Rock and/or Razor Fang on the same turn,
will pick up each other's flung items at the end of the turn,
so they could repeat the cycle on the following turns.
Another item that gets consumed closest to the turn's end will break this combo, however,
as your Pick Up guy will pick up that item instead.

 

[Death Phenomeno]

I'm not sure if this is known, so here it goes:

In this video, after 14m 10s, a Druddigon used Dragon Tail, and the dragged in Weezing took damage from Spikes. Gravity was not in effect, and the Weezing was holding the Black Sludge. Other than being a glitch, the only logical explanation is that Mold Breaker is to blame.

I am currently in no position to test this to confirm. Anyone care to verify?

 

[breh]

I'm not sure if this is known, so here it goes:

In this video, after 14m 10s, a Druddigon used Dragon Tail, and the dragged in Weezing took damage from Spikes. Gravity was not in effect, and the Weezing was holding the Black Sludge. Other than being a glitch, the only logical explanation is that Mold Breaker is to blame.

I am currently in no position to test this to confirm. Anyone care to verify?

Imanalt and I have tested this and evidently using Mold Breaker phasing moves seems to cause the Pokemon coming in to act as if it has no ability.

Abilities checked:

Levitate is ignored wholly; levitating mons will take spikes damage and also remove toxic spikes (in the case of the Gastly we tested it with).
Immunity is funny; the mon will be poisoned by tspikes then immediately heal itself (ignored).
Magic Guard will, oddly enough, still stop damage (not ignored).
Defiant is not ignored with Sticky Web.
Clear Body is ignored with Sticky Web.

I don't really know what other stuff there is to test; if anybody can think of anything, speak up. Just to be clear, the mon used was MB Axew with Roar. Targets were Gastly, Snorlax, and Solosis.

I'm betting that Red Card does not work the same way, as it's an item and not a move. Circle Throw is probably the same as Roar / Dtail but I cba to try to check that. Simply switching also does not cause these effects.

Leaf Guard is the only other ability that I could see being ignored, but to be honest it's too much effort for an ability that literally never sees use. If this ever gets implemented on Showdown, I suggest that Leaf Guard is also implemented too anyway; I don't think there's any reason to think that it doesn't work this way (Mold Breaker normally ignores Leaf Guard; thus it probably does teh same with Toxic Spikes).