The dumbest thing the AI has ever done?

[Cobalt Empoleon]

There are so many instances of pokemon XD Trainers not killing my pokemon when they're at single digit hp and instead target my full healthed pokemon.
Convinced they run on wild pokemon AI

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I suspect Colo/XD use the same AI as Ruby/Sapphire, where even 'smart' doubles opponents choose their target at random and then choose their move using smart AI. It can feel really silly at times, but the added randomness can sometimes catch you off guard.

Notably, this makes Tate & Liza a common run-ender in RS speedruns, because you want Solrock and Lunatone to just spam Psychic on your low-level Pokemon while you set up Swampert, but if they randomly 'target' Swampert then they might see one of their utility moves (Calm Mind, Light Screen, Hypnosis, Sunny Day) as the best option instead, which makes the battle much slower, if not an outright loss.

EDIT: I misremembered exactly how the T&L fight works: ideally you want your Swampert to be at low enough HP that Lunatone sees a KO with Psychic, but not so low that Solrock sees a KO with Psychic. If you have the right HP, you can continually use your low-level Pokemon's turn to heal Swampert out of KO range while hopefully being juust knocked back into it, preventing Lunatone from ever having a reason to use Light Screen, Calm Mind, or Hypnosis.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I suspect Colo/XD use the same AI as Ruby/Sapphire, where even 'smart' doubles opponents choose their target at random and then choose their move using smart AI. It can feel really silly at times, but the added randomness can sometimes catch you off guard.

Notably, this makes Tate & Liza a common run-ender in RS speedruns, because you want Solrock and Lunatone to just spam Psychic on your low-level Pokemon while you set up Swampert, but if they randomly 'target' Swampert then they might see one of their utility moves (Calm Mind, Light Screen, Hypnosis, Sunny Day) as the best option instead, which makes the battle much slower, if not an outright loss.

Please tell me this has been fixed in Emerald.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I suspect Colo/XD use the same AI as Ruby/Sapphire, where even 'smart' doubles opponents choose their target at random and then choose their move using smart AI. It can feel really silly at times, but the added randomness can sometimes catch you off guard.

I don't know about XD, but in Colosseum at least they choose their target deliberately.

 

[Cobalt Empoleon]

Please tell me this has been fixed in Emerald.

Yep, it's fixed in Emerald (and probably in Colo/XD too, based on DrPumpkinz's reply). Interestingly, the T&L battle is also a notorious run-ender for Emerald speedruns, but it's because their extra team members make the battle genuinely tougher, rather than because of pure AI randomness.

 

[SwampySwampert]

Running an X Nuzlocke. I lucked into the Honedge encounter on Route 6 and have that out against Korrina’s Mienfoo in the Gym fight, which knows Fake Out, Power-Up Punch, and Doubleslap. Two AI traits to recall: the AI almost always goes for Fake Out turn 1 if it doesn’t see a kill, and as of at least Gen VI the AI will always switch if the Pokemon it has out literally cannot do a single thing to yours (this happened earlier in the game with a random enemy switching out his Pancham against Honedge). At least, that second one is supposed to happen.

Turn 1, Mienfoo (which cannot damage Honedge) goes for Fake Out and fails as I go for Swords Dance.

Turn 2, I’m expecting a switch to the Machoke (which can hit me) or at least for Mienfoo to try Power-Up Punch or something.

Mienfoo uses Fake Out again.

I Swords Dance again.

Mienfoo ended up picking Fake Out seven times as I set up three SDs and three Iron Defenses to sweep, and never once picked another move or switched. I don’t know if it was some sort of bug related to Fake Out failing on Turn 1, but Korrina somehow overrode both her own switch logic and common sense to just keep using Fake Out when it wouldn’t have done anything no matter what was in front of it.

This is supposed to be the woman gatekeeping trainers from being able to use Mega Evolution, right?

 

[Omastar68]

Now this was many years ago, easily before I was on this site. In battle factory, Blastoise used signal beam on my Blaziken:|

 

[SwampySwampert]

Continuing the trend of "trainers who are supposed to be gatekeeping important stuff forgetting how immunities work", I went to get the Focus Sash in Sun.

Dancer Julia promptly decided that the best course of action would be to spam Teeter Dance against my Own Tempo Slowbro.

 

[Hugin]

Continuing the trend of "trainers who are supposed to be gatekeeping important stuff forgetting how immunities work", I went to get the Focus Sash in Sun.

Dancer Julia promptly decided that the best course of action would be to spam Teeter Dance against my Own Tempo Slowbro.

I think they're very unsure how to handle ability-based immunities in general. Which makes sense, they're complicated, but I know it's something that's used to exploit the AI on numerous occasions in speedruns/challenge runs. (notably also in Alola, using Zorua against Necrozma.)

 

[SwampySwampert]

I think they're very unsure how to handle ability-based immunities in general. Which makes sense, they're complicated, but I know it's something that's used to exploit the AI on numerous occasions in speedruns/challenge runs. (notably also in Alola, using Zorua against Necrozma.)

That would make sense - Levitate (once revealed) is likely the only one that they’re hardcoded to play around if I had to guess, given the stories of AI trainers spamming status moves into Substitute, Shields Down, or Ice Face and wasting Z-Moves into Disguise.

I’ve also seen opponents handle things like Storm Drain weirdly - on one occasion I had a Gastrodon out against Raihan’s Goodra, which was completely unable to damage it. The AI was mostly smart enough to just click Thunder and Rain Dance which at least wouldn’t buff me, but every so often it would just go for Surf or Muddy Water anyway. A similar thing happened with Oleana’s Milotic.

 

[Karxrida]

afaik the AI is just hardcoded to play around Levitate by default since it's the sole ability for most Pokémon that have it. (Bronzor and Bronzong are the only exceptions.) Other immunity abilities are frequently an option and not just the only ability for the Pokémon that have them. Levitate also one of the most common immunity abilities, if not the most common. Game Freak probably felt it prudent to just make the AI recognize it existed.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Game Freak continuing to give NPC Castform movesets with one or more weather-setting moves instead of just committing to one specific weather condition is never not funny. Inevitably the enemy Castform just spends its entire time in battle cycling between Sunny Day, Rain Dance, and Hail rather than actually doing anything else.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Game Freak continuing to give NPC Castform movesets with one or more weather-setting moves instead of just committing to one specific weather condition is never not funny. Inevitably the enemy Castform just spends its entire time in battle cycling between Sunny Day, Rain Dance, and Hail rather than actually doing anything else.

Not just Castform, anyone remembers Raihan's Champion Cup battle? Aside from getting in one GMax Attack with Duraludon, he spent most of the battle just changing the weather. His Gym Battle was more difficult because at least there he stuck with one weather condition which got setup automatically via Abilities (plus it was also a Double Battle, though he didn't have any Pokemon with Abilities that took advantage being in a Sandstorm). They were also able to give him a moveset with supporting Moves that delayed/worn down your Pokemon which worked with Sandstorm's gimmick; meanwhile with his Champion Cup team not only constantly changing weather but also being a Single Battle pretty much robs it of any long term strategy; at most maybe you could say you couldn't rely on one Type/Pokemon to get you through it but that's not that much of a problem. If they wanted to trip the player up, maybe optomize his Single Battle team to be a Trick Room team.

 

[SwampySwampert]

Game Freak continuing to give NPC Castform movesets with one or more weather-setting moves instead of just committing to one specific weather condition is never not funny. Inevitably the enemy Castform just spends its entire time in battle cycling between Sunny Day, Rain Dance, and Hail rather than actually doing anything else.

Shoutout to SwSh's Bronzong1 in the Battle Tower which will spend the entire battle doing nothing but cycling between sun, sand and rain even if you brought a rain team. It has Weather Ball. It just never uses it.

Not just Castform, anyone remembers Raihan's Champion Cup battle? Aside from getting in one GMax Attack with Duraludon, he spent most of the battle just changing the weather. His Gym Battle was more difficult because at least there he stuck with one weather condition which got setup automatically via Abilities (plus it was also a Double Battle, though he didn't have any Pokemon with Abilities that took advantage being in a Sandstorm). They were also able to give him a moveset with supporting Moves that delayed/worn down your Pokemon which worked with Sandstorm's gimmick; meanwhile with his Champion Cup team not only constantly changing weather but also being a Single Battle pretty much robs it of any long term strategy; at most maybe you could say you couldn't rely on one Type/Pokemon to get you through it but that's not that much of a problem. If they wanted to trip the player up, maybe optomize his Single Battle team to be a Trick Room team.

Not only is his team hilariously mismatched, but his Goodra (which has no business even being on the team) literally can't touch Storm Drain Gastrodon or Water Absorb Quagsire, leaving you free to set up Amnesia (or Curse if you bred it) in his face.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

Shoutout to SwSh's Bronzong1 in the Battle Tower which will spend the entire battle doing nothing but cycling between sun, sand and rain even if you brought a rain team. It has Weather Ball. It just never uses it.


Not only is his team hilariously mismatched, but his Goodra (which has no business even being on the team) literally can't touch Storm Drain Gastrodon or Water Absorb Quagsire, leaving you free to set up Amnesia (or Curse if you bred it) in his face.

...wait does it not have a dragon move?

-rain dance
-surf
-thunder
-muddy water

bro what the fuck is this set

 

[SwampySwampert]

...wait does it not have a dragon move?

-rain dance
-surf
-thunder
-muddy water

bro what the fuck is this set

They made the same mistake with Oleana. An otherwise pretty fun and varied team...and then there's the Milotic that only has the attacking move Surf, two recovery moves, and Safeguard.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

They made the same mistake with Oleana. An otherwise pretty fun and varied team...and then there's the Milotic that only has the attacking move Surf, two recovery moves, and Safeguard.

Nah that set's not too bad.

I mean it is, mainly because Aqua Ring is bad.

But the idea behind it is fine, and if Aqua Ring wasn't shit it would be pretty strong.

Of all the types to run mono-STAB, Water is one of the better ones.

 

[Fusion Flare]

I once did a mono-steel nuzlocke with this squad.

When I got to Champion Cynthia, I led with Steelix to get up rocks, then used Iron Tail to chip Spiritomb, landing a bonus defense drop. Figuring accuracy would get annoying, I then clicked Earthquake... as the AI then proceeded to switch in Lucario. I was dumbfounded, to say the least, but now I know it was just the switch AI acting up. I wouldn't have been so ahead if Milotic came in, though.

 

[Karxrida]

I once did a mono-steel nuzlocke with this squad.

When I got to Champion Cynthia, I led with Steelix to get up rocks, then used Iron Tail to chip Spiritomb, landing a bonus defense drop. Figuring accuracy would get annoying, I then clicked Earthquake... as the AI then proceeded to switch in Lucario. I was dumbfounded, to say the least, but now I know it was just the switch AI acting up. I wouldn't have been so ahead if Milotic came in, though.

There is absolutely logic to what the AI did (Lucario resists Steel and has super effective STAB), but yeah this is just hilarious. I wonder if it functionally flipped a coin to determine whether Lucario or Milotic would be sent out and chose wrong by happenstance.

 

[Pikachu315111]

I once did a mono-steel nuzlocke with this squad.

When I got to Champion Cynthia, I led with Steelix to get up rocks, then used Iron Tail to chip Spiritomb, landing a bonus defense drop. Figuring accuracy would get annoying, I then clicked Earthquake... as the AI then proceeded to switch in Lucario. I was dumbfounded, to say the least, but now I know it was just the switch AI acting up. I wouldn't have been so ahead if Milotic came in, though.

Hm, interesting. Maybe the AI is programmed to only take the previously used Move into account when making a switch decision. Both Milotic and Lucario would be able to tank an Iron Tail, and while Milotic would be a bit better at it, the AI may have wanted Lucario out cause Lucario is faster and its Aura Sphere would have done more damage than Milotic's Surf. So if true I guess you psyched the AI out with a surprise Earthquake.

EDIT: Greninja'd

 

[SwampySwampert]

I once did a mono-steel nuzlocke with this squad.

When I got to Champion Cynthia, I led with Steelix to get up rocks, then used Iron Tail to chip Spiritomb, landing a bonus defense drop. Figuring accuracy would get annoying, I then clicked Earthquake... as the AI then proceeded to switch in Lucario. I was dumbfounded, to say the least, but now I know it was just the switch AI acting up. I wouldn't have been so ahead if Milotic came in, though.

Was this the remake? BDSP Cynthia is known to be extremely aggressive about switching (more so than pretty much any previous Trainer in any game).

 

[Fusion Flare]

Was this the remake? BDSP Cynthia is known to be extremely aggressive about switching (more so than pretty much any previous Trainer in any game).

it was platinum. if you asked me to fight yache berry chomp when my literal only answer for the og was shuca berry empoleon i would NOT have survived

 

[MarisaK]

Guess who had their Politoed use Helping Hand to boost the power of Grimmsnarl's Light Screen?

Ex-Champion indeed.