Sword & Shield Battle Mechanics Research

DaWoblefet

Demonstrably so
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Soul-Heart is unchanged from previous generations. Rumors about special Moxie are false.

Expanding Force is always a single-target attack in move selection; the targeting updates mid-turn depending on if Psychic Terrain is active or not

Expanding Force's boost looks like 1.5x multiplier in Psychic Terrain (don't know where at yet though, but probably BP based on description) (thanks to Anubis for helping test!)
Level 50 187 Sp. Atk Alakazam using Expanding Force into 101 Sp. Def Arcanine (spread move): 124 damage
Level 50 187 Sp. Atk Alakazam using Expanding Force into 128 Sp. Def Orbeetle (spread move): 57 damage
Level 50 187 Sp. Atk Alakazam using Expanding Force into 135 Sp. Def Magearna (spread move): 49 damage
Level 50 187 Sp. Atk Alakazam using Expanding Force into 135 Sp. Def Magearna (spread move, critical hit): 77 damage

EDIT: the above may be mistaken and the 2nd test definitely is, see this post: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/sword-shield-battle-mechanics-research.3655528/post-8520635

Misty Explosion's boost looks like 1.5x multiplier in Misty Terrain (don't know where at yet though, but probably BP based on description): level 100 394 Sp. Atk Magearna Misty Explosion in Misty Terrain vs. Rillaboom, spread move, with 186 Sp. Def took 291 damage
 
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breh

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Does Expanding Force's damage boost work like Rising Voltage's where the target has to be in the terrain for the damage to increase?

Does it do spread move-reduced damage if it's acting as a spread move?
 
Once you complete the DLC, you can take another Kubfu to the tower you selected with your save and evolve it. Including untrained ones.

I had Kubfu cloned by someone else since I'm vanilla, and never touched the spare. Thought I'd go into the tower anyways and see if its possible to evolve more and sure. No min requirements apparently.
EDIT: Not tied to OT either. Just evolved a level 10 one from a trade. There are no requirements :)


You have to climb the tower with it, so 5 trainer battles whose level depends on how many badges you obtained.
Note that those battles ONLY have Kubfu, but are of single pokemon and fixed species.
 

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Theorymon

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Water
  • Psyduck (Level 65)
  • Krabby (Level 66)
  • Marill (Level 67)
  • Poliwhirl (Level 68)
  • Kubfu (Level 70)
Dark
  • Zorua (Level 65)
  • Scraggy (level 66)
  • Inkay (Level 67)
  • Krokorok (Level 68)
  • Kubfu (Level 70)
That is an interesting question.

The absolute 'reasonable' upper ceiling is almost certainly 40.

A Jolly 252/31 with Choice Scarf reaches 160 speed. That should be faster anything other than the Kubfu and Poliwhirls depending on their nature/EV/IV. At 40, Kubfu learns Dynamic Punch. No reason you can't confusion hax your way to victory trivially in the Dark tower, with more difficulty in the Water tower.

I'm going to guess the Dark tower can be cleared earlier than 40, with Superpower spam depending on Inkay/Kubfu/Scraggy's movepool. Choice Banded/Choice Scrag Superpower crit clears Zorua, Krokorok as early as 35.

But if you are going with Bright Powder, I don't see a 'technical' minimum assuming your attacks do enough damage before all their PPs run out.
Something interesting to add to this: the towers ARE affected by the level scaling.

Unforutnately I don't remember ALL te the levels, but I did a fresh run to get a 2nd Kubfu, and with 0 badges, the game actually reccomended that I have Kubfu at level 30. So a much lower level should be feasible with the condition that you have 0 badges!
 
Something interesting to add to this: the towers ARE affected by the level scaling.

Unforutnately I don't remember ALL te the levels, but I did a fresh run to get a 2nd Kubfu, and with 0 badges, the game actually reccomended that I have Kubfu at level 30. So a much lower level should be feasible with the condition that you have 0 badges!
While UnderdarkFox has confirmed you can just take another kubfu straight to the top of the tower as low as level 10, some clarity:
there is no real level scaling. There's 2 sets, one before you beat Leon and one after

The levels for pre-Leon are are 23, 24, 25, 26, 30
 

Marty

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Triple Axel's hits are 20, 40, then 60 power. Each hit can miss and end the attack like Triple Kick; haven't tested with Skill Link yet.
Edit: Tested with Skill Link against +6 evasiveness. If the first hit connects they all connect, just like Skill Link Triple Kick.

Sticky Hold activates and prevents Corrosive Gas from affecting it. Each target without a hold item gets the "But it failed to affect" message.
 
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Corrosive Gas is marked in the move table with the Protectable and Bounceable flags, but not the Sub-piercer flag.
Awesome. Do you have answers for these, then?
Does Corrosive Gas remove the item of...
  • the user?
  • target opponent?
  • all opponents?
  • allies?
Showdown currently has it only affect target opponent to my knowledge.

Also, are Poison-types and/or Steel-types immune to Corrosive Gas? (We could have either a Thunder Wave situation or a Glare situation here.)
 
If a pokemon gets its stats raised, but then neutralized or lowered back down, will Burning Jealousy still burn? Can a pokemon who's item is melted by corrosive gas be melted?

EDIT: Big discovery about Poltergeist! It actually reveals the opponents item before it attacks! That is huge for scouting out sets.



At 2:44 for proof.
 

Marty

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EDIT: Big discovery about Poltergeist! It actually reveals the opponents item before it attacks! That is huge for scouting out sets.
Haha, good catch! When I tested Poltergeist on Kasib Berry I wasn't paying close attention and thought it was some extra text about weakening the damage. Move over, Frisk.
On the topic about Poltergeist, does it work on Pokémon with Sticky Hold?
Poltergeist works fine against Sticky Hold Pokemon.
 

GMars

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Does Scale Shot still increase Speed and reduce Defense if the move fails because it was used against a Fairy-type? The current Showdown implementation has this occurring which seems odd given past moves with effects like this like Clangorous Soul.
 

MattL

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Also in that video, Corrosive Gas reveals the item that it burned away. Even though the opponent won't have the item anymore, that still gives an indication of what kind of moveset the opponent is running.
 
It appears that Shell Side Arm decides whether to be physical or special at the start of the turn, not when it actually hits. Turn 1, Joey used SSA on a Gardevoir as it used Reflect, and SSA used the physical animation. The next turn, Joey uses SSA again, and this time it uses the special animation.

 

Marty

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SadisticMystic asked if healing Gale Wings Talonflame back to max HP with a faster Prankster Heal Pulse would allow Talonflame to move at +1 with a Flying move.

While I was trying to test this, I thought I'd be clever and use Quick Draw Heal Pulse. But Quick Draw never activated, and I reset dozens of times and clicked Heal Pulse at least 30 times. So I switched to Psychic and it activated 2 out of 3 times. Quick Draw doesn't appear to work with Status moves. I clicked Psych Up a bunch of times and it also never activated. I'd test with Me First to check if it only works on moves with 1 or more power, but Me First doesn't exist anymore. :(

I ended up using Triage Floral Healing instead and Gale Wings does grant the +1 priority immediately.
Edit: Of course, this also means you can be at max HP, click a Flying move, get hit by a faster priority attack and lose your priority for the turn.
 
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SadisticMystic asked if healing Gale Wings Talonflame back to max HP with a faster Prankster Heal Pulse would allow Talonflame to move at +1 with a Flying move.

While I was trying to test this, I thought I'd be clever and use Quick Draw Heal Pulse. But Quick Draw never activated, and I reset dozens of times and clicked Heal Pulse at least 30 times. So I switched to Psychic and it activated 2 out of 3 times. Quick Draw doesn't appear to work with Status moves. I clicked Psych Up a bunch of times and it also never activated. I'd test with Me First to check if it only works on moves with 1 or more power, but Me First doesn't exist anymore. :(

I ended up using Triage Floral Healing instead and Gale Wings does grant the +1 priority immediately.
Edit: Of course, this also means you can be at max HP, click a Flying move, get hit by a faster priority attack and lose your priority for the turn.
Did you test this in Doubles? If so, are you sure it's status moves that don't activate Quick Draw, or could it be moves that target your ally?
 

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