Sword & Shield Battle Mechanics Research

Anubis

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I've been sitting on this for 5 months now, and since we're on the brink of BDSP with no new SWSH patches since I reported it, I decided it's time to disclose it.

I previously mentioned pre-Dynamaxed Pokémon here: LINK
This lets you send out a Pokémon so it appears Dynamaxed, but it is still able to use its regular moves and Dynamax.

At the time, I thought it was purely visual, but it's possible to exploit this to double your current HP, which also allows you to get 300 base power on moves like Water Spout. I covered in this thread:
And finally, since people have been trying to transform into Eternamax, if you send out a Pokémon in a pre-Gigantamax form, it'll be able to visually transform into Eternamax. https://imgur.com/a/R9TbyxS
 
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Dunfan

formerly Dunsparce Fanboy
Hi!
Does Smack Down have the exact same flags as Thousand Arrows?
___Specifically: if Smack Down were to be hacked as a Ground-type move, would it hit Flying types normally immune?
Does the "neutral 1st hit on Flying" effect of Thousand Arrows disables other type immunities, allowing an Electrify-ed Thousand Arrows to hit Ground/Flying types?
___Or even any Ground type as long as they're immune?
(asking this since I'm intrigued and it might most importantly impact metas such as Revelation Mons)
 
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DaWoblefet

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Hi!
Does Smack Down have the exact same flags as Thousand Arrows?
___Specifically: if Smack Down were to be hacked as a Ground-type move, would it hit Flying types normally immune?
Does the "neutral 1st hit on Flying" effect of Thousand Arrows disables other type immunities, allowing an Electrify-ed Thousand Arrows to hit Ground/Flying types?
___Or even any Ground type as long as they're immune?
(asking this since I'm intrigued and it might most importantly impact metas such as Revelation Mons)
Smack Down and Thousand Arrows have identical effects for applying a forced grounded state (what's called "Smack Down" on the Y-info screen). However, Smack Down does not have a type effectiveness component to its move. Thousand Arrows checks if the move is Ground-type and if the type effectiveness would result in the attack being immune; if both are satisfied, it sets the type effectiveness to 1x. This is why Thousand Arrows into Ho-Oh, for example, deals 1x neutral type effectiveness damage and not 2x. In addition, Thousand Arrows must be Ground-type, so an Electrified Thousand Arrows won't bypass Ground-type immunity, and a Normalize Thousand Arrows won't bypass Ghost-type immunity. So if you did a ROM hack and made Smack Down Ground-type, it wouldn't be able to hit Flying-types, all else being equal.
 

DaWoblefet

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I have a good bit of mechanics research that hasn't reached this thread - time for a dump of cool stuff!

Unnerve Desync Glitch

A newly discovered glitch by battle mechanics researcher Zaggyo grants a new way to put fainted Pokemon on the field that have HP, which leads to a whole host of interesting interactions that we've only begun to delve into. We've known for some time that if an Unnerve Pokemon is KOed at the same time as an opponent, damage calculation will already be completed, but with animations on it appears as if a Pokemon is eating a Berry at 0 HP. By combining this with eating a Berry and restoring HP via Cheek Pouch with HP between 2/3 and one less than full HP, you can activate this glitch. Hitting the Pokemon again will cause it to be KOed with nonzero HP, and by switching it in later, the Pokemon becomes untargetable and cannot take any action (including attacking, Dynamaxing, switching, or even forfeiting). Certain abilities do remain active, mostly passive ones like Queenly Majesty or Fairy Aura. Properly speaking, this doesn't have to be done with Cheek Pouch; Oran Berry and low enough HP will work too.

See this excellent writeup by SadisticMystic or Zaggyo's documentation on the Japanese Pokemon Wiki. See also a cartridge demonstration.

Future attacks research

I've done some recent research on future attacks (Future Sight / Doom Desire).
  • When a Pokemon uses a future attack, the Sp. Atk stat used is the user's most recent Sp. Atk stat on the field, regardless of whether or not the Pokemon is actually on the field. For example, if you use Power Split on a Pokemon that used a future attack, it will damage the slot with the Special Attack stat it has after Power Split - even though it switched out. This applies to fainting, too.
    • The same thing happens for form changes like Darmanitan's or Aegislash's - if hacked to have a future attack, even though they switch out to Standard Mode / Shield Forme, their damage on future attacks will be from Zen Mode / Blade Forme, respectively.
    • This doesn't happen the same way for Transform. While on the field, future attacks will use the stats of the Pokemon it has Transformed into, but once you leave the field, it goes back to the most recent Sp. Atk stat of the future attack user.
    • In Gen 7 at least, the same thing applies to Mega Evolution. Using Future Sight as Mega Mewtwo Y, then fainting, will cause Mewtwo to return back to its pre-Mega state. But the Future Sight will still deal damage using Mega Mewtwo Y's Sp. Atk stat.
  • Whether on or off the field, type changes for the purposes of STAB are determined by the user's most recent typing. So, a Psychic-type using Future Sight, then getting Soaked, then staying on the field will not have STAB on its Future Sight, and in that same situation, but the future attack user switches out, there will still not be STAB in damage calculation.
  • If on the field, future attacks will use stat changes from things like Nasty Plot or Snarl, but if the user switches out, the future attack will be treated as +0 Sp. Atk. Note that because the stat stage is checked at the time of damage calculation, something like Future Sight -> Nasty Plot will boost the damage of the attack.
  • Before anyone asks, it's already known that Abilities and Items are not active while the user is not on the field, so they can't influence the damage / typing of future attacks.
The interaction with using current Sp. Atk got me thinking about Beat Up. Turns out that for Beat Up's base power calculation, the base Attack stat used is of whatever form the Pokemon started the battle in. So for example, if you use Beat Up with a partner Blade Forme Aegislash, Beat Up's base power is actually calculated using Shield Forme Aegislash's base Attack. Similarly, if you use Beat Up with a Mega Beedrill as an ally, the Beat Up's base power depends on regular Beedrill's base attack (80), not Mega Beedrill's (150). Note that even this applies with the Blade Forme Aegislash or Mega active on the field.

Some one-off stuff
  • A frozen Pokemon can never be burned with Scald, Burning Jealousy or a Fire-type attack that has a percentage-based chance to burn (footage).
  • Eject Pack's timing with moves that drop the user or the target's stats is very late. We already know, for example, that Parting Shot will switch the user out before Eject Pack can go off; similarly, Pickpocket can actually steal the Eject Pack before it goes off. I think more research needs to be done here, but I did several tests trying to understand its behavior more completely.
  • Primal reversion lies in the same event timing as Terrain seeds, Schooling, and Shields Down. So for example, if you switch in a faster Groudon and a slower Pokemon holding Grassy Seed while Grassy Terrain is already active (say, after a double KO), Groudon would Primal revert first, then Grassy Seed would activate.
  • After this, White Herb, Flower Gift, Forecast, and Ice Face can activate. Eject Pack either activates here or in a step after these 4. This can screw over Eiscue if, for example, it's hailing and a slower Drought Pokemon is sent in after a double KO; the Drought will always kick in first, making it unable to transform back.
  • Dynamax Cannon is unaffected by Encore, Instruct, Mimic, Copycat, Sleep Talk, and can't be called by Metronome (credit to tetspond).
  • G-Max Meltdown only applies the Torment effect for 3 turns, unlike actual Torment which is permanent until the user leaves the field. When it wears off, it will happen after Taunt but before Encore (credit to Zaggyo).
  • Max Guard blocks Whirlwind, but doesn't actually block Roar. You can see an example of this with the checks done before move success; a Roar into a Dynamaxed Magic Bounce Pokemon would trigger Magic Bounce, but Whirlwind wouldn't (credit to Zaggyo).
  • Hacked Max Moves claim to have 10 BP (or 100, in the case of Max Flare), but in reality, they behave as if they have 0 BP.
  • Hacked Max Guard behaves exactly like normal Max Guard. It'll block attacks like Ice Beam, Transform, Psych Up, and Whirlwind, but won't block Roar, for example.
  • Utility Umbrella doesn't interact with Delta Stream at all. Utility Umbrella will remove the weather boost from Primordial Sea / Desolate Land, but it won't remove the attack negation check (i.e. Fire Punch into a Utility Umbrella target in Primordial Sea will still display "The Fire-type attack fizzled out in the heavy rain!").
 
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Pikachu315111

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I don't know, some of that stuff sound intended:

  • A frozen Pokemon can never be burned with Scald, Burning Jealousy or a Fire-type attack that has a percentage-based chance to burn (footage).
Frozen Pokemon: S-So C-Cold...
*Opponent uses hottest Fire-type move (with chance to Burn) they can muster*
Unfrozen Pokemon: OH THANK ARCEUS! WARMTH! SWEET SWEET WARMTH!
Opponent: I'm trying to Burn you!
Unfrozen Pokemon: Oh yeah, burn me right in the frostbite area ~ahhhh~.

  • Max Guard blocks Whirlwind, but doesn't actually block Roar. You can see an example of this with the checks done before move success; a Roar into a Dynamaxed Magic Bounce Pokemon would trigger Magic Bounce, but Whirlwind wouldn't (credit to Zaggyo).
Well the Whirlwind would get deflected by the barrier, Roar is just scaring the Pokemon into switching out; can't really block that.

"Why is it then reflected by Magic Bounce"? With it's Japanese name being "Magic Mirror", I always imagined when targeted by a Status Move a Magic Bounce Pokemon opens a portal in space which has the attacking Pokemon on the other side (making it look like a mirror); essentially meaning the attacking Pokemon is attacking itself through the portal. Meanwhile the Magic Bounce Pokemon behind it is left unaffected.

  • Utility Umbrella doesn't interact with Delta Stream at all. Utility Umbrella will remove the weather boost from Primordial Sea / Desolate Land, but it won't remove the attack negation check (i.e. Fire Punch into a Utility Umbrella target in Primordial Sea will still display "The Fire-type attack fizzled out in the heavy rain!".
That makes sense. Umbrella's can cover you from the rain and sun, but it's gonna just drag you along with it (or break but I imagine the Utility Umbrella is made from sterner stuff) when a wind blows through.
 
That reminds me, I have more questions about pre-Dynamaxed mons as a Pure Hackmons player:
  • How many mons can you pre-Dynamax at once? For example, can we have a fight where all 12 mons are pre-Dynamaxed? Or maybe only one player can have any pre-Dynamaxed mons, and that player can only have one pre-Dynamaxed mon?
  • Can you pre-Dynamax Zacian, Zacian-Crowned, Zamazenta, Zamazenta-Crowned, Eternatus, and/or Eternatus-Eternamax?
  • Does the mon lose its doubled HP if it switches out?
  • How does anything fixed HP percentage-based work on a pre-Dynamaxed mon?
    • Does Stealth Rock, before type weakness, take away 12.5% of their normal maximum HP or their starting HP?
    • Is a Substitute made from 25% of their normal maximum HP or their starting HP? At what HP level will Substitute fail?
    • Does Gulp Missile and/or the Ghost Curse status rip out 25% of their normal maximum HP or their starting HP?
    • Does Belly Drum and/or Ghost Curse rip out 50% of their normal maximum HP or their starting HP? At what HP level will Belly Drum fail?
 

Anubis

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I don't intend to test pre-Dynamaxed mons extensively due to time/interest and the potential for it to be patched, but these are the ones I do know.

I have a question about Pre-Dynamaxed mons: do choice items like scarf work for them? If the 300 BP thing is true, this might be absolutely huge in Pure Hackmons.
Think of them as the same as regular mons in terms of function, other than having more top HP than bottom HP. So yes, choice items do work on them, and you cannot pick another move. They are not really Dynamaxed until you click the Dynamax button.

What do you mean by "if" the 300 BP thing is true? Here's another example you can calculate in singles. Cryogonal takes 330 damage at level 50 from a Water Spout, which requires it to be at 300 BP.
252+ SpA Kyogre Origin Pulse vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Dynamax Cryogonal in Rain: 301-355 (80.4 - 94.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Possible damage amounts: (301, 304, 309, 312, 315, 319, 322, 327, 330, 333, 337, 340, 343, 348, 351, 355)
https://imgur.com/mJDirfx

How many mons can you pre-Dynamax at once? For example, can we have a fight where all 12 mons are pre-Dynamaxed? Or maybe only one player can have any pre-Dynamaxed mons, and that player can only have one pre-Dynamaxed mon?
All of them, both sides as far as I've seen. I do get it to work pretty regularly at scaled level 50 formats but not always at unlimited formats, unknown why.

Can you pre-Dynamax Zacian, Zacian-Crowned, Zamazenta, Zamazenta-Crowned, Eternatus, and/or Eternatus-Eternamax?
Zacian-0 without Rusted Sword worked fine.
Eternatus-0 works as long as you set it properly, wrong Dynamax type crashes the game.

Does the mon lose its doubled HP if it switches out?
No. I do note that Rest will reset it to the original max HP, haven't tested other recovery moves or Heal Pulse.

  • How does anything fixed HP percentage-based work on a pre-Dynamaxed mon?
    • Does Stealth Rock, before type weakness, take away 12.5% of their normal maximum HP or their starting HP?
    • Is a Substitute made from 25% of their normal maximum HP or their starting HP? At what HP level will Substitute fail?
    • Does Gulp Missile and/or the Ghost Curse status rip out 25% of their normal maximum HP or their starting HP?
    • Does Belly Drum and/or Ghost Curse rip out 50% of their normal maximum HP or their starting HP? At what HP level will Belly Drum fail?
The game still uses max HP for most of these. I've tested these:
- Charizard with 275/153 HP went down to 199/153 HP with Stealth Rock (-76 HP).
- Charizard with 199/153 HP went down to 123/153 HP with Belly Drum (-76 HP).
- Charizard with 123/153 HP went down to 85/153 HP with Ghost-type Curse (-38 HP).
- Luxray with 252/155 HP went down to 214/155 HP with Gulp Missile (-38 HP).
- Luxray with 214/155 HP went down to 199/155 HP with Life Orb recoil (-15 HP).

DaWoblefet says Substitute crashes the game, probably because of missing models. Briefly, I considered if it could be possible to patch the game to not crash, but I'd expect the same max HP behavior. He can comment more about it.

Few other notes:
- When you are in team selection or the team list to change mons, it'll show the boosted hp over the boosted HP, e.g. 275/153 HP Charizard shows up as 275/275.
2021102711265900-3C66B776DB1AA06323037049FACD96D3.jpg
- Game still respects the Dynamax level, which is why not everything is at 2x max HP.

Ty to BilloPS who agreed to be the subject of shenanigans.

Demonstrations: https://imgur.com/a/mVnshqn

============

An unrelated hack that seems to only work in local battles is editing party stats. I have a demonstration at the end of the previous imgur link of setting a Magikarp's current HP to 0xFFFF, and having it shrug off a +6 Acrobatics. It may also be worth investigating for past gens and whether other values in party stats can be edited like Status if it affects Pure Hackmons.
 
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DaWoblefet

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Adding onto what Anubis has already said, pre-Dynamaxed Pokemon will "heal to full HP" (that is, their HP on the denominator) if you use something like Heal Pulse or Soft-Boiled while you have more than your maximum HP.

As Anubis mentioned, I've gotten pre-Dynamaxed Substitute to crash the game, with or without animations on. Similar things happen if you use Mind Blown with pre-Dynamaxed Blacephalon with animations on, presumably because its head is a separate model or something (ordinarily, Mind Blown when used by Blacephalon has a different animation than when used by non-Blacephalon). I thought maybe pre-Dynamaxed Diglett using Sunsteel Strike would get its rock to appear on its model like it does out of Dynamax, but that doesn't seem to happen, or minimally doesn't crash the game. I have no intention of testing every move or anything, but if someone has a plausible candidate for moves that use additional models during the move I'd be willing to try it out. Here's some sample video footage of the crashes.

EDIT: Looks like any spread moves which include at least a pre-Dynamaxed target as an ally will crash the game (e.g. Earthquake, Surf, Lava Plume).
 
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Hello, has anyone figured out if a Ditto or Mew with a Gigantamax Factor can Gigantamax after using Transform on a Pokémon whose species can Gigantamax? I am really curious of the potential behavior.
 

Pikachu315111

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Hello, has anyone figured out if a Ditto or Mew with a Gigantamax Factor can Gigantamax after using Transform on a Pokémon whose species can Gigantamax? I am really curious of the potential behavior.
From Bulbapedia:
  • From Generation V onwards, the Transform user copies the target's current form and cannot change form in battle (regardless of its Ability or held item), except for the Dynamax-based form changes. For instance, a transformed Pokémon is unable to Mega Evolve in battle, but a Pokémon can transform into a Mega-Evolved Pokémon (by copying another Mega-Evolved Pokémon). However, if the Transform target is currently in Dynamax, Gigantamax, or Eternamax form, the user will simply transform into the regular form of that Pokémon instead. The transformed Pokémon can Dynamax (except if transformed into a Pokémon species that is unable to Dynamax), but it is still unable to change into Gigantamax or Eternamax forms.
Ditto and Mew can't have a Gigantamax factor because they don't have a Gigantamax. Also the Gigantamax factor doesn't copy over from a Pokemon they transformed which had it.
 
From Bulbapedia:


Ditto and Mew can't have a Gigantamax factor because they don't have a Gigantamax. Also the Gigantamax factor doesn't copy over from a Pokemon they transformed which had it.
I think they were referring to forcing the G-max factor onto something that can't normally have it, which is possible with hacking. Without hacking there was a glitch that allowed you to evolve G-max factor Pikachu/Eevee/Meowth and their evolutions kept the G-max symbol on their stat screen(since coding-wise it is a flag that any species can have, but they have only officially given it to Pokemon with G-max forms and Pokemon that evolve into Pokemon with G-max forms, like the Kanto Starter gifts and that one event raid Milcery)
 
I think they were referring to forcing the G-max factor onto something that can't normally have it, which is possible with hacking. Without hacking there was a glitch that allowed you to evolve G-max factor Pikachu/Eevee/Meowth and their evolutions kept the G-max symbol on their stat screen(since coding-wise it is a flag that any species can have, but they have only officially given it to Pokemon with G-max forms and Pokemon that evolve into Pokemon with G-max forms, like the Kanto Starter gifts and that one event raid Milcery)
Yes, I guess this can be done with hacking. I could have mentioned at first that "if the Gigantamax Factor gets hacked onto a Ditto or Mew".
 
Anubis said:
An unrelated hack that seems to only work in local battles is editing party stats. I have a demonstration at the end of the previous imgur link of setting a Magikarp's current HP to 0xFFFF, and having it shrug off a +6 Acrobatics. It may also be worth investigating for past gens and whether other values in party stats can be edited like Status if it affects Pure Hackmons.
How did you do this exactly? I would be willing to test this for other stats and in older generations if I knew how this was done.
 

Anubis

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How did you do this exactly? I would be willing to test this for other stats and in older generations if I knew how this was done.
Essentially it's a matter of looking into how party stats are handled in Pokemon data. Mutation testing may be helpful here, i.e. change something and see what happens. Would need directly importing into the party since the box will wipe party stats.

For example, in the decrypted gen 8 format, current HP is stored at 0x14A, so setting that to 0xFFFF gives you the 65k HP that can be used locally.
1637488875842.png

Other things you might do would be compare the same Pokemon's data with and without a status. I don't think there's much documentation into other fields in the party stats region so there's a lot to investigate.
 
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Is there a thread for BDSP mechanics? This is probably the wrong place but it looks like the same hack is possible there: I changed the HP of a magikarp to 65k with pkhex and destroyed battle tower.. It also seems to stick from battle to battle. Can someone test local battle?


Nov 22 edit
Some update on the BDSP HP mechanics:

1. Max possible hp seems to be 65535, and any healing action will cause it to overflow ( 65536 -> 0hp, 65537 -> 1hp).

2. Healing moves/items can activate without taking damage, but they will reset your hp to regular for the rest of battle (assuming no overflow). For example, if you hacked something with 60k/200 hp, after recover/leftover/heal pulse effects take place hp will be reset to 200/200 until battle ends.

3. Substitute is a bit of odd case because I thought it would have 1/4 of your unhacked max hp. But there are a few instances where my magikarp's sub survives a +4 earthquake from Garchomp, then gets killed by the second one. More testing needed here.

2 in particular might be replicable in swsh, but then again all these were tested in BDSP battle tower not local wifi.
 
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Is there a thread for BDSP mechanics? This is probably the wrong place but it looks like the same hack is possible there: I changed the HP of a magikarp to 65k with pkhex and destroyed battle tower.. It also seems to stick from battle to battle. Can someone test local battle?


Nov 22 edit
Some update on the BDSP HP mechanics:

1. Max possible hp seems to be 65535, and any healing action will cause it to overflow ( 65536 -> 0hp, 65537 -> 1hp).

2. Healing moves/items can activate without taking damage, but they will reset your hp to regular for the rest of battle (assuming no overflow). For example, if you hacked something with 60k/200 hp, after recover/leftover/heal pulse effects take place hp will be reset to 200/200 until battle ends.

3. Substitute is a bit of odd case because I thought it would have 1/4 of your unhacked max hp. But there are a few instances where my magikarp's sub survives a +4 earthquake from Garchomp, then gets killed by the second one. More testing needed here.

2 in particular might be replicable in swsh, but then again all these were tested in BDSP battle tower not local wifi.
I'm also curious if the Trick Room oversight still exists in BDSP (i.e. if Pokemon with an effective Speed of 1809 or higher ignore Trick Room).

This can be performed with Ninjask that has at least 453 Speed (as viewed outside of battle) and the Speed Boost ability, and Xatu with the moves Tailwind and Trick Room. Xatu gets Tailwind at level 1, and Trick Room by TM. The strategy is so that Ninjask uses Agility twice, and Xatu uses Tailwind, then Trick Room.
 
Yes, this was my research from Gen 7 on end-turn resolution order. We don't have verification of this list in Gen 8 yet but so far as I know stuff is at least mostly the same.
I have tried some of the Gen 8 mechanics and compiled a new version, I'll put in bold what I tested. Feel free to add more stuff or report any mistake.

1. Weather ending
2. Sand damage / Hail damage / Ice Body / Dry Skin (rain or sun) / Solar Power / Rain Dish
3. Future attacks (Future Sight / Doom Desire) (if multiple are to deal damage, deal damage in the order that the future attacks were originally used, like a queue; not determined by Speed)
1. Gulp Missile (which targets the Pokémon that used the future attack move even if its position is different due to a switch or Ally Switch, or the slot it was originally in if the user is no longer in the field)
4. Wish
5. Block level - Speed dependent
1. Sea of Fire
2. G-Max Wildfire/Volcalith/Vine Lash/Cannonade
3. Grassy Terrain recovery
4. Hydration / Shed Skin / Healer
5. Leftovers / Black Sludge (healing) / Black Sludge (damaging)
6. Aqua Ring
7. Ingrain
8. Leech Seed (the Pokemon affected by Leech Seed, i.e. the Pokemon losing HP)
9. Toxic / regular Poison / Poison Heal
10. Burn
11. Curse
12. Binding moves (both taking damage / being freed from)*
13. Octolock**
14. Taunt ending
15. Encore ending
16. Disable ending
17. Magnet Rise ending
18. Yawn
19. Perish count
20. Block level - host dependent
1. Reflect ending
2. Light Screen ending
3. Safeguard ending
4. Mist ending
5. Tailwind ending
6. Pledge rainbow ending
7. Pledge Sea of Fire ending
8. Pledge swamp ending
9. Aurora Veil ending
21. Trick Room ending
22. Gravity ending
23. Wonder Room ending
24. Magic Room ending
25. Terrain ending
26. Block level - Speed dependent
1. Uproar (currently causing or calmed down)
2. Moody / Speed Boost / Slow Start / Bad Dreams
3. Flame Orb / Toxic Orb / Sticky Barb
4. Harvest / Pickup
27. Zen Mode / Power Construct / Shields Down / Schooling / Hunger Switch***
28. Dynamax ending


*it includes the new moves: Thundercage, Snap Trap and the effect of G-Max Sandblast/Centinferno
** Surprisingly it has its own check AFTER the other binding moves
*** In Gen 7 this check was the last one and it did not use Speed modifiers, in Gen 8 it uses Speed modifiers (tested with 2 Morpeko).
 

Aqua Jet

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I haven't seen a thread for BDSP mechanics so I'm just going to post what I learned here, please move my post if there is a thread that I missed. Basically, what I learned was that after a Shuca Berry is used, the message "The Shuca Berry was used up..." appears afterwards. This does not appear on the PS! Simulator, as shown in this replay. The evidence that the message appears can be found here:
 

DaWoblefet

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I haven't seen a thread for BDSP mechanics so I'm just going to post what I learned here, please move my post if there is a thread that I missed. Basically, what I learned was that after a Shuca Berry is used, the message "The Shuca Berry was used up..." appears afterwards. This does not appear on the PS! Simulator, as shown in this replay. The evidence that the message appears can be found here:
This same thing happens in Sword/Shield. It's only for non-PvP fights; this won't happen in battles with another human opponent (or Battle Tower, etc. where you also don't lose items permanently).
 
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Not sure where to post this since it affects multiple generations up to and including sw/sh but a recent finding on serene grace+charge beam+the water/fire pledge effect.

When charge beam is stacked with serene grace and rainbow field condition (fire+water pledge), it seems to cause an overflow and the secondary effect is only activated~25% of the time. Doing raw math,70*4-255 =25 which seems to be consistent with this theory.

(also not sure about the bw research thread since it says serene grace and rainbow do not stack but that only seems to be the case for flinch percentage, and bulbapedia also seems to confirm this)

Video on this discovery in Japanese here, with relevant footage:

Serene grace stacking seen at ~2:50. Charge beam glitch footage seen at 5:22. Person then goes on to test in all previous generations and confirms the bug. Actual Percentage was calculated at the 15:00 mark.
 

DaWoblefet

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Not sure where to post this since it affects multiple generations up to and including sw/sh but a recent finding on serene grace+charge beam+the water/fire pledge effect.

When charge beam is stacked with serene grace and rainbow field condition (fire+water pledge), it seems to cause an overflow and the secondary effect is only activated~25% of the time. Doing raw math,70*4-255 =25 which seems to be consistent with this theory.

(also not sure about the bw research thread since it says serene grace and rainbow do not stack but that only seems to be the case for flinch percentage, and bulbapedia also seems to confirm this)

Video on this discovery in Japanese here, with relevant footage:

Serene grace stacking seen at ~2:50. Charge beam glitch footage seen at 5:22. Person then goes on to test in all previous generations and confirms the bug. Actual Percentage was calculated at the 15:00 mark.
This is close, but as pointed out by tetspond in the comments, the actual percentage of Serene Grace + Pledge Rainbow Charge Beam is 24%. The game uses an 8-bit unsigned integer to store the percentage for Charge Beam (though it uses a 16-bit unsigned integer to actually do the multiplication by 2, lol). So it'd be (70 * 2 * 2) % 256 = 24, not 25. This overflow happens for more than just Charge Beam, too. For example, Power-Up Punch will really boost Attack 144% of the time with Serene Grace and Pledge Rainbow, because (100 * 2 * 2) % 256 = 144. However, because 144 is greater than 100, we don't notice a difference. It'd only be possible to tell the difference if a move had a secondary effect with a base success percentage between 64-88, which Charge Beam happily fits between.

While not possible to test, I would predict that a similar overflow occurs when using a move that drops the opponent's stats, e.g. Acid Spray. I don't think the same thing would happen for moves that inflict a status condition, like Nuzzle or Inferno, because a different data type is used to store the percentage there (a signed 16-bit number). Flinches don't stack with Serene Grace and Pledge rainbow, so you can't see overflow with those either.
 
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