The dumbest thing the AI has ever done?

Are they common ? I don't think I have seen an Wide guard rental Pokemon ^_^
There's a handful.
Pelipper and Mienshao are arguably your best bets as they also happen to be good pokemon, but otherwise you have Kingler, Hitmonlee and Mantine as other options.
Expecially if you see Ground, Water, Electric or Dragon, I would absolutely recommend picking up one, as most of those have access to very strong spread moves that can and will delete the entire team. (Notably Mantine and Pelipper nearly trivialize Zygarde since they can't be nuked by Max Quake either)
 
By my theory crafting, Pelipper is probably the best possible Pokemon if you're on a Groudon run
Drizzle cancels out sunny day (at least until it uses max flare), it'll weaken max flare while the rain's up (& resists it anyway), it cant be hit by max quake and of course, it has Wide Guard
Mantine has similar boons going on but also doesnt have drizzle so if it drops a max flare someone is probably dead

Wide Guard strats...will kind of vary for other pokemon. Xurkitree took me a few tries and honestly my worst attempt was the one where I had wide guard. Sometimes stacking the typing in your favor will do better for you. Sometimes you just get lucky on damage rolls or what the opponent decides to do.
 

CTNC

Doesn't know how to attack
I'm going to shout out the Dynamax Adventure thread because it has stuff that belong here and stuff that would belong here if they weren't done by real players that might ass well be AIs. (That was a typo, but it works.)

4 Days ago I complained about Speed Swap, and either I misremembered the order or something so stupid happened that remembering it is literally giving me a headache. Swoobat got Trevenant's speed, used Speed Swap on the same Pokemon twice in a row which does nothing, and after that Swoobat gave Trevenaut's Speed to the Ditto that had transformed into Trevenaut... I repeat, Swoobat used Speed Swap to swap speed with a Pokemon with the same speed as it.


Today's complaint, Power Swap... It only changes stat modifications instead of base stats, so the AI says the best time to use it is Turn 1! There wasn't Intimidate or anything else, so... why? Ditto didn't use Power Swap at all when transformed into that Grimmsnarl, but as soon as another AI grabs it? I thought that's odd, but I should start thinking "odd" is a massive red flag for "I'm going to rant in this thread." I'm spamming Baby-Doll Eyes, so the AI thinks it's a really good time to use Power Swap on the opponent! Later, when everyone's attack is back to +0/-0 and then a partner uses Coaching, Power Swap on the opponent! I'd ask, "What are you talking about? My eye isn't twitching." but it's pretty obvious that my eye is twitching, and yes, I am slightly very annoyed.

I really need to take Pokemon with any status moves just so the AI doesn't get them... I'm honestly thinking I'm more competent than the AI even when I spam almost useless moves instead of attacking. At least I know what I'm doing!


Edit: Turn 1, Gloom uses Stun Spore revealing and activating Azumaril's Sap Sipper, Turn 2, Venoshock, Turns 3-10 Stun Spore. WTF? Butterfree spammed Rage Powder every turn except the turn it healed Gloom with Pollen Puff and Drapion spammed Accupressure. That was ONE ATTACK over TEN TURNS and that one attack was just to give false hope for more attacks! I wonder if you can hear my internal screaming...

On the bright side Araquinid's plan of using Entrainment to spread Water Absorb to the team even if the oppenent can't learn any Watter attacks can be usefull against a Water Type Legend!
 
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Ransei

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I was once playing Super Multi Battles in Battle Tree with Sinnoh Champion Cynthia as my partner. We made it through several matches, but then I lost because her Garchomp Mega Evolved and used Earthquake on an opposing Blastoise with mid health. This was entirely unnecessary as not only did my own final Pokemon Primarina faint but had she opted for Dragon Claw instead the Blastoise would've still been KOed on that same turn. The opposing trainer then sent a Porygon2 after the Blastoise and my Primarina fainted and beat Cynthia's Mega Garchomp with Blizzard.

I lost this Multi Battles game because Cynthia's AI decided to use Earthquake instead of Dragon Claw.
 
I was once playing Super Multi Battles in Battle Tree with Sinnoh Champion Cynthia as my partner. We made it through several matches, but then I lost because her Garchomp Mega Evolved and used Earthquake on an opposing Blastoise with mid health. This was entirely unnecessary as not only did my own final Pokemon Primarina faint but had she opted for Dragon Claw instead the Blastoise would've still been KOed on that same turn. The opposing trainer then sent a Porygon2 after the Blastoise and my Primarina fainted and beat Cynthia's Mega Garchomp with Blizzard.

I lost this Multi Battles game because Cynthia's AI decided to use Earthquake instead of Dragon Claw.
This is why I prefer her having Mega Lucario instead. Also Scarfchomp because she most likely would pick Outrage as her most damaging move (to be safe, my second mon must be a levitating one).

My most recent experience with "ai bruh moment" is Leon, on his last turn of dynamax, going for Max Overgrowth against my final mon Galarian Slowbro, thus allowing me to hit it with Surf, then Quick Draw activated and hit it with another Surf, winning the match. Yeah Leon, take a good vacation...A SwSh low level no items run gets from easy to extremely difficult against Champion Leon. tl dr, the ai let me win :psywoke:
 

Pikachu315111

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My most recent experience with "ai bruh moment" is Leon, on his last turn of dynamax, going for Max Overgrowth against my final mon Galarian Slowbro, thus allowing me to hit it with Surf, then Quick Draw activated and hit it with another Surf, winning the match. Yeah Leon, take a good vacation...A SwSh low level no items run gets from easy to extremely difficult against Champion Leon. tl dr, the ai let me win :psywoke:
Huh, did the AI think it was up against a normal Slowbro? Wonder if the programming checks the Types of the Pokemon its facing regardless of the species or if it calls up the species data to then check the Types. If the latter, since the G-Slowpoke family wasn't part of SwSh's initial release, that could mean it would only pull up normal Slowpoke family's data.
 

CTNC

Doesn't know how to attack
The Fighting Elite Four in Black left me speechless.

Throh used Grass Knot. Against Servine.

Even if you ignore that it's resisted, Throh has good Physical attacks and his Special Attack is one of the worst in the game. (Base 30. Only 6 Fully Evolved Pokemon have worse, 5 Tie, and even the Hitmons are better.) I know it's Game Freak's fault that he knows a Special Attack in the first place, so let's ignore the Physical/Special split too. His other attacks are the Power 70 Retaliate, Power 120 STAB Superpower, and resisted Power 100 Earthquake. Servine's light enough for Grass Knot to be Power 40.

TL;DR Power 40 Resisted attack off of 30 SpA instead of Power 120 STAB off of 100 Atk.


I think they made the Fighting Elite Four in SM brutally strong to make up for the first two sucking.
 

Pikachu315111

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The Fighting Elite Four in Black left me speechless.

Throh used Grass Knot. Against Servine.

Even if you ignore that it's resisted, Throh has good Physical attacks and his Special Attack is one of the worst in the game. (Base 30. Only 6 Fully Evolved Pokemon have worse, 5 Tie, and even the Hitmons are better.) I know it's Game Freak's fault that he knows a Special Attack in the first place, so let's ignore the Physical/Special split too. His other attacks are the Power 70 Retaliate, Power 120 STAB Superpower, and resisted Power 100 Earthquake. Servine's light enough for Grass Knot to be Power 40.
Now that you mention it, a lot of Marshal's Pokemon have Grass Knot... and I don't know why.

Ignoring all his Pokemon have low Special Attack, there are no Types which Fighting will have difficulty with that Grass would counter. This issue looks to be addressed in B2W2 where his team now sports Dark-types moves to cover his Psychic-type weakness.
 
X Nuzlocke.

Trainer's Goldeen uses Water Sport.
I take it out.
She sends in Litleo, and goes for Ember.
Which is weakened.


On the flipside, I battled a trainer with a Goldeen (Psyduck?) and a Skiddo.
I switch Quilladin out of a favorable matchup, because even though I have Vine Whip, Goldeen has Peck.
However, the AI switched into Sap Sipper Skiddo, expecting a Vine Whip, which I thought was neat.


I just had another one. In the Third Gym, a trainer used Belly Dum on their Hariyama. This made me really worried. Then it just spammed Whirlwind.
 
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Ransei

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This was around 9 years ago and I don't remember much about the details but I was playing in Pokemon Black and White's Battle Subway. I very nearly lost to an NPC whose final Pokemon was Claydol. Under the circumstances I was put under in that battle, I accepted I've completely lost to this Claydol, but wanted to finish off the match anyway. All the sudden, this trainer's Claydol decided to use Explosion and I somehow won just because of that. I would have absolutely lost if it did normal Claydol things aside from blowing itself up.



It was most likely the Cosmic Power Toxic set.
 
Cynthia (DP)
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Platinum is my favorite Pokémon game but DP might unironically be my least favorite. What a clusterfuck of a game.

Everyone complains about the slow speed and poor regional dex, all valid points. But fewer people bring up how the AI regressed to the point where it might have been worse than RBY's. No, seriously. At least RBY's AI targets you with moves based on type advantage. DP's AI appears to be completely random.

Against Cynthia, after my Roserade finished off her Gastrodon, she sends out Lucario. I'm expecting to just sacrifice Roserade to get a free switch in, but instead of Lucario using Psychic on my Roserade at full health...it uses Aura Sphere. After which point I use Stun Spore to paralyze it, essentially neutering Lucario, allowing my Medicham to finish it off easily.

I hate when people say DP Cynthia is harder than Platinum Cynthia due to the former having higher levels. They neglect to mention the AI was horrendous in comparison which more than makes up for the level gap. Just a pathetic AI for such a climactic battle, but really shows how DP was essentially a beta version of Platinum that probably shouldn't have even been released.
 
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Pikachu315111

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battling the first route 1 trainer in US

Turn 1:
Rowlet used Leafage!
Buneary used Pound!

Turn 2:
Rowlet used Growl!
Buneary used... Splash!
Well Pound probably didn't do that much damage so they were experimenting with what else they got. NOTE: "Splash"'s Japanese name is "Hop".

Youngster: Okay Buneary, since you're a rabbit, do a jump attack!
Buneary: Well, I can certainly jump, and it's technically a Move like the other attacks so... *Uses Splash*
 

CTNC

Doesn't know how to attack
Shedinja breaks the AI in SwSh's Battle Tower's Double Battles. Sometimes after KOing a Pokemon, the AI will send out a Pokemon that has a good match up against your other Pokemon then switch the Pokemon they just sent out the next turn because the AI is programed to switch if they can't do anything to Shedinja. Sometimes they'll think one of their Pokemon can't do anything and switch, but when it comes back later it uses Hail to KO Shedinja. Spamming Ally Switch usually lets you take no damage if there's no spread moves because they keep targeting where your Pokemon were instead of where they'll be.


In spin off games, the most obvious example of stupid AI is allies in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Red/Blue and Time/Darkness/Sky walking over viable traps that you just walked over. You need feed them a lot of Gummies for the IQ needed to avoid traps and most Pokemon don't even get that IQ skill. Other than that, it's mostly good AI because there's not much to mess up. You could argue that the moves Pokemon use are stupid, but they're just random. I'm pretty sure every dumb AI thing that can happen was done on purpose, except maybe following you from the other side of a 1 tile wall in parellel halls. Fortunately, the rest are funny instead of annoying.

Substitute is a completely different move in PMD TDS and was made to turn the AI stupid. It turns another Pokemon into a decoy and every enemy will target it. Even moves that would hit everyone in the room only hit the decoy. They're so focused on killing it that they'll even ignore you even if you stand between them and the decoy. It's a pretty funny if you run into Monster Houses or in boss fights against multiple Pokemon. (The Grand Master of All Things Bad is already hard to take seriously with a name like that and the reveal of who it is, but when you turn that Fairy type into a doll and his minions go after him...) It's not that fair to say it's bad AI when it's because of a move doing what its supposed to do, but IQ skills ironically add even more stupidity. Bodyguard makes a Pokmeon take hits for an ally that's low on health. Enemies will target the decoy, but it's an ally so Bodyguard activates. The hilarious part is they take every attack aimed at the decoy. Every one. They'll try to hit the decoy, Bodyguard activates, then they take their own hits!

The easiest way to see stupid AI is turning off a teammate's Course Checker IQ Skill, the one that makes them check if there's solid walls or allies in the way of ranged attacks. Believe it or not, there is a reason you'd want to turn it off. The Gap Prober IQ Skill lets ranged moves go through allies if you turn off Course Checker. It means they'll try to attack through walls, but it also means that it's actually worth it to make you AI dumber on purpose! Why'd they make it so you can turn off comon sense, let alone make turing it off a good idea?
 
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Not me, but I read a story on Reddit about how Hau used a Z-Move on the player because the base move (Sparkling Aria?) can heal burns, so it thought it was a support move.
Another possible explanation is that because Sparkling Aria is a spread move and Oceanic Operetta is not, Hau forgets that he actually needs to set a target and it defaults to the player's mon.

In terms of my experiences with dumb AI, the part of code that tells the Emerald AI to stop setting up once it's at +6 appears to only check if any stats boosted by a given move are maxed, not if every one is maxed. For example, If they're at +6 Def from using Curse, they will stop using it even if you later drop their Attack to -6. It also doesn't understand Substitute in gen 3, but that's pretty well-known.
 

TMan87

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It's not that fair to say it's bad AI when it's because of a move doing what its supposed to do, but IQ skills ironically add even more stupidity. Bodyguard makes a Pokmeon take hits for an ally that's low on health. Enemies will target the decoy, but it's an ally so Bodyguard activates. The hilarious part is they take every attack aimed at the decoy. Every one. They'll try to hit the decoy, Bodyguard activates, then they take their own hits!
Now I imagine a Pokémon using Flamethrower or something on the decoy, then somehow flash stepping ahead of their attack to take it with a typical shounen expression on their face, before somehow flash stepping back to their original position.
Meanwhile the player character, who was the one using Substitute in the first place, is staring at them like "dude. What the hell?"
 

TailGlowVM

Now 100% more demonic
The AI getting strange movesets isn't just a thing in the early game. There are some pretty embarrassing late-game ones:

View attachment 370000
This is the final battle with Maxie in Pokemon Omega Ruby, and he has a Mightyena with Take Down as the only attacking move as well as a Camerupt with no STABs.

View attachment 370001
This is Diantha's Gardevoir, when given the highest-level Writ Of Challenge in the Battle Chateau. (For reference, in the Champion battle it has Psychic, Moonblast, Shadow Ball, and Thunderbolt.)

There are loads of others here who would be far too long to name (looking at Ghetsis's physical Hydreigon in BW2, everyone in RB, Lysandre's Yveltal in UM, and several Pokemon in the ORAS Elite Four rematches in particular...)
 
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