The dumbest thing the AI has ever done?

[Siggu]

If they were on the same turn, I assume this was just a case of the AI both making their decisions independently and not thinking of what the other will do.

case in point: there is a Ace Trainer Duo in Vast Poni Canyon in Gen 7 that like to both use Hail on turn 1.

Or not even making the slightest kind of consistent planning.

Also a problem in double battles (which I've personally seen) is the AI using Lock-On or Mind Reader against one Pokémon, and attacking the other opponent in the next turn, even when neither switched.

 

[Pikachu315111]

It frustrates me that Game Freak clearly wanted to show off their pair of Ice-type regional variants who they intentionally gave synergy with Snow Warning + Slush Rush, and then didn't give the Ace Trainers access to Snow Warning + Slush Rush.

Even if they did they probably would still have given them Hail and both would have used it on Turn 1 anyway.

 

[Worldie]

Even if they did they probably would still have given them Hail and both would have used it on Turn 1 anyway.

Nah luckily the AI wasnt THAT stupid, if Hail was up they wouldn't have used it anyway.

However, cases of dual weather setting in same turn used to happen even in facilities and in fact were a rolling joke in some Trick Room teams where you'd have Gigalith set Sand and then Bronzong set Rain in same turn, or the infamous Florges2 (I think) who'd literally alternate Grassy and Misty terrain every turn.

Oh you AI...

 

[Siria]

Ok, found out that AI (at least gen 6 ones) apparently don´t understand abilities. I was scaling battle mansion in AS with my Mold Breaker Haxorus. The trainer sends out Umbreon, I use EQ on it. After the second turn, he switches into Hydregion to avoid it... which would be good move if Hydregion didn´t fly only thanks to its ability, which was canceled by Mold Breaker. So it got full face of Earthquake.
The second time it happened (during the same run, altough different trainer), he also switches in flying Pokemon to avoid Earthquake. He swiches in... Eelektross. Let´s just say it didn´t end too well for him.

 

[CyberBearIV]

A Rocker on route 8 in LGE had his Jolteon use Agility. The Jolteon already was faster than my Arcanine.

 

[Cobalt Empoleon]

This isn't the most absurd example but it's an interesting AI oversight that I've never encountered before. I'm doing a mono-Steel run of X and while training a Nosepass in the Battle Chateau I battled two Viscountesses with Scary Face Axew and Cotton Spore Swirlix. I'm used to 'good' AI trainers using Speed-lowering moves until they confirm that they're faster than you, but because I was using Thunder Wave then spamming Rock Tomb, I was still faster than them even after Nosepass went to -6. Still, they continued to try and lower Nosepass's Speed. I was underlevelled, so it took another 4 or 5 turns to finish each battle and both opponents just kept spamming an ineffective Scary Face/Cotton Spore until they fainted.

Ordinarily, 'don't use ineffective moves unless you're forced to' is one of the first AI flags set for NPC trainers to distinguish them from wild mons, but it seems that the 'try to lower your opponent's Speed if they're faster than you' flag overrides that? It might not work the way I'm supposing, but I found it kinda interesting and silly.

EDIT: Aliana's Mightyena behaves the exact same way lol

 

[Roldski32]

I was doing Platinum logs for DPPt in-game tier list just in case, in which I was using Golbat against Fantina. In one of my attempts, I used the Substitute TM from Old Chateau in hopes of winning a 1v1 against Mismagius after I beat the Duskull, but for whatever reason, that Mismagius kept spamming Confuse Ray despite Golbat still had a Substitute up and it didn't attack while i'm just Plucking my way to finished Mismagius off.

 

[Magnus0]

I was doing Platinum logs for DPPt in-game tier list just in case, in which I was using Golbat against Fantina. In one of my attempts, I used the Substitute TM from Old Chateau in hopes of winning a 1v1 against Mismagius after I beat the Duskull, but for whatever reason, that Mismagius kept spamming Confuse Ray despite Golbat still had a Substitute up and it didn't attack while i'm just Plucking my way to finished Mismagius off.

The AI can't handle substitute in a lot of games. If your opponent has thunder wave or wisp, they will often continue using it until your Pokemon is paralyzed or burned. So even a mediocre Pokemon like Audino can sweep BW1 Shauntal for example, by setting up substitute and using work up + shadow ball. Substitute is also nice for dealing with stat lowering moves, like bulldoze. The AI often uses bulldoze or rock tomb until your Pokemon is slower, completely disregarding the type chart in the meanwhile. If you set up a sub against BW1 Marshal with Serperior, it will just keep spamming bulldoze against your sub, giving you ample time to set up with coil and sweep. So many boss fights across the series can be cheesed like this thanks to substitute, it's really dumb. Sometimes I even consider banning substitute for myself because it just feels unfair.

 

[Cobalt Empoleon]

The AI can't handle substitute in a lot of games. If your opponent has thunder wave or wisp, they will often continue using it until your Pokemon is paralyzed or burned. So even a mediocre Pokemon like Audino can sweep BW1 Shauntal for example, by setting up substitute and using work up + shadow ball. Substitute is also nice for dealing with stat lowering moves, like bulldoze. The AI often uses bulldoze or rock tomb until your Pokemon is slower, completely disregarding the type chart in the meanwhile. If you set up a sub against BW1 Marshal with Serperior, it will just keep spamming bulldoze against your sub, giving you ample time to set up with coil and sweep. So many boss fights across the series can be cheesed like this thanks to substitute, it's really dumb. Sometimes I even consider banning substitute for myself because it just feels unfair.

Yeah Substitute specifically messes with AI in really weird ways that feel unfair to exploit haha. To add to the BW examples, Ghetsis' Cofagrigus will spam Toxic against any Pokemon that isn't immune (whether by type or by having an existing status condition) until it runs out of PP or takes damage, so you can use Substitute to sweep him very safely if you don't add Zekrom/Reshiram to your team.

 

[Pikachu315111]

A Rocker on route 8 in LGE had his Jolteon use Agility. The Jolteon already was faster than my Arcanine.

You can completely cross out that second sentence because the fact ANYONE using Agility on a Jolteon in a Gen I game is dumb:

• Only base Pokemon faster than Jolteon is Electrode (it and Voltorb you can only get in the Power Plant that becomes accessible some time after Route 8).
• Two other Pokemon match its Speed: Aerodactyl & Mewtwo (two Pokemon you definitely won't have before Route 8).
• And while there's Mega Pokemon who are faster/equal to Jolteon you don't get Mega Evos until after the 7th Gym.

So, no, no matter what Pokemon you had out there was no reason the Rocker should have used Agility unless for some reason your Pokemon outsped it first.

 

[SlowAriados]

May not be the dumbest, but in various games I've played, the AI is close to making my Pokemon faint. But then they use growl or something when they could have easily finished me off with a damaging move. It's like they were purposely throwing the match.

 

[jordanthejq12]

Emerald, fighting a Claydol. Claydol Skill Swaps, then proceeds to spam Earthquake. Against the mon that is now immune to it.

 

[SlowAriados]

Emerald, fighting a Claydol. Claydol Skill Swaps, then proceeds to spam Earthquake. Against the mon that is now immune to it.

It sort of sounds like it was just using random moves!

 

[Cobalt Empoleon]

Emerald, fighting a Claydol. Claydol Skill Swaps, then proceeds to spam Earthquake. Against the mon that is now immune to it.

It sort of sounds like it was just using random moves!

I assume this Claydol belonged to one of the trainers on Victory Road that you can face in a Double Battle (with the infamous Earthquake Lanturn), meaning it can't have totally random AI.

There are a couple of doubles in Emerald's Victory Road where the intended strategy is for the opponents to strategically change abilities with Skill Swap. Cooltrainers Dianne and Felix try to swap Claydol's Levitate to its partner so it can freely spam Earthquake (hopefully boosted by nabbing Medicham's Pure Power). I wonder if their two Claydol have special hardcoded AI which very strongly favours or even guarantees a first-turn Skill Swap followed by EQ spam? If that were true then facing them in two single battles would completely break their gimmick.

It's not something I've ever tested because I love how much Emerald focuses on Double Battles and would never deliberately pass up an opportunity to fight trainers as a pair.

 

[jordanthejq12]

I assume this Claydol belonged to one of the trainers on Victory Road that you can face in a Double Battle (with the infamous Earthquake Lanturn), meaning it can't have totally random AI.

There are a couple of doubles in Emerald's Victory Road where the intended strategy is for the opponents to strategically change abilities with Skill Swap. Cooltrainers Dianne and Felix try to swap Claydol's Levitate to its partner so it can freely spam Earthquake (hopefully boosted by nabbing Medicham's Pure Power). I wonder if their two Claydol have special hardcoded AI which very strongly favours or even guarantees a first-turn Skill Swap followed by EQ spam? If that were true then facing them in two single battles would completely break their gimmick.

It's not something I've ever tested because I love how much Emerald focuses on Double Battles and would never deliberately pass up an opportunity to fight trainers as a pair.

Yep, one of those. In which case why not simply force the Double? The game does do this in a couple of other spots, it's not as if they can't position people where you either go around both or fight both at once. But that's a game design thing, not an AI thing.

And this is a Cooltrainer, the ones who are supposed to have more sophisticated AI than the rank-and-file. There really isn't a line for "Hold on, I'm in a Single Battle, I can only Skill Swap to my opponent, maybe doing that when my only attacking move is Earthquake isn't such a good idea?"

 

[Dusk Mage Necrozma]

Can I share some Pokemon information I generated with the text AI GPT-2 here? I don't really see anywhere else to share it. edit: I deleted it, not the purpose of the thread.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Can I share some Pokemon information I generated with the text AI GPT-2 here? I don't really see anywhere else to share it.

As long as it isn't a lot I don't see the harm.

 

[SwampySwampert]

Bumping this one back to the land of the living with an interesting story about what I think was the interplay between AI and held items.

OR solo run, my Nuzleaf against Winona’s Pelipper. On my last boosting turn, this Pelipper uses Aerial Ace for a third, triggering my Rocky Helmet and doing chip damage before I OHKO with Leaf Blade.

Next up is her Skarmory, which I’m worried about because it’s super tanky and has Aerial Ace and Sand Attack. However, I think it saw the Rocky Helmet activate and was like “oh crap, better not use a contact move” and went for…Air Cutter. Skarmory’s base Special Attack is 40. It did barely anything.

tl;dr Winona is afraid of pointy things.

 

[Turtlek]

I guess the famous Cloysters/Beartics from SS’s Battle Tower with Rain Dance and Hail and that just used both until death were mentioned?

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Been investing some time into the Battle Subway Doubles recently and one thing I've noticed is that the interplay between AI cleverness and AI stupidity is so much more pronounced.

Moreso than in any other battle facility I've played extensively in (which is largely the Tree and the Gen III Frontier, never gave the Maison much time) the AI on the Subway seems to actively try and make use of ability combinations where it can. So they'll use Toxic on a partner with Guts or use Teeter Dance when the partner is immune to confusion or use Earthquake when the partner has Levitate. I've even had an opponent lead with Lanturn and Cryogonal and proactively switch Lanturn out for Abomasnow in order to trigger Hail and guarantee that Cryogonal's Blizzard would hit.

However, when the two Pokemon the AI has have conflicting playstyles, they don't even seem to consider how pursuing both Pokemon's interests at once will hurt the other. So if they have a Fire-type and a Water-type out at the same time, they'll cheerfully use Rain Dance (even when the partner is a Typhlosion Choice-locked into using Eruption).

I've even had opponents use Roar on me after I've used Perish Song, which... well, thanks.

But one particularly stupid example of the perfect midpoint between cleverness and stupidity came this morning when I faced someone who had a Flareon and a Rapidash.

The foe's Rapidash used Bounce!
The foe's Flareon used Fire Blast!
The foe's Rapidash avoided the attack!

Smart enough to recognise that using a Fire move on an ally with Flash Fire would be beneficial, but not smart enough to... realise that you actually need to be able to hit them to make that work.

Let's hope the AI continues to be stupid and I can get that Lansat Berry soon!

 

[DrumstickGaming]

Massive spoilers for SV"

Try to stop the Player Character and the power of friendship.

 

[Jungle cruiser]

In my legends arceus playthrough, I had gone up through snowpoint temple and was confronting the 1v3 vs magmortar electivire and rhyperior. At the time I was sorta underleveled and had run out of medicines and thus all my team had gotten smashed, one by one until only mothim remained (h-decidueye taking rhyperior down with him beforehand).

HOWEVER, instead of doing the reasonable thing and frying the poor moth with an electric attack, electivire instead decided to use thunder wave. Which, fair, would've been useful for them if I was bulky. But like.....is mothim by any account bulky? Either way, that was enough for him to finish both of them off (with good rng ofc), gain a ton of exp and form the second best mothim highlight of the whole game. Maybe in another time I'll talk about the very best one. Eventually.

 

[SwampySwampert]

I’m not sure if this is stupidity or genius, but I thought this was interesting.

Alfornada Gym in Violet, the second trainer has a Medicham that knows High Jump Kick/Psych Up/Acupressure/Power Trick. Against my Eiscue with Ice Face up, the Medicham just refused to use High Jump Kick despite that being the only offensive move it has. I assume it heavily discouraged selecting HJK due to the crash damage (I don’t know for sure if crash damage applies when attacking into Ice Face, but I assume it does), and instead decided to…spend multiple turns using useless stat modifiers.

This Medicham is evidently a loyal follower of OSHA.

 

[STEELDRAGON]

My favorite is when the AI uses Memento or Explosion on their last pokemon lol

 

[Karxrida]

My favorite is when the AI uses Memento or Explosion on their last pokemon lol

I dunno, if you're going out might as well do it in style.

Also, last 'mon Explosions are still quite deadly when doing a Nuzlocke.