RBY Mechanics Guide [GP 2/2] [HTML-ready]

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Oglemi

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GP'd Part 1, pasted here cus the smogon character limit hates my existence

Introduction
The first generation of Pokemon is infamous for its glitches and weird mechanics. These largely define the way the game is played, and, therefore, it's crucial to understand them if one aims to succeed. For Smogon, we usually simulate the international version of Pokemon Yellow on Pokémon Showdown!, which matters because there are even glitches unique to the Stadium and Japanese versions of Generation 1. To keep things simple for this guide, we will strictly be going over Smogon-applicable RBY mechanics; i.e., those found in the international version of Yellow.

To preface, there will be times where we discuss a concept known as a "desync." This is a term covering glitches in Link Battles that lead to them "desynchronizing," causing communication errors. This effectively causes players to engage in different battles from each other, eventually leading to the appearance of glitch Pokemon, glitch moves, and more. On battle simulators, these generally aren't implemented. Should they not be ignored outright, workarounds are used to "prevent" them from occurring, such as the Desync Clause Mod on Pokemon Showdown, which changes desync situations to result in move failure.

To make things easier to understand, we will divide things into two sections: Battle Mechanics and Move Mechanics.

Part 1: Battle Mechanics
To understand how everything works, it's important to first understand how the battle system works. There's no Mega Evolution, Z-Moves, or Dynamax in RBY. Not only that, there aren't any Fairy-, Dark-, or Steel-types, nor are there any items or abilities, already making for a substantially different metagame. Let's get into the actual mechanics, though. (I would consider omitting the "Mega Evolution, Z-Moves," part or add an "etc." at the end, otherwise it'll easily date your article, which is unenticing imo).

Special Stat
In RBY, Special Attack and Special Defense are merged into one, singular "Special" stat. Therefore, if Special is increased or decreased, this will improve your offensive and defensive capabilities concerning special attacks. This makes Amnesia act like two Calm Mind uses, making Pokemon like Slowbro scary foes to face. Psychic also becomes a particularly scary move, as it drops Special a third of the time, which is effectively a double debuff.

DVs and Stat Exp
It is possible to max every one of your Pokemon's stats, which makes for a much bulkier metagame. Generally, Pokemon like Chansey and Snorlax become much tougher foes to KO, often requiring a concentrated effort from multiple Pokemon to take down. This is a vital concept to grasp, especially in a world where there are no items and many moves have low Base Power.

DVs and Stat Exp are RBY and GSC's equivalent to IVs and EVs, capping at 15 and 65535, respectively. The HP DV is determined by all the other stats, with every instance of an odd DV increasing the HP DV as follows; +8 HP DVs for Attack having an odd DV, 4 for Defense, 2 for Speed, (AC) and 1 for Special, adding up to the maximum of 15. The other DVs are determined at random, but because a Pokemon's encounter rate is one variable in DV randomization, not all Pokemon can get max DVs in every stat. Stat Exp is gained through the foe's raw base stats and is applied upon leveling up rather than immediately, which can make training take a long time. There is no limit on how much can be invested into individual stats, so you can cap every single one.

For any individual raw stat, Stat Exp and DVs combined will amount to the same as a modern Pokemon's stat with full EVs and IVs but without a nature. In high-level play, there is little incentive to selectively invest in any given stat, though this isn't to say it's useless. Tanking Attack to 1 DV and 0 Stat Exp for reducing confusion damage is somewhat relevant; you need 1 Attack DV to ensure the HP DV reaches 15 in this situation, as otherwise, it drops to 7. Tanking the Attack stat will cause the Pokemon to lose Struggle wars more frequently, though, so for Pokemon like Chansey, lowering Attack can be problematic. Reducing stats to prevent stat debuff overflows is relevant for powerhouses like Mewtwo as well: (comma -> colon) more on this later.

Critical Hits
Critical hit rates are based on a Pokemon's base Speed: the faster the Pokemon, the higher the chance. The following equation defines a Pokemon's regular critical hit rate: Base Speed * 100 / 512. Due to this formula, the fastest Pokemon of the generation, Electrode, gets a 27.3% critical hit rate. On the lower end of the spectrum, it gives Snorlax a 5.85% critical hit rate, similar to that of later generations. For a list containing each Pokemon's regular critical hit rate, go here.

The damage dealt by a critical hit is partially based on the Pokemon's level, and, at Level 100, it rounds out to about twice the damage; the multiplier is around 1.95x. Critical hits will ignore any stat changes from either Pokemon during damage calculation; ergo, any Attack or Special boosts from both Pokemon will be ignored. Consequently, a fast setup sweeper will have an inherent decrease in consistency, as a critical hit will end up lowering its damage output. This also means that Swords Dance will not boost Slash, and Amnesia will not boost Crabhammer, at least if they don't land a critical hit. With this rule in mind, critical hits will also ignore things like opposing Defense boosts, Reflect, and Light Screen, which is a good trade-off for Pokemon like Persian, and in this case, largely defines its niche. Make no mistake: critical hits are very powerful.

Slash, Crabhammer, Razor Leaf, and Karate Chop possess an effect that increases the user's critical hit rate by 8x, making the formula Base Speed * 100 / 64. Many Pokemon—even those with somewhat average base Speed—will end up achieving very high critical hit rates with this mechanic, making the moves sort of like Frost Breath in modern generations. However, the chance for a critical hit will cap out at 99.6% due to a glitch in how the game determines whether a critical hit has landed, meaning that these moves landing a critical hit is never guaranteed.

Focus Energy, due to a glitch, ends up decreasing the user's critical hit rate by 4x, making the formula Base Speed * 100 / 2048. Theoretically, it can be used to prevent critical hits from occurring, but it isn't worth the moveslot, so it doesn't see use in high-level play.

Type Chart Differences and Type-based Attack Categories
Since RBY is a generation prior to the physical / special split, attack categories are based on typing. For example, Normal-type moves like Hyper Beam are always physical, and Water-type moves like Clamp are always special. Ergo, Pokemon like Kabutops are hard-pressed to find good STAB moves, while others such as Golem act as they always do in later generations.

Here is a table showing the categories:
PhysicalSpecial
NormalGrass
FightingFire
RockWater
GroundIce
GhostElectric
FlyingPsychic
PoisonDragon*
Bug
* Dragon is considered Special, but, due to it only having Dragon Rage, it doesn't actually see use.

On top of this, there are some type chart differences.
  • Poison is super effective against Bug and vice versa.
  • Fire does not resist Ice.
  • Ghost does not affect Psychic.
The Dark, Steel, and Fairy types are not present either. Magneton is mono-Electric as a result of this. (Feels odd to specifically mention Magneton here, would either list out all the changes (Clefable/Wigglytuff/Mr.Mime etc.) or just omit it entirely.)

Same-type Status Immunity
An intended mechanic, as shown in Pokemon Stadium 2; if a Pokemon has the same type as a move used on it, any major statuses from move secondary effects are nullified. As a result of this mechanic, Electric-types cannot be paralyzed by Thunderbolt and Ice-types cannot be frozen by Ice Beam, for example. The only exception to this rule is Twineedle, which can still poison Bug-types. To add on to this, Poison-types cannot be poisoned full stop, not even by manually inducing poison with Toxic or Poison Powder, so Twineedle cannot poison Poison-types either. The big game-changer here, however, is that Normal-types cannot be paralyzed by Body Slam. This specific application largely changed the RBY OU metagame after its discovery by Crystal_ in 2014, making Normal-types like Snorlax and Chansey rise in usage with Reflect sets, using their bulk to stave off the spread of paralysis. Remember that this specifically applies to secondary effects of offensive moves, so Thunder Wave will still hit a Pokemon like Jolteon, for example. (would again consider not dating the article with metagame examples)

Stat Reapplication Glitch, Ignoring Stat Drops from Status, Stat Cap, and Stat Drop Overflow
The side effects (removed hyphen) of burn and paralysis—halving Attack and quartering Speed—can be reapplied if a Pokemon's stats are changed. For example, if Slowbro paralyzes Alakazam with Thunder Wave and then uses Amnesia, the Speed drop from paralysis will apply twice. Similarly, if Flareon burns a Pokemon and uses Tail Whip, their Defense will drop and their Attack will be halved twice.

Conversely, using moves that boost Attack or Speed can allow a Pokemon to ignore their stat drops from burn and paralysis, respectively. For example, if Kingler is burned and uses Swords Dance, its Attack will increase, ignoring the halving effect from the burn while still taking damage. Or, in the case of paralysis, Dragonite can use Agility to ignore the Speed drop while still having the chance to skip a turn.

All stats in RBY will cap at 999. In the case a move would boost past this, the game will set the stat to 999 if it was below 999, or make the move fail otherwise. For example, if a Venusaur with 298 Special were to use Growth to +5, it would cap the stat at 999 instead of letting it reach 1043. Because of the 999 stat cap, all further uses will fail, applying a "-1 deduction" on top of the move's existing stat stage change.

For moves that boost by one stage, like Meditate, the -1 deduction cancels out the move's boost as intended. In the case of moves that boost twice, such as Swords Dance, the -1 deduction will still apply. However, it went unnoticed that this gives a net gain of +1, allowing stat stages to "rise" once more, albeit still capped. Ergo, if a Pinsir were to raise its Attack to +4 using Swords Dance, which has the stat cap at 999, it can still technically go to +5 with no visible changes. It cannot, however, reach +6, as Swords Dance can only increase by +1 from +5, so the -1 deduction actually works. This, in most cases, is irrelevant to gameplay.

It is possible for stats that "rose" beyond the 999 stat cap to overflow if a debuff is sustained. The cap doesn't actually get applied when debuffs occur, and since the damage calculation is incapable of handling stats beyond 1023, debuffs will lead to an overflow. Let's say Mewtwo reaches +5 Special, or 1421 without the stat cap. If it sustains a debuff from something like Psychic, this Special will overflow into an extremely low number, and if you consider the Special stat serving as an offensive and defensive stat, you can imagine how comical it is to watch even Absorb OHKO it.

Freeze
If a Pokemon is frozen, it cannot be thawed without an item, being hit by Haze, or being hit with a move that can burn. The latter means that Ember, Fire Punch, Flamethrower, and Fire Blast are all valid moves to thaw a foe. As a result, if you're frozen, it is completely on the opponent to thaw you, and most competitive teams don't use moves that can do this. This makes the freeze status a pseudo-KO. It should be noted that Fire Spin, due to not having a burn chance, cannot thaw foes.

However, in the case a Pokemon is thawed by a faster Pokemon and tries to use a move, this can cause a desync. On one side, the Pokemon will use the move they chose in the previous turn, while on the other, a glitch move will be used due to the game skipping the "FIGHT" menu.

For a far more detailed analysis, look here:

Sleep
Sleep can last up to 6 turns, including a '0 turn sleep' where the target Pokemon wakes up the same turn it was put to sleep. Sleep turns are determined upon the status being inflicted; therefore, there is, effectively, a 1/7 chance of it waking up on each turn up until turn 6. This makes sleep a very powerful status, as it can definitely be equivalent to KOing a Pokemon in some circumstances. Furthermore, a Pokemon cannot act on the turn it wakes up, so it's possible to repeatedly put a Pokemon to sleep if the user is faster. As such, it isn't uncommon to see Pokemon like Gengar trying to land their sleep moves for extended periods of time.

If a Pokemon has used Hyper Beam the same turn prior to a sleep move's use, the sleep move will not only skip accuracy checks but also ignore any status when putting the opposing Pokemon to sleep. As a result, this is the only circumstance in which it's possible to status an already-statused Pokemon.

Confusion
Confusion damage uses the Pokemon's raw Attack stat, dealing typeless, physical damage. Confusion lasts 1-4 turns and there is a 50% chance the Pokemon will attack itself. Considering the odds, there is a 76.6% chance the Pokemon will attack itself at least once. Confusion damage will ignore Reflect and has no damage variance. However, it will consider stat boosts; this means Swords Dance will increase the damage and Acid Armor will decrease it. Considering burns halve your Pokemon's Attack, being burned will reduce the damage it takes you take.

Decreasing investment in Attack will influence confusion damage, as it uses the raw stat. With the Attack tanking concept from the stat section in mind, Alakazam can decrease the damage it takes from 37 (11.8%) to 21 (6.8%), almost halving it.

Here is a table showing the regular damage a Pokemon will take from confusion:
Pokemon1 Atk DV + 0 Stat Exp DmgMax Stat DmgMin %Max %
Bulbasaur20356.8%11.9%
Ivysaur21356.5%10.8%
Venusaur23356.3%9.6%
Charmander22387.8%13.5%
Charmeleon23377.2%11.6%
Charizard25377.0%10.3%
Squirtle17305.8%10.3%
Wartortle19315.9%9.7%
Blastoise21315.8%8.6%
Caterpie15335.1%11.3%
Metapod9243.0%7.9%
Butterfree18335.6%10.2%
Weedle18376.4%13.1%
Kakuna11273.8%9.2%
Beedrill33509.9%15.0%
Pidgey20377.1%13.1%
Pidgeotto22376.7%11.2%
Pidgeot24366.5%9.8%
Rattata25449.5%16.7%
Raticate28428.9%13.4%
Spearow294810.2%17.0%
Fearow29428.7%12.6%
Ekans24418.8%15.0%
Arbok27408.4%12.4%
Pikachu26469.5%16.8%
Raichu32469.9%14.2%
Sandshrew21336.9%10.9%
Sandslash23336.5%9.3%
Nidoran-F18335.8%10.5%
Nidorina20345.8%9.9%
Nidoqueen23346.0%8.9%
Nidoran-M24428.1%14.2%
Nidorino25407.7%12.3%
Nidoking27397.4%10.7%
Clefairy18345.2%9.9%
Clefable22345.6%8.7%
Vulpix18356.5%12.5%
Ninetales23356.6%10.0%
Jigglypuff25475.8%10.9%
Wigglytuff28445.8%9.1%
Zubat21397.4%13.8%
Golbat25387.1%10.8%
Oddish19336.5%11.3%
Gloom21346.5%10.5%
Vileplume22346.2%9.6%
Paras25409.2%14.7%
Parasect27398.4%12.1%
Venonat21376.5%11.5%
Venomoth23376.7%10.8%
Diglett284912.6%22.0%
Dugtrio304511.0%16.5%
Meowth21397.4%13.8%
Persian24387.2%11.4%
Psyduck21366.9%11.9%
Golduck24366.6%9.9%
Mankey355312.4%18.7%
Primeape354910.5%14.7%
Growlithe28448.9%14.1%
Arcanine31438.1%11.2%
Poliwag22397.8%13.8%
Poliwhirl22356.6%10.5%
Poliwrath22335.7%8.6%
Abra14385.5%15.0%
Kadabra18376.4%13.1%
Alakazam21376.7%11.8%
Machop30458.7%13.1%
Machoke31448.5%12.1%
Machamp36489.4%12.5%
Bellsprout335110.9%16.8%
Weepinbell33499.9%14.7%
Victreebel33479.1%12.9%
Tentacool19376.7%13.1%
Tentacruel23376.3%10.2%
Geodude20317.1%11.0%
Graveler22317.0%9.9%
Golem23316.3%8.5%
Ponyta30459.9%14.9%
Rapidash31449.3%13.2%
Slowpoke22355.7%9.1%
Slowbro18284.6%7.1%
Magnemite12254.7%9.9%
Magneton16275.3%8.9%
Farfetch'd24387.8%12.4%
Doduo334912.1%17.9%
Dodrio344610.5%14.2%
Seel17325.1%9.6%
Dewgong21325.5%8.4%
Grimer30458.3%12.4%
Muk31437.5%10.4%
Shellder17276.5%10.3%
Cloyster16235.3%7.6%
Gastly18376.8%14.1%
Haunter21377.2%12.6%
Gengar23377.1%11.5%
Onix9173.3%6.2%
Drowzee20366.2%11.1%
Hypno23366.2%9.7%
Krabby283910.6%14.8%
Kingler29389.3%12.1%
Voltorb13284.6%9.9%
Electrode17295.3%9.0%
Exeggcute13254.0%7.7%
Exeggutor26386.6%9.7%
Cubone14254.6%8.3%
Marowak19295.9%9.0%
Hitmonlee425713.9%18.8%
Hitmonchan30429.9%13.9%
Lickitung17304.4%7.8%
Koffing17286.0%9.9%
Weezing20296.0%8.7%
Rhyhorn22336.1%9.1%
Rhydon28376.8%9.0%
Chansey7351.0%5.0%
Tangela13233.9%6.9%
Kangaskhan27396.5%9.4%
Horsea14275.3%10.3%
Seadra17285.4%8.9%
Goldeen23377.8%12.6%
Seaking30438.3%11.8%
Staryu17326.5%12.2%
Starmie21336.5%10.2%
Mr. Mime16295.7%10.2%
Scyther31439.0%12.5%
Jynx23416.9%12.3%
Electabuzz29438.7%12.9%
Magmar33479.9%14.1%
Pinsir30419.0%12.3%
Tauros26367.4%10.2%
Magikarp6212.5%8.6%
Gyarados35478.9%12.0%
Lapras25365.4%7.8%
Ditto19356.4%11.7%
Eevee21376.7%11.8%
Vaporeon23375.0%8.0%
Jolteon23376.9%11.1%
Flareon435712.9%17.1%
Porygon19325.7%9.6%
Omanyte11224.0%8.1%
Omastar14234.1%6.7%
Kabuto22338.4%12.5%
Kabutops27378.4%11.5%
Aerodactyl33479.1%12.9%
Snorlax35486.7%9.2%
Articuno21325.5%8.4%
Zapdos25366.5%9.4%
Moltres27387.0%9.9%
Dratini26429.1%14.7%
Dragonair27418.3%12.6%
Dragonite34448.8%11.4%
Mewtwo29407.0%9.6%
Mew25356.2%8.7%

Paralysis, Burn, (AC) and Poison
Unlike in later generations, paralysis lowers Speed by 75% and burns directly halve Attack. Bad poison inflicted by Toxic is a secondary status that gradually increases residual damage and will be removed if the afflicted switches out, replacing it with normal poison and resetting the counter. If the afflicted KOes a Pokemon, however, residual damage does not apply.

All status-based damage—poison, burns, and Leech Seed—uses a counter that begins at T/16, where T is the number of turns that have passed since bad poison began. From here on out, we will call this the "Toxic counter." This counter stays at 1 if it hasn't been put into effect. Therefore, all status-based residual damage begins at 6.25% and will not change unless Toxic has connected with a Pokemon. If Toxic is in effect, T will increase every turn. However, due to Leech Seed sharing the Toxic counter, being afflicted with both Leech Seed and Toxic will effectively double the counter every turn and KO a Pokemon in just 5 turns. Rest will not reset the counter, and if a Pokemon is burned after Rest removes bad poison, this will cause a "badly burned" effect, causing the Toxic counter to compound burn damage as if it were poison. Haze will reset the Toxic counter upon use.

Turn End Mechanics
If a Pokemon faints, the turn ends there and then. Therefore, any end-of-turn effects—such as Hyper Beam forcing a recharge turn or a Pokemon sustaining residual damage—are skipped.

Multi-hit Damage Calculation
All "multi-hits" will deal the same amount of damage, unaffected by any damage variance. This counts for the hits of typical multi-hit moves like Fury Attack (RC) as well as the hits of partial trapping moves like Wrap—which are "attacks" that depend on the user's stats and not set percentage damage like in later generations. Thus, if a critical hit connects, all the multi-hits will effectively critically hit. If a multi-hit move has a status effect, it will apply strictly on the last hit. Ergo, only Twineedle's last hit has a chance to inflict poison.

Partial Trapping
RBY partial trapping should be treated like a completely separate entity to modern-day partial trapping. Partial trapping moves—Wrap, Bind, Clamp, and Fire Spin—will deal the same amount of damage every turn, similar to multi-hit moves. Additionally, a user will be locked into the move for 2-5 turns, and a target will be completely immobilized during the ordeal, unable to strike back. In the event of a Pokemon with an immunity, such as Ghost-types against Wrap or Bind, they will be immobilized but will not take damage.

If the trapper switches, the trapped Pokemon will not be able to move, making moves like Wrap pseudo-pivot moves. On the flip side, a faster trapped Pokemon will get to punish the switch-in, as it will be freed the following turn. The trapped Pokemon can also switch out, regardless of Speed. Switching out while trapped will force the opposing trapper to "reuse" the move, restarting the 2-5 turn lock and subtracting one PP, giving a form of PP stall counterplay. If the move is forced to be reused through switching at 0 PP though, it will roll over to 63 (this will not occur if the opponent tries to use the move at 0 PP). With these factors considered, there is quite a bit of depth to partial trapping situations.

If a Pokemon has used Hyper Beam and the opposing partial trapping user misses, the recharge turn is skipped. If the partial trapping move is used and misses before the erstwhile recharging, though, the opposing Hyper Beam user will automatically reuse Hyper Beam. If they have 0 Hyper Beam PP at this point, the move's PP will also roll over to 63. For example, if Tauros uses its last Hyper Beam and fails to KO a normal Speed Dragonite, then Dragonite uses Wrap and misses, Tauros can immediately move again next turn. If Dragonite uses Agility right after the final Hyper Beam and then uses Wrap next turn and misses, however, Tauros will immediately use Hyper Beam and get 63 more uses.

If a partial trapping move is copied by Mirror Move and succeeds, it works as normal. However, if the trapped Pokemon switches out in a Link Battle, due to Mirror Move forcing the move to fail on one side and having the user continue partial trapping on the other, this will cause a desync.

1/256 Accuracy and Effect Chance
No move in the chromatic generation is guaranteed to hit, except Bide and Swift, which skip accuracy checks, even against flying or underground foes. Every other move has an inherent 1/256 (~0.4%) chance to miss as a result of accuracy being checked between 0 and 256, with normal accuracy capped at 255. Only moves that target the opponent are subject to this.

Considering this uncertainty, it is possible to create a conversion table to show the true accuracy of a move.
Stated AccuracyTrue AccuracyTrue Accuracy as a Percentage*Notable Move(s):
100%255/25699.6%Many!
95%242/25694.5%Razor Leaf
90%229/25689.5%Hyper Beam, Blizzard, Rock Slide
85%216/25684.4%Fire Blast, Wrap, Toxic, Crabhammer, Pin Missile
80%204/25679.7%Hydro Pump, Submission
75%191/25674.6%Clamp, Lovely Kiss, Stun Spore, Bind
70%178/25669.5%Fire Spin, Thunder
60%153/25659.8%Hypnosis
55%140/25654.7%Sing, Supersonic
30%76/25629.7%Fissure, Horn Drill
*Rounded to the nearest tenth

Effect chance also suffers from a similar but inverted uncertainty; this inversion is due to the way the probability is hardcoded. This uncertainty can effectively increase the chance of a secondary effect occurring from an attack beyond the stated chance. For example, Fissure will connect 76/256 times, whereas Body Slam will paralyze a foe 77/256 times.
Stated ProbabilityTrue ProbabilityTrue Probability as a Percentage*Examples:
40%103/25640.2%The chance that Sludge poisons the target.
33%85/25633.2%The chance that Psychic drops the targets Special stat.
30%77/25630.1%The chance that Body Slam paralyzes its target
20%52/25620.3%The chance that Twineedle will poison its target.
10%26/25610.2%The chance that Ice Beam will freeze its target.
*Rounded to the nearest tenth

Recovery Move Failure
If a Pokemon's max HP and current HP have a difference of either 255 or 511, recovery moves will fail due to only checking the second byte of the user's current HP.

Let's look at this in more detail. RBY logically makes recovery moves fail if the Pokemon is already at full HP, or specifically if Max HP - Current HP = 0, which also means that Rest cannot be used to cure status at full HP. This failure condition seems simple, but because the game only sees the second byte of current HP, things go awry when your HP is over 255, as 255 is the maximum amount that can be stored in a byte. In the event of an overflow, a carry flag is set to take 1 when calculating whether the recovery move should fail...to detrimental effect, as this leaves the second byte with 0 if you have 255 or 511 less than max HP. Let's use this example with Chansey, a notorious user of a recovery move in Soft-Boiled, after losing 511 HP. Due to only checking one byte in this scenario, Chansey's max HP in the game's eyes is 191. So when taking away the current HP and the 1 from the carry flag, if it's 192, in the game's eyes, Chansey's HP will be treated as if it were the maximum amount. Thus, the recovery move fails. Due to not having enough HP to even get above 255, Abra, Diglett, Magnemite, and Magikarp are unaffected by this glitch entirely.

Here is a table showing each Pokemon's "failure number." Chansey and Snorlax are the only Pokemon capable of reaching the HP required for the 511 number to be reached and have been omitted from the table itself.
511 for Chansey: 192 HP / 27.3%
511 for Snorlax: 12 HP / 2.3%
PokemonHP - 255HP - 255 as %
Bulbasaur3813.0%
Ivysaur6821.1%
Venusaur10829.8%
Charmander269.3%
Charmeleon6420.1%
Charizard10429.0%
Squirtle3612.4%
Wartortle6620.6%
Blastoise10629.4%
Caterpie3813.0%
Metapod4815.8%
Butterfree6821.1%
Weedle289.9%
Kakuna3813.0%
Beedrill7823.4%
Pidgey289.9%
Pidgeotto7422.5%
Pidgeot11430.9%
Rattata83.0%
Raticate5818.5%
Spearow289.9%
Fearow7823.4%
Ekans186.6%
Arbok6821.1%
Pikachu186.6%
Raichu6821.1%
Sandshrew4815.8%
Sandslash9827.8%
Nidoran-F5818.5%
Nidorina8825.7%
Nidoqueen12833.4%
Nidoran-M4013.6%
Nidorino7021.5%
Nidoking11030.1%
Clefairy8825.7%
Clefable13835.1%
Vulpix248.6%
Ninetales9426.9%
Jigglypuff17841.1%
Wigglytuff22847.2%
Zubat289.9%
Golbat9827.8%
Oddish3813.%
Gloom6821.1%
Vileplume9827.8%
Paras186.6%
Parasect6821.1%
Venonat6821.1%
Venomoth8825.7%
Diglett-32
Dugtrio186.6%
Meowth289.9%
Persian7823.4%
Psyduck4815.8%
Golduck10829.8%
Mankey289.9%
Primeape7823.4%
Growlithe5818.5%
Arcanine12833.4%
Poliwag289.9%
Poliwhirl7823.4%
Poliwrath12833.4%
Abra-2
Kadabra289.9%
Alakazam5818.5%
Machop8825.7%
Machoke10829.8%
Machamp12833.4%
Bellsprout4815.8%
Weepinbell7823.4%
Victreebel10829.8%
Tentacool289.9%
Tentacruel10829.8%
Geodude289.9%
Graveler5818.5%
Golem10829.8%
Ponyta4815.8%
Rapidash7823.4%
Slowpoke12833.4%
Slowbro13835.1%
Magnemite-2
Magneton4815.8%
Farfetch'd5216.9%
Doduo186.6%
Dodrio6821.1%
Seel7823.4%
Dewgong12833.4%
Grimer10829.8%
Muk15838.3%
Shellder83.0%
Cloyster4815.8%
Gastly83.0%
Haunter3813.0%
Gengar6821.1%
Onix186.6%
Drowzee6821.1%
Hypno11831.6%
Krabby83.0%
Kingler5818.5%
Voltorb289.9%
Electrode6821.1%
Exeggcute6821.1%
Exeggutor13835.1%
Cubone4815.8%
Marowak6821.1%
Hitmonlee4815.8%
Hitmonchan4815.8%
Lickitung12833.4%
Koffing289.9%
Weezing7823.4%
Rhyhorn10829.8%
Rhydon15838.3%
Chansey44863.7%
Tangela7823.4%
Kangaskhan15838.3%
Horsea83.0%
Seadra5818.5%
Goldeen3813.0%
Seaking10829.8%
Staryu83.0%
Starmie6821.1%
Mr. Mime289.9%
Scyther8825.7%
Jynx7823.4%
Electabuzz7823.4%
Magmar7823.4%
Pinsir7823.4%
Tauros9827.8%
Magikarp-12
Gyarados13835.1%
Lapras20844.9%
Ditto4414.7%
Eevee5818.5%
Vaporeon20844.9%
Jolteon7823.4%
Flareon7823.4%
Porygon7823.4%
Omanyte186.6%
Omastar8825.7%
Kabuto83.0%
Kabutops6821.1%
Aerodactyl10829.8%
Snorlax26851.2%
Articuno12833.4%
Zapdos12833.4%
Moltres12833.4%
Dratini3010.5%
Dragonair7021.5%
Dragonite13033.8%
Mewtwo16038.6%
Mew14836.7%

Damage storing mechanics
RBY stores the last damage that was dished out by either Pokemon. This is for Bide and Counter's use, which will cite it when necessary.

Most status moves will reset the damage last dealt; however, some moves don't. Moves that don't include: Confuse Ray, Conversion, Focus Energy, Glare, Haze, Leech Seed, Light Screen, Mimic, Mist, Poison Gas, Poison Powder, Recover, Reflect, Rest, Soft-Boiled, Splash, Stun Spore, Substitute, Supersonic, Teleport, Thunder Wave, Toxic, and Transform. This can lead to some unintended results, such as Bide stacking the damage that was dealt the previous turn.


GP Approved 2/2

Things:

Be sure to manually implement checks; a good portion of these changes are just removing Finland's notes.

Content-wise: I would try to refrain from dating your article as much as possible, this largely includes referencing metagame trends and references to the current generation.

Finally, periods and commas go in quotation marks, relevant article

Amazing work overall Plague von Karma, will get to Part 2 soon
 

Plague von Karma

Banned deucer.
Things:

Be sure to manually implement checks; a good portion of these changes are just removing Finland's notes.

Content-wise: I would try to refrain from dating your article as much as possible, this largely includes referencing metagame trends and references to the current generation.

Finally, periods and commas go in quotation marks,
relevant article

Amazing work overall Plague von Karma, will get to Part 2 soon
Thank you, sorted this! I ended up removing the thing about how paraslam changed the game, you're absolutely right.

I promise I was implementing these checks manually and everything, I'm just really stupid :blobastonished:
 

Oglemi

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View attachment 317601


--

For Part 1 go to this post, since the Smogon character limit hates me.

Part 2: Move Mechanics
With every passing generation, moves in Pokemon will receive revisions. RBY is the earliest generation, and as such, many moves have significant differences to the present day. Here, we will compile all the notable differences. Knowing these mechanics is pivotal to playing the game and teambuilding effectively.

As a general rule, moves that have the same stated accuracy as present generations will not be noted, despite the 1/256 uncertainty technically making them different. In addition, there are numerous moves that have only received Base Power, Stated Accuracy, or PP changes, which will not be noted either, so to prevent this from getting too long. If a move has major mechanics changes, however, these differences will be noted for completion's sake.

Acid, Aurora Beam, Bubble, Bubble Beam, and Constrict
These moves all have a 33.2% chance of their effects occurring.

Bide
Bide functions a bit differently from how it does in later generations. The user is locked into charging for 2-3 turns before attacking, dealing double the total damage it received. This ignores accuracy checks and checks, ignore type immunity, and even hits when the opponent is semi-invulnerable during Fly or Dig. Bide isn't committal either; the user can switch out during the move if the situation becomes unfavorable. If confusion or paralysis interrupt Bide, the effect ends. Sleep, freeze, flinching, and partial trapping will pause—but don't stop—Bide.

There are ways that Bide's damage can be stacked. If the opponent switches out, the last damage dealt to the user will be added to the total. Ergo, if a Pokemon attacks with Thunderbolt and switches to something else, it will be as if Thunderbolt hit the Bide user twice. Additionally, some moves will also compound Bide's damage due to not clearing the last damage dealt that turn. This includes: Confuse Ray, Conversion, Focus Energy, Glare, Haze, Leech Seed, Light Screen, Mimic, Mist, Poison Gas, Poison Powder, Recover, Reflect, Rest, Soft-Boiled, Splash, Stun Spore, Substitute, Supersonic, Teleport, Thunder Wave, Toxic, and Transform.

If a foe is using Bide and your Pokemon faints before the user "unleashes energy," the damage stored by Bide is cleared. This creates a disparity since as if the player is using Bide and the foe faints before the player unleashes energy, such as through damage from Toxic or recoil, only the most significant byte of the Bide damage is cleared. This means that the Bide damage stored may still remain any value up to 255. This can cause differences between games, as the damage stored may be different due to the residual damage sustained—such as through recoil or poison—that caused the Pokemon to faint. This typically causes no PRNG differences, but if a Pokemon faints due to the damage difference from Bide, a desync will occur.

Bind
In addition to partial trapping mechanic differences, Bind has 74.6% accuracy.

Bite
The Dark-type does not exist, so Bite is Normal-type. It also only has a 10% chance to flinch, down from 30%.

Conversion
Conversion changes the user's type to match the opponent's, both primary and secondary, making it effectively the same move as Reflect Type in later games. It doesn't clear the last damage dealt, so it will allow Bide damage to stack.

Counter
Counter is fairly notorious for its complicated mechanics, but it isn't as bad as it seems in context. If a Pokemon was last hit by a Normal- or Fighting-type move and the last move's Base Power is more than 0, Counter activates, dealing double the damage dealt last. Counter has a Base Power of 1, unlike in later generations where it's not specified. Counter also ignores type immunity, so it can hit Ghost-types like Gengar.

Counter does have some odd interactions due to how damage is stored in the game. Since damage isn't cleared upon a Pokemon switching out, Counter can work against Normal- and Fighting-type moves that dealt damage the previous turn. If Snorlax uses Body Slam on a faster Pokemon and immediately switches out, if the foe uses Counter, it will counter the Body Slam from the previous turn. This can be applied to things like Hyper Beam, where a Pokemon can switch in, take the hit, and Counter the move the following turn while the opponent recharges. This is because recharging doesn't clear the last damage dealt. For an even more comical example, it is possible to counter an Explosion if a Pokemon switches out the turn after, dealing massive damage and often getting a free KO for it. This can even be applied to recoil or crash damage!

Dig and Fly
Dig had 100 Base Power in the first generation, making it a surprisingly decent option for Pokemon like Arcanine. However, Both Dig and Fly are affected by the semi-invulnerability glitch, a quirk so powerful that the moves are banned in almost all competitive RBY formats. This causes users to be permanently affected by semi-invulnerability if the moves are interrupted mid-use; this means confusion and paralysis can inadvertently cause the glitch to occur. Only Swift and Bide can hit a Pokemon during semi-invulnerability in RBY, making these moves the only real counterplay.

Disable
Disable has a paltry 54.7% accuracy and would disables a random move in the opponent's moveset for 0-7 turns. Due to the horrific accuracy, the move rarely, if ever, sees competitive use. If Disable misses a Pokemon under the effect of Rage, it will cause the opposing Rage user's Attack to increase.

Dizzy Punch
Dizzy Punch has no added effect, making it strictly outclassed by moves like Body Slam.

Double-Edge
Double-Edge has 100 Base Power and only inflicts 1/4 of the damage dealt as recoil.

Earthquake
Earthquake does not hit Pokemon during Dig.

Explosion and Self-Destruct
Explosion has 170 Base Power and Self-Destruct has 130. They halve the opponent's Defense during damage calculation, making their Base Power effectively 340 and 260, respectively. Users of Explosion and Self-Destruct will not faint if using it against a Substitute. Due to the turn ending mechanics, these moves provide free switch-ins to your Pokemon after use as the opponent will not be able to move if they survived the attack. , not giving the opponent a chance to do anything.

Fire Blast
Fire Blast has a 30% chance to burn!

Fissure, Guillotine and Horn Drill
These moves deal 65535 damage as fixed damage-type moves. In addition, they only work on foes slower than the user. Using a Speed-boosting move such as Agility will allow Pokemon like Seaking to be capable of OHKOing any Pokemon. This makes Pokemon like Rhydon rely heavily on paralysis to make good use of the moves. Plus, Pokemon with Agility and an OHKO move, such as Seaking and Rapidash, would end up being capable of OHKOing any Pokemon in the game. However, they still had very shaky accuracy, so they weren't necessarily consistent.

Glare
Glare has 74.6% accuracy and can affect Ghost-types, unlike in GSC and ADV.

Gust
Gust is Normal-type and does not connect against foes using Fly. With this and the move stats in mind, Gust is no different from modern Tackle.

Haze
Haze is a very odd move. It will remove any and all volatile changes to both Pokemon; this includes setting stat changes to 0, removing secondary status, and more. Essentially, it is a full reset to the conditions for both Pokemon. It will also turn bad poison inflicted by Toxic into normal poison and reset the Toxic counter.

A significant issue to note is that Haze will remove the major status condition for the opponent, including any stat reductions caused by them. This means that it will remove paralysis, burn, poison, sleep, or freeze if the opponent is inflicted with it. Due to this, it's possible to exploit Haze users by switching in a Pokemon crippled by status. This makes the move a rare sight in competitive play, though its distribution can also be considered a deciding factor. The only user that could be considered decent is Vaporeon, and even this is debatable.

If Haze is used against a Pokemon that has been put to sleep or frozen during Rage, Bide, thrashing about moves, or while charging a move, the victim will become completely immobilized (for how many turns?). This also happens to Hyper Beam users while recharging, but only if frozen.

Overall, Haze will remove:
  • All stat buffs and debuffs
  • Major status condition (opponent only) and the stat reduction from burn and/or paralysis (both Pokemon)
  • Confusion
  • Leech Seed
  • Reflect
  • Light Screen
  • Mist
  • Disable
  • Bad poison (changes to normal poison)

High Jump Kick and Jump Kick
High Jump Kick and Jump Kick have 85 and 70 Base Power, respectively. Jump Kick also has 25 PP. Curiously, if the moves fail to connect, the user only takes 1 HP of crash damage. This residual damage can be Countered.

Hyper Beam
Hyper Beam is extremely powerful, with the recharge turn being skipped if a Substitute or opposing Pokemon is KOed. This makes it a common sight in Pokemon's movesets, forcing a 50:50 situation on the opponent where they switch in a Pokemon to take the hit, or stay in and risk it. Due to the potential for a switch, there will be times where Hyper Beam isn't used in favor of scouting for the potential switch-in.

Karate Chop
Karate Chop is Normal-type rather than Fighting-type.

Leech Seed
Leech Seed absorbs a paltry 6.25% of the foe's HP, rounded down but not less than 1. This can be increased through Toxic; refer to the status section for more information. Even if a Pokemon is KOed by other residual damage—such as confusion or recoil—the health draining from Leech Seed will still occur. However, if Leech Seed itself KOes the target, health will not be recovered due to turn ending mechanics. Additionally, damage dealt by Leech Seed is done after any other residual damage, such as Wrap, poison, and burn. If a Pokemon takes Leech Seed switching in, they will have their HP drained that turn but only if their Speed is less than or equal to the Leech Seed user's.

Like later generations, Grass-types are not affected by Leech Seed. As is with later generations, and Leech Seed is removed through switching out. However, Haze can also remove it.

Low Kick
Low Kick is completely different in RBY, being a 50 Base Power move with 89.5% accuracy and a 30.1% chance to flinch.

Mimic
Mimic will randomly copy an opponent's move with no restrictions attached. Even if your Pokemon already has you already have the same move, Mimic can still potentially copy it. This copied move will have the same maximum and current PP of Mimic.

Minimize
Minimize raises evasion only rose Evasion by one stage, making it virtually identical to Double Team. It also has 20 PP, which does make it a strict upgrade.

Mirror Move
Mirror Move interacts oddly with multi-turn moves, ignoring them as they charge. This means that if a Pokemon uses Body Slam and then Solar Beam, Mirror Move will copy Body Slam on the charge turn. Similar situations occur with paralysis, freezing, flinching, confusion, and recharging from Hyper Beam. If the foe switches out, Mirror Move will fail, which is part of what causes the desync mentioned in the partial trapping section.

Night Shade and Seismic Toss
Due to set damage mechanics, Night Shade and Seismic Toss will hit Normal- and Ghost-types, respectively.

Poison Sting
Poison Sting has a 19.9% chance to inflict poison.

Psychic
Psychic has a 33.2% chance to drop Special by one stage.

Psywave
Psywave is quite odd. Psywave deals damage between 1 and 1.5x the user's level, which at Level 100 will deal up to 150 damage. It also has a 79.7% chance to connect, unlike newer generations.

In a Link Battle, Psywave will have a lower bound of dealing 0 damage on one side, meaning that there is an inherent chance the game will desync, increasing as the level lowers. At Level 100, this is a 0.662% chance. The lowest possible level to use Psywave at is with a Level 3 Jigglypuff, which has a 20% chance to desync the game. The game will also crash if Psywave is used by a Level 0, 1, or 171 Pokemon, though none of these can be achieved without hacking.

Here is a table featuring Psywave desync chances by level:
LevelDesync Chance
225.000%
320.000%
414.286%
512.500%
610.000%
79.091%
87.692%
97.143%
106.250%
115.882%
125.263%
135.000%
144.545%
154.348%
164.000%
173.846%
183.571%
193.448%
203.226%
213.125%
222.941%
232.857%
242.703%
252.632%
262.500%
272.439%
282.326%
292.273%
302.174%
312.128%
322.041%
332.000%
341.923%
351.887%
361.818%
371.786%
381.724%
391.695%
401.639%
411.613%
421.563%
431.538%
441.493%
451.471%
461.429%
471.408%
481.370%
491.351%
501.316%
511.299%
521.266%
531.250%
541.220%
551.205%
561.176%
571.163%
581.136%
591.124%
601.099%
611.087%
621.064%
631.053%
641.031%
651.020%
661.000%
670.990%
680.971%
690.962%
700.943%
710.935%
720.917%
730.909%
740.893%
750.885%
760.870%
770.862%
780.847%
790.840%
800.826%
810.820%
820.806%
830.800%
840.787%
850.781%
860.769%
870.763%
880.752%
890.746%
900.735%
910.730%
920.719%
930.714%
940.704%
950.699%
960.690%
970.685%
980.676%
990.671%
1000.662%

Rage, Petal Dance and Thrash
Thrash is a 90 Base Power move with 20 PP and Petal Dance has 70 Base Power and 20 PP. "Thrashing about" will persist for 3-4 turns, and always confuses the user upon ending naturally, resetting it if already confused. If not ended naturally, such as through paralysis, confusion is not sustained. Sleep, freeze, flinching, and partial trapping will only pause Thrash, though. Confusion being sustained is not mentioned, and will only be discovered upon selecting a move.

Petal Dance and Thrash will recalculate accuracy values every turn using current accuracy, but not to more than 255/256 or less than 1/256. With accuracy debuffs or evasion buffs, this can lead to their accuracy progressively decreasing. For example, if a Thrash user goes against a target that has increased its evasion, accuracy will be read as 168, or 65.8% considering the 1/256 uncertainty. However, the next turn, accuracy will scale to 112, or 43.9%. This can theoretically lead to it dropping to 1 accuracy, but due to the length of time thrashing about moves last, this is a very rare occurrence. For this same reason, in-context, this effect is almost unnoticeable.

Rage works a bit differently. If Rage misses while the "thrashing about" state is active as a result of accuracy being dropped or a foe's evasion being raised, its accuracy drops to 0.4%. If Disable misses during Rage, it will still raise Attack. Nothing will stop Rage once it starts: even being thawed from freezing will not change this. Rage will not increase Attack past +6 or the 999 stat cap.

Razor Wind, Sky Attack, Skull Bash, and Solar Beam
Razor Wind has 74.6% accuracy. Sky Attack has no additional effect upon use; no increased critical hit ratio or flinch chance. Skull Bash does not raise Defense upon use.

All of these moves will not count as the last move used until they actually execute, so if Mirror Move is used, it will fail if a move wasn't used prior; if a move was used, Mirror Move will copy that one. Partial trapping, sleep, freezing, and flinching will pause but not stop these moves.

Recover and Soft-Boiled
Recover notoriously has 20 PP, which with a PP Max becomes an eye-watering 32. Both moves are otherwise the same and are subject to the recovery failure glitch.

Reflect, Light Screen, Mist
Reflect and Light Screen are permanent upon use, acting sort of like Iron Defense or Amnesia. However, before you start chucking Light Screen on your Chansey, know that these effects only apply when receiving damage. Mist is also permanent, but it only stops moves that directly drop stats and not those with secondary effects. So, it'll block String Shot, but not Psychic Special drops.

Rest
Rest is subject to the recovery failure glitch. Rest will not remove stat drops inflicted by paralysis or burn, nor will it reset the Toxic counter. The Rest user will wake up after 1 turn of sleeping, which due to the waking up mechanics, makes it effectively the same as later generations.

Rock Slide
Rock Slide has no additional effect; as such, the flinch chance does not exist.

Roar and Whirlwind
These moves have no in-battle effect: there is no phazing in RBY.

Sand Attack
Sand Attack is Normal-type.

Stomp
Stomp's damage is not doubled against Minimize.

Substitute
If your Pokemon has exactly 25% of its HP and uses Substitute, the user will self-KO. Substitutes don't block major status, Disable, confusion, or paralysis. Substitute does, however, prevent flinching. Substitute blocks poison, so Poison Powder, Toxic, and Poison Gas will fail against it, and moves with added poison effects will never apply them. Substitutes can fade if exactly 255 damage is dealt, in addition to the usual 25%. Confusion damage is dealt to opposing Substitutes if one is available. If a multi-hit attack breaks a Substitute, the multi-hit attack will end be cancelled thereafter. Similarly, Pokemon that use Explosion or Self-Destruct will not faint against Substitute. Substitute does not make Counter fail while active, so if a Substitute is hit with a Normal- or Fighting-type move, Counter will still work and hit for full damage. (full damage as in the full damage that would have been dealt (without the Sub) or the damage that was dealt (to the Sub)?)

Struggle
Struggle is considered Normal-type and will not affect Ghost-types. It will also deal 1/2 of the damage dealt as recoil and can critically hit. Struggle is subject to accuracy checks, so it can miss with accuracy drops and is affected by the 1/256 uncertainty.

Thunder
Thunder has 120 Base Power, a 10% chance to inflict paralysis, and misses against foes using Fly.

Teleport
Teleport does nothing in-battle.

Toxic
Toxic has 84.4% accuracy and bad poison is treated as a kind of secondary status effect. For more information, view the residual damage section.

Transform
Transform does not fail against any other Pokemon, causing Ditto vs Ditto to be an infinite battle. The foe's status condition isn't copied, though Reflect and Light Screen will have their boosts applied to the user's new stats. Since base Speed isn't copied, the Transform user's critical hit rate remains the same.

Tri Attack
Tri Attack had no additional effect, so it can't freeze, burn, or paralyze foes.

Quick Attack (seems out of place, probably put back up before Rage?)
If a Pokemon is put to sleep or frozen on the turn Quick Attack is even attempted to be used, its increased priority persists until the turn after the user wakes up, is defrosted, or switched out. As a result, this can prevent the user from being put to sleep again. (aight this is confusing. How would something be put to sleep the turn Quick Attack is used? Moreover, how would increased priority prevent it from being put to sleep again?)


GP Approved 1/2

Things:

Tense consistency was an issue. I put everything in present tense since I see our tiers as formats rather than places in time since we can and do still actively play RBY.

Commentary was a bit inconsistent as well. I removed things that didn't pertain specifically to the stuff you outlined in the intro. Since this is a mechanics guide, as a reader I'm not interested in Hyper Beam's usage in the metagame or that Vaporeon is the only common user of Haze, I'm interested in the mechanics of the move.

Other than that great work, this is a very informative guide! Plague von Karma
 
Last edited:

Plague von Karma

Banned deucer.
GP Approved 1/2
Implemented everything in the OP! Some minor comments...

1617860555032.png

Oh you pure soul...
(It's permanent, completely taking away any and all user input)

1617860603652.png

Well, they're put to sleep after Quick Attack. This can count if they hit themselves in confusion and then get put to sleep, for example. The priority is just kinda stuck there until they wake up or whatever. I'm not sure about the nitty-gritty specifics since I've not pulled this off in an in-game playthrough in a while, which is the only time it really comes up, but this is generally how it works.

I removed the thing about preventing yourself being put to sleep since in hindsight it prolly makes the situation worse, you'd want a slow wake in this situation.
 

Adeleine

after committing a dangerous crime
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(AC): Add Comma
Part 2: Move Mechanics
With every passing generation, moves in Pokemon will receive revisions. RBY is the earliest generation, and as such, many moves have significant differences to the present day. Here, we will compile all the notable differences. Knowing these mechanics is pivotal to playing the game and teambuilding effectively.

As a general rule, moves that have the same stated accuracy as present generations will not be noted, despite the 1/256 uncertainty technically making them different. In addition, there are numerous moves that have only received Base Power, stated Accuracy, or PP changes, which will not be noted either. If a move has major mechanics changes, however, these differences will be noted for completion's sake.

Acid, Aurora Beam, Bubble, Bubble Beam, and Constrict
These moves all have a 33.2% chance of their effects occurring.

Bide
The Bide user is locked into charging for 2-3 turns before attacking, dealing double the total damage it received. This ignores accuracy checks and type immunity, and even hits when the opponent foe is semi-invulnerable during Fly or Dig. Bide isn't entirely committal either; the user can switch out during the move if the situation becomes unfavorable. If confusion or paralysis interrupts Bide, the effect ends. Sleep, freeze, flinching, and partial trapping will pause—but don't stop—Bide.

There are ways that Bide's damage can be stacked. If the opponent foe switches out, the last damage dealt to the user will be re-added to the total. Ergo, if a Pokemon attacks with Thunderbolt and switches to something else, it will be as if Thunderbolt hit the Bide user twice. Additionally, some moves will also compound Bide's damage due to not clearing the last damage dealt that turn. This includes These include: (I imagine?) Confuse Ray, Conversion, Focus Energy, Glare, Haze, Leech Seed, Light Screen, Mimic, Mist, Poison Gas, Poison Powder, Recover, Reflect, Rest, Soft-Boiled, Splash, Stun Spore, Substitute, Supersonic, Teleport, Thunder Wave, Toxic, and Transform.

(lmk if this paragraph is not all good, we can obviously change it) If a foe is using Bide and your Pokemon faints before the user "unleashes energy," possible through residual damage such as Toxic poison or recoil, the damage stored by Bide is supposed to be cleared. This creates a disparity since if the player is using Bide and the foe faints before the player unleashes energy, such as through damage from Toxic or recoil, However, specifically for the side that took residual damage, only the most significant byte of the Bide damage is cleared, (period -> comma) This which means that the Bide damage stored may still remain be any value up to 255. This can cause differences between games, as the damage stored may be different due to the residual damage sustained—such as through recoil or poison—that caused the Pokemon to faint. This disparity typically causes no PRNG differences, but if a Pokemon faints due to the damage difference from Bide, a desync will occur.

Bind
In addition to partial trapping mechanic differences, Bind has 74.6% accuracy.

Bite
The Dark-type does not exist, so Bite is Normal-type. It also only has a 10% chance to flinch, down from 30%.

Conversion
Conversion changes the user's type to match the opponent's foe's, both primary and secondary, making it effectively the same move as Reflect Type in later games. It doesn't clear the last damage dealt, so it will allow Bide damage to stack.

Counter
Counter is fairly notorious for its complicated mechanics, but it isn't as bad as it seems in context. If a Pokemon was last hit by a Normal- or Fighting-type move and the last move's Base Power is more than 0, Counter activates, dealing double the damage dealt last. Counter has a Base Power of 1, unlike in later generations where it's not specified. Counter also ignores type immunity, so it can hit Ghost-types like Gengar.

Counter does have some odd interactions due to how damage is stored in the game. Since damage isn't cleared upon a Pokemon switching out, Counter can work against Normal- and Fighting-type moves that dealt damage the previous turn. If Snorlax uses Body Slam on a faster Pokemon and immediately switches out, if the foe uses Counter, it will counter the Body Slam from the previous turn. This can be applied also applies to things like Hyper Beam, where a Pokemon can switch in, take the hit, and counter the move the following turn while the opponent foe recharges. This is because recharging doesn't clear the last damage dealt. For an even more comical example, it is possible to counter an Explosion if a Pokemon switches out the turn after, dealing massive damage and often getting a free KO for it. This can even be applied to recoil or crash damage!

Dig and Fly
Both Dig and Fly are affected by the semi-invulnerability glitch, a quirk so powerful that the moves are banned in almost all competitive RBY formats. This It causes users to be permanently affected by semi-invulnerability if the moves are interrupted mid-use; this means confusion and paralysis can inadvertently cause the glitch to occur. Only Swift and Bide can hit a Pokemon during semi-invulnerability in RBY, making these moves the only real counterplay.

Disable
Disable has a paltry 54.7% accuracy and disables a random move in the opponent's foe's moveset for 0-7 turns. If Disable misses a Pokemon under the effect of Rage, it will cause the opposing Rage user's Attack to increase.

Dizzy Punch
Dizzy Punch has no added effect.

Double-Edge
Double-Edge has 100 Base Power and only inflicts 1/4 of the damage dealt as recoil.

Earthquake
Earthquake does not hit Pokemon during Dig.

Explosion and Self-Destruct
Explosion has 170 Base Power and Self-Destruct has 130. They halve the opponent's foe's Defense during damage calculation, making their Base Powers effectively 340 and 260, respectively. Users of Explosion and Self-Destruct will not faint if using it either against a Substitute. Due to the turn ending mechanics, these moves provide free switch-ins to your Pokemon after use, (AC) as the opponent foe will not be able to move if they survived the attack.

Fire Blast
Fire Blast has a 30% chance to burn!

Fissure, Guillotine, (AC) and Horn Drill
These moves deal 65535 damage as fixed damage-type moves. In addition, they only work on foes slower than the user. Using a Speed-boosting move such as Agility will allow Pokemon like Seaking to be capable of OHKOing any Pokemon.

Glare
Glare has 74.6% accuracy and can affect Ghost-types, unlike in GSC and ADV.

Gust
Gust is Normal-type and does not connect against foes using Fly.

Haze
Haze is a very odd move. It will remove any and all volatile changes to both Pokemon; this includes setting stat changes to 0, removing secondary status stat reductions caused by status conditions, confusion, (i dont remember any other secondary status in gen1 i think) and more. Essentially, it is a full reset to the conditions for both Pokemon. It will also turn bad poison inflicted by Toxic into normal poison and reset the Toxic counter.

A significant issue to note is that Haze will remove the major status condition for the opponent, including any stat reductions caused by them foe only, even though it removes stat reductions from statuses for both. This means that it will remove paralysis, burn, poison, sleep, or freeze if the opponent foe is inflicted with it. Due to this, it's possible to exploit Haze users by switching in a Pokemon crippled by status. This makes the move a rare sight in competitive play, though its distribution can also be considered a deciding factor.

If Haze is used against a Pokemon that has been put to sleep or frozen during Rage, Bide, thrashing about moves, or while charging a move's charge turn, the victim will become permanently immobilized. This also happens to Hyper Beam users while recharging, but only if they're frozen.

Overall, Haze will remove:
  • All stat buffs and debuffs
  • Major status condition (opponent foe only) and the stat reduction from burn and/or paralysis (both Pokemon)
  • Confusion
  • Leech Seed
  • Reflect
  • Light Screen
  • Mist
  • Disable
  • Bad poison (changes to normal poison)

High Jump Kick and Jump Kick
High Jump Kick and Jump Kick have 85 and 70 Base Power, respectively. Jump Kick also has 25 PP. Curiously, if the moves fail to connect, the user only takes 1 HP of crash damage. This residual damage can be countered by Counter.

Hyper Beam
Hyper Beam is extremely powerful, with the recharge turn being skipped if a Substitute or opposing Pokemon is KOed. This makes it a common sight.

Karate Chop
Karate Chop is Normal-type rather than Fighting-type.

Leech Seed
Leech Seed absorbs 6.25% of the foe's HP, rounded down but not less than 1. This can be increased through Toxic; refer to the status section for more information. Even if a Pokemon is KOed by other residual damage—such as confusion or recoil—the health draining from Leech Seed will still occur. However, if Leech Seed itself KOes the target, health will not be recovered due to turn ending mechanics. Additionally, damage dealt by Leech Seed is done after any other residual damage, such as Wrap, poison, and burn. If a Pokemon takes is hit by (I assume?) Leech Seed switching in, they will have their HP drained that turn, (AC) but only if their Speed is less than or equal to the Leech Seed user's.

Like later generations, Grass-types are not affected by Leech Seed and the seeded status is removed through switching out. However, Haze can also remove it.

Low Kick
Low Kick is a 50 Base Power move with 89.5% accuracy and a 30.1% chance to flinch.

Mimic
Mimic will randomly copy an opponent's a foe's move with no restrictions attached. Even if your Pokemon already has the same move, Mimic can still potentially copy it. This copied move will have the same maximum and current PP of Mimic.

Minimize
Minimize raises evasion by one stage, making it virtually identical to Double Team. It also has 20 PP, which does make it a strict upgrade.

Mirror Move
Mirror Move interacts oddly with multi-turn moves, ignoring them as they charge. This means that if a Pokemon uses Body Slam and then Solar Beam, Mirror Move will copy Body Slam on the charge turn. Similar situations occur with paralysis, freezing, flinching, confusion, and recharging from Hyper Beam. If the foe switches out, Mirror Move will fail, which is part of what causes the desync mentioned in the partial trapping section.

Night Shade and Seismic Toss
Due to set damage mechanics, Night Shade and Seismic Toss will hit Normal- and Ghost-types, respectively.

Poison Sting
Poison Sting has a 19.9% chance to inflict poison.

Psychic
Psychic has a 33.2% chance to drop Special by one stage.

Psywave
Psywave is quite odd. Psywave deals damage between 1 and 1.5x the user's level, which at Level 100 will deal up to 150 damage. It also has a 79.7% chance to connect, unlike newer generations.

In a Link Battle, Psywave will have a lower bound of dealing 0 damage on one side, meaning that there is an inherent chance the game will desync, increasing as the level lowers. At Level 100, this is a 0.662% chance. The lowest possible level to use Psywave at is with a Level 3 with Jigglypuff, which has a 20% chance to desync the game. The game will also crash if Psywave is used by a Level 0, 1, or 171 Pokemon, though none of these can be achieved without hacking.

Here is a table featuring Psywave desync chances by level:
LevelDesync Chance
225.000%
320.000%
414.286%
512.500%
610.000%
79.091%
87.692%
97.143%
106.250%
115.882%
125.263%
135.000%
144.545%
154.348%
164.000%
173.846%
183.571%
193.448%
203.226%
213.125%
222.941%
232.857%
242.703%
252.632%
262.500%
272.439%
282.326%
292.273%
302.174%
312.128%
322.041%
332.000%
341.923%
351.887%
361.818%
371.786%
381.724%
391.695%
401.639%
411.613%
421.563%
431.538%
441.493%
451.471%
461.429%
471.408%
481.370%
491.351%
501.316%
511.299%
521.266%
531.250%
541.220%
551.205%
561.176%
571.163%
581.136%
591.124%
601.099%
611.087%
621.064%
631.053%
641.031%
651.020%
661.000%
670.990%
680.971%
690.962%
700.943%
710.935%
720.917%
730.909%
740.893%
750.885%
760.870%
770.862%
780.847%
790.840%
800.826%
810.820%
820.806%
830.800%
840.787%
850.781%
860.769%
870.763%
880.752%
890.746%
900.735%
910.730%
920.719%
930.714%
940.704%
950.699%
960.690%
970.685%
980.676%
990.671%
1000.662%


Quick Attack
If a Pokemon is put to sleep or frozen on the turn Quick Attack is attempted to be used, its increased priority persists until the (start of the or end of the?) turn after the user wakes up, is defrosted, or switches out.

Rage, Petal Dance, (AC) and Thrash
Thrash is a 90 Base Power move with 20 PP and Petal Dance has 70 Base Power and 20 PP. "Thrashing about" will persist for 3-4 turns, and always confuses the user upon ending naturally, resetting it if confusion if it's already confused. If not ended naturally, such as through paralysis, confusion is not sustained. Sleep, freeze, flinching, and partial trapping will only pause Thrash, though. Confusion being sustained is not mentioned, and will only be discovered upon selecting a move.

Petal Dance and Thrash will recalculate accuracy values every turn using current accuracy, but not to more than 255/256 or less than 1/256. With accuracy debuffs or evasion buffs, this can lead to their accuracy progressively decreasing, (AC) even if the foe doesn't further alter accuracy or evasion during the move's duration. (I imagine?) For example, if a Thrash user goes against a target that has increased its evasion, accuracy will be read as 168, or 65.8% considering the 1/256 uncertainty. However, the next turn, accuracy will scale to 112, or 43.9%. This can theoretically lead to it dropping to 1 accuracy, but due to the length of time thrashing about moves last, this is a very rare occurrence. For this same reason, in-context, this effect is almost unnoticeable.

Rage works a bit differently. If Rage misses while the "thrashing about" state is active as a result of accuracy being dropped or a foe's evasion being raised lowered accuracy or foe evasion, its accuracy drops to 0.4%. If Disable misses during Rage, it will still raise Attack. Nothing will stop Rage once it starts: even being thawed from freezing will not change this. Rage will not increase Attack past +6 or the 999 stat cap.

Razor Wind, Sky Attack, Skull Bash, and Solar Beam
Razor Wind has 74.6% accuracy. Sky Attack has no additional effect upon use: (semicolon -> colon) no increased critical hit ratio or flinch chance. Skull Bash does not raise Defense upon use.

All of these moves will not count as the last move used until they actually execute, so if Mirror Move is used, it will fail if a move wasn't used prior; if a move was used, Mirror Move will copy that one. Partial trapping, sleep, freezing, and flinching will pause but not stop these moves.

Recover and Soft-Boiled
Recover notoriously has 20 PP, which, (AC) with a PP Max, (AC) becomes an eye-watering 32. Both moves are otherwise the same and are subject to the recovery failure glitch.

Reflect, Light Screen, Mist
Reflect and Light Screen are permanent upon use, acting sort of like Iron Defense or Amnesia. However, before you start chucking Light Screen on your Chansey, know that these effects only apply when receiving damage; Light Screen doesn't boost Special. Mist is also permanent, but it only stops moves that directly drop stats and not those with secondary effects. So, it'll block String Shot, but not Psychic Special drops.

Rest
Rest is subject to the recovery failure glitch. Rest will not remove stat drops inflicted by paralysis or burn, nor will it reset the Toxic counter. The Rest user will wake up after 1 turn of sleeping, which, (AC) due to the waking up mechanics, makes it effectively the same as later generations.

Rock Slide
Rock Slide has no additional effect; as such, the flinch chance does not exist.

Roar and Whirlwind
These moves have no in-battle effect: there is no phazing in RBY.

Sand Attack
Sand Attack is Normal-type.

Stomp
Stomp's damage is not doubled against Minimize.

Substitute
If your Pokemon has exactly 25% of its HP and uses Substitute, the user will self-KO. Substitutes don't block major status, Disable, or confusion, or paralysis. (bc paralysis is a "major status", but lmk if there's some reason they should be separate) Substitute does, however, prevent flinching. Substitute blocks poison, so Poison Powder, Toxic, and Poison Gas will fail against it, and moves with added poison effects will never apply them. Substitutes can fade if exactly 255 damage is dealt, in addition to even if that is less than (I imagine?) the usual 25%. Confusion damage is dealt to opposing Substitutes if one is available. If a multi-hit attack breaks a Substitute, the multi-hit attack will end. Pokemon that use Explosion or Self-Destruct will not faint against Substitute. Substitute does not make Counter fail while active, so if a Substitute is hit with a Normal- or Fighting-type move, Counter will still work and hit for the damage dealt.

Struggle
Struggle is considered Normal-type and will not affect Ghost-types, making infinite battles between Ghost-types possible. It will also deal 1/2 of the damage dealt as recoil and can critically hit. Struggle is subject to accuracy checks, so it can miss with accuracy drops and is affected by the 1/256 uncertainty.

Thunder
Thunder has 120 Base Power, has a 10% chance to inflict paralysis, and misses against foes using Fly.

Teleport
Teleport does nothing in-battle.

Toxic
Toxic has 84.4% accuracy and bad poison is treated as a kind of secondary status effect that is added to regular poison. (assuming you vibe w/ this phrasing/understanding) For more information, view the residual damage section.

Transform
Transform does not fail against any other Pokemon, causing Ditto vs Ditto to be an infinite battle. The foe's status condition isn't copied, though Reflect and Light Screen will have their boosts applied to the user's new stats when it is hit by an attack. (to make clear "not a boost to Special") Since base Speed isn't copied, the Transform user's critical hit rate remains the same.

Tri Attack
Tri Attack has no additional effect, so it can't freeze, burn, or paralyze foes.


additionally
If your Pokemon has exactly 25% of its HP and uses Substitute, the user will self-KO.
LOL no way

why.gif
2/2, ask me if any qs you know the drill
 
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Ryota Mitarai

Shrektimus Prime
is a Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Top Smogon Media Contributor
Code is done, but is in this gist

live preview

some notes:

- I was asked to add all those sprites by the sides as a way to "diversify" the content. They go right to left and so on for even more diversity. It could *probably* see an improvement or two, but I found it acceptable enough to implement the idea.
- video in part 1 could not be visualized due to some technical reasons behind how Smogon is coded, so it was hyperlinked
- in the TOC, I labeled the whole stats section simply as "Stat Mechanics" as to not stretch the table further than it's already stretched. Open to alternatives, though
- I hid the big tables (the ones with at least 100 rows) behind buttons that toggle them. In addition, the "hidden" sections also have hyperlinks that lead to the button in case the reader wants to close the table after being done. And to make it clear, it links to the button and not the table, because linking it to the table means the button is out of sight and I found the way it is right now slightly more convenient

I will edit in any other note that I may have not mentioned, too tired right now

The Dutch Plumberjack
 
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