Talk:Instruct (move)

Instruct-copycat

Does this fail? Does this copy the last move used besides instruct? Izme1000 (talk) 16:30, 7 March 2017 (UTC)izme1000

Your question isn't entirely clear. Copycat is a "move that calls another move", so Instruct will fail when trying to instruct Copycat. For the other way around, I think nobody has tested whether Copycat will fail when used after an instructed move (so you could do that). Nescientist (talk) 18:45, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

There wasn't any discussion about whether or not any of the moves that call another would fail or not yet.

I was talking about if copycat was instructed.

Izme1000 (talk) 19:44, 7 March 2017 (UTC)izme1000

According to the article's second paragraph:

Instruct will fail if the target has not made any move, is in the middle of Bide, Focus Punch, Beak Blast, Shell Trap, or a consecutively executed move, or when the instructed move's PP is depleted. It will also fail if the target's most recent move is Instruct itself, Bide, Focus Punch, Beak Blast, Shell Trap, Struggle, a move that requires recharging (such as Hyper Beam), a move with a charging turn (such as Dig or Skull Bash), a move that calls another move (such as Metronome), or a Z-Move.

So Instruct will fail if the most recent move is Copycat, because Copycat is a move that calls another move. Pumpkinking0192 (talk) 23:49, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

Regarding the research template on the page (How does Rage Powder and similar moves affect the target for Instruct? Can Instruct be used on Relic Song?)

I did some experimenting: I am not exactly sure of what the first question on the research template meant (Can a move be instructed that has since been forgotten?), so I experimented with the other two and found out that:

• Instruct is affected by Rage Powder and similar moves. No matter who Instruct is originally targeting, it will be redirected to the Pokémon that used Rage Powder, resulting in it using Rage Powder again.

• Instruct can be used on Relic Song, and Meloetta will change forms every time Relic Song is used. (I'm not sure why this was asked on the first place)

--McFlyMan (talk) 05:50, 5 July 2018 (UTC)

I posted the first question, so: In a Double Battle, AFAIK, a Pokémon may level up in between using a move and being instructed to use it again. If, as a result, it forgets the move it just used, can it be instructed to repeat it nevertheless? (Technical explainer: is the exact move stored, or just the move slot?) Nescientist (talk) 18:28, 5 July 2018 (UTC)

I see what you mean, do you know a place on Alola where I can have a double battle after beating the league? I might be able to do a test if I find one. --McFlyMan (talk) 18:35, 5 July 2018 (UTC)

Um, that might be a problem. Off the top of my head, I can only think of Battle Tree, where I don't think battles give experience. Nescientist (talk) 18:44, 5 July 2018 (UTC)

Ultra Sun/Moon offer the daily Double Battle against Shigeki Morimoto and Kazumasa Iwao, and they're generally harmless enough to let you perform most team-based setups. In particular, you can have a Smeargle at level 90 just on the verge of 91, KO one of the leads with a move, and level up to overwrite that move with Sketch. Sure enough, if you try to Instruct the Smeargle later in that turn, Instruct fails (as opposed to the target move failing). SadisticMystic (talk) 18:52, 28 September 2018 (UTC)

Max Moves

I'm kind of surprised that this interaction hasn't been brought up yet, so I might as well do it myself. What happens if the target's last move was a max move? Does it fail altogether (maybe even if they are dynamaxed but haven't yet used a max move)? Does it make the target use another max move? Does it work like copycat, causing the target to use a normal move? This is a very easy interaction to test, but I don' t have pokemon shield, soooooo... 2nd Slash (talk) 21:40, 15 February 2020 (UTC)