Power
- If you were looking for the performance stat, see Performance → Power.
Power (Japanese: 威力 power) is a property of moves that helps determine how much damage they deal. It is seen primarily in the games, but it is touched upon in the Pokémon anime.
Overview
Moves with more power inflict more damage, provided all other circumstances are equal. Many variables besides power can influence the damage a move deals, however.
Statistically speaking, stronger moves often have certain limitations over weaker moves, such as low accuracy, low PP, or a negative effect like recoil damage.
Since Generation II, the power of a move is always displayed in the move section of a Pokémon's summary screen. All status moves in the games display a power of "—"; they do no damage. Most physical and special moves display a numeric value for their power (typically in some multiple of 5), but there are a number of exceptions: Moves that deal direct damage do not rely on the attacker and defender's stats for their damage and display a power of "—", including set-damage moves and one-hit knockout moves (which always do enough damage to make a Pokémon faint if they hit); moves that have variable power also usually display a power of "—".
Power is not shown in-game in the Mystery Dungeon series prior to Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky. In that game, as well as Pokémon Mystery Dungeon (WiiWare), moves are assigned a number of stars to indicate their power, and more stars indicates more power for that particular move. For example, Scratch has a rating of ★★★★. There exists an actual numerical value for power, however, and it is added to the Pokémon's relevant Attack stat to determine damage dealt. The power of moves in Mystery Dungeon is valued on a smaller scale, that does not necessarily correlate with the power of the move in main series games.
| Stars | Power |
|---|---|
| 3 | 4 or lower |
| 4 | 5-9 |
| 5 | 10-13 |
| 6 | 14-17 |
| 7 | 18-22 |
| 8 | 23 or higher |
Additionally, certain moves double their damage at the end of calculation; these are always rated as 8 star power-wise, regardless of how much their base power actually is.
Power modification
A number of factors can specifically affect a move's power in the games' damage calculation.
Variable-power moves
- Moves that power up gain a higher power under specific circumstances, usually double their normal power.
- Moves that have variable power calculate their power based on specific circumstances.
- The power of Solar Beam and Solar Blade is decreased during rain, hail and sandstorm (0.5×).
Other move factors
- Helping Hand boosts the power of an ally's next move (1.5×)
- Charge boosts the power of the user's next Electric-type move (2×)
- The power of the move copied by Me First is boosted (1.5×)
- Terrains affect the power of certain moves:
- Grassy Terrain boosts the power of Grass-type moves (1.3× since Generation VIII, 1.5× before), and also decreases the power of Bulldoze, Magnitude and Earthquake (0.5×)
- Electric Terrain boosts the power of Electric-type moves (1.3× since Generation VIII, 1.5× before)
- Psychic Terrain boosts the power of Psychic-type moves (1.3× since Generation VIII, 1.5× before)
- Misty Terrain decreases the power of Dragon-type moves (0.5×)
- Mud Sport and Water Sport reduce the power of Electric-type and Fire-type moves respectively (0.33× since Generation V, 0.5× before)
Abilities
- Abilities that increase move power can increase the power of moves if the attacker has them.
- Rivalry may either decrease or increase the power of an attack, depending on the user's and target's genders (0.75× or 1.25×)
- The added second strike of a move affected by Parental Bond has less power than the first strike (0.25× since Generation VII, 0.5× before).
Items
- Muscle Band, Wise Glasses (1.1×)
- Type-enhancing items
- Gems (1.3× since Generation VI; 1.5× before)
- Incenses (1.2×): Odd Incense, Rock Incense, Rose Incense, Sea Incense, Wave Incense
- Plates (1.2×)
- Timespace orbs (1.2×)
- Soul Dew (1.2x since Gen VII; 1.5x before (applied to Special Attack, not power))
In the anime
In the anime, moves don't seem to have a set power, and can be affected through various factors, such as the Pokémon having received a power boost of some sort, or even through conscious choice. Examples of the former can be seen in White—Victini and Zekrom and Black—Victini and Reshiram, where Ash's Tepig and Scraggy were able to defeat fully evolved opponents with moves that had previously done almost no damage to them after receiving a power boost from Victini, while examples of the latter can be seen in The Problem with Paras and Hocus Pokémon, where Ash's Pikachu purposefully weakened the power of his own Electric moves against opponents that Ash wanted to avoid hurting too much.
In addition, some moves have been shown to have much higher power in the anime than in the games, such as in Choose It or Lose It!, where Ash's Corphish's Bubble Beam was able to match Morrison's Swampert's Hydro Pump in power. There are also examples of status moves being capable of having the equivalent of a base power in the anime, like how Brandon's Dusclops's Will-O-Wisp was shown to be equal in power compared to Ash's Charizard's Flamethrower in Gathering the Gang of Four!.
In the manga
Pokémon Adventures
In Don't Doubt Deoxys, Carr mentioned that Psycho Boost has a power of 140.
Trivia
- Explosion is the strongest move in the series among those with a set power (250). It has been the sole holder of that title since its inception, even when including Z-Moves.
- When counting moves that power up and those with variable power, the strongest moves can become Rollout and Ice Ball, both reaching 960 power on their fifth hit if the user has previously used Defense Curl.
- In Generation I only, there is no way to see a move's power on-screen.
- In both Generations I and II, there is no way to see a move's power while in battle through the battle summary.
- As of Generation VII, the average move power of all moves with a set power (for example, excluding Magnitude) is 79.09; excluding Z-Moves gives an average of 76.52. The most frequent move power is 80.
In other languages
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See also
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This game mechanic article is part of Project Games, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon games. |
