Power

If you were looking for the performance stat, see Performance → Power.

Power (Japanese: いりょく 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 (in some multiple of 5), but there 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 "—".

In the Mystery Dungeon series, rather than assigning a numerical value for power, 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 .

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.
• Solar Beam's power is decreased in rain (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×)
• Mud Sport and Water Sport reduce the power of Electric-type and Water-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 increase or decrease the power of an attack, depending on the target's gender.
• The additional second strike of a move affected by Parental Bond only uses half the power.
• Heatproof and Dry Skin can also affect the power of moves if the defender has them.

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×)

Trivia

• 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 IV, the average move power across the set of all moves with a set power (for example, excluding Magnitude) is 72.15. The most frequent move power is 80.
• As of Generation V, the move with the highest consistent power after all damage modifications is V-create. If a Fire-type Pokémon has the Ability Adaptability (which is impossible without Ability or type changing), is holding a Fire Gem, and uses V-create against a Pokémon with the Dry Skin Ability that has a double weakness to Fire (such as Paras) while it is sunny, the move will reach an effective power of 4050.

In other languages

Language Title Chinese Cantonese 威力 Wāilihk Mandarin 威力 Wēilì French Puissance German Stärke Italian Potenza Korean 위력 Wiryeok Spanish Potencia

See also

• Accuracy
• Move

This game mechanic article is part of Project Games, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon games.