Pokémon Ruby Version, Sapphire Version, and Emerald Version - Before the Attack

Tags: pokemon-ruby-sapphire-and-emerald, battle-system, in-depth-guides, before-the-attack

In the attack phase, the turn order guides the order in which Pokémon do their attacks. Each attack is known as an "attack segment".

Before a Pokémon uses an attack, the following effects are checked, in this order:

1. Sleep check
2. If frozen, check if defrosted
3. Battle Palace check
4. If attacker used Hyper Beam or a similar move last turn, display "X must recharge!" and end processing
5. Torment message (for Battle Palace)
6. If Truant check succeeds, display "X is loafing around!" and end processing
7. If attacker flinches, end processing
8. Disable check
9. Taunt check
10. Imprison check
11. Confusion check
12. Paralysis check
13. Attract check
14. If frozen and Flame Wheel or Sacred Fire was chosen, defrost
15. Obedience check

If the pre-attack checks succeed, the Pokémon uses the move and PP is reduced by 1.

If the PP can’t be reduced this way, the Pokémon doesn’t use that move instead. (In this case, Snatch doesn’t consider the move as used.)

When it comes to PP reduction, if the move is taken with Snatch or Magic Coat, the new user doesn’t lose PP for that use, even if it also has that move.

The exception to PP reduction is Struggle when it’s chosen for use automatically because the Pokémon has no moves it could choose.

Explosion, If Selfdestruct, and Memento were used, the user’s HP immediately becomes 0 at this time.