Pokémon Ruby Version, Sapphire Version, and Emerald Version - Glossary

Tags: pokemon-ruby-sapphire-and-emerald

This glossary was created to explain terms used in the In-Depth Guides.

Accuracy

An attack’s accuracy means the chance that the attack has of hitting a target. When a Pokémon’s "accuracy" stat stage is raised or lowered, the accuracy of attacks it uses is accordingly affected.

In the list of moves, if the value given for accuracy is 0 or 101, the attack has no accuracy check and can’t be evaded.

"Actually has" an Ability, or "actually holding" an item

In Pokémon Diamond Version and Pokémon Pearl Version and later, this phrase means the effect checks whether a Pokémon has an item or Ability even if effects prevent that Pokémon’s item or Ability from working, such as Klutz and Gastro Acid.

In earlier versions, these phrases are not used, since in these versions, there are no effects that prevent items and Abilities from working.

Additional effect

An additional effect is an effect with a random chance of happening after an attack damages a target. In the list of moves, effects that contain the word "may" are considered additional effects (even with a chance of 100%). For example, Psybeam contains the effect "May confuse the target". This means that Psybeam deals damage and has a chance of confusing the target if the attack hits. If there is more than one such phrase for a single move description, it means that the move has more than one additional effect, processed separately.

An effect that happens "if this attack is successful" is not considered an additional effect.

Adjacent

A Pokémon is "adjacent" to another Pokémon if it is facing that Pokémon or is immediately next to it, even diagonally. In Single Battles and Double Battles, a Pokémon in battle is adjacent to all other Pokémon in battle. In Rotation Battles, a Pokémon that’s rotated out is not considered adjacent to any other Pokémon, and a Pokémon that’s rotated in is adjacent only to the Pokémon it’s facing.

Affected by type immunities

See "Immune".

Ally

An ally is a Pokémon in battle who is on the same side as another Pokémon, except that a Pokémon that’s rotated out in Rotation Battles is not considered an ally. Also called a "partner".

As part of this attack’s use

An action done "as part of this attack’s use" is done whether or not the attack succeeds or fails, and even if the attack has no target, unless noted otherwise. If the attack can’t be used because it has zero PP, the action is not done.

Attack, Move

The term "move" refers to one of the techniques known by a particular Pokémon, while the term "attack" refers to a single use of a move. The word "attack", in lower-case letters, is not to be confused with Attack, which is one of a Pokémon’s stats.

A move’s type is its original type, regardless of things that change the type. For example, the moves Hidden Power, Struggle, and Weather Ball have type Normal, and the move Curse has type "???" (before Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version).

An attack’s type is the type of its move, subject to effects that can change that type, such as Hidden Power and Weather Ball, unless noted otherwise. For example, the type of the attack Hidden Power will vary depending on its user.

Base stat (EV) (Effort value)

Base stats (EVs) are values that increase when a Pokémon defeats other Pokémon species rich in the corresponding stat. In that sense, they are similar to experience points. For example, defeating a Golbat raises the Speed base stat (EV) by 2, since Golbat has a relatively high Speed. Base stats (EVs) raise Pokémon stats. Some items can raise a Pokémon’s base stats (EVs) without battling. Note: The term "base stat" is what this value is officially known as, especially in recent official guides (an exception is the guide for Pokémon Platinum Version, which uses the term "Effort Values"). However, this term can easily be confused with what most people call "base stats" in other Web sites. As a result, the common term "EVs" appears in parentheses here. See also "Race values" in this glossary.

Can’t be evaded

An attack that "can’t be evaded" will hit its target regardless of its accuracy. (Even a "one-hit KO" can fall under this definition.) Attacks that can’t be evaded are shown in the list of moves with an accuracy value of 0 or 101.

Can’t run

If a Pokémon "can’t run", the Run command fails to make the Pokémon run away. If an effect prevents a Pokémon controlled by the player from running, no turn is wasted if that Pokémon tries to run away from a wild Pokémon using the "Run" command. (In battles that allow a player to forfeit, that player can still use the "Run" command to forfeit the battle.)

The effect doesn’t prevent trying to run from a wild Pokémon battle in response to a Pokémon fainting, and the player can still use Fluffy Tail, Poké Doll, or Poké Toy to run from the battle.

Can’t switch

If a Pokémon "can’t switch out", the "Pokémon" command will fail if that Pokémon tries to change to a different Pokémon not in battle. Roar and Whirlwind will function normally against the Pokémon. If a description says that a Pokémon "can switch", the "Pokémon" command is unaffected.

This effect doesn’t prevent situations where a player chooses a Pokémon to replace a fainted Pokémon.

Can’t take any action

If a Pokémon "can’t take any action", it means it doesn’t choose commands during that turn. For moves with this effect, no extra PP is spent when the attack continues to be used during its effect (even if the attack is used by other moves), and this situation doesn’t change what move the user "chose for use", even though the user couldn’t choose a move as the turn began. (Thus, for example, if the move the user chose for use on the last turn is Thrash, it remains Thrash this turn.) Moreover, the user doesn’t choose that move for use as the attack’s effect continues. The attack’s effect continues even if the move has zero PP, unless noted otherwise.

This behavior generally applies to moves whose use takes more than one turn, such as Thrash, Hyper Beam, Bide, Uproar, and two-turn attacks. This behavior doesn’t apply to targets under the effect of Sky Drop.

An effect where a Pokémon "can’t take any action" is not an effect that prevents that Pokémon from switching out.

(As an exception in games before Pokémon Gold Version and Pokémon Silver Version, two-turn attacks have PP spent on the second attack segment of their use, not the first; see Pokémon Red Version, Pokémon Blue Version, and Pokémon Yellow Version Two-Turn Attacks.)

Choose for use

To choose a move for use is to select a move from the list of moves as commands are chosen for a particular turn. Choosing a move for use is different from using a move because of Mirror Move, Sleep Talk, Metronome, Nature Power, and so on. Some effects can restrict the moves that can be chosen for use. A move with zero PP can’t be chosen for use. Unless noted otherwise, if a Pokémon can’t choose a move for use at the beginning of a turn, it chooses Struggle for use instead (with no particular target).

Some effects, such as Disable and Torment, can prevent a move from being chosen for use.

Damage

Damage is the amount of HP that a Pokémon is intended to lose because of a damaging attack against it. Pain Split doesn’t cause damage since it has a power of 0, even though it can reduce a Pokémon’s HP. Moreover, effects of attacks don’t cause damage, such as the HP reductions at the end of each turn because of Leech Seed, Bind, Wrap, and so on. Fainting (for example, with Explosion or Perish Song) doesn’t cause damage.

Damage because of confusion is considered damage unless noted otherwise.

Some attacks, such as Counter, SonicBoom, and Super Fang, can deal an amount of damage determined by other means than the usual damage calculation process. The amount of damage these attacks deal can’t be changed by any other effects, and these attacks don’t cause a critical hit. However, these attacks can still be ineffective against some Pokémon because of type immunities, if the attacks are affected by type immunities.

Damage with an attack, damaged by an attack

This means that the Pokémon is successfully damaged by a damaging attack against it by its user. The attack will usually reduce the Pokémon’s HP, but in certain cases, it may fail to do so. An attack doesn’t fail if an attack would deal 0 damage only because a Pokémon’s HP is prevented from being reduced to 0 (for example, if the Pokémon used Endure or is holding Focus Band, or if the attack is False Swipe). An attack also doesn’t fail if its damage is calculated to be 0 only because of rounding error (for example, if the target’s Defense is extremely high relative to the attacker’s Attack). In all other cases where an attack would deal 0 damage to a Pokémon, it will fail (for example, if the target is immune to the attack or if Bide would deal no damage). The mere use of a move by Me First, and HP gain with Present, do not fall into this definition.

Damaging

A damaging move is a move with a power of 1 or greater.

Division by zero

Whenever a number would be divided by zero, it’s divided by 1 instead.

Draw

In Link Battles and Battle Dome battles, a draw occurs when all Pokémon on both sides faint at the same time or when at least one player on each side decides to forfeit the battle. (In Multi Battles, if a player forfeits, the other player on the same side, if any, does so as well, regardless of what action the other player decided to take.)

Effort value

See "Base stat".

Evasiveness

A Pokémon’s evasiveness is one of the Pokémon’s stat stages. Evasiveness affects the probability that the Pokémon will avoid attacks made by other Pokémon. Also known as "evasion" or "Evade". As used in these guides, this term refers only to the evasiveness stat stage and not to the opposite of accuracy. Starting with Pokémon Ruby Version and Pokémon Sapphire Version, the evasiveness stat stage reduces the attacker’s accuracy stat stage; it doesn’t add an additional multiplier to the accuracy calculation.

Facing

A Pokémon is "facing" another Pokémon if it is directly across from it. In Single Battles, this always means the Pokémon on the other side. In Rotation Battles, this means the Pokémon that’s rotated in, on the other side. In Double Battles and Triple Battles, the Pokémon on the left of a side is facing the Pokémon on the right of the other side, and vice versa (where left and right correspond to the Pokémon’s positions in a side when their backs are seen), and the Pokémon in the middle of a side is facing the Pokémon in the middle of the other side.

Faint

When an effect makes a Pokémon faint, it loses all its HP. Fainting doesn’t cause damage, and it overwrites poison, burn, paralysis, freezing, and sleep. A fainted Pokémon can’t receive any of those five conditions.

Gender

the sex of a Pokémon. In games before Pokémon Ruby Version and Pokémon Sapphire Version, the gender is based on the Attack diversification value (individual value). Some Pokémon are gender-unknown. The concept of gender was introduced in Pokémon Gold Version and Pokémon Silver Version.

"Has" an Ability, or "Holding" an item

In Pokémon Diamond Version and Pokémon Pearl Version and later, this phrase means the effect checks whether a Pokémon has an item or Ability; however, during a battle, the effect treats the Pokémon as having no item or Ability, as the case may be, if effects keep the item or Ability, respectively, from working, such as Klutz or Gastro Acid, unless noted otherwise. For example, an effect described as "This attack’s power depends on the Berry the user is holding" won’t work if the Pokémon is under the effect of Embargo, for one.

In earlier versions, these phrases have their normal meaning, since in these versions, there are no effects that prevent items and Abilities from working.

Immune

Said of a Pokémon, "immune" means unable to be affected by an attack because its type matchup is ineffective against its types (see "Type matchup"). For example, Ghost Pokémon are immune to Normal attacks. But some effects, such as Wonder Guard, can give a Pokémon additional immunities. Pokémon of certain types also can’t receive certain conditions such as poison or paralysis; this is not considered a type immunity. If an attack is "affected by type immunities", the attack is ineffective against an immune Pokémon, even though the attack may not usually deal damage calculated through the Damage Formula, or even any damage at all. Unless otherwise noted, moves with a power of 0 are not affected by type immunities.

Individual value (IV)

a value that decides a particular Pokémon’s stat potential for a certain stat. Individual values can vary even within the same Pokémon species and are randomly generated. Individual values can’t be changed. Before Pokémon Ruby Version and Pokémon Sapphire Version, these values are called Diversification Values (DVs) and range from 0 to 15. Since those two games, these values range from 0 to 31.

Leaves the battle

"Leaves the battle" refers to any instance where a Pokémon in battle is no longer in battle. This includes cases where a Pokémon is changed from one to another, with the Pokémon command, Baton Pass, Roar, and Whirlwind, and also cases where a Pokémon faints. This also refers to the end of the battle.

Changes to a Pokémon’s stats (other than HP), moves (except moves learned as part of leveling up), type, Ability, species, weight, stat stages, diversification values, and individual values will last until the Pokémon leaves the battle, unless noted otherwise. Changes to a Pokémon’s HP, friendship, Exp. Points, held item, moves learned as part of leveling up, and whether it’s poisoned, burned, paralyzed, frozen, or asleep will last even if the Pokémon leaves the battle or the battle ends, but in some battles, held items are restored to their owners when the battle ends.

Lose HP because of an attack

This term refers to HP actually lost by a Pokémon because of damage (see definition for "damage").

May

This word signals that a move has an additional effect. See "Additional effect".

Move

See "Attack".

Not Very Effective

This refers to attacks with a type matchup of 1/2 or 1/4; these attacks deal 1/2 or 1/4 the usual damage because of the type matchup between the attack’s type and the target’s types.

Opposing Pokémon

The one or more Pokémon currently in battle on the other side of the battle (not the user’s).

Partner

See "Ally".

Party

a group of Pokémon that a Trainer has. Up to six Pokémon can be part of a party. Many people use the word "team" for this term. These guides don’t use this term when referring to Pokémon during a battle, to avoid confusion about what is considered a "party" when more than one Trainer is on the same side of battle.

Physical

This term refers to attacks based on the Attack/Defense stats. Before Pokémon Diamond Version and Pokémon Pearl Version, physical attacks had the types Bug, Fighting, Flying, Ghost, Ground, Normal, Poison, Rock, and Steel.

Poisoned

Unless noted otherwise, poison refers both to normal poison and "toxic" poison.

Pokémon in battle

A Pokémon in battle is a Pokémon that’s participating in a battle at a given time. In Rotation Battles, all three Pokémon on a single side of the battle are Pokémon in battle, even though two of them don’t take their attack segments in a given turn.

Power

Power is a number associated with an attack. The higher the number, the greater the damage it can inflict. Also known as "base power".

In the list of moves, if the value given in the Power column is greater than 0, then the attack deals damage and the move’s description will imply this without saying so directly. If the value is 1, the description will specify how the damage is calculated.

The exact damage dealt is decided by a formula, but in general, assuming equal Attack and Defense and no weaknesses or resistances, a level 100 Pokémon will deal about 85% of an attack’s power in damage, a level 50 Pokémon will deal about 45%, and a level 10 Pokémon will deal about 13%.

The damage formula multiplies power by the ratio of Attack to Defense, or how high Attack is relative to Defense. This means, for instance, that if Attack is double the Defense, the power is effectively doubled. Likewise, if Attack is half the Defense, the power is effectively halved. (For special attacks, Special Attack and Special Defense are used instead.)

PP

PP, or Power Points, is the number of times a Pokémon can use a move in battle. Each move has its own maximum PP. A move’s maximum PP is equal to X+int(X*Y/5), where X is the move’s original maximum PP and Y is the number of uses of PP Up on that move.

PP Up and PP Max raises the maximum PP of a move by raising its Y variable. PP Up raises the Y variable by 1 (up to 3), and PP Max, introduced in Pokémon Ruby Version and Pokémon Sapphire Version, raises the Y variable to 3, the highest possible. PP Up and PP Max won’t have any effect if the move’s maximum PP wouldn’t rise by at least 1 through a single use.

Prevented from being used

Refers to any situation, such as confusion, love, flinching, and so on, that prevents a Pokémon from using an attack. In general, if the message "X used Y!" is shown, the move was not prevented from being used. A move that can’t be used because it has 0 PP is not "prevented from being used".

Race values

Race values are values that specify the stat potential of all Pokémon of the same Pokémon species and distinguish that species’s stat potential from those of other species. Each race value can range from 0 through 255. Note: The term "race value" is a translation of "種族値" (shu-zoku-chi), which is what this kind of value is usually called in Japanese. The term "base stat", as it’s commonly known in English, is not used here because it has a different official meaning. See "Base stat" in this glossary.

Rotated in

This refers to a Pokémon in battle who is in front on a single side in a Rotation Battle.

Rotated out

This refers to one of the two Pokémon in battle who are behind the front Pokémon on a single side in a Rotation Battle.

Rounding

Unless noted otherwise, whenever multiplication or division occurs between two numbers, the result of the multiplication or division is rounded down. The In-Depth Guides can signal such operations with words such as "half", "1/4", "1/8", "multiplied by 1.5", and so on. There are several ways of rounding a number:

• Rounded down, truncated - The fractional part of a number is discarded.
• Rounded up - If the number has a fractional part, it’s rounded to the next highest integer, that is, 5.6 and 5.3 both become 6, and -4.7 and -4.3 become -4.
• Rounded to the nearest integer - The number is rounded to the nearest integer. If a number is halfway between two integers, the number is rounded to the next highest integer.
• Rounded half-down - The number is rounded to the nearest integer. If a number is halfway between two integers, the number’s fractional part is discarded.

Special

This term refers to attacks based on the Special Attack/Special Defense stats. In the GBA and previous versions, special attacks had the types Dark, Dragon, Electric, Fire, Grass, Ice, Psychic, and Water.

Species

a kind of Pokémon. The term "species" as used in these guides means the National Pokédex number of a Pokémon, not the kind of Pokémon as shown in the Pokédex. All Ditto, for example, belong to one species, that is, National Pokédex number 132, not "Transform Pokémon". Multiple forms that share a National Pokédex number belong to the same species. Therefore, Deoxys’s Attack, Defense, Normal, and Speed Formes belong to the same species, number 386, not "DNA Pokémon". As a final example, Nidoran male and Nidoran female belong to different species because their National Pokédex numbers are different (29 and 32, respectively), even though they’re both "Poison Pin Pokémon".

Stat experience

A value that shows how trained a particular Pokémon is in a certain stat, similar to Base Stats (EVs). Stat experience exists only in games before Pokémon Ruby Version and Pokémon Sapphire Version.

Stat stages

Stat stages refer to values that modify a Pokémon’s stats during a battle. There are stat stages for Attack, Defense, Speed, Special Attack, Special Defense, evasiveness, and accuracy. Before Pokémon Gold Version and Pokémon Silver Version, there is a Special stat stage rather than a Special Attack or Special Defense stat stage.

Super Effective

This refers to attacks with a type matchup of 2 or 4; these attacks deal 2 or 4 times the usual damage because of the type matchup between the attack’s type and the target’s types.

Trainer ID

a number that, on a Pokémon, identifies the ownership of the Pokémon and, on a Trainer, identifies the Trainer. The Trainer’s ID is randomly determined at the beginning of a new game. A wild Pokémon has the same Trainer ID as the Trainer, and a traded Pokémon most likely has a different Trainer ID. Since Pokémon Ruby Version and Pokémon Sapphire Version, the Trainer ID is 32 bits long. Before those two games, the Trainer ID is 16 bits long.

Transformed

A Pokémon has transformed only if it gained the attributes of a Pokémon by using Transform or Imposter. It doesn’t refer to cases where a Pokémon changes to a different form, such as when Darmanitan changes to Zen Mode or when Shaymin changes to Land Forme.

Turn

A battle is made up of one or more turns. As a turn begins, commands are chosen, and then the Pokémon carry out those commands. Many effects occur at the end of the turn, that is, after each Pokémon has made its attack.

A Pokémon’s attack segment, which is part of a battle’s turn, is the result of the Fight command made to that Pokémon at the beginning of the turn. The attack segment occurs only during the attack phase of a turn.

Type Matchup

The type matchup is a multiplier to the damage an attack will deal. Type matchups depend on attack types and Pokémon types. For example, Ground-type attacks are normally effective against the Normal type (value 1), "super effective" against the Steel type (value 2), "not very effective" against the Grass type (value 1/2), and ineffective against the Flying type (value 0).

If a Pokémon has two types, the type matchups from both types are multiplied. For example, Ground-type attacks have a type matchup of 4 ("super effective") against a Rock-and-Steel Pokémon (both with a value of 2, so 2 * 2 = 4), and have a type matchup of 1/4 ("not very effective") against a Bug-and-Grass Pokémon (both with a value of 1/2, so 1/2 * 1/2 = 1/4).

User

The user is initially the Pokémon in battle who began to use an attack. If the effect can be passed to a new Pokémon only with Baton Pass, this term also refers to the Pokémon that takes the user’s position.