POKEMON STATS GUIDE

Every Pokemon has six stats that control different aspects of its battling ability. They are HP (Hit Points), Attack, Defense, Speed, Special Attack and Special Defense. This guide will give you a brief overview of these six stats, and their effects in battle.

HP (Hit Points)

Hit Points, commonly abbreviated to HP, is your Pokemon's life. When your Pokemon has no HP left, they faint and become unusable in battle. Generally the more HP you have, the longer you can survive in battle. Your Pokemon's maximum HP cannot be changed in any way during battle, but obviously, your current HP will change depending on damage and recovery.

The damage of several moves such as Flail, Water Spout, Pain Split and Super Fang are determined by your current HP. This is in contrast to things like Leech Seed, Sandstorm, Belly Drum, Substitute, Moonlight, Leftovers, Rain Dish, Poison and Burn where damage/recovery is determined by your max HP. The Pokemon with the highest HP is Blissey, Base 255.

Attack

This stat is one of the factors that control how powerful physical attacks are. Physical attacks are those attacks of Bug, Fighting, Flying, Ghost, Ground, Normal, Poison, Rock or Steel-type. If a Pokemon is under the Burn condition, its Attack is halved. The Pokemon with the highest Attack is Attack Deoxys (FireRed), Base 180.

Defense

This stat is one of the factors that control your Pokemon's resistance to physical attacks. The Pokemon with the highest Defense is Shuckle, Base 230.

Speed

This stat determines which Pokemon attacks first in a battle (disregarding priority moves like Extemespeed and Counter, and the use of Quick Claw). A high speed stat will make the Pokemon go first in a battle (This rule still applies in double battles). If a Pokemon is under the Paralyzed condition, its Speed drops by 75%. The Pokemon with the highest Speed is Speed Deoxys (Emerald), Base 180.

Special Attack

This stat is one of the factors that control how powerful special attacks are. Special attacks are those attacks of Dark, Dragon, Electric, Fire, Grass, Ice, Psychic or Water-type. The Pokemon with the highest Special Attack is Attack Deoxys (FireRed), Base 180.

Special Defense

This stat is one of the factors that control your Pokemon's resistance to special attacks. The Pokemon with the highest Special Defense is Shuckle, Base 230.

STATS MODIFIERS AND THE STAT GROWTH TABLE

You may have seen around the site we use the terminology of stats being raised or lowered by 'stages'. This is a reference to the stat growth table. When the five battle stats (Attack, Defense, Speed, Special Attack and Special Defense) are modified, the amount by which they are modified conforms to a specific calculated multiplier.

All unmodified stats begin a stage 0 (zero). When a stat modifier move is used, the stage is increased or decrease accordingly, and then the multiplier is applied to the stat. For example, Iron Defense raises Defense by two stages. So say at the beginning of the battle (ie, when no stat modifiers are currently in effect) my Metagross uses Iron Defense, its Defense stat will double since an increase from 0 stages to 2 stages doubles the original. Note if I were to use Iron Defense again, it wouldn't double the current stat - instead, it would take the original stat at 0 stages and multiply it by 4 to give the stat at 4 stages. The upper limit is 6 stages (4x the original) and the lower limit is -6 stages (1/4 the original). If a Pokemon tries to increase its stat by more than 6 stages, the move will fail.

Let's have a few examples:
- My Pokemon uses Swords Dance (Atk +2 stages) but is hit by Charm (Atk -2 stages). Its current stage is 0, so its current stat has not changed overall.
- My Pokemon uses Iron Defense (Def +2 stages), then is hit by Screech once (Def -2 stages), then uses Iron Defense again (Def +2 stages). Its current stage is 2 (= 2 - 2 + 2), so its current stat is 2x the original.
- My Pokemon uses Agility once (Spd +2 stages) but is hit by String Shot four times (Spd -4 stages). Its current stage is -2, so its current stat is 0.5x the original.
- My Pokemon is hit by Charm three times (Atk -6 stages, the minimum) but then it uses Belly Drum successfully (Atk is maximised). Its current stage is now 6, the maximum, and its current stat is 4x the original.

In RBY and GSC, the game introduces a stat cap of 999 on all stats, so after a mutlipler takes effect, the stat will be set at 999 if it exceeds 999. This cap has been removed in Advanced Generation.

Two temporary battle stats that are the same for all Pokemon are accuracy and evade. These two stats operate on a similar but different stat growth table:

The determination of whether an attack hits a Pokemon is simply [User's Accuracy %] * [Target's Evasion %], where the default value for accuracy and evasion is 100%. So in effect, using Double Team once is the same as using Flash once on your opponent, hence an increase in evasion increases the stages, but an increase in accuracy decreases. As before, the upper limit for Accuracy and Evasion is 6 stages and the lower limit is -6 stages.

Let's have a few examples. Note the cumulative nature of these two stats:
- My Pokemon uses Double Team twice (Eva +2 stages). The total move accuracy is (60%) * (100%) = 60%
- My Pokemon uses Flash on its opponent twice (Acc -2 stages). The total move accuracy is (100%) * (60%) = 60%
- My Pokemon uses Double Team three times (Eva +3 stages) and Flash on its opponent once (Acc -1 stage). The total move accuracy is (50%) * (75%) = 37%
- My Pokemon uses Double Team six times (Eva +6 stages) and Flash on its opponent six times (Acc -6 stages). Since the two stats are seperate, this is still legal since each stat is still six stages. The total move accuracy is (33%) * (33%) = 11%

STATS AND ABILITIES

Stat Boosters

These abilities include Chlorophyll, Compound Eyes, Huge Power, Minus, Plus, Pure Power, Sand Veil and Swift Swim. Under certain circumstances, these abilities will raise a particular stat by a multiplier. The effects of these abilities are cumulative with regular stat modifiers - that is, a Pokemon under the effect of Swift Swim can still use Agility three times to boost its speed.

Stat Reduction Prevention

These abilities include Clear Body, Hyper Cutter, Keen Eye and White Smoke. These abilities prevent certain or all stats being lowered by the opponent. This means that the Pokemon may still lower its own stats with the use of moves like Curse (lowers speed) and Overheat (lowers special attack). Furthermore, the stat reduction caused by Burn and Paralyze will still apply.

Stat Boost on Status Ailment

These abilities include Guts and Marvel Scale. When the Pokemon with this ability is inflicted with Burn, Freeze, Paralyze, Poison or Sleep, a certain stat will increase by a multiplier. The effects of these abilities are cumulative with regular stat modifiers - that is, a Pokemon under the effect of Guts can still use Swords Dance three times to boost its attack.

Intimidate

This ability reduces the opponent's (or opponents', if you're in a double battle) attack by one stage. It works just like a regular stat modifier meaning that the stat growth table is used. Thus, if a single Pokemon is hit by Intimidate six times (without any modification of its attack stat), its attack cannot be lowered anymore. Pokemon with the Clear Body, Hyper Cutter and White Smoke abilities, and Pokemon under the effects of Mist, can prevent the effects of Intimidate.

Speed Boost