Stats and critical hits

StatsCopy Anchor Link

Every Pokémon has six stats: HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense and Speed. They come from three things:

• Base stats, fixed per species. Every Pokédex page lists them.
• DVs (determinant values), from 0 to 15, rolled when the Pokémon is created: one each for Attack, Defense, Speed and Special. Special Attack and Special Defense share the Special DV. The HP DV is built from the last bit of the other four.
• Stat experience, earned by defeating Pokémon: each defeat adds the defeated species' base stats, up to 65,535 per stat.

HP    = floor( ((Base + DV) × 2 + floor( ceil(sqrt(StatExp)) / 4 )) × Level / 100 ) + Level + 10
Other = floor( ((Base + DV) × 2 + floor( ceil(sqrt(StatExp)) / 4 )) × Level / 100 ) + 5

DVs decide more than stats, as in Gold and Silver:

• Gender comes from the Attack DV compared with the species' gender ratio.
• Shininess comes from the DVs: a shiny Pokémon has Defense, Speed and Special DVs of 10 and an Attack DV of 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14 or 15. In TapIn Pokémon about 1 in 512 wild Pokémon is shiny, far more often than on a cartridge.
• Hidden Power takes its type and power (31 to 70) from the DVs.

Stat stagesCopy Anchor Link

Moves like Swords Dance, Growl or Agility raise or lower a stat by stages, from −6 to +6. Stages reset when the Pokémon switches out.

A move's chance to hit is its accuracy × the user's accuracy stage ÷ the target's evasion stage. Moves without an accuracy value, like Swift and Faint Attack, never miss.

Paralysis quarters Speed and burn halves physical damage on top of any stages.

Critical hitsCopy Anchor Link

A critical hit doubles the damage. It also ignores stat stages when they would hurt the attacker: the attacker's lowered Attack and the target's raised Defense do not count.

The chance starts at 17 in 256 (about 6.6%) and goes up by stages:

Stages add up:

• +1 for Focus Energy (or Dire Hit from the bag) and +1 for holding a Scope Lens.
• +2 for a high critical move: Karate Chop, Razor Wind, Razor Leaf, Crabhammer, Slash, Aeroblast and Cross Chop.
• +2 for Farfetch'd holding a Stick or Chansey holding a Lucky Punch.