Accuracy

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If you were looking for the in-battle stat, see Stat → Accuracy.

Accuracy (Japanese: 命中 accuracy) is a property of moves that, in conjunction with the user's in-battle accuracy stat and the target's evasion stat, determines how likely a move is to hit.

Move accuracy exists in all core series Pokémon games, but was not displayed in-game until Generation III.

A move's accuracy can be any number from 1-100, reflecting the probability of the move being successful as a percentage (if neither accuracy nor evasion are modified in-battle). Currently, however, only multiples of 5 between 30 and 100 (inclusive) are used.

Many moves have an accuracy of "—", indicating that they are exempt from regular accuracy calculations. These are usually either moves that only target the user, or are moves that ignore accuracy checks (i.e. moves that cannot miss).

In the core series games

Accuracy check

When a Pokémon uses a move that can target other Pokémon (whether an opponent or an ally), except when using a move that cannot miss, the game performs an accuracy check to determine if the move hits each of its targets.

The game will still perform an accuracy check even if the moves has 100% accuracy. This is necessary because these moves can miss if the user's accuracy is lowered or the target's evasion is increased. In practice, this is exemplified in the trade-off between Yawn and Spore: Yawn only causes the target Pokémon to sleep at the end of the next turn, whereas Spore makes it sleep immediately. However, Spore may miss on the aforementioned situations, but Yawn cannot miss (unless the target Pokémon is in a semi-invulnerable turn).

Generation I and II

Whether a move hits is determined by the modified move accuracy with a random number.

The modified move accuracy Accuracymodified is an integer that is at least 1 and at most 255. It is calculated as follows:

 

Where...

  • Accuracymove is the move's accuracy, a value from 0 to 255,
  • Accuracyuser is the accuracy stage multiplier of the user,
  • Evasiontarget is the evasion stage multiplier of the target, and
  • BrightPowder is 20 if the user is holding BrightPowder (only applicable in Generation II), or 0 otherwise.

The random number R is a pseudorandomly generated integer between 0 and 255 (inclusive). In international Pokémon Stadium only, if R is 255, the number is re-generated one-time only; if this re-roll also generates 255, it is not re-rolled again.

In the Generation I handheld games and Pokémon Stadium, if R is strictly less than Accuracymodified, the move hits, otherwise it misses. In the Generation I handheld games, this results in a bug where, unless the accuracy check is skipped entirely, every move has at least a 1 in 256 chance to miss—this is because if R is 255, it will always be greater than or equal to Accuracymodified regardless of the value of Accuracymodified. In international Pokémon Stadium, because R is re-rolled once if it would be equal to 255, every move instead has at least a 1 in 65,536 chance (256²) to miss.

In Generation II, if Accuracymodified is equal to 255, the game never generates a random number at all and the move is guaranteed to hit. Otherwise, if R is strictly less than Accuracymodified, the move hits, otherwise it misses.

Special misses

In all Generation I and II games, except the Western versions of Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow, HP-draining moves always miss when used on a Pokémon that is behind a substitute.

Additionally, some moves used by AI opponents have an upfront 25% chance to fail before doing any other calculations (except in the Battle Tower, or when Lock-On or Mind Reader are in effect). Specifically, this affects status moves that induce sleep, poison, or paralysis, as well as any attempts to lower any of the player's Pokémon's stats other than accuracy (even when through the additional effect of a damaging move, in which case the reduction merely applies to that additional effect's chance, not that of the move itself).

Moves generally miss a Pokémon that is in the semi-invulnerable turn of Fly or Dig. In the Japanese version of the Generation I handheld games, due to a bug, even moves that cannot miss will miss when used against a Pokémon that is in the semi-invulnerable turn of a move, unless that target is behind a substitute.

Generations III and IV

Whether a move hits depends on the formula:

 

Where:

  • Accuracymodified is the computed threshold value that will determine whether the move will hit.
  • Accuracymove is the move's accuracy, a value from 1 to 100.
  • AdjustedStages is the equivalent accuracy stage multiplier of the user after the target's evasion stage is subtracted from the user's accuracy stage, both possibly modified by Ability or move effects such as Simple or Foresight (to no less than -6 and no more than +6 after the subtraction).
  • Modifier encompasses all multipliers from other accuracy or evasion modifiers from Ability effects, fog, move effects, and item effects. From Generation V onward, modifiers stack multiplicatively, in the order below. It starts at 1 (if no modifiers apply), and each applicable modifier is applied, subject to standard rounding with rounding up at 0.5 if necessary. Furthermore, from Generation V onward, if multiple Abilities or items take effect, they are chained in the order of the out-of-battle Speed stats of the Pokémon with them. The order for each Generation is:

Generation III:

Generation IV:

The game then selects a random number R from 1 to 100 and compares it to Accuracymodified to determine whether the move hits. If R is less than or equal to Accuracymodified, the move hits.

Generation V onward

The formula for calculating accuracy is now:

 

Where:

  • Accuracymodified is the computed threshold value that will determine whether the move will hit.
  • Accuracymove is the move's accuracy, a value from 1 to 100.
  • Modifier encompasses all multipliers from other accuracy or evasion modifiers from Ability effects, fog, move effects, and item effects. From Generation V onward, modifiers stack multiplicatively, in the order below. It starts at 4096 (if no modifiers apply), and each applicable modifier is applied, subject to standard rounding with rounding up at 0.5 if necessary. When the final value is obtained, it is multiplied by the base accuracy, and divided by 4096 and rounded half down. Furthermore, from Generation V onward, if multiple Abilities or items take effect, they are chained in the order of the out-of-battle Speed stats of the Pokémon with them.
  • AdjustedStages is the equivalent accuracy stage multiplier of the user after the target's evasion stage is subtracted from the user's accuracy stage, both possibly modified by Ability or move effects such as Simple or Foresight (to no less than -6 and no more than +6 after the subtraction).
  • MicleBerry is 4915/4096 (~1.2) if a Micle Berry is in effect, and 1 otherwise. The result is subject to standard rounding, rounding down at 0.5.
  • Affection is applied from Generation VI onward, and is 10 if the target is the player's Pokémon, the battle is not a Link Battle or taking place in a battle facility, and the player's Pokémon has either four or more hearts of AffectionGen VI-USUM/200 or higher friendshipPE/255 friendshipSwSh onward, and 0 otherwise.

The order of modifiers is:

In the spin-off games

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series

  This section is incomplete.
Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it.
Reason: How accuracy is represented in Gates to Infinity and information on Blazing, Stormy and Light
 
Accuracy indicated by a blue bar in Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon

Prior to Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, accuracy of the move was not displayed in-game (localized as Hit Ratio). In that game, as well as Pokémon Mystery Dungeon (WiiWare), it is displayed with a number of stars instead of a numerical value. More stars indicated a higher accuracy. For example, Scratch had a Hit Ratio of ★★★★★★★. Hit Ratio did not always correlate with accuracy from the main series. For instance, some moves such as Scratch and Crunch which share the same accuracy in the main series had different Hit Ratios (or vice versa). Internally, damaging moves have to pass against two values, resulting in accuracy values that might not be an integer.

Stars Accuracy
1 29.99% or lower
2 30-49.99%
3 50-69.99%
4 70-79.99%
5 80-84.99%
6 85-89.99%
7 90-94.99%
8 95% or higher


The term "accuracy" started to be used from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity.

In Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, accuracy is displayed as a blue bar in the move summary. Unlike previous games, the Speed stat is used as an accuracy modifier; the higher speed a Pokémon has, the more likely its moves will be to hit.

In the Mystery Dungeon series, there are several ways of increasing the accuracy of moves. Much like in the core series games, Abilities such as Compound Eyes boost the accuracy of moves. Additionally, beginning from Gates to Infinity, moves can be ranked up when they are used over time, which will also increase the move's accuracy. The increase is permanent and will carry over to other teammates with the same move. Items such as Accuracy ManualsGtI or Accuracy DrinksSMD can also permanently increase accuracy. Certain emeras can also increase accuracy when added to looplets.

In other languages

Language Title
Chinese Cantonese 命中 Mihngjung
Mandarin 命中 Mìngzhòng
  French Précision
  German Genauigkeit
  Italian Precisione
  Korean 명중 Myeongjung
  Norwegian Presisjon
  Brazilian Portuguese Precisão
  Spanish Precisión
  Swedish Träffsäkerhet
  Vietnamese Độ chính xác

Hit Ratio

Language Title
  French Taux de réussite
  German Trefferquote
  Italian Precisione
  Spanish Precisión


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