Critical hit: Difference between revisions

{{incomplete|section|needs=Proper images for formulas, how Focus Energy + high crit-rate stack on Stadium}}

When a move lands a critical hit, the user's level will be doubled during damage calculation, which ends up approximately (but not quite) doubling the damage dealt. A formula for the multiplier is <code>(2L+5)/(L+5)</code> where L is the user's level; as a result, lower-leveled Pokémon have a smaller critical hit boost than higher-leveled Pokémon. For example, a level 5 Pokémon will inflict 1.5× the damage on a critical hit, while a level 20 Pokémon will inflict 1.8× and a level 95 Pokémon will inflict 1.95×.

Critical hits ignore the halved Attack from {{status|burn}} and all stat modifiers, even beneficial ones. This makes it possible for a critical hit to sometimes deal less damage than a non-critical hit, if the user has more than doubled their Attack/Sp. Attack or the target has more than halved their Defense/Sp. Defense.

In this generation only, the probability of landing a critical hit is based on a Pokémon's base {{stat|Speed}}. For most moves, the probability of landing a critical hit is <code>BaseSpeed / 512</code>{{tt|*|(BaseSpeed ≫ 1 ≪ 1 ≫ 1) / 256}}; for example, {{p|Clefable}}, with a base Speed of 60, has roughly a 11.7% chance of landing a critical hit under usual circumstances.

{{cat|Moves with a high critical-hit ratio}}, such as {{m|Slash}}, are eight times more likely to land a critical hit, resulting in a probability of <code>BaseSpeed / 64</code>{{tt|*|(BaseSpeed ≫ 1 ≪ 1 ≪ 2) / 256}}. For example, {{p|Clefable}}, with a base Speed of 60, has roughly a 93.8% chance of landing a critical hit when using a move with a high critical-hit ratio.

{{m|Focus Energy}} and {{DL|Battle item|Dire Hit}} were intended to multiply the critical hit rate by 4, but a mistake instead causes them to divide the critical hit rate by 4{{tt|*|The first left shift is changed to a right shift, giving (BaseSpeed ≫ 1 ≫ 1 ≫ 1) / 256 for regular moves and (BaseSpeed ≫ 1 ≫ 1 ≪ 2) / 256 for high-crit moves}}. If a Pokémon is both under the effect of Focus Energy/Dire Hit and using a move with a high critical hit rate, the effects will stack.

As with move accuracy, if the probability of landing a critical hit would be 100%, it instead becomes 255/256 or about 99.6%.

In {{g|Stadium}}, critical hit probabilities are determined with a different formula, <code>(BaseSpeed + 76) / 4</code>{{tt|*|(Base Speed + 76) ≫ 2}}. When Focus Energy is active, the formula becomes <code>(BaseSpeed + 236) / 2</code>{{tt|*|(Base Speed + 76) ≫ 2 ≪ 2 + 160 ≫ 1}}; thus the error from the handheld games has been fixed. The exact probability formula for moves with a high critical-hit ratio and how they interact with Focus Energy is currently undocumented.

An attacking move will always start out at stage 0, but there are several ways to increase a move's stage as detailed in the table below. An effect cannot stack with another effect in the same class, including itself.