It's that time again!
This might be the largest BBP patch so far. If anyone wants to rank them by size, I'd be curious to see, but I'm tired so I'm not going to bother checking.
I hope it's everyone's preference for there to be rounds of follow-up work on prior work. Is it preferred that follow-ups be always at least a certain amount of time after the first change? Is it preferred that they be made quickly after the initial work? Feel free to sound off in the usual venues.
Our radar, following this patch:
Real-Time Support:
Minor Adjustments Log
Quite a few of these have piled up. I'll have to find a better way to get these from point A to point B, so that everyone's on the same page.
Within, find a deluge of minor changes.
Screens Work
Throughout most of their tenure in BBP, damage-mitigating Screens have... Sucked, sometimes terribly.
Some history: In ASB's inception, they reduced the BAP of incoming attacks of the specified category by half for 6 actions (steps), which was a fairly respectable way to make your opponent type Earth Power instead of Earthquake. Then they were adjusted to reduce BAP by 5, and then by 3, making a fairly pitiful way to pass time in a substitution for Protect for the rest of time, up until the end of Generation 8.
When making their Generation 9 incarnation, I fell prey to the same fallacy that plagued all work on Screens previously. We settled on halving damage for 3 steps, focusing on keeping the maximum theoretical mitigation in check. Heaven forbid someone get more than a turn and a half of value, from a utility move that only affects half of the foe's attacks. That is, in fear of offering too much theoretical value, the moves were greatly reined in.
Every version of Screens has been balanced around feast-or-famine interactions with the various users' defenses. Frankly, it seemed impossible to balance Screens around both types of users: The huge walls that best abuse additional mitigation, and the frail supporters and attackers that badly need help surviving large hits. However, large groups of Pokemon in the game are pining for some sort of defensive assistance in order to tangle with the biggest bodies of the current metagame — the exact kind of design space that Screens are intended to fill.
Changes to Screens and their ecosystem can be found within.
Stage-Adjusting Move Work
The broader metagame is rife with successful strategies focused on adjusting the stat stages of Pokemon. Belly Drum, Contrary, automatic effects such as Intimidate, and stage-modifying items such as Berserk Gene all see common and relevant success in Gen 9 battles.
That's a pretty solid list of all of the types of stage-changing effects that were already good in Gen 8, however.
One of Generation 9's goals was to highlight the appeal of Pokemon who can gain offensive presence through the use of setup. The myriad of ways built into the game to fight back against stage changes; such as Phazing, Hazing, copying, snatching, Taunting, newly Attracting, and even just outright attacking are missing their shared prey: The humble, turn-investing Swords Dance and its ilk. This isn't to say that any of these elements are unused, but rather that stage-adjusting has a vast amount of counterplay, while presenting nothing much to counter.
Classically, these moves were thought to be sources of "flat damage" to help Pokemon break through foes that resist their moves. In almost every such matchup, however, a vastly better form of counterplay exists, called "switching". The idea that a Pokemon would be happy to boost up in the face of a type disadvantage, in hopes of eventually doing damage that could be called adequate, should never have been taken seriously.
The purpose of these boosting moves (except as mediocre sub-ins for Protect) is called into question by this work. The answer, as posited by the changes below, is that setting up should be higher risk and higher reward than the alternatives. The choice between assured immediate damage from simply attacking (safe), and possible greater damage later from setting up (unsafe), should be interesting; and the answer should vary from matchup to matchup and from battle to battle. This assumption much resembles the purpose of setting up in cart, further proving that game design is a circular path.
There's always been concerns that strong stat-up moves would simply be abused by Pokemon that already excel without them, such as Swords Dance from
Garchomp or 
Ursaluna, with reasonable arguments suggesting that they would either be overwhelming in this role, or useless compared to immediately attacking. Our thinking at this moment is that Pokemon with strong immediate offense are less incentivized to set up further offense, and that Pokemon with strong immediate defense are more incentivized to set up further defenses (due to the accelerating returns on subtracting damage), so we'll be closely monitoring users great and small to see if any troubling trends emerge.
Find changes to "pure" stage-adjusting moves, within.
Status Polishing Work
I don't want to oversell any of the work in this section — This is the follow-up promised in this patch note. (Goodness, it took us a while to find a reasonable mod voice.) The groundwork set by the linked post allow us to more easily balance the affected statuses below. These should be better to play with and easier to understand at a glance.
That said, this still leaves us with three different Major Statuses tracking an internal property with a quantity of named markers, each of them having a different purpose in relation to their parent status. It might be time for a conversation about streamlining that, too. After all, if Poison can simply "know" if it's regular or bad Poison, maybe these other statuses should just "know" their own numeric values. A conversation for another time, perhaps.
Within, find mostly numeric and phrasing adjustments for the affected named Statuses.
Low-Hanging Fruit Adjustments
It just wouldn't be a monthly-ish BBP patch without a couple of riders-on for Pokemon that have come up in conversation. At the present rate, we'll have a whole two more (or so) ready by the time the SV DLC drops and throws a bunch of work in our laps all at once!
Within, find changes to various down-and-out Pokemon.
Spicy Extract
This change came about as a result of Stage-adjusting work, further above.
Rather than choose between this move's offensive and support functionality when balancing it, the move will adjust itself to suit the situation.
Wonder Guard
Shedinja has long languished on players' list of favorite gimmick Pokemon in theory only. In reality, every Pokemon in the game already spends the majority of their time hitting their opponents super-effectively, leaving Shedinja mostly dead in the water with wretched stats, typing, and moves.
Frankly, this effect is driven by work on the Raid Frontier: When drafting one of the test raids, we realized that this Pokemon is so dreadful, that we could likely get away with simply giving it this Raid Boss-intended effect. After all of that was drafted, the Raid didn't end up using this effect after all. So here it is for your enjoyment!
This essentially makes Shedinja's statline 130/7/4/3/3/40, which is... somewhat passable! Given their somewhat weak main STABs, Shedinja will be using their newfound longevity to support their team with utility moves. In addition to typical Ghost tricks such as Will-o-Wisp and Heal Block, Shedinja enjoys access to excellent pivoting utility in Baton Pass to make up for its own lacking damage. Their expanded HP pool, with what is effectively an HP gate halfway through, buys them much-needed time to chip away at burlier foes with their humble attacks.
The real stars of its movepool, post-revision, involve its new capacity to Faint twice. Shedinja is now the only Pokemon able to afflict two opponents in the same battle with Grudge without assistance, and likewise the only Pokemon that can be expected to use Final Gambit multiple times on a routine basis. These traits position Shedinja as a unique and adaptable utility threat who must be taken more seriously than mere setup fodder.
Dire Claw
Sneasler, the only natural user of Dire Claw, also already features the recently-buffed Poison Touch. This move is getting a brush-up to better synergize with its intended user.
The initial amounts of counters have each been toned down. The move has also been given a component to double counters on the defender on subsequent occurrences of the same effect, so that successful effect checks aren't put to waste.
Lastly, the move has been disallowed from rolling the same effect more than once per round, improving its utility when used as a main spammable STAB (It inflicts a variety of useful status more often), and worsening its utility in multi-hit combos or when used by multiple users. Be the first to pair Sneasler with
Typhlosion-Hisui!
Hustle
This ability has proven difficult to utilize in its new form, for a relatively low payoff. Thus, it will receive a plain numeric buff. The non-Truant users will appreciate being able to more realistically access a large boost, and Durant in particular will live fast and kill faster.
The change to the energy loss is to make the ability easier for users to calc around when ordering. It also makes it harder to access lower end of the user's Energy pool, and easier for the user to stay afloat at low Energy values to leverage the boost. Durant will likely struggle to float at lower Energy values without Chilling too many times in front of opponents, but should hopefully gain enough damage for trouble for it to be worthwhile.
Fainting-triggered Abilities
This suite of abilities has been left in the dust by other abilities better-adapted to BBP. Fainting an opponent directly with the user's own hit is a much rarer occurrence in BBP than it is in cart, leaving these abilities to be rather situational, and their users who rely on them as their "main" ability rather adrift.
With abilities such as Justified or Lightning Rod simply awarding their users a free stage boost, it seems within reason for these abilities to offer similar power, with similar consistency, so long as there's a reasonable hoop to jump through.
(Grim Neigh and As One reflect this change as well.)
Each of the abilities in this "set" will be given their own riff on the same general design:
Moxie and Beast Boost now respond to the success of their teammates, even before they enter play. This makes preserving teammates and playing around trapping more important when such a Pokemon is waiting in the wings.
Given their relative status as one-trick ponies, without any way to contribute to a match besides damage, Glastrier and Spectrier saw little use among players. Chilling Neigh and its variants now work like Moxie above, but grant an even longer boost. This allows the legendary steeds in particular to now hit the ground running when they face down the last surviving foe on a team, and to excel at doing the one thing they're built to do. Even with only one enemy KO, up to 24 free damage is quite a lot. Now their lack of matchup control reinforces their function as late-game cleaners, discouraging them further from entering play prematurely.
Soul-Heart has been revised to better cement Magearna's design as a revenge-killer. "Refunding" the Special Attack drop from Fleur Cannon upon defeating an enemy makes the Pokemon more threatening when they're used for this particular job. The duration of the boost is adjusted downward because, frankly, Magearna is expected to be a very good Pokemon regardless of its ability once it's available. (which is probably soon tm, rather than actually soon.)
The Safari Zone is moving into a second phase of testing!
The Safari Zone has had a rather successful (e.g. informative) first round of testing. Based on players' efforts, our findings are roughly as follows:
They're dead. Round completed battles up when determining (tower-based) test rewards, and refund 1/3 of the JC paid for entry for each Trek not started. You can sign up for second-wave testing the same way as the first (and you could spend your JC refund on it
).
The less finished rounds you got to test (as a challenger) in the first round of testing, the earlier in queue you get to cut. If you got to test zero rounds (either because you had just started, or because you never signed up), congrats! You get to cut to the front. Everyone, please include your first-wave round count when signing up for second-wave testing.
Limit one second-round test per player, please.
The Raid Frontier is opening for tests!
The signup thread can be found here!
The Raid Frontier is a facility! You should test it!
This patch will be effective in all future rounds, except for in competitive matches.
This might be the largest BBP patch so far. If anyone wants to rank them by size, I'd be curious to see, but I'm tired so I'm not going to bother checking.
I hope it's everyone's preference for there to be rounds of follow-up work on prior work. Is it preferred that follow-ups be always at least a certain amount of time after the first change? Is it preferred that they be made quickly after the initial work? Feel free to sound off in the usual venues.
Our radar, following this patch:
Real-Time Support:
Once Raid and Safari are open and churning out rewards, DQ work is our largest priority. Many BBP players take breaks or otherwise experience schedule disruption over the summer, leaving the League Circuit very lonely the remaining players with fewer opponents to play with and ref for. Give our radar post here here a look, and then think back to those interruptions and picture how such features would have best helped you.
Also, we'll have to think on game-wide systems to prorate rewards for players who are DQ'd because of sudden life occurrences. Currently, it can be very punishing to lose out on weeks of progress and a JC investment for any reason, from environmental collapse to plain old fatigue.
Z-MovesAlso once these two facilities are open and pumping out EXP, we'll be free to reward players for chasing non-EXP rewards in Realgam Tower, which means that Z-Moves as a whole will need a look-over. I expect each use of a Z-Move will cost 1 Tech, and that the contents of those moves will be balanced around that, but we'll see. Feel free to sound off in the usual venues.
Levels 0 and 1When the DLC drops, we'll likely have a large wave of re-approvals for Pokemon affected by the changes. This is the kind of opportunity required for us to talk about changing the Level of one or more moves, so don't miss your window! If you have any thoughts on moves that could be de-Leveled into Level 0 (especially, we'd like easy-to-understand moves that aren't just attacks or Major Status), you know what to do: Sound off in the usual venues.
There's also a broader conversation that could be had on the necessity of Level 1 at all, compared to 0's place as a "tutorial" battle format, and Levels 2 through 4 offering meaningfully different gameplay improvements (giving them a more "real" sense of progression). I'm not dumb enough to imagine that anyone would be in favor of keeping a Level if I asked, (who wants their shiny toys later, after all) but pulling out an entire Level from the system has pretty dramatic reverberations through the entire rest of the game — facility content to rebalance for other levels, an entire Level's worth of moves to re-home, several game pieces having Level-scaling effects, and more besides.
If we decided we wanted this, it could significantly delay other content, up to and including DLC implementation and facility releases, so with that in mind: Please sound off in the usual venues.
Boasting and Bravado RewardsThese are on our radar!
Minor Adjustments Log
Quite a few of these have piled up. I'll have to find a better way to get these from point A to point B, so that everyone's on the same page.
Within, find a deluge of minor changes.
Handbook Changes
[2.2] Structure of a Phase
Added the following definition:
The term "underway" is used in a few places, so this appropriates it as a game term for phases that have "finished beginning", as it were.
[2.5f] Switch Declaration Resolution
Clarified when the items are equipped when sending out Pokemon.
[2.7] Battling Phase Specified a place between "check start of turn subs" and "make the turn order", for medicines to be used. Earlier-ordered medicines go first
[2.7a] The Action Phase
Adding a line clarifying that "the last step of the round" refers to the last step of the full round, even if the round is doomed to end early. (that is, the game doesn't know that you won't reach that last step.)
[2.7b] Pokemon with Multiple Actions
Added. Describes the rules logic for Pokemon who can act more than once in a single step.
The main takeaway is that they trigger "start of turn" effects only at the start of their first turn in a step, and "end of turn" effects only at the end of their last scheduled turn. This can result in end-of-turn effects being missed if they leave play before taking their last scheduled turn.
Otherwise, this should behave mostly as would be expected.
[2.9] Post-Event Checks
Added the following check as step 9, pushing down the last two and making them steps 10 and 11.
(If that effect faints your last opponent, though, you'll still lose first by timestamp order.)
[3.3] Effect Instructions
Now specifies the following:
As above; now specifies the following
Further clarification has been added to Fainting, to ignore the effects of Fainted Pokemon that aren't in play
(An important distinction, so that they can finish their move and leave play.)
[3.3a] Effect Shorthand Phrases
Clarified once more that "On round start" and similar effect triggers (in effect text only) is shorthand for "At the start of the Battling Phase".
[6.3a] Immutable Items
Updated to include Adamant Orb, Adamant Crystal, Lustrous Orb, and Lustrous Globe when held by their respective associated holders.
[7.1a] Modifying Durations
Added. Describes rules for adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing durations.
[7.6b] Stat Stage Conversion
Added a new rule that describes what happens when a stage is converted to a different stage, such as by the effect of Contrary.
Simple example:
7.6b "Ongoing Stage Changes" and further rules are pushed down by one letter.
[8.3] Legality Checks
Added tech for forcing a mon to use an action. this is mainly for raids.
(this is basically super-calling a move.)
[8.3c] Target Legality Check
Clarified a contradiction. This formerly said "if the action has no legal targets, the move fails to execute".
8.3c comes after the execution check (after paying costs). The line now says that the move "is executed, but does nothing" if it somehow has no legal targets.
[8.10] Damage Calculation
Added a specific mention of Fixed Damage, causing such attacks to skip most of the steps of calculation.
[9.4] Combination Moves
Removed "the user must be able to execute each component to execute the combination." The user must still be able to attempt those components. (e.g. Taunt now correctly doesn't prevent damaging combos with nondamaging components. Disable still correctly prevents the sealed move from being a legal component.)
[10.6] The Trigger Component
Added a fairly important returning action clause:
[10.6b] Action Clause Observed Behavior
You can now observe for a specified medicine, any medicine, or (specified or any) medicine targeting a specific Pokemon
[11.3] Pokemon Fusion
Cleaned up the cost text. The effect allowing the fusion (typically a key item) will specify if the fusion costs Tech. This is to clean up cases where one or more of the component Pokemon, themselves, cost Tech. (being most such cases)
DAT Changes
Pokemon
Added data for Dialga-Origin, Palkia-Origin, their related held items, Walking Wake, and Iron Leaves.
Note: Adamant Crystal and Lustrous Globe are implemented, but are not purchasable or obtainable at this time. Their damage effects are clones of in-game, pending later review.
Moves
Added the "Standby" command. This is what your Pokemon does, when you use their turn to use a medicine. (or take other trainer actions, so that they don't Struggle) It's not legal for use in order sets directly.
Move Levels
Added a page dedicated to listing the Level of each move, as well as listing moves in groups by Level.
Restriction Text
Manually revised restriction texts of actions, to say whether:
Now lasts 3 steps, rather than three of the subject's turns.
Encore
Now correctly has this line:
Fillet Away
Now costs 20% remaining HP.
Grounded
Now causes subjects to fail to attempt (rather than execute) the listed moves
Ice Ball
No longer mentions Rollout.
Infernal Parade
Infernal Parade's BAP is equal to 6, plus 6 more for each Major Status on the defender. (from 6, or 12 with major status)
Poison Heal
Capped healing at 8.
Sketch
Added "Furthermore, if the user's original species is Smeargle, Necturine, or Necturna, and defender knows that Borrowed move as part of their movepool, the user Paints that move." to the effect that borrows moves. Clarified in 5.10 that Sketch species can permanently learn only moves that they can Paint.
Trapping and Partial Trapping
Now correctly ends when their creator leaves play.
Truant
Now triples Energy costs instead of reducing max Energy. The user's chills now restore 40 En.
Wild Charge
To work correctly with substitutions, the condition for this effect will be adjusted:
[2.2] Structure of a Phase
Added the following definition:
Once this phase-beginning checklist has been completed, and all relevant effects that have triggered are finished resolving, that phase is said to be "underway", and remains so until that phase ends.
The term "underway" is used in a few places, so this appropriates it as a game term for phases that have "finished beginning", as it were.
[2.5f] Switch Declaration Resolution
Clarified when the items are equipped when sending out Pokemon.
[2.7] Battling Phase Specified a place between "check start of turn subs" and "make the turn order", for medicines to be used. Earlier-ordered medicines go first
[2.7a] The Action Phase
Adding a line clarifying that "the last step of the round" refers to the last step of the full round, even if the round is doomed to end early. (that is, the game doesn't know that you won't reach that last step.)
"In addition, the highest-numbered step in a round is referred to as the "last" step of the round, regardless of whether or not the battle actually reaches that step. (Such as if the round ends early.)"
[2.7b] Pokemon with Multiple Actions
Added. Describes the rules logic for Pokemon who can act more than once in a single step.
The main takeaway is that they trigger "start of turn" effects only at the start of their first turn in a step, and "end of turn" effects only at the end of their last scheduled turn. This can result in end-of-turn effects being missed if they leave play before taking their last scheduled turn.
Otherwise, this should behave mostly as would be expected.
[2.9] Post-Event Checks
Added the following check as step 9, pushing down the last two and making them steps 10 and 11.
If any triggered effects that mentions "Faint" would trigger; they do so, and are resolved in the usual order.
This is so an effect that triggers "when the user Faints" can trigger before you lose the game for being out of Pokemon, should it ever be relevant.(If that effect faints your last opponent, though, you'll still lose first by timestamp order.)
[3.3] Effect Instructions
Now specifies the following:
"Mentions of Pokemon (such as "Each Pokemon" or "opposing Pokemon") in effects refer to only Pokemon in play, unless they specify otherwise (such as " including inactive Pokemon")."
As above; now specifies the following
"In the same way, mentions of Pokemon in effects refer only to Pokemon that aren't Fainted, unless they specify otherwise (such as "target a Fainted Pokemon in reserve")."
Further clarification has been added to Fainting, to ignore the effects of Fainted Pokemon that aren't in play
(An important distinction, so that they can finish their move and leave play.)
[3.3a] Effect Shorthand Phrases
Clarified once more that "On round start" and similar effect triggers (in effect text only) is shorthand for "At the start of the Battling Phase".
[6.3a] Immutable Items
Updated to include Adamant Orb, Adamant Crystal, Lustrous Orb, and Lustrous Globe when held by their respective associated holders.
[7.1a] Modifying Durations
Added. Describes rules for adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing durations.
[7.6b] Stat Stage Conversion
Added a new rule that describes what happens when a stage is converted to a different stage, such as by the effect of Contrary.
Simple example:
- You use Feather Dance on a Contrary mon
- Contrary would say "Convert it into a positive stage"
- You raise that stage by the specified amount instead of lowering, for the same duration.
7.6b "Ongoing Stage Changes" and further rules are pushed down by one letter.
[8.3] Legality Checks
Added tech for forcing a mon to use an action. this is mainly for raids.
"An effect can cause a Pokemon to "freely execute" an action. Freely-executed actions are executed regardless of the action's legality, and the user pays no costs for that action."
(this is basically super-calling a move.)
[8.3c] Target Legality Check
Clarified a contradiction. This formerly said "if the action has no legal targets, the move fails to execute".
8.3c comes after the execution check (after paying costs). The line now says that the move "is executed, but does nothing" if it somehow has no legal targets.
[8.10] Damage Calculation
Added a specific mention of Fixed Damage, causing such attacks to skip most of the steps of calculation.
[9.4] Combination Moves
Removed "the user must be able to execute each component to execute the combination." The user must still be able to attempt those components. (e.g. Taunt now correctly doesn't prevent damaging combos with nondamaging components. Disable still correctly prevents the sealed move from being a legal component.)
[10.6] The Trigger Component
Added a fairly important returning action clause:
"Has executed [observed behavior] previously this [step/round/since they last entered play]."
This is what most matchup control tools are balanced around, so it's important to have it.[10.6b] Action Clause Observed Behavior
You can now observe for a specified medicine, any medicine, or (specified or any) medicine targeting a specific Pokemon
[11.3] Pokemon Fusion
Cleaned up the cost text. The effect allowing the fusion (typically a key item) will specify if the fusion costs Tech. This is to clean up cases where one or more of the component Pokemon, themselves, cost Tech. (being most such cases)
DAT Changes
Pokemon
Added data for Dialga-Origin, Palkia-Origin, their related held items, Walking Wake, and Iron Leaves.
Note: Adamant Crystal and Lustrous Globe are implemented, but are not purchasable or obtainable at this time. Their damage effects are clones of in-game, pending later review.
Moves
Added the "Standby" command. This is what your Pokemon does, when you use their turn to use a medicine. (or take other trainer actions, so that they don't Struggle) It's not legal for use in order sets directly.
Move Levels
Added a page dedicated to listing the Level of each move, as well as listing moves in groups by Level.
Restriction Text
Manually revised restriction texts of actions, to say whether:
- The move can't be attempted (most actions dependent on variable factors/on your own actions)
- The move can't be executed (most actions dependent on others' actions)
- Removed mention of move failure for not paying alternate costs. (The rules for paying costs already handle this.)
Now lasts 3 steps, rather than three of the subject's turns.
Encore
Now correctly has this line:
"● When this condition is created: The move in the subject's current order becomes the noted move."
Fillet Away
Now costs 20% remaining HP.
Grounded
Now causes subjects to fail to attempt (rather than execute) the listed moves
Ice Ball
No longer mentions Rollout.
Infernal Parade
Infernal Parade's BAP is equal to 6, plus 6 more for each Major Status on the defender. (from 6, or 12 with major status)
Poison Heal
Capped healing at 8.
Sketch
Added "Furthermore, if the user's original species is Smeargle, Necturine, or Necturna, and defender knows that Borrowed move as part of their movepool, the user Paints that move." to the effect that borrows moves. Clarified in 5.10 that Sketch species can permanently learn only moves that they can Paint.
Trapping and Partial Trapping
Now correctly ends when their creator leaves play.
Truant
Now triples Energy costs instead of reducing max Energy. The user's chills now restore 40 En.
Wild Charge
To work correctly with substitutions, the condition for this effect will be adjusted:
"Major Status can't prevent the user from receiving an order to use this move, or from attempting this move.
When the user attempts this move: Remove Sleep, Confusion, and Paralysis from the user."
Screens Work
Throughout most of their tenure in BBP, damage-mitigating Screens have... Sucked, sometimes terribly.
Some history: In ASB's inception, they reduced the BAP of incoming attacks of the specified category by half for 6 actions (steps), which was a fairly respectable way to make your opponent type Earth Power instead of Earthquake. Then they were adjusted to reduce BAP by 5, and then by 3, making a fairly pitiful way to pass time in a substitution for Protect for the rest of time, up until the end of Generation 8.
When making their Generation 9 incarnation, I fell prey to the same fallacy that plagued all work on Screens previously. We settled on halving damage for 3 steps, focusing on keeping the maximum theoretical mitigation in check. Heaven forbid someone get more than a turn and a half of value, from a utility move that only affects half of the foe's attacks. That is, in fear of offering too much theoretical value, the moves were greatly reined in.
Every version of Screens has been balanced around feast-or-famine interactions with the various users' defenses. Frankly, it seemed impossible to balance Screens around both types of users: The huge walls that best abuse additional mitigation, and the frail supporters and attackers that badly need help surviving large hits. However, large groups of Pokemon in the game are pining for some sort of defensive assistance in order to tangle with the biggest bodies of the current metagame — the exact kind of design space that Screens are intended to fill.
Changes to Screens and their ecosystem can be found within.
The answer to the question, "Should Screens be for the Pokemon that need them, or the Pokemon that can actually set them", should be "yes".
(Light Screen mirrors this change, of course.)
The decision-making around designing Light Screen and Reflect has always been driven by two questions. Whenever we asked ourselves, "Who are these for," the answer was always the frailest members of a team. Whenever we asked ourselves, "Who is supposed to be setting these," the best setters always seemed to be Pokemon who could afford the turn to set them. The obvious-in-hindsight solution to this apparent contradiction was to encourage the use of the main interesting use case: Passing defensive Screens from bulky teammates to frail ones.
The reminder text exists to ensure that the numeral "12" (the intended "default" value) appears somewhere in the text field, to aid in memorization. We thought it might be too easy to skim and think, "Yep, 14. That's the Number."
The numbers balance on this rework were up in the air for while. Eventually, with the power of charts, we were able to settle on a version worth using. First, a few examples of selfish screen use:
But how likely is it that the opponent will attack into Light Screen or Reflect, over multiple rounds, for the entirety of its duration? Slim to none, as experience shows. Screens have to pass Taunt, Snatch, and more to even make it to the field, and they only mitigate as much damage as forcing the opponent to hit the other Defense would save in most cases. This is before opponents spend Screen duration setting hazards, using fixed-damage or effect damage actions, boosting their stats, or even just attacking with high-critical-rate moves. This is why prior balance passes (for both Screens and for certain other game elements) have failed in the past: Focusing overmuch on ideal cases can leave a game piece ineffective in practice. Who'd have known?
Even with the reduction to 10, or 8, Defense in multi-battles, they're probably much stronger in those formats than in Singles. In a Doubles battle, the bulkier Pokemon in play can set a Screen and the frailer teammate will benefit immediately.
Mr. Rime's stocks are rising!
The most potent selfish users of Reflect will be the ones who get the majority of the value upfront (e.g. those with low Defenses). It remains a usable trick for messing with time-to-KO for midrange users, and it's a remarkable form of team support for bulky users looking to back up their frail allies.
Brick Break and Psychic Fangs
Another problem plaguing the viability of Screens was the ease with which they were removed. Several times, Screens were made both more potent and shorter-duration in order to design around this obstacle; which undercut their niche as defensive team-support and diluted them into being "just another short-term mitigation".
These attacks weren't escaping the "invalidates Screens" allegations this time, I'm afraid. The rule "7.1a Modifying Durations" was, in fact, added specifically so that we could make this change to these moves.
(Psychic Fangs reflects this change, but Defog is unchanged.)
The new line of text is for preserving the current Screen-bypassing functionality. (For users from the future, Brick Break currently discards Screens when a Pokemon starts attacking with it.) This also gives these moves an added bit of utility in combos, to make up for their weakened Screen-removing effect.
Halving Screen duration, rather than subtracting, counters screen-passing the hardest, by design. We expect passing Screens to be a viable archetype of team going forward, at minimum, so having a common answer to this strategy within reach of most opponents is important for safety.
Aurora Veil
Being bound to Snow makes this move so much more safer to balance, compared to the other (very widely distributed) Screens, that it could have essentially any duration.
Tying the move's duration to the Weather is a way of avoiding having to tie it to any of the user's properties. The effect to ignore the veiled team's Reflect and Light Screen can safely be discarded, now that they're redundant with each other in effect.
Light Clay
Even though the most endowed setters can create Screens for more steps than some battles last, this item likely doesn't need immediate changes. Under our current assumptions, this can now the thought of as a screen-passing item for frail, fast Pokemon. Prior frail examples like Alakazam can selfishly gain 8 (or 12!) turns of personal mitigation by foregoing a damage-boosting item for Light Clay.
It remains to be seen if this item will prove to be problematic with particular users, so we'll wait and see.
| Reflect The user raises a barrier of light that protects their team from Physical moves. Creates a Screen field condition named Reflect on the user's team, for a number of steps equal to the user's Defense rank, with the following effect: ● While a member of the affected team is being attacked with a Physical attack: That member's Defense rank is always at least 14, minus twice (x2) the number of that team's members in play. (12 for one member in play, 10 for two members in play, and so on.) |
The decision-making around designing Light Screen and Reflect has always been driven by two questions. Whenever we asked ourselves, "Who are these for," the answer was always the frailest members of a team. Whenever we asked ourselves, "Who is supposed to be setting these," the best setters always seemed to be Pokemon who could afford the turn to set them. The obvious-in-hindsight solution to this apparent contradiction was to encourage the use of the main interesting use case: Passing defensive Screens from bulky teammates to frail ones.
The reminder text exists to ensure that the numeral "12" (the intended "default" value) appears somewhere in the text field, to aid in memorization. We thought it might be too easy to skim and think, "Yep, 14. That's the Number."
The numbers balance on this rework were up in the air for while. Eventually, with the power of charts, we were able to settle on a version worth using. First, a few examples of selfish screen use:
- Users with 7 Defense, such as neutral
Dragonite and 
Hydreigon, or +Def 
Gallade and 
Snorlax:, mitigate 5 power from physical hits, over 7 steps (if they're faster than their attacker), saving themselves 35 HP if they're hit with seven consecutive physical attacks, or 52-ish if they're seven consecutive super-effective physical attacks. Hopefully, this example illustrates how unlikely these "ideal" scenarios of maximum mitigation truly are. - Users with 4 Defense, such as exactly neutral
Alakazam (and a bunch of NFEs), mitigate 8 power from physical hits over 4 steps, saving themselves about 32 or 48 HP if they're hit physically on each step. - Users with 10 Defense, such as neutral
Forretress or 
Aegislash-Shield, mitigate only 2 power from physical hits over 10 steps, saving themselves 20 to 30 HP if they're hit physically on each step.
But how likely is it that the opponent will attack into Light Screen or Reflect, over multiple rounds, for the entirety of its duration? Slim to none, as experience shows. Screens have to pass Taunt, Snatch, and more to even make it to the field, and they only mitigate as much damage as forcing the opponent to hit the other Defense would save in most cases. This is before opponents spend Screen duration setting hazards, using fixed-damage or effect damage actions, boosting their stats, or even just attacking with high-critical-rate moves. This is why prior balance passes (for both Screens and for certain other game elements) have failed in the past: Focusing overmuch on ideal cases can leave a game piece ineffective in practice. Who'd have known?
Even with the reduction to 10, or 8, Defense in multi-battles, they're probably much stronger in those formats than in Singles. In a Doubles battle, the bulkier Pokemon in play can set a Screen and the frailer teammate will benefit immediately.
Mr. Rime's stocks are rising!The most potent selfish users of Reflect will be the ones who get the majority of the value upfront (e.g. those with low Defenses). It remains a usable trick for messing with time-to-KO for midrange users, and it's a remarkable form of team support for bulky users looking to back up their frail allies.
Brick Break and Psychic Fangs
Another problem plaguing the viability of Screens was the ease with which they were removed. Several times, Screens were made both more potent and shorter-duration in order to design around this obstacle; which undercut their niche as defensive team-support and diluted them into being "just another short-term mitigation".
These attacks weren't escaping the "invalidates Screens" allegations this time, I'm afraid. The rule "7.1a Modifying Durations" was, in fact, added specifically so that we could make this change to these moves.
| Brick Break The user swings an appendage or weapon with stone-cracking force. While the user is attacking with this move: Ignore the effects of Screens affecting the defender's team. After the user attacks with this move: Halve the duration of each Screen affecting the defender's team, rounded down. |
The new line of text is for preserving the current Screen-bypassing functionality. (For users from the future, Brick Break currently discards Screens when a Pokemon starts attacking with it.) This also gives these moves an added bit of utility in combos, to make up for their weakened Screen-removing effect.
Halving Screen duration, rather than subtracting, counters screen-passing the hardest, by design. We expect passing Screens to be a viable archetype of team going forward, at minimum, so having a common answer to this strategy within reach of most opponents is important for safety.
Aurora Veil
Being bound to Snow makes this move so much more safer to balance, compared to the other (very widely distributed) Screens, that it could have essentially any duration.
| Aurora Veil The user cloaks their team with a shroud of luminescent snowfall. (If the weather isn't Snow, this move fails.) Create a Screen field condition named Aurora Veil on the user's team until Snow ends with the following effects: ● While a member of the affected team is being attacked: That member's Defense and Special Defense ranks are each always at least 14, minus twice (x2) the number of that team's members in play. (12 for one member in play, 10 for two members in play, and so on.) |
Tying the move's duration to the Weather is a way of avoiding having to tie it to any of the user's properties. The effect to ignore the veiled team's Reflect and Light Screen can safely be discarded, now that they're redundant with each other in effect.
Light ClayEven though the most endowed setters can create Screens for more steps than some battles last, this item likely doesn't need immediate changes. Under our current assumptions, this can now the thought of as a screen-passing item for frail, fast Pokemon. Prior frail examples like Alakazam can selfishly gain 8 (or 12!) turns of personal mitigation by foregoing a damage-boosting item for Light Clay.
It remains to be seen if this item will prove to be problematic with particular users, so we'll wait and see.
Stage-Adjusting Move Work
The broader metagame is rife with successful strategies focused on adjusting the stat stages of Pokemon. Belly Drum, Contrary, automatic effects such as Intimidate, and stage-modifying items such as Berserk Gene all see common and relevant success in Gen 9 battles.
That's a pretty solid list of all of the types of stage-changing effects that were already good in Gen 8, however.
One of Generation 9's goals was to highlight the appeal of Pokemon who can gain offensive presence through the use of setup. The myriad of ways built into the game to fight back against stage changes; such as Phazing, Hazing, copying, snatching, Taunting, newly Attracting, and even just outright attacking are missing their shared prey: The humble, turn-investing Swords Dance and its ilk. This isn't to say that any of these elements are unused, but rather that stage-adjusting has a vast amount of counterplay, while presenting nothing much to counter.
Classically, these moves were thought to be sources of "flat damage" to help Pokemon break through foes that resist their moves. In almost every such matchup, however, a vastly better form of counterplay exists, called "switching". The idea that a Pokemon would be happy to boost up in the face of a type disadvantage, in hopes of eventually doing damage that could be called adequate, should never have been taken seriously.
The purpose of these boosting moves (except as mediocre sub-ins for Protect) is called into question by this work. The answer, as posited by the changes below, is that setting up should be higher risk and higher reward than the alternatives. The choice between assured immediate damage from simply attacking (safe), and possible greater damage later from setting up (unsafe), should be interesting; and the answer should vary from matchup to matchup and from battle to battle. This assumption much resembles the purpose of setting up in cart, further proving that game design is a circular path.
There's always been concerns that strong stat-up moves would simply be abused by Pokemon that already excel without them, such as Swords Dance from
Garchomp or Ursaluna, with reasonable arguments suggesting that they would either be overwhelming in this role, or useless compared to immediately attacking. Our thinking at this moment is that Pokemon with strong immediate offense are less incentivized to set up further offense, and that Pokemon with strong immediate defense are more incentivized to set up further defenses (due to the accelerating returns on subtracting damage), so we'll be closely monitoring users great and small to see if any troubling trends emerge.Find changes to "pure" stage-adjusting moves, within.
First, to define the scope of this work. This work will, first, center around the following "root" moves:
+2 Moves: These are core group most needing help, with the exception of Agility and its clones. Speed stage changes are most important for the round they're applied, to get the jump on a foe's substitution or make strong orders into the coming round's first step. Thus, they're already both powerful and specific in their application — an excellent place for any game piece's balance to be.
For the likes of Swords Dance, such moves only outperform mediocre attacks, and only in theory. This leaves their proactive use laughably bad in practice. For example, using Swords Dance, and then hitting foes with physical attacks until the duration expires, currently gains the Swords Dance user +24 (+8 per attack * 3 attacks) damage for their trouble. It's not uncommon for an item-boosted super-effective attack to deal 24 or more damage upfront, which makes that ideal usage of Swords Dance numerically worse than one of the most common interactions in all of BBP.
The imagined greater returns of consecutive Swords Dances turned out to be even less practical. The battle situation that would lead to a Pokemon getting multiple uninterrupted Swords Dances (such as repeated faulty substitution abuse) would be game-ending with any other move as payoff, and the odds of proactively boosting up twice and then landing three successful physical hits are even slimmer than the single-boost example.
Thus, the simplest solution is to widen the window in which the users may "cash in":
The stage-reducing variants have more available counterplay, such as Psych Up, or even just switching out; so their cost is reduced to match.
The higher-stage boosting moves are positioned as even higher risk and higher average reward than the standard root move. Landing 3 out of 4 hits under Tail Glow should be both harder, and more rewarding, than landing 3 out of 5 hits under Nasty Plot. Their theoretical maximum payoff (In this case, 48 from Tail Glow vs. 40 from Nasty Plot) is slightly higher as well, but that's less relevant than the practical case.
Under ideal conditions, this improved version of Swords Dance gives +40 whole physical damage... If you can secure it all, by attacking five times successfully and consecutively. 5 turns is almost the entire duration of a typical matchup, but an opponent looking to suffer less damage from the Swords Dance user is encouraged to try to fight over this duration, by stalling, forcing the user out, or by KOing them.
Our expectation is to start balancing set-up moves assuming that "roughly 1/3" of the value will be lost or missed out on, as a result of counter-moves, Fainting, switching out of a sour match-up, or other reasons. We assume that moves with longer durations will suffer more average loss, and shorter durations will typically suffer less.
Following this logic, the other groups of moves will get similar treatment:
- +2 Moves: Swords Dance, Iron Defense, Nasty Plot, Amnesia, Agility, and their clones.
- +1 Moves: Meditate, Harden, Charge, and their clones.
- +1/+1 Moves: Bulk Up, Calm Mind, Dragon Dance, Work Up, Cosmic Power, Hone Claws, and their clones.
- -2 Moves: Feather Dance, Screech, Eerie Impulse, Fake Tears, Scary Fance, and their clones.
- Moves adding a stat or a stage. (Bulk Up -> Coil and Victory Dance; Nasty Plot -> Tail Glow.)
- Moves adding an additional utility effect. (Dragon Dance -> Tidy Up, Bulk Up -> Coaching.)
+2 Moves: These are core group most needing help, with the exception of Agility and its clones. Speed stage changes are most important for the round they're applied, to get the jump on a foe's substitution or make strong orders into the coming round's first step. Thus, they're already both powerful and specific in their application — an excellent place for any game piece's balance to be.
For the likes of Swords Dance, such moves only outperform mediocre attacks, and only in theory. This leaves their proactive use laughably bad in practice. For example, using Swords Dance, and then hitting foes with physical attacks until the duration expires, currently gains the Swords Dance user +24 (+8 per attack * 3 attacks) damage for their trouble. It's not uncommon for an item-boosted super-effective attack to deal 24 or more damage upfront, which makes that ideal usage of Swords Dance numerically worse than one of the most common interactions in all of BBP.
The imagined greater returns of consecutive Swords Dances turned out to be even less practical. The battle situation that would lead to a Pokemon getting multiple uninterrupted Swords Dances (such as repeated faulty substitution abuse) would be game-ending with any other move as payoff, and the odds of proactively boosting up twice and then landing three successful physical hits are even slimmer than the single-boost example.
Thus, the simplest solution is to widen the window in which the users may "cash in":
| Swords Dance En Cost: 7 -> 14 (x2) The user performs a graceful but ferocious spinning war dance. Raise the user's Attack stage by two (2) for their next five (5) turns. |
Decorate, Nasty Plot, Swords Dance: 14 En, stage +2, next 5 turns.
Growth: 14 En, stage +variable amount, next 5 turns. (It is considered to be equivalent to Swords Dance.)
Fake Tears, Metal Sound, Screech: 10 En, stage -2, next 5 turns.
Tail Glow: 14 En, stage +3, next 4 turns.
The stage-reducing variants have more available counterplay, such as Psych Up, or even just switching out; so their cost is reduced to match.
The higher-stage boosting moves are positioned as even higher risk and higher average reward than the standard root move. Landing 3 out of 4 hits under Tail Glow should be both harder, and more rewarding, than landing 3 out of 5 hits under Nasty Plot. Their theoretical maximum payoff (In this case, 48 from Tail Glow vs. 40 from Nasty Plot) is slightly higher as well, but that's less relevant than the practical case.
Under ideal conditions, this improved version of Swords Dance gives +40 whole physical damage... If you can secure it all, by attacking five times successfully and consecutively. 5 turns is almost the entire duration of a typical matchup, but an opponent looking to suffer less damage from the Swords Dance user is encouraged to try to fight over this duration, by stalling, forcing the user out, or by KOing them.
Our expectation is to start balancing set-up moves assuming that "roughly 1/3" of the value will be lost or missed out on, as a result of counter-moves, Fainting, switching out of a sour match-up, or other reasons. We assume that moves with longer durations will suffer more average loss, and shorter durations will typically suffer less.
Following this logic, the other groups of moves will get similar treatment:
Iron Defense, Amnesia, and relatives:
These moves stack multiplicatively with themselves — If 24 damage a turn KOs you in four turns, then 18 damage a turn KOs in six turns, 12 KOs in eight turns, and so on. These moves "buy back" some of the time spent setting them up, resulting in a very different situation than offensive boosts. Thus, we're giving them slightly less juice than their offensive counterparts. These moves were simply closer to being strong already.
Acid Armor, Amnesia, Barrier, Iron Defense, Stuff Cheeks: 14 En, stage +2, next 4 turns.
Captivate, Charm, Eerie Impulse, Feather Dance: 10 En, stage -2, next 4 turns.
Cotton Guard, Shelter: 14 En, stage +3, next 3 turns.
Agility and relatives:
The most important turn of a Speed change is the first one, when it's used to gain an immediate advantage, such as by thwarding a substitution. Each additional turn matters less than the next, so there's not much reason to mess with what isn't broken. Moves hat also raise Speed (such as Dragon Dance) maybe be buffed in this section, but their distribution is carefully curated, so this isn't a huge issue.
Their En will be changed to match other such moves for memory reasons, which is technically a nerf; but they rarely come up more than once in the same matchup, so we don't expect this to impact too many battles in the long run.
Agility, Autotomize, Shift Gear, Rock Polish: 14 En. Otherwise unchanged.
Bulk Up, Calm Mind, and relatives:
These moves are numerically quite close to being already good, providing up to +20 maximum damage. Also, providing -15 damage mitigation over the duration makes it slightly more realistic to actually deal more of that theoretically damage. This is still riskier than just attacking outright, so these moves are being lifted up to widen their payoff window as well.
These also make good extenders for any of the above larger boosts, just like before. An indefinite buff duration would break effects like Baton Pass and Costar even harder, but eight turns is essentially the same thing for most selfish applications.
Bulk Up, Calm Mind, Coaching, Curse (non-Ghost): 14 En, stage +1/+1, next 8 turns.
Tickle: 10 En, stage -1/-1, next 8 turns.
Coil, Quiver Dance, Victory Dance: 18 En, stage +1/+1/+1, next 8 turns.
The following are moves that are tagged for follow-up work, due to needing special attention to get right.
Cosmic Power and Defend Order:
Cosmic Power and Defend Order have proven somewhat difficult to place when compared to other boosting moves. The Iron Defense family are most useful for shutting down poorly-built opposing teams, or for helping to close a match when only opponents of a certain attacking category remain. That is, although they extend the match (often bad), they do so with purpose and counter play (net good).
Stockpile itself has match progress built in to it: Swallow and Spit Up are both strong ways to move the game towards a favorable conclusion. Cosmic Power and Defend Order, on the other hand, only exist to extend the match for extension's sake. Amidst all of the other ways to do that, from debilitating status to protective moves, where do these moves sit? Pending an answer to that question, they'll be left at its current duration.
Unique Teambuilding Moves:
In Generation 6 especially, we got a slew of moves that boost the stats of all Pokemon sharing a particular quality, such as "All grounded Grass-type Pokemon in play". These are pretty niche and outside of the scope of this work. Such moves are listed below for easy reference at a later date.
This group includes Flower Shield, Gear Up, Magnetic Flux, and Rototiller.
Dragon Dance, Hone Claws, Meditate, Howl, Work Up, and relatives:
This group is a pile of the various stage-increasing moves that amount to one offensive or defensive boost, with only "icing" otherwise. That is, moves that raise only one damage-calculation stat. Work Up and its relatives are in this group because you'll only ever use one of your offensive stats a time. Frankly, it's uncertain what should be done with these for the time being. These will be left alone as well.
This group includes Aromatic Mist, Charge, Confide, Defense Curl, Dragon Dance, Growl, Harden, Leer, Meditate, Noble Roar, Tail Whip, Tearful Look, Tidy Up, Sharpen, and Work Up.
The moves Howl and Withdraw have already been spun off into their own niche functions, but they are technically examples of this as well.
Status Polishing Work
I don't want to oversell any of the work in this section — This is the follow-up promised in this patch note. (Goodness, it took us a while to find a reasonable mod voice.) The groundwork set by the linked post allow us to more easily balance the affected statuses below. These should be better to play with and easier to understand at a glance.
That said, this still leaves us with three different Major Statuses tracking an internal property with a quantity of named markers, each of them having a different purpose in relation to their parent status. It might be time for a conversation about streamlining that, too. After all, if Poison can simply "know" if it's regular or bad Poison, maybe these other statuses should just "know" their own numeric values. A conversation for another time, perhaps.
Within, find mostly numeric and phrasing adjustments for the affected named Statuses.
Freeze
When first revising Freeze for Generation 9, it was intended to be an method of slowing down and thereby damage-racing the biggest, meanest bruisers that plagued the prior metagame. It proved to be effective in too many various settings, especially at setting up checkmate situations against opponents who are about to order second, to maintain round control.
With time, Pokemon that were once overshadowed have found many tools in Generation 9 to leverage against the old guard, and more tools have been added as well. Which is a long-winded way of saying, we had to decide who Freeze was supposed to be for, and why.
Find the changes to Freeze and its related pieces, below.
(Water Gun's interaction with Frost markers is removed.)
Freeze is being positioned first as a feature of Snow teams, intended to help bridge the Ice-type setters (especially Snow Warning users) with variously-typed allies. Pokemon with powerful STABs that are super-effective on Ice enjoy the additional damage, and other Pokemon with powerful Frost-applying attacks can contribute to the threat of Freezing. As may be obvious, allies of all kinds appreciate the ability of Snow-setting allies to create free turns, be it to provide chances for safe setup or just to skew the overall damage race.
Second, Freeze is being positioned as a threat posed by Pokemon with certain rare spammable STABs. This covers users of Freeze-Dry, such as
Lapras and 
Iron Bundle, as well as 
Articuno-Galar's Freezing Glare.
The overlap of these features in
Vanilluxe, 
Aurorus, and 
Ninetales-Alola allows them to threaten the fastest Freeze in the game. 
Abomasnow's Mega Evolution and 
Slowking's ability to set and pivot would have placed them head-and-shoulders above other setters, otherwise. Of these three; Vanilluxe deals most damage with its Frost-stacking Ice spam, Aurorus can take advantage of the Ice typing of Frozen victims, and Ninetales brings the most team utility; leaving Snow with a buffet of setters to choose from.
Frost-placing moves are as follows:
Paralysis
While no one fondly misses the former dice-rolling version of Paralysis, it's currently too easy to "top off" Paralysis Counters and secure a backbreaking step 1 in the coming round. With these numeric adjustments, Paralysis is now more punishing to switch under, and less punishing to stay in on, making it a "soft" form of trapping available to most Pokemon.
The threshold for action loss is now 4 counters, making it harder to Inflict and fully stack Paralysis in the same round. It's doable, but involves giving up a large amount of damage, or landing very specific Paralysis-inflicting effects. In addition, Paralysis now prevents your action on the last step of a round — a label that we had to amend 2.7a "The Action Phase" to create! This eases counterplay for Paralysis victims and prevents many potential checkmate situations.
In addition, the amount of counters given by various actions have been revised. The highest amount is given by Legendary signature moves and Paralysis-focused Techs, a moderate amount is given by reliable sources of Paralysis, and the lowest amount is given by moves where Paralysis is a secondary benefit.
Confusion
People are confused about confusion. Rather than changing how strong it is, this revision mostly targets the condition's word count.The functionality is (almost) entirely the same:
edit: everyone say thank you to city. 0 days since someone has done something fucked up to Maxim with a new patch note.
Returning damage is a function that's helpful in every match-up, which will help Pokemon like Machamp and Golurk find a unique niche in the metagame as Pokemon that win slugfests by default, but are vulnerable to set-up.
If you can manage to catch an opponent using three attacks in a row, the use of a Confusing move is better than simply attacking back. This improves compared to your attacks in matchups where you expect to be badly hurt.
The sources of Confusion are as follows:
(Dizzy Punch mirrors this change.)
This allows a certain subset of Pokemon more freedom when attacking through Confusion.
When first revising Freeze for Generation 9, it was intended to be an method of slowing down and thereby damage-racing the biggest, meanest bruisers that plagued the prior metagame. It proved to be effective in too many various settings, especially at setting up checkmate situations against opponents who are about to order second, to maintain round control.
With time, Pokemon that were once overshadowed have found many tools in Generation 9 to leverage against the old guard, and more tools have been added as well. Which is a long-winded way of saying, we had to decide who Freeze was supposed to be for, and why.
Find the changes to Freeze and its related pieces, below.
| Freeze By default, this status lasts until subject lasts until the subject has no Frost markers. (See "Frost" below.) The subject is Ice-type. The effects of the subject's Ice typing are ignored. When the subject attempts, or becomes the defender of, a Fire-type move, Hydro Steam, Scald, Scorching Sands, Steam Eruption, or Brick Break: Remove seven (7) Frost markers from the subject. If the subject would execute an action; instead, remove seven (7) Frost markers from the subject. |
| Frost Marker By default, this marker lasts until the subject leaves play. When this marker is created, if the subject has 10 or more Frost markers and the subject isn't Frozen: Inflict Freeze on the subject. |
| Snow The Defense rank of each Ice-type Pokemon in play is raised by three (3). If an effect would put Frost markers on a Pokemon that hasn't had any placed on them during this battle; instead, put that many Frost markers plus three (+3) on that Pokemon. Weather Ball becomes Ice-type. |
| Water Gun The user sprays their target with a stream of pressurized water. Inflict a unique condition named "Drenched" on the defender for their next three (3) turns, with the following effect: ● The subject has an additional weakness to Electric. |
Freeze is being positioned first as a feature of Snow teams, intended to help bridge the Ice-type setters (especially Snow Warning users) with variously-typed allies. Pokemon with powerful STABs that are super-effective on Ice enjoy the additional damage, and other Pokemon with powerful Frost-applying attacks can contribute to the threat of Freezing. As may be obvious, allies of all kinds appreciate the ability of Snow-setting allies to create free turns, be it to provide chances for safe setup or just to skew the overall damage race.
Second, Freeze is being positioned as a threat posed by Pokemon with certain rare spammable STABs. This covers users of Freeze-Dry, such as
Lapras and Iron Bundle, as well as Articuno-Galar's Freezing Glare.The overlap of these features in
Vanilluxe, Aurorus, and Ninetales-Alola allows them to threaten the fastest Freeze in the game. Abomasnow's Mega Evolution and Slowking's ability to set and pivot would have placed them head-and-shoulders above other setters, otherwise. Of these three; Vanilluxe deals most damage with its Frost-stacking Ice spam, Aurorus can take advantage of the Ice typing of Frozen victims, and Ninetales brings the most team utility; leaving Snow with a buffet of setters to choose from.Frost-placing moves are as follows:
- 3 Frost: Freezing Glare, Freeze-Dry, Powder Snow, Tri Attack
- 2 Frost: Blizzard, Ice Beam, Ice Fang, Ice Punch
Paralysis
While no one fondly misses the former dice-rolling version of Paralysis, it's currently too easy to "top off" Paralysis Counters and secure a backbreaking step 1 in the coming round. With these numeric adjustments, Paralysis is now more punishing to switch under, and less punishing to stay in on, making it a "soft" form of trapping available to most Pokemon.
| Paralysis By default, this status lasts until the subject faints or the battle ends. Furthermore, any Paralysis Counters on the subject persist while Paralysis does, even if the subject leaves play. (See "Paralysis Counter" below.) Effects can create this effect "with X counters."; in that case, that many Paralysis Counters are placed on the subject. Otherwise, the default number of counters is zero. The subject's Speed is halved (x0.5). At the end of each round, and when the subject leaves or enters play: Place a Paralysis Counter on the subject. If the subject would execute an action, while it is the last step of the round and they have four (4) or more Paralysis Counters; instead, remove all Paralysis Counters from the subject. |
The threshold for action loss is now 4 counters, making it harder to Inflict and fully stack Paralysis in the same round. It's doable, but involves giving up a large amount of damage, or landing very specific Paralysis-inflicting effects. In addition, Paralysis now prevents your action on the last step of a round — a label that we had to amend 2.7a "The Action Phase" to create! This eases counterplay for Paralysis victims and prevents many potential checkmate situations.
In addition, the amount of counters given by various actions have been revised. The highest amount is given by Legendary signature moves and Paralysis-focused Techs, a moderate amount is given by reliable sources of Paralysis, and the lowest amount is given by moves where Paralysis is a secondary benefit.
- 3 Counters: Bolt Strike, Freeze Shock, G-Max Stun Shock, G-Max Volt Crash, Tri Attack, Stoked Sparksurfer, Wildbolt Storm, Gulp Missile
- 2 Counters: Body Slam, Discharge, Dragon Breath, Fling, Force Palm, G-Max Befuddle, Glare, Lick, Nuzzle, Stun Spore, Thunder Wave, Zap Cannon, Static
- 1 Counter: Dire Claw, Bounce, Spark, Thunder, Thunder Fang, Thunder Punch, Thunder Shock, Thunderbolt, Volt Tackle, Effect Spore
- Add 1 Counter: Thunder Shock
Confusion
People are confused about confusion. Rather than changing how strong it is, this revision mostly targets the condition's word count.
edit: everyone say thank you to city. 0 days since someone has done something fucked up to Maxim with a new patch note.
| Confusion By default, this status lasts until three (3) of the subject's turns end or until the subject leaves play. When the subject hits another Pokemon with an attack: The user takes damage, equal to half (x0.5) of the damage dealt by the hit. |
| Magic Guard The Pokemon is veiled with a barrier that is proof against any sort of trickery, magic, or the like. The user can't take damage, except from hits and from Confusion status. |
Returning damage is a function that's helpful in every match-up, which will help Pokemon like Machamp and Golurk find a unique niche in the metagame as Pokemon that win slugfests by default, but are vulnerable to set-up.
If you can manage to catch an opponent using three attacks in a row, the use of a Confusing move is better than simply attacking back. This improves compared to your attacks in matchups where you expect to be badly hurt.
The sources of Confusion are as follows:
- 3 turns: Chatter, Confuse Ray, Flatter, Supersonic, Sweet Kiss, Teeter Dance
- 2 turns: G-Max Smite, Magical Torque
- 1 turn: Axe Kick, Confusion, Dizzy Punch, Dynamic Punch, Hurricane, Psybeam, Rock Climb, Signal Beam, Strange Steam, Swagger, Water Pulse
- Indefinite: Own Tempo + Tangled Feet
| Confusion The user projects a wave of psychic force directly at their target. Transfer the user's Confusion status, if any, to the defender. Effect Check: Inflict Confusion. |
This allows a certain subset of Pokemon more freedom when attacking through Confusion.
Low-Hanging Fruit Adjustments
It just wouldn't be a monthly-ish BBP patch without a couple of riders-on for Pokemon that have come up in conversation. At the present rate, we'll have a whole two more (or so) ready by the time the SV DLC drops and throws a bunch of work in our laps all at once!
Within, find changes to various down-and-out Pokemon.
Spicy ExtractThis change came about as a result of Stage-adjusting work, further above.
| Spicy Extract En Cost: 7 -> 10 The user spits a spicy oil at the target, energizing them into an attacking frenzy. While performing this move: Accuracy checks for this move automatically succeed. Raise the target's Attack stage by two (2), for their next five (5) turns if they are the user's ally, or their next two (2) turns otherwise. Lower the target's Defense stage by two (2) for their next five (5) turns if they are the user's opponent, or their next two (2) turns otherwise. |
Rather than choose between this move's offensive and support functionality when balancing it, the move will adjust itself to suit the situation.
Wonder GuardShedinja has long languished on players' list of favorite gimmick Pokemon in theory only. In reality, every Pokemon in the game already spends the majority of their time hitting their opponents super-effectively, leaving Shedinja mostly dead in the water with wretched stats, typing, and moves.
Frankly, this effect is driven by work on the Raid Frontier: When drafting one of the test raids, we realized that this Pokemon is so dreadful, that we could likely get away with simply giving it this Raid Boss-intended effect. After all of that was drafted, the Raid didn't end up using this effect after all. So here it is for your enjoyment!
| Wonder Guard The Pokemon exists in a phantasmal state and is unaffected by most material action. While an attack is being performed, if the user is the defender and the attack isn't super-effective on the user: Treat the user as having an immunity to that attack. (Tally the user's type effectiveness just like any other Pokemon. Then, any result other than a weakness is treated as immunity.) When the user Faints, if their original species is Shedinja: Set the user's HP and Energy to maximum; then, discard Fainting from the user; then, place a marker on the user for the rest of the battle, with the following effect: ● The effects of the subject's Wonder Guard are ignored. |
This essentially makes Shedinja's statline 130/7/4/3/3/40, which is... somewhat passable! Given their somewhat weak main STABs, Shedinja will be using their newfound longevity to support their team with utility moves. In addition to typical Ghost tricks such as Will-o-Wisp and Heal Block, Shedinja enjoys access to excellent pivoting utility in Baton Pass to make up for its own lacking damage. Their expanded HP pool, with what is effectively an HP gate halfway through, buys them much-needed time to chip away at burlier foes with their humble attacks.
The real stars of its movepool, post-revision, involve its new capacity to Faint twice. Shedinja is now the only Pokemon able to afflict two opponents in the same battle with Grudge without assistance, and likewise the only Pokemon that can be expected to use Final Gambit multiple times on a routine basis. These traits position Shedinja as a unique and adaptable utility threat who must be taken more seriously than mere setup fodder.
Dire ClawSneasler, the only natural user of Dire Claw, also already features the recently-buffed Poison Touch. This move is getting a brush-up to better synergize with its intended user.
| Dire Claw The user viciously slashes at the target with a claw coated in a potent poison. While performing this move: The user's critical stage is increased by one (1). Effect Check: Select and apply one of the following effects, that hasn't been selected this round, at random with equal odds: ● Inflict regular Poison on the defender with one (1) counter. Then (whether they were already Poisoned or not), double the number of Poison Counters on the defender. ● Inflict Paralysis on the defender with one (1) counter. Then (whether they were already Paralyzed or not), double the number of Paralysis Counters on the defender. ● Inflict Sleep on the defender for their next turn. (If no effects remain to be selected, do nothing.) |
The initial amounts of counters have each been toned down. The move has also been given a component to double counters on the defender on subsequent occurrences of the same effect, so that successful effect checks aren't put to waste.
Lastly, the move has been disallowed from rolling the same effect more than once per round, improving its utility when used as a main spammable STAB (It inflicts a variety of useful status more often), and worsening its utility in multi-hit combos or when used by multiple users. Be the first to pair Sneasler with
Typhlosion-Hisui!HustleThis ability has proven difficult to utilize in its new form, for a relatively low payoff. Thus, it will receive a plain numeric buff. The non-Truant users will appreciate being able to more realistically access a large boost, and Durant in particular will live fast and kill faster.
| Hustle The Pokemon's preferred method of attack is to start swinging first and ask questions never. When the user attacks with a Physical attack: The user loses Energy equal to their own original Attack rank. The user's Attack rank is increased by three (3) for every fifth (x0.2) of their maximum Energy they are missing. (Don't round the one-fifth portion when comparing it to missing Energy.) |
The change to the energy loss is to make the ability easier for users to calc around when ordering. It also makes it harder to access lower end of the user's Energy pool, and easier for the user to stay afloat at low Energy values to leverage the boost. Durant will likely struggle to float at lower Energy values without Chilling too many times in front of opponents, but should hopefully gain enough damage for trouble for it to be worthwhile.
Fainting-triggered AbilitiesThis suite of abilities has been left in the dust by other abilities better-adapted to BBP. Fainting an opponent directly with the user's own hit is a much rarer occurrence in BBP than it is in cart, leaving these abilities to be rather situational, and their users who rely on them as their "main" ability rather adrift.
With abilities such as Justified or Lightning Rod simply awarding their users a free stage boost, it seems within reason for these abilities to offer similar power, with similar consistency, so long as there's a reasonable hoop to jump through.
| Moxie The Pokemon swells with confidence after an opponent is defeated. When an opponent Faints, even while the user is inactive: Raises the user's Attack stage by one (1) for their next three (3) turns. |
| Beast Boost The Pokemon is from another dimension, and grows stronger in ours with every victory. When an opponent Faints, even while the user is inactive: Raise the user's stat stage, that corresponds to the highest of their four core stat ranks, by one (1) for their next three (3) turns. (If multiple stat ranks are tied, prefer stats in the order "Attack > Defense > Sp. Atk > Sp. Def".) |
| Soul-Heart The Pokemon's artificial heart dwells upon the residual emotions of opponents, drawing upon their strength. When another Pokemon in play faints: Reset the user's Special Attack stage to 0 if it is negative. Then, increase the user's Special Attack stage by one (1) for their next three (3) turns. |
| Chilling Neigh The user proclaims the victories of their team with a howling and frightening bellow. When an opponent Faints, even while the user is inactive: Raises the user's Attack stage by one (1) for their next six (6) turns. |
Each of the abilities in this "set" will be given their own riff on the same general design:
Moxie and Beast Boost now respond to the success of their teammates, even before they enter play. This makes preserving teammates and playing around trapping more important when such a Pokemon is waiting in the wings.
Given their relative status as one-trick ponies, without any way to contribute to a match besides damage, Glastrier and Spectrier saw little use among players. Chilling Neigh and its variants now work like Moxie above, but grant an even longer boost. This allows the legendary steeds in particular to now hit the ground running when they face down the last surviving foe on a team, and to excel at doing the one thing they're built to do. Even with only one enemy KO, up to 24 free damage is quite a lot. Now their lack of matchup control reinforces their function as late-game cleaners, discouraging them further from entering play prematurely.
Soul-Heart has been revised to better cement Magearna's design as a revenge-killer. "Refunding" the Special Attack drop from Fleur Cannon upon defeating an enemy makes the Pokemon more threatening when they're used for this particular job. The duration of the boost is adjusted downward because, frankly, Magearna is expected to be a very good Pokemon regardless of its ability once it's available. (which is probably soon tm, rather than actually soon.)
The Safari Zone is moving into a second phase of testing!
The Safari Zone has had a rather successful (e.g. informative) first round of testing. Based on players' efforts, our findings are roughly as follows:
- There's not enough Backpack space to both catch 6 Pokemon (the intended goal) and survive battle with them. We're increasing the Backpack Size of the test Habitats to 15.
- It's not likely for a player to halve a wild Pokemon's HP, status it, and meet two extra Capture Method conditions, all in one round. This is supposed to be the main way that the player saves HP — Safari is balanced around battling six half-Pokemon, using Capture to "skip" the rest of each Pokemon encountered. So, we're dropping one unique Capture Method from each wild Pokemon. With four different wild Pokemon per Trek in most cases, there should still be enough variety that you'll have to build a versatile team to meet them all.
- A few Balls have been adjusted in strength, and the Standard Supplier has been improved. We worry that players may have too much healing to possibly lose now — maybe strong referees can prove us wrong?
- We've added two new Habitats: One is Level 1, and one is Pinnacle!
They're dead. Round completed battles up when determining (tower-based) test rewards, and refund 1/3 of the JC paid for entry for each Trek not started. You can sign up for second-wave testing the same way as the first (and you could spend your JC refund on it
).The less finished rounds you got to test (as a challenger) in the first round of testing, the earlier in queue you get to cut. If you got to test zero rounds (either because you had just started, or because you never signed up), congrats! You get to cut to the front. Everyone, please include your first-wave round count when signing up for second-wave testing.
Limit one second-round test per player, please.
The Raid Frontier is opening for tests!
The signup thread can be found here!
The Raid Frontier is a facility! You should test it!
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Dipplin
Poltchageist
Sinistcha
Ursaluna-Bloodmoon
Okidogi
Munkidori
Fezandipiti
Ogerpon
Wellspring Mask
Hearthflame Mask
Cornerstone Mask
Lo-EXP Record
EXP Record
Hi-EXP Record
Applin.
Shifty's second ability is now Wind Rider, rather than Early Bird.
Empoleon's hidden ability is now Competitive, rather than Defiant.
Houndoom, so I don't think that rocks the boat very much even for 
Mega Houndoom, relative to other Megas. Hopefully CAP doesn't make me regret this any time soon!
Choice Items and 
Shell Bell in particular.
Ring Target, 
Mirror Herb, and 
Sticky Barb, not doing their intended jobs in all cases.
Quick Feet
Sovereign Magnificence and 
Sovereign Malevolence are in this category. These items can be obtained from the "Conquering Northern King! 2023" event.
Beginner Battles
Oran Berry, 1x
Pecha Berry, 1x
Cheri Berry,1x
Rawst Berry, 1x
Muscle Band, 1x
Wise Glasses
Starting JC
Judge Counter Overhaul
Legend (6+2), 
AC (4+2), Voucher (2)
Legend (6+2), 
Uber key item (8), 
Lv3 Uber (8+2), 
Z-Move (12), 
)
Terastal (4), 0-2x
Lv1-3 Legend (6+1),
Player Progress and Referee Progress
League Circuit Rewards
CAP Data Progress
Archaludon
Hydrapple
Gouging Fire
Raging Bolt
Iron Boulder
Iron Crown
Terapagos
Terapagos-Terastal
Terapagos-Stellar
Pecharunt
Duraludon.
Effect Text Updates
"Enters Play" Abilities
New Battle Rule - "Half-Start"
Z-Move Updates
Arceus' type will be moved to the ability Multitype.
Psychium Z
Grassium Z
Fightinium Z
Darkinium Z
Waterium Z
Firium Z
Electrium Z
Steelium Z
Ghostium Z
Poisonium Z
Buginium Z
Fairium Z
Icium Z
Groundium Z
Flyinium Z
Dragonium Z
Rockium Z
Incinium-Z
Substitutions
Accuracy Stages
Multi-Hit Moves
Using the previous method, a two-hit Scale Shot would have dealt (3*2 BAP + 3 STAB - 1 Sturdy + 9 Atk - 10 Def) * 0.75 Type + 8 Stage + 4 Item = 17.25 ~ 17 damage. So this does not change how much damage multi-hit moves do, except possibly for rounding.
"Bypassing"
Stage-Changing Move Changes
Dread
Sluggish
Fog
Mixed Aid
Burn
Perish Song and Doom
Unnerve (+ Intimidate)
Tyranitar, 
Colossoil, have Unnerve, which means that any work targeting this ability needs to consider their impact on the metagame carefully.
Levitate
Commander
Multiscale
Shadow Shield will mirror this change, except that it will also grant HP Aid. Legend privilege!
Berry-Supporting Abilities
Reckless
Solar Power
Strong Jaw
Oblivious
Unburden
"Guts-like" Abilities
Keen Eye
Pressure
Rivalry
Absorption Abilities
Volt Absorb mirrors this change.
Earth Eater mirrors this change, and is also gaining the small heal effect. (Which it previously lacked.)
Dry Skin is mirroring this change only for the "large" (Recovery-spending) effect. It already has several other effects.
Regenerator
Weather Recovery Abilities
Aftermath
Zero to Hero
Electromorphosis
Hidden Power
Move-Calling Moves
Manual Weather
Manual Terrain
Perfect-Accuracy Attacks
Accuracy-Reducing Attacks
Self-Locking Moves
Recoil Attacks
Encore
Magic Room
Wonder Room
Imprison
Silk Trap
Rage Fist
Minor Move Updates
Custap Berry is excluded from these changes.
Rowap Berry mirrors this change.
Kee Berry and 
Maranga Berry, are plainly too niche to be considered. We're giving them a job similar to the Damage-Returning Berries above, but in a defensive space.
Barometer
Punching Glove
Lucky Egg
Life Orb
The Good Choice Items
Choice Scarf
Razor Claw and Razor Fang
Flame Orb and Toxic Orb
Rage Candy Bar
gems), a defensive niche (
Resist berries), or an generic auto-consume niche (
herb items).
Berserk Gene
Zoom Lens
Metronome
Adventure Rules
Power Anklet
Four Core Power Items
Minor Item Update(s)
Backpack Expansion
Levitate and Smack Down
Harvest and Gluttony
Further Berry Work
Qualot Berry, 
Hondew Berry, and 
Grepa Berry mirror this change.
Tamato Berry mirrors this change with Speed, except that it initially clamps Speed to at least 120.
Gems
Type-Boosting Items
Black Belt - Detect
Black Glasses - Taunt
Dragon Fang - Dragon Dance
Hard Stone - Smack Down
Magnet - Thunder Wave
Metal Coat - Autotomize
Miracle Seed - Aromatherapy
Mystic Water - Life Dew
Never-Melt Ice - Mist
Poison Barb - Toxic
Sharp Beak - Aerial Ace
Silk Scarf - Hold Back
Silver Powder - Bug Bite
Soft Sand - Bulldoze
Spell Tag - Confuse Ray
Twisted Spoon - Heal Block
Early Bird
Cleanse Tag, 
Wide Lens, and/or 
Safety Goggles. Depending on your needs, you may wish to keep some number of Ring Targets.
Heavy-Duty Boots. Depending on your needs, you may wish to keep some number of Cleanse Tags.
Expert Belt
Flash Fire
Leaf Guard
Comet Shards are an Advanced Currency we're offering to battlers, and 
Star Pieces are their counterpart being offered to refs. These are being positioned as the entry cost of upcoming Advanced Facilities. For all but the lowest-Level challenges (for the Advanced Facility that offer content below Level 4), you'll need both currencies to enter. Our assumption is that Star Pieces will end up slightly more common than Comet Shards, even if we give one to players and one to refs. Players have to attain a progress milestone for Comet Shards, but refs only have to finish the reffing.
Stardust is a currency that functions much like Academy Credits. It'll purchase a curated list of Pokemon, associated items, and Techniques for specific Pokemon. The Stardust shop will launch with the first Advanced Facility—details could be below!
Raid Frontier
Amoonguss (★) x1
Toedscruel, 
Shiinotic, 
Breloom x1 each
Brute Bonnet (★) x1
Sorcerer
Safari Zone
Unrevealed Pokemon in the Safari Zone boast rewards were; but they were kept waiting by my difficulty in tying boasting to the mini-quest I had envisioned for Safari's minor Legendaries.
Realgam Tower
Battle Tree
Advanced Facilities
Boasting Hall
HP Aid
Gale Wings
Leftovers
Aroma Veil
Pastel Veil
Sweet Veil
one competitively viable user that stands head-and-shoulders above the others.
Healer
Comatose
Type-Pinch Abilities
Infernape and 
Feraligatr, who already feature Power Bonuses from abilities; so further Bonuses were out.
Smokomodo and 
Scizor having Technician, directly raising the power of the moves was out. Also, this approach has consistently created confusion with Power Bonuses in the past.
Lokix's Tinted Lens. But you should try out Lokix anyway.
Frisk
Swampert for nerfing Bide yet again.
Vital Spirit
Stage-Converting Berries
Kukui, 
Adaman or Irida, 
Colress, 
Evice + Nascour, 
Procession, 
Colossi, 
Electric Terrain:
Grassy Terrain:
Psychic Terrain:
Misty Terrain:
Grim Neigh mirrors the change to Chilling Neigh. Because 
As One grants the fused Pokemon's component abilities, it too mirrors this change.
Lifeline Cleanse - Remove all conditions from your Pokemon.
Lifeline Tidy-Up - Discard all battle conditions and all field conditions. Restore all held items to their users and/or owners.
Lifeline Revive - Remove Fainting from one of your inactive Pokemon; and if you do, set their HP and Energy to 50.
Red Card to an active Pokemon.
Lifeline Switch - Switch your Pokemon.
Lifeline Resupply - Fill half of the empty space in your backpack, rounded down, with Ethers. Then, fill the remaining space with Potions.
Lifeline Soothe - Reset the mood count of each Wild Pokemon in play, returning them to a Curious mood.
Safari Ball and 
Park Ball to better serve explorers:
: 120 -> 
JC.
Lum Berry, 
Harvest Event Voucher, 
Festive Event Voucher,
Devoted Event Voucher, 
Deviant Event Voucher
RC
Poke Ball
Great Ball
Dive Ball
Lycanroc-Midnight might have:
Yveltal might have:
Magna's Mail, etc.) are now once per player only.
Nostalgia, redeemable in the "Mesmerizing Memorabilia" Shop.
Eevee-XP Records
tokens have appeared in the shops...
)
Eviolite, so the players will have to pick other items.
Zapdos-Galar
Moltres-Galar
Admospheric Admonishment: 11 Bravado -> 
Rise to the Stage!: "Send out Eevee as your lead." -> "
Bring the Dawn!: Largely reworked:
Reporter will gain the effects of Weather created by the user, like Barometer.
Blackguard will steal stages and Conditions only from allies' actions; rather than from their abilities or items.
Ocean-Might General
Kartarmory, meaning that your Aggressor will likely need to handle them.
Sharp-Edge General -> "Swift-Wings General"
Earth-Moving General
Tinkatink Warrior
Celemplacement
) Protean with Neutralizing Gas.
) Magic Bounce with Neutralizing Gas.
Lifeline Capture - Put a 
Accelgor
Ambipom
Ariados
Banette
Barraskewda
Bastiodon
Beautifly
Beedrill
Bellossom
Bibarel
Bombirdier
Brambleghast
Butterfree
Cacturne
Carbink
Carnivine
Castform
Chatot
Cherrim
Chimecho
Clawitzer
Comfey
Corsola
Cramorant (/!\ caution: could be broken with this /!\)
Dachsbun
Dedenne
Dewgong
Dubwool
Dugtrio-Alola
Dugtrio (/!\ caution: could be broken with this /!\)
Dustox
Eiscue-Noice
Eiscue (/!\ caution: could be broken with this /!\)
Electrode-Hisui
Emolga
Falinks
Farfetch'd
Fearow
Flapple
Floatzel
Frosmoth
Furfrou
Furret
Galvantula
Glaceon
Glalie
Gogoat
Gorebyss
Gourgeist-Small
Grumpig
Gumshoos
Heatmor
Hitmonchan
Hitmonlee
Hitmontop
Huntail
Hypno
Illumise
Indeedee-F
Jumpluff
Kricketune
Leafeon
Leavanny
Ledian
Liepard
Lumineon
Lunatone
Lurantis
Luvdisc
Magcargo
Malamar
Maractus
Meowstic-F
Miltank
Minior-Meteor
Minun
Morpeko
Mothim
Mr. Mime
Ninjask
Noctowl
Noivern
Oranguru
Orbeetle
Oricorio-Baile
Oricorio-Pa'u
Oricorio-PomPom
Oricorio-Sensu
Pachirisu
Parasect
Persian
Phione
Pidgeot
Pincurchin
Plusle
Purugly
Pyroar
Pyukumuku
Quagsire
Qwilfish
Rapidash
Raticate-Alola
Raticate
Relicanth
Salazzle
Sandslash
Sawsbuck
Seaking
Simipour
Simisage
Simisear
Skuntank
Slurpuff
Solrock
Spinda
Squawkabilly
Stunfisk-Galar
Stunfisk
Sudowoodo
Sunflora
Swalot
Swellow
Swoobat
Togedemaru (/!\ caution: could be broken with this /!\)
Trevenant (/!\ caution: could be broken with this /!\)
Tropius
Unfezant
Venomoth
Vespiquen
Vivillon
Volbeat
Watchog
Whimsicott
Whiscash
Wigglytuff
Wormadam-Plant
Wormadam-Sandy
Wormadam-Trash
Wugtrio
Zebstrika
Zygarde-10% (Only this Forme gets the free Tech, and only once per battle per Zygarde.)
Revavroom have standard movepools, and their Traits only add extra moves. They're not affected by this change.
Nincada: "Evolves into two Pokemon at once. See 5.10 "Unique Pokemon" in the Handbook."
Zygarde: "Can be sent out as Zygarde-10% or Zygarde-50%. See 5.10 "Unique Pokemon" in the Handbook."
Necturine /
Quick Claw, and 
Berries Pass
Ultra Ball
Cherish Ball
Dream Ball
Dusk Ball
Fast Ball
Friend Ball
Heal Ball
Heavy Ball
Level Ball
Love Ball
Lure Ball
Luxury Ball
Moon Ball
Nest Ball
Net Ball
Quick Ball
Repeat Ball
Sport Ball
Timer Ball
Beast Ball
Strange Ball
Eject Pack
Grip Claw
Iron Ball
Quick Powder
Priority Pass in the Prize Claim, and linking to that claim when signing up, players can open a third slot for that challenge only. After that challenge, another 
Accolades instead of JC, which will buy rewards that let them progress their teams in small ways without excessive queueing. Timely referees will also earn a small amount of 
