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Stat Mods
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Confusion
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Evade/Accuracy
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Confusion affects Pokémon for 1 to 4 turns; across that range the exact
duration is randomly determined. Each turn that a Pokémon is confused,
there is a 50% chance that it will attack itself and be unable to take any
other action during that turn.
Self-inflicted attacks have a power rating of 40, and cause damage
according to the following simplified version of the battle damage
formula:
[(((2A/5 + 2)*B*40)/C)/50] + 2
A = the confusion victim's Level
B = the confusion victim's Attack
C = the confusion victim's Defense
Self-inflicted attacks differ from other attacks in several important
ways.
- Self-inflicted attacks have no type. If anything, we might expect them
to be Normal, but this is refuted by the fact that Ghosts can hurt
themselves, and by the fact that Normal-type Pokémon do not get the 1.5x
same-type attack bonus when attacking themselves.
- Self-inflicted damage is not variable. The damage predicted by the
above formula is the exact amount caused every time a Pokémon hits
itself.
- Self-inflicted attacks are never critical hits.
- Reflect provides no protection against
this sort of damage (ie, it does not increase the value of C during self-inflicted attacks).
However, changes to the confused Pokémon's Attack and Defense ratings
do affect the damage done. Thus, don't expect confusion to do much
damage when your opponent has set up a few Barriers. On the other hand, Confuse Ray is to
Sword Dancers what Swift is to Double Teamers.
Note that, because self-inflicted damage is based in part on the Attack
score the victim, if your Pokémon will not use any Physical attacks
itself, you should select a specimen with the lowest possible
Attack gene.
The effects of confusion are eliminated if the victim is switched away.
For example, if a Psyduck confuses a
Pinsir and the Pinsir's trainer calls
it back and sends out another Pokémon, if the Pinsir is called back out to
battle, it will no longer be confused and will have the same chance of
being confused as before.
A confused Pokémon cannot be confused again until the effects of the
existing confusion wear off. That is, you cannot extend the duration of
confusion on a currently confused Pokémon. You must wait for the Pokémon
to regain its senses before attempting to confuse it
again.
The following statements are true of all confusion episodes allowed to
run their course (ie, no interference from switching, Haze, fainting, full paralysis, etc.):
- The victim has a 76.6% chance of damaging itself at least once, a
35.9% chance of damaging itself at least twice, a 10.9% chance of damaging
itself at least three times, and a 1.6% chance of damaging itself four
times. There is a 23.4% chance that confusion will have no effect
whatsoever.
- The victim has a 40.6% chance of damaging itself exactly once,
a 25% chance of damaging itself exactly twice, a 9.4% chance of damaging
itself exactly three times, and (obviously) a 1.6% chance of damaging
itself exactly four times.
- On average, 1.25 attacks are prevented, and damage equal to an attack
with a power rating of 50 is caused.
Item 1 reveals that although Confuse Ray is technically 99.6% accurate,
it really only "hits" (ie, has any effect) 76.6% of the time. However,
item 3 shows why it is a solid move in the long run: like most attacks, it
costs a turn to use, but on average it costs the victim more than one
turn.
Even better, while you're protected the victim is beating on itself
with a mid-power attack that's not subject to type modifiers or any stat
disadvantages your Pokémon may have. To avoid this unpleasantness, your
opponent may choose to switch out his Pokémon as soon as it becomes
confused, in which case you have basically traded turns. However, things
aren't quite the way they were: your Pokémon now has one less PP, and the
effects of any stat mods (both beneficial and detrimental) used on the
enemy are negated. Also, if your Pokémon has the initiative when it uses
Confuse Ray, there's a 50% chance of self-inflicted damage before any
switching is possible.
These statistics also show why Supersonic's poor accuracy makes it a
lousy move: only 41.9% (0.547 x 0.766) of all uses of Supersonic have any
effect at all, and on average a single use of this stinker costs the enemy
only 0.68 attacks and does damage equal to an attack with a power rating
of 27. It's only worth keeping around for times when there are no other
options (eg, having only Normal attacks and encountering a
Gastly, or, for masochistic reasons,
you have chosen to raise a Butterfree
with no TMs).
It is possible for a Pokémon to be confused while its status is FRZ,
SLP, BRN, PSN, or PAR. Should you use Confuse Ray when the victim's status
has been changed?
Frozen: Of course not. A frozen Pokémon is harmless, and can
never injure itself. A conceivable exception would be a situation in which
your Ninetales or
Magmar needs to finish off a frozen
enemy, and has only Flamethrower to do
the job. First confuse the victim, then defrost it.
Sleeping: Only if you're confident that the victim will soon
awake (for example, a Rester on the last round
of its nap, or just about any SLP victim in Stadium).
Burnt: Adding confusion to this status is better than, say,
using Constrict, but consider that a BRN
victim's Attack stat is halved. Self-inflicted attacks will still spare
your Pokémon from getting hit, but they won't do much damage.
Poisoned: Sure. This status change is totally irrelevant to
confusion.
Paralyzed: This is a bit of a trade off. On the one hand, each
fully paralyzed round is one on which the victim can't self-injure.
However, this is an excellent defensive combination. A confused, paralyzed
Pokémon has only a 37.5% chance (0.75 x 0.50) of taking any useful
action on a given round.
If you are planning to use Confuse Ray in conjunction with an
Evade/Accuracy modifier, note that it is desirable to use Confuse Ray
first: it has a 50% chance of preventing the enemy's next attack, while a
single EvAcc mod has only a 34% chance. Furthermore, a self-inflicted
attack prevents the Pokémon from using Swift, Bide, Transform,
or any other attack that would ordinarily ignore EvAcc modifiers. Once
both moves are in effect, the victim has only a 33% chance (0.66 x 0.50)
of successful attack - a situation made even sweeter if deep,
jaw-clenching irritation hinders your opponent's ability to
concentrate.
Confuse Ray vs. Supersonic
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Confuse Ray has only half as many PP as Supersonic, but, as noted above, it is clearly superior to Supersonic. On top of
(and, in fact, because of) its tangible effectiveness, Confuse Ray
is one of the most unsettling attacks in the game, and therefore a great
psychological weapon.
On the other hand, due to its inaccuracy, Supersonic really sucks. In
most cases, you're better off not using it at all. Replace Supersonic with
Confuse Ray on your Zubat as soon as
you can!
Psybeam is more powerful than Confusion and has an equal chance of
confusing the victim. Confusion has 5 more PP, but 20 PP is still a lot
and you'll get more damage out of 20 Psybeams than 25 Confusions. Neither
attack is extremely powerful and neither can be reliably expected to
actually confuse a victim during the course of a typical battle, but if
used by a high-Special Psychic Pokémon, both can be reasonably
effective.
Psybeam is a good, solid attack with a great side effect, but not
the most powerful Psychic attack available.
Confusion isn't a total bottom dweller like Tackle or Bubble,
but it's not great. It does put the "Psy" in Psyduck, though, and for that
reason alone has value.
In the final analysis, however, if Psychic is available to your Pokémon, that
will most likely be a better choice than either of these attacks. See the
Psychic Attacks page for a more detailed
discussion of this issue.
Below are the best and worst final evolutions to confuse, based on the
percentage of HP they will inflict upon themselves with each swat to their
own noggin. Your Vulpix would do well
to study these lists.
As you can see, the combination of Lee's massive Attack, weak
Defense and low HP means that he can take himself out of the game in about
5 turns without any help from his opponent. Chansey, on the other hand,
despite having the worst Defense in the game, can endure 20 self-inflicted
attacks due to an equally low Attack and busloads of HP. Onix's strong
showing is as much a reflection of its krappy Attack as its excellent
Defense. Poor Onix.
None.
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