#battle study

[snaggerleo]

Gravity (The Pokemon Move.)

“Please do not ask me to explain how actual gravity works, I am not that smart. I saw a formula once and I’m mad about it to this day. I consider it harassment any time someone reminds me of math.”

Battle Study with Professor Wesley!

“Gravity is another one of those crazier techniques. Only a handful of truly strange Pokemon can learn it. As for whether or not it actually affects the planet’s gravity, or anyone’s personal gravity, is up in the air. What it does do at least, is more like...magnetize everyone’s feet to the ground. The move might be poorly name. It doesn’t seem to affect actual movement speed, aside from limiting everyone’s ability to jump or fly, which can make evasive maneuvers very difficult. It doesn’t seem to me that small movements like running or walking are too strongly affected, though. Any Pokemon that favors close combat on the ground and struggles in any other form of combat would really appreciate it. Too bad for your average Hitmonchan they can’t learn it.

“The appearance of the move is pretty simple. What I can only describe as stellar psychokinetic energy is gathered up, and exerts its influence on the field. It’s possible it may be more of a psychosomatic effect, than a physical one. Hence why it’s classified as a Psychic-type technique.

“The Psychic classification may also be what allows human move tutors to instruct it to Pokemon. If it actually affected gravitational fields, I don’t know how a human could do it.”

[snaggerleo]

Life Orb

Battle Study with Professor Wesley!

“I feel like this weird little gizmo is probably evil? I don’t know where it comes from. If it’s like, mined out and refined from a bigger deposit of this stuff, then it probably threatens the good health of the planet. It’s some Dark Force type shit. But it’s also super useful in battle. Mixed attackers love it, and Magic Guard users especially. It will fatigue your Pokemon very quickly while they use it, in exchange for a pretty fantastic damage boost.”

[snaggerleo]

Metal Coat

“Oh, I’ve got this one. See this?”

“This is a canister. You’re supposed to open it up and apply the paste inside to your Pokemon. I’m told it’s safe on contact, especially if you go easy on the layers and don’t try to apply more than one canister to your Pokemon until the old one wears off. Especially if the Pokemon you apply it to is already Steel-type, or has metallic aspects to their body, like Scyther.”

[snaggerleo]

Grassy terrain, light screen, silver wind

Battle Study with Professor Wesley!

“Well I’ve talked about Dual Screens a little in the past, so let me send you over to those notes first thing. But those other moves, that’s interesting...

“Grassy Terrain is a more recently discovered technique. It started with the refining of Solar Beam into the more manageable Energy Ball; the raw energy of plant life, condensed into an attack. More and more refined, and soon that energy could be dispersed in a productive way instead of just fired off; spreading raw life energy across the field, to sort of temporarily terraform the space.

“In a more condensed space - a private one-on-one, as an example - it can completely alter the scenery, obscuring the world around you, climbing the walls, even hiding the ceiling if you’re battling indoors. This can do a lot for you, the most obvious of which being increasing the strength of Grass-type attacks while it’s active. But, being raw life energy, anyone standing in it also gets their booboos kissed each turn. Not much, you won’t be good as new after a few minutes in this juice, but maybe it’ll keep you from kissing dirt, which can be enough in a fight. Energy holding the ground together also softens moves like Earthquake.

Galar has really figured this move out, with their native Rillaboom having mastered the same innate abilities as one of Alola’s much lauded guardians, and their version of the technique also poses less danger of permanently altering the terrain by spreading the energy more thinly, without reducing its effects. Plenty of other Pokemon can learn the technique - mostly the type you could mistake for simply being plants. The closer to nature, the better, clearly. But nobody’s beating Rillaboom or Tapu Bulu for mastery.” For now. In science, there was always a ‘for now’ at the end of your thought.

Shifting topics entirely, Leo had to click around a few folders on his tablet, and a short sip from the nearest small glass next to his work desk. Then he slumped back in his seat, a scowl covering his lips.

“Lord above, this move is odd. It’s one a trio of techniques, maybe among the most ancient, and we really don’t know that much about it. It, Ominous Wind, and Ancient Power share some traits. They’re relatively low in base power, quick to exhaust, but rarely - I can’t emphasize that rarely enough - give the user an incredible temporary boost to its physical and mental abilities. The best anyone can surmise is it being some form of ancient chant that maybe helped life evolve in the first place, by pure chance. Rocks, insects, and the concept of a soul definitely predate most everything else on this planet. Short of maybe water. But water didn’t need any extra help back in the day.

“As for its appearance, it’s a well-named move. A gust of wind carries glittering silver scales, or feathers, or whatever your body has handy to hit the opponent. It doesn’t do much damage, but I’ve seen it pose some pretty good knockback in a fight. In case you need space in a pinch.”

[snaggerleo]

Skill Swap

Battle Study with Professor Wesley!

Awful flashbacks. This one gave Leo pause. “Do not care for that move. It uh...it’s an utterly bizarre...hold on.”

He pulled his driving goggles off, wiped his eyes - leaving more grease behind than before he’d done it - then put his goggles back on his forehead, where they had been before. “There, that was awfully distracting. Skill Swap is a Psychic-type technique that can cause some real havoc anywhere it’s used. It’s a pretty incredible technique, capable of swapping behavioral habits and even physiology mid-battle. Temporarily, at least.

“The attack usually takes the form of a single orb of pale light, or a snaking beam, and I’ve never seen it miss. It can be damn sinister to use on an opponent, and in the right hands, pretty threatening in a doubles game. Pokemon that are normally inhibited by their ability can sweep the field. The most threatening example I’ve seen--”

He took a breath and fell back in his seat, catching up with his thoughts and pushing them behind him. “I saw a devastating match with a Lapras swapped No Guard - leaving it incredibly aggressive, getting it to slide in close to enemy combatants and guarantee connection with techniques that are normally a guessing game, like Sing or Sheer Cold. There’s no better way to describe this technique, the variations on it are just too vast.”

[snaggerleo]

Quick Guard and Wide Guard!

Battle Study with Professor Wesley!

“You’re speakin’ to me, with doubles staples like that. Non-offensive techniques can be hard to type classify, since we can’t rely on measuring comparative damage in a controlled environment to simply call it for what it is. These two moves are great examples of the community just throwing their hands up and giving up on it, since Quick Guard is considered a Fighting-type technique and Wide Guard is Rock-type, pretty rare for somewhat generic-looking barriers.

“It’s not too hard to guess how the moves evolved, either. Mess around with the Protect technique long enough, and you get deviations. Quick Guard is a strong but flickering barrier. It only lasts for a couple of seconds, so it’s only useful against _very_ fast attacks. I’m talkin’, if you’ve got a frame two jab like Bullet Punch or Mach Punch, or a dedicated prankster, Quick Guard is your answer. The benefit of this deviation is it can be used several times in a row. Ending quickly means it launches again and more reliably than Protect, despite being spread wide enough to protect multiple teammates.

“Wide Guard’s in a similar situation. It’s half a Protect. The bottom half, specifically. A waist high wall, great for ducking behind to reduce spray, and stabilizing the ground to nullify earthquakes - in your localized area, at least. So again, because you’re putting in half the work, you can spread it out more; it can be used again and again, unlike Protect. But you can’t let yourself be predictable in a fight, or you’ll get picked off.

“Like Protect itself, it comes in a few forms. Simple, nearly transparent green barriers, locked hexagons of light, whatever. It’s pretty fascinating, the different ways in can manifest.”

[snaggerleo]

Luster Purge

Battle Study with Professor Wesley!

“That’s a pretty rare move! Your average person only gets to see it by pure chance when it’s called by the Metronome technique. The research archives I have access to--” That is, anything that isn’t locked behind a paywall. “--only has grainy home camera footage from a true Latios, and there’s a clip online of a Smeargle using it, so we’ve got that.

“The move itself is a potent psychokinetic force. The user - normally Latios, I mentioned that - gathers up psychokinetic energy as blinding light, then it reaches out to batter the target as individual beams from the gathered orb. The nature of the multiple blows makes it reliable for softening up a target for future attacks, helping to pinpoint weak spots. A suitable move for an aggressive Psychic-type, to scare away the unwanted or soften the delicious. If you ask me.

“Though it’s pretty clear it’s a move that was refined in the wild. Its raw power is comparatively low, and it’s quick to exhaust; the more standard Pychic attack does a similar job with more oomph, though less flare.”

[snaggerleo]

Reflect and Light Screen are very common moves in Pokemon battles, novices to experts, and is another one of those techniques that while its appearance may change from region to region, its effectiveness varies very little.

While learning it in Orre, at least, it tends to form as a series of hexagonal cells of light, very briefly colored either blue or yellow depending on which technique the user has activated, before they blend in with the light around them. The cells become a sort of safety net; Reflect’s cells are more tightly bound and layered on top of each other, to cut the momentum of physical attacks appropriately. Light Screen’s cells are more spread out, since ranged attacks have an easier time just avoiding that tight barrier, but also have their momentum cut with more ease.

The techniques are especially common in double battles, and while their individual effectiveness is weakened gently thanks to having to protect two Pokemon, it can’t be overstated how useful it is to have a more long-term solution to mitigating damage without constantly needing to hold up the more do-it-all barrier of Protect.