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The AI in Pokemon is a Cheating Bastard

June 27, 2011 by Noah
I've been playing a lot of Pokemon SoulSilver lately and feel like ranting about how the AI in the game is a cheating bastard.

First of all, I don't believe the AI in Pokemon has any reason to cheat. Pokemon battles are by default completely fair. Every Pokemon owned by the enemy trainer is a Pokemon you could also go out and capture or trade to get. And all the moves their Pokemon knows are moves you could teach to your own Pokemon.

But regardless the AI feels the need to cheat. Some examples I've seen:

It knows how many turns Sleep and Confusion will last for.

When a Pokemon is put to sleep or confused, the game internally decides how many turns it will last for. Nobody should be able to see this number, the player certainly can't, but the AI does and it uses this to its advantage.

How it cheats: it knows exactly which move your Pokemon is going to wake up on, and it will use Sleep Powder or Sing on this turn to put your Pokemon back to sleep (these moves would fail if your Pokemon is already asleep).

Evidence: the AI fails sometimes. If the enemy Pokemon is too fast, it will use Sleep Powder, it will fail because your Pokemon is already asleep, and then your Pokemon will wake up. This happens all the god damn time. You can also confuse the AI by using an item on the turn your Pokemon is about to wake up on (but, this is all down to chance, since you don't know which turn it will wake up on).

It knows in advance how much damage its attack will do

I had a Gyarados, which has high defense so most attacks to it will do less damage than expected. Regardless, the AI knew my Gyarados had only 14 HP left (yes, it cheats and sees how much HP you have, while you can't see the enemy's HP at all). It knew a Quick Attack would deal exactly 14 HP damage, taking into account the defense of my Gyarados.

But I foiled its plans by healing my Gyarados. It followed up with a Quick Attack which did exactly 14 damage.

It knows what move you're about to use

I was battling Bruno of the Elite Four, and he has a Forretress that knows the move Protect.

Protect always goes first in the turn it's used, and it prevents the opponent's move from hitting.

Bruno's Forretress is a cheating bastard though, because it only uses Protect when you're going to use your most powerful move. Forretress is weak to fire, so I used my Typhlosion's Blast Burn move, which is a very powerful fire attack. Forretress used Protect so it failed; I tried again, it used Protect a second time. Tried again, and this time it hit, because Forretress knows that Protect can't be used more than twice.

I battled Bruno later with my Umbreon. I used Dark Pulse, the most powerful move my Umbreon knows, and Forretress used Protect to block it.

I figured Forretress was gonna use Protect again, so I used Faint Attack instead. This hit. So I tried Dark Pulse again -- Forretress used Protect and blocked it. I tried again, Forretress tried Protect again, but it failed (you can't use it more than twice). So, I confused the AI there.

Anyway, I just think this whole thing is ridiculous. The AI has no reason to cheat. It wouldn't be that hard for Nintendo to program the AI to pretend it doesn't know all this stuff that it shouldn't know about the battle (hint: they just don't need to program it to look). There's probably logic in the code like, "if the player chose the player's most powerful move, and protect hasn't been used twice in a row now, use protect". Nintendo should just NOT write that code. Pokemon battles are fair by default.

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Comments

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Tyler posted on December 4, 2011 @ 19:12 UTC

Thanks for this post. glad to see others are in the same boat as me.

GOD FORBID MY POKEMON ACTULLY NOT HURT ITSELF WHILE CONFUSED.

i was also battling the electic gym in fire red a few moments ago lvl 21 pikachu vs my lvl 19 pikachu. i had dig (dont ask why) and since its ground it will do massive dmg to electric. first i used double team 3 times to make sure i would not be hit hardly ever. guess what. i dig. i MISS. his pikachu hits me with a 2 quick atacks in a row without me attacking... im down to low health. i dig this time it hits and brings him to half. i need 1 more dig to beat him. god forbid he actually miss seing as how my evasiveness is pretty high at this point... nope he hits me and im dead...

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Britt posted on January 2, 2012 @ 00:16 UTC

That happens to me all the damn time, I'm confused I always get hit but if they're confuse maybe they'll hurt themselves once every 4 turns. And if asleep or confused, whatever, they snap out of it or wake up after one or two turns while i stay that way. WTF?!

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Robert posted on April 10, 2012 @ 14:03 UTC

This has a name. It's called, "The Computer is a Cheating Bastard."

The A.I. can use Double Team only once and you will miss five times in a row, but you can Double Team to the max and the A.I. will never miss. And when you're confused you'll hit yourself 5 times but when the A.I. is confused it will wear off in 2 turns without the A.I. ever hitting itself. And the A.I. will freeze you and you will stay frozen for several turns, but when you freeze the A.I. it will thaw out immediately. I hate it.

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Steve posted on June 4, 2012 @ 07:33 UTC

I don't know what to say, everyone seems to be on the same boat. Let me give you an example, a move with 30% chance of confusing (hurricane) and 70% accuracy used by the friken whimsicott will ALWAYS HIT AND CONFUSE me. Guess what? I hit myself 5times if I survive the rest of hurricane spam or I hit myself once-twice and I get koed from a crit that ALWAYS follow after. Seriously, did Game Freak really need to cheat AI trainers to that step and bring us players to insanity?

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LW posted on June 4, 2012 @ 19:40 UTC

Guess what. Just patched my Soul Silver, played from Falkner to Whitney; when I reach her, my Heracross destroyed her Clefairy. Then Milktank enters, uses attract; but knowing that her Stomp would take 4 turns to kill my Heracross I thought "well one single hit out of 4 and I win.

Stomp flinched my Heracross every single time.

Not only that. Put my Flaanffy to thunder wave it - 3 stomps, 3 flinching, Flaanffy down.

I was so mad I hit * to reset.

But I didn't knew patched SoulSilver with Bios start shouldn't be resetted.

Now I'm in front of Falkner again.

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dude.dude posted on July 7, 2012 @ 03:30 UTC

Some of this seems to be true, but not all of it is. I am referring to Platinum, Diamond and Pearl, but their in the same Generation as Heartgold and Soulsilver (4) and have the same AI.

My Disagreements:

First off, the AI will use a weak move if your pokemon has low health regardless of weather or not it would actually kill it. Sometimes my Pokemon survives after even 2 of these weak hits when one of it's stronger moves would have killed me in one hit. It was just a coincidence that quick attack on Gyrados dealed 14 damage exactly. Also since quick attack is one of the weakest moves, the AI will usually use this move if it has it when your Pokemon is weak which is a coincidence working in the AI's favor, especially after a move like Endeavor.

With protect sometimes they will use it even if I use a move that doesn't do damage, and sometimes they use it every other turn so it will never fail when it seems to be trying to stall me out especially if I'm poisoned.

It definitely doesn't know exactly what move you will use next because after you use the same move 1 to 3 times, it will switch to a Pokemon where that move isn't very effective or effective at all against it. You can take advantage of this by using a move that would be effective against your pokemon's weaknesse(s) or if you knew what Pokemon they were going to switch out if you knew what Pokemon they already had such as from a previous battle.

My Agreements: The sleep thing seems to be true. In fact, sometimes the AI's Pokemon wakes up 0 turns after I put it to sleep! For an example:

All in One Turn: Smeargle used Spore! Staraptor Fell Asleep! Staraptor Woke Up! Staraptor Used Brave Bird! Smeargle fainted!

Not even one "Staraptor is Fast Asleep" message appeared, and most places on the internet say sleep in Generation 4 lasts 1-4 turns, well it's actually 0-4 turns (and no Staraptor does not have Early Bird as an ability, it has Intimidate). Sometimes my Pokemon will wake up on the turn that it is put to sleep, but it's extremely rare while this happens to the AI a little more often. My Pokemon are usually asleep for 3 or 4 turns before waking up, sometimes 2 and the AI's are usually asleep for 1 to 3 turns before waking up.

This falls under the category of "Hax" where the computer is more lucky than you with things such as sleep, burns, freezes (in my Platinum game the AI has been ESPECIALLY lucky with paralysis from electric moves or the static ability and still pretty luck with 55 accuracy moves like super sonic, sing, and grass whistle), critical hits, flinching, attacks hitting or missing, stat bonuses, abilities and the length of status ailments. This seems to be the case more in the Battle Tower if you rack up a lot of wins, but this isn't always the case as I've been lucky myself even in the battle tower.

It also knows how long these "Hax" moves like sleep and confusion will last basically the same as you said.

So yeah the AI is a cheating bastard in this game, but it could have been worse. I mean, you can also use tons items on your Pokemon if you have money and the AI can basically only use one Full Restore or Potion per Pokemon it has or even every other Pokemon it has. This is also limited to rich trainers and bosses like the Gym leaders and the Elite 4. Some scientists or something might use X attacks and X defends etc. though.

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Damien posted on October 11, 2012 @ 19:05 UTC

Something that really pisses me off is random encounters... You know those times when you're trying to train something in an area with Pokemon that are strong against it? Well, for some reason they seem to show up more often when i'm using the Pokemon with a weakness... Whats worse is that whenever i try to run, it usually takes 1-3 failed escapes before i can get away, but my Pokemon can flee from everything else in the area without a problem... The wild Pokemon doesn't even spend the turns it has doing anything useful... Usually just lowering my stats or increasing its own. For fucks sake!

Of course, this is probably just my luck, but it happens every time i start a new game and it really is sickening having to wait for no reason.

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Kevin Bowman posted on October 16, 2012 @ 04:40 UTC

Well the ai is pretty crappy otherwise. For every cheater three geodudes will use mud sport when no one on my team can learn electric moves anyway.

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Kevin Bowman posted on October 16, 2012 @ 04:41 UTC

Well the ai is pretty crappy otherwise. For every cheater three geodudes will use mud sport when no one on my team can learn electric moves anyway.

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Taariq Scott posted on October 30, 2012 @ 14:18 UTC

Nice to know I am not alone. EVERY time i encounter a pokemon with a move that confuses targets (even those without 100% accuracy) it uses that move and my pokemon becomes confused. Its confusion lasts a MINIMUM of 3 turns and has a 100% chance of hitting itself in confusion at least once. Sleep lasts about the same for my pokemon; however, i have used hypnosis on enemy pokemon, and on MULTIPLE occassions, it woke up in 0 turns... WTF no need for cheating

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Karl posted on March 18, 2013 @ 21:23 UTC

Got so angry during my latest Emerald playthrough that I felt the need to rant on the internet. Mauville Gym, using level 31 kadabra, one shotting every single pokemon until manetrike comes out. He uses thunder wave first since he has higher speed. For the next SIX FUCKING TURNS I am paralyzed and cannot move. paralysis usually just cheats between 2-4 times and then lets me hit, but six times is just ridiculous.

Confusion is almost as bad. I get confused now and I just say fuck it and switch my pokemon, because anything is more effective than sitting their, having my pokemon punch itself in the head four turns in a row.

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itcrandomperson posted on June 5, 2013 @ 19:53 UTC

I hear you... earlier today i was nailed with 5 focus blasts in a row. one of them got a freaking crit. Then there is hitting myself 5 billion times in confusion. ugggggggh confusion!

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jj posted on June 12, 2013 @ 15:17 UTC

err... diamond/pearl/platinum are the only games i've played, and i get lucky, too... for example, one time I got multiple focus blasts in a row, and I have not encountered waking up in 0 turns.

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Anonymous posted on July 18, 2013 @ 04:29 UTC

A good trainer adapts to any situation.

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bill posted on September 1, 2013 @ 19:09 UTC

it happens to everyone. egz. when i was battling chuck ,fighting gym in soul silver, i used ice fang, it froze his poliwrath, for one turn

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blaze posted on December 20, 2013 @ 03:00 UTC

I'm at the fourth gym and I can never wake up

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Anonymous posted on February 22, 2014 @ 00:49 UTC

just get a DW durant and laugh at them as they struggle with truant

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courtney posted on February 22, 2014 @ 07:22 UTC

Been trying for 3 days to beat one round of White 2's rental tournament. Lose every. single. fucking. time. Why? Because even when I get fully evolved bruisers or special sweepers, doesn't fuckin matter because the AI will either mysteriously dodge all my moves or crit me. I had a Simipour against the AI's simipour. I use focus blast. Miss. Their Simipour uses focus blast. Hits. I use focus blast. Miss. Their simipour uses focus blast. CRITICAL. Send out my Zweilous with a quick claw. Quick claw activates, I use Crunch. MISS. My zweilous didn't even have Hustle so crunch has 100% accuracy.

Simipour uses focus blast and finishes me off with another fuckin crit.

Seriously. 100 attempts later and I still haven't beaten the third trainer in the rental tournament. B.S.

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Vader_the_White posted on March 7, 2014 @ 08:08 UTC

I remember once that I was having a rematch against Whitney when I was training my own Miltank in SoulSilver. Now, unlike the rest of the Pokemon community, I don't have PTSD from Whitney's Miltank due to me easily winning when I first fought her for the Plain Badge. So Bessie (my Miltank) eventually fought against Whitney's. Now, I usually have a ton of backup Full Restores and Full Heals on me, so every time a Pokemon of mine suffers a status condition, I just heal it. In the epic battle of Whitney's Miltank vs Bessie, I actually had the opposing Miltank run out of PP for Body Slam. Body Slam has a 30% chance of inflicting paralysis. Out of the 15 times her Miltank Body Slammed mine, 14 of those paralyzed Bessie. 14.

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Flubble99 posted on April 26, 2014 @ 11:14 UTC

I'm replaying platinum and have a good team. What always happens is the enemy uses a move that doesn't make my pokemon down to half, but close, leaving me to think i'm safe but the next turn it speed has increased and it takes out my pokemon WITH THE SAME MOVE. It isn't an ability or the move, the game is just being a jerk. I have lowered accuracy by 1 and the game is like "100 accuracy, pssshhht, let's make that 5! YAY!" and I always, 100% of the time, get status effects from moves and abilities. I was fighting Crasher and his pokemon was slower than mine. He beat me and I leveled up gaining speed and that very same pokemon outsped a faster one when it used waterfall.

I think the opponents AI should be easier, not wrecking the game and not activating its little hacks.

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guest posted on May 6, 2014 @ 01:18 UTC

Part of it too is that trainers have different AI levels depending on what they're meant to do. For example, a gym leader with the same pokemon and same levels as a youngster will (outside of battle facilities) will always be harder. Their pokemon will have more competitive moves and items. Admittedly, I do not know the actual deciding factor. But its not necessarily AI cheating. Otherwise, Mewtwo wouldn't have spammed aura sphere against my Aegislash in pokemon X. I am not kidding.

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Anonymous posted on May 14, 2014 @ 19:38 UTC

I have tested the rant on them knowing moves with an emulators save state. when i use my most powerful move and is blocked i load my save state and use a move that does a status change instead while he will use the same move. it calculates what you will do better than most people do unless you fight others in tournament settings. this was tested with pokemon platinum.

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mr splats posted on May 16, 2014 @ 04:29 UTC

Yep I actually started keeping track to make sure Im not crazy. Out of 100 turns of me being confused I hit myself 68 times. The CPU 30/100. It seems to be the worse if your ev training especially before the elite 4. Also in heart gold and soul silver. I've been playing platinum and its not nearly as fucky.

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firelover5 posted on May 16, 2014 @ 17:28 UTC

where do get stantler and the move stomp.

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Anonymous posted on June 10, 2014 @ 16:29 UTC

It is impossible for it to know exact damage since that value IS generated the moment the move is about to be executed. (Not chosen)

On the othre hand though, in Gen I due to awful programming it actually chose moves in reaction to what you did (and used items based on HP status disregarding the game rules)

The moves chosen are actually trainer-specific preference. For wild pokémon, I think natures factor in a general sense of which kind of move it uses, but it's mostly random.

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Hunter posted on June 18, 2014 @ 06:47 UTC

Seriously, fuck Karen of the elite four and her bullshit umbreon. It used double team once, and I could never hit the damn thing again after it continuously confused me, so I would just keep hitting myself and the rare chance that I didn't hit myself, I missed. I eventually dealed with it and moved on to houndoom. I went ahead of houndoom for about 2 turns in a row, and course on the second turn it uses nasty plot and somehow gains speed to outspeed my pokemon. FUCK soul silver.

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Cassie posted on July 1, 2014 @ 22:21 UTC

Ok, it is in fact extremely annoying. In white 2, I used swagger on Clay's excadrille. And guess what? Turn 1: The foes excadrille is confused! The foes excadrille used rock slide! A critical hit! Thunderous (therain) fainted! Turn 2: the foes excadrille snapped out of its confusion. The foes excadrille used Rock slide! Sigalyph fainted!

However, it can be outsmarted as well. I used honegde in the 3rd gym in x, and korrina couldn't do anything to it :D

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MeowMan posted on July 17, 2014 @ 00:35 UTC

Once when i was fighting will in soul silver i had a specs. dragonair with thunder. He would always use me first and use thunder. The best part is everytime he hit, everytime he paralysed me. Everytime i would be fully paralysed. This happened FIVE FUCKING TIMES. Let me note thunder has a 30 percent chance of missing and a 70 percent chance of not paralysing.

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lightbuster30 posted on July 22, 2014 @ 04:30 UTC

I know. In the battle subway in white my flare blitz fro darmitanian with sheer force+life orb literally took out not even half of a sawsbucks HP, the thing uses flash cannon and I am left with 37 HP, no critical or stat changes.

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Anonymous posted on July 30, 2014 @ 21:10 UTC

In a double battle I had a hippowdon down to about half health. I had 3 pokemon left, 2 were paralyzed. Over the around 30 moves I launched to win, two hit brining it down to almost no health. And the rest either missed, I was paralyzed, or it used protect.

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Anonymous posted on July 30, 2014 @ 21:18 UTC

When I get a crit: the enemy pokemon is already dead anyway. When enemy gets a crit: oh well thats just enough to take out my hp!

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sasha posted on July 31, 2014 @ 06:20 UTC

That's why i love pokemon and hate the game... The Pokemon desktop is satisfying for me :P http://topwindows7themes.com/pokemon-windows-7-custom-theme-with-pokemon-gadget/

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by posted on August 9, 2014 @ 04:14 UTC

Ok so im playing the black version and im going up against the first gym leader. why i coudnt kill his super low health pokemon. he attacks me and i get low. i use a health pot. he gets to attack me 2 TIMES IN A ROW. like what?????

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guest posted on September 2, 2014 @ 20:28 UTC

Well maybe your speed was even

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guest posted on September 3, 2014 @ 13:22 UTC

That's not how the AI works. I can guarantee that. Turn based AI is nearly always programmed somewhat like this:

  1. Perform each possible action for the turn.
  2. Look at the outcome of each action.
  3. Rank each option based on X.
  4. Perform the highest ranked action. If there's a tie for the highest, randomly choose one of the actions in the tie.
  5. Repeat.

Thus, in Pokemon, it would be something along the lines of:

  1. If the Pokemon is low on HP and you have a potion, use it.
  2. Perform each attack and check possible outcomes.
  3. Rank each attack based on damage, chance to hit, and possible statuses.
  4. Any attacks guaranteed to kill the opponent should be used before anything else (Take priority into account)
  5. Protect should be used if it had not been the turn before
  6. If an attack causes damage and a status, they should be used second (take accuracy, damage, and priority into account)
  7. If an attack causes a status affliction, it should be used third (take accuracy and priority into account)
  8. If an attack does damage, it should be used fourth (take damage, accuracy, and priority into account)
  9. If an attack does not affect the opponent, don't use it.
  10. If no attack affects the opponent, switch.
  11. Use the highest ranked attack. If 2+ attacks are ranked highest, pick a random attack from the tie.

Obviously this isn't the exact AI and it leaves no room for AI levels. However, this is the general concept of the AI.

So, for example... I have a Pokemon with Protect, Flamethrower, Quick Attack, and Hydro Pump. My opponent has a Blastoise with 2 HP.

Using this AI, my attacks would be ranked as such:

  1. Quick Attack (Priority, 100 accuracy, guaranteed kill)
  2. Flamethrower (100 accuracy, guaranteed kill)
  3. Protect (Priority, Protect)
  4. Hydro Pump (80 accuracy, enough damage to kill (not guaranteed as it can miss))
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guest posted on October 20, 2014 @ 22:09 UTC

how about this, playing emerald, elite four down, got a 62 rayquaza, 60 blaziken 61 gardevoir 62 tropius 60 tyranitar and a 58 golem, i get to wallace, i demolish everything til he gets to gyrados, he uses a total of 12 full restores on his gyrados, to the point where not a single one of my team has any PP left for any move, i mean what the motherloving fuck?

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ohnoa posted on October 29, 2014 @ 02:09 UTC

Yeah same here for firered with the elite four hypnosis hits me 100% and i get poisoned and crit in one turn. And the good part is my moves with 90 accuracy misses

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guest posted on November 30, 2014 @ 06:51 UTC

Used hypnosis 3 times on a legendary only to have that asswipe wake up literally the next turn on all of them. Seriously, sleep in this game is absolutely bullshit.

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Guy posted on December 2, 2014 @ 05:26 UTC

I can guarantee that the AI doesn't know exactly how much damage it's going to deal, and it doesn't know your Pokemons exact health either.

However. I've noticed (as well as a lot of other people I play Pokemon with) that the AI CONSISTENTLY gets the better outcome of ALL outcomes requiring "luck".

The AI will wake up faster than you, will hit from confusion more often than you, will snap out of confusion earlier than you, will not be paralyzed as often as you, will land attacks with lower accuracy much more often than you, will land critical hits more often than you, and finally will inflict status ailments off of very small percentages more often than you.

If I was even half as lucky as the AI apparently is, I wouldn't be typing this, but that's not the case. A lot of this article is just very coincidental information congesting into "proof". However I do believe what I typed to be very true. When the AI wants you to lose, you will. Not. Win.

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Jay posted on December 29, 2014 @ 00:16 UTC

I over level in Gen VI and keep the Exp Share on, because holy poop the AI is Battle whatever ish throughout the entire game. If it wasn't for the Exp Share I'd consider the Gen VI games to be the hardest games in the series by far. I also kind of think they nerf the trainer teams to give you a chance.

I can't get critical hits at all. They're like finding shinies to me, while the AI gets a critical hit whenever it wants, like it's affected by permanent Focus Energy/Super Luck. I regret paralyzing the AI pokemon because it only shows them down, it doesn't actually paralyze them. Of course, when my pokemon get hit with paralysis, they stay paralyzed. It's insane, and I'm resorting to over-leveling my pokemon to compensate, and I've never had to do that in Gens I-V.

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Baoxiu posted on January 4, 2015 @ 12:37 UTC

I KNOW.

The Elite Four AI in ORAS are annoying as hell, too. Always using Dragon Pulse to oneshot my entire team... I had to use 4 revives to make it waste the PP on that damn thing because it ALWAYS attacked first.

Then, when I finally made it on to Steven, the AI predicted everything so I had to restart the entire E4.

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Anonymous posted on January 5, 2015 @ 13:58 UTC

I've been playing AS and have never had problems with gym leaders except for the supper battles in the battle mansion. I feel that the ai pokemon have fucking steroid stats compared to yours. They are always faster stronger or have stupid defence stats when you fight them even though you know the actual stats they should have

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Wedlocker posted on January 5, 2015 @ 17:00 UTC

I KNOW RIGHT?

Once, i did a Wedlocke Challenge on Pokemon Alpha Sapphire. I thought nothing bad, i had a good level, and occured a Trainer in the Wild.I fought his first Pokemon, but his second was Carvanha.I attacked it and did not enough damage to bring it to the Yellow HP bar.He used Focus Energy. I thought nothing bad and attacked again,bringing him on the End of the Yellow Bar, almost at the Red Bar. He attacked, BOOM! Critical, Pokemon Fainted. Cried. Next Pokemon. Im in do an attack, Unfortunatelly, He survived with like 1 HP. Attack,Crit,Dead.Whole Pair lost.Next Pair.He was faster than 1 Pokemon,Attack,Crit, but survived. I used Super Potion. He Attacked again, and of course, crited. Now thats already 4 Crits in a Row. I hoped that i would be faster and attacked. I was faster, but missed. Attack,Crit,Death. Even without crit, it would have been Enough.Next Pokemon has Quick Attack, and with that, i finally Killed it.

THIS FUCKER MADE 5 CRITS IN A ROW AND KILLED HALF OF MY TEAM!

IT WAS BEFORE THE 3rd BADGE!!!

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Anonymous posted on January 9, 2015 @ 02:09 UTC

Once, when I was playing Sapphire, the Aqua grunt Poochyena spammed fucking sand attacked my Mudkip and I got my ass kicked.

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Prince posted on January 10, 2015 @ 10:24 UTC

I don't mind that it cheats, it's still too dumb to battle properly.

E.g. The ai rarely switches Pokemon, even if their Pokemon is asleep. Whereas half decent battlers switch all the time based on prediction (check any online battle sim for this). You wouldn't see the ai using a voltturn, baton pass or trick room team.

The ai should cheat MORE until it gets smarter!

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santos posted on February 13, 2015 @ 05:54 UTC

I just hate how they get to go like six yimes before you can get one shot it thats why is bullshit especially in black fuck that i was so close tobeating this guy when i just started and it kept using confuse and it sucls because you hurt youryourself and it is pissing me off

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Gary Sanderson posted on February 15, 2015 @ 01:19 UTC

(The person above me)? What the fuck is wrong with you?!?!

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Flare posted on February 18, 2015 @ 18:30 UTC

I was playing SoulSilver trying to train up for Chuck's gym and decided to battle Eusine. His Electrode made a freaking joke of my team. I understand we were seriously weak to electric at that point but this freaking thing..... I had Eevee use Sand Attack at one point hoping to knock it's 100% Thunder Sweep off and it finally didn't hit. Then either Static or Thunder Wave paralyzed Eevee, tried to Quick Attack 4 or 5 times and each time 'Uoho is fully paralyzed!' But 3 Sand Attacks and he STILL managed to kill Eevee with Thunder! HOW???

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Synonymous posted on March 2, 2015 @ 21:34 UTC

One Sand Attack and my Pokémon are legally blind.

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Gamerfreak_96 posted on March 30, 2015 @ 03:05 UTC

The hell did I just read seriously, the game cannot by all definition cheat its a AI of course it knows whats gonna happen if you throw out a type advantage of course they wll protect. The AI is not an idiot if you played competitly you would know that to win it comes down to reading and perdicting what your opponent will do. switching from a disadvantage to an advantage at the opurtune moment or predicting a fakeout or status move is part of the game if your not smart enough to protect when your oponent has a clear advantage then your an idiot. secondly for the sleeping on average the turns that pokemon sleep are around 2-4 turns during which they are most lkely wake up if there smart enough to predict oh its been 2-3 turns he might wake up. I know this s long but WTF im asuming your a grown ass man stop bitching like a little kid, games are only fun when there a challenge and pokemon aint much of one you can blits through it in like 2-3 hours.

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Budderman0 posted on March 31, 2015 @ 06:48 UTC

I don't know what the problem is for you guys but all of my copies of pokemon Y,Diamond,Fire red,Emerald green,etc. are good even pearl, well really there status effect normally lasts longer than mine and 70% of the time the status works in my favor (i've never lost a single battle in all my pokemon games)

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Aramix posted on April 9, 2015 @ 14:32 UTC

In Emerald, I got to Wallace, and his last pokemon, a Gyarados, keeps staying at 1 HP after my Rayquaza hits him with Outrage. AND WALLACE KEEPS THROWING FULL RESTORE OUT OF F*CKING NOWHERE! Ofcourse, my pokemon gets confused, and I'm at Gyarados' mercy.

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Anonymous posted on April 10, 2015 @ 09:10 UTC

I literally just fought Clair in SoulSilver three times and all three times I confused her Kingdra and not once has it hitself in the 10 turns it was confused. Not to mention every single time I try to use a status move on her Dragonairs, they conveniently use Shed Skin every single time on the first turn. Seems Legit.

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someone posted on April 12, 2015 @ 17:06 UTC

when i was battling the elite four was about to faint a pokemon and then this happen "full restore was used on ______" and i hate how the game know what move im gonna use next

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Zareh posted on April 30, 2015 @ 00:50 UTC

I agree with a lot of this-- even though I'm playing the most recent additions to the Pokemon Games, Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby, many of these combat inconsistencies are STILL THERE. Confusion 100% of the time, almost never hitting through confusion, Paralysis every single time a move is used, almost never works when I use it. (Which means even Synchronicity doesn't save me...) , sleep being horribly unfair (the other day, I was battling the last Pokemon of the entire elite four, all my Pokemon were pretty hurt after the long battle, and conveniently when I put Alakazam in to bat clean up, my opponent wakes up and uses a priority move. I was so pissed I used my shiny Mewtwo despite my intention of beating the elite with four Pokemon while my level 100 Mewtwo and Hydreigon just watched.) With that being said, I cannot vouch for the complaint that freezing doesn't work, because when trying to catch Kyogre, my Lapras froze them for a whopping 15 straight turns! Granted I was using ice beam every other move (Pokeball, ice beam, pokeball, ice beam) furthermore I cannot vouch that they never use moves that aren't effective, either. My Lapras featured the "absorb" ability for water, and no AI seemed to stop Kyogre from healing my Lapras, effectively making her invincible to Kyogre lousy attempts at my Pokemon's health. (Body Slam paralyzed me every time. I just used a lot of potions, healing wasn't necessary until my health fell under 70, which was the critical hit range for Body Slam.) I only got frozen once in my many attempts. Kyogre got frozen twice, one was never ending (maybe a glitch?) And the other didn't even last into the next turn (I caught him that battle during his first struggle, after 30 ultra balls, and 5 premium balls, and a bunch of normal ones because I just had no better move for a few turns at the end... With, get this, a great ball at like 55% health. This lead me to believe perhaps, a Legendary in Struggle is a really easy one to catch, compared to one with moves left...) Finally, if you think normal battles are unfair, try the Battle Institute. The thing is so rigged it isn't even funny. If I put Psychic and Grass in, all my opponents will be fire and dark. Geeze, the last time I tried I got toasted by a single Vaporeon that for some god awful reason knew Shadow Ball. Gengar got one hit killed (how is that even fair when I did Shadow Ball back and it "wasn't very effective?" And Lapras had nothing better than Perish song to do anything besides 1/100th of their health... As if that isn't enough, I'm blocked from items and they'll use them MULTIPLE TIMES in the same battle. It's the most rigged thing I've ever freaking seen. The opponents also ignore speed (a speed trained Alakazam losing to anything is just about impossible. What on Earth? It was slower than everything they had.) Well, that's my rant.

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Kardfogú posted on April 30, 2015 @ 21:16 UTC

Ohhh yeah, Pokémon games cheat a lot. Especially Gym leaders. They have pokémon you can't actually have, for example Wattson in Gen III has a lvl22 Magneton. Normally Magnemite evolves into Magneton at lvl30 or later, the lowest level wild Magnetons are lvl26. Of course, that magneton at lvl22 is almost impossible to fight, even ground type pokémons can't do anything against it's Sonic Boom instakills.

Not to mention when you try to catch a pokémon, the last attack you need to weaken it is guaranteed to be a critical hit that faints the rare pokémon you want so much. Against a trainer your pokémon never scores a crit, except if the enemy pokémon has ~1 health. Enemy pokémons of trainers of course always score a critical hit if it leads to a OHKO. Enemy pokémons of trainers can also hit through 6+ Evasion with an attack that has an accuracy of 60%, but your pokémon fails the same attack most of the time.

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Julius posted on May 3, 2015 @ 20:28 UTC

Guys, I think I know why Nintendo coded all that stuff into the AI: battles would be too easy. There is literally only one AI in the game that uses a well-balanced team, and that's your rival. In other words, anyone worth their salt in Pokemon strategy should be able to crush the AI regardless of whether or not it has internal game knowledge and uses it to its advantage. I'm personally very glad that Nintendo was thoughtful enough to make these games a little more challenging.

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Airman posted on May 13, 2015 @ 05:25 UTC

Wedlocke person: Focus Energy increases chance of crits. 5 may be overkill, but that's how it works. Person who fought Clair: Shed Skin is an ability and, as I recall, always takes effect when you use a status move. So, yes, quite legit.

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Anonymous posted on May 19, 2015 @ 20:08 UTC

Emulated gens i - iv noticed a stranged set of statistics when testing probability of ai knowing what moves you select. Found an enemy with protect and no healing moves. Whittled them down to low hp then switched to my test pokemon. Aerodactyl with bite 100% accuracy and agility no dmg. Did the following test used bite 500 times and agilty 500 times alternating and reloading save state after each attack phase resolved. So that would he choose bite, watch turn, record result, load state, select agility, watch turn, record result, load state and repeat. It showed that the ai would select protect 467 times out of 500 for bite and never when i used agilty.

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LilJohn posted on June 4, 2015 @ 10:09 UTC

Yup, they cheat like crazy. It's like in StarCraft and other strategy games, when the developers are too incompetent to program a good AI they turn to these kinds of manipulations to make it harder for the players. (In starcraft, when you choose a higher AI difficulty the AI doesn't get better, it just recieves more resources than a human player with the same amount of workers, i.e. manupulating/cheating the game and making it "harder" because it's no longer on equal terms).

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res posted on June 22, 2015 @ 08:23 UTC

The AI is pretty dumb, and no, it doesn't cheat. It will always use a weak move (specially if it has priority) to kill your red HP pkmn. Proof of that is if you change your pkmn he won't "predict" it and will use that weak attack anyway. AI also rarely changes its pkmn unless you have hit him before.

You feel they are more lucky than you in terms of random numbers (crits, evasion and precision, statuses etc) because obviously you are only going to remember those annoying situations and battles. You are not going to remember every single time you landed crits often or had a lot of luck with low precision moves often on those shitty random trainers because that's not frustrating and it wont stay in your head. You will only remember how that gym leader beated you because he was super lucky.

People ranting here are just trying to excuse the fact that they lost against the AI. Honestly the only hard AI I've seen in a Pokémon game is the one of the battle tower, and it's hard because it has powerful pkmn with established strategies.

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N3k0 posted on June 30, 2015 @ 03:41 UTC

"I can guarantee that it doesn't work that way"

Did you even see the source code? Can you show us proof?

BETTER! Show the proof to my Gardevoir!

At half (30) health Save State Selected move: Psychic Mia (her name) is confused! It hurts itself in its confusion! Health: 27 used ! Critical hit! Mia fainted! Load State

At half (30) health Save State Selected move: Calm Mind Mia (her name) is confused! It hurts itself in its confusion! Health: 26 used ! Critical hit! Mia fainted! Load State

At half (30) health Save State Selected move: Future Sight Mia (her name) is confused! It hurts itself in its confusion! Health: 27 used ! Critical hit! Mia fainted! Load State

At half (30) health Save State Selected move: Confusion Mia (her name) is confused! It hurts itself in its confusion! Health: 28 used ! Critical hit! Mia fainted!

This usually changes when using poké balls, though, as you can save, select the ball, use and load if it fails, it will work at least once (Provided you have the proper conditions for catching, like selecting a normal ball to capture lv100 Rayquaza is an obvious fail)

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Noah (@kirsle) posted on June 30, 2015 @ 14:55 UTC

I'm disabling comments on this post. This particular post seems to attract a particular sort of spam bot (ones that talk about spellcasting or some junk)... they've posted a couple times in the last week or so.

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D-wiggy posted on March 22, 2018 @ 20:25 UTC

Ultra sun and ultra moon , noibat vs. Machop, i'm about to deal the finishing blow , the all of the sudden , the machop gets to go first ??? Now... My noibat has 2 things , a high speed stat , and a nature that BOOSTS SPEED. and this is in the middle of a battle.. So how on gods green earth , does a Machop spontaneously go first with karate chop to finish me off ??

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Justin posted on May 23, 2018 @ 01:15 UTC (updated 5/23/18 01:22 UTC)

I've been noticing, what seems to be, inconsistency with the pokemon league stats in Soulsilver. At lvl 58 my Typhlosion would one hit Wills Bronzong with Eurption off the start. Now at lvl 64 he is only doing 2/3 his health with full health. This has also been happening with other elite four pokemon.

Also my Ampharos was paralyzed (ironic I know) against Karens Umbreon. She used curse 5 times in a row, all while I was too paralyzed to move. The one time I hit she used payback. With 50 hp left I tried another signal beam. Paralyzed for the next turn while Umbreon used another curse instead of just killing me... Unreal

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Ryan posted on August 23, 2018 @ 04:55 UTC

Ahhh feels good to know I'm not alone here, misery does love company after all. In the process of running through HG again... The facts; the AI avoids paralysis / confu/ much shorter sleep / freeze periods, and have MUCH more frequent and better crits ie. Some trash Pokemon crits you for half your hp from full! Even if not effective or massive level /stat difference! While when I hit "crits" it's on a red barred Pokemon or those that I would have already one hit due to level, stat, and type advantage, seems legit. Most recent fuckery, in Mistys gym there is a trainer with a level 44 cloister vs my quick claw max EV lvl 55 Ampharos, cake walk right? Wrong. Tanks my discharge somehow, then uses attract. Ok no prob anything should ko, immobilized by love 5 x in a row, AND it gets a 5 hit spike cannon 5 x in a row with a total of 8 critical hits!!! Just wow.

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YOUR DOG posted on November 26, 2018 @ 02:32 UTC

MINECRAFT

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Wes posted on December 8, 2018 @ 22:42 UTC

Lucian's Espeon. MOTHER OF ARCEUS. Crit city. I could not get my luxray to move without dying instantly. I checked the crit rates. It beat all laws of probability. one battle. 25 crits, 4 of them mine. And just a few minutes ago, I am giving up on playing fairly on my Diamond Nuzlocke, Route 205's camper with a ponyta burned my geodude, got a crit on my shinx, one-shotted my zubat, and the only thing that put up a fight was my turtwig. a GRASS TYPE. and now I only have a lvl 12 magikarp and an abra with no tm moves. I know I'm screwed, but I'm not counting this yet.

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Anonymous posted on March 16, 2019 @ 19:58 UTC

Its not only that. All pokemon attacks have some level of randomness. There is a span of how much damage a pokemon can do with his move. I swear the enemies are using hax. Normal trainers you meet along the way seem very fair if not stupid for the most part but the cheating becomes blatantly obvious once you battle gymn leaders, rivals, elite 4 members and team baddies boss. I swear almost all of their moves deal max damage whereas all of your moves deal minimum damage. i've been playing through diamond. This exact scenario has played out many many times. The enemy pokemon uses a move and takes away 15 hit points. I use a move on him and it takes away 30 hp. Then he uses his exact same move again and takes away 25 hp. Now i'm nearly dead but its ok, if my move damages him as much as last time it will die. I use the exact same move....15hp. Why did they think adding a random variable in the damage equation was a good idea?

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Anonymous posted on March 24, 2019 @ 20:55 UTC

First of all, can somebody please delete the long stretched spam message containing "yeety"?

Anyway, I'm pretty much convinced the enemy AI is totally rigged against the player. My best experience so far was I battled a NPC trainer who had only one pokemon in his team. His pokemon was only one level higher than mine and it knew the attack "Sheer cold". If you don't know it, it's an one-hit-kill attack, but only with 30% hit chance. You will never hit the opponent, if your level is lower than the opponents' level, but there is a higher chance to hit your enemy if the level is far higher, being one level higher doesn't help you much. So guess what happened, that pokemon actually hit mine. How could a move that barely hits the target hit mine?

Another best example was my opponent used thunder 9 times in a row, where as I only could hit the target two or three times.

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HELP posted on April 20, 2019 @ 04:06 UTC

Please help me i think how its rigged applies to this. So i am playing on a mobile emulator and i have saved right as a wild raikou attacks so i can retry infinitely. The problem is when i try different strategies before the pokemon ball the way the pokemon ball wiggles and stuff is the same for each strategy each time. (sorry if thats confusing) So i think i might not really have the benefit of a random chance of catching it because its always going to be the same. Please help me!!!

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yeet posted on May 8, 2019 @ 17:48 UTC

who the retard posting yeet

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yeet posted on May 8, 2019 @ 17:48 UTC

yeet

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Mye posted on June 21, 2019 @ 15:20 UTC

'Yeet is an exclamation of excitement, approval, surprise, or all-around energy, often as issued when doing a dance move or throwing something. thot.' it's apparently from some kid's show a retarded annoying character called Sheen apparently I think I remember something about it so it's safe to assume this spamming yeet Child is just a Troll in the making or a Grown Man acting like one. Back on the topic at hand I really don't feel like repeating the pretty much obvious conclusion that most all pokemon games Cheat the player for the sake of a "Challenge" it also makes the games take longer so the content seems larger.

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Anonymous posted on July 1, 2019 @ 02:05 UTC

Honestly if you think the AI in pokemon is hard to beat, then you are bad at this game, git gud, children are beating you to the punch here. Youre Pokemon will only give back what you put into them, Pokemon is alot about grinding, make sure you battle every trainer and keep an evenly levelled and balanced 6 mon team, and if you have to, grind against wild mons to power up your team. You will almost never lose if you do this. And if you wanna go god mode start breeding and EV training but honestly thats just overkill and only good for competitive pvp.

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Anonymous posted on July 15, 2019 @ 06:32 UTC

Replying "git gud" at this is like saying "i beat pokemon red and blue with a lvl 1 magikarp and that is true"

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Mye posted on July 18, 2019 @ 14:41 UTC

July 1st Anon why are you here if you have not suffered the real established fact that the Pokemon A.I does have unfair mechanics at times? Seems odd you would come across this place without typing in something about it. Just felt like Trolling or pretending you are superior at a child's game? My biggest issue usually revolves around the Hack versions of the games which breathe a more interesting story into the franchise, usually and interesting mechanics with fake increased difficulty using the old method of OP or "cheating" advantages for the computer.

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your dumb posted on September 3, 2019 @ 17:06 UTC

youre just dumb lol

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Anonymous posted on June 2, 2020 @ 19:40 UTC

This goes to Dude.Dude Guy and Prince. I didnt care to read the others but to those with the same answer as these 3 idiots. This msg is for as well. To start off All 3 of you are complete retards. The AI DOES know your exact hp, the amount of dmg its move will do. When u will come out of status and everything else. Again. You cucks are retarded. The devolopers addmited all this already. So quit talking out your cucked cock suckers and do actual research b4 u go regurgitating literal feces. The AI should cheat more??? Lmao again could u be any more retarded??? They did this so it would be more challenging and fun with a sense of accomplishment but due to their unforseen unfairness with this algorithms u have to have luck 100 to even stand a chance. Every thing is true and admitted by the devs So anyone else wanting to say some retarded crap. Do the world a great favor and CLAM UP! No nees to show us how retarded you are....we gor that from the first word you idiots typed. :)

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Anonymous posted on June 5, 2020 @ 07:31 UTC

It's like no one knows how to use items in battles...

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Anonymous posted on July 22, 2020 @ 03:35 UTC

9 Years. This thread is 9 years old. I mean, I can agree with the premise, but holy crap this thread was made back in 2011 and people are still commenting. That has to be an achievement of sorts.

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Anonymous posted on December 25, 2020 @ 22:38 UTC

Seems to be true. I was playing Emerald and was fighting the Elite 4. I had my Manectric use Thunder Wave to paralyze Drake's Salamence and it got to move every single time after. For reference, I took about 10 turns to win after that point. 10. 10 turns, not one para. Drake's Shelgon seems to know exactly what move you're going to use. I tried baiting a turn 1 Protect by using Charge on my Manectric but no Protect, then I used Odor Sleuth to bait a Protect, still no, he used rock tomb instead, I let the Thunderbolt rip and oh, NOW here comes the Protect. Really?

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Yeet posted on February 14, 2021 @ 03:42 UTC

I agree with that. It doesn't happen to me all the time but in my Battle again Hop in the finals, I'm a little annoyed I'm doing an ice toe only challenge. I had a Dynamaxed Pillowsine at a bit over full half. He Dynamaxed his Cinderace. I calculated that I could barely survive the max flare even if hop got a high roll. He outspeeds and crits my Pillowsine to death. And then he nearly sweeps my whole team. And also, I gave myself a Articuno from Let's Go Pikachu since I couldn't use Zacian for the playthrough. I gave it some speed increasing iv stuff. I was faster than the Cinderace yet he somehow outspeeds me. Articuno. That was some BS luck. I had higher speed than it. #&$+#(@)$(;"+38#(#!"83#+$+$+28#("!'!"(*;'(#)!#". :(

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Yeet posted on February 14, 2021 @ 03:48 UTC

Also. I understand that if you disagree. I know it is pretty much dumb lick. But it's still a little annoying. P.S If you hate Hop, BEGON THOT!!!!!

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Zikei posted on February 17, 2021 @ 15:42 UTC (updated 2/18/21 12:12 UTC)

Anonymous June 5 2020.But what if your doing a challenge where you can't use items like a Nuzlocke or your broke because your terrible at managing money so you bought 700 coins at the Game Corner and lost all of the(me).Having to use items to beat Pokemon seems pretty unfair while the AI usually only worries about their health and just so happens to have a full restore that heals their status conditions too.You cant tell me that me losing to a level 8 Zubat because i hit my self in confusion 4 times misses with a leech seed then punches myself 3 more times until i faint with a level 15 Ralts is fair.And the reason Whitney is a nightmare to even the more experienced players is that everything goes in her favor.Your starter more often then not affected by attract because you have an 87.5% chance to be male while Whitneys Miltank is always female(which ill admit isn't that unfair it can give you some advantages too)Stomp and Rollout never missing no matter what you do and always activates her flinch hacks.Plus if you can get past her Stomp and attract hacks it just uses Milk Drink gets to full HP Crits you with a Rollout and sweeps your entire team.And Lance and Blue is one of the most famous cheaters in Pokemon.Blue has a level 22 Gyarados with Hydro Pump which is impossible at the time,Lance has a Dragonite with Barrier which again it cannot learn,and a level 55 Dragonite just for the lols.Plus your rival in the earliest Pokemon game with the most retarded AI knows that in the middle of the turn hey he used the Pokeflute to wake up his Nidorino better use hypnosis to put him back to sleep while normally he wont use status conditions if your already asleep is cheating,and sure he could be predicting a switch or knows you'll use that item but he never does it if you just use an attack.My proof that i'm not just some salty 14 year old is this video of someone beating Pokemon Red without getting hit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ylEp-uu3EU&list=LLf3LDWNTZKOzQVJ69sloo-w&index=126 and at 18 minutes and 25 seconds he talks about this exact same thing that i just mentioned and how he used it to beat his rival and beat the game with no damage.You don't git more gud then that.Its not gamebreaking or going to make me want the AI to stop doing that since it makes you as the player think about what you should do to avoid getting bodied but still cheating is cheating.

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Zikei posted on February 17, 2021 @ 15:54 UTC (updated 2/17/21 16:02 UTC)

Anonymous June 2 2020.You misspelled cock,got,admitted,and unforeseen and your calling people retarded.The irony.Your almost certainly some little kid hiding behind the anonymity of the internet and cursing just to be edgy while in real life you know to not say that because any one who says stuff like that is gonna get punched in the face real fast.

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Zikei posted on February 18, 2021 @ 12:32 UTC

Prince.But one of the gym leaders do use Volt-Switch In one of the Gen 5 games.A trainer can use Trick Room on the Battle Subway.Theres a trainer in the Battle Maison With Baton Pass.You can't say they don't use those strategies when they clearly do.

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Zikei posted on February 19, 2021 @ 16:11 UTC

Gamer_Freak96.The point wasn't that the AI would use protect on an attacking move move,it was that they would ony use it then and then not protect for something else.For example think of the champion battle in gen 1.If Blue puts your pokemon to sleep with hypnosis and you use an Awakening he'll use hypnosis again despite the fact that normally it would fail and wouldn't be selected just like how the AI only protects on attacking moves and not switches(im not sure if it protects for status moves tho).Also its impossible to determine what turn Pokemon will wake up.They might wake up the turn after or sleep for the maximum possible.Its not prediction when it happens all of the time.And if the type advantage thing was true that would mean that the AI could see your moveset which is unfair because that's not something the player can do with out using external media.Also nobody said the games were hard(except for people who battled Garchomp and got an absurd amount of crits .),we just stated the fact that the AI cheats.

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Noah (@kirsle) posted on February 23, 2021 @ 06:08 UTC

I think this is the longest comment thread on my whole blog and people are still posting on it 9 years later. At this point it's just impressive. Be nice to each other, though, y'all are just random strangers on this page.

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Anonymous posted on April 14, 2021 @ 00:23 UTC (updated 4/14/21 00:27 UTC)

Don't forget that if they have the move, they will ALWAYS use Pursuit the turn you switch out, even if they haven't used Pursuit for several turns while battling you previously and there is no indication that you were going to switch out (aka no reason for them to anticipate that and use it).

I even tested this on an Emerald ROM. I saved right before a battle, if I switched on the first turn, they used Pursuit, but if I reloaded the battle and did literally anything else, they never used it first turn.

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Anonymous posted on April 26, 2021 @ 05:36 UTC

I have also sometimes felt that the AI was cheating. There are a number of things that it will "know in advance" (such as you switching and the enemy using Pursuit), and is what annoys me the most. But the trainers a number of the trainers still seem a bit dumb. To be honest, before the Elite 4 I have found trainers who were also unintelligent in selecting moves. They might use an attack lowering move (more than once) on my Gardevoir when its current moveset was Confusion, Psychic, Thunderbolt, and Calm Mind (if the enemy was even able to go first). At the elite 4 (in Emerald), I made a few experiments, and the Dusclops with Protect would always use Protect on the first turn, even if I used a 2-turn move (e.g Dig with Flygon, Fly with Altaria, etc.) and use Protect again on the second turn (and having it fail). If the AI was some "mind reader" and its plan was to protect itself for 1 turn and knew in advance that I was using a 2-turn move, shouldn't it have used some stat raising move first, then use Protect? In this aspect I can't say the AI is cheating. However, at the Battle Tower or Battle Frontier, I would more often feel there were "instances of cheating" (from accuracy to status effects to critical hit rates). But I later made some experiments; if I used Trick on the first foe, the item that would now be on my pokemon was almost always a Scope Lens, Kings Rock, or Leftovers. I don't know how much it really improves critical hit rates, but it seems that these hold items really do have a large effect. Though one question I have is that, when my Altaria was against a Pokemon, the pokemon used yawn about 4 times in a row. My Altaria was already toxified, and each time it used Yawn, it just ended with "...but it failed!" My Altaria was holding a leftovers, so the leftovers restored a bit of the HP taken by Toxic. It was able to survive the toxic (even after the 4th turn when the toxic took 1/4 of its HP), and I just had to use Dragon Breath a few times before the foe fainted. From this, I can't say the AI is actually cheating. Also, another thing that might cause misfortune to fall on your side is what the IVs of your pokemon is and how your Pokemon are EV trained. What I've heard is that the pokemon IVs of the NPCS at the Battle Frontier (and other battle facilities) have completely perfect IVs for each respective pokemon. I suppose you just need to continuously breed the pokemon you want until you get what is the optimal nature and perfect or nearly perfect IVs that match its planned moveset, EV train it appropriately, get the best moves for it either by breeding and/or tms, then equip it with some very powerful item, like giving it the Scope Lens so you have an even greater chance of critical hits (and for moves that already have high critical hit rate, critical hits landing on the opponent the majority of the time). (I have only played up to gen 3 and almost never played PvP, so don't know a lot).

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Anonymous posted on June 11, 2021 @ 16:03 UTC

Thank you for the laugh. This was a hilarious read.

For the point about sleep: yeah, it could do that, but the thing is, why not just use an item to wake your pokemon up? The AI will almost always never use the same sleep move after it puts you to sleep and you awaken it - that's some hard and fast evidence that it doesn't read your item usage in advance. Might need more testing but that's my experience.

The point about damage and 14 HP and the rest just reeks of your lack of game knowledge. Quick Attack always goes first, and when your opponent is on low HP - say, just a sliver of their health remaining that you can see - why wouldn't you use a weaker attack that would end the pokemon? In fact, if it read your item usage (which I've already said it doesn't), why wouldn't it use a stronger attack instead of Quick Attack knowing that you would heal up?

Forretress is a naturally defensive pokemon. It's meant to tank things. Why wouldn't it use protect against a pokemon who has a 4x type advantage against it? Why wouldn't the AI know how to use their own pokemon (and by extension moves?)

This whole rant, old as it is, is hilarious.

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Kyogre2 posted on June 12, 2021 @ 12:45 UTC

The sun and moon elite 4 is kinda cheating on me I spam double team on acerola and acerola always hits so what's going on here?

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Kyogre2 posted on June 12, 2021 @ 12:45 UTC

The sun and moon elite 4 is kinda cheating on me I spam double team on acerola and acerola always hits so what's going on here?

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Kyogre2 posted on June 12, 2021 @ 12:45 UTC

The sun and moon elite 4 is kinda cheating on me I spam double team on acerola and acerola always hits so what's going on here?

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Kyogre2 posted on June 12, 2021 @ 12:45 UTC

The sun and moon elite 4 is kinda cheating on me I spam double team on acerola and acerola always hits so what's going on here?

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Kyogre2 posted on June 12, 2021 @ 12:45 UTC

The sun and moon elite 4 is kinda cheating on me I spam double team on acerola and acerola always hits so what's going on here?

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April 26, 2021, commenter posted on June 19, 2021 @ 06:22 UTC

Yes, I don't really know much about Pokemon. From my comment, what I mean is that sometimes I feel there is no doubt that the AI is cheating--sometimes it entices me to record NPCs and record which ones are (more) likely to be cheating. But from the other experiments, I found the AI/NPC has more than enough evidence in proving that it is not cheating the slightest bit. I am torn between these different directions. (Sometimes, I feel that the AI/NPC is stupid to the point that if I were to "follow in its footsteps to create or even invent such an idiotic plan" in a deliberate attempt to make some hilarious story--e,g. I am the author of the entire fanfiction or something, and I would like to implement things like that into the story, it is not so easy for me to do. I find myself laughing at the NPCs and their choices as well.) Or maybe I over-evaluate them and expect a little too much from them.

And about choosing Quick Attack, I sometimes do choose a not-so-powerful move to end the foe if it is already on very low HP (for example, on my Gardevoir I would use Confusion instead of Psychic or Thunderbolt if the foe is at very low HP. Or when Mud-slap was still available for my Marshtomp, I would use that instead of water gun or Mudshot; after all, Mud-slap has better accuracy than Mudshot if I remember correctly). Or maybe like earlier, I am over-evaluating them again, thinking their speed will be so high that unless I use Quick Attack, there is no way for my Pokemon to go first.

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dude.dude posted on June 29, 2021 @ 03:25 UTC

Came back to check on this and can see that it has gotten a lot of subsequent attention. To the Anonymous on June 2nd, 2020 who called out my comment eight years later. First of all don't lump me in with those other 2 people because I did not say all the same things they did. I certainly didn't say that the AI should cheat more, or at all for that matter. I had even said I agreed that some of the cheating stuff might be true like the luck hax.

However, what I said about my Pokemon with low health surviving weak attacks when the AI could have used a stronger attack to make it faint is true. If the AI truly always knew how much damage its attacks would do, then surely when one of its attacks could make my Pokemon faint, it would choose that over a weaker move that wouldn't make it faint. If it did know, then in that situation it would only choose a weaker move if it also could make my Pokemon faint. But as I said, I have seen times where the AI uses a weaker move, sometimes even twice, and it wasn't quite enough to make my Pokemon faint, even though they had a stronger move that could have made it faint.

While it's possible there could be situations where they know what move you're going to use and they use that to their advantage, it definitely isn't true for every situation. The example I mentioned about Protect is true: I have seen them use protect when during the same turn I used a move that doesn't deal any damage. If they knew what move I was going to use in that situation, then they wouldn't have used protect. The other example about some trainers who try to switch in a more appropriate pokemon is also true: I have used the same move a few times (a water move), then they try to switch in a Pokemon that that move is not very effective to (a grass type), only I predict this at the right moment and use a different move that is super effective against the grass pokemon they just switched in (an ice move)/ If they really knew what move I was going to use in that situation, then they wouldn't have switched in a grass pokemon when I was about to use an ice move. They though I was going to use a water move based on my pokemon type or my past moves, but they were wrong.

While I won't say that there's no possibility of the AI cheating at all, you claimed "Every thing is true and admitted by the devs" without really specifying exactly what is true or citing your source. If you're making that claim, then why don't you prove it? Give us a link to an interview, article, video or something that shows the developers admitting to making the AI cheat and what they were talking about. Also, proof of cheating in the older games like Pokemon Stadium or Generation 1 isn't exactly proof of cheating in future generations, but it would set precedent for it.

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Tehxy posted on August 7, 2021 @ 17:03 UTC

It’s not called cheating it’s called an A.I, if the AI randomly chose a move without any consideration the game would be nearly to easy, most of the paralysis and confusion is entirely luck based meaning your just unlucky, and you can protect 10 times in row you just gotta get lucky, and yes the A.I can calculate damage it’s about to do through defense stats, EVs, IVs, and stat boosts.

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Anonymous posted on February 9, 2022 @ 07:08 UTC

With my understanding of how the pokemon AI works (I've been watching a lot of hardcore nuzlocke content on twitch and YouTube and doing some hardcore nuzlockes on my own), I am under the impression that the AI's pokemon will roll damage on all of its moves in a given turn to determine which move it will use. The move that rolls the most damage (with stuff like weather, super-effective damage, and items calculated as well) will be the move that the AI uses. If the AI sees a kill on your pokemon, (Yes, it knows when it sees a kill at least in Gen 3 and beyond. Sorry, there's nothing else to be said about it, but hear me out) it will use a random move that rolls in the kill range. If one of those moves is a priority move like quick attack, it will more likely go for that move (I don't know if it's guaranteed but it certainly seems to be more likely) It might work the same way with pursuit if the AI thinks you will switch out, but I'm not sure. The best way to play around the AI knowing its kill ranges it to either not get into those ranges at all (Sorry for the git gud) to heal, or to switch out and use another mon.

I've gotten a lot of pokemon killed by forgetting that priority moves exist and I know that I'm faster on a base level, so I stay in for another turn and get my mon killed by a quick attack/extreme speed.

For example, with OP's gyarados, the opposing mon saw a kill with most of its moves and also had quick attack, which it used because it was a priority move. If it dealt exactly 14 damage, then the damage roll was probably a low roll. With the forretress protect shenanigans, I think that was simply just unlucky. Protect in Gen IV has a 50% chance to fail after being used in the previous turn, then a 75% chance to fail on the third turn, and exponentially lower as you keep spamming it. Not much else to say there besides that if I were controlling a Forretress facing a pokemon that could deal 4x super-effective damage on me, I'd probably double protect too (Assuming that I'm too dumb to switch)

Switch in AI is also weird. From what I've seen in Emerald and in BW2, The AI will prefer to switch in a pokemon that's weak to your pokemon's type, but has a super-effective move on it.

e.g. I have an arcanine in battle and the AI just got a pokemon knocked out. The AI (In my experience/guess) will more likely switch in a tangrowth with ancient power than a poliwhirl with surf.

Granted, most of this could be wrong because I didn't write the code for this game. This is simply based on observations of my own and other people's gameplay (Mostly of Gen III and V)

Funnily enough, I stumbled upon this thread while searching for how switch in AI works for BW2 for my hardcore nuzlocke (No items in battle, set mode, no overleveling past the gym leader's highest-level pokemon) Elite Four run on Challenge Mode. This got my brain thinking a little more, so I think my plan is almost complete. My plan has taken me over two hours to create and I only have solid plans for Caitlyn, Shauntal, and Grimsley. Marshal's Lucario causes issues with its steel typing and calm mind (Can't toxic stall and can't spam surf unless I'm fishing for crits which is dumb because calm mind is scary even with a max HP EV wall like Alomomola). Iris is just scary because all of her pokemon except Lapras hit like trucks and resist a lot of moves that I have and also have fantastic coverage moves like X-Scissor on her haxorus (Which is probably there for the dark types that learn foul play).

I hope this was somewhat helpful for somebody! Again, take this with a grain of salt because there's a chance that nearly all of this is wrong and in that case, my bad.

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Pokemon cheat posted on May 4, 2023 @ 12:46 UTC

In pokemon gold when i use hyper potion the enemy will attack me twice! HP decrease to the same before, so it is pointless to use potion in a battle... The same thing does not happen when it is the enemy who uses the potion, he does not lose two turns, instead , when he uses it he attacks me soon after. I hate this Cheat

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Beanie Gang posted on May 7, 2023 @ 21:58 UTC

The AI in SoulSilver definitely cheats, I'm sure it reads which Pokemon you're going to send out. I've been grinding against Sabrina, and every single time I've sent Togekiss out against her gallade it's used psycho cut, and then I switched to houndoom and that same turn it used close combat, and her Alakazam did the same thing. It always uses psychic on the turn I swap to feraligatr but whenever I swap to houndoom it uses focus blast that turn. I've had this problem with about every trainer in the game where they select the most effective attack against the pokemon I'm switching in on the turn I switch it.

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Anonymous_Noob posted on August 30, 2023 @ 22:18 UTC

Using smoke screen/sand attack till it no longer lowers and doubleteam until it no longer increases. I can't land a hit because they hit me with 1 sand attack. I get hit by every single rock slide. Which doesn't even have 100 base accuracy. It's 90. Plus it's accuracy being nil, putting it down to 50, then my evasion being as high as possible. Should make it's chances of hitting me between 30-40%. But no. I get hit with every attack. I can't land anything but swift. Because this is balanced. I sleep enemy Pokemon? That's fine. They just sit and dodge perfectly because all my Pokemon are blind as $#&# because I can't give them accuracy diabetes. Just attack, sp attack, hp, speed, defense and sp defense. Also, why do all my stats hinge on me sending the professor Pokemon? I've sent him over 400 and he still gives me little to no diabetes inducers for all of it. Also, best part. While shiny hunting I always end up getting the shiny adjacent. I shiny farm Pidgey. I have a shiny Spearow. I shiny hunt Caterpie, I have a shiny Rattata and a shiny Kakuna. I try to shiny farm Staryu or Starmi? 800 hours in, I've got 200 or so shiny magikarps, 20 shiny horseas, 30 shiny seadra and like a million shiny tentacools. It's just ridiculous how the game literally knows and realizes everything we're doing and chooses to break against it. Even in the remake of Diamond, 8% chance to fail, to my game means 98% chance to fail and 2% chance to crash. Because Pokemon loves its players.

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Anonymous_Noob posted on August 30, 2023 @ 22:19 UTC

Using smoke screen/sand attack till it no longer lowers and doubleteam until it no longer increases. I can't land a hit because they hit me with 1 sand attack. I get hit by every single rock slide. Which doesn't even have 100 base accuracy. It's 90. Plus it's accuracy being nil, putting it down to 50, then my evasion being as high as possible. Should make it's chances of hitting me between 30-40%. But no. I get hit with every attack. I can't land anything but swift. Because this is balanced. I sleep enemy Pokemon? That's fine. They just sit and dodge perfectly because all my Pokemon are blind as $#&# because I can't give them accuracy diabetes. Just attack, sp attack, hp, speed, defense and sp defense. Also, why do all my stats hinge on me sending the professor Pokemon? I've sent him over 400 and he still gives me little to no diabetes inducers for all of it. Also, best part. While shiny hunting I always end up getting the shiny adjacent. I shiny farm Pidgey. I have a shiny Spearow. I shiny hunt Caterpie, I have a shiny Rattata and a shiny Kakuna. I try to shiny farm Staryu or Starmi? 800 hours in, I've got 200 or so shiny magikarps, 20 shiny horseas, 30 shiny seadra and like a million shiny tentacools. It's just ridiculous how the game literally knows and realizes everything we're doing and chooses to break against it. Even in the remake of Diamond, 8% chance to fail, to my game means 98% chance to fail and 2% chance to crash. Because Pokemon loves its players.

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