Move Stats Explained
This is a Ho-Oh. Ho-Oh has 239 Base Attack.
This is a Charizard. Charizard has 223 Base Attack.
If you were to look at base stats alone, Ho-Oh would be clearly superior. However, this is not the case: Charizard actually outperforms Ho-Oh as an attacker.
"But my Ho-Oh is a legendary and has perfect IVs!" It doesn't matter.
Against a Tier 5 Registeel, Charizard will win in 855 seconds, while Ho-Oh requires 988 seconds to win - over 2 minutes slower than Charizard.
The reason Charizard is a better attacker than Ho-Oh is due to movesets.
Ho-Oh's best Fire-type moveset is Hidden Power (Fire)/Fire Blast.
Charizard's best Fire-type moveset is Fire Spin/Blast Burn.
Let's look at Hidden Power and Fire Spin first:
| Move Name | Hidden Power (Fire) |
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Base Power | 15 |
| Cooldown | 1.50 seconds |
| Energy per Use | 15 |
| Damage per Second | 10.00 |
| Energy per Second | 10.00 |
| Move Name | Fire Spin |
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Base Power | 14 |
| Cooldown | 1.10 seconds |
| Energy per Use | 10 |
| Damage per Second | 12.73 |
| Energy per Second | 9.09 |
The only metric shown in-game for Fast Moves is Base Power; however, Base Power alone doesn't indicate how good a move actually is.
- Cooldown is the total time it takes to perform the move: From the time you initiate the move by tapping the screen, the time it takes to actually perform the move, and the time before your Pokemon can perform another action (Fast Move, Charge Move, or Dodge).
- Energy per Use is how much energy you gain every time you use your Fast Move. Energy is what allows you to use Charge Moves.
- Damage per Second is exactly what it sounds like: how much damage the move will do in one second. DPS is simply the base power of the move divided by its cooldown.
- Energy per Second is how much energy your Pokemon will gain in one second by using its Fast Move. EPS is simply energy per use divided by cooldown.
Although one Fire Spin does less damage than one Hidden Power, Fire Spin's lower cooldown means that by the time a Ho-Oh finishes its first Hidden Power, Charizard is already using its second Fire Spin.
Now let's look at Fire Blast and Blast Burn.
| Move Name | Fire Blast |
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Base Power | 140 |
| Cooldown | 4.20 seconds |
| Energy Cost | 100 |
| Damage per Second | 33.33 |
| Damage per Energy | 1.40 |
| DPE*DPS | 46.67 |
| Move Name | Blast Burn |
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Base Power | 110 |
| Cooldown | 3.30 seconds |
| Energy Cost | 50 |
| Damage per Second | 33.33 |
| Damage per Energy | 2.20 |
| DPE*DPS | 73.33 |
With Charge Moves, the only information shown in-game is Base Power and Energy Cost.
- Energy Cost is how much energy is needed to use that Charge Move.
- 1-Bar moves cost 100 energy to use; 2-Bar Moves cost 50 energy; 3-Bar moves cost 33 energy.
- Damage per Energy describes how much damage a move does in terms of its energy cost.
- DPE*DPS is a measure developed by Gamepress used to more accurately rank Charge Moves. The higher the DPE*DPS, the better the move.
Although one Fire Blast does 30 more damage than one Blast Burn, Fire Blast costs twice as much energy as Blast Burn to use. For the same amount of energy (100), Blast Burn will do 80 more damage than Fire Blast.
In general, 2-Bar and 3-Bar moves are preferable to 1-Bar moves due to reduced energy loss.
- If your Pokemon faints with 90% of its Charge Move bar full, the time you spent building up that energy is wasted.
- If your Pokemon is hit by an enemy Charge Move while its own energy bar is full, or while it's using its own 1-Bar Charge Move, the energy gain from tanking an enemy Charge Move will be wasted.