Damage category - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokmon encyclopedia

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The category (Japanese: 分類 classification) or kind[1] of a move is an element of said move that determines the kind of damage it deals.

In games prior to Generation IV, the type of a damaging move determines whether the move is physical (damage calculation is performed using the user's Attack and the target's Defense) or special (the user's Special Attack and the target's Special Defense).

It was first assigned to individual moves in Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness for Shadow moves, and then applied to all moves starting in Generation IV. Among fans, this change is often known as the Physical/Special split.

Physical/Special split

The Physical/Special split allows Pokémon to use moves from a wider variety of types. For example, prior to Generation IV, Sneasel, which has a much greater Attack than Special Attack, was not effective at using moves with STAB, due to Ice-type moves and Dark-type moves both being special.

Several new moves were introduced to give more balance to formerly all-special and all-physical types, such as the physical Psychic-type moves Zen Headbutt and Psycho Cut; and the special Fighting-type moves Focus Blast, Vacuum Wave, and Aura Sphere. Other moves, such as Hyper Beam (which was physical prior to Generation IV but is now special), gained physical counterparts with the same characteristics (in this case, Giga Impact).

Type-based categories

The move categories used from Generations I to III are listed below.

The unused Bird type only exists in the first two generations and was defined as a physical type.

Status moves

Status moves act differently from both the other move categories, as they don't do direct damage. They also typically ignore type immunities, but Glare (in Generations II and III) and Thunder Wave are notable exceptions.

Icons

Trivia

• Bite and Water Shuriken are the only moves to have changed damage categories outside of Generation IV and Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Bite was changed from physical to special in Generation II when it was changed to a Dark-type move, and Water Shuriken was changed from physical to special in Generation VII.
  • Bite is also the only move to have changed damage categories twice: once in Generation II when it turned from a Normal-type and thus physical move to a Dark-type and thus special move, and again in Generation IV when it was changed back to a physical move in the physical/special split.

References

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