Gen 1 Battling: Exploring the Core Mechanics

In the world of Pokemon, the first generation is often remembered as a simpler time, where the battling system was outright broken. However, one might think that with the addition of items, abilities, and other extra features in the modern games, the battling system would be simpler and more balanced. But that isn't the case at all. In this article, we will be exploring the core mechanics of Gen 1 battling and its major differences from the later generations.

Special Stats

In Gen 1, each Pokemon had their own stats of HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. However, the thing that separates Gen 1 from the rest is that special attacks and defense were one singular special set. This means that a Pokemon's special attack was also a special defense and vice versa. So, they could dish out just as much damage as they could take. For example, Chansey had a base 105 special defense stat and a base 35 special attack stat in Gen 1. In the later games, after the special attack and defense split in Gen 2, Chansey had a 105 special defense and a 5 special attack. This meant that Chansey was more of a tank in Gen 1 as opposed to a wall. Pokemon with high special attack in the later games benefited from having their special attack also Read as a special defense or vice versa.

Critical Hits

In Gen 1, landing a critical hit was Based off of speed rather than a fixed rate for all Pokemon. This means that faster Pokemon had a higher chance of landing critical hits over slower ones, some reaching a critical hit rate of 20% or more. In addition to this, moves with high critical hit ratios like Slash, Razor Leaf, Crabhammer, and Karate Chop had an 8 times higher critical hit ratio than normal on a fast Pokemon. This meant that, unlike Persian, for example, who already had a critical hit ratio of 22.46, landing a critical hit was almost nearly guaranteed. In addition to this, critical hits not only ignored the stat changes of your opponent like in later gens, but they also ignored your stat changes as well. So, for example, if you had a Charizard who had used Sword Dance twice, which multiplies its attack by 3, you would do less damage if you landed a critical hit, which multiplies damage by 2, even after those boosts. This is because landing a crit ignores your Sword Dance boosts. On the flip side, if you were attacking something like Golem, who had Defense Curl used 6 times, it would ignore those boosts alone.

Status Ailments

Moving on to status ailments, starting with Freeze. Unlike in future gens, getting frozen in Gen 1 was basically death because there were only three ways of thawing out: getting hit by a fire move, your opponent using Haze on your frozen Pokemon or vice versa, and using an item. There was no way of thawing out over time or thawing yourself out by using a fire move. So, it would really suck if, by chance, during key moments of the battle, your key to victory all of a sudden just became nothing more than death waters.

Next is Sleep. In Gen 1, sleep could last anywhere from one turn to seven turns, as opposed to shorter amounts of sleep time in later gens. At least the sleep counter doesn't reset when You switch out. However, if your Pokemon is asleep, it has to spend an entire turn waking up. This basically means that fast Pokemon like Gengar could simply put the opposing Pokemon to sleep again after they wake up by using a turn to wake up. They cannot do a move to retaliate. So, you better hope Hypnosis misses this time. One fact is that the moves Wrap, Fire Spin, Clamp, and Bind also require a full turn to be released from, so the Pokemon falls victim to it. I will talk about that more in part three when I cover moves.

As for Poison, a poisoned Pokemon only takes 1/16 damage instead of 1/8 damage like in later gens. It will take damage either after doing an attack or at the end of the turn. However, if the poisoned Pokemon manages to faint the opponent, it will not take poison damage. This also goes for Burn. Also, if a Pokemon is badly poisoned by Toxic, meaning the poison gets worse over time, switching out or using the move Aromatherapy will return it to regular poison. This is why Toxic wasn't as good in Gen 1.

If a Pokemon is paralyzed, its speed drops to 25% of its occurrence speed and has a 25% chance of getting fully paralyzed during occurrence. So, while it sounds pretty standard, both paralysis and burn are subject to the stat modification glitch. Now, this is sort of complicated, but the TLDR is if a Pokemon that is either burned or paralyzed uses a stat-boosting move like Sword Dance or Agility, its attack or speed will become 2 times of how it is normally and does not calculate the boost from its Current attack and speed after being burned or paralyzed, completely nullifying that drop. So, what happens to that stat drop, you may ask? Well, after boosting attack or speed, the stat drop that you once had is applied to the opposing Pokemon instead. Though, despite this, paralysis was still a powerful status ailment considering fast top-tier Pokemon like Alakazam kind of need that speed to beat other Pokemon.

Types

In Gen 1, all types were either only physical or only special for attacking moves. For example, all Fire, Water, and Electric Type moves were special moves, meaning they utilized a special stat to do damage. By contrast, all Normal, Fighting, and Bug type moves were physical moves, meaning they used the Attack stat to do damage. The type differences from other gens don't end there because, due to a glitch, Bug was super effective against Poison instead of Poison resisting it. Speaking of Bug, during Gen 1, Bug moves were the only thing that hit Psychic types for effective damage. Too bad there were only 3 of them: Twin Needle, Pin Missile, and Leech Life, which were all weak and only learned by a few Pokemon. Additionally, instead of being super effective against the all-powerful Psychic type, those type moves do not affect Psychic-type Pokemon. This explains why I was confused as a kid when Ash was trying to get a Ghost-type Pokemon to fight Sabrina psychically. This is why the Psychic type was basically the best typing in the game because it was the only type that had three moves and was resisted only by itself.

Uncertainty

Finally, closing out this article, I will talk about the infamous 1 out of 256 uncertainty. What this number refers to is that, despite certain moves having 100% accuracy in Red, Blue, and Yellow, there is still a chance for these moves to miss. This is because of how Red, Blue, and Yellow calculate certainty. When a move is used, the game will randomly generate a number between 0 and 255. If the number is less than 255, the move will hit. Thanks to this, there is always a 1 out of 256 chance of the move missing, even if it is supposed to have 100% accuracy. The only attacking move that is exempt from this is the move Swift because it completely ignores this certainty check.

Notable Pokemon

In part two, we will be covering the most notable Pokemon who rose to fame because of those mechanics. Stay tuned for that video in the near future.

Move Differences

In part three, we will cover the most notable differences in individual moves. Stay tuned for that video in the near future.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Gen 1 battling was vastly different from the later generations. From the way special stats worked to the uncertainty of moves, it was a simpler time, but it was also a time where certain status ailments could mean death. Despite its flaws, Gen 1 battling will always hold a special place in the hearts of Pokemon fans.

Exploring Gen 1 Pokemon Battling Mechanics