Critical hits

[Seikah]

Quick question! Is it intentional that critical hits in Reborn are still set to the 2.0x multiplier of gen I-V?

Not that I'm complaining; I only noticed cause it saved my bacon.

[Etesian]

Nah, Reborn tries to be as close to the main games as possible, mechanics-wise. So you have Gen 6 breeding, Gen 6 crits, etc, etc.

[Seikah]

Odd. Not sure what happened then -- Rock Smash on a Magneton did ~33% damage, a second hit crit and killed it. I don't recall seeing its defense drop, but I suppose I might've missed it...

[Monochrome_Complex]

Remember that crtis or not, attacks still have a value "roll" so to speak so that depending on said roll the same attack might deal slightly less or more damage next time when used.

This is true for like almost any turn based strategy game and has its roots in traditional pen and paper RPGs(rolling a die to determine damage)

A common way to notice this is when an attack brings an opponent down to just yellow which should be over half, then next turn the same attack is used and the opponent survives with just a sliver of HP. This means your first roll was higher than the second.You also have instances where an attack brings an opponent to just a sliver of health from full, the leader uses an ultra potion to restore their health all the way, you use the same attack and this time it KOs them. Again, better roll this time so slightly better damage.

Now to better understand how damage in pokemon games work, you have to look at the damage formula(image credit to bulbapedia, apologies for the text color). warning: Math ahead

The level is the level of the attacker, the attack being the physical(or special depending on the move) of the user, the defense being the phys/spcl defense of the receiver, Base being BP(so rock smash will have 40 BP). For the modifier part of the equation, STAB is same type attack bonus(which is 1.5x), type is SE/NE damage bonus(so from 0 to 4x) critical is from 1(no crit) to 1.5x(critical gen 6, previous gens it's 2.0x), other is held items/field effects/weather/doubles/triples, and random ranges from 0.85 to 1, effectively acting as the "die" so to speak.

Let's do an example: we'll use a level 50 Infernape using rock smash against a level 50 Magneton,

So the first part of the equation, we have 2x50+10 divided by 250 which comes out to 0.44. Let's say Infernape's attk is 140, while Magneton's defense is 120. So 140 divided by 120 gives you approximately 1.17(rounding off). Rock smash's BP is 40, and then you add two to that.

So for the Parenthesis segment we have 0.44 x 1.17 x 40 + 2 which comes out to approximately 22.59.

Now for the modifier. Infernape gets a STAB so that's 1.5x, Magneton is weak to fighting so 2.0x, no critical so 1x, no item or field effects so 1x,. So we're looking at 1.5 x 2 x 1 x1 [value from 0.85 to 1.0].. The modifier would be ranged from 2.55 to 3.00

Now all that's left to due is to stick the two together. 22.59 x [value from 2.55 to 3.00]. The result is rounded down to the nearest whole number.

So rock smash from Infernape to Magneton in this case would deal between 58 and 68 points of HP damage raw. To determine how a critical in gen 6/Reborn would go, you'd use x1.5 instead of 1x in the modifier equation. which would bring the modifier range to 3.83-4.5. and the resulting damage ranging from 86 to 102. A bad roll can easily determine the difference between a fatal hit or not.

Note that Magenton's HP is miserable, so unless it's got maxed out HP EVs a rock smash followed by a critical is very likely to KO it. Also criticals IGNORE defensive boosts/screens and attack penalties, meaning that those are straight up removed from the equation if they do occur.(which is stupid but w/e).

Edited October 10, 2015 by Monochrome_Complex

[Dragon116]

I also remember hearing that criticals guaranteed a random roll of 1. Maybe that's changed, but pretty sure it's true for gen 3 at the very least.

[Amethyst]

It is definitely set to Gen 6's x1.5 so it probably was a min-max roll issue

[Monochrome_Complex]

I also remember hearing that criticals guaranteed a random roll of 1. Maybe that's changed, but pretty sure it's true for gen 3 at the very least.

Oh do they? Now that's pretty interesting if so..bulbapedia makes no mention of it though.

[Seikah]

It is definitely set to Gen 6's x1.5 so it probably was a min-max roll issue

Thanks for checking, and apologies for the false alarm.

[laggless01]

There were no stat changes, were there? 'Cause if so, critical hits negate defensive buffs by the opponent (and Rock Smash has a chance of lowering Defense, so that also could've helped...)
Otherwise, you just were unlucky with your first attack.

[Etesian]

^^Magneton gets no defense-buffing moves, so it probably was just a roll and/or OP missed the possible message about Rock Smash dropping defense.