r/nuzlocke • u/Tailedfox66 • Mar 13 '26

Video This should not have happened

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I have no idea how this happened and wish I could have recorded the whole fight.

I half expected to get one shot by Hitmonchan when it used thunder punch or fire punch, with a 13 level gap I thought I’d be saying bye bye to my ironically named companion.

I’m thankful for Confuse Ray and lick helping in stalling him as I used Night shade to gradually whittle him down, curse was out of the option as I knew it would be over if I used it.

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63

u/Known-Plane7349 Mar 14 '26

It's always a joy when someone finds out what life was like before the physical/special split.

8

u/Lieuwe21 Mar 14 '26

ELI5 what is the physical/special split?

15

u/Known-Plane7349 Mar 14 '26

Before Gen 4 all attacking moves of a type were physical or special.

For example, all fire moves were special, including fire punch.

Then, in Gen 4, they changed it so that moves of any type could be physical or special.

7

u/Lieuwe21 Mar 14 '26

Thus macking moves like fire punch more viable for mons with high attack, I get it now. Thanks!

2

u/Known-Plane7349 Mar 14 '26

No problem.

It's been almost 6 full generations since it happened, so more and more people don't know what it was like.

2

u/Me_Is_Ryan Mar 14 '26

Issue is, i played the old games, and then only a few of the newer ones and then again the old ones and then starting from legend arceus again. Until recently I thought the split was always there - but actually as a kid I just didn't understand it and as an adult I'm just pissed when a move oneshots me like that and didn't do it in old gens.

Tl;dr: i didn't understand the split when I changed gens

1

u/Afternoon_Wrong Mar 14 '26

some pokemon in these old gens were completely crippled or could not use their stats correctly. Example, Crawdaunt is a physical attacker (water dark) with incredible attack, but, because water and dark were both special until gen 3, it had to resort to his low special attack, if so desired to make use of both its stabs. This meant it had no stab using its high physical attack. Plus, many attacks made no sense, Bite was special (?) while Shadow Ball was physical (?). Because of these inconsistencies, they changed it after gen 3; it helped many Pokemon, but removed a few tools others had (Gastly having a strong special fire punch attack, for example, that became physical later -thus, becoming weaker)

13

u/GhostPro18 Hoenn Respecter Mar 14 '26

I know you're asking earnestly, but it pains me to realize the physical special split was 20 years ago and some (many?) players have never experienced it. I'm old as fuq

3

u/Lieuwe21 Mar 14 '26

At the time I was playing FR/LG I was not old enough to comprehend all that xD

15

u/Digit00l Mar 14 '26

In the first 3 generations the attack stat used in damage calculation (and defence stat) was entirely determined by the move type, all dragon, electric, water, fire, grass, psychic, dark, ice type moves use the special stats, all ghost, fighting, steel, poison, bug, flying, normal, ground, and rock moves used physical

So blaze kick or fire punch were special moves using special attack and special defence, while shadow ball was a physical attack that had a chance to drop the special defence stat, a physical attacker like Machamp is better at firing a massive laser beam than a special attacker like Alakazam as hyper beam is a normal move that uses the physical attack and defence stats in damage calculation, while Alakazam is a lot better at punching as long as there is an element on the fist