GSC mechanics overview

This page aims to list the most important mechanics introduced in the second generation, which began with the Gold and Silver versions, released in North America in October 2000, followed in July 2001 by the Crystal version. Unlike what you'll find on the GSC Banlist page, everything here is directly tied to the games' core mechanics and does not depend on specific community rules. Therefore, everything described below applies both on cartridge and simulators.

Special Attack and Special Defense

The Special used in Generation 1 is now into two distinct stats: Special Attack (SpA) and Special Defense (SpD). One of the two retains the original Special stat value, while the other receives a new one. For instance, Alakazam, which had a base 135 Special stat in Generation 1, now has 135 SpA and 95 SpD in Generation 2. Similarly, Slowbro, which had a base 80 Special stat, now has 100 SpA and 80 SpD.

New types

Dark-type (special) and Steel-type (physical) are added to the game.

Also note that the type chart has been readjusted:

• the type is not very effective against type Pokémon.
• the type is neutral against type Pokémon.
• the type is not very effective against type Pokémon.
• the type is super effective against type Pokémon.

Items

The Pokémon can now hold 1 item during a match. Each item has a unique effect, often beneficial for the holder or detrimental to its target. If you want to know more about the most commonly used items in each generation, you can click here.

Spikes

When a Pokémon is using the move Spikes, an entry hazard is set on the opposing side of the field, dealing 12.5% damage to each Pokémon that is switching in. Unlike in the later generations, only one layer of Spikes can be set, meaning that using the move multiple times will have no effect. Spikes can be removed with the move Rapid Spin.

Critical hits

As of Generation 2, critical hits no longer depend on the Pokémon’s Speed stat and now always have a 6.25% (1/16) chance to occur. They also always deal twice the normal damage.

Moreover, if the target's defensive stat stage (Defense or Special Defense) is greater than or equal to the attacking Pokémon's offensive stat stage (Attack or Special Attack), all stats changes, are ignored during damage calculation, including the Attack drop caused by burn and the effect of screens (Reflect and Light Screen).

Weather

Three types of weather conditions are introduced in the game, each of which having its own effects. They can be triggered using the following moves:

• Rain Dance: Rain weather condition.
  • Water-type moves are boosted by 50% and Fire-type ones are lowered by 50%.
  • Solar Beam’s power is reduced by 50%, while Thunder (normally 70% accurate) cannot miss.
• Sandstorm: Sandstorm weather condition.
  • deals 6.25% damage each turn to all non Rock-, Ground- or Steel-type Pokémon.
• Sunny Day: Harsh sunlight weather condition.
  • Fire-type moves are boosted by 50% and Water-type ones are lowered by 50%.
  • Solar Beam no longer requires a charge turn and Thunder's accuracy is lowered to 50%.

A weather condition lasts for 5 turns. Only one weather condition can be active at a time, meaning that when Rain Dance, Sandstorm or Sunny Day is used, any previously active weather condition is removed.

Status conditions specificities

Sleep

A Pokémon remains asleep for 1 to 6 turns if it has been put to sleep by the opponent. Unlike in Generation 1, the Pokémon can move on the turn it wakes up.

If Rest is selected via Sleep Talk, the Pokémon recovers to full HP and its sleep counter is reset.

Poison

A poisoned Pokémon loses 12.5% of its max HP each turn (6.25% in Generation 1).

As in Generation 1, the badly poisoned status condition, caused by the move Toxic (-n/16 of max HP each turn, where "n" is the number of consecutive turns on the field) reverts to regular poison if the Pokémon is switched out. This is no longer the case from Generation 3 onward.

Burn

A burned Pokémon loses 12.5% of its max HP each turn (6.25% in Generation 1).

Activation timings of residual damage and Leftovers

As in Generation I, residual damage from poison, burn, or Leech Seed is applied after a Pokémon has moved, or at the end of the turn if it has not moved. If a Pokémon affected by burn or poison knocks out a target (or if the target faints due to its own use of Explosion or Self-Destruct), it will not take damage from these status conditions that turn. Leftovers recovery is applied at the end of the turn for both Pokémon.

Unlike from Generation 4 onward, when a Pokémon faints, the incoming one immediately takes all residual damage for that turn, while also benefiting from Leftovers recovery, if applicable.

Moves specificities

Whirlwind and Roar

Unlike in later generations, if both Pokémon use these moves simultaneously, the slower Pokémon moves first and forces its target to switch out. Likewise, if one player uses Whirlwind or Roar while the opponent uses another move in the same priority bracket (-1), such as Counter or Mirror Coat, Whirlwind or Roar will fail if the target is slower.

Reflect and Light Screen

Unlike in the previous generation, where these moves boosted the user’s Defense or Special Defense indefinitely, the boost now applies to all of the user’s Pokémon on the field for only 5 turns.

Giga Drain vs substitutes

HP-draining moves such as Giga Drain fail when used against a Pokémon behind a substitute.

Explosion, Self-Destruct and end of the turn

Using Explosion or Self-Destruct immediately ends the turn, meaning that if the user is faster than the target, the opponent will not even be able to use moves such as Rest or Recover, nor set up Spikes on the opposing side of the field.

Maximum stat value

As in Generation 1, stats cannot exceed 999. In theory, this does not cause any particular issues, since a Pokémon boosting its stats with a move such as Swords Dance or Curse will simply be capped at 999. Thus, Rhydon, which has 358 Attack and 338 Defense, reaches the maximum value for both stats after only four uses of Curse: 354 x 3 = 1062 and 338 x 3 = 1014, both reduced to 999.

However, there is a glitch: when Marowak, whose Attack stat is 258, uses Swords Dance while holding a Thick Club (which doubles its Attack stat), its Attack reaches 1032 (258 x 2 = 516 x 2 = 1032). Such a stat overflow caused by an item was not accounted for by the developers, meaning Marowak’s Attack is not capped at 999 as it is in other situations. Due to technical limitations, the highest "readable" value in the game is 1024, beyond which the counters reset to zero. In this situation, after using Swords Dance, Marowak ends up with 8 Attack (1032 − 1024). To prevent this, Attack DVs are systematically set to 13, reducing its Attack stat to 254. After using Swords Dance, its Attack then reaches 1016. Since this value remains below 1024, the glitch is not triggered, and Marowak correctly reaches 999 Attack.

The same glitch occurs when a Pokémon boosts its Defense or Special Defense while under the effects of Reflect or Light Screen.

First generation bugs fixed

A number of glitches/bugs present in Generation 1 have been fixed:

• a frozen Pokémon now has a 10% chance to thaw each turn, but cannot act on the turn it thaws. In addition, a frozen Pokémon can still use Fire Spin, which will thaw it instantly.
• moves with 100% accuracy can no longer miss, unless the target has raised its evasion or the attacker's accuracy has been lowered.
• healing moves can no longer fail.
• a Pokémon behind a substitute cannot be affected by any status condition nor by Leech Seed. A Pokémon at exactly 25% of its maximum HP will no longer faint when attempting to create a substitute; instead, the move simply fails.
• Body Slam can now paralyze Normal-type Pokémon, and Thunder can now paralyze Electric-type Pokémon.
• Seismic Toss no longer affects Ghost-type Pokémon.
• Haze now only resets all stat changes on the field and no longer affects status conditions.
• Counter now activates after any physical attack, dealing twice the damage received, and no longer affects Ghost-type Pokémon.

Summary

A red box means that the feature is absent from that generation, while a green box indicates that it is present.