Critical Hits in Pokémon: Mechanics, Multipliers, and Competitive Strategies
In Pokémon battles, a critical hit is a damage‑boosting mechanic that can turn the tide of a match. Crits bypass certain stat changes and apply a multiplier to damage, making them a potent tool for offense and a threat to prepare for defensively.
💥 Critical hit basics
A critical hit is an enhanced attack that deals more damage than usual and ignores certain defensive boosts.
- Extra damage: 1.5× multiplier in Gen VI onward; 2× in earlier gens.
- Bypass defense boosts: Ignores the target’s positive Defense/Special Defense stage changes.
- Bypass screens: Ignores the target’s screens like barrier, reflect, and aurora veil defences.
- Bypass attack drops: Ignores the attacker’s negative Attack/Special Attack stage changes. While keeping increased attack stages. The halving of the physical attack from burn is not dropped with a crit.
- Frequency: Rolled per hit; multi‑hit moves can crit multiple times.
🎲 How crit chance is determined
Crit rate is calculated using a stage system. Most moves start at Stage 0, and various effects raise this stage. This has changed between the Pokémon games, so here is an overview:
| Stage | Gen II | Gen III–V | Gen VI | Gen VII onwards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| +0 | 17/256 (≈6.6%) | 1/16 (6.25%) | 1/16 (6.25%) | 1/24 (≈4.2%) |
| +1 | 1/8 (12.5%) | 1/8 (12.5%) | 1/8 (12.5%) | 1/8 (12.5%) |
| +2 | 1/4 (25%) | 1/4 (25%) | 1/2 (50%) | 1/2 (50%) |
| +3 | 85/256 (≈33.2%) | 1/3 (≈33.3%) | Always (100%) | Always (100%) |
| +4 and above | 1/2 (50%) | 1/2 (50%) | Always (100%) | Always (100%) |
Example: A Pokémon using Night Slash (+1 stage move) while holding a Scope Lens (+1 stage item) reaches Stage 2 for a 50% crit rate in Gen VII.
🧮 Damage formula with crits
Critical Hit Damage = Normal Damage × Critical Hit Multiplier
Where the multiplier is 1.5 (Gen VI+) or 2 (Gen V and earlier).
Example: 100 base damage → 150 on crit (Gen VI+), ignoring certain defensive boosts.
🛠 Common crit boosters
- Moves: Leaf Blade, Stone Edge, Air Cutter (high crit ratio).
- Items: Scope Lens, Razor Claw.
- Abilities: Super Luck, Merciless (always crit vs poisoned foes).
- Setups: Focus Energy (+2 stages to crit rate).
📌 Strategy tips
- Stack crit stage boosts to guarantee crits (Stage 3).
- Crits can counter bulky setup sweepers who take a lot of turns to setup.
- Be mindful of abilities like Battle Armor that block crits.
🕰️ The history of critical hits in Pokémon
Key changes to critical hit mechanics across generations.
Generation I — Speed‑based odds
- In Generation I, a Pokémon’s base critical hit chance was calculated as ⌊Base Speed ÷ 2⌋ ÷ 256, meaning faster species had a significantly higher probability. This “threshold” could be boosted by high critical‑hit ratio moves (up to 255/256) or reduced to one‑quarter by the Focus Energy/Dire Hit bug. The max crit chance was capped at 255/256 (~99.6%).
- On a crit, the attacker’s level was doubled in the damage formula, making the boost smaller for low‑level Pokémon and closer to ×2 for high‑level ones.
- Critical hits in Generation I ignore all stat stage changes, using each Pokémon’s original stats. This can result in a crit dealing less damage than a boosted normal hit if the attacker’s stats were heavily raised or the defender’s lowered.
Generation II — Stage system introduced
- New crit chance system introduced with defined crit stages.
- Burn still halved the attack stat rather than physical move power. This halved attack was ignored with a crit. In later generations the halved physical move power is not ignored during a crit.
- Scope Lens introduced.
Generation IV
- Added Super Luck ability and Razor Claw item.
Generation V
- Introduced always‑crit moves like Storm Throw and Frost Breath.
Generation VI — Major rebalance
- Crit damage reduced from 2× to 1.5×.
- Crit stage probabilities updated.
- Adjusted which stat changes crits bypass.
Generation VII
- Crit stage probabilities updated.
- Introduced Merciless ability.