Battle Mechanics
The complete, accurate reference for how Pokémon Champions battles resolve — stat stages, status and volatile conditions, weather, terrain and critical hits. Standard mechanics, plus the Champions rules layered on top.
Pokémon Champions runs on the same battle engine as the mainline games, so every number here is standard and evergreen. The Champions layer is small but important: move PP is standardized to fixed values (8 / 12 / 16 / 20), and the universal Omni Ring lets a Pokémon holding its Mega Stone Mega Evolve once per battle — staying Mega for the rest of the match, even after switching out. Pair this page with the damage calculator to turn theory into exact rolls, and the Champions Pokédex to check which Pokémon are legal.
Stat stages (buffs & debuffs)
In battle, stats aren't raised by fixed amounts — they move up and down in stages, from −6 to +6. Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense and Speed use a ×2 base ladder, while Accuracy and Evasion use a gentler ×3 base ladder. Stages are multiplicative on top of the Pokémon's actual stat, and they reset to 0 the moment a Pokémon switches out— a clean panic button against a swept board. A Mega Evolution keeps its current stages when it transforms, and an Intimidate switch-in immediately drops the opponent's Attack by one stage (×0.67).
| Stage | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| +6 | ×4.0 |
| +5 | ×3.5 |
| +4 | ×3.0 |
| +3 | ×2.5 |
| +2 | ×2.0 |
| +1 | ×1.5 |
| 0 | ×1.0 |
| −1 | ×0.67 |
| −2 | ×0.5 |
| −3 | ×0.4 |
| −4 | ×0.33 |
| −5 | ×0.29 |
| −6 | ×0.25 |
| Stage | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| +6 | ×3.0 |
| +5 | ×2.66 |
| +4 | ×2.33 |
| +3 | ×2.0 |
| +2 | ×1.66 |
| +1 | ×1.33 |
| 0 | ×1.0 |
| −1 | ×0.75 |
| −2 | ×0.6 |
| −3 | ×0.5 |
| −4 | ×0.43 |
| −5 | ×0.38 |
| −6 | ×0.33 |
Example: a Swords Dance user at +2 hits with ×2.0 Attack; a Nasty Plot then Baton Pass keeps those stages because the boost transfers rather than switching them away.
Status conditions (non-volatile)
A Pokémon can carry only one major status condition at a time, and — unlike volatile effects — it persists through switching until cured. Type immunities matter here: a Fire Pokémon can't be burned, Electric can't be paralyzed, Ice can't be frozen, and Poison / Steel can't be poisoned. Grass Pokémon shrug off powder moves like Spore, Stun Spore and Poison Powder.
Burn
Halves the target's physical Attack and chips 1/16 of max HP at the end of every turn.
Cured by: Full Heal, a switch does not clear it (non-volatile); healed on switch only via Natural Cure / Heal Bell.
Paralysis
Cuts Speed to ×0.5 (modern games) and gives a 25% chance to be fully paralyzed and skip the turn.
Cured by: Full Heal / Cheri Berry; cured by Heal Bell or the ability Limber.
Poison
Deals a flat 1/8 of max HP at the end of every turn.
Cured by: Antidote / Pecha Berry; healed by Heal Bell or the ability Immunity.
Badly Poisoned
Toxic damage escalates: 1/16, then 2/16, 3/16… each turn, growing until the Pokémon faints or switches.
Cured by: Antidote / Pecha Berry; the counter resets to 1/16 on switch-out.
Sleep
The Pokémon cannot act for 1–3 turns (random). It can still be hit; some moves only work while asleep.
Cured by: Awakening / Chesto Berry, Sleep Talk & Snore act through it; Vital Spirit / Insomnia prevent it.
Freeze
The Pokémon is frozen solid and cannot act. Each turn it has a 20% chance to thaw; fire moves or being hit by one thaw it instantly.
Cured by: Ice Heal / Aspear Berry; Magma Armor prevents it.
Volatile conditions
Volatile conditions layer on top of a major status and, crucially, clear when the Pokémon switches out. Several can stack at once, which is what makes hazards-plus-Leech-Seed-plus-Taunt so suffocating.
Confusion
33% chance each turn to hit yourself instead of acting. Fades after 2–5 turns.
Flinch
Skip the turn entirely — only applies if the flincher moves first, so it favors fast attackers.
Infatuation
50% chance to be immobilized by love when facing the opposite-gender Pokémon that caused it.
Leech Seed
Saps 1/8 of the seeded Pokémon's max HP each turn and heals the seeder. Grass types are immune.
Trapped / Bound
Binding moves (Bind, Wrap, Fire Spin) deal chip damage and stop the target from switching out.
Taunt
Locks the target into damaging moves only for a few turns — no status, setup or recovery.
Encore
Forces the target to repeat its last move for 3 turns, punishing a mistimed setup or status move.
Weather
Weather blankets the whole field and lasts 5 turns (8 with the matching held rock). It reshapes damage, accuracy and passive chip — a weather-setting lead can define an entire game plan.
Harsh Sunlight
Solar Beam skips its charge turn; freeze can't happen; Chlorophyll doubles Speed.
Rain
Thunder and Hurricane never miss (bypass accuracy); Swift Swim doubles Speed.
Sandstorm
Chips 1/16 max HP each turn to every Pokémon that isn't Rock, Ground or Steel.
Snow
Raises the Defense of Ice types by 50%; Blizzard never misses; Slush Rush doubles Speed.
Terrain
Terrain only affects grounded Pokémon — anything Flying-type or holding an Air Balloon ignores it entirely. Like weather it lasts 5 turns (8 with Terrain Extender) and stacks its move boost on top of STAB and weather.
Electric Terrain
ElectricElectric moves gain ×1.3 power and no grounded Pokémon can fall asleep.
Grassy Terrain
GrassGrass moves gain ×1.3 power, grounded Pokémon heal 1/16 HP each turn, and Earthquake / Bulldoze / Magnitude are halved.
Psychic Terrain
PsychicPsychic moves gain ×1.3 power and grounded Pokémon can't be hit by priority moves.
Misty Terrain
FairyDragon-type damage against grounded Pokémon is halved and grounded Pokémon can't be given a status condition.
Critical hits & damage basics
Critical hits
A critical hit deals ×1.5damage and, importantly, ignores stat stages that would soften it: the attacker's negative Attack/SpA stages and the defender's positive Def/SpD stages are treated as 0. So a crit punches through a Defense boost or an Intimidate drop.
Crit chance is tiered by crit-rate stages: stage 0 ≈ 1/24, +1 ≈ 1/8 (high-crit moves and Focus Energy), +2 ≈ 1/2, and +3 or higher is a guaranteed critical.
Damage basics
- ●STAB ×1.5— a move whose type matches one of the user's own types gets a 50% bonus.
- ●Type effectiveness — super-effective is ×2 (×4 if doubly so), resisted is ×0.5 (×0.25 if doubly), and immunities deal 0. Check the full type chart.
- ●Random roll — every hit is multiplied by a random 0.85–1.00 factor, which is why the same attack shows a range of possible damage.
Put it together — Base Power, Attack vs. Defense, STAB, type effectiveness, weather/terrain, stages and the random roll — in the Champions damage calculator.
Ready to build around these mechanics?
These are the same rules every Champions battle runs on. See how they shape the formats, then draft a team that abuses them.
Mechanics reflect standard modern-generation Pokémon battling as used in Champions; Champions adds standardized PP (8 / 12 / 16 / 20) and one Omni-Ring Mega Evolution per battle.