UI: Move Info

Section 7.A.3

This UI is used for displaying various information about each of a specific battler's moves. This allows you to quickly read the description of the move's effect as well as all of its other attributes at the press of a button, without having to enter the Party menu to look up the battler's moves.

This UI also displays various additional info not normally displayed, such as specific flags the move has, what its current Power/Typing/Category if it's being altered by an effect, as well as its type effectiveness against each potential target on the field.

Accessing the UI

A "Move" prompt will appear in the bottom left hand corner of the battle screen to indicate that you can open the Move Info UI with the press of the JUMPDOWN (S) key. This prompt will not display if UI_PROMPT_DISPLAY is set to zero.

UI Display

By default, the info UI for each move will change colors to reflect the type of each move. If you have custom types in your game, you will have to add a UI background for that type by editing the move_bg graphic located in Graphics/Plugins/Enhanced Battle UI.

However, if you do not wish for the backgrounds to change for each type and would rather keep a consistent background for every move, you can disable this feature by setting USE_MOVE_TYPE_BACKGROUNDS to false in the plugin Settings.

Viewing Move Details

This UI may be accessed only when the Fight Menu is open and the battler's moves are being displayed. If so, a window will appear in the center of the screen which will provide details about whichever move you're currently highlighting. This will update as you scroll through your moves with the directional keys, allowing you to view this data for each move.

Pressing the BACK key or JUMPDOWN (S) key again will toggle off this UI. Pressing the JUMPUP (A) key will switch to the Battler Info UI. Pressing the USE key will select the highlighted move to be used like it normally would, and hide this UI again so the move may be used.

Below, I'll break down each display in this UI.

Type and Category

Type Display The move's type will be displayed to the right of the move name. If the move has an effect that would cause its type to differ from its base type, such as the moves Weather Ball or Terrain Pulse, then the displayed type here will also reflect this. This is even true for non-move effects that would change the move's type, such as the Electrify or Ion Deluge effects, or certain abilities like Pixilate and Liquid Voice.

On the left, the move Weather Ball is displayed as a Normal-type move as it is under normal conditions. On the right, Weather Ball is displayed as a Water-type move while it's raining.

Category Display The move's category will be displayed to the right of the type display. Like with typing, if the move has an effect that would alter its category for some reason, this display will also update to reflect its true category. By default though, the only moves that have some sort of property that change its category are Photon Geyser and Shell Side Arm. However, moves or mechanics introduced in other plugins that have moves with fluctuating categories (Z-Moves, Dynamax moves, Tera Blast, etc) will also utilize this feature to display the true category of the move.

On the left, the move Photon Geyser is displayed as a physical move if the user would deal more damage with physical moves. On the right, Photon Geyser is displayed as a special move if the user would deal more damage with a special move.

Move Statistics

All statistics related to a move will be displayed in the upper right corner of this UI, which include the following:

Power
Accuracy
Priority
Effect chance

Status moves which don't deal any damage will just display "---" as its power. This is also true for accuracy if the move has perfect accuracy, and for priority if the move has a priority of 0. The effect chance refers to the percent chance of this move proccing an added effect, such as Flamethrower's 10% chance to burn. If the move doesn't have any additional effects, then this field will also simply display empty dashes as its value.

These attributes may display differently however depending on certain modifiers in play. Below, I'll go over every type of modifier that may alter how a move is displayed in the UI.

Held Items & Abilities

Certain items and abilities modify a move's attributes when active. If the user of a move has one of these, and the effect of that ability would alter one of their moves, this will be reflected in what's displayed in the info UI for that move.

For example, the ability Iron Fist powers up the base power of all "punching" moves by 20%. If a Pokemon has this ability in battle and views the info for one of their punching moves, this bonus will be reflected in the displayed power for that move.

Attributes that are being boosted by the user's ability or held item will be highlighted in green text, while attributes that are being lowered will be highlighted in red text. For example, the Hustle ability actually reduces a move's accuracy, and so this will be displayed in red text to indicate the ability's effect.

Note that this only considers items or abilities that alter the actual attributes of a move. So an ability like Torrent will not apply, since Torrent boosts the user's actual stats when using a Water-type move, not the power of the move itself.

If a Pokemon has both an ability and a held item that are both affecting the properties of a move at the same time, then the ability text will take priority in this display.

Below are all of the abilities that may modify a move's attribute and may change how it displays in this UI:

Aerilate/Pixilate/Refrigerate/Galvanize/Normalize (Power)
Compound Eyes (Accuracy)
Flare Boost (Power)
Gale Wings (Priority)
Hustle (Accuracy)
Iron Fist (Power)
Mega Launcher (Power)
No Guard (Accuracy)
Prankster (Priority)
Reckless (Power)
Rivalry (Power - Single Battles only)
Sand Force (Power)
Sheer Force (Power)
Strong Jaw (Power)
Technician (Power)
Tough Claws (Power)
Toxic Boost (Power)
Triage (Priority)
Serene Grace (Effect Chance)
Sharpness (Power - Gen 9 Pack ability)
Supreme Overlord (Power - Gen 9 Pack ability)
Victory Star (Accuracy)

Below are all of the held items that may modify a move's attribute and may change how it displays in this UI:

Wide Lens
Zoom Lens
Choice Band
Choice Specs
Muscle Band
Wise Glasses
Expert Belt
Adamant Orb
Lustrous Orb
Griseous Orb
All type-boosting items (Silk Scarf, Mystic Water, etc.)
All type-boosting Plates (Zap Plate, Splash Plate, etc.)

STAB

If the move's type matches the user's typing, the move will gain a same-type attack bonus, also known as STAB. This increases the move's base power by 50%. When a move's power is displayed in this UI, it will take STAB into account when determining which number to display.

In the example above, the move Quick Attack is displayed on two different Pokemon. On the left is a Pokemon which doesn't gain any STAB, while the one on the right does. Notice that when a move is being boosted in power beyond what its default power would be, the text is displayed in green to indicate this.

Note that these STAB bonuses will always take the user's actual in-battle typing into account. So if the user changes types somehow through an effect, this will affect which moves gain a STAB boost in this UI.

If a move always deals set damage and would receive no additional bonus in power due to STAB, such as Sonic Boom or Dragon Rage, then no STAB bonuses will apply even if the move type matches the user's typing.

Move Properties

The last thing that may influence the power displayed in this UI are the properties of the move itself. This is less simple than STAB because this is something that depends on each specific move. Some moves don't have a set power, and change based on specific functions of that move. Below I'll give some examples of how these types of moves may display their power in this UI.

Moves that Increase in Power

If a move is being powered up by something related to the function of that move, this power increase will be accounted for in the UI. For example, the power of the move Flail scales based on how low the user's remaining HP is. The lower its HP, the more its power increases. When viewing Flail's power in this UI, you will be able to see the actual power this move has at your current HP level.

The picture on the left demonstrates Flail's power at full HP, while the picture on the right demonstrates its power when the user is at 1 HP. Note that moves that are being increased in power in some manner will display with green text, just like with STAB boosts. In the case of Flail, its power is perceived as being "boosted" even when at full HP because the move itself is boosted to 20 power at full HP, which is still higher than its raw base power of 1.

Moves that Decrease in Power

If a move is being weakened in some way due to the move's properties, this will also be reflected. Here's an example using the move Eruption, which is the inverse of Flail. It deals its intended damage when the user's HP is full, and grows weaker as the user's HP drops.

The picture on the left demonstrates Eruption when the user's HP is full, and the picture on the right demonstrates the drop in power after the user's HP has been lowered. Note that moves that are being weakened in some manner will display with red text instead of green. Not many moves do this, so this will be rarer to see.

Moves That Hide Their Power

Not every move that has fluctuating damage will work with this, however. Some moves would reveal too much about the opponent if they displayed their real values, and so in those cases the true damage isn't displayed. For example, the move Gyro Ball increases in power the slower you are compared to your opponent. However, if the true power of this move was displayed, it would reveal how fast the opponent was compared to you. Because of this, this move has been blacklisted from displaying its true power, and will just display as ??? instead.

The examples above showcase how this will be displayed. Note that even if a move's power is hidden, it will still display in green text if the move's power is being boosted by STAB, even though its actual power can't be displayed.

The are only certain situations where a move will display ??? as its power. Usually, this will be because the move either can't calculate its real strength until the turn plays out (moves like Counter or Metal Burst), the move has some unique properties that make it impossible to reliably calculate its true damage (moves with random damage, like Magnitude or Present), or the move would reveal too much information about the opponent if you could see its true power.

Here's a list of moves that are blacklisted due to being impossible to calculate, or due to revealing too much information. This may not be an exhaustive list:

Psywave (random damage)
Magnitude (random damage)
Present (random damage)
Fling (only if an item isn't being held)
Natural Gift (only if a berry isn't being held)
Crush Grip (could reveal the target's HP value)
Wring Out (could reveal the target's HP value)
Low Kick (could reveal the target's weight)
Grass Knot (could reveal the target's weight)
Electro Ball (could reveal the target's speed)
Gyro Ball (could reveal the target's speed)

Besides for STAB bonuses, Abilities that modify move attributes, or changes in power through the move's own effect, no other modifiers will be calculated when determining what to display. So held items, stat changes, or any other sorts of effects will not play into the displayed move attributes.

Move Flags

Right below the move's name, some moves may have a row containing various icons. Each of these icons represent a special flag associated with this move which appears in its PBS data. These icons can help you quickly identify characteristics of a move that would typically be invisible to you in most cases unless you've simply memorized it. Below is a list of every possible flag that may appear in this section.

Additional Flags

The following flags are also supported, but do not appear in Essentials by default. Instead, they are introduced by other plugins which this plugin is compatible with.

Move Effectiveness

If the move you are viewing is a damage-dealing move, then there may be some boxes with Pokemon icons inside them above the UI on the right hand corner. This is for displaying the effectiveness of this move. An icon of each viable opponent on the field will appear in their own box, and the color and symbol used for these boxes indicate how effective the highlighted move will be when used on those particular targets.

Here's all of the boxes that may be shown, and the effectiveness that they indicate:

You'll notice that each box is color coated to reflect what it indicates, but there are also symbols that appear over each box so that it's still apparent what they mean. If a Pokemon's type is changed by an effect that would alter the effectiveness of a move, this will also be taken into account. For example, if you use the move Soak to change a Fire-type Pokemon into a Water-type, the effectiveness display will take into account that that Pokemon is now a Water-type, and display the true effectiveness of the move on that target.

Unknown Effectiveness

You'll notice in the list above that the last entry shows a box that is used for targets where the effectiveness of the move is unknown. This only occurs when fighting species you have never battled before, or never registered in your Pokedex. After you defeat or capture one of these species for the first time, they will become known to you and you will be able to see the effectiveness of moves on them. Note that this doesn't count whether a Pokemon has been seen yet, only if it has been defeated or captured.

However, this is a toggleable feature. If you would like to turn on the type effectiveness display even for newly encountered species, you may do so by opening the plugin and setting SHOW_TYPE_EFFECTIVENESS_FOR_NEW_SPECIES to true in the file named [000]Main.

Move Description

The description of what the move does is also displayed in this UI. This is pretty straightforward. Keep in mind that this description field only allows for two lines of text, so if you have very long move descriptions, they be cut off in the UI.

There is space for a third line of text, but this space is reserved for special notifications that are used to inform you of special modifications the move may have, which can include any of the following.

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Last updated 7 months ago

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