"Testing Gym Combat Misconceptions"

#PokemonGO: How combat works in Pokemon Go is pretty well understood at this point, but seemingly only to a small circle of people. I wrote this summary post in hope of spreading that knowledge to a wider audience, by providing evidence for/against some common misconceptions seen in /r/thesilphroad .MethodologyThe way I collected exact damage is stick the Attacking Pokemon into a friendly gym, then train on the gym with a selection of Pokemon. I retreat after the initial double attacks of the defender and record the damage taken, via Pokemon details screen (hp lost/2). Finally, I use Pokeadvisor (RIP) to collect IV and level information on the Pokemon tested.Damage FormulaThe Damage Formula is known, and /u/QMike found it:Attacker's Attack = ( base_attack + attack_IV ) CPM Defender's Defense = (base_defense + defense_IV) CPM Damage = Floor ( .5 Attack / Defense * Power * STAB * Weakness ) + 1 CPM tableThis formula has been tested hundreds of times by yours truly and others. It always work. Please start using it!Defender Attack DelayDefender takes 2 second pause after Quick Attacks.By studying Youtube videos of gym battles, it appears that defenders add a consistent 2 second pause between each attack animation. Thus the 500ms duration water gun will see 4 attacks in 10 seconds.At the start of the battle, the initial double quick was due to the first attack start after the initial second pause, then another second pause after the initial attack. For example with Water Gun (500ms) Vaporeon as defender:DescriptionDuration (ms)Game ClockStart99Pause100098Attack 150097.5Pause100096.5Attack 250096Pause200094Attack 350093.5Pause200091.5Attack 450091Pause200089vs Zen Headbutt (1050ms) Snorlax as defender:DescriptionDuration (ms)Game ClockStart99Pause100098Attack 1105096.95Pause100095.95Attack 2105094.90Pause200092.90Attack 3105091.85Pause200089.85Attack 4105088.80Pause200086.80Defender do not take 2 second pause after Charge Attacks.Fighting against a Onix in gym, I ran away after 11 Tackle (1.1sec), 1 Stone Edge (3.1sec), and another Tackle for good measures. The game clock was 61 seconds when I ran. It should be (99 - 2 * 12 - 1.1 * 12 - 3.1) = 59 second if Stone Edge also has the 2 second pause. This gives pretty good evidence that defenders do not also take a 2 second break for charge attacks.Every HP Lost Gives 0.5 EnergySee /u/pulsivesilver research here. This is easy to test: engage a pokemon in gym but do not attack, wait for it to use a charge move. Run a second test, this time, help the defender out by dealing damage to it. Generally speaking, the defender will use its charge move much faster in the second case.This source of energy is particularly relevant to Gym Defenders due to their double hp:normal HP = (Base Stamina + Stamina IV) * CPMDefender HP = 2 * Base Stamina * CPM + Stamina IV * CPMGym Defenders in effect have equivalent of a hp bar worth of energy to work with, making high HP Pokemon more deadly at defending gyms.Tangentially, Defenders also appear to have a 200 energy cap, allowing it to fire off double Hyper Beam, for example.CriticalsCriticals are not implemented currently.To test this, I insert an Onix in a Gym and attack it with a Chansey. I kept count of the number of Quick Attacks (Tackle) Onix used before its Charge Attack, Stone Edge, which has 50% critical rate. Based on QMike's damage formula, the Onix should deal 83 damage against the Chansey without critical.Onix 441 CP 100 HP (IV 2/14/12) Tackle 10 damage / Stone Edge 83 damage Chansey 259 CP 279 HP (IV 9/3/15) I recorded 7 tests in a row where Stone Edge does 83 damage only, and no more. The chance of Stone Edge's critical not procing seven times in a row is less than 1% (50%7 = 0.78%).Type WeaknessesType strength and weaknesses stack multiplicatively.The test has a Level 15 Arcanine (245 attack) attacking Level 18 Paras (135 defense) with Fire Fang (10 Power, STAB bonus)Arcanine 1219 CP 94 HP (IV 15/9/3) Fire Fang / Bulldoze Paras 447 CP 45 HP (IV 12/15/10) Scratch / Seed Bomb Paras is Bug/Grass, both fire weaknesses.If type modifier is x1.25 = floor{.5 * 245 / 135 CPM(15)/CPM(18) * 10 * 1.25 * (1.25) } + 1 = 13If type modifier is x1.25 x1.25 = floor{.5 * 245 / 135 CPM(15)/CPM(18) * 10 * 1.25 * (1.25*1.25) } + 1 = 17If type modifier is x1.5 = floor{ .5 * 245 / 135 CPM(15)/CPM(18) * 10 * 1.25 * (1.5) } + 1 = 16Paras has 11/45 hp remaining after two Fire Fang attacks from Arcanine, thus Fire Fang dealt 17 damage and proving type multipliers stack and are multiplicative.Type modifiers matrix:**Not EffectiveNeutralEffective**x0.8x1.0x1.25Not Effectivex0.8x0.82x0.8x1.0Neutralx1.0x0.8x1.0x1.25Effectivex1.25x1.0x1.25X1.252 via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2be3FJR