Pokemon Recoil

By Matt

Recoil, another essential part to the world of Pokemon, has its pros and cons. First of all, moves that result in recoil damage tend to be fairly powerful and can be used as much as the average move. Recoil, through much thoughtful thinking, can be avoided, and a team dedicated to using recoil moves can be skillfully crafted. Let’s discuss the good part of recoil moves first. They all have a base power close to 100 or higher. They are all physical attacks, utilizing the user’s Attack stat. They also come in many types so even weaknesses can be covered. You also have a chance of taking Pokemon out in one hit.

These all do sound like good opportunities, but keep in mind the harmful side effects: recoil. Recoil moves are categorized into either 1/4th, 1/3rd, or ˝ HP recoil. Depending on how much damage in HP is dealt, the user will also take damage. For example, if a Pokemon used Wild Charge and did 100 HP worth of damage, it would take 25 HP damage, since Wild Charge is a 1/4th HP recoil move. If your Pokemon was hit by a move that consumed almost all of its HP, it would then seal its own fate: a recoil move, if used last, can be fatal, taking out the last points of HP. But it comes up to planning which moves to keep and to use. The four moves that have 1/4th HP recoil are Head Charge, Submission, Take Down, and Wild Charge. These aren’t too powerful, but at least the consequences aren’t that great.

The five moves that have 1/3rd HP recoil are Brave Bird, Double-edge, Flare Blitz, Volt Tackle, and Wood Hammer. All of these moves are 100% accurate and do 120 damage, but require at least 1/3rd of the user’s HP if it wishes to survive after using the move. I forgot to mention that one hit KOs can severely damage the user, taking up to 1/3rd of its HP even at max health. Watch the HP bar carefully before planning these moves.

The only ˝ HP recoil move is Head Charge. Its power is 150 and is only 80% accurate. I wouldn’t take my chances, since it is a Rock-type move and only deals 30 more damage than the previous set of recoil moves. Struggle is the very last recoil move, but is unique in that the recoil is not proportional to HP damage done. Struggle is the last resort when a Pokemon is completely out of moves. It only does 50 damage, but always cuts out 1/4th of the user’s HP.

In rare cases do you get to see Struggle, but it is not too great of a move. The TVs in houses will occasionally broadcast a show that will tell you how many times you’ve used the move Struggle.

Last of all, the abilities that relate to recoil are Rock Head and Reckless. Rock Head is very fine in that it prevents recoil damage, and Reckless increases the power of recoil moves, but increases the recoil damage at the same time. It may be risky, but don’t hesitate to give these moves a try.

 

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