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Metalloid Research

Hidden Power

Type
Based
Power
PP
Acc
NRM
Phys
1
15
99.6%

Attack Information
In general, Hidden Power is most easily explained to someone who understands terms such as most signicant bit, least significant byte, higher nibble, and lower nibble. That will be avoided for this explanation.

The base type of Normal for Hidden Power is only used by things which use the base type (such as type-boosting items like Pink Bow and moves like Counter). The type used for determining whether a move gets STAB and causes double or quadruple damage to a vulnerable pokemon is calculated by Hidden Power based upon the DVs of the using pokemon. Similarly, the base power of the move is also determined by Hidden Power based upon the DVs of the using pokemon.

In order to show how this is done we break down the DVs used as follows:

Attack Defense Speed Special
ABCD EFGH IJKL MNOP

The letters above represent the binary digits for the DV values, since using numbers would be already too confusing. These binary listings are simply base-2 conversions of the hexadecimal values that would normally be used to represent the DVs (i.e. 0010 for 2, 1001 for 9, and 1111 for F or 15).

The base damage ranges from 31 to 70 by using the following formula:

(((X × 5) + Y) ÷ 2) + 31

X and Y are values constructed by grouping together the digits from the using pokemon DVs. X is made up of the digits AEIM (note that this means taking a binary digit from each of the 4 DVs). If you have the values of a=1, e=0, i=1, m=1, then x will be 1011 (or B in hexadecimal, 11 in decimal). Y is made up of the digits OP (note this means the value is taken solely from the Special DV). Because Y is composed of only those two binary digits, its maximum value is 3. Putting these back the formula gives us (for quicker reference if you have no problem with the use of binary numbers):

((((AEIM) × 5) + (OP)) ÷ 2) + 31

The type is determined by constructing another value, which is made up of CDGH (note this means taking values from both the Attack and Defense DVs). The value is then applied to a table of types for the game, which is as follows:

Type Value
Fighting 0
Flying 1
Poison 2
Ground 3
Rock 4
Bug 5
Ghost 6
Steel 7
Fire 8
Water 9
Grass A, 10
Electric B, 11
Psychic C, 12
Ice D, 13
Dragon E, 14
Dark F, 15

Since this is somewhat complex, an example may be useful. The using pokemon will have the following DVs:

Attack DV = 5, Defense DV = 11, Speed DV = 8, Special DV = 9

The base damage would be ((((AEIM) × 5) + (OP)) ÷ 2) + 31
= ((((0111) × 5) + (01)) ÷ 2) + 31
= ((((7) × 5) + (1)) ÷ 2) + 31
= ((((35) + (1)) ÷ 2) + 31
= ((36) ÷ 2) + 31
= (18) + 31
= 49

The type is CDGH, which in this case is 0111 or 7. Checking the type table, that translates into a Steel-type attack.

Hidden Power receives the flinching bonus when King's Rock is attached to the using pokémon.

Hidden Power is affected by Brightpowder when the opposing pokémon is equipped with it.

Learned By:
Naturally
Unown
TM 10
All pokemon except Caterpie, Metapod, Weedle, Kakuna, Magikarp, Ditto, Unown, Wobbuffet and Smeargle