How BAD Was The Trainer AI In Pokemon?

Thanks to HelloFresh for sponsoring today's video. Go to strms.net/hell..., use my code ABYSSOFTMAY10, and receive 10 free meals + free dessert for life while subscription is active.
Patreon: / abyssoft
Sponsorships: [e-mail]
Business: [e-mail]
Become a member of the community!
Discord: / discord
Twitch: / abyssoft​
Twitter: / abyssoft​
Music
Vividity
@vividity
Novadrome
officialnovadr...
/ realnovadrome​
@officialnovadrome
Footage
TiKevin
/ @tikevin83
Crystal_
/ @crystal_2
DJC
/ @djc_sr
Pokeguy
/ @pokeguy
/ pokeguy
Gen 1 AI Writeups
gamefaqs.games...
wiki.pokemonspe...
Gen 2 AI Writeups
pastebin.com/E...
Gen 3 AI Writeups
*This info is from the Emerald Kaizo romhack, but aside from changing some moves and adding others, the AI works as it does in the vanilla game for Gen 3.
docs.google.co...
docs.google.co...
docs.google.co...
docs.google.co...

[@Abyssoft]

These videos where I break down the AI in video games are quite fun, if there's a game you want me to cover let me know!

[@Maxpower3586]

FF7

[@ronni315]

F.E.A.R.

[@ryanharris8709]

I'd like to see a deeper dive into pokemon. Maybe a full hour going over these AI or another video going over later AI even if they don't cheat.

[@jeffwhite1334]

Gen 4-9 or maybe just battle stadium or whatever it’s called

[@zdelrod829]

​@@jeffwhite1334Battle Revolution for the Wii?

[@realkingofantarctica]

Never forget how Twitch beat Pokémon with an underleveled Venomoth, all because Lance's Dragonite kept spamming Reflect as it was a Psychic-type move and therefore _had_ to be super-effective.

[@Juanus14]

very "AI" like, am i right?

[@onomatopoeiaii9729]

PRAISE AATTVV

[@aminadabbrulle8252]

It was Barrier, not Reflect.

[@Whurlpuul]

ATV the legend

[@DrawciaGleam02]

@@aminadabbrulle8252 As another Poketuber called it, "Dragonite breaking the sound barrier". 😆

[@hatsuneelissu5924]

Anyone who played the older pokemon games still remembers the nightmare of *Sabrina's Alakazam Recover move spam!*

[@exequielbreton4393]

Or Erika spaming wrap

[@GamerDadJer]

I got softlocked in the Sabrina gym battle. My last pokemon was Kadabra, and I could not outdamage it's recover...

[@bettyunicorn6132]

I had to struggle my mew to death 😭

[@ladynikkie]

Yeah Sabrina was actually the toughest trainer Bobby original eight in Agatha was the toughest of the elite four that Gengar of hers gave me nightmares

[@tombstoner6360]

Hah, clever

[@PaddySus2]

Also Gen 1 AI chooses a move after you chose your action, which means it can predict changing your pokemon to hit it with a super effective move.

[@enoyna1001]

Wtf

[@rtyuik7]

dont forget 'retroactive Potions'...

[@KeroTheInvincible]

Best seen with Brock and his Full Heals. If your pokemon is faster and inflicts a status condition on his pokemon, even with a secondary effect like Twinneedle or Ember, Brock will use a Full Heal on it that exact same turn.

[@TheSalamanderMenace4]

I think the ai works similarly in colosseum and xd

[@matthewsusilo8698]

As a challenge runner once said about gen 1 ai, 'You're a dirty cheater cheater pumpkin eater'

[@ShyBoy6ty9]

20-something years later, I just realized why the JUGGLER switches mons and most other trainers don't. He juggles his mons.

[@Celia97799]

Lol Just had the same thought. Felt like a lightbulb going off.

[@catguy23]

Would you say he juggles his balls?

[@squigpeels.1021]

You are kidding right? If not, that's just sad. 😂

[@Cuntypostaldude]

Yooo! I didn't realize either ^^"

[@chadmckean9026]

"at least the AI does not cheat like in mario kart 64" well Gen 1 AI knows your switch before it selects a move, if the AI has 'good' AI enabled it will know what you are switching to and use a move accordingly

[@LavaCreeperPeople]

cool

[@habilterserah4075]

I mean if you don't have clairvoyance, are you really playing it right ?

[@MeepChangeling]

So what? Pokemon is glorified rock paper sizzors with 90% grind by volume. It's kind of insane to me it ever became popular.

[@Mikewee777]

THE NPC BOTS ARE IMMUNE TO COLLISIONS. THEY CAN COLLIDE WITH YOUR CHARACTER'S CAR MULTIPLE TIMES WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES IN SUPER NINTENDO'S MARIO KART.

[@kakizakichannel]

​​@@MeepChangeling honestly grinding feels like a waste of time in these games when there's so many NPC encounters

[@Yipper64]

7:00 you gotta love those "oh frick how do we fix this? idk make a high chance for the problem not to happen" type solutions in videogames.

[@lumbajackthumbs7755]

Lmao I did that once. It was too difficult for the player to avoid starvation, so I made it so that you have 1/3 chance of dying when the game checks and you’re out of food. It would’ve been smarter to just add more food to the loot pool, but it was late and I was tired.

[@riotef2493]

It's like how Donkey Kong 64 requires the memory expansion pack to "fix" a memory leak

[@Unregistered.HyperCam.2]

@@riotef2493 This really was a strange case, where the bug wasn't actually fixed, but slapping an expansion pak in the N64 managed to mitigate the issue so much that it's hardly noticeable, compared to someone having gone through the code and actually fixing the issue.

[@HajileMalach]

There is no memory leak, that is an old myth, and it's already been shown that IF the memory leak people believed would have been the cause for it really was, the game would have to run for upwards of 40 HOURS before the memory would've ran out. ​@@riotef2493

[@racknae]

@@Unregistered.HyperCam.2 The bug never existed in the first place. The memory leak is a myth started by someone who didn't even work on the game.

[@JosiahBradley]

"you might have exploited this AI in gen 1" Me as a child: look Pikachu hops over the ledges, this is peak game design. It's been almost 30 years T_T

[@Soapy-chan]

wait it does what?? now i need to play it again to see

[@JosiahBradley]

@@Soapy-chan in Pokemon Yellow as Pikachu follows you, if you hop down a ledge in a town, Pikachu does a little jump to keep up.

[@luqdude]

It's also worth mentioning not even the in game text gets the type chart right in gen 1. Using the example of using a poison type move against a grass/poison type, the game will actually tell you it's super effective, but the damage calculation formula does properly consider both types so it does neutral damage.

[@AndrioCelos]

What's really silly is that Pokémon GO had the same bug at launch.

[@Unregistered.HyperCam.2]

At first I thought you were going to mention type efficacy is bugged in Gen I(e.g. Psychic being resistant to the only Ghost-type move that doesn't have a fixed damage amount based on a Pokemon's level, rather than being weak), but what you've explained is something I wasn't even aware of. Kinda crazy learning stuff about games I've played to death over the past 25 years.

[@NightmareRex6]

i remember in silver i chose apprnetly the worst starter the bayleaf dinosour pokemon and was so used to seeing "its not very effective" one hit next "its not very effective" one hit dead, to point i thught it was atualy reversed and "super effective" was bad, also diddent realize importance of stat moves till gen 3 or 4. just both me and my mom (she only played gen 1 and part 2) "s s hi h tty moves"

[@Green24152]

​@@Unregistered.HyperCam.2 It's not resistant. Oh, it's even worse. Psychic is straight up IMMUNE to Ghost in Gen 1.

[@dr4gonblitz]

Me wondering if my childhood self spamming tackle is any smarter than the AI in Gen 1

[@king_of_rats_Monfernep]

Only damage moves with higher power?

[@ninjaguyYT]

​@@king_of_rats_Monfernep me thinking I was in the top 1% of competitive trainers because of Substitute -> meanlook -> recover -> baton pass -> spore -> curse -> nightmare -> dream water.

[@king_of_rats_Monfernep]

@@ninjaguyYT -> string shot

[@channingtaintum]

@@king_of_rats_Monfernepdouble team -> double team -> double team -> double team -> double team -> double team -> double team -> double team -> quick attack until out of PP. 11 year old me was a genius.

[@king_of_rats_Monfernep]

@@channingtaintum but opponent's Spearow used Aerial ace)

[@Cyntaria]

Fun fact about gen 2: under very specific circumstances, you can still have a trainer lock into a non damaging super effective move. Go to the kimono girls and fight the one with Jolteon with a geodude with that hasn't lost any health. The jolteon will only ever use sand attack because the types AI will only discourage non damaging moves for its first check. It will look at all its damaging moves, see electric moves will not have any effect and will pick another move. When picking this other move, it does not specifically check for damaging moves and will include non damaging moves. It sees a ground type move that's super effective and will use it over tackle which is resisted. The other AI types that the kimono girls have will only affect the weighting of the moves if the geodude's health is below a certain level.

[@Abyssoft]

There are a ton of examples like this I wish I coulď have included, but I only have time for so many

[@Cyntaria]

@@Abyssoft I thought I'd add this as everyone just assumes the super effective status move issue was fixed in gen 2. I thought it was too until I encountered this and looked through the decompiled code on github myself 😅

[@jonathantonner4263]

Its always surprising how much better the gen 2 ai is

[@Abyssoft]

When I did the research for this video I was very surprised at how they overhauled the entire architecture for the AI from gen 1 to gen 2, and then did it again for gen 3

[@musiikkimies9241]

@@Abyssoft Change of processing power from GB to GBC and then GBA, or Game Freak just getting their shit together?

[@devolov1]

​@@musiikkimies9241 it wouldn't be processor power that allowed these changes. These are simple calculations that wouldn't stress a CPU. Plus, Gold and Silver could be played on a Gameboy along with the GBC

[@IGSA101]

​@@devolov1 "Simple calculations that wouldn't stress the cpu." Remember this is gamefreak, they are historically terrible at space management. Even the more recent games have a ton of unnecessary files that could have been cleaned up to help the games run better. Or to fit more content into the games.

[@scoutbane1651]

@@IGSA101You're completely missing the point. If its space issues then it isn't the limitations of the CPU. CPU has very little to do with the size, at least in this situation (and tbh, most of them. It's not the bottleneck lol)

[@Jlaps941]

Fun fact: in OG Diamond and Pearl, trainer AI supposedly was bugged and every single trainer, even big bosses like Cynthia and Cyrus, just acts like a wild Pokémon and picks random moves. I got to witness this when Cyrus’ Weavile kept trying to X-Scissor my Empoleon despite having brick break and on Staraptor despite having ice punch, and Cynthia’s Garchomp trying to dragon rush and giga impact my Lucario despite having earthquake.

[@llmkursk8254]

Makes me wonder what updates were given in Platinum and HGSS. The Rival *switched* Pokémon once when I was playing SoulSilver.

[@bobosmith101]

No.

[@Jlaps941]

@@bobosmith101 Yes.

[@STEPHxCA]

Man I forgot the name of the gym leader but her Frosslass spammed double team both times I battled lol

[@Jeroen-IT]

As a software developer the fact that this game was 1.05mb in size amazes me till this day.

[@IndigoTeddy]

They may have made hundreds of programming errors they couldn't patch until the sequels/re-releases (due to DLC not existing on their platforms at the time), but Nintendo/GameFreak definitely knows their way around their assemblers and compilers.

[@AdumbroDeus]

​@@IndigoTeddyas somebody who knows assembly... Programming even something as small as 1.05 mb in assembly is something I would not wish on my worst enemy.

[@Scout819]

Granted, I know in Gen 1 they actually had to cut a lot of content(It's actually pretty cool how many Gen 2 mons were meant to be Gen 1 mons, or how many future mons were inspired by cut Gen 1 mons), but I'm sure it was probably easier back then than it would be nowadays. Makes me wonder just how big the file would be if it was made from scratch today. Like, exactly the same, just made today instead of almost 30 years ago.

[@kalma5003]

What do you mean it would have been easier to code in assembly back then? I'm curious

[@Scout819]

It's a complete assumption lol. I just assume so since games were both a fraction of the size, and a fraction of the complexity compared to todays games

[@andy4an]

ok, kinda shocked that in gen 3, they could switch mons out for bad matchups in my experience almost no NPCs bother trading out, no matter how useless the matchup is

[@kyklous3657]

The bad match up thing is mostly for switches after you KO their pokemon, though mid battle switches do happen in certain situations.

[@joshuakim5240]

Interestingly, this behavior is exploitable in some of the more recent-ish titles like OR/AS as you can manipulate trainers with mega mons to send in their mega-evolution mons early, which doesn't trigger activating the mega-evolutions since they're scripted to always use it with their last mon.

[@peepopopo7140]

Gen 2 twins are too busy bickering about what move to use, and that's why they fight as well as wild pokemon.

[@ultimaterecoil1136]

My favorite case of bad ai in Pokémon actually comes from gen 4 and the best example of such is quagsire. The ai has a tendency to spam water moves into it from water mons even if they have already triggered water absorb once and I think this is because usually mons that have immunity abilities resist that type anyway but quagsire and also crogunk are cases where this isn’t the case making them very effective vs water types and allowing them a free setup opportunity a lot of the time. Just imagining the enemy trainer getting progressively more frustrated while quagsire has this dopey grin on its face just sitting there while it’s being hit by water attacks repeatedly only to eventually let out a earthquake boosted by several curses is quite funny

[@ParasocialCatgirl]

3:30 - what if it was _intentionally_ set to turn 2? Think about it - healing moves are included in this list of 'setup moves'. Chances are someone noticed a Type 2 (setup) opponent using a seemingly utterly redundant healing move on turn 1, thought it was a bug, and tried fixing it by delaying the 'move that might be a healing move' to turn 2 (where a healing move would be less redundant) - not realizing the original intent behind it being initially set to turn 1 (whilst 'not classing healing moves as a setup move' would have fixed the bug without causing a questionable delay)

[@door-chan]

yeah categorizing healing moves differently than setup moves would have fixed this problem, use setup moves on turn 1 and then healing moves later

[@RedFoxtail26]

Also, setup moves are pretty useless when you'll OHKO anyway; best to attack first if attacking is an auto-win.

[@door-chan]

@@RedFoxtail26 that's really not an issue with the AI but with the game design. Even if the AI is bad the game would be at least a bit more challenging with changes to other elements. The opponents' pokemon are all weak and/or have bad moves compared to yours (partially because DVs, but also the pokemon themselves). A lot of trainers have pokemon that just suck in their level, in their stats, and they only have like 2 good moves in their learnset but gamefreak chose to give them really bad ones. Pokemon having ass learnsets was a general problem in RBY but you see it more in the pokemon opposing trainers have. If they actually had good pokemon even the poopy AI in the game could make it a bit more difficult, and even more so if the AI had been better programmed

[@RedFoxtail26]

@@door-chan I wasn't even phrasing that as an issue; I meant it more as another potential reason for the setup phase being turn two 😅

[@door-chan]

@@RedFoxtail26 if that was the reason why, then why would there be a setup turn at all? Every turn should be an attacking turn

[@robertlupa8273]

_"How BAD was AI ACTUALLY? - History of AI in Casual Pokemon (Gens 1-3)"_

[@Firegolza645]

false swipe gaming

[@shewolfcub3]

gens 1-6 are peak and only gens worth playing

[@cerealmama3879]

​@Firegolza645 unfortunately

[@dannysmi7162]

@@shewolfcub3I mean that’s not even true, Gen 7 was great. Until they kind of ruined the story with Ultra Sun and ultra moon. But at least they had cool fights like Ultra Necrozma.

[@poudink5791]

@@dannysmi7162 Don't think too much of it. The kids that grew up with gen 6 have grown up and are now partaking in the time-honored tradition of claiming the generation they grew up with was the last good generation. Time marches on. Brings a tear to my eye.

[@Delifte]

the jump between gen 1 and 2 is crazy

[@proxyg4884]

Not to mention gamefreak implemented breeding, shinies, radio overlay, bag management, held items. Gen 2 was the framework for modern day pokemon. 🐐

[@radaf4429]

Not really. For all of the bells and whistles that gen 2 added, I think the RPG elements in the game actually took a massive step back. It's nearly unplayable with its embarrassing lack of new good Pokémon and terrible pacing.

[@A_Hardy_Lopunny]

​@@radaf4429They spent so much time on other features, but the core game is really undercooked, i agree.

[@iang0th]

@@radaf4429 None of that is the "framework," though. The game was poorly balanced (they must have had a REALLY dumb group of play testers), but they did add a ton of new mechanics that became core parts of the series.

[@radaf4429]

@iang0th I'm willing to concede that. I would also point out though that a lot of the introduced mechanics were either not good enough to return or were really not great in their original capacity: -Pokegear calls are bothersome and do little to improve the game. -Pokémon happiness is cumbersome and a few moves and evolutions are not enough to justify its inclusion, especially where Umbreon and Espeon are concerned. -Held items and Berries were so underdeveloped that it really took until Gen 3 for them to really be a good inclusion. The only good held items were Leftovers, Thick Club on Marowak only, and maybe Mint Berry. I don't consider PSNCUREBERRY and PRZCUREBERRY to be even close to the system that would follow and supplant it. -Held item trade evolutions are diabolical. -Of the 6 each of Dark and Steel type Pokémon were included, only a handful were really that great, and the only moves at or above 80 BP were Crunch and Iron Tail, and most Pokémon couldn't learn them as stab. -Pokémon genders is a pretty sensible inclusion that was technically already in the game. Same thing with the creation of Special Attack and Special Defense. -The day/night cycle makes playing the game a less accessible. I don't want to have to wait until Friday to catch a Lapras, or, God forbid, get up in the morning to catch a Pokémon. -Breeding and shinies are genuinely good and more or less unchanged from their current state. Compare that with Gen 3, and you'll see that: -Double battles were introduced, with many moves interacting in interesting ways, especially when you factor in -Abilities, which added a whole new dimension of strategy to the game, and RSE supported it by giving unique ability-based strategies and drawbacks to Pokémon like Plusle and Minun, Slaking, not to mention moves like Skill Swap -A completely overhauled Berry system that gives them real names and appearances, which combine with -Pokémon contests, one of the best side modes in the series, which requires a considerable deal of preparation and strategy in its own right -A Battle Frontier which added real post game in for the first time. Not all facilities were winners, but most of them were -Diving and underwater exploration, which I find to be excellent And that's just a short list. I respect Gen 2 for kickstarting a lot of ideas that went on to be good things for the series, but in the form presented in the game, most of them weren't really anything special, especially compared to other gens.

[@TheTsukuyomiLight]

I love the AI in the third generation where every trainer from a four year old to a granny has multiple Super/Hyper potions or Full Restores and are just chomping at the bit to use them.

[@RetroAussieBloke]

Man, this is absolutely INSANE to see the level of (attempted) depth even in gen 1 and 2... As a kid, I'd always assumed there were only 3 forms of AI - A blanket Wild Mon AI, a blanket Trainer AI, and a blanket Gym Leader/E4 AI. So to see that it's not only different for each leader, but different for *each trainer type* is absurdly cool!

[@ItsRayful]

You are talking so far out of your ass that you can smell your own dhiarrea if you want to make anyone believe little RetroAussieBloke was sitting there with his 5 years, contemplating about the amount of different a.i scripts in the first pokemon game. Why are people so pathetic on the internet? Why lie, what was the outcome? Attention?

[@dgaf9843]

It was a game written for children that wasnt expeced to succeed, on hardward about as complex as a paperclip, before patches could be implemented. I just happy it doesn't burst into flames everytime i turn it on.

[@nathanieljones8043]

Speak for yourself red/blue could be broken on accident how do you think missing no was so well known

[@bellowingsilence]

I mean, the Gameboy is arguably a lower res, initially black and white, but technically more powerful NES. I dunno if we can credit the hardware for holding a rudimentary turn based RPG back too much.

[@EnigmaticGentleman]

@@bellowingsilence I mean NES RPGs also had really bad AI, on top of not being nearly as complicated as Pokemon (tech wise, not gameplay wise)

[@turnkey_hole]

​@@nathanieljones8043 you dont think that a game with all that compressed data and no memory protection only having a few little quirks in the edge cases isn't impressive?

[@everythingpony]

You can patch cartridges

[@gzer0x]

Never forget All-Terrain Vennomoth's miracle win from silly AI

[@wildgoosespeeder]

10 year anniversary!

[@Mikewee777]

Consult the helix fossil .

[@Eternalwarpuppy]

I've played through gen 1 Pokemon dozens of times and I never knew there was a category 2 trainer that checks out hello fresh. I definitely remember trainers talking about their boyfriends and girlfriends, but I can't remember who talks about preparing food.

[@kunabanana]

Them's a hell of a lot of words for "spam rest and protect 5 times in a row without failing"

[@ivanbluecool]

Nothing wrong with using agility on poison types. It's type advantage

[@vaiyt]

Twitch plays pokémon

[@Jackpkmn]

@@vaiyt was 10 years ago.

[@1Rez_EZ1]

​@@Jackpkmnso?

[@Zelinkokitsune]

@@vaiyt The All Terrain Venomoth. Drove over those dragons and brought us victory

[@jacquelineking5783]

Depending when it was used if they stopped at six times they would have been only badge boosting.

[@kyoai]

3:45 :I don't think them choosing the setup moves on turn 2 (aka internal number 1) is a bug : It wouldn't make much sense to use some of these moves on turn 1 (aka 0), such as recover or rest, as there is a chance that the AI, due to higher speed, would perform the move before the player had to the chance to damage the AI pokemon, which would be a waste and silly. I'd say them performing the setup/recover move on turn 2 is a rather easy trick to make it look like the AI is actually reacting to the player.

[@Manelneedsaname]

I thought it was more of the game letting the player set up first so they get the advantage, like how in the first battle of every game the rival doesn't use the only status move it has at the beginning

[@MikeWK29]

I agree. Theres a good reason for it being turn 2, mainly for recovery. And programmers who make that mistake usually do it inconsistently and run into compile errors, never would happen over an entire project

[@christ8048]

Recover and rest aren't setup moves.

[@HajileMalach]

​@@christ8048they are in the games programming if you listened to the video

[@michaelbuckers]

0:18 in Russia there's a similar saying that literally translates as "made out of sticks and poop".

[@DarkEspeon40K]

Ah yes, the dendrofecal method

[@healthyminds9279]

Given how much effort went into designing the Ai , it's a shame the games aren't difficult enough to really notice most of the time. You can often sweep through battles etc

[@unnamed7485]

This is why ROM hacks that add level caps and make the enemies stronger are so fun, you actually have to turn on your brain for boss battles

[@neux64]

I vaguely remember the flaws of this Gen1 AI from 2 separate occasions: 1. I remember fighting Blue, his last Pokémon a Venusaur and mine a lvl ~11 Bellsprout (he obliterated my Blastoise). It was the most tense fight ever, as all his Venusaur had to do was use a single attack move to end the battle. However, it just ended up spamming Sleeppowder and Poisonpowder, which of course my Bellsprout was immune to both, and so after a good 20 minutes, I was able to defeat Blue by spamming Vine Whip and Cut. I remember my Bellsprout gaining tons of EXP from that fight, and I was both dumbfounded and ecstatic. 2. One I remember a lot less about is facing Champion Blue, his last Pokémon his Charizard, and mine a lvl ~28 Raichu (i was 7 okay? Ofc i only prioritized the starter pkmn). I don't remember it too well, but I did manage to win against it, it must've been because of Thunder and Paralysis, but it's too much of a blur to really know for sure, so I won't discount it for an AI flaw as well. I know the former fight coincides really well with this info, since Venusaur could have Vine Whip'd my Bellsprout into oblivion, but these are stories I've always bragged about to my Pokémon friends since then. But at least now I know how I was able to unknowingly outsmart the AI as a kid.

[@tabbender1232]

In firered the AI will sometimes use an electric move on a volt absorb mon or a fire move on a flash fire mon, i've had that happen

[@niaxeno]

This is because if you have two potential abilities the AI 50-50s between the 2 and then stores the information later until you switch, even if it's smart AI. Also for some reason there's a bug with intimidate where it will force the AI to forget you have the ability even if it has already stored the ability.

[@tabbender1232]

@@niaxeno I've had it happen on a Ninetales and a Jolteon both of which only have one ability though Also they would resist the hits anyway so attacking them with moves of these types made no sense

[@yppahdalg2397]

@@tabbender1232 Agreed. I assume they have no knowledge what ability the pokemon should have, which makes sense, it would be a lot of extra code for the trainer to check every pokemon and their ability. Plus, it also gives the player a sense of outsmarting their opponent, which makes the 'oversight' actually add to the experience. Though there still are plenty of unintentional oversights left in the games, like how Zoroark royally fucks with the AI. It will spam Psychic until the heat death of the universe against a Crogunk that's actually a Zoroark, even after it shows to have no effect, cause it never saw the ability text.

[@niaxeno]

@@tabbender1232 If we're talking about random trainer AI sometimes they just click random moves into immunity abilities as it tends to break them. The "highest" level AI will 50/50 and store the ability, but random trainers I don't think see your ability except for some classes, my mistake. Random trainers just kind of do whatever. An interesting quirk of Immunity Abilities is that abilities like Intimidate that activate mid battle on a mon with volt absorb will cause the AI to forget you have volt absorb even if it has already activated (this is particularly useful in the Emerald Kaizo Wattson fight against the Manectric). Also depending on the other moves they have access to it could legitimately be highest damage to use a resisted move into your mons without factoring in the immunity abilities because their other moves are just that bad

[@niaxeno]

@@yppahdalg2397It's less that the AI doesn't see imposter and more that it is always calcing highest damage / or finding an OHKO against the Pokémon that Zoroark is impostering, which is still abusable like you said but has little to do with the ability in that case.

[@keatonjohnson3057]

I remember Koga spamming sleep powder in gen 1 and I would keep using the Poke Flute. Finally, I got tired of the back and forth. The same turn I stopped using the Poke Flute, he stopped using sleep powder. So I’m pretty sure the A1 waited until the player chose their move.

[@niaxeno]

Yes, in gen 1, the AI moves after you. It can also "predict" your switches.

[@banditrests]

Small correction, you don’t need to be able to OHKO Lorelei’s dewgong, rest takes 3 turns of sleep so you need to be able to 2-3 hit depending on if you’re faster and it’s pretty slow. Otherwise that soft lock would be a lot more common. It’s actually extremely exploitable, hit dewgong once, get it to rest, use set up moves, get extra benefit from the badge boost glitch, and sweep RB Lorelei for free.

[@thegameplayer125]

it's always interesting looking back at all of our beloved classics to see just how good/badly it's aged based on the limitations and experience or lack thereof with the hardware

[@jraymond1988]

3:57 The electrician sprite (that looks like a singer from KISS) is on both level 1 and level 3.

[@Abyssoft]

In the data sheets he's in both categories, I assume that means there are instances of him with cat 1 AI and others where he has up to cat 3, this is an assumption on my part though.

[@wildgoosespeeder]

I did find one fault with Generation III AI. I don't think the AI takes into account if an ability has changed during battle. It may read that data like your party screen before battles as compared to live battle conditions. I battled Norman in Emerald with a Trace Gardevoir and a Spinda with Own Tempo. I spammed Double Team when Spinda kept trying to confuse me until I maxed out my evasion stat and floored his team! Also, AI fights where it is programmed to use Full Restore when the HP reaches a certain threshold, I use a light hit move first then a heavy hit move, preferably super effective. This is enough to skip the AI from attempting to heal!

[@CaioXG002]

You should add an "ACTUALLY?" at the end of the video's title for the cool False Swipe Gaming reference, hah.

[@enoyna1001]

Thought the same

[@Shrek2Enthusiast]

During one playthrough, I was steamrolling Koga and he sent out Weezing as his last Pokemon. First attack he used was self-destruct.. barely even did any damage to my Pokemon.

[@FlowMega100]

all the editing in this video is amazing, probably took a long timee

[@jayceearrboy]

One of my favorite parts of a video of this sort is excellent research and data sorting. Excellent work!

[@Abyssoft]

It did, videos where I have to animate graphics and data are always time consuming

[@espelhodasconstelacoes]

God bless bro, it totally paid off the effort! ​@@Abyssoft

[@TheMangaka74]

I made my smartest play in a pokemon emerald nuzzlock ever by skillswaping my Ghost type Insomnia to 8th gym leader's Kingdra who would spam rest when low or statused despite the trainer having healing items and its freshly aquired inability to sleep

[@m3n3lli]

I've had a softlock of my Pokémon Red just today: Victory Road, encountered a trainer that had a Chansey. It was putting my Rhydon to sleep and spamming minimize, double-slap and growl. At one point I decided to use Rage because I needed only 1 good hit to take it down. However, I couldn't land a single blow due to evasion from Minimize. Furthermore, since Rage cannot be interrupted my Rhydon kept going to sleep, getting slapped, waking up and missing Rage, then going to sleep again. I spent around 30 minutes just pressing A repeatedly because I could only keep scrolling the text as the game was pretty much on auto-play.

[@iscremintothevoid]

This is so cool! I'd love to see you cover the other Pokemon games, but I honestly have no idea how similar they end up being further down the line.

[@blue_boo3171]

14:59 So, in earlier Gens the AI would remember that you had Protect and not use moves like Fly if it saw you use it? Meanwhile in my fight against Fantina in BDSP, I was able to set up to +6 on my Plant-cloak Wormadam using Quiver Dance + Protect while her Drifblim kept spamming Fly. Guess the power of quad-effectiveness was just too great.

[@aqwkingchampion13]

“Ok, ok, I get it, you know protect, but… if your protect fails just this once it’s over… just one failure…”

[@blue_boo3171]

@@aqwkingchampion13 Protect only has that chance of failure if you try to use that move (or similar ones like detect) multiple times in a row. Because I am alternating between protect and quiver dance, it won't have a chance at failure. People sometimes use protect strats against Norman's Slaking with the same pattern and effectiveness.

[@aqwkingchampion13]

​@@blue_boo3171 I know, I was more thinking the AI is in denial about the fail chance lol

[@krislovespies]

​@blue_boo3171 Actually, it has been documented on bulbapedia I think that the move protect has a chance of failing on the first turn. It is a 1 in 60.000 something so it is incredibly rare.

[@KefkeWren]

Setup on Turn 2 _might_ actually be intentional, for three reasons. First, Turn 2 ensures that a trainer doesn't waste time setting up against a pokémon that they can one-shot. Secondly, because the "setup" category includes healing moves, it would be a waste to use these on the first turn if the pokémon has yet to take damage, so waiting until Turn 2 to prioritise them reduces the odds of that happening without much effort. Lastly, it could be used to simulate a trainer "feeling out" their opponent before deciding their strategy.

[@BlueBraviaryGirl]

So annoying the ai doesn’t take pp into account. I didn’t have a good counter to Sabrina and her Kadabra…Alakazam? Whichever. I wanted to scream cause it spammed Recover and I couldn’t run it out of PP Colosseum and XD have weird ai too. There’s a guy in the tower part near the end who keeps using Earthquake but he has a lot of electric weak mons. I loved purifying and evolving the shadow Vibrava which has levitate and using it against him. I also remember the old lady in Agate Town baton passing to Shedinja even though the passer was confused and Shedinja knocked itself out

[@HECKproductions]

even with how much gen 1 code is dank spaghetti i cannot imagine actual professional programmers forgetting that entry 0 is the first and entry 1 is the second

[@hlavco]

I was having trouble with a gym leader in Black until I realized that he would spam Bulk Up forever until you damaged him for the first time. So I counter-spammed Sand Attack and Tail Whip until I had a healthy advantage.

[@Caroniver_Robocacci]

This has gotta be the funniest sponsor transition I've ever seen.

[@ODDERZPlays]

I remember once defeating Erika's Vileplume with a low level Bellsprout because she kept trying to use Poison Powder and it of course had no effect. Wrap wins again.

[@scotts918]

5:18 - little Giovani hiding inside the man with the suitcase 👀

[@christophera5818]

Great video. I love gen 1-3. But what about the battle frontier in Emerald? You should do a video on that. I know the AI can get pretty wacky. I would like to learn more about it though.

[@AJMTV]

I explored all my old games recently and for Pokemon Blue, I was stuck in the Elite 4 after Lorelei, it took me an hour of trying to lose until I decided it’d just be quicker to beat the rest of the fights lmao 😂😂

[@Ally_Mallow]

“At least it doesn’t cheat like in MarioKart N64* Lance with his 2 lvl 47 Dragonite and Aerodactyl with Rock Slide:

[@Xiroxys]

I stare into my fridge wondering what to make for dinner because there's no food.

[@NightmareRex6]

should of stocked up on food instead of toilet paper durring 2020. i been saying why ppl buying TP when no food to make dookdook with? like would see peaoples fridge, beer a LOT of beer, and toilet paper stocked in restroom, but no food, what good TP without food?

[@Xiroxys]

@@NightmareRex6 you think I have enough money for toilet paper?

[@alecrutz956]

"super fang is at the top of the hierarchy" based, one of of my fav moves in the generation

[@unnamed7485]

Too bad it's only learned by a big rat in that Gen

[@ben_sisko2149]

The problem with the newer games is that they still have pokemon 10+ level lower than you. Scarlet and violet sort of solved that, but I would still love a hard mode.

[@SpectroliteDS]

The fact Lorelei's softlocking BS was SO bad they added a clause SPECIFICALLY for her in Yellow that'd prevent it.

[@Perilys]

I'll never forget the amount of times growing up where the AI trainer would use Screech to lower my defense, then follow up with a special attack.

[@waveeyes]

Gen 3 AI: "So it's hailing? Jokes on you, I am immune to sandstorms!" _AI used Protect_

[@jamespayne8252]

Any day I see a new Abyssoft upload I know it's a good day, thank you for all your hard work Aby!!! I truly appreciate and enjoy your work. If you keep making them I'll keep watching 😁

[@joshuakim5240]

I remember all the way back when i was a kid, I accidentally found out that Lance's Dragonite will just spam Barrier vs anything weak to Psychic, so my Machamp beat it via just hitting it while it uselessly spammed Barrier despite being at max defense.

[@bobman717]

One of my favorite errors from gen 1 is that Psychic is immune to Ghost but are still hit by Night Shade, double error lmao. Ghost types are also able to be hit by the Normal type move Bide. This is really not an issue as the only Pokemon that you battle with that move is Brocks Onyx long before you can get a one of the Genger family. I only learned of this from playing Pokemon Stadium and trying it in Lavender Town.

[@yoku-dr7bd]

I remember playing Pokemon emerald against battle frontier brain tucker and on a Pokemon I only used special moves and it kept trying to use counter and it made that fight significantly easier

[@Daveisreallycool]

>Be me >In the first rival battle >Both our pokemon are low enough to be defeated with a single attack >Squirtle uses tail whip

[@browncow5210]

Here's something I found funny in Gen 2. If you try to perish trap the opponent and switch out at the last turn, they will register that you are off the field and switch too. I'm curious what later games this can still happen in.

[@choisancutenessaggression]

its super interesting to hear about the ai in these games, def interested in more like this!!

[@RealNinjanate]

Did we ever figure out how modern AI works? Still hard to find resources in this subject so this was very helpful

[@rileydurfee4403]

Crazy different video but i loved it! Love to see the innovative video for your channel!

[@UnoriginalUsername25]

13:18 the AI will also switch out mid-battle if they cannot damage your Pokemon at all, like if it only has damaging normal and ground type moves against a Levitating Gengar, for example.

[@RocketPropelledMexican]

Well at least its lore accurate, I mean have you seen the questionable calls the trainers in the anime make?

[@Adrian-ze9ud]

Is there any place where I can see all the things you skipped? You got me really interested about it! 18:07 Are you absolutely sure that the AI, or at least the odds, doesn't cheat in the battle frontier?

[@katiemonroe1687]

4:02 this is the bug that All Terrain Venomoth accidentally exploited in Twitch Plays Pokemon.

[@dovakiin296]

I remember in fire red there was a trainer with a chansey that would use minimize to increase evasion and then use softboiled to restore their huge ass health pool. You just couldn't beat it unless you could kill it in a single shot.

[@TheSoulCaptor]

For Gen 1 in both Blue and Yellow there was a weird outcome when fighting Giovanni in his Gm Battle using a Parasect against his Nidoking and Nidoqueen as despite having Blizzard, Fire Blast and Thunder they will only use Tail Whip

[@assault410]

Not sure i think its an off by 1 error. Its likely just so that the recovery set up moves are less likely to be wasted

[@dii3218]

- sends out a Poison-type to sweep Lance -

[@tnuhenaj3752]

funnily enough the legendary dogs/beasts in generation 2 have the same quirk where they randomly select a move and their fleeing will have the same priority as that move. If they choose roar thats good because thats negative priority but at least 1 of them has quick attack so that sucks. can't trap them every time because of that. Then there's the fact that if you trap them they have roar so you need to sleep them first but that doesn't help if they flee with priority from quick attack. Genuinely some of the worst pokemon to try and catch in the series. Even encountering them is a pain as it doesn't work quite like in later gens and having to bring up the pokedex constantly to check their movements is so tedious. Generation 4 with its poketch marking map had the best roaming pokemon catching experience. So much easier.

[@edgargaebolg9307]

Iirc you could never find them again if they used Roar... or was it if you used it?

[@Scout819]

@@edgargaebolg9307 That was a bug in FireRed/LeafGreen. If the Entei or Raiku used Roar, they'd essentially be deleted from the game. I've heard claims that they'll respawn if you beat the Champion again, but idk if that's true or not, it sounded like they're gone from the game.

[@ZKP314]

Twitch plays Pokémon Red has an interesting case-ATV the Venonat slowly wore down Lance’s Dragonites…because they (the Dragonites) kept spamming non-damaging moves that happened to have a type super effective against its opponent. Edit: I described Cat 3 trainers without knowing

[@vitormenezello]

Does that moveset logic for trainer pokemon also apply for other gens or did they change how that works? Is it the same for wild pokemon?

[@Ahrpigi]

Fire Red was the first Pokemon game I played after the original Red (and Gold), gotta say I was not expecting the difficulty spike from the trainers actually being halfway competent 😆

[@sagacious03]

Great analysis video! Thanks so much for uploading, & here's looking forward to more like this from you! Also, in your description, the 2nd Google Docs link for the Gen 3 writeups gives a "Page Not Found" error. Any info about that?

[@Abyssoft]

I'll look into it

[@sagacious03]

@@Abyssoft Thanks a ton!

[@Abyssoft]

@@sagacious03 I rechecked the links, they should work now.

[@sagacious03]

@@Abyssoft Thanks a ton once again!

[@BananaGatorProds]

Ive always loved that the jugglers are specifically coded to juggle their team by swapping frequently. I wish they would give more personality to trainer classes like this.

[@phtefanphtefan3873]

Great video as always, but the Hello Fresh reminds me on the GTA3 commercial Radio ads😂

[@petelee2477]

6:49 if the move hits. It is theoretically possible escape.

[@yppahdalg2397]

Not unless you use an X-accuracy beforehand, this makes the game skip the accuracy check and the 1/256 glitch that is required for the move rage to miss, making the battle truely a softlock with no hope of escape.

[@fireswarmdragonp]

Holy cow, just think about how much effort programming all these behaviors got by even gen 3. It was reading past player inputs, that's crazy attention to detail

[@nathandossett7678]

I should also mention, In gen 1 I fought a trainer using a Persian, on the 1st turn I got it to red hp and then my opponent used a hyper potion. Why would they use a hyper potion if they were at full health at the very start?

[@Kingpin1880]

5:30 Huh? I don't remember Brock ever using a full heal. I remember relying on status ailments like Bured and Poisoned in order to beat him.

[@TheMangaka74]

*Enemy Plusle uses helping hands* "Ho no !" *Enemy Minum uses helping hands* "Anyway..."

[@Imirui]

2:01 The only trainer class that also fits into the wild pokemon category are the twin trainers, having near 0 actual selection AI

[@Emerald-Fluffie]

“The AI now observes PP” Me too, AI, me too

[@Moakmeister]

Apparently nothing’s changed. In Ultra Sun and Moon, I fought a Team Rainbow Grunt with a Tentacruel who just spammed Protect until it ran out of PP because my Pokemon resisted its attacks.

[@harukaze7388]

one side effect of Lance's AI is that the dragon weakness to itself ends up being actually used because he'll only use dragon rage to any dragon of your own

[@durrellbennett947]

The lead into this videos sponsor was hilarious hahaha!

[@MarlopolyGaming]

3:43 this bullshit gets me so often I have found myself spaghetti coding to write functions that counteract my dumb ass forgetting that lists start at 0. You'd think after 10 years I'd remember lol

[@rareroe305]

Duct tape and safety pins for Gen 1? That's an upgrade, I thought it was made with saliva and prayers.

[@NightmareRex6]

they could also fixed the lorine softlock via making rest only have the 10 or 15 uses for the NPC as well but dont think npcs can drain their moves and use "Struggle" i thinkt hey can in gen 4 and above tho? not sure.

[@lunondisposable5382]

I had no idea how intricate Gen 2's AI was, I knew it was better than 1 but that's not saying much. I always thought they had just fixed the glaring bugs and accounted for held items, crazy how much thought really went into it

[@JackPitmanNica]

Sounds like having the pokemon across the board use a random attack if the 2 previous attacks were the same might've been helpful

[@rphntw1n]

You switch up your thumbnail game? I was digging it.

[@Abyssoft]

We couldn't figure out any text to work with this one, so we just went with an image