Confused about confusion...

So why does confusion cause Pokemon to hurt themselves? I feel like confusion could be a much more interesting dynamic to a battle if there were more options than just hurting yourself with confusion (or not... I guess). For example: what if your Pokemon used the wrong move sometimes, or used a move on itself or the wrong Pokemon if in a multiples battle? Still having the same chances that a negative effect would occur while having multiple possibilities within that chance would make the suspense when waiting for the birds to stop flying over your Pokemon's head all that more tense.

I don't expect the confusion mechanic to change at all, but it was just something that popped into my head.

Thoughts?

Yeah I agree the mechanics have been somewhat confusing to me as well. Personally I'd agree that making the Pokemon use the wrong move would be a much better or even make them attack a teammate in a double battle. I don't expect this to change either, but attacking oneself has never made much sense to me either haha.

Yeah confusion is extremely annoying. They should've changed it a longgggg time ago.

I like the idea of using the wrong move, that's a great idea. I do understand the reason for hurting themselves, though, although I don't understand sometimes how it's possible especially with moves like Wing Attack, Mega Punch, and other physical moves. Do they just...punch themselves in the face? Beat themselves frantically with their wings? Haha.

My best guess is that confused Pokemon doesn't know what's going on so it runs into walls, trips over, etc. therefore hurting itself.

What Seattle has said is how I pretty much see it. It's not so much confused on which enemy to attack but perhaps confusion causes the opponent to become dizzy (which would make sense when you think about moves like Dizzy Punch). So when the confused Pokemon tries to attack it tries to attack the opponent but instead runs into a try or accidentally does something else that causes to hit itself instead (run into a wall, etc). It makes less sense for moves like flamethrower but at least it's viable for physical moves like slash, tackle, headbutt, etc.

I always imagined itself missing the opponent and running into a wall, or hitting itself with the attack, or just doing something in general that put itself in danger (i.e., missing Water Gun, and then slipping on the puddle)

What if a Pokemon just hits itself because it wants to snap out of confusion?

WhiteKnightL said:

What if a Pokemon just hits itself because it wants to snap out of confusion?

Click to expand...

That is pretty smart, actually. But it wouldn't make sense, due to the Pokemon sometimes attacking effectively.

I honestly think the Pokemon just swings randomly and ends up falling the ground or tripping or hitting a wall or something when confused.

I think we've pretty much established most of it is to do with running into things, tripping over etc.

For special attacks such as Flamethrower? Might I point you to the anime, where a Manectric can control the path of its Thunderbolts to zigzag after a target. Perhaps when confused it'd fire it off at an angle, and whilst trying to correct it end up bringing it back around and hitting itself?

One thing I don't get about confusion. Either it's coincidence, or some Pokémon really are more affected by the confusion status than others.

For example, every time my Totodile (even when evolved) got confused, it'd hurt itself pretty much every turn.

Yet my Kadabra very rarely got hurt by confusion.

My good sir, you have only deepened my point.
Oh, dear. Confuse Ray. The blinking light swirled around my head. I no longer know what to do. Oh, well. *hits self for no apparent reason* Ouch.
*three turns later*
Oh, yeah! That's right! I"m in the middle of a flipping battle!

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

And obviously the world also shares our opinion. At least some people.

There could be more to the status, such as loss of accuracy and attacking the wrong target in a double/triple battle, however that would make confusion so annoying!

Amore said:

I think we've pretty much established most of it is to do with running into things, tripping over etc.

For special attacks such as Flamethrower? Might I point you to the anime, where a Manectric can control the path of its Thunderbolts to zigzag after a target. Perhaps when confused it'd fire it off at an angle, and whilst trying to correct it end up bringing it back around and hitting itself?

Click to expand...

Oh wow I watched that episode fyi. It was a fun one.

But yeah I think you've got a point there, attacking yourself in confusion could be like trapping, crashing or losing control of your attacks. That's what I'd picture the confusion status as.

Hmm I've never actually thought about this in-depth before. I did think it was quite weird, but I just took it as another feature of the game. I do agree that instead of just hurting oneself, the Pokemon could actually use the wrong move instead of the one selected, or hit the wrong enemy in double/triple battles such as what has been said. That would make confusion extremely annoying though, and might lead to confusion abuse during competitive battles. It would definitely make things more interesting though!

Well I think it'smore for a move adaptating on the translation, n the Japanse version the confusion is called "Nenriki", a literral translation is "Mind power", If I'm not worng, in the anime, if a pokemon use it, it make the foe to float, maybe getting hurt is because it tried to attack but cound't do it in the airand something got worng

confusion should act more like the status u get when u have a pokemon that disobey u when u do not have the proper badges

In PMD they had a way better Confusion system, the Pokémon would move randomly and attack randomly. I think the mechanics made it so to add spice to the game (as they did with all other MSPs) but I think it would have gone better with doing a random move all by itself. Like, it may refuse to switch out, it may attack randomly or switch out by itself. A good unpredictable confusion, if you follow me.