Does Game Freak follow any general principles in setting a Pokemon`s move pool?

Whether leveling or trainable moves, is there any principles you think they use in setting up the move pool?
Of course they often don't but when they can't bothered fiddling what do they choose for moves at a level or which it are allowed to be trained by any means?

They probably have some kind of principles in place, since manually figuring out the movesets for all Pokémon in the game would be very time consuming, but I don't think they have hard rules in place necessarily?

Like, they probably have a certain look and feel for certain moves, and they probably have some kind of tool spitting out candidates but it's very much the kind of thing that they can end up tweaking later if they feel like it.

More special Pokémon like starters, legends, etc. probably get more attention.

Believes so, to a degree. Probably looks at its natural weapons: jaw, claws, muscles, horns, tail, and voice. Hands on moves from those categories as appropriate. May set up some basic move trees (as in, Growl -> Screech and Bubble -> Bubblebeam).

Bets on an internal value for all moves. Usually sticks moves like Hyper Beam and Quiver Dance very late in a move pool. Keeps the move pool orderly. Would not want to learn Bubble after Water Pulse, after all.

Could also check things like stat values. Does this Pokemon have more than 120 base defense? Give it Body Press. Is this Pokemon very fast? Give it Agility and Quick Attack.

Probably checks viability from there. Does this Pokemon have good move options for its stats, typing, ability, and gimmick? Does this Contrary Pokemon have a move to take advantage of the ability? Does it have two moves that should not be paired? (Thinks of combinations like Mind Reader + Sheer Cold on Articuno.)

They definitely go out their way to ensure that Pokémon with certain abilities don't learn certain moves to keep them from being too overpowered. For example, Game Freak really went out their way to ensure that the Machop line didn't learn any one-hit KO moves such as Fissure with its No Guard ability. The Machop line was able to learn Fissure via TM27 (if I'm not mistaken) in generation I. If you transferred it to generation VII via the Virtual Console, it would always end up with its hidden ability, which I believe is Steadfast. Even if you then transferred it to generation VIII and attempted to use an Ability Patch or Ability Capsule on it, you wouldn't be able to because you're not allowed to change a Pokémon's hidden ability. Therefore, no legal way exists to get the Machop line with Fissure and No Guard at the same time. In everyday play however, I would say that generally follow the principle of most Pokémon learning new moves after every three levels, especially early on to keep the Pokémon learning new moves at a consistent rate. In addition, they ensure that the most powerful moves are learned the higher it levels up, with is pretty straightforward.

How about the diversity of types of moves in the moveset? Can you say anything about whether they learn by level other than normal (which as far as I can tell every base level Pokemon learns one at least and many evolved forms) and their type(s) moves what other types do they learn (or can learn)?

For leveling up: Hm. Seems difficult to say. Some examples:

• Togedemaru: Two Bug moves (Pin Missile and Fell Stinger) and a Grass move (Spiky Shield), but no Steel moves.
• Talonflame: Steel Wing
• Pangoro: Bullet Punch
• Thievul: Just Dark and Normal. Picked up Tail Slap, notably, as an upper-tier non-Dark Move.

Really seems to depend on the Pokemon's appearance. Points to Pin Missile as an example. Non-Bug learners (by level-up): Jolteon, Qwilfish, Zigzagoon, Maractus, Ferroseed, Mareanie, and Togedemaru. Only sees three Bug Pokemon by level-up: Heracross, Skorupi, and Golisopod. Goes to spiky Pokemon, regardless of type.

For Technical Machine/Records: Notices some types commonly receiving some moves.

• Water-types with Ice moves
• Grass-types with Sludge Bomb. (May be a bit skewed due to the number of Grass/Poisons, though.)
• Ground and Rock overlap.
• Fighting-types with Rock Slide.
• Psychic-types with Shadow Ball (and sometimes Energy Ball).

Also rarely sees some together ever. Example: Water-types with Fire moves. Views most exceptions as early generation holdovers (Ninetales with Solar Beam, Starmie with Thunderbolt). Finds some later generation ones around sometimes too (Togekiss with Aura Sphere, Gourgeist with Flamethrower, Lumineon with Aerial Ace).

In gens 1-2 they had a very basic ruleset: most Pokemon don't get anything special, but they get access to a lot of different TMs. That way the player gets to make their own decision on how to compose the party without having to consider moveset bias. But even then there were already some minor exceptions like the starters or how Waterfall was a move exclusive to Goldeen/Golking (ignoring the HM in gen2).

In later gens they started to change that and give every Pokemon a more unique moveset tailored to each Pokemon. Salamence learning Fly by levelup is one that comes to mind. The downside to this is the imminent powercreep because they need to advertise the new Pokemon in each generation which can only be achieved if they end up being "better" than the previous generation ones.

Though, nowadays Move Tutors have become such a prevalent option that in some way we may find ourself heading back to the early gen design of everything being very similar apart from their individual levelup moveset.

Then there is question of move coverage- how many pokemon have access to a move set that is highly effective against most pokemon? I tried search allrea Or a move set that includes self status, ally status effects, and enemy status effects

May be difficult to find something like that. Depends how you define "highly effective against most Pokemon". Brings up Manectric as an example. Denoted highest move power next to it.

• Manectric's Special Attack types: Electric (110), Normal (150), Dark (55), Fire (130)
• Manectric's Physical Attack types: Fire (65), Normal (150), Dark (80), Electric (90), Ice (65), Steel (100), Psychic (85)

Sports a much wider physical movepool (with Ice, Steel, and Psychic). Hits a lot of Pokemon super-effectively. Backs it up with only 75 base Attack, however. Requires very lopsided enemy defenses to shine.

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Status: Expects almost every Pokemon to have a self-buff (like Growth, Withdraw, and Foresight) or enemy debuff (Growl, Tail Whip, Sand Attack, Scary Face) purely in level-up moves, barring some gimmick Pokemon. Hands out status conditions to a lot via Thunder Wave (and maybe Will O Wisp). Bets on Psychic-types and support Pokemon having more self and team buffs between Reflect, Light Screen, and Ally Switch.

Remains largely speculation, however. Never found it practical to focus on quantity. Looks for what moves are good and who gets them. Prefers a support Pokemon with Charm and Thunder Wave over one with Tail Whip, Sand Attack, Growl, and Scary Face. Depends on other factors too, such as with Aurora Veil on anyone except Alolan Ninetales.

For the most part, movesets are made of moves that fit the Pokémon and thus make sense to give to it.

There is the "type logic", of course, Electric types will learn Electric moves, Fighting types will learn Fighting moves, etc.

There's also the "body part logic"???? :P which makes Flying types compatible with Steel Wing because they have wings, even if it's actually a Steel type move, or what makes some Pokémon that have a tail compatible with Aqua Tail even if they aren't Water type, in a similar way Fighting types usually learn all sorts of punch.

There's also the "balance logic", (yeah, I'm just making these terms up) which works the other way around, sometimes you might feel like a certain Pokémon should be able to learn a certain move, but it doesn't because GF probably consider it would be broken if it did.

cloa513 said:

Then there is question of move coverage- how many pokemon have access to a move set that is highly effective against most pokemon? I tried search allrea Or a move set that includes self status, ally status effects, and enemy status effects

Click to expand...

Granbull can literally hit any type for super effective damage. There are probably some other Pokémon capable of this but I didn't do the maths (not counting Mew and Smeargle)

The question is purely that the pokemon gains access at a sufficiently high level to damaging moves that are super effective to say 70% of types- sure there is all the data available in a Github archived but it is so difficult to use and sure it changed a little bit between generations.
This comes to a general principle whether Game Freak allows many pokemon to have coverage effective moves or very few.