Note: The same document is available in a Google Docs file. If you want to download an offline copy or view it in Google Docs, follow this link. The information on this page and in the document is the same.
Also check out the Platinum Kaizo Master Documentation & Resources Page for Full Documentation and Guide of the Game.
General Information
The Acid Rain Bug is a bug that causes multiple weather effects to be active at the same time. In Generation IV Trick Room, Uproar, Gravity and Fog are also considered weather effects. These weather effects have a priority which determines which ones are active when triggering the bug and in what order they are shown in the battle. This is the priority order:
- Trick Room
- Fog
- Gravity
- Uproar
- Hail
- Sun
- Sandstorm
- Rain
At the end of each turn the weather effects will be checked starting from the bottom of the priority bracket. That means that the bug always starts with rain. But the Acid Rain Bug doesn’t always go through the entire list. It stops at the weather effect that triggered the bug. For example if Gravity triggered the bug, it would cycle like this: Rain -> Sandstorm -> Sun -> Hail -> Uproar -> Gravity. Only Trick Room causes all weather effects to appear.
The weather effects Fog, Hail, Sun, Sandstorm and Rain each deal 1/16 damage. If Gravity is a part of the bug it will heighten accuracy, pull levitating Pokemon to the ground and prevent certain moves (Bounce, Fly, High Jump Kick, Jump Kick, Magnet Rise, Splash). It is important to note that Rain will never trigger Acid Rain.
Set Up
To trigger the Acid Rain Bug you will need one of the weather effects active. If then the AI switches out, either by a manual switch or by using fast U-Turn, while the player uses Pursuit, trapping the enemy pokemon and fainting it, the bug will be activated. The AI can not trigger the Acid Rain Bug and Uproar can only trigger it in a double battle. The bug triggers no matter how the weather effect is activated, as long as the weather effect is active after the Pursuit trap happens. This means that it also works when the opponent causes a weather effect by for example having the Drought ability or the overworld already having the weather effect integrated like it is with Fog.
When multiple weather effects are up the one with the lowest priority will count as the triggering effect, this means if the Sun as well as Gravity is up the Acid Rain cycle would have this order: Rain -> Sandstorm -> Sun. Other moves with the Pursuit effect (like Rage in Platinum Kaizo) cause the Acid Rain Bug as well.
WARNING: THIS SECTION CONTAINS MISINFORMATION.
The AI is able to proc acid rain, there will be an update to this once I research more.
Breaks
The only way of breaking the Acid Rain Bug and reversing the field to a normal state is by activating Hail or Sun when they are not part of the Acid Rain cycle. It works with both abilities, like Drought, and moves, like Sunny Day.
Hail, Sunny Day, Sandstorm and Rain Dance will fail if the respective weather effect is part of the Acid Rain cycle. Snow Warning, Drought, Sand Stream and Drizzle will do nothing on switch in when the respective weather effect is part of the Acid Rain cycle.
Immunities
If the triggering weather effect is Sandstorm or Sun all Steel, Rock and Ground type Pokemon as well as Pokemon with the Sand Veil ability won’t take any damage from Acid Rain. If the triggering weather effect is Hail or a priority wise higher effect these Pokemon will get damage for every weather effect, including Sandstorm. Ice type Pokemon usually take damage from Acid Rain including Hail.
Swinub, Piloswine and Mamoswine as well as Ice type Pokemon with the Sand Veil ability and Rock, Ground or Steel type Pokemon with the Snow Cloak or Ice Body ability are the only Pokemon that don’t take any Acid Rain damage no matter what the triggering effect is.
Abilities
Swift Swim and Chlorophyll
Swift Swim’s speed boost always works under Acid Rain while Chlorophyll’s speed boost only works in Acid Rain when the Sun is part of the Acid Rain cycle. This means when Sandstorm triggers the bug and the cycle only contains it and Rain, Pokemon with the Chlorophyll ability won’t have doubled speed.
Sand Veil and Snow Cloak
As already explained both Sand Veil and Snow Cloak keep their immunities for Sandstorm and Hail respectively, though they will still receive damage if the other weather effect is part of the cycle. The evasion boost also still works if the respective weather effect is part of the Acid Rain cycle. This means that Pokemon with the Snow Cloak ability only receive the evasion boost when Hail or a weather effect with higher priority is the triggering weather effect.
Hydration and Leaf Guard
Hydration heals all status conditions in Acid Rain with the extra of Hydration activating before Toxic Orb and Flame Orb. This means that a Pokemon with the ability Hydration in Acid Rain will always be badly poisoned or burned at the beginning of the next turn without ever taking damage from the status condition. The AI can therefore never use moves like Thunder Wave, Toxic, Hypnosis etc.
Leaf Guard prevents opposing Pokemon from afflicting status conditions, but only if the Sun is part of the Acid Rain cycle.
Rain Dish, Dry Skin and Ice Body
These abilities are a little bit more complicated. When a Pokemon with one of these abilities is in Acid Rain and has full HP it will receive 1/16 damage from the next weather effect. But if that Pokemon is damaged it will heal 1/16 of its HP from the next weather effect. It doesn’t matter which weather effect is checked, the Pokemon can always receive damage and heal damage. For example Ice Body can heal when Rain is checked and receive damage when Hail is checked.
Each weather effect checks the current HP of that Pokemon individually. This means that a Pokemon with full HP and one of these abilities will receive 1/16 damage, then heal 1/16, then again receive 1/16 damage etc until the cycle is over. Pokemon who are damaged however will heal 1/16 for every weather effect until they are at full HP before then taking 1/16 damage again and heal it back up etc until the cycle is over.
The earlier mentioned Pokemon with immunities will never take damage but always heal when they are damaged. For example a Mamoswine with the Ice Body ability will not receive damage from Acid Rain even at full HP, but always heal on every weather effect if not at full HP. The same goes for the other kinds of immunities.
Ice Body only works this way when Hail is part of the Acid Rain cycle, if it isn’t the Pokemon will simply receive 1/16 damage for every damaging weather effect.
Solar Power
If the Sun is part of the Acid Rain cycle Pokemon with the Solar Power ability receive the 1.5x Special Attack boost. They also receive 1/8 instead of 1/16 damage for every weather effect. This means that the maximum amount of damage a Pokemon can receive from the Acid Rain Bug is 5/8 or 62.5% of its max HP.
Forecast and Flower Gift
This part is very important since by the official Platinum Kaizo HoF rules this can cause your run to become invalid. If Sun is part of the Acid Rain cycle both Forecast on Castform and Flower Gift on Cherrim can soft lock your game. When the bug is activated from one of these Pokemon or you or the AI switch in with one of these Pokemon while Acid Rain is active they will infinitely change their form forcing you to reset your game.
Castform will indefinitely transform between its Sunny Form and its Rainy Form, even if Hail is part of the Acid Rain cycle, while Cherrim will indefinitely transform between its Sunshine Form and its Overcast Form.
If Sun is not part of the Acid Rain cycle Castform will turn into the Rainy Form and Cherrim will stay in the Overcast Form.
Moves
Synthesis, Morning Sun and Moonlight
These healing moves are very simple. If Sun is part of the Acid Rain cycle they will heal 2/3 of the maximum HP, while only healing 1/4 if Sun is not part of the Acid Rain cycle.
Thunder and Blizzard
These are also very simple. Thunder always bypasses the accuracy check in Acid Rain while Blizzard only does when Hail is part of the Acid Rain cycle. If it isn’t the accuracy will be the same as outside of Acid Rain.
Solar Beam
In Acid Rain Solar Beam only deals half the damage it would usually deal. If the Sun is part of the Acid Rain cycle it won’t need a charging turn, otherwise it will need it.
Weather Ball
The typing of the Weather Ball depends on the triggering weather effect. If it’s Sandstorm it will be a Rock type move, if it’s Sun it will be a Fire type move and if it’s Hail it will be a Icy type move. Despite Fog having an effect on Weather Ball, boosting its damage but keeping the normal type, it will be an Ice type move. For every other weather effect with higher priority than Hail it will still be an Ice type move.
Weather Effects
Trick Room
Trick Room is the only weather effect that can make Fog appear in the Acid Rain cycle and do damage. It also keeps the dimensions reversed when triggering Acid Rain, though it for some reason is shortened by 1 turn. That means that a Trick Room that triggers Acid Rain lasts for 4 turns including the turn it is used. As I explained earlier, if there is a second weather effect active besides Trick Room when activating Acid Rain the weather effect with less priority will count as the triggering weather effect, which means that Trick Room doesn’t count as the triggering weather effect and therefore will last 5 turns.
When Trick Room is set up inside of Acid Rain after running out it will last 5 turns just as intended. When Trick Room runs out at the exact same turn where Acid Rain is triggered there will not be a text indicator saying that the dimensions have returned to normal, but they will be returned to normal. When Trick Room is the triggering effect and it is used in Acid Rain again while the 4 turns of the initial Trick Room have not run out, it will simply reverse the dimensions back to normal.
Gravity
Just like Trick Room, Gravity will have 1 turn less when being the trigger of the Acid Rain. And just like Trick Room, it will also stay at 5 turns when a second weather effect with less priority is the triggering effect of Acid Rain while Gravity is up. It will also, just like Trick Room, not have a text indicator of Gravity ending when it ends in the same turn as Acid Rain is activated. And finally, just like Trick Room, Gravity will stay for 5 turns when it is used in Acid Rain again after the initial Gravity runs out.
If Gravity is already up, by being the trigger of Acid Rain or by a weather effect with a higher priority being the trigger of Acid Rain, using another Gravity will fail. If Gravity is part of the Acid Rain cycle without it being the trigger it will stay for 7 turns instead of 5 or 4 turns. The turn where Acid Rain is triggered counts as one of the 7 turns.
Fog
Fog will not be part of the Acid Rain cycle when Fog is also the weather effect that triggers it. Though it will be part of the cycle and do damage if it was active before the Acid Rain was triggered without Fog itself being the trigger. Since Hail, Sun, Sandstorm and Rain clear up Fog this means that only Uproar and Gravity can do that, since Trick Room makes Fog appear anyway. For example if we are in a Route or Gym with overworld Fog and trigger the Acid Rain bug with Gravity the Acid Rain cycle will include Fog and that Fog will also deal damage.
When using Defog in Acid Rain when Fog is part of the Acid Rain cycle, Acid Rain will keep going but without checking Fog. Also it is noteworthy that Gravity’s accuracy boost and Fog’s accuracy drop negate each other.
Miscellaneous
When Uproar is part of the Acid Rain cycle it will never say “{Pokemon} is making an Uproar!”.
When Pokemon take damage the text will indicate it by saying “{Pokemon} is hurt by its {Ability}!”. But if Sandstorm is the trigger of the Acid Rain it will instead say “{Pokemon} was buffeted by the sandstorm!”.
Currently the only consistent ways of forcing the AI to switch out are baiting U-Turn, Perish Song last turn and the AI Pokemon only having ineffective damaging moves and not having status moves. If there are other consistent (or even semi consistent) ways of forcing the AI to switch, feel free to dm me, I will research that and I might make an extra section in this document for mid fight switch AI.
