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Hidden Power

Hidden Power is a new move in Gold/Silver/Crystal. It is only learnt by Unown, but is TM10 which can be received from a man at the Lake of Rage, or you can buy it in the Celadon Department Store for £3000. It is classed as a Normal type move, although it's actual type can be any of the 17 types, but it can't be Normal (so 1 of 16). It's power also varies - from 31 to 70. The type and power of Hidden Power all depends on your specific Pokémon, or more specifically on the DVs your Pokémon has. DVs are determined completely randomly though, when catching wild Pokémon, and every single Pokémon can have any combination of DVs, so you may have one Snorlax with Grass type Hidden Power, and another with Bug type Hidden Power.

If your Hidden Power type is Special, then it will run off your Pokémon's Special Attack, and use the opponent's Special Defence. If yours is Physical, than it will run off normal Attack and use the opponent's Defence stat. Hidden Power receives STAB (What is STAB?), and also gets Item Boosts, from items such as Charcoal. Hidden Power is still classed as a Normal type though, so it is affected by opposition Pokémon using Counter on it - even if your type is Special based. Mirror Coat does not affect it at all. It is also affected by weather moves - Rain Dance will increase the power of Water Hidden Powers and decrease the power of Fire Hidden Powers, and Sunny Day will increase the power of Fire Hidden Powers and decrease the power of Water Hidden Powers.

Hidden power is very useful in battle, especially with the amount of Pokémon it is compatible with. It is good for covering weaknesses, such as using Grass Power on Jolteon to cover it's Ground weakness, making your Pokémon more versatile.

So how do you work what type and power yours is? Read on:

Type and Base damage of Hidden Power is determined by this:

Base Power = ((X × 5 + Y) ÷ 2) + 31

X = Combined Attack/Defense/Speed/Special DV
Y = Special DV (max of 3)

So to complete the formula you must work out your Pokémon's DVs. You can only find out the DVs of your Pokémon when they are wild at level 50 (catch at 50, or use Rare Candies straight from the wild) or when they are at level 100 (fully boxed). 
For every 2 stat points your Pokémon has lower than the maximum possible for that species, it loses 1 DV, so a DV of 15 is 0 from the max stat, a DV of 14 is 2 points from the max stat, a DV of 13 is 4 points from the max stat, etc.

For example, say I have a level 100 Articuno with:
Attack - 256
Defence - 274
Speed - 266
Special Attack - 282
Special Defense - 342

You will need to compare your stats to the max stats it can have so you will need to find out your Pokémon's max stats first (either max wild stats for level 50s or max for level 100s, depending on your Pokémon). The best place to find them is at SSF.

Articuno's stats at level 100 are:
Attack - 268
Defence - 298
Speed - 268
Special A - 288
Special D - 348

Use this table to work out the DVs your Pokémon has. Or simply use the formula: 15 - (D ÷ 2) where D is the difference from your stat to the max.

So my Articuno's Attack is 12 off giving a DV of 9.
Defence is 24 off giving it a DV of 3.
Speed is 2 off giving it DV of 14.
Special Attack is 6 off giving it a DV of 12.
And Special Defence is 6 off giving it a DV of 12.

Note that the Special DV is combined, and Special Attack and Special Defence will always have the same value.

So you now have Attack, Defence, Speed and Special DVs for your Pokémon, these DVs are essential in working out the base power. Take each DV and if it is 8 or over, it will contribute a 1 to the binary code. If the DV is 7 or under, it will contribute a 0 to the binary code. Put them together as: Attack/Defence/Speed/Special and you will get a 4 digit binary code.

So my Articuno's 9/3/14/12, would turn into 1011

Then when you have the binary, simply check it in this table, to find the value of it, which you will use in the formula.

That gives you the value of X, to use in the formula.

For my Articuno, X = 11

Now all you need to find out is the value of Y, which is no problem. If your Special DV is 3 or over, then Y = 3. If your Special DV is 2, then Y = 2, if it is 1 then Y = 1 and if it is 0, then Y = 0. Simple. 

My Articuno had a Special DV of 12, but with it only allowed to be a max of 3, then Y = 3.

Now we have everything we need to fill in the formula:

Base Power = ((X × 5 + Y) ÷ 2) + 31

First of all take the inside parenthesis (X × 5 + Y)
Substitute in the values of X and Y to get a simple sum. Work out the answer to the sum.
Now go to the second parenthesis, where you divide by 2
Then finally add on 31.

So: 11 x 5 + 3 = 58
58 ÷ 2 = 29
29 + 31 = 60
So my Articuno's Hidden Power would have a base power of 60.

If X and Y were both 0, the formula would basically be: 0 ÷ 2 + 31, which of course is 31. This is the lowest power possible for Hidden Power.
If X was 15, and Y was 3, the formula would basically be: 78 ÷ 2 + 31, which equals 70. This is the maximum base power for Hidden Power.
If you had 8-15 in all DVs, then they'd each contribute a 1 to the binary code for X, giving you 1111, which would make X = 15, and make Y=3.

To get the type, get the Attack and Defence DVs back and put them into binary. Use the last 2 numbers from the Attack DV followed by the last two numbers of the Defence DV, to get another binary number. 

So Articuno had:
Attack = DV 9 = 1001
Defence = DV 3 = 0011
So use 0111

Now you need to put that new binary code, back into a normal number. Use the binary/number table earlier in this document to do this.

So 0111 is 7.

Then once you have a number, use this table to find it's type:

So if I used Hidden Power on my Articuno, it would be Steel type, and have a base power of 60.


Of course, there are many different combinations of DVs for each Hidden Power. Obviously you would want the best DVs possible, but still having the Hidden Power you want. Here is a list of each Hidden Power type, with the best DVs possible (each of these would have a base power of 70), listed in order of Attack/Defence/Speed/Special:

Notice that the Speed and Special DVs are always 15 max, because they don't do anything to determine the type, and with all DVs being over 7 that means the power will be the maximum of 70.