A battle almost never starts from zero
The stat table describes a Pokémon that's just come onto the field. That situation lasts one turn. Then someone uses Swords Dance and doubles their Attack, someone switches in with the Ability Intimidate and immediately lowers the opponent's Attack, and Screech cuts Defense by two stages at once. From that point on, the numbers in the table no longer answer the question "how much will this take off right now?"
These changes are called stat stages, and they have their own scale, from −6 to +6. This article explains what each stage is really worth and what happens to them on a critical hit, because that's where the rule that decides battles lives.
The scale has twelve stages and hard limits
One stage up isn't "a little more." The first stage immediately gives you half again as much, and the second doubles it:
- +1: stat ×1.5
- +2: ×2, which is what one use of Swords Dance gives you
- +4: ×3
- +6: ×4, and the end of the scale
Going down works symmetrically; the numbers just look less round because they're the inverses of those: −1 is ×0.67, −2 is half, −6 is a quarter.
The limits are hard, and that's the first thing that can cost you a turn: once you've reached +6, another Swords Dance does nothing at all. The move goes off, the turn is wasted, and the stat stays where it was.
Raise your Attack or lower their Defense?
For damage, it comes out exactly the same. Raising your own Attack by one stage multiplies the result by 1.5; lowering the opponent's Defense by one stage divides it by that same 1.5, which also raises the damage by half. The formula doesn't tell the two routes apart.
The battle itself does, though: a boost sits on your Pokémon, a drop sits on theirs. When the opponent switches out the weakened Pokémon, the drop leaves with it, while your boost stays on the field. With equal numbers, boosting yourself is therefore more reliable than weakening someone who can simply walk away.
Why the game has critical hits
A critical hit isn't just a stronger blow. It's an emergency exit from a position your opponent has managed to fortify. You only see this when you put it next to stat stages: a critical hit ignores only what works against the attacker and keeps everything that works in its favor.
Four situations, one rule:
- Your raised Attack after Swords Dance: it counts; the crit doesn't cancel it.
- Your lowered Attack after Intimidate: it's gone; the crit is calculated as if the drop never happened.
- Their raised Defense after Iron Defense: it's gone. That's the fortification the crit bypasses.
- Their lowered Defense after Screech: it counts, because it works in your favor.
When both sides are at zero, the rule doesn't show itself at all, and a crit is just a regular multiplier. That's why it's easy to forget about it right when it starts to matter.
What it looks like in numbers
A Machop hits a Charizard with Mega Kick at level 50. With no changes, it takes off 47–55 HP, and on a critical hit 71–83. Now Charizard starts digging in:
- +2 Defense: a regular hit drops to 24–28, but a crit still takes off 71–83.
- +4 Defense: a regular hit is now only 16–19. A crit: still 71–83.
The crit number didn't budge, even though regular damage dropped to a third. The deeper the opponent digs in, the bigger the gap: at +4, a critical hit takes off more than four times as much as a regular hit, not one and a half times.
The rule works just as consistently the other way around. If it's Machop whose Attack was lowered by one stage, a regular hit drops from 47–55 to 31–37, while a crit goes back to 71–83, the value from before the drop. Your own boost, on the other hand, a crit does respect: at +2 Attack, a regular hit is 93–109 and a critical one 139–164.
The same idea governs screens
Reflect, Light Screen, and Aurora Veil cut damage in half, and a critical hit goes through them just as it goes through raised Defense. These aren't two separate bits of trivia but one rule in two outfits: to the game, a screen and high Defense are the same kind of fortification, and a critical hit skips it. They're covered in more detail in the article on weather, terrain, and status.
What a critical hit doesn't ignore
Burns. A burn halves physical attacks and still counts as normal on a critical hit, because it isn't the opponent's fortification but an ailment of the attacker itself. There's nothing to break through here: a crit gets you out of the other side's defenses, not out of your own trouble.
Where to check it
The damage calculator has fields for stages on both sides and shows two ranges at once: regular and critical. Give the opponent +4 Defense and compare the two numbers, and you'll see the same difference shown in the list above.