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STAB, explained

baratron

baratron

Moderator of Elder Scrolls
Staff member
Moderator
I had a PM asking me to explain STAB, the Same Type Attack Bonus, as apparently I'm the "only one" who actually knows how much moves get boosted by. I doubt that, but thought I might as well write a proper explanation for anyone else who's wondering.

STAB is a 50% boost to a move's power when the Type of the move is the same as the Type of the Pokemon using the move. Whatever the power was before, it gets multiplied by 1.5 or 150%.

e.g. If the base power of the move was 90 and it's used by a Pokemon of the same Type, it becomes 90 x 1.5 = 135.

All power boosts are cumulative. So, if you have a Fire-type Pokemon using a Fire-type attack while Sunny Day is in play, you get the x 1.5 boost for STAB, which then gets multipled by another 1.5 for the Sunny Day bonus. 1.5 x 1.5 = 2.25, so your move power more than doubles.

e.g. If Charizard uses Flare Blitz, base power 120, while Sunny Day is in force:
the new power of Flare Blitz is 120 x 1.5 x 1.5 = 120 x 2.25 = 270.

Things get really interesting if your Charizard's HP are below 1/3 of the maximum, because then its Blaze ability kicks in, providing yet another 50% boost. So with Charizard + Sunny Day + Blaze:
the new power of Flare Blitz is 120 x 1.5 x 1.5 x 1.5 = 120 x 3.375 = 405!!

Of course, Flare Blitz has recoil damage, so your Charizard with less than 1/3 maximum HP would proceed to launch one ridiculously powerful attack and knock itself out. But it would go down in a Blaze of glory! (sorry ;D).

Pokemon with dual Type get STAB for both Types, which is why it's worthwhile having one move of each of those Types in its moveset. So with, say, Dialga, a Steel/Dragon Pokemon, you want one high power Steel move and one high power Dragon move, plus two other moves of different Types to cover weaknesses.

Any questions?
 
Plapti

Plapti

It plainly depends on what item. The Wise Glasses and Muscle Band increase either Special Attacks or Physical Attacks by that much. Others don't. What item are you thinking of?
 
baratron

baratron

Moderator of Elder Scrolls
Staff member
Moderator
Many held items boost an attack's power by 10%, yes - making the new power 1.1 x the old power. However, the Diamond/Pearl Plates (obtainable in the Underground) offer a 20% boost.

I'm currently trying to find out what the Adamant Orb and Lustrous Orb do to Dialga/Palkia's power. Supposedly, the Adamant Orb boosts Dialga's Steel and Dragon moves, while the Lustrous Orb boosts Palkia's Dragon and Water moves - but by what kind of percentage? I'm wondering if it's like the Soul Dew for Lati@s - although that boosts their Special Attack and Special Defence stats by 50%, rather than move power.
 
Plapti

Plapti

They increase it by 10%. Only to that certain type though. It's npt really worth the boost in power over the long run, but it still is a boost.
 
Z

Zeke_Powerful

I thought that if, say a Macargo used a fire-type attack, the move's power would only get boosted by 1.25, same if it used a rock-type attack, since it has two types.

But I might've thought wrong.

And yay, first post. =D
 
Plapti

Plapti

Nope, Both Types get a 1.5x Bonus. You get Two STABs to work with, but more weaknesses usually.

baratron said:
Pokemon with dual Type get STAB for both Types, which is why it's worthwhile having one move of each of those Types in its moveset. So with, say, Dialga, a Steel/Dragon Pokemon, you want one high power Steel move and one high power Dragon move, plus two other moves of different Types to cover weaknesses.
Click to expand...
 
F

Fire Type

Wow!Thank you so much I had no idea that sunny day or any other weather change things that boost stats could help so much! Now I know how to kill more people.
 
L

lieutenant recks

you seem to have forgotten about the bonus at the recieving end of the attack.
when a pokemon of a certain type (i.e. grass) attacks a pokemon with a STAB attack (i.e. razor leaf), the power is increased, BUT if the reciever of the attack is weak against it(i.e. ground/water) the power is doubled for every type weakness the reciver has against the attack. this means that a grass-type using razor leaf against a ground/water-type would deal 4 times the normal amount of damagenot counting STAB increases.
 
Pheonix

Pheonix

The point of this thread was to explain the concept of STAB, but if you must throw in Super Effective hits, let us show the maths!

baratron said:
STAB is a 50% boost to a move's power when the Type of the move is the same as the Type of the Pokemon using the move. Whatever the power was before, it gets multiplied by 1.5 or 150%.

e.g. If the base power of the move was 90 and it's used by a Pokemon of the same Type, it becomes 90 x 1.5 = 135.

All power boosts are cumulative. So, if you have a Fire-type Pokemon using a Fire-type attack while Sunny Day is in play, you get the x 1.5 boost for STAB, which then gets multipled by another 1.5 for the Sunny Day bonus. 1.5 x 1.5 = 2.25, so your move power more than doubles.

e.g. If Charizard uses Flare Blitz, base power 120, while Sunny Day is in force:
the new power of Flare Blitz is 120 x 1.5 x 1.5 = 120 x 2.25 = 270.
Click to expand...

So, using the example of Charizard using Flare Blitz while Sunny Day is in force, say versus Sceptile (Grass type, just to keep type matching simple to start) we will get the wonderful equation of:
120 (base power for Flare Blitz) x 1.5 ( STAB ) x 1.5 (Sunny Day) x 2 (Super Effective Hit vs Grass) = 540

Now mind you, both the appropriate attack stat and defensive stat play a role in there too, but we are trying to keep it simple, no?

Now, if Charizard were to also use Flare Blitz whilst Sunny Day was in effect versus say a Blastoise (Water), the equation would look like this:
120 (base power for Flare Blitz) x 1.5 ( STAB ) x 1.5 (Sunny Day) x 0.5 (Not Very Effective Hit vs Water) = 135

Now, say if Charizard were to use Flare Blitz whilst Sunny Day was in effect versus say an Abomasnow (Ice/Grass), the equation would look like this:
120 (base power for Flare Blitz) x 1.5 ( STAB ) x 1.5 (Sunny Day) x 2 (Super Effective Hit vs Ice) x 2 (Super Effective Hit vs Grass) = 1080

Now, say if Charizard now used Flare Blitz whilst Sunny Day was in effect versus a Magcargo (Fire/Rock), the equation would look like this:
120 (base power for Flare Blitz) x 1.5 ( STAB ) x 1.5 (Sunny Day) x 0.5 (Not Very Effective Hit vs Fire) x 0.5 (Not Very Effective Hit vs Rock) = 67.5

Now as anyone that plays this game can tell you, go for the Super Effective hits, and if you happen to have STAB, then more power too you! ^^
 
Pheonix

Pheonix

ulises87g said:
If Lucario uses a fighting move, and he is not a fighting type, then he will not get a STAB for that move.
Click to expand...

That right there is a completely preposterous concept considering Lucario is distincly and most definitely part fighting type.

But, in order to cover all bases here that some people might be fearing about, we will cover dual types as well.

Going with the example of Lucario, who is quite clearly both a Fighting and a Steel type, it will get a STAB bonus on both Fighting and Steel type moves. This is why most dual type pokemon have at least some moves of each of their types in their level up movepool. If you look at most of the advice that is given out in the Clinic's threads, you will see this taken into account when building movesets for competitive play.

So, just remember that when you are letting all your pokemon get powerful moves, make sure to remember to stick on moves that take advantage of both its types (if it is a dual type at least :3) so you can get more STAB bonus on your attacks. ^^
 
4

4evr_ninja

what about a pokemons level? would it have anything to do with it, like power boost or anything like that ???
(example; Empoleon[level 66] with attacks, hydro pump, surf, steel wing, and hyper beam)
 
Sem

Sem

The Last of the Snowmen
Former Administrator
STAB stays the same no matter if a pokemon is level one or level one hundred.
 
A

arrowriver

Well this is good to know since my Empoleon on my pearl version has only water moves XD Not to mention that i can use this information to my advantace now.
 
Teapot

Teapot

Virtual Duck Enthusiast
Staff member
Administrator
Yeah, but if your Empoleon ever comes up against, say, a Grass or Electric type, it is absolutely screwed. You don't really want more than one STAB move - two at most - because there's no way you'd get any sort of coverage on anything that you're weak to otherwise.
 
T

The Argonauts

I've been playing the Pokemon games for a decade and I didn't know about STAB until a couple years ago. My fail of the day.

The only type of attack that isn't affect by STAB is the ??? type because no Pokemon is that type (why Arceus has a sprite for the ??? type is pointless other than preventing glitches).
 
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