Bad Omen Analysis

ID: 671 (ABILITY_BAD_OMEN)
Name: Bad Omen
Current Description: "Foes min roll. Takes 1/4 damage from crits."

Extended In-Game Description (280-300 chars)

"Opponents deal minimum damage rolls when attacking, forcing 85% damage instead of 85-100% variance. Critical hits against this Pokemon deal only 25% of their normal damage instead of 150-200%. This ability can be suppressed by Mold Breaker and similar effects."

Character count: 286

Implementation Status

FULLY IMPLEMENTED ✅

Working Mechanics

✅ Critical Hit Damage Reduction:

• When this Pokemon receives a critical hit, damage is multiplied by 0.25 (25% of normal damage)
• Implemented via onDefensiveMultiplier hook with if (isCrit) MUL(.25) in abilities.cc:6952

✅ Minimum Damage Roll:

• "Foes min roll" forces opponents to deal 85% damage instead of 85-100% variance
• Implemented in battle_util.c:7558 - sets damage roll to fixed 15 (minimum) instead of random 0-15

Code Implementation

constexpr Ability BadOmen = {
    .onDefensiveMultiplier =
        +[](ON_DEFENSIVE_MULTIPLIER) {
            if (isCrit) MUL(.25);
        },
    .breakable = TRUE,
};

Technical Details

Critical Hit Mechanics

• Normal critical hits: Deal 150% damage (200% in some games)
• With Bad Omen: Critical hits deal 150% × 0.25 = 37.5% of base damage
• Effective result: Critical hits become weaker than normal attacks

Damage Variance Mechanics (Implemented)

• Normal damage variance: 85-100% of calculated damage (random roll 0-15)
• With Bad Omen: Forces opponents to always deal 85% (fixed roll of 15)
• Implementation: Located in battle_util.c damage calculation function

Suppression

• .breakable = TRUE: Ability can be suppressed by Mold Breaker, Teravolt, Turboblaze
• When suppressed, both critical hit reduction and minimum damage effects should be disabled

User Questions Answered

"What's the Acc drop?"

No accuracy drop exists. Bad Omen doesn't affect accuracy at all. The confusion may stem from the phrase "may miss" in some descriptions, but this ability only affects damage calculations.

"Does it mean you take more damage, or you lose 1/4 HP whenever you get crit?"

You take LESS damage. Specifically:

• Critical hits deal only 25% of their normal damage (75% damage reduction)
• It's not a flat 1/4 HP loss
• It's a multiplicative damage reduction applied to the critical hit

Competitive Analysis

Strengths

• Crit immunity: Effectively makes critical hits deal less damage than normal attacks
• Damage consistency: Forces opponents into minimum damage rolls (85% damage)
• Anti-setup: Reduces effectiveness of high-crit moves and abilities

Weaknesses

• Suppressible: Mold Breaker variants completely negate the ability
• Predictable: Opponents always know they'll deal minimum damage
• Situational: Only helps against specific attack patterns

Strategic Usage

• Tank builds: Excellent for defensive Pokemon that need to survive critical hits
• Stallbreaker counter: Reduces effectiveness of high-crit rate strategies
• Weather teams: Pairs well with defensive weather setters

Development Notes

• Implementation complete: Both mechanics fully functional across abilities.cc and battle_util.c
• Testing verified: Both critical hit reduction and minimum damage roll work correctly
• Documentation: Ability functions exactly as described in game text