How did this happen ???

Question

i was at big stadium battling
my darmanitan(fire/zen mode) v wootwoot(flying)

i first use flamethrower and wootwoot got burned

then it used extrasensory and roost

afterwards I used earthquake on it(dont ask why) and it had no effect-no suprises there

darmanitan got his HP in half and triggered its zen mode(still no suprise)

the second time I used earthquake it did damage!

i used it 3-4 times and did fair amount of damage

on my next turn it said it had no effect after that it did damage again I did this until all PP of earthquake was done( btw wootwoot still kept using roost)
i finally finished it with fire fang

how did this happen I thought ground moves have no effect on flying types

Answer 1

When Darmanitan goes into Zen-Mode, its speed drops. You're now slower than Hoothoot, and when a Flying type Pokemon uses Roost, it loses its Flying-type, which means on the same turn it uses Roost, it'll be susceptible to ground attacks.

So that's probably why Earthquake hit Hoothoot.

Earthquake didn't affect Hoothoot before because Darmanitan went first, and Hoothoot used Roost afterwards.

Comments

Hoothoot lol

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Oh sorry; I saw *woo* and I thought Swoobat. T__T

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lol, I thought the_one meant Swoobat also, but I wasnt completely sure, so I just left it as WootWoot. xD

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yh i meant hoothoot not wootwoot

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Chill out people XD

Answer 2

That's because roost cancels out all flying resistances, weaknesses and immunities.

So it essentially became vulnerable to ground moves. In your case Earthquake.

Comments

Well I'd say all of these answers are good +1 to all :)

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+1 to make it all even :)

Answer 3

For the turn Roost is used, the Pokemon that used it looses it's Flying type if it has it. Earthquake effects Normal types (Hoothoot has a dual Normal type) so Hoothoot would have been damaged, since for that turn Hoothoot lost it's Flying type and became a pure Normal type.

The Pokemon will regain Flying type at the end of the turn.

Comments

Well, Roost can only be learned (legitimately) by Flying-type Pokémon, so "if it has it" is a bit redundant, don't you think?

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No. Some Pokemon (e.g. Volcarona, Scizor, Dunsparce, etc.) can learn Roost and they are not Flying types.

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Oh. Thanx.

Answer 4

The reason why Earthquake suddenly affected WootWoot (a flying type) is because it used Roost. Roost causes a flying type Pokemon to lose its flying type part of it. Therefore, wootwoot became a single type, its other part of its dual typing.

The greatest disadvantage of the Ground type is that it does not affect the very common Flying-type Pokémon at all (unless the Flying type uses Roost)

ground type Pokemon, offense