Showdown Arceus Glitch?

Question

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/balancedhackmons-223964658

In the link above, sometime in that battle, it did not say that e-quake was super effective on Arceus Electric. Then latter, shadow ball had no effect on Ghost Arceus! Plus, When the Slaking used facade, it hit Ghost Arceus! Is this a glitch or not?

Comments

I've had problems with Arceus in balanced hackmons as well..
It's probably something to do with multitype?

Answer 1

It happened because he forgot to put a Plate on Arceus.

When teambuilding you can select Arceus as "Arceus-Electric" or "Arceus-Ghost" etc. without putting on the plate. However, using this in a Balanced Hackmon battle means that Arceus will be counted as a Normal type Pokemon if it doesn't hold the correct plate. That's why your Ghost moves didn't work and your other moves weren't super effective. It wasn't a glitch at all.

Here's a demonstration:
Arceus-Electric with no item
Arceus-Electric holding Zap Plate

Comments

An Arceus type without a plate acts as a mask, which is why Ghost is the better type. Opponents almost never know to still use fighting.

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It only works on Custom and Balanced Hackmons. If you try to select an Arceus without the correct plate and play it in a regular match, it forces you to put the plate on before you can challenge someone. If you try nickname it something, then the actual name of the Pokemon appears in brackets next to the side in text.