Question

Is "Crunch" a physical or special attack in Gen. 3 (FR/LG/R/S/E)?

Answer 1

As all Dark moves in Gen 1 - 3 were special, Crunch would be a special move.

Comments

All Dark moves? Wow, I didn't know that. Hey, thanks. I do think Pokémon Database should make the descriptions (changes) clearer for the moves "Bite" and "Crunch".

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That would make sense

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This is because there weren't physical or special moves before gen 4, there were physical and special types. So all dark moves were special, all fighting moves were physical, etc.

So changing every move's description to tell you what it's type was like before gen 4 would be unnecessary.

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The Noby, that's fascinating. Is there a chart that shows the complete list (of move types being physical or special prior to Gen. 4)?

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Normal: Physical
Fire: Special
Water: Special
Ice: Special
Grass: Special
Poison: Physical
Rock: Physical
Ground: Physical
Psychic: Special
Fighting: Physical
Electric: Special
Bug: Physical
Dark: Special
Ghost: Physical
Steel: Physical
Dragon: Special
Flying: Physical

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Ghost is physical? Why would they do that? Lol

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This is where all the typeist stereotypes come from, like 'all rock type pokemon are physical'.

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I think Ghost is actually Special. Look at the FireRed/LeafGreen description of Shadow Ball:
"A shadowy blob is hurled at the foe. May also lower the foe’s SP. DEF." Why would it lower "Special Defense" if it were Physical?

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It is a physical move, I just tested it on LeafGreen. Idk why it lowers the special defense stat though...

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Shiny Hunter Luna: out of curiosity, how can you tell from playing that it's physical? What was the indicating factor?

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Just did more research and came across this Q/A:
http://pokemondb.net/pokebase/215088/were-physical-special-type-fixes-made-prior-certain-pokemon
So the designers didn't do Gengar any favors. Shame...

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I used shadow ball on a Pokémon with high defense, a Graveler, and it didn't do much damage, so I assume it is physical.

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And since Graveler has terrible special defense, the Shadow Ball would've destroyed him if it were a special attack. "Sigh". At least they fixed the problem in Gen. 4.

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Shiny Hunter Luna there are lots of factors that go into damage. I'd take the game code over your half logic, no offence.

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A good way to remember of a type is physical/special in Gen 3 and prior:

All Eeveelution types + Dragon are special, the rest are physical.

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Oh well I tried lol

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Ghost was probably physical because the only ghost move in gen 1 was Lick, which would be physical.

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Night Shade was also a Ghost move.

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The damage of Night Shade is equal to the user's level. So at level 100 the Pokémon will inflict 100 HP damage.