Does foul play use a Pokemon's base stat?

Question

For example if my umbreon uses foul play on a mew, and they're both the same level, that benefits me since mew has a higher base attack stat. But what if I was fighting a level 5 mew or something and I have a level 100 umbreon.

In other words, does foul play simply recalculate my Pokémon's attack stats using the opponent's base stats?

Or does it simply just use whatever the opponent's current stats are.

Cause the latter only seems useful if I was fighting Pokémon the same level or above.

Comments

It uses the current stats, since it also takes stat increases into account when applying damage (which affect current stats rather than base stats), but I dont have source for this. Could just do a Showdown replay comparing damage if no one finds an actual source

Answer 1

No battle mechanic ever directly uses a Pokemon species's base stat. For example, this is the damage formula.
((2*level/5+2)*power*attack)/(50*defense)+2
In this formula, "attack" and "defense" represent the individual Pokemon's stats, after taking into account stuff like level, IVs, EVs, and natures as well as the species's base stats.
source
Foul play uses the same formula, except it uses the target's physical attack instead of the user's. It doesn't directly look at base stats. However, it does use the user's level in the damage calculation, so it will still do a lot of damage to a low-level target.
Also, I want to make sure you know that foul play damage is affected by the user's burns, abilities, and items, but affected by the target's stat modifiers from stuff like swords dance and intimidate.
source

Comments

So using foul play on pokemon that are lower leveled than me still benefits me right?
What about in an exact opposite situation.
Like if I'm a level 30 Zoroark (105 base attack) using foul play on a level 100 alakazam.
would that be good for me?
cause a level 100 alakazam would still have a higher attack stat than me despite having only a base atk of 45.

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It would do very little damage because the Zoroark's level is very low.

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In other words, it is kinda like a recalculation of stats. Not just directly copying the opponent's stats.

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It does directly copy the opponent's stats, just not the opponent's level.

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oh ok. So the damage fomula still uses the user's level when calculating. but the opponent's current attack stats.

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Yes. (12 characters)

Answer 2

It will be like using your opponents attack againts themselves. But if the Pokemon has low attacks, then it will result in a low damage.

Comments

Don't answer unless your answer adds information not already added by other answers.