Pokemon-go – What does “attack drop” mean for a Charged Attack in Trainer Battles

pokemon-go

I assume that for Pokemon Go Battle League the "Trainer Battles" details for a Pokemon are what matters. So I was looking at the card for a Charizard and under the "Trainer Battles" for its Overheat attack it has an "ATTACK DROP" note (see image below). What does "ATTACK DROP" mean? When and why does it appear or apply?

Other notes I have seen:

  • DEFENSE DROP
  • OPPONENT DEFENSE DROP
  • OPPONENT DEFENSE DROP CHANCE
  • ATTACK BOOST

Best Answer

In Trainer Battles, your attack and defense stats are scaled by a BuffMultiplier, whose value starts at 1. Certain charge moves may have a side effect of boosting or dropping those stats in stages. The range of values is [1/2, 4/7, 2/3, 4/5, 1, 5/4, 3/2, 7/4, 2].

The notes under certain charge moves have four parts - two required and two optional - to describe the move's side effect.

<opponent> [attack|defense] [boost|drop] <chance>

If chance appears, the move has a certain probability for that side effect to occur. The range of possible probabilities is [1/10, 1/8, 1/5, 3/10, 1/2]. Technically, all side effects have a probability, where the lack of chance means a probability of 1.