Switching and forced switches
What a switch costs, what it clears, what it walks into, and when you must do it.
In short
- A switch is your action for the turn and resolves before any move.
- Switching out clears stat stages and every volatile effect. A status condition stays.
- Switching in walks into entry hazards and triggers the newcomer's switch-in ability.
- When a Pokemon faints, its replacement comes in free and the turn carries on.
A switch is an action
Choose a party member instead of a move and the swap happens at the start of the turn, before either side attacks. The move the opponent chose lands on whatever is in front of it by then, which is the whole art: predict the Ground move and switch a Flying type into it.
You cannot switch while trapped by Bind, Wrap, Fire Spin, Mean Look, Arena Trap or Shadow Tag, except with a Ghost type, which ignores trapping.
What switching out does
Stat stages go back to zero. Confusion, Leech Seed, Substitute, Taunt, Encore, Focus Energy and every other volatile effect end. Choice lock ends. A burn, a poison or a sleep stays exactly as it was.
Natural Cure heals the status on the way out. Regenerator restores a third of max HP.
Baton Pass is the exception: it hands the user's stat stages and some volatiles to the replacement. Shed Tail passes a Substitute. Healing Wish and Lunar Dance heal whoever comes in.
What switching in walks into
Entry hazards sit on a side of the field until cleared by Rapid Spin or Defog.
| Hazard | On switch-in |
|---|---|
| Stealth Rock | loses 1⁄8 of max HP, scaled by Rock's effectiveness: 1⁄32 for a Steel type, 1⁄2 for a Fire/Flying one |
| Spikes | 1⁄8, 1⁄6 or 1⁄4 of max HP for one, two or three layers; grounded only |
| Toxic Spikes | poisoned, or badly poisoned with two layers; grounded only; a Poison type absorbs them |
| Sticky Web | Speed down one stage; grounded only |
Heavy-Duty Boots ignore all of them. Only Stealth Rock reaches a Pokemon that is not grounded.
Then the newcomer's ability fires if it has one that does: Intimidate, Download, the weather and terrain setters. A seed fires if its terrain is up. A Pokemon switching into a Primal form's weather, or into Neutralizing Gas, is subject to it immediately.
Pivot moves
U-turn, Volt Switch and Flip Turn hit, then the user switches out. Parting Shot, Baton Pass, Shed Tail, Chilly Reception and Teleport switch out after their effect. The replacement is chosen after the move resolves and still arrives before the opponent's move if the pivot went first.
Forced switches
When your Pokemon faints you pick a replacement from the party before the next turn. That switch is free: the opponent does not get a hit on it and your next action is a full one. Whirlwind, Roar, Dragon Tail and Circle Throw force the target's trainer to send out a random replacement.
In a player battle, a forced switch counts as the turn the other player is waiting on, so the 45-second clock is yours until you pick.
In a wild battle
Switching is allowed against a wild Pokemon, and so is running. Running uses the escape formula from the games: your Speed against theirs, with each failed attempt raising the odds. A faster Pokemon almost always gets away on the first try. Trainers, gyms and players cannot be fled; a gym or trainer battle you want out of is a forfeit, and a player battle ends by forfeit or by the clock rules.