Do moves that have no effect always hit?

Apr. 16, 2021

In Showdown, I know that if you were to use Sheer Cold on an ice type, it hits but has no effect. I want to know if this happens in-game and other instances.

Pleaselog inorregisterto add a comment.

I did 3 examples for this in Ultra Sun:

Example 1: Sheer Cold Lapras vs Alolan Vulpix:I used up all of Sheer Cold’s PP and the only message I got when I used Sheer Cold was “it doesn’t effect the wild Vulpix…”. I never got the message “the wild Vulpix avoided the attack!“Example 2: Fissure Hippowdon vs Oricorio: Same results.I only got the message “it doesn’t effect the wild Oricorio…”. I never got the message “the wild Oricorio avoided the attack!“Example 3: Toxic Vaporeon vs Ekans:I wanted to see if this happens with moves with a little higher accuracy. (Probably not the best example) Same results as examples 1 and 2. I only got the message “it doesn’t effect the wild Ekans…”. I never got the message “the wild Ekans avoided the attack!”

Therefore, moves that don’t have effect will always hit.

Source: Experience

Hope this helps.