Redirection: Deciding Where the Enemy's Hit Actually Lands

BASIC — Hook: the in-battle decision this sharpens

You want Gastrodon to boost this turn, but both of their Pokémon are alive and can focus it down on the spot. Whether you press that boost button comes down to one question: where will the enemy's hit land, and can I change that.

That's redirection. It doesn't win by dealing damage — it reassigns where the opponent's damage lands, sliding a hit that was aimed at your core onto a slot that doesn't care. Read the landing spot right and your core works safely. Read it wrong and your core dies before it does its one job.

BASIC — Core: the minimum model — redirection only moves single-target hits

One rule and you can use this immediately: redirection tools rewrite where single-target moves land. They cannot touch spread moves.

• Single-target: picks one target (Earthquake is the exception, see below). These can be drawn, absorbed, swapped.
• Spread: hits both of your Pokémon at once (damage is ×0.75 in doubles) — Rock Slide, Heat Wave, Dazzling Gleam. These ignore all redirection, because they were already hitting both slots.

So redirection's whole job is to take their "pick one of my two" attack and force it to land only on the slot that's there to eat it.

INTERMEDIATE — Worked → Faded: computing one turn end to end

The position (all Lv 50, Stat Points system, IVs locked 31): You have Amoonguss + Garchomp. They have Incineroar + Flutter Mane. You want Garchomp to use Swords Dance this turn and sweep next turn.

Compute the landing spots:

1. Their Flutter Mane is extremely fast and moves first. Its biggest threat to Garchomp is a single-target Moonblast — a single-target move.
2. Your Amoonguss clicks Rage Powder. That pulls every single-target move onto itself this turn.
3. Result: Moonblast is forced onto Amoonguss (bulky, resists it at half), and Garchomp safely lands Swords Dance.
4. But don't forget the second mon: Incineroar almost certainly opens Fake Out (+3 priority, near-guaranteed flinch). Who does it flinch? If you bet it flinches Amoonguss — killing your Rage Powder — then you should NOT leave Garchomp boosting naked. This step is the redirection-vs-priority mind game.

Your turn (faded — finish it): Now they bring Rillaboom + Flutter Mane. You still want Amoonguss's Rage Powder to cover the Garchomp boost. Ask yourself three things: (1) Does Moonblast still get drawn? (2) Does Rillaboom's Wood Hammer get drawn? (3) How does the Grass-immunity-to-Rage-Powder rule burn you this game? Answer all three and you'll know whether to boost naked this turn.

INTERMEDIATE — When/Decision: when to press the redirection button

Read it as if-X-then-Y:

• If your core's plan this turn is "stand still and do one thing" (boost, big attack, heal, set a field) — then reach for redirection to buy that free window.
• If their offense is mostly single-target — then redirection is at maximum value; just suck it up.
• If their damage comes from spread (Heat Wave, Rock Slide) — then redirection does basically nothing; use Protect or switch instead.
• If there's exactly one live threat that hasn't moved — then Fake Out flinches it and you play that turn 1.5-on-2.
• If you read them committing everything onto one of your Pokémon — then consider Ally Switch so that hit whiffs or lands on the slot that resists it.

INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED — Exceptions: where the simple rule breaks

• Rage Powder has an immunity list. Rage Powder does nothing to Grass-types, holders of Safety Goggles, or Pokémon with Overcoat. Facing Rillaboom? Its Wood Hammer ignores your powder and hits Garchomp anyway. That's when you want Follow Me instead — no immunities (but fewer mons learn it).
• Earthquake breaks the single-target rule. In doubles it hits all adjacent Pokémon, including your own ally. It is NOT a single-target move; redirection can't fully catch it — and your own Earthquake quakes your partner too, so factor that when picking moves.
• Priority cuts ahead of redirection ordering. Fake Out (+3) moves before your redirector. If the flinch lands on the mon that was supposed to soak hits, your redirection is dead that turn.
• Redirect abilities are also single-target only. Lightning Rod / Storm Drain pull single-target Electric/Water moves aimed at your side onto the holder and grant +1 Sp. Atk — but spread Electric/Water still hits both.
• Two redirectors conflict. Both slots redirecting at once (e.g. double Rage Powder) muddies the resolution; don't stack them the same turn.

INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED — Mistake-Autopsy: the classic beginner error

The mistake: "I have Rage Powder / Protect, so my core is always safe," and then mashing the protection button every turn while the core boosts forever.

Why it blows up: redirection and Protect are both predictable. Protect twice in a row on the same mon and the third-turn success rate craters; spam redirection and the opponent simply switches to a spread move, or flinches/KOs your redirector first — and your core is suddenly naked.

The fix: treat redirection/Protect as one-shot resources that alternate with real damage or switches. Before every press, ask: "How does the opponent break this protection THIS turn?" — predict their counter one step ahead instead of using the protect button as a security blanket.

INTERMEDIATE — Predict-then-Reveal: a mid-lesson retrieval check

Scenario: Your Indeedee clicks Follow Me to cover Garchomp's boost. Their Flutter Mane clicks single-target Moonblast at Garchomp, and their Glimmora clicks spread Rock Slide. Question: how many hits does Garchomp actually take this turn?

(Decide before reading on.)

Reveal: One and a half. Moonblast is single-target → drawn onto Indeedee, so Garchomp eats nothing from it. But Rock Slide is spread → ignores redirection, so Garchomp still takes it (×0.75 in doubles). Redirection only blocked the single-target half — which is exactly why you can't treat it as a universal shield.

ADVANCED — Now-Do-This: deliberate practice on your own team

Open the Dex () and audit your current team in four steps:

1. Count your redirection sources. Search Follow Me, Fake Out, Rage Powder, and check whether anything on your team has Lightning Rod / Storm Drain. You need at least one source, or the opponent freely focuses your core every turn.
2. Name your core. Which mon needs to "stand still and do a thing"? What single-target type of attack scares it most?
3. Match the landing spot. Give that core a partner that absorbs that exact category of single-target hit (weak to Water → pair Storm Drain Gastrodon; weak to Electric → a Lightning Rod holder).
4. Stress-test the spread hole. List the common spread moves (Rock Slide, Heat Wave, Dazzling Gleam) and confirm that while your core is redirection-protected, those spread moves can't take it out from the side — if they can, the core needs the bulk to survive or a Protect backup.

Finish those four steps and your team goes from "opponent hits my core whenever they feel like it" to "I decide where the enemy's hit lands."