Because a dodged attack deals 75% less damage, becoming proficient at dodging is an important skill to have on your path to become a Pokemon Master.
A successful dodge requires you to swipe the screen left or right with the proper timing:
- After the screen flashes yellow
- Before Pokemon HP bar turns orange from taking damage
These timings are now available on every Pokemon page:
All moves have a 0.7 second window for dodging between these 2 events. However, the timing of the yellow flash varies between moves, especially for charge moves.
This graphic shows the dodge window for every charge move starting from when the attack is announced:
Aside from the text that announces a charge move, Pokemon have obvious tells for when they are about to use a charge move. Watch for a longer-than-expected break between attack animations. That's often the sign to stop attacking watch for the yellow flash.
Blizzard can be a challenge to dodge because its yellow flash often gets covered up by the attack animation:
Watch for the ice block instead. Time your dodge as your Pokemon is breaking out of the ice block.
Heat Wave can be rather tricky to dodge because the attack animation looks so similar to the yellow flash itself.
The timing of Heat Wave's yellow flash is actually among the latest for charge moves. Be patient: the flash occurs right after the heat wave passes.
On the flip side, Body Slam has one of the earliest yellow flash timings of all charge moves at a mere 0.4 seconds after the start of the attack. When fighting a defender such as Snorlax with access to Body Slam, stay vigilant and chain dodges as soon as the Body Slam announcement (or attack animation timing feels off).
Earthquake's ground animation covers the yellow flash:
So watch for the ground animation, and time your dodge on that instead.
Dragonite's three charge moves have very different yellow flash timings:
This is worth keeping in mind when going up against Dragonite, and pace your attacks accordingly. Against a Dragonite with Hyper Beam, you can easily squeeze in a few extra attacks in during the 3.3 seconds before the yellow flash.
Having trouble with a particular move or Pokemon? Let us know, and we'll be happy to add it to the guide!
