Special move

A special move (Japanese:  special move) is one of the three categories of moves and one of the two that inflict damage.

In Generation I, special moves cause damage depending on the stats of both the attacking Pokémon and the defending Pokémon. In later generations, special moves typically deal damage depending on the stat of the attacking Pokémon and the  stat of the defending Pokémon. However, a small number of special moves introduced in Generation V actually deal physical damage, with their damage calculation being dependent on the defending Pokémon's instead of its Special Defense stat.

While most special moves do not make contact, some do. For example, makes contact despite being a special move.

Generation I-III
Before Generation IV, a move's damage category was determined by its type. All damaging moves of the following types are special moves:

Shadow moves
The following Shadow moves are special moves:

Generation IV onward
From Generation IV onward, most damaging moves of the preceding types are special moves, except for Dark, which has only three.

Generation V also introduced three moves categorized as special moves but that deal physical damage. That is, they use the user's Special Attack and the target's Defense to calculate damage. These moves are, , and.

In other languages
Categoria danno とくしゅわざ 特殊招式