PokéSurvivor physical vs special attacks: stats, buffs and builds

Choose support for the move, not its appearance

Read each move’s category before spending a Bond on support. A fused group can contain both categories: a physical buff then helps only its physical damage moves. A support in an inactive separate slot is not a permanently active bonus.

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• How to make one active fused group

Three Pokémon, different legal choices

The original Discord discussion on October 20 favored special builds, especially Gengar with Sludge and Shadow Ball. Treat that as a community recommendation, not a measured win-rate table. In Spanish, Residuos here is the Sludge move, not the Leftovers item.

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• Gengar: legal moves and staged build
• Garchomp: Dragon and Ground learn pool
• Mewtwo: build the beam route

A controlled Gengar damage comparison

Set level 1, no evolution, no cards, permanent upgrades or item, neutral type, no weather, target defenses 75 and no critical hit. One Shadow Ball hit uses 19 × 1.42 = 26.98, displayed as 27. One Lick hit uses 14 × 1.06 = 14.84, displayed as 15. These are per-hit figures; different cooldowns, reach and enemy coverage prevent reading them as a full DPS ranking.

With five active level-1 Nasty Plot stacks at 0.13 each, Shadow Ball becomes 26.98 × (1 + 5 × 0.13) = 44.517, displayed as 45. Five physical stacks leave that Shadow Ball unchanged. Conversely, five level-1 Swords Dance stacks raise Lick to 14.84 × 1.65 = 24.486, displayed as 24. Enter actual live stacks; merely learning the support does not grant full stacks.

Decide with the target and the current run

1. Pick a legal move for the owned Pokémon; check its actual category and required evolution card.
2. Hold level, cards, item, target types, defenses, weather and landed hits constant; change one route at a time. A target with lower Defense can favor physical attacks despite a stronger special base multiplier.
3. Add only the matching support and available Bonds. If it never appears, improve the active damage move instead of planning as if the missing buff were already running.
4. Check survival and position as well as output. Physical does not mean melee, and special does not mean ranged. The active-melee damage reduction follows move behavior, not attack category.

• Build a legal group with actual buff stacks
• Compare damage under identical target conditions
• Understand the matching target defense

Version and source context

These rules describe the original game at pokesurvivor.com in the linked October 20 source revision. The independently hosted community edition has its own release; do not assume that the same fixes or timings are installed there.

Tools

Related pages

• Plan a legal build: one active slot, one item
• PokéSurvivor defense stats: why Gardevoir shows −14%
• Melee vs ranged: control space, not only damage
• Gengar Build in PokéSurvivor: Moves, Evolutions & Stats
• Garchomp: build and upgrade choices