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In Legends Arecus, there is a new mechanic where you can apply Agile Style or Strong Style after mastering a particular move. Per the in-game description, Agile Style increases attack speed but lowers the moves power and effects. Strong Style decreases attack speed but increases the moves power and effects.

One of my party members recently mastered Hypnosis, which makes the opponent drowsy and occasionally prevents attacking. How does applying either Agile Style or Strong Style actually work with status moves? The only visible change was that the moves accuracy increased after applying Strong Style, but how does this affect the opponent? Does the duration and/or potency increase or decrease depending on the style?

Wondercricket
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2 Answers2

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According to Serebii:

  • Agile Style raises the Pokémon's speed which makes it move sooner but lose power.
  • Strong Style lowers your action speed but increases the power and effects such as HP recovery and chance of secondary effect.

Style will usually affect Status moves duration, for example Acid Armor:

Standard: 5 Turns
Agile: 4 Turns
Strong: 7 Turns

In other cases their power, like Roost:

Heals the user by up to 50% of their maximum HP (70% if Strong)

Or even their accuracy, like Poison powder:

Standard: 80 Strong: 100

(Needs more investigation)

Other sources states that status moves are affected in other ways:

Agile status moves have lowered effects.
This tradeoff comes with the added benefit of a quicker Action Speed, which will usually result in allowing you to have two turns in a row.

Strong status moves have increased effects.
This power comes with the trade-off of lowering your Action Speed, which will usually result in allowing the opponent to have two turns before you get to go again.

Some examples:

  • Strong style: a move such as Howl raises your offensive stats by one stage, it would additionally increase your offensive stats by an extra stage. If you want to use Poison Powder the effect of the poisoning is increased, which means your opponent takes more residual damage from the poison than usual.

  • Agile Style: the effect of your status move will be decreased: Howl will decrease the amount by which your offensive stats increase, Poison Powder will deal less residual damage than usual, and so on.

pinckerman
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    Also, another thing to point out is that when toggling between the normal, agile, and strong styles, the displayed power and accuracy are affected (looking at the move info). From what I've seen, agile decreases power while strong increases power, and increases accuracy. The deltas in power usually around 15-20. – Jeff Mercado Feb 04 '22 at 18:41
  • I'm not sure I disagree with you, but neither of your sources talk about status moves (and neither is a particularly good source, both being mostly content regurgitators). My default thought here though was that it increased/decreased the length of the status condition, since all status conditions or buffs/debuffs in PL:A have a time component to them. – Joe Feb 04 '22 at 19:24
  • Further, checking Poison Powder, I don't see evidence that it has a different amount of damage over time; it looks like it may be mostly just an Accuracy difference. It would be somewhat unusual for the long-term poison to be affected by the move itself (there are two different levels of poison, poisoned and badly poisoned, but that's different - and I don't see evidence of badly poisoned coming from strong moves). – Joe Feb 04 '22 at 19:36
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    @Joe ok, those information I first linked look incorrect (as you suggested), I'll try to find reliable sources to support those statements or I will remove the bottom part. Serebii is slowly updating its AttackDex. – pinckerman Feb 04 '22 at 20:02
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The specific effects depend on the move, but often the biggest change is the duration of the status condition.

Best thing to do is to look at Serebii's AttackDex; be aware this is not fully updated, but it is likely the best source for the information available. For some examples:

  • Dark Void's stat reduction lasts for 3 turns (standards), 2 turns (Agile Style), 4 turns (Strong Style), while also having a buffed accuracy in Strong Style (100 vs 90) according to the AttackDex. (Not sure if Agile Style reduces accuracy; wouldn't surprise me.)
  • Baby Doll Eyes's stat reduction lasts for 5 turns (Standard), 7 turns (Strong), 4 turns (Agile)
Joe
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