NPC Trainers' AI (Switching)

[Rick]

Do NPC Trainers have the AI necessary to switch their Pokemon to a more effective one? I know regular Trainers don't, and even if they did, most of them specialise in 1 type, which wouldnt help them much.
But what about those in Battle Frontier/Tower/Sub-way? I've noticed these guys have a much higher AI than others. In fact, they have such a good AI, that when I played Battle Tower for the first time in Gold, I thought they were cheating (they had counters for anything I throwed at them). I've also seen some of them switching in the last count of Perish Song, but other than that, only with those moves that force the user to recall (ex: Volt Switch).

 

[Almonds]

They do switch out, but only those trainers in Battle areas (Battle Frontier, Subway, Maison, Institute, etc...) In Battle Maison, I've seen several trainers switch out their pokemon when they assume their pokemon is going to die on the next turn - like, when they're running low on HP. Also, this is rare, but iirc, they sometimes switch when their pokemon has a type disadvantage. Not sure about this, but I think this happened once or twice.

 

[Norzan]

They switched out a bunch of times against me in the Battle Maison, like switching to a Ghost type when they somehow predicted that i was going to use a Normal type or even double switching in Double Battle, switching to Steelix and Gardevoir to take my Noivern's Dragon Pulse (Gardevoir "took" it) and my Azumarill's Play Rough (Steelix ate it up because of base 200 Defense), i actualy clapped when this happened, i wish the main game AI was this good.

 

[Mantodea]

Sometimes I kind of wish there was some kind of "challenge mode" available at the start of the game where NPC trainers actually have decent AI and more diverse teams (rather than BW2's challenge mode where the only difference is level). In fact, it would be nice to see the games encourage actual team building beyond just "5 pure attackers and an HM slave", especially since a lot of Pokemon's critics complain about how the game ultimately boils down to a long game of rock-paper-scissors.

 

[GhostFingers]

Some regular NPCs in the past have switched after i used Yawn.

 

[Shiny Porygon]

The AI is poorly understood - I believe Smogon has a list of AI tendencies for Gen 5 Battle Subway though. From my own experience in Gen 6's Battle Maison Super Singles, I can say that they do switch in very few circumstances, namely:
1) Their Pokémon have moves that normally would damage but the player's Pokémon is immune. This is regardless if PP is used up - it will not switch even if it has no PP for the only effective move.
2) Final turn of Perish Song, as mentioned.

Some Maison, Subway, etc. Pokémon have no damaging attacks but will stay in - it's only if they have a possibly damaging move that the player's Pokémon is immune to.

I think older gens may be different - I'm almost certain in HGSS Battle Factory a Pokémon switched out after a SE move was landed against it.

I should probably have battle videos for these but I have none at the minute unfortunately.

 

[aliveatnight]

All I know is that those trainers at the Maison/Institute are much better than the others. Those trainers seem almost too good, to the point of being unfair.

 

[Karpi]

Go back to Ruby/Sapphire and take a Shedinja into the Battle Tower. You'll see that pokemon that can't hurt it do in fact switch out. That was the only time I was ever able to force it back then though.

 

[毘沙門天]

I've noticed in X and Y that trainers with decent AI (Elite Four, Battle Maison trainers) tend to switch out in response to me using Perish Song. In every case so far, they've waited until the last possible turn to do so, too.

 

[Osprey]

I've noticed in X and Y that trainers with decent AI (Elite Four, Battle Maison trainers) tend to switch out in response to me using Perish Song. In every case so far, they've waited until the last possible turn to do so, too.

Yeah, Perish Song AI has always been like that. In a way, it's only effective to use when your opponent is on their very last Pokemon...

I've also seen the rare case where they switch out a Pokemon because its moveset wouldn't put a scratch in my Pokemon. For example, a person with a Haunter than only knew Ghost type moves would be swap it out if it was against a Normal type. Of course, this almost never happens thanks to the AI's usually diverse movesets.

 

[Team Gaara]

Yeah, Perish Song doesn't seem to be limited to just Battle Tower esque places, as I've tried it on regular trainers, and they do switch on the last turn if they can. It seems the AI is only good with switching when it absolutely must, though, or is getting a moment of sheer brilliance with predicting moves. I certainly remember experiencing this in a few times in Emerald, a couple of times in DP, and a time or two in X and Y. Can't really say anything for Gen 5.

That said, it is true that the Battle Facilities will always be much better in this aspect. The Battle Maison can be torturous with just how good they can be.

 

[Battaman]

Go back to Ruby/Sapphire and take a Shedinja into the Battle Tower. You'll see that pokemon that can't hurt it do in fact switch out. That was the only time I was ever able to force it back then though.

This happens against regular trainers as well, at least in RS, never tried in any other games.