Simple Damage Factor (SDF) and STAB

This Guide explains STAB and a veriety of other things to do with attacks!

Each Pokémon move is one of the 17 Pokémon types (except for Curse, which has a mechanic of its own). The effectiveness of a move is dependent on how susceptible the target Pokémon's type is to the move's type. Common phrases associated with this aspect are "Super effective" (damage is at least doubled), "Not very effective" (damage is at least halved), and "No effect." In cases where a move type is the same as the user's type, the total damage inflicted is increased by 50 percent. This is commonly called Same Type Attack Bonus (STAB) when used in jargon describing strategies. In the first three generations of games, the move's type also affects which stats are used to calculate damage, but starting in Diamond and Pearl, each damaging move is individually classified as Physical or Special.