Question

Becuase my brothers electivire was reduced to almost half hp upon hurting itself in confusion but my steeleix hardly took any from itself also does recoil have to do with becuase my torterra doesn't take much from wood hammer but I have seen double hurt.

Answer 1

Confusion is a base 40 attack with no typing.

with this formula:

[(((2A/5 + 2)B40)/C)/50] + 2

A = the confusion victim's Level
B = the confusion victim's Attack
C = the confusion victim's Defense

That's why pokemon like steelix with high defense don't take much damage from confusion... sucks for you if you have pokemon like hitmonlee or rampardos.

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This was already answered.

http://pokemondb.net/pokebase/6385/how-does-confusion-work

Comments

What about recoil?

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You use to Calculate recoil, you have to first find damage so:
 Damage = ((((2 * Level / 5 + 2) * AttackStat * AttackPower / DefenseStat) / 50) + 2) * STAB * Weakness/Resistance * RandomNumber / 100

after that, you divide what ever number you get by how much the recoil says. So my damage value comes out to 200, but I get 1/4 damage as recoil, then I take 50 points of damage.