Hypothetically, what would happen if a Pokemon had 0 in a base stat?

Question

On the Damage Calculator, whenever you backspace the base stats of a Pokemon, the lowest it goes is 1. What would happen if a Pokemon had 0 in a base stat?

Answer 1

Say I have a hypothetical Squirtle with 0 base HP.

-His minimum HP at Lv. 100 would be ZERO.
-His maximum HP at Lv. 100 would be ZERO.
-Giving him 252 HP EVs would mean his HP would be ZERO.
- He would always be knocked out. Even Nurse Joy couldn't help him.

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Seriously, though. Stats work by multiplication. One of the most basic laws of mathematics is that if you multiply something by zero, the answer is zero. Like this formula:

(x)(0)=0

Why? because zero is not a number. It is a place holder. This means that it cannot be multiplied by anything, therefore not increasing in size or quantity, because it does not exist.

So sorry, but if you had a Pokémon with a base Attack of zero then it would always be zero.

Comments

As suspected. Thanks!

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No problem.

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But EVs are additive, so wouldn't giving it EVs bring the stat up?

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They still need a base to add on to. And having Base 0 HP would mean that there's nowhere to start.

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Screw you, I'm posting my own answer.

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Gee, what'd I do?

Answer 2

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that Grime Time's answer is incorrect. Theses are the formulas for calculating Pokemon stats:
a is base stat (for a particular species or form)
b is level
c is IVs
d is EVs
f is nature (x1.1 for beneficial, x0.9 for hindering)
HP: b(2a+c+d/4)/100+10 except for Shedinja, whose HP is always 1.
Other stats: f(b(2a+c+d/4)/100+5)
A Pokemon with a base HP of 0, at level 1, with 0 IVs and 0 EVs would have 10 HP, according to the formula.
source
PS. 0 is a number; it's simply imaginary. (note that by some definitions 0 is both real and imaginary)
PPS. PS stands for Play Station.

Comments

What does pps stand for?

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A unicorn is an animal; it's simply imaginary.

I'm sorry, I had to. In all seriousness, zero is a placeholder. Not a number. It literally is defined as "naught" in the Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus. Naught means "nothing". Zero is not a number. If it were a number, you should be able to divide by it. Perhaps you're aquinted with the formula [x ÷ 0 = i]? "i" in mathematics stands for a number that does not exist.

Let's stop bickering. I'm willing to put this behind us if you are :)

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PPS = power point slide.
(kidding)
And zero is a full fledged integer, it's hardly imaginary.

PPPS: The stat formula makes exceptions as well. For example Shedinja's HP would never rise from 1.

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I never said zero was imaginary, I said the product of x ÷ 0 is imaginary.  Ik that zero is an integer, but it behaves completely different than the rest of them (kind of like one). I'm waaaay too tired to get in a math debate, and besides it's summer ;D

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I was talking to sumwun (xD) Astro... He's the one who's written imaginary >.>

Besides, I won't go downvoting this answer yet. Even if he's presented it in a kind of rude manner, it is still a completely valid hypothesis.

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Oops XD At least you didn't say that unicorns were imaginary.

PPPPS I was not the downvoter.

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School starts in 2 days for me; I have to warm up.
PPPPPS. have you noticed that the votes on this site are counted with integers? If you don't like math, don't vote on posts.

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Who said I didn't like math? I love math! Well, I tolerate it. Science is better <3

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Have you not considered that it's not even 0 that matter to this answer? HP will always be *at least* 10, because 10 is added on to the result of the "main" formula. Even if the main formula was equal to 0, 10 will always be added on to it. A similar rule applies for other stats; 5 is added on after the bulk of the calculations, and is also multiplied by whatever number the Pokemon's nature gives. Since the lowest number a nature can produce is 0.9, the lowest number a stat other than HP can be is 4.5, which the game rounds to 4 iirc.

tl;dr: with 0 as a base stat, HP = 10 and other stats = 4 or 5 depending on the Pokemon's nature.

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It's without a doubt a very legal hypothesis. However, neither answers are wrong since they are both theories and have their own set of exceptions.
- Astro's theory is contradicted by sumwun's
- sumwun's theory can also be wrong, as on some pokemon like Shedinja these formulas do not apply

TL;DR: Arguing over this is pointless, we would never arrive at conclusions. Both answers are correct and wrong.

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True...but thanks for up-voting.

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So the conclusion I've come to after reading both answers is that neither is correct; there will be no BA on this question, if that's alright.

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Fine by me ;)