Scizor W/ Technician, using Fury Cutter while holding a Metronome?

Question

Thanks to this forum, I know that Fury Cutter increases it's BP based off it's original BP, not any boosts it gets from Technician or STAB...but there is something I'm not sure about.

What is the actual boost provided by Metronome?

I know that Technician gets that first Fury Cutter to approx the same level as X-Scissor, but if I were to land the second hit, how hard would that second one hit in comparison?

Answer 1

There are many factors to unpack here:

1. Fury Cutter's initial base power varying between 10 and 40 depending on which generation you're playing;
2. Fury Cutter's base power doubling on each consecutive use until reaching 160;
3. Technician's 1.5× boost to base power only applying if the power is <= 60;
4. Metronome's boost varying between 1× and 2× depending on the number of consecutive uses;
5. Metronome's boost per turn working differently in Gen 4 compared to Gen 5+;
6. the order in which each of these boosts apply; and
7. the fact that Metronome (and, out of interest, STAB) is not actually a base power modifier.

So we need to be careful with this answer. I'll use DaWoblefet's Damage Dissertation, Smogon's Gen 4 damage formula guide, and Bulbapedia's Metronome and Fury Cutter pages to be as accurate as possible, and break things down by generation.

Since the difference between a BP modifier and a final damage modifier is mostly academic, I'll include calculations with and without Metronome.

DaWoblefet's guide is only up-to-date as of Gen 7, so if there's a similar breakdown available for Gen 8+ then let me know.

Gen 4

Metronome excluded (technically correct)

Turn 1: Fury Cutter (10) × Technician (1.5) = 15 BP
Turn 2: Fury Cutter (20) × Technician (1.5) = 30 BP
Turn 3: Fury Cutter (40) × Technician (1.5) = 60 BP
Turn 4: Fury Cutter (80) × Technician (1) = 80 BP
Turn 5+: Fury Cutter (160) × Technician (1) = 160 BP

Metronome included (what you asked for)

Turn 1: Fury Cutter (10) × Technician (1.5) × Metronome (1) = 15 imaginary BP
Turn 2: Fury Cutter (20) × Technician (1.5) × Metronome (1.1) = 33 imaginary BP
Turn 3: Fury Cutter (40) × Technician (1.5) × Metronome (1.2) = 72 imaginary BP
Turn 4: Fury Cutter (80) × Technician (1) × Metronome (1.3) = 104 imaginary BP
Turn 5: Fury Cutter (160) × Technician (1) × Metronome (1.4) = 224 imaginary BP
Turn 6: Fury Cutter (160) × Technician (1) × Metronome (1.5) = 240 imaginary BP
Turn 7: Fury Cutter (160) × Technician (1) × Metronome (1.6) = 256 imaginary BP
Turn 8: Fury Cutter (160) × Technician (1) × Metronome (1.7) = 272 imaginary BP
Turn 9: Fury Cutter (160) × Technician (1) × Metronome (1.8) = 288 imaginary BP
Turn 10: Fury Cutter (160) × Technician (1) × Metronome (1.9) = 304 imaginary BP
Turn 11+: Fury Cutter (160) × Technician (1) × Metronome (2) = 320 imaginary BP

Gen 5

Metronome excluded (technically correct)

Turn 1: Fury Cutter (20) × Technician (1.5) = 30 BP
Turn 2: Fury Cutter (40) × Technician (1.5) = 60 BP
Turn 3: Fury Cutter (80) × Technician (1) = 80 BP
Turn 4+: Fury Cutter (160) × Technician (1) = 160 BP

Metronome included (what you asked for)

Turn 1: Fury Cutter (20) × Technician (1.5) × Metronome (1) = 30 imaginary BP
Turn 2: Fury Cutter (40) × Technician (1.5) × Metronome (4915/4096) = ~72 imaginary BP
Turn 3: Fury Cutter (80) × Technician (1) × Metronome (5734/4096) = ~128 imaginary BP
Turn 4: Fury Cutter (160) × Technician (1) × Metronome (6553/4096) = ~256 imaginary BP
Turn 5: Fury Cutter (160) × Technician (1) × Metronome (7372/4096) = ~288 imaginary BP
Turn 6+: Fury Cutter (160) × Technician (1) × Metronome (2) = 320 imaginary BP

Gen 6+

Metronome excluded (technically correct)

Turn 1: Fury Cutter (40) × Technician (1.5) = 60 BP
Turn 2: Fury Cutter (80) × Technician (1) = 80 BP
Turn 3+: Fury Cutter (160) × Technician (1) = 160 BP

Metronome included (what you asked for)

Turn 1: Fury Cutter (40) × Technician (1.5) × Metronome (1) = 60 imaginary BP
Turn 2: Fury Cutter (80) × Technician (1) × Metronome (4915/4096) = ~96 imaginary BP
Turn 3: Fury Cutter (160) × Technician (1) × Metronome (5734/4096) = ~224 imaginary BP
Turn 4: Fury Cutter (160) × Technician (1) × Metronome (6553/4096) = ~256 imaginary BP
Turn 5: Fury Cutter (160) × Technician (1) × Metronome (7372/4096) = ~288 imaginary BP
Turn 6+: Fury Cutter (160) × Technician (1) × Metronome (2) = 320 imaginary BP

If you want to include STAB as well, then put a 1.5× boost on everything above (STAB kicks in after Technician and before Metronome in all games).

As you can see, this strategy takes a long time to do respectable damage, offers no immediate firepower, and consumes your item slot. Not viable in competitive.

Answer 2

been long, but the calculation offered by fizz is off by a bit cause they forgot to account for the stab multiplier on scizor using fury cutter, since you asked specifically for this scenario, so it's actually (base power x stab x technician x metronome) and remove technician from the second use.
1st use: 40 x 1.5 x 1.5 x 1.2 = 108
2nd use: 80 x 1.5 x 1.2 = 144
3rd use 160 x 1.5 x 1.2 = 288

Comments

The other answer doesn't forget about STAB, it specifically explains why STAB was excluded from the calculation.
But that answer is still wrong because it misses differences in Gen 4/5, doesn't address the order boosts are applied, and starts Metronome on 1.2× not 1×. Will fix it later if I'm not beaten to it.

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Done, I hid my old incorrect answer and posted a new one. The answer I'm commenting on is wrong because it ignores Gen 4/5 differences, gets the Metronome boosts wrong, and includes STAB in BP calculation.