Toxic accuracy bypass glitch

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The Toxic accuracy bypass glitch is a glitch in Generations VI, VII, and VIII that causes any move used by a Poison-type Pokémon to bypass the accuracy check (i.e. to always hit) if it is used after the move Toxic in the same turn. Even though usually a Pokémon only uses one move on each turn, there are several situations that allow a Pokémon to use two moves in the same turn, the first of which being Toxic.

Summary

In X and Y, the move Toxic was changed so that if it was used by a Poison-type Pokémon, it would have No Guard-level accuracy, ignoring evasion and accuracy modifiers and even hitting through moves such as Fly and Dig. This much was deliberately programmed, and was not a glitch.

Where the glitch comes in is that this accuracy behavior was implemented in a way similar to Lock-On, creating a temporary status flag just before accuracy is checked and that lasts for the rest of the turn, rather than in a way similar to how Thunder or Hurricane simply skip over their accuracy checks in rain. Therefore, if a Poison-type Pokémon can somehow use Toxic followed by additional moves on the same turn, those additional moves will also benefit from never-miss accuracy, even in the case of one-hit knockout moves.

When this behavior was originally implemented in Generation VI, there were two ways for a single Pokémon to use Toxic followed by another move on the same turn; two additional ways were added in Generation VII, followed by one more in Generation VIII:

  • If a Poison-type Pokémon acquired the Magic Bounce Ability, and a different, faster Pokémon targeted it with Toxic, the move would be commandeered to the effect of being executed anew by the Magic Bounce user, which would later proceed to use its regular move for the turn. A trivial variation of this is to use Magic Coat as a replacement for Magic Bounce, but since that already accounts for its regular move for the turn, the second move in this case is limited to being another status move targeting into the same slot and again being commandeered.
  • If a Poison-type Pokémon managed to use Future Sight or Doom Desire, then used Toxic two turns later, the Toxic accuracy boost would remain in effect when the future attack hits during end-of-turn effects.
  • If a Poison-type Pokémon used Toxic one turn, then on the next turn it was targeted by a faster Pokémon's Instruct, it would repeat Toxic prior to using its regular move for the turn.
  • If a Poison-type Pokémon acquired the Dancer Ability, it could use Toxic prior to copying a slower Pokémon's dance move.
  • In a Max Raid Battle, a Poison-type boss could simply use multiple moves per turn, one of which was Toxic, as a natural mechanic inherent to raids.

This status flag is not created if the use of Toxic is prevented by Disable, Taunt, or Imprison. Other than those failure cases, it is still created even if Toxic goes on to fail because the target is a Poison- or Steel-type, or if they're already poisoned, or if they're guarded by effects such as Safeguard, Misty Terrain, the Immunity Ability, or a Substitute.

The glitch was patched in version 1.3.1 of Sword and Shield. Toxic still receives the accuracy boost for itself after this patch, but while the new implementation is unclear, it's likely that this is now modeled after the implementation for Thunder, Hurricane, and such, preventing any lingering remnants that persist beyond the move's own execution. Players on a previous version of Sword and Shield can still make use of this, but will not be able to battle online without updating to the current version.

Twitter video

Twitter video by DaWoblefet
Twitter video by Sibuna_Switch (after patch fix)