What does STAB mean in the Pokémon games? Answered
Get the most from your attacks.
John Hansen 
Image via the Pokémon Company
While Pokémon games are usually easily understood on the surface, there are quite a few terms lying underneath that you might not understand. For the people who want to take the games more seriously, you will need to learn what these words and phrases mean. Here is what you need to learn about the term STAB in Pokémon games.
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What does STAB mean in Pokémon games?
Don’t worry, STAB does not refer to your Pokémon getting a shiv and stabbing their opponents. Instead, it stands for Same-Type Attack Bonus. This is an in-game bonus to the damage your Pokémon deals by using moves that are of the same type as them. For example, a Pikachu using any Electric attack, will deal more damage with that attack than something else like Quick Attack.
Pokémon that use the same kind of attack as their type will usually get an increased 50% damage boost. This is one of the reasons why you might feel your starter Pokémon is particularly strong because they tend to have a lot of moves that have STAB apply to them. Your Charizard using Flamethrower is getting much better use of that type than a Hitmonchan using Fire Punch. They are adept at that type, so they can get more out of it.
STAB will apply to any additional types that your Pokémon has. For example, Charizard gets STAB for both Fire and Flying-type attacks.
Knowing what STAB is might help you choose your move sets in the future for your Pokémon. Sometimes, though, it is nice to have a Pokémon with a variety of move types so they don’t become one trick ponies. Use this information to give yourself the edge in more situations because it does not take into consideration type advantages. If you use a move affected by STAB on an enemy that is susceptible to it, you are going to deal a ton of damage.
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