As you are playing various Pokémon games, there’s a chance that you come across a move that you don’t really know what it does. This could happen with the moves Foresight, Odor Sleuth, and Identify. When used, it will say that the user has “identified” the opponent. What does identified mean in Pokémon battles?
What does Foresight, Odor Sleuth, and Identify do in Pokémon?
If a Pokémon uses a move that makes their opponent identified, it means that their next attack is guaranteed to hit. Even if the user has had their accuracy lowered or the opponent has increased their evasiveness with moves like Double Team or Minimize, those changes will be set back to normal. As an additional bonus, any Normal or Fighting moves used on the identified Pokémon will now hit even if that enemy is a Ghost-type.
Essentially, being identified in a Pokémon game is one battle participant pointing out where the opponent is and locking onto them. In some cases, this may turn out to be a beneficial move to keep in your party, but we would say there are better ways to guarantee a hit on the opponent. There are plenty of moves that have a guarantee to land on the opponent and still do damage, so using Foresight, Odor Sleuth, or Identify can be seen as a wasted turn in most battles.
Suppose you notice your opponent uses any of the above moves to identify your Pokémon. In that case, we recommend you stop focusing on accuracy or evasive moves and move to other status effect focuses. Maybe try to put them to sleep or paralyze them to stop their attacks, but you are wasting your efforts if they identify you.
