Gen 1 Move Database

Pokémon Red & Blue Moves

All 165 original moves from Red and Blue. Every move category was tied to its type back then. Fire, Water, and Electric were always Special. Fighting, Ground, and Rock were always Physical.

RED & BLUE MOVE LIST

Move Spotlight

Blizzard

110

#1 PickSpecial

Blizzard

IceSpecial

Power110

Accuracy70%

PP5

Used by

Blizzard carried a 90% accuracy rate in Red & Blue, not the 70% it dropped to in later games. Starmie and Lapras both relied on it to crush Exeggutor and the Grass-types that shaped competitive play. With the unified Special stat powering every Ice attack, Blizzard hit harder and more reliably than any other coverage option.

Blizzard (Ice / Special)

Blizzard carried a 90% accuracy rate in Red & Blue, not the 70% it dropped to in later games. Starmie and Lapras both relied on it to crush Exeggutor and the Grass-types that shaped competitive play. With the unified Special stat powering every Ice attack, Blizzard hit harder and more reliably than any other coverage option.

Body Slam

#2 PickPhysical

Body Slam

NormalPhysical

Power85

Accuracy100%

PP15

Used by

Tauros and Snorlax turned Body Slam into the most feared Normal-type attack in Red & Blue. Its 30% paralysis chance was brutal because paralysis cut Speed in half during Gen 1. Landing one often decided the pace of the entire match, and nearly every physical attacker on a serious team carried it.

Body Slam (Normal / Physical)

Tauros and Snorlax turned Body Slam into the most feared Normal-type attack in Red & Blue. Its 30% paralysis chance was brutal because paralysis cut Speed in half during Gen 1. Landing one often decided the pace of the entire match, and nearly every physical attacker on a serious team carried it.

Psychic

#3 PickSpecial

Psychic

PsychicSpecial

Power90

Accuracy100%

PP10

Used by

Ghost-type moves were bugged in Gen 1, dealing no damage to Psychic-types instead of hitting super effectively. Dark-types didn't exist yet. That left Alakazam and Starmie free to fire off Psychic with zero reliable counters, warping the entire competitive field around a single typing.

Psychic (Psychic / Special)

Ghost-type moves were bugged in Gen 1, dealing no damage to Psychic-types instead of hitting super effectively. Dark-types didn't exist yet. That left Alakazam and Starmie free to fire off Psychic with zero reliable counters, warping the entire competitive field around a single typing.

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Game Rules

How Moves Work in Red & Blue

Speed decides more than turn order

The Gen 1 critical hit formula runs off base Speed, so fast Pokémon land criticals constantly. A quick attacker gets a hidden damage bonus on every move it clicks. That is a big part of why speed rules Kanto.

Stat moves are the whole setup game

With no held items and no abilities, moves like Swords Dance and Amnesia are the only way to snowball a battle. One or two boosts turn an average attacker into something the Elite Four can't answer.

Nothing heals passively

There is no Leftovers and no end-of-turn recovery in this era. Recover and Softboiled do that work instead, and the handful of Pokémon that learn them are among the hardest things in the game to wear down.

Debuts

New in Red & Blue

163 moves introduced in Generation 1

Every move in Red and Blue is a debut by definition. This founding set wrote the vocabulary the whole series still speaks, and a surprising number of these originals never fell out of fashion: the best of them headline movesets eight generations later.

Questions

Pokémon Moves: Frequently Asked

Are TMs reusable in Pokémon Red and Blue?

No. TMs are single-use in Red and Blue, so you must choose carefully which Pokémon receives each one. Some powerful TMs like Earthquake (TM26) and Psychic (TM29) can only be obtained once per playthrough.

How does the physical/special split work for moves in Generation 1?

There is no individual physical/special split in Gen 1. All moves of a given type are either physical or special based on the type itself. For example, all Fire, Water, and Electric moves are special, while all Normal, Fighting, and Ground moves are physical.

What are the most important TMs to find in Red and Blue?

Earthquake (TM26), Psychic (TM29), Ice Beam (TM13), and Thunderbolt (TM24) are among the most valuable. Psychic-type moves are especially dominant in Gen 1 because the Psychic type has no effective counters due to a bug that makes Ghost-type moves deal zero damage to Psychic types.

Which HMs are required to complete Red and Blue?

Cut and Surf are required to progress through the main story. Strength is needed to navigate Victory Road, and Flash is technically optional but makes Rock Tunnel extremely difficult without it. Fly is a convenience HM that is not required for story progression.

Why is the move Wrap so strong in Generation 1?

In Gen 1, trapping moves like Wrap, Bind, Fire Spin, and Clamp prevent the opponent from acting entirely for 2-5 turns. The trapped Pokémon cannot attack or switch, making these moves far more powerful than in later generations where the opponent can still act while trapped.