The Pokémon Trainer Club services will be offline for maintenance from 15:00 ~ 16:00 (UTC) on April 23, 2025.
During this period, Pokémon Trainer Club logins and account creation will be unavailable.
Thank you for your patience at this time.
The Pokémon TCG Live game client will be offline for maintenance from 15:00 ~ 23:00 (UTC) on April 23, 2025 while an update is being applied. Please see the Version 1.25.0 - Patch Notes announcement for the full details.
How is Needle Arm affected by rough skin in Generation 3?

So I have been playing through Pokemon Emerald again. I decided to run with a Cacturne this time around. I am curious as to how its signature move Needle Arm can cause rough skin to activate, especially considering (as far as my understanding goes) all grass moves in Generation 3 are considered special attacks. About the only thing that makes sense to me is, that it is calculated as special damage, while still being considered a move that makes physical contact. I know this may be incredibly irrelevant, but I would still love to know for my own curiosity.
Thanks!
Answers
-
wait needle arm was in gen 3?
1 -
Yes, Needle Arm was introduced in Gen 3, but it was an exclusive move for Cacnea and Cacturne.
0 -
So I was basically correct in my assumption? It’s a special attack that makes contact?
0 -
That was an interesting way to have done it. Before I fell into this rabbit hole, I would have sworn that gen 3 was the first game to have special and non special damage, within every type. Kind of stuff I never used to pay attention to back when it first came out.
0 -
wow I had no clue since I don't like cacnea
0 -
Whenever I go back and play through the old games, I will try and use a different team. So I have never actually used one before now. He is actually one of the strongest members I have now.
0