Disruption

**Disruptions** occur during stages as an attempt to limit the player's gameplay. If a target Pokémon disrupts, there is usually a counter next to the Pokémon during the stage.

## Disruption Rules

There are three parts to a stage's disruptions: the initial board layout, the countdowns, and the added Non-Support. A stage can have any, all, or none of these.

* The initial board layout is exactly as it says - the board is predefined in a certain way and may have other predefined layouts in the queue (as in, not shown on the 6x6 board yet)
	+ Initial board layouts are provided in this Wikia. Unown is used to indicate any of the player's Support Pokémon, while colored Unown are used to indicate a specific Support Pokémon (meaning all of the same color will be one of the player's Support Pokémon)
* Most stages will have one, two, or three countdowns, each with its own set of rules about when and how to disrupt and when to switch between countdowns
	+ Most countdowns use Moves as a counter for when to disrupt. For example, the counter starts at 5, goes down one every time the player makes a move, and disrupts after the combo when the counter reaches 0.
		- Various skills can interact with the countdown, such as Mind Zap and Astonish. Making a match to mega evolve prevents the counter from going down for that move. Triggering an ability that causes a status effect also prevents the counter from going down for that move (**This is no longer the case as of 3DS update v.1.3.28 and Mobile update v1.9.1**).
		- Some countdowns have their counter already at 0 when it is first used. In many stages, the first countdown feature this, which means the stage disrupts before the player makes their first move. These cases are indicated by "Initial" in this Wikia.
		- Some countdowns can disrupt immediately by setting the counter to 0 and setting the countdown switch counter to 1, and some can disrupt several times in a row by setting it higher than 1
	+ Some countdowns do not have a counter and instead uses Combo for when to disrupt. For example, if the player makes a combo less than 3, the stage will disrupt.
		- In this case, those skills that interact with counters (such as Mind Zap) don't work, as there is no counter to interfere with
		- However, status effect inducing skills (such as Sleep Charm) will still work properly
		- A disruption that causes a combo can trigger a disruption again if it meets the combo requirement
	+ Each countdown will have a list of possible ways to disrupt to choose from once it is triggered. The list can have just one.
		- The countdown can either choose from the list randomly or choose them in order
			* On countdowns that choose disruptions in order (let's call them sequential countdowns), there is another counter that determines which disruption to use. This counter seems to be shared across the countdowns in a stage, meaning that if a stage uses two sequential countdowns with 3 disruptions each but with a switch counter of 2, the first countdown will use its first two disruptions, then the second countdown will use its third, then first disruption, and then the first countdown will disrupt its second, then third, and so on.
		- Disruptions usually either choose tiles randomly or target an area to fill with Disruptions or Pokémon
		- For disruptions that fill tiles randomly, the game will only choose from tiles that are not empty or do not already have that type of disruption. For disruptions that target an area, empty tiles will still not be affected.
		- Very few stages will have a very different way of disrupting, for example Kingdra and Meganium
		- Some skills can erase certain disruptions, such as Rock Break and Barrier Bash . Mega Powers can erase any disruption.
	+ Finally, a countdown may switch to another countdown by either how many times it has disrupted (the countdown switch counter), an HP threshold, or a Moves/Seconds threshold.
		- Moves threshold is usually moves remaining, but sometimes it is moves made
		- When an HP/Moves/Seconds threshold is reached, the countdown usually switches to the next countdown immediately, before the current countdown can use its disruptions. There may be cases in which the countdown will switch after it uses its disruption (not confirmed yet).
* Some stages include an additional added Support Pokémon known as a Non-Support, making comboing much more difficult