Absolutely nobody except me (that I know of) is a truly competitive Pokemon player, but, I want to enjoy myself. I'll be posting random info on Pokemon, movesets, EVs, and stats of Pokemon.
I'm pretty sure that you don't know all 453 Pokemon (except you, Kudo)
Kudo: I'm afraid you're mistaken there, my expertise on pokemon only goes up to 251, anything in Gen 1 or 2, anywhere past that, I'm blind, so I'll just start with the basics of battling.
In Pokemon, there is you and the opponent. You will have 1-6 Pokemon. The first Trainer to faint all of the opponent's Pokemon first wins. But you knew that, didn't you?
In a Pokemon battle, there are 6 stats: HP, Attack (Atk), Defense (Def), Special Attack (Sp. Atk), Special Defense (Sp. Def), and Speed (Spd).
The 6 stats are:
HP: Hit Points. When this number reaches 0, your Pokemon faints. You generally want a big number. Less HP means you can take less hits. And that's bad. Blissey has the most HP out of any Pokemon (714 max).
Attack: The higher this number, the more damage PHYSICAL attacks will do when used by the Pokemon. Deoxys-A (Deoxys Attack Form) has the highest Attack out of any Pokemon (504 max).
Defense: How much damage is absorbed from PHYSICAL attacks. If hit by a SPECIAL attack, this stat will be ignored when calculating damage. The higher this number, the less damage will be taken from PHYSICAL attacks. Shuckle has the highest Defense out of any Pokemon (614 max).
Special Attack: The higher this number, the more damage SPECIAL attacks will do when used by the Pokemon. Deoxys-A (Deoxys Attack Form) has the highest Special Attack out of any Pokemon (504 max).
Special Defense: How much damage is absorbed from SPECIAL attacks. If hit by a PHYSICAL attack, this stat will be ignored when calculating damage. The higher this number, the less damage SPECIAL attacks will do. Shuckle has the highest Special Defense out of any Pokemon (614 max).
Speed: Determines if the Pokemon will move first. If this number is higher than your opponent's, you will move first, unless under a certain circumstance (which will be discussed later). This stat is very important for certain Pokemon. Deoxys-S (Deoxys Speed Form) has the highest Speed out of any Pokemon (504 max).
There are also three types of moves: Physical, Special, and Status.
The 3 types are:
Physical: Damage is calculated off of ATTACK. (ex. Vine Whip, Dragon Claw, Tackle)
Special: Damage is calculated off of SPECIAL ATTACK. (ex. Hydro Pump, Thunderbolt, Spacial Rend)
Status: These moves cause status, or do no direct damage (ex. Thunder Wave, Toxic, Leech Seed, Swords Dance, etc.)
In Pokemon, there are 493 Pokemon, each with different types. The types are elements or other things, and each one has a weakness to another type.
All the types are as follows:
Normal
Fighting
Psychic
Ghost
Dark
Water
Fire
Ice
Rock
Steel
Ground
Poison
Bug
Grass
Electric
Flying
Dragon
Some weaknesses are obvious: Fire-type Pokemon are weak to Water-type attacks.
Super effective = This attack is strong against this type.
Not very effective = This attack is weak against this type.
If you want to know more, take a look at this chart:
Each Pokemon has one type or two types. For example, a Pokemon can be Water, or Water/Ground.
In the event of an attacking type being super effective against one type, the damage is multiplied by 2x.
In the event of an attacking type being super effective against BOTH types, the damage is multiplied by 4x.
The same applies to not very effective attacks, albeit the damage being divided (0.5x and 0.25x, respectively).
Take these situations:
Garchomp (a Dragon/Ground type) is hit by Ice Beam (an Ice attack >.>). The damage will be multiplied by a whopping 4 times, and there is little chance of that Pokemon surviving.
Squirtle (a Water type) is hit by Razor Leaf (a Grass attack). The damage is only multiplied twice, because Squirtle only has one type.
Regardless of the type, all super effective moves do the same damage, given the same base power. Electric attacks are not "more effective" against Water than Grass type attacks.
Next up are stat-up moves. A stat, in battle, can be raised or lowered by stages.
If a move says that the Pokemon's stat "Greatly rose!" or the such, it is raised by 2 stages. (Swords Dance, Nasty Plot)
If a move says that the Pokemon stat "Rose!" or the such, it is raised by 1 stage. (Howl, Growth)
If a move says that the Pokemon stat "Fell!" or the such, it is lowered by 1 stage. (Growl, Leer)
If a move says that the Pokemon stat "Sharply fell!" or the such, it is lowered by 2 stages. (Screech, Charm)
Stage 6 = x4.0
Stage 5 = x3.5
Stage 4 = x3.0
Stage 3 = x2.5
Stage 2 = x2.0
Stage 1 = x1.5
Stage 0 = No change
Stage -1 = x.67
Stage -2 = x.50
Stage -3 = x.40
Stage -4 = x.33
Stage -5 = x.29
Stage -6 = x.25
So take this scenario.
Scyther used Swords Dance, so its Attack greatly rose. The enemy Pikachu then uses Charm, thus sharply lowering its Attack. Scyther is now back at Stage 0, so nothing has changed.
Next up are effort values (EVs).
EVs are hidden values that you gain whenever you defeat wild Pokemon or in-game Trainer's Pokemon. There is no way to find out EVs, unless you write them down.
A Pokemon will award 1-3 EVs upon being defeated. Every 4 EVs gained in a single stat, that stat rises by 1 when you get to level 100. You can have a maximum of 255 EVs in one stat, for a maximum bonus of 64 in one stat. Obviously, EVs can be a VERY powerful training tool.
To facilitate the earning of EVs, you can consult the help of Power items. Power items raise the amount of EVs you get, awarding a bonus of 4 EVs to a certain stat whenever you gain EVs.
The Power items are as follows:
Power Weight-Hit Points
Power Bracer-Attack
Power Belt-Defense
Power Lens-Special Attack
Power Band-Special Defense
Power Ankle-Speed
One exception to these is the Macho Brace. The Macho Brace doubles the amount of EVs normally gained. For example, Pikachu with a Macho Brace defeats a wild Fearow (2 Speed EVs), and thus gains 4 Speed EVs.
You can also gain Effort Values by feeding your Pokemon "Vitamins." These are
"Nutritious Drinks" which give you 10 EVs in one Stat. You can only feed your
Pokemon 10 of these per stat, and they are not affected by Power items.
HP Up-Hit Points
Protein-Attack
Iron-Defense
Calcium-Special Attack
Zinc-Special Defense
Carbos-Speed
On very, very rare occasions (to this date, it has not occurred naturally for me) a Pokemon wil be infected by a disease called Pokerus. Unlike in reality, it is a very good thing to become infected by Pokerus. Pokerus acts like a Macho Brace, it doubles the amount of EVs given (after all initial caculations). Pokerus is contagious, but loses its contagiousness after several days.
If you have any questions on what else, feel free to ask. I'll be updating this later.
