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Once you've got a team of Pokemon together, it's time to work on some battle strategies. Typically you should know your in-battle strategies before training your Pokemon, but this page still comes last in a natural sequence of catching, training, battling. This page will talk about the various mechanics in Pokemon Battling.
The Basics of Battling
Pokemon battles are turn-based, which means that you and your opponent will alternate turns in the battle. In a turn, you can have your Pokemon use one move, you can switch one Pokemon with another, you can use one item from your bag, or if you are in a battle with a wild Pokemon, you can throw a Poke ball. So, you can do one thing per turn.
The main thing that you will be doing is having your Pokemon use a move. In fact, in competitive play, items are often completely disabled from use. When the opponent's Pokemon faints (runs out of HP) the opponent will need to switch to another Pokemon and will not be able to use the fainted Pokemon for the rest of the battle (unless a revive/max revive is used, not used in competitive battling). The goal is to make all of the opponent's Pokemon faint, in which case you will be declared the winner, and if in the regular game, you will be granted a varying sum of Pokemon Dollars as a prize.
Every move has a certain power, accuracy, and PP (power points). The power is the strength of the move, and will decide (along with the attacking Pokemon's attack/sp. atk stat and the defending Pokemon's defense/sp. def stat, depending on if the move is physical or special) how much HP the defending Pokemon loses. Not all moves are attacking (physical/special) moves. Status-category moves can be used to raise or lower stats, give status conditions (sleep, frozen etc.), change the weather condition, or do other things. Accuracy is how often the move will hit under normal circumstances. A move with an accuracy of 50 should hit 50% of the time (once every two tries). A move with an accuracy of 100 will hit every time (100% of the time), unless a move, ability, item, or other mechanic lowers the attacking Pokemon's accuracy or raises the defending Pokemon's evasiveness. A move with no accuracy stat (usually displayed as — in place of 70, 100 or another number) will never miss the target, unless the opponent is in a semi-invulnerable state such as when using Fly or Dig. Usually these moves (like swift, for example) are not very powerful but extremely useful in certain situations, like if the opponent spammed an evasiveness-raising move. The PP of a move is how often the move can be used before going to a Pokemon center or using a PP-restoring move. Typically, the more powerful a move is, the less PP it has, so that it cannot be spammed in a battle. A good variety of moves is crucial or else you will run out of PP on your moves.
An important mechanic of Pokemon battling is status conditions. These can be brought on by a move, ability, or item. Here is a list of them and what they do.
Burn: A burn will damage the burned Pokemon by 1/8 of its total HP at the end of every turn. Additionally it halves the power of the Pokemon's physical moves.
Freeze: When a Pokemon is frozen it is unable to move. Pokemon have a 20% chance of thawing from a frozen status condition every turn. Damage-dealing fire-type moves will thaw the Pokemon. Pokemon cannot be frozen in sunny weather. A frozen status condition greatly raises the catch rate of wild Pokemon.
Paralysis: When a Pokemon is paralyzed it has a 25% chance of being unable to attack. Additionally, its speed is reduced by 75% (except for Pokemon with the Quick Feet ability, in which case it will raise speed by 50%). This raises catch rate.
Poison: A poisoned Pokemon will lose 1/8 of its total HP at the end of every turn. Every 4 steps taken when not in battle will cause the Pokemon to lose 1 HP.
Sleep: An asleep Pokemon is immobile and unable to use any moves other than Snore and Sleep Talk. It lasts for a duration of 1 to 6 turns.
The Basics of Battling
Pokemon battles are turn-based, which means that you and your opponent will alternate turns in the battle. In a turn, you can have your Pokemon use one move, you can switch one Pokemon with another, you can use one item from your bag, or if you are in a battle with a wild Pokemon, you can throw a Poke ball. So, you can do one thing per turn.
The main thing that you will be doing is having your Pokemon use a move. In fact, in competitive play, items are often completely disabled from use. When the opponent's Pokemon faints (runs out of HP) the opponent will need to switch to another Pokemon and will not be able to use the fainted Pokemon for the rest of the battle (unless a revive/max revive is used, not used in competitive battling). The goal is to make all of the opponent's Pokemon faint, in which case you will be declared the winner, and if in the regular game, you will be granted a varying sum of Pokemon Dollars as a prize.
Every move has a certain power, accuracy, and PP (power points). The power is the strength of the move, and will decide (along with the attacking Pokemon's attack/sp. atk stat and the defending Pokemon's defense/sp. def stat, depending on if the move is physical or special) how much HP the defending Pokemon loses. Not all moves are attacking (physical/special) moves. Status-category moves can be used to raise or lower stats, give status conditions (sleep, frozen etc.), change the weather condition, or do other things. Accuracy is how often the move will hit under normal circumstances. A move with an accuracy of 50 should hit 50% of the time (once every two tries). A move with an accuracy of 100 will hit every time (100% of the time), unless a move, ability, item, or other mechanic lowers the attacking Pokemon's accuracy or raises the defending Pokemon's evasiveness. A move with no accuracy stat (usually displayed as — in place of 70, 100 or another number) will never miss the target, unless the opponent is in a semi-invulnerable state such as when using Fly or Dig. Usually these moves (like swift, for example) are not very powerful but extremely useful in certain situations, like if the opponent spammed an evasiveness-raising move. The PP of a move is how often the move can be used before going to a Pokemon center or using a PP-restoring move. Typically, the more powerful a move is, the less PP it has, so that it cannot be spammed in a battle. A good variety of moves is crucial or else you will run out of PP on your moves.
An important mechanic of Pokemon battling is status conditions. These can be brought on by a move, ability, or item. Here is a list of them and what they do.
Burn: A burn will damage the burned Pokemon by 1/8 of its total HP at the end of every turn. Additionally it halves the power of the Pokemon's physical moves.
Freeze: When a Pokemon is frozen it is unable to move. Pokemon have a 20% chance of thawing from a frozen status condition every turn. Damage-dealing fire-type moves will thaw the Pokemon. Pokemon cannot be frozen in sunny weather. A frozen status condition greatly raises the catch rate of wild Pokemon.
Paralysis: When a Pokemon is paralyzed it has a 25% chance of being unable to attack. Additionally, its speed is reduced by 75% (except for Pokemon with the Quick Feet ability, in which case it will raise speed by 50%). This raises catch rate.
Poison: A poisoned Pokemon will lose 1/8 of its total HP at the end of every turn. Every 4 steps taken when not in battle will cause the Pokemon to lose 1 HP.
Sleep: An asleep Pokemon is immobile and unable to use any moves other than Snore and Sleep Talk. It lasts for a duration of 1 to 6 turns.