Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire/Basics of Battling

Pokémon battles make up the majority of the games. Whether it's against a wild Pokémon, an ordinary Trainer, or the Elite Four, the mechanics remain the same, and you must remember them if you want to progress.

Types
Every Pokémon has either one or two types. As of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, there are eighteen different types. Typing is extremely important to remember, as a Pokémon's type determines which moves it is weak to and which it can resist, which defines most battles. If a type is weak to another type--for example, a Fire-type Pokémon is weak against Water--it will take 2x the regular amount of damage from an attack of the type it is weak too, and the attack is described as being "super effective". If a type is resistant to another type--such as a Grass attack hitting a Bug-type Pokémon--then the damage taken will be reduced to 0.5x. Some types are not affected at all by moves from other types: Ghost-types cannot be hit by Normal moves, and vice-versa.

If a Pokémon has a secondary typing, this is also factored into its resistances and weaknesses. If one of the types has a weakness that the second type is resistant to, they will cancel the other out; a Fire-type is weak against Ground, while a Bug type is resistant to it, and a Fire/Bug type will be hit for normal damage. If two types share a weakness or a resistance, this will stack. A Pokémon that is doubly weak to a type--say, a Water/Flying type being hit by an Electric attack--it will take 4x the normal amount of damage from moves of that type. A Pokémon that is doubly resistant to a type will take only 0.25x the amount of damage from those moves. If Pokémon has a typing that cannot be affected by another type, this will remain, even if its secondary typing is weak to that type; a Ground/Flying type cannot be hit by Electric moves, even though the Flying type is weak to them.

For instance, the normal power of the move Water Gun is 40.


 * If that were to be used against a Fire-type, the power would double to 80.
 * If Water Gun were to be used against a Grass-type, its power would be halved to 20.
 * If Water Gun were used against a Fire/Dragon type, the power will be 40.
 * If Water Gun were to be used against a Fire/Ground type, its power would be quadrupled to 160!
 * If Water Gun were to be used against a Water/Dragon type, its power would be quartered to 10.
 * If Tackle, a Normal-type move, were to be used against a Ghost-type, the move will not affect the Ghost.

See this Attack chart for a full chart on the resistances and weaknesses of types. It may look daunting, but eventually you will grow to memorize it.

Also, note that if a Pokémon uses an attack that is the same type as itself, it will automatically gain a 1.5x bonus known as the Same-Type Attack Bonus or STAB. So if Mudkip were to use Water Gun, its base power would be 60 instead of 40.

Stats
If you check the status of your Pokémon, you'll notice the game gives you a list of numbers corresponding with names like "Attack" and "Defense". These are your Pokémon's stats, and they determine how fast your Pokémon moves, how much damage it deals, and how much damage it takes.


 * Health determines how many hit points your Pokémon has.
 * Attack determines the damage your Pokémon does when using physical moves (see Moves, below). The higher this number, the more damage it can mete out.
 * Defense determines how much damage your Pokémon receives from physical moves. The higher this number, the less damage it takes from opponents' physical attacks.
 * Special Attack determines the damage your Pokémon does when using special moves.
 *  Special Defense determines how much damage your Pokémon receives from special moves.
 *  Speed determines how fast your Pokémon is. In battle, the Pokémon with the highest Speed attacks first (barring priority moves). If two Pokémon have exactly the same Speed, there is a 50/50 chance of either one going first.

Very few Pokémon will have perfectly balanced stats. Most are specialized in one or two areas. For instance, Alakazam has extremely high Special Attack and Speed, but very low Defense, while Shuckle is very slow and has virtually no offensive prowess at all but has enormous Defense and Special Defense. Very powerful Pokémon such as Legendaries will have much higher stat totals than ordinary ones. Pokémon naturally gain stat points as they level up, and most will greatly improve their stat totals as they evolve, though it may not always be in the same stats as their pre-evolution--upon evolving to Pelipper, the fast and frail Wingull becomes slower and more defensive, to name one example. You can also boost your Pokémon's stats by a limited amount through feeding them certain items such as Protein, defeating certain Pokémon, and using the Super Training app. How those last three things work is a little complex to explain and are not necessary unless you intend to battle against other players competitively, so for now just know that you can do so if you wish.

It is important to keep your Pokémon's stats in mind as they are pivotal in determining what roles they should play in your team. Take Alakazam--he won't be any good at all as a defensive Pokémon, so don't go sending him out to absorb damage from hard-hitting opponents, otherwise he'll faint very quickly! Play him to his strengths instead; have him come in on a slow Pokémon with weak Special Defense, and watch him annihilate it. Likewise, don't go to the effort of teaching your Shuckle powerful offensive moves, he won't be able to do anything with them!

Finally, to smooth out your path in the main game, use your Pokémon's stats to build a balanced team. Don't have a team made up solely of frail offensive Pokémon, or you'll be in trouble if you face up against someone who can play havoc with status and debuff moves. Don't have a purely defensive team either, as it'll take you ages to defeat your opponents and you'll really struggle if they manage to break your core.

Moves
At its broadest, there are three categories of moves: physical moves, which are offensive moves that deal damage based off your Pokémon's Attack stat; special moves, offensive moves based off a Pokémon's Special Attack stat, and status moves, which are non-damaging moves. Non-damaging moves have a huge range of effects, from changing the weather to raising your stats to causing a status condition. Many physical and special moves will also have status effects; for instance, the move Scald has a 30% chance of causing a burn.

Moves have two hidden stats associated with them: accuracy and evasion. Accuracy determines how likely you are to hit your opponent. Normally, this is based off the accuracy of the move you are attempting to use, which can be checked from your Pokémon's move page. If you use a move with 100 accuracy, you will hit every time. If you use a move with 85 accuracy, you have an 85% chance of hitting, and so on. Evasion determines how likely you are to be hit by an opponent's move, with a higher evasion meaning that your opponent's moves will miss more, even if they have 100 accuracy. You can't alter these stats outside of battle, but you can improve them or lower your opponent's with certain moves.

Pokémon can learn moves via levelling up, inheriting moves from their parents, TMs or HMs, and Move Tutors. HM moves can't be deleted without visiting the Move Deleter, so be very careful before choosing to learn them...especially as some HMs, namely Cut and Rock Smash, are pretty poor quality moves. You may be better off using a "HM slave", a Pokémon devoted solely to HMs, to not waste your own team's moveslots.

Status Conditions
There are several types of status conditions that can be inflicted on your Pokémon.


 * Burn: Halves damage done by physical moves and inflicts damage at the end of every turn. Lingers after battle. Fire-types cannot be burnt.
 * Freeze: Inflicted Pokémon cannot move. Each turn there is a 30% chance to defrost, including the turn the Pokémon was frozen on. Using certain Fire-type moves, or being hit by a Fire-type attack or Scald, will defrost. There is no move guaranteed to cause freeze; it is always a secondary effect of an offensive move. Ice-types cannot freeze, and a Pokémon cannot be frozen in sunlight (though bringing a frozen Pokémon into sunlight will not defrost it faster). Lingers after battle.
 * Paralysis: 25% chance of being unable to move, with speed reduced to 25%. Electric Pokémon cannot be paralyzed. Lingers after battle.
 * Poison: Lose health each turn. Steel and Poison-type cannot be poisoned. Lingers after battle.
 * Badly Poisoned: Lose an increasing amount of health each turn. After battle, will revert to ordinary poison.
 * Sleep: Cannot move. Lasts from 1-3 turns. Lingers after battle.
 * Confusion: 50% chance of hurting itself (the damage from this depends on your Pokémon's Attack stat). Wears off after 1-4 turns and can be cured by switching out.
 * Curse: Lose 25% HP each turn. Cured by switching out.
 * Infatuation: Cannot move 50% of the time. Cured by switching out.

Status conditions can be cured through the use of medicinal items or by visiting a Pokémon Center (or similar place of healing). Some Pokémon have abilities which make them react to statuses differently; for instance, Guts increases your Pokémon's Attack when burned or poisoned.