Pokémon/Competitive battling/The Basics

Without legal restrictions, Pokémon Battling is basically pitting 6 of your own Pokémon against 6 of your opponent's Pokémon over a link cable. Level 100 is the highest you can go, so it's best to train your Pokémon to level 100. Use your best Pokémon! Having two of the same type of Pokémon in a team is not recommended, but if you think that it gives you an advantage, do so!

Commands

First, we will talk about the two basic commands in battle. If you have battled many times before, you can skip this section. Note that Item is not available in multiplayer battles.

Fight: This allows you to attack the enemy. Choose one move from a movepool of up to four moves, and you will attack your opponent with that move. Depending on the move you have chosen, it could hit or miss, not attack right away, or not have any obvious or immediate effect. Certain moves may act on your Pokémon rather than your opponent.

Pokémon: If you want to change Pokémon, simply go to Pokémon and choose a Pokémon from your party of up to six Pokémon. Note that when you switch, your opponent's selected move (this is turn-based, after all) will strike after your Pokémon has switched, so make sure that you don't make a bad switch. There are some moves that take advantage of when a Pokémon is switched.

Understanding stats

Now, onto the stats of each Pokémon. There are six in total: HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. Pokémon attacks are split into three types: Physical, Special, and Status. For the sake of simplicity, this guide will only focus on the first two types. In the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Generations, the types whose attacking power is determined by the Attack stat (Physical attacks) are Normal, Fighting, Poison, Ground, Flying, Bug, Rock, Ghost, and Steel. In the 4th generation, a physical attack is one that strikes your opponent's Pokémon directly with claws, teeth, etc. The amount of damage done by physical moves is determined by: a) the power of the attack; b) your Attack stat; and c) your opponent's Defense stat. How much damage you take from a Physical move is determined by your Defense stat and your opponent's attack stat. If you have a low Attack stat, then you will have trouble dealing a lot of damage with Physical moves; if you have a low Defense stat, you will have trouble surviving Physical moves, and vice-versa. The other type of attack (besides Physical) is Special. In generations 1-3, the types whose attack power is determined by the Special Attack stat are Fire, Water, Electric, Grass, Ice, Psychic, Dragon, and Dark. In Generation 4, a Special attack is one in which an opponent is struck by a beam of light, etc. The damage dealt by a special attack is determined by: a) the power of the attack; b) your Special Attack stat; and c) your opponent's Special Defense stat. How much damage you take from a Special attack is determined by your Special Defense stat and your opponent's Special Attack stat. Take the Pokémon Alakazam as an example. Alakazam has a very low Attack and very high Special Attack. With the information that you have learned above, it is best to teach Alakazam Special attacks, such as Confusion (type: Psychic), rather than teaching it Physical attacks, such as Dig (type: Ground).

"The power of the attack" was mentioned earlier, so what is it? An attack has four characteristics: a) power, b) accuracy, c) type, and d) special effects. Let's take the move Ice Punch. Ice Punch's characteristics are: a) 75 base power; b) 100% accuracy; c) type: Ice; and d) has a 10% chance of freezing an opponent. Base power is the strength of an attack before the Attack and Defense stats act on it. Once again, let's take Alazakam as an example. Mega Punch (type: Normal) has a base power of 85. However, if you look at your Alakazam's stats, you will once again see that its Special Attack is most likely more than double its Attack. In this case, even though Mega Punch has a higher base power than Ice Punch, it is a Physical Attack, and so it will deal less damage than Ice Punch if Alakazam uses it. (This applies only to Generations 1-3, where Ice Punch is a Special attack. In Generation 4, since both Mega Punch and Ice Punch are Physical Attacks, you are better off teaching Alakazam Mega Punch.)

Base power is also affected by other conditions. First is something called Same Type Attack Bonus, or, in short, STAB. If the type of the move you use matches one of the types of the Pokémon using it, then the attack receives a 1.5x power boost. Confusion's base power is 50, but if used by Alakazam (Confusion's type is Psychic, Alakazam's type is Psychic), then Confusion's power will be: 50 x 1.5 = 75 base power. Second, there are Type Alignment Advantages. This means that if an attack is super-effective againstyour opponent, its power will be boosted. Third, there moves that temporarily raise a type's power, such as Sunny Day, which boosts the power of Fire-type moves. Fourth, there are items that raise a type's power when held by a Pokémon, for example the BlackGlasses, which raise the Dark-type's power if held. And finally, there are Abilities that raise a type's power under special conditions. These will be discussed later.

Speed, as the name implies, determines which Pokémon attacks first. Generally, the Pokémon with the higher Speed stat will attack first. In case of a tie, this is determined at random. In later Generations, some moves can upset this, such as Trick Room, which makes the slower Pokémon attack first. In Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow versions, Speed is a major contributor to Critical Hits. A Critical Hit is simply a chance that your attack will hit a gap in your opponent's defenses, and deal double the damage that it was supposed to do. The higher the Pokémon's Speed, the more chance it has of dealing increased damage. Note that this only applies to the First Generation.

Finally, there is HP. HP stands for Hit Points, or Health Points. If your HP reaches 0, then your Pokémon will faint. This means that you must switch out this Pokémon without the penalty of your opponent having an extra move, and that this Pokémon cannot fight in the same battle again unless an item is used to revive it. Note that for player(s) vs. player(s) battles, item usage is not allowed, but held items can be used. As you get hit, you lose HP, but there are moves and items that can restore your HP. This will be discussed later. If you think that your almost-fainted Pokémon will be of some use later, switch it out so that it won't faint.

Despite all this, you need to remember that Pokémon stats are quite random. For example, how does a Zapdos' Attack compare to another Pokémon's? There is another system called Base Stats. Base Stats are values used to compare stats more easily. For example, your level 10 Charmander might have a higher Attack than a level 10 Bulbasaur, but a level 10 Charmander could, in theory, have a lower Attack than Bulbasaur. When base stats are checked, Charmander's Base Attack stat could be 52, and Bulbasaur's Base Attack stat could be 49. This means that most of the time, Charmander will have a higher Attack than Bulbasaur, but not all of the time, since Bulbasaur might use a move or item to raise its Attack stat. Another use is to compare stats of one particular Pokémon when choosing which moves to teach it. Alakazam's Base Attack stat is 50, and its Base Special Attack stat is 135. What this means is that, even if Alakazam uses a Physical Attack that has double the power of a Special attack, the Special attack would still deal more damage, because Alakazam's Base Special Attack stat is more than twice its Base Attack stat. Because of this, Fire Punch (base power: 75) will deal more damage than Hyper Beam (damage: 150) if used by Alakazam. (Remember that this rule only applies for Generations 1-3. In Generation 4, this would be reversed, since Fire Punch would be a Physical attack, and Hyper Beam a Special attack.)

It is also very important to keep an eye on each move's Power Points (PP). Every move has PP, that determines how many times you can use that move. When a move's PP reaches zero, you cannot use that move any more. When all four of your moves' PPs reach zero, then you will be forced to use a move called Struggle, a low-damage move that will hit all Pokémon. You will even take damage from this move yourself (recoil damage).

Items cannot be used during a player(s) vs. player(s) battle, but one item can be held by each Pokémon. The item can either be a one/two time use or permanent. After a player(s) vs. player(s) battle, any one-time usage items used will reappear. Beware that in the Third and Fourth Generations, there are moves that can steal or knock away your item.

For all battles, these rules should (and are sometimes set by your game) be applied:

1. No Pokémon shall be over level 100.
2. No moves or combinations of moves can be on a Pokémon that isn't legal.
3. No items can be used that are not held by a Pokémon.
4. No unofficial Pokémon.
5. No unofficial moves or items.