#fr though i'd love to keep talking about pokemon but i gotta cut myself off lmao

[mars-ipan]

OK SO by the sounds of it you know very little so i’m gonna explain it in chunks :) it’s gonna go under a readmore bc i already know this is gonna be super long bc i like talking about pokemon

starting with the very basics: pokemon (pronounced “po-kay-mon”) is a game built on the idea of capturing little guys and being their friends and also fighting against other people’s little guys for funsies. people have equated it to dogfighting trying to be edgy. they are wrong it’s more like wrestling the pokemon can literally just disobey you if they don’t wanna fight

the games tend to follow a format. you’re a kid! usually around 10 but it varies. you’ve just moved into a small town in [region]! yay! you eventually talk to a professor named after a tree (they broke this rule recently TT), and this professor gives you three starter pokemon to choose from: a grass type, a water type, and a fire type (more on types later). you pick your starter and meet your rival(s)! in the newer games they’re like your friends but in some of the older ones they’re actively rude to you. i always like them though. anyways you start off with two goals: 1- become the champion by getting all 8 gym badges and defeating the elite four + the current champion, and 2- fill your pokedex (an index of every pokemon in the region given to you by your professor) by catching all the mons! eventually, you will meet members of x evil team and making sure that their plan doesn’t come to fruition and destroy the world. in the more recent games the teams haven’t actually been that evil so this one is more of a guideline than a rule but there is always an eventual antagonist. technically you’ve beaten the game when you become champion (usually after you defeat the team and get the legendary pokemon (each game has one main legendary but there are usually others you can get in postgame)), but you can keep playing afterwards and many of the games have really fun post-game stories you can play.

i think explaining types is a good next step. each pokemon has one or two types assigned to them! think of them as like… the elements the pokemon is “made of.” these types are also assigned to moves (one type per move), and moves of certain types will have different effectivenesses against pokemon of certain types. here’s the full type matchup chart if you want to look at it:

(sorry it’s so crunchy i have no control over this) this seems incredibly overwhelming at first, but i promise it gets easy pretty quick- there’s shorthands to remember each combo by and eventually you just kinda memorize the common ones. lots of people have favorite types! my top fav is water, but i’m also a huge fan of psychic, ice, ghost, fairy, bug, and dragon. each type has fans though so it’s really up to taste. throughout the game, you’ll meet pokemon of a bunch of different types, and it’s a good idea to try to build a varied team to account for any weaknesses.

uhh let’s see next up i think i’ll explain combat basics and then go into detail. so pokemon is a turn-based rpg. you enter a battle, throw in your pokemon (the pokemon in your top(-left) party slot will go out first), and select your action! a battle with a trainer is started either by entering their eyesight or talking to them, and a battle with a wild pokemon is started by walking into tall grass (or in a cave or on water). you have four actions to choose from: fight, bag, pokemon, and run. FIGHT: this menu takes you into your pokemon’s moveset. your pokemon can learn up to four moves. there are three move styles (these are called types but i don’t want to confuse with the elemental typing that moves also have)- physical, special, and… other, i guess? physical moves are moves like hitting or biting- the pokemon attacks with a part of its body- the damage a physical move does is based on the power value assigned to the move and the attack stat of the pokemon. special moves are like electrocution or burning- i like to think of them as “magical” moves, because the pokemon attacks using its element type rather than its body- the damage a special move does is based on the power value assigned to the move and the special attack stat of the pokemon. other moves don’t do damage and serve other purposes- sometimes they force a pokemon to switch out, sometimes they change the stats of either pokemon- this category is really a catchall for all non-attack moves. if both pokemon choose to fight, then the pokemon with the highest speed stat goes first (there are exceptions for certain moves, and if the speed stats are matched then it’s a 50/50 chance). a super-effective move (say, a grass-type move on a water-type pokemon) will do twice the damage. a not very effective move (like a grass-type move on a fire-type pokemon) will do half the damage. damage can vary a little bit even without the typing added, and there is a chance to get a critical hit, which will do two times the damage (or just. more idk). type effectiveness can stack, by the way- a fire-type move on a grass-bug-type pokemon will do 4x the damage. this is why type matchups are important. BAG: pressing this button takes you into your inventory. here you can give your pokemon battle items (medicine, x-items, berries, etc) or, if you’re battling a wild pokemon, you can pick a pokeball to catch the pokemon with. there are items you can use outside of battle (mainly tms to teach pokemon moves, items to have your pokemon hold in battle, or key items like bikes and fishing rods to access more features of the game), but in battle you have to stick to the battle items. if you use an item from your bag, it will be used before the opposing pokemon makes a move and will take your whole turn. POKEMON: this button lets you switch out your pokemon for another in your party! you can also view each pokemon’s stats and moveset from this menu, just to make sure you pick the one you want. your pokemon will switch before your opponent makes a move and will take your whole turn. RUN: this option is what you use to get away from wild pokemon battles! it cannot be used in trainer battles, and is less likely to work if a pokemon is higher level than you. it won’t work at all if a pokemon has the ability shadow tag, which prevents you from switching out or running away. most of the game is battling! that’s why there’s so much in this section lmao. it seems like a lot but remember this is a kid’s game- you can very much just spam one move and make it out okay. that being said, moves have a stat called Power Points (or pp)- it’s a number that determines how many times you can use the move. the stronger the move, the less pp it has. some of the weaker moves have around 40 pp, but towards the end of the game you’ll have moves with as little as 5 pp. if a move’s pp hits zero, it cannot be used until it is healed, either with an item or at a pokemon center. while most battles consist of two pokemon fighting 1v1 (single battles), there are also double battles (2v2), as well as a few others. generally- items and switching go first, then moves in order of speed. each pokemon gets a turn.

let’s talk buildings! every pokemon game will have these basic structures: POKEMON CENTERS: pokemon centers are where you go to heal your pokemon and access your pc (a storage box containing all of the pokemon you’ve caught past the six in your party). these services are both free. in some games, there will be other things in pokemon centers, but it depends. i like to call them pokecenters to save time :) POKE MARTS: poke marts are your shops! you can buy and sell things here, and usually more items become available to you the more gym badges you earn. these are good for stocking up on consumables- medicine, pokeballs, and the like. in some games, the poke mart is inside of the pokecenter. this is more of a recent trend though. GYMS: ah yes, the fabled pokemon gym. there are 8 of these per game, and each gym contains pokemon of one type. most players will use one pokemon in their party that is super effective against that type, or at least isn’t weak to it, but it’s a good idea to keep at least one backup in your party. you can’t leave a gym until you’ve either lost a battle or defeated the gym, so enter prepared. most gyms consist of solving some sort of themed puzzle while battling trainers, eventually getting to the gym leader, who will fight you and give you a badge if you win (in sword and shield, you just fight the gym leader with no gimmicks or other trainers). get 8 badges and you challenge the elite four, an incredibly strong set of trainers you have to beat in succession (stock up on healing items), directly before challenging the champion, who will give you the title if you defeat them. lose to the champion and you have to fight the elite four again. by the way some of these fights are genuinely scary, and some gym leaders are infamous for having incredibly strong party-wiping pokemon (miltank…. shudder) so you really gotta strategize.

there’s more (catching mechanics, items, fun things like contests and whatever friendship gimmick is in the game, whatever cool bonus move gimmick is in the game, etc etc etc there’s unironically so much) but it’s like 11 pm and i think i’ve gotta call it for now. if you have any questions/wanna know about something specific then let me know! i leave you with a little guy

^ one of the bestest little creatures on the entire planet

*SPRINTS IN AND PROBABLY BREAKS SOMETHING ON THE WAY* what do you want to know about pokemon. i will tell you so much

I'll be honest I know nothing other than cute/cool animals that fight each other please tell me more about anything. The trainers, the Pokemon, anything.