Pokémon Red / Blue / Green FAQ/Walkthrough

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Introduction

Welcome to another of my many, many Pokémon FAQs. This FAQ covers the first of the Pokémon games: Pokémon Red, Blue, and Green Versions. I have become rather well-known for FAQing many Pokémon games: indeed, I have already covered all of the mainstream Pokémon games by now (2014), and most of the side-games. I had originally covered Pokémon Red, Blue, and Green once before, back in 2012. However, there was something that prompted me to relook and review my FAQ: the news that the Cerulean Cave in Pokémon Red/Green in Japan differed from the one in Pokémon Red/Blue that I originally FAQed. Even today, my decision to FAQ Pokémon R/B/G, long after it had been seemingly well-covered, was not a welcomed one; in part, I mostly did it just because I wanted to. So, in a way, I guess I can justify it by covering the new Cerulean Cave decently. It's not a lot of justification, but practically no other FAQ has even acknowledged the existence of two Cerulean Caves.

Lame intro, huh? >_> Well, enjoy the rest of the good stuff.

Basics of the Game

A Must-Read Before the Basics

When you use the Basics section, keep in mind what it entails: there is a LOT on that Table of Contents, a lot of competitively-relevant info. I mostly chose to include a few of the following sections on the Controls and Save Data for the sake of their common usage: people tend to look these things up most often for whatever reason. That aside, most of the other stuff - like how to operate menus and the like - is in the game's e-manual.

What this section does is operate on a different level. These sections will mostly analyze the game from one of three aspects: the mechanical aspect (such as the formulas for damage), the competitive aspect (playing Pokémon very well against other well-versed players), and a mixture thereof. If you do not plan on playing against other people competitively or do not plan on playing in the Battle Maison for extended periods of time, do not bother using those sections. I have gotten complaints regarding the length of the Basics section on the whole, so I feel the need for you to remember that this section is not required reading unless you want to understand various mechanical/strategic aspects of the game (or view a little trivia). If you plan to play the game only to play the game, you'll be better off consulting the e-manual than this guide for the basic info.

I do, of course, provide a Walkthrough that will help walk you through the game's plot, step by step, without this mechanic info.

Controls

Type Chart

Important Terms & Definitions

Pokémon is itself a very technical game. While we will get deeper into these technicalities in other sections of this conglomerate of "basics" and in the various appendices, it would be first be most prudent to give you, the readers, a quick list of what will be referred to throughout the guide. Those familiar with the competitive scene of Pokémon need no real introduction to most of these terms, and most having played Pokémon in general will only need to give this a quick glance at times; however, everyone else should give this section at least a decent read-over, especially those of you who are new to Pokémon. There are several definitions here some of you may find surprising and in themselves immensely helpful to understanding Pokémon in general, and by far much more in-depth than what the game will likely ever yield unto you. >_>

In any case, if you think something else should be added here, feel free to e-mail me.

• #HKO: Indicates a KO (defeat) in # hits. For example, 1HKO (sometimes OHKO) implies a one-hit win.

• Accuracy: The preset hit rate each move has for itself that determines how likely it is to hit. In general, this can be seen as a percentage: for example, Stone Edge has 80 Accuracy so it could be seen as having an 80% hit rate. A move with a 100% hit rate is generally always going to hit. However, this is only when you assume that your accuracy has not been changed by certain moves or your foe's evasion. Certain moves - usually status moves, but a niche few others - will ignore accuracy and evasion entirely, and always hit.

• Attack (Atk.): Attack is one of the stats a Pokémon can have. Attack will affect the damage dealt by certain moves: that is, physical moves. Physical moves are those that deal damage and are of the Normal, Fighting, Flying, Ground, Rock, Bug, Ghost, or Poison types.

• Base Stat (sometimes "BS" or "base"): Base stats are used to indicate the general prowess of a Pokémon in a particular stat. Base stats can range from 1 to 255 in a given stat. For most people, a base value of 110+ indicates that the Pokémon is good in that stat, though it all relates back to the Trainer's own strategy. In any case, the higher a base stat, the better for the user.

• Base Stat Total (BST): The total of a Pokémon's base stats, used to communicate its general prowess. Depending on the Pokémon, however, its actual strategic value may be skewed because of certain high base stats. For example, Shuckle's base 230 in Defense and Sp. Def. really skews it BST up somewhat higher than its actual strategic value would indicate (almost no one really uses it).

• Catch Rate: A hidden charateristic of all Pokémon that helps to determine how likely you are to catch it, ranging from 1 to 255 (where 255 is best for you). See the Pokémon Capture section for some more details.

• Class: Class is an attribute given to moves: it determines the move's own nature and what stats its damage is based on. There are three classes: Physical, Special, and Status. Physical moves usually are based on the user's Attack and the target's Defense; Special moves are usually based on the user's Special; and Status moves use neither, but instead affect various other things. Granted, class is not an important characteristic in Generation I, since Physical/Special classification for damaging moves is related only to the type of move.

• Critical Hit (a.k.a. Critical or just Crit): An attack that does roughly 100% more damage than normal (double damage). When an attack is critical, it will be openly declared as such by the game. Critical hits are related to the Pokémon's base Speed stat, in terms of how often they occur - specifically, the base Speed divided by 512. It is definitely an imbalance in the game one can abuse quite well with faster Pokémon. Critical hits are also influenced by the fact that certain moves like Slash have higher critical-hit rates: EIGHT times higher, in fact. Critical hits also notably ignore Attack losses, from Burns or Growls or whatever may lower it, though it will also ignore any Attack boosts you do have; they also ignore boosts on the foe's defense.

• Defense (Def.): Defense is one of the stats a Pokémon can have. Defense will affect the damage dealt by certain moves: that is, physical moves. Physical moves are those that deal damage and are of the Normal, Fighting, Flying, Ground, Rock, Bug, Ghost, or Poison types.

• Dynamic Value (DV): In Generations I and II, only four DVs - which we know today in the modern games as IVs - are found: one each for Attack, Defense, Speed, and Special. One for HP also exists, but it is determined by the other four. These first four are completely random in value, and range from 0-15. HP is calculated by turning that number into binary and taking the "one's" digit of each of those DVs in that order, then using that. So IVs of 1, 3, 5, and 15 (0001, 0011, 0101, and 1111 respectively) yield an HP DV of 15 (1111).

• Event Pokémon: Event Pokémon are those only given out by Nintendo, Game Freak, or certain other third parties (in particular, GameStop and its subsidaries lately) in real life. Common Pokémon for this include special Shiny Pokémon (i.e. the Shiny Gengar given out in October 2014), those with otherwise illegal moves (i.e. the Pikachu that can Surf and Fly), those that just have special Formes (e.g. the Pokéball-Pattern and Fancy Pattern Vivillons from X/Y), Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, Deoxys, Shaymin, Darkrai, Arceus, Victini, Meloetta, Genesect, Diancie, Hoopa, and Volcanion: in general, these Pokémon cannot be obtained in the games at all, and must be obtained by getting it at those particular events or trading with someone who did get one from the same. There are other means for Event Pokémon to be distributed, too, such as the Pokémon Bank Celebi and the Black/White launch Victini, and it doesn't have to be restricted to these legendaries: other Pokémon with certain special characteristics are often distributed. Japan and Korea get most of these distributions, too. In any case, I would recommend checking Bulbanews (http://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Front_page) or Serebii (http://www.serebii.net/) regularly for details on these events.

• Evolution: When a Pokémon meets certain conditions - usually reaching a certain level, though the methods vary - the Pokémon will evolve. This is usually accompanied by stat boosts, a better set of moves to learn, and so on. The exact conditions for evolution for every Pokémon can be seen in the Pokémon Evolutions section.

• Experience Points (EXP.): When a Pokémon defeats another in battle, it will earn EXP. By earning enough EXP., the Pokémon will level up and become stronger.

• Gym Badge: The mark that you have conquered a Pokémon Gym, these will allow you to use certain HMs in the field at times, but otherwise only serve a signatory purpose. Your goal is to collect all eight, one per Gym in the region.

• Hidden Machine (HM): One a very few special TMs that can teach Pokémon moves that can also be used in the field, like Cut (to cut down trees) and Surf (to cross water). You will need most of these to progress through the game.

• Hit Points (HP): This refers to a Pokémon's health. HP can go down via a number of means, primarily attacks though certain weather conditions and ailments and even the Pokémon's own moves can also cause loss of HP. As HP is above 50%, the HP bar is green; from 50% to 25%, it is yellow; and from 25% down it is red. These colors indicate the danger the Pokémon's health is in: when it hits 0 HP, the Pokémon is fainted and cannot act, except for the use of HMs in the field. Be sure to keep Pokémon healed with Potions and the like!

• HM Slave: A Pokémon owned for the sole purpose - at least for the most part - of using HMs. By distributing all of your needed HM moves to a single Pokémon or two, you greatly diversify the main movepool of the others you do use, but at the same time it costs you in overall team variety. It's a give-and-take system; ideally, you'll learn to distribute HMs throughout the team, but it's more than manageable to slave some Pokémon. Common Pokémon in the past have included Zigzagoon and Bidoof's evolutionary chains.

• Item: An item in the Pokémon series has one of two uses, generally: to be used for an immediate effect, or to be held by a Pokémon for an in-battle use of some sort. See the Items Listings section for more.

• Legendary Pokémon: A Pokémon whose in-game plot creates some kind of god-like aura about it. For example, Arceus is known as the Pokémon God because he created the universe, therefore he is a legendary Pokémon; Mew is known as the ancestor of most modern Pokémon and can learn any move desired, and therefore is a legendary Pokémon; Groudon is known as the one who rose the continents, and therefore is a legendary Pokémon. A Legendary Pokémon has a storyline behind it that often is the focus of a single game or of a special Nintendo Event, or sometimes even the subject of one of the Pokémon anime's movies. Many times, these Pokémon are strong -- however, do not confuse the label of Legendary Pokémon with strength or strategic validity! Mew, Celebi, and Jirachi, for example, are considered legendary, but they are not particularly strong: it's the plot behind them driving that "legendary" label. Strategic viability and stats usually determine how good a Pokémon is: I can easily beat Mew, Celebi, and Jirachi with non-legendary Pokémon, moreso than the other legends. Another example is how the site Smogon has classed Blaziken - a starter Pokémon - into its "Ubers" tier, a tier largely populated by legendary Pokémon, whereas those I just named are in the "UU" ("underused") tier, two tiers below.

• Level (originally "L", now "Lv."): The general level of a Pokémon's strength. It rises as EXP. is earned, and can range from 1 to 100, where 100 is the strongest that the Pokémon can get. Glitch Pokémon can range up to Level 255.

• Move: An attack a Pokémon can use. Most moves are used to deal damage in some way, and others can be used to boost stats or affect statuses, and many of both kinds have additional special affects. See the Move List.

• Original Trainer (OT): The original owner of a Pokémon, given by their selected in-game name. This isn't a particularly important characteristic, it's just a quick identifier for who gave you what Pokémon. The main issues someone finds in regards to "Is this my Pokémon or not" involves IDs. (See: "Trainer ID & Secret ID")

• Physical: A move Class that considers the user's Attack and the target's Defense to calculate damage.

• Pokémon (a.k.a. Pocket Monster): Pokémon are the creatures who live alongside us in the world of Pokémon: as partners, as pets, as friends, as family... Pokémon are the central creatures of all Pokémon games. By catching and training Pokémon, a Pokémon Trainer proves their might both in terms of raising Pokémon and in terms of strategy. It is every Pokémon Trainer's goal to one day beat all eight Pokémon Gyms in their region and then beat the Elite Four to become Pokémon League Champion. To do that, you must learn to understand your Pokémon in every possible way.

• Pokémon Gym: There are eight Pokémon Gyms across the region, and in each lies a Gym Leader who will give their Gym Badge to someone who defeats them in battle. Each Pokémon Gym specializes in a certain type of Pokémon, and each will normally have some kind of puzzle to overcome. Your goal is to beat all eight Pokémon Gyms, and then beat the Pokémon League.

• Pokémon League: The pinnacle of Pokémon Trainers -- at least for the in-game storyline. After obtaining all eight Gym Badges, your next task is to come here. Here will lie the Elite Four and the Pokémon League Champion, the top five trainers in the region, who you must beat all in succession; by beating these five, you will prove your might as the best Trainer in the region...

• Pokémon VGCs: The true pinnacle of Pokémon Training, the Pokémon Video Game Championships, or VGCs, are held yearly, first on the regional level and then the national and worldwide levels. Many thousands of Pokémon game players will come to these events, hoping to prove their might against each as the best Trainer in the world. Winning the VGCs is much different and infinitely more difficult and intricate than playing the actual game. Much of the info in this FAQ/Walkthrough was created for the sole purpose of aiding people understand the in-depth mechanics and general strategy of Pokémon just so you may be able to make that leap from battling the AI skillfully to winning championships against other people who know what they are doing. If you want to figure out info on the Pokémon VGCs, times, and locations, please go to the Pokémon official website, http://www.pokemon.com/.

• Power (a.k.a. "Base Power" or "BP"): This is the Power stat attributed to a move: the higher, the better for the user of the move. In online forums and such, the abbreviation "BP" is often used as a shorthand: this is not to be mixed-up with the currency BP! For the sake of ease, though, you'll never hear me say "BP" in reference to Base Power throughout this guide. Just be careful when elsewhere.

• Power Points (PP): PP are like currency for the use of a Pokémon's moves; think of them as the MP from other RPGs like Final Fantasy. By using a move, you will use up 1 PP for that move, or 2 PP if your foe has the ability Pressure. When a move has 0 PP, it cannot be used; if all of your moves hit 0 PP, then the Pokémon is forced to use the move Struggle, which is relatively weak and damages the user heavily. PP-restoring items are generally in limited quantities throughout the game, almost never being buyable or not in any exorbitant amount, so conservation of these Ethers and Elixirs will be very much important come the latter half of the game.

• Priority: Each move in the game has its own "Priority" stat. Most moves are of a Priority of 0, but some are below or above that number. Pokémon using higher Priority moves will go first before those using lower Priority moves; if two Pokémon use a move of the same Priority, then their Speed will determine who goes first. Priority will even defy the warped turn order that Trick Room provides in the newer games! The Move Priority section contains more info.

• Same-Type Attack Bonus (STAB): When a Pokémon uses a move that is the same type as itself, the damage of the move is by default increased to 50% higher than normal. For example, Pikachu (an Electric Pokémon) using the move Thunderbolt (an Electric move) will deal 50% extra damage. This is a very significant boost and especially critical in the choice of moves a Pokémon will have. For example a super-effective move might do 120 HP of damage, which will only KO weak Pokémon HP-wise, but with STAB that move can be boosted to 180 HP of damage, which KO's the average Pokémon in competitive play!

• Shiny: A Pokémon is Shiny if it just outright looks different from how it normally does. For example, Gyarados is blue but Shiny Gyarados is red; Sceptile is green but Shiny Sceptile is cyan; Kyogre is blue but Shiny Kyogre is pink. Shininess is exceedingly rare, usually a 1 in 4,096 chance in these games and it was 1 in 8,192 before the release of Pokémon X/Y in 2013. (There are exceptions.)

• Single Battle: A battle between two people in which each only has one Pokémon out at a time. Under typical online battle rules and certain other rulesets, you must use three Pokémon total per side. This isn't the case for most in-game battles, though. Every battle in Pokémon Red/Blue/Green/Yellow are Single Battles.

• Special (1): This definition refers to the Special class of moves - those of the Water, Grass, Fire, Ice, Electric, Psychic, or Dragno types. These moves use your Special stat to deal damage, and also use your target's Special stat to determine the damage as well, creating a minor imbalance. Since Generation II, this stat was split into Special Attack (Sp. Atk.) and Special Defense (Sp. Def.).

• Speed (sometimes "Spd" or "Spe"): The Speed stat is, in its own way, the most relevant stat to competitive battling. Speed determines turn order in a very simple fashion: whoever has higher Speed goes first, and, if there is a tie in Speed, the two Pokémon tied will have equal chances of moving first. For example, a Pokémon with 210 Speed will almost always move before a Pokémon with 200 Speed; if two Pokémon have 200 Speed, then they are 50% likely to move first. However, this assumes that they are using moves of the same Priority. A further note of importance is that Speed also determines your critical hit rate - the base Speed divided by 512 is the rate of critical hits for you. (See: "Priority", "Critical hit")

• Stat EXP.: Later known as EVs when the system was changed, stat EXP. is a means of altering your stats. Each Pokémon can earn Stat EXP. in their five stats, and their stat EXP. ranges from 0 to 65536. The growth rate of the stat in question is equal to [sqrt(Stat EXP)] / 4 at Level 100-- at the most, a 64-point gain, just like EVs, but the mechanics are different. EVs are earned from two means -- battles and Vitamins. When defeating a Pokémon in battle, the base stats of the defeated Pokémon are added to the respective Stat EXP. values, so a Mew, for example, will add 100 Stat EXP. to all stats. There is no limit on the total Stat EXP. across all stats, though. Vitamins also can boost Stat EXP. by 2,560 points for a single stat, but not above 25,600 Stat EXP.

• Status (1): A move Class that does not deal direct damage. It instead says that the move will do something else, based on the move itself.

• Status (2): Refers to a status condition that often inhibits the afflicted Pokémon; also known as an ailment. You should see the Status Ailments list for full details.

• Switching In/Out: The act of choosing to switch out a Pokémon currently out with a different one in your party. Doing so has a number of consequences. When used, people usually do it one of several things. One is to eliminate stat changes, infatuation, and confusion, among a few other things from the Pokémon, which can be lethal if left unattended. Another is when the Pokémon is seen as likely to be attacked by a weakness-piercing attack and thus to switch to a Pokémon resisting that move rather than suffering death. For example, say you have Gyarados (Water/Flying) out versus Jolteon (Electric). Jolteon is fast and strong, and most importantly can learn Thunderbolt, which OHKO's Gyarados with ease due to the double-weakness to Electric plus STAB, resulting in 6x damage. By switching to a Ground Pokémon, however, you gain an important advantage and also avoid damage.

• Technical Machine (TM): An item you can use to teach a Pokémon the move contained on the TM, if the Pokémon can learn it. There are 100 in all, so collect 'em all!

• Trainer ID & Secret ID: If you check any Pokémon you yourself caught or check your Trainer Card, you'll notice that you have an ID. Everyone has an ID number attached to them, and there are 65536 possible numbers (00000 - 65535). There is also a hidden or "secret" ID you cannot see. It is also randomized, is unlikely to be the same as your seen Trainer ID, and also ranges from 00000 to 65535. The use of two IDs helps to ward off hackers; it also helps to ensure that the odds of any two players getting the same two IDs (both Trainer and Secret) is 1 in 4,294,967,296 (one in about 4 (American) billion chances). The uses of IDs are mostly in terms of breeding and EXP. growth in later generations.

• Type: Every move in the game will have a type attached to it, and every Pokémon will have one or two types given to it simultaneously. Types are like elements in Pokémon: they determine what is super-effective or resistant to what. For example, you can see Fire moves doing lots of damage to Grass Pokémon, right? And also see how the same Fire-type move would likely deal less damage to a Water Pokémon? While not all type-effectiveness relationships are so simple, they are nonetheless important to learn! There are eighteen types in all: Normal, Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Ground, Bug, Dark, Psychic, Ghost, Flying, Rock, Ice, Dragon, Fighting, Poison, Steel, and Fairy.

• Vitamin: A particular type of used item. "Vitamins" is the general term for the items HP Up, Protein, Iron, Calcium, Zinc (in later games), and Carbos, which are items used on Pokémon to raise their stat experience. (See: Stat EXP.)

Version Exclusives

As with other paired Pokémon titles, there are certain things exclusive to each version of the game. Here they are, and they are limited solely to Pokémon.

Pokémon Capture

• Step #1 - Situational Characteristics: These are things based on where and when you're doing this.
  • If the target is a Marowak on Pokémon Tower 6F, the rate is 0%.
  • If the ball used is a Master Ball, the rate is 100%.
  • Otherwise, a random number (R1) is generated, based on the Pokéball used.
    • Poké Ball: 0 to 255
    • Great Ball: 0 to 200
    • Ultra Ball: 0 to 150
    • Safari Ball: 0 to 150

• Step #2 - Status: Based on the status of the Pokémon. This variable S will be 25 if the target is asleep or frozen, 12 if poisoned, burned, or paralyzed, and 0 otherwise.

• Step #3 - Capture Chance 1: Find S - R1 to define a new variable CC1 (capture chance one). If S - R1 = CC1 < 0, then the Pokémon is caught. Otherwise, we proceed onward. Some notes:
  • This means that a Poké Ball has, at this point, 1/256 chance to catch an unstatused Pokémon, 13/256 (5%) for S = 12, and (10%) for S = 25.
  • Likewise, the Great Ball has odds of 1/200 (0.5%), 13/200 (6.5%), and 26/200 (13%) respectively.
  • And the Ultra and Safari Balls have odds of 1/150 (0.6%), 13/150 (8.7%), and 26/150 (17.3%).

• Step #4 - Health: At this point, we calculate the max health factor, MHF. For this, we find the target's Max HP times 255, then divide by a value: 8 if using a Great Ball and 12 otherwise. Then divide by the current health divided by four to determined the current health factor, CHF. Then divided MHF by CHF. Or, in short, (Max HP * 255) / (8 or 12) / (Current HP / 4), or, simpler: (Max HP * 255) / (Currernt HP * (32 or 48)). If this value exceeds 255, it is reduced to 255. We dub this now the HP Factor, F.

• Step #5 - Base Catch Rate: If the base catch rate of the Pokémon is now less than CC1, capture fails and we skip on to the appropriate step. Otherwise, continue.

• Step #6 - HP-Based Capture: Another random number R2 is generated. It ranges from 0 to 255. If R2 < F, the Pokémon is captured.

• Step #7 - Capture Failed: We multiply the Pokémon's catch rate by 100 to help determine the number of wiggles, W. This step is probably pointless to most of you - in any case, it means we failed, and just want to determine the animation of the Pokéball.
  • W is divided by 255 for a Poké Ball, 200 for a Great Ball, and 150 for an Ultra/Safari Ball. If W > 255, the ball wiggles three times.
  • If not, find W * F / 255, then add 5 to this if the Pokémon is poisoned, burned, or paralyzed, or 10 if frozen or asleep. If W < 10, the ball misses altogether. If 10 < W < 29, there is one wiggle. If 30 < W < 69, the ball wiggles twice. If W > 70, the ball wiggles three times.

Status Ailments

There are several ailments that can affect your Pokémon in this game, and many have unnamed effects, as below. Also note that Pokémon can only have one of the main ailments (Paralysis, Burn, Poison, Bad Poisoning, Sleep, KO/Faint) at one time, although the rest can accumulate as much as the person doing the damage allows - and, of course, KO overrides everything. The six ailments are listed first as Major Ailments for that reason. (Not that they're the worst or anything. It just helps to differentiate.) Several more of the Moderate Ailments are named so because they are still often used and often considered ailments, but not are the most threatening and they can stack. And, of course, these are extended to include pretty much anything that would be considered a status (a change to a single Pokémon) by Pokémon Showdown (a great battle sim) - most these would be considered Minor Ailments, which are mostly move- or item-caused with relatively unimportant effects or "duh" effects. Let me know if I forgot something.

Also, keep in mind that the cures are there for a reason. Yes, [[Flash Fire]] may not be a status you'd want to get off of your Pokémon, since it has nothing but benefits. But what if your opponent had the status? Remember, these go both ways, and not all statuses have to (or can) be cured with simple items that you'd be unable to use in normal competition, but also various moves. Switching out, for example, can be done via Roar to hit the opponent, or Parting Shot or U-turn or Volt Switch or more methods for yourself.

Major Ailments

Bad Poisoning

Cures: Antidote (item); Full Heal (item); Full Restore (item); Rest (move);

Immunizers: Being Poisoned, Badly Poisoned, Frozen, Burned, Paralyzed, or KO'd when the ailment is given

Details & Effects: This degree of Poisoning is executed via the move Toxic, double-layered Toxic Spikes, or the Toxic Orb, or a random chance from Poison Fang. The HP loss will actually increment on the afflicted Pokémon from 1/16 to 2/16 to 3/16 to 4/16 from there on out, causing death in about five turns without being hit or healed. Otherwise, the same as Poison.

Burn

Cures: Burn Heal (item); Full Heal (item); Full Restore (item); Rest (move)

Immunizers: Being Poisoned, Badly Poisoned, Frozen, Burned, Paralyzed, or KO'd when the ailment is given

Details & Effects: The afflicted Pokémon will lose 12.5% (1/8) of their max HP per turn, essentially causing KO in eight turns for sure barring healing. Additionally, the Pokémon's physical Attack (Atk.) is halved, with all bonuses accounted for. Thus, this status is great for inhibiting strong physical attackers.

Frozen

Cures: Ice Heal (item); Full Heal (item); Full Restore (item); being hit with a Fire-type move; attempting to use a Fire-type move

Immunizers: Being Poisoned, Badly Poisoned, Frozen, Burned, Paralyzed, or KO'd when the ailment is given

Details & Effects: The afflicted Pokémon is absolutely and completely inactive for an indeterminate number of turns. Unlike Sleep, there's only a 20% for the Pokémon to be unfrozen at the start of their turn. When in battle, and they do not thaw out on a turn they attempt to take action in, they are completely left wide-open for damage, which is why this status can be very lethal - at the same time, though, Frozen is only induced via moves that have a 10% ~ 30% chance to do it as compensation. They will be thawed out after some time, when healed via an item, or hit with a Fire-type move of any sort. Using a Fire-type move will also thaw out the afflicted Pokémon, so attempting to freeze Fire-type Pokémon especially tends to be in vain.

KO/Faint

Cures: Revive (item); Max Revive (item)

Immunizers: None

Details & Effects: The Pokémon is absolutely unable to act in any way until revived from KO (such as by a Revive). This happens when the Pokémon hits 0 HP, so be sure to keep it high: if all Pokémon in your party hit zero HP, then you lose the battle and return to the last-used Pokémon Center. (The latter only really occurs in in-game battles: in multiplayer battles with other people, you simply lose.) Pokémon who are KO'ed, though, can still use their HM moves in the field.

Paralysis

Cures: Paralyze Heal (item); Full Heal (item); Full Restore (item); Rest (move)

Immunizers: Being Poisoned, Badly Poisoned, Frozen, Burned, Paralyzed, or KO'd when the ailment is given

Details & Effects: This ailment will, most notably, make it where the Pokémon has a 25% chance of doing nothing on a given turn. This will also quarter their Speed (with all boosts accounted for), typically making them the last to move. However, that Speed loss will not affect the priority of their moves, just the order in which they move when there are conflicts in regards to priority.

Poison

Cures: Antidote (item); Full Heal (item); Full Restore (item); Rest (move);

Immunizers: Being Poisoned, Badly Poisoned, Frozen, Burned, Paralyzed, or KO'd when the ailment is given

Details & Effects: The afflicted Pokémon will lose 1/8 (12.5%) of its HP every turn. That's about it, really.

Sleep

Cures: Awakening (item); Poek Flute (item); Full Heal (item); Full Restore (item); waiting several turns

Immunizers: Being Poisoned, Badly Poisoned, Frozen, Burned, Paralyzed, or KO'd when the ailment is given

Details & Effects: The afflicted Pokémon will be unable to act. However, they can act in a manner by choosing the move Sleep Talk or Snore when their turn arises. The loss of action is temporal, but its length is random: it usually lasts around two or three turns, but can range from 1 to 7. The only exception to that is Rest, which is two turns of Sleep. There is little advantage to this beyond Rest-Sleep Talk/Rest-Snore combos. An additional negative effect of Sleeping is that Dream Eater can be used on the Sleeping Pokémon to damage them and absorb HP.

Moderate Ailments

Confused

Cures: Switching out, waiting several turns, Full Heal (item)

Immunizers: Having already been Confused;

Details & Effects: The Pokémon has a chance of hitting itself on a given turn, thus doing damage to itself: the odds seem to be about 25% ~ 50%. This lasts for 1 to 4 turns. Additionally, the damage dealt upon hitting itself will be proportional to the Pokémon's Attack stat, stat boosts and items included, which is why the move Swagger (Confusion, Attack +2 stages) is so effective on physical attackers in later games.

Flinch

Cures: None

Immunizers: Already having flinched in the same turn

Details & Effects: Some moves - Fake Out, most prominently, these days - have a chance to make the opponent Flinch and thus not act on the turn given.

Minor Ailments

Charging & Recharging

Cures: None

Immunizers: None

Details & Effects: The Pokémon is either charging up for a move (e.g. Solar Beam, Sky Attack) or is recovering from a move (e.g. Hyper Beam, Blast Burn). Thus, they will not act for one turn. Depending on the move, other effects may be attributed to this.

Disabled

Cures: Switching out, waiting several turns

Immunizers: Having already been disabled

Details & Effects: This simply implies that, for some reason, one of the Pokémon's moves cannot be used: the last-used one.

Digging

Cures: None

Immunizers: None

Details & Effects: The Pokémon is using the move Dig, and cannot be hit by most moves - however, Digging Pokémon with Earthquake or Magnitude, each for double the normal power. They will attack on the next turn.

Flying & Bouncing

Cures: None

Immunizers: None

Details & Effects: The Pokémon is using the moves Fly or Bounce, and cannot be hit by most moves, barring Thunder, Gust, and Sky Uppercut. They will attack on the next turn.

Imprisoning/Imprisoned

Cures: Defeating the Pokémon doing the Imprisoning

Immunizers: Having already been imprisoned

Details & Effects: The Pokémon being Imprisoned by the move of the same name cannot use any moves known by the Pokémon doing the Imprisoning.

Leech Seed

Cures: Switching out

Immunizers: Having already been hit with Leech Seed

Details & Effects: The Pokémon has been afflicted with Leech Seed, and will lose 1/16 of its max HP every turn, which will be used to heal the user of Leech Seed or whoever switches into his slot. This has an interesting side-effect with Bad Poisoning in that it and Toxic will forcibly increase the other's damage: Toxic does 1/16, then Leech Seed will do 2/16, Toxic later deals 3/16, Leech Seed 4/16... It's deadly.

Light Screen

Cures: Waiting for 5 turns

Immunizers: Having already used Light Screen

Details & Effects: All damage from Special-class attacks is reduced for the afflicted party. The move lasts 5 turns. The damage reduction is by 50% (to half). However, critical hits will be able to go through Light Screen and Reflect, so beware of this.

Protect

Cures: None

Immunizers: None

Details & Effects: The Pokémon will not be affected by any moves on the turn when this is used, except for Transform. This has a chance of failing with consecutive use: 1/X, where X is the number of consecutive uses this use of the move will make.

Reflect

Cures: Waiting for 5 turns

Immunizers: Having already used Reflect

Details & Effects: All damage from Physical-class attacks is reduced for the afflicted party. The move lasts 5 turns. The damage reduction is by 50% (to half). However, critical hits will be able to go through Light Screen and Reflect, so beware of this.

Stat Change

Cures: Switching out, or ways to induce the opposite effect (moves/items/etc.), some of which (Haze) remove them all by definition

Immunizers: None!

Details & Effects: The Pokémon has had its statistics changed in some manner or another. The section Stat Changes In Battle is better at explaining this.

Substitute

Cures: Defeating the Substitute; the Infiltrator ability allows ignorance of this

Immunizers: None

Details & Effects: Substitutes arise when the move Substitute is used; it will sacrifice 25% of the user's max HP to get out a doll that has the same amount of HP; thus, most Pokémon using this move are often EV-trained for their HP and Defenses, or HP at minimum. (For example, a Pokémon with 324/400 HP uses Substitute: their Substitute has 100 HP, which is 1/4 of 400.) Since the Substitute needs to be killed before the real Pokémon can be hurt, these Pokémon also will use Focus Punch sometimes, a particularly common tactic among Breloom in later games, especially in Single Battles since the opponent's turn is wasted using the move that removes the Substitute.

Transform

Cures: Switching out

Immunizers: None

Details & Effects: Enacted by the move Transform, the Pokémon will become the same as the target. This means they copy stats (except HP) with level-based adjustments (in other words: Level 50 Ditto copies Level 100 Pokémon with 400 Attack, Ditto has 200), stat changes, moves (PP will become 5/5 for all moves, despite any PP UP'ing), and ability; pretty much the only things not copied are HP and item held. This is a bit gimmicky, but can work on Pokémon EV-trained for HP, and it's amazingly common for Blissey to be chosen for Imposter on Pokémon Showdown metagames that allow illegal ability/moveset changes (since Blissey has the highest HP of all, and then can copy awesome stats).

The "Minor" Details - DVs & Stat EXP.

Sectional Flowchart

• Introduction to These Values
• Stat Experience
• Dynamic Values (DVs)

Introduction to These Values

These are the reasons why two Pokémon - even of the same species, and even raised by the exact same person - could end up drastically different. They can be the difference between a Pokémon using a physical- or special-oriented moveset. They can be the difference between going with a speedy Dragonite or a bulky one that abuses Dragon Dance. They can be the reason behind an effective Pokémon that knows Transform. When properly manipulated, many new strategies open up for your Pokémon, for you are more free in manipulating their statistics. With the proper knowledge, you can actually calculate the Pokémon's Level 100 stats before the Pokémon has even been hatched!

And so, you need to learn what these are, how they work, and how to manipulate them to your own advantages. Keep in mind that this section is absolutely by no means intended to be read by people who do not intend to battle against other, real-life people in a competitive setting. You will not need to know any of this stuff to get through the game at all.

Within the following sections, I will discuss what the nature of these stats and what they do, and more exactly how one can manipulate them in their own favor to help them make their Pokémon - for their strategy - completely and utterly flawless.

Stat Experience

How do your stats grow? Well, with every level-up, your stats are recalculated. A Stat EXP. boost will be applied as needed -- the boost is equal to "sqrt(Stat EXP.) / 4" at Level 100, and proportionate amounts below. Stat EXP. can range from 0 to 65,536, and is applied individually to each stat, so any and all stats can receive a boost of 64 points by Level 100. Unlike EVs, there is no limitation across all your stats: each stat can have the maximum value if desired.

So, how do you gain Stat EXP.? Well, there are two means. The first is the most obvious -- by defeating opposing Pokémon. Each Pokémon, as you may know, has a set of base stats that determine its individual stat growth; well, when you defeat a Pokémon, the Pokémon's base stat values are added to your stat EXP. So say you beat a Pokémon with a 154 base Attack stat - you then get 154 Attack stat EXP.! The alternative method is to use Vitamins, like HP Ups and Proteins -- these boost your stats by 2,560 Stat EXP., but will not do more than 25,600 points of growth.

Dynamic Values (DVs)

Each stat has its own unique DV value. Four of these are determined at random: Attack, Defense, Special, and Speed. Their values also range at random from 0 to 15, but are stored in binary, so they range from 0000-1111 in binary. The significance of this is that it is the DVs of these four that determine the HP DV - specifically, the "one's" digit of each binary number in the order named previously will be taken together. So DVs of 0101, 0111, 0000, and 0001 - 5, 7, 0, and 1 respectively - will result in an HP DV of 1101, or 13. But, in practice, they're simply random.

The influence of DVs is pretty basic - you'll earn that a number of points in that stat equal to double the DVs by Level 100. DVs are completely set-in from the time your Pokémon is found, so they cannot be changed.

Misc. Game Mechanics

Sectional Format

• Stat Changes In Battle
• Move Priority
• Damage Calculation
• EXP. Earning Mechanics
• Statistical Growth

Stat Changes In Battle

• Introduction and Basics - The basics of stat changing
• Stat Change Accumulations - What two changes in opposing stats (i.e. boosted Attack and lowered Defense) accumulates to!

Introduction and Basics

Stat Change Accumulations

• Attack changes on you will oppose those of your opponent's Defense, and vice versa
• The same holds true for Sp. Atk. and Sp. Def., barring a few moves that consider Defense in lieu of Sp. Def. (thus, the first chart applies for both Physical and Special attacks)
• Accuracy changes on you will oppose those of your opponent's Evasion, and vice versa

Move Priority

Let's say you use it. And then I use Protect. But my Protect goes first somehow (even assuming you're faster than me). What gives?

See, what the game doesn't mention is that these "goes first"/"goes last" moves will have different priorities. Some moves will go before others, and others later than others, and that is simply how it works - no matter your Speed stat, if you don't use a higher-priority move, a +1 priority move like Quick Attack, even used by the slowest Pokémon ever, will go first.

The purpose of this section is to simply list the priority of moves and such. So, here we go...

Oh, a few more things.

• Priority +6: Attempts to flee battle
• Priority +5: Use of items by trainers
• Priority +4: Pokémon switching out (not forced by moves/items); the charging up of Focus Punch (not its execution)
• Priority +3: Protect
• Priority +2: Extreme Speed, Feint
• Priority +1: Bullet Punch, Ice Shard, Mach Punch, Quick Attack
• Priority ±0: Most moves
• Priority -1: (none)
• Priority -2: Counter, Mirror Coat
• Priority -3: Roar, Whirlwind

Damage Calculation

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 DAMAGE = {{[(2 * ULv. / 5) + 2] * UATK * UBP / TDEF / 50} + 2} * STAB * EFF * (RND / 100) * BMOD
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   ULv. = User's Level

   UATK = User's Attack or Special Attack (which is used is move-dependent)

    UBP = The base power of the user's move

   TDEF = The target's Defense or Special Defense (which is used is move-dependent)

   STAB = 1.00 if the move's type and the user's do not match
          1.50 if the move's type and the user's do match

    EFF = 0.00 if the move is not effective at all (i.e. Fighting on Ghost)
          0.25 if the move is double-resisted (i.e. Water on a Grass/Dragon)
          0.50 if the move is single-resisted (i.e. Water on a Dragon)
          1.00 if the move is normally effective (i.e. Water on a Normal)
          2.00 if the move is singly-super-effective (i.e. Water on Fire)
          4.00 if the move is doubly-super-effective (i.e. Water on Fire/Ground)

    RND = Random number from 85 to 100

   BMOD = If you have the badge boosting your attacking stat, this is 1.125, and 1 otherwise.

You can also derive the fact that your move has a damage range based on the random-number variable. The move, on average, will usually favor the numbers 92 or 93 for the RND variable, causing a range of 85% to 100% of the move's full power and a room of error of ±7.5% from 92.5%. In another way, it demonstrates a near-linear correlation among the stats when you calculate them: that doubling Defense halves damage, or doubling Attack doubles damage, or that the Base Powers of moves, when using the same Attack/Defense, make equal damage. That latter fact is itself very concerning when it comes to the use of mixed-attackers, those that use both Special and Physical moves, and it thus helps to equalize their Attack and Sp. Atk. to be able to accurately use what you deign to be the best move for the situation.

EXP. Earning Mechanics

Most RPGs take a relatively simplistic approach to this; even Pokémon did for a while. Essentially, in the olden days, enemies would give out flat amounts of EXP. representative of their species, and Pokémon did little more to fix that than adding a relevance to Level into the formula. The formula has since changed (back in Black/White) so that the formula also considers the victorious Pokémon's own Level, thereby making higher-leveled Pokémon earn less EXP. from battles so as to counteract the possibility of overleveling simply as a result of completionism. Of course, that seems to have been removed as early as Pokémon X/Y (2013), though the evidence is not concrete as of yet.

Throughout the course of this section, we will first discuss the mechanics of the "EXP. groups" before the actual mechanics of earning EXP. and the calculation thereof. Okay so far? Here's a full flowchart for the section:

• EXP. Groups - An explanation of the grouping of Pokémon by EXP. earned, and the associated formulas
• EXP. Growth Chart - A visualization of the growth formulas
• EXP. Earning - An explanation of the earning of EXP., and the formulas and mechanics concerning it

EXP. Groups

• Erratic: This is the fastest leveling group, hitting 600,000 by Level 100. Also called "Very Fast", and originally named Erractic due to its changing EXP. formula: it changes four times between Levels 1 and 100.
• Fast: This group hits 800,000 by Level 100.
• Medium-Fast: This group hits 1,000,000 by Level 100.
• Medium-Slow: This group hits 1,059,680 by Level 100.
• Slow: This group hits 1,250,000 by Level 100.
• Fluctuating: Another variable group in terms of the formula (three total formulae), it will hit 1,640,000 EXP. at Level 100.

EXP. Growth Chart

However, that interestingly led to a glitch in the original Pokémon games. Admittedly, it wasn't much of a concern then: until the release of Diamond/Pearl in 2007 (which patched this glitch), it was impossible to get Level 1 Pokémon. In Pokémon Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow, however, you can utilize variants of the Mew Glitch or Old Man Glitch (look it up) so that you end up with Level 0 or Level 1 Pokémon. Since the glitch wasn't patched then, for whatever reason earning enough EXP. at Level 1 to level-up would cause the Pokémon to grow straight to Level 100. This is because the negative number was interpreted as negative, but games often don't store negatives unless their bytes are signed (which they're not in this instance), and thus felt to be a large positive number, which was in turn considered be the large amount of EXP. needed to hit Level 100 once the level-up was triggered. ... I think. Anyhow. Trivia.

EXP. Earning

Here's everything affecting EXP. earnings:

• EXP. Share: Divides the EXP. among all Pokémon in the party if turned on: the participating Pokémon get the normal EXP. value whereas the rest get 50%.
• Lucky Egg: Holding a Lucky Egg gives the holder 50% extra EXP.
• Species: All Pokémon have a basal value used in the EXP. gain formula corresponding to their species. You can see (most) of the values in the [[Pokémon Stats (Misc. #2)]] section, with the values being organized in numerical order in the [[Pokémon by EXP. Base Value]] section.
• Level: Again, both the winning and losing Pokémon's levels are considered.
• Trainer/Wild Pokémon?: Fighting Trainer-owned Pokémon is an automatic 50% gain.
• OT/Original Trainer: If you are not the Pokémon's original owner (i.e. it was traded), it gets 50% more EXP. if it was from the same country as you, and 70% if not. For example, I'm in the U.S. My American Pikachu could earn 1,000 EXP., someone else's American Pikachu would earn 1,500 EXP. from me, and a Japanese Pikachu would earn 1,700 EXP.
• Pokémon-Amie Affection: Having 2 Hearts or more in Pokémon-Amie gives the Pokémon 20% extra EXP.
• EXP. O-Power: The EXP. O-Power can give party-wide 20%, 50%, or 100% EXP. boosts.
• Can It Evolve?: Excluding Mega-Evolutions, if the Pokémon is above the level at which it evolves, it gets 20% extra EXP. For example, Charmeleon evolves into Charizard at Level 36. If I would earn 1,000 EXP. with a Level 20 Charmeleon, I would earn 1,200 EXP. at Level 40 (assuming everything was adjusted so that I'd earn 1,000 EXP. at Level 40 still).

This is how it would be in the form of a formula:

   ---------------------------------------------------------------------
   EXP. GAIN = BASE * LV * WT * OT * EVO / 7 / SHARE
   ---------------------------------------------------------------------
        BASE = Species-dependent value
 
          LV = The losing Pokémon's level

          WT = 1.0 (norm) if the defeated Pokémon is wild
             = 1.5 (+50%) if the defeated Pokémon is Trainer-owned 

          OT = 1.0 (norm) if the Pokémon is yours
             = 1.5 (+50%) if the Pokémon is not yours, but from the same country
             = 1.7 (+70%) if the Pokémon is not yours and from another country

         EVO = 1.0 (norm) if the Pokémon cannot evolve at its current level
             = 1.2 (+20%) if the Pokémon can evolve at its current level

       SHARE = Number of Pokémon that participated in the fight (if you lack EXP. All)
             = Double the number of Pokémon that fought and did not fight times
               the number of Pokémon in your party (thus dividing it among them all) with it

Statistical Growth

  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  General  = (Adjusted Base Value             + Adjusted Stat EXP. Gains       + Adjusted DV Gains       + Final Adjustment)
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  MAX HP   = {[(2 * BASE) + 10] * (LV / 100)} + [(sqrt(EXP) / 4) * (LV / 100)] + [DVs * 2 * [(LV / 100)] + LV + 100}
  ATTACK   = {[(2 * BASE) + 5] * (LV / 100)}  + [(sqrt(EXP) / 4) * (LV / 100)] + [DVs * 2 * [(LV / 100)] + 5}
  DEFENSE  = {[(2 * BASE) + 5] * (LV / 100)}  + [(sqrt(EXP) / 4) * (LV / 100)] + [DVs * 2 * [(LV / 100)] + 5} 
  SPECIAL  = {[(2 * BASE) + 5] * (LV / 100)}  + [(sqrt(EXP) / 4) * (LV / 100)] + [DVs * 2 * [(LV / 100)] + 5}
  SPEED    = {[(2 * BASE) + 5] * (LV / 100)}  + [(sqrt(EXP) / 4) * (LV / 100)] + [DVs * 2 * [(LV / 100)] + 5}
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  "BASE" = The base stat value for this stat on this Pokémon, between 1 and 255 inclusive
  "EXP"  = The Stat Experience on this Pokémon for this stat, between 0 and 65,536 inclusive
  "DVs"  = The number of IVs on this Pokémon for this stat, between 0 and 15 inclusive
  "LV"   = The Pokémon's current level, between 1 and 100 inclusive

As you can see, your statistics are proportionate to certain characteristics of the Pokémon: the base stat, which determines general stat growth (75~80 is "average", competition-wise); your level, of course; your Stat EXP., which are earned from beating enemies or certain items; your DVs, which cannot be changed. All of these factors can be manipulated, other than the base stats (unless you count changing the Pokémon), and thus, you can specifically manipulate the growth of stats to the degree where you can calculate the exact stats of a Pokémon at any given level before you even experimentally test these things.

Competitive Pokémon Strategy

Also note that the term "competitive" refers to the arena in which players of the game actually battle each other, something itself that goes above and beyond the level of typical in-game strategies. Of course, you don't have to follow these guidelines on the whole: EV-training, IV-breeding, and Nature optimization are things that can take hours more than most strategies. If that's not your thing, remember that, while statistics do play a role, strategy is the most important thing.

In any case, here's the overview for this section:

• ********************** READ THIS FIRST!!!! **********************

• The Beginner's Course: For the newbie competitive player.
  • Learn Your Types!
  • STAB - Same-Type Attack Bonus
  • How to Make a Good Team - A Superficial Guide
  • Common Pokémon Roles
  • Choosing Your Hold Items
  • In-Battle Prediction
  • Overview of Themed Teams
  • The Element of Luck

• Intermediate Poké-Mechanics: For those having competitively battled for a few months.
  • Idealizing Pokémon Stats
  • Threat Analysis

Important Notes About This Section

This whole section was created in the intent of giving people that helpful "step up" to the competitive level of Pokémon playing against other skilled players. By absolutely no means will this work for everyone: everything here, at least of the initial writing, was written by me after thorough, in-depth observations of how people tend to play, and how successful people tend to play. Subjectivity is inevitable: it may not help you, but it may help the next person, so I simply ask for you to do two things: first to take this with a grain of salt and, second, to respect the opinions herein; "respect" implies nothing about your own agreement with the opinions, but your acceptance of their validity (they work very well for me and for others), and I ask this in no small part because the Pokémon community is rather flammatory and touchy at times. At the same time, that doesn't mean I'm not open to additional opinions or topics to cover: if anything, that's what I'm hoping for, since this FAQ will be certainly viewed by millions (my X/Y FAQ got over 5,000,000 across the Internet, and over 2,000,000 on just GameFAQs, in just 10 months) one could sort of view this as a community project to help out everyone else, especially since anyone who actually does use this will likely branch off and develop their own successful style of play.

Again, this is not to provide the whole of a person's Pokémon strategy, but the foundation for it: the whole "the man who built his house upon the sand" metaphor, if you will. A successful foundation (knowledge) can be built using the standards here, but the point where I leave everyone off is the specific development - on the team structure, Pokémon-specific level - of one's own strategy. I can give you the foundation, but cannot give you the house, which you must build yourself. (Yup, I'm that bad of a contractor lol.) The foundations of all strategies (what I give here) usually converge or are based upon what I put here, but the houses (what you come up with after this) are all unique. But a house cannot stand without a firm foundation: I have encountered a number of teams whose Pokémon don't even differentiate between Special and Physical moves (not even attempting to use mixed-attacker sets, mind you) and thereby are terrible, because they clearly don't have that firm knowledge foundation of what differentiates between Physical and Special and thereby cannot make the most of their power; they are the houses upon the sand. Hopefully, I will make your house the one upon the rock - though whether a grand old mansion is built upon that rock is based upon your application and practical usage of the knowledge and experience you learn here and later.

(This isn't just some Biblical metaphor; it has realistic, proven consequences in the field of psychology, but the "house upon the sand" metaphor is the best way to explain it. It was evidenced by Lev Vygotsky in the earlier part of the 20th century in his work with psychological scaffolding: building the knowledge base that leads people to develop their own conclusions and ideas.)

Every competitive Pokémon player can recall the difficulty and aid they needed when it came to going from someone who could barely beat the Battle Tower to the time where they felt ready to compete on the world level: VERY few of you can honestly attest to not having to do any sort of research or practice, VERY few indeed. That's why this is here: to hopefully lessen that threshold and to help the community as a whole by grouping together lots of competitive-related info in one spot (or to at least make external references to useful tools or other areas in the FAQ) and by allowing people to cotnribute to the effort. I simply ask you don't troll needlessly; if you're going to troll, at least give me something I can add to this to prevent others from trolling or to openly validate why you yourself should have trolled in the first place. And, if you are going to add something, remember that this is based on generalities: I will not include data or strategies for specific Pokémon unless I have good reason to do so, since there are other websites for this sort of info (i.e. Smogon). But few actually explain the basics of strategic battling, or even gather all of the components together (like breeding and EV-training), which is why I'm here.

Learn Your Types!

STAB - Same-Type Attack Bonus

How to Make a Good Team - A Superficial Guide

Step #0 - The Basest of All Knowledge: Before you should even consider battling competitively, one thing you'll want to master is types' resistances, weaknesses, and immunities, as I already noted. You need to know how these types interact, both when a Pokémon has one type, two types, and even be able to extrapolate how a third type will affect things (unlikely as it may be to occur). You should also learn the types of all Pokémon. This affects everything you will ultimately ever do competitively. This will help you determine what is truly a balanced or imbalanced team. This will help you determine when to stay in for the kill or switch out to avoid being killed. Types are at the heart of Pokémon strategy, and coming in without that knowledge is much like swinging at a piñata while blindfolded: you fail to know where both you and your foe stand, though that piñata can clearly see both of you.

Furthermore, you need to learn the type of every move and Pokémon: otherwise, you cannot apply the knowledge of the type matchups. This is a bit more formidable: some Pokémon appear their type, but then others are starkly different. (Blaziken, for example, clearly looks to be a Fire and a Fighting type. However, who would think Metagross to be part-Psychic or Florges to be a Fairy just on appearances?) Part of this will be made easier by repeated experience with Pokémon battling and through rote learning: either one works. (So does writing Pokémon FAQs! lol)

Step #1 - Choosing the Type of Battle: For starters, your team needs to have a strategy fitting the type of battle you want. Double and Triple Battles take a lot more strategy to work for than Single Battles because multiple Pokémon are on the field at once. Just because Earthquake is a powerful move doesn't mean you need it in a Triple Battle, for example. I mean, you need a way to try to deal with the damage your other one or two allying Pokémon would get. Also try to understand the mechanics of the battle you are trying to deal with. For example, understand the definition of a Long Range move for Triple Battles; that will be insanely important when it comes to putting someone in a certain slot at any point in the battle. Most of the strategy in any kind of battle will be derived simply from definitions or certain roles of Pokémon; for example, Support Pokémon are much more common in Triple Battles than Single Battles.

Some common notes for each:

Single Battles: In Single Battles (the most popular of competitive battling fields, and thus the one with the most knowledge available), one of the biggest themes is Entry Hazards-setting Pokémon, at least in the competitive field. These allow you to set up a way to nullify Sturdy and the like and, more obviously, deal damage to all sorts of Pokémon to come after the first. Even if you remove 1/8 of the foe's HP per Pokémon, you're talking about damage equivalent to 3/4 of the foe's HP across six (were that even possible). The best hazard setter is probably Skarmory since it can use Stealth Rocks (the most directly potent one), learn Defog (to get rid of the hazards the foe uses on you), and use Roar/Whirlwind to force the foe to switch, forcing damage accumulation.

Another common theme in Singles are walling Pokémon. Unless those types with multiple battling Pokémon, there's only one foe on each side of the field, so prediction is pretty easy. Thus, you can easily see when a walling Pokémon will be at an advantage as it will take little damage from the predicted attack, and can even force the foe to switch if done right. Blissey qualifies as THE Special-wall, boasting insane HP and decent Sp. Def.: personally, Eviolite Chansey (slightly lower in each regard, and then boosted with Eviolite's 50% boost) is better, but to each their own. Physical walls are pretty variable.

There isn't much else common to Singles teams aside from these, at least nothing popular of note.

Double Battles: In Double Battles - the most balanced of all battle types: if you hate Smogon Singles, for Christ's sake, stop whining and play these! - statistics and walling and all that junk takes less precedence. While they by all means matter, prediction and strategy suddenly take the spotlight: you now have two Pokémon per side. Even Pokémon that would be labeled Uber by Smogon can easily fall if it just because of a focused strike.

In Doubles, competitive battling is much less predictable: common themes are few, but those that exist have strong, obvious builds. Weather teams and Trick Room teams become much more valuable, however, due to the multiple influences: teams using these tend to use the weather setter and a primary beneficiary for the opening. By the latter term, I mean someone who would benefit the most on the team. For example, on a Sandstorm team, a Pokémon with Sand Rush or Sand Force is invaluable. On a Trick Room team, a really slow, bulky attacker works quite well. So on and so forth.

Teams built around Intimidate also exist: these teams seek to use 2-4 Pokémon with the Intimidate ability on their team, repeatedly switching out or something so as to lower the foes' Attack. While unusually common as of late, they are particularly gimmicky as Special-oriented teams (even to a slight extent) fell them easily.

Similarly, teams built around Lightning Rod and Storm Drain seek to boost their allies' Sp. Atk. Teams built around Lightning Rod will have Pokémon using Discharge so as to hit the Lightning Rod Pokémon, and those with Storm Drain tend to use Surf to hit the Storm Drain Pokémon. Each time one of these moves hits the corresponding ability wielder, it raises their Sp. Atk. by one stage: some teams will even open with two such ability wielders and use two Discharges/Surfs and double their Sp. Atk. off the bat. However, teams built around this are particularly imbalanced in terms of type.

The Support-style opening is also quite common, and is a fair threat. The opponent will usually open with a Pokémon which is powerful and a Pokémon to support it. The powerful Pokémon is often a Mega Pokémon and/or a sweeper. The Support Pokémon has a number of forms: Talonflame, Meowstic, Sableye, and Whimsicott are the more common ones. They will usually use Tailwind or Helping Hand to ridiculously aid their team: Reflect, Light Screen, and/or Safeguard are also common. They can also take a more "offensive" stance with hindering their foe: a Thunder Wave to induce Paralysis and halve Speed, perhaps, or maybe a Will-O-Wisp to burn and halve Attack. Support Pokémon - either for true support or to ail the foe - are not to be taken lightly, and Pranksters especially.

Multi-target moves are a commonality. Multi-target moves include those like Discharge, Earthquake, Heat Wave, Water Spout, Surf, and so on, that hit multiple Pokémon at once. While powerful in Single Battles, these moves will lose 1/4 of their power, being reduced to 75% power if they attempt to hit more than one Pokémon. This will normally suggest the use of their single-target versions (Fire Blast over Heat Wave, for example), but there is a key point to using them, and it is the most superficial: to hit, and possibly KO, multiple Pokémon. However, be careful as to how you use them. You don't want to activate Flash Fire or Storm Drain, for example. You also don't want the damage to be pointless. Pokémon using these are often boosted by weather (Heat Wave, Surf), ability (Sand Force in Sandstorm), or Choice item (Heat Wave on a Specs Chandelure is common), and these boosts make the moves back into significant threats. At the same time, multi-target moves can be easily countered as their users are usually quite obvious, and there are also obvious counters: Lightning Rod and Storm Drain are examples. Even putting Pokémon like that in can induce the foe to switch.

I also cannot emphasize the importance of the move Protect or its likeness in Detect in multi-Pokémon battles such as this: skillful prediction will allow you to avoid a KO and also use your other Pokémon to get in enough damage to perhaps force that attacker's KO on the next turn, saving you pain and another Pokémon. It's very useful once you get used to predicting moves. Furthermore, you'll even be privy to part of your foe's moveset, which is just simply invaluable since you can even guess at what they're aiming at doing (which doesn't have to be a simple KO attempt) and act accordingly. In fact, Protect/Detect are best used whenever your Pokémon is at threat: this threat includes the potential for a super-effective attack (STAB ones are particularly nasty, but the easiest to predict in this fashion) and the ability to introduce detrimental ailments (Burns being the most lethal to physical attackers and Paralysis or Sleep in general). Even that one Protect gives you an eye into everything your foe does ... do not waste this knowledge.

Triple Battles: Triple Battles are the weird cousin of Double Battles that likes to lock himself in the basement: not many people tend to play Triples. Why? Triple Battles are a firefest of weather/Trick Room teams and multi-target moves. Imagine them as Double Battles on steroids, the balancing concept taken too far in reference to Singles that it creates openings for gimmicks. For example, Sturdy Shedinja or Beat Up on a Justified Pokémon are annoyingly common and, even if gimmicky, still quite lethal. Multi-target moves - particularly whenever there's Tailwind aiding the user, more or less forcing their move to be first - also are very common.

Rotation Battles: If Triple Battles are the weird cousin, Rotation Battles are the dude that is in the mental institution. Rotation Battles are very much like Singles, but with one key aspect: a huge, huge, huge, HUUUUUUUUUUUUGE reliance on prediction, so much so that it is almost insane. Not much can truly be said: prediction is all that really matters in a Rotation Battle.

Step #2 - Pokémon Role Choice: The main thing, first, is to decide what kind of roles you want on your team. Do you want "this many" strong, sweeper Pokémon (Lucario, Dragonite)? Support Pokémon (Prankster Meowstic, Klefki)? Pokémon that cripple with statuses (Smeargle, Sableye)? Pokémon that play mind games with your opponents (Zoroark)? Pokémon that benefit from weather (Mega-Garchomp, Excadrill)? You can't simply choose the Pokémon you necessarily like; I mean, I like Pikachu (and so do many others: it's the series mascot!), but it's so flimsy, and the Light Ball isn't a lot of a boost when compared to other Pokémon. I mean, going on just what you like works and all at times, but it's not the best thing to rely on: you'll need to adapt to be a true competitor.

The MOST important thing about this, however, is to think about a balance of roles. For example, six physical attackers is an example of an imbalance. Why? Teams revolving around the use of Intimidate or the use of Counter or the use of Reflect will cream you easily, mostly because it's not hard to spot out a physical attacker. (Or a Pokémon of any role, for the most part: that itself, the ability to spot out the role and strategy a particular Pokémon plays on instinct, before it makes a move, is a key part of becoming a great competitor, but it will only be honed through practice, really. Some details regarding such "prediction" can be found in this section.) That said, I'm not saying a team of six should have six completely different roles, either. What you want, in general, is a centralized synergetic attacking core of two to four Pokémon (generally about half of the team). This can be balanced in any way you prefer, so long as it is not completely of one attacking role: for example, I tend to find two physical attackers and two or three special attackers on a six-Pokémon team to balance well. If you want to go for an all-offense team, that works fine, too: a 3-to-3 ratio (when considering physical/special only) is generally good. After all, this latter thing gives you more flexibility in who you bring out, since you now have 24 moves to play with, rather than 16 offensive and 8 status (on a general level). Each have their benefits.

Step #3 - Choosing Pokémon for Those Roles: Next, think about Pokémon that fit these chosen roles. It helps to narrow them down once you have the roles named. For example, if you want six physically-strong, offensive Pokémon for a direct offense, you don't want six Gengar, right? That'd be a huge disadvantage (not to mention impossible in VGC play). You do want to consider the Pokémon of those roles that have the best statistics for that role and can execute the roles well through their moves and their abilities. For example, you might want a revenge killer. So a Pokémon that lacks a priority move (or the ability to use such) is not a good choice, no matter how strong or how fast. Or you might want a physical sweeper, in which case Gengar is off the table, as his Attack is poor in comparison to his Special Attack. You want to create a varied party that makes it so that no one type or Pokémon can sweep your team, or get as close to that as possible as most teams have one niche counter. You want a party that has no inherent single-Pokémon counters against itself if you can at all manage it.

(In terms of common weaknesses and move repetition... You generally want no more than two Pokémon having the same weakness on your team, and the same type of damaging move (i.e. Taunt won't count to this) repeated twice. This makes it easier for someone to get a Speed advantage over you and begin killing straight up. For example, Greninja with Ice Beam can easily kill off both Haxorus and Landorus-Therian: neither share any of their actual types, but both share the weakness. It's very hard to avoid keeping common weaknesses out of the formula, however, and trying can be very restrictive on your team: I'd say having no more than any two Pokémon share the same weakness be ideal.)

In a footnote to the previous statements, though: That's how it works in most cases - there are benefits to using a team heavy in or completely of a single type, known as Monotyping. You might see this on people inexperienced with making weather-based teams, for example, but yet somehow are actually good at using the team for a reason they don't entirely know. See, with a Monotype team, if you can get rid of the main threats the opposing team has against you, then you're good: Monotyping lowers the number of those possible threats, even, which means some teams might not be completely prepared to fight against you at all. Then again... Take a Fire Monotype team, such as Mega Charizard X, Ninetales, Arcanine, Talonflame, Rotom-Heat, and Blaziken. For the most part, especially in Double/Triple Battles, Aerodactyl (Rock/Flying) could one-hit most of these Pokémon with a Choice Band Rock Slide or Stone Edge, and Aerodactyl is faster than most of those Pokémon, barring Speed Boosted Blaziken and priority moves, meaning you'd usually get killed before a move could get off. In Monotype teams, being able to counter all threats - not at the level of mere type, but of actual Pokémon species, and maybe even some of their specific strategies - is of utomost importance. For example, on a Fire Monotype team, the best counter one could get for Aerodactyl would probably be Camerupt: he can use Rock Slide or Stone Edge, which are super-effective on Aerodactyl; he has the Attack stat to back this up even without STAB, and is bulky enough with a good enough EV/IV/Nature set to be able to take even an Earthquake from Aerodactyl.

Step #3.5 - Developing the Pokémon & Error Prevention: Okay, it's one thing to choose a Pokémon, but it's another to actually create a strategy for it. I've seen a number of teams on forums that are simply complete crap, not because of lack of skill but lack of understanding. Some people simply do not understand how to develop their Pokémon properly. I won't deny that there is a number of viable ways for any Pokémon to be developed - I could probably give you two dozen equally valid Dragonite sets. However, while there is no right way to do it, there are definitely wrong ways to do it.

Some of the more common errors I see regard how to give a Pokémon EVs and Nature. Depending on the Pokémon, there are a number of sets that equally work, but for some Pokémon there is just one set that actually really works. For example, take Blaziken: a very fast physical-attacking Pokémon, especially given Speed Boost. What EV set would you give it? Unless you said 252 Attack, 252 Speed, and 4 of something else (unless you're deciding to use a Special moveset, which can work out), you screwed up somewhere as you want to enhance what the Pokémon has done well. There are a number of generalized EV sets each Pokémon tend to use:

• Attacker (Fast): 252 of (usually) best offensive stat, 252 Speed, 4 something else (HP, Defense, Sp. Def.)
• Attacker (Slow, Good Defenses): 252 of (usually) best offensive stat, 252 HP, 4 something else
• Attacker (Slow, Uneven Defenses): 252 of (usually) best offensive stat, 256 towards equalizing Defenses
• Attacker (Slow, Sore Weakness): 252 of (usually) best offensive stat, 252 to preventing that big weakness (like 252 to Sp. Def. to help prevent Ice Beam on Dragonite), 4 HP
• Attacker (Bulky, Already Powerful): 252 Defense, 252 Sp. Def., 4 HP -or- 252 HP, 256 to equalize the Defenses
• Attacker (Mixed): Usually specific to the Pokémon
• Attacker (Eviolite): 252 to best offensive stat, 256 to equalize Defenses (absolutely none for HP, all Defense)
• Status User (Fast): 252 HP, 252 Speed, 4 something else - usually best for those using Taunt or the like
• Status User (Bulky): 252 HP, 256 to equalizing Defenses
• Transformer: 252 HP, 252 Speed, 4 to something (doesn't matter)

After all, if you're outspeeding a Pokémon by 16 points in Speed and aren't outspeeding anyone's other common sets (for example, Choice Scarf Garchomp or Landorus is common, but you never see Choice Scarf Marowak or Escavalier, right?), you can take off 60 EVs (15 points) so you're just outspeeding that Pokémon by 1 point, a guaranteed move first barring Tailwind and the other sets that are uncommon from your research as to be pointless. Furthermore, if that Pokémon you're outspeeding really isn't a threat your team (think "team" in this stuff: this one Pokémon you're optimizing may not be threatened by it, but another on your team might, like in the case of Metagross and Talonflame when optimizing against Aerodactyl), you can go down more from there in terms of Speed and devote even more EVs to your Defenses! Bulk is heavily undervalued in the Pokémon metagame (outside of OU on Pokémon Showdown for some stupid reason): the difference between a OHKO and a 2HKO can literally make all the difference in a battle, even if that it just 1 HP. That 1 HP will allow that Pokémon to move again, allow it to even possibly throw in another KO. DO NOT undervalue bulk; you should not focus solely on power and speed, but neither should you focus on just bulk. You want that ideal balance: you want to be able rip some Pokémon apart in as few moves as possible and with as much speed as is reasonable, but you also want to have the bulk (even if it is just 2 or 3 points extra in HP) so you may be able to survive the hits your opponent is throwing at you. The battles may ultimately boil down to strategy and luck, but they are sitting on the table opposite from the statistics, which are just as important. A team with a great tactic can be brought down in very few moves just because it was too frail to enact that same strategy. But, on the other side of things, a team of strong, bulky Pokémon is easily brought down just because it was too slow to act (the common flaw in Trick Room teams is that exact reason: once the Trick Room setters are gone, the Pokémon are basically sitting ducks for those who are faster).

There is another problem I often see, though: people optimizing stats they shouldn't optimize, neglecting the Pokémon's best characteristics. I'm not saying the instances where a Pokémon can be (more or less) equally valid as a Physical, Special, or mixed attacker; I mean like with, say, Beedrill-Mega, who has TERRIBLE Special Attack (base 15), being given Special moves, where there is no question of validity.

A similar issue occurs with Nature: you should choose a Nature that enhances your Pokémon, usually as follows:

• Physical Attacker (Fast): Jolly or Adamant, depending on base Attack
• Physical Attacker (Slow): Adamant
• Physical Attacker (Trick Room/Weather Setter): Brave
• Special Attacker (Fast): Timid or Modest, depending on base Sp. Atk.
• Special Attacker (Slow): Modest
• Special Attacker (Trick Room/Weather Setter): Quiet
• Mixed Attacker/Status Users: Variable: usually a Defense or Speed compensator that lowers Attack as a mild Foul Play counter

Finally, the biggest and most prolific problem I see tends to regard move choice. When choosing a Pokémon's moves, particularly those of a Pokémon that has a great difference in Attack and Sp. Atk., it should be able to complement the Pokémon's base stats; you can see those in the Mini-Pokédex later in the guide. Base stats dictate the Pokémon's statistical growth throughout the game. For example, take Haxorus, who has the following base stats:

"Hey, why not Outrage? It's stronger!" To understand this furthering of my example, you must understand something about Pokémon battles. Play a few Pokémon battles online with someone in Pokémon Showdown (Google it) or even just your own game; observe how little PP you consume. The average Pokémon battle in Singles lasts no more than 10~20 turns, and usually only about 5~10. In Doubles, it's closer to 3~8 in most cases, and in Triples it drastically can vary from 2~8 in my experience, at least on average. Most inexperienced people would want Outrage in addition to Dragon Claw, because it is stronger and also benefits from STAB. While this is true, observe how you are EXTREMELY unlikely to consume all of Dragon Claw's PP. Therefore, the redundancy in having Outrage is only detrimental when you also have Dragon Claw, because you are more or less wasting a move slot for another Dragon move.

"But it's stronger you moron!" Again, this is true. However, you should look at it like this: every moveslot should serve a purpose. If you have to fill a moveslot with some random, crap move, then the Pokémon itself probably is crap: any Pokémon, within reason, should have 4 at least half-decent moves it can use. It needs to be able to serve a purpose. Now, obviously, Outrage has the purpose of dealing damage. In fact, it does more than Dragon Claw. However, keep in mind that Outrage "traps" the user for 2~3 turns, confusing them after the use of that move; it is very easy for the foe to switch in with an advantageous type, such as a Fairy, and outright win. Power it may have, but the confusion and the trapping is very disadvantageous in the long run. It therefore doesn't serve much of a purpose to have Outrage over Dragon Claw, except as a "nuke" or "last ditch" move, though the instances in which you can't find another move to use over such a move are very infrequent. In other words, the move's Power is not meant to be the only consideration you take into account!

What about an instance where two moves of the same type can be logically used? Well, firstly, let's continue our previous argument by saying such instances are relatively rare; if you're even bothering to use two damaging moves of the same type, you are most often just detracting from the value of the Pokémon. One of the most well-known instances of valid moves of the same type are the moves Psychic and Psyshock. Both moves are of the Psychic type and have very similar powers (90 and 80 respectively), 100% accuracy, and use the user's Sp. Atk. for damage. However, they use the foe's Sp. Def. and Defense respectively for damage as well. This can be very significant: for example, if you're facing Blissey, it's better to use Psyshock, and better to use Psychic for non-Special walls in other instances. Psyshock serves a valuable niche role whose value can be easily seen when you actually memorize Pokémon base stats: so long as the target has at least 1.125x more Sp. Def. than Defense, Psyshock is more powerful -- and, remember, the Defense stats on a Pokémon are rarely equal.

Now, back to the argument about serving a purpose. Every move must have a purpose in battle of some sort; if it serves a relatively niche purpose, like the Psychic/Psyshock dilemma, that's fine, but keep in mind I said "relatively". When it comes to the consideration of a move's purpose, you must also consider how well the Pokémon will be able to execute it, again like the Dragon Pulse/Dragon Claw thing with Haxorus I mentioned earlier. There are more complex instances, however; Haxorus is great for sweeping, so it's logically going to have four moves of different types. Pokémon oriented more to generalized Physical- or Special-attacking will likely have one or two status moves in their backup. How would you determine if a move in these instances is valid enough for real use?

For example, should Talonflame have Steel Wing? Talonflame is indisputably weak to Rock moves: in virtually every non-Focus Sash instance of him, I've see Rock moves OHKO him with ease. Steel Wing would counter Rock Pokémon, right? Seems logical. However, remember that Talonflame has relatively low Attack, a base of 80-something. Most Rock Pokémon will barely lose 20%~35% of their HP from Talonflame's Steel Wing, so it's not really that good a move. However, can we actually replace it with a good move? Remember, if Steel Wing is crap, what's better on it, assuming we already have Flare Blitz and Brave Bird/Acrobatics like most people do? It serves a purpose, after all, albeit poorly so. And, from observation of its moveset, there aren't many attacking moves that serve us well. This is where we tend to dip into the status moves: remember, on non-sweepers, we want each damaging move to serve a purpose very well, not just to fill a slot, because status moves can have a huge change in the dynamics of the battle in general. For example, Tailwind would be a good move to have on Talonflame: it would expose even its biggest counter in Aerodactyl to the concerns resultant from its own weaknesses, despite its own speed. Or perhaps Will-O-Wisp if your target is physical: Will-O-Wisp makes a nice way to burn the target and in turn weaken their Attack significantly by 50%. Perhaps he could even use Sunny Day as a way to back-up your Drought Pokémon on a Sun team? While none of these moves deal direct damage, you can see how they enhance your own ability to deal damage or inhibit that of your foe.

So, to sum up about movesets, I will make two points. Firstly, every move should have a known purpose: niche purposes are fine, but they have to be relatively wide niches, not Pokémon-specific unless that Pokémon is the only viable counter. Secondly, avoid redundancy wherever possible, on both your team and the Pokémon itself. For example, let's say that you are going to use Tyranitar, who is slow: having both Crunch and Payback, both Physical Dark moves, is redundant. If you intend on using Payback, slow down T-Tar as much as possible, and for Crunch speed him up. They hit the same weaknesses and have the same priority, but one is noticeably better than the other in given situations so it is more advantageous to trash one and replace it with something that can serve a further use.

Step #4 - Identifying Counters and Flaws & Synergy: The problem with any theoretical team, Monotyping or not? All Pokémon have counters - without exception, there will be at least one Pokémon with one move or moveset that WILL be able to fully defeat your Pokémon in some manner. Blaziken, I predict, will become popular in OR/AS play because of how he's a strong starter that can Mega-Evolve (and could for a while, since X/Y), albeit not the only Hoenn starter that can. However, take Talonflame with Gale Wings: barring Protect or the like from Blaziken, Talonflame's Brave Bird will go first and will OHKO him in most circumstances. If you're dead-set on the Pokémon you want in your team, you need to develop those Pokémon so that they can cover each other. For example, if I want Blaziken, I will also have Aerodactyl: a fast, decently-powerful counter Pokémon to beat up Talonflame and the other fast Flying Pokémon that would beat Blaziken.

This kind of synchronicity is the absolute most important part of your team! Also be aware of other kinds of synchronicity that go far beyond simple types, such as the type for which weather teams are most known; for example, Sandstorm teams like to use Pokémon (e.g. Mega-Garchomp, Landorus, Excadrill) with Sand Force to further increase their damage output, so be sure to consider every angle. Support Pokémon with properly-timed and properly-used moves also create a synergy of their own since they increase the effectiveness of your team: I've been able to have Mega Charizard Y sweep three Pokémon off the field in Triple Battles via Heat Wave (not even supereffective, and from full HP) just due to a well-chosen Helping Hand and Tailwind. So long as your team won't be swept away, and yet they can also work together through most situations, then they're good. Several runs through a Battle Test or a few dozen battles in Pokémon Showdown with a success rate of 80+% in the latter is generally a great team.

There is a bit of a quicker way to determine whether a team has flaws, of course. There is this "Break My Team" calculator/program one can find tangentially to the Pokémon Showdown site -- it is at http://sweepercalc.com/brmt/. What this particular thing will do is allow you to import a team of up to six Pokémon via their Pokémon Showdown data, or generally just fill in their stats, and confine your battling situation to a set of norms. (For example, Trick Room team, VGC-style team, Doubles team, Level X battling, etc.) You can then figure out the Pokémon that will be best angled to hurt your team. This will show the general set of EVs/Nature/item/boosts they will likely run and then the move and damage dealt to you. There is usually at least one such sweeping Pokémon against a team that will be able to one-hit-KO them all at some point, and often even more if the team is specifically geared to a certain purpose (like a Sandstorm team). That doesn't necessarily mean that the team as a whole is bad; if anything, if you can narrow it down to just one niche Pokémon, you're well on your way to making a great team. What you ought to do with this data is to create ways your team can counter the/those Pokémon by changing your team's movesets slightly. For example, a Sandstorm team is generally swept away by Crawdaunt with Choice Band and Crabhammer (or a few other moves, depending on the Pokémon). Tbus, since I'd likely be using Tyranitar, I would give him a Focus Sash set and give him the move Thunderbolt. Or I could use a Focus Sash set for Metagross or Rhyperior and have him pound the Crawdaunt with Hammer Arm, probably followed by Bullet Punch should that fail. Or I could even go ahead and include Elektross on my team: he can easily counter Crawdaunt, is pretty bulky and powerful, and will even be immune to the myriad Earthquakes my Sandstorm team will spew in Doubles and Triples! Most of the counters will indeed mostly be the addition of a Focus Sash, and that alone is no guarantee of any real success: priority attacks, for example, completely foil such strategies, not to mention the fact that you simply can't have more than one Focus Sash per VGC or Battle Spot team. That's why I suggested Eelektross: for the synergy he also brings. It also helps to perfectly exemplify that why, while an inept near-Monotype weather team can do unexpectedly well, variance should be given to the same weather teams, and in general variety should be used because, while the same team may make awesome victories, they may lose just because one certain Pokémon was used. By all means go ahead and make as many Pokémon compatible with your weather type as you can, but do consider variance as well: Armaldo, for example, would work great on a Rain Dance team because he has nice Attack and Swift Swim, and given his movepool will be a nice counter to the Water Pokémon's counters in Grass (via X-Scissor) and Electric (via Earthquake). He also can benefit from Sandstorm's Sp. Def. boost since Sandstorm-setters are the main ones that will be going before Rain setters in a Rain-vs.-Sandstorm battle, so there's huge value there. You may have to make a team in which not all of your Pokémon benefit from the weather, just to lessen the number of sweeping counters to your team by inherently countering those counters. In any case, my two cents.

Step #5 - Practice Makes Perfect: Think you have a good team? Before you waste time breeding and training the team in-game, how about playing some Pokémon Showdown? Pokémon Showdown - just Google it! - is an online Pokémon battle simulator in which you are matched up with other players around the world in Pokémon battles. You can set up a team as wanted, with the exact set of EVs, IVs, moves, nature, anything you want, really; you can even play specialized metagames (such as 1v1 (only one Pokémon per team), Monotypes (everyone must be of or part of a single type), or Hackmons (any Pokémon, any ability, any moves)). By setting up the team and thus battling against others on Pokémon Showdown (just one battle won't do it, mind you; a good estimate can be found through 30 or 40 battles, IMO), you will be able to quickly identify flaws in your team and be able to improve upon that. Remember, those flaws could be critical, and thus could cause you to have to rebreed a Pokémon from scratch (like Nature); the ability to simulate a battle will be invaluable to saving you time when it comes to needing to possibly rebreed the same Pokémon multiple times for the right Nature or Ability.

Step #6 - Breeding the Team: Now that the theoretical/research/simulation part is done, you must simply breed the Pokémon for their IVs and Nature and Egg Moves as appropriate, then EV train them to the levels where they evolve and learn moves properly. That stuff is mostly covered in other sections, though.

Step #7 - Prove Your Might!: Now use that team! Now that your team has been sim-tested and bred, it's a nice time to put 'er through the actual online competition. The big thing as you battle is to be able to learn from your mistakes, and correct them if necessary. Minor ones, like a bad moveset or incorrect EVs, are relatively easy to correct, while nature or IVs or egg moves can require rebreeding. Don't be scared or disappointed to rebreed a Pokémon. Let your battles inspire you to create a good team; correct your flaws and move on. If you discover or realize a new technique you never considered, feel free to test it out. The main thing is to never be that moron that thinks "Oh, my team's the best, I don't need to fix anything". All teams will have flaws. All teams. Without exception. With that in mind, be willing to do minor fixes to your own team as time goes on, and be open to new ideas. I never thought I'd want to use Aegislash after messing around with it some, for example, despite its power, due to its flimsiness in its Sword Forme. Then I figured a great way around that. It's not flawless, but it works. But it required me to change from the priority-attacking set it had, and thus meant rebreeding. Be open-minded, and be ready to learn, even though your team is battle-ready; with 721 Pokémon in the game as of now, and millions of ways to customize them, you should always be ready, at any second, to learn something new, for there is no way to know everything about Pokémon and Pokémon strategy - there are 1,073,741,824 different ways to arrange your IVs alone, and well around 10^1000 -- that's a "1" followed by 1,000 zeroes! -- combinations when you bring in EVs, Nature, and Pokémon species, abilities, levels, genders, items, and moves.

Step #8 - Believe in Yourself: But, despite the fact that every team has flaws, and despite how much strategization and research one might put into a team, there is a single key element that makes the difference -- belief. I don't care if you somehow do create the ultimate Pokémon team with no inherent counters; if you do not believe your team is worth having, no one will. It may sound cliché, but it does have a psychological basis - if you do not believe you can do it, you are inherently setting yourself up for failure. I don't give a crap what anyone else says about my team, nor should you value your team simply upon the evaluations other people give -- if you truly and earnestly believe your team is a great team, then that perhaps may be all you need. (That said, do be open to the criticisms others give, but be sure to also weigh them: don't accept/reject mindlessly, but consider them.) Personally, I value a team whose worth is beyond mere words, a team whose strategy and value you cannot easily voice, cannot quite put into words: I've tried many a time to get my current team in a "Rate My Team" topic on the message boards before (mind you, a team that's gotten me into the Top 500 on both Pokémon Showdown and the Pokémon X/Y Rated Battles), but I can never quite put their value into words. The difference between my team and the general Pokémon team is that one element of faith: I believe my team is good, and I believe I can win. I know my team inside and out, and even in some ways I probably can't voice; I believe in them, and that's why I feel my team to be good: not because it's the best, but because it's my best, and I know it.

Step #9 - Removal of Flaws After Creation: I know, it's not a lot as to how to make a great team. It's very superficial. I've spent months simply optimizing my current team as it is. But keep in mind that there is no perfect team; for, if there was, everyone would use it, right? The main thing you can do is to keep improving your team in minor ways. I've had to re-EV train some of my Pokémon three or four times just to fit certain strategies a little better, and sometimes I've had to scrap Pokémon or the whole team entirely. Your team will not be perfect, and you will never go for an extended period of time without a loss. Take these losses and learn from them; learn what was wrong with your team, learn what was wrong with your execution, and use that so that you don't screw up as much. You never know, you might even get a new idea for a new team or for a new strategy that could take you in whole new directions. Ultimately, it can be summed up as this: there is no perfect Pokémon team; so long as you are satisfied with the one you have - a team you love, a team you know inside and out - then that's as perfect as is needed. After all, once you believe you've got as perfect a team as you can possibly manage, Pokémon itself should be focused upon with nothing more than the attitude originally given to it: it is a game, so simply have fun! =D

Common Pokémon Roles

• F.E.A.R.: The most dreaded of the gimmick strategies, it is rarely used outside of Single Battles and will absolutely devastate a team that is unable to status the F.E.A.R. Pokémon, or even hit multiple times or abuse Mold Breaker (or similar abilities) in some cases. The most common Pokémon for this is Aron with Sturdy and a Shell Bell. This Aron needs to know Endeavor and be Level 1. Due to being Level 1, he will likely move last on the first turn, using Endeavor last. Due to low Defenses, he'll likely be at 1 HP and reduce his opponent to that level. Due to the damage dealt, Shell Bell refills his HP to full again. Then the Pokémon dies when the Aron attacks via some means. (Pokémon other than Aron will favor Quick Attack or the like: a priority move, essentially, to move first.) Sandstorm also helps that out.
• Transform: Personally, I don't think this is a big gimmick, but, hey, whatever. Transform is a move whose details can be viewed by clicking the nearby link: essentially, you can use it to copy a Pokémon, even your allying Pokémon in a Double/Triple/Multi Battle. This allows you to view the opposing movesets and all that jazz; this strategies' uses can vary depending on the situation. Personally, I like to copy Pokémon who have been buffed up so I copy their buffs. Pokémon that fit this role typically are Ditto, Smeargle, and Mew, each with a Focus Sash. The main reason this may not work is because people can have counters to the Transformer on their team, and it's very terrible to use without Imposter (because then you just have Ditto or Smeargle (in VGC-like play), both of which are flimsy and easy to beat). The self-countering aspect is never considered in most Pokémon teams, but most Pokémon have a way to beat themselves or the allies on their team by pure coincidence. For example, on one of my old X/Y teams -- Kangaskhan beats Aegislash (Earthquake) who beats Greninja (Sacred Sword) who beats Dragonite (Ice Beam) who beats Talonflame (Thunder Punch) who beats Lucario (Flare Blitz) who beats Kangaskhan (Focus Blast/Close Combat). And, yet, I never intended that to happen!
• Power Trick Shuckle: Shuckle has the highest Defense and Special Defense of all Pokémon in the game, a base of 230 in each, making it exceed well over 500 with the right nature/EVs/IVs. He is a friggin' tank. And then Power Trick swaps Attack and Defense, making Shuckle stronger than any other unboosted Pokémon. It can work well with the right strategy, although there is no strategy will really work out with this except in niche situations. (The main counter I always found was Talonflame - I tried a Doubles strategy where my ally was Greninja, who used Mat Block to help out. Shuckle Power Tricks on Turn 1 while Mat Block occurs. Shuckle Protects, Greninja attacks. Shuckle Attacks and Greninja Mat Blocks. A priority attacker will win this fight since Talonflame can OHKO Greninja in most situations.) Why? Because Shuckle's Defense will become a base of TEN. We're talking weakest in the game. It can work against a Special Attacking team (that lacks Psyshock), or on a physical team when Wonder Room is used, I'll grant you that, but most people aren't going to fall for this and will be able to counter it.
• Sturdy Shedinja: The strategy of the Sturdy Shedinja is itself insanely overpowered: if someome can get it up, it's a slow, painful defeat for their opponent. Sturdy Shedinja relies on the fact that OHKO'ing moves will result in the wielder of Strudy having 1 HP - and since Shedinja always has 1 HP, it will always keep that 1 HP! To set it up, it usually must be a Double or Triple Battle, and you often have to use Worry Seed on Shedinja to give it the ability Insomnia, then on the same turn have a Pokémon slower than the Worry Seed one use Skill Swap on Shedinja to swap Sturdy and Insomnia. (The Pokémon with Sturdy and Skill Swap should already have been given it via Entrainment or Skill Swap on a prior turn.) The main reason this is a gimmick? For the main reason that there are tons of ways to still kill the Sturdy Shedinja. These include Poison, Burn, Confusion, entry hazards, Mold Breaker attacks, Teravolt attacks, Turboblaze attacks, the use of Gastro Acid to negate Sturdy, Entrainment or Skill Swap from an opposing Pokémon onto Shedinja to get rid of Sturdy, Hailing weather, Sandstorm weather, Shedinja hitting a Pokémon physically that wields Rocky Helmet, Rough Skin, or Iron Barbs... The list goes on: that's the short list! Not to mention that all of the Pokémon involved would have to avoid getting Taunted or KO'ed.
• No Guard + Sheer Cold: As you know, Sheer Cold is the best of the OHKO moves as it is not affected by Pokémon immunities: even though it is a 30% hit rate in most instances, it nonetheless will be able to hit every Pokémon. And you probably also know that the ability No Guard has the ability to make any move 100% accurate from the wielder. Sheer Cold and other OHKO moves are affected by this, creating a great possible abuse: instanteous OHKO moves with 100% accuracy. This is very hard to set-up in many instances, however: it would require quite a bit of luck in Doubles, and about as much in Triples even though it is manageable in the latter. I'll discuss it like that. In Triples, you will have the Sheer Cold Pokémon, a mediatory Pokémon with Skill Swap, and the No Guard Pokémon: for the sake of simplicity, they will be Walrein, Alakazam, and Machamp respectively. Walrein will usually run Scarf, Alakazam Focus Sash, and Machamp ... something. Alakazam Skill Swaps with Machamp on Turn 1, and then with Walrein on Turn 2. Boom: No Guard Sheer Cold. However, the reliance on that central Pokémon is the main flaw to this strategy: if they or the No Guard Pokémon are killed, everything is shot. If the Sheer Cold Pokémon is too slow, they will be easy to kill off despite the Sheer Cold. Plus, there is the general flaw with Taunt. No Guard + Sheer Cold is no doubt a formidable strategy, but it is moreso reliant on luck than anything. It would be highly effective in Single Battles, too, but it is impossible to set up in such a situation, and Double and Triple Battles dilute its effectiveness since those rely on the cooperation on the team of Pokémon, not the abuse of one.

Choosing Your Hold Items

Here's a general overview of the items you can hold (well, should - some are completely stupid) and why. This assumes general official competition rules, by the way: that means those only working on legendary Pokémon aren't here and neither is the Soul Dew, but most others were at least looked at. As with everything else in this section, this is simply a personal evaluation, and I'm open to external notes, but keep in mind that this section is primarily aimed at generalities rather than specific strategies.

In-Battle Prediction

This section will discuss two primary things: prediction when it comes to picking your Pokémon for the battle in the Team Preview, and then the actual execution of battles.

For the sake of argument, we will assume you and your opponent are using the following Single Battle teams. Practicing these skills in Single Battles is the best way to make that "step up" to the much more complex environs that Double, Triple, Rotation, and Multi Battles present. We will assume Flat Rules for these teams: 3 Pokémon per team, limited to Level 50, with no duplicated items or species. To further emphasize what's going on, no details are present on your foe's team, since you normally will not be able to perceive this info.

At the same time, if you have such a necessary Pokémon (such as with weather or Trick Room teams), include a Pokémon to counter that Pokémon that can counter yours. In other words, consider Mega Charizard Y for Sun teams; it's main weakness is Rock, so you'll want a Pokémon to counter Rock. Heatran is a good choice since it'll both benefit from MCY's Sun and can use its Steel moves to counteract the Rock. Don't stick with a set of concrete subteams from your team of six unless you have a good reason as to why (such as having two possible Mega Pokémon per team for variance): as I said earlier, you want to have a lot of intrateam synergy. Having concrete pairs, for example, in Doubles means you basically have three sub-teams; however, if your Pokémon are all synergetic with the others on the team, hard as that will be to make happen (it takes true skill and dedication and practice), it generates some 360 teams. See the difference? Before your opponent could opt to counteract any one such team and have a 2/3 shot at being able to sweep that subteam outright; heck, they could even be able to counter two of your subteams, screwing over half of your team outright for sure. (Again, VGC Doubles = 4 Pokémon per side.) But you can't easily pinpoint any one team out of 360 to wipe out, and there's the advantage.

But in general, in Team Preview, it's all about simply countering your opponent's team - regardless of whether you use subteams or not, countering your foe and recognizing his likely combos, if any, is the main focus - or countering your foe's counters to your team, whichever you use depending on your team's set-up. But you absolutely must also try to predict what Pokémon your foe will use: that kind of info will become increasingly useful in predicting your foe's own moves and actions to a level you'd be unable to believe (if you're a beginning competitor).

That also comes to another point: predicting the roles of a single Pokémon. Some Pokémon have obvious roles based on their common usage with the associated role: most people who play the OU metagame on Smogon, for example, will likely spot out Skarmory or Ferrothorn as a Pokémon who is used to set up entry hazards, but you won't necessarily know that without experience. Experience is its own benefit and can teach you more than anything. Once you realize what roles a Pokémon typically plays, you can figure out ways to counter them in the Team Preview. For example, consider this: you have a Sableye, with Prankster, knowing Taunt on your team. Your foe's team has a Skarmory on it, the archetypical entry hazard Pokémon. "Hey, entry hazards are status moves ... that means, if I use Taunt, I save myself a bunch of HP! And then I can abuse Swagger/Foul Play/Will-O-Wisp/whatever to tear apart that team!" It's only a prediction, but the fact that you know that entry hazard Pokémon are often the first out has just essentially won you part of that battle simply because Skarmory doesn't have the Attack to back up its counter to the Taunt, especially after Will-O-Wisp. This allows all manners of setting up in myriad ways ... just because you spotted out that Skarmory as a hazard setter.

... Again, recall we led with our Charizard against a Bisharp.

Overview of Themed Teams

Keep in mind these were mostly written from the VGC metagame as compared to the real one: for example, that's why I stick to mentioning Politoed in the Rain teams. This helps get people into the competitive mindset and, more importantly, you can't even use most legendary Pokémon on Battle Spot and the like, so...

Weather Team - Rainy: Particularly in the competitive Pokémon Black/White meta, Rain teams became very common. Rain teams, like all weather teams, tend to rely on a Pokémon that has Drizzle to automatically set up Rainy weather: Politoed is the only viable choice in VGC-approved formats. Kyogre is viable for Ubers-level battling, and Primal Kyogre brings more to that. Due to Politoed's "meh" stats and movepool, you'll pretty much want to take it as a given that, if Politoed is on the opposing team, it's a sure-shot Rain team.

What do Rain teams have? Firstly, they'll have multiple Pokémon that can use their abilities to abuse the weather condition. Kingdra is a common choice for its Swift Swim and STAB-boosted Dragon Pulse or Draco Meteor, which is coverage for Dragon Pokémon. An underused Pokémon that is actually quite essential would be Armaldo: Armaldo one of only a few non-Water Pokémon to get Swift Swim, and that will allow him some powerful type coverage since he is already fast and powerful. He normally will cover Water's weaknesses in Grass (via X-Scissor) and Electric (via Earthquake). Ludicolo is a common choice for its Swift Swim as well and it can decently wall Specially, though it will mostly operate via Fake Out and Giga Drain.

Swift Swim is not the only viable Rain-boosted tactic to use, though it is the most common. Rain Dish allows a Pokémon to get healed slightly in the Rain, though the Pokémon wielding this are usually not worth using to begin with. Hydration can work well in ailment prevention, but often these Pokémon can be spotted out for that outright (Rain-themed team, Hydration needs Rain ... people can connect the dots). Water Absorb works somewhat well on a Doubles/Triples Absorb-themed team. Dry Skin can work much like Rain Dish, but the problems with it lie in the problems that the same Pokémon gets when Sunny weather occurs.

Beyond these, there are two common move-type abuses: the fact that Thunder and Hurricane became 100% accurate in the rain! Dragonite is a common Pokémon to make abuse of these two, but it would be best to divvy those two moves up to suitable Pokémon. Aside from your essentials in Politoed and Armaldo, you can give Thunder to many Electric pokemon and Hurricane to some Flying Pokémon.

These facts alone give you the general balance one should aim for on a Rain team:

• Politoed with Drizzle
• Armaldo with Swift Swim
• Electric Pokémon with Thunder
• Flying Pokémon with Hurricane

Now, you have two other slots you can use. These slots can be considered wild-card slots, depending on the type coverage of Politoed, Armaldo, and the Thunder/Hurricane Pokémon. Ideally, they'll be the fastest Pokémon on your team that can cover the others in a number of ways, or perhaps they'll play a role of support. Whichever works. However, going on the point I ended the previous paragraph with, you'll want a physical Water Pokémon: if you find a Sand team, you are screwed in most cases as a Sand team will be able to bulk its way through most Water attacks. (You should always account for the possibility both Politoed and the alternate weather setter will die off.)

This typically means that your second Water Pokémon will be Mega Gyarados or Mega Swampert, and each have their advantages: one can abuse Moxie and then Mega Evolve, but is prone to Electric in the meantime, whereas Mega Swampert gets really fast but is always prone to Grass. Mega Sharpedo can be the most viable in my opinion since it can get a Speed Boost and then Mega Evolve to 1.5x Speed and abuse Strong Jaw's power. Carracosta can be an interesting and surprise-worthy choice if trained for Speed (Swift Swim, Jolly Nature, 252 Speed EVs, 31 Speed IVs = 358.6 Speed in the Rain, equivalent to a Pokémon of base 113 Speed with a Speed-boosting Nature), though you'll need to beware that Grass weakness.

Counters for a Rain team exist completely in the role of a Sun team. Aside from this, Rain teams themselves often counter Rain teams when running the predescribed set-up, so a Rain team can be a double-edged sword. Luckily, Rain teams don't have truly direct counters in terms of types of Pokémon due to the variety that should be implemented: you'll likely end up with no fewer than two and no more than three Water Pokémon on the same team. (While Rain does provide an additional 50% boost to Water damage that couples with STAB, you'll find that Monotyping has its own problems.)

Weather Team - Sunny: Sunny teams are a bit less used and less predictable than is a Rain team. Furthermore, they also have less room for additional abuse; Sunny teams will prefer to rely on the fact they get the 50% extra damage from Fire moves (125% total boost when combined with STAB) in the Sun and also relish lowering the effectiveness of their counters in Water Pokémon, a few in particular. For weather setting, you have two standard options. Ninetales is used if you prefer another Mega Pokémon to be used, but it doesn't have the attacking power to make it good for much but support. Mega Charizard Y can be hard to counter without a Specially-bulky Rock Pokémon, particularly because it can use Solar Beam, but it's more than possible to kill it via other means due to some physical frailty. Non-VGC teams will also find Groudon and Primal Groudon worth using.

For the most part, you'll want to end up using Mega Charizard Y; it is more than possible to run Ninetales if you know how to run effective support, but almost none of you will be bothering with that part of things anyways since Mega Charizard Y is pretty much one of the only Mega Pokémon that makes full advantage of Sunny weather. As with Rain, we do have some abilities you can find worth using on a Sunny team.

• Chlorophyll works great to incorporate some Grass Pokémon at double-Speed to counter those pesky Rock/Ground Pokémon that'll be plaguing Mega Charizard Y; sadly, not a lot of good Pokémon exist that have it. Lilligant is common to bring some Special Attackers into the team, whereas Leafeon is much more common, has decent Attack and great Defense.

• Solar Power allows the Pokémon to gain further power in their moves while losing some HP each turn: imagine a Life Orb. In fact, you may as well put a Life Orb on these Pokémon. Charizard is a common choice for this since he adds some type variety to the team, as is Heliolisk for much the same reason. If your setter is Ninetales, this will be the reason you'll use Mega Houndoom.

• Flower Gift from Cherubi may be helpful, or look it, but it's only worth using with defensive Cherubi in a Triple Battle, given his frailty. Still, it can boost your attack somewhat.

• Mega Charizard Y / Mega Houndoom
• Ninetales with Drought / Charizard with Solar Power <-- both in the case of Mega Houndoom, none otherwise usually
• Some other slots

Finally, one final note on your team: this goes much in the same vein as it does with the other weather teams, that you should include multiple weather setters. I wouldn't use both Mega Charizard Y and Ninetales (that's too clear a giveaway - remember, Mega Charizard could go X or Y, so your ambiguity on the matter helps a lot). Rather, just teach some other Pokémon on your team Sunny Day for the obvious reason of reintroducing it as needed. Whimsicott is a great Pokémon for this as it can play some intense support: aside from Tailwind, Light Screen and Reflect are immensely helpful in mitigating damage, and Charm and Confide can help to cripple foes' statistically, often forcing switches!

What counters a Sun team? Unequivocally, without that secondary weather setter, you'll be killed by a Sand team: there are just too many disadvantages for you to be able to cope, and probably not even then since they may have their own weather setter. Including Pokémon with Grass Knot can be helpful if you choose not to throw in a Chlorophyll Pokémon - Greninja works well - since these Sand team Pokémon are often very heavy. Low Kick is also good, and you can use generic Fighting moves to take out Tyranitar. Outside of weather teams, your common problem will certainly be Rock and Ground Pokémon just in general; a lot of your team will need be focused on the mitigation of these problems for your team to be successful.

Weather Team - Sandstorm: Sandstorm - often called just Sand - is a useful type for a Pokémon team aimed towards bulkiness, and it is easily paired in conjunction with a Trick Room team. There are quite a few abilities and Mega Pokémon choices to use on all three fronts of Speed, Attack, and Defense, not to mention Sandstorm's own boost of 50% to Rock Pokémon's Special Defense! The two choices you have for a Sand team are Tyranitar/its Mega and Hippowdon. Tyranitar has obscene Attack and its Mega Forme moreso, but it has an annoying weakness to Fighting. Hippowdon can be more safe, but ... well, you don't get it to do much beyond that. Tyranitar is almost the unilateral favorite.

What abilities make a Sand team great?

• Sand Force provides a boost to the power of Rock, Steel, and Ground moves during a Sandstorm. Excadrill, Mega Garchomp, and Mega Steelix all provide this and can abuse their STAB. Excadrill is probably best left to Sand Rush with a Life Orb or Choice Band, and Mega Steelix won't add much to the team's movepool (though it can add some nasty power on a Trick Room/Sandstorm team with Gyro Ball). Mega Garchomp would be your essential one to include for this.

• Sand Rush doubles the Speed of the wielder during a Sandstorm: Excadrill gets this and it allows him to outspeed a huge threat in Greninja, which is a threat not only due to its commonality but also the ways it can hit weaknesses. Sandslash also gets this, but he's not nearly as strong.

• Sand Veil raises one's Evasion rate in a Sandstorm. For reasons elaborated upon later, this is not that good of an ability to use since it is luck-reliant. This would be a reason to use Cacturne or Helioptile, though!

• Mega Garchomp makes use of its Sand Force to abuse the competition via Sand Force, and it adds some nice type variety to the team by introducing Dragon moves into the movepool. It has a pesky Ice weakness that it cannot shake, however.
• Mega Steelix works well in a Trick/Sandstorm team by having a powerful Gyro Ball and also being insanely defensive physically, but not nearly so in Special Defense.
• Mega Tyranitar just hits like a truck, and can overcome the Special Defense decrement that seemed to be dealt out to all Rock types at creation with the proper EV/IV/Nature set. The problem lies in its low Speed and its weakness to Fighting ... but that can be circumvented by the inclusion of a Ghost Pokémon and wise switching.

• (Mega-)Tyranitar
• (Mega-)Gengar <-- the switch that prevents problems with Tyranitar's Fighting weakness, doesn't need to be him but it helps to add variety not to mention adding a Ground immunity for further switching aid; Chandelure can help with other type variety issues
• Four other slots

As usual, I'll note also that you should include multiple Pokémon with Sandstorm. In the case of Mega Tyranitar, where you're more or less certain to KO to annoying opposite weather setter by the time you go Mega if you time it properly, you don't have to worry so much about this so long as you're good with prediction in Team Preview. Other teams will want a secondary Pokémon to induce Sandstorm, doesn't really matter who in particular, though Speed is a good characteristic.

What counters a Sandstorm team? Teams heavy in Fighting Pokémon, as well as Water and Grass Pokémon, will thrive. Water is mostly a problem after Sandstorm fades away since you have the Sp. Def. boost until then on your Rock Pokémon, but the other two are a pretty consistent problem. That is in fact the bane of the Sand team: Rock's myriad weaknesses and low Sp. Def. Training to affect the proper changes to balance out your Sp. Def. will force the team to go to Trick Room/Sandstorm in some cases, so the inclusion of Chandelure will be helpful as it can counter these Pokémon in a number of ways (Grass via Fire Blast/Heat Wave, Fighting via Psychic, and Water via Energy Ball): he'll have to have Choice Scarf to get ahead of the big threats, or get an aid from Tailwind.

Weather Team - Hail: Hail teams are overwhelmingly the least-used teams of the weather metagame, and for good reason. Not only does the only Snow Warning Pokémon in the metagame - Abomasnow and, more recently, Aurorus with its Hidden Ability - have ridiculously common double-weaknesses, most Pokémon that would profit from the condition in any form are Ice-type, a type known for being frail and not that strong. You run into some problems in choosing this team, to the point that I'm not sure where to begin. I'll just try to assure you it's not that worth it.

Pseudo-Weather Team - Trick Room: Trick Room is a pseudoweather condition (it's read as weather by the game anyhow), and it is perhaps the biggest shock to players when they first encounter it. Many players will begin their competitive Pokémon battling career with a team that has two foci: to be the fastest around, and to be the hits-like-a-truck-est around. Achieving that balance is an accolade in itself, but it means nothing if you cannot counter a Trick Room team. Trick Room teams are inherently the most problematic of the "weather" conditions as there are many Pokémon that can make use of it and its characteristics rely on bulk. But, first, let's say you were making the team.

Where to begin? As with any weather team, your construction begins with the Trick Room setter, and there are a ton of them! Slowking and Cresselia are among the most common, particularly the latter as of late as it can be useful through bulk and support. Aromatisse has become common since it can stave off Taunt threats and then play support as well. Who plays the Trick Room out of them all? (There's far more than these common ones!) Firstly, someone that is inherently slow. For the leading Trick Room, you'll also a bulky Pokémon as well, someone who can stand at least one good super-effective hit; that's why Cresselia is used often, as it can take sometimes two super-effective, STAB hits if done well. It has base 120 HP and Defense and base 130 Sp. Def., which is hard to cut through if trained defensively. But just in general you'll want bulkiness and slowness. Coming in with a Sitrus Berry on can be further helpful to this goal, or Leftovers if your setter's goal is to be around for a while.

While you're setting up this one Trick Room Pokémon, before going anywhere else, grabbing another one or two will also be helpful. As with the other conditions, the obvious reason is to keep your advantage; furthermore, unlike the other weather conditions, there is no "rock" to extend it like some weather teams will use. Some people will even include Trick Room on their own Speed-oriented team just to cut you off when you use Trick Room on a TR team! And then your setter is dead and where are you? Unlike the other teams, regardless of the situation, TR teams are completely crippled by not having TR in play. If you had a Sand team, you might be fine if your opponent used a Sun team when your weather went out. TR teams are crippled without TR because the majority of teams are Speed oriented at least in some fashion: you might have the bulk to weather the hits, but if they're taking out half of your attackers per turn (like one Pokémon per turn in a Double Battle), your offense is falling fast. You need to have multiple TR setters. In a Singles Battle, have four or more; Double Battles, 2-3; Triple Battles, 1-3; maybe more if it won't sacrifice team variety or the use of Protect on Pokémon.

Now, with that over with, how do you select the remaining Pokémon for your team? Since you've basically assured your going first most turns via the use of Trick Room, you will be good with slow, strong, bulky Pokémon. How do you choose these Pokémon? Look at the section Pokémon by Speed: you'll see a lot of slow Pokémon and, once you filter past the crappy, unevolved ones, a lot of gems. Marowak can be an aid, for example, by having insane Attack with its Thick Club. Mega Ampharos adds a lot of type variety and great Sp. Atk. and bulk, whereas Mega Mawile can bring in some bulk of its own and physical power, not to mention it can function outside of Trick Room as well, particularly via Sucker Punch. Reuniclus and Conkeldurr add their varieties. You have a lot of good choices. If you want to get into specifics, usually aiming for under a base Speed of 55 is good.

Key characteristics for most of your attacking Pokémon, however, will include one of two things: either a crapton of power or a crapton of good multitarget moves. Marowak works great because of Thick Club- and STAB-boosted Earthquake; Chandelure favors Life Orb- or Choice Specs- (both with STAB-) boosted Heat Wave; Mega Mawile has that Huge Power ability; and so on. After all, you will likely be Protect-stalled by most Speed-oriented teams when Trick Room comes up, so having that ability to hit and KO as many Pokémon at once will be a nice help.

The problems with a Trick Room team? These were outlined previously: a Trick Room team must keep Trick Room up to succeed, or it crumbles apart in mere turns. Many players will also not be able to hide the obviousness of a Trick Room team: once you get a Trick Room team initially, it will be clearly slow. It is obvious to any skilled, experienced player when a Trick Room team is going to be used, and, if you're not careful, who the setter will be! If they kill off your setters, you're absolutely screwed. Having multiple setters is an undervalued tactic; out of over 1,000 battles, I've never seen another player use the weather/TR condition again aside from when I somehow fail to kill the initial setter. This element of surprise cannot ever be undervalued.

The problem with that lies in Trick Room's -7 Priority. You will certainly go last when using Trick Room, and you need to mitigate threats to that somehow. The most common problem is Taunt; Taunt is packed on a number of Pokémon, commonly Gengar and Absol. How do you counter that? You need to put a Mental Herb on your initial setter for the battle; people almost never double-Taunt a Pokémon (you'll almost never see Taunt on a team twice, for that matter), so that gives you some safety. Aromatisse won't need to worry about that, though. The main problem is actually getting killed before you can get off that Trick Room. In Single Battles, there's not a lot of ways to circumvent that besides wisely predicting your foe's lead Pokémon. In other types of battles, you can easily do this by having, for example, Follow Me or Rage Powder. An alternative to that is using a Pokémon with high Speed on your team that allies your lead Pokémon; this Pokémon will be grossly inhibited with Trick Room in place, however ... unless it has a priority move, making Talonflame an oddly viable Trick Room Pokémon. Furthermore-- actually, I'll cover that in a second.

In short? A Trick Room team has a glaring advantage over 90% of teams in the Pokémon metagame, making it the most threatening weather condition of them all to be faced with, but the problems lies in when it goes away. Good players will be able to make teams that survive both in and out of Trick Room, and others can wall their way through it with Protect/Detect/etc. and good switching, so being able to keep the Trick Room up and being able to get it off in the first place are two key components of your team.

Supported Team - Tailwind: Tailwind is an oddly underused condition; it happens, trust me, but rather infrequently, and why is beyond me. Tailwind is a status that applies to your entire team in a battle and doubles their Speed for the next four turns or so, excluding the turn on which it is used, making it very threatening. Even Pokémon like Marowak and Mega Ampharos, with base 45 in Speed, can exceed very fast Pokémon like Greninja if Tailwind is in place; Tailwind is like Trick Room in its own way, but it can go first and provides more versatility.

More on that in a second. So, what is a good Tailwind setter? Firstly, it would have to be a Pokémon that can execute it first in the turn: that means either Prankster or Gale Wings, making Whimsicott and Talonflame great choices. Whimsicott is the more supportive option, being able to pack in a number of other supportive skills as well like Light Screen, Reflect, Charm, Confide, Sunny Day, and more; Talonflame allows for a more offensive mindset, boosting Brave Bird at +1 priority and STAB-boosted Flare Blitz or Overheat (depending on your choice) that can be great to revenge-kill or to hit the annoying weak-to-only-Fire Pokémon on teams like Scizor, Ferrothorn, and Forretress.

What makes a good Tailwind team? You'd think first off that it'd be fast Pokémon that are powerful but not quite fast enough to exceed their counters. In a way that is correct, but the ideal definition is "bulky Pokémon that are somewhat slow normally". See, the goal of a Tailwind team would be to have Pokémon in the range of a base Speed of 45+, and the primary beneficiaries in 45~65. Why is this? Pokémon of base 45 Speed by themselves can outspeed over 99% of Pokémon, and once you hit around 60~65 (depending on your choice of Nature) you begin to outspeed every Pokémon except Speed Forme Deoxys!

"Okay, but why not just have really, really fast Pokémon?" See, the thing is that a good Tailwind team will be made of somewhat slow Pokémon. Base values of 45~65 to the main beneficiaries will make it so that you outspeed the Speed-oriented teams ... but what about the Trick Room teams? Tailwind teams are going to be heavily offensive because of the Speed restriction (it's mostly a coincidence thing, that slow Pokémon tend to be less supportive), so you can't easily Taunt away a Trick Room team, and even then, you might not manage. You need a way to deal with a Trick Room team. Most Speed-oriented teams will focus on Taunt or KO'ing the Trick Room setter when it appears, but those methods fail. So, what am I getting at?

A team that is not only viable against Speed teams but also against Trick Room teams. The ideal Tailwind team is in a unique position because of this. You activate Tailwind, you outspeed everyone. You don't activate it and you are beating Trick Room teams. The flexibility can be quite amazing. The problems will lie in getting used to both conditions because each requires a different strategy. See, when you make a Tailwind team, your main beneficiaries are those in the 45-65 base Speed range, but that's not the only Pokémon that can benefit. For example, Tailwind exceeds the benefits of Choice Scarf by 33%. You can give that Scarfed Pokémon a Life Orb, an Expert Belt, Specs, or a Band, making it into a powerhouse. Some Pokémon cannot be easily beaten even with fast Pokémon without this kind of an aid, like Landorus-Therian with its Choice Scarf. Therefore, not only should you focus on the generalization of "beating fast and slow", but also beating the common threats by including faster Pokémon on your team, just a few that can counter these annoying common threats. Finding that balance will be the hardest part of your trek in making this team (probably the hardest of all to make) because you need to find some sweeper Pokémon that suffice well for sweeping despite the inclusion of Protect. (You need something to help you when you reuse Tailwind.) Critical types to include on these faster Pokémon are Fire, Ice, Electric, and Fighting: that will counter most of the types of the game and get the important double-weaknesses.

The problems with a Tailwind team? Firstly, Tailwind teams can easily be Taunted out, but that's only if you're stupid enough to not abuse priority from Prankster/Gale Wings. If the Taunter has Prankster themselves, you ought to be able to outspeed them nonetheless. (Analysis of Whimsicott/Talonflame compared to Prankster users reveals that you should be fine, particularly in the case of Talonflame.) Reintroducing Tailwind can itself be a problem given the lack of users of Tailwind that are truly viable: your most common ones are Whimsicott, Talonflame, and bulky Mental Herb support Togekiss, and when you have a team mostly about offense, support Togekiss doesn't fit well. In other words, your team has to strong enough to kill off most Pokémon in the four turns of Tailwind, and if not at least have the faster Pokémon be capable: in other words, you keep the fast Pokémon in the reserves regardless of the situation. If they're your lead in fights versus Speed, then you may end up with no Tailwind and slow Pokémon; if you lead with them against Trick Room teams, they can get slaughtered; getting that swap is pretty key to the Trick Room team's survival.

Support Team - Lightning Rod: In Double Battles particularly, when one begins to think of a themed team, they go one of two ways: either to weather or to Lightning Rod for whatever reason. Lightning Rod is a strategy with its benefits as it allows for quick increments in one's Sp. Atk.

For executing the Lightning Rod strategy, you need to have two or three Pokémon wielding Lightning Rod as an ability, and it must be a Double or Triple Battle. Effective Pokémon include Manectric, Pikachu with Light Ball, and Mega Sceptile. From there, you need to have your allies use Discharge as much as possible. (Ironically, that means Mega Sceptile's ally will not be boosted.) Lightning Rod activates and boosts the ally's/allies' Sp. Atk. by 1 stage. In Double Battles, you can get in turn Discharges a turn to boost your team's Sp. Atk. quickly enough; the middle Pokémon, were this to be used in a Triple Battle, would end boosting the middle Pokémon's Sp. Atk. to +2 stages (doubled). That's high.

An unusually underused tactic - actually, I've NEVER seen it - is to have one of the beneficiaries of the Discharge have the Motor Drive ability, like with Electivire. This allows you to focus EVs on bulk rather than Speed because, after one Discharge, you'll be at +50% Speed. Dunno why it's not used.

The problems are actually quite nasty. Firstly, for the most part, you are opening your team up to weaknesses by having heavy type favoring; in this case, you have a lot of Electric Pokémon, so you begin to hurt yourself by opening yourself up to Ground. Secondly, you lose type coverage since a number of Pokémon have to have Discharge. Thirdly, you are using Discharge on the first few turns; Discharge will be reduced by 25% in power due to its multitarget nature, making it unlikely to KO unless it hits a weakness, which means you can easily get set-up on or even have these Pokémon easily killed. It's a flawed strategy at best that I only include here for the fact that it is unusually common.

Support Team - Water/Volt Absorb: These tactics work on many of the same guideliens as the Lightning Rod tactic, but rather than using Lightning Rod and Discharge, they use Volt Absorb with Discharge or Water Absorb with Surf. This allows the Pokémon - particularly Life Orb users - to restore HP pretty readily. The problems are much the same: type coverage loss, common weaknesses, and the repeated use of weak moves.

Miscellaneous Team - Monotype: Monotyped teams are interesting in themselves: the choice to include a single type of Pokémon only on a team seems hypocritical to every guideline of basic Pokémon strategy, at least at a first glance. You could come in against a Fire Monotype team wielding a Rain team and think that you'll win, but then lose swiftly. What's up with this? You need to remember that the person almost certainly is doing it intentionally.

Building a team around a single type only can have its benefits. The most prominent center around that there literally is only one type on the team: that means they all share common weaknesses. It simplifies things; whereas the common team often contains weaknesses to at least 12-15 of the 18 types in the game somewhere amongst its members, these Monotype teams only have weaknesses to 1-5, depending on the type. The problem comes in with the mitigation of these problem. Okay, your team is weak to five teams. How do you counter a team that has these types?

Simple. Every Pokémon is not limited to moves of its own type; in fact, many Pokémon can learn moves of other types. I mean, that is the basis of Pokémon battling: not just using STAB moves, using other moves. Some Pokémon will even be encouraged to use moves that are not STAB ones! Other dual-typed Pokémon can contribute well to a Monotype team. For example, Rock is a common Fire weakness and can inhibit Fire Monotypes; why not bring Blaziken, whose Sky Uppercut or High Jump Kick STABs, or Earthquake even, can help out? Grass is an annoying Water Monotype problem; bring Greninja, who can use Ice Beam! Ground is a problem plaguing Electric Monotypes; bring Rotom-Wash, who can blast 'em away again (?) with Hydro Pump! (Not to mention being a viable switch-in counter to Ground Pokémon!)

Monotype teams have no truly inherent problems, at least no more than the typical Speed-oriented team. Their problem lies in perfecting their construction as it is hard to make a team that adequately counters the weaknesses of its six constituents, given that you have to go to the level of individual Pokémon at times to manage. For example, Blaziken would not function as well with its Fighting moves or Earthquake against Aerodactyl, who outspeeds it: you may need to bring Air Balloon Heatran on a Fire Monotype to be able to deal with that. In fact, NO Fire Pokémon outspeeds it; you need a Pokémon that can wall its attacks instead. This latter analysis will be in particular underused, so that is where a Monotype team will fail. A Monotype team cannot simply focus on its problem areas, either, but also, like every other Pokémon team, aiming to kill 'em all: because of the emphasis needed to perfect the problem areas, the areas where most teams would succeed can fall apart. Finding the ideal balance is what makes most Monotype teams crash and burn because there is a huge emphasis on balance and perfection that is just difficult to adequately meet.

The Element of Luck

What most top-level Pokémon players will agree upon that this aspect is will be luck. It all comes down to two factors in a battle setting: the [85...100] portion of the damage formula that can make a move 15% less powerful than normal as well as the baseline-1/16 critical-hit chance. Accuracy also plays a role in this, but these two are the overriding things. It is VERY possible to lose or win a battle on pure dumb luck, all just because someone got in a critical hit at the right time or just because someone managed to miss or because someone Protected twice in a row and it worked the second time. Hell, I've had all three happen to me and be caused by me. >_> When a Pokémon survives a hit with just 1 HP, it oftentimes can be dropped down to luck. When a Pokémon gets out of Frozen state in one turn or 20, it is just good luck or bad luck, depending on who you were. When a Pokémon gets 5 critical-hits in a freakin' row, you can claim that all-knowing god of hax, the RNGesus, luck, screwed you over (or blessed you).

Can you mitigate the influence of luck? Yes. Most of the section preceding here is designed for that purpose. It's not just luck that influences the game -- it is skill, it is strategy that ultimately determines to true victor. That's why the VGC format runs "best of 3" matches: because it is possible to lose a battle on luck. It is even the same reason that the tiered formats on Smogon and Pokémon Showdown ban stuff like Evasion buffs/debuffs and pretty much anything luck-based: you may not like that, but keep in mind that the two are intended to help your skill and reduce the influence of luck. Yes, we all like Greninja. (Okay, most of us.) We hated it when he got moved to Ubers. (Or liked it.) But if you're using Pokémon Showdown for the intent of just using high-quality Pokémon against lower ones, you're misusing the battle simulators; you don't have to like it, after all, but the increment in skill is the primary focus of Smogon and Showdown. This is coming from someone who doesn't particularly play tiers on Smogon anymore, for the record, though I did in the past. If you're looking for level gameplay where you're intended to test your skills, you play the Battle Maison, the Battle Spot, and Battle Spot Doubles/VGC Doubles on Showdown or in real life. If you are looking for gameplay to improve your skills, you'll play the tiers until you get sick of them like I did. (Not to mention - I cannot emphasize this enough - Singles are far less balanced than Doubles, and Doubles is therefore more fun.)

But the problem in all of this is that, no matter how much you anally analyze the game, no matter how much you mitigate damage, no matter how many times you improbe your team's weaknesses or a lack thereof, no matter how much time you put into the game, you will never be able to change the damage or critical-hit formulas. You will never be able to get rid of luck. Skill can improve your chances of surviving on the whole, but you will always be able to lose. Luck will always play its role. Your goal as a Pokémon Trainer is to play the game and train your Pokémon to that point that luck's influence is minimized that you win fewer and fewer battles just because you got lucky (or the inverse of that, that you lost because you were unlucky).

The preceding article hopefully helped you on your way to getting to that point by teaching you the basics of competitive Pokémon battling. Only you can improve upon this knowledge base now by improving your own skills and growing more experienced. (Not to mention telling me other topics to cover!) Only by improving can you lessen the effects of luck. You will never be able to eliminate luck, but you can always get better; you will never be able to win every battle, but you surely can win many of them if you improve your skills!+

Idealizing Pokémon Stats

"Wait a minute, what the heck? You went over that before."

Yes, I did. The basics. There are some things that only experience could teach you, particularly given the dynamic nature of the Pokémon metagame and how I'm not going to update this thing with every common Pokémon, EV spread, whatever. As you've probably noticed, there are several Pokémon that are KO'ing you with ease, and others you may have trouble smacking around; and the inverse as well, Pokémon you are beating the stuffing out of and those your opponent can't even touch. In competitive Pokémon battling, there's a degree to which "overkill" is just that - overkill, superfluous, unnecessary. Let's say you're doing enough damage to not only KO a Blaziken in one hit, but doing 120 HP's worth of damage beyond that. That extra damage - that extra power - doesn't necessarily serve you any purpose, because a KO is a KO. The EVs overpowering that Attack could be the thing that let you get the bulk sufficient to survive other attacks!

And thus, the element of experience. As we'll go over in the next section, you'll see that there are two main groups of Pokémon that are "threats". Pokémon that are "threats by commonality" (those used on a lot of teams), and Pokémon that are "specific threats" (threats specifically to your team). Experience should have let you learned both over time. Now comes the time to learn how to attempt to really best them.

It helps to have a damage calculator to test this stuff out; the one provided by Pokémon Showdown is by far the best.

https://pokemonshowdown.com/damagecalc/

We'll first cover defensive idealization - that is, assuring that you aren't easily KO'ed by threats.

Now, you'll want to enter a Pokémon on your team, and its threat on the opposite side. Using your knowledge of the meta (either through experience or research), try making the threat attack your Pokémon and you'll see some kind of damage ratio based on that attack. For example, say I'm trying to make sure that my Mega Gardevoir isn't OHKO'd by Aegislash using STAB + super-effective Shadow Ball.

252+ SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Mega Gardevoir: 132-156 (92.3 - 109%) -- 50% chance to OHKO

Well, that's upsetting. What you want to do now is adjust your Pokémon's EV spread - and, for defensive/redirection/support Pokémon, often even Nature - to survive this hit. As my Mega Gardevoir is offensive, I'd rather keep my Modest or Quiet Nature, and I obviously have maxed defensive IVs, so I'll fiddle with her HP and Sp. Def. EVs. In general, the process is this:

• Try altering the Pokémon's EVs in each a little and see which has a greater effect on your Pokémon's damage, and do so for each 4 EVs added.
• If your Pokémon uses Leftovers or Sitrus Berry and usually has HP investment anyways, try increasing its HP investment or just keeping it as high as possible. If offensive, do try to avoid taking EVs out of both HP and the offensive stat, but, if needed, you will want to work more on the offensive optimization first.
• Also note that, in Level 50 gameplay like VGC, it takes 8 EVs to make a full point in a stat occur. However, the first 4 EVs of that 8 (0.5 points) will still work. So, 4, 12, 20, etc., EVs get a point. Remember that since it can give you a spare 4 EVs elsewhere.
• Also always try to account for whether you'll want or will be using stuff like Intimidate to lower the opposing Pokémon's Attack. Full-attack Mega Kangaskhan is a LOT different from one at 2/3 Attack. And the same should be true for weather and the like.
• Repeat the process as needed for your team's threats and the common threats.

252+ SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 108 HP / 0 SpD Mega Gardevoir: 132-156 (84 - 99.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Notice my range here: it ends in 99.3%, not 100%. As much as possible, you'll want to assure that you don't get into OHKO range, no matter how little the chance. (That's not to say there aren't times when it's appropriate, or sometimes necessary or even avoidable. It depends on which threats you're focusing again.) Usually, we work on defensive optimization first across several different Pokémon, both physical and special threats, before moving on to the offensive optimization, as we can then devote the EVs in our offense as much as necessary, and any spare can go to further bulk.

The process of offensive optimization is much the same as defensive, but now it's YOU trying to hit the common threat. Let's take a Support Cresselia I own versus Landorus-Therian, the classic VGC example. This works nicely, since Cresselia is a supportive Pokémon whose main intent, on my team, is to OHKO Landorus-T whereas my other Pokémon can't do so easily.

0 SpA Cresselia Ice Beam vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-T: 132-156 (80 - 94.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Given that Landorus-T isn't much of a threat to Cresselia (seriously, nothing unboosted can OHKO it with a critical-hit reliably, it's insane), and you're using a reasonable set for Landorus-T, you have a good starting point. Given that Cresselia is usually reliant on its bulk (it runs support otherwise in this case), you want to hit a specific benchmark based on commonality and get out of there, leaving the rest of the EVs in bulk where it can be useful. Since it's supportive, it won't have an Sp. Atk.-boosting Nature, and we so instead just run up its Sp. Atk. EVs until we get the guaranteed KO on a common set:

212 SpA Cresselia Ice Beam vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-T: 168-200 (101.8 - 121.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

This time, we want the minimum percentage to be as close to - but at least equal to or above - 100% as possible.

This set shows a classic issue: when is the optimization too heavy? Indeed, 212 EVs may seem like a LOT of bulk that could go to HP instead of KO'ing a Landorus-T when you may even have access to other Ice Beam or Ice Punch users. That ultimate judgment lies with you and in your defensive analysis. For Cresselia, it works well because it's bulky as hell and can get 1/8 of its HP back by Protect-aided Leftovers, 33% from a Sitrus Berry triggered by an attack that would usually result in a 2HKO, or even 50% by Moonlight. For Greninja or other frail attackers, max offense and max Speed can work better since there's pretty much no defensive optimization of use that can occur. And, of course, we may run into this situation...

252+ SpA Life Orb Cresselia Ice Beam vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Mega Salamence: 114-135 (67 - 79.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

... where, no matter how heavily the set becomes optimized, we cannot get the OHKO we want. That means we go down to the next most important benchmark, and the one below that, and so on, trying to hit the best, most useful benchmark we can. What determines the tiering of benchmarks, though? That, I cannot answer for you - again, the meta is dynamic, Pokémon get nerfed minorly and majorly with new entries in the series, and it all depends on how your team can handle them without a benchmark. For example, if you wanted to optimize a Rain Dance team, not much need to worry over your average Ninetales, right?

The ultimate goal of this process is to assure two things - that your Pokémon can get the KO's it needs to get, and that your Pokémon can take as many hits as possible or move as fast as possible. Superfluous EVs aren't going to help in the long-run except against weird sets or untrained Pokémon, which are rare in the real-life competitive environment - most people will use reasonable sets there.

One final note - EV-creeping. EV-creeping - or generally known as power-creeping or, in its more common use, Speed-creeping - is the deliberate manipulation of EVs in a very specific fashion that is akin to optimization. The goal is usually to help counteract the exact same Pokémon you're using in one fashion or another while trying to minimize the threat to yourself. For example, when two bulky Mega Kangaskhan using the same, general stat-spread face each other, their Speed stats are the same. That can result in the whole battle being a 50-50 shot, since Mega Kangaskhan's Low Kick will KO another in many instances. By bolstering your Speed by 4/8 EVs in this instance, though, you get that 1-point advantage that, while minuscule, allows you to avoid that very specific threatening situation. Most expert creeping will affect 2 or 3 points, a counteraction to Speed-creeping.

Threat Analysis

• Threats by Commonality: These are Pokémon you need to watch out for, because a LOT of teams use them. In the Pokémon OR/AS VGC metagame, for example, the commonality threats are Mega Kangskhan, Thunduurs, Landorus, Milotic, Bisharp, Cresselia, Heatran, Amoonguss, Mega Charizard Y, Mega Gardevoir, Aegislash, Sylveon, and Mega Metagross, to name off a good chunk of them.

• Specific Threats: These are Pokémon that threatening SPECIFICALLY to your team. The Break My Team tool mentioned in the Beginners' section helps to analyze the Pokémon that are going to try to screw with your team. Most teams will still have that one Pokémon that *can* mess them up; you'll have to find a way to deal with it, since that calculator doesn't account for Speed and several other determining factors. An (extreme) example of a team-specific threat would be a Rock-type Monotype team versus a Flying-type Monotype team, seeing as Aerodactyl, Omastar, Armaldo, and more aren't too common.

• Common Themes: Can your team handle Sun teams? Rain? Sand? Trick Room? These are the four main weather types seen in competitive gameplay; Hail appears occasionally, but not enough to be a concern to the average player. Counteractions to these for ALL teams are crucial, just as with the (albeit dynamic) commons threats. Handling these is better done on the front of Speed than EV optimization, however, since it would be very hard to get a Pokémon, which is neutral to Fire, optimized against Mega Charizard Y's Fire Blast in the Sun; better to find a way to get a good OHKO on it before said Fire Blast.

• Gimmick Threats: More common in online and Showdown play than in real-life tourneys, having the ability to counter a general "gimmick" team will help. Common gimmicks include Clefable with Minimize and Follow Me, Smeargle with Dark Void and other status moves (such as Transform to get a double Mega), and the use of Beat Up on a Pokémon wielding Justified (commonly Terrakion).

Walkthrough

Layout Notes (READ!)

Here, I will try to briefly describe some of the stuff you will see as you navigate through this FAQ/Walkthrough - primarily overly-technical stuff you'll find in tables at the start of sections so I don't have to pointlessly describe this stuff in an area using several paragraphs while only writing a two-word walkthrough. Plus, it's a nice quick-paste bank for me. =P If you don't see some of this stuff for a particular area, assume that means none of that is there: no Pokémon encounters table, no Pokémon.

LOCALIZATION: There are multiple releases of Pokémon Red, Blue, and Green, and each with different variations. For the most part, you can assume this game to be written from the viewpoint of Pokémon Red Version's US counterpart. However, all version-exclusive details that I know of where accounted for with playthroughs of a US Pokémon Blue and the Japanese Pokémon Green deriving these details.

DIVISIONS: Each badge's section will begin with a sectional flowchart. This flowchart denotes the areas we'll go to whilst traversing to the named badge, and in the order named. These sections will be headed off with a horizontal line above and below the section's name. Any sub-divisions from there, if any, will be simply bolded at the start of the paragraph.

TABLE INFORMATION: We'll finish off the rest of this section with an analysis on the type of data that you'll see throughout this FAQ. Most of the info not represented here (treasure checklists, shops, and the like) should be obvious enough to keep me from having to detail it. As for the table data? It's below. Take note that it is mostly fake; it's just to test column widths and such on my end. First, we'll cover the Wild Encounters data.

As you can likely tell from the below table, if you're used to older Pokémon games, these Pokémon games lack several characteristics commonly found in later Pokémon games. Most prominent is that of Abilities: they will not be found here. Additionally, the "Special" stat, in terms of numbers, is analogized to the Sp. Atk. of later games, but it will function as both Sp. Atk. and Sp. Def. if you're familiar with those mechanics. And, of course, only 15 types existed in Pokémon Red, Blue, and Green: any types thereafter (Dark and Steel in 1999, and Fairy in 2013) do not. Okay so far?

• Pokémon Species: Denotes what kind of Pokémon it is: its default English name, really.

• Pokémon Type: Type is used to determine extra damage multipliers when fighting.

• Stat EXP. Yield / Base Stats: See the section on Stat Experience for exactly what this means and why it is how it is.

• Version: There are three versions of this Pokémon release: Pokémon Red, Pokémon Blue, and Pokémon Green. Pokémon Red was the one that went everywhere, in and out of Japan. Pokémon Green remained Japan-only. Pokémon Blue was intended to only be outside of Japan, but was later brought there. Pokémon Blue and Green are, for the most part, completely the same: however, where Pokémon Blue has blue graphics when played on the original GameBoy or a GameBoy Player, Pokémon Green's are green. There are other differences, of course, between those two. However, most differences among the three will mostly devolve to Pokémon Red versus Pokémon Blue/Green, and thus includes Pokémon only available in specific versions of the games.

BoulderBadge

Sectional Flowchart

• Game Start-Up
• Pallet Town
• Route 1
• Viridian City
• Route 22
• Back to Viridian City
• Return to Pallet Town
• Your Rival on Route 22
• Route 2 - South
• Viridian Forest
• Route 2 - North
• Pewter City
• Pewter City Gym

Game Start-Up

Pallet Town

Okay, anyhow, you're in your room. Interact with the PC and withdraw the Potion within the storage system. You can mess with the SNES here. As a note of trivia, in these games' remakes (FireRed and LeafGreen), you actually play with a NES. Anywho, head downstairs and outside.

Outside, go north and try to leave town. Professor Oak will stop you, telling you it is too dangerous in the tall grass to travel alone. You'll be escorted to Oak's lab, where you'll also find your rival. After a bit of complaining from your rival, you get to pick on of the Kanto starter Pokémon.

• Bulbasaur, a Grass/Poison Pokémon, is on the left. It is weak to Fire, Ice, Flying, Bug, and Psychic, and has type advantages over Grass, Water, Rock, and Ground. It evolves into Ivysaur at Level 16 and Venusaur then at Level 32, being the earliest to reach its strongest stage. Overall, it will have the most advantage for the beginning player as it'll easily sweep the first two Gyms and won't run into significant problems until the Fire Gym.

• Squirtle is the Water Pokémon in the middle, a type it retains throughout its evolutionary chain. Thus, it is advantageous over Fire, Rock, and Ground, and weak to Grass and Electric. It will evolve at Level 16 to Wartortle, and then again at 36 to Blastoise. It will have an early advantage over Pewter's Rock-type Gym, but it will falter briefly with the third and fourth Gyms, typed for Electric and Grass Pokémon, respectively. Squirtle is a good Pokémon for the beginning player looking to actually grasp the concepts of Pokémon wherein you can't attempt to really solo the game with one Pokémon. Otherwise, you could look at it being for the moderately-skilled player.

• Finally, you have Charmander on the right. It is initially of the Fire-type, as is Charmeleon, making it advantageous to Ice, Grass, and Bug, and Steel if traded to Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal. They are weak to Water, Rock, and Ground. Charmander evolves into Charmeleon at Level 16, then again to the Fire/Flying Pokémon Charizard at Level 36. Charizard is arguably the strongest of the three Pokémon and works well as a varied-attacking Pokémon. However, with Fire/Flying typing, Charizard gets an additional weakness to Electric and takes quadruple-damage from Rock, although it will be immune to Ground. Charmander and its evolutions have problems throughout the game, mostly the first two Gyms, the third for getting Charizard early, and the last one since Ground Pokémon tend to be able to learn Rock moves. Charmander is a nice start for those looking for some challenge.

After this, your rival will choose their Pokémon. Their Pokémon will be chosen so that they end up with a Pokémon whose type is superior to yours. In other words, if you choose Bulbasaur, they get Charmander; if you get Squirtle, they get Bulbasaur; and if you get Charmander, they'll choose Squirtle. Technically-speaking, Charmander - once it becomes Charizard - will have two type advantages over Bulbasaur's evolutionary chain, although that's not as evident as it really ought to be. >_>

After you both receive your Pokémon, you will engage in a Pokémon battle!

There's nothing else to do here. Remember, you can go into your house and speak with your mom to heal your Pokémon to full health. When ready, go north onto Route 1.

Route 1

Anyhow, there isn't much here. Go north along the route and talk to some guy on the way; you'll get a Potion. Continue north until you hit Viridian City.

Viridian City

Anyhow, we WOULD go for the Gym here, but the Gym Leader is out somewhere.

• sigh* Well, let's continue forward.

Let's momentarily go west onto Route 22: there's something optional, but beneficial, we can do there right now. If you don't want to do it, continue on to this section.

Route 22

Just for reference, for later... If you have Charmander, try catching a Mankey here later on. Those with Bulbasaur can catch Spearow for help with some Bug-blasting, and those with Squirtle also could use Spearow due to the Grass weakness. Spearow in general is a good Flying-type Pokémon to have, since it's stronger than the Pidgey most people will be tempted to grab, and thus will be more usable.

Anyhow, return east into Viridian.

Back to Viridian City

So, what to do? Go into the blue-roofed building, the PokéMart. You normally can buy various items in here. The clerk will notice you when you enter and hand over a package that you are to deliver to Professor Oak. Leave the PokéMart and exit to the south.

Return to Pallet Town

Pallet Town: Go into your house and speak with your mom to restore your starter Pokémon's health. Then go into Oak's lab. You'll end up giving Oak the package, with your rival soon coming in. You are then given the Pokédex. The Pokédex is this item that can record the data of all 151 species of Pokémon in existence - it's actually been expanded to far more than that with newer Pokémon games, 721 with the release of Pokémon X/Y in 2013. To record the data of a Pokémon in here, you must simply catch it. You can use the Pokédex to find which Pokémon you have seen and have caught, in which case you can find where they reside.

Anyhow, go outside and into your rival's house. Speak with his sister to get the Town Map, which shows the whole Kanto region. By pressing Up/Down while viewing it, the game even coincidentally tells you the general order you'll through the game's areas in. Finish up any business you have here and exit to the north.

Your Rival on Route 22

Viridian City: As you can see above, the PokéMart (the building marked with "SHOP") is now selling items. You should have about $3,000 (at least, the other games do). Pick up a few extra Potions and Antidotes if you have money after buying Poké Balls. Ten ($2,000) is a good number. Anyhow, to the west on Route 22 is our current task, albeit an optional one: if you would prefer to avoid it, simply go north from Viridan onto southern Route 2.

Route 22: Go through the grass to the west and you will find your rival, ready for a battle.

Route 2 - South

To the west of there, there will be a narrow forest path, with a tree blocking you. As you may know, this is a tree that can be Cut down with the Cut HM, although we won't have that for a while. However, press A while facing it to get a Potion! Then go north to Route 2.

Route 2 (South): Route 2 is a pretty easy-to-navigate Route: you shouldn't have much trouble walking northward into Viridian Forest. There's nothing of note on the way; even most of the Pokémon. You may want to consider getting a Caterpie, though; Bug Pokémon tend to evolve at very low levels, and they also are commonly able to learn status moves like Stun Spore that would aid in the capture of Pokémon. Anyhow, to the forest.

Viridian Forest

Once you enter, go north and west to find a Poké Ball. Go back east and south to the entrance, then further east and north to find a Trainer, with another to the north. Further north of the second Trainer is an ''Antidote';, an item that heals the Poison status, which can damage, and Weedle's Poison Sting - found commonly here - can Poison you. Anyhow, go east and then north to find another Trainer. Go west some more and speak with the person you find to battle him, too.

Continue along the pathway and you'll soon find a fork in the road. Go east on it to find a Potion. Then return to the fork, head west, and battle the last Trainer of the forest. Head north to go to the gate, go on through, and you will find Route 2 again.

Route 2 - North

Pewter City

Pewter City Gym

CascadeBadge

Sectional Flowchart

• Route 3
• Mt. Moon
• Route 4
• Cerulean City
• Cerulean City Gym

Route 3

Route 3: In terms of Pokémon, Route 3 doesn't offer a ton that would be considered new or good. Spearow and/or Pidgey would be good to get if you haven't gotten them yet. The Magikarp you can buy for $500 near the end of the Route is also good, since Gyarados is a pretty nasty Pokémon: to get the rather-useless Magikarp to evolve, though, you'll need to put it in battle and switch it out so it'll gain EXP.

Go east onto the Route and you'll see some Trainers in the near vicinity. Go east and defeat the Lass, then go north to find a Bug Catcher. Go west to find a Youngster. Defeat him and continue to the right to find another Lass and another Bug Catcher. Hop down south to find another Youngster, then go down and around to the right to find a Bug Catcher. Then go along the Route to the patch of grass. Defeat the lass to the east.

Ah, grass! That green plant filled with chlorophyll, having a mystical quality in Pokémon. =/ All weird talking aside, you'll want to note Jigglypuff for you can't get it anywhere else in Pokémon Red/Blue. Other than the Pokédex, its Sing attack helps to catch Pokémon and it's a bit of an HM slave.

Eventually, head north to find a Pokémon Center. Heal up there and also note the man inside who will sell Magikarp for $500. While Magikarp is iconic for being more useless than fire underwater, its evolution, Gyarados, is like its polar opposite. It's also easy to catch later on, but if you like go to the trouble, here ya go. You should have raised $1,170 fighting those Trainers.

Once you're done, head east into Mt. Moon.

Mt. Moon

Mt. Moon - 1F: When you enter, head north and defeat the Lass. Then go west and north to the Bug Catcher. Head northwest after the fight to find a Potion, then go south from there to find TM12, which teaches Water Gun. Go east to the Lass you beat earlier, then head northeast. You'll notice a ladder; use it.

Mt. Moon - B1F: Down on B1F, you'll want to go along the path for a bit to find another ladder. Use it.

Mt. Moon - B2F: Nearby, you'll find another new class of Pokémon trainer, and perhaps the worst as far as ethics go: the Team Rocket Grunt. You'll understand their vile nature later in the game. Defeat him and go east. On the raised ledge, you can find an HP Up. Sweet; these cost almost $10,000 in this game! And for good reason: they boost your Pokémon's HP Stat Experience by 2560, which is a little udner 4% of the max. Stat EXP. is accumulated through battling, so you see my point?

Go back upstairs to 1F.

Mt. Moon - 1F: You'll notice a fork in the path. Go south, first. Defeat the Super Nerd and go southwest to find another Potion. Go around that big rock to find another Bug Catcher, then go southeast to find the rare Rare Candy. These items are perhaps the best you can find: not buyable by any means, and there's a very limited amount in the game, and for good reason: they instantly raise your Pokémon's level by one! I think it might be most efficient to use one after leveling up, because your EXP. drains out after its use.

Go north to find an Escape Rope, which will let you instantly leave a cave and some other areas like this one. Further north, you'll find a Lass. Defeat her and go west and south to the ladder series.

Mt. Moon - B2F: Defeat the nearby Rocket grunt and go north to find TM01, which teaches Mega Punch. It's a Normal-type move of decent physical power. Go east and examine the stand-out rock to find an Ether, which helps to heal PP. You usually can't buy these, so save them for emergencies.

Go back to the top floor.

Mt. Moon - 1F: Go west to find a Youngster. Defeat him and go north to find the Hiker. Defeat him and you'll notice a ladder. Don't yet use it; rather, go northwest to find a Moon Stone. Only four Pokémon in this game will evolve via the Moon Stone: Jigglypuff (into Wigglytuff), Clefairy (into Clefable), Nidorino (into Nidoking), and Nidorina (into Nidoqueen). There is one for each of them in this game, this being one of them. Take the ladder to the southeast down a floor.

Mt. Moon - B1F: Defeat the Rocket here. After, go along the path east, south, west, and north. At the end, you'll need to fight another Rocket. Go north some more and go along the narrow eastbound path. At the end, examine with A to find a second Moon Stone! Go north and fight the Super Nerd near the two fossils. After the fight, you'll get a choice of the two fossils. Each of the Pokémon will be pretty similar. Pick one: the Dome Fossil will revive the offense-oriented Kabuto, whereas the Helix Fossil revives the defensive Omanyte.

Anywho, after this, continue along the path and past two ladders to leave this place.

Route 4

Anyways, continue eastward into Cerulean. There's not much on the way, though.

Cerulean City

Anyhow, go into the house west of the Pokémon Center and, in there, you'll be able to trade a Poliwhirl for Jynx. That's sad. Why? Well, firstly, you likely don't have that. Secondly, Jynx is the greater of two evils here, to me. And third? In Pokémon Yellow, you actually get a Bulbasaur FOR FREE here. >_<

In the northwestern house, you'll find a man who informs you of all of the badges' properties. Go around back of his house and examine all of the tiles there to find a Rare Candy near the east side.

Leave here and go south to find a shop. The man inside will sell you a Bicycle for the low, low prices of a mere $1,000,000! ... You know you can't afford that. For two reasons: firstly, you will need some insane grinding or trading for that much money, and secondly, you can only have $999,999. (This amount was later made much higher by Black/White - I think it was $999,999,999.) Despite this fact, kept this shop noted for future perusal.

Oh well. Let's head into the Gym. If you prefer to do some grinding beforehand, you should look at Routes 24 & 25 to the north of Cerulean. It's not optional at all, but you don't have to do it before the Gym, or you can if you want.

Cerulean City Gym

ThunderBadge

Sectional Flowchart

• Routes 24 & 25
• Route 5
• Route 6
• Vermilion City
• The S.S. Anne
• Vermilion City Gym

Routes 24 & 25

Cerulean City: Once you leave, heal up your Pokémon and try going north out of Cerulean. When you do, you'll find and battle your rival.

Route 24: Okay, when you enter the Bridge area, the general idea is to first fight five Trainers of increasing difficulty. You should be able to go to the Pokémon Center and heal in-between battles as needed. At the end, you'll be given a Nugget and an offer to join Team Rocket. (Of course, this is a Team Rocket grunt.) Your character refuses the offer (hey, I wanted to say "Yes" =/), so you have to fight, correct? Do so. Once you're done here, return to Cerulean, heal up, and continue north onto Route 24 proper.

While in the grass to the west of that Trainer-filled area (the Nugget Bridge), defeat the Trainer. Return to the northern end of the Nugget Bridge and go northwest to find TM45, Thunder Wave, an Electric-type move that doesn't damage, but actually will induce Paralysis should it hit. Paralysis makes it so that the opponent has a 1/4 chance of not attacking, and it also halves their Speed stat, often ensuring that they go last regardless of their Speed beforehand, especially in the competitive setting.

Then go east, and battle the two Hikers. After that, you should be on Route 25.

Route 25: Continue along the Route to battle the first four Trainers above. After defeating the Hiker, you should go north and HAVE THE TRAINER TO THE NORTH WALK TO YOU. This is so you can obtain TM19, Seismic Toss. Anyhow, your next opponents, including the aforementioned Trainer, should be a Jr. Trainer and a Youngster. After defeating the Youngster, continue along the path to find a Lass. Defeat her.

Continue along the path to find a house. Go inside to find something that looks a bit like a Pokémon. The "Pokémon" reveals itself to be Bill, among the biggest of the biggest Pokémaniacs and the creator of the PC Pokémon Storage System. One of his experiments has transformed him into a Pokémon. You'll be forced to help out. When Bill enters the chamber, press A while facing the computer keyboard to transform Bill into a human being. He'll hand you the S.S. Ticket as a reward. Now leave the house and continue back to Cerulean City.

Route 5

After the battle, you'll be given TM28, Dig. Dig is a very decent Ground-type move. It puts the user underground for one turn, and will only be damaged by Earthquake and the like during that time, then deals Ground-type damage on the next turn. The people who originally had the TM taken from them will let you have it, so enjoy. Also note that it is a bit like an Escape Rope when used out of battle.

Continue southward to Route 5.

Route 5: Not much here, Pokémon-wise.

Further along the Route, you find you cannot go east - there is a tree in the way. Okay, south it is. You'll be able to jump the ledges. Do so to find the Pokémon Daycare, where you leave one of your Pokémon. By doing so, the Pokémon will gain 1 EXP. per step you taken. However, the moveset changes are not controlled by you, and you must pay $100 + ($100 X number of levels gained). So... Magikarp...? (Note, however, like Gen. II onwards, no breeding is allowed in these games.)

Further south, you cannot go into Saffron City because the guard is thirsty and will be a complete douche about it.

There is only one option left - taking the underground pathway connecting Route 5 with Route 6. Go into that building. Speak with the girl for a version-specific trade. You'll receive Nidoran for Nidoran in Pokémon Blue/Green, and vice versa in Pokémon Red.

When you're done, go on downstairs and follow the linear path, and exit the building to find Route 6.

Route 6

Vermilion City

After arriving, head on into the Pokémon Center and speak with the nurse behind the counter to heal yourself. Leave the Pokémon Center and go into the house on the left. Speak with the man inside and say "Yes" to get the Old Rod. In the ever-famous words of another GameFAQs user, AstralFire, "Great. A Magikarp stick." Couldn't have put it better. That's all the Old Rod can do, as far as I know - catch Magikarp.

Leave the house and go east, then south, then to the far west to find the Pokémon Fan Club. One guy inside mentions something along the lines of his Pikachu being cuter than that one ... where is this "that one"? There isn't another in the building. @_@ Anyhow, speak with the old man and say "Yes" and you will eventually obtain a Bike Voucher, which allows you to obtain a free Bicycle if you go to the Bike Shop back in Cerulean City and give it to the man at the counter.

Okay, after the trip, heal up if needed at the Pokémon Center. Go back to the Pokémon Fan Club and into the building to the east. Inside, you can speak with a girl that will give you a Farfetch'd (a Normal/Flying-type) for a Spearow (also a Normal/Flying type). You should remember that a Farfetch'd cannot be caught anywhere in the Kanto region (guess she got hers from Johto?), so this will be the only way to get it. Farfetch'd - due to the lack of hold items - is not that much worth using, but may as well grab it for completionism. =/

Next, let's go to the harbor, where the S.S. Anne is docked.

The S.S. Anne

Go left one more room to find two more Trainers to fight. Afterwards, head back east and upstairs, then go back to below the entrance. Go southeast of there to fight another Gentleman past the door. Go left three doors and inside, then beat the two Trainers within. Also grab the item, which is TM08. TM08 teaches Body Slam, a fairly powerful Normal-type attack that has a good chance of also inducing Paralysis on the Pokémon it hits.

Continue left some more outside. At the west wall, go down past the stairs to fidn the kitchen. Go to the east side of this room where the chefs are peeling some 'taters and examine the southernmost trash basket to find a Great Ball, which has a 50% greater chance of catching a Pokémon than the basic Poké Ball.

Leave the kitchen and go north and downstairs. Go south and downstairs again, then to the far west side to hit the deck, metaphorically of course. Defeat the two Trainers here, then go back into the ship and to where you entered this floor.

Go through the first room on the right and you'll be shown a picture of a fat Pokémon, Snorlax, by one of the trainers within. Next room: two Trainers and the useful Max Ether. Two rooms later: two more battles and a Rare Candy!

Now, I suggest you leave the ship and heal up at the Pokémon Center. Return and continue along the path you were going along to find your rival! He brags briefly about having caught 40 Pokémon by now before battling you.

Okay, anyhow, exit the S.S. Anne.

Vermilion City Gym

Vermilion Gym: Within the Pokémon Gym, there are three people in the front room of the building. Go ahead and battle all of them, and they will give you hints as to the puzzle to reach Lt. Surge. See, there are a ton of trash cans throughout the room, and in one at random is a hidden switch: you must investigate the trash cans to find it. That alone is not enough to open the northern door to Lt. Surge: you must also find the second switch. The second switch is supposed to be in a trash can next to the first switch going horizontally or vertically, but not diagonally. This is normally true but, although this same reference is made in the Japanese Pokémon Red/Green, the second switch in those games could be in any of the trash cans, which makes this task a pain in the ass without save-state abuse. >_>

Eventually, you'll get it right. Continue north to find, speak to, and battle Lt. Surge.

RainbowBadge

Sectional Flowchart

• Cut Item Cleanup: Diglett's Cave
• Cut Item Cleanup: Route 2
• Cut Item Cleanup: Pewter City
• Cut Item Cleanup: Viridian City
• Route 11
• Route 9
• Route 10
• The Rock Tunnel
• Lavender Town
• Routes 7 & 8
• Celadon City
• Rocket Game Corner
• Celadon City Gym

Cut Item Cleanup: Diglett's Cave

Cut Item Cleanup: Route 2

Anyhow, exit, go south, and Cut down the tree. Enter the nearby building. In there is another one of Prof. Oak's aides. If you have caught 10+ Pokémon species, you will get HM05, Flash.

Flash is a move that will lower the opponents' accuracy by one stage in battle. Out of battle, it will light up caverns and such that are too dark. For example, Mt. Moon and Diglett's Cave are NOT Flash-able places: the Rock Tunnel we'll later go through almost requires its use. You can place it on Abra or Bellsprout, as well as some other Grass and Psychic Pokémon, to my knowledge. It is by no means a requirement for game completion like most HMs, but you'll want it if you don't plan on using a map of some sort.

Leave the building, heading south, and grab the HP Up. Keep going south to find a Moon Stone. Then return north to the Diglett's Cave entrance. Go west and Cut down the tree, then go north into Pewter City.

Cut Item Cleanup: Pewter City

Inside, the top-center man will give you an Old Amber to take to a Pokémon Lab. Let's hold onto it, for we can later transform it, like the Dome/Helix Fossil, into a Pokémon. This one is Aerodactyl, a Rock/Flying Pokémon. Aerodactyl is a more-than-decent Pokémon, boasting both good Attack and Speed: even today, Aerodactyl is fairly commonly used in battles.

Now, we're now going to backtrack to Viridian City for a quick thing. Nothing major. Head south onto Route 2, then go far to the south of where you got HM05, where the HP Up and Moon Stone were found earlier. You can Cut down some trees near there and go south to Viridian.

Cut Item Cleanup: Viridian City

We're done with the Cut-based item cleanup thingy for now, though. Backtrack to Vermilion City and go east onto Route 11.

Route 11

Also up here is one of Prof. Oak's aides. He'll give you the Itemfinder, but only if you've caught 30+ species of Pokémon. The Itemfinder simply allows you to find hidden items.

Leave the building heading east to find a ... thing ... in the middle of the road. This "thing" is a Pokémon known as Snorlax and is among the heaviest of Pokémon, weighing in at just over one-half imperial ton in weight (just under one-half metric ton). You cannot wake up the sleeping Pokémon (don't have a Poké Flute), nor eject it somehow into the nearby ocean (don't own enough uranium). Well, return to the main part of Route 11 and defeat the southern trainers. You'll fight two, then defeat the last three Trainers. Return to Vermilion.

Route 9

Route 9: Continue onto the Route and beat up the Jr. Trainer, then go down the two ledges to find TM30. TM30 teaches the move Teleport, the one Abra are infamous for - it allows instant escape from battles and caverns. Defeat the Hiker nearby, then go east and up the ledge.

Head to the southeastern portion of the Route and beat that Hiker. Head west and up two ledges to find a Trainer to beat. Defeat him and go north to find a Bug Catcher. Go west to find the grass on this Route. Go back east when done catching or grinding or whatever, then go down two more ledges.

Go east and up the ledge to find another Bug Catcher, then north and west is a Jr. Trainer. Go east and up the ledge near the Bug Catcher from before to battle a Hiker. Beat him and go east, then down the ledge to find the final Trainer for this route. After beating her, go east to Route 10.

Route 10