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Startup Guide for New Trainers
This Startup FAQ is in no way made to counter what HurricaneOpal or Minimexc did with their beginner and team-building FAQ’s, respectively. I am making this because all too often, people are confused by the standard response to DV’s, or what Hidden Powers are. I’m going to start from the beginning and go on to explain Hidden Power, Breeding, and DV’s. THE BEGINNING: *STATS* This is the true beginning of learning about Pokémon. The stats determine how strong a Pokémon is, how long it will last, how much damage an attack will do, and the like. The physical stats: ATTACK- The attack stat is one of the stats that determine how much damage Physical attacks will do. It is a critical stat, and it is always very helpful to have at least one all-out physical attacker on a team. A physical attack is one of the following elements: Normal, Poison, Flying, Fighting, Rock, Ground, Bug, Ghost, and Steel. DEFENSE- the defense stat determines how "well-armored" your Pokémon are. It is the opposite of a Physical attack, basically the defense against all of the physical attack elements. It is the second factor in determining how much a physical-based attack will do. **** The special stats: SPECIAL ATTACK- This is like the attack stat for special-based moves. It is the first part in determining how much damage Special Attacks do. The special based moves are: Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Ice, Psychic, Dragon, and Dark SPECIAL DEFENSE- this is the Defense stat for special moves. It is the second factor in determining how much special-based attacks will do. **** The last two stats: Speed- the higher the better, if yours is higher than your opponent’s, you will go first. Hit Points (HP)-The life of your Pokémon. If it reaches 0, your Pokémon faints. You can restore HP with potions or by going to a Pokémon Center. ----- I’m working my way up to explaining the damage formula, but there’s stuff I have to talk about, so please bear with me. ----- LINGO: Base Power (BP)-The base damage of the attack. (Higher is better) It is not constant with every attack, so some attacks are more and less powerful than others. For example, Tackle’s BP is 35, but the stronger Body Slam’s BP is 85. Power Points (PP)-The number of times you can use a move. As a general rule, the more powerful the move, the less PP. Same Type Attack Bonus (STAB)-if a Pokémon that is using an attack is the same element as the attack, the base power is multiplied by 1.5. So as an example, Absorb, a grass-type attack with a BP of 20, was used by a grass Pokémon, the BP would be 30. (20 x 1.5=30) Super-Effectiveness and Not Very Effective: Some attack types are strong against others, while others are weak against another element. If an attack is Super Effective, the total damage, **not the BP**, is doubled. If it is Not Very effective, the **total damage** is halved. So an attack that would do 20 damage that is super-effective does 40, and if it were not very effective it would do 10 damage against an enemy Pokèmon. THE DAMAGE FORMULA!! I finally got here! :) Ok, here it is: REMINDER: **The physical attacks are: Normal, Fighting, Poison, Ghost, Bug, Flying, Steel, Rock, Ground **The special attacks are: Fire, Water, Grass, Ice, Electric, Psychic, Dark, Dragon (((((((2L ÷ 5+2)×A×P ÷ D) ÷ 50)+2)×T)×M)×R ÷ 255)
L = Attacker's level A = Attacking Pokémon's Attack/Special Attack P = Ability's power D = Defending Pokémon's Defense/Special Defense T = Type match (1, 1.5) [STAB Calculation]- if the user's Type matches the Type of the move, a 50% damage bonus is gained. In the formula above, Mew using Thunderbolt would result in a T of 1 (since Mew isn't type Electric) whereas Mew using Psychic would cause T to be 1.5 (Mew is a Psychic type Pokémon). M = Effectiveness modifier (either 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4) - examples: 0 (Body Slam against a Gengar (Normal being totally unable to affect Ghosts)), 0.25 (Mega Drain against a Charizard (grass being ineffective against both Fire And Flying)), 0.5 (Surf against a Venusaur (Water being ineffective against Grass)), 1 (Hyper beam against a Alakazam (Normal attacks doing Normal damage against Psychics)), 2 (Thunderbolt against a Dodrio (Electric being effective against Flying)), 4 (Cross Chop against a Tyranitar (with Fighting being effective against Both Dark and Rock)). R = a random number between 217 and 255 A damage calculator can be found here: Gold/Silver/Crystal Damage Calculator, credits of Marble Palace Pokemon Website. **** THE COMPLICATED STUFF: DV’s, Breeding, and Hidden Power DV’s: DV's are in every pokemon, although you never actually see them in the game. They determine everything, from stats to Hidden Power to being Shiney. A DV is a number from 0-15 that is randomly picked the first time you see a pokemon. You can figure out DVs by figuring out the maximum and minimum possible stats, and figuring out how far off your stat is. For every 2 points off, subtract 1 dv. The highest DV is 15, so a perfect Pokémon would have all of their DV’s being 15. NOTE: DV’s DO determine gender in a species with a gender split. For example, the Pidgey family has a 50-50% chance of being male or female. Males have the upper part of the attack DV, so a male Pidgey has an attack DV of 7 or higher. On single-gender species or no gender species, the attack DV will not change anything. As a general rule, females will have higher defense DVs than males, but that is not always true. *Perfect Pokémon in a species with gender splits MUST be male. EXAMPLE: A Dragonite, whose max attack is 366, has an attack of 360. It's 6 off the max stat, so that's -3 from 15, which is a 12 attack DV. ---- DV's
also determine your HP dv. Here's how it works: That's the basic stuff about DVs. There are some complicated formulas for figuring out you Hidden Power’s power and element that involve DVs, but those are really long and winded, and I'm far too lazy to explain them. BREEDING: First of all, breeding can only be done at the Daycare Center south of Goldenrod City. Here are the conditions that are needed for breeding to happen: 1. A male and female Pokémon -OR- A ditto and any gender of Pokémon. 2. The two Pokémon must be Breeding-Compatible. This means that their species must be able to breed with each other in the first place. 3. They both must be capable of breeding. All Legendary Pokémon are NOT capable of breeding. 4. They can NOT have the same Defense DV The bred Pokémon will sometimes be able to learn special moves that would not otherwise be learnable. For instance, a Dragonite can learn the move "haze", which is not a TM and is not naturally learnable. Many Pokémon can learn moves only through breeding. *For Example* A male Mr. Mime with Barrier breeds with a Female Magmar. The baby will have Barrier, because it is an egg move, a move that can only be learned through breeding. Also, some Pokémon can only be found by breeding. They are: Magby, Pichu, Cleffa, Igglybuff, Smoochum, and Elekid. Also, Tyrogne is a baby, but can also be obtained by beating the Dojo master in Mt. Mortar.
EXTRA BREEDING INFORMATION (Credits of Fredrich51) (Female, Male, Genderless, and Ditto refer to the parents) Female
+ Male = Female Baby Female
+ Male = Male Baby Male
+ Ditto = Baby Female
+ Ditto = Baby Genderless
+ Ditto = Baby RULES WHICH GOVERN ATTACKS PASSED DOWN: 1. If both parents know an attack that the baby is able to learn naturally, it will be born with that attack. (if two Arcanine, both with flamethrower, breed, the baby will have Flamethrower as a starting move) 2. Some attacks are only learnable through breeding. They are called "Egg Moves" 3. If the father knows an attack that the baby can learn via TM or HM, the baby will know the attack. (I.E., a Male Fearow with Fly and Tri Attack would pass them down to the baby) 4. Move tutor moves: Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, and Flamethrower Thanks, Fred! :D HIDDEN POWER: This is a very easy subject, as soon as you know what you’re talking about. Here is my definition of Hidden Power (HP): Hidden
Power The Power and Element of the move varies depending on the Pokémon using it. Hidden Power is a valuable asset on many Pokémon. It can provide a more powerful STAB attack, give a Pokémon an element move not naturally learned, or give a Pokémon coverage for its weaknesses. Here are a few examples: Scizor: A bug HP gives him a reliable attack for STAB Espeon: An Ice HP or Water HP gives him incredible versatility against many different types. Ursaring: A flying HP gives him the ability to counteract his weakness to fighting-type Pokémon.
HELP WITH TEAM-BUILDING: Here are a few tips for how to choose the best Pokémon for your team: *1*First, use your favorites and have fun. Here are the other, more intelligent tips: 1.Do NOT use more than one STAB attack of the same type. For instance, don’t use Flamethrower AND Fire Blast on Charizard. However, using a no-damage attack is OK. For example, a Jolteon can have Thunderbolt and Thunder Wave, because Thunder Wave doesn’t do damage. 2.Use different types of Pokémon on your team, and cover up their weaknesses. This will hopefully prevent your team from getting slaughtered by one or two enemy Pokémon. 3.Work, Experiment, and Tweak: This is, in my opinion, the most critical phase of team building. Look at your team; what are its weaknesses? Then, after trying to cover those up, battle with it. See how it does, and where it falls short. Then, tweak the team so it works better. 4.Don’t be afraid to be original! Sometimes, being unpredictable or having an unusual Pokèmon is the key to victory. 5.Make sure you use Pokèmon that you’re comfortable with and have fun with. If you don’t like them, change them. Don’t let anyone force you into using a Pokèmon. What’s popular isn’t always right.
CONCLUSION/DISCLAMER: This FAQ is copyright 2001 by Evan (evkl). If you want to use this FAQ or any part of this FAQ on any website, PM me with that site’s address, and I’ll probably OK it. I hope that this explains some of the more complicated stuff in a simpler manner. If anyone has any suggestions or comments, feel free to post them here. -Evan ‘evkl
of IGN’ |
