Pokémon battle

Pokémon battles (Japanese: ポケモンバトル Pokémon Battle), or less commonly, Pokémon fights (Japanese: ポケモン Pokémon Kettou), are a form of competition between Pokémon. In these battles, one or more of the battling Pokémon is typically owned and trained by a Pokémon Trainer. As many as four Pokémon Trainers and four Pokémon may compete at once in a Pokémon battle. Trainers battle their Pokémon against wild Pokémon to weaken them for capture. If a Pokémon battle is won, any Pokémon who participated gains experience, unless they fainted, or if they are level 100.

A Pokémon battle in Pokémon Platinum

In Pokémon video games, battles are conducted in a strictly turn-based manner. Before a turn starts, Trainers select their action, be it an attack, utilizing an item or switching another Pokémon to battle. Once both Trainers have chosen their actions, the turn begins and the actions are carried out, depending on the kind of action and/or the speed of the Pokémon. There are many situations that can contribute to the order actions go in during a turn, or if the action happens at all.

A Trainer wins when all of the opponent's Pokémon are defeated. When a Pokémon faints, a Trainer may send out another Pokémon. If the player character does not have any more Pokémon who can battle because their entire party has fainted, then he or she has lost the match. The player will lose some money, and is returned home or to a Pokémon Center.

Progression of Battle

Fight

File:Pokémon battle moves.png

Fight menu

Main article: Move

If Fight is selected, the menu of moves the Pokémon knows will appear. The Trainer may select one of up to four moves his or her Pokémon knows, and command the Pokémon to use it. The Pokémon may or may not obey, depending on the Trainer's Badges and any status ailments (e.g. sleep).

Pokémon may learn up to four different moves. There is a great variety of moves, including attacks, and those with special effects. The kinds of moves that can be learned vary for each Pokémon species. Moves may be effective against, super effective against, not very effective against, or not effective at all against certain Pokémon depending on both of their elemental types. This can be determined from a Type chart. Also, moves may land a critical hit on the foe; when this happens, its damage is doubled.

Pokémon

Main article: Party

Pokémon menu

If Pokémon is selected, the menu of Pokémon in the Trainer's party will appear. Once accessed, it will display the six party slots and the Pokémon present in the player's party. This allows players to withdraw his/her active Pokémon and shift it for another.

By selecting an individual Pokémon, its summary will appear. The summary information is dependent on what is available in the game's generation. In all generations, it included the status of the Pokémon, its current level, experience points, stats and current moveset, for information during the battle.

When entering a single battle, the first Pokémon that has not fainted in the party list is the one that will be drawn first. For double battles, the first two Pokémon that have not fainted in the party list are the ones that will be drawn first by the Trainer.

Bag

Main article: Bag

Bag menu

If Bag is selected, the menu of items that the Trainer has in their bag will appear. The Trainer is able to use items that they have obtained outside of battle. The Trainer may use one of them on his Pokémon. The bag cannot be used in a link battle (a battle held between two real players) or when battling at the Battle Tower.

Many items can be selected from the bag, included Potions to restore a Pokémon's HP, status ailment healing items to heal a Pokémon's status ailment, and berries to do a variety of effects. However some items can not be used inside of the battle, including key items and TMs and HMs. Poké Balls are also able to be selected from the bag to catch wild Pokémon. Generation IV games introduced an option to reuse the item used last. This allows for easy access, for whether throwing a Poké Ball, or using a healing item.

Run

Main article: Escape

In a battle, there is a Trainer option to run. Running away from a wild Pokémon will cause the battle to end, though it may fail; whether the player is successful at running away from the battle is determined by a calculation involving the speed of the combatants. When the escape is successful, the battle ends immediately.

Running away in a Trainer battle will always fail, because it is disallowed. However, in player battles in the Cable or Wireless Clubs, attempting to escape will cause the battle to end immediately. If only one player attempts to escape, the battle counts as a loss against them, but if both players attempt to escape in the same turn, the battle ends in a draw.

The ability Run Away makes fleeing from a wild battle always succeed. If a Pokémon is holding the item Smoke Ball, they can run away without failure. The items Pokémon doll and Fluffy Tail will distract the wild Pokémon to run away more easily.

Call

This option appears only in Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, in place of the Run option (since there are few wild Pokémon, and those that do exist are easy to defeat, and the battles are entered into willingly). Using this option, the Trainer calls out the Pokémon's name. This snaps out a Shadow Pokémon from Hyper Mode or Reverse Mode, contributing to its purification. It can also be used simply to pass a turn without making a move. This will also wake a Pokémon from sleep. Additionally, in Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, calling a Pokémon will raise its accuracy by one level if it's not asleep.

Battling wild Pokémon

Main article: Wild Pokémon

File:Wild Pokémon battle pt.png

Wild Pokémon battle

Pokémon live in many places such as caves and forests, so when a Trainer passes through such places, wild Pokémon may attack them. When they do, they can use a Poké Ball to try to catch them. In the game, Poké Balls can only be used once, but in the Anime they can be reused until it successfully catches a Pokémon. A Trainer can also have their Pokémon fight wild ones to become stronger. If a Trainer causes the wild Pokémon to faint, it cannot be captured.

Wild Pokémon often do not know the best moveset for their level, but instead know the moves that were the most recently obtainable. Some wild Pokémon who can learn almost any move by way of an ability or special move (such as Smeargle) won't use this ability before being captured.

Wild Pokémon are encountered by walking in tall grass or caves, traveling with Surf, headbutting trees (in Generation II and Generation IV), breaking open rocks with Rock Smash (in Generations II and III), by fishing, or by slathering Honey on Honey Trees and checking back later (Generation IV only). Wild Pokémon can also appear when using Sweet Scent or Honey whilst standing stationary in grass. Also, in Generation II, listening to Pokémon March on the radio increases the probability of encountering wild Pokémon when walking through the grass, in caves or surfing, and listening to Pokémon Lullaby will decrease the probability. In Generations III and IV, several Pokémon abilities have the same effects when those Pokémon are in the lead spot.

In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, wild double battles were introduced. The player will encounter another character that needs help getting through the said location. When the Trainer encounters a Pokémon with this person, it will be a wild double battle. When this wild double battle occurs, the player cannot capture a Pokémon until one of them has fainted. After the protagonist goes through the area the first time, the wild Pokémon will only appear in single battles.

In the anime, Trainers don't generally seek out battles against wild Pokémon unless they want to capture one or are defending themselves against an aggressive attack from a wild Pokémon. In the first anime episode, Ash's Pokédex states that wild Pokémon tend to be jealous of human trained Pokémon.

Battling Trainers

Trainer battle

A Pokémon battle between Trainers is different. In the Pokémon games, when a Trainer sees the player, or the player talks to a Trainer, they will battle. Trainers cannot run from battles against other Pokémon Trainers. The battle will continue until a winner is decided. The victor is awarded with prize money equal to half of the loser's money; if the player loses, they must forfeit half their money. This seems to change in Generation IV, whereas the loser only pays a small fee for a loss, equal to the money he would have received if he won. This seems to show something like a prize money wager or bet.

There are two kinds of battles between Trainers: single battles and double battles.

Single battles

In single battles, a Trainer is against another, and both may send out one Pokémon each who battle head to head.

Strategy

Some attacks are more effective when used after another move; weather-changing moves are obvious examples:

• After Rain Dance, Template:Type2 moves are more powerful.
• After Sunny Day, Template:Type2 moves are more powerful.
• SolarBeam, when used after Sunny Day, does not require a one-turn delay before doing damage.
• Thunder's accuracy is increased from 70 to 100 after Rain Dance is used, whereas it is reduced to 50 after Sunny Day.
• Blizzard's accuracy is increased from 70 to 100 after Hail is used.
• Rollout's power is doubled if used after the move Defense Curl.
• Stomp, if used to attack a Pokémon that has used Minimize, will have twice the power as well.
• Twister's power is doubled on foes using Fly.
• The same effect goes for Earthquake or Magnitude on foes using Dig.

Double battles

Main article: Double battle

Double trainer battle

In double battles, a Trainer may be against two other Trainers, or two Trainers may be against two other Trainers; and depending on if he or she has a allying Trainer or not, he or she may send out either one or two Pokémon. The number of Pokémon Trainers participating in the battle can be two - in which each Trainer uses two Pokémon, three - in which a pair of Trainers each using a single Pokémon face off against a Trainer using two, or four Trainers - with each Trainer using a single Pokémon.

At first, the two on one variant only occurred against specific Trainer pair classes such as twins and couples such as Gym Leaders Tate and Liza, but starting with Pokémon Emerald, double battles may occur in situations where two different Trainers see the player at the same time. In Generation IV, there are situations where the player is accompanied by an NPC. Generation IV also changes around the order of events slightly. Moves that target multiple Pokémon now resolve in order of the Pokémon's respective Speed stats. Pokémon are also now switched in to replace KO'd Pokémon at the end of a round of combat rather than immediately after a Pokémon is knocked out. While this affects single battles, the effect is more noticeable in double battles where it is now possible for a Pokémon's move to fail due to a lack of target if both of the opposing Pokémon are knocked out before the attacking Pokémon's turn comes. In competitive double battles in places like the Battle Tower, or in Orre, individual Trainers send out two Pokémon each.

Battles in the anime

In the Pokémon anime, battles are conducted in a sort of pseudo-turn-based manner. Trainers shout orders to their Pokémon one after the other. There are no concerns about waiting for Pokémon to finish their attacks (allowing for Trainers to request immediate defense against attacks); however, most, if not all, Trainers wait for the other to finish talking before telling their Pokémon what to do next.

Official Trainer battles are watched over by a referee or battle judge, who declares when a Pokémon is unable to battle. Some battles, such as League battles, require a trained referee for the matches, but informal battles can be conducted with anyone who is overall knowledgeable about battles serving as the referee or even with no referee at all. Many of Ash's battles have been conducted with Brock serving as the referee.

Battles in Pokémon Adventures

Pokémon Adventures arguably has the most violent incarnation of battles in any Pokémon media. Pokémon have been directed to kill both humans and Pokémon by their Trainers, and they have attempted to do so, sometimes successfully. Trainers are an active part of the battle and are often openly attacked. Many Pokémon have also been trained to have unique abilities that further add an element of uncertainty into the mix. Battles end when all of a trainer's Pokémon are defeated (in League sanctioned battles, battles end when only one Pokémon has fainted), the Trainer is incapable of fighting, or when a judge determines a fight is complete. Trainers often target each other's Poké Balls, as they can be damaged into not releasing the Pokémon within. There is no limit on the amount of Pokémon able to in the fight at a time, and a team is not limited to six either. Trainers can also capture each other's Pokémon, although it is done very infrequently.