Pokémon battle

Pokémon battles (Japanese: ポケモンバトル Pokémon Batoru), or less commonly, Pokémon fights (Japanese: ポケモン格闘 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.

Progression of Battle

Fight

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. Also, moves may land a critical hit on the foe; when this happens, its damage is doubled.

Pokémon

If Pokémon is selected, the menu of Pokémon in the Trainer's party will appear. The Trainer may check summaries of information of the Pokémon, or withdraw his/her active Pokémon and shift it for another.

Bag

If Bag is selected, the menu of items that the Trainer has in their bag will appear. 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.

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. Running away in a Trainer battle will always fail, because it is disallowed.

The ability Run Away makes running away 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 beat, 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

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.

In the Pokémon 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.

Battling Trainers

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 you lose, you forfeit half your cash. 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 recieved 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.
• 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 on foes using Dig.

Double battles

Main article: Double 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. In competitive double battles in places like the Battle Tower, or in Orre, individual Trainers send out two Pokémon each.

Strategy

Some attacks can affect both opponent Pokémon, while others affect all Pokémon other than the user.

Battles in the games

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.

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 judge of sorts, who declares when a Pokémon is unable to battle. Some battles, such as Pokémon 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 Special

Pokémon Special 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 uncertainity into the mix. Battles end when all of a trainer's Pokémon are defeated, 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.