Experience: Difference between revisions

The amount of '''experience''' (Japanese: '''{{tt|経験|けいけん}}''' ''experience'') an individual Pokémon has is an indication of how much it has battled. In the games, it is quantified as '''Experience Points''' (Japanese: '''{{tt|経験値|けいけんち}}''' ''Experience Points''), which a Pokémon can gain in {{pkmn|battle}} by defeating an opponent Pokémon without fainting. After a certain amount of experience points have been gained, a Pokémon will grow a [[level]], all the way up to level 100, where a Pokémon will no longer gain experience (in the [[Generation I|first]] [[Generation II|two]] generations, the game will still erroneously state that it has gained experience points).

All Pokémon fall into one of six experience groups, four of which were introduced in [[Generation I]], and two of which were introduced in [[Generation III]]. The main difference between these experience groups is the amount of experience points required to reach level 100, and thus, the amount required to reach each level. All those introduced in Generation I are only {{wp|polynomial}} {{wp|Function (mathematics)|functions}} of the level, while the two introduced in Generation III operate as {{wp|piecewise}} functions, changing the equation depending on the level range.

This experience group actually grows more slowly than the Medium Slow group up until about level 68 (level 47, if considering amount of experience required to reach the next level).

The Medium Slow experience group, like the Medium Fast group, accounts for many Pokémon, containing the second largest amount of them. This group also contains all of the [[starter Pokémon]] trios. Requiring 1,059,860 experience points for a Pokémon to reach level 100, it is the only experience group whose level 100 experience is not evenly divisible by 10,000.

The {{wp|inflection point}} for this polynomial function is actually at level 4, not level 0. Thus, it actually takes more experience points to go from level 2 to 3 than it does to go from 4 to 5. In Generations I and II, this mislocation of the inflection point causes the [[#Experience underflow glitch|experience underflow glitch]]. For a list of all Pokémon in this group, see {{cat|Pokémon in the Medium Slow experience group}}.

Note that if a Pokémon both participated in battle and was holding an Exp. Share—or, in Generation I, the [[Exp. Share|Exp. All]] is in the [[Bag]]—they actually receive experience both from participating in battle and from Exp. Share/Exp. All. Therefore, to arrive at their total experience gained, the formula must be evaluated both for a Pokémon that battled and for one that was holding Exp. Share, and those results must be summed. This does not apply in Generation VI, as Exp. Share works differently in those games.

*''L'' is the [[level]] of the fainted Pokémon

**1 if no Exp. Point Power ([[Entralink#List of Pass Powers|Pass Power]]^{Gen V} or [[O-Power]]^{Gen VI}) is active

In Generation I, the behavior of Exp. All seems to be coded wrong.<ref>[https://github.com/iimarckus/pokered/blob/master/engine/battle/core.asm Pokered disassembly project on GitHub]</ref> The fault is that the experience distributed (evenly among all party members) by the Exp. All, intended to be half the total experience of the whole battle, is based on the experience that ''one'' battling Pokémon received, rather than that received by ''all'' battling Pokémon. This behavior works correctly if only one Pokémon battles while the Exp. All is in the player's bag (for example, if one Pokémon out of a party of five battles, then the battler will get 50% of the experience and then all five party members will share the remaining 50%, getting another 10% of the experience each, thus in total distributing the whole of the experience). However, if multiple Pokémon are sent into battle, then the total amount of experience received will effectively be decreased (for example, if two Pokémon out of a party of five battle, then the battlers will each get 25% of the experience, but then all five party members will only share 25% instead of the remaining 50%, getting another 5% of the experience each and causing 25% of the experience to be entirely lost).

As with the core series games, Pokémon acquiring enough experience points will level up. The amount needed differs from the core series games, and is defined differently for each Pokémon. The amount needed to level up is far greater in earlier games in the series. It is not currently known if Pokémon can be grouped by experience growth as in the main games.

In the [[Spin-off Pokémon games#Ranger series|Pokémon Ranger series]], when a Pokémon is successfully captured using the Styler, the Styler will gain experience points, and a certain number of experience points will cause the Styler to level up. However, each Pokémon of the same species will yield exactly the same amount of experience points, as there is no concept of level in the Ranger games.

* The Pokémon with the highest base experience yield is {{p|Blissey}}, with a base yield of 608. The Pokémon with the lowest base experience yield are {{p|Snivy}}, {{p|Tepig}}, and {{p|Oshawott}}, with a base yield of 28.

** Before [[Generation V]], the Pokémon with the lowest base experience yield was {{p|Magikarp}} with a yield of 20, and the Pokémon with the highest base experience yields were {{p|Arceus}}, {{p|Happiny}}, {{p|Chansey}}, and {{p|Blissey}}, with a yield of 255.