Battles

Battles are turn-based, one Pokémon on each side. The rules follow the mainline games of the Game Boy Advance and DS era, simplified in a few places noted below.

A battle, turn by turn

Your lead goes out first: the first healthy Pokémon in your party. Change the order in Party (Q) with Make lead. Your lead also walks behind you in the overworld.

Each turn you pick one of four commands:

Command	What happens
Fight	Choose one of your Pokémon's moves.
Bag	Throw a ball, use a Potion or berry, or toss a berry to a wild Pokémon.
Pokémon	Switch to another healthy party member.
Run	Leave a wild battle. It always works. You can't run from a trainer.

If you use an item, throw a ball, or switch, the other side gets a free move that turn.

When your active Pokémon faints, you choose who goes out next. When the last one faints, you lose.

Who moves first

1. A move with priority goes first. In the valley that's Quick Attack.
2. Otherwise the faster Pokémon (higher Speed, after stat changes) moves first.
3. If Speed is tied, it's a coin flip.

How the other side chooses

Wild and trainer Pokémon usually pick the move that would do the most damage to you, counting power, type matchup, same-type bonus and accuracy. About 30% of the time they pick a move at random instead.

Stats

Each Pokémon has six stats: HP, Attack, Defense, Sp. Atk, Sp. Def and Speed. They come only from the species' base stats and the level. There are no hidden values or natures, so two Pokémon of the same species and level always have the same stats.

Stat	Formula
HP	⌊2 × Base × Level ÷ 100⌋ + Level + 10
Others	⌊2 × Base × Level ÷ 100⌋ + 5

For example, a level 5 Charmander has 18 HP: ⌊2 × 39 × 5 ÷ 100⌋ = 3, plus 5, plus 10.

Stat changes

Status moves raise or lower a stat by one stage, up to +6 or down to −6. They last until that Pokémon leaves the field or the battle ends.

Stage	−6	−3	−2	−1	0	+1	+2	+3	+6
Multiplier	×0.25	×0.4	×0.5	×0.67	×1	×1.5	×2	×2.5	×4

Growl lowers Attack. Tail Whip and Leer lower Defense. String Shot lowers Speed. Harden and Defense Curl raise the user's Defense.

How damage works

Accuracy

A move hits if a random roll falls under its accuracy. Swift, Disarming Voice, Harden and Defense Curl never miss. There are no accuracy or evasion stat changes in the valley.

The damage formula

Physical moves compare the attacker's Attack with the target's Defense. Special moves compare Sp. Atk with Sp. Def.

base = ⌊ ⌊ ⌊2 × Level ÷ 5 + 2⌋ × Power × Attack ÷ Defense ⌋ ÷ 50 ⌋ + 2

Then, in order:

1. Critical hit: a 1 in 16 chance for ×1.5 damage. A critical hit ignores your own lowered Attack and the target's raised Defense.
2. Random spread: ×0.85 to ×1.00.
3. Same-type bonus (STAB): ×1.5 if the move's type matches one of the attacker's types. A Fire-type Charmander's Ember gets it; its Scratch doesn't.
4. Type effectiveness: ×2, ×0.5 or ×0 for each of the target's types, multiplied together. A move can be ×4 against a Pokémon weak to it twice, or ×0.25 against one that resists it twice.

Each step rounds down. A hit always does at least 1 damage unless the target is immune, and never more than the target's remaining HP.

Drain moves (Absorb and Mega Drain) heal the user by half the damage dealt.

Type matchups

This is the type chart the game uses. Every attacking type not listed in a column does normal (×1) damage.

Attacking move type	2× against	½× against	No effect on
Normal	—	Rock	—
Fire	Grass Bug	Fire Water Rock	—
Water	Fire Rock Ground	Water Grass	—
Grass	Water Rock Ground	Fire Grass Bug Poison Flying	—
Electric	Water Flying	Grass Electric	Ground
Bug	Grass Psychic Dark	Fire Poison Flying Fairy	—
Poison	Grass Fairy	Poison Rock Ground	—
Flying	Grass Bug	Electric Rock	—
Rock	Fire Bug Flying	Ground	—
Ground	Fire Electric Poison Rock	Grass Bug	Flying
Fairy	Dark	Fire Poison	—
Psychic	Poison	Psychic	Dark
Dark	Psychic	Fairy Dark	—

Dual-type Pokémon

Two types multiply together, which creates some big weaknesses and immunities:

Defender	4× weak to	2× weak to	Resists	Immune to
Grass Poison Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, Venusaur, Oddish, Gloom	—	Fire Flying Psychic	Water Grass Electric Fairy	—
Fire Flying Charizard	Rock	Water Electric	Fire Grass Bug Fairy	Ground
Bug Flying Butterfree	Rock	Fire Electric Flying	Grass Bug	Ground
Normal Flying Pidgey, Pidgeotto, Hoothoot, Noctowl	—	Electric Rock	Grass Bug	Ground
Bug Poison Venonat, Venomoth	—	Fire Flying Rock Psychic	Grass Bug Poison Fairy	—
Rock Ground Geodude, Graveler	Water Grass	Ground	Normal Fire Poison Flying Rock	Electric
Water Ground Wooper, Quagsire	Grass	—	Fire Poison Rock	Electric

Useful matchups in the valley

• Geodude and Graveler take ×4 from Water and Grass moves, and Electric moves don't touch them.
• Wooper and Quagsire take ×4 from Grass, and are immune to Electric.
• Pikachu's Thunder Shock and Thunderbolt do nothing to Ground types.
• Ghost, Steel, Ice, Dragon and Fighting types don't exist in the valley.

Experience and levels

When the other side's Pokémon faints, your Pokémon on the field earns experience:

Exp = ⌊ Base Exp × Level of the fainted Pokémon × Bonus × 2 ÷ 7 ⌋

• Bonus is ×1.5 against a trainer's Pokémon and ×1 against a wild one.
• The ×2 is a valley speed-up so evolutions arrive within a short play session.
• To reach a level you need Level³ total experience: 125 for level 5, 1,000 for level 10, 4,096 for level 16.
• The level cap is 50.

When a Pokémon levels up, its HP rises by the amount its maximum grew, it may learn a new move, and it may evolve after the battle.

Catching a Pokémon or running away earns no experience.

If you lose

When every Pokémon in your party has fainted:

• The battle ends and you hurry home.
• Your whole party is fully healed.
• You appear outside your house in Mosslight Hamlet.
• You keep all your money, items and Pokémon. Nothing is taken.

Against a trainer, losing still uses up that trainer's battle for the day. See Trainers.