So, in my previous blog we've seen that Pokémon are made of flesh and organs, but also one or two magical elemental types, that effect or resist each other in combat. Well, today we'll learn about 2 other aspects of a Pokémon that will probably make you realize why your favorite Pokémon isn't that great in battles.

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More Basic Concepts

Base Stats

Statistic, Stat for short, is a value which determines certain aspects of battles in the games.

Every Pokemon's strengths and weaknesses are determined by six Base Stats. These Base Stats are HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. Pay close attention to these stats to make your Pokemon excel in one area over another. Two other stats can also be found, Evasion and Accuracy. Instead of being part of a Pokemon's Base Stats, they are tied to the Pokemon's Moves.

·HP determines the Hit Points of a Pokemon. Hit Points are the amount of health points each Pokemon has until they faint. When they get hit by an attack, their HP decreases.

·Attack determines the physical power of a Pokemon. Attacks like Body Slam will rely on the Attack Stat for the damage it deals.

·Defense determines how much damage a Pokemon can resist from Physical Attack.

·Special Attack determines the special power of your Pokemon. Attacks like Flamethrower will rely on the Special Attack Stat for the damage it deals.

·Special Defense determines how much damage a Pokemon can resist from Special Attacks.

·Speed determines the place a Pokemon will strike in Battle. Since Pokemon Battles are turn based, Speed determines if your Pokemon will attack first or last. This may not be a huge deal in Single Battles, but if it's three on three, one of the Pokemon will attack sixth, yikes!

·Accuracy determines the ability to hit a Pokemon. The initial value at the start of any battle is 100%. All Attacks have an accuracy stat which ranges from 100% to 30%. The less accurate attacks are usually much more powerful. Some moves (such as Aerial Ace) will always hit no matter what your Pokemon's Accuracy is!

·Evasion determines the ability of a Pokemon to dodge an attack. The initial value at the start of any battle is 100%. A Pokemon's Evasion can be increased or decreased in battle to evade a Pokemon's Attacks, just like if you were to lower a Pokemon's Accuracy.



It is very important to know your opponent's Pokemon base stat in other to know its weakness and strengths. A species' base stats range from values of 1 to 255. As an example, the base stats for Umbreon make them mainly defensive Pokémon, meaning that Umbreon will generally have relatively low Attack and Special Attack scores in comparison to their Defense and Special Defense scores. When considering an individual Umbreon, however, these differences may be mitigated or emphasized by other factors such as its Nature, individual values, and effort values. (we'll cover those aspects in a future blog.) And don't forget that the higher the level the higher the Pokemon stats get.


Moves

This mechanic is well known by many, a move is the skill a Pokémon use in a battle.
Pokémon can use a maximum of 4 moves at a time from a pool of moves they are able to learn (movelist, movepool, learnset). Movepool sizes vary greatly among different Pokémon, and it's important to know wich moves your opponent Pokémon could be carrying. Don't worry through, no Pokémon can learn all the 800 moves, and only a few can be useful in a battle.

There are three categories of moves: Those that do not directly inflict damage are known as Status moves; include moves that change the weather, inflict status conditions, or raise or lower the stats of a Pokémon, among other effects, damaging moves that are divided into Physical and Special moves. A physical move damage is based on the user's attack stat, and the special move's damage is based on the user's special attack stat. The damage dealt by a damaging move is determined by its power. Some damaging moves have additional effects. Most moves can target only one adjacent Pokémon, but some moves instead can target the user, more than one Pokémon, or non-adjacent Pokémon.
And as we have seen in my previous blog each move has a type that determines how effective it is against various types of targets.

Pokémon are limited in the way that they may use their moves in battle. The number of times they can use each move is restricted by the move's Power Points (PP). This is why you have to be careful with your PP, since your opponent may rely on wasting those as a strategy. Also, Accuracy affects whether the move misses or lands, so think twice whenever using a low accuracy move, as it can make a big difference in a battle.



Conclusion

Well, that simply covers two more aspects of a battle, as always, Base Stats and Moves get a little more complex, but by now you should know that the ideal competitive Pokemon have high stats along with a many strong and useful moves they can learn. And also, that some turns rely on lucky, although skillful players know when to take risks. That's all for today, as always leave questions in the comments and if I missed something just let me know. I'd be editing the information if necessary.