Training your team and choosing its moves

Build a team with different strengths

Open Start → POKéMON to see your team. Choose a partner, then STATS to check its HP, status, type and five battle stats. Use Up and Down to compare partners. A team with several types and useful status moves gives you more answers than six Pokémon doing the same job.

Attack, Defense, Speed and Special each matter. Special handles both special attacks and special defense. Normal, Fighting, Flying, Poison, Ground, Rock and Bug attacks use Attack and Defense; Ghost, Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Psychic, Ice and Dragon attacks use Special.

Select a move in battle to read its power, accuracy and effect before choosing it. A strong attack is less useful if the target resists it. Keep room for moves that cause sleep or paralysis, change stats, or help a teammate switch in.

Know your next level limit

Your training limit rises with the number of Badges you own. The Start menu shows the current limit. At that level, further EXP is not stored for later, so switch your attention to another partner or the next Gym.

Your first League victory raises the limit to 100. Rare Candies and the Day Care follow the same limit. A Pokémon you receive above it keeps its level, but a Pokémon belonging to another original Trainer may disobey until your limit catches up. Check the original Trainer, rather than assuming the seller is its original owner.

Train the whole party

Every living Pokémon that faced a defeated or caught opponent earns a full EXP award. Living reserves earn their own half-rate award, so you do not have to send every partner into every fight. Fainted partners earn none. Lower-level partners catch up more quickly; the newly caught Pokémon does not earn EXP from its own capture.

Heal before another training trip, and talk to people in Pokémon Centers as you travel. Once you have a VS SEEKER, walk 100 steps to charge it, use it near trainers you have already beaten, then speak to one who responds. Story opponents are separate from these ordinary rematches. Walking recharges the device for another scan.

When you find a Day Care, leave a party Pokémon with the caretaker, walk to help it gain EXP, then return and pay the quoted fee to collect it. Growth stops at your current level limit. The Day Care does not perform evolutions; after collection, check whether EVOLVE! is available.

Recover a forgotten move

Choose a Pokémon from your team or Bill’s PC, then RELEARN. Relearning is free. The list includes eligible earlier level-up moves from that Pokémon and its earlier evolution stages. Highlight a move to read its type, power, accuracy and effect.

Choose the move you want. If all four slots are full, read the comparison and choose which move to forget, or cancel to keep the current set. A move is not refilled simply because you forget and relearn it: its remaining uses and PP Up bonuses are remembered. Visit a Pokémon Center to restore its uses.

Use your TMs more than once

Open ITEM, switch to the TM/HM pocket and choose a machine. The party chooser marks partners as ABLE, NOT ABLE or LEARNED. Pick a compatible partner and confirm any move replacement.

TMs are reusable, so teaching one does not take it away from the rest of your team. An HM move can also be replaced when learning another move. For travelling, you can often use the carried HM without teaching it at all: see field moves and their Badge requirements.

To plan before teaching, open a known Pokémon in the Pokédex and browse its MOVES information. Check both level-up moves and machine compatibility. Evolution methods belong in the catching and evolution guide.

Improve more than your level

On STATS, use Select to see DVs and Stat EXP. DVs are a Pokémon’s natural potential, shown from 0 to 15. Stat EXP is training earned through battles, up to 65,535 in each stat. These are different from the modern games’ EV system.

Battle training still counts when EXP is blocked by a level limit. A full heal at a Pokémon Center applies the training you have earned to the displayed stats. Vitamins apply their improvement immediately: HP Up trains HP, Protein trains Attack, Iron trains Defense, Carbos trains Speed and Calcium trains Special. Each can keep helping until that stat’s training is full.

Some people you meet offer paid help with a Pokémon’s natural potential. Read their offer and exact fee before confirming. Bring carried money, or withdraw savings first.

Potential training and vitamins improve different things. Neither is required to begin a useful team: type coverage, a sound moveset and healthy partners help throughout the journey.