You can get surprisingly far with six overleveled favorites. Then you hit your first den boss, or another trainer, and discover the difference between a collection and a team.
Type coverage beats raw levels
The type chart is the whole game. A team of six water types is six free wins for one lucky grass trainer. When you build a party, aim for:
- No shared double-weakness. If three of your six fold to the same move type, that's a structural problem.
- Coverage moves. A Pokémon doesn't have to be a type to carry a move of it. An ice move on a water type handles the dragons that wall you.
- One pivot. Something bulky that can switch into hits you didn't predict and live.
Natures: the free 10%
Every Pokémon has a nature that raises one stat 10% and lowers another. It's set at catch time and visible on the summary screen. For anything you plan to invest in:
- Physical attackers want Adamant (+Atk / −SpA)
- Special attackers want Modest (+SpA / −Atk)
- Fast sweepers want Jolly or Timid (+Spe)
A wrong-natured Pokémon isn't garbage — but when you're hunting a species you intend to keep, it's worth catching a few and keeping the best spread.
IVs: the genetics
Individual Values are 0–31 rolls per stat, fixed at catch time. Two catches of the same species can differ by real margins at high levels. You can't change a wild Pokémon's IVs, but you can:
- Breed selectively — offspring inherit IVs from parents, so good lines compound.
- Use bottle-cap style training items from late-game content to max specific stats.
Don't obsess over IVs while leveling your first team. They matter at the competitive end, not on the road there.
EVs: the training
Effort Values are earned from battles — each species defeated grants specific EV points, up to a cap. In practice:
- A stat can hold 252 EVs (≈63 extra points at level 100); your total cap is 510.
- Standard spreads put 252 in two stats and the remainder elsewhere — usually attack + speed, or HP + a defense.
- Vitamins and feathers buy EVs directly if grinding bores you. They're a common market listing.
The den-boss checklist
Before diving into a red-glow den: party healed, one status move, one pivot, coverage for the boss's type, and at least one teammate faster than it. Bosses telegraph their type from the den's surroundings — read the terrain and pack accordingly.
PvP is its own deep pool — the short version is that everything above stops being optional. When you're ready, the arena crowd in Discord runs practice brackets most weekends.