Secrets of the Pokemasters

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Raising Pokemon can be hard work, but we've got some advice to help you conquer Sinnoh in no time

Every Pokemon trainer needs to be aware of type interaction in order to be successful in battle. All moves are one of several types, and are classified as either Physical or Special attacks. Similarly, all Pokemon are classified under one or two different Types, and they have numbers representing the strength of their Attack, Special Attack, Defense, and Special Defense.

Knowing the types of both you and your opponent's pokemon is one of the key methods to victory. Certain pokemon are weak against certain types of skills, and depending on their Defense and Special Defense statistics, they may be more vulnerable to a certain class of attack.

We've got a chart for you showing the interactions between the types. Keep it handy for all of your adventures and poke-related shenanigans.

Knowing the difference between physical and special attacks is also important. Some pokes are particularly strong in one defensive category, making your attacks considerably less effective than usual. For example, if you attack a Golem or Steelix with a Physical Water-type move, you'll do double damage, but since they have strong Defense, you probably won't hurt them too much in the end. However, if you go at these pokes with a Special Water-type move, you'll be putting some real hurt on them, since their Special Defense is quite weak.

Some monsters are more than one type, which is also important to know. Take one of the new pokes, Lucario. Lucario is affiliated with both Fighting and Steel-types. This has some advantages when it comes to defense. Normally a Fighting-type pokemon is weak to Flying-type attacks, but Lucario's second Steel affiliation gives him resistance to Flying-type attacks. If Lucario's hit by a Flying attack, he will simply take normal damage, rather than the double damage he'd eat if he were a pure Fighting-type. This effectively eliminates one of his Fighting-type weaknesses.

But dual-type monsters can also have huge weaknesses. The fearsome Gyarados has a massive Achilles' Heel: he's both Water and Flying type, and both types are vulnerable to Electric attacks. If Gyarados gets hit by an Electric attack, he'll be taking double damage twice, or 4x damage. Yikes! If your Gyarados is up against an Electric type enemy, you'd better either withdraw him quick-like or hope you can manage to eke out an Earthquake attack before the foe can jolt you.

One last thing to keep in mind is that using attacks that are of the same type as your pokemon (i.e. a Fire pokemon using Ember) will add an additional 50% damage bonus to the attack if it hits successfully. If you are in a situation where you have any pokes that can strike at a foe's weakness, you might just want to use an all-around strong pokemon with attacks that match its type(s) to try and take the enemy down. If you've got enough strength behind it, a normal-effectiveness attack can do as much or more damage than a super-effective strike.

Watch what the game tells you after you land a successful hit. "Not very effective" attacks only do half normal damage, while "super effective!" attacks do double normal damage. Let's say you've got a Fighting-type pokemon, Machop, against a Normal-type, Bidoof. If you attack Bidoof with a Fighting-type skill, you'll do double the damage you'd usually score. However, if you use that same move on a poke that's Psychic-type, like Kadabra, you'll only do half the damage you'd do otherwise. If you're trying to hit a Ghost-type pokemon - say, Misdreavus - with Fighting-type strikes, your attack's going to miss completely every time.

Knowing the difference between physical and special attacks is also important. Some pokes are particularly strong in one defensive category, making your attacks considerably less effective than usual. For example, if you attack a Golem or Steelix with a Physical Water-type move, you'll do double damage, but since they have strong Defense, you probably won't hurt them too much in the end. However, if you go at these pokes with a Special Water-type move, you'll be putting some real hurt on them, since their Special Defense is quite weak.

Some monsters are more than one type, which is also important to know. Take one of the new pokes, Lucario. Lucario is affiliated with both Fighting and Steel-types. This has some advantages when it comes to defense. Normally a Fighting-type pokemon is weak to Flying-type attacks, but Lucario's second Steel affiliation gives him resistance to Flying-type attacks. If Lucario's hit by a Flying attack, he will simply take normal damage, rather than the double damage he'd eat if he were a pure Fighting-type. This effectively eliminates one of his Fighting-type weaknesses.

But dual-type monsters can also have huge weaknesses. The fearsome Gyarados has a massive Achilles' Heel: he's both Water and Flying type, and both types are vulnerable to Electric attacks. If Gyarados gets hit by an Electric attack, he'll be taking double damage twice, or 4x damage. Yikes! If your Gyarados is up against an Electric type enemy, you'd better either withdraw him quick-like or hope you can manage to eke out an Earthquake attack before the foe can jolt you.

One last thing to keep in mind is that using attacks that are of the same type as your pokemon (i.e. a Fire pokemon using Ember) will add an additional 50% damage bonus to the attack if it hits successfully. If you are in a situation where you have any pokes that can strike at a foe's weakness, you might just want to use an all-around strong pokemon with attacks that match its type(s) to try and take the enemy down. If you've got enough strength behind it, a normal-effectiveness attack can do as much or more damage than a super-effective strike.