Battle & Exp Mechanics

[Professor Oak]

How Battles Work
( Currently Following Gen 9 [S/V]; or most recent for those not in latest )

ZZ uses the main series Pokémon game systems for nearly everything, so if you are familiar with the games you already know how battles work. The flow of an encounter is as follows:

1. A Mod posts the Encounter, including what Pokémon you'll face & its level.
   
   
2. In your reply you send out a pokemon of choice and declare a move. Only one move per post to maintain the turn-based feature of the games.
   You cannot control whether your Pokémon dodges an attack
   

   Special Note: If you're using an Item or Switching pokémon mid battle, you may also take another battle action in the same post. (Eg: Switch + Item, Item + Move, Switch + Move) However, that will count as 2 turns so your opponent would also get to take 2 actions. The Running Shoes, which can be obtained here, also allows two moves but only once per battle.
      *Switching a fainted pokémon does not cost a turn in battle.
      *This only applies to single battles; not doubles or triples.
   

3. A mod will respond with a battle screen, illustrating the HP, moves, effects, etc, and RP detailing the events.
   

Pokémon Battle

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[attr="class","qkt-bkgd"]

[attr="class","qkt-wild-pkmn"]

[attr="class","qkt-clip"]Shiny Gyarados

LV 70
HP 100% [234/234]

[attr="class","qkt-wild-imgbox"]

[attr="class","qkt-pkmn-img"]

[attr="class","qkt-trainer-pkmn"]

[attr="class","qkt-clip"]Zapdos

LV 50
HP 100% [165/165]

[attr="class","qkt-trainer-imgbox"]

[attr="class","qkt-pkmn-img"]

Shiny Gyarados [Intimidate]: Normal
Zapdos [Pressure]: Normal

Moderators handle all of the technical bits. Calculations, turn order, effects, etc. However, members are welcome to leave a note if they think something is incorrect. For example, the Moderator may have forgotten about a hold item.

Sometimes we deviate from normal game mechanics to make things more enjoyable. Whether it be fudging some numbers to make an unfair situation more fun or adjust abilities/effects that don't suit a play-by-post format. Most of these can be seen in our Exclusive Differences thread.

*One other deviation from the games: we will allow your pokémon to evolve after a KO mid-battle


It is not expected that the most potent moves or effective battle strategies are practiced by wild pokémon. Moderators should use their own discretion to make the battle as interesting as possible; pulling punches when they see fit and keeping things challenging where appropriate (Gyms, Underground Gauntlet, etc).

Quick Notes on PvP

As noted in the Group RP & Thread Limitations, members may freely challenge each other to battles and these face-offs may or may not be moderated; players' choice. Regardless of the type, no experience is awarded, unless it is for some major event like the Battle Colosseum or such, and no items can be used.

[Professor Oak]

ZapdosZulu Experience & Leveling System

In order to make up for the slower pace of a forum and to reduce the slog of grinding, we have broken experience gain into 2 groups: Pokémon Under LV 25, and those at 25+.

Note that even if a battle ends via capture, experience/levels are still distributed normally.


For Levels 1 - 24

# of LVs Higher	LV(s) Gained
0 or less	+3
1 - 4	+2
5 - 9	+1
10+	0

Pokemon in this range are simply dealt levels -- no EXP numbers. How many levels they gain in battle depends on how much higher level they are than their opponent. The chart to the right is only for the pokemon active at battle end.

Pokémon that participated but switched out before the end receive +1 LV regardless of level difference; except for the 10+ range which always receive 0 levels.

Borderline Case

If a Pokémon is LV 24 and gains 2⁺ levels at once, it will gain all the levels as normal but afterward switches to the 25+ system detailed below.

For Levels 25⁺

Starting at LV 25 Pokemon begin gaining EXP based on the Medium Fast model. The experience gain equation we use is:

EXP Gain = Opponents Level * 50

Eg: Defeating a LV 22 Butterfree would net 1,100 EXP

Any excess experience is carried forward to the next level. Further below you can find a breakdown of total experience per level.

EXP Share

Generally, EXP Share is treated simply as if the pokémon had participated in battle.

For levels 1 - 24 the holder would gain +1 level at the end of the battle but this is ignored if the pokémon actually participated or if it falls in the 10+ range rule.

For 25⁺ they'd receive an equal cut of the experience if they did not participate, and an extra slice if they did. More detailed examples in the spoiler below.

EXP Share & EXP Splitting Examples

SPOILER: Click to show

LV 50 Sandslash defeats a LV 50 opponent (2500 EXP Total)
LV 30 Gengar is holding EXP Share & did not participate ... OR is not holding EXP Share & participated

Gengar and Sandslash both gain 1250 exp

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LV 50 Sandslash defeats a LV 50 opponent (2500 EXP Total)
LV 30 Gengar is holding EXP Share and participated in battle

Gengar gains 1250 exp for holding EXP Share
Gengar and Sandslash both gain 625 exp for participating
Thus, Gengar receives a total of 1875 exp and Sandslash gains 625

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LV 50 Sandslash defeats a LV 50 opponent
LV 16 Gastly is holding EXP Share

If Gastly did not participate... Sandslash gains the full 2500 experience; Gastly gains 1 Level
If Gastly did participate... Sandslash gains half the experience (1250); Gastly gains 1 Level

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LV 50 Sandslash defeats a LV 50 opponent
LV 16 Gastly participated but is not holding EXP Share

Sandslash gains the full 2500 experience; Gastly gains 1 Level

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LV 16 Sandshrew is hit by Self Destruct in a battle
LV 16 Gastly is holding EXP Share

Sandshrew does not gain levels
Gastly gains 1 Level

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LV 16 Sandshrew defeats a LV 15 opponent (750 EXP Total)
LV 30 Gengar is holding EXP Share

Regardless if Gengar participates or not...
Sandshrew gains 2 Levels
Gengar gains 375 experience

Guidelines for Double & Triple Battles
For Double Battles you would divide the usual experience gained by 2, and for triple it'd be division by 3.

Any participating pokémon that switched out during the fight would also get a share of experience. In the case of LV 25 and under, they would get +1 LV total if switched out and not present for a KO. Otherwise they would get normal experience gain for any KOs while on the field.

Wait until the end of the battle before tallying up how much a certain Pokémon levels up if they're under LV 25. For LVs 25⁺ experience can be gained upon each knock out.

Level Gain is always Rounded up.

Eg Dbl Battle:

Opponents: LV 6 Weedle & LV 7 Caterpie
Member's Pkmn:
    LV 2 Sentret switched out for LV 7 Pidgey without a KO & ...
    LV 4 Spearow switched after defeating Weedle for LV 5 Rattata


Level Gain on Victory is then calculated as such...

    Pidgey = 2/2 (Weedle) + 3/2 (Caterpie) = 2.5 ... thus rounded to = 3
    Rattata = 3/2 (Caterpie) = 1.5 ... rounds to 2

    Sentret = +1 for Participating
    Spearow = 3/2 (Weedle) = 1.5 ... rounds to 2

Thus, after the battle is complete the Member's Pokemon will be...
    Pidgey LV 10, Rattata LV 7, Sentret LV 3, Spearow LV 6

[Professor Oak]

Experience per Level
The Experience Number listed per Level is the amount of exp the pokémon needs at that level in order to advance.
So a LV 25 Pkmn requires 1951 EXP in order to get to LV 26.

LV 25		LV 26		LV 27		LV 28		LV 29
1951 EXP		2107 EXP		2269 EXP		2437 EXP		2611 EXP
LV 30	LV 31	LV 32	LV 33	LV 34	LV 35	LV 36	LV 37	LV 38	LV 39
2791	2977	3169	3367	3571	3781	3997	4219	4447	4681
LV 40	LV 41	LV 42	LV 43	LV 44	LV 45	LV 46	LV 47	LV 48	LV 49
4921	5167	5419	5677	5941	6211	6487	6769	7057	7351
LV 50	LV 51	LV 52	LV 53	LV 54	LV 55	LV 56	LV 57	LV 58	LV 59
7651	7957	8269	8587	8911	9241	9577	9919	10,267	10,621
LV 60	LV 61	LV 62	LV 63	LV 64	LV 65	LV 66	LV 67	LV 68	LV 69
10,981	11,347	11,719	12,097	12,481	12,871	13,267	13,669	14,077	14,491
LV 70	LV 71	LV 72	LV 73	LV 74	LV 75	LV 76	LV 77	LV 78	LV 79
14,911	15,337	15,769	16,207	16,651	17,101	17,557	18,019	18,487	18,961
LV 80	LV 81	LV 82	LV 83	LV 84	LV 85	LV 86	LV 87	LV 88	LV 89
19,441	19,927	20,419	20,917	21,421	21,931	22,447	22,969	23,497	24,031
LV 90	LV 91	LV 92	LV 93	LV 94	LV 95	LV 96	LV 97	LV 98	LV 99
24,571	25,117	25,669	26,227	26,791	27,361	27,937	28,519	29,107	29,701