Newbie

**Hey, whats up new challengers. You must have just joined the Pokemon Mystery Discord Server or added the bot (let’s call it PMD) to your personal server to play and do not know what is going on. Here is a comprehensive guide to Pokemon Mystery Discord.**

## **Registration**

**Registering to PMD, you have to input the command pmd.register on the channel where the bot can read your messages or DM PMD. The bot will DM your confirmation to the Terms and Services, given that you input pmd.pmdtermsandservices in order to read it. After which you read the Terms and Services, DM pmd.register agree. Now you are all set to start your journey to being the next great Pokemon Dungeon Challenger.**

## **Hatching**

**Hatching pokemons is the only and current way to obtain your pokemon. Before hatching your first pokemon, it is recommended to view its stats. Different pokemon have different builds for different strategies (i.e. Marowak is a Melee fighter while Alakazam is a Ranged fighter). To search up the pokemon stats you desire, enter ]dex (pokemon name)  [without the parentheses] to access the Pokedex. PMD should respond with a text like this:**

**If you are unsure which pokemon you really want, you can do a random search by typing ]dex r. Some pokemon have various forms and variations which can be accessed by ]dex (pokemon name) (form) [without the parentheses]. Be sure to check your evolutions and level of evolving for your pokemon. For each stats, it shows how strong and weak the pokemon in certain situations.**

**Speed is used to intercept or block incoming attacks toward your allies and graze attacks for less damage. Evasion is used as a indicator at the chances a pokemon can dodge attacks unscathed. Melee and Range Attack shows how powerful your pokemon can inflict damage to enemies (or allies if you want to backstab [not recommended]) with the respective attacks. Melee and Range Defense shows how much the pokemon can withstand with the respective attacks.**

**After searching up your desired pokemon, it is time to hatch them. Keep in mind that you cannot hatch Legendaries, Mythical, Ultra Beast, nor 2nd/3rd/etc… evolved state. [1] First input ]hatch ~~> ]hatch next ~~> ]hatch (pokemon name). If your pokemon have an Alolan form in their 1st stage or have different forms (i.e. Alolan Rattata or Wishiwashi School) input ]hatch (pokemon name) (form).**

[2] **You are then asked to input the gender of your pokemon. This is only important when you want a specific Pokemon evolution (i.e. Ralts to Gardivour or Gallade). Pick your gender by input ]hatch male or ]hatch female.**

[3] **The last step of obtaining your pokemon is giving your pokemon a nickname. This is a mandatory step that cannot be skipped and there are some rules in nicknaming your pokemon:**

1. **A pokemon name must have a letter count between 3-14**
2. **There is no spaces within the pokemon’s name**
3. **You cannot name your pokemon after the name of the species**
4. **[remember not to use derogatory nicknames or you might be caught, be warned]**

**Now you have your first pokemon.**

## **Management**

### **Move-set**

**Now you have your pokemon. You are eager to jump into combat and challenge to be the very best, like no one ever was. But hold on. Your pokemon needs to have the right move-set. After hatching your pokemon, you are given a default set of 6 moves. This set usually needs improvement or just reworked from scratch. A good moveset revolves around a balanced and realistic combo.**

**There are 3 categories of moves in general:**

1. **Melee: a move that gets close to the enemy to engage**
2. **Ranged: a move that is more suited for long range attacks**
3. **Status: a move that buffs, debuffs, inflict status effects to yourself, your allies, and your enemies**

**Along with the different move-set, there are cooldowns ranging from 0-8 turns and also moves have their elemental types.**

**In order to create a good moveset, you have to know your pokemon and what moves your pokemon can learn. You can see all the pokemon stats by inputting ]profile to see an expanded version or ]mp for a miniaturized version. You can see all your pokemon’s moves by inputting ]m and click on learnset (keep in mind that your pokemon can only learn moves from pokemon generation 1-7 and cannot learn event moves and some moves are not added in-game yet due to it being run since 2018). In the website, you will see all the moves but the effects do not 1 to 1 correlate to the gameplay. To see the PMD version of the moves, input ]md (move name) [without the brackets].**

**If a pokemon has a high Melee attack, it is recommended to prioritize most of your moveset to melee attacks and buffs. If your pokemon has a high Range attack, it is recommended to prioritize most of your moveset to ranged attacks and range buffs. If a pokemon is a good at both, mix both Range and Melee moves. But a good moveset must follow these rules:**

1. **The cooldowns should vary in which that there is at least 2 low cooldown moves and 1 large cooldown move.**
2. **The moveset should follow the pokemon type (i.e. ground type moves for Diglett) [STAB] {SAME TYPE ATTACK BONUS}**
3. **At least 1 coverage move [moves that are not STAB] in order to have some variation.**
4. **Opposite Parry move. Moves that are used to parry or lessen the effectiveness of enemy attacks in combat (i.e. a range move for a melee pokemon or a melee move for a range pokemon)**

**Some optional hints to creating your ideal moveset are:**

1. **Have 1 or 2 status moves**
2. **Have an AOE attack (i.e. Earthquake)**

**If you need more help on creating a moveset, you can contact experienced players on your server or on PMD discord in Meta-Discussions Channel.**

### **EXP**

**Exp is a resource for your pokemon to collect and level up. You can obtain this by battling, snatching the mystery gift (input ]mg), or texting (no spam since the bot recognize which is spam and which is not).**

### **Credits**

**Credits are used to buy things on the PMD shop. To earn credits, you can snatch the mystery gift or battling. To access the PMD shop input ]pkmn options.**

## **Battling**

**Now this is the fun part. Battling. Queue the music. Hold your horses. It is better to battle with friends. This is what PMD is all about: Teamwork.**

Before accepting challenges, you can view the enemy pokemon and the difficulty. This can help you devise strategies. To see the exact stats of each of the enemy pokemon, input ]ex (pokemon name) after you accept the challenge. There are two modes for each challenge: normal and EX. Normal challenges are reccomended for new players to get use to the game mechanics (input ]ac ). EX are a harder variation in which the pokemon of the enemy will have level 50 stats (input ]acx ).

If there is not enough people to fill in the three teammates, it is advisable to keep the challenge alive by constantly pressing ]pl after you join or leave the challenge ( input ]l ) and join again.

The battles are comprised of two stages if you do PVE battles: Attack stage and Defensive stage with a timer to make your moves. (--- for Attack and -- for Defense)

**Attack** stage is the stage where you deal damage, buff yourself and your allies, guard your allies, hide behind your allies or environment, or de-buff/status-inflict your enemy (or retreat if you are in melee range). It is recommended to do status moves on the first turn and then lob attacks and alternate between these moves.

But moves have two types: Ranged and Melee.

**Ranged** attacks is best suited when you are not engaged or next to an opponent while **Melee** moves will give you a chance to make the enemy focus on you in close combat. In order to go back to a distance, use a range move to attack or retreat during the attack stage.

The **defensive** stage is where you defend against enemy attacks. Melee moves are used to **parry** or partially block enemy attacks while ranged moves are used to parry ranged enemy attacks. You can see if you can parry by inputting ]p when you are being targeted. Inputting ]d is just **defending**. In some cases, doing this action will have the enemy miss the attack or graze you due to yourself having a high *SPEED* stat or *EVASION* stat. An alternative to defending is **Bracing**, (input ]b ) where you take reduced damage for a **DEFENSE** stat reduction. This is used to forcefully engage the enemy or save your pokemon life for one more turn. If you are not being attacked and your allies are, you have a small window to **intercept** or take the damage for your ally by inputting ]i. This is only successful if you have a high **SPEED** stat and the RNG is in your favor. Every time you successfully intercept, you lose 1 SPEED stat and you will lose 2 SPEED stat if you are not successful.

During your Defensive stage, take your time and do not rush. Have your allies help you and talk it out before the timer runs out.

There are certain moves that can cause friendly fire, a bad move in general. Moves such as Earthquake target anyone near the target enemy so plan ahead to avoid targeting your friends.