Pokemon Go Gaming Mechancs: Terminology

In order to appreciate reader on my Pokemon Go Rethink Series, I would like to do 3 more topics about Pokemon Go. The first topic is discussing the mechanic behind Pokemon Go to answer "What is the best Pokemon in this game?" because I do realize that players still get confused after 2-3 months of launching.

Background:

I believe half of the Pokemon Go players are not the original fans of Pokemon, they just played it just to join the hype of Pokemon Go, There are a lot of similar mechanic inside Pokemon Game whether the classic Gameboy Red & Blue, Trading Card as well as this game.

After 4 months of launching, I still see players are still confused about the meaning of Best Pokemon. Like there are a lot of terminology such as CP and IV in the game. Some players emphasize a lot on Pokemon IV and some will emphasize on Moveset to define the best Pokemon in this game.

Perhaps, many common question like:
1. Why was Dragonite the best attacker?
2. Why was Snorlax the best defender?
3. Why was Vaporeon is so overpowered as compared to Flareon and Jolteon?

With this guide, you will be clear about all the question above.

Terminology:

1. Combat Power (CP)

Combat Power is a summary of the Pokemon's Level, Base Stats and Individual Value (IV). Since CP is pre-determined by Base Stats and IV, the only way to increase CP is powering up with the stardust.

If you are good in cracking the game's code, you will find the formula to calculate the CP which is very complicated hence I simplify it by calling it as a summary of the above variables.

In addition, Game Press has an article about CP Amplifier that will be taken in consideration on the overall base stats. CP Amplifier is also a reason why the Pokemon HP (which is the stamina) will be increased after powered up.

2. Pokemon Level

Every Pokemon has its level and it also depend on the Player's level. There are two ways to identify the Pokemon Level. The specific way is the amount of stardust needed to power up the Pokemon which is also increasing Combat Power. The greater amount the stardust required, the higher the level the Pokemon will be. However, Pokemon's maximum level is limited by the Player's level.

Therefore, a lazy method to determine the Pokemon Level is check the CP Meter. For example, Pokemon's CP Meter is full (required Player to level up further to increase the CP), the Pokemon's level is equal to the Player Level plus 1.5 according to Trainer Tips.

Hence, spending stardust to power up is increasing the Pokemon Level and its HP then it only increases its CP. As mentioned by Game Press, Pokemon Level will increase the CP Amplifier then this amplifier will affect the Base Stats during a gym battle.

3. Base Stats

Similar to the Classic Red & Blue game, Pokemon has fixed base stats that can't be changed. The Base Stats show its Attack, Defence and Stamina. Silphroad has done an amazing to summarize all 151 Pokemon Base Stats in the game.
Higher Attack stats means the Pokemon will do more damage on the same move.
Higher Defence stats means the Pokemon will receive less damage from the same move.
Higher Stamina stats means the Pokemon will have more HP for the same level.
Let take a look at the example below:

Chansey HP compared to Golduck HP

Even though my Golduck has higher CP and level than my Chansey but Chansey base stat for stamina is 500 hence Chansey HP is expected to be greater than Golduck without considering IV.

Chansey might be a good defender due to highest stamina stats but it has a terrible stats on Attack and Defence hence Chansey will be knockout before doing any significant damage on other Pokemon with higher defence and attack stats.

4. Individual Value (IV)

IV is a bonus stats that will be added to the Base Stats. Each Pokemon has pre-determined base stats however each individual Pokemon has its own IV. Similar to Base Stats, IV covers the bonus stats on Attack, Defence and Stamina ranged from 0 to 15.

It is only pure addition,
Final Stats = Base Stats + IV.

Lapras is my favourite Pokemon in the game so let study the effect of IV on Base Stats with my Lapras.

Best Stats Lapras compared to Worst Stats Lapras

IV only affected the finalized Stats of the Pokemon which would be affecting the overall CP but it only contribute 5-8% for Lapras with the best IV (15 for each Attack, Defence and Stamina). In the case, you have an average Lapras with 7-8 stats in each IV:
Your Lapras is 3-5% better than the worst Lapras whereas the Best Lapras is only 3-5%  better than yours as well.

So my point is
"Is IV really matter a lot in this game?"

5. Fast Move and Charged Move

Each individual Pokemon are only assigned with two moves to attack the defending Pokemon. Fast move required no energy charging but there is a cooldown from 0.4s to 2.3s depend on which moves according to Pokeassistant. So, it is really a fast move. This is where players introduce the concept of Damage per seconds (DPS) which is equal to the amount of damage deal divided by the cool down duration. Therefore, Water Gun is the most popular fast move in the game 6 damage with 0.5s cool down that yields 12 DPS.

Charged move just likes its name, it need energy to charge up which is indicated in the blue bar during the gym battle. Normally powerful moves like Hyperbeam has a long and single bar indicated that it takes time to charge up whereas weaker moves like Twister has multiple shorter blue bar where players can use a few Twister move before the opponent used Hyperbeam. DPS in this scenario has an additional timing variable which is the duration to charged up the blue bar followed by the cool down which is the animation of the charged move.

Even though it takes 2.7s to charge up Twister, it only deals 25 damage.
Hyberbeam only takes 5s to be fully charged but it deals 120 damage.
Conclusion, Hyberbeam is more powerful than Twister and it is still one of the most powerful charged moves. In addition, probably water gun is good enough to handle Twister move.

However, DPS is an ideal scenario where players really tap on the screen faster than a second and the players had good data connection to avoid lagging.

6. Pokemon Type and Dual Type

In the classic game, trading card game and the anime also introduced us about the significance of Pokemon Type and some Pokemon are Dual Type. There are 18 types available but there is no Dark Pokemon in the game yet. Only Dratini, Dragonair and Dragonite are the only Dragon type Pokemon.

Pokemon Type is important as it determines its weakness and resistance that will be discussed later. Pokemon with dual type like Lapras is interesting because it is both Water and Ice Type. Water is effective against fire but fire is effective against ice which is contradicting, should we use fire type Pokemon to attack Lapras?

Meanwhile, Movesets for both fast moves and charged moves are also categorized in these 18 types which played more important role to decide the effectiveness of the attack instead of the Pokemon Type only and it plays an important role in STAB which will be discussed later.

7. Weakness and Resistance

For a specific type of Pokemon, it has its own weakness and resistance.
Eurogamer site has summarize them all.
According to Pokeassistant,
It apply 1.25x more damage on weakness whereas 0.8x more damage (0.2x less) on resistance.
For example, Water Type move is very effective against Fire Type Pokemon because water is fire-type weakness.
When a Pokemon use water type move to attack a Fire Type Pokemon, the Fire Type Pokemon will receive addition 25% damage. On the other hand, the Water Type Pokemon will receive 20% less damage from the Fire Type.
This is where you saw the game indicates "Very Effective" or "Not Very Effective" wording during a gym battle.

Dual type is more amusing and sophisticated,
Let's take Gyarados which is both Water and Flying type and both types' weakness is electric hence Gyarados will be receiving 50% more damage when an electric move was used against it.

How about Lapras, both Water and Ice Type?
A fire moves attack Lapras,
It probably will be 25% minus 20% that yield 5% only.
With additional 5% more damage does not fall into "Very Effective" or "Not Very Effective" so it is still a fair fight to use Fire moves to attack Lapras.

Just visualize a typical gym battle in the game:
There is an Attacking Pokemon and Defending Pokemon.
Weakness is applicable when the attacking Pokemon's move type is able to counter defending Pokemon type.
Resistance is applicable when the Defending Pokemon type is able to resist the Attacking Pokemon's move type.

For example, one of Gyarados' charged move is Twister which is a Dragon Type move. Even though Gyarados is Water type, its Twister won't apply 1.25x more damage on Fire-Type Pokemon.

On the other hand, Blastoise is pure water but it has Ice Beam charged move. When it attacks Dragonite (both Dragon and Flying Type) with Ice Beam, 50% more damage will be deal on Dragonite although Blastoise is not an ice type Pokemon.

Last but not least, move with same type against a same Pokemon type will be 20% reduction as well except Dragon type. In Pokemon Series, Dragon type is strong against Dragon type instead of weak against/resist to Dragon type so it will be 25% more damage when Gyrados used Twister on Dragonite.

8. Same Type Attack Bonus (STAB)

In the above illustration, we learned Pokemon is able to use other type move like there is no Dark Type Pokemon but the fast move, Bite is classified as dark type that both Gyrados and Arcanine can use it.

STAB is nothing new in classic Pokemon game, it just encourage players to let their Pokemon use move that matched its type. For example, Arcanine a fire type Pokemon will have advantage to use fire type move like Fireblast.

Pokemon uses move that matched its type will have addition 25% damage bonus and it doesn't matter the Pokemon is single type or dual type as long as its move matched its one of the types.

When Arcanine used Fireblast against Victreebel,
It will be (Weakness Bonus)*(STAB) = 1.25*1.25 = 1.56,
Arcanine will deal 56% more damage.
This is the major reason why Lapras is a popular choice to counter Dragonite.
It will be (Weakness Bonus 1.5)*(STAB 1.25 such as Blizzard and Ice Beam) that yields 87.5% more damage on Dragonite.

Take some time to digest the content of this post then I further discuss the gaming mechanic by answering these questions below:

1. What is the Best Pokemon in Pokemon Go?
2. Why was Vaporeon is so overpowered as compared to Flareon and Jolteon?
3. What really determine the best Pokemon, IV or Moveset Combination?
4. Is Hyperbeam the best charged move for Dragonite?
5. What makes Dragonite so powerful in the game?
6. Why Ghost and Psychic Type are weak in this game?