Pokemon Beginner's Thread (Pros too!)

[Flamin Skull]

Hello everybody!
I am REALLY NEW to pokemon before buying the fire red, except for maybe a 15 minute gaming session on a GBC (I think red?) so I was looking for a discussion thread... (I DO use Gamefaqs! theyre my source for walkthroughs, I never bought any of those books at Gamestop!) I currently only own the Fire Red version (GBA) but will be getting Pearl very soon (possibly tonight) I'd like to hear differing opnions on. (I do some research on the net but would like to know YOUR opinions and recommendations.
I am an experienced rpg gamer and found this to be very enjoyable to pick up and play on the go. Very simple, yet complex. It'll take me some time to figure it out.
I am working on Charizard and the rest of my team. I only got the first badge (probably not that far into the game) and my team consists of:
Charmeleon (level 17)
Mankey (11)
Rattata (10)
Kakuna (9)
Metapod (8 )

Are any of those worth building up? Can anybody recommend their preferred team for Fire Red to bring into the Pearl Version (I just found out I can transfer pokemon)

Should I go ahead and build a team on Pearl at the same time I build my Fire Red Team and combine them or should I finish Fire Red before I start Pearl?

When I get Pearl, I should have a better understanding of how transferring Pokemon will work. Is there any reason I should pick Diamond instead of Pearl?

I'd like to know how its possible to get those "special Pokemon" that supposedly were only available by attending Nintendo events? could anybody explain to me the concept of getting special pokemon "animals" (hope Im not wrong by calling them animals??) and the methods of obtaining them. theres not much light shed on this subject (I need to focus my research for schooling, not pokemon)

I'd also like to know which Pokemon I should avoid?

I am already using Serbei, pokemon.com, legendarypokemon and Gamefaqs! (for those who think I don't already use them)

[Spore]

What is with the recent influx of Pokemon on this board?

[Kenryoku_Maxis]

I don't really know what I should tell you, as on one hand I spent hundreds of hours playing the game and fell I can save you hours by telling you pointers, but also that I could give you a bias view and might point you away from playing your own unique version of the series.

Fire Red and Leaf Green are remakes of Red and Blue (and Yellow) the original Pokemon games that were made in the series. However, they have almost all of the Pokemon that were found all the way up to the release of Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire. This is because you can't trade your Pokemon from the original games on the GB/GBPocket/GBColor into the GBA/DS/GC/Wii versions of the game which are now all connected.

I don't know how into Pokemon you are getting, but if you are really going to get into the series and needing to get specific Pokemon, you might want to look at getting Pokemon Emerald, which was the enhanced version of Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire, and has most of the 'third' generation of Pokemon in it. Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green consists mostly of Pokemon '1st' and '2nd' Generation. Whereas Daimond/Pearl is Pokemon '4th' Generation.

As for what Pokemmon you should level, that's really up to you to decide. The Pokemon you need to beat the game don't really matter as long as you balance out the different types. However, if you're looking to 'compete' online, you will have to do a LOT of reserch and, sadly, tiers and lots of leveling goes into effect. Pretty much there's about 473 or something Pokemon in existence now and pretty much, only about 75 of those are probably worthy of being used online just to survive in a battle. And then, unless the way people play online games have changed, most people will probably just be going for using one of three of the most powerful sets of teams and last I saw Garchomp, Metagross and legendaries were the big thing for that...

But don't be discouraged. Pokemon is great. If anything, its a fun 60-80 hour single player event with great customization and collection. Wherever you want to go from there is up to you.

[Flamin Skull]

Great! thanks Maxis!
could you go a bit more in depth with legendary and special pokemon? what are the common ways to accquire them? or theyre available in each and every game? (I havent read any further than my progress in Gamefaqs because I dont want to have the story spoiled for me) will I just bump into them eventually or Do I accquire them by trades or downloads? see this link so you know what I mean (http://www.serebii.net/games/events.shtml)

I'll be making my team of fire dragon types (like charizard) so is there any other awesome dragons?

[neuzd]

I think Kenryoku_Maxis explained a good point.

Being such a complex world I suggest you play the game you have for quite some time before staring thinking about the most interesting aspects of this world. Another fact is that before you finish the game you are actually really limited in what you can do.
We could say that the real game starts when The End appears on the screen.
For example you cannot breed until you can reach the Sevii islands which are unlocked in a way that I don't rememebr but surely after the National Dex.

By now you should focus on beating the game, getting the 150 Pokémon (but you need someone with Leaf Green), and choose the Pokémon that fits better your style. The single player game isn't difficult, so play just for the fun.

For the Event Pokémon, there are different live events that happened at obvious different times in the various regions or even by sending your carts directly to Nintendo, but I'm almost sure that all the Pokemon of this category in this game are all available (by the same sad means) in Emerald. Those are the rarest Pokémon, and if you didn't get the right time, they're most probably gone.

To transfer Pokémon in Pearl, and this applies every time you want to trade pokémon of different generations, you need to have beaten the game.

Phew, that's a huge topic....

[EDIT]
I'd suggest you to beat the game by yourself, using just some other guides from GameFAQs and avoding the walthrough. You should read them carefully, when you beat the game and, as I said, start playing for real.

The Event Pokémon, again, you should forget about them.
Most Legendaries, on the contrary, are farther in the game, even after you beat it, watch out in those battles, because there is just one Legendary of that species, and you want to catch it, so don't make it faint.
In general Legendaries are in a particular hard to reach place, but eventually you'll know where to look for them, it's still Pokémon, by the way, kids play it.

[Jogurt the Yogurt]

I should be getting Pearl tomorrow, and I plan to play through it like a nice chumpy single-player adventure and never compete online. I don't think I'll have the patience (or time) to max anything out or get serious about competing.

[Kenryoku_Maxis]

neuzd covered a lot of good stuff so I'm going to cover a few things I think that needs to be mentioned. Specifically two more things you kind of asked and I hope won't spoil anything.

Pokemon consists of I think 24 different 'types' of Pokemon. You seem interested in going for Dragons and while Charizard isn't a Dragon type, he's a Fire/Flying type, he obviously looks like a Dragon type and learns Dragon moves. But one thing you need to know is that Pokemon who are of a certain type, like Dragon and use a move that is of their type get a 1.5x bonus for using that move. So Charizard, if he uses a Fire or Flying move, and it says it does 75 base damage, it'il actually do 100 Damage because he's a Fire or Flying type. That's why the types are so important.

Going on with this, you need to make a team that will balance out all of your individual Pokemons weaknesses and strengths equally. You may have a killer individual Pokemon like an Aerodactyl (go ahead and look him up). But if you don't have anything in his moveset or on your team to cover his weaknesses (A good Surf or Thunderbolt will knock him out of the sky), having him on your team is just dead weight and it doesn't matter how powerful his moves are (unless he's faster).

Anyway, as fr your question, for catching legendaries, you will encounter them in your game by going through caves or rarely through events. Both times however, you can just reload your game and try to catch them again with multiple ultra balls. Some legendaries are story events, some are side quests. Most times you can tell you'll be coming up to one and just prepare for it. All Legendaries, aside from Mew, Celebi and Deoxyz which were event Pokemon and can no longer be obtained except through hacking the game, can be found through all the different versions of the game either through normal play events or the side quests.

[Flamin Skull]

GREAT! THANK YOU! this is much appreciated.

I was wondering what's unique to Pikachu and Jigglypuff? what separates them from the rest? or are they just 2 random pokemon Nintendo chose to be its mascot?

BTW I'm on mt. moon and just got Jigglypuff, Nidoran and GeoDude (like that name!)

[Jogurt the Yogurt]

I don't know about Jigglypuff, but Pikachu rose to fame in the anime series I think. He was so cute that everyone wanted to see him everywhere!

[Kenryoku_Maxis]

I have no idea about Jigglypuff aside from him being in Smash Bros. He was in the Anime for an Episode where he was famous for singing and causing a lot of destruction, but I haven't seen the whole series to see if he returned or was part of the team for a time.

But as for Pikachu, he started off in the Mangas as 'Reds' partner and then later in the Anime following the Mangas example as Satoshi/Ashs first Pokemon (overused win every battle with lightning bolts of love sidekick). So pretty much just a combination of popularity and Pikachu being the star there.

I for one used a Pikachu in both my playthroughs of the original Red game and my Leaf Green game. Eventually evolving it into a Riachu. Its a pretty good Pokemon, but of course not considered 'standard' or 'uber' by people who compete with Pokemon. But for just beating the normal main game, he's a very good Pokemon to use.