How it works
• Your deck is your permanent collection. Before a run, pick up to 6 cards from it, within a budget of 10 (the Museum can raise it): every Pokémon has a cost from 0 to 10 that follows the strength of its final evolution. A run starts in Glenford (Mom heals you for free), then Route 1 (15 floors, your Rival at the end). If a route is going badly, an Escape Rope (the Museum's Spare rope, or one you find) takes you back through its town and the route starts over from floor 1, so you can heal and earn more XP. Clearing a zone lets you end the run or push on to the next one through a town: a free Pokémon Center, a Shop (random items; it also buys what you carry) and houses to visit: Ferntown has a watchman who gives you a potion once a run, Fallharbour City an elderly couple with a Pokémon to give away, a Pokéfan who wants to see a certain Pokémon (and pays with an egg) and the Rock Gym. Route 3 opens once you have the Boulder Badge. Each floor has two to five paths, linked to the next floor without crossing (the Map button shows the whole route): a Fight against a themed trainer (a Youngster, a Bug Catcher, a bird enthusiast, a Rich Boy… — the type and the Pokédollars it pays are shown before you choose; some also drop candies) or a wild Pokémon (an easier fight, half pay, it can't be caught). A Fight can be an Elite: higher levels, one more Pokémon and double pay. The other path can be a ? Event (something random: a find on the ground, a travelling nurse…) a Rest stop (one or two per route: nothing happens and the team recovers 30%) or, rarely, a Capture: a wild Pokémon you can try to catch for your deck with a timing minigame. The stronger the Pokémon, the harder it gets, up to three hits in a row; a catch joins your team too.
• Every fight starts with a preview: you see the enemy team (and their abilities) and can reorder yours before it starts.
• Shiny Pokémon (1 in 200) are only a different colour, but they grant double the candies from every source.
• Each Pokémon has an ability, and a hidden ability you can unlock in the Deck with its candies; you choose which one it uses when you pick your team.
• Battles are automatic. Every turn, each Pokémon acts in Speed order and attacks the front enemy. It uses its better attacking stat (Attack vs Defense, or Sp. Atk vs Sp. Def) and its best type against the target.
• In the Deck, open a Pokémon to tag it as a favorite: it gets a star, and your lists can be filtered by favorites.
• Order matters: the first card in your team takes the hits. Use the two arrow buttons on a card to reorder. Max 6 cards.
• Status effects (poison, burn, paralysis, sleep, freeze) last for one fight. Some types are immune: Fire to burn, Electric to paralysis, Poison and Steel to poison, Ice to freeze. A Pokémon's details say so.
• Every card has an ability. Read it — the draft is the whole game.
• The bag opens on the map: Potions heal and Revives bring back a fainted Pokémon, a Smoke Bomb lets you skip a fight, an egg goes straight to your Hatchery, evolution stones (sold in town shops when one of your Pokémon needs it) evolve Pikachu, Eevee and company, an Escape Rope sends you back to the start of the zone.
• Some zones are dark: no map, only the paths in front of you. Take a torch from the wall and the map comes back for a few floors.
• Damage carries over between fights. Lose a battle and the run ends. Trainers and wild Pokémon are the ones that live in the zone.
• Runs pay GC Coins per floor cleared; Pokédollars handed by trainers only last for the current run. The Game Corner lists your achievements, each worth 100 to 600 GC Coins; the Museum is where GC Coins are spent. Every deck Pokémon that finishes a run also gets candies of its species (spend 100 of them in the Deck to lower a Pokémon's cost, up to 3 times). At the Pokémon Pension, candies also buy an egg of a Pokémon you own (to find a better class) or a new nature, and the keepers give you a hatched Pokémon the first time you visit each day. The Museum sells permanent perks for GC Coins: a better start (rope, potions, Pokédollars), better shops, a bigger team budget and more.
• Every card enters a run at Lv 6 and gains XP after each won battle: the battle's XP is shared between the Pokémon still standing (a small team levels faster, a fainted Pokémon earns nothing); levels reset when the run ends.
• Every permanent card has a hidden potential, shown as a class letter (D to S) on its art. Higher classes get stronger stats across the board.
• No mouse needed. Arrow keys (or a controller's D-pad or stick) move between buttons, cards and lists; Enter or Space (A on a controller) presses; Escape (B) closes a window or goes back; on a team list Space (X) ticks a Pokémon and Enter opens its details; on a team card Shift + left / right (LB / RB) move the Pokémon in your team; a controller also gets shortcuts named at the bottom of the screen (RT starts a run, a fight or leaves a town, LT opens the loadouts or heals, Y sorts a list…); B opens the bag and M the zone map on the map (Y and X on a controller). Space or Enter shows a dialog at once.