The Top 10 Mistakes that New Pokemon Trainers Make

The arrival of Pokemon X and Y trumpeted the Sixth Generation of what are perhaps the best loved role-playing games to come out of Japan in the past twenty years; the arrival of Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby demonstrate that the newest generation of the main game series is well on its way to establishing its special voice among the generations...

Regardless of where you stand in terms of skills and familiarization, whether you are a newbie or a grizzled Pokemon Veteran with an entire string of Legendary Pokemon housed in your collection of Master Balls hanging off of a custom-made leather strap, Pokemon X and Y are a new experience for you because they take place in the entirely new Region called Kalos.

Beyond that though, skills and experience matter. This is not an article about the mistakes that are common to all players - those tend to be obvious and very forgivable - their rate climbing in numbers and frequency that is directly proportional to the sharpness of the attention of the trainer.

There are few games as forgiving of mistakes as the Pokemon main series - we suspect that the reason for that has more to do with its “intended audience” than it does the actual audience.

A number of surveys as well as game sales tracking appear to suggest that as the Pokemon series ages, so too does its typical player.

Both the games and their multi-media empire regularly pick up new fans with each generation, so there are certainly plenty of new tween and teen Pokefans, but the fact of interest here is that many of the tween and teen fans from the first four generations remain fans and still actively play the games.

Japanese retail sales tracker Media Create monitored sales for Pokemon Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby and discovered that the typical age of gamers buying in the first 72-hours fell largely in the mid-20s. That actually makes sense when the figures for previous generations are examined.

A survey of older Pokemon gamers revealed that the majority of gamers from 30 to 40 years old played the original Red and Blue and continued to play - and age - with the games. For Pokemon Diamond and Pearl ignoring the older gamers reveals that the average age range was tween-to-mid-teens, with a spike around 14-15.

For Pokemon Black and White the spike shifted to 19-24 at the high-end, while the games maintained their popularity for tween-to-teen. That trend continues to bear out, despite the fact that the Pokemon games - just like the TV show and countless line of movies and toys - were created with kids in mind.

Interestingly the TV show and the movies appear to be the recruiting source that brings younger gamers into the game series - and keeps them there.

For that reason they were created to be very very forgiving in terms of the consequences for mistakes.

That doesn't mean you can't make mistakes mind you - it means when you do, the mistakes do not for the most part have the potential of ruining your day.

Except you know, when they do.

Top 10 Mistakes New Pokemon Trainers Make

The vast majority of major mistakes for new players happen either because they lack a full and complete understanding of things like move types, strengths and weaknesses, and the individual Pokemon - and a failure to fully engage in the adventure.

That said, if you discover yourself in the Top 10 countdown below, please don't take it personally or to heart! Part of the reason we wrote this is to help you to recognize - and correct - those mistakes!

So without any further qualification we present you with the Top 10 Mistakes New Pokemon Trainers Make!

10. Not Capturing

This is without a doubt the most common mistake made by new trainers, and potentially the most harmful mistake as well.

Typically how this happens is simple - a new trainer gets their first six or so Pokemon, decides that they have their team, and then does not bother to capture any more. Battle after battle is used to level up their team, but in doing so they are passing through zone after zone and not collecting the Pokemon to be found there.

The first point here is simple: Pokemon tend to be found in specific zones and zone sections in the game. You may not be able to obtain that Pokemon elsewhere easily.

The second point here is that the more Pokemon you capture and store the more options they give you.

Once you start to build a collection you should be creating boxes for each core type and sorting them into those boxes whenever you visit a Pokemon Center! The PC Storage System will expand as you fill it, so don't worry that there are only an initial handful of boxes...

If you could load our game and access our Storage System you would find the following structure there, from left-to-right: Battle Box, Incoming, A-Team, B-Team, Legendary 1, Legendary 2, Bug, Dark, Dragon, Electric, Fairy, Fighting, Fire, Flying, Grass, Ground, Ice, Normal 1, Normal 2, Poison, Psychic, Rock, Steel, Water 1, Water 2, Misc 1, Misc 2, Misc 3, Misc 4, Misc 5, and Outgoing.

Count them and you will see that there are thirty committed boxes (not counting the Battle Box) and their assignment is logical and based on over a decade of experience in playing the games.

The primary types have at least a box each - for Legendary, Normal, and Water I know I am going to need at least two boxes minimum. For each type of Pokemon I know that there will be ones I have no interest in leveling or training beyond getting all of their forms to work towards completing my Dex - hence the five Misc boxes for overflow and Pokemon who fall into that last value judgement.

Some other points to emphasize - the A-Team and B-Team boxes are there for very good reason! The A-Team holds the primary team for story mode play. That is to say that each of the 18 types plus any alternates I like or love find that box to be home when they are not in my party or being leveled.

The Incoming and Outgoing boxes exist for two very different reasons. The Storage System will drop any new Pokemon you capture into whatever the last box was you accessed - so I always exit the Storage System from the Incoming Box so that ALL of the new Pokemon I capture arrive THERE. That way I can easily sort them and I have a better idea of when I need to sort them out.

The Outgoing Box on the other hand has a very special function - it is where I store the Pokemon I know am going to want to trade to my opposing game trades partner! That way I know which I have and so which I still need to capture for my partner.

Sure this scheme seems a little complicated - at first - but among its strengths are the easy sorting and easy locating of Pokemon by type, as well as encouragement to capture Pokemon. After all you have a place for each of them to reside, so why not capture them?!

Gonna Catch 'Em All!

Even if your only exposure to the world of Pokemon is the TV show you will certainly be very aware of the Pokemon mantra: Gotta Catch 'Em All!

Well the only way to make that happen is to capture any and every new Pokemon you encounter. You can easily tell whether or not you have already captured - and stored - the Pokemon you are facing by examining its encounter display - Pokemon you have already captured have a gray Pokeball symbol beside their status bar to indicate that you already have one.

Training Program

As you begin to collect the different Pokemon for your A-Team (you will want at least one of each type or some that are dual-type so you get two types with one Pokemon) you will want to keep them all leveled to the Party Level.

This factors in to another common mistake that comes higher in the list - just remember we said that Smile

Here is some free and unsolicited advice: Take advantage of the excellent Walkthrough and Guide for Pokemon X or Y (whichever you own) written by Vhayste here on SC and the Walkthrough Sections which in addition to providing you with basic guidance also include a complete list of the Pokemon to be found ON the different Routes in the different Towns - which makes figuring out of you know, you got them all and it is therefore safe to move on or not...

Suffice it to say that you you really truly want to capture every Pokemon you can - and you want to keep your A-Team diverse and fully trained to the Party / Team Level.

Posted: 16th Apr 2015 by CMBF
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