How to Be a Pokémon Master

Last Updated: March 2, 2023

So do you want to be the very best that no one ever was? Is catching them your real test, training them your cause? Will you travel across the land, searching far and wide? Do you have the skills to be number one; the very best? Well, here's a how-to that will teach you how to be a Pokémon Master! Being a Pokémon Master requires some determination and patience, as well as a bunch of helpful and cool Pokémon.

Steps

1
If you do not have a Pokémon game, buy one! You'll also need a Nintendo DS, DS lite, DSi, DSi XL,3DS or a Game Boy.It is highly recommended to get at least one Generation VII game, Generation VII spin-off game, Generation VI game,Generation VI spin-off game,Generation V game, Generation V spin-off game, Generation IV game, and a Generation IV spin-off game (some examples of spin-off games are Battle and Get! Pokémon Typing DS and Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs). Generations I-III are played on the Nintendo Game Boy. The newest console you can play generation 1 and 2 games on is the Game Boy Advance SP, but Generation 3 games can be played on the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo DS Lite. Starting in Pokémon HeartGold and Pokémon SoulSilver versions, you can catch almost all of the first 493 Pokémon and there has been almost no need for migrating since. Once you have gotten your game(s) and have chosen your starter Pokémon, go on to step 2.
2
Visit an online Pokémon walkthrough site.

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3
Do whatever errand is required in the game. When you get some Poké Balls, catch some new Pokémon. They have to be wild ones, so head into some grass to randomly fight a wild Pokémon. Have your current Pokémon fight it, and weaken, but not defeat it. Once they are as weak as they can get, throw a Pokéball at the wild Pokémon. The less health has, the better chance the capture is successful. Once successful, you can use your new Pokémon immediately if you have an empty spot in your party. You have 6 slots in your party. Any Pokémon caught without an empty slot is transported to Someone's (soon to be either Bill's, Lanette's, Amanita's or Bebe's, depending on the version you chose) PC, which can be accessed at computers at a Pokémon Center.
4
Start training your Pokémon. The above method is a good way to catch Pokémon. Now you have to train them! Have them battle against wild Pokémon and gain experience points. Make sure that you heal your Pokémon at Pokémon Centers in cities and towns. Pokémon Centers give their services for free. Also, go shopping at Poké Marts for important items that will help you on your journey. If you look at the statistics of your Pokémon, you can see how many experience points it takes for them to get to the next level. Every Pokémon defeated is worth some experience points for your Pokémon, and every level gained makes your Pokémon stronger.
5
Learn the stats. Every level gained makes your Pokémon stronger. But how much stronger? Take a look at the statistics screen. It should have Hit Points, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. Hit Points indicate how much damage the Pokémon can take before fainting. Attack controls how powerful your Pokémon is with physical attacks, such as Giga impact or Outrage. Defense controls how much damage your Pokémon take from physical attacks, the more defense the less damage. Special Attack controls the strength of special attacks, like Ice Beam or Thunder Shock. Special Defense is like normal Defense, except against Special Attacks. (Note that in Red, Blue, and Yellow, Special Attack and Special Defense are simply one stat: Special.) Finally, Speed determines which Pokémon goes attacks first each turn.
6
Learn battle mechanics. By playing the game, you should already figure out how the game is played. But you can go even further. Pokémon with higher speed get the first turn in battle, which can be very crucial. In battle, a Pokémon's moves have a chance of hitting the opponent. A Pokémon even has a chance of doing double damage with an attack, called a critical hit. Each attack has a Power Point usage count. This count determines how many times a Pokémon can use the attack. Attacks like Tackle have a high PP count, of 35. Stronger attacks, like Thunder, have a PP count of only 10. Make sure that you balance moves by choosing attacks that are efficient; Thunder is powerful, but you can only use it 10 times, and it is inaccurate. Thunderbolt is weaker, but you can use it 15 times, and it is very accurate.Remember if your Pokémon is out of power points for all moves, you start using a move called struggle Some types of moves are great against others (like water against fire); whereas certain moves are not very good against others (like fire against water).
7
Learn about status effect. A status effect has a chance of happening in battle, and they have negative effects for the affected. These effects are: Paralysis, Burn, Poison, Freeze, and Sleep. When a Pokémon is paralyzed, their speed is halved and there is a 20% chance of being completely unable to attack that turn. When a Pokémon is poisoned, they begin to lose some HP each turn, until they are defeated. When a Pokémon is burned, their attack goes down slightly and they lose some HP per turn. When put to sleep, Pokémon cannot attack until they wake up at a random number of turns later. Finally, the most potent affliction is freeze. A frozen Pokémon cannot do anything at all until they thaw out. There are also other status effects, which are not immediately visible. These can overlap with the obvious ones, such as Sleep or Poison. These effects include flinching, in which the flinched Pokémon does not attack that turn, Confusion, in which the Pokémon has a chance of attacking itself, and others. Also, Pokémon with status conditions are easier to catch (sleep and frozen are more effective).
8
For the Diamond/Pearl/Platinum/HeartGold/SoulSilver Guys, If you go to the Battle Tower, every Pokémon you see there in a battle will NOT be registered in your Pokédex. That isn't good. So don't bother entering if you want to complete your PokeDex. DO bother yourself if you want to see how powerful a Pokémon really is. You can buy/earn helpful items such as HP Up, Rare Candy, Life Orb, and TMs! These items will make your Pokémon super powerful!
9
Defeat other trainers. Start battling trainers once your Pokémon have battled against wild Pokémon and get stronger. A trainer has stronger Pokémon than wild ones, and these Pokémon give more experience than wild ones. Some people assert that "forcing" Pokémon to fight each other is abusing them; what these people forget is that Pokémon are competitive and love to battle each other, so go ahead and battle to your heart's content! You can also battle your friends at any Pokémon Center, so grab your friends and see who's the best! You can get some great practice from this.
10
Go spelunking. What's a good Pokémon quest without some spelunking? If you see a mysterious cave, then by all means, go inside! If you see an abandoned power plant said to have a wild and wildly power Pokémon rampaging inside, then go inside it despite the pleas of the engineers! If you see a long tower leading up to the sky where the primal Pokémon of the sky that can easily tear you apart lives, then start climbing that tower! You won't get anywhere if you just stick to catching Pokémon that appear randomly in some National Park! Go adventuring, find some treasure, find some strong Pokémon, and some insanely strong Pokémon.
11
Trade Pokémon where available. In games where trading can be done with GTS Negotiations, try it. It's much easier than having to wait for a Pokémon in the GTS, and then getting a level 1 Pokémon.
12
Defeat the eight gym leaders. Gym leaders are the elite trainers, and they have stronger Pokémon than most trainers. There are eight gym leaders in a single region, and each leader has their own theme, such as Rock-types Brock of the Pewter Gym, Ghost-type Morty of Ecruteak City, Flying-type Winona of Fortree Gym, and Electric-type Volkner of Sunyshore City. Each gym leader gives you a badge, proving you beat him/her. Earn eight badges and you'll arrive at the Pokémon League, where the most powerful trainers hone their skills.
13
Start battling the Elite Four. Your region should have a group known as the Elite Four, the top four trainers of that region who preside over the Pokémon championships. It takes eight badges to prove your ready for the Elite Four. The Four follow a theme like the gym leaders, except they are just a little more lax on their theme type. The Elite Four must be fought right after the other, without breaks, unlike gym leaders who are fought when you get to their respective towns. Once you beat them, you are the best! Or are you?
14
Battle the Champion. You didn't think that you're the first one to beat the Elite Four? You'll usually find out that your rival just made it to the Elite Four before you did, and he already took the cake. Or, you might get to the Elite Four only to realize that a well-trusted ally is the champion, leading to quite an interesting battle. No matter, what the case, the Champion is even stronger than the Elite Four, and usually has the most varied mix of Pokémon. Once you beat him/her, you are the best!
15
Catch all the Pokémon. Well, if you became the Champion, you are just a very, very powerful Pokémon trainer. If you want to be a true Pokémon master, you'll have to do a lot of things. You'll have to catch all the Pokémon. If you got far enough to beat the Elite Four, you should have enough money to buy the new Poké Balls, such as Ultra Balls, or the special balls like the Timer Balls or Quick Balls which are more specialized. You have a lot of Pokémon to catch; Pokémon researchers have found 802 Pokémon so far. You'll need to trade around for some of the rare Pokémon, like Meloetta. You'll also need to transfer the legendary Pokémon from original GBA games into Diamond and Pearl in order to have the complete set.
16
Enter into Pokémon Contests (in the newer versions). There's more to Pokémon than just battling! There are also contests of coolness, cuteness, toughness, smartness and beauty! Enter your Pokémon into these contests and have them participate in three rounds. The first round, they get judged by the audience based on appearance and high statistics, based on the theme. The second round consists of a dance exhibition. The final round is a mock battle in which the point is to make the Pokémon look cool, cute, tough, smart, or beautiful when they use certain attacks. Winning these events will win you ribbons.
17
Train the perfect Pokémon (if you can). If you can build a perfect Pokémon, and feel good afterward, then do it with your entire team! For help, click here.
18
Start being a Pokémon Master. Now that you've won a bunch of ribbons, collected all 150 Pokémon in Red/Blue/Yellow, 251 in Gold/Silver/Crystal, 386 in Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald/Fire Red/Leaf Green, 493 in Diamond/Pearl/Platinum/HeartGold/SoulSilver, 649 in Black/White/Black 2/White 2, all 721 Pokémon in X/Y/Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, and all 802 Pokémon in Sun/Moon, became Champion, and trained a team of perfect Pokémon (if you did it), you can start being a true Pokémon Master! But wait, what if you want to be the Pokémon Master? Well, start competing against other Pokémon Masters in high-powered battles and contests. Take it to the next level, the 3-D consoles, in the Stadium, Colosseum, or even the new Battle Revolution and fight against pumped up trainers. Find the people who have both come out on top in being the Champion, capturing all the Pokémon, winning all the contests, maybe got to training the perfect Pokémon team, and won in the 3-D consoles to further separate the Pokémon Master from the Semi-Pokémon Master.And, if you can, be legit and don't cheat.
19
The Pokeathlon. In HeartGold/SoulSilver there is a new feature called the Pokeathlon, it is the words Pokémon and Triathlon because you select 3 Pokémon and do 3 events. There are 5 courses: Speed, Stamina, Power, Jump, and Skill. All of the Pokémon have base stats in each category and a maximum amount they can get. You can raise the base stat up to the maximum stat by using Aprijuice. There are ten courses total: The Snow Throw, the Pennant Capture, the Goal Roll, the Relay Run, the Hurdle Dash, the Disc Catch, the Lamp Jump, The Ring Drop, The Block Smash, and the Circle Push. What's cool about the Pokeathlon is your Pokémon can do good without being highly trained, just high evolution and lots of aprijuice. So what are you waiting for? Go out there and start your Pokémon experience. Tough battles and exiting challenges await you. Once you have become a master, remember to tell your friends to come here if they want to be masters. Now go out there and show the Pokémon world who you are!Now that you've defeated the Johto gym leaders you are ready to travel over to Kanto! To get to Kanto just go to Olivine city and go over to the Olivine port and talk to the man to get on the S.S. Aqua(only after you defeat the elite four) The ship only runs on Mondays and Fridays and your in Vermilion city. Or you can take the Magnet Train once you get the pass from Copycat.

Community Q&A

Question

Is it possible to obtain every Pokemon in XY?

Juliet Faye

Community Answer

By binge catching, Pokemon hunting, trading, and lots of dedication and time, yes.
Question

What about the battle mansion in ORAS and XY?

Juliet Faye

Community Answer

The battle mansion is a place you can go to after becoming the champion. It really hones your skills as well as gives you experience in battling strategies. You can track and record your progress; eventually, you will battle the owners of the mansion.
Question

Which Starter Pokemon is the most powerful? Charmander, Bulbasaur, or Squirtle?

JARED VERGARA

Community Answer

It depends, Charmander normally has the highest attack and speed of the three, Bulbasaur has the best HP and defense, and Squirtle I'm pretty sure has good defense and HP.

Warnings

You will get frustrated if you don't stop for a break every once in a while. Every hour take a break and do something else besides video games, like watching TV or playing a board game with a friend.

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Helpful 29 Not Helpful 10
Don't brag a lot. Not everyone is as powerful as you, and there are probably better trainers than you.

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Helpful 29 Not Helpful 12
9 out of 10 people won't catch every Pokémon. There are 802 Pokémon, so don't get frustrated! For the professor to say you've completed the Pokédex, you'll need to catch all Pokémon excluding event-only Pokémon.

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Helpful 11 Not Helpful 3
Care for your Pokémon and don't just use them as battle slaves. Give them a PokéBean or PokéPuff some time, y'know?

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Helpful 15 Not Helpful 6
Don't cheat or exploit glitches. Real Pokémon Masters never cheat in any part of the game. Nintendo will find out someday if you try trading off or entering in competitions with hacked Pokémon. So please try to keep cheating to your self unless you know what you are getting into. Also cheating can be a real pain when your game or computer get corrupted from occasional overly enthusiastic on your part, human errors, and scams.

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Helpful 12 Not Helpful 5