Pokemax Battles
Eight types, 71 moves, six status conditions, and multipliers that stack hard enough to end a fight in one hit.
The type chart
Eight types. Super effective is ×2, resisted is ×½, and there is no immunity — everything can hurt everything. Read a row as: what this type deals, what it is weak to, and what it shrugs off.
| Type | Hits ×2 | Takes ×2 from | Resists ×½ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🔥 Fire | grass · ice · dark | water · rock | fire · grass · ice |
| 💧 Water | fire · rock | grass · ice | water · fire |
| 🌿 Grass | water · rock | fire · ice · flying | grass · water |
| ❄️ Ice | grass · flying · water | fire · rock | ice |
| 🪨 Rock | fire · flying · ice | water · grass | fire · flying |
| grass · dark | ice · rock | grass · water | |
| 👻 Ghost | ghost | ghost · dark | dark · rock |
| 🌑 Dark | ghost | fire · flying | dark · ghost |
Ice and Rock are the big hitters. Each is super-effective against three types — Ice into Grass, Flying and Water; Rock into Fire, Flying and Ice — and both come out of early regions, so a Rock or Ice lead sets the pace. But neither tanks: Rock still takes ×2 from Water and Grass and is now resisted by Ghost, while Ice folds to Fire and Rock. Lead with them; do not hold the line with them.
Dark is no longer a wall. It used to take ×2 from nothing — now Fire and Flying punch straight through it. It still resists Dark and Ghost, and the closed Ghost/Dark loop holds (Ghost is super-effective only against Ghost), but Ghost picked up real armour this update: it now resists Dark and Rock. Water also gained a soft spot — it takes ×2 from Ice as well as Grass.
Damage
A hit starts from the move's power, your Pokemax's attack and the target's defence, and is then multiplied:
| Multiplier | Value | When |
|---|---|---|
| STAB | ×1.5 | The move's type matches the Pokemax's type |
| Super effective | ×2 | See the chart above |
| Resisted | ×0.5 | See the chart above |
| Critical | ×1.5 | 6% chance, every hit |
Pokemax battles are short and decisive by design — every turn is a message in a channel, so fights are tuned to end rather than grind. A super-effective STAB finisher can knock out a frail same-level foe in one hit and a bulky one in two. Type matchups decide fights outright instead of shaving percentages.
Stack them and it compounds fast: STAB × super effective × crit = ×4.5. Bringing the right type is worth more than bringing the better Pokemax.
Moves
71 moves — 56 that deal damage and 15 that do not. Every move has limited PP, and when a Pokemax runs out of everything it is reduced to Struggle (40 power, typeless). Moves carry priority: a priority move goes first regardless of speed, which is how a slow Pokemax steals a kill.
A Pokemax holds four, and they are the last four it learned. Browse any species' full learnset in the Pokemax Lab.
Every move now spells out its exact numbers in battle — power, accuracy, PP, priority, the chance and size of each side effect, and any healing or recoil.
Two rules worth knowing: drain moves heal a share of the damage they actually deal (usually 50%, and never more than the HP left on the target), and if both sides lose their last Pokemax on the same turn, the battle is a draw — neither side collects rewards.
Status conditions
| Status | Effect |
|---|---|
| 🔥 Burn | Chip damage each turn. |
| 🟣 Poison | Fixed damage each turn — 1/8 of max HP. |
| ☠️ Toxic | Ramping poison: 1/16 max HP, then 2/16, 3/16… Switching out resets the ramp. |
| ⚡ Paralyze | Cuts speed and can cost you the turn outright. |
| ❄️ Freeze | You cannot act until it thaws. |
| 💤 Sleep | Out for 1–3 turns; cannot act until it wakes. |
Status is not just chip damage — it is how you catch things. See Catching.
Building a team
Build for coverage, not for power. Three Pokemax, three types that cover each other. A team of three Fire Pokemax loses to one Water wall.
Rock is the strongest opener — nothing resists it and it comes out of the beginner region — but keep a second Pokemax for the Water and Grass types that hit it back for ×2. Rock leads; it does not soak.
Bring one answer to speed. A priority move, or a Pokemax fast enough to trade with a sweeper. Otherwise the first hit is always theirs.
Between battles
There is no grace period. Whether your party carries its wounds into the next fight depends entirely on where you fight:
| Where you fight | Your party starts… |
|---|---|
| Safari, NPC trainers, special events | exactly as it ended — HP and Move Uses carry over and every point of damage and every spent Move Use is saved to your roster. |
| Gyms, PvP, everything else | full HP and full Move Uses, every time. Nothing from these fights is written back — win or lose, your roster is untouched. |
So a long Safari is a war of attrition: chip through enough wild Pokemax and NPC trainers and your team walks into the next encounter already hurt, low on Move Uses, maybe a body down. That is the tax of staying out. Manage it and the Safari opens up; ignore it and a Lv.5 Emberpup finishes what a boss started.
Getting your condition back. Rest at a Pokemax Center — a territory building that restores HP and Move Uses, and heals more the higher its level (a high enough one patches up your whole roster, not just your active party). Or carry it with you: Potions and Revives for HP, Ethers and Max Ethers for Move Uses, all stocked from the shop. The hold caps on those items mean you cannot simply out-item a bad run.
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