Battle By Post

Battle-by-Post basics

Battling!

Battle prerequisites

As I said above, BBP is a text-based forum game recreating Pokémon battles. How does that work, you ask? Just like in any (serious) anime match, a battle involves two trainers and a referee. The players issue orders for their Pokémon, and the referee is in charge of applying the effects of these orders, including damage, status, and other effects. A battle only starts when both battlers have accepted the challenge, a set of rules (and an arena) have been defined, and a referee is willing to ref the battle.

Combinations

This is the first of many BBP-unique features. If matches were just plain old moves, not only would it be a bit boring, but the player with the faster Pokémon would be at an advantage due to being able to attack first. This is where combinations come in. As the name implies, combinations are a mix of two similar or identical moves that can be used in the same action. For example, such a combination could be (Thunderbolt + Thunderbolt), or (Fire Blast + Flamethrower). Combinations are a powerful tool that can turn a match on its head if well used!

However, they have a few drawbacks to prevent spamming. First, a combination uses up more EN than simply using both moves on two different actions, which can lead to an ENKO. Second, the Pokémon will be put on cooldown after the combination, which prevents it from using any move or switching, leaving you wide open for a counterattack. Third, you obviously can't combine two random moves together, which can sometimes limit your options. Nonetheless, since combinations retain the properties of both moves (Shock Wave + Thunder being a famous powerful Electric-type combination that can't miss due to Shock Wave's perfect accuracy), mastering them can go a long way to be a good battler!

Substitutions

The second most important BBP feature is substitutions. Since this is a text-based game, each round one of the players orders first and the other orders second. This means the player ordering second has full access to what the other player will do this round, unlike in-game, where both players act simultaneously. How to prevent the player ordering second from having an overwhelming advantage then? The answer lies in substitutions (or subs for short).

Subs allow players to plan for either the other player's actions or RNG. They are often written as "IF (condition) THEN (action)". Usually, the player ordering first will plan for disruptive moves, such as "IF Protect THEN Swords Dance" to try to discourage the other player from simply using Protect as much as they can. In an attempt to predict the unpredictable, you can also use your subs to plan for annoying status, such as "IF your Pokémon is fully paralyzed THEN use Rest the next action", which will allow them to react to possible hax. Of course, using the opposing player's substitutions to your own advantage, either by using moves they didn't sub for or by forcing the subs to trigger in an unfavorable way for the opponent, is a good way to gain the edge in a battle!

Flavor Moves

Finally, one last addition compared to in-game is a bit of flavor in some moves, otherwise the game would taste bland. This usually happens on weak and status moves to prevent them from being totally unusable. For example, Water Gun drenches the opponent for a while, lowering their resistance to Electric-type attacks. Or Smog can be used to cloak the whole arena in thick fog, lowering everyone's accuracy for a few actions. While full-on flavor battles are rare nowadays, keeping an eye on this sort of side effect can prove useful in battle. It also prevents the game from being a pure copy/paste from what happens on cartridge, and that's always good.

To Summarize

A heated BBP battle is text based, with one player ordering first and the other second. Both switch order each round (barring exceptions). A third party, called the referee, ensures a fair game for both. The game proper, in addition to regular actions, can be played with combinations, which can be subbed for, as can other moves to prevent the player ordering second to have a gigantic advantage. If you're curious to see how a serious battle turns out, then you might want to check out this battle between two of BBP's highest-ranking battlers.

Pokémon!

Ranks

Keeping the in-game stats here would be a nightmare to apply in damage calculations, so Attack, Defense, Special Attack and Special Defense get converted into Ranks. These Ranks are defined according to the Pokémon's base stats. For example, in Gen VII, Roserade has 125 Special Attack, which, since it's between 116 and 135, is enough to grant it Rank 5 Special Attack.

Speed is kept as-is, and HP Ranks are calculated a bit differently, leading to most first-stage Pokémon having 80 HP and most final evolutions reaching from 90 to 110 HP. HP is capped at 135 (which is reached by Blissey and Guzzlord, for example) to prevent Pokémon from being near-unkillable. Natures usually add 1 to the increased stat's Rank and remove 1 to the decreased stat's Rank, with the only exception being Speed. Speed-altering natures can also have an effect on evasion and accuracy, with one notable effect being that inaccurate moves are viable on faster users. Ranks are a crucial component in a Pokémon's viability is BBP, not unlike how stats affect in-game viability.

Size and Weight Classes

A bit aside from Ranks, Pokémon are also given a Size and Weight Class. While these don't come into play as often, they are used to calculate the power of some moves like Giga Impact and Low Kick. They are also involved in the flavor of moves that physically move the foe, such as Sky Drop and Circle Throw. Not as crucial as Ranks, but keeping an eye on them is still useful!

To summarize

In BBP, a Pokémon's stats are transcribed into ranks, which can be altered through natures, with Speed-increasing or -decreasing natures having an extra effect on inaccurate moves. Size and weight are more useful here than in-game as well.

Calcing!

Moves and Abilities

Do you often wish you had Hidden Power Fire instead of Ice Beam because it would have let you won that game, or maybe the opposite? In BBP we say "Why choose between one or the other? Have both!". Battle-by-Post's main draw is that each Pokémon has full access to all of its abilities and its entire movepool, no matter the generation. This means older 'mons will have a gargantuan movepool, especially the original 151, since RBY had a weird move distribution. On the opposite side, newer Pokémon have smaller movepools but may compensate for this with good abilities. You obviously won't start with all your moves from the beginning, but battling will allow you to gather Move Counters (or MC) that you'll be able to spend to widen your movepool. The more battle-hardened your Pokémon is, the more moves it'll be able to use!

Having a plethora of moves can be useful in three ways:

• using several STAB moves to avoid relying on only one move (which can and will be disabled if the opponent has an opportunity to do so) and modulate power.
• getting coverage options, preferably redundant, to reliably hit a wide variety of opponents. Since a Pokémon can find itself in various matchups, being able to win damage races against the widest array of foes is particularly clutch to win matches.
• having several tricks up your sleeve in case you notice an opponent's mistake. The more tricks you have, the more effectively you can punish said mistake to turn the tables or ensure your victory. While hard damage is often preferred to status moves, a layer of Spikes might be just what you need to seize victory!

Energy, Energy cost and Base Attack Power

Two key components of any move in Pokémon, PP and Base Power, were reworked as Energy and Base Attack Power, respectively, or EN and BAP for short. This because the numbers wouldn't be compatible with the BBP damage formula.

EN is the simplest concept out of the two: each Pokémon, no matter which side they're one or which evolutionary stage they're in, start the battle with 100 EN. Every move uses a certain amount of EN, according to their power (Fire Blast costs more EN than Flamethrower) and utility (draining moves in particular are quite EN costly). If a Pokémon's EN reaches zero, it is effectively unable to fight, and this is treated as a KO. This means you could lose a Pokémon without sustaining a single point of damage if you're not careful!

On the other hand, BAP is the power of a move, as used in the damage formula. It's usually the in-game Base Power of the move divided by 10, so it isn't the most difficult thing to remember. Where it becomes a bit complicated (and interesting!) is for variable BAP. Moves like Low Kick use the opponent's Weight Class to calculate their BAP, which makes it effective against heavy Pokémon, but here, Giga Impact uses the user's Weight Class, which makes it effective when used by heavy users!

To Summarize

Moves roughly retain the same characteristics as in-game, albeit tweaked for more convenient use in BBP. Aside from the flavor changes detailed below, the biggest difference will be the use of Size and Weight Classes in the power formula for certain moves.