PTD: Pokemon Attacks - Strategies
Knowing Your Attacks
Each Pokemon has two qualities, a type and an attack element. Knowing the balance and correlation between the two stats is very important when it comes to knowing beforehand if your team has what it takes to win. The bottom line here is that it all becomes a numbers game - and knowing all the variables will help make the battles easier.
First off, the type - this trait of the Pokemon determines what it is strong against and what it is weak against. There is no single type that is superior to all - though the steel type Pokemon have the most resistances: 11 in total. The Rock type Pokemon on the other hand are weak against 6 types of attacks. In short, this is your first line of defense and also, the first indication of any weaknesses. The type of a Pokemon is inherent to its species; all Charmanders are fire types and all Bulbasaurs are grass types. You cannot permanently change the type of a Pokemon, but it can be altered temporarily in battle through certain abilities. Also, a Pokemon is not always limited to having only one type, it can be a combination of two types (such as flying and fire), and as such, it gains the resistances and strengths of both types. On the opposite end of the spectrum, this also allows you to choose what Pokemon to deploy in the attack missions when you have to be the ones defending.
The second thing you have to be familiar with, is the element of your pokemon attacks. This is actually very simple and easy: all you need to do is to read the attack details. All attacks will tell you the cooldown time, amount of damage, accuracy, any special effects it has, and also, what element it uses. Obviously, players should combine their knowledge of the target's type with the attack elements to ensure that each hit deals the most damage possible. This level of effectiveness can easily change the tide of battle. Also, it is important to remember that a Pokemon's type does not limit the kinds of attacks it can perfom - a water type Pokemon may also learn an attack of a different element. While a fire type learning a water element skill is unlikely to happen through leveling up, it is possible by making use of the TMs/HMs option.
Here is something that players should remember: a Pokemon using an attack of the same element of it's type will deal more damage (a psychic Pokemon using a psychic attack gains a bonus to damage). And this is why Pokemon tend to use one's own element for attacking. But aside from that, there is no penalty for using an attack of the opposite element, so if you want to have a little bit of adaptability, having a Pokemon learn an attack that it normally does not have can be helpful too.
Learning New Attacks and Choosing Your Abilities
Every Pokemon has four ability slots, these can be filled up with any skill that the Pokemon can learn. Changing the contents of these slots is done through leveling up, relearning old skills, or buying new ones. Abilities can either be attacks that deal physical damage, attacks that cause negative status changes, buffs that support the Pokemon or your party, and lastly: any combination of the above.
Learning attacks by leveling up is pretty automatic: if you have a blank space in your four slots, the new skill will automatically be placed in the blank position. If you already have four that are assigned, you can choose to overwrite any of the older skills and replace it with a new skill, or you can just click on "done" to have it set into your learned skills set so you may choose to access it later on. The important thing is, when a Pokemon is learning a new skill, you must select "learn skill". Choosing "do not learn" will not add the skill in your relearn option.
Relearning a skill means spending 1000 Pokedollars to buy an old skill and adding it to one of your four slots. This is why you should not hesitate to overwrite a skill, you can always come back to it later on. Also, it is important to open this option on any new Pokemon you have caught. There are occasions when a wild Pokemon will have some nice skills already learned in their list, all you need to do is to assign it to one of the attack slots (this is pretty common with most Pokemon above level 25). This feature also comes in pretty handy when you need to change the line-up of abilities - like when you need to specialize in certain stages.
If the default line of abilities are lacking for your needs, you can spend 10,000 Pokedollars with the TMs/HMs device in order to learn some really nice skills. Here you are able to learn some really strong moves of varying elements and abilities - it is actually a pretty good investment if your Pokemon are a little weak. With this, you can obtain abilities that hit multiple targets, have massive damage or provide really beneficial effects. This is also the best thing to do when it comes to facing special challenges (such as beating certain gyms without using certain Pokemon types). This is actually pretty easy to circumvent thanks to the TMs/HMs machine since a type is different from an attack element: if a challenge says no lightning Pokemon, equipping lightning attacks on a fire Pokemon will still keep you qualified for the challenge. The only catch here is that skills learned in this mode are not placed in the "relearn" option, which means you will have to buy it at full price if you ever decide to overwrite the skill.
On a more general mindset, the ideal thing is to have a good range of attacks - strong ones for stopping enemy waves, weak ones for withering down opponents for capture, and negative status effects that will complement attacks by your other Pokemon. Having these abilities on well rounded Pokemon will keep you ready and prepared for most of the regular maps. Also, they keep you ready enough to take on a wide variety of targets without having to change your lineup too heavily.
For support abilities, you will need to change and adapt depending on the stage. In some stages, simply getting your Pokemon to move fast enough to grab the candy is good enough. But in others you will need to either put up some defensive barriers or use some heavy shields to keep the enemy attacks from killing your Pokemon.
Choosing Who to Attack
One great thing about PTD is that it allows you to determine which targets your pokemon attacks or their priority of attacks. During a battle, clicking on an active Pokemon's icon will open up the attack menu. This will allow you to level them up in the middle of combat (if they have earned enough experience points), choose which attack to use, and also, determine which targets to prioritize. There are nine possible settings for this option and each one has its own use. Depending on the strategy you are employing and the enemies you are facing, you must set these options to maximize your attack potential.
Regular - this setting for priority target means that the Pokemon will attack whichever enemy comes near it first and the Pokemon will not stop attacking the same target until it either dies or it moves out of attack range. This is the default option for all Pokemon and it is pretty useful and effective in many scenarios.
Fastest - aiming for the fastest moving enemy will allow you to take down those threats before they slip past your defenses. You can combine this with a quick attack to easily bring down fast-moving, low HP enemies, or you can combine this with a slow-down spell (if the spell hits, the Pokemon automatically changes target since the current one is no longer "fastest"). Also, there are a few attacks that increase in damage when targeting faster Pokemon.
Slowest - the slower Pokemon tend to have higher HP and better defense, and this is a good setting for those towers that you want to be focused on these harder Pokemon. Also, you can use this in tandem with another Pokemon that uses the slow down ability.
Least Health - sometimes, attacks can be wasted on several Pokemon with high HP - especially if there is one that manages to slip past you with a low health bar as it lets healthier Pokemon get the attention of your tower. With the least health setting, your towers will be able to bring down targets that have already been damaged.
Most Health - targeting Pokemons with the most life is a strategy for your best attackers and also, for those that can either cause freeze, sleep or any other status ailment that can stop the big one in its tracks.
Super Effective - attacking enemy Pokemon tend to be composed of varying types. The last thing you need is a lightning Pokemon tower choosing to attack a ground type instead of the water type. In this case, using this setting will have your Pokemon automatically changing their attack priorities to target enemies that are particularly weak against their attacks.
Ignore Red - it is quite often that you will find yourself unable to capture some rare Pokemon because your towers kill them off too fast. Worst of all, you need to wait until their HP has hit the critical "red" stage before you can catch them. You can set your troops to completely ignore enemies with "red" health bars so you may capture those. Just remember that in this setting enemies will be ignored once their health reaches red so that will get past your defenses.
Focus Candy - although this ability says candy, it can also apply to anything else that you are defending. Basically, this means that your Pokemon will go after any enemy that grabs a candy (combine this with status effects that makes them drop the candy and you have got a really efficient defensive setup).
Ignore Candy - you may want your Pokemon to be focused more on the enemies that are attacking as opposed to those that have managed to get some candy. In this case, you may choose to have their attack priorities placed on this setting.