An Introduction to ASB
What is anime-style battling?
Anime-style battling, which is usually abbreviated to ASB, doesn't actually relate to the Pokémon anime directly. It's intended to be a more realistic style of Pokémon battling, where the real-world implications of a Pokémon's actions and abilities are taken into account as much as possible. For example, in the games you can use your onix while surfing without problems, but in ASB if you want to send your rock snake out in a watery arena, it's not going to do much but sink straight to the bottom.
The ASB system has many intricacies, but most of them you don't need to know about when you're just starting out. Following this guide should give you enough information to let you sign up and start playing; you can review the full rules later for a more thorough treatment of how the game works. Reading through some of the battles currently in progress will also help you understand what's going on.
How do I battle?
After you and another player agree to a battle, a referee will eventually come along and start a thread for it. Both players will send out their pokémon and begin giving commands in an order specified by the referee.
In each round, you can tell your pokémon to use three different attacks. It can use any of its attacks, no matter what level it would learn them, whether they're TM or tutor attacks, or even if they're special moves like ones given away on special pokémon from the NYC Pokémon Center. You'll want to look your pokémon up in an online pokédex such as Veekun to see all of your options.
Once all players have given their attacks, the referee will write up a description of what happens in the round, calculate the pokémon's final stats, and post it in the thread. The order of command will then switch, so whoever attacked first in the previous round attacks second in this one. The battle continues in this way until all of a player's pokémon have been knocked out, at which point the match is over and prizes are awarded. Win or lose, you will earn some amount of money, which you can use to buy more pokémon or items or spend at a business, and experience and/or happiness for your pokémon.
If you have any questions about how battling works or don't understand what happened during a round, you can always ask your referee for help.
Where can I find someone to battle?
Visit the Challenge Board to either post a challenge for other people to respond to or to accept a challenge that someone else has posted. Full instructions for posting or accepting challenges are included in the thread. Open challenges, where one or more additional players are needed, are kept track of in the second post of the thread.
Where do I get pokémon?
When you first sign up for the league, you won't have any pokémon, but you will be given $45 with which to buy your starting team. You can do this by visiting the "Buy Pokémon" option on the ASB Control Panel menu. You will be presented with a screen that breaks all the pokémon available for purchase up into groups based on their rarities--rarer pokémon cost more. Once you find a pokémon you'd like to buy, select its name from the drop-down menu and enter how many of that species you would like in the box next to it.
Also, if you're buying your first team of pokémon, you can choose to buy one of the fifteen traditional starter pokémon at a reduced price by selecting it from the list that appears above all the other rarities.
Once you've selected all the pokémon you would like to buy and pressed the "Buy Pokémon" button, you will be taken to a screen where you can review your purchase and set your pokémon's names, abilities, and sexes. At this point you can back out without penalty, but once you press the "Buy Pokémon" button here, the purchase will go through and you'll be stuck with what you picked.
You may also receive pokémon as gifts or as special prizes. These must be claimed through the Pokémon Registration Office; full details are in the first post of that thread.
How do I evolve pokémon?
Pokémon evolve in various ways, but most of them require some amount of experience to do so. When you view a pokémon in your team management screen or individually, the amount of EXP it currently has will be listed next to the amount it needs to evolve (so 0/2 means that the pokémon has zero EXP at this point and needs two total to evolve). A pokémon gains EXP by participating in battles or eating rare candies.
If the pokémon's information screen displays "Happiness" instead of "EXP," this pokémon evovles by happiness instead of EXP. All pokémon need to earn four happiness points before they can evolve. A pokémon gains happiness points by participating in battles.
If a pokémon's information screen displays "EXP" but shows only one number (the amount of EXP it has at the current time), this means either that it can't evolve or that it evolves by some other method. Usually, this will mean by holding an evolution item while battling, but some pokémon can also be traded. See the full rules thread for complete details.
Once you have fulfilled a pokémon's requirements for evolution an "Evolve This" link will appear beside the EXP or happiness total, and following it will allow you to evolve the pokémon.
What is my active squad, and how do I change it?
There is no limit to how many pokémon you can have, but when you battle you will only be able to choose to use one from among those on your "active squad," which can have at most ten pokémon in it. All the rest will be stored in your PC.
To change which pokémon are in your active squad and which are in your PC, use the "Manage Team" option in your ASB Control Panel. Choose any number of pokémon to deposit in your PC box by selecting the check boxes to the far right of the pokémon's name, next to the "Rename" link. You can then check any number of pokémon to withdraw from your PC by selecting the checkbox to the right of the pokémon's icon. As long as the number of pokémon you want to deposit or withdraw doesn't cause your active squad to drop below one pokémon or increase above ten, the pokémon will be deposited or withdrawn when you press the "Deposit/Withdraw Pokémon" button below the PC listing.
Where is my ASB Control Panel?
Once you've become a member of the league, the ASB Control Panel link will appear near the bottom of the forums, in the row of links that also contains the "Contact Us" and "The Cave of Dragonflies" links.
How do I start playing?
Click this "Join ASB" link and follow the instructions. After your account has been created, you can buy your starting pokémon and go looking for battles.
What if I have other questions?
Check out the full rules thread and see if they've been answered there. If not, post your questions in that thread.
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