/vp/'s Guide to Being a Better Newfag v1.3

-----------------------------------------/vp/'s Guide to Being a Better Newfag------------------------------------

So, you're a newfag, eh? That's not such a bad thing; we were all newfags at some point. However, being a blatant newfag DOES shit up the board for everyone else. This has been made evident by the recent influx of newfags on /vp/ after X and Y began leaking almost exclusively here. The board is kind of a mess at points, and many are beginning to get frustrated. That's why I'm here: To attempt to teach all of the newfags how to blend in on 4chan and make it a more enjoyable experience for everyone.



>General Board/4chan Etiquette



-Golurk more. This means to read on the site but to not post on your own. You'll be able to pick up how people tend to act here after reading a ton of posts.

-NEVER fill in the e-mail field

-Only fill out the subject field if you're making the OP for a new thread. This is still not always necessary, however.

-Only fill out the name field if you're partaking in PSS-activities. If you are discussing something else, the name field should be left blank. This means no real name, no in-game name (IGN), and no Friend Code (FC). Only use a tripcode (the un-bolded text that appears in the name field as !*trip*. You make these by typing #*tripcode* in the name field) if it is absolutely 100% necessary for the thread you're posting in, like being champ in Showderp. (Note: Never make your tripcode #password.)

-Never use emoticons. 4chan is an imageboard, and emotions are meant to be portrayed through images. If you don't have a reaction image to use, just google the emotion you are trying to express and use a picture that you like. It is advisable to build a reaction image folder filled with reaction images that you like. If you get an image from Tumblr, or Facebook, change the filename to something else. (Note: ;_; is the only emoticon that is generally accepted.)

-You make spoiler text by typing [spoiler]*text*[/spoiler]. If the spoiler text is the last thing you write in your post, do not add the [/spoiler] at the end.

-Greentexting cannot really be explained properly as it is used for a multitude of things, from quoting to story telling to making fun of others in the present-progressive tense. If you lurk long enough, you'll be able to greentext properly purely by instinct. (Note: Lines of greentext typically do not start with capital letters, as they are mostly written in fragments and/or entirely in the infinitive tense.)

-Don't try desperately to fit in. Don't start a thread saying, "Hey you faggot neckbeards, I've got a box of Noibats to give away." Try to sound natural, for the most part.

-Anything written in a thread after the OP should be referred to as a post or a reply, and not a comment.

-Type with proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. It makes the whole website look neater and cleaner, and many of us do it out of habit, anyway. If English isn't your first language, people will generally understand if you make an error that many non-speakers make, such as a Spanish-speaker typing, "I do not know what is this Pokémon" when they meant to type, "I do not know what this Pokémon is." People may poke fun at you, but they don't mean anything by it.

-Whether your English is perfect or not, always type with good syntax (IE don't write "yo how shud i ev train my greninja what nature do u think i shud run???").

-Try to avoid colloquialisms, if possible.

-4chan's sense of humor is brutal compared to most peoples'. If someone insults you or calls you a faggot or something, don't get personally offended. Most of us are completely numb to insults because we see it every day.

-If you are underage, act like an adult. The only reason people accuse others of being underage is because they are acting like a child. If you act maturely, nobody will even know the difference to begin with.

-If you are 18+, don't act or type like a child. People will accuse you of being underage.

-Ironic shitposting (pretending to be really annoying/obnoxious to get people's attention) is still shitposting. It's kind of funny at times, but it's used so much it's just annoying.

-Don't try to ruse/troll people unless it's really well-thought out and elaborate. We've all been at this long enough; we'll know when you're fucking with us. Making purposely obvious troll posts can sometimes be funny, though. http://imgur.com/a/V1YlN

-Memes are OK, as long as they are in good taste. By memes, I mean the people, characters, and ideas that are basically a big "inside joke" to the internet. I do not mean those pictures with the Impact text stamped over it. Those are "image macros." Know the difference, it's important. Anyway, memes are OK to post as long as they aren't currently being abused or misused by the rest of the internet. Don't spam memes, as that's what causes their inevitable downfall. Try to avoid using memes that originated on other sites; however, most memes do originate from 4chan.

-Avoid using certain common language from other sites. If you are from Tumblr, do not say "My sides," "I'm so done," "Get out," etc. I don't know all the things they say on Reddit, as there are many, but the ones that come to mind are "Mind = blown" and "Epic."

-If you don't recognize a meme, don't try to replicate it or ask what it is. Google it or look it up on Knowyourmeme.com. Say what you want about the site, but it still has a database of meme explanations.

-/vp/ has a shit ton of board-specific memes, so you probably won't recognize them even if you're a frequenter of another board on 4chan. Some of them can be pretty obscure, so you may not find the answer on Google. If that is the case, still do not ask what it is.

-If you have a question about X and Y, try to find the answer on the own before asking it.

-Never ask a question about where to find a specific item or Pokémon in the game, as Serebii has cataloged all of this information. If it says you can only find an item in one place, that's the only place you can find it, so don't ask.

-If you can't find your answer on Serebii, find the XY Questions Thread. There is one running 24/7. If it's not on the front page, use the catalog to find it.

-The catalog is located on the very bottom of the board next to all of the pagejump hyperlinks.

-Once you've found the XY Questions Thread, browse the FAQ for an answer. If it's STILL not there, or you need major clarification, THEN you ask it in the thread.

-If nobody answers, do not bump your question more than once.

-Do not start an entire thread to ask a menial question. Only start a thread that asks a question if it warrants significant discussion.

-There is literally NEVER any need for a "Trade General" or "Trade" thread. WiFi General, or /wfg/, is where all trades should be done. There is a slightly different etiquette for those threads in particular, but I believe they started posting their newfag guide again, as well.

-If you must do a large-scale breeding leftovers giveaway, try to do it in /wfg/. At the least, join in on another giveaway thread. If there aren't already a bunch of giveaways, it is excusable to start your own. The whole idea here is to not flood the front page with giveaways.

-There should only be one active "Friend Code" thread on the entire board at a time. This can also be done in /wfg/ but it'd be better to have one general thread that deals with this as to not clutter /wfg/. Look for the friend code thread being run by Vivix !QPGKNQqmjQ and use his website. It's really good.

-If you're looking to find someone to battle with, start in /wfg/. It can sometimes be hard to find a battle there, but it is advisable to not start a thread to request battles, as these are generally failures. A good place to look is a forum or the Smogon battle finder. Not everyone there is your typical "Smogonfag."

-Showderp is basically a "game" in which six anons give a person, called the champ, Pokémon to participate in a competitive team. The champ then builds the team with these mons and they load into a game on Pokémon Showdown to try to compete with people using actual competitive teams (usually), while heckling and messing with the opponent and/or the champ himself. Tripfagging is necessary to be the champ, so don't nag the champ for using a trip. The original idea was not to pretend to be other people/sites, but it has become commonplace to do so. People who participate in Showderp are seasoned competitive battlers who understand the game very well. Do not volunteer to be champ if you are not a good competitive battler. They won't criticize you for losing a match, but they will annihilate you for doing something stupid. If you do not wish to participate in Showderp, do not post in their thread under any circumstances.

-If you have questions about competitive battling, go to Competitive Pokémon General, or /cpg/. (Note: /cpg/ is completely dead nearly 100% of the time. That brings me to the next section, though.)



>Competitive Pokémon



The problem with X and Y making breeding so easy is that it opens the door for many people to make their foire into competitive battling. Though it is good that the community is expanding, this presents the problem that many people haven't the first clue about competitive Pokémon.

-The first step is to get to know the metagame inside and out. Do research. Learn about the Pokémon, the abilities, the moves, the natures, the stats, status effects, strategy, etc. The best way to do this is to browse comprehensive wikis like Serebii and Bulbapedia (those are the only two I'd recommend) and to watch a shit ton of competitive battles on YouTube. Learning the meta inside and out can be a long process. I started battling in 4th gen, but I watched battles on YouTube for over a year before I even built a team. YouTubers I recommend are NotBlameTruth (visit BlameTruth to watch his 4th Gen and early 5th Gen battles), Kwandaoren66 (E-Lo), Sixfthax, rchizzle9, Pyrotoz, Shofu (high chance you'll dislike his personality; still a very good battler), TheFlamingSpade, and Emperorznb.

-Once you have a strong grasp of the meta itself, it's time to learn about the actual Pocket Monsters. This will seem incredibly tedious, but watching tons of battles will already net you a wealth of knowledge about many Pokémon. You need to know what common moves Pokémon use, what abilities they commonly run, their base stats, common sets, common held items, etc. This information is extremely important to know so you can always be a step ahead of your opponent by knowing what his Pokémon may likely do. It is also important because it'll help you build your own teams. The best place to learn this, outside of watching battles, is Smogon.com. Many people tend to run cookie-cutter Smogon sets, but most good sets that any given Pokémon can run are similar in some ways to a Smogon set.

-I often see people confused on what nature they should use and what EVs they should invest. The problem with questions like these is that there are multiple answers. Almost every Pokémon can run more than one viable type of set. Not to mention, the same type of set could run multiple different natures. It all depends on the preference of the trainer. This can be a tough thing to debate over, so there is little point in asking others. The only time you should ask for help or recommendations is if you legitimately can't decide between two choices.

-If you want to run a quick offensive mon, invest immediatly into speed. Then, invest into whatever attack stat it is using. As for the rest of its set, that can be a tough choice. For this, I'm going to show Physical, Special, and Mixed sets of a Life-Orbed Infernape as an example. If I had an Infernape with Flare Blitz, Close Combat, U-Turn, and Mach Punch, I might be more in favor of a Jolly nature (+Spe -SpA) because the set is used to scout the opponent with U-Turn and Mach Punch, yet also to deal heavy damage with Flare Blitz and CC (get used to moves being abbreviated). However, if the set was Flare Blitz, Close Combat, Earthquake, and Stone Edge, then I might lean towards an Adamant nature (+Atk -SpA) in order to get that crucial extra attack power. Note that Jolly is equally as viable as Adamant to ensure outspeeding certain Pokémon. Say my Infernape had the moves Fire Blast, Vacuum Wave, Hidden Power Ice, and Grass Knot. With a fully specially-offensive Infernape, I would have to choose between a Modest (+SpA -Atk) or a Timid nature (+Spe -Atk) for the same reasons mentioned above. The difficult part comes when you get into mixed sets. If Infernape has Flare Blitz, Close Combat, U-Turn, and HP Ice, then I would be running a Naughty (+Atk -SpD) or Naive (+Spe -SpD) nature in order to get more power on HP Ice. On running a mixed set and choosing a nature that lowers one of the defenses, I recommend lowering Special Defense instead of Defense, as almost all +Priority moves are physical, and lowering Defense may cause you to faint to a +Priority move that you normally wouldn't faint to. As for EVs on a mixed set, I recommend investing 252 into the primary attacking stat and speed. You will have 4 left over, and you should dump those into the secondary attacking stat. This is a generally safe idea when starting out, but as you gain experience and encounter more threats, you may discover the need to power creep.

-Power Creeping and Speed Creeping are the strategy of outdoing your opponent by literally one stat point. This is incredibly precise and strategic, and very rewarding when it pays off. The way this works is by knowing the common stat spread of a Pokémon that presents a threat to your team or is very overused. Then, you invest the exact amount of EVs and use certain natures to either guarantee a One-Hit KO (Power Creeping) or allow you to outspeed by exactly one point (Speed Creeping). Let's take our Mixed Infernape from above. You'll notice that he runs HP Ice. This is because Dragon Pokémon are very common, and quite a few of them have a 4x weakness to Ice. This means that sneaking Ice moves onto certain Pokémon can prove very valuable for your team. The special thing about Infernape is that it has 108 speed. This is faster than almost all Dragons, so it can really catch them off-guard. The only problem is that many Dragons are quite bulky, even without HP investment. This is where the Power Creep comes in. According to Smogon's damage calculator (this is on their front page. It's an invaluable tool; use it), an Infernape with a neutral SpA nature and 4 EVs against any standard Salamence set with 0 HP and SpD EVs and a neutral SpD nature has an 93.75% chance to OHKO. This is due to a thing called damage roll, which is a number randomly generated by the game and determines whether the used move will do anywhere from 85% to 100% of the actual calculated damage. Now, that 6.25% could potentially be the difference between winning and losing, so we want to guarantee a OHKO. What we do is continue adding EVs into SpA on the damage calculator until it tells us that we will have a guaranteed OHKO. Upon doing this, we discover that this Infernape needs exactly 12 SpA EVs to guarantee an OHKO on Salamence. We will take these 8 extra EVs out of Attack. Never EVER take extra EVs out of Speed when Power Creeping. You can still get the exact same damage out of something with one or two less attack points than normal, but you need every single bit of speed for obvious reasons.

-Speed Creeping is slightly different. This is usually only done for bulky mons that would benefit from outspeeding certain threats. Take for example, my bulky utility Crobat made for 6th Gen. It has Brave Bird, U-Turn, Taunt, and Whirlwind. It has 252 EVs in HP because it is meant to be bulky as possible, and it actually has exactly 228 EVs in Speed along with a Jolly nature. The reason for this is because the team it is on has a slight weakness to Talonflame, so I built this Crobat to outspeed the fastest possible Talonflame by exactly one point. This is possible because Talonflame has base 126 Speed, while Crobat is slightly faster at base 130. The reason I didn't just dump 252 into speed is because it doesn't need to outspeed anything else faster than Talonflame (at least that it's capable of outspeeding.) The only thing that comes to mind is Jolteon, but I wouldn't keep it in on a Jolteon, anyway. But, with Crobat's carefully calculated speed, I can give a weakened Talonflame a Brave Bird and knock it out before it either Roosts or knocks out my Crobat and proceeds to sweep my team.

-When building Pokémon meant to hold a Choice Scarf, Choice Specs, or Choice Band, there are many options to consider. When you go with a Choice Scarf, it can either be used as a surprise tactic for something that the opponent would think they outspeed, such as Jellicent, for something with medium-low speed that just needs the boost from the scarf, like Chandelure, or for something that already has fast speed and you just want to guarantee outspeeding everything, like Mienshao, Garchomp, or Latios. I would never recommend giving a Choice Scarf to any Pokémon with a base speed stat below 60, as even 60 can be situational. On any choiced Pokémon, you should have only attacking moves unless you add something weird like Trick (to cripple an opponent by giving something a choice item that can make no use of it) or Destiny Bond (if you no longer need your scarf user, you can Destiny Bond something about to knock it out in order to squeeze some last use out of it). Always give your scarf user max speed. A +Speed nature is optional, but recommended in order to outspeed other scarf users of similar speed or the same species. It is recommended to run at least one Choice Scarf user on your team, but no more than two. You should try to keep your Choice Scarf user alive along as possible, as it may be the only thing on your team that can outspeed a certain Pokémon. Do not speed creep with a Choice Scarf user; always invest fully in speed. When going with the less-popular Choice Band or Choice Specs, you'll want to invest fully into Attack or Special attack respectively. Depending on the Pokémon, you'll either want to invest 252 EVs into Speed or HP. Slow and bulky specs and band users are completely viable, such as Snorlax, Scizor, Escavalier, Azumarill, and Magnezone, while it is still equally viable to run fast ones. Usually, choice users run STAB move(s) and some combination of coverage moves and +Priority moves.

-Excellent Coverage Move Combinations to Use:
Dark/Fighting
Ghost/Fighting
Dragon/Ground
Dragon/Fire
Electric/Ice (one of, if not, the most common coverage options; called BoltBeam because it's usually used with Thunderbolt and Ice Beam. Only resisted by the Magnemite line and an Electric/Ice type Pokémon which does not yet exist)
Rock/Ground (also very common; called EdgeQuake because it's usually used with Stone Edge and Earthquake)
Fighting/Rock
Flying/Ground
Fairy/Ground
Fairy/Ghost
Ghost/Ground
Ghost/Fire
Ice/Ground (This is one of the reasons why Mamoswine is so good: Access to Ice/Ground STAB along with Rock)
Ice/Rock (Walled by Steel, but good otherwise)
Fairy/Fighting
Fairy/Psychic
Fairy/Dark
Water/Electric
Electric/Grass
Water/Grass
Water/Fire
Water/Ground
Grass/Ground
Grass/Fire
Fighting/Ground