Pokémon (species)

Pokémon (Japanese: ポケットモンスター Pocket Monsters; ポケモン Pokémon for short) are fictional creatures that are central to the Pokémon franchise. There are currently 890 known species that inhabit the Pokémon world; however, it is implied that there are more waiting to be discovered. Inherent to them are several fantastic powers not demonstrated by most real animals, such as the manipulation of electricity or fire. Pokémon are shown to exist instead of animals in their world, although animals are also seldom seen in older media.

While most Pokémon resemble animals and may behave like them, there are many that do not resemble animals at all; taking on other forms such as plants, inanimate objects, machines, human-like forms or other more enigmatic and exotic appearances. Pokémon inhabit an extremely diverse range of habitats, ranging from the driest deserts to the lushest jungles, the deepest oceans to the highest mountains and everything else in-between, even outer space and other dimensions. Pokémon take up various ways of living in those places. However, all can be befriended and made into potential allies.

Many Pokémon are able to evolve from or into other Pokémon, a process that typically makes them larger and stronger, and more closely resembles growth and development or metamorphosis rather than evolution in the real world. Pokémon typically know several techniques that they can use in battle or elsewhere, either to defend themselves or their Trainer, or to perform a task. In the anime, most Pokémon are known only to say their name. In the games, each Pokémon has a distinct voice associated with each species.Pokémon (Japanese: ポケットモンスター Pocket Monsters; ポケモン Pokémon for short) are fictional creatures that are central to the Pokémon franchise. There are currently 890 known species that inhabit the Pokémon world; however, it is implied that there are more waiting to be discovered. Inherent to them are several fantastic powers not demonstrated by most real animals, such as the manipulation of electricity or fire. Pokémon is shown to exist instead of animals in their world, although animals are also seldom seen in older media.

While most Pokémon resemble animals and may behave like them, many do not resemble animals at all; taking on other forms such as plants, inanimate objects, machines, human-like forms or other more enigmatic and exotic appearances. Pokémon inhabits an extremely diverse range of habitats, ranging from the driest deserts to the lushest jungles, the deepest oceans to the highest mountains and everything else in-between, even outer space and other dimensions. Pokémon takes up various ways of living in those places. However, all can be befriended and made into potential allies.

Many Pokémon can evolve from or into other Pokémon, a process that typically makes them larger and stronger, and more closely resembles growth and development or metamorphosis rather than evolution in the real world. Pokémon typically knows several techniques that they can use in battle or elsewhere, either to defend themselves or their Trainer or to perform a task. In the anime, most Pokémon is known only to say their name. In the games, each Pokémon has a distinct voice associated with each species.

In the games
Pokémon have been, from the very beginning, spoken of as friends and partners to the humans of the Pokémon world, helping them with various tasks from constructing buildings to exploration. Many people in the Pokémon world take Pokémon with them on a journey to gather Badges and compete in the various Pokémon Leagues as Trainers, using them in battles against Pokémon both owned by other Trainers and found in the wild. In the Alola region, Pokémon and Trainers instead take on trials in the island challenge on their journey. In addition, there are many different tournaments in which Trainers can compete together with their Pokémon, such as Pokémon Contests and the Pokéathlon.

Across the eight generations of games, Pokémon are typically found in one of five manners: encountering them in tall grass, finding them in caves or ruins, going fishing for them, surfing on water, or trading with an NPC. These are often joined by several more ways in which to encounter Pokémon, such as headbutting trees, obtaining and hatching Eggs, or using the Poké Radar.

Construction
In the games, Pokémon are no more than fragments of data, identifying certain characteristics inherent to them. As the games have progressed, more data is added to each Pokémon, typically to reference new features introduced in games of the new generation.

The methodology for construction of Pokémon data changes across generations. For the different constructions, see the data structure explanations for Generations I, II, III, IV, V, VI, and VII.