The Pokedex

[Managrimm]

A Pokedex is a device issued by the league to trainers upon receiving their training licenses. This high-tech encyclopedia has access to information on all known species of Pokemon and is able to identify any targeted one with the push of a button. The Pokedex's scanner casts a small, red dot similar to that of a laser pointer on whatever its pointed at. It produces a small "beep" upon successfully scanning a Pokemon.

A trainer's Pokedex can be used to access data on both the Pokemon they have with them and the Pokemon they have in storage. It's handy for checking the attacks a newly captured Pokemon has and how close a Pokemon is to the level it learns a new one. Moves that are in the process of being learned display the same as they would if they were fully known.

Levels are canonically understood to be a mathematical estimation of a Pokemon's strength - "strength" being defined by different parameters such as "attack," "special defense," "speed," etc - determined by an average Pokemon species' minimum strength (being level 1) versus its maximum strength (being level 100). Thus, levels and species' stats can be both understood by characters and referenced by them.

The data on a trainer's own Pokemon is received in a rather roundabout way. Once your Pokemon is in its Poke ball for the first time - and every time it gets recalled - the data on it is sent back to Valoran from the Poke ball itself. That data is then sent to the Pokedex. Some trainers think that the information comes straight from their Pokemon themselves as pointing the Pokedex at them and pressing the proper button will cause it to recognize their Pokemon and retrieve its data. Using this on other Pokemon, however, only reveals species information. Checking on a Pokemon after they have gained levels but before they're recalled would result in outdated information. If for some reason a connection to Valoran cannot be established the information will also be outdated.

In addition to its primary features the Pokedex can also be used to access the internet and send messages or voice chat with both other trainer's Pokedexes and cell phones. A feature called the "Versus Seeker" also allows trainers to save other trainers onto a list for the purposes of battling again in the future. By default the menu will display the level of your highest level Pokemon next to your name and sort your "friends" by whose highest level Pokemon correlates. Different levels of permissions can be set to allow specific other trainers access to the levels, species, abilities and movesets of your Pokemon.