Alright. This is a comprehensive everything on Pokemon, and Pokemon GO. An explanation of what has happened in the story so far is at the bottom of the page. This may or may not be updated, as I feel like. The text is meant to be organic and easy to read for experienced players, so if you are not one of those you may find it useful to check back here, if I have indeed updated it. There will also be a curory explanation in Chapter 21. If you're too excited to progress that far, or it still confuses you, check here.

Pokemon was a game developed by Nintendo and originally released for the Gameboy in the 1990s. There were two iterations, Red and Blue, which represented your team. Red and Blue members could hook up their Gameboys to fight one another with the Pokemon they had collected in the game (see: below). Members of the same team could also trade Pokemon back and forth.

The name Pokemon is a combination of pocket and monster. In the game the player goes out in the world with pokeballs, with which they can capture and store pokemon, after defeating them in combat. The pokeballs are small enough to fit into your pocket you see. The player chooses one of three Pokemon to start with, and uses these to fight other Pokemon in order to increase their stash. As the player progresses they find increasingly difficult Pokemon that they must defeat. These more powerful Pokemon can then fight even more difficult enemies.

Each Pokemon has an element and each has unique abilities that are informed by their element. A water Pokemon for example uses water attacks like "splash" or "tidal wave". These attacks vary in power depending on the element of the Pokemon they are fighting. A water Pokemon's attacks deal greater damage to fire Pokemon than they would to a fighting Pokemon.

With each battle won the pokemon increases in strength until it evolves into a more powerful version. These have different names and more powerful attacks.

Pokemon GO was developed by Nintendo in partnership with Niantic. Niantic had previously made a game called Ingress, an exercise augmented reality game. Ingress used the player GPS position to allow them to capture "nodes" and change them for their team. Each node confered points that would allow the player to get more virtual money so that they could capture more nodes more quickly.

With this infrastructure in place, Niantic was positioned and partnered with Nintendo to make Pokemon GO, a real world augmented reality game. Pokemon GO is an app for your smart phone (iOS or Android) that allows you to find nearby pokemon in the real world and capture them. The pokedex (an index of available pokemon) is based on the Pokemon found in Red and Blue as each sucessive version of the game has a new pokedex.

Player visit a real world location to retrieve pokeballs called a pokestop. They can also get items like potions that allow them to heal a pokemon in combat, or revive a pokemon that has lost a battle.

The Gameboy version of Pokemon was played in what's called turn-based combat (which I hate). Player take turns selecting and using abilities on one another. Pokemon GO is real-time combat. Players use their skills and speed becomes an issue. The player has limited time to attack and defend before the pokemon they are battleing can use their abilities.

Every pokemon has an attribute called combat power (CP). This attribute increases as the pokemon wins battles, and each pokemon has a different maximum that they can reach. The most powerful pokemon have a max of around 5,000 CP while your starting pokemon have a CP of 1.

Some pokemon have shiny versions. More powerful and harder to defeat versions that are very rare and difficult to find.

Teams:
Pokemon GO differs from the gameboy version in several respect other than the real-time combat. There are three teams: Valor (Red), Mystic (Blue) and Instinct (Yellow). Each team has a different mascot Pokemon but otherwise they differ in no real respect. The team you choose is based in reality on whatever color appeals to you. There are bigoted assumptions about the personalities of those who choose different teams. But to my eye there is no real difference in players other than what they want from a team. There are assholes on all sides.

Valor is the largest team, and are commonly thought of as the assholes by other teams. Mystic is the second largest, and has a reputation for more cautious and strategic members. Instinct is the smallest team (by a lot). No one likes Instinct.

Pokegyms:
Like all other elements gyms have a real world locations, and offer several benefits. They can revive a fainted pokemon (one that has been defeated in battle and is no longer able to fight in other battles). The offer in game currency and can aid the experience of already captured pokemon.

Gyms can only be accessed when your team has control of the gym. In order to take control of a gym possessed by another team you must fight the pokemon that they have placed there. These pokemon have an attribute called motivation power (MP) that governs how easy they are to defeat. MP steadily decreases while the pokemon is on the gym, and my be revived with raspberries gained from defeating other pokemon, or from pokestops.

Each pokemon on the gym has to be fought three times in order to remove it from the gym, and as many as six pokemon can be placed on a gym at a time.

Raids:
Occasionally a very powerful pokemon, owned by no team, will take over a gym. These pokemon can be defeated through the combined efforts of all teams, and yield very powerful rewards.

In Chapter 14: Bookstore:
Aisling, Autumn, Sarah and Regular Dave are on their way to a bookstore, and decide to stop by a gym on the way. The gym is owned by Valor at the time, and they want to take it for mystic. They are unaware as they travel that Aisling belongs to Instinct.

The gym is only defended by a low level pokemon (Magicarp in this version but that will change. Sorry.), and Aisling's friends engage it in its second combat. As they are close to defeating it, Aisling leaps in for the third combat, with her shiny Snorlax (a very powerful pokemon that does not actually have a shiny version yet). She waits as the Magicarp flails ineffectually at her Snorlax, and when the other have defeated it in it's second round, the KOs the defending pokemon in one hit and takes the gym for her team, Instinct. She then slams the Snorlax down to defend the gym. As a shiny it's relatively unassailable by the other while it's at full MP.

Aislings friends are impressed with her skill, and find newfound respect for her. Or they would if they weren't teenagers. Instead they call her an Instinct whore, and swear at her until everyone is pissed off and they go to the bookstore.