Gaming Glossary

An Ability is a passive trait, introduced in Generation III, that gives each Pokémon a built in effect in or out of battle, such as Levitate granting immunity to Ground moves.

Breeding is the system, introduced in Generation II, in which two compatible Pokémon left at the Day Care or Nursery produce an egg that hatches into the lowest stage of the mother's evolutionary line.

A Pokémon's catch rate is a species value from 3 to 255 that feeds the capture formula, where 255 is the easiest value in the system and 3 marks the hardest catches in the games.

Effort Values, or EVs, are hidden training points that raise a Pokémon's stats, capped at 510 points in total and, since Generation VI, 252 points in any single stat.

An Egg Group is one of 15 breeding compatibility categories, introduced in Generation II, that decides which Pokémon can breed with each other.

Evolution is the permanent transformation of a Pokémon into a different, usually stronger species, most often on reaching a set level, with other triggers including stones, friendship, held items, location, and time of day.

Gigantamax is a Generation VIII transformation in which a Pokémon with the Gigantamax Factor grows to giant size for three turns and also changes appearance, gaining a unique G-Max move.

A Hidden Ability is a third, rarer Ability slot for a species, introduced in Generation V through the Dream World, that a Pokémon normally cannot be obtained with through standard wild encounters.

Individual Values, or IVs, are per stat values from 0 to 31, set when a Pokémon is generated, that act like its genes.

Mega Evolution is a temporary in battle transformation, introduced in Generation VI, in which a Pokémon holding its Mega Stone changes form, stats, and sometimes type and Ability until it faints or the battle ends.

A Nature is one of 25 personality traits, introduced in Generation III, that raises one of a Pokémon's stats by 10 percent and lowers another by 10 percent.

A regional form is a permanent alternate form of an existing species adapted to a different region, with changed type, appearance, stats, and often Abilities, starting with Alolan forms in Generation VII.

STAB, short for Same Type Attack Bonus, is the 1.

A status condition is a lasting ailment inflicted in battle, covering the major conditions burn, paralysis, poison, sleep, and freeze, plus volatile conditions such as confusion that end on switching.

A hit is super effective when the attacking move's type beats the defending Pokémon's type, dealing at least double damage, or quadruple damage against a dual type Pokémon weak on both types.

Terastal, or Terastallization, is the Generation IX battle transformation in which a Pokémon crystallizes once per battle and changes its defensive type to its single Tera type, gaining STAB on that type while keeping STAB on its original types.

A trade evolution is an evolution that triggers only when a Pokémon is traded to another player, covering species such as Kadabra, Machoke, Graveler, and Haunter in Generation I.

Type effectiveness is the system where a move's damage is multiplied by 2 against a type it is super effective against, halved against a type that resists it, and reduced to zero against an immune type.

A box legendary is the Legendary Pokémon featured on a main game's box art, which the player encounters as part of the story and can usually catch before the credits, with each paired version getting its own.

The Elite Four are the four strongest trainers of a region's Pokémon League, fought consecutively in a single gauntlet with no Pokémon Center healing between battles except the items you carry.

A Gym Badge is the award for defeating a Pokémon Gym Leader, traditionally one of eight in a region, and badges historically raised traded Pokémon's obedience level, unlocked field moves, and in some games boosted a stat.

The League Champion is the final trainer of a Pokémon game's League challenge, fought immediately after the Elite Four, and defeating the Champion enters the player's team into the Hall of Fame and rolls the credits.

A Mythical Pokémon is a rare Pokémon that, in the main games, is normally obtainable only through official distributions such as events, codes, or special promotions rather than regular gameplay, including Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, and Arceus.

A Nuzlocke is a fan made challenge run of a Pokémon game built on two rules: you may catch only the first wild Pokémon encountered in each area, and any Pokémon that faints is treated as dead and must be released or permanently boxed.

A Poké Ball is the standard capture item thrown at a wild Pokémon to catch it, with a 1 times catch rate multiplier, and the family also includes stronger and specialist balls such as Great, Ultra, Master, Quick, and Dusk Balls.

The Pokédex is the in game encyclopedia that records every Pokémon species the player has seen and caught, giving each a number, classification, height, weight, and a short descriptive entry.

Pseudo-Legendary is a fan term for a non Legendary Pokémon from a three stage evolution line with a base stat total of exactly 600 and a slow growth rate needing 1,250,000 experience points to reach level 100.

A Shiny Pokémon is a Pokémon with an alternate color palette, determined randomly at encounter or hatching, at a base rate of 1 in 8192 in Generations II to V and 1 in 4096 from Generation VI onward.

A starter Pokémon is one of a trio of Grass, Fire, and Water type Pokémon, usually at level 5, offered by a professor at the start of each main game, from which the player picks one and the rival picks another.

A Technical Machine, or TM, is an item that teaches a Pokémon a specific move, numbered like TM24 for Thunderbolt in Generation I, with compatibility varying by species.

Aggro is the attention of an enemy, meaning which player or character the enemy chooses to attack.

A boss rush is a mode or sequence in which the player fights a series of bosses back to back, usually with limited healing or recovery between fights.

A checkpoint is a designated point where a game records progress automatically, so failing afterward returns the player to that point instead of the start.

A cooldown is the enforced waiting period after using an ability, item, or action before it can be used again.

A critical hit is an attack that deals increased damage because it triggered a special success condition, usually a random chance or a precise hit location.

DPS stands for damage per second and measures how much damage a character, weapon, or build deals over time.

A drop rate is the probability, usually expressed as a percentage, that a defeated enemy or completed activity will produce a specific item.

An Easter egg in a game is a hidden message, joke, reference, or feature deliberately placed by its creators for players to discover.

Frame data is the numerical breakdown of a move in a fighting game, measured in frames, covering startup, active frames, recovery, and advantage on hit or block.

Grinding is repeating the same fights, tasks, or routes for experience, currency, or materials beyond what normal progress provides.

A hitbox is the invisible shape attached to a character or attack that the game uses to decide whether contact happened.

Loot is the equipment, currency, and useful items a player obtains from defeated enemies, chests, and completed objectives.

New Game Plus is a mode unlocked after finishing a game that restarts the story while carrying over levels, equipment, abilities, or other progress from the completed run.

An NPC, or non-player character, is any character in a game controlled by the game itself rather than by a human player.

Party roles are the standard division of labour in a group of characters, most commonly tank, healer, and DPS.

Permadeath is a rule under which a character who dies is gone permanently, with no revival and no reload that restores them.

To respawn is to return to play after death or defeat at a designated spawn point, and respawn also names that return itself.

RNG means random number generation, the system a game uses to produce unpredictable outcomes such as loot drops, critical hits, and enemy behaviour.

A save point is a specific location or object in a game where the player can manually record progress to a save file.

A status effect is a temporary condition applied to a character that changes what they can do or how they take damage, such as poison, stun, slow, or burn.

A JRPG, or Japanese role playing game, is a role playing game in the tradition established by Dragon Quest in 1986 and Final Fantasy in 1987, typically featuring a predefined party, a strongly authored story, and character progression through levels and equipment.

A Metroidvania is an action adventure game built around exploring one large interconnected map where new abilities unlock previously unreachable areas.

An open world game gives the player a large continuous environment that can be explored freely in many directions, with objectives available in flexible order.

A roguelike is a game modelled on Rogue from 1980, traditionally featuring procedurally generated levels, turn based movement, and permadeath that ends the run on death.

A roguelite is a run based game that borrows procedural generation and permadeath from roguelikes but adds permanent progression between runs, so each failed attempt still unlocks upgrades, characters, or story.

A sandbox game gives the player tools, systems, and space to set their own goals and experiment, rather than a fixed sequence of objectives to complete.

One hundred percent, written 100 percent, is a speedrun category that requires completing all of a game defined content as fast as possible, not only reaching the ending.

Any percent, written Any percent, is a speedrun category that requires only reaching the game defined ending as fast as possible, with no minimum completion percentage.

A speedrun is a playthrough of a game, or a defined part of one, completed as fast as possible under an agreed set of rules, and to speedrun is to attempt such a playthrough.

AAA, pronounced triple A, is an informal label for a game produced with the large development and marketing budgets of a major publisher, typically involving hundreds of staff, long production, and wide multi platform release.

A buff is an increase to the power or effectiveness of a character, weapon, ability, or strategy, either as a permanent balance change in an update or as a temporary boost during play.

DLC, short for downloadable content, is additional content for a released game distributed by download, such as new missions, maps, characters, or items.

An exclusive game is a game available only on one platform, or on one platform owner set of platforms, and not on direct competitors.

An expansion is a large addition to a released game that adds substantial new content, such as a new region, campaign, systems, or character options, and requires the base game.

First party describes a game or studio owned by, or publishing for, the owner of the platform it appears on, such as Nintendo publishing a Nintendo developed game for its own console.

An indie game is a game created by an individual or a small team without the funding, ownership, or creative control of a major publisher.

The meta is the set of strategies, characters, builds, and choices that the player community currently considers most effective in a game, shaped by the current version balance and by shared knowledge.

To nerf something is to reduce its power or effectiveness in a game update, and a nerf is such a reduction.

A patch is an update released after a game launch that changes its code or data to fix bugs, adjust balance, improve performance, or add small features.

A port is a version of a game adapted to run on a different platform from the one it was first built for, with its content and design essentially unchanged.

A remake is a new game built from the ground up that recreates an earlier game, keeping its story, setting, and core structure while redesigning graphics, systems, and often level layout and combat for a modern audience.

A remaster is a re-release of an existing game with improved presentation, such as higher resolution, better textures, improved audio, and modern display support, while keeping the underlying game, design, and content substantially the same.