Pokemon TCG Live

As Black and White are the beginning of a new generation Generation V it is only natural that there are some new changes to the games that haven't been seen in the series previously.

Seasons

The most obvious and biggest change to the game itself is the presence of seasons; the game will now switch between spring, summer, autumn and winter. The season the game is in depends entirely on what month it is and nothing else; it isn't a set time limit, just the month. As such, it is entirely possible to change the season simply by changing the DS clock to any of the three months of the season you want.

Seasons present a small amount of changes around Unova. Most notably, the colours of the areas will change a bit depending on the season; for example, summer will have areas appear more lively, winter will have areas appear icier etc. There will also be weather effects on some parts, such as apparent snow on some routes, but it's not enough to cause Hail in battles.

The season will also change some of the paths you can take slightly; there are some parts of the areas you can only access in winter for example, when snow piles up enough to allow you to cross certain parts. This is needed if you want to obtain every item ball in the game; this is most notable in the areas around Icirrus City.

Wild Pokemon will also change depending on the season, but it's more of a shifting around than a complete change. With some exceptions, you can catch all Pokemon in any season, although these exceptions lie only with post Elite Four Pokemon; you can at least catch the base form of anything in Unova in any season.

The seasons correspond to the following months:

Experience System

Another notable new change is the revamped experience system; if a Pokemon beats an opponent that is of a higher level than it, the experience gained is increased. If a Pokemon beats an opponent that is of a lower level than it, the experience gained is lowered. The amount is raised or lowered respectively depending on the distance between levels (ie a Level 48 Pokemon defeating a Level 58 Pokemon will earn more experience than a Level 51 Pokemon defeating a Level 58 Pokemon, then a Level 38 Pokemon will learn even more etc. The reverse applies for defeating weaker enemies.)

In addition, Pokemon are now able to have a base EXP (a hidden value that is used in the EXP formula for how much you receive when you beat a particular Pokemon) of over 255; while no pre Generation V Pokemon have had this value changed, there are several Generation V Pokemon with base EXP values exceeding 255. The most notable is Audino, a "rare" Pokemon that has an absolutely gigantic 390 base EXP. Defeating one will give you a ton of experience. In comparison, the Chansey line and Arceus gave the most EXP prior to Generation V, with a base EXP of 255.

As such, this system makes it much easier to raise lower levelled Pokemon, especially working with the Elite Four very late in the game as they reach very high levels.

A table to summarize:

- YP = Your Pokemon, going down and OP = Opponent Pokemon, going across

Other Additions / Changes

• There are another new 156 Pokemon, making for a grand total of 649.
• A new region called Unova has been introduced.
• New items and attacks have been introduced.
• Pokemon sprites now move in battle or on the status screen.
• Battles contain much more dynamic camera views.
• Battle speed has been improved since the fourth generation games.
• TMs are now reusable, just like HMs; they no longer break after one use.
• Some TMs and HMs have been changed; there are now only six HMs, namely Cut, Fly, Surf, Strength, Waterfall and Dive.
• The absolute required use of HMs has been shrunk drastically; you'll have to use their field effects much, much less.
• You will now see 'rare patches' within the field; you may see grass shaking, a dark shadow in the water, a cloud of dust in a cave or a dark shadow on a bridge. Some of these contain items, but all of them can contain Pokemon. They are generally Pokemon that you cannot normally find in the area, so if one appears it would be a good idea to check it. (Note you can either surf into or fish in the dark water spots.)
• There are two types of grass on some routes; normal, thin grass and tall, thick grass. The latter contains stronger Pokemon levelwise, as well as sometimes a different variety of Pokemon and the chance for double wild battles. Double wild battles act much the same as in DPPt; you cannot catch a Pokemon until one of the two has fainted.
• Some old attacks and abilities have been changed; for example, Tackle has gone up from 35 power and 95 accuracy to 50 power and 100 accuracy, making it a much better move for the early parts of the game.
• Two new types of battles have been introduced, "triple battles" and "rotation battles." Both involve sending out three Pokemon, but triple battles have all three Pokemon attacking at once, whereas rotation battles have three Pokemon on the field that can be freely rotated each turn; it's basically a 1 vs 1 battle, but with a large twist. Triple battles are also different in that unlike double battles, not everything can attack everything else; the position of the Pokemon (ie left, centre, right) DOES matter.
• Wi-Fi has been edited a fair bit from DPPtHGSS, and in some cases is a lot more restricted... However, Black and White do feature an option that allow you to do random fights, much like in Pokemon Battle Revolution. They are timed fights (lasting an hour at most) and are performed in stadium mode (ie see all six of your opponent's Pokemon, and then pick three f