I haven't played Pokemon for a few generations, but I heard it has better online features now, so I got back in. I'm glad there are plenty of mode options, but it's very overwhelming when I don't know how most of them work. Are there any good sites that go over what each of the modes mean and what you can earn in one?
Do any modes scale levels up or will I need to level up to 50 for each mode?
I've won a few rated single 3v3 battles, but didn't get any BP. Which modes earn BP?
I spent a lot of time building a team of 6, but I've only found a 3v3 mode. What modes are 6v6 that aren't overrun with legendaries?
The thing is, don't get intimidated. while a lot of legendaries overrun all the mode, most people don't actually know how to use them. (which is why I hate banlists, people always want all kinds of things banned rather than even trying to figure out how to beat them) so if you have good, strong pokemon, legendaries are not that hard to beat. Talonflame, on the other hand, THAT is a huge issue! Anyway, I have routinely taken down megas and legendaries with one hit consistently, and lots of times even if they hit me they do hardly any damage (clearly showing that someone just got the legendaries and put them online, no training or anything) So the best thing is to simply try it and see what works for you and what doesn't. I have had phenemenal luck (in singles) with Greninja (ofcourse!), Slurpuff, Smeargle and Dedenne (of all things!) and in doubles with Hawlucha, Staraptor, Aegislash and Swoobat (of all things!), so just try stuf, see what people are doing and then try to figure out strategies based on that. It's really interesting to see people's styles and interesting ideas. Someone tried to stall me out with a lv 1 Magnemite and it was working, but they obviously wanted me to forfeit because no matter what I did to it, it kept healing and I was down to my Aegislash so the magnemite couldn't poison me but instead of giving in, I just kept attacking each turn while it healed over and over and eventually THEY forefeited instead!
Anyway, back to the point and to answer our questions: When fighting your friends your pokemon all get leveled up to level 50, when fighting free battles or rating battles, all your pokemon stay at the same level they're at (under level 50) or if they're over level 50, THEN they get leveled down to 50. So you will need to level up to 50 at least (unless you have a level 1 troll pokemon like Magnemite or something!) to compete or else everything else will over level you (I found THIS out the first time I went online with level 30 pokemon)
No modes earn BP or anything other than listing how many battles you've taken part in and how many you've won. (and if you do rating battles, how many battles you've lost as well) Maybe you win stuff in competitions, I've never been in one so I don't know, all I know is that normal free battles and rating battles don't net you anything.
There are no 6vs6 modes other than the triple battles. (or if you battle with your friends privately) all single battles are 3vs3, doubles are 4vs4 and triples are 6vs6. I'm not sure why there's no 6vs6 battles, perhaps for brevity? I'm not sure.
Anyway, don't worry about getting overwhelmed, just dive right in. Keep in mind that for every 1 competitive player on there there's literally 5 - 10 twelve year olds who are just battling with anything high leveled they just caught, so sometimes you'll win, sometimes you'll lose, just jump in and see what happens.
