Now, as for my questions (there's a lot of them, if you can only answer a few that's fine!)...
-Is gender pretty evenly split in this game? I ask because, aside from my Squirtle, ALL of my pokemon are female. Even the Magikarp I bought! Not like I have a problem with getting an all female (or male) team, it just seems kind of strange how nearly every pokemon I come across is female. Is it just a 50/50 chance and I'm just on a female streak today?
Most pokemon are 50% male and 50% female, but there are plenty that have different ratios. Machop, for instance, is male about 75% of the time, Clefairy is usually female, and some pokemon are only ever one gender (Hitmonchan is only male).
Here's a good list of gender splits.
-I have a few of those TMs now and I'm sort of confused on them. I gather they teach moves but, who should I be giving these to? I'm imagining certain pokemon benefit more from certain moves, is there a resource that shows that information?
TMs can contain very good, useful moves. However, it's usually a good idea to have some kind of plan in mind for a pokemon's move set before teaching one since they can only be taught once. HMs on the other hand can be taught to however many pokemon you want, but keep in mind you can't replace them until you meet the move deleter. Some HMs are required for progress in the game (like surf).
As for who should learn what move, there's an art to planning a moveset that best compliments a pokemon's strengths. Keep in mind the type of attack (physical or special). The attack and defense stats are tied to physical attacks (like takedown). The special attack and special defense stats are tied to special attacks (like flamethrower). Also keep in mind a pokemon's type. If a water or part water type pokemon uses a water move it receives a STAB (same type attack bonus) of 1.5x to the damage done.
A great resource for all things pokemon is
Bulbapedia. And of course you can always ask here! If you have an iPhone I also highly recommend the Dexter pokedex app.
-Is Water strong against Gound/Rock? I noticed my Squirtle pretty much decimated Brock's team, while all my other pokemon barely put a scratch in them.
Water is super effective against rock AND ground, so yes, water will crush Brock's team. See a full chart of type effectiveness
here.
-Is Zubat worth training at all really? I'm not really getting much damage out of it and its defense seems to be kind of spotty, I'm wondering if I should just shelve it and take out one of my other pokemon?
In gen 2 and onward, yes. In gen 1.... not for me personally. In gen 2, Golbat can eventually evolve into Crobat who is really good. However, you won't be able to get that evolution until beating the elite four and getting the national dex, so you would be stuck with Golbat. Golbat is ok, but there are better flying types out there.
-How should I level? I'm trying to evenly level everyone in my team, like I do with most RPGs, so no one pokemon is godlike and I don't have a group of "rejects" who just sit severely underleveled and useless. I imagine the more pokemon I get the harder it's going to be to keep everyone around the same level. I'm imagining the worst case scenario is I have a leveled team, but they're all underleveled. Should I just concentrate on a main six and leave everyone else behind? Or like a main twelve?
This is really up to you as a trainer! Some people train many or all of their pokemon. That's way too time consuming for me, so I just focus on my main six, with sometimes an extra one or two beyond that.
How to train is another matter. For now, just level your pokemon and have fun. Later, when you have some pokemon experience under your belt, you can get into IV selection and EV training if you want to battle competitively. This is by no means necessary for the single player campaign.
-I'm at a part where these kung fu twins (that's what I've dubbed them as today) want to teach my pokemon a punch or kick move. Squirtle is the only one who can learn that now though but I'm thinking that's kind of a waste, should I hold off on learning these moves until I get a different pokemon?
I'd say research moves your pokemon will learn in the future and see who would benefit from the moves the best. You can always teach these moves later.
-I was about to ask if you could find rare candies, but a girl in a shop told me you can't just before I stopped playing for the day (which makes that the second time the game read my mind, first with the running shoes). So are these just super rare items or are there places to get them?
You definitely can find them scattered around the world. You'll come across a handful in your travels.
I think that's about all my questions for now...I had a ton while playing but now I'm struggling to remember them all. So far I'm loving this game though! This is about where I stopped playing last time I think, I believe I was fighting a gym leader (Misty maybe? Whoever has a bunch of water pokemon) and I kept getting crushed. I lost interest and stopped playing ever since then. It took me a lot longer to get to this point last time though, several days. This time I'm having a lot more fun and am much more focused to keep going.
Thanks for reading!
Come back with more questions if you think of them! Glad to hear you are enjoying the game so much. Sounds like you've already made great progress! I look forward to your next update.
