Digital Raid Battle Assistant

Digital Raid Battle Assistant
Logo for Pokémon Trading Card Game Raid Battle
Basic info
Platform:	PC, Mac, iOS, Android web browsers
Category:	Application
Players:	1-4
Connectivity:	None
Developer:
Publisher:	The Pokémon Company International
Part of:	Generation VIII miscellaneous
Ratings
CERO:	N/A
ESRB:	N/A
ACB:	N/A
OFLC:	N/A
PEGI:	N/A
GRAC:	N/A
GSRR:	N/A
Release dates
Japan:	N/A
North America:	July 27, 2020
Australia:
Europe:
South Korea:
Hong Kong:
Taiwan:
Websites
Japanese:	N/A
English:	Game site

The Digital Raid Battle Assistant is an web application on Pokémon.com. It serves as an alternative method of facilitating Pokémon Trading Card Game Raid Battle without needing to print out or otherwise obtain the required materials. It tracks the damage dealt to the Boss Pokémon, its remaining HP, the attacks that the Boss Pokémon uses, which of the players' Pokémon are Knocked Out, the number of times the players' Pokémon have been Knocked Out, and the Cheer cards. However, it does not provide Pokémon cards for the players, track the damage those Pokémon take, track the effects that the players or the Boss Pokémon inflict on each other, GX attack use, and retreating.

Gameplay

This article is intended to supplement the information found on the Raid Battle (TCG) page, and assumes familiarity with the rules on that article.

The Digital Raid Battle Assistant is an application which manages the behaviors of the Boss Pokémon and other rules of Pokémon Trading Card Game Raid Battle without the need of any physical trackers. However, the players will still need eight Pokémon cards among them to use for the game, and damage counters for tracking the damage that those Pokémon take. The Digital Raid Battle Assistant is intended for use by four players, with one player managing the software as well as playing. However, as per the rules Pokémon Trading Card Game Raid Battle, it is possible for fewer than four players to use the Digital Raid Battle Assistant as long as there are still four pairs of Pokémon and a player or players designated to make decisions for the pairs of Pokémon that do not have their own player. It is techically also possible for a 5th person to operate the software without being one of the players, in a "facilitator" role.

Much like the Pokémon Trading Card Game Raid Battle, the Digital Raid Battle Assistant can be used when playing remotely.

The Digital Raid Battle Assistant assumes that before starting that all players have picked their pair of Pokémon, and have which ones occupy the slots of "Player 1", "Player 2", "Player 3", and "Player 4".

The Digital Raid Battle Assistant starts by having players choose which Boss Pokémon to battle against, with the choice being between Pikachu and Drednaw. Then, the game decides on the Level of the Boss Pokémon. For each pair of Pokémon, the player inputs the base damage of the attack that has the highest base damage out of any of the attacks of the two Pokémon cards. This results in four numbers, which the program automatically totals then selects the appropriate Level for the Boss Pokémon. If the sum is lower than 250, then the program will not start; such a sum is too low to practically battle a Level 1 Boss Pokémon, and the players are required to select stronger Pokémon and substitute the highest base damage on those cards until the sum is 250 or greater

Note that this input is done through four text entry fields, as are all of the other numerical inputs in the game. These fields expect numbers that are multiples of 10, as per the convention of the Pokémon Trading Card Game. The arrows in the text fields default to incrementing and decrementing by 10. However, any whole number 0 or greater is acceptable and is processed accordingly, allowing the Boss Pokémon to have remaining HP that is not a multiple of ten like 2741. Negative values, on the other hand, do not get accepted and sometimes cause the Digital Raid Battle Assistant to become unresponsive. Decimal values cannot be inputted.

The interface of the Digital Raid Battle Assistant is different depending on if the players are taking their turns or the Boss Pokémon is taking its turn. At all times, the Boss Pokémon, its current HP and the number of times a player's Pokémon has been Knocked Out is displayed. On the player's turn, it shows a field for the current player and another field for the damage they are dealing. On the boss's turn, all four players are displayed, and there are is a field for the boss taking damage and a space for the "drawn" Boss Attack cards.

On the players' turn, the players take their turns in order of player number. Each turn, the player taking the turn is reminded that they are allowed to retreat. When that player attacks, the final damage of that attack is inputted into the Battle Assistant, and a confirmation button subtracts this damage from the Boss Pokémon's HP and moves to the next player's turn. (An input of "0" can represent an attack that does not have a base damage.) The players can also use a checkbox to toggle if their Pokémon has been Knocked Out, perhaps if that Pokémon's attack dealt damage to itself or to the Benched Pokémon of that pair.

(The Raid Battle Assistant does not differentiate between a Active Pokémon being Knocked Out or a Benched Pokémon being Knocked Out. This perhaps has to do with the fact no Boss Pokémon has an attack that inflicts damage to a Benched Pokémon, such an action would have to be taken by one of the player's cards.)

On the boss's turn, the player controlling the boss has to "draw" the Boss Attack cards, with the program enforcing the if they do or do not draw another Boss Attack card as per the instructions found on the card or by the maximum number of attacks per turn determined by the Level of the Boss Pokémon. (The program does remember the instruction implemented on the 4th Cheer card that prevents the Boss from drawing more than 1 Boss Attack card on the following turn, and implements it accordingly.) Unlike the regular game rules, a Boss Attack card with instructions to attack a Pokémon that is Knocked Out is not discarded. The card essentially has no effect, wasting one of the Boss Pokémon's attacks for the turn.)

Damage calculation on for the Boss's attacks is done manually, and the damage dealt to each player must be tracked by the players rather than the program. If the boss takes any damage during its turn, perhaps because its Pikachu and it used the Volt Tackle attack, this can be subtracted from the Boss Pokémon's HP through the damage field. Should a player's Pokémon be Knocked Out during the Boss Pokémon's turn, each player portrait has a checkbox that can be toggled to indicate this, incrementing the counter for number of Knock Outs in the process.

Once the Boss has finished performing its final attack for the turn, its turn ends and the players take their turns again. This loop proceeds until the game ends. However, if one of a player's Pokémon is Knocked Out, turn order changes.

All players that have a Knocked Out Pokémon take their turn before the other players, in order of their numbers. The player gets to "draw" a Cheer card providing a helpful effect to the game state. They do not get to attack, and therefore do not get a entry field for that damage. However, the KO toggle can be flipped back to false in case of user error, which allows the player to take a normal turn albiet out of normal turn order. At the end of the turn, their Pokémon is revived, which also irrevocably increments the KO counter.

Play continues until one of two things happen. If a turn ends with the KO counter at 4, then the Boss Pokémon wins. The splash screen shows the Boss Pokémon If the Boss Pokémon's HP reaches 0 at any point, the players win. A splash screen is shown with the player's icons bouncing. Either way, the players may start a new game.

References

This article is part of both Project TCG and Project Mass Media, Bulbapedia projects that, together, aim to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon TCG and Mass Media, respectively.