Catch 'Em Cord features: everything the Pokémon Discord bot does

Q: How do you get a mythical Pokémon?

Through a Special Research chain at /specialresearch. Mythicals never appear in the wild, and they cannot be traded or sold.

Q: What does a server admin have to do?

Run /config. It needs Manage Server, and the first run walks you through picking spawn channels and setting your timezone.

Catching

Wild Pokémon appear in your server's chat while people are talking. The busier the server, the more show up.

Name the Pokémon you can see and run /encounter <name> to face it.
The encounter is a battle screen: Fight, Bag, Switch, Run. Balls are thrown from the Bag.
Catching uses the games' own capture formula. Wearing a Pokémon down and putting it to sleep or paralysing it raises your odds.
18 kinds of Poké Ball, each with its rule from the games. A Quick Ball only works on the first turn, a Net Ball is for Water and Bug types, a Dusk Ball wants the night, a Timer Ball gets better the longer the fight runs.
An ordinary wild Pokémon never bolts just because you missed a throw. It can still leave by using a move that ends the encounter, the way an Abra teleports away.
/hint if you cannot place the silhouette.

The long version: how catching works.

A wild Snorlax on a spawn card, sitting on a forest route — A wild spawn, as it lands in chat

Battles on the real engine

Every battle runs on the Pokémon Showdown engine, the same simulator competitive players use. It drives wild encounters and player versus player alike.

Damage rolls, type effectiveness, abilities, held items, weather, PP, natures, EVs and IVs all work like the games.
/battle @user for singles or doubles. Doubles puts two Pokémon out per side.
Battle text is the games' own wording.
Moves are learned by levelling. You can teach a TM or pay to remind a Pokémon of a level up move it already qualifies for. There is no move tutor.
You choose the order of your own move buttons.
Stat changes show on the Pokémon's plate as the same multiplier Showdown uses, like ATK 2×.

A battle scene: Charizard uses Dragon Claw on a wild Dragonite, with HP bars and the dialogue box — A wild battle

The Trainer Circuit

/circuit is a battle campaign for a full team of six.

Five divisions: Rookie, Poké Ball, Great Ball, Ultra Ball and Master.
Six trainers in each one, five of them plus an Ace, and every battle is a full 6v6.
Each division has a level band you have to bring six Pokémon up to before you can enter.
Clear a division for its Emblem, which opens the next one. The Champion is at the top of Master.

Which Pokémon

Generations 1 to 5, all 649 Pokémon, Kanto through Unova. More generations are on the way.

Alternate forms are in: Unown's 28 letters, both Shellos and Gastrodon seas, all three Burmy and Wormadam cloaks, both Basculin stripes, all four Deerling and Sawsbuck coats, and Spinda's own spot pattern.
Item held formes too: Giratina, Shaymin, Deoxys, Rotom's appliances, all 17 Arceus plates, the Therian trio, Genesect's Drives and the Kyurem fusions.
Every Pokémon has an ability, IVs, a nature and a gender where it has one, the way the games do it.
/pokedex tracks what you have seen and caught, with a separate grid for forms. Every species also has its own page on this site.

Shinies

Every wild Pokémon has a shiny chance. It is the same chance for everyone and nothing you can buy changes it.
Shiny sprites are the games' own, and a shiny is marked on its card forever.
Your server has a shiny leaderboard.

Legendaries and roamers

Legendary Pokémon turn up in the wild on their own schedule. One server at a time, no rotation, and the chance is the same for every legendary.
Seven of them roam: Raikou, Entei, Suicune, Latias, Latios, Mesprit and Cresselia. They bolt after a single failed throw, carry the damage you did, and come back to the same channel worn down.
Legendaries are never sold. You find them in the wild, and players can trade them with each other.

Mythicals and Special Research

Mythical Pokémon never appear in the wild. You earn them through Special Research.

/specialresearch is a chain of tasks that ends in a mythical. Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, Manaphy, Victini, Deoxys, Shaymin and Keldeo have chains today. More are written and waiting.
Phione is the exception: it is bred from Manaphy at the Day Care.
A mythical cannot be traded, sold or released.

A Special Research chain called A Mythical Discovery, on stage 2 of 8, with a mythical Pokémon's silhouette and three tasks — Special Research, stage 2 of 8

Breeding

/daycare takes two compatible Pokémon and gives you an Egg.

Modern inheritance: a Destiny Knot passes more IVs, an Everstone passes a parent's nature, and a Power item locks one stat.
Egg Moves pass down from either parent.
Nine baby Pokémon need a parent holding the right incense: Azurill, Wynaut, Budew, Chingling, Bonsly, Mime Jr., Happiny, Munchlax and Mantyke.
A Pokémon with Flame Body or Magma Armor in your party halves the hatch time.

EVs, IVs and natures

EVs work like the games: capped at 252 per stat and 510 in total, and earned by the Pokémon that fought.
IVs are visible, per stat and as a percentage. You can sort your box by it.
The card shows which stats a Pokémon's nature moved.
Vitamins add EVs and six berries take them away again, so a spread is never a dead end. A Fresh-Start Mochi wipes every EV a Pokémon has at once.
A Power item held in battle adds 8 EVs in its stat every time that Pokémon earns them, the way the games do it.
An Ability Capsule swaps a Pokémon to its other regular Ability, and an Ability Patch switches it to its Hidden Ability or back. Both are at the Mart.
/pokemon info has an EV spread card.

An EV spread shown as a six-point stat hexagon — The EV spread card

Trading and the market

/trade @user swaps Pokémon and ₽ in one deal, with both sides confirming.
/market is shared across every server that has the bot. A Pokémon listed in one server can be bought from another.
The market is for Pokémon. Items are bought and sold at the Mart.
You can only receive a Pokémon up to five levels above your own highest, so nobody can hand a new trainer a level 60.

The global marketplace listing Pokémon for sale with their prices — The market

Fishing

/fish casts a line. What bites is a wild encounter.
Three rods, bought at the shop: Old Rod, Good Rod and Super Rod. The better the rod, the better the odds of something rare.
Ten casts a day. The bite comes when it comes, and you have a few seconds to reel.

Field Research and streaks

/research gives you three tasks at once, in Poké Ball, Great Ball and Ultra Ball tiers, each paying ₽. Clear all three for a bonus.
One reroll a day if a task doesn't suit you. A new slate arrives 12 hours after you finish the last one.
Your whole server works on one Server Challenge together each week. You are in it by playing. There is nothing to join.
/daily pays every day and adds a Rare Candy on every seventh day of your streak.
/vote every 12 hours pays ₽ and Great Balls, and ₽ is doubled at the weekend.
New trainers get First Steps, a short checklist that pays out as you go.

A Field Research slate: three tasks with progress bars, one complete, each paying out in coins — A Field Research slate

Setting it up in your server

/config needs Manage Server. First run walks you through it.
Choose which channels Pokémon spawn in, or leave it everywhere. You can also send every spawn to one channel instead.
Set your server's timezone. That is the clock the day and night Pokémon, the Dusk Ball and the Espeon and Umbreon split all read.
Turn level up announcements on, route them, or switch them off. Turn individual commands off, or limit them to certain channels.
/start, /help and /config can never be switched off.

Step by step: how to add it to your server.

The rest of it

Day and night on your server's clock, with Pokémon that only come out at one or the other.
Evolution by level, stone, friendship, time of day and trade, and you are always asked first.
Wild Pokémon can be carrying a held item, and Pickup finds things after a battle.
Leaderboards for Pokédex, shinies, legendaries, money and catches, with a weekly view, and a pinnable standings card.
A Trainer Card at /stats, with a privacy switch that takes you off every leaderboard and out of lookups.
Reminders you opt into at /notifications. Nothing is sent to you unless you ask for it.
/help explains how every part of the game works.

What is never for sale

Nothing that affects gameplay is for sale. Shinies are hunted, legendaries are found, mythicals are earned. If a server kid grinds harder than a server adult with a credit card, the kid wins.

Supporting the bot

Catch 'Em Cord is free and all of it stays free. If you want to help keep it running, you can support it.

A gold badge on your Trainer Card, and beside your name on the leaderboard.
Pick one of 10 colors for your Trainer Card, your catch cards and /pokemon.
Animated battles, with both Pokémon moving on the field.
Your Pokémon on its card, standing where you caught it.
A supporter role in the official Discord server.
Early looks at what I'm working on before it ships.

Nothing here changes how the game plays. No better catch odds, no extra spawns, no coins, no Pokémon. What supporters get is cosmetic.

Questions

Is Catch 'Em Cord free?

Yes. It is free to play and it stays free. Nothing that affects gameplay is sold.

Is it pay to win?

No. Nothing that affects gameplay is for sale. Shinies are hunted, legendaries are found, mythicals are earned. If a server kid grinds harder than a server adult with a credit card, the kid wins.

Are the battles real Pokémon battles?

Yes. Wild fights and player versus player both run on the Pokémon Showdown engine, so damage, abilities, held items, natures, EVs, IVs and PP all behave like the games.

How many Pokémon are in it?

Generations 1 to 5, all 649 of them, Kanto through Unova, plus alternate forms.

Can you get shinies and legendaries?

Yes. Every wild Pokémon has a shiny chance, and legendaries appear in the wild. Seven of them roam your server and have to be chased down. None of it is for sale.

How do you get a mythical Pokémon?

Through a Special Research chain at /specialresearch. Mythicals never appear in the wild, and they cannot be traded or sold.

Can you trade with people in other servers?

Trades happen between two people in the same server. The market is shared across every server, so a Pokémon listed in one can be bought from another.

What does a server admin have to do?

Run /config. It needs Manage Server, and the first run walks you through picking spawn channels and setting your timezone.