As promised, here is a simplified version of the battle post, that explains how to get yourself started with battling using the debug version of the system.

In order to battle on VDex, you'll need two things: A Pokémon, and some Blank Cards.

This guide attempts to cover, step-by-step, what you need to do to get started. Once you do it a few times, it should become pretty instinctive.

Getting a Pokémon

Almost any Pokémon can be entered in battle once they know some moves. The exceptions to this are Pokémon in Cherish Balls - you can't battle or learn moves with those. So this part is fairly straightforward - get a Pokémon you want to use in battle.

Getting Blank Cards

Next you'll need some Blank Cards. You'll want at least one to get yourself started.

There is only one way to get Blank Cards currently. You need to speak to an NPC, Regirock, and give him MooMoo Milk.

MooMoo Milk can be purchased for $500 at the route just north of Solaceon Town in Sinnoh. Buy a few there.

Each time you give Regirock MooMoo Milk, there is a chance he'll give you one or more Blank Cards. After you give him five MooMoo Milk he will always give you the cards. Below are the chances and number of cards you can get:

* 1 Milk: 10% chance of getting 1 Blank Card
* 2 Milk: 35% chance of getting 1-2 Blank Cards
* 3 Milk: 60% chance of getting 1-3 Blank Cards
* 4 Milk: 85% chance of getting 1-4 Blank Cards
* 5 Milk: 100% chance of getting 1-5 Blank Cards

After he gives you the card(s) the milk counter will reset.

Once you have a few cards, you can proceed to the next step - make them into Pokémon Cards.

Getting Pokémon Cards

There are two ways to obtain Pokémon Cards.

Method #1

The quickest way is to speak to an NPC named Marie, and show her one of the Pokémon in your party. She will take one Blank Card and give you a card for the Pokémon you showed her. So if you have a Rattata in your party and show it to her, you'll get 1 Rattata Card.

Each Pokémon can only model for Marie once. Trading does not reset this. Adoption, however, does - so all Pokémon you get from the Adoption Corner are able to model for Marie.

Method #2

The other way is to put a Smeargle in the first slot of your party while you have some Blank Cards in your bag. This makes the Blank Card icon appear just below your Poké Ball selection when you encounter wild Pokémon in the map. Clicking the icon will use up one Blank Card and give you a card for the Pokémon you used it on.

For instance, you go to Route 1 in Kanto and find a Pidgey. If you use your Blank Card on the Pidgey, it'll be turned into 1 Pidgey Card. The success rate is 100%.

Blank Cards only work on Pokémon that have HG/SS or B/W sprites. They can't be used on retro sprites. They will not work on event Pokémon like Porygon and legendary Pokémon, and will not work on roamers. The only way to get those cards is to catch these Pokémon and then use Marie to get a card.

Missingno. cannot be turned into a card.

Which Pokémon Cards to Choose

The most important thing you need to know about Pokémon Cards is that they can teach moves that the Pokémon in the card can learn through level up in the games.

So, for instance, Pidgey Cards can be used to teach any Pokémon any of the moves Pidgey knows. Obviously it'll be more straightforward to use Pidgey Cards to teach your Pidgey a move, but you can use other Pokémon Cards too.

It's important to note that a Pokémon can only learn moves that it's able to learn through level up in the games. So you can't use a Pidgey Card to teach Magikarp Gust, because Magikarp can't learn Gust. You can, however, use a Pidgey Card to teach Magikarp Tackle.

Basically, you want cards of Pokémon which know the moves you want your Pokémon to learn. You can only teach your Pokémon the moves it's able to learn through level up in the games.

Moves learned via TM, HM, Move Tutor and breeding in the games can't be learned currently.

The movesets used on VDex are the ones from Generation V (Black/White), so cards can teach moves Pokémon in them know in those games.

You can check this page to see which cards can teach the move you want. Click the Pokémon you want to teach a move to, then the move you want to teach. A list will come up with all the cards that can teach the move.

How Many Pokémon Cards You'll Need

First, you need to know the level at which the Pokémon in the card learns the move you want to teach. Magikarp learns Tackle at level 15, so if you want to use a Magikarp Card to teach Tackle to a Pokémon, the level is 15.

Knowing this, you'll need (level)/20 cards, rounded up.

So divide the level by 20, and round the result up. That's how many of that card it takes to teach a Pokémon that move.

Following our example, it takes 1 Magikarp Card to teach Tackle - 15 divided by 20 is 0.75, which rounded up is 1. It takes 2 Magikarp Cards to teach Flail - Magikarp learns Flail at level 30, and 30 divided by 20 is 1.5, which rounded up is 2.

You can check this page for a quick way to tell how many cards you'll need. Click the Pokémon you want to teach a move to, then the move you want to teach. A list will come up with all the cards that can teach the move, and how many of each you'll need.

Other Things To Know

The Pokémon learning the move must, as mentioned previously, be able to learn it through level up in the games. The movesets used were the ones from Pokémon Black and White, and the site used to collect data was veekun. If you need to check which moves your Pokémon can learn (or which moves a card can teach) please check this page. Click the Pokémon you want to teach a move to, then the move you want to teach. A list will come up with all the cards that can teach the move, and how many of each you'll need.

Lastly, the Pokémon learning the move must be at a high enough level to do so. If a Pokémon only learns Flail at level 40, even if you have 2 Magikarp Cards the option to teach Flail will not appear if your Pokémon is below level 40.

Teaching Moves

Once you're set, you need to speak with the NPC Regigigas. Select a Pokémon to learn a move, and a list of moves that your Pokémon can be taught currently will appear. If you select a move, you'll be prompted to choose which card(s) you want to use to teach it. After confirming, Regigigas will teach your Pokémon the selected move.

You need to wait 60 seconds to get Regigigas to teach another move, due to technical restrictions.

At the moment each Pokémon can learn up to 4 moves.

Deleting Moves

If you want to learn a new move but already have 4 moves, you need to delete an old move to make room. To do this you must talk to yet another NPC, Regice. Select the move to delete and confirm, and the move will be gone.

Finally! Battle!

Once you have at least one Pokémon in your party that knows at least one move, you can speak to the NPC Registeel to start a random battle. The opponent is randomly chosen to match the power level of your Pokémon, and has a random moveset.

Winning a battle gets your Pokémon some experience. In addition, every battle you win gives you 1 Battle Point (BP).

Battle Points

BP can be exchanged with Registeel for prizes. Currently, the only prize you can get is MooMoo Milk, which costs 2 BP. This means that winning battles makes it easier for you to get MooMoo Milk to give to Regirock and, in turn, get more Blank Cards.

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That's the gist of the process. Get cards of Pokémon that know the move you want to teach, and the rest is fairly straightforward. Make sure you check veekun for movesets, and that you check only the moves that can be learned through level up.

Important! Not all the moves are available on VDex. A list of available moves is here.

Where do I view my currently owned cards?

You can view them here.

Quicklinks
CardDex - quickly check which moves a Pokémon can learn and which cards you'll need to teach it
Regirock - get Blank Cards in exchange for MooMoo Milk
Marie - extract Pokémon Cards from your Pokémon
Regigigas - teach moves
Regice - delete moves
Registeel - enter a battle; redeem BP prizes
Detailed Guide - tl;dr version of this one
Latest Information on the battle system

Sorry if this doesnt belong here, but will more prizes be added?

Great and simple guide!

Yes, they will be added eventually.

Thanks for the simple guide! *bookmarks*

Edit: Ah.. that level thing explains what confused me so much earlier with some of the moves I was trying to teach. I've got to start building my card collection now.

You're great. ❤ Hopefully, this step-by-step guide will look more inviting to people who haven't got around to trying out the battle system yet.

AWESOME! Thanks for this, I know I need it!

Thanks for the guide!

Thank you~! This page is really convenient.

The guide looks really helpful & convenient! :>

I was wondering if it'd be possible to add quicklinks to the different NPCs in the post (like in the card battle debug post)? Also, maybe it'd be nice to have a link to the card battle debug post where it was posted in full, for those who want more/extra information? And one thing I found myself wondering about (although it was answered when reading further) was which movesets were being used under the "Which Pokémon Cards to Choose" portion. It might just be me, but perhaps it'd be helpful to state that the B/W movesets are being used in there too?

I just consider cards to be "worth" twenty levels. So two Gible cards can teach Gible's moves up to level forty. That way I don't have to deal with division, heh.

Sure, I'll add extra quicklinks and the other info too. o/

Thank you for the guide!

Though uh... I keep trying to make Deino cards and getting the "But it failed!" Message. Does it go by catch rate or something? I know you said with Pidgey it's 100% but Deino is significantly more difficult to catch. D:

Edit: owait, checked the longer one. Catch rate with a Pokeball. Might be a good idea to add that to the post! I was confused, lol.

What a convenient little guide! Very useful~
Thanks for writing it Shiro!

Thanks for the helpful guide! Too bad I won't get time test it all out until after work.

Huzzah! The more guides we have, the more people will want to try! It really is a great system for leveling!

OH, thanks for the guide! but where are the pictures /punched

I'm used to battles already, but I hope this'll come in handy for people who want to get into the battling system.

Thanks for the simplified guide :D

Am I the only one that noticed the "Registeel" link leads to Regigigas instead? haha

Oops, fixing the link.

It should have worked with Deino at 100%, I'm not sure why it didn't. Maybe FTP crapped out and didn't save the file when I tried to update it? I recently changed it to 100% success, so hm. :c