How to Play Cobblemon

Cobblemon is the core Pokemon mod that powers Pokecade. It integrates Pokemon into Minecraft's open world using a design philosophy inspired by Pokemon Legends: Arceus — Pokemon roam the overworld naturally, battles allow free movement, and evolution is always manual.

Getting Started

When you first join, press M to open the starter selection screen and choose a starter Pokemon from Generations 1–9. Press R to send out your Pokemon into the world. Your Pokemon follows you around and can sit on your shoulder (small Pokemon only).

Core Controls

Key	Action
M	Open Pokemon menu / starter selection
R	Send out or recall your lead Pokemon
Right-click	Throw a Poke Ball at a wild Pokemon (with ball in hotbar)
Right-click Pokemon	Interact / start battle
V	Toggle summary screen

The Gameplay Loop

Explore biomes to find Pokemon. Different biomes spawn different species — deserts have Ground and Fire types, oceans have Water types, caves have Rock and Dark types, snowy biomes have Ice types, and so on.

Catch Pokemon either by throwing Poke Balls directly at wild Pokemon (no battle required) or by weakening them in battle first and then using the Catch option from the battle menu. Lowering HP and inflicting status conditions (sleep, paralysis) increases catch rates, following the same formulas as mainline Pokemon games.

Battle wild Pokemon and other players using a turn-based system powered by the Pokemon Showdown engine. This means battles are mechanically accurate to the mainline games — type effectiveness, abilities, held items, STAB, critical hits, stat stages, weather, terrain, and all standard mechanics apply. Battle options are Fight (choose from 4 moves), Switch, Catch (wild only), and Run. You can physically walk away from a wild battle to flee, Legends: Arceus-style.

Train your team through leveling, EV training, nature optimization, and move management.

Breed Pokemon using Ranch Blocks to produce eggs with inherited stats and moves.

Manage your team with a party of 6 and PC storage (30 boxes of 30 Pokemon each). Craft a PC block ($20,000 in-game) or find one at spawn.

Crafting Essentials

• Poke Balls: Crafted from colored apricorns (grow on trees in the world) + metal ingots. There are 48 ball types with different catch rate multipliers. Basic balls use copper ingots, better balls use iron/gold/diamond. Ultra Balls give 2x catch rate, Master Balls (nether star + shulker shells + netherite) guarantee capture.
• Healing Machine: Craft and place in your base, then right-click to heal your entire party. Costs $25,000 from the shop.
• Pasture Block: An outdoor alternative to PC storage where Pokemon roam visibly. $20,000 from the shop.
• Pokedex: Craftable item (3 iron ingots + 1 copper ingot + 2 apricorns + Pokedex Screen). Hold it and right-click near Pokemon to scan them. Catching registers full data. Available in 7 color variants.

Evolution

Evolution is never automatic in Cobblemon. When a Pokemon meets its evolution conditions, a chat message says "[Pokemon] seems ready to evolve!" You then open the Pokemon's menu and manually select "Evolve." This lets you delay evolution to learn pre-evolution-exclusive moves.

Evolution methods include: level-up, evolution stones, trading (to another player, some require held items), friendship, time of day (Minecraft day/night cycle), held items consumed on level-up, location-based (specific biomes), and special conditions (stat comparisons, walk distance, etc.).

Key Differences from Pixelmon

Cobblemon uses blocky Minecraft-native art, runs on Fabric (not Forge), is lighter on performance, and integrates Pokemon into the Minecraft experience rather than replacing it. Cobblemon currently has around 851 fully-implemented Pokemon across all nine generations. It uses the Pokemon Showdown engine for mechanically accurate battles. Pokemon can be caught without battling by direct ball throws, and the mod emphasizes exploration and discovery over menu-driven RPG systems.