Each team begins with up to two members, and these members can only be made up on Basic and First Stage Pokémon, as well as Babies. The ability to evolve will be unlocked with plot progression.

Baby Pokémon have the ability to evolve, but not breed. Examples include Riolu, Munchlax and Cleffa. This does not include Eggs- for story purposes, you cannot start with an Egg.

Basic Pokémon includes any Pokémon who is the first in their evolution chain, as well as the evolved forms of Baby Pokémon. Think of Pokémon like Bulbasaur, Sneasel and Lucario. Single-stage Pokémon, such as Minor and Skarmory, are considered Basic.

First Stage Pokémon are Pokémon are Pokémon who follow Basic Pokémon in their evolution line. Examples include Ivysaur and Weavile. Please note that if one of your starting characters is a First Stage, their team member must be Basic or Baby- you cannot begin with two First Stage Pokémon in the same team.

If these classifications seem confusing, refer to a Pokémon's Bulbapedia or Serebii page- they often outline what stage a Pokémon is!

Every Pokémon can start with up to four moves, taken from anywhere in their movepool. Note that once finalized, moves cannot be swapped or change without the appropriate item to do so. There are a couple of exceptions:

. Pikachu cannot have any of the moves from Cosplay Pikachu. Nor can it have Surf or Fly.

. Rotom's form-specific move can only be used by the form in question.

. Moves learned via breeding most correlate to an actual parent. You can't have a moveset of 4 moves from 4 different theoretical parents.

. Hidden Power cannot be learned by any Pokémon. 

Abilties follow a similar format- you can use any Ability available to the Pokémon, Hidden or otherwise. This Ability must remain static- an Ability-changing item will become available during the story. A couple of exceptions:

. Greninja cannot know Battle Bond.

. Abilities from a Mega Evolved Pokémon cannot be used by that Pokémon until Mega Evolution is unlocked.

You are invited to be creative with how you dress your characters, as long as the setting is considered. Esprit Hall takes aesthetic cues from fantasy rural villages- a hoodie and sneakers is in poor taste, no? Whilst the village has access to electricity, modern inventions such as TVs and phones do not exist, nor do the accessories that depend on these items.

 Your accessories cannot provide any advantages in combat- buffing items will be introduced as rewards during story progression. Your clothing is solely for aesthetics at this time.

 Each Troupe member is expected to wear one of three Troupe identifiers; a bandana, bow or button in their Troupe's colour. That's red for Actors, yellow for Writers, and green for Technics.

High-ranking Troupe members, AKA the Top Stars, are identified by their Top Star symbol. This is a specific icon that appears somewhere on the character. Top Star ranking is a late-game reward, and is given to players accordingly. You may not impalement the Top Star icon on a character without explicit authorisation.