Going on a Pokemon adventure is more than just catching them all because there's a lot to Pokemon than just beating a wild animal. There's a hidden depth to the game and those who are new to the franchise may benefit from a crash course on the underside of Pokemon. These are tricks that can make your pokemon more useful, level up faster, and better than your friends'.

Did you know that a traded Pokemon earns extra experience? Though catching a Pikachu is not very impressive in Pokemon X and Y because Nintendo shoves the electric mouse to a Pokeball for you in the beginning, you can make it stronger if you swap it with your friend's. Traded Pokemon is called Outside Pokemon and it earns 1.5 times the experience as the ones you yourself caught. Another option is to trade with someone from a different country so it will gain 1.7 times faster.

There are a lot of tricks you can do to make catching a Shiny pokemon easier. Shiny Pokemon have alternate colours; some have minor shade changes only while others like Charizard can swap from red to black. Chain fishing, which means repeated and multiple fishing in the same spot, dramatically increases your chances while the Pokeradar (a tool earned after beating a game) can help increase the odds to 1/200 if used perfectly. The Masuda, named after the game designer who added the feature, gives you a 1/1365 chance of hatching a Shiny from an egg if both parents were caught in different countries.

Each pokemon you catch is given one of 25 different natures that determine the innate changes of their stats. Bold gives it lower attack but higher defense, while impish means it has lower speed and higher special defense. Different natures can change pokemon stats by 10% and it will have an effect once their stats reach 300.

Effort value points are important to training a pokemon. Besides the stats your Pokemon gets when it levels normally, it also has Effort Value (EV) points that can change by specifically fighting a specific type of Pokemon for specific points. Every time you battle a Pokemon that doesn't give your pocket monster the stats it needs, you're wasting your EV points. Though you can reset it, doing it right the first time is better.

Each pokemon is unique because of their own skills and stats, but of the 300 pokemon, 27 abilities have special out-of-battle effects that not all can obtain-- 16 Pokemon have Flame Body, 5 have Magnet Pull, and 8 have Sticky Hold.

There's a contagious virus that can strengthen your Pokemon but there's only a 1/21,845 chance you can find a wild Pokemon with the virus Pokerus. It spreads in parties and works into the veins to give a useful infection. The Pokerus is a mutualistic virus that benefits the host. Pokerus-infected pokemon earn EV points faster and your monsters will be immune to it - meaning you can't spread it but infection remains.

You can breed your Pokemon to make them perfect and it can make a difference. There are Individual Values (IVs or DVs), which are Pokemon genes. Each Pokemon has six stats upon birth and it's possible to make five of those perfect and though it can take several hours, the effects are worth it, especially if you're building a competitive Pokemon team.