How do stats work?

What are all of the basic stats of my Pokémon and what do they mean?

Please specify if an item is version specific (e.g. not present in Pokémon Blue but perhaps is present in Diamond).

Solution 1:

Shown traits

Attack - Increases damage done by physical attacks.

Defense - Amount of damage reduction from physical attacks.

Special Attack - Increases damage done by special attacks.

Special defense - Amount of damage reduction from special attacks.

What determines whether a move is physical or special changed in generation IV. Before Generation IV this was determined by the type of move. For example, both wing attack and gust are flying. Both are also marked as physical because of this. In generations IV and V however, moves are marked physical or special based on the move itself, not its type. This makes more sense now that gust is special and wing attack would be physical.

Speed - The pokemon with the highest speed takes the first turn in a battle

HP - Your pokemon's total hit points, the amount of damage it can take before fainting.

Nature is something you can see and affects all stats depending on which nature a Pokemon has

EV's or Effort Values is a hidden vlaue that also affects Pokemon's stats. There's so much on this topic so it's better to just read the Bulbapedia page for yourself.

IV's or Individual Values are only used by the game to determine the stats of the Pokemon (e.g. when given an egg, found in the wild, or given by an NPC). IV's also determine whether the Pokemon is shiny or not in every generation other than the first.

The only hidden stats are Accurracy and Evasion. Both are explained here with mathematic formulas