If you're reading this, it's likely the case that you want to create new species for the game - either to expand our official 'dex, or to create your own Fakemon. There are a few steps to this, which we will outline below;
This likely isn't something that needs a great deal of explanation, but in the interest of completeness, it is important to consider what your new species is, how it functions, what is it's lore and ecological niche? Does it have any notable morphological features? These are important questions to think about before you begin in earnest.
Probably the first thing you should consider are the Base Stats. There's not really any right or wrong answer here as creatures are generally shuffled into informal "tiers" of play based on their total Base Stats. These are, however, a defining element of any species and strongly define it's natural playstyle.
Type is another core defining feature of any creature. There are the core types, but a campaign setting may feature additional typings such as the Nuclear type. Hopefully, the type should be clear already from your initial concept work, but feel free to ask for a second opinion if you're having a hard time deciding what Type your species should have.
These are your means of moving around the game environment. There're 6 of these by core; Overland, Burrow, Swim, Flight, Teleport, Threaded, but that's not to say you couldn't add others if appropriate. Movement Allowances are calculated from a creature's species Base Speed Stat. To find the standard Overland movement for a species, divide it's base speed stat by 10 and round up.
Other movement allowances will have their own twist on this depending on the creature. Threaded and Burrow tend to use the same calculation as a Overland for a Bipedal creature, but Quadrupedal Overland, Flight, Swim and Teleport are usually this function multiplied by 1.5x. Lumbering quadrupeds move at the same rate as Bipeds, while Rapid Bipeds move at the same rate as regular Quadrupeds.
Semi-Bipeds are an unusual case that multiply the standard movement rate by 1.25x.
Each species will need a unique Pokedex number if it's going to be used alongside our official 'dex entries (and is just good practice in general). Make sure to check in with the team if you're unsure if a range of dex numbers is available.
This value is used to determine how difficult your species is to catch. We recommend checking your species against a comparable official species for rarity/power scaling, and then assigning an appropriate value.
Skill baselines may seem like they should have a more codified structure but they are really quite straight forward. As a general rule of thumb, the value of a species skill baseline should generally be in the 25-35 range for first stagers' preferred skills, 35-45 for 2nd stagers and 50-65 for third stagers as a rule of thumb. As for what skills the creature should consider favoured skills? These should entirely be what make narrative and logical sense for the species. Compare with similar species if you need any ideas.
Diet doesn't do anything mechanically, really, but it obviously has roleplay implications so make sure to consider it!
A gauge of how tall a Creature is. Used in tandem with the Measurement Type to calculate a creature's size class. The value input here is for the average height of the species.
This value directly determines the weight class of an average specimen of this kind of creature.
Determines the ratio of Male to Female when generating members of this creature species.
Although used in a light touch manner for breeding, you can just enter Indeterminate here if this is not a factor for your design.
Abilities for the species should of course be thematically appropriate, but, the design intent here is to try to create two distinct archetypes of play within a given species to suit what they are naturally competent at.
It's important to make sure that anything intended to be an iconic and species defining ability should be placed in the Starting Abilities tier of ability, and may even warrant being the only pick at that level to make sure the creature in question has it (such as Rotom's Phantom Devicer or Mimikyu's Disguise).
Evolution should generally be guided by the base stat total of the new stage as to when the evolution becomes available. Some evolutions may be available earlier through an item or move known, which you can choose to set here, but in those cases you should have a fall-back level that may be higher than similar creatures that don't have an early evo condition.
For the most part, the move list of a creature should just be common sense in terms of it's scaling and spacing. Design a level up list of moves for your species as you feel it should be, and for the most part you should be able to rely on the trait based tutor lists to do the heavy lifting, but you can add specific tutorable moves to the species as you feel it needs it. For progression, of course start at appropriate weaker moves and then build up over the course of 80 levels or so towards stronger moves as you go.
Here is where you can build a Mega Evolution or form change for your species. This is quite involved and we recommend familiarising yourself with existing Mega Evolutions and form changes on core species, and the Heroic Transformation guide that works similarly.
So there are some crucial traits that need to be captured here in the design of a species. Firstly, whether the creature is a [Humanoid], [Pokemon], [Digimon] or other creature type, along with their modes of locomotion. Is the creature [Bipedal], [Quadrupedal]? Do they have wings, and so need the [Winged] trait? These design traits inform mechanical functions of the creature.
From there, pick out other morphological features such as [Horned] or [Tail] that will grant tutor lists to help alleviate design burden on the move list, before moving on to add narrative traits such as [Hydrophobic] or [Alolan]. Every species will be different so it's pretty impossible to add a comprehensive list of what is appropriate where.