A trainer’s ID number is one of the most widely used but most overlooked section of a trainer’s card. When a trainer receives a Pokedex, it becomes linked with their personal trainer identification number. This number also coincides with the digital marker encoded into a Pokemon upon capture, which then link to the Pokedex and their Storage System subscription. With this connection, trainers are able to look through their party’s status, moves, and general history through their Pokedex as well as the PC. While anyone can scan a Pokemon with their Pokedex for basic information, only linking said Pokemon with their personal ID will completely register it’s information and personal data (nature, move set, ect). While the IDs of all owners are encoded into a Pokemon for tracking and legal reasons, only the most recent ID allows access into the Pokemon’s statistics. This encoded ID also prevents other Poke balls from capturing an already captured Pokemon.
Trainers that do not have a Pokedex are significantly disadvantaged in terms of Pokemon rearing. While modern advancements in mobile technology allow for third party applications to link in with a trainer’s ID and display Pokemon information, in the early history of Pokemon Trainers, most people had to hike themselves all the way to a Pokemon Center in order to display concrete information and numbers on a Pokemon’s health and ‘stats’. Any and all information about a Pokemon (wild or owned) had to be taken by hand.
Older trainers who traveled before the time of Pokedex believe that the new stat system of rating a Pokemon’s strength undermines the value of bonding with one’s own Pokemon and gauging their strengths based on partnership and practice. The modernization of Pokemon Training has lead to an increase of illegal Pokemon breeding, the use of performance enhancing drugs, Pokemon abandonment and theft.