Gameplay guide
Everything you can do from the MonsterMesh Terminal (Tools → MonsterMesh Terminal in the Meshtastic UI). Type help for the game commands and help sys for the system commands.
Almost everything here needs a party loaded from your save file. Open a ROM in the browser at least once so MonsterMesh can read your .sav; you’ll get no party loaded — load a SAV first until it has one.
Your party
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
party |
Lists your six monsters from the save: nickname, level, HP |
The party is read straight out of Game Boy SRAM, so nicknames, levels, and movesets match your real save.
Battling basics
When a battle starts you act by choosing a move; the move keys are shown in the battle panel and you follow the on-screen prompts. The battle math is a faithful Generation-1 engine — type effectiveness, STAB, crits, and stat stages all apply. See BATTLE_ENGINE.md.
Battle XP is credited per monster and written back into your .sav after the fight (Gen-1 EXP curve), with in-battle level-ups, so wins make real progress.
The Legend of Charizard RPG
“Legend of Charizard” (LoC) is the persistent door-game RPG layer. State (badges, news, run counters) lives in /monstermesh/lord.dat and resets daily at a fixed local hour, so things like the once-a-day explore run refresh each morning.
🥊 Gyms
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
gym |
Show the local Kanto gym ladder and which badges you hold |
gym fight <N> |
Challenge gym N |
Gyms unlock in order — you must clear earlier gyms before later ones (you’ll get gym is locked — clear earlier gyms first otherwise). Each gym is a gauntlet of trainers ending in the leader; beat the leader to earn the badge.
- Gyms 1–8 are the eight Kanto-style gyms (rosters in
LordGyms.cpp). - Gym 9 is the Indigo Plateau — the Elite Four plus the Champion, run as a single gauntlet (
LordE4.cpp).
🌿 Explore
explore starts a wild-encounter run on a nearby route (encounter pools in LordRoutes.cpp). It’s a once-per-day activity — the daily reset refreshes it. It’s the steady way to grind your team a little each day.
🔁 New Game+
Once you’ve cleared the whole league (all badges + the Indigo Plateau), the circuit enters New Game+: the gyms and Elite Four scale up in level for another, harder loop. Your badges carry over per NG+ tier.
📰 Progress views
| Command | Shows |
|---|---|
news |
A short ring of recent notable events (badges won, milestones) |
achievements |
Your earned daycare achievements |
daycare |
Daycare status and the neighbor monsters in range |
Battling other trainers
These use the mesh and need at least one other MonsterMesh T-Deck in LoRa range. See MULTIPLAYER.md for the protocols.
| Command | Mode |
|---|---|
fight |
Local mirror match — an instant CPU battle against a snapshot of a nearby trainer’s party. No coordination needed. |
mmg |
Discover MonsterMesh Gyms — parties other players are hosting as gyms on the mesh. |
mmg fight <N> |
Challenge a discovered MM gym’s five-trainer ladder. |
mmb |
List the peers currently online and available to battle. |
mmb <peer> |
Live PvP — send a real battle challenge to a peer. They accept, and you fight head-to-head over the radio. |
When you receive a live mmb challenge, you’ll be prompted to accept or decline.
System commands
help sys lists them:
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
version |
Print the firmware build string |
echo <text> |
Echo text back (handy for testing the terminal) |
clear |
Wipe the terminal scrollback |
beacon |
Immediately broadcast your presence beacon (daycare + battle discovery) instead of waiting for the periodic one — useful right before challenging someone |
The daycare runs whether you play or not
You don’t have to do anything for the daycare — when you’re not in a battle or a run, your party is automatically checked in and socializing with monsters on nearby nodes, earning a little XP that gets written back to your save. Type daycare to see what’s been happening. Full details in DAYCARE.md.