What is Pokemon Showdown and How to Employ it

5min 4sec read

Although the main Pokémon games such as Pokémon Sword and Shield are the virtually common way to play and do Pokémon battles, there are a lot of time-consuming things you lot have to exercise earlier you can begin competitive battling, such as completing the game, catching and breeding your team, grooming the Pokémon, and finishing the team with items and moves (Nosotros have resources for doing all of these things at this link!

If you just want to play competitive battles, at that place'south an unofficial fanmade browser client called Pokémon Showdown. Pokémon Showdown is a simple battle simulator where it takes minutes to put together a squad and find an opponent to battle confronting-- as opposed to hours on cartridge. Many VGC players use Pokémon Showdown to put together ideas and exam them out before building their teams in game. Pokémon Showdown is useful just not necessary for competitive contesting, and it won't be required in this guide, so feel costless to skip this section if it doesn't involvement you. All of these steps will piece of work on a mobile browser besides-- the screen just might be a little unlike.

How to use Pokémon Showdown

This is the master screen of Pokémon Showdown where you have admission to all of its functionality. The place to showtime get started is the Teambuilder:

All of the teams that you make will live in the Teambuilder. Information technology's important to note that the teams are kept in local cookie storage . If you lot log in on more i computer, you won't have access to all your teams. This means that if you wipe the cookies on your estimator, yous will lose all your teams! We recommend keeping a backup once you go going, merely you don't have to worry about information technology for now.

Our teambuilder looks kind of empty correct now! Don't worry, if you keep using Pokémon Showdown, it volition fill up with all sorts of teams and creations.

Click on "New Team" to get started:

The first thing you're going to want to do is select a format in the Formats dropdown. At that place are lots of formats on Pokémon Showdown for Single and Double battles, but you're going to want to select the most recent VGC format, because most likely that is what you're going to desire to play. For me, that'southward VGC 2022, but for you it could be anything else. This will help set your Pokémon to the right level (level 50), but in the long run it doesn't matter if your Pokémon are level 100 or 50 in the sim-- information technology'll adjust automatically when y'all play.

Great! Now click on Add together Pokémon to add your starting time Pokémon.

I'm going to add a Pikachu! If you begin typing the name of the Pokémon y'all want in the "Pokémon" bar, yous can easily discover the Pokémon you're looking for.

Pokémon Showdown has the entirety of the Pokémon battling system included, and so it's easy to select different attributes for your Pokémon and try them out. I'm giving Pikachu the Focus Sash to hold, and having it learn Faux Out, Volt Switch, Electroweb, and Nuzzle. One time you've selected your moves, particular, and ability, click on the box highlighted beneath to adjust your stats.

At present you're going to add some EVs for Pikachu. Equally a general dominion, ignore the suggested spread-- they are meant for Single battles! Also, remember to give your Pokémon a Nature. If y'all don't know what I'thou talking nigh, check out this article.

In the Details pane, you tin adjust secondary or cosmetic attributes of your Pokémon, as well as whether or not they Gigantamax:

Finally, repeat this process for half-dozen Pokémon. Give your team a proper name (or leave it blank) and you'll be ready to get out there and battle!

Y'all're going to need a username. Click on "Cull proper name" in the upper right, and so enter your name. Now, navigate back to the Domicile page.

Y'all're going to desire to battle in the VGC tier, so brand sure to select the tier you're building for under Format in the upper left. Then click Find Battle to find an opponent to play against!

At present y'all'll be in a battle against a real person, starting from the Team Preview phase. You'll be able to select your Pokémon, moves, and targets-- you can even "cancel" a move if y'all misclick. There is besides an optional timer which your opponent may turn on-- if yous don't motion within the fourth dimension frame, your Pokémon will pick their upper left motility. You'll be able to talk to your opponent as well-- delight be kind!

If you lot would adopt not to be able to chat with your opponent, yous tin too tweak chat settings. I like to play with the All Battles-- Ignore Opponent setting.

That'south information technology for our guide to using Showdown-- bask your battles!

Showdown Replays

Pokémon Showdown likewise allows you to save your replays so that they can be viewed later. To relieve a replay, click "Upload Replay" after your battle is done. If yous set your battle to "individual", the replay will also be private-- only you tin view it! To view replays, go to replay.pokemonshowdown.com and search for a username. If y'all're logged in on an business relationship in the master Showdown window (play.pokemonshowdown.com), you'll be able to view your private replays. You tin can salve links to private replays and ship them to your friends, but they are not searchable.


Here's an example of a VGC replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7vgc2019ultraseries-925148230