-
Follow our Instagram!
-
Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
Pokémon Champions - releasing April 8, 2026
- Thread starter Codraroll
- Start date
Tbh the limited item selection seems fine to me. Scarf probably is the most needed choice item to widen up speed control options. Type boosting items already are some of the best items out there imo - and most other staple items seem to be in as well like the various berries, leftovers etc. Only option i am upset at being gone is Toxic Orb since it makes Gliscor pretty bad. There isn't even Roost added to its movepool as a consolation prize...
Life Orb and other choice items not being in is fine. I find these items to be some of the least flexible options typically - but also strangely difficult to contain. No vest is a bit lame tho.
Life Orb and other choice items not being in is fine. I find these items to be some of the least flexible options typically - but also strangely difficult to contain. No vest is a bit lame tho.
That’s interesting since Weather Ball is at best a 3HKO
252+ SpA Meganium-Mega Weather Ball (100 BP Fire) vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Charizard-Mega-Y in Sun: 45-53 (29.4 - 34.6%) -- 5.4% chance to 3HKO
With a +1 SpA being a chance to 2HKO and more often a 3HKO.
+1 252+ SpA Meganium-Mega Weather Ball (100 BP Fire) vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Charizard-Mega-Y in Sun: 67-79 (43.7 - 51.6%) -- 11.7% chance to 2HKO
This might suggest that Sun actually stacks with Mega Sol.
Do you remember if Charizard was switching into the attack?
I honestly think a lot of grief would've been spared for everyone if they had just called this game's current state an Open Beta because that may as well be what it is
Ah sorry; the Charizard was already below 50%.
I just realized - since the Air Balloon isn't included; because Shedinja has to get in eventually, they'll just not add the Air Balloon in to prevent Tera Electric Shedinja from running over the competition.
I am so baffled just seeing this right now, they didn’t even bug test this game did they? Just have the basically infinite monkeys play the game to find and log every bug in it
there's just so much weird with the release
i think the trailers run at full framerate which usually tpc/nintendo use official hardware, which is why i think the intended switch 2 patch just isnt out yet
the game released an hour before everyone thought it was going to
bugs
not really any content besides just multiplayer battles which is fine ig but feels strange imo
the way you send mons to and from champions feels clunky and a friend had to point out the button in home to me lol idk maybe its just my skill issue
clearly they're holding back a lot of content on purpose but they didnt tell anyone what would be at release to make sure expectations are measured, like, at all
"Hey, for the first month's Season it's for beginners to help get into the game!" type beat but it seems everyone who has consumed everything about competitive pokemon was drooling over it and was like what the fucj where is toxic orb
etc
So onto the actual game and not the bugs of it, I kinda realized I need to actually get a real team together and not just 4 special attackers, Dragonite (it has Extreme Speed so it's mixed it counts), and Wimsicott. It sucks to keep getting blocked from leaving the first tier from people who actually have real teams.
In other news, Ditto into dual Mega Chandelure. Fun idea, but turns out not that effective. You can easily lose to teams with no cohesion ran by a guy with no idea what they're doing.
In other news, Ditto into dual Mega Chandelure. Fun idea, but turns out not that effective. You can easily lose to teams with no cohesion ran by a guy with no idea what they're doing.
I legit thought the issue at first was the blastoise moveset lol not the Milo going back to near fullI must’ve watched that Haze video 8 times before I finally clicked what the issue was..
I get this game was always gonna have bugs upon release but.. lol! lmao even!
absolutely no idea how good it is but the clips of no guard entrainment hawlucha + ohko move partner are making me laugh so hard
the fastest ohko move user I can think of is dugtrio? most of the clips Im seeing are using either the ice cream or excadrill
Actually since Dugtrio is faster than Hawlucha, this gimmick strategy wouldn’t work. Dugtrio would use Fissure before Entrainment was used.
Personal impression after playing for most of the evening and making just barely off Ultra Ball tier.
With the premise I have never actually dabbled into VGC format, I follow it but never actually got into *playing* the game due to how much of a hassle setting up teams was.
- I have to agree the UI is kinda clunky. It's not *terrible* but doesn't feel snappy at all and reminds me a lot of early SV. However, I didn't experience any slowdown in battle and that's honestly what matters.
- It cannot be understated how absolutely comfy it is to team build. Just move the sliders, click the moves, done.
- I aknowledge getting multiple teams may be a chore for people without the games to transfer the Pokemon from. But i'll say, this is ok, because let's be realistic if you expected TPCI to just give everyone a way to play VGC completely for free and without owning the game (so at a massive monetary loss) without a catch, that's on you.
- However to follow on the above, I don't feel the game is P2W at all. The battle pass is honestly a joke, you get so many VPs by just... playing the game, you even get VPs by losing and realistically unless you're really changing all your team every other match you get way more than you need (expecially once you're done with the "initial spending" to acquire all the mega stones and items)
- The current lack of items honestly feels fine. Going from the massive powercreep of SV to this much lower power format is refreshing. Heck i've ran focus sash Sneaseler and it hasnt procced once. I do wish the roster had a bit more though. At least all the actual megas.
- I'll be honest I don't know where people find "all those bugs". I havent ran into a single one, and i've been watching streamers during work for the entire day and they havent run into anything yet. Things like the Blastoise shenenigans earlier look to me more like desyncs than actual bugs honestly. The only bug i've seen happen is the whole issue with the mega evolution order which, fair, is a problem.
- I'm impressed by the fact the servers didn't explode on launch day. I myself had a bit of lag using Home understandably, but Champions itself never crashed or lagged at all, neither for me nor for the streamers I was watching.
Bonus:
- Mega Meganium has been a disappointment so far, I'm not the best teambuilder ever so I may have missed something but it just doesn't feel it does anything when I bring it. Please someone find me how to use it, nao :(
Personal verdict, I'm saddened by how overblown the hate for the game is on socials. I don't think it deserves it.
It's not *perfect* by any stretch, but people have been asking for an actual "proper pokemon battle sim" for *ages* and this is way more than people could have dreamed they'd get from TPCI, expecially considering this is not a "done and dusted" game like the mainline ones, this one can and will get patches, so any issue it can have on launch should be fixed, hopefully by the time Worlds come around.
I do personally suspect that once more the game was rushed to get out before it was *completely* ready in order to meet deadlines, but this time I'm fine with allowing it. I think they don't want a repeat of the 2024 worlds, where they were played on a completely new regulation that hadnt been out yet for people to try for more than a couple weeks and with no actual events.
Releasing the game earlier gives them time to polish whatever bug is left, + actually lets the more involved players playtest, teambuild and actually have in person tournaments with the regulation that will be at worlds.
With the premise I have never actually dabbled into VGC format, I follow it but never actually got into *playing* the game due to how much of a hassle setting up teams was.
- I have to agree the UI is kinda clunky. It's not *terrible* but doesn't feel snappy at all and reminds me a lot of early SV. However, I didn't experience any slowdown in battle and that's honestly what matters.
- It cannot be understated how absolutely comfy it is to team build. Just move the sliders, click the moves, done.
- I aknowledge getting multiple teams may be a chore for people without the games to transfer the Pokemon from. But i'll say, this is ok, because let's be realistic if you expected TPCI to just give everyone a way to play VGC completely for free and without owning the game (so at a massive monetary loss) without a catch, that's on you.
- However to follow on the above, I don't feel the game is P2W at all. The battle pass is honestly a joke, you get so many VPs by just... playing the game, you even get VPs by losing and realistically unless you're really changing all your team every other match you get way more than you need (expecially once you're done with the "initial spending" to acquire all the mega stones and items)
- The current lack of items honestly feels fine. Going from the massive powercreep of SV to this much lower power format is refreshing. Heck i've ran focus sash Sneaseler and it hasnt procced once. I do wish the roster had a bit more though. At least all the actual megas.
- I'll be honest I don't know where people find "all those bugs". I havent ran into a single one, and i've been watching streamers during work for the entire day and they havent run into anything yet. Things like the Blastoise shenenigans earlier look to me more like desyncs than actual bugs honestly. The only bug i've seen happen is the whole issue with the mega evolution order which, fair, is a problem.
- I'm impressed by the fact the servers didn't explode on launch day. I myself had a bit of lag using Home understandably, but Champions itself never crashed or lagged at all, neither for me nor for the streamers I was watching.
Bonus:
- Mega Meganium has been a disappointment so far, I'm not the best teambuilder ever so I may have missed something but it just doesn't feel it does anything when I bring it. Please someone find me how to use it, nao :(
Personal verdict, I'm saddened by how overblown the hate for the game is on socials. I don't think it deserves it.
It's not *perfect* by any stretch, but people have been asking for an actual "proper pokemon battle sim" for *ages* and this is way more than people could have dreamed they'd get from TPCI, expecially considering this is not a "done and dusted" game like the mainline ones, this one can and will get patches, so any issue it can have on launch should be fixed, hopefully by the time Worlds come around.
I do personally suspect that once more the game was rushed to get out before it was *completely* ready in order to meet deadlines, but this time I'm fine with allowing it. I think they don't want a repeat of the 2024 worlds, where they were played on a completely new regulation that hadnt been out yet for people to try for more than a couple weeks and with no actual events.
Releasing the game earlier gives them time to polish whatever bug is left, + actually lets the more involved players playtest, teambuild and actually have in person tournaments with the regulation that will be at worlds.
this reflects a lot of my experience tbh and i feel like an insane person for having fun and basically not having any issues
i really think that they needed to make it clear this is a beta test, i basically expected that and i think the scale of disappointment is a direct curve with that
ikr it feels decent. im not high up but im playing with just native champs mons, mgeng feels good i run swave for lowladder sylveon with sball for opp gengar. mdnite felt horrific
mega dragonite is on my team as a second mega slot bc its so good into rain/sun and improves that matchup a lot
helping hand + draco melts hp bars and im running a tailwind team so it gets to keep clicking buttons
One curious thing that I almost see as a positive for the lack of items is that it feels viable to run 2 or even 3 megas on the team. Expecially for pokemon that don't really need to run a specific item (at least, not the available ones anyway) and you can be ok bringing and not mega evolving.
im running mega lop + mega dnite
you bring mega lop into mega froslass/mimikyu/sand/archaludon rain as a guaranteed fake out and just generally strong close combat
i run mega dnite into sun/some rain/teams where fighting is just kinda bad
i have never played vg on cart, only on ps so i have no home mons but a friend is giving me some soon on sunday
I’ve been perusing the Gameplay Guides and the very last entry in the Other section reveals an Offline Competition mode that you can access from the title screen. It requires an Entry ID, however, so it’s definitely not a general workaround the online requirement for matches. Could it maybe be used by tournament organizers for local events, though? That could alleviate the concern of needing shops and such to have decent internet to support enough players.
I also read through some of the Linking to HOME entries and it looks like the only aspect of a Pokémon that will be updated each time it visits Champions are Ribbons and Marks, so that any new ones earned since their last visit will be available as titles to use. Unfortunately, it seems that while Pokémon can earn the Rank Master title in Champions if they didn’t already have the Ribbon in HOME, it won’t add the Ribbon in HOME when they return from Champions after earning the title there.
I also read through some of the Linking to HOME entries and it looks like the only aspect of a Pokémon that will be updated each time it visits Champions are Ribbons and Marks, so that any new ones earned since their last visit will be available as titles to use. Unfortunately, it seems that while Pokémon can earn the Rank Master title in Champions if they didn’t already have the Ribbon in HOME, it won’t add the Ribbon in HOME when they return from Champions after earning the title there.
the animation/effect for using hyper beam on something is excellent
garchomp looks like its getting erased
garchomp looks like its getting erased
pretty quickly got myself up through ultra ball with a mega skarm team. overall the game seems.. fine? the monetization is a bit weird but it seems like it's basically just "pay a $5 subscription to never have to worry about box space again", and a battle pass that's basically 4 cosmetics that you can complete with a single weekend of playing. i don't know that the battle pass has any real value, but that's fine. mega skarm functioning as basically a mini lugia has been kinda cool, and Stalwart has mattered multiple times against Sinistcha/Volcarona. Not sure how good it will be once a meta establishes - it's got some pretty rough matchups - but having a huge attack stat, a pivot between sturdy or fast tailwind, and great bulk has worked out pretty well. i think running it alongside something that can take advantage of Incin/Arcanine badly wanting to switch into it is essential, Empoleon and special Arcanine have been fantastic as a pairing, but it's a day 1 metagame so it really doesn't mean anything.
the gacha pull mechanic is a bit weird, but i get the push is "this is an alternative to actually owning the main series games", and in that i think it's fine. it's really obvious they'd prefer you just buy the main series games.
the UI is a bit jank, and i foresee the box becoming a mess to deal with in the future for anyone who builds even a moderate amount of teams.
home connection has been painless for me to use. the offline mode being in has alleviated my worries about locals as well.
there's weird stuff with the frame rate. wasn't the game supposed to get a day 1 patch or something?
the economy seems.. fine. they definitely want to push you to buy the main series games, but i don't really see that as a problem. that's always kinda been the price of entry for vgc. i keep accidentally ending up with thousands of VP again. i like that they still give you points for losses as well.
i haven't really encountered any of the weird jank interactions people seem to be running into, thankfully, so I can't really comment on those. it's neat how bulky this metagame is with such minimal damage boosting options, and i kinda like it as a first metagame.
obligatory 'i am super disappointed there's no customizable private battle options" though. i'll miss little cup.
the gacha pull mechanic is a bit weird, but i get the push is "this is an alternative to actually owning the main series games", and in that i think it's fine. it's really obvious they'd prefer you just buy the main series games.
the UI is a bit jank, and i foresee the box becoming a mess to deal with in the future for anyone who builds even a moderate amount of teams.
home connection has been painless for me to use. the offline mode being in has alleviated my worries about locals as well.
there's weird stuff with the frame rate. wasn't the game supposed to get a day 1 patch or something?
the economy seems.. fine. they definitely want to push you to buy the main series games, but i don't really see that as a problem. that's always kinda been the price of entry for vgc. i keep accidentally ending up with thousands of VP again. i like that they still give you points for losses as well.
i haven't really encountered any of the weird jank interactions people seem to be running into, thankfully, so I can't really comment on those. it's neat how bulky this metagame is with such minimal damage boosting options, and i kinda like it as a first metagame.
obligatory 'i am super disappointed there's no customizable private battle options" though. i'll miss little cup.
Last edited: