Pokémon Champions - releasing April 8, 2026

Esserise said:
I’m not really surprised, per se. More just disappointed and a little confused if Champions really warrants it. Obviously the game has to make money somehow, but UNITE, TCG Pocket, hell even GO are all very much their own self-contained, standalone experiences, whereas Champions seems first and foremost to be just a home base for official competitive battles extending out from the main series. Anyone who has a mainline game to use as a system for preparing their Pokémon basically doesn’t have to rely on VP at all except for obtaining items and cosmetics, whereas anyone looking to try Champions by itself has a much steeper climb ahead of them in order to get a functioning team going in the first place. I just don’t really get why you’d do that when you could instead make it easier for interested non-mainline players to become operational within Champions.
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Conceptually I understand. You do want to funnel them into the main line games still. Everything must be a bridge game.


But the way it's done does feel very aggressive in a way it didn't need to be. Like if you were to itemize everything I feel you could half most of it.
I would at least expect that the "early life" of a given newbie will probably be given a bunch of free curencies (multiple because there's like 4 of them between VP and tickets) because that's how most of these F2P games go but also like. Damn really? 2k a mega stone? 2500 to buy a Pokemon? That, judging by the Scizor, may not even be good and require a bunch of extra investment that is nickle & diming you the entire way? Even if you own the mainline games there's going to be a lot of annoying costs.


I have a thought that you'll get more VP as you climb ranks, but that's a pretty rich get richer scheme...
 
Quick reminder before the p2w brigade comes in: note that we still need to have some answers to questions before we can truly judge if the monetization is predatory or not. it will likely have daily and weekly missions as well as rewards to help earn more points and coupons, just as many other games before it.
 
Anyway did anyone else notice that the Charizardite Y wasn't available in the store? The layout of the mega stones didn't make much sense to me but it did put the kanto starters together, so showing X but not Y felt a bit odd. Maybe that'll be on the second battle pass
 
Do we think any nations are gonna enforce changes to the costs? I know we have had victories in the past against loot boxes and similar gambling in games, and I would imagine a children’s game franchise that has costs posted all over probably wouldn’t be taken too well. Or because it’s Nintendo they don’t wanna touch the courts.
 
t44Torkoal said:
Feraligatr-Mega @ Feraligite
Ability: Dragonize
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Liquidation
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake

Now that mega gatr's ability was revealed, I think this would be the set people would run
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I think jolly is preferred considering it didn’t even get a boost to speed unless champions fixes it lol, also body slam is nice so you don’t waste the bulk.

Also mega Meganium would do great in rain, you get the benefits of reduced fire damage and all the sun benefits.
 
Sulfurian said:
Do we think any nations are gonna enforce changes to the costs? I know we have had victories in the past against loot boxes and similar gambling in games, and I would imagine a children’s game franchise that has costs posted all over probably wouldn’t be taken too well. Or because it’s Nintendo they don’t wanna touch the courts.
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Doubtful, least of all being that despite what you or I might call it the Recruiting isn't really gacha/lootboxes.
 
I am still looking forward to understand how the "seasons" will work.

One of the biggest plagues of VGC is how stale it can get. When a game has to run for 3-4 years, the meta eventually is so solved there's just no real room for creativity other than the occasional anti-meta pick.
In last 2 games, they've tried to spice up regulations by changing the allowed pokemon, but there's only so much you can do within the confines of a game that doesn't get updates (other than the pair of DLCs which seem to be standard practice going forward).
Champions should finally open the floodgates for the mechanics on top of the available pokemon.

Few days left now. Can't wait to see what they cook.
 
Sulfurian said:
I think jolly is preferred considering it didn’t even get a boost to speed unless champions fixes it lol, also body slam is nice so you don’t waste the bulk.

Also mega Meganium would do great in rain, you get the benefits of reduced fire damage and all the sun benefits.
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Not really sure how I feel about Jolly Body Slam just thudding into bulkier targets. I’d rather have my Mega setup sweeper break things more easily, kinda like Flare Blitz Mega Charizard X.

I do agree with Mega Meganium rain sounding cool, though.
 
XYZ15

Post in thread 'Pokémon Day 2026 - Pokemon Winds and Waves coming 2027!'

I didn't know this was a hot take, but I don't think Pokémon Champions is a Pay to win.

I mean, yea, you can still make in-game purchases and those help you obtain some items that you could only get otherwise by playing a few hours, BUT this game makes official online Pokémon battles free again, as you don't need a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to battle.

Honestly, this was what I was waiting for in order to come back to the official competitive, as I refused to ever pay for NSO, so I'm actually hyped for Champions.

And even if I did have to pay for some things in-game, this game...
  • Like

I will just say, sadly, I was wrong!
This is definitely pay to win.
 
I'm taking a wait-and-see stance regarding the monetization. The fact that you can't buy VP seems promising at first, especially when they showed almost everything can be bought in the shop. But the fact that you can only get 200 VP per battle seems odd, especially since you can't buy that currency—so what's the point in being stingy?

I don't think I've seen this posted here yet but we do have the prices in yen right now they are:

Battle Pass: 1400 Yen a season
Starter Pack: 980 Yen
Membership: 700 Yen a month or 7000 Yen a year.

For my part, I've seen worse, but I've definitely seen better too. Mind you I'm not sure I fully understand why we need 3 different monetization models jammed into one game.
 
XYZ15 said:
XYZ15

Post in thread 'Pokémon Day 2026 - Pokemon Winds and Waves coming 2027!'

I didn't know this was a hot take, but I don't think Pokémon Champions is a Pay to win.

I mean, yea, you can still make in-game purchases and those help you obtain some items that you could only get otherwise by playing a few hours, BUT this game makes official online Pokémon battles free again, as you don't need a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to battle.

Honestly, this was what I was waiting for in order to come back to the official competitive, as I refused to ever pay for NSO, so I'm actually hyped for Champions.

And even if I did have to pay for some things in-game, this game...
  • Like

I will just say, sadly, I was wrong!
This is definitely pay to win.
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We’ve had pay to win since sword and shield dlc. They got so mad at the responses to dexit they had to make the dlc legends as strong as possible. At least it felt vengeful lol
 
Vibes are telling me Feraligatr is DoA. I definitely don't think it will be useless - notably I think it can use mega DD as a way to flip the MU against some of its general checks. However, losing Sheer Force + LO boosts means its water attacks & coverage are actually weaker than base Feraligatr - and ice punch will generally cover a lot of its iffy MUs as is. I think an area gatr will shine could be luring its standard grass / Water checks & using the mega to grab another DD. I think the defensive qualities of its new typing could also come into play in various MUs, but overall I am not impressed.
 
Sulfurian said:
We’ve had pay to win since sword and shield dlc. They got so mad at the responses to dexit they had to make the dlc legends as strong as possible. At least it felt vengeful lol
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I don't think DLCs were ever pay to win, and if they had been so, then third versions would've been pay to win as well. USUM is the best example, as it introduced Naganadel (an Uber mon) and Zeraora (pretty broken too), along with solid mons like Blacephalon and Stakataka.

This is a whole new thing, as it seems you need to pay for membership or tickets in order to be able to get a good team, provided you don't own Home nor NSO - which is my case.
 
Magcargo said:
Mega Meganium's ability is pretty crazy - esp on a tank. 66% Synthesis recovery + instant solar beams & fire type weather ball is very strong. I think this mon could be a top tier threat.
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Synthesis + 3 Attacks (STABs + Weather Ball/Earth Power) or Bulky Growth Sweeper (probably Giga Drain > Solar Beam here) both seem like extremely good sets. Mega Meganium is the clear winner of the starters. Plus it can work on Rain in Doubles to help with certain matchups maybe?

EDIT: it doesn't get Growth oops, but 3 Attacks is still a good set.

I can see Mega Feraligatr working depending on how many Fairies are in the format. +1 Dragonized Double Edge seems like a nuke.
 
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XYZ15 said:
I don't think DLCs were ever pay to win, and if they had been so, then third versions would've been pay to win as well. USUM is the best example, as it introduced Naganadel (an Uber mon) and Zeraora (pretty broken too), along with solid mons like Blacephalon and Stakataka.

This is a whole new thing, as it seems you need to pay for membership or tickets in order to be able to get a good team, provided you don't own Home nor NSO - which is my case.
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you can only get calyrex rider from sword and shield dlc, and is still the top restricted mon, main reason why I’d call it pay to win.
 
If they didn't add 6vs6 singles as an option they fumbled sooo bad like I might just keep playing showderp and keep my fortnite battle pass instead haha
 
I hope they eventually add to this Triples and Rotations. Well I don't care much for rotations, they are weird and part of the gimmick of Black and White (they fucking made 2 versions of the same movie for Victini), but triples are a fun gimmick, and rotations are attached to the hip to them.

Imagine bursting out your mega, your max and your tera at the same time.
 
I am oddly excited for this game.
I hope sending Home Pokemon over Champions is not too complicated so that we can create/catch great mons for the game. I know most people want to show off shinies.

For me what I am hoping for is showing a) different sized mons b) funny mark names. You know the last page of the summary in Scarlet/Violet
 
Do I understand correctly that, despite the trailer leading with the ability to obtain Pokemon through HOME, and despite giving us a release date for Champions, they still have not given us a definite release date for HOME compatibility with ZA and Champions, nor confirmed that it will be available by the release of Champions?

Because boy howdy I have no interest in the recruit feature when I've already been paying to keep my mons in cold storage. I am already super grumpy that they've been holding back ZA compatibility, they'd better not hold HOME back longer just to force people to use the recruit feature.
 
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