RarelyUsed Resources Hub
Welcome to RarelyUsed (or RU), the third usage-based tier of Smogon after OverUsed and UnderUsed! The tier lives through three interdependent medias you are all very welcome to join and participate in:
The RarelyUsed PokemonShowdown! roomRU has its own chatroom on the PokemonShowdown! website that you can find here! Many people hang out there to talk about the tier and occasionally battle in competitive room tournaments. If you ever have a question about the tier, feel free to ask our staff team aka the bolded players at the very top of the userlist.
Room Owners (#):
EviGaro
feen
Rarelyme
TheFranklin (arce9)
Room Moderators (@):
Kableye
Ming549
sol
Room Drivers (%):
Ampha
atomicllamas
Beraldo (beraldinhoo)
btboy
Canard
eifo
Eonx
Floss
Heatranator
ishtar
Lorddeathman
Natan
odr
Sneakyplanner
xastify
EviGaro
feen
Rarelyme
TheFranklin (arce9)
Room Moderators (@):
Kableye
Ming549
sol
Room Drivers (%):
Ampha
atomicllamas
Beraldo (beraldinhoo)
btboy
Canard
eifo
Eonx
Floss
Heatranator
ishtar
Lorddeathman
Natan
odr
Sneakyplanner
xastify
The RarelyUsed DiscordRU also expanded its community to Discord where you will find plenty of players eager to talk about pretty much anything loosely related to RarelyUsed and Pokemon. This is also the primary place to spectate high level tournament games and enjoy a competitive but still playful and fun environment. If you own a Discord account feel free to join us here!
The RarelyUsed Smogon SubforumFinally the most obvious one, our Smogon subforum where you are currently reading this thread. This place is where everything happens, from big scale tournaments to fun weekly projects and to help you navigate this subforum, this thread compiles what you can find on Smogon that is related to RU and where to find it.
TheFranklin
feen
Rarelyme (Community Leader)
Feliburn
Denial
EviGaro
phantom
atomicllamas
molk
Texas Cloverleaf
Oglemi
feen
Rarelyme (Community Leader)
Feliburn
Denial
EviGaro
phantom
atomicllamas
molk
Texas Cloverleaf
Oglemi
Main Smogon Resources
Metagame Thread
This thread is the main place where you can talk about your point of view on the current metagame. Feel free to share your thoughts there, especially regarding how enjoyable you think the tier is and how unhealthy some Pokemon might be. This helps our tiering council a lot since it allows them to get a better grasp at how the tier is perceived by the broader community.
Short Questions and Short Answers
The name of this one should give you everything. Use this thread whenever you have a question and need a quick answer.
Sample Teams
This resource provides quality teams for new players to help adjust to the metagame. They are best used on the RU ladder or in RU room tournaments to help you get better acquainted with the metagame.
Viability Rankings
This list is a screenshot of what is currently good in the metagame where each Pokemon in RU is ranked based on its viability.
Speed Tiers
This resource is invaluable for teambuilding. It breaks down every Speed tier each viable Pokemon in the tier can have in order from fastest to slowest. Thanks to this thread, players can therefore determine which Pokemon represents a threat for their team and which others are worth outspeeding in order to make their team better.
Role Compendium
This tool helps to get a better representation at how different roles can be filled in RU. It is great for newcomers to find out what a Pokemon can do and what place it can take in a team.
Good Cores
The Good Cores thread compiles player's submissions of viable combinations of Pokemon. It is a great starting point to build a team since it gather offensive, defensive and mixed cores that are known to be efficient in the tier. If you think you know a good core, feel free to share it here!
Tera Index
As you probably already know, this ninth generation of Pokemon brought a new gimmick called Tera. This resource gives you every Tera types each Pokemon mostly use in RU and hopefully eases your way into the tier by not having to guess what type Pokemon are running if you are not familiar with them.
Old RU Generations
If you are looking for Sample Teams or other resources on older generations, this is the subforum to go to.
Tournament Resources
2025 RarelyUsed Circuit - Leaderboard Spreadsheet
This post shows the calendar of Circuit tournaments the tier is hosting throughout the year. You can also find the current leaderboard next to it.
Hall of Fame
This is where you can find the list of the best RU players ranked by how many tournaments they managed to win.
Tournament Replays
These threads compile every replays from every team tournaments played during one Pokemon generation (replays before Gen 7 are sadly unretrievable):Role Compendium
This tool helps to get a better representation at how different roles can be filled in RU. It is great for newcomers to find out what a Pokemon can do and what place it can take in a team.
Good Cores
The Good Cores thread compiles player's submissions of viable combinations of Pokemon. It is a great starting point to build a team since it gather offensive, defensive and mixed cores that are known to be efficient in the tier. If you think you know a good core, feel free to share it here!
Tera Index
As you probably already know, this ninth generation of Pokemon brought a new gimmick called Tera. This resource gives you every Tera types each Pokemon mostly use in RU and hopefully eases your way into the tier by not having to guess what type Pokemon are running if you are not familiar with them.
Old RU Generations
If you are looking for Sample Teams or other resources on older generations, this is the subforum to go to.
Tournament Resources
2025 RarelyUsed Circuit - Leaderboard Spreadsheet
This post shows the calendar of Circuit tournaments the tier is hosting throughout the year. You can also find the current leaderboard next to it.
Hall of Fame
This is where you can find the list of the best RU players ranked by how many tournaments they managed to win.
Tournament Replays