Welcome to the UnderUsed's Official Forum Guide
This thread is a Central Hub for all newcomers and veterans that want to participate in this tier. This thread indicates the current UU Staff Members, the UU Council Members, and important Contributors, all of whom can assist you. Furthermore, this thread will cover all types of resources, link all current projects/tournaments, and will provide introductory access for players to properly participate in this tier. Further questions beyond should be directed to one of the Staff members/council members/contributors listed below.
Please familiarize yourself with our standards, as this will save everyone time and grief. This includes taking the time to check out Smogon's Tiering policies and our Forum Rules so that you can be properly informed when joining the discussion. Note: any decisions we make regarding moderation actions are final.
The UU forum is currently moderated by the following Smogon Staff members:
- Lilburr [Tier Leader]
- Indigo Plateau [Tier Leader]
- Hilomilo
- TSR
- Adaam
- Estarossa
The UU Council: check our Tiering Policies here! Check out the Smogon Tiering Policies here! Check out our current Metagame Thread here!
Our Community Contributors are here to help you! Here are a list of other important Contributors in the tier which can help answer your common questions:
- Twilight (Community Contributor, Room Owner, UU C&C Moderator)
- Kink (Community Contributor, former Forum Moderator)
- vivalospride (Community Contributor, RMT Staff)
- Juno (Community Contributor)
- Moutemoute (Community Contributor)
- pokemonisfun (Community Contributor)
- avarice (Community Contributor)
- martha (Community Contributor)
- Adaam (Community Contributor)
- Freeroamer (Community Contributor)
- Accel (Community Contributor, former Forum Moderator)
- Bandkrook (Community Contributor)
- KM (Community Contributor)
- Monky25 (Community Contributor)
- Celebiii (Community Contributor)
- Kink (Community Contributor, former Forum Moderator)
- vivalospride (Community Contributor, RMT Staff)
- Juno (Community Contributor)
- Moutemoute (Community Contributor)
- pokemonisfun (Community Contributor)
- avarice (Community Contributor)
- martha (Community Contributor)
- Adaam (Community Contributor)
- Freeroamer (Community Contributor)
- Accel (Community Contributor, former Forum Moderator)
- Bandkrook (Community Contributor)
- KM (Community Contributor)
- Monky25 (Community Contributor)
- Celebiii (Community Contributor)
All aspects of UnderUsed—the forum, the room, and the discord—are banding together to develop to be the best they can with a combination of transparency and user feedback! The leaders and prominent figures of every aspect of the UU community will be making an effort to listen to you! Don't be afraid, they won't bite.
What does this mean? We're giving community members an avenue to have their comments, concerns, and feedback heard. Feel free to contact any of the prominent community members below by whatever method of private communication you deem best if you have anything you think we can improve on, be it in the PS room, the forums, or the discord! Every real suggestion will be considered, and we will respect everyone who has feedback to give. The relevant parties will make concrete improvements based on the feedback we get whenever they can.
List of community members you should PM suggestions to:
A Cake Wearing A Hat
Hogg
Estarossa
Lilburr
What does this mean? We're giving community members an avenue to have their comments, concerns, and feedback heard. Feel free to contact any of the prominent community members below by whatever method of private communication you deem best if you have anything you think we can improve on, be it in the PS room, the forums, or the discord! Every real suggestion will be considered, and we will respect everyone who has feedback to give. The relevant parties will make concrete improvements based on the feedback we get whenever they can.
List of community members you should PM suggestions to:
A Cake Wearing A Hat
Hogg
Estarossa
Lilburr
As for actual rules, all the rules that are applicable to the entire Smogon site also apply here. Additionally, take note of the following:
- We do things a little differently around here. Unlike what you're probably used to, tiering decisions are made pretty liberally in UU, so you will probably have strong feelings about it. Expressing your feelings regarding specific suspects in PM or in public is fine, as long as you do so in a calm and respectful manner. There is a posting guide written by Lilburr directly below. Give it a read if you are new or need clarification of what constitutes as a high-quality post meant to contribute to the discussion.
- Do not make individual threads without UU Moderator Approval. Direct all new Project/Tournament requests to moderators Lilburr, Indigo Plateau, Hilomilo, TSR, Estarossa and Adaam
- Stick to UU stuff.
- Don't be an idiot. Respect each other.
Hi, and welcome to UU! We have an excellent community here, and myself and others will often get questions from newer players about how they can contribute, integrate themselves, and make friends within the tier. They've also asked how to improve their posts so that they can get more recognition from the current playerbase, which is great! We love seeing new players thrive, and you couldn't have picked a more friendly community to start with. So, if you're looking to improve on your posts and make them stand out, this is the thread for you.
Dos and Don'ts
Do:
Support your argument with facts. Damage calculations, replays, and other hard data makes for a great way to support your post and show people that you're more than just talk.
Present yourself in a respectable manner. There's no need to be entirely formal; this forum, despite being a place for serious discussion, is fairly casual. However, that doesn't mean you should treat every post as a joke. Make sure your post is well-written and thought out.
Lurk for a while and see how other members post. Some of our longest-standing community members are still around, and they've learned quite a lot over the years, so their posts tend to be of very high quality. Learn from them and implement what they do into your own posts.
Don't:
Post one-liners or uninformed arguments. These add nothing to a discussion and will really just end up getting deleted and, if continued, you'll probably get infracted. Your post should have substance, and should be more than just, "Wow, Terrakion is really broken. Ban please." Instead, you should construct an argument with replays, calculations, and informed thoughts about your statement.
Use generic "if" or "what" statements. Speculation is fine in some scenarios, but hypotheticals don't help anybody. Something like "If the council unbans Alolan Ninetales, Grimmsnarl might drop to RU" is not really relevant to current UU and shouldn't be talked about as a result. Instead, give your thoughts on the current metagame and the tier as a whole, and give your opinion on new developments as they happen. There are some exceptions here - for example, talking about Pokemon you expect to improve following a large tier shift is absolutely okay, but that's only because the tier shift has already happened. If you're unsure, don't be hesitant to ask a member of the feedback team!
Attack other users. This one should go without saying, but ad hominem arguments not only weaken what you're saying, but will also result in a swift and severe punishment. It's fine to disagree with somebody, but keep it civil. This is not a recommendation, it is a rule.
Talk about other tiers. Mentioning something about OU, RU etc. in passing is fine, but those tiers are not the same as UU. As such, posts with statements such as "the council should unban Haxorus because it's not good in OU" are not appropriate. Instead, focus on the current UU metagame; if you think Haxorus should be unbanned, give strong arguments that are based in UU, not in OU.
Formatting
Newer posters often ask us about how to format their posts - this includes BBcode, as well as Smogon's specific commands. Here is a short list of the most common ones you'll use:
Code:
:ss/pokemonname:This one will give you a 3D animated sprite of any given pokemon. For example:
Specific formes of a Pokemon use a hyphen rather than a space, and you use the full forme name. For example, if you wanted a sprite of Galarian Weezing, you would use
Code:
:ss/weezing-galar:
You can also do this with sprites for older generations if you want! For example, here is Rotom-W's BW sprite.
Code:
:bw/rotom-wash:
The list of generation prefixes is as follows: rb, gs, rs, dp, bw, xy, sm, ss
Finally, some newer generation Pokemon like Mimikyu and Noivern have animated BW-style sprites, but the ":bw/mimikyu" command won't work with them because they didn't exist in those games. You can find their sprites over here and include them via image tags. For example:
Code:
[img]https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/gen5ani/mimikyu.gif[/img]
Minisprites are pretty simple; for the ones used in the Generation 7 and prior games, you can simply do:
and it'll give it to you: 
For the higher resolution sprites that exist in the Generation 8 games, you can use the Sprite Converter provided by FullLifeGames, or simply use image tags with the following:
where "XXX" is the Pokemon's National Dex number. For example, if I wanted to use Cobalion again - which is #638 in the National Dex - I would use:
Code:
:pokemonname:For the higher resolution sprites that exist in the Generation 8 games, you can use the Sprite Converter provided by FullLifeGames, or simply use image tags with the following:
Code:
[IMG]https://www.serebii.net/pokedex-swsh/icon/XXX.png[/IMG]
Code:
[IMG]https://www.serebii.net/pokedex-swsh/icon/638.png[/IMG]Spoilers are great for when you want to add a large amount of text or a huge image, in order to help keep your post more concise as at a glance. Smogon's BBcode editor has a button built in for this.
Alternatively, you can use one of the following (case insensitive):
Alternatively, you can use one of the following (case insensitive):
Code:
[SPOILER="Spoiler Name"]content[/SPOILER]
[HIDE="Spoiler Name"]content[/HIDE]Oftentimes, when constructing an argument or just responding to someone, you'll want to quote a post so it's clear who you're talking to. This is most easily done by clicking on the little button in the bottom-right corner of someone's post that says "Reply":
You can choose to cut out part of a quote so that it's easier to focus on what you're responding to; simply remove the text that doesn't pertain to your reply.
Another method is to simply highlight part of someone's post, which will allow you to quote that specific part:
You can choose to cut out part of a quote so that it's easier to focus on what you're responding to; simply remove the text that doesn't pertain to your reply.
Another method is to simply highlight part of someone's post, which will allow you to quote that specific part:
Where your posts should go
It can be difficult to distinguish where any given post should be, particularly when you're new and you're overwhelmed by the sheer amount of threads in the forum. Here's a quick guide to each relevant discussion thread.
Now Playing: Metagame Discussion
This is a general thread where you can talk about the current UU meta and its potential developments. Posts about Pokemon you feel may have a niche in the meta can be redirected here, in addition to currently viable Pokemon that are improving, getting worse, or anything else along those lines. It should be noted, though, that general questions such as "What's Noivern's best set in the current metagame?" should be redirected to our next thread.
SQSA: Simple Questions, Simple Answers
There's no such thing as a silly question. In this thread, you can ask any simple question you want. This includes questions like "where can I find the UU Cores thread?", "what is Lycanroc-D's best set in UU?" and so on. Don't be afraid to ask whatever you want! A notable exception, though, is asking for team advice; this is better saved for the Rate My Team subforum - be sure to read their rules!
SS UU Viability Rankings
This is a comprehensive list of all viable Pokemon in the tier and how they compare to each other; it's also a place where you can discuss the metagame, explain why any given Pokemon has improved or gotten worse lately, and lobby for shifts in the rankings. Posts like "I don't think Slowking is as good as it was before, it should drop to A rank" go here.
Sample Teams / Team Bazaar
If you've built a team and want to show it off but aren't really looking for criticism on it, these are the threads for you! The Sample Teams thread is used for teams that are tested, proven, and overall very good, as it serves to be a resource for newer players looking to get into the tier. The Team Bazaar, on the other hand, is completely unrestricted; you can post any team you want in there! Be sure to have proof to back up your team's success if you want it to be added to the Sample Teams thread, but feel free to post to your heart's content in the Team Bazaar.
If you have any more questions, don't worry; we're here to help you! You can contact a member of the UU Feedback Team or one of the Forum Moderators if you're confused about anything. The UU Feedback Team currently consists of:
Alternatively, you can join the UU Discord server and ask any of our lovely community members for help - there will almost always be someone there to oblige you!
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