In the past the other Pinkies and me have talked a bit about a wonderful website named Pokémon Showdown and today I Chibi Pinkie will tell you all about that place.
If you like it enough maybe we can even play pokémon together sometime! That sounds like fun.. and like a pretty easy win for me… teehee!
A free website
Pokémon Showdown is a website owned by a guy named Guangcong Luo. He and his merry band of developers started this site with a golden idea.. and an even purer heart.. I think. Heavily affiliated with Smogon , the biggest brain in the Pokémon World, these people knew the pain of painstakingly breeding a pokémon and figured.. there should be an easier way to make the ultimate bidoof opposed to catching one thousand and then breeding it a million times. They wanted to make a website that is clear and transparent and communicates better to the players. A way to teach more people in a more accessible way about competitive battling as it were. It would also be a great place where people could test out create movesets and new EV spreads for pokémon so we don’t just have that boring little old meta that one guy tried and everyone repeats.. because it’s to much of a hassle to experiment in the games. While during their lifespan this has been made a bit easier in the Pokémon video games themselves the website really catered to those wanting to get more into pokémon but who can’t spare hours on end to breed a single pokémon .. let alone six. Allowing support for people who wish to ‘hack’ these new sets into their game, as well as giving people easier access to legit breeding recipes alongside making it all way more accessible to newbies, the site is very much alive and visited by dozens of people each day, never a boring moment on showdown.
Creating your own sets
The main idea of the site is that you can create your own teams to battle online with. You pick your favorite pokémon and spec them out in the way you like with straightforward and clear controls. Slapping EV’s is as easy as adjusting some slider controls, moves you just select from a list and hidden abilities as well as the normal ones are all available to you from the get go. In the real game you’d have to catch a pokémon with the nature you want (a 1 in 24 chance) you’d have to breed it into a pokémon with good IV’s , which takes several hours and attempts, you’d have to manually EV train it and level it, which depending on your game can be either annoying or ‘please arceus drag me to pokehell anything better than this’ if you prefer an older game, and this is before we even consider trading it up to a proper game if the one you want is not in the more recent ones. What takes you blood sweat and plenty of tears in the real games will take you just a few clicks on showdown. Convenient!
The site is helpfull enough to suggest EV spreads (compare EV training ito upgrading a stat in any other rpg but instead of a + button in the game you’ll have to battle or play minigames or use items) based on the popular Metagame. However creating a Pokémon can be quite daunting to the newcomers. Showdown does assume some knowledge of tiers with over 90 possible tiers or competitions to compete in the website (with 30 being relevant or so) that’s quite a gargantuan wall to climb over. Luckily the game will apply some filters for you while making teams and will tell you what is and what is not allowed. As long as you play with friends I suggest building your team in anything goes, if you want to climb the ladders you probably know enough to build within one of the many options they have to offer and even if you do not, the website still has you sort off covered.
Random Battles
By far the most amazing and fun feature on this website to me is Random Battles. This is just perfect fun for you and your friends. This will hook you up with 6 randomly chosen, semi competitive sets on pokémon of various tiers and you do battle with your team. While not every pokémon features there, there still plenty for you to enjoy with all about three or four variations you can roll into. If you want a quick and fun pokémon battle this is your mode. Something I play on a daily basis and the matchmaking is excellent. No matter what time of the day I play, no matter how good or bad my ranking is at the time I find a match within seconds. These matches aren’t always balanced , there were times where I rolled into 4 legendaries and my opponent into zero allowing me to waltz over them, but at the same time the inverse happens. It even happens that you might get four legendaries but you have nothing to hit your opponent super effectively with and he trashes your amazing pokémon. It is all part of the fun. These random matches do wonders in teaching people trough play on how certain pokémon should be played and what competitive pokémon battling looks like. Unfortunately the random mode has not been refined enough yet to make it possible for double battles. I am very interested in doubles but I lack the finesse needed into knowing what would be a great way to build my team around the format so I’d need some examples. There are plenty of other modes to have fun with though, some education some are just insane fun. Do you want to find out what sets are good.. play Gen VII random battles if you want to break the rules a bit.. play random hackmons cup, in this series pokémon will have abilities and moves they normally don’t but it will help you think creatively as a trainer. If you want to go completely bonkers play Super Staff Bros brawl, here the pokémon talk to you in meme-speak, they get new abilities that dont even exist in the game and their stats don’t make sense at all. It’s complete madness.. but no matter if you are a noob or a pro.. here the playing field is somewhat even, just great fun to play.
How to Pokémon
No matter which mode you play Pokémon Showdown is very good in informing the player so they can make their best plays. You can see your pokémon’s stats just by hovering over them and you can see a speed range your opponent is in, which means.. you’ll learn how fast each pokémon is as you play more.. which is a great skill to have in the actual competition. You see the moves your opponent revealed possible abilities and much much more. While it does not state what the opponent’s ability does (because it would clutter the screen to much) every tool you need to become a master is at your disposal on this site.
If you boost your stats regular pokémon will not tell you the effect, or even how much your stat is raised. Showdown shows you exactly what effect Swords Dance or other boosting moves have on your stat. It will allow you to grasp the mutations going on. You will know that if a pokémon outspeeds you.. while it has a lower stat than you that it must have an ability for it or is holding a speed boosting item, in time you’ll learn to grasp these abilities and items and their effect. With just a few matches you’ll gain some insight and knowhow on how this game works and with each match you learn something new. I’ve been playing showdown for about a year maybe a bit more and I still learn new things about moves. For being free to play the game knows little toxicity. Usually with a low threshold to play a lot of mean and spiteful people show up but honestly 80% of my random encounters are mutes they will just battle and leave which is perfectly fine to me. About 15% of my total encounters is nice, they GG and talk a bit about unlucky crits and other RNG mishaps, at times they can help you understand something that went wrong or explain the items on their pokémon and such. Then there is the 5% that are douche canoes that will tell you off for misplays or scoff. It’s your average fortnite player type of behaviour, luckily since Pokémon involves a bit more mind games (knowing when to switch or what moves they will use) they don’t win that often and are usually swiftly dealt with. While i do recognise they know more than me in terms of stats and how it translates into damage, they tend to be overly focussed on kill you as fast as possible and will make mistakes of that. Pressing the super effective button every time they get the chance makes them predictable. Chat can be used for more than just to insult or praise your opponent though Using chat commands like !weak (pokemon name) you can find out exactly what types the pokémon is weak too , what it resists and even if damage will get doubled or quadrupled (by colour). So regardless of your skill level Showdown has the proper tools for you and in five percent of your matches you’ll even get some bonus tools.
Question to my Readers:
Will you check out Pokémon Showdown?
So I honestly recommend checking this amazing website out, whether it is for just a random battle or trying to update your knowledge or even to hang out with people on the forum, this is a nice place for everything pokémon. Not as nice as my site of course, but I have to stop blogging for today anyway!
The Pinkest Poké Blogger is Blasting off again!
XO
Pinkie
Pinkie's Paradise 