Tutorial: Pokémon Showdown
Not everyone knows this, but it is possible to play Pokemon outside of consoles. There are indeed MMOs and simulators of fight online, mostly made by fans of this very interesting universe. We will focus here on the combat simulator the most interesting of the moment: Pokémon Showdown.
But what is a battle simulator? It is an online platform that allows players to test all the Pokémon they want in battle, and with the stats they want for each of them. No laborious training or time spent evolving your team, this software allows you to focus only on strategy and knowing which Pokémon will suit you best. They allow you to train yourself, before you try to train Pokémon. Attention! Everything is in English on Pokémon Showdown!
Pokémon Showdown
A worthy successor to Shoddy Battle software (minus the bugs and latency), Pokémon Showdown is the most popular simulator of the moment. Totally free and accessible online at pokemonshowdown.comtheir servers are international and amass an absolutely insane number of players, so much so that even the Smogon University community has proposed a lobby there!
Pokémon Showdown offers you 2 ways to play:
– Directly on your browserby going to the address play.pokemonshowdown.comor by clicking the ”Play Online” button on the main site. This is the version we recommend. Remember to allow cookies on the site so that you can automatically save your teams.
– Via a downloadable version by clicking the ‘Install’ button on the main site. This is not the most convenient version, nor the least buggy… But it will allow you to access Team Builder even without an internet connection.
I’m on Play Pokémon Showdown. How do I play?
Don’t panic! We’ll review together all the tabs available once on Play Pokemon Showdown so that you don’t get lost. If you’re on the right page, you should have a window like this on your screen:
Your account name is located at the top right of the screen (AAKei for me). If you have never been to Pokémon Showdown, it is possible to generate it by clicking on the gear next to it. You will then be able to add a password for your future connections.
Let’s move on to the column on the left of the screen.
THE Format corresponds to the Tier you want to play in. It is to be chosen in the drop-down menu just below.
Team allows you to choose a team from the ones you have already created. This is the team you will have if you decide to start a fight.
Look for a battle allows you to search for a battle that you will lead with the team you chose in Team and in the Tier you chose in Format. If you forget to choose the Format, a Random Battle (battle with random Pokémon) by default.
Team Builder allows you to create your team and save it. We’ll go over this in detail, don’t worry.
Ladder allows you to see the TOP 500 best players in each format.
Credits allows you… to see the credits.
THE Chat Rooms when clicked, allows you to chat with people currently online.
Building a team step by step
The famous Team Builder, an essential tool for thinking about Pokémon strategy. When you click on it, you end up on the following page:
The Untitled 1, 2 and 3 buttons are not there originally, these are the teams I am currently working on. To create a new team, you will need to go through the ”+New Team” button.
Then click on ”Import from text” if you already have ready-made teams that you want to import in .txt or on ”+Add Pokémon” if you don’t have any ready-made teams.
From there, it’s up to you! You can click on a Pokémon in the drop-down menu that appears to add it or type its name directly to search for it. The Tier it belongs to is specified on each Pokémon.
The Item, Ability and Moves tabs are very intuitive to fill out. Remember that this platform is in English, so you will need to specify each of these pieces of information in English.
You will need knowledge of Pokémon Statistics, defining EVs and IVs, and the Pokémon Nature table to fill out the Stats tab.
Click the + in your Pokemon list to add 1. Everything is automatically saved. You will have access to your team at any time by going through the Team Builder tab.
Once this is done, you can close the Team Builder tab on the Showdown interface (top left of the screen) or click on the Home menu (also top left of the screen) to be able to fight!
If you’ve made it this far, you probably have all the knowledge you need to fight a strat battle in Pokémon. It’s up to you to find the best strategy to defeat your opponents. And most importantly, remember that there’s no better training than practice in this kind of game.
