Question 1

What is Pokékipe?

Accepted Answer

Pokékipe is a competitive Pokémon analytics + tooling platform covering Smogon (singles and doubles), VGC, and Pokémon Champions (the new Switch competitive platform launched April 2026). Usage rates, top sets, checks & counters, meta trends, plus a 50+ guides corpus, a 190+ term glossary, a damage calculator, replay scouting, a Team Builder and a tournament engine.

Question 2

Where does the data come from?

Accepted Answer

All data comes from Smogon's monthly public statistics (smogon.com/stats), automatically generated from real battles on Pokemon Showdown. VGC data comes from official championship results.

Question 3

Is Pokékipe free?

Accepted Answer

Yes, the website is 100% free. All analytics, the Team Builder, Box, Replay Analyzer, Scouting, Calculator, and the full guides corpus are accessible without an account. An optional €2,99/month tip exists on /account, it doesn't gate any feature, but tippers get advanced Discord/Telegram bot commands as a thank-you.

Question 4

Who maintains Pokékipe?

Accepted Answer

Pokékipe is an independent project, not affiliated with Smogon, Nintendo, or The Pokemon Company. Data is sourced from publicly available Smogon statistics.

Question 5

How often is data updated?

Accepted Answer

Smogon usage statistics: monthly, following Smogon's release schedule. Pokémon Champions community tournaments (Limitless): refreshed twice daily (04:00 and 16:00 UTC). Official VGC standings (Pokédata): per-event. Timeline events (suspect tests, VR updates, tournaments): monthly via the timeline scraper.

Question 6

Can I use Pokékipe without an account?

Accepted Answer

Yes. All features work without an account. An account lets you save settings, link your Showdown username for personal stats, and sync preferences across devices.

Question 7

How do I get started with Pokékipe?

Accepted Answer

Start by browsing a format page (e.g., SV OverUsed) to see the current meta. Click any Pokemon to view its usage stats, sets, and matchups. From there, explore the Team Builder or Replay Analyzer.

Question 8

What features does Pokékipe offer?

Accepted Answer

Usage analytics per format and ELO bracket; Pokémon detail pages with moves/items/spreads/teammates/counters; Team Builder with threat analysis; Box for team storage; Replay Analyzer + Scouting; Competitive Timeline; Compare tool; Damage Calculator (Tera + Stellar + Paradox aware); Pokémon Champions tracker; Tournament creation engine; and a /guides hub with 50+ long-form competitive guides.

Question 9

How do I import a team from Pokemon Showdown?

Accepted Answer

Paste your Showdown export into the Box (mass import) or Team Builder. Pokékipe auto-parses all 6 Pokemon and runs weakness and coverage analysis.

Question 10

How do I use the Team Builder?

Accepted Answer

Select a format, then add Pokemon from the meta. The builder analyzes type coverage, team roles, threat handling, and solidity score in real time. Export to Showdown when ready.

Question 11

How do I read usage statistics?

Accepted Answer

Each Pokemon page shows usage rate (% of teams using it), top moves/items/abilities/spreads with percentages, teammates (who it pairs with), and checks & counters (who beats it).

Question 12

How do I analyze a replay?

Accepted Answer

Go to the Replay page, paste a Pokemon Showdown replay URL, and click Analyze. You'll see turn-by-turn breakdown, turning points, KO chains, and hax analysis.

Question 13

How do I use the Scouting tool?

Accepted Answer

Enter a Showdown username to analyze their recent replays. See their team patterns, lead choices, playstyle tendencies, and win rates to prepare for your next match.

Question 14

How do I compare two Pokemon?

Accepted Answer

Use the Compare tool to view side-by-side base stats, usage rates, movepool overlap, speed tiers, matchup data, and shared teammates between any two Pokemon.

Question 15

How are Smogon tiers determined?

Accepted Answer

Tiers are based on usage: Pokemon used by more than ~4.5% of players in a tier are moved up. Suspect tests and community votes can also ban Pokemon from specific tiers.

Question 16

What is ELO and how does it affect the stats?

Accepted Answer

ELO is a rating system measuring player skill. Pokékipe offers two views: ALL (all players) and ELITE (high-rated players only). The ELITE cutoff varies by format, typically 1695+ for OU, 1500+ or 1630+ for lower-traffic tiers. Pokékipe auto-detects the highest available bucket per format. ELITE data reflects the metagame at higher skill levels.

Question 17

How are usage rates calculated?

Accepted Answer

Usage rate = percentage of teams that include a specific Pokemon in a given format and ELO bracket during a calendar month. A 25% usage rate means 1 in 4 teams uses that Pokemon.

Question 18

What are Checks & Counters scores?

Accepted Answer

Pokékipe rates every matchup with a Counter score derived from real ladder outcomes, switch-in rates and KO patterns. We surface three reliability tiers on each Pokémon page, Reliable counter, Solid check and Situational check, so you can tell at a glance whether a Pokémon genuinely answers a threat or only handles it under specific conditions (hazards up, item removed, status applied).

Question 19

Why is a Pokemon missing from a format?

Accepted Answer

A Pokemon may not appear if it had less than 0.01% usage in that format during the latest month, or if the format data hasn't been ingested yet.

Question 20

How do I change the display language?

Accepted Answer

Click the language flag in the top navigation bar or go to Settings in your account page. Pokékipe supports English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, and Korean.

Question 21

How do I link my Pokemon Showdown account?

Accepted Answer

Go to Settings, scroll to the Showdown Account section, enter your Showdown username, and click Link. Your personal stats will appear on the Dashboard.

Question 22

What data is stored locally?

Accepted Answer

Teams, settings, and preferences are stored in your browser's localStorage. No personal data is sent to external servers. Your Showdown link only fetches public replay data.

Question 23

What is competitive Pokemon?

Accepted Answer

Competitive Pokemon is the practice of battling other players using optimized teams, strategic movesets, and knowledge of the metagame, as opposed to the single-player game.

Question 24

What is OU? What are Smogon tiers?

Accepted Answer

OU (OverUsed) is the most popular Smogon format. Tiers (Ubers, OU, UU, RU, NU, PU) organize Pokemon by usage so every Pokemon has a tier where it can shine competitively.

Question 25

What is VGC?

Accepted Answer

VGC (Video Game Championships) is the official Pokémon competitive format by The Pokémon Company. It uses doubles battles with specific regulation rules that change each season. Since April 2026, the official scene also includes **Pokémon Champions**, the dedicated Switch competitive client, format Reg M-A, tracked at /champions.

Question 26

How do I build a competitive team?

Accepted Answer

Start with a core of 2-3 Pokémon with good synergy, add answers to common threats, ensure type coverage, and include speed control. Use Pokékipe's Team Builder for guidance, and our 5 dedicated teambuilding guides (build from scratch, reading the meta, EV spreads, item economy, lead bringing in VGC) for the deeper workflow.

Question 27

How do I prepare for a VGC tournament?

Accepted Answer

Study the current meta on Pokékipe, scout common teams via the Replay Scouting tool, and practice your matchups on Showdown. Since Reg G (2024), all official VGC tournaments are Bo3 with sideboard rules, read our dedicated Bo3 strategy guide for game-by-game flow, sideboarding decisions, and counter-team adaptation.

Question 28

What browsers are supported?

Accepted Answer

Pokékipe works on all modern browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge. We recommend the latest version for the best experience.

Question 29

Does Pokékipe work on mobile?

Accepted Answer

Yes, Pokékipe is fully responsive. All features including Team Builder, Replay Analyzer, and Pokemon pages work on mobile devices.

Question 30

What do OHKO, 2HKO, lead, core... mean?

Accepted Answer

These are competitive Pokémon terms. Visit the Glossary for definitions of 190+ terms covering mechanics, strategy, roles, formats, and jargon.

Question 31

I have a technical issue or support question?

Accepted Answer

Visit the Support page for troubleshooting guides, or contact us directly. We respond within 48 hours.

Question 32

What is the competitive Timeline on Pokékipe?

Accepted Answer

The Timeline is a unified calendar of competitive Pokémon events: Smogon suspect tests, Viability Ranking updates, VGC regulation changes, Tier 1 and Tier 2 tournaments, official Championship Series events, plus full Pokémon Company Masters standings (via Pokédata) and Pokémon Champions community tournaments (via Limitless) with decklists and standings. Filter by source, tier, year or date range.

Question 33

Is Pokékipe GDPR compliant? How is my data handled?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Pokékipe only collects the minimum OAuth payload (identifier, display name, email) when you sign in with Google or Discord, no password is ever stored, and there is no tracking. Your teams and preferences live in your browser. You can delete your account in one click.

Question 34

How is Pokékipe funded? Are there subscriptions or ads?

Accepted Answer

Pokékipe is funded by non-intrusive ads on the website (the baseline). An optional €2,99/month Stripe tip is available on /account for users who want to actively support the project, it doesn't gate any feature on the site, but tippers get advanced commands on the Discord/Telegram bots as a thank-you. There is no premium plan, no paywalled chart, no feature locked behind a subscription. Every analytics page on pokékipe.com is free forever.

Question 35

Does Pokékipe have a damage calculator?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The built-in Damage Calculator runs on @smogon/calc, the same engine used by competitive players and the community. It supports every generation, every format (Singles and VGC), and crucially every mechanic you need in 2026: Terastallization, abilities, items, weather, terrain, Tera Blast, Stellar Tera and Paradox Pokémon. Enter a matchup, get the full damage range and the OHKO / 2HKO probabilities.

Question 36

Where can I find stats on specific moves, items or abilities?

Accepted Answer

Pokékipe has dedicated index pages for Moves, Items and Abilities with usage rates across formats, top users per Pokémon, rising and declining picks, and filterable categories. Each entity has its own detail page with historical trend, distribution by tier, and the Pokémon that use it best, the same depth you get on a Pokémon profile.

Question 37

What are Advice Cards?

Accepted Answer

Advice Cards are short, expert-direct takeaways Pokékipe surfaces throughout the product (Team Builder, Replay Analyzer, Scouting, Compare, Calculator, Corpus). Each card explains one specific finding in plain language, a type weakness, a missing role, a counterfactual from a replay, a bad item pick, and links to a fix. Cards are dismissible and their visibility is tracked only with your explicit opt-in so we can tune which advice helps the most users.

Question 38

How does Pokékipe detect my team's archetype?

Accepted Answer

Pokékipe classifies teams into playstyle archetypes (Hyper Offense, Bulky Offense, Balance, Semi-Stall, Stall) and strategic variants (Rain, Sun, Sand, Snow, Trick Room, Tailwind, Volt-Turn, Hazard Stack, Perish Song) using a multi-signal analysis of items, abilities, roles and move coverage. The result shapes the advice cards you see: a Hyper Offense team is flagged for over-defensive items; a Trick Room team is checked for a backup setter. The full archetype taxonomy is documented in the glossary.

Question 39

What is a turning point in the Replay Analyzer?

Accepted Answer

A turning point is the specific turn where a match's momentum shifts decisively, a surprise KO, a mispredicted switch, an item reveal, a critical hazard layer. Pokékipe's Replay Analyzer detects them automatically by measuring how the Board Advantage curve changes across turns, then annotates the replay so you can rewatch the exact pivots that decided the game.

Question 40

What does the board advantage graph show?

Accepted Answer

Board Advantage is Pokékipe's proprietary measure of the relative game state at every turn: who is winning right now, and by how much. The curve combines remaining HP, type matchups, hazard pressure, status conditions and switch positioning into a single signed value. Positive means you are ahead, negative means the opponent is. A sharp drop or jump is a turning point worth studying.

Question 41

What does team coherence check?

Accepted Answer

Team Coherence is Pokékipe's structural review of the team you built: whether your items match your archetype, whether the essential roles are covered (hazard control, speed control, defensive pivot, win condition), and whether your core Pokémon are internally consistent. Coherence is the difference between "six strong Pokémon" and "a team that wins games", Pokékipe tells you which slots drag the whole plan down.

Question 42

Can I use Pokékipe from Discord or Telegram?

Accepted Answer

Yes, Pokékipe ships a Discord bot and a Telegram bot that mirror the core features of the website: usage stats, Pokémon profiles, replay analysis, scouting reports, archetype detection, counter suggestions. Link your account from Settings to sync preferences and your Box across platforms. The bots are cosmetic alternatives to the site (same data, different surface, no ads). Basic commands are free for everyone; tippers (€2,99/month, optional) get advanced commands as a thank-you bonus, never as a gate.

Question 43

How can I support Pokékipe?

Accepted Answer

The simplest way is to keep browsing on-site, on-page advertising is the baseline revenue. Beyond that: share Pokékipe with your team, your Discord, your tournament community; report issues when you spot them; or set up the optional €2,99/month Stripe tip from /account to actively support the project. As a thank-you, tippers also get advanced commands on the Discord and Telegram bots. There will never be a premium tier, support is always optional and never unlocks a website feature.

Question 44

What is Pokémon Champions and how does Pokékipe cover it?

Accepted Answer

Pokémon Champions is the dedicated Switch competitive Pokémon platform launched by The Pokémon Company in April 2026. Pokékipe tracks the Reg M-A format meta, full Limitless tournament standings (refreshed twice daily at 04:00 and 16:00 UTC), top teams, decklists, and country/regional flags. The hub is at /champions, and individual events expose their full bracket plus team-comparison tools.

Question 45

What is Terastallization?

Accepted Answer

Tera is Gen 9's signature mechanic: any Pokémon can change its type once per battle, redefining offense (new STAB) and defense (new resistances). Pokékipe's Damage Calculator and Team Builder model Tera natively, including the rare Stellar Tera type. Read our deep-dive on the mechanic, defensive vs offensive Tera, Tera Blast, banlist context, for the full picture.

Question 46

Is VGC really Bo3 now?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Since Regulation G (2024), all official VGC tournaments are best-of-three with sideboard rules. Game flow, matchup prep, and counter-team adaptation change significantly compared to Bo1. Our dedicated Bo3 strategy guide covers game-by-game decision-making, sideboarding patterns, lead diversification across games, and Tera reveal timing.

Question 47

Where do I find Pokékipe's long-form guides?

Accepted Answer

The /guides hub aggregates 50+ guides across five axes: eras (one per generation, plus Pokémon Champions), formats (every Smogon tier and every recent VGC regulation), mechanics (type chart, damage formula, Tera, Mega Evolution, Z-Moves, Dynamax, weather/terrain, status, speed), teambuilding (build from scratch, reading the meta, EV spreads, item economy, lead bringing in VGC), and competitive strategy (match prep, in-game decisions, Bo3, run a tournament, start competitive in 2026, Smogon tiering).

Question 48

Can I host my own tournament with Pokékipe?

Accepted Answer

Yes, Pokékipe ships a tournament creation engine. Single-elim, double-elim, Swiss, and round-robin brackets are supported. The engine handles seeding, check-in, match auto-report, dispute handling (host-resolve), audit trail, and standings publication. Free for any community size. Our run-a-tournament guide walks you through the full 12-step host workflow.

Question 49

Is Pokékipe affiliated with Smogon, Nintendo or The Pokémon Company?

Accepted Answer

Pokékipe is fully independent — no affiliation with Smogon, Pokémon Showdown, Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, Game Freak, or any tournament organizer. We consume publicly released data (Smogon's monthly chaos JSON, the Pokémon Showdown replay protocol, public tournament standings) and turn it into interactive analytics under our own editorial standards. Trademarks remain the property of their respective owners.

Question 50

How does Pokékipe differ from Pikalytics?

Accepted Answer

Pikalytics is a great usage-stats viewer focused on VGC. Pokékipe covers the same ground AND adds a Team Builder with auto-rated threat coverage, a Replay Analyzer, an opponent Scouting tool, a Damage Calculator, 50+ long-form guides, a 190+ term glossary, a competitive Timeline (suspect tests, VR updates, tournaments), 12 months of historical meta trends per format, and i18n into 10 languages. Pikalytics is a tool; Pokékipe is a hub.

Question 51

How does Pokékipe compare to Smogon University?

Accepted Answer

Smogon University is the canonical Smogon Pokémon authority — strategy dex entries, suspect tests, tier policy. Pokékipe is complementary: we ingest Smogon's public stats and render them in interactive dashboards with extras Smogon doesn't ship (Team Builder threat coverage, Replay Analyzer, opponent Scouting, multi-month meta trend charts, comparison tool, damage calculator). When you want to read Smogon's editorial set analyses, go to Smogon. When you want to query the data at scale or analyze your own matches, use Pokékipe.

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