As a long-time Pokémon fan, I’m so excited to see Nintendo finally stepping up and creating an official space for competitive battling with Pokémon Champions! It’s designed to be a more relaxed experience, but they’ve really shaken things up by changing a lot about the Pokémon, moves, abilities, and items we can use. It’s totally changing how people build teams and play, which is both a little scary and really exciting to watch!
While Champions has a dedicated player base, it still has some issues. Aside from the typical bugs and glitches that come with a new game, it’s made significant changes to established gameplay and currently lacks enough content, which has frustrated some competitive players. Here’s what needs to be improved to help Pokemon Champions truly succeed and become a lasting platform for competitive battling.
Add Missing Pokemon
You Can’t Catch ‘Em All If They Aren’t Even There
Pokemon Champions currently has a small selection of playable Pokemon, which is causing problems with the game’s competitive scene. When the game launched, only 186 Pokemon were available, and it didn’t include any legendary Pokemon. Plus, only Pikachu can evolve. This limited choice has led to a predictable competitive landscape, where a few Pokemon like Incineroar are used in almost every team, while many others aren’t very popular or effective.
Historically, Pokémon games have always had a power gap between strong and weak Pokémon, which led to the creation of tiers. However, the current lack of diversity in high-level competitive play is likely also due to the limited number of Pokémon available. This smaller selection also prevents more casual players from using their favorite Pokémon in battles – a major part of what makes Pokémon enjoyable. Furthermore, the absence of basic-form Pokémon makes it impossible to have specialized battles like Little Cup, which are popular in the competitive scene.
When there aren’t enough different Pokémon to choose from, teams tend to become very similar. Since Champions is designed as a game that will be updated over time, we can expect more Pokémon to be added eventually, and hopefully that’s the main focus for future updates.
Introducing More Items
Key Competitive Items Still Aren’t Included
The item list in Pokemon Champions currently features berries and commonly used items like Leftovers. However, several items that have been crucial in competitive battles for years are absent. Notably missing are Life Orb, Assault Vest, and Rocky Helmet. It’s also surprising to see items like Choice Specs and Choice Band excluded, particularly since Choice Scarf is included.
Some people argue that banning certain items would be good because it would make experienced players come up with new team strategies. However, with so few Pokemon and moves already being used competitively, item choices are actually less diverse than in past Pokemon games – most top teams end up using the same items.
Now that players have largely figured out the best strategies with the limited selection of items currently available – items like Choice Scarf, Focus Sash, and White Herb are now very common – adding more items and Mega Stones could help diversify the competitive scene. This would create more options for countering popular strategies and encourage more creative team compositions, preventing the top players from relying on the same few approaches.
Allow For Modification Of Individual Values
Expanding Tactical Options Will Lead To Longevity
In Pokémon games, a Pokémon’s strengths are determined by its Individual Values (IVs) and Effort Values (EVs). These IVs were originally set when you first caught a Pokémon or when it hatched from an egg. Players aiming for competitive battles usually want Pokémon with the highest possible IVs in all areas, so finding one with a perfect stat combination could take a while.
In Pokémon games starting with Generation 7, items like Bottle Caps helped players achieve perfect stats (IVs) for their Pokémon, but these items were rare and difficult to obtain. Pokémon Champions solves this problem by automatically giving every Pokémon the highest possible stats, so players don’t have to spend hours grinding to maximize their potential.
This new system has also impacted certain strategies, like those using Trick Room. Trick Room temporarily reverses the turn order, allowing slower Pokémon to move first, and it’s still a viable tactic in the current Pokémon Champions competitive scene, helping bulkier teams counter speedy strategies. However, it’s not commonly used. The change has also removed some other options, such as intentionally lowering a Pokémon’s Attack stat to avoid confusion or allowing for more diverse stat builds. Ideally, Champions would add a feature similar to the EV slider, letting players customize IVs and create even more varied and strategic teams.
Changes In Available Movesets
Bring Back Classic Moves To Foster A More Expansive Meta
Like other Pokemon games, each Pokemon in Pokemon Champions has a unique set of moves it can use. To make the new competitive format fair, the developers at The Pokemon Works have significantly adjusted how effective those moves are. This includes changing the power of many moves and how likely they are to inflict status conditions. As part of this rebalancing, some Pokemon have lost access to strong moves, while others have gained new options. However, these large-scale changes have created a few problems within the game.
When you transfer Pokémon from Pokémon HOME, some of their abilities might be removed. Pokémon with moves that are no longer allowed will have to learn new ones, and moves that have been weakened could make those Pokémon less effective in battles. This is especially concerning for Pokémon that were already weak or average, as they might become even less useful without any way to make up for the changes.
When Kangaskhan can’t use its signature moves, Seismic Toss and Power-up Punch, it becomes much less versatile. It also feels unfair to see underused Pokémon like Galarian Slowbro lose access to strong moves like Scald. Hopefully, these issues will be addressed in the future, particularly for Pokémon that aren’t currently popular in competitive battles.
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Reduce The VP Cost Of Changing Moves, Abilities, And Natures
Respeccing Is Way Too Expensive
As it stands, adjusting a Pokemon’s build is prohibitively expensive. Let’s break down some costs:
- 400 VP per item
- 2,000 VP per Mega Stone
- 2,500 VP per recruitment
- 2,000 VP to change all moves, ability, and nature (500 each for ability/nature, and 250 per move).
- 330 VP to add EVs
It costs 5,230 VP to fully customize a Pokémon – including recruiting it, changing its moves, ability, and nature, and adding EVs and items. This cost increases to 6,830 VP if the item you add is a Mega Stone.
Because Pokemon Champions relies heavily on chance-based unlocks, it encourages players to spend real money. However, the cost feels high considering the effort players put into creating strong teams and optimal strategies. Winning a match only earns a small amount of points, meaning it takes many victories – often more than 20 – to fully develop a single Pokemon, and that’s before accounting for adjustments to moves, abilities, and traits. Players who have already built strong Pokemon in Pokemon HOME won’t be as affected by these costs, but more casual players will likely struggle to keep up.
Lowering the price of all customization options would be great, but making move-swapping more affordable is especially important. Players will likely change their moves often, and the current high cost discourages trying out new strategies in a competitive scene that’s already become predictable.
Allow Custom Rulesets For Private Battle
Let Groups Try Out Their Crazy Ideas
Now that Pokemon Champions is the main platform for competitive Pokemon battles, it makes sense that it has its own unique rules. Both Ranked Singles and Doubles formats allow any Pokemon, item, or move, without restrictions. This is quite different from the established formats and tiers the Pokemon PvP community has used for years. Those older systems use different tiers to balance power, popularity, and even how evolved a Pokemon is, allowing a wider variety of Pokemon to be competitively viable.
Having separate competitive formats lets players try out different team ideas and Pokémon combinations that wouldn’t work well in an open, unrestricted environment. Currently, many players who enjoy building teams around their favorite Pokémon don’t have a realistic chance of winning against the strongest teams in the main Champions format, even if they play perfectly. Adding to the issue, the single battle rules limit players to only three Pokémon, unlike the six used in most other Pokémon games.
One easy fix would be to let players change the rules in Private Battles. They could choose which Pokémon are allowed, how many Pokémon to use, and even ban certain moves. This wouldn’t affect the official ranked battles, but it would give players a way to experiment with different Pokémon in a competitive environment. If Pokémon Champions wants to attract more casual players, adding this feature quickly would be a great way to make sure newcomers can immediately enjoy playing with their favorite Pokémon.
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2026-04-19 23:08