How the Pokémon numbers work

Champions rules the tools model

The Pokémon section covers ranked VGC Doubles under the current regulation, Regulation Set M-C (9 Sep 2026, 02:00 UTC to 2 Dec 2026, 01:59 UTC). Teams register up to six Pokémon and bring four. The rules that matter for the tools:

• Every Pokémon battles at level 50 with all IVs fixed at 31.
• Stat Points replace EVs (next section).
• Species Clause compares National Pokédex numbers, so two formes of one species can't share a team. Item Clause forbids duplicate held items, Mega Stones included.
• Mega Evolution is the only battle gimmick, once per battle. A team may register several Mega Stones but only one Pokémon Mega Evolves. There is no Terastallization, so Tera Types in pastes are ignored.
• Moves, items and abilities follow Champions' own balance changes, taken from Pokémon Showdown's Champions data and @smogon/calc's Champions generation, never from the mainline games.

Stat Points and pastes

Each Pokémon has 66 Stat Points to spend, at most 32 in one stat. A point adds one to the stat before the nature applies:

• HP = base + points + 75
• Other stats = floor((base + points + 20) × nature), where the nature gives ×1.1, ×1.0 or ×0.9

Pastes. Showdown's Champions formats keep the EVs: line and fill it with Stat Points, so Whetstone reads and writes that line as Stat Points. Older pastes from Scarlet and Violet carry real EVs. Each set is judged on its own: its line is treated as EVs when a stat in it is above 32 or the set totals more than 130, which no Stat Point spread comes near. That set is then converted the way Pokémon HOME converts a visiting Pokémon: 4 EVs buy the first point in a stat and every further 8 EVs buy one more, up to 32. A set between 67 and 130 points with nothing above 32 stays Stat Points and is flagged as over the 66-point budget, so one typo never rewrites the rest of the team.

Exports always write Stat Points. Level, IV and Tera lines from imported pastes are reported and dropped, since Champions fixes them.

Where the data comes from

A daily job collects the data, validates it and keeps the last good copy when a source fails. Each page credits the sources it shows.

• Pokémon Showdown (MIT): Pokédex, learnsets and mechanics data from Pokémon Showdown (MIT). Last fetched 18 Oct 2026, 14:03 UTC.
• Smogon usage stats : Ladder usage statistics from Smogon. Monthly aggregates, attributed; Smogon sets and analyses are linked, never copied. Last fetched 18 Oct 2026, 14:03 UTC.
• Limitless (Public API): Tournament results via the Limitless API (play.limitlesstcg.com); player names removed. Throttled below 50 requests per 5 minutes; only aggregates and anonymized teams are published. Last fetched 18 Oct 2026, 14:03 UTC.
• Pokémon Showdown replays : Head-to-head results aggregated from public Pokémon Showdown replays; player names removed. Public replay API, throttled; only aggregates are published. Last fetched 18 Oct 2026, 14:03 UTC.
• Pokémon Showdown sprites : Sprites: Pokémon Showdown gen5 sprite set (Smogon sprite project); Pokémon images © Nintendo, Creatures and GAME FREAK. Self-hosted WebP copies of the legal roster only, re-fetched when the roster changes; never hotlinked.
• @smogon/calc (MIT): Damage calculations by @smogon/calc (MIT). Last fetched 18 Oct 2026, 14:03 UTC.

Smogon's usage statistics describe Pokémon Showdown's ladder, not the in-game ladder, and are published once a month per rating cutoff. Limitless results are grassroots online tournaments with open team lists. Replay head-to-heads come from public best-of-three replays with open team sheets. Player names and handles are removed when the data is collected; only totals and anonymous team sheets are published.

Scores on Pokémon pages

Matchup lists use a score from 1 to 100 where 50 is neutral, always shown with its sample size (n) and source.

• Replay head-to-head ("beats it in replays", "wins together"). For each pair, the win rate is compared with what both Pokémon's overall results predict, shrunk toward that expectation, and turned into an effect Δ in percentage points. Score = 50 + 50 × tanh(Δ / 4 pp). Pairs with fewer than 15 games are hidden, 15–29 games are greyed, and a pair is only listed when n ≥ 50 and |Δ| ≥ 1.5 pp.
• Ladder checks. Smogon reports how often one Pokémon KOs or forces out another when they meet (p) and its spread (sd). Score = 100 × (p − 2 × sd), a cautious reading that favours well-sampled checks. Smogon rows under 20 encounters are dropped.
• Common teammates. Score = 50 + 50 × tanh(ln(lift)), where lift is how much more often the partner appears on this Pokémon's teams than on teams overall. 50 means "paired exactly as often as its popularity predicts"; 1.25× is about 61 and 2× about 80.

Tier list

Tiers follow how often a Pokémon is brought, in fixed bands so a Pokémon only moves when its own numbers move:

• S: 20% or more of teams
• A: 10% to under 20% of teams
• B: 5% to under 10% of teams
• C: 2% to under 5% of teams
• D: under 2% of teams

A tournament win rate adjusts the usage figure only when its 95% Wilson interval lies entirely above or below 50%: half the distance from 50% to the nearer end of the interval is added or subtracted, in points. Fewer than 30 games add nothing, and fewer than 30 teams behind the usage figure mark the Pokémon as early data instead of giving it a tier.

Speed tiers

Speed tiers list each top Pokémon's most common spread plus its fastest (+Speed nature, 32 points), uninvested and slowest (−Speed nature, 0 points) values. Stat stages apply first. Tailwind (×2), Choice Scarf (×1.5) and Iron Ball (×0.5) are then combined into one multiplier and rounded once, as the simulator does (a Scarf user under Tailwind gets exactly ×3), and paralysis halves the result last. Under Trick Room the slowest Pokémon moves first. Equal speeds move in random order.

Comparisons with "the most used Pokémon" (a Pokémon page's speed line, the builder's speed panel and threat list, team preview) take the top 50 by ladder usage, not the 50 fastest, each at its most common spread and item: Choice Scarf counts when it is that Pokémon's most used item, and the Speed is then shown with "(Scarf)".

Team builder checks

• Legality: roster, Mega formes and items allowed in the regulation; Species and Item Clause; abilities the species can have; moves in its Champions learnset; Stat Point limits; at least four Pokémon (Showdown asks for six); a note when more than one Mega Stone is registered.
• Weaknesses: each attacking type against each Pokémon's typing (its Mega typing when holding the stone). Abilities that change a matchup, such as Levitate or Thick Fat, are applied and marked. A type is flagged when it hits two or more of the team and none of them resists it.
• Coverage: the best multiplier the team's damaging moves reach against each type, counting abilities that change Normal moves' type.
• Threats: each of the most used Pokémon's common set (most used item, ability, spread and moves) is run through the damage calc against every member, in Doubles with no field effects. A KO the calc rates under 50% likely counts one hit later. Pressure = one-hit KOs + 0.4 × two-hit KOs. An "answer" is a member that KOs it back in two hits. A set is flagged when it pressures two or more members and has no answer.

Common sets stand in for real opponents and are labelled as such: they are the most used choices, not anyone's actual team.

Damage calc

Damage comes from @smogon/calc's Champions generation, which models Stat Points and Champions' move and item changes. It runs in a background worker that the page downloads the first time it calculates. Doubles is the default: moves that hit both foes do 0.75× damage. Weather, terrain, screens, Helping Hand, Friend Guard, stat changes, status and current HP are supported. Results give the damage range as a share of the target's HP and the chance to KO.

Team preview assistant

The assistant scores each of your six with the same engine as the Heroes of the Storm draft tool. Evidence becomes signals on one scale (1.0 is roughly a 4-point win-rate edge), each signal keeps the reason behind it, and the chosen weights decide how much each kind of evidence counts.

• Replays: replay head-to-head effects between your Pokémon and theirs, weighted by how likely each of theirs is to be brought; pairs under 15 games are ignored and thin pairs count half. A reason only says a Pokémon wins more or less often when the pair passes the same gates as the Pokémon pages (n ≥ 50 and |Δ| ≥ 1.5 pp); weaker pairs keep their small weight and are described as "no clear edge yet".
• Types: whether your moves hit theirs super-effectively and whether their typings threaten yours.
• Speed: how much of their likely team you outspeed, at Speed in battle (Choice Scarf included), plus Tailwind or Trick Room when the speed race favours them, and Intimidate against several physical attackers. A Pokémon holding its Mega Stone still brings its registered ability in, so its Intimidate counts; damage and types use the Mega's ability.
• Damage: one- and two-hit KOs from the damage calc, in both directions.
• Partners: replay results of your Pokémon brought together, worded by the same gates.

Their likely four. Without bring-rate data, each of their Pokémon's chance is proportional to its ladder usage, scaled so the six chances add up to four, with none above 100% (a capped Pokémon's excess goes to the others). Pokémon without usage data count as the average of the rest. Unless you paste their team sheet, each is assumed to run its most common set.

Bring four and lead two. Every four-Pokémon combination is scored as the sum of its members' scores plus partner results, minus a penalty when three of the four share a weakness to one of their types. The lead pair is the best-scoring pair of those four with a bonus for Fake Out, turn-one speed control, redirection, moves that hit both foes, and Intimidate on the way in when they bring two or more physical attackers. The display score is 50 + 50 × tanh(total), from 0 to 100.

It can't see their actual sets, items or Stat Points, your play style or the in-game ladder. Use it as a second opinion and check the reasons it gives.

Freshness and new regulations

Every page shows how old its data is. When a new regulation starts, Smogon has no usage for it until its first monthly release, so the pages show the legal roster and tournament data and say the ladder numbers are warming up. The regulation banner counts down to the published end time in UTC.

Licences and disclaimers

Pokédex and mechanics data comes from Pokémon Showdown and damage from @smogon/calc, both MIT licensed. Usage statistics are Smogon's, credited on every page that shows them. Smogon's written sets and analyses, Pikalytics and community wikis are linked, never copied. Tournament data comes from the public Limitless API, requested slowly, and only aggregates are published.

Whetstone is an unofficial, non-commercial fan project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored or approved by Nintendo, Creatures Inc., GAME FREAK inc. or The Pokémon Company. Pokémon and Pokémon character names are trademarks of Nintendo, Creatures Inc., GAME FREAK inc. and The Pokémon Company, used here for identification only. See also the Pokémon home and the site-wide credits.