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Champions Pokémon Champions General Speculation & Discussion

This thread contains discussion related to Pokémon Champions
falinksedin

falinksedin

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Think we have enough info about Champions now to start talking about it and didn't see any existing threads for it (if this is better suited to VGC sub-forum, apologies!)
  • April release on Switch, "later" for phones
  • Worlds 2026 played on it
  • All gimmicks, starting with a Megas format
  • EVs simplified to just add stat points directly
  • Building mons paid for via a "VP" in-game currency
  • Some sort of loose story with NPC characters?

Opening cutscene is here: YouTube
And the website is here: Pokémon Champions

We also know the first three abilities of the ZA Megas (aside from the obvious Huge Power Starmie):
Delphox gets Levitate (kind of a nerf since it means it can't use eforce, and Chesnaught and Greninja keep Bulletproof and Protean respectively

Also, the Japanese site seems to suggest the game will have both a paid membership system and a battle pass :/
 
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falinksedin said:
Think we have enough info about Champions now to start talking about it and didn't see any existing threads for it (if this is better suited to VGC sub-forum, apologies!)
  • April release on Switch, "later" for phones
  • Worlds 2026 played on it
  • All gimmicks, starting with a Megas format
  • EVs simplified to just add stat points directly
  • Building mons paid for via a "VP" in-game currency
  • Some sort of loose story with NPC characters?

Opening cutscene is here: - YouTube
And the website is here: Pokémon Champions

We also know the first three abilities of the ZA Megas (aside from the obvious Huge Power Starmie):
Delphox gets Levitate (kind of a nerf since it means it can't use eforce, and Chesnaught and Greninja keep Bulletproof and Protean respectively

Also, the Japanese site seems to suggest the game will have both a paid membership system and a battle pass :/
Click to expand...
So, is the game a subscription thing on top of Nintendo Online?
 
Kallyle said:
So, is the game a subscription thing on top of Nintendo Online?
Click to expand...
It seems like it'll be F2P, but there'll be a membership that gives you access to more stuff. A bit like MMOs I guess.

I also don't know if they'd require NSO. Given that it'll be on phones, if they required NSO to play on the Switch, everyone would just play on mobile instead, so they'd be shooting themselves in the foot a bit. Wouldn't put it past them, though.
 
Do you think we could have another rancher helping the player at the Roster Ranch instead of Kitt? I really disliked her cowgirl design.
 
falinksedin said:
I also don't know if they'd require NSO. Given that it'll be on phones, if they required NSO to play on the Switch, everyone would just play on mobile instead, so they'd be shooting themselves in the foot a bit. Wouldn't put it past them, though.
Click to expand...
Worst case scenario: the phone version also requires Nintendo Online.
 
Pokemon unite does not require an online subscription so i'd be INCREDIBLY surprised if champions did, lol. I hope it gets more people into vgc!! we need that board more active hahahaha
 
nuvematown said:
I hope it gets more people into vgc!!
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The stuff that came out on Pokemon day has left me a little apprehensive about how the F2P experience is gonna be (I get the vibe it could be a classic GaaS thing of making the free to play experience awful and grindy to push people towards paying), which is such a shame because the potential it had to lower the barrier to entry of VGC was one of the main reasons I was excited about Champs. But if someone who's never touched VGC before's first impression is having to spend a week rerolling the mons at gacha ranch and then another week grinding just to get enough points to build a team (before promptly being told they need to pay for more box space) I can't see them sticking around. Fingers crossed it's not as bad as it looked.
 
falinksedin said:
The stuff that came out on Pokemon day has left me a little apprehensive about how the F2P experience is gonna be (I get the vibe it could be a classic GaaS thing of making the free to play experience awful and grindy to push people towards paying), which is such a shame because the potential it had to lower the barrier to entry of VGC was one of the main reasons I was excited about Champs. But if someone who's never touched VGC before's first impression is having to spend a week rerolling the mons at gacha ranch and then another week grinding just to get enough points to build a team (before promptly being told they need to pay for more box space) I can't see them sticking around. Fingers crossed it's not as bad as it looked.
Click to expand...
i didn't really pay attention to any of the info that came out after the presents, so i have no idea about any of that stuff hahaha. all i remember is the website saying that there wouldn't be any sort of paid currency or anything like that? idk, lmao
 
nuvematown said:
i didn't really pay attention to any of the info that came out after the presents, so i have no idea about any of that stuff hahaha. all i remember is the website saying that there wouldn't be any sort of paid currency or anything like that? idk, lmao
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There's no paid currency, but in last month's trailer/screenshots (I forget specifically where), the cost of recruiting was 2.5x what it was in previous trailers, and there was a new third option to recruit a mon with a special ticket, which is seemingly available in the paid battle pass. So it kinda gives the impression they're making the F2P experience worse to push people towards buying the battle pass (while still keeping the "no paid currency" thing true by technicality), which sucks.

All of this came out of the Japanese twitter accounts; none of it was in the presents or on any English-speaking socials for some reason.
 
I'm honestly planning to go on the game by buying just the starter pack. Since the beginning my goal with this game was to just having online battles with random people using my favorite Pokemon, I never planned to get into competitive battling, I just want to have fun with Pokemon. I was gonna pay just a single fee at the beginning to speed up the process and that's it, the Starter Pack will fit the ticket well I think (I don't really plan to get more than 50 Pokemon for this... well, I don't even know I will even get to 40 for that matter... so the whole Box space thing is none of my concern). As long I don't have to pay fees to even play online (of course not counting the NSO one which is necessary lol) I think I'll be fine.

I just want to have something to do with Pokemon again. Playing Fire Red and Pokopia was nice, but since I've decided to take the distances from the anime very soon, I want to have more stuff to enjoy (I also hope Emerald gets a port, and that Wind/Wave is coming early next year...).
 
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I'm kind of in the opposite boat, I've been playing a ton of Pokemon lately and had anticipated that continuing with Champions, but now I'm not so sure. Hopefully I'm just being a doomer and the F2P experience isn't totally awful, but if it is now I'm thinking that wouldn't be so bad cos I can make the time to work through my steam backlog lol
 
falinksedin said:
I'm kind of in the opposite boat, I've been playing a ton of Pokemon lately and had anticipated that continuing with Champions, but now I'm not so sure. Hopefully I'm just being a doomer and the F2P experience isn't totally awful, but if it is now I'm thinking that wouldn't be so bad cos I can make the time to work through my steam backlog lol
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To be fair, if you have played a lot of Pokemon, and consequentially you have already many Pokemon to use, unless you don't have Home you won't have any problem at all. I have to start from scratch as I don't even have Home, and even if I did I played very few Pokemon games on Switch (Legend Arceus and Fire Red. I just played the storylines, never built Pokemon for competitive), and the Pokemon I have in them quite leave to desire. So as a matter of fact I have more to do than you, unless you don't use Home either...
 
I wasn't really making a comparison, just talking about my personal inclination (or lack thereof) to play the game lol. Regardless, I'm not sure how much help having existing vgc teams in SV will be, since we're moving to a completely different format. It's unlikely most Reg F/I mons (maybe outside of fairly evergreen support stuff) will be particularly meta-relevant (if they're even in the game) in a megas format whose eligible mons are likely based on the ZA dex.
 
Game launches April 8, and there's a new trailer revealing the ZA starter mega abiilities

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
youtu.be youtu.be

Emboar gets mold breaker, feraligatr gets "dragonize", which from the name might be a galvanize/refrigerate/pixelate equivalent, and meganium gets "mega sol", which seems from the footage like it might skip the charge turn on solar beam?
 
I was looking to see if Feraligatr would benefit from Pixelate-esque ability and I suppose STAB Slash would be fun to use lol. Maybe Body Slam and Facade would be useful too...

Microtransactions being confirmed bums me out though, although they've been hinting at them for a bit now. :sadsola:
 
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As a lifelong Chikorita fan this is a very momentous day

staticmoth said:
I was looking to see if Feraligatr would benefit from Pixelate-esque ability and I suppose STAB Slash would be fun to use lol. Maybe Body Slam and Facade would be useful too...
Click to expand...

Gatr's definitely been done a bit dirty. Apparently he gets thrash which will just equate to slightly better outrage, but other than that facade is the only decent normal move and he can't really do much with that since he cant hold the flame orb
 
staticmoth said:
I was looking to see if Feraligatr would benefit from Pixelate-esque ability and I suppose STAB Slash would be fun to use lol. Maybe Body Slam and Facade would be useful too...

Microtransactions being confirmed bums me out though, although they've been hinting at them for a bit now. :sadsola:
Click to expand...
I'm still gonna try to make it count. I have no Pokemon games on Switch aside of Arceus and FR, and I also don't have Home. So I will have to do things on my own. But regardless, my only goal with this game was to have fun using my favorite Pokemon, not to battle competitively. Might be a lot longer than I thought to have all the Pokemon I want in their best shape, but as long I still can do it without being forced to spend much (again: wanted to pay a single fee at the beginning, which I'll go with the Starter Pack), I'll be fine.
 
So apparently VP are not buyable, you can only earn them via battles. The only things you can spend money on are the Starter Pack and the Battle Passes, by what I understand. No shortcuts for people who don't have other Pokemon games even if you wanted to pay for them. Still want to give it a shot, it's not like I have anything to lose.
 
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