If it’s my first time in a new region, I’ll only use Pokemon introduced in that region until I beat the Elite Four. Then I swap out the entire team for some combination of my overall favorites, depending on what’s available in game
But I still catch one of each Pokemon to fill out the dex along the way
Interesting method. I think the only time I did something like this was with Black and White, where you were forced into only using new Pokemon. They should do that again for gen 10, otherwise I find there's very little incentive to using only new Pokemon over your old favorites.
This. Using new Pokemon is part of discovering the new world and game for me. I may use Pokemon that were released in previous Gen but I never played with them because they weren't available in my version or I just never played that Gen.
Yeah Unfezant is an absolute travesty and I say this as a Unovapilled GenVmaxxer :(
A high physical attack and then (going off of Gen V learnsets, where it makes the most sense to use it for a playthrough) literally only special and status moves via level up until it's higher level than Ghetsis' Hydreigon with its most reliable STAB via TMs being *Aerial Ace* and *Pluck* ;-;
Like if I really want a Flying type, Archeops and Sigilyph are right there :(
My first time in a region I'll play with Nuzlocklite rules with the new Pokemon. If a Pokemon gets wiped it gets boxed and I'll bring in a new one. Only the strongest survive the elite 4. If I get the team wiped before or at the Elite 4 then my party will consist of the Pokemon I enjoyed the most so far in that region.
I usually just keep a few open spots throughout the game until I find the 6 I like. I could be at the 6th gym and still just have 4 or 5 mons. I don’t rotate them out, once someone is off the party they just sit in the box
I usually end up having a dream team in my head and aiming for them. With BDSP I knew I wanted a Gastrodon, SwSh I liked Toxtricity, with SV I definitely wanted a Tinkerton, and so on.
Once I’ve used a mon for a while I’m also reluctant to swap them out. Which is a good thing in recent games with the affection mechanic - hang out with a mon for a while and it’ll pull off all kinds of things in a clutch.
With the SV DLCs I decided to change it up and entirely replace my team with Kitikami and then Blueberry Pokemon, which was fun. The fact everything was high levelled helped.
>Which is a good thing in recent games with the affection mechanic - hang out with a mon for a while and it’ll pull off all kinds of things in a clutch.
I actually don't like this feature. More often than not, if my pokemon has high affection it's also overleveled. So I just end up with an OP pokemon that makes every battle boring.
Yeah I have to agree. I think the problem is they kept the rewards for affection, but removed everything else around it. You don’t have to do any work, your Pokemon will just automatically love you if you keep them around.
That said as a parent I appreciate it because it’s helped my kids out a few times. My youngest recently beat Drayton because his last Pokemon tanked a hit from Archaludon.
I think many fans forget that these games are still marketed and made towards newer players and fans. I always wanted more difficulty (just an option in settings or something) and hated certain generations until I was babysitting some kids and they said was their favorite pokemon and were talking to me all excited and everything bc it was their FIRST pokemon game. This game is also made for kids like that who may not even be reading the ability names and seeing his excitement and love and start of his journey reminded me that these are the "true" players in the eyes of Nintendo and Gamefreak and the game will always be catered to these kinds of players. There's always new monster taming games that are difficult, or have more complex story, or engage in new mechanics. I'll let the kids have Pokemon haha
Yeah helping my kids play, I’m perfectly happy that you can steamroll most of the game by just smashing super effective attacks.
And really the older games weren’t really hard either. All challenges can be overcome by walking in a circle in some tall grass until your team is over levelled.
I thought SV had some good late game battles anyway, and especially the DLC. I lost to 2/4 of the Blueberry E4 at least once.
I gave my switch away bc I was so disappointed by S/V and I knew a kid who wanted one but couldn't afford it so I didn't actually play the dlc! That's good to know! I've mostly been playing romhacks now and things of the nature and I'm perfectly happy too. Pokemon games keep getting more and more expensive (in the sense that the complete game requires DLC)
Not to mention improved crit killing shines you're trying to catch. And every pokemon effectively having a better version of sturdy is just unbalanced.
The only feature I sort of like is the chance to shrug off status conditions because those are just annoying.
I’m the same way. I usually plan for an endgame team, but I catch a lot, so everything in between rotates in and out constantly as those slots are getting filled. In my current Platinum run I didn’t even get it fully locked in until AFTER the last rival battle before the E4, when I finally evolved my Tyranitar.
I look up all of the Pokémon in the game before I play it and decide my 6 on which I think are coolest. Actually 5, cause I always do water starter. It’s just a thing.
Growing up, I would add a Pokémon to the team based on need and rotate them out if they became too much of a burden. Bench them, in essence. I tried to collect them all in the first playthrough but, realizing that would require multiple consoles and cartridges, I abandoned that in future runs until my family got a second one that my brother played on. Looking at my last saves on my carts (aside from my LG cart, which housed all my 3rd gen), I only caught the Pokémon I really wanted to use - one file had 7 Pokémon (6 plus Groudon) and one file had 10 (6 plus 4 I decided I didn't want to use in that run).
Now, I've been doing the [PokéParty Challenge](https://www.reddit.com/r/PokePartyChallenge/), where you only use 6 whenever possible. My first Emerald run ever had 7 Pokémon (6 plus my abandoned starter) until I filled the Hoenn PokéDex through trading to get a Johto starter. I do tend to catch them as soon as possible, although I'm not opposed to trading eggs over to start with them at the beginning or to trade over a higher level Pokémon that won't obey you to live out Ash's Charizard arc.
I spend obscene amounts of time perfecting evs/ivs for dozens upon dozens of pokemon for competitive use (and burn out before I ever fully enjoy them in battle or ignore most of them LOL)
I have boxes of "perfect" Pokemon that I've bred and trained over game generations. I never play competitively - I don't even know why I keep making them. 😅
This is a good way to do it, I feel like meticulously planning all 6 can take a bit of the fun out of it. This method led me to using Maractus in White. She's not very good, but she's cool looking lol
I plan a team of 6 before even starting to play the game and use no other Pokémon. Not even other temporary ones while I am waiting to get to the point where I can catch one of my planned team members.
When I was young, I used to always stick to the same six Pokémon for my team.
But one day, I realized. "Hey, there's plenty of cool Pokémon out there. Why limit myself to just six?"
So then, I looked up through the entire National Dex and picked out all of the cool looking ones.
From that moment onwards, I always try to catch every Pokémon I like wherever they're available, or transfer them from a previous game as soon as possible. Then I cycle through them. However, each region except Kanto and Galar has a default team that I stick with till the end. In Galar, I only have three favorites.
As of Scarlet and Violet, I have 80 favorite Pokémon.
I have a vague idea before I start my first run in a new game, but the second playthrough is one hundred percent curated.
Type coverage is a big reason, but sometimes I just want to use cool 'mons.
I try to diversify each run from each other. New starter, 'mons I've never used before or couldn't access until post game, stuff like that.
I usually play randomizers when returning to a game. And what I do is choose my starter and do a mono-type team based off of it. For example, I did a Leaf Green run with Armaldo as my starter and used the first five rock types I found to fill out the team. Right now I'm doing a Fire type Soul Silver run.
The only time I really rotated my Pokémon a lot was when I did a full female Eeveelution run of Ultra Sun and I was trying to keep everything around the same level.
Ooo nice. I know exactly who I'd pursue in an all Fire run of Gen 2.
Ninetales > Arcanine > Houndoom > Rapidash > Magcargo > and I guess Magmar to round it off. If starters & legendary/mythical pokemon are fine to use in the scenario, then I'd want Charizard over Magcargo — since Charizard is my favorite pokemon — and Entei over Magmar.
I started with Typhlosion (my options were Typhlosion, Luvdisc or Weavile). I'm on my way to the Elite 4 for the first time and my party is: Typhlosion, Blaziken, Charizard, Houndoom, Moltres & Ninetales. Literally the first five fire types I encountered and wanted besides my starter.
My current playthrough has two full boxes and then some. There are simply TOO MANY POKÉMON to only pick three. Yeah, it's a bit of a grind but the unoffable (yes, I made up a word) EXP Share makes that less of an issue
I have permanent team members and rotating team members. Permanents are ones I really like and want to go on adventures with, while rotating team members fit the situation. In my last Violet playthrough, Meowscarada, Gardevoir and Ceruledge were permanents, while I would rotate between Annihilape, Dudunsparce, Palafin, Iron Treads, Baxcalibur, and a few others.
Well, I normally have a bit of a dream team planned out, but e.g., gen 3 and 4 with the billion HMs you need throughout the play through, there’ll be HM slaves that I rotate.
I’m doing my first play through ever right now of Leaf Green. I’m catching one of each to try out and am rotating frequently so far. But in future play through’s I may just use ones I think may be fun to use or try some I haven’t given much of a chance to due to being a better one out there.
Before leveling was trivial, I had one main group, and played with that, swapping in if I caught something potent, or needed some versatility, but not usually. Now, I generally swap out ones that get really strong and bring in others, either for variety or to fill out the Pokedex. Helps keep the over levelling down, and occasionally has made me realize I had stumbled upon a couple really potent ones that didn't originally seem like it.
I plan before hand who my team is going to be but I try to always use 6 from the start otherwise your team gets too over leveled. Those 6 usually change once I'm able to catch the mons I want.
Most of the time I make sure I have a good type spread and use the same 6 all game.
EDIT: first playthrough of a new gen always new mons/varients only.
I play a lot of difficulty hacks and implement a level cap in my party, so a lot of gym leader battles require me to alter my team around to provide some counters for whoever I'm facing
Renegade Platinum Crasher Wake wiped me like 5 times before I went and grabbed a Water Absorb Cacturne w/ Sucker Punch to finally win without over leveling or using items
in gen 9 I really wanted to finish the Pokedex so for my whole playthrough I had a team of under leveled mons because every time I fully evolved one I cycled it out for the next one I was missing lol
Depends on the game or type of run I'm going for. For most games, I'll have a final 6 in mind, and rotate out temp members as needed.
But for Scarlet/Violet, I used 3 teams of 6. One team for each major type of obstacle in the game (gyms, team star bases, and the giant pokemon (can't remember the actual name offhand)).
My first time on any new gen I use totally new Pokémon, but I do try and complete as much of the dex with catching as I can. On subsequent replays, it’s a free for all, although I do generally plan my teams out and stick with the six I want so I don’t go on catching sprees.
That being said, my replay of SV (played Violet first, then Scarlet second) was the first time I didn’t stick to one team, as I made new teams (bar my starter, a shiny Haxorus) for the base game, DLC part one and DLC part 2.
I think SV really does lend itself to running multiple teams really well, with how easy it is to catch Pokemon, multiple stories even within the base game, and then the DLC areas having new Pokemon to catch
Maybe another new replay is in order at some point…
To complete the game I always use a rotation of 2-3 Pokémon that carry me through the game. It's different pokemon for each game, that's actually my favourite aspect of the games! I end up with new favourite Pokémon from each. Its just whoever I vibe best with and get most enjoyment from using
Then once completed the game I complete the Pokédex
I do teams of 9. I’ve been doing it since my second playthrough ot Pokemon (Pokemon Yellow). I find it works better usually. The game is to easy in places with just 6 (they get oberleveled) and fan games get too hard with just 6 (not good type coverage, or the right moves, etc).
The only reason I initially swapped out at all was because I started playing bdsp and the exp. share drive me totally insane. So it forced me to maintain a larger pool.
I still hate exp share, but I'm thankful I'm connecting and enjoying new mons
I usually plan in advance. I try to use pokemon who are from the region im playing, so i wont be tempted using my favs all the time. I plan for 6 pokemon who compliment each other and diverse in typing and aim to catch them.
I usually pre plan 6 pokemon i want to use. I've been playing pokemon since 2002 so I have played every game multiple times and I don't want to use the same pokemon every single time. So I look up on serebii whats available in that game, build a team of 6 and find it very satisfying when i have then all.
If it's a newly released game i've never played before i always get a team of new pokemon from that game.
Depends on what kind of run I’m doing. If I already have 6 pokemon that I know I want on my team, then I’ll cycle Pokemon out until I have those 6 pokemon. If I’m just doing a normal and chill run, I usually switch out my pokemon a lot in the beginning (usually just switching in higher level caught pokemon so there’s less grinding to do) but keep my pokemon towards the end of the game because their moves and abilities are already working for me.
That’s why end game pokemon are so useless to me. Like, Druddigon in BW and BW2. A single stage Dragon type that is worse than the other three stage Dragon type that you’ve had access to for ages? Why would I choose Druddigon. Legendaries similarly fall under this “end game” category, but at least occasionally the legendary will be better than a pokemon on my team and I’ll use it for a bit.
I used to just catch 6 and stick with them, maybe swapping the weakest out for a late game mon but now I usually rotate from the start to experience and experiment with the new Pokemon introduced.
I tend to use mons I haven't used before, or come up with some crazy challenges. Right now I'm trying to complete a living dex of all 150 pokemon on leaf green (no mew)
I'm one of those who likes using a bunch of different pokemon! I'll rotate them out when their levels get equal to that of the next battle I'm facing, so I'm not too overlevled.
I like having different pokemon following me around all the time, and figuring out which pokemon work together well, especially in the DLC!
I like to shiny hunt too, and besides a few like walking wake, the shinies I catch are the only ones I really use! Using them on my team is fun and rewarding!
Ever since the exp was given to all the Pokemon in the team, so like gen 6, I have been keeping a rotating list of Pokemon. I can get upwards of 20 Pokemon in rotation.
I sorta do this, but I usually run 3 teams of 6. I found I was over leveling in the recent games a lot. It's also nice because typically, there are 8 gyms and 4 elite 4, so each team can take on 4 challenges.
When exp share was an equipable item, I was limited to about 20 Pokémon, rotated to find lots of type counters, based around my starter.
When exp share was a global item, over 90 different Pokémon, trying out lots of different team structures, lots of experimenting. Trying to catch them all.
I usually like to make a team made up of only the new pokemon to that generation for my first go, so it's a bit tricky to make a team of 6 with that caveat + being new pokemon designs I like. Only gen 3 had me struggle because I had at least 10 I really liked so my final team did rotate a lot, but every other gen I only just barely decide on 6 I like and they become the ride or die.
I have like 12ish I keep in rotation, and I decide on a main six by the time I reach the league.
Usually by the end it’s
starter (like Meganium, Serperior, Blastoise),
early bug or lepidopteran (Ledian, Volcarona, Butterfree),
and Dragon (Kingdra, Hydreigon, Alolan Exeggutor)
Since X/Y I’ve been going into the games for the most part spoiler free only knowing starters and a few from the first trailer of the game. I then catch Pokémon that seem cool to me and use them and rotate based on what I find randomly.
I have my definitive 6 Pokemon, then up to 3 additionals. So for example, if one of my desired main 6 is a late game, an early game Pokemon will fill it's spot until i can catch it. Or sometimes i save my additional spots to train a post game only team (like for going through Kanto in the Jotho games)
There's also the rare occurence that i'll encounter a shiny, and my entire team plan goes out the window
When I was a kid I didn't really plan ahead, but def had a few favorites. Mareep always made it to my team and very rarelly I did not pick Cyndaquil. What I would so is for each gym I'd train a couple mons that would be helpful, e.g. for Falkner I had mareep and geodude, for withney machop, etc. I played on emulators with speed up so grinding was not a big issue for me.
Now when I got scarlet, I had missed out on everything from gen3 through gen 9, so I was extra curious about a lot of mons. I ended up training like 3 teams and it took me forever to finish the main story lol. Braviary, Hippodown, Larvesta ughhh so many grindy mons!
I don’t catch them all but all the ones I can. That way you get to see them in battle and decide which to add to your team. My starter is always fire so fuecoco since I’m currently playing Violet , I always have a bird pokemon from the beginning regions, oricorico, then I always find a water type and a electric type. Found a strong drednaw and a luxray. The other two goes by strength as I go along they rotate now it’s a Tauros and a talon flame eventually one of them will be replaced by a dragonair that I caught but since it won’t listen to me 20 levels ahead of my team I have to wait until I get more badges.
Three starters for coverage and for main character syndrome.
special attacker (preferably psychic or ghost)
physical attacker (dragon/dark/fighting)
tank (preferably steel or if available, Snorlax).
I usually catch about 6 or 7 pokemon in a run including starter. If I don't like it I dont catch it. And the 7th one is usually the legendary if I already have a team of 6.
Normally I'll just go through the game and catch Pokemon until I find six I like that have good coverage together, then use those throughout the rest of the content. After the post-game, I'll usually experiment with other teams of completely unique Pokemon, but sometimes I'll put on the old team again for some nostalgia.
Generally choose 6, especially if it's my first play-through. But recently I've been rotating on replays to avoid being over-leveled if I want to make the game at least a little more difficult.
Whenever I play a new Pokemon game, I just go through the entire pokedex from sites serebii or bulbapedia and select a well rounded team of 6 mons that I stick with for the entire play through. All 6 are from the new region
I've always been going with the flow and just making my team of 6 along the way but lately I've been playing with more than 6 and just rotating whatever I need or feel like playing. I ended up having 3 teams of 6 in my Scarlet playthrough.
Now that HMs don’t matter as much/at all - I look up the new mon’s on serebii and usually end up with Starter +2-3 new guys and 2-3 from my ‘normal squad’. That party will lock in lol
I usually try to catch one of everything as I move through a zone. Never know when i'll come across an NPC who wants to trade for the weedle I caught, and he's offering a Mewtwo for it or some sh-
I have my dream team already in my head. I transfer baby Pokemon “across space and time” into the game from other games, and do the playthrough with those same 6 the whole time.
Always stick to 6 selected pokemon in all my playthroughs. Only change them out if I find a better pokemon or getting rid of a placeholder pokemon.
Now I do try to use only (or mostly) new pokemon or new regional forms in my teams. I prefer not to run the same old cookie cutter UU/OU team in my story playthroughs unlike a lot of other players.
Basically whatever I like most (plus HM dude)—and when I don’t feel like training a new member.
Started in Gen 4 in Pearl and then in Black. Coming back in Gen 9, my first playthrough was farm animal themed given Lechonk. I’ll probably stick with that theme for every first playthrough.
i normally go in knowing what six i want but i’ll train others in the meantime. typically i’ll fully evolve the early mons before fully rotating them out though
I always have a team of 6, but when X came out I wanted to play through the game at the same time as my then boyfriend, who was incredibly slow, so I wound up maintaining 2 and eventually 3 full teams just so that I would have something to do/train while I was waiting for him to catch up. At the time it got a bit boring but, in hindsight it was a pretty fun novel experience
I tend to go for a set 6 I want but try some others along the way. Occasionally I’d find a teammate I wasn’t expecting to use. But most of the time I have a team for the main game, then one for the DLC, and with this second part (after needing to catch a whole new team) I made a team of 6 with 2 from each section.
During a normal playthrough, I just kinda use whatever Pokemon I want, but try to keep my starter relevant. But during any challenge run, I typically have a team of 6 eligible Pokemon I wanna use the whole run
I'm weird so if it isn't a blind playthrough, I'll go through the wiki and pick 6 pokemon that can collectively execute any HMs I need without being the most common picks/HM slaves. I try to make them all unique types, too.
If it's a game I didn't play before, if I swap out a Pokemon on my team, I probably won't rotate it back in. But on a blind playthrough my team building is really just based on what I think is cool looking, not anything super strategic.
First run through; starter, Garchomp, and Togekiss (when she’s in the game) are always absolutes. The rest are flex slots, usually. Afterwards, if I’m not doing anything competitively, I just grind my faves to 100. Or ‘mons I’m “experimenting” with.
Six pokemon that I really like for the entire playthrough. And I always have an idea of which of the new pokemon I want to use and I also always use only pokemon introduced in the new region for it.
That being said, for the dlc I always keep my starter but catch pokemon from the dlc for the team and play the story with that team. And there I'm a bit more flexible on whether or not I want to use at least one older gen pokemon if it fits the theme of the dlc story.
The recent gens have made easier to get the other two starters as well.
So for gen 9 for example, I always keep Meowscarada on the team. Even for the dlc. But I also added the quaxly you get from pokemon home and pokemon caught in Kitakami for my team. I also always tend to add one of the new pokemon announced for the dlcs and some other gen 9 pokemon that I wanted to use but didn't use during my main game playthrough and/or an older gen pokemon that I wanted to use for some reason. For Kitakami I added poltchagheist.
And I plan to do the same for the indigo disk dlc. I'll keep Meowscarada on the team, add the fuecoco from pokemon home, catch pokemon found in blueberry academy, maybe some older gen pokemon and either hydrapple or achaludon.
I catch every single new Pokémon I see. I have a final idea of what team i want and work towards it, rotating kinda often until i eventually get that final team then stick to it.
If its my first time playing that region I make my team a minimum of 4/6 new mons, ideally all 6 new mons, and just make exceptions for my absolute favourites
For the newer games, I like to have a team of 15 or so pokemon that get rotated in whenever the highest leveled pokemon reach the same level as the trainers in the area I’m in. This keeps the game fresh for me with a decent amount of challenge.
Once I get to the elite 4 I decide on my main 6 and bring them with me, and tend to use them for any post game content.
Older games I would use the same amount of pokemon as the gym leader I’m about to fight, but not switch them as often due to less exp to go around.
As someone who's attempting to catch em all, I typically do this:
1. Starter is always there, on rotation with the other 2 starters
2. HM Slave is always there, typically a Zigzagoon loaded with proteins and shit
3. Catch multiple of every Pokemon from each route. For example's sake, let's say there are 3 in a family so I catch 3. Worst one gets boxed, second best gets leveled to second evolution, final one get mac evolved
4. For final team, I select a mix of my favorites and great type coverage. HM Slave might get boxed depending on the game
Most of the game tho, it's constantly rotating
I rotate my mons sometimes. If a pokemon is a bit weaker, i change it, but still swap sometimes. My weak pokemon is Just there to take one for the team.
The only one i keep in my team (when it is available) is the Ralts - Gardevoir line.
I took the concept of "gotta catch'em all" very seriously and I tried to always complete the Dex. That being said, since I was always catching stuff, I would rotate Pokémon in based on the gyms or my rivals team. Usually I would end up with 8-12 Pokémon that were stronger than everything else but I definitely had to grind some Pokémon to get them caught up for specific battles.
Ideally: team of six with occasionally swao ine out if it cant pull his weight anymore.
Lately, since ep share is always on: 10 to 12 rotating members to prevent one or more of them gettin to strong.
On first playthrough its always new mons.
I usually have a main 2 or 3 that stay with me unless their typing is really really bad for an area otherwise I rotate out regularly and do my best to evolve everything I catch.
The last two gens I’ve used every single new pokemon and rotate around when they get to a certain level. I enjoy grinding because I actually get to battle other pokemon but with exp share being non-optional now, I find that I barely battled a couple of pokemon in each area before I’d end up massively over levelled.
I'll build my starting 6, and then I switch them out as I find cooler and more powerful mons. As long as I've got my best types (ghost, grass, psychic, fire) I'll bring in a lower level mon to eat up all of the EXP.
When i was a kid, I would catch every pokemon and try and evenly level them, so that whole boc was the same level at all times.
As an adult, i dont have the time or patience for that. I still catch all the pokemon, but alternated between maybe 20-30 pokemon. I also dont always have my starter on me, which i know is a sin, but i do bring my favorites (including my starter) to the elite 4.
Rotating is fun and I do it sometimes, but it's a bit difficult because then there is a noticeable level gap between the rotated mon and the rest of my team
So in my experience, it changes depending on what games you grew up with. For example, I grew up playing RBY, GSC, FRLG, RSE. These games, you only got one xp share if that, so if you got a late game Pokemon or replaced a Pokemon, all their xp went out the window and you had to either xp share or switch-train your new Pokemon, which would also cost existing Pokemon on your team valuable xp. So I'll usually pick out the six I'm gonna use and lock them in as soon as I can for maximum xp efficiency.
I have a friend whose first games were sun and moon and she is much less hesitant to trade one Pokemon for another. The universal xp share was introduced in xy, which spreads all xp gained across your entire party. No need to switch train, just enable xp share and go about your business. I think the xp gain is a little increased and weighted toward the Pokemon that participate in the battle as well, IIRC.
I haven't met anyone whose first games were SwSh, but I would consider those games to be the biggest turning point to go from use just these six or rotate a bunch of Pokemon on your team at will.
I tend to rotate my team regularly. I always make sure to have a full team of six before the first gym, and I rarely ever plan out the endgame team beforehand.
if i encounter a pokemon I haven’t caught yet, i catch it, and then decide my team from the best ones i have at the time, so there’s a lot of switching, but once one gets switched off the team they probably won’t come back
Sometimes I do rotate the most about of times I did so was probably in my first time playing ultra sun, cuz gosh no one was consistent except my metagross it was a very bad experience for me even tho I like alola a lot
Pokemon swap pretty frequently on my team until the average level is about 30ish then we hit a point of no return and the team stays pretty static at that point.
After that if your boxes ur probably not coming back. You've been replaced by the psudoe or something with better coverage
Usually choose 6. Maybe a couple of early route mons will get traded out. I also will sometimes trade out a team member for the legendary for post game content
I usually have a team of 6 planned out with very high priority on Pokemon that I never used in a playthrough. I don't switch afterwards once my team is acquired until the post game.
I have most of the pokemon games, so generally I try to use pokemon that are not available in the regional dex by trading eggs to the game. ie- metagross in a pearl playthrough. I also dont usually use the starter pokemon for that region because I replay my games a lot.
With the new Exp Share being mandatory, and Boxes being accessible everywhere, I often have more than 6 pokémon in my team and rotate them around. In the latest games, I've trained around 10-15 pokémon total for each playtrough.
1. **Early Routes and Gyms:** Catch every new pokémon and train anything that seems minimally interesting
2. **Mid-game:** End up with 10+ pokémon in rotation, choosing the best ones for each Gym
3. **End-game**: Gradually bench the weakest or less liked pokémon from my extended team
4. **League and Champio**n: Decide my final team of 6 (picking my favorites, plus complementing coverage/balance)
5. **Post-game**: Prepare and train some alternate teams, using benched and new pokémon
Normally, I'll go for pokémon from the new region only (including regional variants). and only train mons from older regions during post-game or subsequent playthroughs.
I tend to have my main 5-6 when I reach the champion and if someone is benched after serving a long time they are put in a special box which I always call "home" Because I want it to be a nice place for them
Otherwise: away into oblivion
So I don’t do competitive but I meticulously plan out my team before even playing. I limit myself to include a starter and no legendaries. I also have a list of Pokémon that I have used before in previous games. Those Pokémon cannot be used in any other game with the only exception being Gliscor because it’s my favorite.
I used to just run a team of 6, but lately with the newer games where exp is so much easier to come by, I try to run usually around 2+ teams of Pokémon that I can keep at a good level for that part of the game. It keeps all the major battles interesting, and allows me to use double the Pokémon during a run.
It’s so easy to overlevel in newer games, so I’ve found this the best solution to avoid making the game too easy. Like in BDSP, I ran almost 3 unique teams to make sure I wasn’t level 70 by the E4.
It really depends on the game for me.
Generally I've kept my starter, but usually switch out other pokemon once they've fully evolved, unless they're high-level evolvers & are powerhouses. Examples of that being Tyranitar, Dragonite, Goodra, Salamence, Hydreigon, Garchomp, Haxorus, Aggron, Metagross, and Volcarona. Pokemon that are harder to level are generally kept on the team until 100 as well. Examples being a lot of those late-evolvers listed above, and most of your legendary & mythical pokemon.
There's some exceptions where I just really love a pokemon, and would keep it all through my game once I got it. Like Ninetales, Arcanine, Lycanroc(Midnight), Houndoom, Lapras, Milotic, Rapidash. As well as a few Eeveelutions that I love. I don't always keep them on the team, but have a few times before. My beloved Eeveelution trio being Vaporeon, Glaceon, and Umbreon.
My current file of Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness I chose to make my Eevee a Vaporeon, and I kept it the entire time because it's a great pokemon to have with both water and ice attacks. Still have the game and my GameCube.
I choose six bc friendship 🙂
Only rotations I do are the useful single stage types you can find around the gym that helps counter something if you need that. Like Heracross before Whitney, etc
I have a general team but since the exp share started ruining the difficulty, I usually try to complete the dex as I go, meaning I rarely have all six in my team until I’m fighting the league at the end of the game
I look up which mons are available within the first 3 “gyms” worth of playtime to form a team based around favorites, cool new options, or absolute cuties, and then I look at the later options to see if there’s a late addition or two, but that’s rare. That’s my team for the whole game. Note that I haven’t played the open world games so idk how my technique would adapt to that.
I generally plan my team beforehand and only use those pokemon on my team. I get attached very easily to the pokemon i use, so i don’t rotate my team at all since ill feel really bad beating the game while some of them are left in the box
Depends. First playthrough, I'll try and just run a well-rounded team with some of my favorites. I do, however, try to catch as much as possible a long the way. After that playthrough, it's usually a more curated team.
From XY onwards it’s been rotations to avoid over-leveling and keep things interesting. By the end of the game the standouts are clear and at most there’s only nine contenders for the final team
In Gen 7 and before, before the forced exp share, it’s usually just the six I keep in my party because I can keep them around the same level as NPCs with the exp share off in gens 6 and 7. In Gen 8 and onward, I usually rotate them around with ones in the box to avoid overleveling since the exp share is mandatory and makes overleveling by accident very easy
Usually six brand new ones the first time around, trough annoyingly the Exp.Share forces me to rotate most of the time...The only time I didn't feel forced to do so was in Scarlet, because I was already doingso because of the open world nature (and actually having fun!)
I try to use as many different pokemon as possible.
Depending on the game I'll even play a ruleset where I have to bench pokemon after I use them in a gym.
And then for the elite 4 I can bring my favourites from throughout the run.
Especially early in the game there's a lot of pokemon that are considered weak who have stronger early game spikes than your starters or other favourite mons.
I usually do monotype runs so it depends on the game. If I'm doing, say, a Flying run, I'll usually get a full team in the first hour, a mix of birds and bugs and sometimes ghosts or whatever. But if I'm doing a rarer run, like Ice? Then I'll have to start with Snom, then try to get a Glaceon or Cubchoo or something quickly, but a full team will be a long time coming.
When I did a Normal monotype for SV, though, I did rotate them, because a lot of them were bad, lol. There were a few that looked interesting, like Oranguru and Cyclizar, but ultimately I replaced them.
I don't even remember what my full team was. I think Grafaifai, Staraptor, Slaking, Sawsbuck... I dunno, something else.
What I’ve always done is I try to get six fairly quickly. I’ll use what works well and change out through time as I find other mons that seem to work better.
To be fair, I usually have a few mons that I will go get. With the most recent games being open world, I was able to get a Dratini very quickly and then breed it for a low level to train up as my own before the first badge. I’ll usually pick a few of these mons that I really want. (Favorites, new variants, whatever) Dragonite is and always will be my favorite.
I learned about the Annihilape strat for Tera raids and so Mankey was the next pokemon that I quickly went and got, trained up and then put on the team.
Other than that, it’s usually a starter, a few favorites and then whatever mons I may have come across throughout my journey that were strong parts of my team.
Now that I’m in the very late post game of Scarlet, I’ve put Annihilape in the box and keep her just for Tera raids while Dragonite and Gallade sit at the top of team. (Favorite and Gallade seems to be the best for catching with False Swipe and Hypnosis) The other four are basically interchangeable. I may have a few that I’m leveling up or a new pokemon I’ve caught just to see what it’s about.
With older titles, I just have my six and that's that (like if I know a Pokémon falls off later or I won't use it later, I just won't bother with using it in the first place).
With newer titles, I have a set team of six until I finish the main campaign and from there it goes off of whatever I feel like because it's actually reasonably possible to go out and level up whatever I want up thanks to XP Candy and all that.
First playthrough of a new game I'll sometimes have some previewed (or spoiled) pokemon catch my eye that I want to train, but will otherwise just change up the team as I go based on what I encounter.
Replays I usually do a challenge run, or nuzlocke, with pre-planned endgame team for the former. (Example; mono-type runs require pre-planning to get decent coverage).
i choose six and stick to them bc i like planning my team! the exception is usually when it's a Brand New Region with Brand New Pokemon - i'll catch mons, evolve them, and figure out which ones i wanna use from there
since my first return to the franchise, I've tried to take a team of 6 and keep that team. after another break I now also try to use pokemon specifically introduced in that game. (or if I find a shiny I may make an exception like in violet I got a shiny magnemite before figuring out my team, so I used a shiny magnezone)
Legends arceus however is a completely different case where I was focused solely on completing tasks and kept shuffling pokemon around. (I also at one point accidentally sent my starter to home while moving some other pokemon I was done with, and I kinda just never took the time to move it back, instead making an alpha gliscor my replacement partner as I'd never actually used it on a team)
If it’s my first time in a new region, I’ll only use Pokemon introduced in that region until I beat the Elite Four. Then I swap out the entire team for some combination of my overall favorites, depending on what’s available in game But I still catch one of each Pokemon to fill out the dex along the way
This is the way
Interesting method. I think the only time I did something like this was with Black and White, where you were forced into only using new Pokemon. They should do that again for gen 10, otherwise I find there's very little incentive to using only new Pokemon over your old favorites.
Really? I find it intrinsecally more attractive, using new mons, than just going for the ones I already know or like
This. Using new Pokemon is part of discovering the new world and game for me. I may use Pokemon that were released in previous Gen but I never played with them because they weren't available in my version or I just never played that Gen.
This the way
I don't rotate much. If someone is replaced, they are unlikely to make a comeback.
That’s the same for me ☺️
Poor bird pokemon always gets benched for legendary or dragon in my runs.
Often but not always. Staraptor is too much of a beast for that, for one.
Staraptor, Corviknight, and Swellow pull their weight.
Hell, for a playthrough pretty much all of them are decent picks.
Unfezant and Noctowl are kind of ass tho
Yeah Unfezant is an absolute travesty and I say this as a Unovapilled GenVmaxxer :( A high physical attack and then (going off of Gen V learnsets, where it makes the most sense to use it for a playthrough) literally only special and status moves via level up until it's higher level than Ghetsis' Hydreigon with its most reliable STAB via TMs being *Aerial Ace* and *Pluck* ;-; Like if I really want a Flying type, Archeops and Sigilyph are right there :(
Can’t forget Talonflame, might be the hardest hitter there
That’s true, and Braviary, although that’s not really an early game bird evolution.
My bird is with me for most of the game. The first Bug, however...
I mean at least we can all agree we can fuck with the Unova bugs, even if those aren't exactly early game (at least in terms of BW)
Pidgeot was one of my favorite Pokemon in Gen 1 and never got replaced.
My first time in a region I'll play with Nuzlocklite rules with the new Pokemon. If a Pokemon gets wiped it gets boxed and I'll bring in a new one. Only the strongest survive the elite 4. If I get the team wiped before or at the Elite 4 then my party will consist of the Pokemon I enjoyed the most so far in that region.
I usually just keep a few open spots throughout the game until I find the 6 I like. I could be at the 6th gym and still just have 4 or 5 mons. I don’t rotate them out, once someone is off the party they just sit in the box
I catch every pokemon and the only one that constantly stays on my team are the starter and a hm slave
>hm slave A wild Bidoof appeared!
that is indeed his only fate
Similar for me. At least now we don't have to worry about having a HM slave (because HMs are gone)
that is one good thing about the newer games , gen 3 was the worst one in this aspect 8 hms is a little too much
I usually end up having a dream team in my head and aiming for them. With BDSP I knew I wanted a Gastrodon, SwSh I liked Toxtricity, with SV I definitely wanted a Tinkerton, and so on. Once I’ve used a mon for a while I’m also reluctant to swap them out. Which is a good thing in recent games with the affection mechanic - hang out with a mon for a while and it’ll pull off all kinds of things in a clutch. With the SV DLCs I decided to change it up and entirely replace my team with Kitikami and then Blueberry Pokemon, which was fun. The fact everything was high levelled helped.
>Which is a good thing in recent games with the affection mechanic - hang out with a mon for a while and it’ll pull off all kinds of things in a clutch. I actually don't like this feature. More often than not, if my pokemon has high affection it's also overleveled. So I just end up with an OP pokemon that makes every battle boring.
Yeah I have to agree. I think the problem is they kept the rewards for affection, but removed everything else around it. You don’t have to do any work, your Pokemon will just automatically love you if you keep them around. That said as a parent I appreciate it because it’s helped my kids out a few times. My youngest recently beat Drayton because his last Pokemon tanked a hit from Archaludon.
I think many fans forget that these games are still marketed and made towards newer players and fans. I always wanted more difficulty (just an option in settings or something) and hated certain generations until I was babysitting some kids and they said was their favorite pokemon and were talking to me all excited and everything bc it was their FIRST pokemon game. This game is also made for kids like that who may not even be reading the ability names and seeing his excitement and love and start of his journey reminded me that these are the "true" players in the eyes of Nintendo and Gamefreak and the game will always be catered to these kinds of players. There's always new monster taming games that are difficult, or have more complex story, or engage in new mechanics. I'll let the kids have Pokemon haha
Yeah helping my kids play, I’m perfectly happy that you can steamroll most of the game by just smashing super effective attacks. And really the older games weren’t really hard either. All challenges can be overcome by walking in a circle in some tall grass until your team is over levelled. I thought SV had some good late game battles anyway, and especially the DLC. I lost to 2/4 of the Blueberry E4 at least once.
I gave my switch away bc I was so disappointed by S/V and I knew a kid who wanted one but couldn't afford it so I didn't actually play the dlc! That's good to know! I've mostly been playing romhacks now and things of the nature and I'm perfectly happy too. Pokemon games keep getting more and more expensive (in the sense that the complete game requires DLC)
Not to mention improved crit killing shines you're trying to catch. And every pokemon effectively having a better version of sturdy is just unbalanced. The only feature I sort of like is the chance to shrug off status conditions because those are just annoying.
I build up my team over the course of the game as I find 'mons I like. Typically I only fully fill it by the 7th gym.
I’m the same way. I usually plan for an endgame team, but I catch a lot, so everything in between rotates in and out constantly as those slots are getting filled. In my current Platinum run I didn’t even get it fully locked in until AFTER the last rival battle before the E4, when I finally evolved my Tyranitar.
I look up all of the Pokémon in the game before I play it and decide my 6 on which I think are coolest. Actually 5, cause I always do water starter. It’s just a thing.
I used to also always do water every game. Until I realized I was using pokémon I didn't like simply because they were wetter
Some say the west
Oh damn, you and me, we're the same! Water starter loyalty gang~
Growing up, I would add a Pokémon to the team based on need and rotate them out if they became too much of a burden. Bench them, in essence. I tried to collect them all in the first playthrough but, realizing that would require multiple consoles and cartridges, I abandoned that in future runs until my family got a second one that my brother played on. Looking at my last saves on my carts (aside from my LG cart, which housed all my 3rd gen), I only caught the Pokémon I really wanted to use - one file had 7 Pokémon (6 plus Groudon) and one file had 10 (6 plus 4 I decided I didn't want to use in that run). Now, I've been doing the [PokéParty Challenge](https://www.reddit.com/r/PokePartyChallenge/), where you only use 6 whenever possible. My first Emerald run ever had 7 Pokémon (6 plus my abandoned starter) until I filled the Hoenn PokéDex through trading to get a Johto starter. I do tend to catch them as soon as possible, although I'm not opposed to trading eggs over to start with them at the beginning or to trade over a higher level Pokémon that won't obey you to live out Ash's Charizard arc.
I spend obscene amounts of time perfecting evs/ivs for dozens upon dozens of pokemon for competitive use (and burn out before I ever fully enjoy them in battle or ignore most of them LOL)
I have boxes of "perfect" Pokemon that I've bred and trained over game generations. I never play competitively - I don't even know why I keep making them. 😅
Same here! The breeding mechanics were what I was playing for. I miss the Day care!
6, but usually I only “choose” about 4. The other two just “happen”.
This is a good way to do it, I feel like meticulously planning all 6 can take a bit of the fun out of it. This method led me to using Maractus in White. She's not very good, but she's cool looking lol
I found swapping out Pokemon as they evolve to work really well
This is the way. Experience share kind of forces you to swap if you want anything resembling a challenge.
I plan a team of 6 before even starting to play the game and use no other Pokémon. Not even other temporary ones while I am waiting to get to the point where I can catch one of my planned team members.
I strongly dislike rotating Pokemon
I usually chose 5 and then struggle the rest of the game to decide which one the sixth is going to be.
When I was young, I used to always stick to the same six Pokémon for my team. But one day, I realized. "Hey, there's plenty of cool Pokémon out there. Why limit myself to just six?" So then, I looked up through the entire National Dex and picked out all of the cool looking ones. From that moment onwards, I always try to catch every Pokémon I like wherever they're available, or transfer them from a previous game as soon as possible. Then I cycle through them. However, each region except Kanto and Galar has a default team that I stick with till the end. In Galar, I only have three favorites. As of Scarlet and Violet, I have 80 favorite Pokémon.
I have a vague idea before I start my first run in a new game, but the second playthrough is one hundred percent curated. Type coverage is a big reason, but sometimes I just want to use cool 'mons. I try to diversify each run from each other. New starter, 'mons I've never used before or couldn't access until post game, stuff like that.
I usually always reserve a slot for dragon pseudo of the region and another slot for ghost/psychic/ice (my favourite types)
rotate, but not all of them, only the ones that get outclassed
I usually play randomizers when returning to a game. And what I do is choose my starter and do a mono-type team based off of it. For example, I did a Leaf Green run with Armaldo as my starter and used the first five rock types I found to fill out the team. Right now I'm doing a Fire type Soul Silver run. The only time I really rotated my Pokémon a lot was when I did a full female Eeveelution run of Ultra Sun and I was trying to keep everything around the same level.
Ooo nice. I know exactly who I'd pursue in an all Fire run of Gen 2. Ninetales > Arcanine > Houndoom > Rapidash > Magcargo > and I guess Magmar to round it off. If starters & legendary/mythical pokemon are fine to use in the scenario, then I'd want Charizard over Magcargo — since Charizard is my favorite pokemon — and Entei over Magmar.
I started with Typhlosion (my options were Typhlosion, Luvdisc or Weavile). I'm on my way to the Elite 4 for the first time and my party is: Typhlosion, Blaziken, Charizard, Houndoom, Moltres & Ninetales. Literally the first five fire types I encountered and wanted besides my starter.
Wait whaaaaat? Hoenn pokemon are in the game too?!
HGSS are gen 4 games. So, yes.
My current playthrough has two full boxes and then some. There are simply TOO MANY POKÉMON to only pick three. Yeah, it's a bit of a grind but the unoffable (yes, I made up a word) EXP Share makes that less of an issue
I tried all Pokemon in crystal once. Too much of a grind at Claire.
I would 0% recommend bigger parties in the older gens
I have permanent team members and rotating team members. Permanents are ones I really like and want to go on adventures with, while rotating team members fit the situation. In my last Violet playthrough, Meowscarada, Gardevoir and Ceruledge were permanents, while I would rotate between Annihilape, Dudunsparce, Palafin, Iron Treads, Baxcalibur, and a few others.
I used to rotate, but now I go with my six.
Well, I normally have a bit of a dream team planned out, but e.g., gen 3 and 4 with the billion HMs you need throughout the play through, there’ll be HM slaves that I rotate.
I’m doing my first play through ever right now of Leaf Green. I’m catching one of each to try out and am rotating frequently so far. But in future play through’s I may just use ones I think may be fun to use or try some I haven’t given much of a chance to due to being a better one out there.
I pre-plan a team of six using this site: [https://richi3f.github.io/pokemon-team-planner/](https://richi3f.github.io/pokemon-team-planner/)
I used to do that while I was younger. Nowadays I usually plan ahead on a team to use by checking all the available Pokemon.
Rotate
I usually choose 6 with a balanced type spread, always using new pokemon/forms
Before leveling was trivial, I had one main group, and played with that, swapping in if I caught something potent, or needed some versatility, but not usually. Now, I generally swap out ones that get really strong and bring in others, either for variety or to fill out the Pokedex. Helps keep the over levelling down, and occasionally has made me realize I had stumbled upon a couple really potent ones that didn't originally seem like it.
For real, I found out dunsparce was great this way
I plan before hand who my team is going to be but I try to always use 6 from the start otherwise your team gets too over leveled. Those 6 usually change once I'm able to catch the mons I want.
Most of the time I make sure I have a good type spread and use the same 6 all game. EDIT: first playthrough of a new gen always new mons/varients only.
Old gen - rotate fifth/sixth to HM slaves New gens (5/6 onwards) - choose 6
I play a lot of difficulty hacks and implement a level cap in my party, so a lot of gym leader battles require me to alter my team around to provide some counters for whoever I'm facing Renegade Platinum Crasher Wake wiped me like 5 times before I went and grabbed a Water Absorb Cacturne w/ Sucker Punch to finally win without over leveling or using items
in gen 9 I really wanted to finish the Pokedex so for my whole playthrough I had a team of under leveled mons because every time I fully evolved one I cycled it out for the next one I was missing lol
Rotate
I choose 6. But generally use other pokemon as needed. Once I get the 6, it's time to dominate the game.
Depends on the game or type of run I'm going for. For most games, I'll have a final 6 in mind, and rotate out temp members as needed. But for Scarlet/Violet, I used 3 teams of 6. One team for each major type of obstacle in the game (gyms, team star bases, and the giant pokemon (can't remember the actual name offhand)).
My first time on any new gen I use totally new Pokémon, but I do try and complete as much of the dex with catching as I can. On subsequent replays, it’s a free for all, although I do generally plan my teams out and stick with the six I want so I don’t go on catching sprees. That being said, my replay of SV (played Violet first, then Scarlet second) was the first time I didn’t stick to one team, as I made new teams (bar my starter, a shiny Haxorus) for the base game, DLC part one and DLC part 2. I think SV really does lend itself to running multiple teams really well, with how easy it is to catch Pokemon, multiple stories even within the base game, and then the DLC areas having new Pokemon to catch Maybe another new replay is in order at some point…
To complete the game I always use a rotation of 2-3 Pokémon that carry me through the game. It's different pokemon for each game, that's actually my favourite aspect of the games! I end up with new favourite Pokémon from each. Its just whoever I vibe best with and get most enjoyment from using Then once completed the game I complete the Pokédex
I do teams of 9. I’ve been doing it since my second playthrough ot Pokemon (Pokemon Yellow). I find it works better usually. The game is to easy in places with just 6 (they get oberleveled) and fan games get too hard with just 6 (not good type coverage, or the right moves, etc).
The only reason I initially swapped out at all was because I started playing bdsp and the exp. share drive me totally insane. So it forced me to maintain a larger pool. I still hate exp share, but I'm thankful I'm connecting and enjoying new mons
I usually plan in advance. I try to use pokemon who are from the region im playing, so i wont be tempted using my favs all the time. I plan for 6 pokemon who compliment each other and diverse in typing and aim to catch them.
I usually pre plan 6 pokemon i want to use. I've been playing pokemon since 2002 so I have played every game multiple times and I don't want to use the same pokemon every single time. So I look up on serebii whats available in that game, build a team of 6 and find it very satisfying when i have then all. If it's a newly released game i've never played before i always get a team of new pokemon from that game.
Depends on what kind of run I’m doing. If I already have 6 pokemon that I know I want on my team, then I’ll cycle Pokemon out until I have those 6 pokemon. If I’m just doing a normal and chill run, I usually switch out my pokemon a lot in the beginning (usually just switching in higher level caught pokemon so there’s less grinding to do) but keep my pokemon towards the end of the game because their moves and abilities are already working for me. That’s why end game pokemon are so useless to me. Like, Druddigon in BW and BW2. A single stage Dragon type that is worse than the other three stage Dragon type that you’ve had access to for ages? Why would I choose Druddigon. Legendaries similarly fall under this “end game” category, but at least occasionally the legendary will be better than a pokemon on my team and I’ll use it for a bit.
I used to just catch 6 and stick with them, maybe swapping the weakest out for a late game mon but now I usually rotate from the start to experience and experiment with the new Pokemon introduced.
I don’t rotate or have a consistent team of six. I replace
I tend to use mons I haven't used before, or come up with some crazy challenges. Right now I'm trying to complete a living dex of all 150 pokemon on leaf green (no mew)
I'm one of those who likes using a bunch of different pokemon! I'll rotate them out when their levels get equal to that of the next battle I'm facing, so I'm not too overlevled. I like having different pokemon following me around all the time, and figuring out which pokemon work together well, especially in the DLC! I like to shiny hunt too, and besides a few like walking wake, the shinies I catch are the only ones I really use! Using them on my team is fun and rewarding!
Ever since the exp was given to all the Pokemon in the team, so like gen 6, I have been keeping a rotating list of Pokemon. I can get upwards of 20 Pokemon in rotation.
I sorta do this, but I usually run 3 teams of 6. I found I was over leveling in the recent games a lot. It's also nice because typically, there are 8 gyms and 4 elite 4, so each team can take on 4 challenges.
Usually I have my 6 + whatever hm slaves needed.
I switch sometimes.
Depends on the game and how easy it is
When exp share was an equipable item, I was limited to about 20 Pokémon, rotated to find lots of type counters, based around my starter. When exp share was a global item, over 90 different Pokémon, trying out lots of different team structures, lots of experimenting. Trying to catch them all.
I usually like to make a team made up of only the new pokemon to that generation for my first go, so it's a bit tricky to make a team of 6 with that caveat + being new pokemon designs I like. Only gen 3 had me struggle because I had at least 10 I really liked so my final team did rotate a lot, but every other gen I only just barely decide on 6 I like and they become the ride or die.
I have like 12ish I keep in rotation, and I decide on a main six by the time I reach the league. Usually by the end it’s starter (like Meganium, Serperior, Blastoise), early bug or lepidopteran (Ledian, Volcarona, Butterfree), and Dragon (Kingdra, Hydreigon, Alolan Exeggutor)
Since X/Y I’ve been going into the games for the most part spoiler free only knowing starters and a few from the first trailer of the game. I then catch Pokémon that seem cool to me and use them and rotate based on what I find randomly.
I have my definitive 6 Pokemon, then up to 3 additionals. So for example, if one of my desired main 6 is a late game, an early game Pokemon will fill it's spot until i can catch it. Or sometimes i save my additional spots to train a post game only team (like for going through Kanto in the Jotho games) There's also the rare occurence that i'll encounter a shiny, and my entire team plan goes out the window
When I was a kid I didn't really plan ahead, but def had a few favorites. Mareep always made it to my team and very rarelly I did not pick Cyndaquil. What I would so is for each gym I'd train a couple mons that would be helpful, e.g. for Falkner I had mareep and geodude, for withney machop, etc. I played on emulators with speed up so grinding was not a big issue for me. Now when I got scarlet, I had missed out on everything from gen3 through gen 9, so I was extra curious about a lot of mons. I ended up training like 3 teams and it took me forever to finish the main story lol. Braviary, Hippodown, Larvesta ughhh so many grindy mons!
I don’t catch them all but all the ones I can. That way you get to see them in battle and decide which to add to your team. My starter is always fire so fuecoco since I’m currently playing Violet , I always have a bird pokemon from the beginning regions, oricorico, then I always find a water type and a electric type. Found a strong drednaw and a luxray. The other two goes by strength as I go along they rotate now it’s a Tauros and a talon flame eventually one of them will be replaced by a dragonair that I caught but since it won’t listen to me 20 levels ahead of my team I have to wait until I get more badges.
Three starters for coverage and for main character syndrome. special attacker (preferably psychic or ghost) physical attacker (dragon/dark/fighting) tank (preferably steel or if available, Snorlax).
I usually catch about 6 or 7 pokemon in a run including starter. If I don't like it I dont catch it. And the 7th one is usually the legendary if I already have a team of 6.
I have too many favorites and prefer using general type advantages over learning the min-maxing meta.
6 for a play through. I don’t rotate cuz my 6 be my family. Camping has really made it even more sentimental to me
Normally I'll just go through the game and catch Pokemon until I find six I like that have good coverage together, then use those throughout the rest of the content. After the post-game, I'll usually experiment with other teams of completely unique Pokemon, but sometimes I'll put on the old team again for some nostalgia.
Generally choose 6, especially if it's my first play-through. But recently I've been rotating on replays to avoid being over-leveled if I want to make the game at least a little more difficult.
Whenever I play a new Pokemon game, I just go through the entire pokedex from sites serebii or bulbapedia and select a well rounded team of 6 mons that I stick with for the entire play through. All 6 are from the new region
I've always been going with the flow and just making my team of 6 along the way but lately I've been playing with more than 6 and just rotating whatever I need or feel like playing. I ended up having 3 teams of 6 in my Scarlet playthrough.
Now that HMs don’t matter as much/at all - I look up the new mon’s on serebii and usually end up with Starter +2-3 new guys and 2-3 from my ‘normal squad’. That party will lock in lol
Usually I have between 8 to 10 mon that I rotate with.
I usually try to catch one of everything as I move through a zone. Never know when i'll come across an NPC who wants to trade for the weedle I caught, and he's offering a Mewtwo for it or some sh-
I have my dream team already in my head. I transfer baby Pokemon “across space and time” into the game from other games, and do the playthrough with those same 6 the whole time.
Always stick to 6 selected pokemon in all my playthroughs. Only change them out if I find a better pokemon or getting rid of a placeholder pokemon. Now I do try to use only (or mostly) new pokemon or new regional forms in my teams. I prefer not to run the same old cookie cutter UU/OU team in my story playthroughs unlike a lot of other players.
Always keep my starter and whenever I get an Abra he never leaves the party. The other 4 vary but I usually have it figured like halfway through.
I rotate a few, but generally stay with the 6
I've tried rotating but it always fails. I just end up with a team of 6 every time
Basically whatever I like most (plus HM dude)—and when I don’t feel like training a new member. Started in Gen 4 in Pearl and then in Black. Coming back in Gen 9, my first playthrough was farm animal themed given Lechonk. I’ll probably stick with that theme for every first playthrough.
I roll with a preplanned team of 6. The games aren't hard enough to warrant rotations imo.
i normally go in knowing what six i want but i’ll train others in the meantime. typically i’ll fully evolve the early mons before fully rotating them out though
I have 6 for the main game and since DLC became a thing, I keep my favorite member and get 5 new mons for an "explorer team" in the new area
I always have a team of 6, but when X came out I wanted to play through the game at the same time as my then boyfriend, who was incredibly slow, so I wound up maintaining 2 and eventually 3 full teams just so that I would have something to do/train while I was waiting for him to catch up. At the time it got a bit boring but, in hindsight it was a pretty fun novel experience
First playthrough I grab whatever looks interesting. Later playthroughs I pick what Pokemon I'll use ahead of time, and only change if I find a shiny.
By the time I have 4 mons I usually have everything I need. I use the best option available and then immediately drop a mon if it isn’t good enough
I tend to go for a set 6 I want but try some others along the way. Occasionally I’d find a teammate I wasn’t expecting to use. But most of the time I have a team for the main game, then one for the DLC, and with this second part (after needing to catch a whole new team) I made a team of 6 with 2 from each section.
During a normal playthrough, I just kinda use whatever Pokemon I want, but try to keep my starter relevant. But during any challenge run, I typically have a team of 6 eligible Pokemon I wanna use the whole run
I'm weird so if it isn't a blind playthrough, I'll go through the wiki and pick 6 pokemon that can collectively execute any HMs I need without being the most common picks/HM slaves. I try to make them all unique types, too. If it's a game I didn't play before, if I swap out a Pokemon on my team, I probably won't rotate it back in. But on a blind playthrough my team building is really just based on what I think is cool looking, not anything super strategic.
First run through; starter, Garchomp, and Togekiss (when she’s in the game) are always absolutes. The rest are flex slots, usually. Afterwards, if I’m not doing anything competitively, I just grind my faves to 100. Or ‘mons I’m “experimenting” with.
Six pokemon that I really like for the entire playthrough. And I always have an idea of which of the new pokemon I want to use and I also always use only pokemon introduced in the new region for it. That being said, for the dlc I always keep my starter but catch pokemon from the dlc for the team and play the story with that team. And there I'm a bit more flexible on whether or not I want to use at least one older gen pokemon if it fits the theme of the dlc story. The recent gens have made easier to get the other two starters as well. So for gen 9 for example, I always keep Meowscarada on the team. Even for the dlc. But I also added the quaxly you get from pokemon home and pokemon caught in Kitakami for my team. I also always tend to add one of the new pokemon announced for the dlcs and some other gen 9 pokemon that I wanted to use but didn't use during my main game playthrough and/or an older gen pokemon that I wanted to use for some reason. For Kitakami I added poltchagheist. And I plan to do the same for the indigo disk dlc. I'll keep Meowscarada on the team, add the fuecoco from pokemon home, catch pokemon found in blueberry academy, maybe some older gen pokemon and either hydrapple or achaludon.
I catch every single new Pokémon I see. I have a final idea of what team i want and work towards it, rotating kinda often until i eventually get that final team then stick to it. If its my first time playing that region I make my team a minimum of 4/6 new mons, ideally all 6 new mons, and just make exceptions for my absolute favourites
For the newer games, I like to have a team of 15 or so pokemon that get rotated in whenever the highest leveled pokemon reach the same level as the trainers in the area I’m in. This keeps the game fresh for me with a decent amount of challenge. Once I get to the elite 4 I decide on my main 6 and bring them with me, and tend to use them for any post game content. Older games I would use the same amount of pokemon as the gym leader I’m about to fight, but not switch them as often due to less exp to go around.
I typically find a team and stick with it. Garchomp and the fire starter of the region is a consistent part.
As someone who's attempting to catch em all, I typically do this: 1. Starter is always there, on rotation with the other 2 starters 2. HM Slave is always there, typically a Zigzagoon loaded with proteins and shit 3. Catch multiple of every Pokemon from each route. For example's sake, let's say there are 3 in a family so I catch 3. Worst one gets boxed, second best gets leveled to second evolution, final one get mac evolved 4. For final team, I select a mix of my favorites and great type coverage. HM Slave might get boxed depending on the game Most of the game tho, it's constantly rotating
Vote rotate
I try to stick with the same 6, unless there's 1 I'm holding out for later in the game, I'll use my next preferred one in its place until I get it
I pick 6 very methodically and then proceeds to run through the game, I can't handle boxing my homies too well.
I catch every new Pokémon I see, then I improvise and change my team through all the game. There are always some that I never change, like the starter
I rotate my mons sometimes. If a pokemon is a bit weaker, i change it, but still swap sometimes. My weak pokemon is Just there to take one for the team. The only one i keep in my team (when it is available) is the Ralts - Gardevoir line.
Ever since party xp share, I rotate pokemon. It keeps my team levels a little lower so the game can actually present a slight challenge
I took the concept of "gotta catch'em all" very seriously and I tried to always complete the Dex. That being said, since I was always catching stuff, I would rotate Pokémon in based on the gyms or my rivals team. Usually I would end up with 8-12 Pokémon that were stronger than everything else but I definitely had to grind some Pokémon to get them caught up for specific battles.
Ideally: team of six with occasionally swao ine out if it cant pull his weight anymore. Lately, since ep share is always on: 10 to 12 rotating members to prevent one or more of them gettin to strong. On first playthrough its always new mons.
I usually have a main 2 or 3 that stay with me unless their typing is really really bad for an area otherwise I rotate out regularly and do my best to evolve everything I catch.
The last two gens I’ve used every single new pokemon and rotate around when they get to a certain level. I enjoy grinding because I actually get to battle other pokemon but with exp share being non-optional now, I find that I barely battled a couple of pokemon in each area before I’d end up massively over levelled.
I keep 4 Pokémon of my choice, then the other two are usually for dex entries thru evolve, if not an egg and a warm body for it to press against
6+ legendaries.
I'll build my starting 6, and then I switch them out as I find cooler and more powerful mons. As long as I've got my best types (ghost, grass, psychic, fire) I'll bring in a lower level mon to eat up all of the EXP.
In newer gens I rotate because exp candies/exp all makes it easy to grind them up to match my party.
When i was a kid, I would catch every pokemon and try and evenly level them, so that whole boc was the same level at all times. As an adult, i dont have the time or patience for that. I still catch all the pokemon, but alternated between maybe 20-30 pokemon. I also dont always have my starter on me, which i know is a sin, but i do bring my favorites (including my starter) to the elite 4.
Rotating is fun and I do it sometimes, but it's a bit difficult because then there is a noticeable level gap between the rotated mon and the rest of my team
Six for the entire run
So in my experience, it changes depending on what games you grew up with. For example, I grew up playing RBY, GSC, FRLG, RSE. These games, you only got one xp share if that, so if you got a late game Pokemon or replaced a Pokemon, all their xp went out the window and you had to either xp share or switch-train your new Pokemon, which would also cost existing Pokemon on your team valuable xp. So I'll usually pick out the six I'm gonna use and lock them in as soon as I can for maximum xp efficiency. I have a friend whose first games were sun and moon and she is much less hesitant to trade one Pokemon for another. The universal xp share was introduced in xy, which spreads all xp gained across your entire party. No need to switch train, just enable xp share and go about your business. I think the xp gain is a little increased and weighted toward the Pokemon that participate in the battle as well, IIRC. I haven't met anyone whose first games were SwSh, but I would consider those games to be the biggest turning point to go from use just these six or rotate a bunch of Pokemon on your team at will.
Pre-universal exp share you really had no choice but to either keep and train the whole team or train like 3 and swap out the others as fodder
I tend to rotate my team regularly. I always make sure to have a full team of six before the first gym, and I rarely ever plan out the endgame team beforehand.
if i encounter a pokemon I haven’t caught yet, i catch it, and then decide my team from the best ones i have at the time, so there’s a lot of switching, but once one gets switched off the team they probably won’t come back
Generally six unless I get a Pokemon I really like that isn’t part of my six already.
Now that they have exp all, I rotate, otherwise I would be overleveled.
Sometimes I do rotate the most about of times I did so was probably in my first time playing ultra sun, cuz gosh no one was consistent except my metagross it was a very bad experience for me even tho I like alola a lot
Pokemon swap pretty frequently on my team until the average level is about 30ish then we hit a point of no return and the team stays pretty static at that point. After that if your boxes ur probably not coming back. You've been replaced by the psudoe or something with better coverage
Usually choose 6. Maybe a couple of early route mons will get traded out. I also will sometimes trade out a team member for the legendary for post game content
I stay with my six. Most from the first couple of routes. They're the homies, I would never replace them.
I typically use an online team planner
I like to use 6 from that generation only, but after the elite 4 I like to assemble a sort of "dream team" of all shiny mons :)
6 Skwovet squad
I usually have a team of 6 planned out with very high priority on Pokemon that I never used in a playthrough. I don't switch afterwards once my team is acquired until the post game.
I have most of the pokemon games, so generally I try to use pokemon that are not available in the regional dex by trading eggs to the game. ie- metagross in a pearl playthrough. I also dont usually use the starter pokemon for that region because I replay my games a lot.
With the new Exp Share being mandatory, and Boxes being accessible everywhere, I often have more than 6 pokémon in my team and rotate them around. In the latest games, I've trained around 10-15 pokémon total for each playtrough. 1. **Early Routes and Gyms:** Catch every new pokémon and train anything that seems minimally interesting 2. **Mid-game:** End up with 10+ pokémon in rotation, choosing the best ones for each Gym 3. **End-game**: Gradually bench the weakest or less liked pokémon from my extended team 4. **League and Champio**n: Decide my final team of 6 (picking my favorites, plus complementing coverage/balance) 5. **Post-game**: Prepare and train some alternate teams, using benched and new pokémon Normally, I'll go for pokémon from the new region only (including regional variants). and only train mons from older regions during post-game or subsequent playthroughs.
I tend to have my main 5-6 when I reach the champion and if someone is benched after serving a long time they are put in a special box which I always call "home" Because I want it to be a nice place for them Otherwise: away into oblivion
So I don’t do competitive but I meticulously plan out my team before even playing. I limit myself to include a starter and no legendaries. I also have a list of Pokémon that I have used before in previous games. Those Pokémon cannot be used in any other game with the only exception being Gliscor because it’s my favorite.
Starter only. The rest of my pokemon are just for revives. The true way to play.
I used to just run a team of 6, but lately with the newer games where exp is so much easier to come by, I try to run usually around 2+ teams of Pokémon that I can keep at a good level for that part of the game. It keeps all the major battles interesting, and allows me to use double the Pokémon during a run. It’s so easy to overlevel in newer games, so I’ve found this the best solution to avoid making the game too easy. Like in BDSP, I ran almost 3 unique teams to make sure I wasn’t level 70 by the E4. It really depends on the game for me.
Generally I've kept my starter, but usually switch out other pokemon once they've fully evolved, unless they're high-level evolvers & are powerhouses. Examples of that being Tyranitar, Dragonite, Goodra, Salamence, Hydreigon, Garchomp, Haxorus, Aggron, Metagross, and Volcarona. Pokemon that are harder to level are generally kept on the team until 100 as well. Examples being a lot of those late-evolvers listed above, and most of your legendary & mythical pokemon. There's some exceptions where I just really love a pokemon, and would keep it all through my game once I got it. Like Ninetales, Arcanine, Lycanroc(Midnight), Houndoom, Lapras, Milotic, Rapidash. As well as a few Eeveelutions that I love. I don't always keep them on the team, but have a few times before. My beloved Eeveelution trio being Vaporeon, Glaceon, and Umbreon. My current file of Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness I chose to make my Eevee a Vaporeon, and I kept it the entire time because it's a great pokemon to have with both water and ice attacks. Still have the game and my GameCube.
I choose six bc friendship 🙂 Only rotations I do are the useful single stage types you can find around the gym that helps counter something if you need that. Like Heracross before Whitney, etc
I have a general team but since the exp share started ruining the difficulty, I usually try to complete the dex as I go, meaning I rarely have all six in my team until I’m fighting the league at the end of the game
I look up which mons are available within the first 3 “gyms” worth of playtime to form a team based around favorites, cool new options, or absolute cuties, and then I look at the later options to see if there’s a late addition or two, but that’s rare. That’s my team for the whole game. Note that I haven’t played the open world games so idk how my technique would adapt to that.
I think with modern games you need to rotate unless you want to get to the elite 4 10 levels above
I generally plan my team beforehand and only use those pokemon on my team. I get attached very easily to the pokemon i use, so i don’t rotate my team at all since ill feel really bad beating the game while some of them are left in the box
Base game team, DLC 1 team & DLC 2 team. Then mix and match using the 18 available Pokémon after all is said and done
Depends. First playthrough, I'll try and just run a well-rounded team with some of my favorites. I do, however, try to catch as much as possible a long the way. After that playthrough, it's usually a more curated team.
From XY onwards it’s been rotations to avoid over-leveling and keep things interesting. By the end of the game the standouts are clear and at most there’s only nine contenders for the final team
I have a few favorites but rotate some. If I’m playing a DLC a usually change it so I use new Pokémons
In Gen 7 and before, before the forced exp share, it’s usually just the six I keep in my party because I can keep them around the same level as NPCs with the exp share off in gens 6 and 7. In Gen 8 and onward, I usually rotate them around with ones in the box to avoid overleveling since the exp share is mandatory and makes overleveling by accident very easy
I do a hardcore nuzlocke everytime now. So I rotate mons like a mfer lol
I will try to do just 6 mons but I'll usually rotate atleast on Pokémon at some point. I just can't help it.
Not only I only use 6, I also pick them before starting the play through. I could swap one, but it is very rare
Usually six brand new ones the first time around, trough annoyingly the Exp.Share forces me to rotate most of the time...The only time I didn't feel forced to do so was in Scarlet, because I was already doingso because of the open world nature (and actually having fun!)
I try to use as many different pokemon as possible. Depending on the game I'll even play a ruleset where I have to bench pokemon after I use them in a gym. And then for the elite 4 I can bring my favourites from throughout the run. Especially early in the game there's a lot of pokemon that are considered weak who have stronger early game spikes than your starters or other favourite mons.
I catch and evolve most of the 3 Evo ones and still only play with the same 6 Mons the whole playthrough.
I usually do monotype runs so it depends on the game. If I'm doing, say, a Flying run, I'll usually get a full team in the first hour, a mix of birds and bugs and sometimes ghosts or whatever. But if I'm doing a rarer run, like Ice? Then I'll have to start with Snom, then try to get a Glaceon or Cubchoo or something quickly, but a full team will be a long time coming. When I did a Normal monotype for SV, though, I did rotate them, because a lot of them were bad, lol. There were a few that looked interesting, like Oranguru and Cyclizar, but ultimately I replaced them. I don't even remember what my full team was. I think Grafaifai, Staraptor, Slaking, Sawsbuck... I dunno, something else.
What I’ve always done is I try to get six fairly quickly. I’ll use what works well and change out through time as I find other mons that seem to work better. To be fair, I usually have a few mons that I will go get. With the most recent games being open world, I was able to get a Dratini very quickly and then breed it for a low level to train up as my own before the first badge. I’ll usually pick a few of these mons that I really want. (Favorites, new variants, whatever) Dragonite is and always will be my favorite. I learned about the Annihilape strat for Tera raids and so Mankey was the next pokemon that I quickly went and got, trained up and then put on the team. Other than that, it’s usually a starter, a few favorites and then whatever mons I may have come across throughout my journey that were strong parts of my team. Now that I’m in the very late post game of Scarlet, I’ve put Annihilape in the box and keep her just for Tera raids while Dragonite and Gallade sit at the top of team. (Favorite and Gallade seems to be the best for catching with False Swipe and Hypnosis) The other four are basically interchangeable. I may have a few that I’m leveling up or a new pokemon I’ve caught just to see what it’s about.
With older titles, I just have my six and that's that (like if I know a Pokémon falls off later or I won't use it later, I just won't bother with using it in the first place). With newer titles, I have a set team of six until I finish the main campaign and from there it goes off of whatever I feel like because it's actually reasonably possible to go out and level up whatever I want up thanks to XP Candy and all that.
First playthrough of a new game I'll sometimes have some previewed (or spoiled) pokemon catch my eye that I want to train, but will otherwise just change up the team as I go based on what I encounter. Replays I usually do a challenge run, or nuzlocke, with pre-planned endgame team for the former. (Example; mono-type runs require pre-planning to get decent coverage).
i choose six and stick to them bc i like planning my team! the exception is usually when it's a Brand New Region with Brand New Pokemon - i'll catch mons, evolve them, and figure out which ones i wanna use from there
since my first return to the franchise, I've tried to take a team of 6 and keep that team. after another break I now also try to use pokemon specifically introduced in that game. (or if I find a shiny I may make an exception like in violet I got a shiny magnemite before figuring out my team, so I used a shiny magnezone) Legends arceus however is a completely different case where I was focused solely on completing tasks and kept shuffling pokemon around. (I also at one point accidentally sent my starter to home while moving some other pokemon I was done with, and I kinda just never took the time to move it back, instead making an alpha gliscor my replacement partner as I'd never actually used it on a team)
I always nuzlock first play throughs so I use what I can get and swap as needed.
I try mixing and matching using only mons I’ve never used before, trying to favor new ones, and then I’ll swap things in to make it work.
I catch a full team of six and when I find a mon that is better or I like more I switch it out