The five steps in short
Building a Pokémon team comes down to five decisions, made in order: choose the game or format, place your core, fix the weaknesses your core shares, check your offensive coverage, then settle speed and roles. Each step narrows the next, which is why doing them out of order produces teams that look fine on paper and fall over to a single Ice or Fairy attack.
The steps refer to the team builder at the bottom of this page, but they apply to any Pokémon team planning you do on paper, in Pokémon Showdown or in the games.
Step 1: Choose the game or format first
Everything else depends on this. The Pokédex decides what you can use, the generation decides which type chart applies, and the format decides how strict you need to be.
- Story playthrough. Select the specific game in the Game menu so the list only contains Pokémon you can actually catch. Your opponents are fixed, so the goal is to answer the gym leaders, Elite Four and villain bosses of that game. The Scarlet and Violet team builder and the other game pages list those bosses with their types.
- Pokémon Showdown singles. Select All Pokémon (National Dex) or the current generation's game, depending on the tier. Opponents are unknown, so you build against the format's usage statistics.
- VGC or other doubles. Same selection as Showdown, but coverage and speed work differently because two Pokémon attack at once and you bring four of six.
The type chart comes with the game: a Gen 1 team is judged without Steel or Fairy, and the builder switches charts automatically when you change the Game menu.
Step 2: Place your core
A core is the one to three Pokémon the team exists to support. For a story run it is your starter plus anything you have already fallen for. For competitive play it is the Pokémon you plan to win with and the one or two that make it work.
Add the core before anything else and read the result. The point is not to judge the core; it is to see what the core costs you. A Grass/Dark starter costs you Bug, Fighting, Fire, Ice, Poison, Flying and Fairy; a Dragon/Flying sweeper costs you a quadruple Ice weakness. Those costs are the shopping list for the next step.
Good cores are built from types that cover each other's weaknesses, such as Fire, Water and Grass or Fairy, Dragon and Steel. You do not need a textbook core, but if your two favourite Pokémon share two weaknesses, you have already spent two of your remaining four slots fixing them.
Step 3: Fix shared weaknesses with resists, not with more attackers
This is the step most teams skip. In the Defensive matchups panel every cell shows weak · resist · immune counts for one attacking type, and cells outlined in red are types that hit more members than you can switch into. The verdict line above the panel names the single worst one.
The fix is always a Pokémon that resists or is immune to the problem type, and the best fix resists two problem types at once:
| Problem | Reach for | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Two or more members weak to Ice | Steel, Fire or Water | Steel resists Ice and nine other types; Fire and Water resist it and threaten Ice types back |
| Two or more members weak to Fairy | Steel or Poison | Both resist Fairy and hit it for ×2 |
| Two or more members weak to Ground | Flying or a Levitate user | Immunity rather than resistance; only Grass and Bug resist Ground |
| Two or more members weak to Electric | Ground | The only immunity; Grass, Electric and Dragon merely resist |
| Two or more members weak to Fighting | Ghost, Psychic, Flying or Fairy | Ghost is immune; the others resist and threaten Fighting types |
| Two or more members weak to Rock | Steel, Fighting or Ground | All three resist Rock and hit it for ×2 |
The Suggested teammates list does this search for you. It scans the selected game's Pokédex for Pokémon that resist the types currently threatening you, penalises any pick that opens a weakness you currently handle, and ranks fully evolved options first. Click one to drop it into the next empty slot, then read the table again. Repeat until the verdict line says every weakness is covered by at least one resist, and stop at four or five members so Steps 4 and 5 have somewhere to go.
Step 4: Check your offensive coverage
With the defence settled, look at the Offensive coverage panel. It treats your members' own types as attacking types and strikes through any defending type that none of them hits for super-effective damage. The count in the corner reads "x / 18 types hit".
This is deliberately a type-level check: members almost always learn strong attacks of their own types, so a struck-through type is a real gap until a coverage move fills it. Ask two questions about each one:
- Does it matter in this format? A story team in Kanto can ignore Dark and Steel; a competitive team cannot ignore Steel or Fairy because every team has one.
- Can an existing member learn a move that fixes it? Ice Beam on a Water type, Earthquake on almost anything physical, or a Tera type in Scarlet and Violet usually closes the gap without spending a slot. The Pokémon type coverage calculator tests an actual set of up to four attacking types against every type combination that exists, which is the right tool once you are choosing moves rather than Pokémon.
For a story playthrough, four or fewer struck-through types is comfortable. For competitive play, aim to hit every type super-effectively with at least one member.
Step 5: Settle speed and roles
The final slot and the final check are about who does what. Team averages shows the mean of each base stat, the average base stat total, and your fastest and slowest member by name and Speed value.
Speed. You need at least one member who moves first against the threats you care about. In story play that means outrunning the gym aces, which by the late game usually means base 100 or higher. In competitive play it means outspeeding the format's common sweepers, carrying priority, or deliberately going slow under Trick Room. The builder shows your fastest Speed before you find out in battle.
Roles. Six attackers is the most common beginner shape and the most fragile. A balanced team usually has a lead that is fast or sets something up (hazards, weather, screens), one or two sweepers, a wall or pivot that can switch into the types the sweepers hate, a utility member for status, healing or hazard removal, and in doubles a speed control or redirection user (Tailwind, Icy Wind, Fake Out, Follow Me). The last slot should fill whichever of these you are missing. If the table is already clean, use it for a second answer to the threat that scares you most rather than a sixth attacker.
Story playthrough vs competitive: what changes
The five steps are the same, but the standard changes.
Building a team for the story
You know your opponents. Each game's gym leaders, Elite Four and villain bosses have fixed types and fixed teams, so Step 3 becomes "resist every boss type" and Step 4 becomes "hit every boss type super-effectively". Availability matters more than optimisation: the best Pokémon for the third gym is one you can catch before the third gym, and in older games HM moves take slots too. You can also switch before the opponent attacks, so a single shared weakness is survivable if one member resists it.
Building a team for Pokémon Showdown singles
You do not know your opponent, but you know the format. Open the usage statistics for your tier, list the top twenty Pokémon, and make sure your team has a switch-in for each. Every team needs a way to handle entry hazards (Rapid Spin, Defog or Heavy-Duty Boots), a way to stop set-up sweepers (priority, Haze, phazing or a faster attacker) and a win condition of its own. Once the builder shows a clean type table, finish items, abilities and sets in Showdown's own teambuilder and test them. The Copy names button exports your six names in a format you can paste into Showdown's import box as a starting point.
Building a team for VGC doubles
You bring six and pick four each game, so build six Pokémon that form at least three different good fours rather than one fixed line-up. Spread moves such as Earthquake, Heat Wave and Rock Slide hit both opponents, so a shared Ground or Rock weakness is much worse than in singles. Speed control (Tailwind, Trick Room, Icy Wind) matters more than raw Speed, and support moves such as Fake Out, Follow Me and Protect take slots that would be coverage in singles. Read "two members weak" as "both of my active Pokémon might be weak at once".
Common team-building mistakes
Most failed teams make one of the following errors, and the builder makes each one visible.
- Six attackers, no defence. Team averages show high Atk and SpA and low Def and SpD, and the table has several red cells. Swap the weakest attacker for a wall that resists your two worst types.
- Three members of the same type. Three Water types means a 3 in the Electric and Grass cells. Keep the two with the most useful second types and replace the third.
- Ignoring speed. Everything is bulky and slow, so you take a hit before every move. Add one fast member or a priority user, or commit to Trick Room.
- Fixing weaknesses with offence. "Ice is a problem, so I'll add a Fire attacker" does nothing if that Fire type does not resist Ice. Resist first, then attack.
- Planning a team you cannot catch. The team was built with All Pokémon selected and half of it is not in your game. Select the right game and let the "Not available in the selected game" notice tell you what to replace.
- Never checking the table again. Each new member changes the counts, so re-read the verdict after every change.
A worked example in Scarlet and Violet
Select Scarlet / Violet and add Meowscarada. Seven types light up red, with Bug at ×4 and nothing resisting Fire, Ice, Fighting, Poison, Flying, Bug or Fairy.
Add Tinkaton from the suggestions. Fairy/Steel resists Ice, Flying, Bug and Fairy and is immune to Poison, so only Fire (now hitting two members) and Fighting stay red. Add Dondozo, a pure Water type that resists Fire and Ice: Fire still shows 2·1·0, because two weak members against one resist is a net loss, and Fighting is still unresisted. Add Talonflame. Fire/Flying resists Fire, Fighting, Grass, Bug and Fairy and is immune to Ground, and the table has one red cell left: Electric, which now hits Dondozo and Talonflame while only Meowscarada resists it, so the cell reads 2·1·0.
Pawmot (Electric/Fighting) resists Electric and adds a fast Fighting attacker; the verdict turns green with no red cells. Coverage still strikes through Electric and Poison, so the sixth slot goes to Gastrodon (Water/Ground): Ground hits both, and its Electric immunity turns the Electric cell into 2·2·1. Final result: six members, no red cells, 18 / 18 types hit, fastest member Talonflame at base 126. The same method produces a Showdown team with a stricter threat list.
Related tools
The Pokémon team builder on the home page is the same tool as the one below, with the Game menu free to switch to any Pokédex. When you are down to choosing moves, the Pokémon type coverage calculator tests up to four attacking types against every type combination that exists. For one Pokémon at a time, the Pokémon type calculator lists its exact weaknesses and resistances in any generation.