Rank Mode

About this mode

Rank Mode

Rank is the base-stat mode: you are given ten Pokémon and a single stat, and you order them from highest to lowest in it. There are two ways to play it: the daily board and VGC.

Both use base stats — the species values before level, nature, EVs or items — because those are the part of a Pokémon that never changes, so a round tests knowledge of the species rather than of a build.

The two versions

• Daily: one set of ten and one stat for everybody, derived from the date. The stat rotates through HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense and Speed on a six-day cycle, and a result is comparable with anyone else's.
• VGC: a head-to-head streak. Two competitively relevant Pokémon, one stat, pick the higher; one wrong pick ends the run. A much tighter pool, and considerably harder because the obvious outliers are gone.

Which to start with

Start with the daily round to see how the feedback works — after each submission the positions that are already correct are marked, and you permute the rest.

VGC is worth saving until the standard pool feels comfortable. Its Pokémon are compressed near the top of most stats, so it punishes a rough sense of strong and weak in a way the ordinary pool does not.