The Teambuilder

Basics

The teambuilder feature is found directly underneath the 'Look for a battle' button and directly above the 'Ladder' button on the far left of your screen. Once clicked on, a window will pop up that displays all of your teams. This is where all of your teams will be stored throughout your stay on Showdown. To create a new team, simply tap the 'New team' button. From here, you will see many buttons. The first one is 'Team List' which will take you back to the screen you saw previously. Going from left to right, you'll see a title that will say 'Untitled #'; this is where you can rename your team. Directly to the right of this is the 'Import/Export' button, which I'll go into more detail on later. Working our way down we see the 'Format' option, which will likely say 'None'. Click this 'None' and a pop up will open showing all of the tiers that can be selected, and select one. Underneath this is an 'Import from text' button, which is the same feature as the 'Import/Export' button. Now, the actual teambuilding begins with the 'Add Pokémon' button.

Teambuilding

After clicking the 'Add Pokémon' option, a screen will open with a list of Pokémon that can be selected depending on the tier. The order of these tiers goes 'OU', 'Ubers', 'UU', 'RU', 'NU', 'NFE', 'LC Uber', 'LC', 'Unreleased', and finally, 'CAP'. Depending on the tier you selected, the above tiers will be cut off. For instance if you select 'Ubers', Pokémon from all tiers will be visible, but selecting 'RU' will only show RU and below Pokémon, nothing higher. These Pokémon are alphabetized as well for easier access of selection. From left to right, this is how each Pokémon is formatted: Tier - Pokémon Sprite - Pokémon - Type - Abilities - Hidden Ability - Stats - Base Stat Total. Do note that any ability that is crossed out is unreleased and therefore cannot be used. Selecting a Pokémon will bring up a screen that prompts you to pick an item. These items are also alphabetized. After selecting an item, you will be given abilities to choose from. From here, the move selection begins.

Illegalities

When choosing an ability, you may see a red 'Illegal' sign. This means that your Pokémon cannot select this ability. For example, if you try using Damp as the ability on an Azumarill, the system will not allow you to enter battle. The same thing applies to moves as well; trying to teach Azumarill Fly will result in the inability to enter battle. Speaking of moves, they come next after choosing the Pokémon's ability. In this section, you will see an alphabetized list of moves that are split into two groups: 'Usable Moves' and 'Moves'. 'Usable Moves' is the section where suggested moves are listed, while 'Moves' is where all other moves are listed. Do note, though, 'Usable Moves' are not the only moves you can use. You can use any legal move, as 'Usable' is just a suggestion rather than a requirement. Another type of illegality that will occur is move illegalities, such as Azumarill not being able to use Belly Drum + Aqua Jet in Gen 5; this will show up when you try to enter battles. Finally, we come to EVs. EVs are listed and you can control them, while a suggestion is given based on the moves and item you selected. You must choose four moves for this to show up, though. You can use up to 510 EVs, but since Pokémon only get a bonus stat point for every 4 EVs the last 2 extra EVs have no effect, so 508 EVs is the displayed limit. Going over the 510 EV limit results in the total EV number in the 'Remaining: x' column turning red. Using over 510 EVs will result in not being able to enter battle. The Nature section is below all stats. From here, you can click on the 'Nature:' button, which will initially be set to 'Serious', and change the Pokémon's nature accordingly. If you have trouble remembering the stat changes caused by natures, you can simply go to your EV values, add a + in front of the EV value for the stat you want to be boosted and a - in front of the EV value for the stat you want to be decreased, which automatically selects the appropriate nature for you. After this, your Pokémon is ready to battle! You may also change Level, Gender, Happiness, and Shininess by clicking next to the Pokémon's nickname, which is equally customizable. These options will rarely have any effect, though, and are mostly unnecessary.

Delete Button

The 'Delete' button is a button located above the 'Stat' box. This option does exactly what it says it will: delete. This means deleting anything you've done for a certain Pokémon. After clicking the 'Delete' button, another button will come up that says 'Undo Delete'; clicking this will reverse what has happened. There is also a Delete option right as you enter the teambuilder which deletes entire teams - be careful when using this!

Import/Export

The Import/Export option is a very important aspect of the teambuilder. This is the option that allows you to transfer teams into text to store elsewhere as a backup, write RMTs about, or just have on hand to share. You can also use teams you find in the RMT section of the forums to test them out through this option; it's basically the written form of what you create. You can find this directly to the right of the nickname option.

Why are all of my teams gone?

This is a common question and I'm sure that even the most experienced of users have had this occur to them before: they go into the teambuilder and all of their teams seem to have vanished into thin air! This occurs when you clear your cookies, erasing all stored data in the teambuilder and thus losing all of your teams. On the other hand, if you are using the downloaded client, you can attempt a recovery by clicking the Reload teams files button which will sometimes bring back your teams. Unfortunately, there is no other way of recovering your teams, but at least you've learned a lesson - always backup your teams!

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