If you’re jumping into Pokemon Unite and struggling to keep up, this beginner’s guide should help you with the basic tips and strategies to perform decently well.
Simple things you should follow through with before reading:
- Always upgrade your held items when you can.
- Use the recommended paths chosen for you.
- Remember you can press Y to use your select consumable.
- Press ZR or R to choose your starter move upon starting the match.
- Hold the D-pad’s down button to teleport back to base and fully heal.
Choose A Pokemon That Fits Your Playstyle
Pokemon Unite already has a decent number of playable Pokemon to choose from. They’re all divided into five roles and you must decide which best fits your playstyle:
- Attacker – strong attacks but lacks the endurance to take a hit.
- Defender – best endurance but low in strength and mobility.
- Supporter – good as supporting other teammates with sheilds, healing, and statuses.
- All-Rounder – balanced stats, so not exceptionally great but not horrible, either.
- Speedster – excels in mobility but lacks good HP and endurance.
If you’re looking for builds for your Pokemon of choice, refer to our Pokemon Build Guide.
Defeat Wild Pokemon
There may come a time when your opponent runs through your team and defeat anything in their path. You may wonder how they’re doing that when you’ve never done the same, even when using the same Pokemon as they do. The answer is quite simple—it’s their levels. Similar to the mainline Pokemon games, your Pokemon can level up in Pokemon Unite. The higher their level, the stronger they become and the better moves they unlock. Everyone begins at level 1 at the start of a match and defeating wild Pokemon levels you up.
It’s important to fight off wild Pokemon and level yourself up early in the match. The team that defeats the most wild Pokemon and sends the enemy Pokemon back to their spawn in defeat will have the upper hand. It may seem best to rush to the enemy as soon as possible to defend your goal, but it’s not always the optimal decision to make. Sometimes it’s better to take some time off and defeat the wild Pokemon around you before heading into battle, even if they’re scoring small points at the beginning of a match.
Don’t Go In Alone
Even if you’re at a high level, you can still succumb to your doom if you head into battle alone. It’s crucial for support and defender roles to follow a teammate on the offense so that they can support them in dishing out the most damage possible. You also lower the chance of enemy Pokemon feeding off EXP from your dishonorable defeat.
Get The Battlefield Buffs/Perks
It’s also important to defeat the special Pokemon of the game mode to gain a slightly higher advantage. Most of them can be defeated solo, but Zapdos will require support.
- Ludicolo – when a wild Pokemon’s HP goes lower than 50%, your attackers begin to inflict more damage. This is the most useful buff you can get early in the game.
- Bouffalant – fighting enemy Pokemon while this buff is active will slow the target down while you’re attacking it.
- Rotom – defeating Rotom forces it to head to the opponent’s goal to charge it for some seconds (it can attack the enemy while it’s on its way and if defeated, it will no longer perform its duty). During this period, you no longer have to charge to score in the affected goal.
- Drednaw – applies a shield between 15-20% of all teammate’s HP to all teammates. Additionally, the entire team is awarded with the EXP earned from defeating Drednaw.
- Zapdos – the most valuable Pokemon in the game to defeat. It’s an upgraded version of Rotom and applies to all of the enemy’s goal points, to make it easier to score. Scoring points are usually doubled at this point, regardless of who hits Zapdos last. However, the team that defeats Zapdos will have each active teammate gain +20 scoring points.
It’s important to keep in mind that gaining these buffs and perks are awarded to whoever finishes the Pokemon off. Therefore, you can easily steal the buff/perk from an enemy if you manage to get the last hit in. It’s never a good idea to face Zapdos by yourself. This is because a group of enemy Pokemon can collide with you, defeat you, and steal the glory.
