Do you wonder about how to get better at the game of Pokemon Duel? Learn from this guide which has been written by a Free 2 Play player who has achieved at least 2200+ rating with 5 R figures + 1 EX figure at the time of writing. I can probably achieve a higher rating but I have decided to spend the time to write this ultimate strategy guide first. It should be noted that I found it much harder to win in games at 2300 level where most players have 4 or more EX figures. Most higher rating players often implement strategies and tactics mentioned on this guide. This is when proper tactics start losing out to raw power.

Although getting the right team meta and chain level upgrade is important, figuring out the best workable strategies from sensible game play is key to up your game. If you have found this ultimate guide helpful, please share with others and give us the credit by linking to us!

Without proper strategy and tactics, you will still find yourself losing all the time even with a team full of EX. By using all of the theory and tactics mentioned in this guide, you should be able to reach a rating of 2100+ with Rares and a few EX figures. (I personally have horrendous box RNG so I only have R’s with 1 EX after a 2 weeks of playing while reaching 2100+). However, it will still be hard to break a certain threshold where everyone starts to have super buffed EX figures even with good strategy.

Please note that this complete strategy guide will not cover basic things like how to fuse and how to complete quests. We assume that you will know the basic rules of the game and how the game works. This strategy guide is written for beginners and intermediate players that want to push their game play to the next level. We will go over game theories to help you improve your rating and win rate.

We will first go over ideal figure and plate setups, team preparation, then go deeper into game openings and end game strategies to help you win and defend. If you are happy at how you have setup your team, simply jump to the tactics section. We have broken the guide into several major sections.

Please leave comments with your thoughts if you have any additional opinions to share!

Optimal Figures Setup – MP Consideration
Optimal Figures Setup – Ability Consideration
Optimal Plates Setup
Pokemon Duel Theorycrafting and Ways to Beating RNG Odds
Figure Count Advantage and Game Progression Tactics
Pokemon Skill and Ability Specific Tactics

Pre-Game Setup and Preparation
Depending on the figures and plates that you have drawn and the popular meta that people are using, this means that your personal figures setup will differ from time to time. We will provide you with the general guidelines on how to setup your team to cover current and all future updates. Thus we will generally avoid naming any specific pokemon figures to use. It is better to teach how to fish rather than providing the exact setup.

Generally speaking, EX pokemon figures are stronger than the rest, however you should always only use figures that suit your playing style and strategy.

Evolution is a handy feature to have in the game. However, in practice they do not offer the best rewards over time. This is especially true if the evolution chain involves C or UC pokemons with the exception of Magicarp. As a side note, to evolve pokemons, you must have figures in your inventory, and set them up through figure editing by tapping the dots. C and UC figures are much weaker in general and will have a much harder time to land a kill for evolve. In short, avoid evolution in games unless the chain features R and EX figures only.

Now we will go over how to setup your optimal figures and plates.

Optimal Figures Setup – MP Consideration
When you are setting up your team, the first thing is keep their MP move count in mind and have a great balance.

1 Runner with 3 MP moves
5 Pokemon with 2 MP moves

Or
1 Runner with 3 MP moves
4 Pokemon with 2 MP moves and 1 Pokemon with 1 MP move

Or
2 Runner with 3 MP moves
3 Pokemon with 2 MP moves and 1 Pokemon with 1 MP move

When you are setting up your team, you will need at least 1 runner with 3 MP moves on your team. This is essential to block early advances. Without having at least 1 pokemon with 3 MP move, the opponent will almost always have an upper game during opening stage. Keep on using long throw is not the answer neither as you will run into issues during mid/end game. However, since runner pokemon usually have weaker wheel values, you should keep the number to at most 2.

Pokemon figures with 1 MP move is typically the tank in the game, being able to only move 1 space is a huge disadvantage. Keep the number to 1 or not having them at all. Many games are lost with multiple 1 MP pokemons during end game. You are simply unable to defend your goals or effectively tackling enemy bases.

Optimal Figures Setup – Ability Consideration
Generally speaking, unless you have obtained Pokemon figures with abilities that clearly outshine all others, the key is to keep a good balance between power and control. Some abilities are more important than others.

You however, should avoid having Pokemon that remove itself after defeat such as Latio’s Hallucination.

Primary Runner’s Ability:
Your primary runner is responsible to move from beginning to the end of board, looking out for openings and defend your goals when the time is tight. The best primary runner should have abilities that control opponents such as Freeze or Sleep. By being able to score controlling abilities over your opponent, you create openings for your other figures to attack.

Second Runner’s Ability:
If you are setting up a team with more than 1 runner, your secondary runner should have stronger attacks in nature that can forcibly remove opponents from the board. This include higher wheel values or with yellow pieces. Your goal is to use this second runner to take out as many opponents as possible. Double team with the first runner to score grid-lock kills without spinning can give you early game upper hand.

2 MP Movers Ability
The 2 MP attacker should make up the majority of your figure forces. Having a good mix of abilities is key to help you win more games. In this segment, you typically have two main tendencies choices, raw power route, technical tactic route, or a mixture of both.

If you have a good collection of chain leveled EX figures, raw power route can work for you. Simply stash the strongest pokemon figures and run over your opponents. With this route though, you want a decent mix of strong white moves and yellow moves.

The technical tactic route is much easier to be obtained, since many R figures have great moves that can maneuver against your opponents. Here are some of the key abilities for a successful team:

1. Position switching moves such as Fake Out or Slippery Swap
This is by far one of the easiest move to take down goal keepers in the game. If you are able to rundown your opponent with several attempts, you will have about 5~15% of winning of the game straight out for every attempt.

2. Movement Enhancing Abilities
There are multiple abilities that enable to your figure to be moved. Know how these work and plan ahead your figure movements. Many times you will be able to position the figure, for an instant goal win or cheap board kills. A good example is the common Fly Away ability, you can jump over the opponent, and leaving spaces for a blocking kill.

3. Force Pokemon Figure Removals
Abilities that force bench figures or suicide attacks such as counters are great moves. The goal is to force out your opponent’s goalkeepers to open up defensive holes for you to win.

1 MP Mover Ability
Generally, we are not a fan of figures with only 1 MP move. The speed disadvantage is pretty high to outweigh. You will have hard time to win with 1 movers on the offensive. Thus, the 1 MP figures should be reserved as goal keepers, or spawn point defenses.

As a goalkeeper and spawn point defender, the key ability is to stay alive and counter enemy’s purple moves. Depending on how your opponent build out their team, sometimes you have to make judgement calls on whether or not to keep the 1 MP guy as the goal keeper.

Optimal Plates Setup
With many plates available in the game, you have plenty of options to choose from. However, most of them are worthless and useless. We will show you the best figures to have in the game, and which ones to completely avoid using. The best plates are the ones that help you win the game, or prevent you from losing outright.

Must Have Plates
Goal Keeper
To help you win the game, you will need to be on the offensive most of the times. This means that as a trade off, you will have weaker defenses to start with. Goal keeper can pull back any one of your pokemon figures on the field. With goal keeper, you can afford to send 2~3 figures down enemy field, and reinforce your own goal when needed.

Hurdle Jump
Hurdle jump can help you quickly tap into forced potential winning spins early on in the game. Especially if the opponent makes a mistake with their figure placement. It could also assist against opponents with hurdle jumps.

Other Decent Plates
Bright Powder (Opponent Respin) / Double Chance (You Respin)
The ability to spin twice is a big edge in the game, especially during goal rushes. If you are 1 spin away from winning the game, consider using these types of plates to your advantage.

Notes on Other Plate Usages
Attack-Related Plates
Attack-related plates are best used either in Early game to get a slight edge, or in end game when you are doing goal rushing. Avoid using them in mid game as you will mainly be trading pieces and the edge will not be that apparent.

Cure Ailment Plates
Never use any cure ailment plates in your roster. Ailments are pretty easy to trigger in the game and having them on your team is a waste of plate cost.

Pokemon Duel Theorycrafting and Ways to Beating RNG Odds
Before we head into exact game play tactics, we will first need to establish several key concepts on why certain strategies work.

1. Understand the Effects of Abilities
Many of the pokemon figures have their innate or passive abilities that function differently. Play as many games as you can to get a feel of these abilities. By knowing the pokemon’s skill while in battle, you will gain many advantages towards strategic planning and time saving. When in doubt, always check your opponent’s figures to make sure these pokemone figures do what you think they do.

2. Offensive Move is Always Better than Defensive Positions
In the game, you should always go for game winning setups that will force your opponents to spin with you, and you want to beat on the odds of you winning that spin to win the game. To do so, you want to be on the offensive at all times. Even on the defensive side of things, consider ways to position your figures for potential counter attacks.

This may mean directly attacking opponent goal keepers, when you know that if you win, your opponent has no way of defending and taking back that goal. This is especially true when you have a much stronger pokemon at their base. So even if they have goal block to send pokemon back, you are more than likely to defeat any other potential defenses too.

2a. More Often than Not – Not Attacking is a Better Move After Moving in Position
When you perform blocking moves to block potential advances of your opponent, the best option is almost always end a turn. The reason is that if you attack, and you lose, you will end up giving your opponent an upper hand. You should always actually attack when losing the spin will not make you lose too much position advantage.

3. Quickly Estimate All Potential Results and Their Probability
Before you head into a head on battle with any opposing pokemon figure, estimate quickly on all potential battle results. For example, Meowth has a roughly 30% Fake Out. If it fights with an opponent with 80% White Spins and 20% Miss. It means that you will have a 30% chance of it landing a Fake Out move. Estimate for the rest of the combinations.

4. Avoid Attacking Unless You Will Be OK with All Outcome
Pokemon Duel is a combination of Poker and Chess, every battle is a throw of dice. Your rating and overall winning percentage increases if you play with good odds. After estimating the rough probability of all outcomes, next step is to plan ahead and see how all of those potential outcomes affect your game. For example, if you trigger a Fly Away or Fake Out, would you end up being grid blocked and suffer an automatic loss, or worse, would you actually lose your goals when those abilities land.

5. Keep Track of Your Opponent’s Plates
A great practice to have is to quickly scan through your opponent’s plates at the beginning of the game. Look out for obvious game changers like Hurdle Jump or Goal Block. When you are setting up your defenses, keep those plates in mind. Proper defense should always assume that your opponent will use their plates at the best times.

6. Goal Keeping Tips
Goal keeping requires your pokemon figures to have specific types of skills and specific skills that they should avoid. Some great skills to have include yellow frames, blue frames, and purple frames that send opposing pokemon to bench. A good goal keeper should avoid any position switch skills, or skills that return itself back to the bench. Many non full EX players always like to use figures with Counter skills that kill any attacks above a certain range, this is a great way to counter players that have much powerful and leveled figures.

7. Counting Opponent’s Pokemon Figure’s MP moves and PC Rotation
The key to winning the goal and run down your opponent, is to predict and even force your opponent’s hands. For example, if your opponent only has 1 MP figures on the bench, and he has all the pokemon rushing your goal. You can quickly send out your runners to try to bypass his defense.

Figure Count Advantage and Game Progression Tactics
The game can be divided mainly into three different progressions – Opening, Mid Game, and End Game.

We define opening as the stage where both sides are pushing their pieces into the board. This stage is important both offensively and defensive, generally the players will start pushing their 3 MP movers into key positions to gain an upper hand.

Mid Game is when both side have figures in the positions that they want, and the piece exchange starts. Usually pokemon figures will start to get send into P.C. during this stage.

End Game is when there are 4 or less pokemon figures on the board from either side. Usually each side will take turn rushing towards enemy goals to take the point.

Pokemon Duel Early Game Opening Tactics
Generally, the opponent would try to block your 3 MP mover’s advances by using their 2 MP units. Otherwise is true, if you do not have at least one 3 MP figure, you will have a tough time to defend your key positions during opening.

Early Entry Point Block
This strategy works when you open with a 3 MP mover, and the opponent chose not to block you during his first turn. You quickly block off one of the entry point, and you start rushing down the other ones to block both. You could always keep the 3 MP mover on the corner, and defeat the goal keeper. However, during early game, entry points are important defensive positions. In this screenshot, I took down my opponent’s entry points during the first 10 turns.

Early Hurdle Jump Rush
Hurdle jump rush works if your opponents have sent out weak pokemon as starting defenses. You can hurdle jump past them if you are 1 spin away from victory. This force your opponent to spin against you. And if you have more than 20% winning odd, it is a good use of your plate.

Pokemon Duel Mid Game Stall Tactics
During mid game stage, your goal is to remove your opponent’s figures to fill up their PC slots first. By having more figures on the field means that you will have a slight advantage while your figure count is more. Once you take out opponent’s figures, the next step is to prevent your weaker figures from being defeated. The reverse is true, if your opponent is able to defeat you, you need to counter attack and remove theirs to even out the numbers.

If you continue the game while having a lower figure count on the board, you are very likely to either lose fast, or stall for a eventual loss.

Pokemon Duel End Game Strategies
Goal Point Clamp
Goal point clamp is a 100% win if you are able to pin the opponent down. There is no way to defend it (Other than Mew’s Move pushing every pokemon in the back row). If you are able to set your pokemon with this choking position, you will most likely win the game. Below is a screenshot of how its done:

End Game Defense
To properly defend against incoming attacks, you typically need at least 2 pokemons on the base next to each other. Doing so can protect you against Fake Out’s and other positional switching moves. However, watch out for pokemon with abilities that take out the pokemon and 1 connected to it.

Entry Point Block
Once the PC slots have been filled by our opponent, blocking both entry points usually lead to a definitive win during end game. This screenshot shows that I have been entry points blocked by my opponent. I have 2 pokemon left on the field and 2 in the PC. I am almost 100% certain that I will lose this game.

Last Thought on Losing Etiquette
If you are unlikely to win on time anyhow, and you are most likely to lose with 100% certainty with the next few turns (such as have entry point blocked, 1 single goal keeper, and your opponent is simply rushing from their base). Just give up and forfeit the game. Stalling in Duels is poor sportsmanship in my point of view. If you have zero chance of winning, just lose it now, so that you can spend that time on games that you could potentially win next.

Pokemon Skill and Ability Specific Tactics
Here we will go through several interesting skills that we think are noteworthy.

Curse
Curse is an interesting skill because it can remove the opposing figure, if the figure is defeated after the curse is cast. However, the curse is usually levied on both the attacker and defender. You can remove the curse on the pokemon if you send it to the bench. This means that by combining figures with curse + pokemon switch, you can effectively remove opponent’s figures from the board for good. If you are able to remove 1 or more figures from your opponent’s team, you will gain a huge advantage during mid and end game. Below is a screen shot of an automatic win after curse and freeze opponent’s figures.

3 MP Infiltrator, Soar Flyer, or Gaseous Figures
3 MP infiltrators like Shuppet is a special breed because of their ability to maneuver around defenses. They can be great open game movers to catch unsuspecting opponents by surprise. By putting these in the middle during opening, you are likely to score pokemon block kills. It’s also a great choice as a entry point block since it is only 1 turn away from winning the goal.

Thoughts on Yellow Moves
Yellow moves are great at defending against teams that primarily focus on Purple. However, you should avoid setting up lower tier teams with weak Yellow numbers. Purple moves are more likely to win you the game. However, higher tier EX figures sometimes have really strong yellow moves. Mix them into your team as soon as you get them, you will increase your winning odds by a bundle.