Pokémon Champions is out! Here’s everything you need to know about the new battle simulator

Domagoj Belancic

9.4.2026

Translation: Katherine Martin

Pictures: Domagoj Belancic

Woo-hoo, Pokémon Champions is out now! Here’s where you’ll find answers to the biggest questions about this new free-to-play Pokémon game.

Many Pokémon fans have been looking forward to this for a long time. Now the moment’s finally arrived – Pokémon Champions is out on the Switch and Switch 2. The battle simulator supposedly makes it easier than ever to dive into the competitive multiplayer world of Pokémon. However, getting started with the free-to-play game might be confusing for some. The variety of currencies, battle passes and in-game shops may be a little intimidating at first glance.

So in this article, I’m bringing some order to the Pokémon Champions chaos by answering the most important questions.

What is Pokémon Champions?

Pokémon Champions is a pure battle simulator featuring turn-based Pokémon battles. The game doesn’t have a story or a world to explore. All you do is collect Pokémon, train them and take them into online battles. It’s essentially a follow-up to Pokémon Stadium.

In the long term, the game’s intended to serve as the official platform for all Pokémon video game tournaments. In the article linked below, you can find out more about the game’s development – and why it represents a revolution for the franchise as a whole:

The battles in Pokémon Champions are divided into 1v1 and 2v2 matches. Of your team of six Pokémon, only three (1v1) or four (2v2) are used in each battle.

You can enter battles in ranked mode or fight it out in casual mode without rankings. There are also private matches for battles against friends, as well as limited-time online tournaments.

Which platform is Pokémon Champions available on?

Pokémon Champions is available on the Switch and Switch 2, with a smartphone version of the game set to be released later this year.

The major downside for players in Switzerland? Many Pokémon apps are unavailable on Android here, including Pokémon Unite, Pokémon Sleep and Pokémon Home. I asked The Pokémon Company whether Pokémon Champions would be available in the Swiss Play Store, and why other Pokémon apps aren’t listed there. At the time of publication, I still haven’t received a response.

What currencies are available in the game and what are they used for?

Pokémon Champions is a free-to-play game. And as with any free-to-play game, you’ll unfortunately have to deal with numerous currencies. These can either be purchased or earned by playing the game. The good news is that the monetisation model, at least at launch, is totally fair. You can play the game without spending any money.

Victory Points (VP): This is the game’s primary currency. Rather than buying VP with real money, you earn it by entering battles. You receive 300 VP for each victory, while defeats are rewarded with fewer VP. There’s also VP up for grabs if you complete daily and weekly missions, such as «Win five ranked matches» and «Land three critical hits», or unlock achievements. You can use your VP to recruit and train new Pokémon (more on that later). In the in-game shop, you can also use VP to purchase items your Pokémon can equip in battle, including Mega Stones. You’ll also find cosmetic items and new pieces of music there. You can’t buy shop items with real money – you can only spend your VP.

Quick Coupons: You earn this currency by completing daily and weekly missions. With a paid membership (see the next section), you’ll have access to more missions and, as a result, more rewards. You can also earn Quick Coupons by unlocking achievements, as rewards in your Battle Pass or as part of your Starter Pack (see the next section).

Teammate Tickets: See Quick Coupons. You can earn these tickets through missions, achievements, your Battle Pass and as part of your Starter Pack. Teammate Tickets can be used instead of VP to recruit new Pokémon (see the next section).

Training Tickets: You can also earn Training Tickets through missions, achievements and in your Battle Pass. These can be spent during training (see below) instead of VP.

What can you spend real money on?

Now that we’ve looked at the game’s various currencies, let’s move on to paid content.

Here are packages you can buy with real money at the moment:

• What: Starter Pack
• Price: 6.90 Swiss francs or 6.99 euros
• Content: You can buy the Starter Pack with a one-off payment. You’ll receive 50 permanent additional slots in your Pokémon Boxes, new battle music, 30 Teammate tickets and 50 Training Tickets.
• Is it worth it? Yes. Your Pokémon boxes will fill up pretty quickly. The only way to free up more space without spending real money is by climbing the ranks in Ranked mode – and that can take a while. It’s especially useful to have these 50 additional slots in the early stages of the game, when you’re experimenting with different team configurations. Plus, the tickets are handy for testing out new Pokémon, moves and abilities.

• What: Premium Battle Pass
• Price: 9.90 Swiss francs or 9.99 euros
• Content: Each season features a new Battle Pass that rewards you with coupons, tickets, items and even new Pokémon. Some content in the Battle Pass can only be unlocked with a paid Premium Pass.
• Is it worth it? Well, it depends. If you know you’re going to spend countless hours playing Pokémon Champions, you could purchase the Premium Pass at the start of the season. If not, you could wait until you’ve progressed further in the Battle Pass and then make a decision. You can actually purchase the Premium Battle Pass on the last day of the season, unlocking all previously locked premium content retroactively.

• What: Membership
• Price: 4.90 Swiss francs or 4.99 euros per month, 49.90 francs or 49.99 euros per year
• Content: With the ✨Membership✨ (that’s its official title), you get 1,000 extra slots for your Pokémon boxes, 15 additional battle teams, exclusive missions and new battle music.
• Is it worth it? No. Only the biggest Pokémon fans and serious competitive players will need these extra options. The Starter Pack and Battle Passes have everyone else covered.

How do you get new Pokémon on your team?

In the Recruitment menu, you can discover a selection of new Pokémon for free every 22 hours at the Recruitment Ranch. And yes, you’ll find Shiny Pokémon at the Ranch too. You can recruit one Pokémon for your team from this randomly generated list at a time. If you’re keen to find new Pokémon buddies faster (i.e. before the 22 hours are up), you can pay for them using Quick Coupons or VP.

Of course, recruitment comes at a cost too. You can use either VP or Teammate tickets to add individual Pokémon to your team. Another cool thing is that you can recruit a Pokémon for free on a trial basis for a week, battle with it, then decide whether you want to add it to your team permanently.

If you’ve played other Pokémon games, you can import the monsters you’ve already caught into Pokémon Champions. To do this, you’ll need Pokémon Home, a free cloud database for your pocket monsters.

If you haven’t saved any Pokémon to Pokémon Home yet, follow these steps. First, open the game with the Pokémon you want to send to the cloud, for example, Pokémon Scarlet. If the monsters you want are still on your team, remove them and place them in a box. This is the only way to send them to Home. Once you’ve done that, open Pokémon Home and link Pokémon Scarlet. You’ll then be able to import Pokémon from the game’s boxes to the cloud (and then send them to other linked games).

You can even import Pokémon from the older 3DS games via a workaround, but you need a paid Pokémon Home membership for that. The membership also gives you more cloud storage space. * Price: 2.90 Swiss francs or 2.99 euros monthly, 15.90 francs or 15.99 euros annually

To access your cloud collection in Pokémon Champions, go to the Pokémon Champions section in the Home app. Select the pocket monsters you want to transfer and send them over. After that, reopen Pokémon Champions, go to «Recruitment», then «Collect from Pokémon Home». You should find the Pokémon you’ve selected there.

The cool thing? Importing from Home doesn’t cost any VP or tickets.

Can you play with every Pokémon?

No. Each season of Pokémon Champions has its own set of rules. These determine which Pokémon can participate in which battles, which items you can use and which battle mechanics are in play (at the moment, it’s Mega Evolution).

You can find the latest information on rules under the «Submenu», then «News». Here are the Pokémon you can play with this season:

How do you train Pokémon?

In the Training menu, you can train your Pokémon in whatever way you like. With just a few clicks, you can accomplish what would take countless hours of hard work, training and care in the mainline games.

Here’s a list of the attributes you can customise. I’ve listed the VP cost for each type of training in parentheses:

• Stat points (320 VP to divvy up all 66 stat points)
• Stat alignment change (500 VP)
• Ability (500 VP)
• Attacks (250 VP per attack, 1,000 VP for all four attacks)

If you want to completely revamp your Pokémon, it’ll cost you 2,320 VP in total. As an alternative to VP, you’re also allowed to use one Training Ticket per training session.

All in all, that’s a perfectly fair «price» – the free-to-play monetisation model doesn’t negatively impact the core gameplay loop. At least not yet.

It’s worth bearing in mind that if you import Pokémon from other games via Pokémon Home (see above), their stats and moves will be carried over too. As long as they’re allowed under the ruleset at that given moment, anyway. Any changes you make to these Pokémon when training them will only apply to Pokémon Champions. Once you transfer a Pokémon back to Home, its stats will reset. If you later decide to import the Pokémon back into Champions, any changes made in training will be applied again – provided your monster hasn’t evolved in the meantime.

How has the game been received so far?

Pokémon Champions is intended to serve as the central platform for competitive Pokémon tournaments. With this in mind, competitive Pokémon trainers are currently the game’s most important target audience. But die-hard Pokémon fans aren’t quite satisfied yet.

The key points of criticism are:

• Limited selection of Pokémon under the first set of rules
• Only the final evolutionary stages are permitted under the first set of rules
• Scant selection of items in the shop
• Balancing issues and bugs that make the game unsuitable for competitive play (including the randomised order of Mega Evolutions in battles)

However, even casual players aren’t entirely happy with the newly launched game. Here are some of the things they’ve criticised:

• Poor performance (30 fps with stuttering, even on the Switch 2)
• Only three (1v1) or four (2v2) Pokémon are used in a battle, even though there are six Pokémon on the team. While this is standard in the competitive scene, it’s unusual for casual matches
• Confusing menu navigation
• Some players report being softlocked, unable to join any matches

More tips and tricks

• Even if you’re already familiar with Pokémon battles, make sure you play through the entire tutorial. If you do, you’ll be rewarded with XP, tickets and Mega Stones.
• If you download the game by 31 August, you’ll get a bonus gift of 100 Quick Coupons and a Dragonite.
• There are mystery gifts in the game that can be redeemed during special events. Until 31 August, you can get a free Machamp using the code «CHAMP10N». To receive yours, go to «Submenu», select «Mystery Gift» and enter the code.

Domagoj Belancic

Senior Editor

Domagoj.Belancic@digitecgalaxus.ch

My love of video games was unleashed at the tender age of five by the original Gameboy. Over the years, it's grown in leaps and bounds.

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