Pokémon Shuffle looks simple: match three identical Pokémon. Behind the scenes, a precise system calculates damage, experience, and catch rates. Understanding these rules helps you pick the right team and the right move. This page gathers the essential mechanics, with the numbers to back them up.
How a battle works
The board on the touch screen is filled with Pokémon: the four on your team, sometimes Pokémon sent by the opponent, and disruptions. You drag a Pokémon to any space to swap it with whatever is there. Three or more identical Pokémon in a row form a link: they disappear and attack. The Pokémon above them fall, which can form new links: that is a combo. You win the stage if the opponent is knocked out before you run out of moves (or time, in Expert Stages).
Types
In Shuffle, each Pokémon has only one type. Klefki, Steel and Fairy in the main games, is only Steel here. The series’ type chart applies, with one difference: immunities become simple resistances. A super effective attack deals double damage; a not very effective one deals half.
Damage calculation
Each Pokémon has a base power, from 30 to 90, which is the damage dealt by a three-Pokémon link at level 1, with no combo and no type effectiveness. Several multipliers are added on top and stack together:
| Factor | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| 4-Pokémon link | × 1.5 (× 2.25 with the Power of 4 skill) |
| 5-Pokémon link | × 2 (× 3 with the Power of 5 skill) |
| Super effective | × 2 |
| Not very effective | × 0.5 |
| Combo, from the 2nd link | × 1.1 |
| Combo, from the 5th link | × 1.15 |
| Combo, from the 10th link | × 1.2 |
| Combo, from the 25th link | × 1.3 |
| Combo, from the 50th link | × 1.4 |
Decimals are always rounded down. Example: a level 1 Absol, with a power of 60, deals 60 damage to Bulbasaur on a three-Pokémon link, and 120 against a Psychic-type Pokémon, which it is super effective against.
Offensive skills (Assault, Opportunist, Stubbornness…) add their own multiplier. The details are on the Skills page.
Link order
When one move causes several links, their order is fixed, and only the first one can trigger a skill:
- if you swap two Pokémon that each form a link, the one you moved goes first;
- if a Pokémon forms both a horizontal and a vertical link, the longer one goes first; if they are the same length, the horizontal one wins.
An L-shaped or T-shaped link therefore counts as two successive links, with the combo bonus on the second, but it deals less damage than a five-Pokémon link in a straight line.
Level, power, and experience
At the end of a normal stage you win, each Pokémon on the team receives as many experience points as the stage has moves; the one that was used the most receives double. The Exp. Points × 1.5 item adds 50%. Example: against Ampharos in Stage 130, which has fifty moves, your Pokémon gain 50 points, or 75 with the item.
Each level gained increases power: +3 at levels 2 and 3, then +2 per level up to level 10, except for Pokémon with a base power of 30, which progress faster at the start. Beyond level 10, you need Raise Max Level items; a Pokémon can receive 5, 10, 15, or 20 of them depending on the species, and reach up to level 30. The most powerful ones cap out at 150 power.
Catching
- Once the opponent is defeated, the game calculates the catch rate: the stage’s base value, plus a bonus for each remaining move (or each three-second block in Expert Stages).
- A Poké Ball is thrown. If it fails, you can throw a Great Ball, which doubles the catch rate, for 2,500 coins on 3DS or 3,500 on mobile.
- A Pokémon you did not catch can be tried again by replaying the stage.
To go further: Items and disruptions and Tips and best Pokémon.
