[Pokemon Unite] Pokemon MOBA on Switch & Mobile / Switch live now!

KoopahTroopah

Pokemon Unite
Available on Switch and Mobile
Release Date: Switch - July 21, Mobile - Q3 2021
Website - https://unite.pokemon.com/en-us/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3WMddjkuwM

Useful FAQ and information:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cakF8L7xPo&t=46s

Two teams of 5v5, winning is based on points. You can collect points by killing (capturing) wild pokemon, or by defeating other player pokemon and getting points. Once you collect points you need to deliver those points in the form of a slam dunk to an opponents check point. Check points do not defend themselves like other games, but the more points you hold the longer it will take to slam that dunk. There is also a legendary that spawns at 2 minutes and can cause different effects and allow for quick capture or double capture of points for a short time.

There are about 20 pokemon to play as currently, each with their own specialties and moves. Before each match you'll get to pick your pokemon (no duplicates per team) as well as your moves and held items. There are different items you can unlock or upgrade by winning in game currency. Some are passive stat based, others are active based like potions or blinks. Types have no effect in this game, I.E. you will not have a strength as a water pokemon vs a fire pokemon. All of that is out the window.

Current Pokemon Roster as of last update:
Attacker- Pokémon that have low Endurance and excel at dealing heavy ranged damage to opponents.
Pikachu - Ranged, No evolve, can sometimes paralyze opponents on auto attacks, Thunderstorm AOE ultimate
Greninja - Ranged, Evolves, Waterburst Shuriken ultimate for heavy damage
Venusaur - Ranged, Evolves, Verdant Anger ultimate which is a heavy aoe seed bomb
Alolan Ninetails - Ranged, Evolves, freeze based attacks, Snow Globe ultimate is a freezing aoe around Ninetails over time
Cramorant - Ranged, No evolve, Gatling Gulp Missile ultimate is a single target DPS that bounces to other enemies
Cinderace - Ranged, Evolves, Blazing Bicycle Kick ultimate for heavy damage

Speedster - Pokémon that have high Mobility and Offense and excel at making quick attacks and scoring points.
Zeraora - Melee, No evolve, Plasma Gale ultimate that shoots a lightening bolt in an area and leaves a damaging AOE over time
Talonflame - Melee, Evolves, Flame Sweep ultimate turns Talonflame into a wave of fire that moves in a straight line damaging opponents as it goes
Absol - Melee, No evolve, Midnight Slash ultimate makes Absol go invulnerable and deals fast throws and slashes to enemies.
Gengar - Melee, Evolves, Phantom Ambush ultimate makes Gengar invisible and can sneak to deal high damage to a single opponent.

All-rounder - Pokémon that have balanced Offense and Endurance and are highly tenacious fighters.
Charizard - Melee, Evolves, Seismic Slam ultimate flies forward and grabs a pokemon and brings them back to slam them down
Lucario - Melee, No Evolve, Aura Cannon ultimate shoots a large ball forward that damages enemies
Machamp - Melee, Evolves, Barrage Blow ultimate has Machamp rushing forward and unleashes a combo attack on opponents in front of it
Garchomp - Melee, Evolves, Livid Outrage ultimate brings Garchomp into a rage that causes fast attacks (looks like it's uncontrollable but unsure)

Defender - Pokémon that have high Endurance and excel at protecting allies and hindering opponents.
Snorlax - Melee, No Evolve, Power Nap ultimate puts Snorlax to sleep and does a damage in an AOE. Snorlax can roll around a bit to do additional damage
Crustle - Melee, Evolves, Rubble Rouser ultimate puts rocks around Crustle that damage nearby enemies over time
Slowbro - Ranged, Evolves, Slowbeam ultimate stunlocks an opponent but also makes it so Slowbro can't move. Good for comboing with allies.

Supporter - Pokémon that provide team support by inflicting status conditions on opponents and by healing allies.
Eldegoss - Ranged, Evolves, Cotton Cloud Crash ultimate lifts Eldegoss up and back down to deal damage to enemies and heal allies
Mr. Mime - Melee, No Evolves, Showtime! ultimate is a long AOE stun.
Wigglytuff - Ranged, Evolves, Starlight Recital ultimate provides shields to nearby allies.

Special Attack vs Normal Attack cheat sheet:

Looks fun. More like Heroes of the Storm, less like DOTA or League. No in game buying of items, mainly focused on using abilities and leveling up.

KoopahTroopah

https://twitter.com/PokemonUnite/status/1417675738329669639

I guess it's live now.

WeedLordVegeta

Played a few rounds, talonflame rules

Got the battle pass and enough gems to unlock my beautiful baby cramorant and the associated outfit, along with gengar

Neurotika

Yeah, I played the tutorial match, it was fun. I like they took a (simplified) version of HotS's talent system in that you modify your abilities by choosing one variant over another.

urahonky

Is it only PVP or is there PVE? I really hate PVP in these games and I usually stick with bots.

Jubal77

urahonky wrote: »

Is it only PVP or is there PVE? I really hate PVP in these games and I usually stick with bots.

From what I saw in the beta though its pokemon. So no chat. So no toxic chat 99% of the time.

WeedLordVegeta

There's chat but it's all selected from a quick radial menu

MNC Dover

HotS was the only Moba I ever played, and this game looks like it's in a similar vein (as opposed to DotA or LoL). Definitely gonna check it out and hope my favorite Pokemon, Bulbasaur, clicks with me.

Jubal77

Ahh sweet. That premade chat option though right? To be fair I only watched a few games and like most online games they were just using discord.

Jubal77

Oh it has built in voice chat I am seeing as well. And it defaults to on so remember that if you load it up you will most likely want to turn that off on your first game.

KoopahTroopah

Awesome.

Grove

Played my first 2 games and absolutely dominated. Greninja is a beast!

I think I'm gonna dig this game.

Thanks for making the thread @KoopahTroopah

WeedLordVegeta

Quick guide: pokemon you can get for free via log in and challenges:

Alolan ninetales, cinderace and greninja (14 day login rewards)

Crustle (complete all beginner challenges)

Slowbro and Venusaur (trainer level 2 and 5 rewards)

Zeroara (logging in at all during the launch window)

Grove

I picked up Mr. Mime and I'm psyched to troll with Tassadar's Force Wall

Lucascraft

Wait, what? Hold on a tick.

Did I just hear someone say the words "Pokemon" and "MOBA" in the same sentence? You have my attention.

How am I only just now hearing about this game? This somehow flew completely under my radar.

Grove

Lucascraft wrote: »

Wait, what? Hold on a tick.

Did I just hear someone say the words "Pokemon" and "MOBA" in the same sentence? You have my attention.

How am I only just now hearing about this game? This somehow flew completely under my radar.

It’s pretty enjoyable so far. Gameplay feels good and the abilities are fun.

Jubal77

I understand why but what still makes my brain go "Bllllaaaaaahhhhuuuwwww?" is a charmander not getting owned by a water pokemon. Yeah I get it you cant have the weaknesses in the game but its like oh that Frogadier is going to eat that charmander.... oh nope that charmander just destroyed that frogadier!

WeedLordVegeta

Jubal77 wrote: »

Oh it has built in voice chat I am seeing as well. And it defaults to on so remember that if you load it up you will most likely want to turn that off on your first game.

This only works through the mobile app so it won't be very common

Grove

Mr. Mime is so annoying and glorious. I love him

initiatefailure

oh god unique trainer names and a 12 char limit.

my nemesis.

KoopahTroopah

initiatefailure wrote: »

oh god unique trainer names and a 12 char limit.

my nemesis.

Ah fuck, *logs in*

Edit - Crisis averted, "Koopah" secured.

initiatefailure

KoopahTroopah wrote: »

initiatefailure wrote: »

oh god unique trainer names and a 12 char limit.

my nemesis.

Ah fuck, *logs in*

Edit - Crisis averted, "Koopah" secured.

I panicked and now I'm TeamYell (go marnie)

KoopahTroopah

A couple things I'm noticing from my first 10-15 minutes with the game.

• Auto attacks can be completed by holding the button instead of mashing it. It just auto selects targets within range, can probably change targets with movement influence.
• Lots of free stuff to pick up once you get to the menu. Be sure to check your daily rewards for logging in, your mail, and pretty much anything with a red bubble next to it.
• Looks like four pokemon will be on a timed rotation + 1 from the initial Unite badge choice will be your beginner roster.
• You get rewarded in game currency for having a good 'fair-play' score. Meaning the less you get reported for whatever reason, the more rewards you get in game.

Polaritie

So whats their monetization?

KoopahTroopah

Looks like you can pay for in game currency which is used to unlock pokemon permanently for your roster, held items or battle items (active/passive in game), or you can get cosmetics for your pokemon and trainer. I don't see anything locked behind paying yet though, so it looks like it can all be unlocked by playing earning in game rewards so far.

Edit - I stand corrected, there is a battle pass.

The Battle Pass is a seasonal set of rewards that can be purchased for 490 Aeon Gems, with an additional option to buy in for 945 Aeon Gems to gain 10 levels instantly. This roughly translates to a $10 purchase if you don’t have the Aeon Gems on hand to use each time a new Battle Pass is added.

MNC Dover

Polaritie wrote: »

So whats their monetization?

From what I've read, it's mostly cosmetics. I'm guessing you can speed up Pokemon acquisition by spending money to buy in-game currency as well, but that's usually never necessary in MOBAs.

KoopahTroopah

Well, there's some controversy already. It seems the value of items, there being in-game stat effecting items behind currency, and that there are 4-5 different currencies leads to some stuff being gross or price gouge-y.

https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/oopfvl/please_be_very_mindful_of_the_predatory/

Not sure if I agree with that post, but it lays it out for ya. There seems to be a limit in a) how many coins you can earn a week (2100), and b) how much energy you can spend on gacha rolls per week (1400) unless you cough up real money for either.

Doesn't affect this period since it literally launched today, but it could be a problem for long term as an "F2P". Right now it looks very pay to win.

initiatefailure

KoopahTroopah wrote: »

Looks like you can pay for in game currency which is used to unlock pokemon permanently for your roster, held items or battle items (active/passive in game), or you can get cosmetics for your pokemon and trainer. I don't see anything locked behind paying yet though, so it looks like it can all be unlocked by playing earning in game rewards so far.

Edit - I stand corrected, there is a battle pass.

The Battle Pass is a seasonal set of rewards that can be purchased for 490 Aeon Gems, with an additional option to buy in for 945 Aeon Gems to gain 10 levels instantly. This roughly translates to a $10 purchase if you don’t have the Aeon Gems on hand to use each time a new Battle Pass is added.

I don't even see the battle pass. do you have to play a real match first? i only see the trainer level reward track

KoopahTroopah

Also, here's my boy.

WeedLordVegeta

Battle pass unlocks at level 5

Jubal77

I was wondering how they were going to gacha. Gacha gonna getcha!

KoopahTroopah

WeedLordVegeta wrote: »

Battle pass unlocks at level 5

There's also a free track and a paid track, similar to Apex. Paid track gives you better rewards, but you can still earn stuff by playing in the Battle Pass season.

initiatefailure

all of the actual pokemon seem earnable with ingame currency. i noticed there's a cap on the free currency per week though which feels bad

Jubal77

From what I read there are caps on what you can equip based on level so someone who is f2p will be playing with other f2pers mostly and p2progress faster peeps will be with others of that sort.

WeedLordVegeta

The real issue is that you can buy held items, and also tickets to boost your exp gains, which gives you currency to upgrade said held items

KoopahTroopah

Yeah so, I'll need more time with it to feel it out myself but first read it seems like after the 'welcoming phase' of earning rewards is completed, the ongoing rewards will be glacial. It could take awhile to unlock everyone and everything for free. I can see myself buying the battle pass, but I'm not spending real money to upgrade held items. If I get left behind and stop winning fights just because of that, then it's a dead game IMO. We'll see and only time will tell.

For now just enjoy your matches and good luck/have fun

Lucascraft

I think my game might be defective. I don’t see Gardevoir on the roster.

WeedLordVegeta

Now that I have access to the item upgrade system:

It'll be a grind to level them up but since you can't multi stack them there's only so much pay to win possible

Iblis

I think I may have been far better prepared than anyone else in my first game. I got 13 KOs... compared to the next highest person's 3! I was playing Eldegloss.

I'm sure that won't last long, but still.

Polaritie

Eldegloss was my first game too and I felt really dirty afterwards...

Iblis

The healing seems REAL good so far.