The principle: one entry, six tries
Every day at midnight (Paris time), a new mystery Pokémon is drawn, the same for everyone in Common mode. Its official Pokédex entry, taken from one of the games in the series, is shown from the very start of the game. One precaution: the Pokémon's name is replaced with *** so the answer is not given away.
You then submit Pokémon names in the search field, with a maximum of six tries. The mystery is always a base species under its canonical name: never a Gigantamax form, a Mega Evolution or a regional form. The entries and the data come from PokeAPI, so straight from the real games.
Reading the entry: the keywords that give it away
A Pokédex entry is short, but nearly every word is a clue. Four families of keywords deserve a careful read:
- Habitat: forests, oceans, caves, volcanoes, urban areas. A Pokémon described "at the bottom of the sea" points to the Water type, a creature "of dark caves" toward Rock, Ground or Ghost.
- Type hints: flames, electricity, poison, psychic powers, webs. When the entry directly mentions an element, the likely type is almost handed to you.
- Anatomy: shell, wings, number of tails, fangs, bulb on its back. These details often point to a specific evolution line.
- Folklore: mentions of legends, ancient myths or extraordinary phenomena suggest a rare or legendary Pokémon, while a mundane tone ("it is seen everywhere") hints at a common early-route Pokémon.
The seven-column clue board
Each try adds a row to the board, with seven columns compared to the mystery: generation, BST (base stat total), type 1, type 2, size (height and weight), evolution stage and form.
The color code is simple: green for an identical value, yellow for a close one, gray otherwise. In practice: generation is yellow when one generation off, BST within 50 points, a yellow type is the right type in the wrong slot, and a yellow stage is adjacent (the mystery is the evolution or pre-evolution of your guess). On generation and BST, an arrow tells you whether to aim higher or lower.
The narrowing strategy
The text gives you a hypothesis, the board puts it to the test. The efficient routine chains the two:
- Form a type hypothesis from the entry before typing anything: habitat, element, anatomy.
- Fire a first probe guess: a well-known Pokémon that fits your hypothesis. Even if it misses, its row gives you the generation, BST and types as reference points.
- Bracket with the arrows: generation and BST become tighter and tighter ranges with every try.
- Cross text and colors: a green type plus a habitat keyword usually leaves only a handful of candidates.
- Eliminate ruthlessly: every new guess must be compatible with ALL previous rows. A candidate that contradicts a green cell or an arrow is a wasted try.
Common mistakes
The same bad reflexes cost tries game after game:
- Clinging to the first keyword: an entry that talks about fire does not guarantee a Fire type. Always double-check with the type columns.
- Reasoning on the text alone: after two tries, the board often holds more information than the entry does. Ignoring it means playing blind.
- Forgetting the answer is a base species: no need to search among Megas or regional forms, the mystery is always the species under its canonical name.
- Submitting incompatible candidates: if the board says higher generation and lower BST, respect both directions at once.
- Neglecting the clock: speed earns bonus points. Reading carefully once beats re-reading five times.
Modes, scoring and the bonus question
The Pokédex quiz is played in Common mode (one mystery a day, the same for everyone, renewed at midnight Paris time) and in Replay mode (a personal run, with a signed-in account). A winning score adds up 1 base point, plus 1 point per unused try out of six, plus a speed bonus: +3 under 10 seconds, +2 under 30, +1 under a minute.
At the end of the game, a bonus question offers +1 point: guess which game the entry comes from, out of four choices. The Pokédex quiz also appears in the Sprint, the Daily Challenge and PVP multiplayer (45 seconds per round). Reaching a streak of seven wins unlocks the Espeon avatar.