How This Pokesurvivor Tier List Works
The board has two tabs. Default (community) is our reference ranking, and a partner only leaves Unranked there when we can point to a source: linked community discussions plus our own testing in the game. The game came out on October 11, 2026, and there is no official tier list or reliable community consensus yet, so the default ranking is empty for now. We’d rather show an honest blank than a made-up order.
My list is yours to edit, and it’s the tab that opens first. Drag a partner card into any tier, or between two cards to set its position. On a phone or tablet, press and hold a card for a moment before you drag, so a normal swipe still scrolls the page. With a keyboard, tab to a card, press Space to pick it up, use the arrow keys to move it (up and down change the tier, left and right change the position), then press Space again to drop it or Escape to cancel. Every change is saved in your browser automatically.
When you’re happy with your ranking, Share link copies a web address that contains your whole list; anyone who opens it sees your tiers and can rework them on their own device. Download image saves a PNG of the board that’s ready to post, and Reset puts My list back to the default ranking. Not sure where a partner belongs? The sections on the best characters and the best team and build explain what to compare.
Best Characters in Pokesurvivor
Your first partner comes from a pool of 29 starters: the Grass, Fire and Water starter trios from all nine generations, plus Psyduck and Slowpoke. When you begin, a personality quiz suggests one of them, but you can turn the suggestion down and choose any partner yourself. The game has 966 playable Pokémon from nine regions, but this tier list sticks to the 29 starting partners for now.
S-Tier Partners
No partner is S-tier on this page yet, and that’s deliberate. The game has no official tier list, we haven’t been able to verify the damage numbers of its moves, and players haven’t settled on a ranking in the first days after launch. Until there’s a source we can cite, these are the three things worth comparing when you build your own tiers:
- Game stats. Each partner has three stats in the game’s data: hp, spd (speed) and atk, which works as a multiplier. Among the starters, hp runs from 88 to 110, spd from 84 to 108 and atk from 0.95 to 1.09.
- Type matchups. All 29 are Grass, Fire or Water types, and three have a second type: Bulbasaur (Poison), Rowlet (Flying) and Slowpoke (Psychic). The game has a type chart, weather and 18 type-themed rifts, and the official tips tell you to switch to a super-effective move whenever you can.
- Starting move. Every starter begins with one move: Ember for the nine Fire types, Water Gun or Bubble for the nine Water types from the trios, Vine Whip or Razor Leaf for the Grass types, and Confusion for Psyduck and Slowpoke. Moves can evolve once they reach max level (see Move Evolutions & Bonds).
| Stat | Highest | Lowest |
|---|---|---|
| hp | Slowpoke (110) | Charmander, Cyndaquil, Treecko, Fennekin, Froakie and Sprigatito (88) |
| spd (speed) | Froakie (108) | Slowpoke (84) |
| atk (multiplier) | Scorbunny (1.09) | Snivy (0.95) |
Best Starter for Beginners
There’s no agreed best starter for beginners either, so instead of picking one for you, here’s how the numbers line up for a first run:
- More room for mistakes: Slowpoke has the most hp (110), followed by Rowlet (101), Fuecoco (100) and Tepig (99). Slowpoke is also the slowest starter (84 spd), so its bulk comes with a trade-off.
- More speed: Froakie has the highest spd (108), with Treecko, Litten, Scorbunny and Sobble close behind at 107.
- More damage: Scorbunny has the highest atk multiplier (1.09), and Torchic, Mudkip and Sobble follow at 1.08.
- A known upgrade path: Ember (all Fire starters) and Bubble (Piplup and Popplio) are the two starting moves whose evolutions the official guide names: Fire Blast and Surf.
Whichever partner you choose, the official tips suggest spending coins on upgrades for your favorite partner, so it pays to pick one you enjoy playing. The beginner guide below covers the controls and the basics.
Best Team & Build
In Pokesurvivor, a build comes together during each run. Every time you level up by collecting XP, you choose one of three cards: a new move, an upgrade for a move you already have, or a boost for your Pokémon. You also carry one held item, and between runs you can spend Pokémonedas, the game’s coins, on permanent upgrades for HP, attack, speed, cooldowns, defense, regeneration, magnet, XP, coins and more. Nobody has proven a best build yet, but these are the pieces you’re choosing from.
If by best team you mean the people you play with: up to four players can team up online through the friends list. XP is shared, and you can revive a fallen teammate by standing next to them, so it helps to stay close.
Best Held Items
You can carry one held item per run. Items turn up in chests, often locked ones, and bosses drop them too; if you find a second item, you choose which one to keep, and your pick lasts until the run ends. Here’s what each of the 11 held items does, in our own words:
| Held item | Effect |
|---|---|
| Leftovers | Restores 1.5% of your max HP every second. |
| Choice Band | Boosts your damage by 40%, but you can't switch moves while holding it. |
| Quick Claw | Cuts the cooldown of all your moves by 20%. |
| Focus Sash | Once every 60 seconds, a hit that would knock you out leaves you at 1 HP instead. |
| Shell Bell | Heals you based on the damage you deal. |
| Amulet Coin | Gives you 50% more Pokémonedas (coins) at the end of a run. |
| Lucky Egg | Gives you 30% more experience. |
| Life Orb | Boosts your damage by 30%, but every attack costs you a little HP. |
| Choice Scarf | Increases your movement speed by 35%. |
| Rocky Helmet | Damages enemies that hit you in melee. |
| Assault Vest | Reduces the damage you take by 20%. |
Choice Band gives the biggest damage boost (+40%), but it locks your moves, so you can’t follow the official tip to switch to a super-effective move. Life Orb adds 30% damage at the cost of a little HP per attack, and Quick Claw cuts every cooldown by 20% with no downside listed. Leftovers, Shell Bell, Focus Sash, Assault Vest and Rocky Helmet each keep you alive in a different way, while Amulet Coin (+50% coins) and Lucky Egg (+30% experience) trade a combat bonus for faster progress. The best held item is the one that fixes whatever keeps ending your runs.
Move Evolutions & Bonds
Moves level up as you take their upgrade cards, and a move that reaches max level can evolve if you pick the right upgrade. The official guide’s examples are Ember evolving into Fire Blast and Bubble into Surf, which matters if you start with a Fire partner, Piplup or Popplio. We haven’t verified the evolutions of the other starting moves yet, so we don’t list them here.
Bonds come from legendaries. After you defeat a legendary Pokémon, you can bind two of your moves into a single slot, up to four bonds in total, so every legendary you beat in a rift also opens up your build. A recent update added eight new attack shapes as well.
Pokesurvivor Beginner Guide
New to Poke Survivor? It plays like Vampire Survivors or Survivor.io: you only steer, and your Pokémon attacks on its own with its active move. The game is free, runs in desktop and mobile browsers in English and Spanish, and has an offline single-player version on itch.io. Beyond the runs themselves there are 127 achievements, daily and weekly missions, leaderboards and a gacha for each region. Sign in with a name and password or a Google account to save your progress to the cloud; guest progress isn’t saved.
Controls
On a phone or tablet, turn your device to landscape. No download is needed, and you can install the game like an app with Add to Home Screen.
| Action | PC | Phone or tablet |
|---|---|---|
| Move | WASD or arrow keys | Drag a finger anywhere; a joystick appears where you touch |
| Switch moves | 1–4, Q/E or click a move icon | Tap a move |
| Pause | Esc | Button in the top-right corner |
Survival Tips
Enemies don’t just walk at you: some heal, shield their allies, summon help, explode, or fire beams that are telegraphed before they hit. These habits, most of them from the official tips, keep you alive longer:
- Keep moving in wide circles. Your partner attacks on its own, so your job is positioning.
- Watch the ground. Filling circles and lines show where an attack is about to land, so step out before they fill up.
- Take out healers and shield-casters first.
- Switch to your super-effective move and keep an eye on the weather: rain boosts Water and weakens Fire, and you’ll also see sun, sand, snow and fog.
- Spend your coins on permanent upgrades for your favorite partner between runs.
- Pick a held item for your weak spot: a survival item if you keep getting knocked out, a damage item if fights take too long.
Rifts, Legendaries & the Judgment of Arceus
Rifts are rare portals on the map. Step into one and you fight a legendary Pokémon in an arena of its type; there are 18 rifts, one for each type, and each has its own legendary. Win and you earn a reward; lose and you’re sent back to the map. Rift legendaries and bosses sometimes drop x10 gacha tickets, and beating a legendary is what lets you form Bonds.
Survive until the 30-minute mark and the run reaches its endgame: the Judgment of Arceus. We haven’t verified the details of that fight yet, so we won’t guess here; this section will be updated once we have.
Pokesurvivor Codes
There are currently no redeem codes; tickets are earned by playing (checked ). We found no code or redeem option in the game’s menus. Regular Pokémon sometimes drop gacha tickets, bosses and rift legendaries sometimes drop x10 tickets, and tickets can’t be bought with real money. The gacha has nine regional pools with these odds: 45% for 1-star, 30% for 2-star, 17% for 3-star, 6.5% for 4-star and 1.5% for 5-star Pokémon, and a 5-star is guaranteed within 70 pulls; shinies show up at 1 in 4096, in the wild and in the gacha. If codes are ever added, we’ll list them here and update the date at the top of this Pokesurvivor tier list.