Hidden Power, find the hidden type by reading the messages
A Hidden Power is ready to go, but its type is a secret. In front of you is a grid of eight Pokémon: tap one to attack it, and read the message the game would show. Super effective, neutral, not very effective or no effect, every message rules types out. When only one is left, name it. You have 120 seconds to find as many as you can.
The type chart, read backwards
Usually you know the type of the attack and look for its effect. Here it is the other way round: you see the effect and work back to the type. The hidden type is one of the 16 a Hidden Power can take, that is every type except Normal and Fairy. Matchups follow the type chart of the sixth and seventh generations.
Only the types of the Pokémon you attack count, never its ability. Pokémon whose abilities would all change the message, such as Levitate or Water Absorb, never make it into the grids: Flygon and Unown, whose only ability is Levitate, do not appear. The grids draw from 283 recognizable Pokémon, species in their usual form plus the regional forms that have types of their own, such as Alolan Raichu.
What each message tells you
Super effective covers ×2 as well as ×4, not very effective covers ×0.5 as well as ×0.25: the message does not say which. No effect is the most valuable one. Against the 16 possible types, a defending type has at most one immunity, so on a single-type Pokémon "no effect" gives you the answer: on Snorlax, it is Ghost. On a dual type, at most two candidates are left.
Neutral rules out everything that would be super effective, resisted or blocked. On a dual type it can also come from a ×2 cancelled by a ×0.5: a Grass attack on Gyarados (Water/Flying) is neutral, because Water is weak to Grass and Flying resists it.
Which Pokémon to attack first
A dual type that piles up weaknesses, resistances and immunities splits the 16 types far better than a single type. Snorlax (Normal) answers "neutral" to 14 types out of 16: attacking it first teaches you almost nothing. Tyranitar (Rock/Dark) sorts the 16 types into four groups of 1, 5, 4 and 6.
After that, go for the Pokémon that separates the remaining candidates, even if it has a single type. If Tyranitar answered "neutral", Electric, Ice, Rock and Dragon are left, and Marowak (Ground) gives each of them a different message: no effect for Electric, not very effective for Rock, neutral for Dragon, super effective for Ice.
The clock, the penalties and the score
The whole run lasts 120 seconds. On each grid, the first three Pokémon you attack are free, then each new Pokémon you attack costs 2 seconds. A Pokémon you already attacked keeps its message, and attacking it again costs nothing. A wrong type costs 5 seconds: it is crossed out and you stay on the same grid. The right type opens a new grid and a new hidden type, drawn from all 16 (it can repeat), and no grid comes back within a run.
Every grid separates the 16 types: two different hidden types always produce a different sequence of messages across its eight Pokémon, so every round can be solved without guessing. Two or three attacks are usually enough for a player who knows the type chart: a perfect player needs 2.5 on average, and 3 at most on about 97% of grids. Difficulty ramps up: the first grid has two single-type Pokémon and six dual types, the second a single one, and the next ones eight dual types.
Your score is the number of types found. On a tie, whoever reached their score faster ranks higher. Every type found is also worth 1 point toward the cumulative score and 1 coin, and the Hidden Power leaderboard can be viewed for today, the week or all time.
A real move, and its mascot
Hidden Power is a move that debuted in the second generation, in Pokémon Gold and Silver. Its type depends on the IVs of the Pokémon using it, it can be neither Normal nor Fairy, and its power has been fixed at 60 since the sixth generation.
Unown knows no other move: it is the mascot of the mode. Seven days in a row on Hidden Power unlock it, and its shiny version can drop after a daily run in which you found at least one type.
How to play
- Tap a Pokémon on the grid to hit it with the Hidden Power.
- Read the message: super effective, neutral, not very effective or no effect.
- Rule out the types that do not fit, and attack another Pokémon if several are left. On each grid, three attacked Pokémon are free, then each new one costs 2 seconds.
- Name a type: wrong, it is crossed out and you lose 5 seconds; right, a new grid comes up.
- Find as many types as you can in 120 seconds.
One run a day, and the day changes at midnight Paris time for everyone. Without an account you play as a guest, off the leaderboard, and you keep what you earned (coins, mascots) when you create your account.