Have you ever heard a member of your local community use a term about their Pokémon that you just didn’t understand? Felt left out of the loop and didn’t dare ask what they meant? I’m here to explain some of the Pokémon GO slang you might hear being used, and what it means.
IV Terms
These get sillier as the list goes on!
- Hundo – 100IV Pokémon, 15/15/15IV
- Lundo – lucky 100IV Pokémon
- Shundo – shiny 100IV Pokémon
- Shlundo – lucky, shiny 100IV Pokémon
- Shlucky – same as a shundo
- Fundo – functional hundo. A 98IV Pokémon, 15/15/14IV. It works as if it was a hundo, even though the IVs aren’t perfect. It has the same exact same stats as the hundo at certain levels. Not all Pokémon can be a fundo, and they are only fundos at specific levels.
- Nundo – 0IV Pokémon, rarer than a hundo! It is rarer because it cannot be hatched, caught from field research, or raids, as they all have IV floors.
- Shnundo – shiny 0IV Pokémon
- Shadundo – shadow 100IV Pokémon
- Pundo – purified hundo. A shadow Pokémon that has been purified to be a perfect IV.
- Shashundo – shiny shadow 100IV Pokémon
- Pulundo – purified, lucky hundo
- Pushundo – purified, shiny hundo
- Pushlundo – purified, shiny, lucky hundo
- Shlucky – shiny lucky Pokémon
- Shady – a shiny shadow Pokémon
- Floor Model/Floor/Tendo – a 10/10/10IV Pokémon caught from a raid
- Goku Bad – Pokémon with 14/15/15 IV, or similar. It lacks the 15 attack IV.
Pokémon Stats
- IV – Individual values assigned to each Pokémon, relating to your Pokémon’s attack, defense and HP
- CP – Combat power – a measure of how strong your Pokémon will be in battle0, a combination of several hidden stats. Each Pokémon in Pokémon GO has a set of Base Stats for Attack, Defence, and Stamina, along with a hidden Level and a hidden modifier for those Base Stats, known as IVs. A very strong Pokémon will typically be able to reach a much higher CP than a weaker one.
- HP – Health points, also known as stamina. When a Pokémon HP reaches zero it will faint.
Battle Slang
Many of these terms relate to trainer battles, but are also relevant in PvE also.
- PvP – Player vs Player. This relates to trainer vs trainer battles.
- PvE – Player vs Environment, ie raids and Team GO Rocket battles.
- XP – Experience points
- DPS – Damage per second
- TTW – Time to win
- TDO – Total damage output. The total amount of damage a Pokémon can do before it faints.
- PvP IV – IVs that are preferred for PvP, generally low attack, with high defense and high HP, ie 0/15/15
- Meta – short for metagame, Pokémon that are relevant to either PvP, or PvE. For example, Swampert is meta relevant for both PvP and PvE as it is incredibly strong for raids, and also good in GO Battle League.
- STAB – Same Type Attack Bonus. A 1.2x damage multiplier applied to attacks that are of the same type as the Pokémon using it, for example, Charizard using Fire Spin, a fire type Pokémon, using a fire type move.
- TM – technical machine. In Pokémon GO there are Fast TM, and Charged TM (and Elite versions). These are used to teach different moves to your Pokémon.
- Type Advantage – A Pokémon that is super effective against another Pokémon is type effective. For example, Charizard, a fire type, has type advantage over Venusaur, a grass type.
- SE – Super effective
- NVE – Not very effective
- GBL – GO Battle League
- GL – Great League
- UL – Ultra League
- ML – Master League
- DPT – Damage per turn
- EPT – Energy per turn
- CMP – Charge Move Priority
- BBML – Basic B*tch Meta Line. Used to describe teams that stick completely to the meta of PvP that are considered more ‘boring’ or expected.
- ABB – A PvP team built of a lead Pokémon, followed by two Pokémon who perform in a similar way. For example, Altaria, Victreebel, and Venusaur.
- Grasshole – A PvP team with two Razor Leaf users in the back
- Charmpit – a PvP team with two Charm users in the back
- Wall – A Pokémon that you come up against that is incredibly difficult for you to beat, for example, a Skarmory locked in against a Bastiodon, the Bastiodon would be described as the Wall. Typically you can expect to win this match up even without using Charged Moves.
- Chip and Dip – To use a charge move with self-debuffing qualities such as Psycho Boost, and then immediately swapping out your Pokémon to clear the debuff.
- Mudboi – Pokémon with a dual typing of Water and Ground, ie Swampert.
- Fast Move Denial – When throwing a charge move, an opponent who starts a fast move on the same turn should be able to have it complete while the charge move processes, and see the damage and energy applied after the charge move (unless the charge move causes the defender to faint). However, if the charge move is timed properly, the defending Pokémon’s extra fast move won’t process and be applied
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Breakpoint – A stat differential where, due to rounding, a Pokémon’s fast move will deal 1 more damage than normal to a particular defending Pokémon.
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Bulkpoint – A stat differential where, due to rounding, a Pokémon will take 1 less damage than normal from the fast move of a particular attacking Pokémon.
- Lead – the first Pokémon you use on your PvP team
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Lost lead – when your lead Pokémon in a PvP team is countered by their lead.
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Won Lead – when your lead Pokémon in a PvP team counters their lead.
- Closer – the Pokémon you typically save to use last in your PvP team, generally a very strong Pokémon
- Bulk – A high defense, therefore bulky, Pokémon
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Safe Switch or Pivot – a Pokémon that you can switch to after a lost lead, that can ‘recover’ a bad matchup in some way. It is typically not vulnerable to any of the things the lead is, and also not too risky of a choice from being counter-switched.
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Bait – Building up energy to use a Pokémon’s more expensive charge move, then using a cheaper move in order to try to bait your opponent into using a shield.
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Overtap – tapping for one extra fast move than needed before throwing a charge move, usually in error.
- Sac Swap – Swapping into a Pokémon that has almost no HP left when your opponent uses a charge move, so your other Pokémon doesn’t take the damage. Often considered like using a ‘third’ shield.
- Spice/Spicy pick – a Pokémon that isn’t part of the PvP meta that can be a surprisingly good addition to your team.
- Glass Cannon – a Pokémon that has high attack, but low defense/HP, so it does a lot of damage quickly, but will also faint quickly as it cannot take hits
- Jump Out – a term you’ll hear during in-person raids, it means you need to exit the lobby or raid battle, and return to the raid screen where you initially added your raid pass. Typically heard when someone has experience a game crash, turned up to the raid late, or when someone is experiencing some other sort of error that prevented them from entering the raid/lobby.
- Farming – Using only your Fast Move to ‘farm’ down your opponents HP, without needing to use a Charged Move
- Spammy – Refers to a Pokemon with an incredibly quick fast move that allows you to get to your charged attack with speed, so you can ‘spam’ your opponent with it
- Legacy move – a move for a Pokémon that is only obtainable via an Elite TM, or during a special event.
- ELO – a term used in PvP rankings. Your ELO rating is represented by a number which may change depending on the outcome of rated games played. After every game, the winning player takes points from the losing one. The difference between the ratings of the winner and loser determines the total number of points gained or lost after a game
- GG – good game! Used both as an example of good sportsmanship, or sarcastically.
- ANR – Added and ready. Often seen on apps like Pokegenie or Campfire that are used for remote raiding, a player will say they are ANR to signify they have added you as a friend, and are ready for their raid invite.
- Wafu – A style of raiding done in cars in order to optimise your time. A Wafu raid group will travel in a car, and once they enter the raid, travel to the next raid whilst in the raid battle itself, so they can travel quickly and efficiently.
- Tap and Go – another name for Wafu raiding as above
Pokémon Nicknames
Many of these nicknames are typically used in the PvP community
- S-Pokémon name – Shadow version of that Pokémon
- G- Pokémon name – Galarian version of that Pokémon
- A-Pokémon name – Alolan version of that Pokémon
- P-Pokémon name – Paldean version of that Pokémon
- A9 – Alolan Ninetales
- K9 – Kanto Ninetales
- Ttar – Tyranitar
- Rayray – Rayquaza
- A-Slash – Alolan Sandslash
- DD – Defense Forme Deoxys
- Azu – Azumarill
- Tina-O – Giratina Origin Forme
- Tina-A – Giratina Altered Forme
- AWak – Alolan Marowak
- Gfisk – Galarian Stunfisk
- Wiggly – Wigglytuff
- Skarm – Skarmory
- Toxi – Toxicroak
- Venu – Venusaur
- Regi – seen in PvP, typically refers to Registeel
- A-Chu – Alolan Raichu
- Basti – Bastiodon
- Pippi – the Japanese name for Clefairy, often written as PP due to flagging on social media
Others
- Living Dex – Someone who aims to have a ‘living dex’ will have one of every single Pokémon in their storage, including alternative forms. For example, they will have Mime Jr and Mr. Mime, but also Galarian Mr. Mime, and Mr. Rime.
- Shiny Living Dex – Someone who aims to keep a ‘living dex’ of all available shiny forms available in Pokémon GO in their storage. Typically they won’t evolve a shiny Pokémon until they have enough for all of the family of that Pokémon.
- Egg/No Egg – used to describe how someone likes to level up their friendship levels. If someone says they ‘egg’, they like to be able to plan their friendship level ups and use a Lucky Egg whilst doing so in order to optimise their XP gains. If someone says they ‘don’t egg/no egg’, you are safe to open gifts and level up on your own schedule as they are not planning to use a Lucky Egg. This is often spotted as the nickname people give their Buddy Pokémon.
- PoGO – short for Pokémon GO
- FR – friend request
- Nest – a green area or park where a specific Pokémon appears in higher numbers. Nest rotate bi-weekly, or with events, and can be a great place to hunt for a specific shiny, or grind for candies.
- Perma-Boosted – a Pokémon that has a higher than usual chance of being shiny. They are typically 1/64 rates, whereas non-boosted shiny rates are approximately 1/500. Includes Pokémon like Onix and Ditto.
- Community Day shiny rates – 1/25 chance of being shiny approximately
- Boosted shiny odds/Medium Boosted – 1/125 chance of being shiny approximately. Typically for Pokémon that are confined to eggs and raids, like Rockruff. Also applies to wild Pokémon that have had their Mega released in game, such as Lopunny.
- TCG – Trading Card Game.
- POI – Points of interest, typically used to describe locations where Pokéstops or Gyms may be submitted/already exist.
- Stops – Short for Pokéstops
- Mons – Short for Pokémon, which in turn is short for Pocket Monsters
- Spoofer – someone who breaks the terms and conditions of Pokémon GO by using apps and other means to falsify their location data
- Flying – a term used by spoofers to describe what they are doing, ‘flying’ to other places
- Drift – sometimes your avatar may go for a run around when you are stationary, often due to low signal/poor connection. It is referred to as drift.
- BF – Best friend
- UF – Ultra friend
- GF – Great friend
- F2P – Free to play. A trainer who doesn’t spend any money in Pokémon GO is described as F2P.
- P2P – Pay to play. A trainer who spends money in Pokémon GO.
- Mon – short for Pokémon
- Pocket Monsters – long for Pokémon
- Sock trick – references putting your phone in a sock, and bouncing/shaking it, in order to gain distance via Adventure Sync
- TGR – Team GO Rocket
- IGN – In game name
- Savage Season – a term popularised by content creator Mystic7. When catching a Legendary Raid Boss, use a Nanab Berry on your first attempt, then switching to a Golden Razz Berry after if the Nanab Berry is unsuccessful at catching
- Pippi Gang/PP Gang – translates to Clefairy gang, often used to describes fans of content creator TrainerTips and/or Clefairy
- Not Likely/Not Likely IVs – a term often used by content creator ZoeTwoDots, that refers to the old system of IV description used in Pokémon GO. Before the IV bars were shown, your team leader would describe the IV to you, and it was poor IV, it would be described as ‘not likely to make much headway’ by Team Mystic Leader Blanche. Many old school players will still say their low IV Pokémon are ‘not likely’ IV.
