Singleplayer "analogue" for Smogon?

[knuxchux]

Something I've noticed when browsing the Smogon dex is that hundreds of Pokemon that would normally be perfectly fine to use in singleplayer are completely unviable in competitive. I don't know if this already exists somewhere, but I think it'd be a cool if there was a website like Smogon where it had dex info for all the Pokemon, but also had info for their use in singleplayer (Like what they can do against certain Gym Leaders and other major trainers, ease of access, and good moves that are normally available during the main story). It could even have different "formats" for monotypes, nuzlockes, etc.!
I used to go to a certain YouTuber for this info because he made some great bios for his let's plays, but I've completely sworn off of watching his stuff due to recent revelations.

 

[Sixfortyfive]

Some of the in-game guides on this very site do a pretty good job of laying out which Pokemon are ideal for quest purposes and why.

I think the only real way they're lacking at the moment is that they tend to be structured as simple tier lists (here are the good ones, here are the bad ones) and not laid out in chronological gameplay order (here's the worthwhile stuff you should be looking out for before badge 1/2/etc). But if that's what you're looking for, I guess you might as well be referring to a walkthrough instead.

It's an interesting idea though. When I do replay old Pokemon games these days I usually try to think ahead a bit and factor in things like field moves, Thief, fast/slow Exp curves, etc., and having some kind of quick reference strategy for that kind of stuff would be nice.

 

[Cobalt Empoleon]

It's tricky, because everyone wants a different level of detail for these kinds of projects and everyone plays Pokemon games differently, even within the same basic rulesets. Being truly comprehensive would require stat thresholds and detailed probability trees for every battle that isn't a guaranteed sweep, but outside of speedruns and kaizo challenges, almost no one needs (or wants) such a granular analysis. The in-game guides split the difference pretty well, but they can never be perfect.

For most casual players, a full mathematical breakdown of a Pokemon's utility is pretty tedious and undermines the role play factor, but when you start compromising on detail you end up with increasingly wishy-washy write-ups. Sometimes a Pokemon is good in a certain battle unless it has particularly poor IVs or a terrible nature, or the opponent chooses a specific move and/or procs a specific secondary effect. Maybe a Pokemon's performance in a game is really good, but only if you feed it all the available experience points and use the same boring setup strategy for every battle. X-items are another massive can of worms.

I think Sixfortyfive's suggestion is good, though. It makes sense to have a resource that reformats the information we already have for easy reference when replaying a game, so you can look up each Pokemon by game and see at a glance things like its EXP requirements to get to certain levels from its catch level, its move availability at each in-game milestone, the earliest you can meet its evolution requirements, etc.

 

[DHR-107]

https://www.smogon.com/forums/forums/in-game-tier-lists.614/

This is probably what you are looking for.