Super Staff Bros 4

By HoeenHero. Released: 2020/12/24. Updated 2024/03/08
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Super Staff Bros 4 Art

Art by Kaiju Bunny.

A NEW CHALLENGER APPROACHES

The wait is over! After many months of work, the Super Staff Bros format returns in Generation 8 as Super Staff Bros 4! Whether you've never heard of Super Staff Bros before or you're a veteran player looking to see what's new, this article will cover everything you need to know about Super Staff Bros 4, from the basics to the smallest details of each set in the format.

What is Super Staff Bros?

Maybe this is your first time hearing about Super Staff Bros, or maybe you have seen a battle and you have found it hard to understand what's going on. This section aims to give you an introduction to the format. Super Staff Bros is a ladder format featuring random teams made up of sets created by Pokémon Showdown! staff members. That alone wouldn't be very interesting, though; what makes Super Staff Bros special is that each Pokémon has a custom move, as well as other special touches such as the freedom to use any existing move or ability on any Pokémon, custom abilities, custom items, and extra effects called innate abilities. Not every Pokémon will have all of these to preserve balance, but all Pokémon will have a custom move. These custom moves can do some pretty crazy things that you would never see in a standard Pokémon match, such as a Stockpile ability powered by rain, a gacha system based on the colors of Minior, and even a move that changes the user's set mid-battle when used! As mentioned, each Pokémon in the format is created by a staff member. In addition to that, each Pokémon is named after the staff member that created it and will post messages on their behalf in chat when being switched in, switched out, or knocked out. Mega Evolutions and Z-Moves are also included in Super Staff Bros, and their limitations have been removed. This means each Pokémon may use one Z-Move per battle, and there is no limit to how many Mega Evolutions a side may use. Other than these changes, it's just a normal Pokémon battle; the first trainer to KO their opponent's team wins!

What changed from Super Staff Bros Brawl?

Before we started developing Super Staff Bros 4, we wanted to find a good way to differentiate the format from Super Staff Bros Brawl. The obvious option would have been the inclusion of Dynamax. However, after a lot of discussion and play testing, we decided that Dynamax was far too difficult to deal with in Super Staff Bros, so we banned it. Instead, we banned the re-use of old sets from Brawl or earlier. This means that every set in Super Staff Bros 4 is brand new and as a result can take full advantage of everything the eighth generation of Pokémon has to offer!

The Roster

There are 120 different Pokémon this generation, each representing a staff member. Each set is unique and has its own treasure trove of details that you will want to know if you want to be the very best in Super Staff Bros 4. So to help with that, I present the Super Staff Bros 4 Roster! Click on a staff member's Pokémon to see all the details about that set.

Choose your Fighter!

Special Thanks

Creating Super Staff Bros formats is a massive amount of work, and it cannot be accomplished alone. As the project leader and lead developer for Super Staff Bros Brawl, I know this very well. This was especially true this time around because I was extremely busy, so I handed project leadership off to Instruct, who has done an excellent job leading and guiding the entire project to completion while I took a small role in the background. I want to thank everyone below who has spent the past few months working hard to make Super Staff Bros 4 a reality!

Ready for the next battle?

Whether you're new to the format and you're ready to get into your first match, or you're a veteran looking to start the new generation on the right foot, this article should have given you the foundation you need to succeed in Super Staff Bros 4. Thousands of battles await you on the ladder, and if you ever get confused, you can always return to this article through the link posted at the start of every battle or through the link in /tier ssb. You can also get information on a specific Pokémon through using the command /ssb [staff member's name]. I hope this article has been helpful, and I'm looking forward to seeing you out there in the next battle!

HTML by HoeenHero | Some CSS by Zarel.
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