Pokémon Tic Tac Toe: How the Daily Grid Works
Pokémon Tic Tac Toe is not the game you played on the back of an exercise book. Every square sits at the crossing of a row condition and a column condition, and you can only claim it by naming a Trainer or a Pokémon that satisfies both. Here is how to read a grid and how to fill all nine squares.
Practice what you learn in Pokémon Tic Tac Toe
Play now →How the Grid Works
Three conditions run down the side of the board and three run across the top. Every one of the nine squares is the intersection of one row condition and one column condition, and to claim a square you must name somebody who satisfies both at once. If the row says "Kanto" and the column says "Gym Leader", then Brock, Misty, Erika, Sabrina, Lt. Surge and Blaine all fit — but each name can only be used once per grid, so spending a versatile answer early can cost you later.
The board is generated so that every square has at least one valid answer. If you genuinely cannot find one, the answer exists and you have not thought of it yet.
Solo Is the Daily; Versus Is Two Players
Solo is the daily mode. One grid is dealt per UTC day and it is the same nine squares for every player in the world, so results are directly comparable. The goal in Solo is not to line up three — it is to fill all nine squares, against the clock.
Versus is a local two-player mode on one screen. There the classic win condition returns: line up three valid answers in a row, column or diagonal before your opponent does. Versus grids are dealt at random rather than by the date, so you can play as many as you like.
Giving up in Solo ends the day and reveals one valid answer for every square, which is a good way to learn the roster even on a grid you could not crack. Tapping any finished square shows every other name that would also have fitted there.
Reading the Conditions
The conditions come from the same pool the Poké Bingo card uses, so the two games train the same knowledge. On the Trainer roster they are drawn from the attributes the whole site is built on: region, trainer class, organization, signature type, debut series, whether the character has commanded a Legendary Pokémon, and Power Level bands. On the Pokédex roster they are type, generation, evolution stage, colour, stat thresholds and Legendary or Mythical status.
Two conditions of the same kind never sit on the same axis in a way that makes a square impossible, but they can still make one very tight. A square that crosses a rare organization with a rare type may have exactly one valid answer on the whole roster — those are the squares to solve first, while your best names are still available.
Strategy for Filling All Nine
Work from the most constrained square outwards. Scan all nine intersections before you type anything and find the one you think has the fewest possible answers. Filling it first costs you nothing; leaving it until last frequently means the only name that fitted has already been spent on an easier square.
Keep your flexible characters in reserve. Ash Ketchum satisfies an unusual number of conditions at once — Kanto, Champion class, an Electric signature type, the Original series and a history with Legendary Pokémon — which makes him the answer to a lot of squares. Precisely for that reason he is the worst name to spend on a square that three other characters could have covered.
When you are stuck on a square, take the two conditions apart and list four or five names for each separately, then look for the overlap. It is far easier to remember "who are the Alola Kahunas" and "who specialises in Water" than to search for both properties at once.
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