Pokémon Scarlet & Violet — Speed Tiers for VGC 2023

When attacking, the fastest Pokémon on the field move first, unless some type of priority move has been selected by any of them. Of course, you could always tie with your opponent, in which case it’s a 50/50 decided randomly by the console.

If any attacks or abilities that modify any of the Pokémon’s speed happen during a turn, the rest of moves for said turn are re-calculated taking this into account. For example, your Klawf could be the slowest of all 4 Pokémon on the field, but its partner Kilowattrel may attack first and set up a Tailwind, allowing Klawf to attack before your opponents thanks to the speed boost. Alternatively, your Pokémon could become paralyzed and attack later than you expected.

To tell the speeds during a match, it is useful to know that all abilities that active upon switching in, like Intimidate, do so by speed order. Therefore, whenever two Pokémon with these abilities switch in at the same time, like in the first turn of a battle, the fastest will activate always first. The same is true when two Pokémon switch out of the field at the same time.

When Trick Room is active, these relationships are inverted, with the slowest Pokémon being the first ones and vice-versa. In all cases, if there’s a speed tie, it’s a random 50% chance for either Pokémon to go first.