PokeBonk Tier List

What is PokeBonk?

PokéBonk is a free, unofficial 3D survivor game made by the fan developer Charcher and played in the browser at pokebonk.com. It takes the Megabonk formula – an auto-attacking hero, endless hordes and level-up cards – and fills it with the 151 Pokémon of Kanto. You pick a partner from your League, its moves fire on their own while you move and jump, and level-ups let you add moves from its kit, power up the ones you have or take stat-raising vitamins. Guardians guard each zone, and evolution happens mid-run at fixed levels.

Only 79 of those Pokémon can be chosen as your partner. They are the members of your League, and everything else you meet in the wild is either an evolution of a League member or an enemy. That is why the first questions new players ask are which League member to use and which one to unlock next. This PokeBonk tier list answers both with the game's own numbers, and every card above opens the partner's kit, passive, evolution levels and exact unlock challenge.

How the PokeBonk tier list is calculated

PokeBonk does not use a Pokémon's base stat total directly. It reads how its six base stats are distributed: each stat is divided by the total and scaled so that an average stat equals 1. A Pokémon with a large share of HP gets more max HP and regeneration, Defense and Special Defense become armor, Speed becomes move speed and dodge, and Attack and Special Attack become the physical and special damage multipliers. On top of that, every evolution stage adds 12% max HP and 12% damage. We use that exact formula for every League member at the final form it reaches in a run.

Each partner also has a signature passive. Many passives add flat stats – armor, a shield, extra HP or speed – and those fixed bonuses are included. For example, Squirtle's Torrent Shell reads “+15 armor and +20 shield. Below 40% HP, +40% damage.” – the armor and shield count, the low-HP bonus does not. From those numbers the PokeBonk tier list builds three scores:

• Damage – the average power of the attacking moves in the partner's kit, multiplied by its physical or special multiplier for each move and by the evolution damage bonus.
• Survival – max HP plus shield, divided by the share of damage that still gets through. Armor follows the game's curve (armor ÷ (armor + 45) is blocked), and dodge chance and passives that reduce damage taken are counted too.
• Speed – move speed, which decides how well you kite, dodge and pick up experience gems.

Each score is turned into a percentile across all 79 League members, so “better than 80%” in the card details means exactly that. The Balanced style weighs damage 50%, survival 30% and speed 20%. Damage, Tank and Speed shift the weights for different play styles. Tiers are then cut by rank: the top 10% is S, the next 20% A, the next 30% B, the next 25% C and the rest D, which gives 7 in S, 16 in A, 24 in B, 20 in C, 12 in D on the default PokeBonk tier list.

Top 10 on the PokeBonk tier list

These are the ten strongest partners with Balanced weights. The arrow shows the final form each line is scored at.

1. Nidoran♂ → Nidoking – S tier, King. Passive Rivalry; best kit move Thrash.
2. Oddish → Vileplume – S tier, Night bloom. Passive Chlorophyll; best kit move Petal Dance.
3. Bellsprout → Victreebel – S tier, Carnivorous. Passive Hungry Maw; best kit move Power Whip.
4. Abra → Alakazam – S tier, Mystic. Passive Magic Guard; best kit move Future Sight.
5. Machop → Machamp – S tier, Fighter. Passive Guts; best kit move Cross Chop.
6. Zapdos – S tier, Electric bird. Passive Electric Pressure; best kit move Electro Shot.
7. Moltres – S tier, Blazing bird. Passive Fiery Pressure; best kit move Overheat.
8. Mewtwo – A tier, Genetic. Passive Genome; best kit move Prismatic Laser.
9. Drowzee → Hypno – A tier, Hypnotist. Passive Pendulum; best kit move Focus Blast.
10. Pikachu → Raichu – A tier, Sprinter. Passive Static; best kit move Thunder.

The order changes with the ranking style. With Damage weights Mewtwo comes first, Tank puts Rhyhorn → Rhydon on top and Speed favours Mewtwo. If two partners sit close together, pick the one whose kit and passive suit how you like to play.

Best starter on the PokeBonk tier list

Your first partner is free: Bulbasaur, Charmander or Squirtle. The other two each unlock after 2 finished runs, win or lose, so the choice only matters for your first evening. Here is where each starter lands on the PokeBonk tier list:

• Bulbasaur → Venusaur – #31, B tier. Healer; Synthesis: +1.5 regen and +25% healing. Your Grass attacks heal you a little (0.4% of HP per hit, up to 5 times per second).
• Charmander → Charizard – #36, B tier. Fiery Assault; Sea of Flames: Below 40% HP, +40% damage. +10% Fire damage.
• Squirtle → Blastoise – #47, B tier. Defender; Torrent Shell: +15 armor and +20 shield. Below 40% HP, +40% damage.

None of the starters reaches the top tiers, because their stats are evenly spread. They are still excellent for learning the game: they evolve twice during a run, and Squirtle for example becomes Wartortle at Lv. 24 and Blastoise at Lv. 44. Use your starter to finish the 2-run challenge for the others and to start building the League count that later unlocks need.

How to unlock League Pokémon in PokeBonk

Every League member apart from your first starter has a challenge, shown in its card above. Completing it does not add the Pokémon to your League yet: the game tells you it will appear in your next run, and you still have to find it and catch it. Only then does it join your League and become a partner. Alpha Pokémon you catch with a Friend Ball are different – they fight beside you for one run as Support Alphas but never join the League.

The PokeBonk tier list groups the challenges into four kinds, which you can filter with the Unlock menu:

• Total progress (37 Pokémon) – counters that add up across all your runs, such as total KOs, finished runs or Pokémon burned.
• Single-run feat (11) – something you must do within one run, like reaching a high level or surviving a long time.
• Map goal (2) – win or clear a specific map.
• League milestone (26) – you need a minimum number of League members first. The milestones are 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60 and 78 members, often combined with a map win or a single-run feat.

If you want strength without a long grind, these partners rank highly on the PokeBonk tier list and have no League milestone in their challenge: Nidoran♂ → Nidoking, Oddish → Vileplume, Bellsprout → Victreebel, Abra → Alakazam, Machop → Machamp and Drowzee → Hypno. Unlock them early and they will carry the harder challenges that come later.

Legendary Pokémon on the PokeBonk tier list

PokeBonk has 5 legendary League members: Zapdos, Moltres, Mewtwo, Mew and Articuno. They are the last unlocks – the birds and Mewtwo sit behind League milestones of 45 to 60 members, and Mew needs every other League member. Their passives give flat bonuses to damage, HP and speed, but legendaries never evolve, so they miss the 12% HP and damage that each evolution stage adds to other lines.

• Zapdos – #6, S tier. Electric Pressure: Legendary: +10% damage, HP and speed. Every 5 s three lightning bolts strike nearby enemies and paralyze them.
• Moltres – #7, S tier. Fiery Pressure: Legendary: +10% damage, HP and speed. Every 6 s a 6 m ring of flames burns the enemies.
• Mewtwo – #8, A tier. Genome: +15% damage, area and speed. Every 8 s a psychic barrier gives you a shield worth 15% of your HP. Your crits stun.
• Mew – #29, B tier. Ancestral Gene: +10% damage, speed, area and HP. Can learn moves of any type.
• Articuno – #35, B tier. Frigid Pressure: Legendary: +10% damage, HP and speed. Every second, enemies within 6 m gradually freeze.

In other words, chasing a legendary is a long-term goal rather than a shortcut. A fully evolved line from the upper half of the PokeBonk tier list will clear Normal and Hard just as well while you work towards them.

What the PokeBonk tier list does not measure

A tier list built from stats can only rank what makes one partner different from another before a run starts. These parts of PokeBonk are left out on purpose:

• Move shapes and areas. A beam, a cone and a homing bolt with the same power play very differently. We count each move's power, not its reach or how many enemies it hits.
• Conditional passive effects. Bonuses that trigger on low HP, in rain or on critical hits are not in the score; only fixed stat bonuses are.
• Ultimates, items, vitamins and Lab upgrades. Every partner can use them, and they depend on your run and your Stardust, so they do not separate one League member from another.
• Co-op and Survival. The ranking targets Classic mode. In Survival, where a boss arrives every 5 minutes, the Tank and Speed styles are usually the better guide.

Maps, difficulty and modes

Classic runs take place on four maps – Viridian Forest, Rocky Desert, Storm Coast and Celestial Glacier – each made of zones that end with a Guardian and a final Shrine. Winning a map on Normal opens Hard on that map, and a Hard win opens Nightmare. Hard pays ×1.75 Stardust with enemies 70% stronger; Nightmare pays ×2.5 with enemies 160% stronger. Survival mode is endless hordes with milestones, and the game also runs limited-time events such as the Lavender Tower. Stardust from runs, Tasks and Achievements buys permanent Lab upgrades for every partner.

Several unlock challenges point at specific maps and difficulties, so check the card of the Pokémon you want before you start a run. For general Pokémon type matchups, our type calculator works for PokeBonk enemies too, and fans of the genre can compare this list with our PokéSurvivor tier list.

How to use this PokeBonk tier list

1. Choose a ranking style that matches how you play; Balanced is a good default.
2. Filter by type, rarity or how a Pokémon unlocks. Filters only hide cards – a Pokémon keeps its tier.
3. Tap any card to see its score breakdown, in-run stats, passive, move kit, evolution levels and challenge.
4. Pick a strong partner you already own, then work on the challenge of the next one you want.

PokeBonk tier list FAQ