Coverage Optimizer — full guide
The Coverage Optimizer answers the moveslot question: of every legal move I could add, which one lets my team threaten the largest share of what I will actually face? It computes real damage — the same formula, stats, natures, items, abilities, and type interactions the games use — against representative builds of the whole legal roster, weighted by current usage. This guide covers setup, the results, and how to choose.
1. Set up the team
Add up to six Pokémon with Add Pokémon. For each one, pick the moves it already runs and set anything that changes its damage math: stat boosts, item, weather, terrain, and Helping Hand. The closer this setup is to how the Pokémon will really enter battle, the more honest the results — a Choice Specs number and an unboosted number are very different claims.
Set the Format toggle to the regulation you are preparing for. The toggle changes the usage weighting (which opponents count, and how much), so the same team can get different recommendations in different regulations — that is the tool working as intended.
2. Choose the target: 2HKO, OHKO, or SE
Best coverage by decides what "covering" a threat means. 2HKO (knock out in two hits) is the practical default for VGC — with two Pokémon attacking per turn, bringing a threat into 2HKO range usually means it is handled. OHKO is the stricter standard for hyper-offensive teams that cannot afford to leave anything standing. SE (super-effective) ignores damage math entirely and just asks about type matchups — useful early, when movesets are still fluid.
3. Read the team coverage holes
The holes list is the most important output on the page: usage-relevant threats that nothing on your team can currently bring into KO range. These are the opponents you would otherwise discover in game three of a tournament set. If a top-usage Pokémon is on this list, fixing that should drive your last moveslot or even a roster change.
4. Per-Pokémon vs team-level suggestions
Each team member gets a ranked list of the best moves it could add, scored by how much new roster share that move brings into KO range for that Pokémon. The team-level panel answers a subtler question: across everyone, which single addition adds the most coverage that no current team member already has. A move can top a Pokémon's personal list but rank low team-wide because a teammate already handles those targets — the team view is the one that closes real gaps.
5. How the usage weighting works
Every candidate move is evaluated against the entire legal roster, but targets are weighted by how often they actually appear in the selected format's data. Knocking out a Pokémon that shows up in a third of games is worth far more than knocking out one that appears in one game in a thousand. The percentages you see are meta share brought into range, so options are directly comparable on one scale.
6. Choosing between close options
- Prefer the move that covers what your team misses — the team-level ranking already accounts for this; trust it over the per-Pokémon list when they disagree.
- Check the holes list after your pick. If the top remaining hole is a Pokémon your bring order can play around, a slightly lower-scored move with better accuracy or a secondary effect may be the better tournament choice.
- Remember what the tool does not know: speed order, Protect timing, switch pressure, and your own bring tendencies. Coverage share is a necessary condition for a good moveslot, not a sufficient one.
7. Next step
Once the moves are settled, take the team to the EV Optimizer to turn "this move 2HKOs that target" into a guaranteed benchmark — the EV Optimizer guide shows how. Terms like OHKO, 2HKO, and usage share are defined in the glossary.