Showdown

A Pokémon battle-bot that can play battles on Pokemon Showdown.

The bot can play single battles in generations 3 through 8.

Python version

Developed and tested using Python 3.8.

Getting Started

Configuration

Environment variables are used for configuration. You may either set these in your environment before running, or populate them in the env file.

The configurations available are:

Config Name	Type	Required	Description
BATTLE_BOT	string	yes	The BattleBot module to use. More on this below in the Battle Bots section
WEBSOCKET_URI	string	yes	The address to use to connect to the Pokemon Showdown websocket
PS_USERNAME	string	yes	Pokemon Showdown username
PS_PASSWORD	string	yes	Pokemon Showdown password
BOT_MODE	string	yes	The mode the the bot will operate in. Options are CHALLENGE_USER, SEARCH_LADDER, or ACCEPT_CHALLENGE
POKEMON_MODE	string	yes	The type of game this bot will play: gen8ou, gen7randombattle, etc.
USER_TO_CHALLENGE	string	only if BOT_MODE is CHALLENGE_USER	If BOT_MODE is CHALLENGE_USER, this is the name of the user you want your bot to challenge
RUN_COUNT	int	no	The number of games the bot will play before quitting
TEAM_NAME	string	no	The name of the file that contains the team you want to use. More on this below in the Specifying Teams section.
ROOM_NAME	string	no	If BOT_MODE is ACCEPT_CHALLENGE, the bot will join this chatroom while waiting for a challenge.
SAVE_REPLAY	boolean	no	Specifies whether or not to save replays of the battles (True / False)
LOG_LEVEL	string	no	The Python logging level (DEBUG, INFO, etc.)

Running without Docker

1. Clone

Clone the repository with git clone https://github.com/pmariglia/showdown.git

2. Install Requirements

Install the requirements with pip install -r requirements.txt.

3. Configure your env file

Here is a sample:

BATTLE_BOT=safest
WEBSOCKET_URI=sim.smogon.com:8000
PS_USERNAME=MyUsername
PS_PASSWORD=MyPassword
BOT_MODE=SEARCH_LADDER
POKEMON_MODE=gen7randombattle
RUN_COUNT=1

4. Run

Run with python run.py

Running with Docker

This requires Docker 17.06 or higher.

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/pmariglia/showdown.git

2. Build the Docker image

docker build . -t showdown

3. Run with an environment variable file

docker run --env-file env showdown

Battle Bots

This project has a few different battle bot implementations. Each of these battle bots use a different method to determine which move to use.

Safest

use BATTLE_BOT=safest

The bot searches through the game-tree for two turns and selects the move that minimizes the possible loss for a turn.

For decisions with random outcomes a weighted average is taken for all possible end states. For example: If using draco meteor versus some arbitrary other move results in a score of 1000 if it hits (90%) and a score of 900 if it misses (10%), the overall score for using draco meteor is (0.9 * 1000) + (0.1 * 900) = 990.

This is equivalent to the Expectiminimax strategy.

This decision type is deterministic - the bot will always make the same move given the same situation again.

Nash-Equilibrium (experimental)

use BATTLE_BOT=nash_equilibrium

Using the information it has, plus some assumptions about the opponent, the bot will attempt to calculate the Nash-Equilibrium with the highest payoff and select a move from that distribution.

The Nash Equilibrium is calculated using command-line tools provided by the Gambit project. This decision method should only be used when running with Docker and will fail otherwise.

This decision method is not deterministic. The bot may make a different move if presented with the same situation again.

Team Datasets (experimental)

use BATTLE_BOT=team_datasets

Using a file of sets & teams, this battle-bot is meant to have a better understanding of Pokeon sets that may appear. Populate this dataset by editing data/team_datasets.json.

Still uses the safest decision making method for picking a move, but in theory the knowledge of sets should result in better decision making.

Most Damage

use BATTLE_BOT=most_damage

Selects the move that will do the most damage to the opponent

Does not switch

Write your own bot

Create a package in showdown/battle_bots with a module named main.py. In this module, create a class named BattleBot, override the Battle class, and implement your own find_best_move function.

Set the BATTLE_BOT environment variable to the name of your package and your function will be called each time PokemonShowdown prompts the bot for a move

The Battle Engine

The bots in the project all use a Pokemon battle engine to determine all possible transpositions that may occur from a pair of moves.

For more information, see ENGINE.md

Specifying Teams

You can specify teams by setting the TEAM_NAME environment variable. Examples can be found in teams/teams/.

Passing in a directory will cause a random team to be selected from that directory.

The path specified should be relative to teams/teams/.

Examples

Specify a file:

TEAM_NAME=gen8/ou/clef_sand

Specify a directory:

TEAM_NAME=gen8/ou