▶ GUIDE · 2026-10-14T00:00:00.000Z

151 Challenge Tips and Strategy

The 151 Challenge strips away the luxury of free choice. The Kanto Pokédex is shuffled, each round shows you three Pokémon, and whatever you pass on is gone forever. Twenty-two rounds later your team OVR is locked and posted to the leaderboard. Here is how to play it well, plus notes for the 17-0 Challenge.

Know the run structure

• 151 Pokémon, shuffled once at the start.
• Three offered per round. You pick one and place it in an open spot.
• Three rerolls, each discarding the whole offer.
• You will see at most 75 of the 151 Pokémon in a run (22 rounds × 3 plus 3 rerolls × 3). Most of Kanto never appears, so don’t wait for a specific star.

Read the “BEST” tag, then think one step further

Each offered card shows its best open position and rating. That’s a helpful hint, but the best spot for a Pokémon isn’t always the best spot for your team. If a heavy Rock type’s best open spot is defensive tackle at 90 but you still need a centre and the line pool is deep, either is fine. If a fast Pokémon’s best spot is receiver at 85 but you have no cornerbacks yet, and corners are rarer, place it at corner.

Scarcity beats raw rating. Fast, high-Special-Attack Pokémon are rare in Gen 1. Big, tough ones are common. Fill speed spots (QB, WR, CB, FS) with good offers early and let the lines fill themselves later.

When to reroll

Rerolls are your most valuable resource. A rough guide:

1. Early (rounds 1-8): reroll only if all three options would play below 70 at every open spot. Many spots are still open, so almost anything has a decent home.
2. Middle (rounds 9-16): reroll if the best option would start below 72.
3. Late (rounds 17-22): with only a few spots open, mismatches hurt the most. Save at least one reroll for the last five rounds.

Watch the empty-slot preview

While a Pokémon is selected, empty spots on the field show the rating it would get there. Scan the whole field before you tap. Sometimes the number on a spot you hadn’t considered, often tight end or a linebacker, is surprisingly high.

Protect your averages

Your team OVR is the average of offense and defense plus the type bonus. One 55 on defense costs as much as four 90s gain you. Avoid placing a Pokémon into a spot where it rates in the 50s unless you truly have no alternative. That’s exactly what late rerolls are for.

Think about types as you go

Keep a mental count of distinct types. If two offers are within a couple of points and one adds a new type, take it. Ghost, Dragon and Ice are rare in the deck; snapping one up is often worth a point of rating. See our type strategy guide.

17-0 Challenge differences

In the 17-0 Challenge you get one Pokémon per round and can only choose where it plays. That changes everything:

• Placement is the whole game. Each roll should go to the open spot where it rates highest relative to what’s still likely to come.
• Leave flexible spots open. Linebacker and tight end accept many body types. Keep a couple open as “safety valves” for awkward rolls late in the run.
• Reroll weak Pokémon early. A Magikarp (54 at QB, 65 at WR) is hard to place anywhere. Spending a reroll on round 3 is fine if it saves a spot.
• The record is fixed by the team. The schedule is generated from your run, so the record you see when you finish is the one the leaderboard verifies. Ranking is by wins, then OVR.

Benchmarks

Based on our formula, a 151 Challenge team in the mid-80s is solid, high 80s is excellent, and 90+ needs good luck and great placement. In the 17-0 Challenge, a team in the high 80s has a realistic shot at going undefeated, but the season simulation always includes some luck.

Final tip: practise in the builder

Spend ten minutes in the free builder learning which Pokémon fit where. Once you know that Snorlax is a 98 fullback and Cloyster is elite at four different spots, the challenge decisions become instinct.