Pokemon Champions held items are split into four categories — Starting Items (free), type-boosting items (700 VP), Premium Hold Items (1,000 VP), and berries (400 VP) — with Mega Stones as a fifth class at 2,000 VP each. Every purchasable item comes from the Frontier Shop using Victory Points earned through ranked play and daily missions; no real money is involved. The meta as of Regulation M-A is shaped heavily by what is absent: Life Orb, Choice Band, Choice Specs, and Assault Vest are all missing, which makes speed control and defensive bulk more important than raw wallbreaking power.
Last verified: June 11, 2026
How Held Items Work in Pokemon Champions
Before diving into which items to use, here are the three rules that govern every item in the game:
- One item per Pokemon. Each member of your team can hold exactly one item before the battle starts.
- No duplicates. No two Pokemon on the same team may hold the same item. This forces spread decisions — you can’t give Sitrus Berry to your whole team.
- All effects are automatic. You cannot manually activate items mid-battle. Everything triggers on its own (Focus Sash activating at full HP, Leftovers restoring HP each turn, and so on).
These rules are straightforward, but the no-duplicates clause matters a lot in team building. If your lead and your back-row anchor both want Sitrus Berry, one of them has to run something else.
Where to Get Held Items (VP and the Frontier Shop)
All purchasable items in Pokemon Champions come from the Frontier Shop and are paid for with Victory Points (VP). There is no direct cash purchase for competitive held items.
How to earn VP:
- Daily login rewards
- Ranked match payouts (win or lose)
- Weekly missions
Ten items are given to you for free the moment you select your starter Pokemon. These Starting Items include some of the best competitive gear in the game, so new players should not feel behind from day one.
| Category | VP Cost | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Items | Free | Choice Scarf, Leftovers, Focus Sash, Focus Band, Quick Claw, King’s Rock, Bright Powder, White Herb, Lum Berry, Sitrus Berry |
| Berries | 400 VP each | Oran, Occa, Passho, Wacan, Cheri, and ~20 more |
| Type-Boosting Items | 700 VP each | Charcoal, Mystic Water, Magnet, and 15 more |
| Shell Bell | 700 VP | Restores HP when holder deals damage |
| Premium Hold Items | 1,000 VP each | Light Ball, Mental Herb, Scope Lens |
| Mega Stones | 2,000 VP each | ~47 stones available at launch |
Some Mega Stones (such as Manectite) are earned through tutorial completion or the Battle Pass rather than purchased directly. If you are new to the game, finish the tutorial before buying from the shop — you may already have a stone you want.
Starting Items — Your Free Foundation
These ten items are yours from the start and represent some of the most competitively relevant gear in Regulation M-A. Do not spend VP trying to replicate them — you already own them.
| Item | Effect |
|---|---|
| Choice Scarf | Boosts Speed by 50%, but locks the holder to one move |
| Leftovers | Slowly restores HP each turn |
| Focus Sash | Survives one KO hit at full HP, leaving exactly 1 HP (single use per battle) |
| Focus Band | May survive a KO hit with 1 HP remaining (chance-based) |
| Quick Claw | Occasionally lets the holder move first regardless of Speed |
| King’s Rock | Attacks may cause the target to flinch |
| Bright Powder | Lowers the accuracy of the opposing Pokemon’s moves |
| White Herb | Restores any lowered stat once (single use) |
| Lum Berry | Cures any single status condition automatically |
| Sitrus Berry | Restores 25% of max HP when the holder drops below 50% HP |
Choice Scarf is the only Choice item in the game right now — Choice Band and Choice Specs are absent. That makes Scarf disproportionately powerful for speed control. Focus Sash is your insurance policy on frail sweepers or lead Pokemon that need to survive one hit. Leftovers is a passive HP engine that works best on bulky pivots with reliable recovery moves or high natural bulk.
White Herb is a sleeper pick: if your strategy involves a Pokemon that drops its own stats (via moves like Close Combat or Draco Meteor), White Herb can erase the debuff once per battle.
Berries — Cheap and High-Impact
Most berries cost only 400 VP each, making them the most budget-friendly purchasable items in the game. Note that Lum Berry and Sitrus Berry are free Starting Items — you receive them when you pick your starter, so you do not need to spend VP on them. The remaining berries divide into three functional groups.
Status-Curing Berries
| Berry | What It Cures | How to Get |
|---|---|---|
| Lum Berry | Any single status condition | Free (Starting Item) |
| Cheri Berry | Paralysis | 400 VP |
| Pecha Berry | Poison | 400 VP |
| Rawst Berry | Burn | 400 VP |
| Aspear Berry | Freeze | 400 VP |
| Chesto Berry | Sleep | 400 VP |
| Persim Berry | Confusion | 400 VP |
Lum Berry is the all-in-one option — it cures any status condition automatically. This is especially useful against teams that run burn or sleep strategies, and it is a common pick on sweepers that cannot afford to lose a turn. Since it is free, there is no reason not to have it.
HP-Recovery Berries
| Berry | Effect | How to Get |
|---|---|---|
| Sitrus Berry | Restores 25% of max HP when holder drops below 50% HP | Free (Starting Item) |
| Oran Berry | Restores 10 HP when holder drops below 50% HP | 400 VP |
Sitrus Berry is the most-used item on top-ladder Incineroar builds, with an 8.305% usage rate on that Pokemon (Pikalytics data). It outclasses Oran Berry on almost every Pokemon with meaningful HP totals. Since Sitrus Berry is also a free Starting Item, there is no VP cost barrier to running it.
Type-Resist Berries
These berries activate once when the holder takes a super-effective hit of the matching type, halving the damage from that hit.
| Berry | Resists |
|---|---|
| Occa Berry | Fire |
| Passho Berry | Water |
| Wacan Berry | Electric |
| Yache Berry | Ice |
| Haban Berry | Dragon |
| Roseli Berry | Fairy |
| Babiri Berry | Steel |
Type-resist berries are situational but strong in a known meta. If you are consistently dying to one type of coverage move, a resist berry buys you a survival that can swing the game. They are particularly effective on Pokemon like Garchomp (Yache Berry against Ice-type coverage) or Dragon-types facing Fairy attackers (Haban Berry).
Type-Boosting Items — All 18, Ranked by Usefulness
All 18 type-boosting items cost 700 VP each and boost the power of the holder’s matching-type moves by 20%. That is a meaningful damage boost, but these items fall into C-tier for most teams because the raw payoff of damage boosts rarely outweighs the defensive utility or speed control you get from other items.
| Item | Type Boosted |
|---|---|
| Black Belt | Fighting |
| Black Glasses | Dark |
| Charcoal | Fire |
| Dragon Fang | Dragon |
| Fairy Feather | Fairy |
| Hard Stone | Rock |
| Magnet | Electric |
| Metal Coat | Steel |
| Miracle Seed | Grass |
| Mystic Water | Water |
| Never-Melt Ice | Ice |
| Poison Barb | Poison |
| Sharp Beak | Flying |
| Silk Scarf | Normal |
| Silver Powder | Bug |
| Soft Sand | Ground |
| Spell Tag | Ghost |
| Twisted Spoon | Psychic |
When to use them: Type-boosting items are strongest on mono-attackers — Pokemon that almost exclusively use one type of move and are fast enough that they do not need Scarf to outspeed threats. On a Garchomp that runs only Ground-type moves, Soft Sand can push your Earthquake damage over the KO threshold without the move-locking downside of Choice Scarf.
In the current Regulation M-A meta, type-boosters are mostly seen on specialist builds rather than standard team compositions.
Premium Hold Items — Niche but Worth Knowing
Three items sit at 1,000 VP each in the Premium tier.
| Item | Effect |
|---|---|
| Light Ball | Boosts Pikachu’s Attack and Special Attack |
| Mental Herb | Cures move-binding effects such as infatuation (single use) |
| Scope Lens | Raises the holder’s critical-hit ratio by one stage |
Light Ball is a Pikachu-exclusive. If you are building a Pikachu team or running it in a novelty set, this doubles its offensive output. Otherwise, it is irrelevant.
Mental Herb counters Infatuation and other attraction-based move-binding effects. In metas where these strategies appear, it is a one-slot counter. Check whether these effects are common in your current rank bracket before investing 1,000 VP.
Scope Lens improves critical-hit consistency. It pairs best with high-crit-chance moves or Pokemon that have abilities boosting critical hits, but without Life Orb in the game, critical-hit builds are harder to make devastating.
Shell Bell — Damage-Tied Recovery
Shell Bell (700 VP) restores HP to the holder every time it deals damage to an opponent. It is not as consistent as Leftovers over a full game but can be stronger in offensive matchups where you are dealing damage every turn. It fits well on bulky attackers that frequently make contact.
Note: Rocky Helmet is not available in Pokemon Champions as of Regulation M-A. It is a commonly searched item for players coming from Scarlet/Violet, but it is absent from the current item pool.
What’s Missing — Absent Items That Change the Meta
This is the most important section if you are coming to Pokemon Champions from VGC or Scarlet/Violet.
The following items are confirmed absent from Pokemon Champions as of Regulation M-A (April 8 – June 17, 2026):
- Life Orb
- Choice Band
- Choice Specs
- Assault Vest
- Flame Orb
- Heavy-Duty Boots
- Light Clay
- Rocky Helmet
The developer has stated plans to “remove some restrictions on held items” in future updates. What that means in practice for Regulation M-B (starting June 17, 2026, alongside the mobile launch) has not been officially confirmed as of this writing.
How this shapes the current meta:
Without Choice Band and Choice Specs, wallbreaking is significantly weaker than in Scarlet/Violet VGC. You cannot one-shot bulky targets as easily, which means defensive Pokemon like Incineroar and Metagross last longer. Without Life Orb, frail sweepers must give up either speed (no Scarf) or the damage multiplier. Without Assault Vest, specially defensive pivot builds require more careful team construction.
The result is a meta that rewards speed control (Scarf, Quick Claw), HP sustain (Sitrus Berry, Leftovers, Shell Bell), and survivability (Focus Sash) over raw power. Check our speed tiers guide once you know which Scarf users you want to outpace.
Mega Stones — A Held Item Category of Their Own
Mega Stones are classified as held items in Pokemon Champions and cost 2,000 VP each. Approximately 47 Mega Stones are available at launch. Some (like Manectite, Abomasite, Beedrillite, Garchompite, Gyaradosite, Heracronite, Aggronite, and Steelixite) are earned through tutorial completion rather than purchased outright.
Because Mega Evolution is one of the most powerful mechanics in the game, Mega Stones often outvalue every other item on the Pokemon that can use them. A Mega-capable Pokemon running anything other than its Mega Stone is almost always giving up power.
For a full breakdown of which Mega Stones to prioritize and when to Mega Evolve, see our Mega Evolution guide.
Item Tier List — Regulation M-A
Based on usage statistics, community competitive guides, and the current metagame context:
| Tier | Items |
|---|---|
| S | Focus Sash, Choice Scarf, Leftovers, Sitrus Berry |
| A | Quick Claw, White Herb, Lum Berry, Bright Powder, King’s Rock |
| B | Mental Herb, Shell Bell, Scope Lens, Oran Berry, status-curing berries |
| C | Type-boosting items (situational), type-resist berries (meta-dependent) |
Source: thegamer.com held items tier list + pikalytics.com usage data. Last verified: June 11, 2026.
S-tier reasoning:
- Focus Sash: You get it free, it saves your lead from an OHKO, and it is irreplaceable on glass-cannon Pokemon. You receive it as a Starting Item at no VP cost.
- Choice Scarf: The only Choice item available, making it the single best speed-control tool in the game. Essential on any team that needs to outspeed something important.
- Leftovers: Passive HP recovery that never expires. On a bulky Pokemon that stays in for multiple turns, Leftovers can recover more HP than a berry activates once.
- Sitrus Berry: Free at the start and widely used across the meta — a 25% HP heal at under 50% health is a big swing at a pivotal moment. Since it is a Starting Item, every player has it from day one.
Per-Archetype Item Recommendations
Sun Offense (74.5% win rate in Regulation M-A)
Sun teams win fast or lose fast. Item priorities:
- Lead: Focus Sash — lets your weather setter live one hit and guarantee sun up
- Sweeper: Choice Scarf — sun already boosts Fire-type moves; Scarf stacks speed to clean up
- Pivot: Sitrus Berry or Leftovers on your bulkiest member
For team building help, see the best doubles teams guide.
Perish Trap (72.1% win rate in Regulation M-A)
Perish Trap is built around surviving long enough to close out with Perish Song. Items:
- Trapper: Mental Herb — stops you from being locked by Infatuation or similar effects before you can execute
- Bulky core: Leftovers + Sitrus Berry spread across two Pokemon
- Backup: Lum Berry on any member vulnerable to status that breaks the trap timing
Defensive Pivot (Incineroar / Metagross core)
The most-used Pokemon at top ladder run:
- Incineroar: Sitrus Berry — tanks, pivots with Fake Out and Parting Shot, heals to repeat
- Metagross: Leftovers or Shell Bell — pairs with its natural bulk for sustained HP recovery (Rocky Helmet is not available in Regulation M-A)
Speed Control Lead
If you are leading with a fast Pokemon designed to set up Tailwind, Thunder Wave, or Trick Room:
- Tailwind setter: Focus Sash — guarantees you get Tailwind up even if you get hit first
- Trick Room setter: Mental Herb or Focus Sash, depending on what stops your setup
- Choice Scarf lead: For Pokemon that need to outspeed before acting; accept the move-lock tradeoff
How to Farm VP Fast
Since every item costs VP, your acquisition speed matters. The fastest ways to build your budget:
- Log in daily — daily login rewards add up passively
- Complete weekly missions — these offer larger VP payouts than single matches
- Play ranked — you earn VP win or lose; match volume beats win rate for farming
If you are new to the game and not sure where to start, our beginner guide walks through the full progression loop including how VP fits in.
Looking Ahead — Regulation M-B (June 17, 2026)
Regulation M-B begins June 17, 2026, coinciding with the Pokemon Champions mobile launch on iOS and Android. It expands the Pokemon roster and adds Mega Raichu X/Y.
As of June 11, 2026, no official announcement has confirmed new held items for Regulation M-B. The community widely expects items like Life Orb, Choice Band, and Choice Specs to eventually arrive — the developer’s statement about “removing restrictions on held items” points that direction — but nothing is confirmed.
When Regulation M-B goes live and official item changes are announced, this guide will be updated. Check our patch notes hub for the latest changes as they happen.
FAQ
How many held items are in Pokemon Champions at launch? Pokemon Champions launched with approximately 30 non-berry held items plus around 25 berries, giving you roughly 55+ options total. There are also approximately 47 Mega Stones classified as held items, available at 2,000 VP each.
How do I get held items in Pokemon Champions? Almost all held items are purchased from the Frontier Shop using Victory Points (VP). Ten Starting Items are given to you for free when you choose your starter. No items require real money — VP comes from daily logins, ranked matches, and weekly missions.
What are the Starting Items in Pokemon Champions? The ten free Starting Items are: Choice Scarf, Leftovers, Focus Sash, Focus Band, Quick Claw, King’s Rock, Bright Powder, White Herb, Lum Berry, and Sitrus Berry. You receive them all when you pick your first starter Pokemon.
Is Choice Band or Choice Specs in Pokemon Champions? No. Choice Band and Choice Specs are confirmed absent from Pokemon Champions at launch (Regulation M-A, April 8 – June 17, 2026). Choice Scarf is the only Choice item currently available. The developer has stated plans to expand held items in future updates.
What is the best held item in Pokemon Champions right now? Based on Regulation M-A usage and community tier lists, Focus Sash and Choice Scarf are the S-tier picks. Sitrus Berry is consistently the top item on the most-used Pokemon in the format — Incineroar carries it at an 8.3% rate on top-ladder teams.
How many VP does it cost to buy held items? VP costs vary by category: type-boosting items cost 700 VP each, Shell Bell costs 700 VP, berries cost 400 VP each, Premium Hold Items (Light Ball, Mental Herb, Scope Lens) cost 1,000 VP each, and Mega Stones cost 2,000 VP each. Note that Lum Berry and Sitrus Berry are free Starting Items.
Can two Pokemon on the same team hold the same item? No. No two Pokemon on the same team may hold the same item. Each Pokemon can hold exactly one item, and items activate automatically — you cannot manually use them during battle.
Are Mega Stones held items in Pokemon Champions? Yes. Mega Stones are classified as held items and cost 2,000 VP each. Approximately 47 Mega Stones are available at launch. Some stones (like Manectite) are earned through tutorials rather than purchased.
Will Life Orb or Assault Vest be added to Pokemon Champions? As of June 11, 2026, Life Orb, Assault Vest, Choice Band, Choice Specs, Flame Orb, Heavy-Duty Boots, Light Clay, and Rocky Helmet are all absent from the game. The developer has signaled plans to add more items in future regulations, but no official list for Regulation M-B has been confirmed.
What is the best item for Incineroar in Pokemon Champions? Sitrus Berry is the standard on Incineroar in Regulation M-A. It restores 25% of max HP when Incineroar drops below 50% HP, letting it tank hits and keep using Intimidate pivots. Pikalytics data shows Sitrus Berry on 8.305% of Incineroar teams at top ladder.
