A wild Pokémon from any of the nine generations is hiding in the grass. Type a name or Pokédex number and press SCAN to throw a Poké Ball at it. You get 8 balls. If you use them all up, the Pokémon shows itself and runs off.
After each throw the log gets a new row that compares your guess with the hidden Pokémon:
✓Same as the hidden Pokémon
~Close. Within 10% for numbers, or one shared type or egg group
✕Different
▲The hidden Pokémon's number is higher. ▼ means lower
The ball wobbles more the closer your guess was. A long shot pops open straight away. A near miss wobbles three times before the Pokémon breaks free. If you guessed right, the ball clicks shut.
What the columns mean
- Types are shown together, so Grass/Poison counts the same as Poison/Grass. Green means the exact same typing and yellow means one type in common. Typing follows the current games, which makes Clefairy a Fairy type.
- Egg group is the breeding group, such as Water 1 or Amorphous. Yellow means one group in common.
- Stage is 1 for a first form, baby Pokémon included, so Munchlax is stage 1 and Snorlax is stage 2. A Mega Evolution has the stage of the Pokémon it comes from.
- Height, Weight, BST (the six base stats added up) and Gen get an arrow pointing toward the answer. A Mega Evolution counts as the generation of the Pokémon it comes from, with its own types, size and stats.
- Press STATS on any row to compare the six base stats, body shape and catch rate too. The ♪ button plays that Pokémon's cry.
Hints
Hints unlock as you throw. After two balls, PLAY CRY under the screen plays the hidden Pokémon's cry. After five you can reveal its category, and for your last ball you get its outline: a blurry, blocky shape swaying behind the bushes and tall grass. Hints you use are marked on your shared result.
Daily and Endless
The Daily Pokémon is the same for everyone and changes at midnight Pacific time. It can be from any generation, though Gen I to IV come up most often, then Gen V, then the rest (each later generation still about one day in fourteen). It's never a Mega Evolution. A Discord server can pick its own generations for its daily with /dexdle gens, and can add Megas. In Endless you can keep playing round after round. Use the POOL buttons to choose which generations the Pokémon can come from, and MEGA to add Mega Evolutions.
Bill's PC
Everything you catch is stored in the PC next to the Pokédex, newest first, 30 to a box. Hover over a Pokémon for its trainer memo, which notes when you caught it, how many balls and hints it took, and a few details about its personality. Click one to make it hop and hear its cry. Around one catch in ten is shiny. Those are stored in their shiny colors with a gold star.
Your party
Pick a Pokémon in the PC and press + PARTY to add it to your party of six, shown above the box. Press a party slot to find that Pokémon again. EXPORT turns your party into a Pokémon Showdown team, with common sets for each Pokémon and the nature from its trainer memo. In Discord your party follows your account: show it off with /dexdle party, battle someone's party with /dexdle battle, and get anyone's party as a Showdown team with /dexdle showdown.
Sound
Dexdle plays its own Game Boy-style music: a battle loop while you guess, a fanfare and a victory tune when you catch something, and a short jingle when it gets away. Open SOUND to set music, effects and cry volume separately, mute everything, or swap in your own music files.
You can also use the keyboard. The arrow keys move through matches, Enter scans, and / jumps to the entry box from anywhere.