Tableau Dashboarding (Part 1 of 2): Creating a Max Pokemon Statistics Dashboard

What Types of Pokemon Are the Best and Worst?

Everyone who plays the Pokemon games wants to catch and make use of pokemon to become as the theme song says, “the very best [trainer] like no one ever was.” All different kinds of pokemon exist to engineer and evolve to create the “best” pokemon teams. One major factor that determines the level of greatness of a pokemon is a pokemon’s maximum potential statistics. All pokemon have maximum potential statistics. The higher the maximum potential statistics usually means the more powerful the pokemon.

After examining the pokemon in generations 1 through 8, some statistical inequality among different types of pokemon was identified. What that means is some types of pokemon have higher maximum potential statistics than other types of pokemon. This statistical inequality suggests that some types of pokemon are stronger than other types of pokemon. This information is useful for deciding the best types of pokemon to work with on a team, or what types of pokemon should appear in future Pokemon generations because of a need for more statistical equality and a better chance for some types of pokemon to be included on a “best” pokemon team.

In my first of two Tableau Dashboarding blogs (this blog), I will talk through the steps of how I created a Pokemon Max Statistics dashboard as a dashboarding exercise for anyone who wants to determine the highest and lowest maximum potential statistics of pokemon based on Primary Type and Secondary Type analyses of pokemon combined. I created the dashboard to achieve a better understanding of the statistical inequality across the pokemon types. I desired to discover the strongest types of pokemon by highest maximum potential statistics and the weakest types of pokemon by lowest maximum potential statistics.

In my second of two Tableau Dashboarding blogs (https://jmstipanowich.medium.com/tableau-dashboarding-part-2-of-2-using-a-max-pokemon-statistics-dashboard-to-identify-the-57368ad20271), I will perform another dashboarding exercise where I use my dashboard to acquire the results of the pokemon types with the highest and lowest maximum potential statistics across both Primary Type and Secondary Type pokemon statistical analyses combined. I am including Pandas library and some Python code to obtain the names of the pokemon that have the highest and lowest maximum potential statistics. I will recommend what types of pokemon to use on a “best” pokemon team and what types of pokemon should appear in future generations to realize more statistical equality across all types of pokemon.

Creating a Max Pokemon Statistics Dashboard — Creating the “Pokemon Statistics By Type” Sheet

This view of the “Pokemon Statistics By Type” sheet is after changes from the Dashboard are applied so the picture may look slightly different, have different text, or have different filter values if the whole dashboarding blog processes have not been completed yet.

Below are the steps to create the “Pokemon Statistics By Type” sheet of my Max Pokemon Statistics Dashboard:

1. Download the dataset I used from https://www.kaggle.com/swashbuckler1/pokemon-gen1gen8.
2. Open a new workbook on Tableau Desktop with the dataset included and go to Sheet 1. Double-click the Sheet 1 tab to name the sheet “Pokemon Statistics By Type”. Hit Enter.
3. Change the Data Type to Number (whole) and select Convert to Continuous for the Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, Speed, HP, and Total columns in the Data pane.
4. Drag the Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, Speed, HP, and Total columns to the Columns display in that order.
5. Go to the drop-down menus individually for Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, Speed, HP, and Total on the Columns display and select Measure: Maximum.
6. Drag Type to the Rows display.
7. Go over to the Maximum Total column in the view and click the descending order icon (to get the highest values overall first).
8. Change the “Standard” option on the toolbar to fit “Entire View.”
9. Ctrl + Drag Max(Attack), Max(Defense), Max(Special Attack), Max(Special Defense), Max(Speed), Max(HP), and Max(Total) on Columns to Filters to duplicate them. For each filter, select Maximum, select Next, and agree to the Range of Values. Then, click “OK.”
10. For each item under Filters, click the drop-down menu and select “Show Filter.”
11. Drag Measure Names from the Data pane to the Marks card under “Color.” Make sure all fields are selected. There may be a slightly varied color scheme in relation to the color scheme on my dashboard.
12. Click the drop-down menu on Measure Names on the Marks card and select “Show Filter.”
13. The Sheet should be complete and ready to move to the dashboard!

Creating a Max Pokemon Statistics Dashboard — Creating the “Pokemon Statistics by Second Type” Sheet

This view of the “Pokemon Statistics By Second Type” sheet is after changes from the Dashboard are applied so this picture may look slightly different, include a Second Type filter that I did not discuss, have some different text, and have some different filter values if the whole dashboarding blog processes have not been completed yet.

Below are the steps to create the “Pokemon Statistics By Second Type” sheet of my Max Pokemon Statistics Dashboard:

1. Right-click the “Pokemon Statistics By Type” sheet tab at the bottom of that sheet and select “Duplicate.” Double click the title on the duplicated sheet tab at the bottom of the page to name the duplicated sheet “Pokemon Statistics By Second Type.”
2. Double-click the “Other Type” words on the Data pane and rename that column “Second Type.” Hit Enter.
3. Click the drop-down menu on Type on the Rows display and select “Remove.”
4. Remove all filters from the Filters pane.
5. Drag Second Type to the Rows display.
6. Go over to the Maximum Total column in the view and click the descending order icon.
7. Ctrl + Drag Max(Attack), Max(Defense), Max(Special Attack), Max(Special Defense), Max(Speed), Max(HP), and Max(Total) on columns to Filters to duplicate them. For each filter, select Maximum, select Next, and agree to the Range of Values. Then, click “OK.”
8. For each item under Filters, click the drop-down menu and select “Show Filter.”
9. The Sheet is ready to go to the dashboard!

Creating a Max Pokemon Statistics Dashboard — Creating the Max Pokemon Statistics Dashboard

This view of the Max Pokemon Statistics Dashboard is after changes from the Dashboard are applied so this picture may look slightly different, have filters in different places, not include a null row on the second sheet, and have some different text if the whole dashboarding blog processes have not been completed yet.

Below are the steps to create the Max Pokemon Statistics Dashboard:

1. Click the “New Dashboard” tab on the bottom of the page (the middle icon on the far right).
2. Double-click the Dashboard 1 title tab at the bottom of the page and rename the dashboard to “Max Pokemon Statistics.” Hit Enter.
3. On the Dashboard pane, select “Show dashboard title” at the bottom of the pane.
4. Drag the “Pokemon Statistics By Type” sheet from Sheets on the Dashboard pane into the view.
5. Drag the “Pokemon Statistics By Second Type” sheet from Sheets on the Dashboard pane into the view underneath the “Pokemon Statistics By Type” sheet.
6. If a blank null value row appears on the “Pokemon Statistics By Second Type” worksheet, click the blank cell at the start of the row and select “Exclude.” Null values in the second worksheet are not necessary for analyses using this dashboard because they already fit to types and values on the “Pokemon Statistics By Type” sheet and only need to fit to that worksheet to operate the dashboard.
7. Find the one Max(Attack), one Max(Defense), one Max(Special Attack), one Max(Special Defense), one Max(Speed), one Max(HP), and one Max(Total) filter that covers the range of values of both sheets (the filters with a larger range of values). For each of those filters, click on the filter, select the drop-down menu, go to “Apply to Worksheets,” and select “All Using This Data Source.”
8. Click and remove from the dashboard the Max(Attack), Max(Defense), Max(Special Attack), Max(Special Defense), Max(Speed), Max(HP), and Max(Total) filters that were unused in the last step.
9. Double-click the Measure Names filter title. Rename the filter “Select a Statistic:”. Click “OK.”
10. Select the “Highlight Selected Items” icon on the “Select a Statistic:” filter.
11. Move all the filters in any order to the left side of the view. People read from left to write and that style is considered Tableau best practices. Make sure the filters are below the dashboard title.
12. Double-click on the “Pokemon Statistics By Type” title and add a line of Tableau Book text at 8 point font below the title that says “Hover over bar for Type and Statistic Value”. Click “OK.”
13. Double-click on the “Pokemon Statistics By Second Type” title and add a line of Tableau Book text at 8 point font below the title that says “Hover over bar for Type and Statistic Value”. Click “OK.”
14. The Dashboard should be complete! Great job!

Here is what your final Max Pokemon Statistics Dashboard may look like.

That is how you create a Max Pokemon Statistics Dashboard. The final dashboard is available for use and analysis at https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/james.stipanowich/viz/PokemonStatisticsWorkbookFinal/MaxPokemonStatistics. Now the dashboard is ready to be utilized to determine the types of pokemon with the highest and lowest maximum potential statistics based on Primary Type and Secondary Type combined and is explained in more detail in my second blog post. Also, I will make use of Pandas library and Python code to put pokemon names to the types and values I find relating to each different pokemon statistic. I will propose what types of pokemon to use on a “best” pokemon team and what types of pokemon should appear in future generations for more statistical equality across all types of pokemon in my next blog. Stay tuned!

Resources:

Pokemon Masters' Eternatus Event Suggests Mega Evolution Isn't Dead

Pokemon (Generation 1 - Generation 8)

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/james.stipanowich/viz/PokemonStatisticsWorkbookFinal/MaxPokemonStatistics

Pokémon (Ft. Jason Paige) - Pokémon Theme (Gotta Catch 'Em All!)