How Skill Ratings Work
Your skill rating estimates your playing strength in a particular game format. Each format starts you at 1,000, and has its own rating. It is separate from trophies, credits, character promotions and the AI level number.
What changes your rating?
Rated games against an AI or a different human account online can change your rating. Wins usually raise it, losses usually lower it, and draws can move it either way depending on the opponent’s rating. Local human-versus-human games, AI training and playing your own account online do not change your skill rating.
Results compared with expectations
The game compares your rating with your opponent’s rating to estimate your expected score. A win scores 1, a draw 0.5 and a loss 0. If you do better than expected, your rating rises; if you do worse, it falls.
Against an equally rated opponent, the expected score is 0.5. Beating a stronger opponent earns a larger increase; beating a weaker opponent earns a smaller one. Drawing against a stronger opponent normally raises your rating, while drawing against a weaker opponent normally lowers it. A difference of 400 rating points corresponds to an expected score of about 91% for the higher-rated player.
The calculation
Expected score = 1 ÷ (1 + 10((opponent rating − your rating) ÷ 400)).
New rating = your rating + K × (actual score − expected score), rounded to a whole number, with a minimum rating of 1.
K controls the size of changes. It is 40 while your recorded game count for the format is below 30; after that it is 20 when your rating is below 2,400, or 10 at 2,400 and above. For example, with K = 40 against an equal-rated opponent, a win adds 20 points, a loss subtracts 20, and a draw leaves your rating unchanged. Each opponent’s adjustment uses their own K, so the two changes need not be equal.
Limits for beginner AIs
If your rating is already above 1,025, winning against Level 1 AI leaves both skill ratings unchanged. Above 1,050, the same applies to winning against Level 2 AI. At exactly those thresholds, a win can still change the rating. These limits apply to wins; draws and losses still use the normal rating calculation.
You can still receive trophies and credits for those wins, subject to the reward rules. To keep improving your rating after reaching the beginner limits, try a higher AI level or a human opponent online.
Where to see your ratings
Open My Ratings to review your ratings by format, or choose a format in League Table to compare your rating with other players. AI Ratings shows your AIs’ ratings. An AI’s level and its skill rating are different measures: the level number is not a skill rating.