Pokémon Thread XIII: Our Ponies are ON FIRE!

[Illven]

As far as I know, they just bump up the levels of the opponent Pokemon by five or so and uses the most powerful in-game AI. Sadly, as far as Nuzlockers are concerned, it's only unlocked for post-game, so unless you can transfer a Challenge Key from a completed Black 2 over IR (not wi-fi) or have an AR, it'll be difficult.
EDIT: Ah, apparently it also improves teams, movesets, and held items.

Really, if that's bad, it's even worse with White 2's Assist Mode, since you'd think that if someone needs the easy difficulty option, they won't be able to play through the whole game to unlock it, and once they've played through the whole game to unlock it, they won't need it anymore. Who knows what Nintendo was thinking...

White 2 has easy mode, and black 2 has hard mode.... Arceus dammit.

[Mercenary Pen]

Okay, for anyone who was interested, here's an update on my Nuzlocke run through Heart Gold...

Complete capture log to date:

Spoiler

Show

Starter: Totodile (Fangs) Lv5- now a Feraligatr
Route 29: Hoothoot (Eyes) Lv3
Route 46: Geodude (Stoneface) Lv2- now a Graveler
Route 30: Rattata (Norvegicus) Lv3- now a Raticate
Route 31: Bellsprout (Chime) Lv3- R.I.P. Lv4
Sprout Tower: Gastly (Apparition) Lv4- R.I.P. Lv25 Haunter
Route 32: Mareep (Pullover) Lv6- R.I.P. Lv15 Flaaffy
Union Cave: Zubat (Vlad) Lv5- now a Golbat
Route 33: Hoppip Lv6- Fainted prior to capture
Slowpoke Well: Slowpoke (Inertia) Lv6- R.I.P. Lv27
Ilex Forest: Oddish (Salad) Lv5- Now a Gloom (waiting for moves before evolving to vileplume)
Azalea Town: Aipom (Bananas) Lv4
Route 34: Drowzee (Pendulum) Lv10
Route 35: Nidoran F (Victoria) Lv12
National Park: Caterpie (Pattern) Lv12
Route 36: Pidgey (Dovetail) Lv13
Route 37: Stantler (Doerayme) Lv15
Burned Tower: Magmar Lv16- Fainted prior to capture
Ecruteak City: Exeggcute (Tropical) Lv17
Route 42: Spearow (Halbird) Lv13
Route 38: Magnemite (Dynamo) Lv16- now a Magneton
Route 40: Tentacool (Manowar) Lv11
Route 41: Mantine (Raygun) Lv15
Olivine City: Krabby Lv20- Fainted prior to capture
Cliff Cave: Steelix (Shinkansen) Lv23
Route 48: Tauros (Toreador) Lv20- R.I.P. Lv23
Route 47: Seel Lv13- fainted prior to capture
Ruins of Alph: Natu Lv20- fainted prior to capture
Gift Pokemon: Togepi (Tamago) Lv1
Shuckle Lv20

All locations not specified I have not encountered wild pokemon in- including Route 39

Current team: Feraligatr Lv33
Gloom Lv33
Magneton Lv33
Graveler Lv33
Golbat Lv34
Steelix Lv27

[userpay]

White 2 has easy mode, and black 2 has hard mode.... Arceus dammit.

Well you get the key after you beat the game and I don't tend to play through more than once so I'm probably gonna wait until I find someone whose beaten it. Has anyone confirmed whether or not you can trade it via global or something? Someone said IR earlier and I know nothing about IR.

Still looking for suggestions on this.

[Mando Knight]

Well you get the key after you beat the game and I don't tend to play through more than once so I'm probably gonna wait until I find someone whose beaten it. Has anyone confirmed whether or not you can trade it via global or something? Someone said IR earlier and I know nothing about IR.

You need to Unova Link to trade keys, and Unova Link is local-only.

Also, the purpose of the Assist key is to either ease the difficulty spike of the post game or to help a friend who's having trouble completing the game. The Challenge key is to either help your pal unlock hard mode for his challenge run, or to increase the longevity of the post-game trainers against your horde of highly trained and optimized 'mons.

[userpay]

You need to Unova Link to trade keys, and Unova Link is local-only.

Also, the purpose of the Assist key is to either ease the difficulty spike of the post game or to help a friend who's having trouble completing the game. The Challenge key is to either help your pal unlock hard mode for his challenge run, or to increase the longevity of the post-game trainers against your horde of highly trained and optimized 'mons.

Bah why did they go and do that? Well even if you start a new game you still have the key (or at least the mode unlocked) right? Maybe it has something to do with that. Makes me wonder if I should buy Black 2 as well so I can save the pokemon that I want to keep between new saves if I play more than once....

Anyway here's the current team that I have planned.
Samurott
Houndoom
Keldeo
Haxorus
Metagross
Archeops

Does this seem like a good, balanced team to go through BW2 with?

[INoKnowNames]

I checked out. I'm totally back now. I have a question for those of you who use haxs. Well, I should start with that, actually. Do some of you use haxs? And if so, what kind of haxs?

[Mistral]

Bah why did they go and do that? Well even if you start a new game you still have the key (or at least the mode unlocked) right?

Nope. That would be too generous of GameFreak. When you clear your data to start a new game, it also clears your unlock of Challenge Mode, since that's tied to your game. Sorry about that.

[Mando Knight]

Bah why did they go and do that?

They have this idea that you have this thing in life called "friends" nearby, with which to trade version-exclusives, evolve Pokémon, trade keys, and complete minigames with.

[tgva8889]

Well, I have a solution: buy both games and have multiple DSs. Haha, loopholes that also give Nintendo more money to make more games!

[userpay]

Well, I have a solution: buy both games and have multiple DSs. Haha, loopholes that also give Nintendo more money to make more games!

Well its making me start considering keeping my DSi and buying B 2 I'll admit...

[Aotrs Commander]

So... is the unlock game dependant... or could you, say, play through W2, get the unlock and use it to unlock B2's hard mode, or does it have to be W2 to W2? (Because if it's the latter, it's totally ridiculous.)

I mean, really though, that has to be the most absolutely fraktardly convoluted and difficult way to add difficulty settings to the game. (And who seriously needs an easy mode on Pokemon... My six-year old niece doesn't have problems with Black or HG; aside from sometimes not knowing where to go next, and lowering the combat difficutly's not gonna halp with that.) Are they seriously that obtuse they can't ever do anything via a simple menu option? 'Cos whoever came up with that idea needs Ash's Pikachu giving them a good Thunder-ing to the more sensitive areas of their anatomy.

There's trying to encourage children to play games within each other and then there's being fracking idiotic; especially when you DO know that part of the damned reason your game is so popular is it is with freakin' adults... I mean, I could sort of - barely - see justification in giving you the unlock either after you complete the game OR only trading it over the local network, but both? *skullpalm* If they're aiming for the Nuzlocke crowd I can understand the sorta logic of only unlocking it at the end of the game... But most of the people likely to Nuzlocke are more likely to be in the position - like me - of not having any friends that play Pokemon that happen to be in the local area. (I only have my niece mostly because when she inherited a DS, I corrupted her...) Hell, none of my other friends even OWN DSs...

I honestly wonder somedays if they do this crap just to taunt us.

*sigh*

Still, sometimes when they bring this sort of thing in, they implement it in a slightly less stupid way in later games (see Palpark DP => HG/SS and then to Poketransfer.) So maybe if they are having a new difficultly level in B2W2 maybe, I dunno, Gen VI might have it as standard.



Edit: Actually, looking at Bulbapedia, it seems to suggest that actually, it's only obtaining the KEYs that are version locked, i.e. the hard mode key is unlocked by beating the Black champion, and then can be transferred. So, if I'm sort of understanding what's implied there, you could play B2, get the unlock for hard mode and then send that to W2 and play that in hard mode. That's still kinda stupid, but maybe not quite as bad as I thought.

[OracleofWuffing]

I checked out. I'm totally back now. I have a question for those of you who use haxs. Well, I should start with that, actually. Do some of you use haxs? And if so, what kind of haxs?

Did someone ask me to post that video again? Real life issues have been stealing away time from pokemon for me, I'm wagering next time I leave Black City the whole thing will be empty as the day I found it. That said, my last heavy hitter was a V-Create Entei, and since I rarely end up battling competitively anyways, I don't really have much to say about hacking things in.

[INoKnowNames]

Did someone ask me to post that video again? Real life issues have been stealing away time from pokemon for me, I'm wagering next time I leave Black City the whole thing will be empty as the day I found it. That said, my last heavy hitter was a V-Create Entei, and since I rarely end up battling competitively anyways, I don't really have much to say about hacking things in.

..... I'm guessing that Sheer Cold Spam and Garchomp's use of Forcpalm was the clear sign of the Hack*s in that video?

I wanted to ask, since I've seen people on the internet boast codes about replacing their entire team/box with randomly hacked pokemon, is it possible to, for example, play a game on a computer emulator, and then somehow overwrite a real world game save file with the emulated file, be it through hacking or some other method?

My Ds broke. Over use. I'm still grieving.

[Mistral]

Spoiler

Show

So... is the unlock game dependant... or could you, say, play through W2, get the unlock and use it to unlock B2's hard mode, or does it have to be W2 to W2? (Because if it's the latter, it's totally ridiculous.)

I mean, really though, that has to be the most absolutely fraktardly convoluted and difficult way to add difficulty settings to the game. (And who seriously needs an easy mode on Pokemon... My six-year old niece doesn't have problems with Black or HG; aside from sometimes not knowing where to go next, and lowering the combat difficutly's not gonna halp with that.) Are they seriously that obtuse they can't ever do anything via a simple menu option? 'Cos whoever came up with that idea needs Ash's Pikachu giving them a good Thunder-ing to the more sensitive areas of their anatomy.

There's trying to encourage children to play games within each other and then there's being fracking idiotic; especially when you DO know that part of the damned reason your game is so popular is it is with freakin' adults... I mean, I could sort of - barely - see justification in giving you the unlock either after you complete the game OR only trading it over the local network, but both? *skullpalm* If they're aiming for the Nuzlocke crowd I can understand the sorta logic of only unlocking it at the end of the game... But most of the people likely to Nuzlocke are more likely to be in the position - like me - of not having any friends that play Pokemon that happen to be in the local area. (I only have my niece mostly because when she inherited a DS, I corrupted her...) Hell, none of my other friends even OWN DSs...

I honestly wonder somedays if they do this crap just to taunt us.

*sigh*

Still, sometimes when they bring this sort of thing in, they implement it in a slightly less stupid way in later games (see Palpark DP => HG/SS and then to Poketransfer.) So maybe if they are having a new difficultly level in B2W2 maybe, I dunno, Gen VI might have it as standard.



Edit: Actually, looking at Bulbapedia, it seems to suggest that actually, it's only obtaining the KEYs that are version locked, i.e. the hard mode key is unlocked by beating the Black champion, and then can be transferred. So, if I'm sort of understanding what's implied there, you could play B2, get the unlock for hard mode and then send that to W2 and play that in hard mode. That's still kinda stupid, but maybe not quite as bad as I thought.

It is the latter, as outlined in your edit. The difficulty itself is not version-dependent. Only the unlock received by completing your game is version-dependent, so you can't unlock Hard Mode with White 2 no matter how you try; you have to transfer it over to White 2 from a completed Black 2.

[userpay]

I'm curious how long its going to take for someone to figure out how to circumvent needing the key to change the difficulty level. I know a couple of people at my school that are most likely getting BW2 but 1) don't know what version they're getting and 2) don't want to rush them to beat the game just so I can have hard mode. At the very least I'd probably go through the game to the point you can start doing Dream World stuff and grind that until I can get a key, otherwise I might have to bite the bullet and buy B2 as well...

[Mando Knight]

I wanted to ask, since I've seen people on the internet boast codes about replacing their entire team/box with randomly hacked pokemon, is it possible to, for example, play a game on a computer emulator, and then somehow overwrite a real world game save file with the emulated file, be it through hacking or some other method?

You would need to:
1.) Remember that the Playground doesn't like dealing with topics as potentially illegal as unauthorized emulators
2.) Find a ROMhack that has taken care of Nintendo's hidden DRM
3.) Ensure your emulator encodes save files the same as the actual game
4.) Have a means to alter specific files on a DS card using a computer

[INoKnowNames]

You would need to:
1.) Remember that the Playground doesn't like dealing with topics as potentially illegal as unauthorized emulators
2.) Find a ROMhack that has taken care of Nintendo's hidden DRM
3.) Ensure your emulator encodes save files the same as the actual game
4.) Have a means to alter specific files on a DS card using a computer

So, I'm better off not getting into trouble on my favorite forum and just trying to figure out how to do this the most legit way...

[OracleofWuffing]

..... I'm guessing that Sheer Cold Spam and Garchomp's use of Forcpalm was the clear sign of the Hack*s in that video?

Ninjask's got No Guard, and that Garchomp's got Sheer Force/Life Orb. The Slaking off to the side has Pure Power, and the Shuckle has No Guard, Trick Room, and Sheer Cold. That V-Create Entei also has Contrary, forgot the most important part there. My current Garchomp runs multiscale, and I've got a Pure Power Dusknoir that runs a bunch of priority moves.

I wanted to ask, since I've seen people on the internet boast codes about replacing their entire team/box with randomly hacked pokemon, is it possible to, for example, play a game on a computer emulator, and then somehow overwrite a real world game save file with the emulated file, be it through hacking or some other method?

Yeah, it's possible. It'll require an FTP server, a flashcart, an original DS or DSLite, and a wifi connection; or a save backup adapter. Both ways are huge legal gray areas that tend towards the darker shades, though.

[Forrestfire]

So... I had the wonderful idea of challenging the elite four in my Ruby run, but forgot that I was underleveled. A lot. However, I managed to do fairly well, even with my self-imposed rule of only using 1 revive per fight.

I think the main problem I'm going to run into is that I boxed all my ethers and elixirs and never got them out... and that I have a bunch of HM moves I never deleted...

I'm about to fight drake, and this is my team:

Level 47 Groudon
Level 41 Sharpedo
Level 40 Ninjask
Level 40 Blaziken
Level 38 Shedinja
Level 38 Castform.

I get the feeling I'm about to be smashed.

[Illven]

Anyone have any ice moves?

[Forrestfire]

Nope

I decided the best strategy was for Groudon to use bulk up six times against the Shelgon, then just sweep with strength.

Onwards to Steven!

[Illven]

That works!

[Forrestfire]

Steven ended up losing the same way. Except with some earthquakes thrown in on the Aggron and Metagross.

That's by far the lowest-level team I've ever taken through the hoenn elite 4.

[Illven]

Steven ended up losing the same way. Except with some earthquakes thrown in on the Aggron and Metagross.

That's by far the lowest-level team I've ever taken through the hoenn elite 4.

Woo! Xp and money for all!

[Fredaintdead]

Bah why did they go and do that? Well even if you start a new game you still have the key (or at least the mode unlocked) right? Maybe it has something to do with that. Makes me wonder if I should buy Black 2 as well so I can save the pokemon that I want to keep between new saves if I play more than once....

Anyway here's the current team that I have planned.
Samurott
Houndoom
Keldeo
Haxorus
Metagross
Archeops

Does this seem like a good, balanced team to go through BW2 with?

It may be a bit late, but I at least had great success in BW1 with the following:
Samurott
Archeops
Chandelure/Darmanitan (Replaced by Infernape)
Galvantula (Replaced by Electivire)
Gurdurr (Replaced by Alakazam)
Krookodile

Not a lot of my original team remained once I had access to Pokemon Transfer, but Galvantula, Gurdurr, Chandelure and Darmanitan all served me very well.
The team you've got there covers the right bases though I'd imagine. Although I'd personally prefer having an electric type on hand (provides you with the unresisted BoltBeam combo), or at least giving one of your Pokemon an electric move (out of the list, Metagross can be taught ThunderPunch from a tutor, and with his massive attack stat it should serve pretty well if you can get a hold of it).

*shrugs*
Recently caught Tornadus in Black. Was surprisingly easy. I say easy in that I just Combo'd my Wobbuffet, Heracross and Raichu together to get him on 1HP, Paralyzed and unable to Flee.
The only real hard part was finding him, since a lot of the time the info-boards at the gates would say a place was raining (even after checking twice), and then the rain would never start.
So yeah, proud moment, only a few more Swarm pokemon (Exeggcute, Yanma and Pineco), their evolutions and a Fire Stone (need one for my Vulpix), and then I'm effectively done with Black unless I care to level the main team ALL to Lv100 (Alakazam and Electivire are already there, and everyone else is Lv90+).

[INoKnowNames]

Ninjask's got No Guard, and that Garchomp's got Sheer Force/Life Orb. The Slaking off to the side has Pure Power, and the Shuckle has No Guard, Trick Room, and Sheer Cold. That V-Create Entei also has Contrary, forgot the most important part there. My current Garchomp runs multiscale, and I've got a Pure Power Dusknoir that runs a bunch of priority moves.

..... daaaaang.

Yeah, it's possible. It'll require an FTP server, a flashcart, an original DS or DSLite, and a wifi connection; or a save backup adapter. Both ways are huge legal gray areas that tend towards the darker shades, though.

How do people do the Action Replay "press 3 buttons to have x party" codes, then? Everyone goes through all of that!?! Jesus...

[userpay]

It may be a bit late, but I at least had great success in BW1 with the following:
Samurott
Archeops
Chandelure/Darmanitan (Replaced by Infernape)
Galvantula (Replaced by Electivire)
Gurdurr (Replaced by Alakazam)
Krookodile

Not a lot of my original team remained once I had access to Pokemon Transfer, but Galvantula, Gurdurr, Chandelure and Darmanitan all served me very well.
The team you've got there covers the right bases though I'd imagine. Although I'd personally prefer having an electric type on hand (provides you with the unresisted BoltBeam combo), or at least giving one of your Pokemon an electric move (out of the list, Metagross can be taught ThunderPunch from a tutor, and with his massive attack stat it should serve pretty well if you can get a hold of it).

Thanks for replying! Anyway some partial changes since then. I am debating whether to swap Archeops out for Crobat right now due to Archeops being a glass cannon and Crobat being a bit more balanced. Also, if I were to put a electric type in, I was wavering between Galvantula and Eelektross for the similar reasons, the first a glass cannon and the second being much more sturdy. Metagross being able to learn Thunder Punch is good to know though so I'd probably not stick a electric type in. I was half tempted to take Samurott out since Keldeon can learn water stuff but he can't learn all the water HM's so I'd need Samurott at least in part. I guess Houndoom is kind of a mix of Chandelure/Darmanitan and Krookodile for me, others can learn ground moves if needed.

Naturally there are much better pokemon than what I've got but I'd have to trade/transfer from previous versions.

[Fredaintdead]

Thanks for replying! Anyway some partial changes since then. I am debating whether to swap Archeops out for Crobat right now due to Archeops being a glass cannon and Crobat being a bit more balanced. Also, if I were to put a electric type in, I was wavering between Galvantula and Eelektross for the similar reasons, the first a glass cannon and the second being much more sturdy. Metagross being able to learn Thunder Punch is good to know though so I'd probably not stick a electric type in. I was half tempted to take Samurott out since Keldeon can learn water stuff but he can't learn all the water HM's so I'd need Samurott at least in part. I guess Houndoom is kind of a mix of Chandelure/Darmanitan and Krookodile for me, others can learn ground moves if needed.

Naturally there are much better pokemon than what I've got but I'd have to trade/transfer from previous versions.

Archeops is glass cannon yes, but the cannon part is VERY GOOD. Especially with Acrobatics. Albeit, Crobat is no slouch offensively (Both get good flying moves and a decent physical movepool, but Archeops gets STAB with Rock type moves, which I personally find more useful than STAB with Poison).
Elektross over Galvantula I can recommend, but ThunderPunch on Metagross sounds better for you.
I recommend Krookodile less for his Dark typing, and more for his abilities (Intimidate and Moxie are both great IMO), Ground typing, and natural access to STAB Earthquake. But yeah, Earthquake is good on pretty much ANY physical attacker who can make room for it.
(Earthquake, ThunderPunch, Meteor Mash/Bullet Punch and Zen Headbutt sounds like it could be great on a Physical Attacker Metagross)

[Aotrs Commander]

It may be a bit late, but I at least had great success in BW1 with the following:
Samurott
Archeops
Chandelure/Darmanitan (Replaced by Infernape)
Galvantula (Replaced by Electivire)
Gurdurr (Replaced by Alakazam)
Krookodile

That's not a million miles away from my primary team in Black, actually. (Samurott/Archeops/Chandelure/Galvantula/Krookodile and Exadrill. Yes, two EQ ground types might have been overkill, but the latter is stupidly hard and the former is too stupidly cool for me to wait for a later game to use and nearly as hard!)

[Forrestfire]

What possessed Gamefreak to only put Stunky and Glameow in D/P and not Platinum?

I'm so close to finishing the pokedex (10 left), but no one I know owns either of those, and my 3ds hates the college internet for the time being.