Pokémon Thread XXVIII: Get. In. The. BAG.

[Flickerdart]

You know, I think one of the reasons for the PoGo community day events is the eventual release of generation 4, which will (of course) feature new evolutions of a whole bunch of not too common Pokėmon. An event to give people some extra magmars or electabuzzes or sneasels or rhyhorns would be quite welcome.

Electabuzz and Magmar were raid bosses for this exact reason, I think. We will probably see Sneasel raids at some point.

[Alabenson]

Does anyone happen to have a HA Alolan Geodude that they'd be willing to trade? I have a number of 5IV pokemon available at the moment.

Spoiler: Pokemon available to trade

Show

Poplio, Timid, - Atk
Alolan Vulpix, Snow Warning, Timid, - Atk
Alolan Diglett, Jolly, - SpA
Dhelmise, Adamant, - SpA
Bruxish, Adamant, - SpA
Drampa, Modest, - Atk
Wimpod, Adamant, - SpA
Turtonator, Timid, - Atk
Pikipek, Jolly, - SpA
Komala, Adamant, - SpA

[Fable Wright]

Woo! Finally got my first perfect IV Pokemon: HA Male Larvesta in Repeat Ball. Also obtained: 5IV Regenerator Mareanies.

... My god, Sun and Moon can be brutal in chaining for HAs. Thankfully Sableye can be Dex-Nav'd in ORAS. Next on the list, get a HA Paras for Geodude purposes, unless... huh. If I get a female HA Geodude in ORAS, would the children (in USUM) be Alolan HA Geodudes? That'd save me a LOT of time.

[tgva8889]

If you breed a non-Alolan female pokemon, no matter where it came from, you will get non-Alolan offspring. The only way to breed for Alolan versions is to get an Alolan female pokemon of the kind you want (or use a male with a Ditto).

[Fable Wright]

If you breed a non-Alolan female pokemon, no matter where it came from, you will get non-Alolan offspring. The only way to breed for Alolan versions is to get an Alolan female pokemon of the kind you want (or use a male with a Ditto).

Huh. I'd thought I heard that you needed to have an Everstone on a non-Alolan Vulpix or Persian to avoid them going native. Can anyone confirm or deny?

[tgva8889]

Oh, looks like I was wrong. Huh, that's interesting. Well in that case I suppose transferring HA Geodudes should work just fine. My bad for the confusion.

[Alabenson]

Huzzah! After a great deal of effort, I have finally bred a 5 or 6IV version of every new, breedable pokemon introduced in Gen 7!

[enderlord99]

Check out this battle I just had.

[Hesh]

Congrats on the win, although that sums up in one for me why in AG is awful. Baton Pass and Evasion bans are the best things in Smogon metas. it's Scrubby RNG which decides nothing other than who flips a coin or boring simple mode.

Anyone else involved with the Smogon forums though, and ever wanted to design a mon? They're creating a new pokemon designed for their own metagame, alongside 23 other mon created in the process. Currently deciding what opponents the mon is going to threaten and be threatened by in order to make the mon able to operate on both Sand and Sun based teams; the other choice in play is that it is grass/fairy to let it switch into Water, Ground, Dragon, and Electric attacks which make a mess of Sun/Sand teams.

It's super interesting.

Also, for anyone unaware, I have just found out the hidden Ability Gen 7 starters are available for Bank users.

[Fable Wright]

FINALLY.

Finally bred a perfect IV Hidden Power Ground Larvesta. I finally have the fuel for my mono-Bug team.

...Now time to figure out what to do with the 8 boxes of leftover Larvesta, the 5IV Shiny, and the six or so spare perfect/perfect with HP non-Dark Larvesta with and without its hidden ability. Even releasing all the 4-IV ones would leave me with at least 5 boxes. Hrm.

[Svata]

Wonder Trade Fodder?

[Alabenson]

Trying to SoS chain a HA Tauros.
It's help won't come.
WHY WON'T ITS HELP COME?

[Fable Wright]

Trying to SoS chain a HA Tauros.
It's help won't come.
WHY WON'T ITS HELP COME?

Sir, I've had Larvesta (1% encounter rate) take 30 turns before it called its first bit of help. (I don't think I took many chances with that SoS chain; if there was a larvesta, I was swapping over to it to reset that PP.)

Some pokemon would rather Struggle than call in help.

I know your pain.

[Alabenson]

Finally, after a chain that took over 6 hours, I have my HA Tauros.

Worst. Mechanic. Ever.

[tgva8889]

Did you use Adrenaline Orbs? I've never had this problem using Adrenaline Orbs.

[Fable Wright]

Did you use Adrenaline Orbs? I've never had this problem using Adrenaline Orbs.

I have run into this problem with Adrenaline Orbs. If you use a non-Intimidate lead (such as Decidueye to keep pokemon from KOing themselves), even with an adrenaline orb and the pokemon at 1hp, the call rate can be as low as 1 every four turns, with a response rate around 1 every 8 calls. Then, after the first 10 of those, you start getting 5% chance for hidden abilities. It can average 240 turns before you get a chance of HAs, with twice that, on average, until the point where you get an actual HA 'mon. So call it 720 turns for some HAs. Assuming only 5 seconds per turn, that's an hour on average. And that's assuming good RNG, and discounting the turns it takes to switch chains, and that you don't need to regularly switch out the pokemon to try to cancel out defense or accuracy drops.

It took six hours to get my HA Larvesta, though on my end that included the time it took to run into the Larvesta. I have no trouble believing that it took Alabenson six hours to find his first HA Tauros.

[Alabenson]

I have run into this problem with Adrenaline Orbs. If you use a non-Intimidate lead (such as Decidueye to keep pokemon from KOing themselves), even with an adrenaline orb and the pokemon at 1hp, the call rate can be as low as 1 every four turns, with a response rate around 1 every 8 calls. Then, after the first 10 of those, you start getting 5% chance for hidden abilities. It can average 240 turns before you get a chance of HAs, with twice that, on average, until the point where you get an actual HA 'mon. So call it 720 turns for some HAs. Assuming only 5 seconds per turn, that's an hour on average. And that's assuming good RNG, and discounting the turns it takes to switch chains, and that you don't need to regularly switch out the pokemon to try to cancel out defense or accuracy drops.

It took six hours to get my HA Larvesta, though on my end that included the time it took to run into the Larvesta. I have no trouble believing that it took Alabenson six hours to find his first HA Tauros.

As bad as you make it sound, Tauros has an extra wrinkle that makes it even worse. You see, with Tauros there's a 50% chance that the pokemon responding will be a Miltank instead of a Tauros. Not only does this mean that your odds of getting an HA Tauros are cut in half from what they'd normally be, but Miltank like to use Milk Drink to recover HP, making it even harder to keep them in the red.

[Fable Wright]

As bad as you make it sound, Tauros has an extra wrinkle that makes it even worse. You see, with Tauros there's a 50% chance that the pokemon responding will be a Miltank instead of a Tauros. Not only does this mean that your odds of getting an HA Tauros are cut in half from what they'd normally be, but Miltank like to use Milk Drink to recover HP, making it even harder to keep them in the red.

Still better than HA Mareanie. It's like you start with 90% Miltank calls (stupid Recover on Corsola), except that when the mareanie shows up, it's going to try to KO the Corsola, and if it succeeds, the chain ends. (Mareanie never call for help.) You need to keep the Corsola alive, unpoisoned, at low enough heath that it calls for help, and above the threshold where Mareanie can KO it... with the same pokemon you need to use to check Mareanie for HAs. I recommend Entrainment Pangoro, and make sure that any Corsola you start a chain off of knows Harden. Both helps with the PP stall, and the +6 def makes the biggest concern about a Mareanie the chance of poison if they go for poison sting on Corsola.

The one saving grace is that Corsola has a very high rate of showing up, unlike the Tauros.

[tgva8889]

I've never had any problems doing this with a very high-level lead, False Swipe, and Adrenaline Orbs. I guess you're trying to do harder things than I've done, but I feel like if you're gonna put in the effort to chain, you should put in the effort to get a level 100 Smeargle with all the moves you want.

[Fable Wright]

I've never had any problems doing this with a very high-level lead, False Swipe, and Adrenaline Orbs. I guess you're trying to do harder things than I've done, but I feel like if you're gonna put in the effort to chain, you should put in the effort to get a level 100 Smeargle with all the moves you want.

Can't. Conversion + Ghost move (for Ghost typing to prevent Take Down suicides) + Entrainment + False Swipe is an okay core, but misses out on status move, hits too hard to chain Corsola, can't Haze, and can't actually KO normal type Pokemon. Long Reach Decidueye can Haze, Worry Seed, False Swipe, and a KO move does much better, but is still outclassed by a low level Pangoro for Mareanies, by an Imprison Sableye for Prankster Sableye hunting, Damp Parasect if explosion's on the table, etc.

[tgva8889]

I mean, it still feels like your specific Pokemon for each one should still be pretty decent. Getting the level 100 Pokemon doesn't seem that difficult and feels like it helps a lot, and you can just change Smeargle's moves to whatever works best for you for the given problem if it's not exactly right. It gets up to a pretty good chance after 30, which is basically where I always start.

Also, how important is Haze? I feel like being max level and choosing a KO move that can't miss should solve all your problems there.

[Fable Wright]

Also, how important is Haze? I feel like being max level and choosing a KO move that can't miss should solve all your problems there.

Usually, not that important. Occasionally, though, you try to catch a pokemon on Poni that knows Sword Dance or Nasty Plot, and... things can go downhill. A crit from a +6 pokemon is scary even if you have 50 levels on them.

[Alabenson]

Still better than HA Mareanie. It's like you start with 90% Miltank calls (stupid Recover on Corsola), except that when the mareanie shows up, it's going to try to KO the Corsola, and if it succeeds, the chain ends. (Mareanie never call for help.) You need to keep the Corsola alive, unpoisoned, at low enough heath that it calls for help, and above the threshold where Mareanie can KO it... with the same pokemon you need to use to check Mareanie for HAs. I recommend Entrainment Pangoro, and make sure that any Corsola you start a chain off of knows Harden. Both helps with the PP stall, and the +6 def makes the biggest concern about a Mareanie the chance of poison if they go for poison sting on Corsola.

The one saving grace is that Corsola has a very high rate of showing up, unlike the Tauros.

I suppose I lucked out on the Mareanie front, since I got one in a wonder trade.

[enderlord99]

Mirror Breaker (my Smeargle on Showdown's AG tier) now has a much better set than the weird transform gimmick it used to have. I baited that Marshadow BEAUTIFULLY, if I may say so myself.

[Fable Wright]

Today I learned:

When breeding with Ditto in Ultra Sun, there's an 80% chance that the male's ability will be passed down, rather than the 60% in previous games. Also, I think they introduced some mechanic to occasionally inherit all 6 IVs from parents when the destiny knot is involved, given the oddly high number of completely-identical-to-one-parent pokemon the game keeps handing me. I'm not positive on that, though.

[Spore]

Mirror Breaker (my Smeargle on Showdown's AG tier) now has a much better set than the weird transform gimmick it used to have. I baited that Marshadow BEAUTIFULLY, if I may say so myself.

I know the enemy uses ubers so it is etiquette to throw the rules out the window but wasn't Baton Pass banned?

e: Okay, I see you play "Anything goes" which kind of is in the name already. :P

[Aotrs Commander]

'Cos no-one's mentioned it and there's only four days left - Regigigas and Heatran are available for SuMo and USUM until the 24th via the wifi mystery gift.

(Not that I'm terribly bothered, since those aren't exactly hard to find... Hell, I bought US after Christmas and I haven't even opened the box yet, so I really can't be arsed for Pokémon I've already got and can get two more of if I can be bothered to fire up Sun and Moon!)

[tgva8889]

I'm pretty sure we need a code in the US, which I couldn't obtain.

[Fable Wright]

I'm pretty sure we need a code in the US, which I couldn't obtain.

Bugger. So it looks like you needed to be registered with the Pokemon Trainer Club (which I think was required to use GTS anyways), but you also needed to opt in to the newsletter before mid-March. And Nintendo has an official policy to not resend codes after the initial batch.

On the other hand, if you live outside the US (I know Australia just needs to connect to the internet), then you get it automatically for connecting to the internet.

Hooray for Nintendo. Nothing like artificial scarcity caused by arcane mechani—

Okay, no, this sounds perfectly appropriate for the pokemon franchise as a whole, come to think of it.

[Qwertystop]

Got one US code by email, don't care about it because I've already got Regigigas and Heatran.

First-come-first-serve: A82A7C3RP223DQDW