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

[Fable Wright]

I make no claim to understanding anything about pokemon breeding or competitive, but do IVs really matter anymore now that you can just change them?

They require grinding to level 100. In Pokemon Sun and Moon. Along with months of farming shards, or getting an extremely strong team for Battle Tree and maintaining a 30 or 40+ win streak for a week straight to get the six bottlecaps for the six perfect IVs.

And if you want a new one with different egg moves, do it all again. From scratch.

A bare minimum week of effort is far less effort than spending 8 hours a perfect 5IV pokemon that can actually pass down their IVs to their children, unlike Bottlecap'd mons. And a lot easier to get spare copies of; those copies can be traded for other peoples' pokemon that are also functionally perfect, without a tedious bottlecap-grinding streak and getting to level 100.

[Spore]

That is the problem with competitive Pokemon for me. It seems fun, and I can even accept for it to take an even (2-3 hours) to build a team ingame without cheating. But honestly why would I farm something ingame for several dozens of hours if I can cheat them the same way? It's not that I want to overpower some ingame task, I want to play on a plain level field with the online competition.

I once played a bit of comp Pokemon with that online combat simulator where you need to click together your 'mons in 5 minutes and it seemed pretty fun.
It was the time in Gen 4 where weather teams where dominant so weather wars ruined the meta a tad much.

[Squark]

In addition to what Fable Wright said, Super Training doesn't actually change IVs- Which means you can't change a Pokémon's hidden power, and a surprising number of Pokémon depend on the added coverage hidden power can provide.

Also, speed IVs of 0 are important for trick room shenanigans

[Anteros]

Fair enough. I never bother with that kind of stuff precisely because it's so grindy and boring, so I can definitely understand why people wouldn't want to engage in it. I didn't realize it was that bad though.

[Aotrs Commander]

Fair enough. I never bother with that kind of stuff precisely because it's so grindy and boring, so I can definitely understand why people wouldn't want to engage in it. I didn't realize it was that bad though.

Snivy is being particularly bad because on top of wanting a Hidden Ability and the right IV spread (all-but-attack), I am insisting on a female (because Ash), which automatically increases the duration of breeding efforts by eight times, of course. If I was looking for a male, I'd have been done by now (or just have used the literally perfect Contrary male 6-IV I picked up (and have squirrelled away).

(Then realising that accidently evolving one snivy and that meaning the egg chance is down to 20% instead of 50% per interval was just painful. I usually get a spread of five egges in approximately a little under or over the time it takes to hatch one and with that, I was getting about one egg after the first one had hatched.)

And this is kid's stuff. Talk to those determined folks who want to breed a SHINY! I remember Saint ridley breeding I-don't-even Fletchlings before the right HA shiny turned up!



It's worth noting that (with the odd exception like last night) I don't do this bit of Pokémon, like, playing properly, but rather my 3DS goes with me do have it done while I would otherwise not be doing anything (most regularly, down the wargames club waiting for the mob to turn up, but also parties, waiting rooms etc), and it's the sort of thing you can do with only half your attention. (The Snivy-evolve mishap was the first one I've made in, like, ever!) So I do it while watching some internet videos, playing Civ V (because loading times) etc etc...!



Whle I'm here, in the Snivy breaks, I'm struggling with Squirtle. Does anyone happen to have a (gen VI) female HA with a half-decent IV spread spare? Thus far, the best I've managed is a cruddy 2-IV, (but, since I've beed breeding off Ditto, that is at least a step forwards.)

[Velaryon]

You could alternatively go with a Bug or Fighting type. Or Ghost. Aegislash is pretty amazing against Hala, Shadow Sneak is great against Ghost type members, and Aegislash's Steel typing makes it resistant to Olivia's Rock team.

I do have a Doublade in my box that I haven't evolved. Might have a dusk stone, I'm not sure. What's the recommended level to evolve him? Bulbapedia lists 1 as the level Aegislash learns everything, so is it one of those monsters who doesn't learn moves anymore after it evolves?

Also, how would a Golisopod do?

[Fable Wright]

I do have a Doublade in my box that I haven't evolved. Might have a dusk stone, I'm not sure. What's the recommended level to evolve him? Bulbapedia lists 1 as the level Aegislash learns everything, so is it one of those monsters who doesn't learn moves anymore after it evolves?

Also, how would a Golisopod do?

Golisopod was my bro with Scizor for most of the game, so take it from me: The Elite 4 is not where the samurai bug shines. First Impression, Sucker Punch, and Leech Life are NVE against Hala's team; Sucker Punch is his only Super Effective move against Acerola; he takes super effective damage from Olivia and the flying-type Elite 4 member; and he gets hit hard by the champion's Stealth Rocks.

Doublade should be evolved at level 51 after it learns Sacred Sword/King's Shield. A good loadout for it would be Shadow Sneak/King's Shield/Iron Head/Sword Dance or Sacred Sword.

[AtlanteanTroll]

Been playing Pokemon Sun since Christmas, and dug out my old games. (Platinum, Heart Gold, X, Alpha Saphire.) Can someone explain to me how the general connectivity here works, again with Bank and Transporter.

[Aotrs Commander]

Been playing Pokemon Sun since Christmas, and dug out my old games. (Platinum, Heart Gold, X, Alpha Saphire.) Can someone explain to me how the general connectivity here works, again with Bank and Transporter.

Platiunm will translate to HearGold and vice-versa only (if you have two DS/3DS), and you can permenantly move Pokémon from them to a Generation V game (Black, Whire, Black2, White2) via in-V-game Pokétransporter (two DS likewise). You can permenatly transfer pokémon in Gen V to Gen VI (X, AlphaSapphire) and between via the Pokétransporter that comes with Pokémon bank (requiring only one 3DS).

At this time, you cannot transfer from Gen VI games to gen VII, but very soon (or unless it's happened and no-one has mentioned it), Pokemon Bank is getting an update which will retain the current functionality, but will also allow you to move Pokémon between gen VII games and to permenantly transfer Pokémon from Gen VI to gen VII.

(Note that in no case is their backward compatibility between generations, so once you move 'em up, they can't go back. The only excpetion to tnat was Gen II to Gen I and that was in a very limited capacity.)

[Squark]

Poke transporter will also transfer Pokémon (one-way) from the Generation 1 Virtual Console Games to Sun and Moon once the bank update hits (Game Freak has yet to state when that will be beyond confirming it will be in January).

[Flickerdart]

Pokemon Go is down again, for the first time since the halcyon days of July and August when they were dealing with more users than their servers could support. This server outage is riding on the coattails of a client update, so it's more likely that someone at Niantic just messed up.

Edit: Server is back up now, people are reporting rolled-back changes for maps but otherwise no change.

[Lord Raziere]

Poke transporter will also transfer Pokémon (one-way) from the Generation 1 Virtual Console Games to Sun and Moon once the bank update hits (Game Freak has yet to state when that will be beyond confirming it will be in January).

Then they have 11-12 days left to fulfill that January promise. Hope they do that within that time...

[AtlanteanTroll]

Platiunm will translate to HearGold and vice-versa only (if you have two DS/3DS), and you can permenantly move Pokémon from them to a Generation V game (Black, Whire, Black2, White2) via in-V-game Pokétransporter (two DS likewise). You can permenatly transfer pokémon in Gen V to Gen VI (X, AlphaSapphire) and between via the Pokétransporter that comes with Pokémon bank (requiring only one 3DS).

At this time, you cannot transfer from Gen VI games to gen VII, but very soon (or unless it's happened and no-one has mentioned it), Pokemon Bank is getting an update which will retain the current functionality, but will also allow you to move Pokémon between gen VII games and to permenantly transfer Pokémon from Gen VI to gen VII.

(Note that in no case is their backward compatibility between generations, so once you move 'em up, they can't go back. The only excpetion to tnat was Gen II to Gen I and that was in a very limited capacity.)

Awesome. Thanks for the easy reminder/run down! Kinda hoping there will be some limited VII/VI backwards compatability since it will only take a single 3DS anyway, but I know I shouldn't get my hopes up for that...

Unrelated: I still have my Shiny Suicune from Winter '11 and am planning on moving it up to Gen VII, when I can. Unfortunately, I deleted its special moves (Aqua Ring, Air Slash) to make it a CroCune set. It's stuck with a Relaxed nature, is CroCune still okay, or should I go for something else?

[Aotrs Commander]

Awesome. Thanks for the easy reminder/run down! Kinda hoping there will be some limited VII/VI backwards compatability since it will only take a single 3DS anyway, but I know I shouldn't get my hopes up for that...

No, that's already been explicitly ruled out, I'm afraid.

Not sure how it works with regard to Gen VI and Gen VII - I would like to hope essentially there's a whole new set of boxes for Gen VII and some sort of function which lets you go "transfer the contents of this Gen VI box to this Gen VII box," but Nintendo and Gamefreak often make a simple job stupidly more complicated than necessary, so...

[digiman619]

Ah, the solo strategy. It either provides about as much challenge as anything else, or is objectively the easiest way through single-player, depending on the game and starter.

You know what game that applied to the most? Gen II. A Feraligatr can steamroll the Johto gyms because the Electric and Grass gyms are back in Kanto, and by the time you get to them it's you can catch legendaries to make out the rest of your team. Back in the GBC days, I could complete the game (and I didn't count it as complete until I beat Red) within 5 hours. And that's not counting using glitches to speedrun.

[Spore]

You know what game that applied to the most? Gen II. A Feraligatr can steamroll the Johto gyms because the Electric and Grass gyms are back in Kanto, and by the time you get to them it's you can catch legendaries to make out the rest of your team. Back in the GBC days, I could complete the game (and I didn't count it as complete until I beat Red) within 5 hours. And that's not counting using glitches to speedrun.

Remembering the importance of Tentacruel to my Y Nuzlocke Run, I could see this working for Y too, with said Tentacruel. Problem is, Ground Type moves are unhealthy for it. What is more interesting to me is using 2-3 Pokemon like I have seen Marriland do in Pokemon Platinum.

Intimidate Starraptor and Torterra are enough to tear through the pre E4 game and Azelf helps immensively with the Elite Four and Cynthia (along with Ice Beam that is needed for Garchomp). (Though I feel like the bonus XP system hinders using less than 6 Pokemon but is great for balancing).

[Flickerdart]

You know what game that applied to the most? Gen II. A Feraligatr can steamroll the Johto gyms because the Electric and Grass gyms are back in Kanto, and by the time you get to them it's you can catch legendaries to make out the rest of your team. Back in the GBC days, I could complete the game (and I didn't count it as complete until I beat Red) within 5 hours. And that's not counting using glitches to speedrun.

This is why the first thing I do in every game is catch the token Pidgey/Rattata, and then box my starter.

[OracleofWuffing]

Spoiler: The admittedly annoying way I wanted to announce this.

Show

Wacky Oracle of Wuffing's Ill-Gotten Item Emporium! Wacky Oracle of Wuffing's Ill-Gotten Item Emporium! Wacky Oracle of Wuffing's Ill-Gotten Item Emporium!
Hi, I'm Oracle of Wuffing, President and CEO of Wacky Oracle of Wuffing's Ill-Gotten Item Emporium and Warehouse! Thanks to a coding oversight, I am currently overstocked on all Ill-Gotten bottlecaps and leftovers, and I am passing the savings on to yooou!
Attract customers to your business!
Make a Splash at your next presentation!
Keep Nebby company!
Protect your crops!
Confuse your adjacent allies!
Kanto-Alolan? Hail a cab!
Testify to Arceus!
Or just effectively raise your IVs across the board without altering their Hidden Power and the IV boost doesn't apply to breeding!
Whatever your wacky ill-gotten pokemon item needs are!
So come now to Wacky Oracle of Wuffing's Ill-Gotten Item Emporium and Wareouse, Route 2 in Weekapaug!

So, um... Admittedly, it took some time to get where it's at now, but having gone through the hoops, it turns out that I can right now really understand how those six-31-IV Dittos got to be so popular so quickly. So, uh, anyone that is interested in cheated-in pokemon stuff that's still legally tradeable, well, we got a guy now. Sounds like they're really strict on what pokemon can be traded right now (if it needs to be transferred from pokebank, the answer is "no"), so probably the least hassle route of anything of any importance is that I can just pull bottlecaps and gold bottlecaps out of thin air.

Also Battle Tree, that's your warning that you're gonna face the Revenge of the Return of the Sturdy Endeavor Shedinja.

[Velaryon]

I beat the Elite Four a few days ago with a team of Incineroar, Marowak, Lunala, Pangoro, Alakazam, and Doublade. It was messy and I needed quite a few items to put myself back together between (and sometimes during) fights, but it worked out. All six monsters made a difference at certain times, though my Alakazam didn't make as much difference as I expected him to.

Since then I've caught 3 of the 4 guardian Pokemon (still need to get around to Tapu Bulu), and I haven't used my Master Ball yet. Is there anything beyond the legendaries that I should save it for?

[Kitten Champion]

Anyone else deeply uncomfortable with the way Machamps exists in Alola? I guess elsewhere too but they really make them ubiquitous in Sun & Moon.

Granted they claim they enjoy manual labour in the Pokedex and there is a degree of anthropomorphic bias that I'll admit to that I wouldn't equally apply to Miltanks. Tauros, Lapras, etc. Nevertheless, it feels like a society-wide excuse to maintain a very convenient slave race.

They're kind of like parshmen from Sanderson's Stormlight series. I feel very N when I hear of them working as caddies or whatnot.

[OracleofWuffing]

Since then I've caught 3 of the 4 guardian Pokemon (still need to get around to Tapu Bulu), and I haven't used my Master Ball yet. Is there anything beyond the legendaries that I should save it for?

Besides the 4 Island Guardians, you can also stop by the motel on Route 8 and start the quest to capture Ultra Beasts- you get special pokeballs that you may choose to use for those, but any pokeball works on them. Completing that quest adds one more pokemon that hangs around but is not considered an Ultra Beast by the Commision of Considering Things To Be Ultra Beasts. Ultra Beasts and Kapus can be used in the Battle Tree, the not-Ultra-Beast cannot.

There are no roaming pokemon, so those are the "best" uses for a Master Ball. Aside from any random shiny that might show up.

[Fable Wright]

Nevertheless, it feels like a society-wide excuse to maintain a very convenient slave race.

Would it make you feel better to learn that they were paid in berries and gym memberships?

[OracleofWuffing]

They probably get beans as tips, too.

[Qwertystop]

Besides the 4 Island Guardians, you can also stop by the motel on Route 8 and start the quest to capture Ultra Beasts- you get special pokeballs that you may choose to use for those, but any pokeball works on them. Completing that quest adds one more pokemon that hangs around but is not considered an Ultra Beast by the Commision of Considering Things To Be Ultra Beasts. Ultra Beasts and Kapus can be used in the Battle Tree, the not-Ultra-Beast cannot.

There are no roaming pokemon, so those are the "best" uses for a Master Ball. Aside from any random shiny that might show up.

Also, there's a missable battle with Sina and Dexio on the way to the Battle Tree — it shows up if you walk from the fly point at the port, but the trigger location can be missed if you go in from the fly point to the east.

[Aotrs Commander]

They probably get beans as tips, too.

It also, I imagine, beats the frack out of living in the wild (especially as the games are as... harmonious as the anime makes things out to be...!)

(Perhaps it is not unlike the slightly odd relationship that, if you will forgive the diversion, that MLP the ponies have in Equestria. The cattle or sheep there are clearly sentient/sapient, but we only ever see them on the farms. It has been suggested that, from the viewpoint of said cattle, what would anyone want freedom for, when there is always grass and someone to be doing all the organising anf thinking, so you can just sit back and laze away the days. Perhaps Machamp find that doing all the work they perhaps enjoy and find interesting while also not having to worry about survival satisfying? Who knows?)

[cobaltstarfire]

I feel very N when I hear of them working as caddies or whatnot.

The only one I can remember being a caddie is actually a human dressed as a Machamp, though I suppose that one can extrapolate there being other Machamp acting as caddies, given that they're a ride pokemon and have been shown helping humans out with construction and stuff since the first set of games.

I was disturbed by the ladies treating him like a sex object, regardless of if he was a man or machamp, that kind of behavior is pretty gross to me.

[Lord Fullbladder, Master of Goblins]

The only one I can remember being a caddie is actually a human dressed as a Machamp, though I suppose that one can extrapolate there being other Machamp acting as caddies, given that they're a ride pokemon and have been shown helping humans out with construction and stuff since the first set of games.

I was disturbed by the ladies treating him like a sex object, regardless of if he was a man or machamp, that kind of behavior is pretty gross to me.

There was also the girl in the demo who was waiting for her hot date (I believe she said he had saved her from something on the beach previously and she couldn't stop thinking about him) who turned out to be a Machamp when he finally showed up.

Interestingly it is also the Alolan Machamps that lend at least a little more credence to the idea that Pokemon are NOT slaves and stick around with us out of their own free will. An encounter at Hau'oli Cemetery tells us the story of a man who was hit by a truck and saved his Machamp at the last second by calling it back into its pokeball. In its grief the Machamp refused to return to its ball and flung it as far away as possible, and still lived with the man's wife.

[Hiro Protagonest]

There was also the girl in the demo who was waiting for her hot date (I believe she said he had saved her from something on the beach previously and she couldn't stop thinking about him) who turned out to be a Machamp when he finally showed up.

She didn't say date or good-looking. The writers made it deliberately misdirecting to throw off being a pokemon. That was your interpretation.

[Kitten Champion]

Would it make you feel better to learn that they were paid in berries and gym memberships?

I think it's more of a matter of the ubiquity of it. To the point that it moved from "this is a passing thing some do" to "this is a society-wide practice". Which is probably an aspect of game design and the amount of sprites they had available for the... over-world, I guess.

I just finished a battle within the Hano hotel where a guy is cosplaying as his Machamp caddy to...attract the adoration of identical twin blonde golfer characters that your character mistakenly takes as quasi-abusive attention towards an innocent Machamp and I don't even know where to start on mentally digesting that.

On another entirely separate note, I've noticed they've more or less gotten rid of the more fantastical archetypes for NPC trainers. In Kalos you'd run into psychics and mystics on most roads, in Alola they're mostly outdoor enthusiasts, tourists, assorted locals in casual clothing, and the odd ace trainer.

Edit: The guy claims to be dressing as his Machamp caddy in the dialogue, we don't actually get to see the golf course but I take him on face value given everything else I see.

[Fable Wright]

On another entirely separate note, I've noticed they've more or less gotten rid of the more fantastical archetypes for NPC trainers. In Kalos you'd run into psychics and mystics on most roads, in Alola they're mostly outdoor enthusiasts, tourists, assorted locals in casual clothing, and the odd ace trainer.

You still see a few oddball types around graveyards and such, but yeah. Turns out that Poke!France has a lot more witches in it than Poke!Hawaii. Who knew?

I think it's more of a matter of the ubiquity of it. To the point that it moved from "this is a passing thing some do" to "this is a society-wide practice". Which is probably an aspect of game design and the amount of sprites they had available for the... over-world, I guess.

Would it make you feel better if the foreman had gotten a stronger 'mon to beat them to a pulp and paralyze them before shoving them into a tiny ball and pressing them into service that way, instead of the Machamps voluntarily deciding to do it because they like the exercise?