The Pokemon Thread

[Browning]

It is the worst game of the series, bar Gold/Silver, and I can't get hyped for the new one.

I'll download it at some point though because I've committed to a blind soul link with my brother, which given our history will be a complete bloodbath of failure.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Give me a Switch game and I'm in.

[Browning]

It's coming. This is the end of the road for the 3DS.

[Dan]

It is the worst game of the series, bar Gold/Silver, and I can't get hyped for the new one.

I'll download it at some point though because I've committed to a blind soul link with my brother, which given our history will be a complete bloodbath of failure.

Hyped is probably the wrong word, especially for the main games, but I’ve started watching stuff on YouTube again & thinking about teams to build on Showdown, so that’s a bad sign :D

[Browning]

So this is just Sun/Moon with a few extra things? I was expecting it to be a full on sequel or at least a new game. Fuck sake... what a waste of everyone's time.

[Dan]

Yep, seems that way :D

Played about three hours & it's almost the exact same game so far. A lazy rehash of possibly the worst game in the franchise isn't exactly a great idea. I've put the game down multiple times today already & not been back to it for a while, which is unheard of for a newly released pokemon game, so I'm not entirely sure I'll even bother to beat the main story.

Unless you really, really want to have the new UBs, or you didn't play Sun/Moon, it's not worth buying.

[Browning]

Told you the Soul Link would be a disaster :drool:

First attempt and my brother lets his Route 1 Pokemon (Pikipek) die in it's first ever battle meaning we have to try and Solo the trainer school. Would have been fine but the teacher's Rowlett doing 12 damage a turn to my Popplio randomly killed me on 17HP without even getting a crit. We contemplated just carrying on as we would just get back there with the same teams or maybe a better team but it felt wrong so we went through the pain in the arse of trading over our event Rockruffs (which we were not using) and started over.

This time I smashed her Rowlett to pieces but my brother's Litten died to her Popplio after we weren't allowed to use our Route 1 catches as I got a second water type. Turns out he got crazy para-hacks to beat her the first time.... and he retried it 3-4 times after we both agreed we couldn't be bothered to start over, and he lost every time. After all the stick he gave me after that random bullshit hit killed me....

The fight is manageable with Poplio as you can just use Baby Doll Eyes to nullify Rowlett.... but sounds like it's all but impossible with Litten. We may have to consider allowing ourselves a catch in the trainer school or something. It is a bit bullshit that there's 3-4 seemingly different routes that all count as "Route 1". Of course we could carry on this run with the benched Wingull and Grubbin but.... that doesn't sound fun.

[Dan]

Could he not just, y'now, level up a bit?

[Browning]

Potentially, but it would involve probably an insane amount of grinding on crap level 4 pokemon in the wild as he's not losing narrowly, he's being battered completely. The best solution would probably be to get there with an alternative Pokemon to use, but so far no such luck.

[Alex Ferguson]

Been a while since I posted here, thought it had died.

Got Ultra Sun the other day and decided to play through with an equivalent "Blue" team. So far, I have Litten, Inkay, and a Marrill which I bred on ORAS and traded up. Recently finished my first ever Nuzlocke on Blue and I'm doing one on Silver. Had to restart the latter because I fucked up after Morty.

[Dan]

Potentially, but it would involve probably an insane amount of grinding on crap level 4 pokemon in the wild as he's not losing narrowly, he's being battered completely. The best solution would probably be to get there with an alternative Pokemon to use, but so far no such luck.

What level was he? I’m sure I was level 10 by the time I left the first patch of grass you can catch stuff in, and that didn’t take too much grinding.


Been a while since I posted here, thought it had died.

Got Ultra Sun the other day and decided to play through with an equivalent "Blue" team. So far, I have Litten, Inkay, and a Marrill which I bred on ORAS and traded up. Recently finished my first ever Nuzlocke on Blue and I'm doing one on Silver. Had to restart the latter because I fucked up after Morty.

I too have Litten & Inkay. Get yourself the event Rockruff too, then you can have two Pokémon who are cunts to evolve.

[Baz]

Shiny silvally on Pokémon sun moon:

A726LNERNN55WGUPDid anyone use this? I can get one more code if anyone’s interested?

Codes are valid for Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon ONLY. Codes will not work with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, however if you use Pokemon Bank, the newest update supports USUM and you can transfer your Shiny over via Bank.

[Browning]

I mean if it’s going I’ll use it. I was going to use the one above but my game needed to update and I couldn’t be bothered. :D

[Gray Fox]

A little while on in Go and I've just done my 3rd Mewtwo raid tonight. 3/3 on catches too.

We had a 250 person strong Discord group for the town and just over 40 got an invite this time around. So far I'm the only person to get an invite in each wave. There's some bitter people about it too.

[Browning]

Told you the Soul Link would be a disaster :drool:

First attempt and my brother lets his Route 1 Pokemon (Pikipek) die in it's first ever battle meaning we have to try and Solo the trainer school. Would have been fine but the teacher's Rowlett doing 12 damage a turn to my Popplio randomly killed me on 17HP without even getting a crit. We contemplated just carrying on as we would just get back there with the same teams or maybe a better team but it felt wrong so we went through the pain in the arse of trading over our event Rockruffs (which we were not using) and started over.

This time I smashed her Rowlett to pieces but my brother's Litten died to her Popplio after we weren't allowed to use our Route 1 catches as I got a second water type. Turns out he got crazy para-hacks to beat her the first time.... and he retried it 3-4 times after we both agreed we couldn't be bothered to start over, and he lost every time. After all the stick he gave me after that random bullshit hit killed me....

The fight is manageable with Poplio as you can just use Baby Doll Eyes to nullify Rowlett.... but sounds like it's all but impossible with Litten. We may have to consider allowing ourselves a catch in the trainer school or something. It is a bit bullshit that there's 3-4 seemingly different routes that all count as "Route 1". Of course we could carry on this run with the benched Wingull and Grubbin but.... that doesn't sound fun.

After this disaster we gave up for a while as we couldn't be bothered, but we're restarted this challenge over the last few days but are taking it very slowly with just a little bit of play each evening.

The first few routes were, once again, a disaster. He KOed the Yungoos he could have got in Route 1 meaning we had to solo the trainer school AGAIN. We trained up a bit higher than usual (14 I think we were) and got through it and our starters had evolved by the time we got to the Smeargle lady. Unfortunately new additions to the team evaded us as two routes running I encountered Abra who teleported away after a great ball failed. When we did eventually add a Drifloon (me) and Zubat (him) to the team they died not long after after his Zubat got hit by Pursuit when he was trying to switch....

The few routes since then have yielded some Pokemon though so we've started to grow our team following the first trial. We've decided on a rule where any duel type Pokemon we catch, we have to decide which type it counts as, and we are not allowed 2 of the same type across both our teams. For example, his Rowlett we quickly declared was a Flying type because most flying types are dual types anyway meaning we could have a better chance of adding to our teams. It's a slightly relaxed version of the usual Soul Link rule (which is the primary type counts) but we've found that way too restrictive in the past particularly when 5-6 routes in a row yield largely the same types of Pokemon (or the same exact Pokemon....). So far with only 1 trial down our respective pairings are:

Brionne (Water) and Dartrix (Flying)
Diglett (Steel) and Noibat (Dragon)
Cutiefly (Bug) and Hawlucha (Fighting)
Flabebe (Fairy) and ??? (he hasn't gotten there yet).

Reserves:
Zubat (Flying) and Psyduck (Water)

Dead:
Drifloon (Ghost) and Zubat (Poison)

Genuinely no idea what any of my lot are like. Brionne seems like the best starter to me based on my limited usage of him so far, but we'll see if that holds up later on. I thought Diglett would be a sturdy fucker with the added steel type but he nearly dies to every hit and I can't see him lasting the distance. Cutiefly meanwhile looks like a stiff breeze would kill him but so far seems pretty decent. Could have done with some better type variety though, I'm getting bogged down with Fairy so far (and he's getting all Flying...).

Oh well, we're already further than last time... so here's hoping.

End of Island One Edit:


Active team members:
Brionne (Water) and Dartrix (Flying)
Cutiefly (Bug) and Hawlucha (Fighting)
Flabebe (Fairy) and Oricorio (Electric)
Mawile (Steel) and Roggenrola (Rock)

Reserves:
Zubat (Flying) and Psyduck (Water)
Diglett (Steel) and Noibat (Dragon)

Dead:
Drifloon (Ghost) and Zubat (Poison)
Zubat (Poison) and Smoochum (Ice)

Both deaths are on him and not me with Smoochum going down to Bite from a random Rockruff in the wild. Oops. It especially sucks because Zubat was the one who beat the Kahuna for me.

Meanwhile my team is now 100% Fairy once Brionne evolves. In the end Mawile was too much of an upgrade on Diglett to turn down, although we did state at the start you can change types when you evolve so if it came to it I could grind Diglett like fuck and then make him a Ground type to bring them back. Grass totem is going to fuck me up.

[Baz]

Shiny silvally code says it expires today.

A723TA4NJ2JMSWTS

[Browning]

Another 2 totems down and this has been strangely enjoyable... I think this is my new favourite way to play Pokemon and hopefully I can talk him into doing this again when the Switch game comes out.


Current Team:
Brionne (Water) and Dartrix (Flying)
Ribombee (Fairy) and Hawkucha (Fighting)
Mawile (Steel) and Gigalith (Rock)
Noibat (Dragon) and Flaafy (Electric)
Larvitar (Ground) and Golbat (Poison)
Stuffel (Normal) and Salandit (Fire)

Deaths since last update:
Trumbeak (Normal) and Grubbin (Bug)

We've got too many back up pairs to list now really.

The water totem, despite the curve ball of it being part Bug, went down relatively easily with Ribombee dominating it for me and him one shotting it with Hawlucha. The Fire totem was more of a problem especially when it used fucking Detect to block my Water Z-Move and then when a regular Bubblebeam did significant damage it got disabled by his BS ability. With my only good move disabled I was forced to switch to Trumbeak and he died while I healed up Brionne who came back in to finish him off. It was sad, but it had to be done, and as my brother had never even used Grubbin, we agreed it was the best sacrifice.

We did catch Fletchinder and Magby in that area and considered bringing them in for the Grass trial. The problem is Fletchinder will soon need to be classed as a flying type (when he becomes Fire/Flying as he can't share Magby's type) and that would mean either benching Dartrix and Brionne or grinding Dartrix until he evolves. While I was in favour of benching them we soon decided that it would be a hell of a lot of grinding for 2 Pokemon we may not want to use afterwards. Unfortunately his Salandit is male which limits it's usefulness but it's paired with the simply incredible Stuffel who I want to use if possible. No doubt he'll kill it off at some point. We may need to re-think our strategy ahead of the Grass Totem as I remember what a cunt it was, and if they've changed it, no doubt it's even worse. Currently my plan is to level the fuck out of Noibat who quad resists grass and then attempt to take it out with one Flying Z move.

[Browning]

The pain of a starter death :(



I trained up my Noibat so much in preparation for the grass totem and then they end up putting a fucking Comfey and Sudowoodo before it, both of which would wreck him. I switched to Brionne Vs the Sudo and he survived my Water Z Move due to having sturdy and then one shot me with Wood Hammer. Fucking cunt.

Then came Laurantis and he survived Noibat's Z move on red health and of course went straight to Synthesis, with Comfey coming in to boost his defense every turn (which didn't bother me as Noibat is a special attacker). Eventually Noibat killed Comfey but his new partner, Kecleon, used screech making me bail out of there. I went into Mawile for the Intimidate and was hoping to get off a Fake Tears and heal Noibat to come in and clean up but some hard shots and another screech meant he had to come out too. I went into the hero of Totem 2, Ribombee, and he took out Lurantis with a Pollen Puff. Kecleon having a super effective Earth Power meant he couldn't stick around much longer, but a switch to Larvitar finished off the now flying type Kecleon with Rock Slide.

There's now a massive void in our teams. The options to come in are:
Zubat and Psyduck
Poliwag and Morelull
Wingull and Wishiwashi
Fletchling and Magby
Formantis and Butterfree

We're leaning to the last one as they were the most recent catches and so need the least grinding, plus supposedly Morelull is a useless piece of shit. Not too confident in him keeping a Butterfree going though....

2-2 in the death stakes now, but mine are clearly worse.

[Baz]

Marshadow code for Pokemon sun or moon expires Feb 23rd:

A72Z-GK9U-KD5T-FUNG

[Browning]

So “Let’s Go Pikachu” and “ Let's go Eevee” have been announced for the switch which is basically Pokemon yellow but the wild Pokemon system is replaced by Pokemon go mechanics but you actually have a little poke ball to throw around. Not doing much for me but may be the ideal starting point to train my daughter to be the very best.

[phonics]

Fucking lame.

[Browning]

To clarify they are only a spin off, a proper main series game is still coming in 2019.

[Gray Fox]

The two 'Let's Go' games look awesome. The kids will love it.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I'll be buying it. Looks fun.

[Mike]

I'll give it a go. The one next year is what I'm really waiting for.

[Browning]

Is anyone else trying out "Pokemon Quest". It's quite addictive so far, though I wonder how long it'll be til they expect me to start putting money in. So far it's been easy enough to progress without any though, so that's quite promising.

[Browning]

Yea, I seem to have hit the wall now, but it's really just a case of waiting for the "battery" to charge so I can play levels. I'm not going to pay for that... I'll just do other stuff and let it charge up.

I've completed the first 3 areas, plus 1 level of Area 4 and Area 5. So far rolling with a team of:

Hitmonchan (HP 88, Attack 782)
Seel (HP 554, Attack 262)
Growlithe (HP 276, Attack 552)

Hitmonchan's HP is an obvious drawback meaning he dies quickly, but that attack stat was too good to ignore. The only other Pokemon I've obtained are Charmander (starter), Ponyta, Vulpix, Rattata, Pidgey and Horsea.

It's a good way to kill sometime if you have a Switch, but it's not amazing or anything. Still, can't complain for F2P.

[Browning]

So annoying when you're training a bunch of Pokemon up to around level 30 to get them to evolve and then you obtain a Level 70 Grimer which makes it all rather redundant...

Exeggcute also looks like Hitler in this game so I really wish he was viable in my team because it's hilarious.

Currently rolling with:
Grimer (1271 HP, 976 Attack)
Seadra (1287 HP, 837 Attack)
Onix (1124 HP, 961 Attack)

Considering he's 40 levels above them, Grimer doesn't outclass those 2 by much.... but I'm imaging that'll change when he evolves. Onix is going to stick around long term because one of the 4 areas I can go to now one suggests Rock types and the other suggests Ground types. Unfortunately the other 2 are Electric and Psychic, and I have fuck all to use there (except the Fuhrer, but he'd take a lot of grinding).

Still, good way to waste time, and doesn't actually seem to require money at all unless you want to rush through it in 2 days.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I'm a little surprised you're liking it so much.

I looked at the trailer and thought it was laughable.

Considering it's free I might as well jump in.

[Browning]

I probably don't like it as much as I liked Duel when I started with that, so i can't see me sticking with it anywhere near as long, but I'm entertained enough to probably get through the missions. I doubt very much I'll stick around the complete the Pokedex or anything, but we'll see. It'll probably depend how close I am when I finish the "story".

When you start out the game is generous with how long it lets you play but eventually you hit the wall where you get 5 games and then you have to wait a couple of hours for the "battery" to recharge so you can play more. That makes it very easy to just pick up and play for 5-10 minutes here and there.

[Pleb]

The Switch game looks like a glorified Kanto remake which is :drool:

[Browning]

My God. I just got a Level 69 Machop who has 1177 HP and 1751 Attack.... in 2 levels time when he's Machamp... :drool:

Note- The stats I've quoted are with the current upgrade stones or whatever they're called that I've attached. They aren't base stats which would be mental.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Stuck on the boss of the third area (fuck you poliwrath) and I'm currently rolling with:

Rhyhorn (556 HP, 387 attack)
Vulpix (662 HP, 250 attack)
Hitmonchan (90 HP, 786 attack)

I also have Charmander (227 HP, 526 attack).

Just got Hitmonchan so trying to level him and I was hoping he'd do a bit better against Poliwhirl but he just keeps dying too quick.

I'm loving the game.

[Browning]

I've found the key is using at least 1 (if not 2 or even 3) of the suggested types in each area. My Machamp and Muk are easily my best 2 Pokemon but a shitty Starmie/Mr Mime/Exeggutor team made the Psychic area much, much easier.

I also really wanted to use Hitmonchan early on but gave up fairly quickly, he just died constantly.

I've only got the Electric level to clear now before I unlock what I think are the final 2 areas. Unfortunately my Magneton/Electrode are both kinda shit and I don't have a 3rd electric type.

Current Team being used for Electric level:
Machamp (HP 1955, Attack 2626)
Electrode (HP 1635, Attack 1976)
Magneton (HP 1532, Attack 2068)

And they get a bonus of 3605 for having 2 Electric types. Still not high enough for the recommended level though (I'm about 850 short currently).

My best possible team of 3, if all 3 were able to use my best stones (which they can't) would be:

Machamp: 2140, 2870
Wigglytuff: 3807, 1017
Muk: 2570, 1928

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I thought I might have gotten away with Hitmonchan at the lower levels as Vulpix and Rhyhorn were tanks.

Beat Poliwrath finally after levelling my team to take them to 2,685 power. Also helped that Rhyhorn didn't die at all this time as Vulpix kept getting a moment alone and Poliwrath would rape her.

[Browning]

Rhyhorn is supposedly one of the best Pokemon in the game if you can get him Harden with 2-3 slots for share stones.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Just got a level 1 shiny onix.

109 attack and a whopping 606 hp with no stones.

Edit: Just used my bronze pot for the first time. Another shiny onix this time a level 23 with a base attack of 219 and hp of 678. He also has rock tomb compared to the other having roar and iron tail.

[Browning]

Use 1 to train the other or to change moves. If any of your moves have 2 or more slots attached to it try and get Harden.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I used the lesser to train experience :\

Next bronze pot was a good diglett who will be my 4th and I also got a drowsee for free to replace vulpix.

[Browning]

Experience is fine, there’s no guarantee of getting the move you want anyway. I made my Onix useless by changing Sandstorm (actually alright) to rock smash...

My Electrode got another HP slot so I’m only slightly under the recommended level. May just go for it.

[Browning]

Beat the electric boss first time. Final area has no bonus type which sucks but looks like it gives access to legendaries. We shall see.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Drowsee is fucking boss.

I just took in the boss in area 4 with a team strength of 3834 despite a recommended strength of 4500. Drowsee (level 27, 729HP and 279 attack) didn't only lost about a quarter of his health. He only lost that much because at one point both Onix and Ryhorn were dead at Marowhack.

Edit: He wasn't the boss. The boss has a recommended power of 5400 :\

[Browning]

Mewtwo is the boss I'm up to. I actually did much better than anticipated on my first try (About 4000 under recommended power) and probably did about 70% of his health, but I never really thought we'd pull it off.

Wigglytuff is my 2nd best Pokemon and it's not even close but I don't think Sing works on Mewtwo at all... making him useless as that's his only move. I'm hoping to get something else from my Silver pot that can come into the team and replace him.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Got another onix but as my main one only has one slot I'm keeping it as rock tomb.

Can I unlock a second move slot?

[Browning]

Not as far as I know. You want 1 move with 3 upgrade slots if possible though. You make it Harden with 3 sharing stones and then just use him to buff the other 2 who do all the work.

I haven't managed to get Harden on any Pokemon yet, but that's what Reddit seems to recommend as the best strategy, with Onix or Rhyhorn being the best candidates.

That or you can use Barrier on whatever Pokemon has access to it (Alakazam, Cloyster etc).

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://i.imgur.com/0z6MpQU.jpg

First try.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

No sharing stones though.

[Browning]

:drool:

How many slots for stones do you have on it?

Should take you quite far. Even my shitty Onix with Rock Smash did a job.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

3 slots.

[Browning]

Turns out Mewtwo can be put to sleep... and it's damn useful, but I still lost. I guess Wiggly can stay for now though.

My current team rates at 13,786 and the recommended level is 17,500, so I guess a lot of grinding is needed. I could just farm through all my other Pokemon for EXP, but I don't want to, so I will stick to just using duplicates for that. It's not impossible another Pokemon could break into the team when they evolve (I have a pretty decent Magikarp who I would love to evolve to see how good it is...) but unless that happens then these 3 (Machamp, Wigglytuff, Muk) will be the 3 who conquer the game for me.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Sacked off Rhyhorn for Charmeleon.

Hypno (he has barrier) and Onix just can't die so I wanted someone who could bring a bit more offensive power.

I'm now carving my way through the game despite being so much lower on power than they recommend.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Hypno is actually insane.

No matter the fight I've never seen him lose more than a quarter of his health.

[Browning]

Never had a Hypno but he's probably a good one to have for the Psychic level later.

I'm gonna be here for days just slowly grinding up levels unless I sacrifice all my other Pokemon except the big 3.... so I'm getting tempted to do that.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Just got a 66 caterpie from my new pot.

With stones he's now at 1356 HP and 1409 attack.

[Browning]

Managed to get a Golem who became my 2nd best Pokemon and then fed most of my others to him trying to get Harden but failing. He did get Earthquake though... so that'll have to do for now.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I'm doing the physic levels and Hypno is still donning it.

Team strength is 6,338 and we just took down 9-4 which has a recommended strength of 11,600.

He still hasn't lost more than 25% HP in a match.

Edit: He died on 9-5. Recommended strength of 13,500 was just too much.

[Browning]

I think I've got to about 80% of Mewtwo's health but he seems able to one shot me at will the moment I stop dodging, which makes it almost impossible. I'm also seriously struggling to improve the team. Grinding by doing missions takes forever and if you lose to Mewtwo you get no EXP and no items which is a killer.

[Browning]

I got a Geodude with 3 slots and Harden and was tempted to put my Golem into it for EXP... the only thing stopping me was that even with that I was still losing about 20 levels. In the end I used Geodude to move train and now my Golem has Harden with 3 slots :cool:

With that I booted Wigglytuff (don't want 2 defenders) for Gyarados (just about the only good Pokemon I have left after farming all my others for EXP) and I'm even closer to beating Mewtwo, but still not quite there. I feel a few more levels on Gyarados will get us over the top as he'll earn another stone and his bingo bonus is +500 HP (I think... it may have been Attack) so he'll be gaining about 1000 stat points which will almost certainly make up the difference.

Just a case of cooking up enough meals to attract the Pokemon needed to give him the EXP....

[Browning]

Managed to beat Mewtwo easily on a random attempt. Machamp was almost dead but didn’t die once, Golem lost about 20% of his health and Gyarados didn’t have a scratch on him. Harden the difference maker.

[Browning]

Just got a Level 97 Shiny Shellder from my first Gold pot. Statistically he's already my best Pokemon even before he evolves and he's fucking shiny... so in he comes for Machamp. Gyarados is only 5th on stats (behind Shellder, Machamp, Golem and Wigglytuff) but he's been so immense that he stays in the team. Hit healing really is the key to the whole game.

Current team is:

Shellder (Level 97, HP 3234, Attack 3042)
Golem (Level 78, HP 4362, Attack 1007)
Gyarados (Level 66, HP 3232, Attack 1827)

Would love to be able to upgrade Tackle on Gyarados and Bubble on Shellder though.

I also got a level 88 Rhyhorn who may come in when he evolves, but evolving him will be a mission. I also would have no idea who to put him in for because Gyarados despite being the lowest really carries us.

[Baz]

Add me a a friend on Pokemon Go: 4625 7317 3055


Queenslander

[Queenslander]

Done :)

[Gray Fox]

7746 9270 6506

I am the Lambanana

[P_3]

So Pokemon Quest is out on mobile.

Currently rocking Machop, Rhyhorn and starter Bulbasaur.

[Baz]

It looks cute.

Is it any good?

[P_3]

It is a good pick up and play. Handy for train journeys.

I'm now rocking a Level 62 Onix, 33 Magmar and 33 Aerodactyl. Still faffing about on 7-5 and 8-5 though. Too much of a wuss to waste a battery charge.

[P_3]

Completed Pokemon Quest with the below team:

Nidoking Lv67 - HP 1802, Attack 3878 - Megahorn (3 Whack-Whack)
Alakazam Lv75 - HP 1580, Attack 3773 - Psybeam, Psychic (Whack-Whack, Scattershot)
Magneton Lv71 - HP 2737, Attack 2262 - Charge, Flash Cannon (Whack-Whack, Broadburst)

Looking forward to the sequels at some point.

[Baz]

Just seen the news in Pokemon Go saying soon the game won’t need to be open to track steps for buddy candy and egg hatching. That’s fantastic news. :jayjay:

[Gray Fox]

I thought I was the only one here who still played!

[Baz]

Me, you and Queenslander

:cool:

[Queenslander]

:cool:

[P_3]

Me too. Nearly level 40.

[Nick]

Never got into Pokemon Go, but I've recently been 'teaching' my 7-year old how to play Pokemon Moon on the 3DS. :cool:

[Baz]

Me too. Nearly level 40.

What's your friend code?

Add 4625 7317 3055 for some St. Helens gifts.

[Pepe]

Anyone trying the new Switch version? I was looking forward to it until I read about it. Seems gimmicky as fuck.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I keep changing my mind.

It's just a slightly revamped Pokemon Yellow effectively.

[Mike]

It looks and sounds amazing. Not played a lot yet, hardly any infact, but yeah, it’s how the first games looked and sounded in your head. Gorgeous!

[Browning]

It’s way too easy and the catching is boring, but looks wise it’s incredible and gives me high hopes for the proper game next year.

If anyone has Eevee and wants to trade some exclusives let me know.

[Pepe]

It’s way too easy

That's what I feared the most. Still unsure whether I should bother with it. Haven't played a Pokemon game since Blue, which I quite enjoyed.

[phonics]

10% of Switch owners bought the game in the first 3 days which seems low to me.

[Browning]

The more I play it, the more I like it. I’m using it to introduce my daughter to the series and she is loving it, and to be fair they do seem to have put the odd challenge in here and there in the form of ‘coach trainers’ while the gyms usually pack at least one surprise. It’s better than Ultra Sun, that’s for sure.

My daughter loves Oddish so much we weren’t allowed to use Bulbasaur though, despite him being 1 of 5 Pokemon she could name going in.

[P_3]

Loving this so far. So pretty.

Team is ever changing, leaving Mt Moon I've got: Magikarp, Pikachu, Nidoran M, Nidoran F, Bulbasaur and Charmander. Picked up a random Chansey in Mt Moon too.

[phonics]

I caved and bought this, I still don't understand the Pokemon Go thing. Am I supposed to press A when the circle is big or small?

Any other tips I should know?

[Browning]

You're supposed to chuck the thing through the circle, and the smaller the circle is the better.

You get basically fuck all EXP for battles, so it's worth catching shit even if you don't need it. Catching evolved Pokemon seems the best way to get decent EXP, especially if you catch the same Pokemon a few times in a row. Any duplicates you will never use can be sent to the Professor in exchange for "candies" which will improve stats of the Pokemon you are using.

[phonics]

You say chuck the thing through the circle, am I supposed to be aiming for something? I'm playing undocked so I'm just pressing A (to 'Get Ready' but sometimes I don't need to press Get Ready and I don't know why) then a green circle goes around and occasionally the pokemon stops the green circle but I don't know why then I press A again.

[Browning]

I've only played docked, but I press A to get ready and then throw the ball through the circle, with the smaller circle scoring more EXP points (assuming the catch is successful). The Pokemon do stop it occasionally and if you throw at that point they'll knock the ball away, which is just an annoyance.

I'm guessing undocked works the same way, and you should be aiming to throw the PokeBall through the green circle when it is as small as possible, even if the actual throwing mechanic is replaced by pressing A or whatever you have to do.

Edit- Yea, I just tried one undocked, and it's the same process. A to get ready and then click A when the circle is as small as possible. It'll come up "Excellent" if you get it spot on, or various other things depending how close you are.

[phonics]

Oh I thought Nice! was the best one. Turns out I've been doing it wrong the whole time because I did a really small circle and the Pokemon bopped it away.

Fought my rival, 'Garbage Boy' who had a level 7 Eevee and a level 3 Pidgey to my full party of Level 6-9 Pokemon though so I can't be fucking up too badly. Does seem very easy though.

I love that they've turned the Team Rocket guards into Jesse and James though. Broke my brain as a kid who watched the cartoon for a year before his parents would get him a GameBoy that they weren't in it outside of one or two battles.

[Browning]

The difficulty does pick up somewhat around the half way point. It's still not hard, but it's not as mind numbingly easy as the early parts. Giving Pikachu Double Kick to essentially hand you the first badge was ridiculous.

Look out for guys in red (I think? Maybe orange) outfits that hang around in Pokemon Centres starting with Cerulean City's one too. They'll teach Pikachu some pretty amazing moves.

[Browning]

The difficulty does pick up somewhat around the half way point. It's still not hard, but it's not as mind numbingly easy as the early parts. Giving Pikachu Double Kick to essentially hand you the first badge was ridiculous.

Look out for guys in red (I think? Maybe orange) outfits that hang around in Pokemon Centres starting with Cerulean City's one too. They'll teach Pikachu some pretty amazing moves.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

If/When I get this I'll be going for Eevee.

[Browning]

Given that you can't evolve Eevee and you can get Eevee in the wild in both games, there's not as much of an advantage as you would think, but the starter Eevee does sound even more broken than Pikachu.

I need to find someone with Eevee so I can trade though because fuck using Pokemon Go.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Yeah but Pikachu is a twat.

[Spikey M]

I got Let's Go today. No battles to catch a Pokemon? What the fuck?

[phonics]

I got Let's Go today. No battles to catch a Pokemon? What the fuck?
Yeah it sucks. Don’t forget to use the save function. I lost 6 hours progress after a switch patch restarted the console.

[Alex Ferguson]

Made it my goal to finally finish all the Gen 7 main series games this year. And get a Switch so I can play Let's Go!

[Spikey M]

After a dodgy start, Let's Go has really grown on me. I'm still at a bit of a loss as to how I level up my Pokemon with no wild Pokemon battles, but it is what it is. I've just Merked the Rockets secret base, now to fuck up some ghosts.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Missingno glitch.

[Spikey M]

Wait.

They included that?

Fuck me. :drool:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Sure they did, go try it and don't stop until he pops up.

[Spikey M]

Prick

[Browning]

After a dodgy start, Let's Go has really grown on me. I'm still at a bit of a loss as to how I level up my Pokemon with no wild Pokemon battles, but it is what it is. I've just Merked the Rockets secret base, now to fuck up some ghosts.

Catch a bunch of shit. Preferably evolved stuff, and if you chain the same Pokémon I think that increases the EXP too.

[Mike]

1100395117716930566

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

1100761992720134144

Hype.

Scorbunny ftw btw.

[Baz]

Meanwhile I caught an Eevee wearing a flower crown on PoGo.

[Dan]

I'm assuming this is getting the usual November release, so I guess I'll have to get a Switch for my birthday this year.

[Mike]

Might switch my usual starter to water after the trailer.


https://i.imgur.com/PjGHM4Q_d.jpg?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

[Pleb]

Now that's a map :drool:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Hadn't seen that before, it is indeed very British.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Shopto is doing pre-orders for 39.85. I've gone for sword because sword beats shield.

[Dan]

New video has been released showing the mascots & some other new pokes. Also a new battle thing that just looks like normal/raid battling but with every pokemon made enormous.

https://serebii.net/news/2019/05-June-2019.shtml

[Nick]

Release date of November 15th.

I need to buy myself a Switch.

[Dan]

Yeah, my birthday is just before that so I guess I might actually have something I want for the first time in years. That gimmicky Dynamax shit is almost enough to ruin it though.

Here's the video, by the way. I was on my phone earlier:


https://youtu.be/p_dgvgpC8Nw

There's a whole Nintendo Direct, actually:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQS-t_2JC3E

[P_3]

Yep, don't get the giant Pokemon thing at all. The rest looks amazing.

[Browning]

Dynamax seems alright, basically just Mega Evolution + Z moves, but it only lasts 3 turns. I'm fine with it, in theory. Of course when I do a blind Nuzlocke and some cunt uses it to sweep my team, I'll change my mind.

[Nick]

My lad has got massively into Pokemon recently, which has resulted in endless questions and Googling of Bulbapedia! That in turn has seen me catch the bug again! Decided to get something going on Moon.

Just hit Route five with a team of:

Meowth - Level 19
Growlithe - Level 19
Slowpoke - Level 19
Misdreavus - Level 20
Makuhita - Level 21
Dartrix - Level 21

Going along nicely and seem to have most bases covered at this point, but Meowth appears to be the weak link and is expendable. Not sure who/what to replace it with though...

[Dan]

I went to Download last week & made the terrible decision to reinstall Pokemon Go, so of course I'm now looking at it all the time. Anyone else still playing?

EDIT: Befriend me - 5674 3800 8319 :thbup:

[Browning]

:lol: it still exists? It got boring after about 3 days.

I am however Soul Linking Ultra Sun/Moon again. Our last one (a few pages back) was actually going well, but guess we got bored at some point, and stopped playing. Neither me or my brother have ever finished Ultra, so we're both determined to do it this time. Actually enjoying it, which surprises me, because I've always hated these games.

[Dan]

I seem to remember getting big into it the first time round, but I think that only lasted about a month & then I never had any desire to play it after that point until about two weeks ago. We'll see how long I last this time, I guess.

I did think about playing X or Y again recently, as I seem to remember that being my favourite of the last few generations. Should give the Black/White series a revisit too.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I think I should probably play some of the newer ones in preparation for Sword.

I don't think I ever went past Diamond/Pearl/Platinum.

[Dan]

Black/White & the sequels are great, and I feel like i enjoyed X/Y too, but I didn't enjoy either of the Sun/Moon games as much. I seem to remember OR/AS being decent - think that was one of the rare games where there was actual stuff to do after being the elite four.

Fuck it, I'll dig them out if I've got them here.

[Browning]

I still hate ORAS, which hurts because Ruby/Sapphire were my favourites by a mile on my first play through of each game. They just held your hand way too much, which was even worse as Black/White actually presented somewhat of a challenge IIRC.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Just opened a Black ROM.

Why was I not informed that one of the starters is a Fire type Pig?

Nine years I've been missing out.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I lost to Bianca :\

That's the first time I've ever lost the very first battle. She only tail whipped once and got a critical.

[Browning]

I loved Black/White and the sequels and they actually made it worth playing both by having one be all new Pokemon and the other have old Pokemon in.

At some point I should Poke Bank all my stuff from them and replay them, I guess. Maybe I'll try and get a Soul Link going on one of those after we finish (or more likely fail) Ultra.

We just beat the second totem relatively easily thanks to me getting a Charjabug and him having Oricorio, but I forgot quite how much they buffed some of the totem fights. Araquanid has awesome coverage with his move set and a berry that meant I couldn't OHKO it with Spark even after boosting my attack... it was still easy thanks to my type advantage, but I can tell that would be challenging to the wrong team.

Our teams as it stands:
Brionne and Dartrix
Alolan Grimer and Mr Mime
Noibat and Alolan Diglett (though he refuses to train Diglett so I live in fear of him sacrificing it at some point)
Butterfree and Oricorio
Roggenrola and Mawhile (I don't really like Roggenrola thanks to his ability so I need to evolve it ASAP).
Charjabug and Herdier

2 deaths so far, both on me. First my Wingull (paired with his Slowpoke) was killed by a critical hit from Rowlett in the trainer school and then my Zubat (paired with a Gastly he didn't want to use) died to a pursuit from a Murkrow. Funnily enough reading back in the thread to last time we tried this, I think he had a Zubat die in the exact same fight last time.

The fire trial will be easy for me but I'm not sure who he will use for it as none of his mons have a notable advantage. I think long term he'll regret the decision not to use the Mudbray he got from the ranch... that thing is a beast from what I remember.

[Browning]

I lost to Bianca :\

That's the first time I've ever lost the very first battle. She only tail whipped once and got a critical.

The crit would ignore the tail whip too.... so that's odd. Is Black/White the one where the crit rate is horribly broken? I feel like it might be.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

It was also the first starter battle that saw me attack second.

[Browning]

Yea, Tepig is slow as fuck, but he gets the move Flame Charge which will help with that later on.

[Baz]

Just opened a Black ROM.

Why was I not informed that one of the starters is a Fire type Pig?

Nine years I've been missing out.I hope you sorted yourself out with Blaze Black.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I just got a regular one.

I have no idea what Blaze Black is.

[Dan]

Blaze Black is a ROM hack version of the series. I think it’s generally regarded as one of the best remake hacks out there.

I started playing it a while back when I had a brief YouTube phase, and I couldn’t find Black/White in my room, so I might have to go back to my save file if I still have it.

[Baz]

Yeah it makes it so that all the Pokemon (upto that genwration) are in it, among other changes.

Restart your Black save if you’re not too far in and do Blaze Black.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I'm only on route 3 with one badge.

Fuck it.

Also, it's really weird knowing NOTHING about every single one of these Pokemon.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Why didn't you tell me earlier that you get the bicycle instantly?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Just blacked out :moop:

A level 11 fucking rattata just wiped my 4 man team (I'm catching but boxing all previous gen Pokemon until I get the national dex). My 2 hitters in Lillipup and Tepig (both 13) were injured quite a bit and the fucking rat went on a critical hit frenzy. I only needed to hit him twice but after he defeated Lillipup he kept biting everyone first and one hit criting them.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Desmume is pissing me off.

I was using save states and yesterday whenever I Alt-Tab'd it would load the first save state, today it would change the orientation/screen size/screen shit, now it saved a state itself and then loaded that which means I lost a bit of time.

Why are you so shit?

[Nick]

Why is Beldum a massive cunt to catch? 1 HP remaining (thanks to Decidueye's False Swipe) and I've used a mixture of 40 Great and Ultra balls and still can't catch the fucker. I've given up. Raging.

[Dan]

Blaze Black is a ROM hack version of the series. I think it’s generally regarded as one of the best remake hacks out there.

I started playing it a while back when I had a brief YouTube phase, and I couldn’t find Black/White in my room, so I might have to go back to my save file if I still have it.

I've spent this weekend digging back into ROM hacks & downloaded about 8 of them. I also still have my Blaze Black save file :uhoh:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Why does Audino give so much EXP?

[Dan]

It does in the actual games too, I think. It's basically a budget version of Chansey.

Kricketune is a beast in Blaze Black, by the way - gets STAB, technician Bug Bite & Leech Life, as well as Swords Dance :drool: Ran wild during the first third of the game.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

List some amazing gen V Pokemon (especially those you can catch early doors) as I don't want to use any previous gen Pokemon until i unlock the National deck.

Also, I fucking hate fishing so much. I need a water Pokemon but every fucking cast is a tentacool, poliwag or shellder. Just give me a tympole you pricks.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

TYMPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLE

Found the little shit outside of Pinwheel forest lurking in grass, weird prick.

[Dan]

I didn’t get much further to be fair - think my team are currently in the 40s. Pretty sure there’s a list available with all the changes somewhere too.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Fuck Desert Resort.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-07-08-new-pokemon-alcremie-looks-like-a-cake-attacks-by-squirting-whipped-cream


Alcremie fires whipped cream as an attack. According to a description from The Pokémon Company, this cream "becomes richer the happier Alcremie is feeling".

"When attacked by an opponent," The Pokémon Company continues, "Alcremie will throw sweet-scented cream to distract them or temporarily blind them, giving itself time to escape."

"The cream pouring out of its body hardens when subjected to impacts-the stronger the impact, the harder it becomes-giving Alcremie an impressive resistance to physical attacks.

"Any Pokémon that touches this cream will be filled with energy and euphoria but at the same time will fall into a state of complete confusion

A Pokemon that fires white cream at enemies who love it...

[Baz]

I’ve woken up to find a game called Pokémon Masters has installed itself on my phone. :sorry:

Not sure how much I’ll play it yet but feel free to add me as a friend: 4072382401796577

[Browning]

Just trialling it, seems alright so far, though I'm sure like all Mobile Games it'll become Pay to Win fairly soon.

Wish they gave me any fucking Pokemon but Pikachu at the start. I hope I can change him.

[Baz]

Just trailing it, seems alright so far, though I'm sure like all Mobile Games it'll become Pay to Win fairly soon.

Wish they gave me any fucking Pokemon but Pikachu at the start. I hope I can change him.

You cannot, but you can kick yourself out your team and not use him, if that makes sense.

[Browning]

We will have to see who comes along then. So far I've only got Snivy girl and Whitney, who I assume everyone gets?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Just trialling it, seems alright so far, though I'm sure like all Mobile Games it'll become Pay to Win fairly soon.

Wish they gave me any fucking Pokemon but Pikachu at the start. I hope I can change him.

Agreed, fuck Pikachu.

I played it for about 5 minutes but got a bit bored of the hand-holdy THIS IS THE STORY intro bollocks.

[Baz]

We will have to see who comes along then. So far I've only got Snivy girl and Whitney, who I assume everyone gets?
Yeah.

Lots of people are starting, using the 1390 starting gems to do the scouting thing and if they don't get a 5 star/S tier pokemon from their 5 pulls, they restart. Seems pretty easy but I cba so I'm rolling with a Machamp.

Here's a very basic tier list, if you want spoilers:

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/604709535860523009/616456946249236480/PMRerollTierList.png

[Browning]

Interesting. Whitney in the D Tier, but a video I watched said that the team of Her/Rosa/Barry is broken as fuck and destroys the whole game.

[Baz]

I’m stuck on chapter 4. Probably gonna delete. :sorry:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Just 3* dickheads on first roll.

Edit: And again. I'll do one more tonight.

[Browning]

What do we spend the gems on? Is it just new trainers?

Fuck it, bought 4 with the free Gems. Got:

Agatha- Gengar (4*)
Roxanne- Nosepass (3*)
Clay- Palpitoad (3*)
Maylene- Meditite (3*)

Doesn't seem great... but... Agatha should be useful.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Third time seems to have been the charm.

I got Will/Xatu 4* and Noland/Pinsir 4* who are both highly ranked in the tier list.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

6059-9750-7748-1957 is my MATES code.

[Browning]

Just seen the video of the Togedemaru who won the World Championship. That must be the best play in the history of Pokemon.

[Mike]

We all set for Sword/Shield? I’ve heard there’s a big fuss about it but haven’t bothered to look what it is.

[bruhnaldo]

Apparently the graphics and animations are terrible

I saw one "highlight" and it seemed pretty pokemon to me but i also never really played it

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I pre-ordered mine ages ago when I was still at my old place.

It was sent there today despite me asking them to change my address \0/.

[Mike]

I’m going Sword and cos I was good old Bulbasaur back in the day will be starting with Grookey

[Dan]

I'm not gonna be getting it as I can't be fucked to buy a Switch just to play it for 200 hours this month & then never again, but I'll probably watch a few playthroughs of it & I've started checking out competitive again so I might play some Showdown for a bit.

I'm sure it'll all be very Pokemon.

[P_3]

Quite enjoying it so far, having gone in relatively blind. Although some of the designs are atrocious, looking at you weird elephant thing at the beginning. :chortle:

[Dan]

You don’t know the half of it.
Apple dragon

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Haven't played much but I like it a lot.

Presentation is really good, they've added some new quality of life things and I like the Dynamax raids.

[Dan]

Fucking hell dynamaxing is UTTERLY BROKEN in competitive :D

[P_3]

So I've spent the last few days running around the open area at the beginning doing the giant Pokemon fights and catching everything I can. Might be overkill against the first gym. :happycry:

[Pepe]

I think that I preferred when your Pokemon had to participate in the battle in order to get XP.

[Browning]

I think that I preferred when your Pokemon had to participate in the battle in order to get XP.

Agreed. The new system is bollocks.

[Pepe]

Beat the Champion yesterday with a team of the monkey who plays drums (can't remember the name), growlithe, sylveon, snorlax, gyarados, and hawlucha. Is there anything else to do now, apart from capturing the hundreds of Pokemon I am missing, or is that basically it? I enjoyed the game, but it seemed much shorter than the first one, which is the only other one I played. Could be because I was like 13 at the time though.

[Byron]

Decided to pick up Sword and have a go at a new Nuzlocke (despite not being able to complete one but I can't play Pokemon any other way now)

Thing went swimmingly up to and including Nessa's gym, as my Rookidee powered through Milo's Grass types and Thwackey swept aside Nessa's Water gym. I had a solid team and I actually thought we might do this in one. Unfortunately not, as I lost my Vulpix and Dottler to random trainer battles. Kabu's Fire Gym saw my Gyarados die and then while training against Wobbuffets in the Wild Area I also lost Sirfetch'd and Thwackey.

The worst actually came while making my way to Stow-on-Side to face Bea's Gym and engaged in a Double Battle against a Pawniard and Togetic. My second Vulpix got rid of Pawniard and the Togetic nearly swept my fucking team. I lost Galarian Linoon, Inkay, Vulpix and Mareanie (which especially hurt as Toxapex would have done well against Opal's Gym)

As a result my current team is


Lv. 32 Golisopod - Razor Shell, Sand Attack, Drill Run, First Impression
Lv. 35 Corvisquire - Drill Peck, Taunt, Fury Attack, Pluck
Lv. 24 Joltik - Fury Cutter, Electroweb, Bug Bite, Electro Ball
Lv. 27 Snorunt - Powder Snow, Astonish, Ice Shard, Icy Wind
Lv. 27 Shiftry - Leaf Tornado, Rollout, Mega Drain, Payback
Lv. 32 Pangoro - Low Sweep, Vital Throw, Night Slash, Work Up


God knows what I'll do against Bea's Fighting types. Corvisquire would be the obvious choice but many Fighting types come with Rock Throw or Rock Slide. No chance of using Shiftry or Pangoro, need to do some grinding really.

Current Nuzlocke rules;


Catch the first Pokemon in an area - I can however choose to catch the first overworld one I see, or the first chance encounter one
No Dynamax Raids
Dynamaxing allowed in battles - if I can, then the opponent will be
Each area of the Wild Area counts as a separate catch area
One mercy revive (already used up)
If I happen to come across a Very-Strong Pokemon, I cannot catch it and the encounter does not count for any deaths

[Byron]

So I did some massive grinding and got past Bea but not without losses. I went in with Corviknight but after getting a good hit on Hitmontop, he used Revenge and OHKO Corviknight. Had a sinking feeling that this could be the end of the run but I managed to struggle through, losing Snorunt in the meantime. Got to her Machamp and decided to Dynamax my Galvantula as it was the only 'Mon left without an obvious weakness and at full health. She eventually died but not without putting in some work and really damaging Machamp, enough to allow Golisopod to finish it off.

I need to do some more grinding before facing Opal because I can see Fairy types ripping through my team and losing Corviknight means I don't have Steel Wing. Current team

*Lv. 39 Shiftry - Leaf Tornado, Rollout, X-Scissor, Dark Pulse
*Lv. 37 Golisopod - Razor Shell, Sand Attack, Drill Run, First Impression
*Lv. 37 Pangoro - Low Sweep, Crunch, Night Slash, Work Up
*Lv. 34 Dubwool - Headbutt, Take Down, Copycat, Double Kick
*Lv. 36 Vespiquen - Power Gem, Air Slash, Toxic, Bug Bite
*Lv. 34 Morgrem - Dazzling Gleam, Sucker Punch, Swagger, False Surrender

[Browning]

I Nuzlocked it too and finished recently but didn’t have any troubles. I lost my Scraggy against Bede when he pulled out an unexpected fairy move (which I should have seen coming as I had the same mon :D) and my Gyarados against Hop because I didn’t know one of his mons was electric but otherwise we lost nothing until the champion fight. I lost 3 mons there, one of which was to an unexpected steel move, one (my starter) was sacked off because I didn’t want to switch even though I probably could have saved him but as it was the last fight oh well and then Jellicent went down after using Destiny Bond on Charizard.

Oh and I lost a Sudowoodo against the legendary, forgot that one.

Roserade and Corviknight made it to the end with Corviknight being the real MVP.

Working on getting a complete living dex now.

[Byron]

Yeah, my issue was definitely being underleveled, or at least not levelling to a reasonable degree between gyms. Opal was reasonable enough, as I had learnt to not send out your best 'Mon early doors and went with Vespiquen, who got rid of Weezing but died to her Togekiss. Golisopod managed to do some decent damage to Togekiss before being forced out by Emergency Exit but at that point Hatterne was able to sweep up the rest of her team. Next up is the Rock Gym and Shiftry should be the main 'Mon there.

[Byron]

So Gordie was easy but again in an unexpected way. My strategy was to let Shiftry do the heavy lifting, given that Golisopod has STAB Water moves, but a weakness to Rock and Emergency Exit being a real pain. However Shiftry was killed by a critical X-Scissor from a Crustle by one of the Gym Trainers.

Fuck.

So I was resolving myself to using Golisopod until when going through my team, I had a brainwave to use Pangoro. His Low Sweep would be Super Effective and if I could fire off a few Work-Ups I could probably sweep his team. Barbaracle was swept away quickly and I did my set up against Stojouner, after which I swept him. Decided to Dynamax against Shuckle (don't fuckle with Shuckle) and OHKO both Shuckle and Coalossal.

Next up is the Dark Gym, which between Hatterene, Pangoro and Golisopod is probably the first gym I can comfortably say I have multiple options for. Hatterene will probably be my main for this one.

[Byron]

So Piers was easy enough to blow through, didn't lose a single 'Mon, however after getting the bike-boat thing and exploring the last two Wild Areas I ended up losing my Grimmsnarl, which was pretty devastating. I took the opportunity to grind and shuffle the team with some 'Mons in the box to generate the following team;

Lv. 43 Weezing - Assurance, Sludge, Double Hit, Sludge Bomb
Lv. 49 Pangoro - Low Sweep, Crunch, Parting Shot, Work Up
Lv. 48 Golisopod - Razor Shell, Poison Jab, Liquidation, First Impression
Lv. 50 Hatterene - Psychic, Psycho Cut, Dazzling Gleam, Magical Leaf
Lv. 51 Drednaw - Headbutt, Counter, Jaw Lock, Liquidation
Lv. 50 Abomasnow - Razor Leaf, Blizzard, Wood Hammer, Ice Punch

Next up is Raihan who I understand is a Dragon trainer, so here goes Abomasnow!

[Browning]

Good luck. Raihan will be interesting for sure.

Very close to finishing my living dex. Need 8 Pokemon, 7 of which I can obtain today given the weather. My kingdom for a Mawile.

[Browning]

Mawile was actually available yesterday and I got him. Unfortunately didn’t get Drampa though so I’ll be missing one mon until the weather aligns again.

[Browning]

I don’t know if you’re still going Byron but after reading this again it seems a few trips to the move learner guy would help those move sets a lot. I’m doing a second Nuzlocke (necessary to get the 2 final mons I need) and have used some of the same mons but Shiftry and Weezing in particular benefitted hugely from going to him.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Raihan not only wiped his team, it wiped the trainer too.

RIP in pieces, Byron.

[Browning]

Well, may as well post about mine while we wait for the tale of Byron's demise...

Started a 2nd Nuzlocke but with dupes clause applying to everyone I used in my first run (so far that's only been used twice, for Budew and Stuffel). I also didn't allow myself to use any of the Starters as they all seem to be a bit OP. Route 1 yielded a Skwovet who I couldn't grind at all because he was going to die so I ran straight to Route 2 and caught a Seedot who became my unofficial starter. He was a lucky get because he was the same type as the actual starter I chose, meaning he would beat Hop. We did get some useless crap from some of the early routes but Wooper, Pancham, Roggenrola and Elektrike gave us a fairly solid base for a team and Skwovet was sacked off when Dottler joined up, giving us out first 6.

My original plan was to use a Snover I got for the grass gym, but this was abandoned when Seedot evolved all the way to Shiftry and got access to Air Slash and Hurricane. He ran riot in the Grass gym, one shotting everything except the Dynamax (2 shots) and he did the same in the water gym. The fire badge was similarly easy when Gigalith one shot the Ninetales (after setting up Stealth Rocks), 2 shot the Arcanine (only taking 2 shitty bites in the process) and one shot the Centiskortch (sp?).

I was concerned about Bea because we started failing encounters due to mons killing themselves. 2 Golett's both cursed themselves to death, costing me 2 routes, and a Helioptile died due to it's dry skin ability. Luckily we got a Koffing and some serious grinding turned him into Weezing. Unfortunately, during said grinding, our unofficial starter, Shiftry, met his end, after being hit by a 4 x effective pin missile I should have seen coming but just didn't.

Dottler came back in and evolved and we demolished Bea with our Weezing. As we stand:

Quagsire- 41 (Aqua Tail, Slam, Yawn, Mud Shot)
Weezing- 40 (Toxic, Assurance, Sludge Bomb, Strange Steam)
Gigalith- 39 (Headbutt, Rock Slide, Stealth Rock, Sand Tomb)
Pangoro- 38 (Night Slash, Work Up, Low Sweep, Slash)
Manectric- 36 (Thunder Wave, Discharge, Bite, Quick Attack)
Orbeetle- 35 (Bug Buzz, Psybeam, Light Screen, Reflect)

Weezing probably needs to take the lead again for the Fairy gym but the rock one should be a piece of piss.

Edit- Forgot how quick afterwards Opal's gym was. She was taken care of, although not in the way I imagined. I sent out Quagsire first because I remembered she had Weezing first. What I didn't remember was it having Levitate until it was too late. Quagsire took care of Weezing nonetheless with Aqua Tails and took care of Mawile with 2 Digs. For Togetic we switched to Weezing but a crit Air Slash put him on low health. Instead we swap to Gigalith and use out one allowed heal per match on Weezing before killing it with Rock Slide. We swap back to Weezing for the G-Max Alcremie and he easily beats it. It took 3 shots, I think, but Alcremie was doing no damage.

[7om]

On my first play through of Alpha Sapphire and I just killed Kyogre after a 30 minute battle where he broke almost every ball I had. Fucking Machoke got a critical hit and my stomach fell through my arse.

[Baz]

Apparently my phone can emulate up to Pokémon Black/White 2. I know Blaze Black/Volt White were highly recommended over the originals, but can anyone vouch for the same for 2? Not sure if I should stick to the base game or do the rom hack.

Or are there versions from before Black 2 that are deemed as better overall? Last version I played proper was Emerald so it’s quite a jump, regardless.

[Browning]

That Direct :drool:

[Baz]

Started playing Shield. Went with Scorbunny and almost immediately caught a Nickit, cos they’re mates in Pokémon Journeys and my daughter got chufties. Looking forward to getting stuck into it.

[P_3]

https://youtu.be/_WcGQTtI_zg


https://youtu.be/QRsbFmM37T4

I am pretty hyped. The remakes look great minus the weird chibi models and Legends: Arceus looks epic but does sound to be mission based like Monster Hunter (hopefully I'm wrong).

[P_3]

So following Yevrah's stint at streaming his Dark Souls playthrough I've decided to get involved and do a stream of Pokemon Shield before the release of BDSP next month, so feel free to join in and support me on my adventure. It will be a Nuzlocke and will contain the following rules:


Can only catch the first chance encounter in the tall grass in each unique area, not the ones running on the overworld
Each area in the Wild Area is a unique area
If a Pokemon faints it is dead and gets boxed
Can't buy healing items
When fighting gym leader, highest level Pokemon must not be higher than his/her highest level
Team members will be named after TTH members

Let's see how it goes.

https://www.twitch.tv/yegs88

[P_3]

Summary of what has happened so far:

Got the Grass badge without any trouble
Lost Mahow the Skwovet to Nessa's Drednaw but got the Water badge
Lost Boydy the Baltoy (my main for the Fire Gym) in a wild battle
Which was followed up by losing almost everyone else trying to catch the Fire types in the Gym - Spikey M the Barboach, Baz the Corvisquire, Waffelz the Machop and Lewis the Spritzee - but I managed to win the badge
On the way to the 4th Gym lost Wullie the Tranquil

This leaves the team looking like this with Jimmy Floyd the Wooloo in the box:
Lv31 Kiko the Raboot
Lv28 Igor Balis the Heatmor
Lv28 Giggles the Wimpod
Lv27 Dark Soldier the Pawniard
Lv26 Shindig the Snover
Lv25 Taz the Duskull

As it is, loads of training to do to match the Lv36 Pokemon that the Gym leader has. Will be going live on Twitch now.

https://www.twitch.tv/yegs88

[Baz]

Cool idea. Sorry I don’t have time to watch

[P_3]

Don't worry. Any support is welcome. :)

Yesterday was much better, with no one dying and a few new additions to the team in the form of Pleb the Arrokuda, SvN the Chewtle and Ian the Sinistea. They'll sit in the back and fill in for any more casualties. I got two badges with Dark Soldier and Kiko dealing with the Ghost and Fairy gyms. Have just entered the Ice gym city with the following team:
Lv41 Kiko the Cinderace
Lv40 Giggles the Golisopod
Lv40 Dark Soldier the Pawniard (why won't you evolve?)
Lv39 Igor Balis the Heatmor
Lv38 Jimmy Floyd the Dubwool
Lv37 Shindig the Snover (see DS above)

https://www.twitch.tv/yegs88

[P_3]

Had a busy few days at work so didn't get round to playing until today. But first a summary of Monday's efforts.

The 6th gym was the Ice one and I went in thinking, right let's get DS evolved but we met Frosmoth who used Bug Buzz and wiped him off the field. We also lost Shindig to a critical hit Ice Beam from the Lapras that the Gym Leader has. A quick hop across to the Dark gym we picked up Raoul Duke the Delibird and a pair of Pokes who helped us with the gym. First was Byron the Kingler who learns Hammer Arm via the move rememberer and Gray Fox the Thievul who resists Dark moves. We beat the gym but lost Jimmy Floyd. This leaves the team looking like this with just Raihan to go but I might get out and catch some new team members to help with his Dragon types. Only the majority of the Wild Area to do it in.


Lv46 Kiko - Cinderace
Lv46 Giggles - Golisopod
Lv45 Igor Balis - Heatmor
Lv41 Byron - Kingler
Lv33 Taz - Duskull
Lv32 SvN - Dreadnaw

https://www.twitch.tv/yegs88

[Shindig]

I feel like every time I check in, Kiko's putting in the work.

[Gray Fox]

It's very fitting you've made the scouser a Thievul.

[P_3]

Yeah, Kiko is pretty much our match winner, even more so after yesterday's shambles. As for calling Thievul Gray Fox, it is literally because it is a fox not because of some Scouse related generalisation. :)

Yesterday I delved into the rest of the Wild Area where I have not yet caught a Pokemon and it was a big mistake. Whilst I did add Browning the Rhyhorn, Offshore the Eldegoss and Smiffy the Koffing, in my careless endeavours they all succumbed to death via wild Pokemon fights or trainers. Unfortunately the nightmare didn't end there: Byron, Taz and Raoul Duke fell by the way side too, leaving me with almost the same team that I started with, just Ian and Gray Fox coming back in for the gym. We got through the trainers ok but poor decision making from myself saw only Ian and Kiko survive the barrage from Raihan's team, RIP Giggles, Igor Balis, SvN and Gray Fox. Going into the end game (and due to the fact the levels jump around like crazy, my max level will be set to Lv65) the squad looks like this:


Lv49 Kiko - Cinderace
Lv35 Ian - Polteageist
Lv21 Pleb - Arrokuda

:uhoh:

https://www.twitch.tv/yegs88

[P_3]

And I'm done. Even Kiko can't survive an Earthquake. :moop:

[Browning]

GAME are giving out shiny dogs for Sword/Shield by email.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

What we thinking lads? Shining Pearl or Brilliant Diamond?

I've looked at the exclusives and I can't decide.

[Gray Fox]

Both.

Both is good.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I think I'm leaning towards Pearl so I can start with Piplup and use Houndoom (who is a boss) as my fire boy.

[P_3]

Brilliant Diamond just for Rampardos.

[Browning]

Pearl is being delivered today. It's the one I bought way back in the day so I didn't even look at the differences.

I'm doing a blind (ish as it's a remake) hardcore Soul Link with my brother so it'll be a disaster.

[P_3]

I've got my copy too but seeing as I bought Shin Megami Tensei V last week, Pokemon will be my reward for beating it on Hard mode.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Went for Diamond in the end and I couldn't say no to Chimchar.

[Browning]

Finally got to start our Soul Link tonight after Amazon fucked my brother about so much he cancelled and downloaded it.

We've always done our Soul Links a bit different to the norm- if we get a dual type Pokemon we choose which type it counts as (rather than just using the primary type). When it evolves we can also change the typing if we choose to. All the other normal rules apply- we can't over level the gym leader, we can't heal in battle, if a pokemon dies it's gone along with it's partner. We also can't have the same types across both teams once the types have been chosen (such as below you'll see we both have Geodude... but one is classed as a Rock and the other a Ground type).

Current Pairs in our team (mine listed first):

Chimchar (Fire) and Turtwig (Grass)
Bidoof (Normal) and Shinx (Electric)
Kricketune (Bug) and Abra (Psychic)
Geodude (Rock) and Zubat (Poison)
Machop (Fighting) and Geodude (Ground)

Back up pairs:
Starly (Flying) and Bidoof (Normal)
Shinx (Electic) and Budew (Poison)
Zubat (Flying) and Onix (Ground)

Obviously, he's fucking destroying me when it comes to who has the better team. We opted to keep my Bidoof instead of his in the hopes of getting me a water type for the first gym only to realise it evolves at Level 15 and so won't gain the water type in time.... After that we hoped I would be the one to land Budew but no such luck. It was looking like the first gym was going to be hell for me, and i'd have to hope my Monferno was enough despite being weak to rock... but then I landed Machop as the last encounter before the gym who legitimately could be a run saver. At some point I'm sure there will be an argument as to whether him having Alakazam is good enough to warrant me keeping Kricketune around....

We haven't done the first gym yet but the plan for tomorrow will be to get the teams to Level 14 and hope it's enough.

Oh and we absolutely should have lost at least one team member in the mine. My bunch of shit munchers running into a Level 9 Machop who had revenge and was critting all the time due to Focus Energy took some miracles to get around. Fortunately, Kricketune proved his worth and pounded it to death.

[Browning]

Well attempt 1 fails at Gardenia because my brother is a cunt who couldn't be bothered to grind before Gardenia and thought she'd be easy on the basis his drastically under levelled Murkrow had beaten her junior trainers with ease and he had Alakazam (low levelled and only knowing Confusion) and Grotle (at the level cap but with only Bullet Seed and Bite to deal damage) in reserve. He got the shit beat out of him and I was fuming at him for rushing in without consulting me. He could have grinded and had a Gyarados and a Golbat for the fight but yea...... stunned he was so stupid.

We'll go again but I'm fuming. If he refuses to grind next time I'll be continuing my original run as a Nuzlocke instead.

[Browning]

Attempt 2 was going fine until he decided that instead of joining me on the route to Gardenia he was going to go explore every building in the city... and he got into a trainer battle with a Level 18 Chatot. It's total bullshit to have that there when the trainers on the next route (where you're supposed to go) are still using Level 7s.... but it is what it is. He wanted to ignore it but I just can't out of fear we'd actually win the run and it would be clouded by ignoring that.

I feel like we've learnt some valuable lessons on how to construct the teams (his team had a massive flying weakness, not that I think it mattered with that level difference) but it is getting frustrating. I think unless the next attempt goes seriously far, I'll just do a Nuzlocke on my own. I can't really blame him too hard on this one though, having a trainer that strong at that point in the game is pretty bollocks.

[Browning]

Attempt 3 has gone much better and we had no deaths through Maylene. That couldn't last though and the Wake split has resulted in me losing 3 mons for us. Firstly I was training up a Budew to try and get Roselia for the gym but thanks to the level cap being 30 2 gyms running I didn't have any of my good Pokemon with me.... this shouldn't be an issue picking off a random Fisherman who leads with a Magikarp..... except he then pulled out a Gyarados. I expected my squad of shit munchers to wipe right there, but thanks to Staravia (who was also part of my Wake strategy) firing off 3 intimidates, we limited the damage to just Budew and Staravia drying before I took it out with Rock Tomb from Sudowoodo. Still, those were 2 of the 3 mons I planned to use against Wake, so my plans were in tatters.

The new plan was to grind up a level 4 Magikarp I had in the box and evolve it into a Gyarados. Then my Luxray would take out his Gyarados before I swapped to my own Gyarados and set up Substitute/Double Team and then beat him down slowly with Crunch. This was going to plan until his Quagsire pulled out Haze and removed my Double Teams. He was also 2 shotting my substitutes and not missing at all, which wasn't ideal. Eventually Gyarados took out Quagsire but with only 1 Double Team set up. Floatzal took out my sub while I set up a 2nd double team but no luck and his Ice Fang killed Gyarados. Not the greatest loss as it was paired with a shit Meditite he has never used and I'd only bought it into the team this evening. Luxio came back out and one shot Floatzal with Spark.

That could have gone a lot worse but he hasn't battled Wake yet and I'm not not confident in his Thunderbolt on Clefairy strategy. We'll see....

[Dan]

Soul links sound like a right pain in the arse if the other person is just yeeting their pokemon into the grinder half the time :D

I've just started getting back in to some rom hacks - played Flora Sky which is meant to be one of the best, but I found it kind of a slog, and not very clear on where to go most of the time. Stuck with it until I beat the Champion but i gave up on all the postgame stuff & I've just started Radical Red instead, which seems amazing early on.

There's a part of me that's debating getting a Switch when Legends comes out, but we'll see.

[Baz]

I’ve given up on Sword/Shield cos it was too complicated compared to the likes of Emerald, which was the last one I played.

What’s the newest version that doesn’t have Dynamax and a load of other added confusion? Am I safe to get balls deep into Brilliant Diamond?

[Browning]

Yea, Brilliant Diamond is safe enough. It's a remake of the game after Emerald so you should be fine.

And yea, those first 2 attempts at the Soul Link had me fuming, but luckily, he seemed to have learned from it. I've devised the cuntiest strategy yet for Fantina.... just hoping he can find something equally unfair to use at the same time. Blissey really is going to start earning his spot in the team at last. :cool:

[Browning]

Fantina was way more stressful than she needed to be...

My ultimate cunt strategy was devised after realising her lead Pokemon only had Fly as a physical attack. This meant it was easy to set up Blissey who was immune to her Ghost move and thus could only be fit by Fly. I used substitute (and it's lucky I did in hindsight) and then protected on the turns where Fly would hit whilst setting up Minimize on the other turns. In hindsight, I should have set up Calm Mind.... as once the set up was done I only had 10pp on Psychic to hit her with. I kind of thought it wouldn't be enough but I wasn't expecting to need 4 to take out Drifblim. Gengar went down in 2 easily enough but Mismagius had Magical Leaf which doesn't miss and made my minimize strategy redundant. It did however take 4 hits to break my sub so it clearly wasn't a threat. Calm Mind over Minimise likely made this a free win.... but I went the wrong way and ran out of PP for Psychic with her Mismagius on the brink of death, which she then of course Hyper Potioned off and I could do nothing with Blissey. I stalled her as long as I could hoping she would run out of PP and then swapped into Crobat who resisted most of her attacks.... but she confused him. Still, my team was too strong for one Pokemon to cause too many issues and once I switched to Luxray and he paralysed her with Spark the path to victory opened up and Crobat was able to come back in and finish her off, with Blissey still serving a purpose of blocking Phantom Force (why the fuck does she have that over Shadow Ball). A win with no losses, but more stressful than I expected. My original plan was to use Charge Beam as the attacking move but seemingly that's not obtainable until the 8th gym... and my back up choice was Shadow Ball which I thought was on sale but wasn't.

She was an easy Dragon Dance-Gyarados sweep for my brother so we continue with no losses and pretty well established teams now:

Me: Infernape (Fire), Blissey (Normal), Crobat (Flying), Golem (Rock), Luxray (Electric), Misdreavus (Ghost)
Him: Torterra (Grass), Mr Mime (Psychic), Golem (Ground), Crobat (Poison), Gyarados (Water), Murkow (Dark)

Does feel like I'm missing out big time not having a Gyarados in my own team but we'd have to bin off the Crobat's to fit him in as a Flying type. I'm also guaranteed to be able to get Garchomp once we have access to Strength so that'll probably force changes too.

[Browning]

Byron's gym was again a lot more stressful than it needed to be....

Due to not trusting Infernape to tank STAB EQ from Steelix I was training up my Meditite which evolved into Medicham... my brother rushed off and beat the gym without me as he knew Torterra would demolish it. I then asked him if there was anything in the gym I needed to worry about or if I could solo the gym trainers with just Medicham/Infernape as everyone else was approaching the level cap (the EXP share is a REAL cunt as it stops you having your full party with you for safety when grinding). He told me there wasn't.... conveniently forgetting the Azumarill the last trainer her. We should have wiped right there but Infernape was able to finish it but Medicham died, taking with it his best Pokemon Clefable. Maybe he should have warned me....

This killed off my Plan A for the gym (solo it with Drain Punch Medicham) so I had to turn to plan B.... Substitute/Minimize/Calm Mind/Flamethrower Blissey. Stupidly, despite going out of my way to get Calm Mind, I forgot to teach it. The strategy would have worked but after getting his final mon to red health and burned he full restored it twice leading to Blissey running out of PP for Flamethrower... the 2nd gym in a row where this has been a problem (albeit if I remembered Calm Mind, it wouldn't have been). He had also Iron Defensed to the max so without a crit Infernape wasn't getting anywhere. In the end I had to gamble, sending in my last remaining special attacker (Misdreavus) who landed a clutch Sp Def drop with his first Shadow Ball and KOed with his 2nd... which was lucky as he couldn't live another turn. No casualties in the gym, but Clefable is a massive loss.

[Dan]

You bastard :D Sub-minimize Chansey sounds like the most disgusting tactic possible. Teams look solid though.

Radical Red is brutally hard - the gym leaders are basically maxed out on their EVs & IVs, and they all seem to hit like trucks & take no damage from super effective hits.

You basically have to counter team each gym, and level everything up to the cap to have a chance, which kinda takes away some of the fun of being able to use whatever team you want, but everything else about it is pretty cool, so I’ll keep grinding away.

[Dan]

I finally beat Misty, after probably about 15 hours of using DexNav to seek out pokemon with specific moves/abilities, grinding them all the way up to the lv27 soft cap, then going & getting hammered, doing some more digging & repeating the process.

Eventually got to the point where I basically had a step by step process for the first 5-10 moves of the game (lead with Clefairy teleport out to my Mightyena as they flip turn out to Starmie, sucker punch it to death, etc), then had to hope I could finish the job. Gonna get started on the road to Surge now, but I get the feeling I'll be repeating the process for every gym battle :D

I don't really have a team as such, but the lv27 squad is currently:

Luxray - spark, bite, double kick, baby-doll eyes
Clefairy - draining kiss, thunder wave, wish, teleport
Mightyena - sucker punch, thunder fang, poison fang, thief
Wartortle - water pulse, icy wind, rapid spin, rock tomb
Appletun - mega drain, dragonbreath, astonish, recover
Galarian Ponyta - flame charge, flame wheel, covet, will-o-wisp
Lucario - aura sphere, force palm, quick attack, bulldoze
Donphan - bulldoze, ice shard, rock tomb, magnitude
Cufant - bulldoze, rock smash, rollout, stomp
Galarian Meowth - bullet punch, metal claw, night slash, u-turn
Skiddo - vine whip, bulldoze, razor lead, leech seed
Floette - draining kiss, dazzling gleam, magical leaf, wish
Palpitoad - bubblebeam, bulldoze, round, supersonic
Corvisquire - pluck, hone claws, roost, taunt
Carkol - flame charge, rock tomb, smack down, rapid spin
Cottonee - giga drain, leech seed, cotton spore, stun spore
Flaafy - electro ball, take down, thunder wave, cotton spore
Magnemite - spark, mirror shot, light screen, teleport

[Dan]

Nope, I smoked Surge - almost beat him first try with a team of guys I was training up in case I needed them, but I made one misplay at the end that cost me the game. He was blown back with little trouble shortly afterwards though.

I’d caught a Numel earlier on & had it sitting in my box, so levelled that up on the way to the gym & it ripped through half the team on its own. Mightyena is still proving valuable just for sucker punch, and having a Lanturn with volt absorb gave me a nice pivot to be able to come in on something & flip turn out to a more dangerous mon. I also had Lucario, Pangoro & Donphan in there, which gave me a nice load of priority to be able to call on in an emergency, it they were barely needed at all.

This one feels like a huge win after Misty, and now things are starting to fully evolve & learn better moves it feels like we might be able to compete on more even terms with the gym leaders going forward. Having said that, we’ll probably just get stomped again next time out.

[Dan]

Erika was much closer to Misty than Surge in difficulty - Mega Venusaur took me down the first few times, then when I did manage to get pas that her contrary Serperior smashed me.

It took a few attempts & some messing around with the team, but managed to beat her pretty convincingly after a handful of attempts.

The team keeps changing all the time, and the squad is only getting bigger, but it does seem like everything will come in handy sooner or later.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Pokeball catch rates in BDSP have been nerfed I'm sure of it.

On Sword/Shield quick balls were ridiculously good, now they rarely ever work and ultra balls are useless.

Trying to catch Mesprit and his/her friends has been painful.

[Dan]

I’ve been continuing to chip away at Radical Red, with the whole Rocket Interlude of Celadon Game Corner, Silph Co & Lavender Tower now being out the way.

There’s a 2v2 battle before the Silph Giovanni fight that was up there with Misty as the toughest battle in the game - you partner with one of the other friend characters & all their pokemon just exist to make things worse, so that one took ages to luck in to, then the Giovanni fight was pretty tricky too, until I decided to just counter his weather with my own, which got the job done pretty quickly.

I’ve also since cleared through Saffron, slapping the poor fighting gym with Mega Alakazam as you get the mega ring once you’ve finished Silph. Sabrina was a cool battle as it’s done in doubles format, and once I figured out the correct strategy for the first turn the rest of the battle went pretty smoothly.

Just finished the trip to Fuschia & done some more grinding to make some more money etc.

The squad is huge, but there are a few who have been putting in a lot of work in the tough battles:

Lv68 Cinderace - pyro ball, high jump kick, u-turn, sucker punch
Lv68 Alakazam - psychic, shadow ball, dazzling gleam, nasty plot
Lv67 Sableye - foul play, shadow ball, will-o-wisp, recover
Lv66 Toxapex - scald, venoshock, baneful bunker, rest
Lv59 Mightyena - crunch, jaw lock, poison fang, sucker punch

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Let it be known that Mesprit and the whole tracking thing is a real cunt.

Fuck that little twat.

[Dan]

Managed to finish off the main game of Radical Red. Sadly there's no post game content yet beyond rematching all the gym leaders/elite 4, so just working my way through those & then I guess I'll have to find something else to play :(

Koga isn't a poison trainer in this, he's a ninja speed guy, so all his pokemon are super fast. Took a couple of goes to beat him but he wasn't too bad. Blaine was a sun team, and was seen off relatively easily, then after a quick side quest at Cerulean Cave it was back to Viridian to see off the final dragon gym - Toxapex & Ferrothorn just lolled half of their team away so that was easier than expected, especially as they had wild shit like Dialga & Eternatus.

Elite 4 was surprisingly easy once I figured out I should just run a rain team - took a few goes to beat the first one whilst I faffed about with the team, but once that was sorted I swept through the whole thing in one go, and should have beat the Champion first time too, but I needlessly sacked two pokemon then couldn't beat their last pokemon. Had to play that one a couple more times, but it wasn't too bad.

There were a few pokemon who put in some serious work during the back half of the game:

Mega Swampert - basically destroyed 60% of the elite four on its own under rain.
Toxapex & Ferrothorn - just a great defensive combo. Toxapex in particular is almost impossible to kill
Dragapult - the best pokemon you can buy from the Celadon Game Corner. It's just a fantastic, versatile offensive mon with a really nice move pool to be able to do a lot of different things if needed
Cinderace - libero cinderace is easily better than protean greninja in this. It's got a great move pool to hit much harder whilst still being fast


All in all it's a fantastic hack, just needs some post game stuff added in an update to give it some extra longevity. Misty was definitely the hardest battle in the game, although the rocket admin double battle with Brendan was also tough because you're paired with a moron who just makes everything harder.

[igor_balis]

Doing my first ever nuzlocke on fire red, I got as far as victory road before finally cheating. My graveyard box has about 10 pokemon, some were painful losses, but I just had my nidoking KOed by a fucking wild marowak, and I've just gone you know what, fuck it, that's my one freebie. For a first ever run-through, I don't feel too bad.

I also just savescummed the elite 4, but I did it knowing I was going to lose and didn't bother prepping items etc, I just wanted to get a feel of how hard it is/how far off I am. Based on fucking BRUNO doing me in, quite far, lol.

[Browning]

Bruno :lol: genuinely one of the worst trainers in the series.

[igor_balis]

Bruno :lol: genuinely one of the worst trainers in the series.

:moop: yeah it wasn't ideal

this was fun though, i love my shitty gen 3 team

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-1484128774

[Dan]

SD/Shadow Ball Absol? Had the physical/special split not happened by gen 3 & all ghost moves were physical or were you just playing someone running janky sets?

[igor_balis]

SD/Shadow Ball Absol? Had the physical/special split not happened by gen 3 & all ghost moves were physical or were you just playing someone running janky sets?

The former.

[Browning]

Physical/Special split happened in Gen 4.

[Dan]

Makes sense. Everything before Black & White is all one big mess to me - I thought they split in gen 2 :D

[igor_balis]

My main problem I'm having with nuzlockes, aside from obviously losing pokemon to careless mistakes/lack of preparation, is that I've always played the games in a England and Wales Cricket Board way of "playing to their strengths", e.g. just training the best STAB moves, rather than engaging in any kind of horses for courses pragmatism.

I've just got to the dragon gym on HG, and realised my Golem, Magcargo, Meganium and Gengar, without any ice or dragon moves are a bit useless. I should probably just train one of them blizzard but it just feels a bit...wrong?

[Baz]

https://pokescents.com

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0610/5127/3401/products/Charizard_7f8f5121-0132-41d4-9f57-8a120cbe3a42_1296x.png?v=1641464315

:chief:

[P_3]

Legends: Arceus is here, so will be giving it a bash on stream if anyone is interested to see what its like.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

My copy isn't coming until Monday :(

[Mike]

I’ve got it, just starting now. I know nothing about it; obvs going the grass one.

[P_3]

I went with Rowlet too. I'm loving it so far, once they let me run around uninhibited.

[Mike]

It has an odd tone. Been sent off to face what they acted like was certain death and then, having been established I’m 15, so a child, been slapped to the floor by some fella who’s now my boss apparently!

[P_3]

Made some good progress today. Reached Fourth Star Member status, picked up a Gastrodon and Golbat, and came across a number of Alpha Pokemon which I can't yet beat. Can also fast travel now, which will make things much easier.

[Browning]

I've not really made any progress but I've barely had time to play. I have mixed feelings so far. One of my side missions is to find a Buizel who is at least 2'8 tall and there's no fucking way to tell which ones are even in the ball park. I've caught about 30 of the fuckers now, of which about 8 of them were "big" versions and not one of them is that tall....

[P_3]

Isn't that the same as the Magikarp guy in Gold and Silver? A nice thing I've come across was a Pichu and Pikachu frolicking around in the middle of nowhere. And a Chimchar too near the 2nd base camp, but that ran away before I could chuck a ball at it. I definitely like the sense of exploration, when making my way to the first proper boss (Kricketune doesn't count), I took the route which led me on the other side of the Horseshoe plains and through a cave littered with Machop. So good. :drool:

[Browning]

Maybe but gold and silver were 20 years ago and we’ve had games in the meantime where they indicated which Pokemon were bigger (let’s go) so there isn’t really an excuse for this.

[P_3]

Thinking about it, all my Buizels were exactly the same size so it must be to do with the Alpha Pokemon, the ones with the red eyes, which are clearly bigger. I've come across an Alpha Ponyta and Abra now, so my thinking is that every single Pokemon can be Alpha, therefore Buizel can too. I'll let you know if I find one.

[Browning]

Thinking about it, all my Buizels were exactly the same size so it must be to do with the Alpha Pokemon, the ones with the red eyes, which are clearly bigger. I've come across an Alpha Ponyta and Abra now, so my thinking is that every single Pokemon can be Alpha, therefore Buizel can too. I'll let you know if I find one.

I don’t think it is. My Buizel’s so far range from about 1’4 to 2’7.... just an inch off. They just don’t look any different.

[Pepe]

Passed by Gamestop yesterday but they were sold out. Thought it would be fun for the weekend, but not sure that I will bother. Shield was a bit disappointing, tbh.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

My copy isn't coming until Monday :(

It came today \0/.

[P_3]

Cleared out the second area today. Had a bit of trouble with the last Noble Pokemon as you must use dodge and my reflexes aren't what they used to be. Still loving the game, especially that feeling when a cheeky Pokeball in the back of a strong Alpha Pokemon nabs it. The side quests are interesting, the new Pokemon designs are useful if a bit ugly (Decidueye I'm looking at you) and there's plenty to do.

The team:
Decidueye
Crobat
Wyrdeer
Luxray
Shiny Rapidash
Gastrodon

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I was on a ridge and saw a shinx, I lobbed a ball down at it but it moved at the last minute. I thought I was fine as it can't get up there but the little shit starting lobbing electric balls at me.

Quality game.

[Browning]

So last night I decided to abandon my Buizel quest and just crack on for an hour or so. It was so much better doing that. I managed to catch a fair few mons, take down the first Noble, also take down one of those red eyed cunts... and on my way back I caught a few Buizel's and one of them was 2'8 :cool:

I'm ready for them to take the main series in this direction. I think the thing that will ultimately hurt this game is not having Gyms/a league etc. I don't think you could get away with too many games in this story style, but if you could combine this with a proper story it would be the best Pokemon game ever.

A lot of QOL steps forward too, such as being able to Nickname/Evolve/Re-learn moves at will without having to go to a specific cunt who does them for you. Unfortunately getting rid of the pocket PC feels like 2 steps back, but if we can have all of those things in one game we're laughing.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Found an "Alpha" Rapdiash who is at level 40.

Fucker OHKO'd my Oshawott before I could run although he then tried to chase me.

[Browning]

That stops being a problem once you can ride the deer thing, you can run away much easier.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Yeah I'm still early in and pissing around with bidoofs, starlys and shinxs.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Found an "Alpha" Rapdiash who is at level 40.

Fucker OHKO'd my Oshawott before I could run although he then tried to chase me.

Caught the prick today by sneaking up on it and throwing a great ball at it's back.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Also that Buizel mission is shit.

It took my 34th Buizel to be 2"8'.

I even found an Alpha Buizel but I accidentally knocked it out.