Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
edited March 2023
I feel like I saw April somewhere but I may be wrong (maybe that was just for Go support and that got in a month early?)
Anyways, been watching a Let's Play of Sword this weekend. I was debating if I watch beyond the point in the game I got to but I feel like I'm never gonna beat the damn thing and I'm sick of unsuccessfully dodging spoilers for like 4 years
Though seriously, Rose being evil is like the least surprising twist ever... I saw that coming a mile away.. the bigger spoiler was Eternatus
(also I wanna watch more of those Pokemon shorts on youtube but the ones I wanna watch literally start with Sword and Shield stuff... -_-)
You know, I have a new found appreciation for Hop, despite still being the worst rival of any Pokemon game (and that includes Barry). Poor dude doesn't even have a photo in his own family home! It's just Leon next to a framed medal :P Even Leon is more interested in the player than his own brother :P It's kind of funny to watch everything with this mentality that he's ready to become the Joker at any moment... (still worst rival though - he's literally just a worse version of Hau with a similar yet dumb name)
Also forgot how much I like Bede. Reminded me there isn't really an asshole rival in SV which is a shame (the closest is maybe Arven? For like two minutes, literally, and most of it is just angst...) I'm actually interested to see where his story goes since I've never seen beyond the fairy gym in my own attempts to play this (and it kind of ends with a huge moment before that :P). Already interesting things are happening (knowing pokemon I have a feeling I know where this is going)
It's also becoming even more clear that I really should have just completely avoided the Wild Area. Not having to put up with that bullshit has actually made the game enjoyable to watch (thank GOD they pivoted from how this worked in all future content...). Story is still pretty garbage tho :P
Edit: All this said, one thing that's standing out is a notable difference in polish between this and SV. It's so weird but Sword and Shield actually look BETTER despite Scarlet and Violet upgrading all the models and coming out like four years later. SwSh also (presumably) doesn't have a lake that runs at 2fps (though the Wild Area can get close to that with online turned on XD). It's such a shame because SV is one of the best Pokemon games they've done - if they could have delayed it like, maybe half a year it could have been absolutely amazing.
People have also been using a workaround by setting passwords in the random trade which correlate to the pokedex number of the pokemon they want to trade (so if you wanted to trade, say, koraidon for miraidon you'd open a trade with the password 0399-0400) but it's pretty clunky. Home access can't come fast enough.
Is that still working? I tried to do a link trade Gulpin for Stunky by entering 0139 0226, but I couldn't connect. Am I doing it right?
I could bullshit the thread of a through-line for Sword/Shield’s theme of trying to live up to the standard’s others (Hop to his brother; Bede to Rose, Marnie to Piers) and that makes Hop more interesting of a rival. But that’s giving the game more credit than it deserves, and we all know Hop’s redeeming quality is that his theme song is like top five in the game’s soundtrack.
0
Halos Nach TariffCan you blame me?I'm too famous.Registered Userregular
People have also been using a workaround by setting passwords in the random trade which correlate to the pokedex number of the pokemon they want to trade (so if you wanted to trade, say, koraidon for miraidon you'd open a trade with the password 0399-0400) but it's pretty clunky. Home access can't come fast enough.
Is that still working? I tried to do a link trade Gulpin for Stunky by entering 0139 0226, but I couldn't connect. Am I doing it right?
It's 'working' in the sense that people still know about it, but relies on someone else wanting to trade the same thing at the same time, so it can take a little while to get what you want, it's quite frustrating.
Ah, I have to use the specific numbers for the final evolution, starting with Scarlet exclusives first. That worked!
Meanwhile, I just got to the dark Team Star base (geez, for high schoolers these folks are really organized) and challenged the boss.
....what the hell did I just fight?
You'll find more of the Pokemon that the big old car was built around later on. One of my favorite new additions this gen with a unique typing! (not that that matters for the star battles, as their special versions are always the type of the base).
Well, instead of beelining to Levincia (the next thing according to the level guide), I'm exploring the area between the starting area and Artazon. Apparently that was a good thing to do, because I caught what seems like 47,000 new Pokemon species, especially in The Swamp of All the Dragons. So now I have all the dragons.
Stumbling into all these new species is fun, but overwhelming. My Pokemon workflow is to catch everything new, keep leveling everything that can evolve, compare evolved mon of the same type, and retire the weaker ones while keeping 2-3 strong ones of each type. I know that my squad of potentials usually gets fairly big in previous games when I'm at level 20-22, but my squad now filles up three whole boxes, including a whole gaggle of dragons that will take an eternity to evolve.
I should just give up, grind raids, and force-feed experience candy to mon, right? I wanna be reasonably surprised by what the new stuff turns into but I also want to finish this game before 2027.
Well, instead of beelining to Levincia (the next thing according to the level guide), I'm exploring the area between the starting area and Artazon. Apparently that was a good thing to do, because I caught what seems like 47,000 new Pokemon species, especially in The Swamp of All the Dragons. So now I have all the dragons.
Stumbling into all these new species is fun, but overwhelming. My Pokemon workflow is to catch everything new, keep leveling everything that can evolve, compare evolved mon of the same type, and retire the weaker ones while keeping 2-3 strong ones of each type. I know that my squad of potentials usually gets fairly big in previous games when I'm at level 20-22, but my squad now filles up three whole boxes, including a whole gaggle of dragons that will take an eternity to evolve.
I should just give up, grind raids, and force-feed experience candy to mon, right? I wanna be reasonably surprised by what the new stuff turns into but I also want to finish this game before 2027.
Eh you'll get to a point where you know where the good mons are for farming. There's a spot where my level 50 Jolteon would absolutely wreck all of the 55+ mon and I'd just send him out to murder everything and everyone would get a boatload of experience from it. When he got too high then I would fight them, OHKO and then everyone would get even more experience. I got several level 1s to level 50+ in under an hour doing this.
Man it took me a while to beat the Decidueye raid. I kept seeing guides saying how easy it was but I struggled until I got into a group with someone who used Taunt to cancel its Swords Dance after the shield went up
I could bullshit the thread of a through-line for Sword/Shield’s theme of trying to live up to the standard’s others (Hop to his brother; Bede to Rose, Marnie to Piers) and that makes Hop more interesting of a rival. But that’s giving the game more credit than it deserves, and we all know Hop’s redeeming quality is that his theme song is like top five in the game’s soundtrack.
Man it took me a while to beat the Decidueye raid. I kept seeing guides saying how easy it was but I struggled until I got into a group with someone who used Taunt to cancel its Swords Dance after the shield went up
I eventually used Miraidon with wide lens metal sound charge and its signature move
It took forever to get it to work but it did.
I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
I brought my nuisance Toxapex, swapping out the Rocky Helmet for Leftovers. Got two Bellibolts and an Iron Hands for teammates; the former took care of Acid Spray duty while I kept it suppressed with Chilling Water, then went aggro with Parabolic Charge. The Iron Hands was mostly superfluous.
My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
I had decent luck with miraidon too, trained in sp atk+hp, 3 metal sounds, a charge, and then electro drift will one shot if you get it off before the shields pop. Just gotta get lucky that the ai doesn't do enough damage to trigger them before you're setup
I had decent luck with miraidon too, trained in sp atk+hp, 3 metal sounds, a charge, and then electro drift will one shot if you get it off before the shields pop. Just gotta get lucky that the ai doesn't do enough damage to trigger them before you're setup
I think going forward I want a team with dedicated roles for this. Debuffs and healers and one main attack guy maybe two
I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
I always do these 7* former starter raids with two friends, and we have used to same team for all of them - Toxapex, Umbreon, Slowbro. Toxapex debuffs, Umbreon uses screens and Helping Hand, and Slowbro does Iron Defense, Nasty Plot, and Stored Power.
In the third time doing the raid, the Decidueye got two lucky Leaf Blade crits in a row after I had finished buffing up as Slowbro, and with very little time left I was able to buff back up and knock it out with a few Stored Power, winning with maybe a pixel of time left on the bar.
This Slowbro is easily the best raid investment I have made.
I'm abusing the hell out of the Let's Go feature to level up.
Quick question - if I level up a Pokemon in my party while another is let's going, will it miss the chance to evolve? I swear I had a Happiny with an oval stone in my party level up during let's go and it didn't evolve.
Switch: 3947-4890-9293
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Andy JoeWe claim the land for the highlord!The AdirondacksRegistered Userregular
I'm abusing the hell out of the Let's Go feature to level up.
Quick question - if I level up a Pokemon in my party while another is let's going, will it miss the chance to evolve? I swear I had a Happiny with an oval stone in my party level up during let's go and it didn't evolve.
No, Pokemon won't evolve if they level up via Let's Go.
Managed to snag a Decidueye yesterday before the raid expired. Is it a new thing that now they start attacking twice for each attack of yours? Because that caught me off guard and lost me a couple of attempts. I don't recall it happening with the other 7-star raids I've done.
Managed to snag a Decidueye yesterday before the raid expired. Is it a new thing that now they start attacking twice for each attack of yours? Because that caught me off guard and lost me a couple of attempts. I don't recall it happening with the other 7-star raids I've done.
That seems to be the gimmick of this raid, yeah. Seems like the lower the time the more chance Decidueye has to do double attacks, on top of the threshold set attacks that it does.
I'm abusing the hell out of the Let's Go feature to level up.
Quick question - if I level up a Pokemon in my party while another is let's going, will it miss the chance to evolve? I swear I had a Happiny with an oval stone in my party level up during let's go and it didn't evolve.
No, Pokemon won't evolve if they level up via Let's Go.
Crap.
Switch: 3947-4890-9293
0
Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
I'm abusing the hell out of the Let's Go feature to level up.
Quick question - if I level up a Pokemon in my party while another is let's going, will it miss the chance to evolve? I swear I had a Happiny with an oval stone in my party level up during let's go and it didn't evolve.
No, Pokemon won't evolve if they level up via Let's Go.
Crap.
You just need to give them one more level up via candy/battle/etc and they'll get the chance to evolve again tho.
Edit: Oh, and side note - I finished watching the Sword let's play. I definitely have a better appreciation for that game now... as long as you ignore the wild area :P It looks like the Isle of Armor was pretty cool too - more what Sword should have been (they didn't play Crown Tundra so didn't see that). The post game was really, really bizarre and maybe the worst story (and character designs?? yikes!) in the game? (and that's saying a lot) But I liked the gameplay ideas behind it (doing raids with the gym leaders as the NPCs is cool). One of these days I really do need to go back and beat that game.
So what's the best way to trade Scyther for an evolution? I've tried 0260 0260, 0261 0261, and even 0260 0261 with no response.
I found that almost all of the trade evolution pokemon showed up in their final form as 4-5* raid bosses, including scizor, so you can just catch one with a little luck.
+2
Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
So what's the best way to trade Scyther for an evolution? I've tried 0260 0260, 0261 0261, and even 0260 0261 with no response.
I found that almost all of the trade evolution pokemon showed up in their final form as 4-5* raid bosses, including scizor, so you can just catch one with a little luck.
I *believe* they can also spawn as mass outbreaks but obviously that's probably gonna be more RNG than just trying to find a raid :P (I may be wrong on this tho, I don't have Serebii up to check)
Weirdly specific Pokemon Violet/Scarlet question - is it just me, or are there a lot less options for leveling Pokemon up from 30 or so than there were for leveling between 20-30? It seems like the thicket near the Team Star poison crew was the only place for low 30s, and now the only place for mid-30s is the mountain path to the Medali gym? I'm not missing anything?
The one good thing about grinding that mountain path for so long is that, after two hours, I blundered into a Flareon. And I caught it! I hadn't gotten an Eevee yet, so that sucker's going to have so much Ditto sex.
Switch: 3947-4890-9293
0
Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
Weirdly specific Pokemon Violet/Scarlet question - is it just me, or are there a lot less options for leveling Pokemon up from 30 or so than there were for leveling between 20-30? It seems like the thicket near the Team Star poison crew was the only place for low 30s, and now the only place for mid-30s is the mountain path to the Medali gym? I'm not missing anything?
The one good thing about grinding that mountain path for so long is that, after two hours, I blundered into a Flareon. And I caught it! I hadn't gotten an Eevee yet, so that sucker's going to have so much Ditto sex.
I honestly can't remember except to say I was overleveled for like a lot of that game (minus the parts where Nurse Not-Joy directed me to something way over my level range because that feature is dumb and only picks the closest stuff). Did you check the west end of the world? I can't remember where stuff is but I feel like the mons around Porto Marinada were around there? I'm not positive but I kill those damn girafarigs for Sp.Atk EVs all the time and I feel like they're level 28ish (but again, I'm like level 100 when I'm doing this so I don't pay close attention ). Also try checking the overhang cave thing next to that?
Or, you know, do raids and get a stupid amount of XP candy :P I think even the 1*s and 3*s give a decent amount (and can be easily solo'd).
Weirdly specific Pokemon Violet/Scarlet question - is it just me, or are there a lot less options for leveling Pokemon up from 30 or so than there were for leveling between 20-30? It seems like the thicket near the Team Star poison crew was the only place for low 30s, and now the only place for mid-30s is the mountain path to the Medali gym? I'm not missing anything?
The one good thing about grinding that mountain path for so long is that, after two hours, I blundered into a Flareon. And I caught it! I hadn't gotten an Eevee yet, so that sucker's going to have so much Ditto sex.
I honestly can't remember except to say I was overleveled for like a lot of that game (minus the parts where Nurse Not-Joy directed me to something way over my level range because that feature is dumb and only picks the closest stuff). Did you check the west end of the world? I can't remember where stuff is but I feel like the mons around Porto Marinada were around there? I'm not positive but I kill those damn girafarigs for Sp.Atk EVs all the time and I feel like they're level 28ish (but again, I'm like level 100 when I'm doing this so I don't pay close attention ). Also try checking the overhang cave thing next to that?
Or, you know, do raids and get a stupid amount of XP candy :P I think even the 1*s and 3*s give a decent amount (and can be easily solo'd).
Yeah, I hung around the Porto Marinada area for a while, then I did the areas I mentioned above. Maybe it's because I got to spend a while wandering the relatively high-level southern areas that didn't really have any landmarks. Like that marsh with a crapton of dragons. Every other area I can physically access seems to be too high level.
In the meantime, I poked my head in a cave and found the first form of the new ice/dragon. My god, it looks like an uncool junior high social studies teacher. I can't wait to see what that dork evolves into.
Fire Paldean Tauros kinda bodies Samurott in a way that no other 7 star raid counter has so far. Don't even have to have a 4th move. Anger point, Adamant, +atk and +def, tail whip until Tauros dies, Sunny day when you come back, raging bull til it dies.
Samurott boosts it's crit rate so it's constantly critting, which boosts Tauros to max attack. That+90 power physical fire move+sunny day just chews through it.
Fire Paldean Tauros kinda bodies Samurott in a way that no other 7 star raid counter has so far. Don't even have to have a 4th move. Anger point, Adamant, +atk and +def, tail whip until Tauros dies, Sunny day when you come back, raging bull til it dies.
Samurott boosts it's crit rate so it's constantly critting, which boosts Tauros to max attack. That+90 power physical fire move+sunny day just chews through it.
Yep, it's pretty good. I did +atk, +HP and it works just fine
So now that Bank and Transporter are free, I'm taking a serious look at what to do with all my old mons, especially my legendaries and event ones. What do people like to do with those? Keep them in the games they got them? Move them to the latest generation? Thoughts?
Looks like a bunch of Ditto raids this weekend. 4 different types, all of them amazing breeding stock. If you still need good Dittos, this would be the weekend to do it. I'm tempted to try and get the 6 perfect IV one, myself, even though I've got a couple of 5-IV ones.
+1
Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
edited April 2023
Man, that feeling when you're hatching eggs for Masuda method and the game just straight up has a seizure for like a full two minutes
(I think I figured out this is an effect that's only supposed to happen for like a half a second as the egg bursts open but it just kind of lasted a long ass time because this game is so perfectly tested and not full of bugs at all )
Posts
Anyways, been watching a Let's Play of Sword this weekend. I was debating if I watch beyond the point in the game I got to but I feel like I'm never gonna beat the damn thing and I'm sick of unsuccessfully dodging spoilers for like 4 years
You know, I have a new found appreciation for Hop, despite still being the worst rival of any Pokemon game (and that includes Barry). Poor dude doesn't even have a photo in his own family home! It's just Leon next to a framed medal :P Even Leon is more interested in the player than his own brother :P It's kind of funny to watch everything with this mentality that he's ready to become the Joker at any moment... (still worst rival though - he's literally just a worse version of Hau with a similar yet dumb name)
Also forgot how much I like Bede. Reminded me there isn't really an asshole rival in SV which is a shame (the closest is maybe Arven? For like two minutes, literally, and most of it is just angst...) I'm actually interested to see where his story goes since I've never seen beyond the fairy gym in my own attempts to play this (and it kind of ends with a huge moment before that :P). Already interesting things are happening (knowing pokemon I have a feeling I know where this is going)
It's also becoming even more clear that I really should have just completely avoided the Wild Area. Not having to put up with that bullshit has actually made the game enjoyable to watch (thank GOD they pivoted from how this worked in all future content...). Story is still pretty garbage tho :P
Edit: All this said, one thing that's standing out is a notable difference in polish between this and SV. It's so weird but Sword and Shield actually look BETTER despite Scarlet and Violet upgrading all the models and coming out like four years later. SwSh also (presumably) doesn't have a lake that runs at 2fps (though the Wild Area can get close to that with online turned on XD). It's such a shame because SV is one of the best Pokemon games they've done - if they could have delayed it like, maybe half a year it could have been absolutely amazing.
Is that still working? I tried to do a link trade Gulpin for Stunky by entering 0139 0226, but I couldn't connect. Am I doing it right?
How are people gonna be able to get both 'mons? You could only catch one, yeah? I guess wait for the DLC with the proper intro of the 'mons?
You can catch one of each, you just have to join someone else's raid to get Iron Leaves.
It's 'working' in the sense that people still know about it, but relies on someone else wanting to trade the same thing at the same time, so it can take a little while to get what you want, it's quite frustrating.
Meanwhile, I just got to the dark Team Star base (geez, for high schoolers these folks are really organized) and challenged the boss.
....what the hell did I just fight?
You'll find more of the Pokemon that the big old car was built around later on. One of my favorite new additions this gen with a unique typing! (not that that matters for the star battles, as their special versions are always the type of the base).
Stumbling into all these new species is fun, but overwhelming. My Pokemon workflow is to catch everything new, keep leveling everything that can evolve, compare evolved mon of the same type, and retire the weaker ones while keeping 2-3 strong ones of each type. I know that my squad of potentials usually gets fairly big in previous games when I'm at level 20-22, but my squad now filles up three whole boxes, including a whole gaggle of dragons that will take an eternity to evolve.
I should just give up, grind raids, and force-feed experience candy to mon, right? I wanna be reasonably surprised by what the new stuff turns into but I also want to finish this game before 2027.
Eh you'll get to a point where you know where the good mons are for farming. There's a spot where my level 50 Jolteon would absolutely wreck all of the 55+ mon and I'd just send him out to murder everything and everyone would get a boatload of experience from it. When he got too high then I would fight them, OHKO and then everyone would get even more experience. I got several level 1s to level 50+ in under an hour doing this.
I eventually used Miraidon with wide lens metal sound charge and its signature move
It took forever to get it to work but it did.
I think going forward I want a team with dedicated roles for this. Debuffs and healers and one main attack guy maybe two
In the third time doing the raid, the Decidueye got two lucky Leaf Blade crits in a row after I had finished buffing up as Slowbro, and with very little time left I was able to buff back up and knock it out with a few Stored Power, winning with maybe a pixel of time left on the bar.
This Slowbro is easily the best raid investment I have made.
Quick question - if I level up a Pokemon in my party while another is let's going, will it miss the chance to evolve? I swear I had a Happiny with an oval stone in my party level up during let's go and it didn't evolve.
No, Pokemon won't evolve if they level up via Let's Go.
That seems to be the gimmick of this raid, yeah. Seems like the lower the time the more chance Decidueye has to do double attacks, on top of the threshold set attacks that it does.
Crap.
You just need to give them one more level up via candy/battle/etc and they'll get the chance to evolve again tho.
Edit: Oh, and side note - I finished watching the Sword let's play. I definitely have a better appreciation for that game now... as long as you ignore the wild area :P It looks like the Isle of Armor was pretty cool too - more what Sword should have been (they didn't play Crown Tundra so didn't see that). The post game was really, really bizarre and maybe the worst story (and character designs?? yikes!) in the game? (and that's saying a lot) But I liked the gameplay ideas behind it (doing raids with the gym leaders as the NPCs is cool). One of these days I really do need to go back and beat that game.
I found that almost all of the trade evolution pokemon showed up in their final form as 4-5* raid bosses, including scizor, so you can just catch one with a little luck.
I *believe* they can also spawn as mass outbreaks but obviously that's probably gonna be more RNG than just trying to find a raid :P (I may be wrong on this tho, I don't have Serebii up to check)
The one good thing about grinding that mountain path for so long is that, after two hours, I blundered into a Flareon. And I caught it! I hadn't gotten an Eevee yet, so that sucker's going to have so much Ditto sex.
I honestly can't remember except to say I was overleveled for like a lot of that game (minus the parts where Nurse Not-Joy directed me to something way over my level range because that feature is dumb and only picks the closest stuff). Did you check the west end of the world? I can't remember where stuff is but I feel like the mons around Porto Marinada were around there? I'm not positive but I kill those damn girafarigs for Sp.Atk EVs all the time and I feel like they're level 28ish (but again, I'm like level 100 when I'm doing this so I don't pay close attention
Or, you know, do raids and get a stupid amount of XP candy :P I think even the 1*s and 3*s give a decent amount (and can be easily solo'd).
Yeah, I hung around the Porto Marinada area for a while, then I did the areas I mentioned above. Maybe it's because I got to spend a while wandering the relatively high-level southern areas that didn't really have any landmarks. Like that marsh with a crapton of dragons. Every other area I can physically access seems to be too high level.
In the meantime, I poked my head in a cave and found the first form of the new ice/dragon. My god, it looks like an uncool junior high social studies teacher. I can't wait to see what that dork evolves into.
we... we can't be seen together anymore
Samurott boosts it's crit rate so it's constantly critting, which boosts Tauros to max attack. That+90 power physical fire move+sunny day just chews through it.
Yep, it's pretty good. I did +atk, +HP and it works just fine
On the plus side, the final evolutions for all the starters are perfect. No notes.
Steam: pazython
(I think I figured out this is an effect that's only supposed to happen for like a half a second as the egg bursts open but it just kind of lasted a long ass time because this game is so perfectly tested and not full of bugs at all