History YMMV / PokemonShuffle

* ThatOneSidequest: The Mission system introduced in the 3DS version's 1.3.0 update have already brought out frustrating sidequests.
** The first mission you'll more likely to have trouble with is scoring a combo of 7 matches. Mission Card number? 2. Stage? Audino's, which is an early stage, so it shouldn't seem difficult... but when the mission says that you have to score ''exactly'' a combo of 7, it means so. This is literally pure LuckBasedMission. You'll stay in that Mission Card for a while until RandomNumberGod decided that you're worthy of accomplishing this mission. Keep in mind that this type of mission won't be limited to just one Mission Card, meaning you'll face more of these...
*** Averted for a much later mission of this type where you have to make exactly 22 matches on any stage (unlike others where you're required to do so on a certain stage). One might think that it's just as tricky as other missions of this kind, but it has been discovered that making a certain move as your first in Xatu's stage pretty much guarantees a 22-match combo unless something like Mega Gengar gets in the way.
** Mission Card #3: Erase 50 Rocks! The mission requires you to play Throh's stage, which is one of the many stages that spawn a lot of Rocks (12 per disruption). This is a bit balanced with Throh taking 5 moves before spawning more Rocks... until you realize that Throh's stage is limited to 15 or 20 moves (the latter if using Moves+5). That means that you can only normally clear around 36 Rocks if you play the stage itemless or 48 Rocks if Moves+5 is used, ''almost'' reaching 50. The only other way of increasing the amount of moves is by using a Jewel, which is usually not worth it just to finish a single mission. A better alternative? Bring some Pokémon with Prank to mess around with Throh's countdown and hope that Throh ends up spawning Rocks more frequently. Yet another LuckBasedMission at the end.
*** Or alternatively... you can just wait until Graveler (the first mon with Rockify[[note]]Turns non-Support icons into Rocks[[/note]]) arrives on the scene in a later update and then go with a 3-mon team featuring it. Seriously, this was a better alternative until...
*** ...Throh's repeat stage, which came in mid-December 2016. He spawns more Rocks than in his debut stage. However, this requires players to catch up on stages faster due to said repeat stage showing up much later in the game.
** Averted in the mission from Card #3 where you're required to match 100 coins. It was widely considered to be a big deal with some people even considering the counterproductive Mega Aerodactyl, but come Sunday Meowth it was found to be incredibly easy with a variety of teams.
** Mission Card #9: Clear away 40 black clouds! Despite being theoretically less difficult than beating Deoxys itemless in the same Mission Card (3 stars vs. 5 stars), this mission is pretty much impossible to clear without having at least a Jewel in hand. For those who wonder how the stage this mission takes place in (Yveltal's) works: It's an Expert stage (so, a TimedMission) and starts with the left, right and bottom sides of the puzzle area covered in Black Clouds (this makes 16 Black Clouds). Yveltal will only spawn at most 2 Black Clouds whenever you do less than 4 matches in a single move (doable by simply making the worst possible move). For veterans out there, one must remember that Yveltal only has around 10,000 HP, so they shouldn't bring an all-powerful team to avoid accidentally knocking it out before the objective is done. Now try to do the math and consider that Yveltal's stage lasts ''a minute'' by default. Time +10? Still not enough time! Prank Skill? Absolutely useless due to Yveltal lacking a disruption countdown! Most worst-case scenarios for most missions usually involve spending Coins on items, but you know a mission is bad by design when players begin to call out on the developers for the necessity to spend Jewels in order to properly clear it. One might wonder if the stars gained from Yveltal's and Deoxys's mission should be swapped[[note]]Deoxys's mission involves clearing its stage without items, which is very doable by simply having a strong super-effective team, and considering where Deoxys's stage is, more experienced players shouldn't have too much trouble with Deoxys's mission[[/note]].
*** Turns out, it ''is'' possible to finish this mission without spending any Jewels, as demonstrated [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAy_Uajb7R0 here]]. However, even by following the guide, it's ''still'' too difficult to perform if you don't have a good enough dexterity or if the RNG still hates you. Also, without Jewels, this makes this mission a massive Coin sink due to the use of items and the possibility of failing multiple times, so most players still prefer to settle with spending Jewels instead of wasting a lot Coins for a single mission.

*** Trigger Eject+ in Snover's stage 15 times. Sounds easy thanks to Snover constantly disrupting with non-Support icons... until you realize that Snover's default move limit is '''15'''. This forces you to try to activate Eject+ at exactly '''one''' activation per '''one''' move (and it'd better be a match four or five, as it has a 50% activation rate otherwise). And that's before considering how to clear the stage itself, because very few Eject+ {{Mon}}s are super-effective against Snover (and those super-effective candidates are mediocre at best despite the effort for getting them[[note]]They're either Skill Swapper-exclusive (Flareon) or event-only (Winking Cyndaquil, Cradily)[[/note]]...)! You'd better hope that RandomNumberGod has mercy on you... or you can [[BribingYourWayToVictory bribe yourself with Coins/Jewels]] for the extra moves.
*** Reaching a certain amount of score in one play is to be expected in Mission Cards, but how about if it requires 70,000? Unless there's a competition going on, you'll be very unlikely to reach said score as none of the target Pokémon have HP that high. Even then, you'd better be really good at a competitive event (don't forget the Attack Power ↑, though, unless you're really ''really'' good (and lucky)) to reach a score that high.

** For an example not involving Mission Cards, pretty much trying to complete any Safari event for completionists due to it being a LuckBasedMission: The Stage. Special mention to the Safari event featuring the rare [[MakingASplash Water-type]] Phione and a later one featuring the elusive [[PaletteSwap Shiny]] Magikarp and Gyarados, the first Shinies in this game. Why? The aforementioned mons only have ''1%'' chance to appear (even worse, Phione at that time was a secret, and Creator/GeniusSonority didn't even acknowledge said Pokémon in a repeat event much later, leaving even veteran players unsure if that small annoying Pokémon is actually included or not). What makes things worse is that Phione is necessary for tackling Mega Garchomp's event[[labelnote:*]]First two Mega Garchomp events only[[/labelnote]] easily due to the former's presence in the preset obstacles, and for Mega Pokémon collectors, Shiny Gyarados can [[SuperMode Mega Evolve]] just like a regular Gyarados (albeit sharing the same Mega effect as [[GameBreaker Mega Gengar's]](!) instead of the vertical version of Mega Latias's). For those who care for Skills, Shiny Magikarp comes with Cheer, a new unique Skill at the time of its introduction, which has the effect of increasing the likeliness of a Skill in the next move to be triggered. On the bright side, those "1% appearance" Pokémon at least come with much more decent catch rates compared to other Pokémon in the Safari.
*** The "two 1%-appearance Pokémon in one Safari" thing is repeated again in the repeat of the second Safari event (the one that features Manectric) where for this updated repeat, Winking versions of [[SeriesMascot Pikachu]] and Raichu join the fun. Those who prefer a non-Magikarp Swap++ mon and an [[ShockAndAwe Electric-type]] Rock Break+ mon, good freakin' luck completing that Safari before the event time runs out.
*** Remember that one Safari event featuring [[PaletteSwap Shiny]] Magikarp and Gyarados? The second repeat of said event may as well be the pinnacle of [[ScrappyLevel scrappy levels]] in Special Stages. The first repeat is already bad enough, featuring [[UndergroundMonkey Winking]] Snorunt and Glalie as additional {{Mon}}s in its roster, both with [[LuckBasedMission <10% encounter rate]] (though not as bad as the Shinies themselves, still heavily luck-based anyway). The second repeat, however, replaces both [[AnIcePerson Ice-types]] with... ''two'' Costume Pikachu based on the Magikarp line. New [[SeriesMascot Pikachu]] variants are already [[TheScrappy groan-inducing]] to begin with, but what actually makes this Safari repeat worse compared to the previous one is the fact that both 'chus are treated the same as a ''Shiny Gyarados'' (which now has an increased but still ''low'' encounter rate of ''2.85%''). This makes ''four'' Pokémon with <3% encounter rate! Completionists, enjoy your daily dose of [[ComMons Pidove and Tranquill]] when you attempt to [[OneHundredPercentCompletion 100%]] this Safari.
** Any mission card that requires you to beat a stage ''without using items''. Naturally, these are stages that give players trouble even with the use of items.
** From the Special stages, we have Pirouette Forme Meloetta. The preset board consists of several Barriered Rocks and Pirouette Forme Meloetta icons which can be cleared in one move, breaking the Rocks surrounding it and clearing the rest of the Meloetta icons. Simple enough, but this leaves only two open columns for skyfall. In only very few moves after the stage starts, Meloetta will start disrupting with Rocks as well as Barriered Rocks. The worst disruption is the one where rows 2-4 are filled with nothing but Barriered Rocks plus a couple of Blocks and Meloetta icons between them, making it difficult to cause combos, let alone gain decent score. Mega Diancie is a must-have (both Diancie and its Mega Stone are event-only, natch) for this challenge because of this. But even then, RandomNumberGod is more likely to be against you, even if you used Attack Power ↑. Being an Ultra Challenge stage, difficulty like this is expected, but the way its disruptions work borders on annoyance and pretty much forces players to bring a fully-candied Pokémon as well as items. In short, it's one of the worst Coin sinks among all Special stages, which is made worse by the cost to play the stage alone being Coins as well. Oh, and that's before you attempt to ''[[LuckBasedMission actually catch]]'' it...

** Mega Garchomp's competitive stage [[labelnote:*]]First two Mega Garchomp events only, as mentioned above[[/labelnote]]. The stage contains Phione as one of the obstacles (fortunately, being a Water-type, it is super effective against the Ground-type Mega Garchomp), which can only be obtained in the third Safari event, where it only has 1% appearance rate, the first Safari Pokémon with this rate. If you don't have it, don't even bother using Complexity-1 there, because Phione isn't affected by that item. Many fans, especially the less lucky ones, feel that this competitive stage is simply unfair because of the above problem.
** Albens Town (introduced in version 1.2.12) in the same game is considered this (more like a Scrappy Area) by several players, even the very skilled ones. While visually it causes a BrokenBase on its own ([[CutAndPasteEnvironments it re-uses the background from Puerto Blanco, the very first Main stage area]]) but on the other hand fans are glad to see more new Pokémon, the main issue with this area is the ridiculously low catch rate applied to the firstly-introduced Pokémon there, even the basic form of main series games' ''ComMons'' like Starly and Scatterbug. None of them can reach the ''20%''-mark, and that's before applying the bonus from moves left and [[CriticalHit Super Catch Power]], but the mons there tend to have ridiculously high HP when compared to the number of moves required to beat them (Spewpa (a 3-move limit mon) has a staggeringly high ''7,776 HP''), so move bonus tends to be out of the way (they give low % for those mons anyway...), while the latter bonus's occurrence is [[RandomNumberGod decided randomly anyway]]. The difficulty in defeating the target Pokémon is quite fair at least, as it's a later area expected to raise its difficulty curve, but it's the low catch rate overall that gives it a [[TheScrappy Scrappy]] trait. As for S-ranking all of the stages there though... it's another story, as doing that is either easy as pie or [[NintendoHard considered nightmarish]]. Lastly, most players consider the boss level to be a DisappointingLastLevel for that area as it features Mega Medicham instead of the fan-favorite Mega Gardevoir that they had anticipated (doesn't help that both (non-Mega) mons appear in that same area, though the latter finally did get its own stage, albeit as a competitive one). After that, the next area has been revealed to [[CutAndPasteEnvironments look like]] Rainbow Park, which is the fifth area you visited back then, causing players to think that Creator/GeniusSonority has been starting to run out of ideas for area designs starting from the Albens Town expansion.
** Mega Steelix's second competitive stage. It has rocks added to the skyfall in addition to its disruptions both creating rocks and occasionally encasing nearly half the board in glass. While it's obviously an attempt to use a Skill Swapper on Entei (who would get Rock Break+), doing so gives you a very subpar Pokemon[[note]]Well, subpar for Fire-types, since there are already so many better options than a 70 BP Rock Break+ for that type.[[/note]] for everything but that one event. Though even then, there are so many rocks that Rock Break+ reliably activating is too low (outside of Mega Steelix's disruptions that add Entei icons to the board, a 4 or 5 match is unlikely) to even warrant having that ability!
** Raichu in Survival Mode. If you play the stage normally, you can simply bring along two of the [[ShockAndAwe Raichu family]] to remove most of the barriers and let a strong [[SuperMode Mega Evolved]] Pokémon destroy it. But here, due to how Survival Mode works, you'll waste a lot of moves just to clear the stage. Is your Barrier basher the fourth Pokémon in line? Too bad! It's a [[ArbitraryHeadcountLimit 3-Pokémon]] stage! At least a [[DishingOutDirt Ground-type]] is needed to speed things up, but even then you'll still end up with very few moves left. And you definitely will, as you won't encounter this stage randomly (Raichu is always at stage 15 in Survival Mode) unlike other non-Mega stages.
** Ampharos in Survival Mode. Players usually go to its stage for LevelGrinding, but like Raichu mentioned above, it's a move sink and will always show up on a fixed stage (stage 35 in this case), but much worse. Considering that Ampharos's default move limit is 50 (which implies its beefed-up HP; also, you start with half of your board covered in barriers in a checkerboard pattern), you might not survive the next few stages after it if you managed to clear it. Not even the [[GoodBadBugs 99-move bug]] won't save you.
** Gengar, as noted in ThatOneBoss.
** In the Expert stages, Blaziken in Stage [=EX12=]. The stage starts out with the middle two columns filled with metal blocks and [[InterfaceScrew the middle two rows partially obscured by black clouds.]] Blaziken loves to regenerate the metal block columns almost immediately after they disappear, eliminating the ability to make horizontal matches, and the black clouds serve to slow you down. The topper is that you have only thirty seconds to beat this guy. Even with a fairly strong team of super effective Pokémon, you will have trouble in this stage unless you spend in-game or real money to get items...or if you wait it out and get Mega Aerodactyl on your team to easily deal with the metal blocks and make this stage much easier. However, Mega Aerodactyl is encountered much later in the main stage route.
** From the first level expansion, there's Milotic. The board is entirely frozen except for a [=4x4=] hollow square, and most of the frozen squares are occupied by Feebas. Thanks to the setup, it's nearly impossible to combo, little can be earned by matching the few outliers on the outer border, and Milotic will continue to freeze blocks over time. And occasionally freeze and block multiple columns at once. Expect many unplayable board resets during the match, but not nearly enough to provide enough damage to defeat it unless you specifically bring a started Mega Pokémon with a large capacity for destroying blocks and a Disruption Delay. And then there's the fact that this is not a Mega fight, meaning you also have to worry about ''catching it'' at the end.
** Several stages in Pedra Valley are nearly impossible to clear. One in particular is the disruption-happy Tyranitar, who can disrupt 4 times in a row every 9 turns.

** Gardevoir is another stage that practically requires that you start out with all items available, due to the starting barriers making it impossible to do any combos and it's ridiculous amount of health.
** Ditto. Screw this stage. At first glance, 10,080 HP in 15 moves doesn't seem much, until you ''actually'' play the stage. It begins with a puzzle involving predetermined weak {{Mon}}s, so you'll have to waste five moves before you can even use your set supports (or more, or even fail, if you don't know how to solve it). Assuming you got through all that in five moves, be ready to be surprised as Ditto is a ''[[TheLoad forced fifth support]]''. Its Transform Skill may be useful in this situation, Transforming other Ditto into one of your supports, but at match-three it'll only activate 50% of the time, and on activation, only up to three other Ditto that can be Transformed. Which Ditto that are Transformed is random too, so it's a complete LuckBasedMission if you want to rely on them to minimize the number of Ditto on the puzzle area. Which you have to, because Ditto is a horribly weak Pokémon. Your only hope is a [[GameBreaker Risk-Taker Machamp]] (requires Skill Swapper), but even then its usage is hindered by the larger-than-normal number of Pokémon on the puzzle area. Out to capture one? Like everything else in Prasino Woods, its catch rate is garbage. Want to S-rank? [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Good. Freakin'. Luck.]] You're gonna need a lot of Coins and Hearts for that.
** Defense Forme Deoxys is plain LuckBasedMission to S-rank (and ''near-impossible'' to win itemless) even with a full-power super-effective team ''and'' all necessary items used (basically everything but Exp. Points x1.5). It's a BossInMookClothing taken UpToEleven. The default board layout has most of the tiles covered in Barriers, so you have to clear them quickly to proceed with the big combos... only to find out that the first column, once the Barriers are cleared and skyfall ensues, contains several screens' worth of Blocks with some Defense Forme Deoxys slipped between them, ignoring Complexity-1 because they're part of the preset layout. Once you're in the clear, thought you've had enough? This thing may as well throw a variety of ''more'' disruptions. Yes, Defense Forme Deoxys will be more than happy to disrupt with Rocks and ''Attack'' Forme Deoxys icons as well! And that's before the aforementioned Barriers as well, so tap-based Megas are the only definite solution to clean up the board, but even then you have to be very skilled in using them to get the best combos, and note that none of the aforementioned Megas are super-effective against this boss. It speaks volumes that [[PaletteSwap Shiny]] [[OlympusMons Yveltal]], the actual zone boss, just pales in comparison to this Deoxys Forme, being more manageable despite still relying on items for easy S-rank. Oh, and regardless if you're going for S-ranks or not, there's [[LuckBasedMission the issue of capturing it]]...
** Another Deoxys example, and this one's from the Expert stage (Speed Forme Deoxys). By default, the stage's timer is limited to 30 seconds, and you'll need ''every second'' of it. Also, all items, because not only the timer may not be enough for you, but also the stage layout presents several problems: It's preset with several Deoxys (Speed and Normal) covering two columns on the left and right for several screens, necessitating quick matching of all those bothersome icons (if you know what you're doing) and limiting where your own icons can go. This cripples the Mega you want to use unless you use Mega Start (assuming not fully invested Megas). Its disruption involves Barriers. Lots of Barriers. And these can cover up the preset icons or even spawn either Deoxys inside them (so... Disruption Delay if you want more free movement, but you still have to finish it off ''fast''). What's TheLoad for this stage? Rocks (thus, Complexity-1, as if Barriers and spawned Deoxys icons aren't enough...). But even after all that, you have to play faster than Speed Forme Deoxys itself due to its high HP for such a short timer and loads of obstacles. A Barrier-clearing Mega is a must, as well as {{Mon}}s whose Skill boosts damage in a combo. Oh, and don't forget the usual [[LuckBasedMission 1% base catch rate]]... which, while already expected for most Expert mons, is what you'll be seeing a lot after going through all that trouble several times if you care about catching it.
** Generally, pretty much every "puzzle" stage if you don't know what to do. These stages have completely predetermined icons and you're expected to make use of all icons there to defeat the target Pokémon without running out of moves or resetting the puzzle area. TrialAndErrorGameplay and GuideDangIt are in full effect in the harder stages of that kind. The good news is that you'll gain an S-rank regardless of how many moves you have left in such stage. The bad news is that the number of moves left won't add up to the basic catch rate, so you might end up either replaying the same stage over and over again until the target Pokémon is caught or waste a lot of Coins trying to get the mon to STAY IN THE GODDAMNED BALL.
*** Even worse are the later Main stages that at first seem to be a puzzle stage until the puzzle is cleared and you still have to use your own Pokémon to finish the target Pokémon off, thus making the game mechanics for those stages being like regular ones albeit being disguised as a puzzle stage at first glance (meaning S-ranks still being dependent on moves left).
*** To make matters even worse for the predetermined puzzle stages, you can't even use move+5 on any of those stages now.

* ThatOneLevel: Any stage in which the opponent Pokémon toss disruptions (wood blocks, metal blocks, ice, black clouds, trash Pokémon) with regular frequency. Other stages start with the board almost entirely filled with disruptions.

* ThatOneBoss: The bosses are in the form of Mega Evolved Pokémon battles (except for Hoopa Unbound), the later of which are '''brutal''' compared to the typical main route stage, unless you come with a Disruption Delay and some good supports.
** The Mega Mawile stage (stage 90), in the main route. It likes to freeze rows every two turns, and there are Eevee icons that only wish to stop any long combos you may want to pull out to topple the beast. Contrary what the optimization may want you to do, using a Mega Sableye is ''not'' good as it takes a lot of time to Mega Evolve. You NEED powerful Pokémon like Lucario and Charizard to make a dent on it, unless you're desperate enough to shed some in-game cash...or real life cash.
*** It's even worse in Survival Mode, where you're restricted to using a fixed team for the whole run until you run out of moves. In this mode, Mega Mawile appears in the 17th stage ([[SuperMode Mega Evolved]] Pokémon are placed on a fixed stage in this mode instead of being encountered randomly like regular Pokémon). Considering [[ExtraOreDinary Steel-type]]'s loads of resistances and Mega Mawile's board having [[NonElemental Eevee]] as an extra Pokémon (Complexity-1 doesn't exist in this mode), many players have reported getting stuck in this stage, even with a team that includes types that are [[ElementalRockPaperScissors super effective]] against Steel-types.
** Mega Ampharos comes between Mawile and Glalie, and the stage is a pure NIGHTMARE. All but two rows are frozen, so you have limited moves to begin with, and the disruptions switch between giving you Flaaffy tiles or undoing your hard work by refreezing tiles, most times at the worst places or to screw up potential moves. A Mega Start and Mega Slowbro is advised, and even then you need to PRAY you have enough Slowbro tiles when you start to get a mass de-thaw.
** Mega Glalie, who's even worse than Mega Mawile by tossing ''two'' extra not so effective mons (Glaceon and Snorunt) into the mix. Oh, and of course it likes to freeze rows very often.
** Both incarnations of Mewtwo only exist to force you to spend more than 9,000 Coins... Unless you have Giratina, in which case really all you need is Disruption Delay and a Moves +5 just in case.
** After Glalie comes Gengar and Mega Gengar, who like to freeze the two center columns and clog the remaining spaces with Haunter and Eevee. Mega Sableye is your best bet, which isn't saying much, as it takes a ''long'' time to Mega Evolve, and most of that time will be used up trying to get rid of or work around the giant frozen column in the middle. You need to bring along Dark-type powerhouses like Yveltal and Zoroark or try to use the disruptions to your benefit by sticking Haunter on your team, and even then you'll likely need a Mega Start and/or Disruption Delay to even have a chance of beating the ghostly juggernauts.
** Mega Gallade serves as the boss in the first half of Prasino Woods, and his stage is pure aggravation if you want to S-rank it. His stage starts with the middle columns being filled with Blocks, necessitating a Moves+5 because even if you're capable of clearing them first, you'll waste moves doing so. Speaking of clearing Blocks, this limits your choice of Mega Pokémon[[note]][[BlowYouAway Mega Pidgeot]]'s ">"-shaped icon-clearing pattern isn't reliable in removing disruptions and combo building, [[PsychicPowers Mega Slowbro]]'s usage is limited during the first few moves due to the Blocks' placement, same for Mega Mewtwo Y and Mega Salamence because they only clear Pokémon icons of their respective typing, [[BlowYouAway Shiny Mega Rayquaza]] is the only best bet because it's a tapping-based Mega that can deal with both disruptions and combo-building easily, Mega Gardevoir, while it can remove icons and disruptions by column, isn't reliable for combo-building, Mega Diancie is unnecessary if you use a Disruption Delay, while Mega Alakazam's usage is only limited to the first few moves with the Blocks and thus rendered useless after that (Mega Gallade disrupts with Barriers)[[/note]] and even then you still need a Mega Start to deal with the Blocks quickly. If you choose to wait out the Blocks? There's ''another'' set of Blocks filling those same columns, wasting additional moves if you want to wait out those too (Blocks are removed on their own if they're on-screen for five moves) and costing you the S-rank anyway. All of this while you're dealing with Barriers limiting your icon movement, requiring Disruption Delay. Lastly, as expected of [[SuperMode Mega-Evolved Pokémon]] battles in Main stages, a forced fifth support in the form of Gallade is also present, necessitating a Complexity-1. While full-item runs in late-game stages like this are inevitable, this is one of the instances where even ''full-item runs won't guarantee an S-rank'', resulting in massive Coin sink if you keep failing. The aforementioned factors pretty much require you to rely on guides and Shuffle Move just for your strategy in order to secure that coveted rank.

* ThatOneAttack: Opponents attack with disruptions, which interfere with the puzzle area in different ways.
** The dark metal blocks can be devastating if you do not have a Pokémon ability to deal with them. They cannot be cleared by adjacent matches and disappear on their own after 5 turns, which can be very costly depending on the stage.
** The worst disruption is when they hit you 2-3 times in a row in the same turn. It is especially devastating when you are preparing to do a big combo attack that is blocked by the disruption multiple times.

** Breather Mission Card in this case. Mission Card #17 marks the first brand new Mission Card for a long time... and its missions are much easier than the torture that is Mission Card #16 (see ThatOneSidequest below). There are only three missions, which are all done in early-game stages (they're Expert stages, though, so it's only easier for the long-time players). Not only that, the missions' objectives are rather simple (one involves removing Barriers... in a Barrier-infested stage, two others involve activating Mega Effects of early-game Mega Pokémon).

* ScrappyMechanic: "One chance a day!" battles. When the first one, Pinsir, was released, many fans were outraged by the premise; players only had four chances to capture it, ''ever'', and most would probably botch their first try out of not knowing the stage, effectively leaving them with '''3'''. Worse yet, Pinsir's capture rate ''cannot'' be maxed, making it very possible for ''anyone'' to permanently miss it no matter how well they played. The mechanic returned for Jirachi, but the general response was less negative due to a much more forgiving stage and capture rate.
** Many fans (especially after the third such event was released) consider the Pokémon Safari event to be this due to being a pure LuckBasedMission when it comes to fully completing it.
** The Website/{{Facebook}} integration on ''Shuffle Mobile''. Due to lacking Streetpass feature, the mobile version relies on your Facebook friends (like several other mobile games with this feature) to obtain Hearts easier without resorting to Jewels. In practice, however, it turns out that you don't actually gain a Heart from your Facebook friends. Instead, they give you mini-Hearts that when enough of them are obtained will form a single Heart. This forces the players to gather as many friends who also play ''Shuffle Mobile'' as possible and be active almost every day to gain Hearts faster. Compare to the method involving two or more 3DS units (that have the game, obviously) to gain Hearts via Streetpassing each other (preferably if you personally have more than one or having a 3DS or more held by, say, another family member of yours), which is obviously much easier, albeit tedious for those who only have one 3DS but there's no one else nearby who have one.
*** As if gathering such "friends" (which most likely consist of complete strangers in real life) for easy Heart-farming isn't enough, '''region-locking''' applies to which friends are accepted by the game.[[note]]And no, this is out of Facebook's hands, as it's the ''game itself'' that applies this mechanic.[[/note]] So much for gathering Website/{{Facebook}} friends from various regions...
*** Thankfully, the "friend" system had been overhauled to use Friend Codes. You can still use your Facebook account, but the only way to add friends now is by using said codes.
** Used to be exclusive to ''Shuffle Mobile'', the 2-Heart cost for certain stages. Such stage is marked with "x2" on the "Start!" button and the game also warns you that the stage costs 2 Hearts to be played. This pretty much infuriates players, because there's no such feature in the 3DS version (that is until a certain [[OlympusMons Lugia]] repeat event came along...). Players start to accuse Creator/GeniusSonority for amping up the cash-grab potential.
*** Similar to the case below, this "feature" has finally come to the 3DS version, debuting in a [[OlympusMons Lugia]] repeat event.
** Another one from ''Shuffle Mobile'': Paying Coins instead of Hearts for a stage (which only happens in certain event stages). Cue people complaining how it makes them even more prone to running out of coins faster.
*** And now such "feature" has come to the 3DS version... No prizes for guessing the playerbase's reaction to this.
** One more from the mobile version for some time until it matched with the 3DS version: Victini having irregular appearances instead of simply appearing every week like in the 3DS version. Since Victini mainly serves as a convenient way to gain loads of EXP every weekend and Victini itself is a pretty good [[PsychicPowers Psychic-type]] Pokémon (80 base power at level 1), mobile version players are understandably frustrated when they discovered such news regarding the irregular appearance. It's even worse for those who are already gotten used to the 3DS version and expecting to be able to catch Victini later, only to end up not being able to re-encounter it for several weeks.
** And yet another one from the mobile version: An update allows the game's language to be based on the player's device's set language. Unfortunately, the lack of language selection feature pretty much forces the players who prefer to play in English to set their own device's language just so they can enjoy ''Shuffle Mobile'' in said preferred language. The inverse can also be an issue where a player wants to play the game in their native language while the device stays in English, but the player cannot find a way to do so, thanks to how the game's language is decided.
** Mega Venusaur's event in the mobile version marks the debut of the "Fast Match" format, where players are encouraged to make moves as quickly as possible to gain more score. Obviously, if you stop for a while to think or use Shuffle Move in this kind of move-based stage, you'll lose the 1.5 multiplier until you make another match and then another for the multiplier to work again starting from the latter match. Unfortunately, there's no telling on how long you can take your time before the bonus wears off, so those who usually thinks for the next best move, even just for a short while, may be at a complete disadvantage. Not only that, this can pretty much reward more people who choose to rush instead of the ones who prefer to use a strategy, which happens to be the ones that can take better advantage of move-based events. As a result, many people don't like this type of competition. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Also, the sound effect for every quick match can go from satisfying to pretty much annoying.]]
** A mechanic introduced for the [[VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon Ultra Beasts]] event involves limiting battle attempts (similar to weekend Meowth/Eevee/Victini/Magearna post-free attempt, albeit without Jewel cost), no items... and an attempt fee of ''20,000 COINS'' (and an extra requirement of already completing 300 Main stages). To say that the playerbase dislikes this mechanic is an understatement. Though to some this is at least preferable to Ultra challenges like the Tapus, which required about as much for a full item run but had terrible catch rates (Nihilego has 70% + 2% per move, basically guaranteeing it won't take more than one Great Ball), the entry fee nonetheless is a sticking point given players are tight on coins for grinding Skill Boosters. This was fixed when later Ultra Beast stages changed the number of attempts per 20K coins to 10 instead of one.

* ScrappyLevel:
** Mega Garchomp's competitive stage [[labelnote:*]]First two Mega Garchomp events only, as mentioned above[[/labelnote]]. The stage contains Phione as one of the obstacles (fortunately, being a Water-type, it is super effective against the Ground-type Mega Garchomp), which can only be obtained in the third Safari event, where it only has 1% appearance rate, the first Safari Pokémon with this rate. If you don't have it, don't even bother using Complexity-1 there, because Phione isn't affected by that item. Many fans, especially the less lucky ones, feel that this competitive stage is simply unfair because of the above problem.
** Albens Town (introduced in version 1.2.12) in the same game is considered this (more like a Scrappy Area) by several players, even the very skilled ones. While visually it causes a BrokenBase on its own ([[CutAndPasteEnvironments it re-uses the background from Puerto Blanco, the very first Main stage area]]) but on the other hand fans are glad to see more new Pokémon, the main issue with this area is the ridiculously low catch rate applied to the firstly-introduced Pokémon there, even the basic form of main series games' ''ComMons'' like Starly and Scatterbug. None of them can reach the ''20%''-mark, and that's before applying the bonus from moves left and [[CriticalHit Super Catch Power]], but the mons there tend to have ridiculously high HP when compared to the number of moves required to beat them (Spewpa (a 3-move limit mon) has a staggeringly high ''7,776 HP''), so move bonus tends to be out of the way (they give low % for those mons anyway...), while the latter bonus's occurrence is [[RandomNumberGod decided randomly anyway]]. The difficulty in defeating the target Pokémon is quite fair at least, as it's a later area expected to raise its difficulty curve, but it's the low catch rate overall that gives it a [[TheScrappy Scrappy]] trait. As for S-ranking all of the stages there though... it's another story, as doing that is either easy as pie or [[NintendoHard considered nightmarish]]. Lastly, most players consider the boss level to be a DisappointingLastLevel for that area as it features Mega Medicham instead of the fan-favorite Mega Gardevoir that they had anticipated (doesn't help that both (non-Mega) mons appear in that same area, though the latter finally did get its own stage, albeit as a competitive one). After that, the next area has been revealed to [[CutAndPasteEnvironments look like]] Rainbow Park, which is the fifth area you visited back then, causing players to think that Creator/GeniusSonority has been starting to run out of ideas for area designs starting from the Albens Town expansion.
** Mega Steelix's second competitive stage. It has rocks added to the skyfall in addition to its disruptions both creating rocks and occasionally encasing nearly half the board in glass. While it's obviously an attempt to use a Skill Swapper on Entei (who would get Rock Break+), doing so gives you a very subpar Pokemon[[note]]Well, subpar for Fire-types, since there are already so many better options than a 70 BP Rock Break+ for that type.[[/note]] for everything but that one event. Though even then, there are so many rocks that Rock Break+ reliably activating is too low (outside of Mega Steelix's disruptions that add Entei icons to the board, a 4 or 5 match is unlikely) to even warrant having that ability!

** Phione is this to many players, because it can only be encountered at a Safari event, which is a LuckBasedMission event that is already scrappy enough on its own, where it has the lowest possible encounter rate, and it being a ''still'' mandatory obstacle you face in Mega Garchomp's stage[[labelnote:*]]First two Mega Garchomp events only, where they later replaced Phione with Suicune[[/labelnote]] (granted, the stage lasts longer than usual competitive stages, but still) if you want to stand a chance, as if those Gible obstacles aren't enough for you... (that is, unless you used a Complexity-1).
** Pretty much almost every Pokémon in Safari events whose encounter rate is the highest among others in the same event. Notable offenders include Gible and Furfrou in Safari #3 (both have 26% encounter rate), Fletchling in Safari #5 (28%), and Stantler and Electrike in Safari #2 (35% and 23% respectively). Players often complain that those Pokémon often "get in their way" during their hunt, especially after they managed catching said Pokémon. Electrike in particular is a rather annoying Pokémon to beat, due to it constantly disrupting you.

** Ash-Greninja. Not because it's bad - it actually has arguably the best ability and respectable base power, even if its typing is a bit lackluster. It's hated because it has a ''massive'' amount of HP at 21060, is a timed stage, and has appeared roughly once every month since it first debuted. Reliably beating it without items is nearly impossible if you aren't skilled enough at time stages, meaning you'd have to be willing to shell out coins if you fail to catch it the first time. And if you want to level up its skill, you better be ''really'' good at timed stages, since it costs coins and requires far too many personal skill boosters to even get to level 2.
** Pretty much almost every emoticon-based Pokémon variation, especially the Winking ones and the [[SeriesMascot Pikachu-related]] ones. According to the playerbase, most of these Pokémon consist of weak basic forms (albeit with a better Skill than the vanilla version) that are more likely to be abandoned after capture (thus, BraggingRightsReward). Not only that, one emoticon Pokémon's role can be rendered redundant if you already have a Pokémon with a similar typing and Skill but higher base power[[note]]For example, Winking Bulbasaur is a Grass-type with Block Smash+, which is rendered obsolete with the presence of Ferrothorn, who is stronger. Another example would be Happy Pikachu, whose Power of 4+ Skill makes it end up being lost among the crowd of Pokémon of the same Skill, not to mention that several Pokémon with said Skill are stronger than Happy Pikachu anyway.[[/note]]. Another complaint from the players is that these Pokémon are responsible for inflating the obtainable Pokémon count in this game, capable of surpassing the amount of total species as of [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY Generation VI]]. Not only that, but many of these emoticon variations are notorious for having low catch rate, even the ones not exclusive to the Safari events. This hate also extends to Pikachu species itself as well due to having the most emoticon variations (plus a [[HalloweenEpisode Spooky]] variant, and more are still coming), making many players sick of this particular Pokémon if it's not hated already.
** To elaborate on the Pikachu hate, back then there were only a few emoticon-based variants and much fewer holiday-based variants. It only got worse in the tail-end of 2016 when a major update revealed ''even more Pikachu variants'' in the game files, including those based on ''plush'', something not even related to the games (Spooky and Holiday variants are forgiven for being a tie-in to [[HalloweenEpisode Halloween]] and [[ChristmasEpisode Christmas]] respectively).
** Every Pokémon only available in Ultra Challenge stages. True to the name, these stages are considerably more difficult and pretty much require the player to spend an obscene amount of coins on items to make things more manageable. However, the catch rates are still low, to the point that even a Great Ball will not ensure the Pokémon will be caught by the end of it. To make matters even worse, the Pokemon that have been featured in Ultra Challenges so far are vastly outclassed by others available elsewhere (with the Cosmic Duo and the Tapus being the only notable exceptions).
*** From this category alone, Kommo-o may be the worst of the lot. Despite heavily abusing its pre-evolutions in its disruptions, Kommo-o's stage appeared first before its pre-evolutions' ([[LuckBasedMission Safari]] event) when it made its debut, basically forcing a delay for players if they want to reliably battle it without spending too much Coins and/or Jewels. Kommo-o also basically tops many of the Ultra Challenge {{Mon}}s for being a disrupted icon in a competition (the first Shiny Mega Charizard X competition, for those curious), dividing much of the playerbase.

** Minor examples here, but Espurr and Squirtle, for one reason: Their Start-of-Month Challenge rewards are bottom-tier (10 Hearts and 5,000 Coins, respectively)[[note]]This doesn't apply for other variants of the challenge where they drop different but better rewards instead.[[/note]] compared to other {{Mon}}s featured in said event (Skill Booster L and Mega Speedups). At least all Pokémon featured in that event share the same encounter rate...

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap:
** An item called Skill Swapper allows certain Pokémon to be more viable by allowing them to possess an entirely different Skill.
*** Mew has a variety of useful alternate Skills if one uses Skill Swapper on it. Instead of being a rather weak mythical Pokémon with a rather difficult-to-trigger Power of 5, you can either make it remove Blocks easier (Block Smash+), erase non-Supports more conveniently (Eject+), break Barriers (Barrier Bash+) or have a better alternative to the default Skill in the form of Power of 4+ (triple damage if triggered).
*** Ampharos is infamous of its PowerUpLetDown Skill that is Dancing Dragons (on an ''[[ShockAndAwe Electric-type]]'', which isn't effective against Dragon-types (the only type weak to Dragon) anyway). Skill Swapper can finally rescue this poor mon by allowing it to either have Mega Boost or Paralysis Combo, both being miles better than Dancing Dragons on a type resisted by Dragon-types.
*** Eevee and two of its evolutions (Jolteon and Leafeon) can have Eject+ as their alternate Skill (default is Mega Boost, which on weaker Pokémon like those isn't really useful for dealing more damage after a [[SuperMode Mega Evolution]] has occurred), which is useful for dealing against stages featuring non-Support Pokémon. A perfect irony considering their notoriety for being a forced fifth Support (which Eject can now affect) in pre-expansion late-game stages.
*** Notable example goes to [[ShockAndAwe Luxray]]. Prior to the June 27, 2017 update, Luxray saw very little use despite its promising base attack power of 70, all thanks to the highly situational Cloud Clear+[[note]]May clear three Black Clouds. Keep in mind that Black Clouds are second only to Coins for disruption prominence in stages... as in being one of the least likely ones to show up in a disruption.[[/note]]. When that update rolled out, Luxray is now compatible with the Skill Swapper, which allows it to have, get this... Cross Attack'''+'''. Quadruple damage from activation is no joke, especially if it involves a pattern-based burst damage like this one, meaning that the two matches created from this patterned match will result in massive score earned very quickly (and this is before touching the Skill Booster investment). It seems that Creator/GeniusSonority is aware of Luxray's bad reputation.
*** Noivern is definitely a good case. Similar to Luxray, when it debuted it was an unimpressive Base 70 power Flying type with the near useless Cloud Clear++. Unlike Luxray, however, Noivern already had extreme competition from low investment Pokemon within its type, such as Lugia (Base 80 w/ Eject+) and Braviary (Base 70 Sky Blast), as well as other mons like Tornadus-Therian (Base 70 Risk Taker) being more lucrative investments with Personal Skill Booster Stages to boot. In a more recent wave, Noivern not only got a Raise Max Level boost (10 for a 125 AP cap), but also skill swapped to the powerful Shot Out[[note]]Remove 2 non-Supports and deal heavy damage, up to **8x** when SL5[[/note]] ability with a personal stage. Shot Out at max level has a multiplier that outperforms the infamous Risk-Taker's power on its highest roll, and with much better trigger rates (60/100/100 for 3/4/5 matches). The balancing factor in theory is the dependence on a forced Support or a disrupted Pokemon icon, but for a 4-Pokemon stage, leaving a slot free automatically fills it with a default Pokemon which qualifies as "extra" supported, allowing Noivern to trigger this powerful Burst damage every turn regardless of disruptions. Other notable users of this move include Vanilluxe and Hitmonlee, but no other mon clawed out of as deep a scrappy position as Noivern.
** The Raise Max Level item allows certain Pokémon to gain additional power by raising its max level, allowing it to be viable as a more powerful (attack power-wise) Pokémon capable of giving you more score, especially in competitions.
** One update increases the number of Mega Speedups that can be fed to certain Pokémon (capable of [[SuperMode Mega Evolution]], natch), allowing them to Mega Evolve even faster. Special mention goes to the main [[ShockAndAwe Electric-type]] Mega that is Ampharos who is notorious for being too slow to Mega Evolve (ignoring its Mega Effect's randomness, it's very useful for clearing multiple icons and disruptions) even when fully-candied (17 icons prior to update).
*** The April 5, 2017 update allows even more Mega Speedups that can be fed to even more Pokémon capable of [[SuperMode Mega-Evolving]]. This can result in single-digit icon count required for Mega Evolution. Mega Charizard X, Mega Kangaskhan, and Mega Lopunny are affected the most, as if their Mega Speedup count is maxed out now, they can immediately Mega Evolve in a single move (assuming no Barriered icons included in a match) much like Mega Beedrill.

*** Celebi can go from having a "usable-only for earlier stages" Stabilize (may remove 1 random disruption from the board) to having a luck-manipulating Cheer (increases the chance of a Skill to be triggered in the next move) if you use a Skill Swapper on it. The same can be said for Pachirisu (from the "early-game useful" Mega Boost to Cheer).

*** The [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Johto]] legendary beasts all have Power of 5 by default (not necessarily a bad Skill, but their usage is relatively low due to the presence of other, better Pokémon with better Skills). Using Skill Swapper on one of them allows you to either have the (incredibly useful) Barrier Bash+ (Raikou), Rock Break+ (Entei) or Block Smash+ (Suicune), all of them are really, really handy for dealing with the more disruption-heavy late-game stages and Special stages.

** In the 3DS version, after using up Coins for a Great Ball, you may close the game before you're taken back to the map if you happened to fail during a capture. Turn the game back on, and the Coins you used before will come back, though you still won't recover your used Heart. Why's that? In every stage, the game saves in two instances: after using a Heart but before the stage actually begins, and after viewing the results screen. The latter instance makes the "returning Coins" exploit work really well, meaning that the only loss from failing a capture then resetting is simply a Heart, which can simply be refilled from its own countdown. However, Coins used for items will not be affected, since the save occurs after your Coins are used for those, along with the Heart. The above exploit is averted in the mobile version, since that version saves in pretty much every instance possible, including after paying to use it. As if the Great Ball's increased cost isn't enough for you...

** The 3DS version's 1.3.0 update introduces the Mission Card system, where players can complete tasks to earn bonus items. But during a brief moment after that feature's debut, players can end up earning ''double'' the intended amount of rewards (so 5 Hearts end up being 10 instead), giving a small window of opportunity for players to take advantage of this exploit. But alas, the less-informed players who chose to Check In after the getting the update from [=eShop=] end up not joining the fun as said bug was immediately patched. Not to say the players who didn't can enjoy such opportunity forever, as new game content can only come via Check In, meaning they have to eventually give up that "fun" moment anyway.
** Very few days after the update that introduces Zygarde 10% Forme and a new Pokémon Safari, mobile players noticed the lack of Rock disruptions[[note]]3DS version has no such disruption.[[/note]] in Meowth's stage (the Main one, not the weekend one) and began praising Creator/GeniusSonority for finally balancing MoneyGrinding capability between both versions. However, their joy was short-lived, as a sudden update "patched" this "issue". Cue fans complaining.

** The April 5, 2017 update applied various buffs and {{Nerf}}s, but it also left a bug normally not present in previous versions. The Brute Force Skill, normally only boosts "not-very-effective" damage, ended up tripling[[note]]double damage pre-patch[[/note]] damage regardless of whether it's a "not-very-effective" damage or not. This rendered this Skill outright ''broken'' if it's combined with super-effective damage on top of that. A patch was issued two days later, which reverts Brute Force to its pre-patch state. It was so bad that Creator/GeniusSonority removed that Skill from the list of powered up Skills applied in that update.

** Sleeping Pikachu, fittingly enough, has [[StandardStatusEffects Sleep Charm]] as its Skill. Why's that? Imagine being sleepy and starting to yawn, people nearby may start yawning too as soon as you do. Yawning is contagious.

** The aforementioned Mega Gengar. It only takes three to four matches to mega evolve, meaning you're extremely likely to have its mega effect happen within the first few moves or seconds, depending on which type the stage is. While this wouldn't be ''super'' bad, its effect is what takes the cake: all Mega Gengar icons vanish from the field. While not happening instantly is somewhat less than ideal in the timed stages, it still has a temporary Complexity -1 effect, which is something that costs a massive 9000 coins otherwise. The removal of all Gengar icons ''also'' almost certainly causes a large chain to happen, which in turn results in fewer Mega Gengars showing up until the end of the chain.
** Mega Rayquaza is considered to be the only Pokemon better than Mega Gengar, removing up to ten non-Dragon icons from the field whenever it's matched. While it's an extreme case of AwesomeButImpractical normally, giving it the maximum amount of Mega Startups turns it into this on stages that don't have single digit move counts.
** Shiny Mega Gyarados has been confirmed to be a Water-type equivalent to Mega Gengar. If one gets ahold of both Shiny Gyarados (an extremely rare encounter in a Safari) and the Gyaradosite (from a competition), this brings up to 5 types that can be abused by this "Mega Gengar"-esque Mega effect. However, Shiny Gyarados requires more Mega Speedups compared to Gengar (10 vs. 1), as Shiny Gyarados requires 19 icons to [[SuperMode Mega Evolve]] by default compared to Gengar's 11. However, the real GameBreaker begins to take effect once you do the math: Shiny Gyarados is ''slightly quicker'' to Mega Evolve than Mega Gengar if both are fully-candied.
** Mega Tyranitar joins the ranks of overpowered Megas. It can erase icons (in a "+" formation) based on which spots you tap (up to 3). When deciding which spots to tap during [[TimedMission timed stages]], the timer even freezes momentarily. Since other Mega Effects either rely heavily on RNG or a fixed pattern, this Mega Effect is incredibly useful for clearing groups of disruptions easily. Not only that, but also it has been discovered by players that matching Mega Tyranitar icons right after applying a status problem to the target Pokémon will extend the status problem's duration (sadly patched in a later update), allowing the player to stall the target Pokémon from making disruptions if it happens to be affected by Skills like Whirlpool, much like how Mega Evolving as your first action in one move delays the target Pokémon's disruption countdown (the latter case may be a [[GoodBadBug glitch]] or not, the former is confirmed to be true as it was patched later). The only catch is that if you do nothing (thus letting the Mega Effect's timer run out), the Mega Effect will not work at all. Also, achieving this Mega form takes 30 icons (half of that if fully-candied), making it suffer from being AwesomeButImpractical like Mega Rayquaza.
** Landorus-Therian. Its superb Ground typing gives him a large amount of types he's super effective against, and he has a great base power of 80. However, what ''really'' makes him this is, in addition to those two things, is his broken skill...Risk Taker. With the introduction of Skill Booster, Risk Taker was changed from an arguably good skill (but not at the level of even normal Power of 5) to ''the'' skill you want something to have. The draw of it is that leveling the skill increases both the minimum and maximum damage, increasing it to a massive maximum multiplier of ''eight'' at max level! What truly sets it apart from Power of 4(+) and (to a lesser extent) Power of 5+ is that it doesn't require any specific matches to activate!
*** Same goes with Hoopa-Unbound. It has a superb 90 base power and the same ability, but as a Dark-type, doesn't share Landorus-T's superior coverage. Still, it is a must-have if you are a near-endgame player and are facing a Psychic or Ghost-type Pokémon.
** Mega Beedrill's Mega Effect mechanic works similarly like Mega Tyranitar's (albeit affecting one spot and has a wider range). Despite the average base power of 60 and having less coverage compared to Tyranitar ([[PoisonousPerson Poison-types]] being only super-effective against 2 types), it's still very useful to clear disruptions without using regular Skills. Not only that, if you max out Mega Beedrill's Mega Speedup count, you'll only need '''one''' move to trigger its Mega Evolution! Not even [[GameBreaker Gengar and Shiny Mega Gyarados]] can constantly Mega Evolve in one move, let alone with a plain match three. No more heavily relying on the weak Mawile and the heavily situational Steelix for fighting those [[TheScrappy pesky Fairy-types]]!
*** It got to the point where a fully-candied Beedrill is considered to be a perfect candidate for an itemless run of Survival Mode because of the above factors. The only thing that can hamper its activation is Barriers (clearing them won't affect icon count), but it doesn't matter since it can Mega Evolve pretty fast anyway.
** Machamp because this because Skill Swappers gave it... Risk Taker. While it's slightly weaker than Landorus-Therian, it more than makes up for it by reappearing at the same time in special stages as its skill could be swapped, and costing ''hearts'' instead of coins, meaning it's more viable to grind for personal skill boosters! Additionally, Fighting is one of the best types in the game due to its super effective spectrum, meaning it ends up viable in a ''lot'' of situations.
** Ash-Greninja may be TheScrappy (see its entry in that section) for various reasons, mostly when it comes to battling him. However, the playerbase agrees on one thing that redeems this [[MakingASplash Water-type]] in this game: Unity Power. At first glance, it's like a carbon-copy of Nosedive (damage x5 at Skill Level 1) except it's ''good''. Why? Let's see here... higher activation rate, easier to invest on compared to Nosedive, and damage increase upon Skill Level going up (Nosedive just increases its activation rate). Reaching his maximum potential requires a lot of work though (basically a high-tier [[MagikarpPower Magikarp]]), as he starts with 70 base power (maxes out at 110 via Raise Max Levels), Power of 4+ as his default Skill (requires Skill Swapper, which there aren't many compared to the number of compatible {{Mon}}s), and like all other Pokémon, he starts at Skill Level 1[[note]]Damage x5 here, but at max Skill Level, ''x12''[[/note]] (requires investing in Skill Boosters; also, each possessed Skill has its own Skill Level, so avoid wasting on Power of 4+ in this case). But once he's at full potential, he becomes a powerful monster capable of massacring various opponents, just like in the games[[note]]Note: Unity Power is Bonding Power (similar theme as the Ability Battle Bond/Bond Transformation in the main games) in Japanese, fitting for the powerful Ash-Greninja[[/note]]. Oh, and unlike Goodra (which also requires Skill Swapper to have Unity Power), Ash-Greninja's typing gives him more coverage (against Fire, Rock, Ground) compared to the former (only against the oh-so-uncommon Dragon) and his attack power at max level is actually much higher[[note]]Goodra starts at 80 base power, seemingly surpassing Ash-Greninja, but unfortunately it can't be supported with Raise Max Levels, limiting its max attack power at 100[[/note]].
** Shot Out is a godsend for stages that feature (or at least abuse) [[TheLoad non-support Pokémon]], especially in [[MultiMookMelee Survival Mode]] (more so in its updated version), where Complexity-1 can't be bought and team switching isn't possible. Its utility is between Eject and Eject+ (both involve removing non-support icons; Shot Out removes up to 2 of those icons per activation), but its free damage boost (double damage at Skill Level 1) makes up for it, and it can be triggered easily from at least a match-four (60% on match-three). If you decide to invest on this Skill, however, the damage multiplier can go upwards to ''x8'' at max Skill Level. So far, only Rock and Steel types lack Shot Out users, but it's enough for decent coverage.
** Psyburst. Remember that Rayquaza Level MAX Challenge back in November 2017? Mewtwo's getting its share in the spotlight in a bit. Given the way that one was programmed to drop 3 Personalized Skill Boosters per attempt until the Pokémon's Skill Gauge is maxed out, plus a Skill Swapper at the beginning, Mewtwo's gonna be even more broken than it WAS. Sure, the new skill may not LOOK like anything special (50/50/50 spread with a 5x multiplier) but this thing grows into a Unity Power-like beast, having a whopping ''12x'' multiplier at Skill Level 5. (by comparison, that outdoes the likes of the Shot abilities, the Super abilities, Full Power, Risk Taker, and being able to hold a candle to ''EXTINCTION'' with a 16x multiplier)

** Players usually associate Paralyze with Electric-type mons for obvious reasons, then there's mons like Quilladin that has it. Those non-Electric mons have their own reason, though. [[note]]For some examples, Quilladin can induce paralysis via Body Slam, Registeel has a few Electric-type moves to help out in paralyzing, Zubat can induce said status problem via Secret Power, Qwilfish can use Thunder Wave, Whismur can induce paralysis via Thunder Punch (learned by tutoring) as well as Secret Power, Simisear can paralyze via Lick, Paras has Stun Spore, Spoink can paralyze using either Bounce or Thunder Wave (the latter via TM), Gloom has the same reason as Paras, Azelf can learn [[ShockAndAwe Electric-type]] moves (often linked with paralysis) via TM, Tyrogue and Feraligatr can paralyze via Secret Power (learned via TM in games featuring said move's TM), and Archen can use Dragon Breath to induce this status problem.[[/note]]
*** The same can be said for Shock Attack, which works the same as Paralyze albeit having a better chance to be activated. The [[NonElemental Normal-typed]] Porygon-Z and Ambipom (and appropriately [[ShockAndAwe Electric-typed]] Dedenne via Skill Swapper, as well non-Electric mons like Pidgey, Togetic, Lapras, Dewott, and Infernape[[note]]Pidgey's Secret Power (via TM in certain games), Togetic's Metronome (has a chance of activating a paralysis-inducing move), Lapras's Body Slam, Dewott's Secret Power, Infernape's Thunder Punch (via breeding)[[/note]]) who have this Skill actually have paralysis-inducing moves in the main games.

** In every competitive stages, it's impossible to not spot a player using Mega Gengar in top 5 even if that Pokemon resisted Ghost-type.
** Since Mega Rayquaza's debut, it's now more likely that Mega Gengar's usage is reduced in favor of the Dragon-type, AwesomeButImpractical aside. Even more so if the competitive event allows Mega Start to be used, which skips the need of matching a lot of Rayquaza icons.

** Recently, this has generally been subverted. While Mega Rayquaza and later Mega Tyranitar have dominated the mega slot regardless of type effectiveness (outside the Steelix competition, since there were so many rocks that it was flat-out unviable), the three other Pokemon slots actually tend to be fairly varied due to both the number of viable Pokemon and things like skill levels, Raise Max Levels, and Skill Swappers.
** Creator/GeniusSonority seems to be aware of this issue. With the release of a new competition format (type- and Mega-restricted), players have to rely on unconventional teams instead of the effective sets they've grown accustomed to if this format is on during a competition.

* CasualCompetitiveConflict: When talking about competitive events, regarding luck, due to how the game in general relies heavily on RandomNumberGod (the skyfalls, icon placement, Skill triggers, etc.). It's not unheard of for the "casual" side to rely heavily on luck because they usually don't have the time to invest on training their Pokémon only to rocket up in rankings because luck is on their side, while the "hardcore" side can easily bust out level 10 or higher Pokémon with high/max Skill Level to earn higher score easily only to be placed on the lower tiers because bad luck causes them to earn less than respectable score. There are other factors too, like the use of "recommended" Pokémon that tend to be unused elsewhere because they're either not worth investing on or have poor battle capability when untrained (naturally, the recommended {{Mon}} appears in disruptions) and [[BribingYourWayToVictory the use of items]] (see BrokenBase above).
** It only reached a new low with the first Shiny Mega Charizard X competition, where, get this: Kommo-o[[note]]Has Crowd Control+, which in this competition's context, is basically free bonus score when triggered. And considering that if a disruption spawns a bunch of Kommo-o icons...[[/note]] is the disrupted Pokémon, so its Special stage presence basically tempts players to catch it. However, Kommo-o's stage is an Ultra Challenge stage, so newbie players are basically out. As it turns out, a more reliable way of dealing with this situation involves a chain of [[LuckBasedMission luck-based shenanigans]] (see its entry on TheScrappy below), enough to put off many players.

** Blau Salon having Pokémon from past areas, albeit being more difficult and may drop Personalized Skill Boosters. On one hand, players are fine with this idea because they can finally raise the (mostly) forgotten mons' Skill gauge without having to waste stored Skill Boosters, even if it still relies on luck for the enhancement drop. Also, it acts somewhat as a [[BreatherLevel breather]] after going through around 50-60 stages per area update just trying to [[GottaCatchThemAll collect all the new Pokémon]] and S-rank their stages for the new Expert stages as well, as all players have to concern regarding the new stages featuring old Pokémon is the S-rank (assuming they've captured the past mon in the first place). Not only that, but this idea also extends the game's lifespan, and considering the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' franchise's having LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, ''Shuffle'' can last much longer than one can expect, even stretching through multiple generations if more main ''Pokémon'' games are still being made. On the other hand, some other players are irked by the idea of fighting the old Pokémon ''again'' in a later, more difficult area, which means that they can possibly face [[ThatOneLevel those difficult levels]] again albeit with their difficulty cranked up. Doesn't help that Blau Salon ends up having fewer new Pokémon compared to the previous area because of the old Pokémon's reappearance. The complaining players also stated that said idea can end up {{Padding}} the game too much and make it boring quickly because it [[PunctuatedForEmphasis just. Seems. To. Never. End.]]
*** It has become even worse when the old {{Mon}}s make yet another appearance in the Main campaign (for example, Chansey in Zaffiro Coast, even though she already had a repeat stage back at Stage 487). Players begin to accuse Genius Sonority for basically adding meaningless filler to late-game content.

** Now for more competition woes, there's the BribingYourWayToVictory issue. In early competition events, usable items were merely restricted to Disruption Delay and Complexity-1 (and Mega Start for "repeat" competitions), the former of which is cheaper and is used frequently by players in such events. While players can also resort to the latter item (or using both), even players that can go itemless and score decently still has a chance to obtain the Mega Stone as a prize. However, later competitions finally added in Attack Power ↑, which doubles damage inflicted (and thus, your earned score) and ends up shattering the playerbase further. Combined with the addition of items as prizes (''especially'' the coveted Mega Speedups, which can only be earned from special events) and the rise of blatant cheaters (as in, the ones who hack their game to give themselves an advantage ''even over players who admitted to'' ''[[BribingYourWayToVictory bribing their way to victory]]''), this usually results in either players giving up the game, resorting to [[BribingYourWayToVictory Bribing Their Way To Victory]] as well, simply accepting their lower chance at earning the prizes, joining the cheaters, or simply complaining.[[note]]However, for the "cheating" part, it's rather pointless now as Creator/GeniusSonority is capable of [[NoFairCheating banning]] such players.[[/note]]

** Speaking of cheating, the hacks and exploits involving this game. While the two issues are problematic enough for the players that play fairly, [[FromBadToWorse things have gotten worse]] when [[https://twitter.com/JoeMerrick/status/640782228637753344 Mega Sharpedo's competitve event has begun]]. Mind you, this is for the Europe region. People were baffled at how such score was achieved using such team (no Pokémon capable of [[SuperMode Mega-Evolving]]? ''[[ShockAndAwe Pikachu]] on the lead instead?''). "Home" button exploit is out of the question because it has been patched long time ago. Turns out, there's yet another exploit/trick, and even worse, it is possible that other players are beginning to learn the trick once they've found the player behind it! And it's not via personal messages, either. [[OhCrap The information is made public.]] What's worse than that? It's actually a "legit" way of playing, as it doesn't involve modifying in-game data using tools of any kind (and thus, the anti-cheating detection will let it pass)! Players who participate in the event are now broken down between the ones who will take advantage of the exploit and the ones who would rather play fairly. The only thing that softens the blow is that it's just a less effective version of the "Home" button exploit, so only the more skilled players can score well using this trick.
*** For that matter, the more severe case of StopHavingFunGuys (yes, they exist, though ''really'' uncommon). Including people who used the above trick, these players (in competitive events, not sure for the single player campaign) know tricks/exploits and even take advantage of certain Pokémon icons that have less potential against the target's type, thus "NotTheIntendedUse" is in full effect. They're also really skilled (though some can be actually questionable), so they tend to get insane scores. The playerbase pretty much shattered when the tricks they've used was discovered (that is, if they're not actually hacking in any way).

** Then there's the usage of ''Shuffle Move'' for the move-based competitive events, oh my. To explain: ''Shuffle Move'' is a fan-made application used to determine the best move possible in a given situation. It was intentionally made to assist players who have trouble (or outright stuck) with the move-restricted stages (and ''only'' move-restricted stages, as the program is outright useless in timed ones due to the "Home" button being disabled in such stages, and merely pausing the game obscures several icons from view). The "repeat" competitive events (ex. Mega Lucario, Mega Blastoise, Mega Venusaur) happen to be move-restricted. The fanbase is broken between considering the usage of the program as a form of cheating and considering the program being still pure [[LuckBasedMission luck-based]] as it doesn't take into account about the "skyfall" (read: incoming icons that fall into the board), which is ''still'' random.

** When the mobile version of ''Shuffle'' was finally released, fans quickly noticed that they can't transfer data from the 3DS version, only from other mobile devices. This makes it frustrating as they have to start all over again. But to be fair, the mobile version, when it was first released, ended in Jungle Verde just like its base game in the 3DS version, which explains the absence of the feature, and the feature might be added in via a patch (which might be extremely unlikely considering how ''far'' the version difference between the mobile version and the 3DS one, unless the former somehow gets its updates fast enough to catch up). Because of this, there are some fans who don't mind this issue. Aside from that, however, there's also the higher prices for items in the mobile version...[[note]]It's "somewhat" balanced out by making you easier to win items (particularly from the Mega stages) though, but still...[[/note]]

** And then there's the mega evolution stone competitions. Want Mega Lucario, Mega Blastoise, Mega Banette, or Mega Venusaur? Not only were they only weeklong events, but players needed a sufficiently high score in their regional competition to get it. In short, only a certain number of players worldwide have each stone, annoying many fans who were late or didn't have sufficiently strong Pokémon at the time, or didn't want to spend coins on power-ups--not to mention the fact it's possible to cheat for those coins! If you need certain non-Main Megas desperately to beat infamously hard bosses like Mega Mawile, Mega Aerodactyl, Yveltal, etc., sucks to be you. Thankfully this appears to have been alleviated as event Pokémon have been re-released, though not all of them, and Rayquaza became a main stage.

** While nothing in the main stages is inaccessible to those who don't pay money, the game also has a high reliance on "event" Pokémon.

* BreatherLevel: Occasionally found. Some several standout examples:

* BrokenBase: This game shattered the ''VideoGame/PokemonTrozei'' fanbase when it was revealed to be a free-to-play game. Some fans think it's free-to-play model will be perfectly tolerable, while others think it will pave the way for more abusive microtransactions in the future.

* InternetBackdraft: Since version 1.6.0 (mobile), many players of that version have been noticeably pointing out that they got banned for no apparent reason. When the game's support team was e-mailed about the (possibly) "false-flag" ban, all they got was "...the game check function found your game to contain unauthorized data manipulation.", which frustrated the more honest players who never mess around with the game's code. Consider that when a player is banned, his/her game account cannot be retrieved even if you install a new copy of the game on a different device and load his/her account data from there. Also consider that players ''might'' have paid money for in-app purchases, which can't be refunded in the first place already, causing the poor player to either abandon the game in protest or start anew but have to carefully manage both their in-game resources and real life money. Since then, many players either recommend sticking to the "more friendly" 3DS version or stop supporting the game altogether. Not just that, the mobile version's "problematic" label by players (as it's notoriously cash-grabbing and has more issues than its 3DS older sibling) has ended up becoming heavily justified!

** Every Pokémon only available in Ultra Challenge stages. True to the name, these stages are considerably more difficult and pretty much require the player to spend an obscene amount of coins on items to make things more manageable. However, the catch rates are still low, to the point that even a Great Ball will not ensure the Pokémon will be caught by the end of it. To make matters even worse, the Pokemon that have been featured in Ultra Challenges so far are vastly outclassed by others available elsewhere (with the Cosmic Duo, the Tapus, and Silvally being the only notable exceptions, the last one even being this close to being a GameBreaker).

* AwesomeMusic: Courtesy of Tsukasa Tawada, who also composed the music for several other ''Pokémon'' spinoff games including ''VideoGame/PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness'' and ''VideoGame/PokemonBattleRevolution''.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg2AjG2IyvY The Mega Evolution theme]] receives a lot of negative feedback for overriding the music of stages when your lead Pokémon Mega Evolves. Of note is when this music overrides the music of any stage that plays music highlighted in the AwesomeMusic entry. Most of the criticism comes from its silly and off-the-wall composition compared to the rest of the game's soundtrack.

* MostWonderfulSound: Despite being practically useless 99% of the time, it seems to be unanimously agreed that the noise Mega Diancie's effect makes is amazing.

** Shot Out is a godsend for stages that feature (or at least abuse) [[TheLoad non-support Pokémon]], especially in [[MultiMookMelee Survival Mode]] (more so in its updated version), where Complexity-1 can't be bought and team switching isn't possible. Its utility is between Eject and Eject+ (both involve removing non-support icons; Shot Out removes up to 2 of those icons per activation), but its free damage boost (double damage at Skill Level 1) makes up for it, and it can be triggered easily from at least a match-four (60% on match-three). If you decide to invest on this Skill, however, the damage multiplier can go upwards to ''x8'' at max Skill Level. So far, only Poison, Rock and Steel types lack Shot Out users, but it's enough for decent coverage.