History VideoGame / PokemonShuffle

** The ability Unity Power grants its user a massive damage boost with a relatively low activation rate, but there are no Pokémon that have it initially, requiring Skill Swappers to unlock it. The first Pokémon to receive it? Ash-Greninja. Later recipients include Rowlet, Goodra, Rockruff, Charizard and Pikachu, establishing a clear pattern among its recipients: Pokémon that belonged to [[Anime/{{Pokemon}} Ash Ketchum]]. And Unity Power is synonymous with "[[Anime/Pokemon2000 the power of one]]"...
** Another reference to the anime: The debut of a Great Challenge stage, Mareanie, is slated for release on the same week as the Japan airing of a ''Anime/{{Pokemon}} Sun and Moon'' episode featuring Team Rocket and their Pokémon. Also helps that the board layout looks like [[http://vignette99.wikia.nocookie.net/pkmnshuffle/images/b/b7/Great_Challenge_-_Mareanie.png/revision/latest?cb=20171226083637 this]].

''Pokémon Shuffle'' (ポケとる, ''[=PokéToru=]'' in Japan) is a free to play spin-off of the ''VideoGame/PokemonTrozei'' puzzle game series, known as ''Pokémon Link!'' in Europe, developed by Creator/GeniusSonority. It was first released on the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS on February 2015. Its gameplay is similar to the ''Trozei!'' games, but based more on using a limited number of moves and building combos than on clearing the board.

On July 2018, Marshadow was added to the game, thus concluding the game's update cycle. Although the game remains in service, there are no plans to add any further content. The game would later be followed by ''VideoGame/PokemonCafeMix'' on the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch in 2020.

*** Shiny Mega Gyarados. It has the same effect as the almighty Mega Gengar, but it takes much longer to mega evolve starting out. It is faster then Mega Gengar, believe it or not, but SMG takes 10 Mega Speedups to get down to 9 icons, while Gengar only takes 1 to get down to 10. Due to the reduced presence of Mega Speedups, it's highly unlikely for someone who just started to get enough for them to make it viable, considering Mega Rayquaza is considered the second best thing to use the speedups on. And in the case of type effectiveness, it's generally considered unimportant due to the fact that Mega Gengar/Shiny Gyarados' purpose is to ''not'' be on the board.

*** Kyurem-White. It's one of the few 'Mons that has a massive base power of 90, has a fantastic support ability in Eject++, and is the first Pokemon to get five medals under its icon in the special stages! However...it's Dragon-type, which means it will be outdamaged by anything with 50 or more base power so long as it's super effective.

*** Quirky++. Erasing 5 extra Pokemon on the field in one match sounds pretty nice doesn't it? Sadly, at a 10%/25%/100% spread starting out, and with a pool of Pokemon whose base attack ranges from 30 to 60, it's a bit of a tough sell. Even if you raise it to Skill Level 5 (with the fairly good spread of 85%/100%/100%), and level up the Pokémon after giving them Raise Max Levels, you'll usually have a better pool of Pokémon and abilities to pick from in most scenarios.

** Milotic, full stop. All outside tiles and the four tiles in the middle are frozen with Feebas you start the stage, giving you very little room to move. Using the absurdly weak and ineffective Feebas instead of another pokemon who's strong against Water types is almost the only way to actually beat it without buying more moves with gems. Good luck.
** Deoxys (Normal and Defense Formes) and Rayquaza are currently normal stage Pokémon, neither of them being fought at the end of their zone. While Rayquaza was originally an event and its Mega Evolution serves as a "boss" later, the two Deoxys Formes remain a perfect example.

* GamePlaysItself: See BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame above. Sometimes the enemy spawns in icons in such a way that you start off a battle with a combo. Infamously, you can beat Spewpa battle with no moves if you bring in a Scatterbug because of Scatterbugs heavy presence on the stage.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Disruptions that cause icons to transform into Pokémon icons can cause this. Depending on the disruption pattern and which Pokémon are disrupted, the transformed tiles may result in a match and may possibly start a combo on their own without any player input. This is particularly prone to happening on later competition stages, where at least one particular Pokemon is prominent among the disruptions and it's always one that is super-effective against the opponent, encouraging the player to include it in their team to increase the chance that the disruption will cause matches. It can also happen on some non-competition stages; most often against opponents of a type that is super-effective against itself, like Ghost or Dragon.
* HourOfPower: You can buy different kinds of these at the Special Shop with Jewels. They range from having unlimited hearts for 15 minutes (free, but only available once per week in very limited quantities), as well as a 1-hour mode for 1 Jewel and a 24-hour mode with 10. In addition you can spend 1 Jewel for your Hearts to replenish every 15 mins for 8 hours, raise your heart limit to 10, and get 6 Hearts too. Mobile players get more options with this, such as the ability to purchase a period of increased item drops from stages, or increased odds of receiving a Super Catch Power.
* IncrediblyDurableEnemies: Oh boy. The farther you go in the game the more this becomes true. Especially if you're going for S-Ranks.

* InfinityMinusOneSword: Mega Boost+ isn't as good as Mega Boost++, but it can mega evolve those pesky high icon count megas like Tyranitar, Rayquaza, Aggron, and Camerupt really fast. PLUS, it gets a 100% activation rate at Skill Level 1.

** To unlock Mewtwo, getting an S rank on 150 stages is required. It is one of the final Pokemon unlocked in the Expert stages. You'll obtain Mewtwonite Y long before you fight Mewtwo himself. Fortunately rectified with the commemorative special stage for 5 million downloads - not only is Mewtwo easier to beat, all power-ups are free and his catch rate is set to max.

* LateCharacterSyndrome: Quite a few Pokemon in the latter rungs of the Main Stages and the Expert Stages.

* TheLoad: Some stages give you a "bonus" party member who is not very effective against the target Pokemon. This increases the total individual Pokemon on the board to five, which makes it much harder to get combos off, and matching that Pokemon is generally a waste of a turn due to its negligible effect on the opponent. Naturally, many players counter these gimmicks by [[ViolationOfCommonSense bringing that same Pokemon to that stage.]]
** Genesect's Expert Stage is the worst at this, by being the first and so far only stage that throws in ''two'' Non-Support Pokemon (itself and Surskit), for a total of 6 Pokemon on the field. While some other non-puzzle stages have a permanent fifth support, and spawn in a sixth, that you can get around with Disruption Delay; Genesect is the only one that has both in skyfall. And yes, it has plenty of disruptions like Barriers, Blocks, and Clouds. '''And yes''', Genesect is one of those stages that, if you bring the Non-Support Pokemon in on your team to lighten the load, it just spawns in more Pokemon from further down in the line.
** Aegislash is an absolute bastard that's designed to prevent you from nullifying its non-support interference. When you start with a full team of super-effectives, Doublade will always appear. Try to nullify Doublade? Bronzor appears as the second non-support. Try to nullify Bronzor? Honedge appears as the third non-support. Try to nullify Honedge as well? Klefki appears as the FOURTH non-support. And finally, when you try to nullify Klefki and thus end up a completely ineffective team, Skarmory appears as the FIFTH non-support.

* LuckBasedMission: Ultimately, the entire game comes down to this. While things like abilities and base power affect how well you do, many easy levels could be failed because the skyfall didn't give you anything, whereas hard levels could be easily S-ranked because you got a massive combo. Timed stages typically avert this, but there is a small degree of luck involved there. Even then, some Pokemon have such low odds of being caught that even if you were to defeat their stages in a single move, you may still need multiple victories before your capture is successful.
** The Safari events count, at least during the early times until Safari #4. Each such event contains 5 (7 in the third and fourth of said event) Pokémon species to be captured, but which Pokémon that will appear per access is randomized. Also, because of this, the "Optimize" button doesn't show up whenever you try to play a Safari event, forcing you to try to use your strongest Pokémon at that point and switch between types once you get to learn the featured Pokémon types. However, once you've figured out all featured Pokémon by yourself (or by looking at a guide) you might notice their in-common weakness due to having types that are weak to a certain type (except for one, usually)[[note]]However, starting from the fourth Safari event onwards (including repeats), the game outright tells you what Pokémon that appear in the event and what recommended type to use[[/note]], allowing you to stick with a fixed team of Pokémon of a certain type to take care of them.
** However this trope still applies to that event because more often than not, LastLousyPoint begins to take effect when you've captured around 80% of the featured Pokémon, and you've seen the already-captured ones so many times it's not even funny. It's even worse when the only Pokémon left that you're going to capture is the one capable of [[SuperMode Mega Evolution]]. The third Safari event makes the LuckBasedMission a lot worse as there are actually 7 Pokémon in total (this is before later Safaris featuring more than 7), lessening the appearance rate for each mon[[note]]For the completionists out there (or in general, anyone who wants to stand a chance in Mega Garchomp's stage), if you want Phione, you'd better hope that luck is on your side, because that thing only has ''1%'' chance to appear![[/note]]. If you really want that Garchomp, prepare to waste your Hearts and time a lot, thanks to the regenerating Heart system.
** There's also Victini, who can only be fought ''ONCE'' (thrice if you replay its stage with Jewels) every Sunday-Wednesday (used to be Saturday only). Win or lose, you obtain significant amounts of XP afterward. Even without a 1.5 exp boost, you can expect your pokemon to gain 2-3 levels per attempt. The battle itself isn't terribly difficult, but Victini's capture rate starts at about 2% and doesn't increase very much. Even with a Critical Capture when using Great Balls, your chances are still around 20-25% at best.

** Missions (introduced in version 1.3.0 for 3DS) that require you to score a combo of a certain exact amount. The first instance of this is in the second Mission Card, but even that reeks of this trope. Even if you go with a not-very-effective team, whether you'll hit that exact amount of combo or not is fully determined by luck. Skyfalls not helping you? You can't reach the required combo. Skyfalls get combo-happy? You end up overshooting the required combo. And speaking of combos, multiple high-level mission requires a 100+ combo. Complexity -1 and some Mega Effects can help, if you think it's worth it, but still... Yeah, have fun.

** Of all things, MoneyGrinding in Meowth's stage (Stage 37) in the mobile version. Why? Unlike the 3DS version, ''Shuffle Mobile'''s Meowth stage has a chance of spawning Rocks instead of Coins, often ruining a player's usual Coin grinding session. Obviously, the 3DS version still has this element, but only limited to icon placement and where the Coins will spawn instead of such rocky inconvenience. Additionally, the disruption can occur ''anywhere'' on the board in Mobile, as opposed to being limited to the middle 16 tiles on 3DS. If the game is feeling particularly vengeful, it can and will disrupt over one of your coins (even on the rightmost column of the board where you are likely trying to accumulate them) with a rock.
* MagikarpPower: Some Pokemon, if fed enough Raise Max Levels, Skill Boosters, and a Skill Swap, can go from okay or useless to incredibly useful once maxed out. The main problem is, of course, raising them up there, as there are very few boosting items to go around, and investing in these Pokemon also requires quite a lot of experience points for level ups. Somewhat ironically, and fittingly, Magikarp itself doesn't count. With no evolutions in this game, it can't become Gyarados, and even fully raised up to level 20 and Skill Swapped to Risk-Taker, it lags behind other Pokemon with similar niches.
** Risk-Taker has an unappealing description mentioning it has a chance to increase or decrease damage. However, when levelling up Risk Taker, it linearly increases the damage. At max level, Risk Taker will deal overwhelmingly amounts of damage and will never deal decreased damage.

* MetalSlime: Every Safari has one, sometimes two, really rare Pokemon in it. Most of the time it's the final form of a Pokemon line, a Pokemon with a Mega-Evolution, a Shiny, a Legendary, a Winker, a Pikachu-variant, or some combination of the above. The encounter rate can reach as low as 1% (as Phione, Shiny Rayquaza, Shiny Magikarp, and Shiny Gyarados all had on their first safari's). Thankfully the rarest Pokemon usually have a higher catchrate then their much more common Safari brethren, so that if you beat them you have a decent chance at getting them and not have to waste more hearts trying to find them again.
** The third run of the 10th Safari (June 20th, 2017 to July 4), turn this trope up to 11 by not only having Shiny Magikarp and Shiny Gyarados from before (with mercifully boosted encounter rates), but by also throwing throwing in Pikachu (Magikarp Costume) and Pikachu (Gyarados Costume) into the mix. Shiny Gyarados and both Cosplay Pikachu have a 2.85% chance of appearing, while Shiny Magikarp has a 1.42% chance of appearing.
* {{Microtransactions}}: This game operates using this business model.
* MoneyGrinding: You pretty much have to resort to this if you want more coins without spending your jewels. Both regular Meowth stage (Stage 37) and weekend Meowth event stage ("Meowth's Coin Mania") are perfect stages to gain more than just two-digit Coins.

* MythologyGag: This trope is in effect, referencing the main games in some way.

** Some of Skills have this, either referencing the main games or the Pokémon species themselves:
*** The main games have the ability Swarm, which increases Bug-type moves' power if the Pokémon with this ability is nearing or in critical situation. This game's Swarm Skill works exactly the same. Scyther and Scizor are the only known Pokémon so far whose one of their Skills share the same name as one of their Abilities.

*** The Astonish Skill is based on the main games' move of the same name, specifically its added effect of causing a flinch. Of all Pokémon that have this Skill, however, only the Ghost-types Litwick, Misdreavus and Mismagius can learn said move in the main games.
*** Darkrai, being associated with sleeping and nightmares, has Sleep Charm, which puts the target Pokémon to sleep if the Skill is activated. Also, sleeping Pokémon end up taking more damage.

** The strategy of countering an interfering non-support Pokémon by bringing the same Pokémon to the stage is useful in certain cases. But it's COMPLETELY USELESS against Aegislash whose non-support interference will change to prevent this strategy from working.

** Many of the Pokémon from Wacky Workshop are already outclassed by the fully-evolved Pokémon from earlier zones. Feebas in particular is extremely weak, as is to be expected from a [[MagikarpPower Magikarp]] {{Expy}}. Now scroll back up to the entry on BossInMookClothing. That's Feebas's evolved form and the ALL of those frozen spots are filled with Feebas. While Water-types resisting themselves further weakens the already pitiful damage Feebas can do, bringing Feebas to open up the level is the easiest way to handle Milotic without having to shell out coins for either Complexity -1 or Mega Start.
** Starly and Scatterbug are both obtainable in Albens Town, one of the game's several "expansion" zones. Both also possess the lowest possible base power comparable to the likes of Pidgey, Pichu, Togepi, etc. However, they have similar cases to Feebas. Doing an "itemless" run on the Staravia and Spewpa stages (both of these stages are 3-Pokémon stages, and each has the respective Pokémon as obstacles encased in ice) becomes much easier when you have Starly in the former and Scatterbug on the latter as your Support. ''Especially'' Spewpa's stage, where it's possible to win by ''doing nothing at all''.

** Some Skill Swappers give Pokemon some more... questionable abilities, despite their very high value. While some of them go from having one useless ability to another useless one (Celebi, for example, goes from Stabilize to Cheer, which gives a very mediocre 5% increase to other skills activating), one stands out in particular: Zoroark. It goes from the very useful Sinister Power (boosts Dark-type damage in a combo) to...Hitting Streak. A skill so useless that it's just barely better than not having one at all.(Though, to be fair, that sort of IS the niche Opportunist fills, so it just BARELY misses that low point.) A later update did the same thing with both genders of Meowstic, changing it from Mega Boost (which has incredibly synergy with Mega Mewtwo Y on weekend Meowth) to, once again, Hitting Streak.
** [[PaletteSwap Shiny Gengar]] appears to be one as well, as it's a nigh-worthless Mon with a mega effect in the Disrupt Buster class sharing its subclass, Power Pop(erases 12 icons in the center of the board), with Mega Medicham, not the Combo Charge class like the almighty Mega Gengar, Shiny Mega Mewtwo X, and Shiny Mega Gyarados. One would think it would at least be a Precision subclass (erases icons around 1, 2, or 3 spots you tap) or a Psyworms subclass(erases one pokemon of its own type off the board), but no. And everyone was so hyped up for its release for Halloween(as Shinies are only given out on the 3rd week of the month, and this one happens to fall near Halloween) too. Its ACTUAL ability, Blindside, is pretty good though, being a better variant of Quirky+ and whatnot.

* DifficultySpike:
** Mega Ampharos. The stage is 90% frozen tiles, and they're refrozen as quickly as you can thaw them.
** Mega Gengar as well. While it copies the primary mechanic that the standard Gengar stage before it used (keeping the middle two columns frozen nearly at all times), in this stage there is also a 5th ineffective support added in the form of Eevee, and Mega Sableye is the only Mega Pokemon at this point who's super-effective against Gengar. His mega ability is unable to touch the middle 8 barriers of the board.
** When it comes to Safari events, Safari #5 is marked as this. Unlike previous Safari events, you go with a full team of 4. Despite the recommended type to use[[note]]Water-type, which is justified as Rock-types deal neutral damage against the Roggenrola line (and outright resisted by the Numel line), Ground-types aren't effective against Fletchling, which is the only Flying-type in that event, and inflict neutral damage against the Numel line, Grass-types are resisted by both Fletchling and Fletchinder, while Ice-types are only useful against 3 out of 7 Pokémon featured in this Safari[[/note]], the wild Pokémon can throw casual Safari hunters off like including extra Pokémon that can only be removed by Complexity-1 (and thanks to [[LuckBasedMission how the Safari system work]], using said item may not be WorthIt). Notable offenders include Boldore (has Normal-type Meowth as an extra) and Camerupt (has Poison-type Zubat as an extra).
** The EX stages in general. For the first few, up to Yveltal, you only need like 5 S ranks to unlock the next one. However, starting at Mewtwo, you need a fluctuating amount of S-Ranks to advance. And they're all HUGE. And some aren't even worth it! What do you get for perfecting all 600 stages? [[AWinnerIsYou Serperior, the supposed worst of the Gen V starters, Dugtrio, a 60 BP mon, and Shiny Genesect, which is still, you know, SHINY, which are incredibly rare normally, but it has Last-Ditch Effort, a nerfed version of Swarm..]]
*** Now that there are 700 stages, completing the S ranks on all of them unlocks the 90-BP Primal Groudon and its Omega Barrier Shot skill, which wipes away seven barriers and deals absurd damage. However, its stage basically demands you've powered up Primal Kyogre and its Alpha Rock Shot to their final stages.

* EasyLevelsHardBosses: Many of the standard Pokemon Main Stages are fairly simplistic, being mildly challenging at worst. The Mega Evolved Pokémon, on the other hand, tend to be magnitudes more difficult than most of the other levels[[note]]Except the first few Megas, which are mostly there to give you a few starting Megas to work with[[/note]], with [[ThatOneBoss a particular few]], like Mega Mawile and Mega Glalie, being a mix of NintendoHard and LuckBasedMission with a dash of CharacterSelectForcing. After Mega Glalie comes Mega Gengar, who combines the worst of all the above-mentioned tropes. See DifficultySpike above. Much later after Gengar comes Mega Aerodactyl, where Mega Mawile is most likely your only option of using if you weren't able to get a limited edition Lucarionite or Venusaurite.

* BonusBoss: The EX Stages, where you get the chance to fight Legendary Pokémon, fully-evolved starter Pokémon, or otherwise powerful or popular Pokémon. The difficulty between stages can vary (Swampert won't give a seasoned player much trouble, [[ThatOneLevel Blaziken]] can be pure hell), and you may need to get adjusted to the [[UnexpectedGameplayChange different rules]]--you can make ''any move'' within a time limit, instead of only being able to make matches within a move limit.

** The [[VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon Ultra Beast]] Special Stages take this UpToEleven by outright disabling ''all'' items, meaning it's all up to your skill and luck when it comes to beating them.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: UpToEleven. Being a {{Mon}}-collecting game, this is expected, but consider the other individual Pokémon varieties that are treated as a separate, individual Pokémon of its own (has its own level and Skill). Yes, this game takes account of alternate Formes, mons with distinct appearance between genders (the Meowstic duo) and other unique varieties (Rotom and its appliance-based forms, Deerling and Sawsbuck that are season-based, Ash-Greninja, etc.). And this is before taking account of "alternate expression" varieties (like Angry Pikachu), as well as Pokémon that weren't present in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonTrozei Pokémon Battle Trozei]]'' (Diancie, Hoopa, Volcanion, [[VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon Gen VII]] Pokémon).

** [[StandardStatusEffects A few status problems]] from the main games are included in this game (along with several new ones exclusive to this game). Certain types also retain their resistance against a specific status problem, like Electric-types being unable to get Paralyzed (though keep in mind that a status problem can be resisted by many types in this game, and the resistances aren't always intuitive).

** Speaking of freezing disruption countdowns, non-debilitating StandardStatusEffects-inducing Skills like Spookify and Burn no longer delay the disruption countdown upon activation in the same patch as the above.
** Starting with version 1.4.0 (3DS), the Skills Mind Zap and Prank no longer work on Pokémon with [[StandardStatusEffects a status problem]] (this includes the effect from the Disruption Delay item). This {{Nerf}} makes them the same level as the status problems and badly affects teams that utilize a combo of either Skill plus debilitating status problems like Shaymin (Land Forme) + Bellossom (Sleep Charm + Mind Zap), forcing players to find alternate teams that work as effectively as the old setup or, if they prefer the old setup anyway, play smart with whether to activate the disruption countdown-affecting Skills or the status problem-inducing ones first.

* StandardStatusEffects: Target Pokémon can be afflicted with these. The status problems wear off after a few moves.

* DummiedOut:
** Pretty much every unreleased Pokémon, Mega Stone, Skill and Mega Effect are this until they're released in a later update. They can be found in the game's code but are unusable. However, if one manages to hack the unreleased (at the time) Pokémon in, they'll possess an index number of 999 and non-final typing/Skill/attack power/all of them[[labelnote:*]]For example, Keldeo Resolute Form being a [[MakingASplash Water-type]] instead of Fighting, having 70 base attack power instead of 60, and possessing Last-Ditch Effort instead of Power of 4+ as its Skill.[[/labelnote]]. As for the latter's case, most of the time the "yet-to-be-released" Pokémon ended up possessing stock base power and/or Skill not matching with the Pokémon at all (like, hilariously, a 50 BP Kyurem with Vitality Drain(?!)). If a Pokémon can Mega Evolve but the Mega Stone is yet to be implemented, the [[SuperMode Mega Evolution]] will still work but it can only function like Mega Audino (erasing all icons within one space of a match) and even shares Mega Audino's type after Mega Evolution ([[NonElemental Normal]]).
** Like the regular Genesect, the Shiny Genesect has [[https://tcrf.net/images/9/9d/PokemonShuffleRedGenesect.png sprites]] that can be assembled into its full, "big" animated graphic like with certain Pokémon (Kanto starters, most Mega Evolutions, certain legendaries, etc.). Despite this, the battle still uses its puzzle icon unlike regular Genesect, making the battle graphics this.

[[caption-width-right:350:It's like ''Pokémon Trozei'', [[RunningGag but different.]]]]

On July 2018, Marshadow was added to the game, thus concluding the game's update cycle. Although the game remains in service, there are no plans to add any further content.

*** Mega Tyranitar suffers the same issue as Mega Rayquaza, having a ''very'' useful Mega Effect (removes icons depending on which spots in the puzzle area you tap, up to 3 spots), but is hampered by high icon count for Mega Evolving. At least it has more types[[labelnote:*]]Bug, Fire, Flying, Ice[[/labelnote]] to rape due to its Rock typing. And just like Mega Rayquaza, it becomes awesome, yet practical when fully candied.

** Nothing gets the blood boiling better than a Pokémon that uses disruptions against you. Especially when those disruptions are very frequent and cripplingly obstructive.

** Skills that will temporarily paralyze, burn, reset, or make the foe go to sleep would be valuable... if you could even get them to activate when you really need them. And the skills that erase and swap more than one of the foe's disruptions are also just as unreliable.

** Skills that will temporarily paralyze, burn, reset, or make the foe go to sleep would be valuable... if you could even get them to activate when you really need them.

On July 2018, Marshadow was added to the game, thus concluding the game's update cycle. Although the game remains in service, there are no further plans to add any further content.