Pokemon Go

Got a shiny larvitar, dratini, and an extra charmander. Unforunately, I used up all my beldum candies trying to get in on the metagross meteor mash bug from the last CD.

Still missing shiny pikachu (have never run into those things like ever), as well as mareep, bulbasaur, squirtle, and enough eevee to turn into umbreon and espeon.

On a side note, find it obnoxious that Sinnoh evolutions even for mons that only evolve once still cost 100 candy.

The one shiny I wanted was Bulbasaur, because I missed that the first time around. No luck. Enough regular ones to add a couple more Frenzy Plant Venusaur to my lineup, which will tide me over until Sceptile gets it. Did the same with an extra Charizard with regards to Blaziken.

Lots of Dratini though; I got a 100% Dragonair a few weeks back and was saving candy for it, but I took this opportunity to give it Draco Meteor and maxed it out, only the second ‘mon I’ve done so for. Outrage is only a hair better than DM, and I don’t have any charge TMs, so it was the safer option.

Plenty of Larvitar too, but I decided that since I already have 6 with Smack Down I’ll go for Dark movesets this time. Managed to get a Meteor Mash Metagross prepared for each of the three Pv P leagues as well, though I had to sink all my Rare Candy into that one since I didn’t catch that many Beldum.

Edited by Anura on Dec 3rd 2018 at 8:30:28 PM

I didn't really have much time to participate this weekend; it was a very busy and tiring week beforehand.

I still need shiny Pikachu and Bulbasaur, and need to evolve my shiny Dragonair and Charmeleon, but I've got all the other Community Day Pokemon as shinies with the exclusive moves.

More info about PvP!

• Battles award items, including evolution items.
• You can challenge anyone in-person, or Ultra/Best friends from any distance.
• Stardust and Candy can be used to unlock a second Charge Move. It's unknown whether this is a one-time cost or per-battle.
• Every Pokemon can use Protect a limited number of times per battle to block attacks.
• You can also challenge the Team Leaders to NPC battles for more rewards, including progress towards the no-longer-defunct Ace Trainer medal.

Edited by Anura on Dec 4th 2018 at 3:16:13 PM

I'm not even necessarily looking for shiny Pikachu; I just seem to run into them a lot. I would totally trade a few to folks, if, y'know, anyone was near me to do so. I'd love to do so for a shiny Squirtle; I got only one, and I would like another.

I honestly didn't really evolve out many CD-exclusives. I was so low on Beldum and Larvitar candy that I just stockpiled rather than evolved, I only got one good Dratini to add to my double Dragon needs (as opposed to my Machamps, who handle my Double Dragon needs), and I really didn't care (or, in the case of Eevee and Mareep, actively wanted to avoid) the CD-exclusive moves.

On a related note, I had forgotten what Anura said about shiny Misdreavus, but got a reminder when I burned my daily pass yesterday on a Misdreavus raid and landed the shiny - a 93% with maxed attack, no less. I guess I have a new nominee for the third Sinnoh Stone when I finally get it (the first was Rhyperior, and the second is a shiny Roselia I got months ago).

For upcoming PVP... I'm hoping that losers get consolation prizes, because I can easily see that becoming a have/have-not thing. That idea of burning stardust/candy for extra charge moves... depends on the cost, but I have a few oddballs (like my Alolan Raticate, which has the benefit of being lucky) that could benefit from it. Also, I'm hoping that NPC battles aren't just the team leaders. I like that idea (also, after seeing that badge stuck halfway to gold for over a year, I want to finish Ace Trainer once and for all).

More (from an IGN article):

• The second charge move unlock is permanent and the second move can be used in all battles, not just PvP.
• Charge moves, in addition to needing to be charged up using the fast move, can also be charged up even further before being used, though this telegraphs it to the opponent.
• No dodging during Pv P; your limited supply of Protect is all you get.
• Weather has no effect on PvP.
• A CP Preview will be added that will let you see what CP a Pokemon will have before you power it up, so you don't accidentally send it over League limits.

Ooh, permanent unlock and it can be used in gym/raid battles as well? Oh, I can get behind that. In particular, I'm looking forward to throwing Crunch on my Stone Edge Tyranitars, Earthquake on my Rhyperior, Hurricane on my Draco Meteor Dragonites... so many possibilities.

That said, there's probably going to be a steep price. Like, 100 candies and 5000 stardust or something.

Oh, and you can get battle rewards up to four times per day, three times from other players and once from NPCs. This includes a shot at Sinnoh Stones. The loser gets items too, though there's no mention of whether the winner gets better items or not.

Edited by Anura on Dec 4th 2018 at 3:36:22 PM

Worth noting that Dragon Pulse on Ampharos is a decent surprise coverage attack if it's a gym defender.

I'm legit impressed by the amount of effort being put into PvP details here. Still skeptical until I see it (because Niantic has a bad relationship with execution), but I'm actually looking forward to seeing it come into play.

Is there any reason one shouldn't just grind up subpar legendary birds/beasts for candy? The various research breakthroughs and legendary days should mean that they're not really useful for trading any more, right?

Machamp can now carry Heavy Slam as coverage against Fairies.

Great and Ultra League PVP. There's even some talk of trading certain legendaries to lower their IVs below the raid boss floor of 10 to get them below the 1500 and 2500 CP caps.

Edited by Anura on Dec 4th 2018 at 9:59:36 AM

Trading for that could easily get expensive and it can only drop so much. Like, a 100% Mewtwo who wasn't weather boosted will always be below the 2500 threshold and a 0% Mewtwo with the same conditions can't possibly be low enough to make it into 1500.

Looking at my own box, I notice even a 91%, weather-boosted Zapdos can be within the 2500 threshold. An 87% Zapdos from research is under the 1500 threshold. So, while I agree that it's worth keeping these for those thresholds, I'm very skeptical that trading down will help at all. There's probably some really specific cases out there, but it's unlikely to be generally helpful.

So you are talking about level 25 versus level 20 'mons, right?

Levels 15 (research) versus 20 (unboosted raid) versus 25 (weather-boosted raid), but that's more or less the idea, yeah.

Lots of stuff is being found in the code, but a particularly interesting one just now is audio assets marked as "attack_buff", "attack_debuff", "defence_buff" and "defence_debuff".

Edited by Anura on Dec 7th 2018 at 10:12:47 AM

A new version is rolling out on Android. TSR's teardown found:

• Lots of references to stat (de)buff stages. Seems to be three stages rather than the main series six. Could just be that leagues adjust stats, but Powerup Punch was found in the code a while back so...
• An option for immediate rematches
• Possible spectator mode?
• Nice, Great and Excellent multipliers for both charge attacks and shields.
• CP Preview for powerups, as promised.

Also, new colors for hair and skin! But no new hairstyles.

PvP is live for level 40 players! The level requirement will go down over time, and it's usually very fast.

Lots of new hair colors! The two pink ones are almost identical to my eyes. The skin tone menu appears to be bugged on iOS, though; it's currently blank on my screen.

I'm a little annoyed that adding PVP parties removed all of the gym/raid parties I had. Since I don't care much about battling, I was using them to keep track of the mons I was going to evolve for XP next time I use a Lucky Egg.

I just use nicknames for that. 0 for new pokedex entries, 1 for useful battlers, 2 for rares and 3 for trash. Sort by name, stick “evolve” in the search bar and voila!

Pv P is fun and I'm enjoying it. However, after 20+ battles, still no Sinnoh Stone. Sadness.... And some are only fighting 5 times and getting a stone every time. This RNG is bunk.

You're supposed to only get rewarded for the first 3 battles each day. Plus once more for an NPC battle.

That said, even for those four potential rewards, the dismal RNG should be expected after they completely hosed the Research Breakthrough stone reward. The potential collective 2000 dust is a decent consolation prize, though (considering the exorbitant costs for second moves, it should probably be at least twice that).

Edited by KuroiTsubasaTenshi on Dec 13th 2018 at 11:53:59 AM

x4 You know, I have done that before, but completely forgot about it. Thanks.

Yes, I do have a 98% rocking Claw and Bite Tyrannitar which is freaking awesome, so I decided to add Stone Edge to his arsenal and he is a formidable beast for most battles.

Also, do you know who I feel is a bit OP? Umbreon! I defeated a lot of trainers and their three Pokémon on HIM ALONE.

Edited by Darkflamewolf on Dec 13th 2018 at 12:46:35 PM

Ugh... presuming the candy/dust cost doesn't change, there's not a lot where buying the second charge move is worth it unless you just have that much dust/candies. So far, the only ones that I've been up for awakening have been Aggron (since it's in the cheap 10k dust group) for the Heavy Slam/Stone Edge build (gives it a ton of coverage, plus its type and defenses make it pretty capable of hanging around), Swampert (I predict the Surfquake Swampert is going to be one of the more solid offensive choices), and Gyarados (Hydro Pump/Crunch).

I'm half tempted to get cute with my shiny Community Day Typhlosion (Blast Burn/Solar Beam), though I'm admittedly at a bit of a loss as to when I'd ever use it. I might also give my shiny Wailord a Surf/Blizzard set just to see how it handles in gym defense. Finally, when I finally get enough candies to make an effective one, I'm thinking of having fun with a Solar Beam/Earthquake Torterra.