Pokemon Go

Also, Pokemon Day.

• MORE BLOODY KANTO. (and specifically early-route trash at that)
• Shiny Pidgey and Ratatta.
• Flower Crown Pikachu and Eevee.

Edited by Anura on Feb 25th 2019 at 9:09:35 AM

That's a... rather "special" choice for anniversary features, that's for sure. I'll forgive them a bit if we get drowned in Oddish and Bellsprout, though, since those things are somehow stupid rare in Go.

I'm honestly surprised it took them this long to release a hatted Eevee. The best time for them to do it would have been around Let's Go's release.

I suspect there's some sort of cooldown on it, as I took about 3 dozen photos after finding my Smeargle, but nothing else spawned.

In terms of good news/bad news, I specifically had it copy my best CD Metagross, so I have a Bullet Punch/Meteor Mash Smeargle. Of course, the pertinent question is, what the hell would I need it for, given that it's sub-300 CP at level 30 (it admittedly is less than 50%, but even a perfect one isn't scraping too high).

Boring...guess I'm not going to be playing Go much for those days except to get one of the special Eevees (and one of the special Pikachus I reckon) and load up on Bellsprouts if they qualify. 😅

Once I found out about Smeargle, I took a whole bunch of pictures in Go. Haven't gotten one yet, though. I hope I didn't actually miss it, though.

It's always on the first photo you see when you stop, so it's best to take ones photo and stop the session, then start again if you didn't get Smeargle-bombed.

Yeah, Smeargle's not going to be worth anything in a fight unless you're doing really weird meme PvP battles or maybe clearing out a full demotivated gym (Smeargle would probably still die, though >.>). For this reason, I'm trying to think of the dumbest move set I could possibly copy for it.

I guess at least we still have Latias raids going on in the case that the anniversary event ends up being legitimately bust.

Edited by KuroiTsubasaTenshi on Feb 25th 2019 at 3:39:20 AM

Copy Ditto?

So do I just take one of my Pokemon into the AR photo thingy, and check for photobombing between each shot?

Thought about it, but Transform isn't on its move list, which apparently means it'd just randomize something different. Could result in something weird, but I ended up using one of my Lunatones so that my Smeargle got Moonblast.

And yeah, that's pretty much all you need to do. Restart your app before you start taking pictures, though.

Edited by KuroiTsubasaTenshi on Feb 25th 2019 at 4:28:09 AM

Much like Shedinja its gimmick doesn't really translate well in Go.

Yeah, but unlike with Shedinja, I think they did a pretty clever job of finding an alternative here.

I also had a funny thought about the anniversary event: it's the dream nostalgia event for those old-time players who hoard Pidgies and Rattata with which to egg mass evolutions—even if they're already level 40 five times over.

I still haven't gotten a Smeargle to show up yet even after restarting the app multiple times. 😅

If it's supposed to show up fairly quickly going by you guys' accounts, then I don't know how I could have missed it if it did show up.

Edited by kablammin45 on Feb 25th 2019 at 12:08:35 PM

Looking into that, Reddit says there's a bug where it doesn't show up in your photo, but still spawns on the overworld. Since it can run away, I have to imagine you'll have more chances at it. Maybe a cooldown of one day or something.

I took a bunch of photos but none showed up.

Do you see him photo-bombing during the actual shot or is it something you gotta go back through your photos and find him there suddenly?

What happens is that you only see your Pokémon when you take the photo, but when you look at the shot after, the first photo may have a Smeargle photobomb (here's what mine looked like). If so, the picture will briefly pulse a little. When you leave the photo, a Smeargle will spawn nearby that's treated like a standard wild encounter.

So far as anyone can tell, you can catch one per day. Also, there's a new badge called Photographer that you earn by number of photobombs (EDIT: and even though the badge clearly depicts Smeargle, it just awards for "surprise encounters"), so they may have more species (either already or in the future) that might be encountered this way.

EDIT: Oh, it occurs to me that I haven't commented on Pokémon Day. I mean... so many people rolled their eyes when I described the last Community Day as being the same as if they announced Pidgey Day... and then they actually go out and effectively announce Pidgey Day (well, combined with Rattata Day... which really doesn't improve matters). I mean, my only thought is that now everyone is equally as unimpressed with the event as everyone in my city is. It's only fair that now everyone can be dunked on as much as we were.

The writing was already on the wall that they were about to announce some crappy events. At least they're mixing in stuff like the Clamperl and Smeargle releases to make it interesting.

Finally, for yet another Kanto celebration... I just sigh at this point. Being someone who has been in the fandom for... holy fuck, 20 years!, I just recognize that periodic catering to the Genwunner mindset is something that TPC does to make money. It gets dull sometimes, but it's what I have to deal with.

Besides, I can't complain too loudly, since we are otherwise in the middle of the generations I'm most fond of (mostly because Gen 3 and 4 were when I had my most success at the competitive level - while I totally get why they had to nerf the weather wars, I totally rocked at them).

Edited by 32_Footsteps on Feb 26th 2019 at 11:04:38 AM

Wait, how was shedinja's gimmick implemented at all in Go?

It isn't. This is why nobody uses Shedinja for anything.

I don't even know how you get Ninjask at all.

Evolve a Nincada.

How do you get a Nincada? I've never seen one ever.

Is it even in Go yet?

You could get them from certain research tasks back in November. I don't think they're available right now.

Yeah, haven't heard any reports of them being released into the wild. The tasks were kind of middle of the road for common versus rare, so you might be able to find someone to trade you one if you really want it.

Dialga stepping in once Latias leaves. Time for Machamp to punch a dragon.

I'm looking forward to Groudon and Swampert shaking things up on my end (well, when the weather's clear, at any rate).