Pokemon Go

I only managed a few rayquaza raids and all of them have him fleeing. I hope he eventually pops in to the weekly research reward.

This August was PoGo's best month since September 2016.

Edited by Anura on Sep 2nd 2019 at 6:27:07 PM

The Water Festival was a bust for me in terms of shiny hunting. I didn't even get shiny Rayquaza (I already had two from before, so I can deal). I did get some decent water-types, though.

Of course, the funny thing is, once the Water Festival ended, I got pretty much the jackpot from a boring old "catch 10 Pokemon" quest - shiny near-perfect Magikarp (15-15-14... I think I can soldier on with slightly below perfect HP). I think I might build this one for PvP/Team Rocket takedowns (i.e. Bite/Crunch/Outrage), as I already have two really good raiding Gyarados, and I have enough ways to punish Rock/Ground/Fire types for PvP that yet another Waterfall/Hydro Pump set isn't going to get me that much benefit.

Minor note: one of the text changes that went into effect is that Flying-focused Rockets no longer say "bird Pokemon" (they appropriately say "flying Pokemon"). It makes sense, but it makes me slightly sad that they finally learned that bats are not birds.

Man, we'd better be careful. If Team Rocket keeps adapting at this rate, we might be completely overwhelmed!

Which combo is it that has Gyarados, and Snorlax? I got that one the other day and Team Rocket cleaned house. Ugh...

I ran into that combo yesterday; I remember the Rocket Grunt making an "I've already won" comment right before the battle. For me, she ended up throwing Snorlax, Gardevoir, and Gyrados at me.

Though the first time I ran into an "I've already won" Grunt, I think she had two Snorlaxes and a freaking Dragonite.

Edited by dragonfire5000 on Sep 4th 2019 at 10:35:57 AM

That and other nondescript quotes with the female grunt will give you the hardest combinations (the male grunt with the same quote will just deploy a mixed set of starters and their evolutions). There's a number of combinations she can field, though she'll always start with a Snorlax. I tend to run into the Lax/Poliwrath/Gyarados one a lot. Still haven't encountered Lax/Lax/Dragonite yet, but I've run into Lax/Poliwrath/Dragonite.

There's a high chance you may need to scout the fight, then back out and re-enter, because the Snorlax fight(s) hinge a lot on what it has for its fast move. If it's running Zen Headbutt, Metagross will eat it alive. If it's running something else, Machamp should be able to take it, though will get pretty hurt along the way. I usually put my Zapdos next, then my Raikou, though this does assume Poliwrath will show up second (though I've overpowered the Dragonite in the third phase with them, so at least that doesn't matter, even if I don't get Gyarados). If it's double Lax, you'll want to pick the appropriate counters to their fast moves for the first two slots, then run an electric in slot three, since Gyarados is double weak and Dragonite is at least neutral. If you end up with a Dragonite that your electric can't beat, you may have to redo with a Mamoswine or something in the third slot (beware of Steel Wing as Dragonite's fast move, though, meaning you'll want to pre-charge Avalanche in phase two).

Tyranitar handles Snorlax regardless of its fast move. You just need to shield Earthquake. My Smack Down T-Tar also handles Dragonite handily, and my own Dragonite handles nearly everything else.

Edited by Anura on Sep 4th 2019 at 4:58:48 PM

Hmmm, can't believe I overlooked that as a lead-in. If I keep the electric teammates, I can just swap for Poliwrath and Gyarados, too.

Probably the most brutal fight I went against was a male grunt who said that "Normal does not mean weak" and proved it with a triple Snorlax team, which is just patently unfair.

I've actually seen some suggestion to use, of all things, Ursaring against Shadow Snorlax with a Counter/Close Combat set - you get neutral damage from all of Snorlax's moves, and it's the most powerful Normal type that can run a double Fighting set.

As for the "I've already won" comment... I swear that I have seen male Grunts say that and do a Lax/Lax/final evolution before (I've seen Dragonite, Poliwrath, Politoed, and Venusaur), but it's been a while since I've found such a Rocket and can't say for sure.

My standard anti-Rocket team is, in some order, Tyranitar, Rhyperior, and Dragonite. I swap that around, though, depending on what I'm about to fight - I have Ho-oh and Moltres come in against Grass Rockets, Kyogre and Leafeon against Ground Rockets, and a host of Zapdos against Water Rockets. I also have an emergency Piloswine and Glaceon for super strong Dragon Rockets, but I've only needed them twice (and one of those was because I was short on Potions for my main team).

My own go-to is Dragonite, Tyranitar and Mewtwo.

Just before I check through all the pages here, is there anywhere that people have put trainer codes? Can always use a few more friends for gifting and such.

Not here. This Subreddit is a good place to get codes though.

Awesome, thanks!

Yeah, I've more or less given up specifically shiny hunting on any day that's not a community day.

On the subject of NPC battles...I'm not the only one who remembers a brief time when the AI would also use their shields, right?

I guess I haven't fought any of the team leaders in a while, but I believe they were the only ones patched to ever use shields. Are you saying this isn't the case anymore?

Team Rocket doesn't use shields at all. They just lean entirely on that buffed shadow Atk stat, which is actually pretty thematic.

I recall the three team leaders shielding, but to be honest, I didn't find fighting them fun and thus stopped really early in the PvP meta. I have no idea if they still do.

Team GO Rocket, however, I've never seen them shield.

The team leaders do still shield. I had to fight them today for the Jirachi quest. It's only the Rocket grunts that don't.

Edited by Anura on Sep 5th 2019 at 8:15:20 PM

Do they? I've never had them shield anything I've thrown at them since weeks ago. Do they only shield at certain levels or with type weaknesses or something?

Side note, I found a Grunt of the "Winning is for winners" group that does not do Snorlax/Snorlax/powerhouse for its trio. It was a female Grunt that went Snorlax, Gardevoir, Snorlax - that spacing helped me prepare Tyranitar's Stone Edge for the last 'mon to make it much less painful than the first Snorlax. So I think they're changing up the Rocket fights a bit with this latest update (but just a bit).

I mean, they did just add a bunch of new Shadows to the game.

Well, yes, but I think this also means they're changing things up to make them a little less predictable above and beyond the addition of new shadow Pokemon.

For the time being, I'm thinking I might want to invest a bit more heavily in Psychic movesets for taking on Poison Rockets. I had been coasting a bit too long on using Tyranitar for them because Zubat line choices were still pretty common for me when I fought them, but I've been seeing a big uptick on Grimer and Bulbasaur lines lately, so I think the AI is slowly getting more competent for them.

So, uh, not only are the Kanto regionals shiny and in 7km eggs as announced, there are also a few surprises. Absol and Mawile are in the wild for the first time ever, as are Alolan Sandshrew and Vulpix, which can be shiny now. Also a lot of rare Pokémon in general seem to be spawning.

I've recently finished my very first 5-star raid and got a Suicune. There were eleven other people at a gym near my workplace and I was able to join in.

Hopefully I get this lucky when other 5-star raids appear.

Freaking nice! I still don't have an Absol yet.

Was anyone else able to hatch an Unown during the first week? I managed to hatch an L Unown on Sunday.