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I ATTAC

8 (15.4%)

I PROTECC

6 (11.5%)

Waiting on the third one

2 (3.8%)

Waiting on the third AND fourth one

1 (1.9%)

GET WELL SOON ZYGARDE

5 (9.6%)

I am a concientous objector and abstain from taking up arms

30 (57.7%)

Total Members Voted: 51

[DeKaFu]

On the topic of Nuzlockes... I just started one (together with a friend who's doing most of the actual playing) for the first time last week.

Initial impressions are... why would anyone do this

I thought it would be fun being forced to use Pokémon you normally wouldn't, having restrictions, giving each individual more meaning...

But. I mean. I play a lot of games with permadeath, and... it turns out there's a big difference between playing a game designed with permadeath in mind and foisting it upon a game that definitely wasn't. I always nickname/get attached to all my Pokémon anyway, so it's essentially just overlapping my usual experience with a poorly balanced, less fair, substantially more stressful version of Darkest Dungeon...

I haven't even had a death yet and every single battle is like watching six of your friends playing russian roulette. It's making me unreasonably upset. I'm starting to suspect I'm actually not cut out for this...

[RekkaAtsuma]

On the topic of Nuzlockes... I just started one (together with a friend who's doing most of the actual playing) for the first time last week.

Initial impressions are... why would anyone do this

I thought it would be fun being forced to use Pokémon you normally wouldn't, having restrictions, giving each individual more meaning...

But. I mean. I play a lot of games with permadeath, and... it turns out there's a big difference between playing a game designed with permadeath in mind and foisting it upon a game that definitely wasn't. I always nickname/get attached to all my Pokémon anyway, so it's essentially just overlapping my usual experience with a poorly balanced, less fair, substantially more stressful version of Darkest Dungeon...

I haven't even had a death yet and every single battle is like watching six of your friends playing russian roulette. It's making me unreasonably upset. I'm starting to suspect I'm actually not cut out for this...

I too always nick-name my pokemon and get attached to them. I also play a lot of Fire Emblem, which before casual-mode, always had perma-death.
And I've never nuzlocked, nor will i ever. I am envious of the diligence and determination those who can do a Nuzlocke have...but seriously...I just cannot do it.

[Nighthawk]

On the topic of Nuzlockes... I just started one (together with a friend who's doing most of the actual playing) for the first time last week.

Initial impressions are... why would anyone do this

I thought it would be fun being forced to use Pokémon you normally wouldn't, having restrictions, giving each individual more meaning...

But. I mean. I play a lot of games with permadeath, and... it turns out there's a big difference between playing a game designed with permadeath in mind and foisting it upon a game that definitely wasn't. I always nickname/get attached to all my Pokémon anyway, so it's essentially just overlapping my usual experience with a poorly balanced, less fair, substantially more stressful version of Darkest Dungeon...

I haven't even had a death yet and every single battle is like watching six of your friends playing russian roulette. It's making me unreasonably upset. I'm starting to suspect I'm actually not cut out for this...

I too always nick-name my pokemon and get attached to them. I also play a lot of Fire Emblem, which before casual-mode, always had perma-death.
And I've never nuzlocked, nor will i ever. I am envious of the diligence and determination those who can do a Nuzlocke have...but seriously...I just cannot do it.

I'm with you on that one, though mainly because I'm the type who can't do self-imposed challenges. If I want to challenge myself with a game, the game has to have the challenge mode built in or modded in. I will use everything a game puts at my disposal to overcome obstacles.

That said, the idea of Nuzlockes is highly entertaining to me. Randomizer Nuzlockes especially, because you could end up with some really wacky teams.

[Sirus]

All this talk of nuzlockes is making me want to revive my LP... 

[umiman]

On the topic of Nuzlockes... I just started one (together with a friend who's doing most of the actual playing) for the first time last week.

Initial impressions are... why would anyone do this

I thought it would be fun being forced to use Pokémon you normally wouldn't, having restrictions, giving each individual more meaning...

But. I mean. I play a lot of games with permadeath, and... it turns out there's a big difference between playing a game designed with permadeath in mind and foisting it upon a game that definitely wasn't. I always nickname/get attached to all my Pokémon anyway, so it's essentially just overlapping my usual experience with a poorly balanced, less fair, substantially more stressful version of Darkest Dungeon...

I haven't even had a death yet and every single battle is like watching six of your friends playing russian roulette. It's making me unreasonably upset. I'm starting to suspect I'm actually not cut out for this...

It's because Nuzlockes aren't really for the average Pokemon player. They're meant for people who know way too much about the game so they have to enforce handicaps on themselves.

If you're still in the state where you need to look up what type is effective against what or even if you're in the state where you don't really know what the next gym type really is, then Nuzlocke runs will just feel like hell to you.

I mean, when an experienced player is forced to use a Ratata in a Nuzlocke game, then he already has the movesets and minimum levels required set out vaguely in his mind. He knows which moves are trash, what is needed, and so on. You kinda need to be at that state if you wanna have an easy time.

But I'm not sure most people want to have an easy time with Nuzlockes.

---

Incidentally, my restrictions when I play a Pokemon game is always:
1. No legendaries
2. Once a Pokemon is fully evolved, it goes in the pc
3. No potions or anything else that the trainer can use in battle
4. No free switch out on a Pokemon faint (this is such a massive cheat honestly)

I don't like Nuzlockes because there's way too much grinding involved.

[DeKaFu]

I'm slightly insulted by your insinuation that I haven't had all the type match-ups memorized for over 15 years.

The issue isn't not knowing what to expect, it's more that the game uses the kind of randomness (e.g. critical hits that cut through stat-ups) that fits comfortably into the game as intended but is rather complete bullshit if it can lead to you losing a Pokémon permanently to bad luck. Of course the correct strategy is "just don't fight things that can randomly crit you to death on turn 2" but in the early game where we're at right now, that's pretty much everything. Friggin' terrifying Lillipups...

...Not that I'm complaining that it's hard, as that's what you're signing up for. I'm just complaining that it's emotionally harrowing and my heart can't take it.

I used to do single-type challenge runs back in the original Pokémon Red, which were much more my cup of tea. Beating the game including the elite four using only bug types or poison types gave a similar sort of interestingly limited Pokémon pool (bug-types only gave you a team of five unless you could trade) while still forcing you to use your knowledge of movesets etc. to try to make your team not suck against their extremely blatant weaknesses. No idea how well the challenge would hold up today, though, since the pool of available Pokémon of each type has... grown a little since then. I suspect it would be much easier now.

All this talk of nuzlockes is making me want to revive my LP... 

Please do! I enjoyed reading it.

[Rolan7]

Pokemon GO gyms went up last night! More info when I'm actually home and have played with it some. The passive deterioration seems much faster than expected, so I'm most excited about gyms I can reach every couple days (with a short walk, off-road gyms are my specialty) (:

Gyms give more items if your team is in control, like ingress kinda.

[DeKaFu]

I was actually planning on posting to complain about how the coin rewards in the new system are completely ruined.
I spent about 2.5 hours last night fighting my two local gyms (taking down one with 5 max-motivation pokes, and one with only 1 'mon but doing it twice because it got taken back in between). The new system is actually quite fun to use!
But.
In the end I got a Pokémon into each and they stayed in for about 3.5 hours, which is about the most you'll ever get around here even overnight. The number of coins I earned from the whole thing?

6.

...In the old system, I could get 10-20 coins a day with maybe 30 minutes of effort, so. >_>

But!
I just checked, and apparently as of maybe 2 hours ago, they totally rebalanced it again. Coins are now accumulated 6x as quickly, and the max per day was halved to 50. If that had been in place last night, I guess I would've earned approximately 42 coins instead of 6.
That's awesome. I've never once gotten 40 coins in one day since I started playing. The future's looking bright again!

(Also, apparently raids are now available to players over level 31, but they're only happening at sponsered gyms, so... Canada's not invited yet, it seems. >_>)

[Sirus]

Eh, unless they change the core gameplay of PoGo to more closely resemble the main games (eg: train the Pokemon you catch, rather than catch a few dozen Pidgeys to feed to your best Pidgey) I doubt I'll be returning to it. Glad to know that they didn't just abandon it though.

[Rolan7]

Yeah, I doubt the core gameplay is going to change that much ):  This is, at its core, Ingress with Pokemon.  Ingress 2.0 perhaps, designed with their observation of Ingress, and an opportunity to make much better mechanics.  But still more Ingress than Pokemon.

I am super relatively happy with this latest update, though.  I haven't done a raid yet, but they seem fairly common (maybe too much?) I just have sunburn and extreme travel fatigue ATM.  I like that gyms give items now, and I'm oddly excited about the idea that visiting a gym enough times will give some sort of bonus.  Like an affection-meter for gyms (leveling up the... "badge"?)  I have no idea how that's working and would appreciate an explanation, all I know so far is that spinning gyms for items gives me a confusing gym-badge notification.

Honestly though, I would understand moving Pokemon GO talk to the undead Ingress thread, if it ever becomes a problem here.  I think it's okay though for now.

[DeKaFu]

I just did my first two raids today! First was a level 2 raid (Exeggutor) and second was a level 3 raid (Gengar).

The Exeggutor had me and four other people and melted in about 30 seconds under the onslaught. As prizes, I got 2 Golden Razz berries and 1 Rare Candy.
Golden Razz berries are I guess just much better Razz berries? But Rare Candies are wildcard candy you can apparently give to any Pokémon to change it to their type (haven't tried it yet). It gave me 9 Premier balls to try to catch it with and I got it on the second ball, though it ended up being inferior to my existing Exeggutor...

The Gengar was me + two other level 30+ trainers, and it actually took a few minutes and ate through half my team (including a high level Blissey). Don't think I could've handled it solo. Got 5 more Rare candies, plus a Fast TM! Now I need to figure out who to use it on...
Got something like 11 balls to catch the Gengar with, but flubbed half my throws and it popped out of the rest then ran away. RIP.

I have no idea how that's working and would appreciate an explanation, all I know so far is that spinning gyms for items gives me a confusing gym-badge notification.

Main difference seems to be the number of items you get from the gym. With a plain badge you get 2 items every time, bronze gives 3, silver gives 4 every time (making it already better than a regular stop on average). Gold presumably gives 5, but the experience required to reach it is pretty insane. Not even sure anyone has one yet to confirm.
Anyway, that's in addition to the +1 bonus item you get if it's held by your own team. So with a silver gym badge and a gym your colour, you basically have a Pokéstop that consistently gives out 5 items every 5 minutes.
This has actually made a massive difference in my town... I'm hitting my item bag limit for the first time in months, despite all the potions and revives I'm burning on the new gyms.

The badge level might also possibly have some effect on raid rewards? I have no idea.

As an aside, it's not really stated anywhere official but there's reports that feeding berries to gym Pokémon (including those belonging to other players) has a small chance of giving you candy for that Pokémon's species. So by putting rare stuff in there, you're potentially helping your teammates out! That's pretty cool.

[umiman]

I though I'd highlight another interesting new Pokemon that might have gone under the radar.

This guy:



Togedemaru.

It's a really interesting Pokemon I think, that kinda goes at odds with its really boring appearance. I mean, seriously. Look at that thing. Okay, if you didn't know what Pokemon that is... can you tell me anything about it? Have a guess.

Spoiler: "Here's the answer:" (click to show/hide)

It's electric / steel, and is a durable but fast physical attacker.

Did you guess right?

I actually really like this little bugger. So let's go over what makes him interesting:

---

1. Typing

Electric / steel is pretty frigging good when it comes to typing. Sure, it has big weaknesses to some really common attacks in fighting, fire, and the instadeath to anything ground but it's resistant to so... so much. Not to mention it has great abilities in Lightning Rod or Sturdy, which help even more.

Shit is hard to kill man.

---

2. Stats

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That's pretty good looking isn't it? It's fast, yet fairly durable, with good attack damage too. To give a comparison, we can compare this thing to Pachirisu, also known as the Pokemon that did this in the Pokemon World Championships in 2014.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Basically this thing is only very slightly less tanky than Pachirisu but is slightly faster, has a teeny bit more health, and does WAY more damage. Also this thing will eat that Draco Meteor for breakfast. Doesn't even need the sitrus berry.

---

3. Moveset

Oh, here comes the fun part. This is why I brought this bugger up in the first place. His moveset.

So just like many other ultra annoying electric types, this guy has Nuzzle for the guaranteed paralyze. But wait, he goes one step further. He also has a unique move called Zing Zap.

Zing Zap inflicts damage and has a 30% chance of making the target flinch. Power 80, Accuracy 100%

You see where the fun happens now doesn't it? Yup. Paralyze, then zing zap forever. Time for the enemy to roll that dice and see if he can even move.

But wait, there's more. "You want to stunlock the enemy more" you say? Okay, here, take a fake out as well. Combine it with that lovely 98 attack stat.

Not enough? Wow, you are greedy? It's not enough that you have three moves to stun the opponent? Okay, here take an encore too. You can combine that with your 96 speed stat.

STILL NOT ENOUGH?! YOU WANT TO PARALYZE YOUR OPPONENT'S SOUL TOO? Okay, take swagger.

I think this guy has the potential to be one of the most annoying things you'll fight in Pokemon. Right up there with prankster Liepard. It has more moves too. It has two forms of protect in protect and spiky shield. It even has wish for healing, if you can believe it. Also u-turn.

Hell, if you were feeling baller you could turn it into a thorns set of some kind with rocky helmet and its iron barbs ability.

---

I don't think it's a major gamechanging overpowered Pokemon, but I think Togedemaru is interesting enough to warrant attention. Hell, it's so unknown that Smogon seems to have kinda forgotten about it right now.

So if you see this guy show up in your battles, now you know what to expect. It's a one-man cheese-machine.

[Akura]

Ground is pretty much a hard counter to that. Rhyperior will crush it. The only Steel-type move that Togedemaru can learn is Gyro Ball, which would be hilariously ineffective against Rhyperior(especially if it has it's HA, Solid Rock).

[umiman]

Ground is pretty much a hard counter to that. Rhyperior will crush it. The only Steel-type move that Togedemaru can learn is Gyro Ball, which would be hilariously ineffective against Rhyperior(especially if it has it's HA, Solid Rock).

Grass is pretty much a hard counter to that. Tangrowth will crush it. The only Poison-type attack that Rhyperior can learn is poison jab, which would be hilariously ineffective against Tangrowth(especially if it has it's HA, Regenerator).

[Culise]

And this is why Pokemon work on teams of 3-6, depending on format.  Togedemaru always made me think of Assault Vest for durability, too, since Nuzzle means you don't actually need to rely on Thunder Wave.  Losing Spiky Shield can hurt, though, especially since it's not like it has particularly impressive bulk in either case.  Togedemaru hits fast and hits hard for a Pikachu-clone.  If not for the fact that Electric/Steel is wonderfully defensive as a type combo, I wouldn't call it durable at all due to defensive stats that make Lopunny (just regular, not mega) or Lumineon look tough.  That said, Electric/Steel is indeed wonderfully defensive as a type combo; only six of the 18 types out there are more than ineffective, of which half are super-effective (especially ground, as noted), and an outright immunity against Poison and paralysis.