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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

[Rolan7]

Heehee, they mad.  Good on you for not ragequitting or being bullied into quitting!

Pokemon GO is having Gible community day.  I don't know much about Gible, I think I've only gotten a few and from eggs, but I guess it's a ground dragon?  At least it isn't a flying insect that's inexplicably a ground dragon.  Anyway, ground/dragon seems like a very strong typing (as long as you don't go anywhere near ice of course).

Event is from 11AM to 5PM in your local time.

(Gible, not ghibli, doh.  I need to rewatch some anime...)

[Akura]

Pokemon GO is having Gible community day.  I don't know much about Gible, I think I've only gotten a few and from eggs, but I guess it's a ground dragon?  At least it isn't a flying insect that's inexplicably a ground dragon.  Anyway, ground/dragon seems like a very strong typing (as long as you don't go anywhere near ice of course).

Gible evolves into Gabite->Garchomp, a Ground/Dragon that's supposedly able to fly like a jet, yet none of its moves, type, or abilities have any relation to flying whatsoever. The only Flying-type move it could've ever learned(and no longer in Gen VIII) was Aerial Ace, which isn't a flight move, it's based off a sword technique. Garchomp is one of the ones I used for clearing post-game battle arenas.

[Telgin]

I caught a ton of gibles and ground them into candy to feed my garchomp and max its CP out for my trainer level at just shy of 4K.  Now I just need to start using it when fighting Team Rocket.

I'm a monster and even ground up 3 shiny gibles, since I didn't want another garchomp to have to power up.  Throwing mine away would mean throwing away a Best Buddy, and I couldn't do that.  That would be like Ash throwing away his pikachu.

[da_nang]

I just started a blind playthrough of Pokémon Reborn, and I did not expect it to be so affably evil.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Before I even got to the first gym, I'd already seen in-game torture of people, and evidence of murder/death of Pokémon. Oh, and swearing of course.

I'd gone in, knowing from third-party non-spoiler sources that the game was tougher to beat than most Pokémon games. So naturally, my power gaming instincts flared. I carefully selected my team for the first gym--a task made difficult by the lack of early-game locations. Worse, my Pokémon knowledge only extended up to Gen V; there was two additional generations in play here!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Add to that, the game had not been kind with money. Were it not for an early Pickup Meowth, I probably would have been screwed with so few pokéballs. Thankfully, an in-game TV program was, however, kind enough to give me a glimpse of what to expect, so I could plan accordingly.

There I was then, grinding my team's asses off, EV training and everything (hooray for visible EVs and IVs). We got slightly below the obedience level cap, just in case. Two days well spent, I thought.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And as I approached the gym, the gym leader boots me out and sends me out on the main quest.

"But I was readyyy..." I wailed. "You can't expect me to just-just go out there and fight some mooks and nobodies! I'm too close to the obedience level cap!" After a solemn moment, listening to the beat of the downtrodden Ward, watching the gym leader hustle her way off to the industrial building, I came to a grim realization. This was happening. "Fuck."

It was actually happening. "Fine!" I yelled. "I'll get the B-team!"

And off I went, dumping almost my entire party into the PC and grabbing what stragglers I had left that was decently leveled, had decent stats, and was a good distance away from the obedience level cap.

The B-team took casualties. Multiple times I ran back to the Pokécenter, shamefully not knowing that the quest companion was healing them after every battle (to be fair, there weren't any visual or sound effects indicating it).

I named my Pacha. the Pachirisu, the MVP of that segue. Probably because she already was on the A-team. That and the Electric Field effect that I later learned about. Let no-one ask what happened to the companion's Pokémon. They did fine spectating, don't mind the blood splatter...

In any case, in with the B-team, out with the A-team, and back to the gym!

An actual Pokémon gym inside a power plant. Led by someone just out of school/college with a love for explosives bordering on Pinkie Pie levels of enthusiasm.

People were working there. And battling there. And I was fairly certain battle effects were not just for show--pretty sure I had wrecked an old man's garden that I had promised to respect and take care of in a massively polluted city yesterday. Did I mention Reborn was evil?

First trainer out the gate brings a prelude of what's to come. Two Voltorbs. Just two. Nothing fancy.

I was unable to find any ground type Pokémon. Pacha, while possessing Volt Absorb was handy, was still just Level 17.

And those Voltorbs had Sonic Boom.

Fortunately, I came prepared for this. Thank you very much, TV! Out comes Scatman, the Grimer, armed with Mud Bombs and built like a tank.

And apparently, too much of a tank. HP he had to give, but power was lacking. Alas, Mud Bomb was a special move, and Peridot Ward was scarce on Special Attack EVs aside from one incredibly rare Cherubi.

Scatman went down on the second Voltorb.

But the rest of the team picked up the slack. From there it was smooth sailing to the leader.

The team healed up and was ready to go.

First out, Pacha the Pachirisu vs Minun. Electric Field is in play. Pacha charmed the fucker, but the fucker switched out for what I could only imagine to be some new-fangled version of Geodude.

Not to worry, I prepared for a Stunfisk. So out came Octavia the Dartrix. Geodude got one Rollout out before he was turned to swiss cheese by Razor Leaf. Geodude down.

Next up... the Voltorb. There wasn't any time to switch out; I knew what the leader had as her Ace. So Octavia blasted more Razor Leaves at the Voltorb until that ball stayed down. Dead? Let's go with that.

Octavia was nearly spent on HP, and here comes a new one: Oricorio. Some bird type, probably Electric/Flying. I had initially planned for an Emolga, but then Doofie the Bidoof had decided to evolve and become deadly allergic to electricity.

So instead I sent out Pacha again. Immune to Electric attacks, I took advantage of Oricorio's double typing and had Pacha smacking herself against the bird with Spark. The Electric Field boosted the damage by 50%. Oricorio got some Tail Wind out and then died.

Out comes Minun again. This time Pacha is wailing at it with Spark. Minun went down, and then presumably its sibling Plusle came out screaming bloody murder. Pacha Sparked again and--

Was that Lightning Rod? You motherfucker.

So there we were, DBZing it with Quick Attack. Too quick to follow with human eyes. But Pacha had levels. And Charm. Plusle went down with a bloody nose.

And then there was only her ace left. Her Electrode. I was told it had Sonic Boom, and Explosion.

This was it. What I had prepared for. I recalled Pacha and sent out Scatman the Grimer. Immediately hit by Sonic Boom.

No worries, I had planned for this. It was simple: Disable it and then prepare the Mud Bombs--

Charge Beam? Well I supposed it was like Zap Cannon, it would probably mi--

The Electric Field was charging it up.

The Electric Field.

Oh Shit.

Scatman is hit, more than half of his HP is now gone. I should've killed more Burmies--

Electrode Special Attack has gone up.

Oh Fuck.

Disable that shit! Fire the Mud Bombs!

Scatman goes into the red from another Sonic Boom, Electrode almost halfway.

Super potion time, no worries, we can still kill it. Third Sonic Boom brings Scatman down to 2/3.

A second Mud Bomb takes Electrode down to yellow. Victory is in sight.

Mud Bomb--Potion? Hey, that was my trick! Still in yellow though--

Charge Beam is no longer disabled. Fuuu--

Scatman was too far away from a kill without a critical hit. I needed a potion, but Charge Beam would fuck that up by increasing Special Attack. I couldn't out-potion this fucker. A Charge Beam would likely kill Scatman. There's no choice.

Send in Pacha the Pachirisu.

She got a small HP boost from the Charge Beam. Spark probably wouldn't cut it against pure Electric. Quick Attack it was.

Pacha got two off before she was Sonic Boomed off the battle court.

Fine, we'd dig in then. Send out the second tank, Hyacinth the Trubbish.

Electrode got a second potion while Hyacinth was spraying it down with Acid Spray. Again, an infuriating Special move.

Hyacinth survived the first Charge Beam, was dead on the second.

Espresso the Minccino? Dead, couldn't even get an attack out.

El Capitan the Meowth? Dead, wasn't fast enough.

Octavia the Dartrix who was coughing up blood on the sidelines from all the repeated Sonic Booms? Dead.

And that was the first gym.

Did I mention Reborn was evil?

Second round fared much the same way as the first with one small difference. I managed to lure out one of the potions. Scatman still went down and Pacha reduced Electrode into the red with Quick Attack.

As the leader was now without potions, it was all up to speed.

I sent out El Capitan the Meowth. I expected her to die.

Here came the Charge Beam...

It! Fucking! Missed!

El Capitan got one Bite in.

Electrode died, gone, reduced to atoms.

As I celebrated, the gym leader went to sleep.

That fucker. Almost forgot the badge.

It ain't much. Run-of-the-mill Cut license, +5 to the obedience level cap.

Hopefully, I'd get more of a choice on what Pokémon I could bring with me for the next gym.

I named El Capitan the Meowth as MVP. Not because of the Bite--that was pure luck--but because of her Pickup ability. I would not have been able to build this team on what little money I had. Fucker was working two jobs for the team.

So anyway, that happened.

[da_nang]

Pokémon Reborn Shenanigans, Update 2:

After a long session of grinding EVs, making a garden look more bombed than WWII France, and utterly exterminating the local wildlife population, I finally had a decent set of 'mons for the next challenge: ZEL, and Gym Leader Florinia afterwards.

Spoiler: ZEL (click to show/hide)

Before the grinding session, ZEL was basically unbeatable. That Tangrowth fucked my old team like some brutal virgin tentacle hentai. Levels played part of the problem; most of the team was still below level 20. Lack of suitable type matching was another.

The biggest reason for failure, however, was that Tangrowth had an absolutely insane Defense stat. Special Attack EVs, I learned, could only be earned from Cherubis at the time, which only have a 10% encounter rate during the day and about 30% during the morning. However, I'm not a morning person.

Naturally, the hands were applied to the face.

Couple the stats with STAB Acid Spray and STAB Mega Drain, you ain't killing this Tangrowth with Attack. Not with the Pokémon available. Not with them below level 25. Not unless you got some unholy, accurate Screech. That fucker will cut through your Special Defense like wet tissue paper in no time.

The new team, however, was built specifically for it. Hyacinth the Trubbish returned, armed with her own goddamn STAB Acid Spray, and built like a speedy tank. Scatman the Grimer returned as well, to Disable the Acid Spray.

Stolas the Hoothoot got tired of being weak (or tired of the riffraff filling up the PC), so he got some dumbbells, committed xenocide, and took on his role as a Noctowl Prince. Octavia the Dartrix took a vacation in the PC, though. She was too vulnerable and I must protecc the Owlet. She got some training in though, even got to (reluctantly) meet Stella the Shiny Hoothoot.

Batsy (Fluffentuft the Magnificent), the Woobat on super probation, suddenly had a flock of Woobats join her in the PC (don't mind the crushed Pokéballs). She got to briefly meet the new member of the team: Moonshine, the blissfully Unaware Swoobat. Who knew it was such a pain to find an Unaware Woobat with good IVs? At least I now had a decently large breeding stock for the future.

An-Rek the Noibat finally got her moment to shine. As a precursor to a Special Attack sweeper, she killed many a Cherubi in the wee hours of the day.

She was, however, to be outshone by the last member of the team: Hela the xenocidal Shiny Beautifly, who now boasts the largest Special Attack stat in the team.

The plan against ZEL was simple: Scatman was to Disable the Acid Spray, Hyacinth was to hose Tangrowth down with her own Acid Spray, and then everyone else was just to pile on with the Special Attack. It worked exceptionally well, only losing Hyacinth and Hela.

Spoiler: Florinia (click to show/hide)

I had been told Florinia was going to be a bitch (thanks in-game TV). A Cradily that had been sold as Grass type with Sandstorm Stall BS. In fact, Florinia's whole team was said to be built around stalling, weather, and terrain. Naturally, I feared some kind of Sand Veil evasion headache, coupled with (Toxic) Spikes, parafusion madness, and evil terrain witchcraft.

I tried to build my team accordingly with type matching, Swift, Foresight, et al. However, with the obedience level cap coming up, and a few new moves I couldn't pass up, I decided to wing it.

Which is to say I sent Hela back into the PC and brought out Octavia, who was at max level. Bug/Flying didn't seem fitting. I had expected some kind of rock moves involved, and Octavia could handle those a lot better.

The strategy was simple: Hyacinth was to Toxic Spikes the shit out of Florinia's team, then everyone was to overpower the opposition with sheer force. Poison moves, Flying moves, whatever.

It worked far better than it should have.

The stalling was virtually non-existent, with Nature Power fucking up Hyacinth and Scatman. Nature Power also hit flying types, it seemed, even when it acted like a Ground move.

But then Stolas showed up and he fucking murdered 'mon after 'mon with a spree of Echoed Voice. Literally shouting them all to death, while horrible poison was eating Florinia's team. Not even Florinia's Ferroseed could survive the onslaught of the Owl Prince's powerful voice.

Stolas eventually went down from exhaustion, but the damage was done. The rest was cleanup.

And then I spent a few hours on Voltorb Flip in the Onyx Arcade, because fuck the slots. Got myself a Slugma (Flame Body for breeding time), a male Nidoran, and a Shinx.

Spoiler: Oh, and I caught this thing. RNG giveth... (click to show/hide)

[None]

Shiny Tornadus, get! First ever shiny encountered and caught in the wild in my life- all my RNG went to getting Pokerus, uhm, three four times separately.

The catch here is that the Tornadus is on the Volt White 2 romhack and it's defaulted to the Revealed form, so I'm gonna have to hit it with the pokemon save manager to legalize it for future use. There's also a chance that it just spawns in shiny, I know that's a thing some romhacks do, so my joy may be somewhat unfounded.

Still, if it wasn't, accidentally catching a shiny is pretty swell, gotta say.

[None]

The wild Shiny Pineco used Self-Destruct!

[Nighthawk]

So, uh, Pokemon Unite happened not long ago on the Switch. I dunno how many people care, since it's a MOBA, but I've been playing it and having a lot of fun, actually. And that's coming from someone who has actively avoided MOBAs and has seriously mixed feelings about Pokemon.

Whether the game lives on to be anything more than a cash-grab, it's hard to say at this point. You can already throw a bunch of money at it to increase held item levels for small stat boosts, so it's... kind of pay to win? But eh. I'm just enjoying queueing up with my friends, spamming Rollout with Wigglytuff and laughing as I bowl people over repeatedly.

[Akura]

Took a look at that one a week ago. Can't really play it at work - the vast majority of time I play my Switch - since I don't have internet access there. Not a fan of MOBAs either. Also, Tencent is involved with it and that makes me a bit wary.

[MrRoboto75]

Instant slowbro main right here

[Nighthawk]

Instant slowbro main right here

He really is a bro. I've seen some skilled Slowbros turn Gengar into a floating pinata right as he's about to assassinate half the team, thus saving everyone's bacon. It's pretty awesome.

[Akura]

The Gen 4 remakes dropped the other day. Looks like they kept/brought back at some of the features from the original, like the Underground.

Still, not feeling much up to dumping $60(or $120 for both) right now, especially how disappointed I was with Sword/Shield. The total lack of interest in that Sword LP I did/gave up on didn't help with the disappointment.

[MrRoboto75]

NGL as a kid D/P was my least favorite the first time around.

[None]

Same. Didn't realize how good we had it with RSE- berries, locations with weird braille puzzles, mixing records to trade catchphrases and secret bases, oogh. DDPT came along and slowed it all down. Didn't touch another mainline pokemon game until I bought a 3ds and was gifted Pokemon Y from family.

DPPT did lots of cool things it didn't get a lot of credit for, in hindsight, and the Renegade Platinum romhack is a particular treat if you want to revisit the region with a few modern amenities and a challenge fitting for grown adults.

I'd kinda like to know how the remakes handle Dexit, speaking strictly as a non-Switch-owning outsider.

[Culise]

I loved Gen 4 and Platinum, so I'm enjoying it so far.  It's *very* close to the original DP story, though, so if you didn't like it then, you probably won't like it now.  All of the main story beats from getting your Pokemon onward have been from the DP story so far, no sign of Charon or Looker, available Pokemon and encounter charts are based on DP rather than Pt, and so forth.  Otherwise, it's a huge nostalgia-fest in both the big ways and even in little touches (the battle cut-ins and starts are basically straight from the originals before shifting to a panning camera like modern games, f'rex).  Also, the town map tells me Battle Park instead of Battle Frontier is in the not-Kurils, which is unfortunate but after ORAS, unsurprising.

Gameplay, I'm not convinced about the Contest changes (one-button rhythm game instead of the original type with moves), and the tile-based layouts sometimes are a touch finicky with the analog stick's free movement (D-pad movement does lock to the tiles just like older games).  Otherwise, HMs are gone entirely: everything's now TMs, which are breakable again, and while you can use former-HM moves just as you could in the original, the Poketch also has a new app that lets you call in free HM help from wild Pokemon once you find the TM and get the badge.  Live PC access in the field is surprisingly convenient when leveling, but speaking of leveling, it's far too easy to get horribly over-leveled even with what I suspect are EXP rubber-banding features.  An EXP Plus-alike (half-EXP to all Pokemon in the party) seems to be always on and I haven't been able to find a way to turn it off in the game options or item screen yet.  Combined with my penchant for catching everything in the Grand Underground where wild Pokemon level based on badges in multiples of 10, I ended up rolling over the third and fourth gyms with Torterra. 

EDIT:

I'd kinda like to know how the remakes handle Dexit, speaking strictly as a non-Switch-owning outsider.

Looking it up, Sinnoh's national dex is the same as in the original: all 493 Pokemon from Generations 1-4 should be in (either available, tradable, or coded in for future events), and as far as I can tell without spoiling myself, nothing else (absent patches).

EDIT 2:
Having beaten the Elite Four and Champion and entered the post-game, some additional thoughts:
1.

Spoiler: Elite Four/Champion spoilers, for anyone who missed Gen 4 (or the champion's appearances in almost every gen since) (click to show/hide)

Heavens, I forgot just how rough the Sinnoh Elite Four and especially Cynthia could be.  That even includes Flint's fire-hot DP team with a whole 2 Fire type Pokemon (and Lopunny).  Flint's Minimize/Baton Pass tactics are still just as entertaining as they were in Gen 4, and it's kind of embarrassing how effective of a wallbreaker Lucian's Medicham was against my team.  And then there's Cynthia...I was still terribly overleveled due to how the game handed out EXP like not-especially-rare candy, but it was a closer shave than I would have expected due to lack of proper EV/nature training.  Amusingly, it was her Flame Orb/Marvel Scale Milotic that gave me fits rather than her Garchomp, because my Electric coverage was on solely the physical side.

Also, the Elite Four and Cynthia get their Platinum teams on subsequent rematches, so that's also a thing.

2. Can confirm that Battle Park is not an inaccuracy on the town map: they did use the DP Battle Park instead of the full Platinum Battle Frontier.  They do have all sorts of things to make training Pokemon easier, though: Bottle Caps to maximize IVs, Ability Capsules and Ability Patches to switch Pokemon abilities to their standard or hidden abilities, and Mints to change Pokemon natures.  I do so still wish we had the Battle Frontier to let us use all of these lovely tools in more places, though.  Heavens, I would even *pay* for it (eventually); I did once already with Platinum, after all, and DLC at least is cheaper than the full remakes were. 

3. Full gym rematches also returned even if the Platinum Battleground did not.  Roark drops by to call you out on behalf of everyone when you get the national dex. 

Ultimately, I suppose my opinion is unchanged: for better and for worse, it hews very closely to the original Diamond and Pearl games, without even taking much from Platinum.  Other than a few minor details like easier HMs, gym rematches, fairy types, and battle speed (which isn't saying much, considering the originals were slower than a Sassy Shuckle with a Lagging Tail), it remains not far removed from the original games it remade.  The contest change does still irritate me a bit, though; I liked the appeals stage in Gen 3 and 4, and I liked that it had been kept in ORAS.  Ultimately, what you saw then is more or less what you get.  If you have DPPt from Gen 4 (legally or otherwise), you won't miss much by sticking with the DS.  If you want all of the Pokemon from Gen 4 or earlier on the Switch, if you missed Gen 4 and don't wish to emulate, or if you just want to see them in shiny 3D without a Wii and Battle Revolution, BDSP might be a viable option.