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I have a Hundo and some 98 Garchomps, so mostly need energy there. Gallade probably will be more for XL's than raid practicality if his moves stay the same but dude's a favorite of mine regardless.
If all this is true it'll be the first month ever where mega raids are legitimately more exciting than tier 5 raids, all month. Well, except Genesect I guess but only since it's such an easy duo.
I want to try PvP so the Swords of Justice are definitely notable for me (Cobalion and Virizion are big for UL), plus Terrakion if it has Sacred Sword is really really good for raid Fighting.
Getting Smolliv was almost annoying. Only ran into 3 on my walk, one of them ran away...but thankfully I got the other 2. Only really needed one, anyway.
Barcelona's go safari starts tomorrow so hopefully Skiddo hunting goes better then.
There DID finally have 2 Go Skiddos show up in Home but one wants a Raikou and the other a (very specificalyl leveled) Zapdos and its like nah I'm just gonna way for Barcelona
Not loving the "evolve Smoliv fully" collection challenge in tandem with Smoliv being an incredibly rare spawn. I've used Leppa Berries on all the ones I've seen and it's barely enough to evolve it once.
In general I don't like being compelled to evolve Pokemon. I prefer to wait until I have an individual I actually want to evolve, like a hundo or a shiny. It's especially annoying with the Paldea research requiring you to evolve a starter all the way because with starters you typically want to wait until their inevitable community day, otherwise you miss out on their special move. Luckily they were all abundant enough that I can evolve a trash one and not care.
At the moment, most people can't. It was in the recent Safari Zone event but afaik it's not spawning wild, or in eggs. It'll probably be added before long.
Ironic that they're making it such a rare species initially given how elusive it was pre-Gen IX.
Not loving the "evolve Smoliv fully" collection challenge in tandem with Smoliv being an incredibly rare spawn. I've used Leppa Berries on all the ones I've seen and it's barely enough to evolve it once.
In general I don't like being compelled to evolve Pokemon. I prefer to wait until I have an individual I actually want to evolve, like a hundo or a shiny. It's especially annoying with the Paldea research requiring you to evolve a starter all the way because with starters you typically want to wait until their inevitable community day, otherwise you miss out on their special move. Luckily they were all abundant enough that I can evolve a trash one and not care.
At the moment, most people can't. It was in the recent Safari Zone event but afaik it's not spawning wild, or in eggs. It'll probably be added before long.
Ironic that they're making it such a rare species initially given how elusive it was pre-Gen IX.
It's unfortunate that the Gen IX starters have slightly underwhelming shinies, but I'd rather get them shiny here than go through an egg gauntlet. However, I second that isn't that fun to have to evolve a pokemon that rarely spawns as is.
Currently you can only get it through special (ticketed, I believe, like Go Fests) 2-day City Safari events as one of the spawns. The first one was in Seoul, South Korea last week, the next one is tomorrow & saturday for Barcelona and the third one will be early in November (4th & 5th) in Mexico City.
Not loving the "evolve Smoliv fully" collection challenge in tandem with Smoliv being an incredibly rare spawn. I've used Leppa Berries on all the ones I've seen and it's barely enough to evolve it once.
In general I don't like being compelled to evolve Pokemon. I prefer to wait until I have an individual I actually want to evolve, like a hundo or a shiny. It's especially annoying with the Paldea research requiring you to evolve a starter all the way because with starters you typically want to wait until their inevitable community day, otherwise you miss out on their special move. Luckily they were all abundant enough that I can evolve a trash one and not care.
I did kind of guffaw at the evolve challenges for both Smoliv and Pumpkaboo (where it wants all 4 sizes) when I saw how rare Smoliv was. Like yeah good luck getting that one in 5 days. Pumpkaboo at least seemed to be super common so its issue was more getting the sizes, but that's still a lto to get.
The Paldea research is funny because of how long the stupid quest line is. I couldn't get to the 4th step anyway since I'd have to send 60 (?!) gifts, but the sheer amount of tasks needed is insane for the rewards you get.
Like looking at step 4, forget evolving into the final stage there is: 30km walking, 40 candies from walking (!) & Catch 400 pokemon (for 25 great balls! oh boy!) and the ultimate reward is another 900 exp and a starter encounter
Then there's step 5!
100 species of pokemon! 150 field tasks! 80km walking! All for...........900 exp and a Lucky Egg?!
You put all that work into this ridiculous 5-part quest line and the ultimate reward is that? The Master Ball questline going on at least has, like, a Master Ball in it and a ton of exp.
Slow burn tasks I can kind of get but jesus at least put some fun goodies at the end of it.
Yeah I switched to a buddy with a lower walking distance for the "earn 40 candies walking with your buddy" part of the research (my current buddy is Rayquaza because I'm grinding out that mega energy) but once I saw how pathetically underwhelming stage 5 was I switched it right back. Literally no reason to hurry to get to that.
Not loving the "evolve Smoliv fully" collection challenge in tandem with Smoliv being an incredibly rare spawn. I've used Leppa Berries on all the ones I've seen and it's barely enough to evolve it once.
In general I don't like being compelled to evolve Pokemon. I prefer to wait until I have an individual I actually want to evolve, like a hundo or a shiny. It's especially annoying with the Paldea research requiring you to evolve a starter all the way because with starters you typically want to wait until their inevitable community day, otherwise you miss out on their special move. Luckily they were all abundant enough that I can evolve a trash one and not care.
Smoliv seems decently common for me as someone making park outings, at least enough that I can fully evolve a Specimen without having Pinaped any catches. That said Megas give a bonus regular candy sometimes which probably helped there.
For the Paldea research, my solution was to pick Fuecoco, since Skeledirge is useful in PvP instead of raids, and in a surprise oddity, it doesn't want Blast Burn for such a role due to its best Fast Move being Incinerate (which already covers Fire Damage but is slow, while it wants two coverage moves) over the other two.
Getting Smolliv was almost annoying. Only ran into 3 on my walk, one of them ran away...but thankfully I got the other 2. Only really needed one, anyway.
Barcelona's go safari starts tomorrow so hopefully Skiddo hunting goes better then.
There DID finally have 2 Go Skiddos show up in Home but one wants a Raikou and the other a (very specificalyl leveled) Zapdos and its like nah I'm just gonna way for Barcelona
Yeah so I should have just done the Raikou when I saw it
Barcelona did have more Skiddo show up, but all of them for various legends of various hard to get languages. Also the fellow Go-Dex completionists are rabid, Skiddo went from a nobody to ask for to a huge surge in asks hunting for their own skiddos or trying to trick people into trading for them. Every single legend asking Go Skiddo I've seen crop up gets eaten alive
I eventually dug around and chain traded a spare Zygarde for a Chinese-Traditional Groudon to get a Skiddo, it was that fierce a battle.
Glad that Greavard, now confirmed, is in guaranteed research. NEed an easy lay up
I recently finished the master ball quest on main and alt accounts so I'm relieved it's done. I expect this to become a regular thing to do for each season, and while I see this as an opportunity for those that missed out, I'm rather burnt out on doing this and will likely take a break with my alts especially with the upcoming winter months when I prefer to be safe indoors and have limited opportunities otherwise.
Greavard was very simple to get, but while getting it I saw my progress on the Spiritomb quest (despite already getting a Go-marked) and decided to make an attempt to finish that out. Which I did, but jesus what an involved quest huh? I burned through pretty much all my berries and I had to learn the capture mechanics and burn through msot of my balls.
but I did get the Spiritomb. This should hopefully be handy for a future trade fodder if it comes down to it. Still, so many of these quest lines are so obnoxious; I'm glad the Halloween 2-parter isn't something I have to even look at. It's nice to just put the game down again between getting Home entries.
Wooper-P & Tadbulb in November. Wooper's a community day so that should be pretty easy to get; Tadbulb seems marked off as a "rare" encounter with Morelull so that could be a problem. It's really funny to compare the state of Gen 9 after what'll be 2 months vs the state of Gen 8 after 3 years, it's almost double the amount of Pokemon already.
Wonder if they might fast track Applin & Duraludon to go with Indigo Disk when it drops, though
And looks like leaks say Cetoddle in December, hopefully that one isn't thrown in raids or something.
The other December & (early?) January additions seem to be Gen 7 themed; Minior, Stakataka & Blacephalon. Minior hopefully gets a quest for it, but the other two I'll be hitting the GTS loops.
With Stakataka & Blacephalon, we might be getting close to Poipole, Type Null & Necrozma. Maybe we'll see the full set throughout the year? Poipole is probably going to be a quest when it does land...hopefully it's not too terrible to get, but I've got a few things I might be able to loop through on the GTS if it comes to it. Necrozma definitely just a raid exclusive so the GTS will be needed for that. Type Null who knows, but it'll probably be annoying for me no matter what.
Greavard was very simple to get, but while getting it I saw my progress on the Spiritomb quest (despite already getting a Go-marked) and decided to make an attempt to finish that out. Which I did, but jesus what an involved quest huh? I burned through pretty much all my berries and I had to learn the capture mechanics and burn through msot of my balls.
but I did get the Spiritomb. This should hopefully be handy for a future trade fodder if it comes down to it. Still, so many of these quest lines are so obnoxious; I'm glad the Halloween 2-parter isn't something I have to even look at. It's nice to just put the game down again between getting Home entries.
Wooper-P & Tadbulb in November. Wooper's a community day so that should be pretty easy to get; Tadbulb seems marked off as a "rare" encounter with Morelull so that could be a problem. It's really funny to compare the state of Gen 9 after what'll be 2 months vs the state of Gen 8 after 3 years, it's almost double the amount of Pokemon already.
Wonder if they might fast track Applin & Duraludon to go with Indigo Disk when it drops, though
And looks like leaks say Cetoddle in December, hopefully that one isn't thrown in raids or something.
The other December & (early?) January additions seem to be Gen 7 themed; Minior, Stakataka & Blacephalon. Minior hopefully gets a quest for it, but the other two I'll be hitting the GTS loops.
With Stakataka & Blacephalon, we might be getting close to Poipole, Type Null & Necrozma. Maybe we'll see the full set throughout the year? Poipole is probably going to be a quest when it does land...hopefully it's not too terrible to get, but I've got a few things I might be able to loop through on the GTS if it comes to it. Necrozma definitely just a raid exclusive so the GTS will be needed for that. Type Null who knows, but it'll probably be annoying for me no matter what.
It's possible Blacephalon and Stakataka are distributed via a Research before/in addition to appearing in Raids. I believe all 7 previous UBs had distributions in such, which most people remember due to the lower catch level making it easier/possible to get some relevant ones into PvP such as Buzzwole and Guzzlord. Conjecture on my part but I know all the UB's before didn't debut in literally a single rotation so maybe they do it again for these two.
It's possible Blacephalon and Stakataka are distributed via a Research before/in addition to appearing in Raids. I believe all 7 previous UBs had distributions in such, which most people remember due to the lower catch level making it easier/possible to get some relevant ones into PvP such as Buzzwole and Guzzlord. Conjecture on my part but I know all the UB's before didn't debut in literally a single rotation so maybe they do it again for these two.
checking around Nihilego, Buzzwole, Pheromosa & Xurkitree were all in Go-Fest Exclusive special research alongside their raids. There was another set of research for the set that was....also Go Fest exclusive.
Kartana, Celesteela & Guzzlord where available with the Eclipse timed research last year, but were already in raids.
Judging by this I assume if they're in a quest it'll be event exclusive alongside raids
Okay so someone on Reddit theorised that instead of doing Sinnoh Tour next year they'll do Unova Tour and y'know what, I buy this.
Particularly with the upcoming DLC likely to be Unova-centred, it'd be a neat tie-in.
Unova's finished now, it's just been leaked that Keldeo will likely be in Elite Raids in December, there's a fair few shinies still to drop... yeah. Could be, could be.
And if this means we FINALLY get shiny Victini, Meloetta, and/or Keldeo I'd be so happy.
Okay so someone on Reddit theorised that instead of doing Sinnoh Tour next year they'll do Unova Tour and y'know what, I buy this.
Particularly with the upcoming DLC likely to be Unova-centred, it'd be a neat tie-in.
Unova's finished now, it's just been leaked that Keldeo will likely be in Elite Raids in December, there's a fair few shinies still to drop... yeah. Could be, could be.
And if this means we FINALLY get shiny Victini, Meloetta, and/or Keldeo I'd be so happy.
I do wonder if they'd ever use Go as an avenue to release Shinies for the first time.
Like they get released so infrequently in their regular colors, and shiny releases clearly aren't the priority...but it feels very "brand priority" type thing where Go would only be allowed to release what the main games have released first.
I do wonder if they'd ever use Go as an avenue to release Shinies for the first time.
Like they get released so infrequently in their regular colors, and shiny releases clearly aren't the priority...but it feels very "brand priority" type thing where Go would only be allowed to release what the main games have released first.
Yeah I had this thought too, but it's a possibility that they make an exception. AFAIK Victini and Keldeo aren't in ScVi so they couldn't release them via an event, and it gives Go a pretty big coup that would definitely ignite a lot of interest and get people playing.
Okay so someone on Reddit theorised that instead of doing Sinnoh Tour next year they'll do Unova Tour and y'know what, I buy this.
Particularly with the upcoming DLC likely to be Unova-centred, it'd be a neat tie-in.
Unova's finished now, it's just been leaked that Keldeo will likely be in Elite Raids in December, there's a fair few shinies still to drop... yeah. Could be, could be.
And if this means we FINALLY get shiny Victini, Meloetta, and/or Keldeo I'd be so happy.
I'm doubtful they'd skip Sinnoh. Even if there's only a few shinies left to release, we're still missing Manaphy/Phione, Arceus, several Rotom forms (especially for anyone who never when to a GO fest), Pachirisu and Carnivine as regionals to be distributed, several Hisuian forms -- plenty to rope people in with. Even with DLC2 technically being in Unova, if there are BW remakes/Legends games in the pipeline I think it's more likely they'd hold off until next year to ride of that momentum (since they will almost certainly be a Fall 2024 or Winter 2025 release).
As for whether they'd release shinies in GO first, I can see why TPC might be inclined to say no, but at the same time GO also had shiny Mew and shiny Jirachi releases for the first time in decades, with no corresponding mainline series giveaways, so who knows.
I recently finished the master ball quest on main and alt accounts so I'm relieved it's done. I expect this to become a regular thing to do for each season, and while I see this as an opportunity for those that missed out, I'm rather burnt out on doing this and will likely take a break with my alts especially with the upcoming winter months when I prefer to be safe indoors and have limited opportunities otherwise.
I still need to grind out 34 raids... I have plenty of green passes from when it was worth spending coins on boxes, the obstacle is that I don't have as much easy access to gyms these days, and even when I've gone to the nearest city on the weekends the raids seem much rarer and more spread out than I feel like they used to be...
Yeah I had this thought too, but it's a possibility that they make an exception. AFAIK Victini and Keldeo aren't in ScVi so they couldn't release them via an event, and it gives Go a pretty big coup that would definitely ignite a lot of interest and get people playing.
If anything I think that they wouldn't want to give Go such an 'exclusive' that couldn't more directly tie into the current games; like Meltan/Melmetal, Roaming Gimmighoul, Vivillon postcards are all very "mutually beneficial". Sure there's various things that pop up in Go that can't currently go to one game or another (Hoopa comes to mind, it came out before SV iirc) but "first time shiny has ever been available" does feel like one they'd be a little more wanting both ways.
In that regard if they ever did do it, Shiny Meloetta maybe, since it is in SV?
As for whether they'd release shinies in GO first, I can see why TPC might be inclined to say no, but at the same time GO also had shiny Mew and shiny Jirachi releases for the first time in decades, with no corresponding mainline series giveaways, so who knows.
Still, those shinies were available and released before they were in Go so that situation is is more like how Diancie's Go appearence was the first one available for it at all since gen 6 (2016 for South Korea, 2015 for the rest of the world).
Tbh, the fact that they've basically skipped over Galar is what makes the prospect of skipping Sinnoh Tour much more likely. I really can't imagine that they drop three new mythicals at once. Even if we don't get every shiny from Sinnoh it's an almighty amount of content to just drop like that. The only alternative that seems likely to me is that they make the whole year Sinnoh-oriented; I thought that go fest this year would have mega Mewtwo and probably Magearna but perhaps it has Manaphy instead.
The Hoenn Tour earlier this year was disappointing IMHO especially when in years past we were able to evolve certain CD stuff and learn their special moves, not the Hoenn Pokemon this year, and while this was before the Remote Raid nerf a month later, it seemed the focus was on Primal raids for Groudon and Kyogre which did have their special moves at least but required a larger group to at least win the raid. Yes we would later teach Metagross and Salamence their CD moves for the GO Fest event this summer, but Swampert/Blaziken/Sceptile were still left out, so my alt still has a lucky hundo Groovyle awaiting it's opportunity to evolve without needing an elite charged TM.
I'm doubtful they'd skip Sinnoh. Even if there's only a few shinies left to release, we're still missing Manaphy/Phione, Arceus, several Rotom forms (especially for anyone who never when to a GO fest), Pachirisu and Carnivine as regionals to be distributed, several Hisuian forms -- plenty to rope people in with. Even with DLC2 technically being in Unova, if there are BW remakes/Legends games in the pipeline I think it's more likely they'd hold off until next year to ride of that momentum (since they will almost certainly be a Fall 2024 or Winter 2025 release).
As for whether they'd release shinies in GO first, I can see why TPC might be inclined to say no, but at the same time GO also had shiny Mew and shiny Jirachi releases for the first time in decades, with no corresponding mainline series giveaways, so who knows.
If they found the Hoenn Tour format successful financially, they have an opportunity to do it again with Sinnoh Tour using the Origin Forms and then Arceus's release. Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina are very solid PvP Pokemon in Master League, two have Signature moves to be debuted akin to PB and OP, and thematically they link to Arceus similar to the Primals heralding Mega Ray. Whether or not their Origin forms are superior in Go for the new ones, Candy for all of them is at a Premium since Dialga and Giratina especially are big tier presences in ML (and UL for Altered, which wants trading to lower its IVs and thus demands even more searching/catches)
Hoenn Tour only debuted a few new Pokemon to my knowledge (Diancie and Carbink) and mostly focused on Shinies for existing mons, so they could drop Manaphy/Phione as a Research, the Rotom forms and Hisuians in Eggs/Rotating Biome encounters, and then Arceus in raids with its various forms (and PLA as a big influence on recent Sinnoh content has the excuse of "Arceus has many Avatars, you're only seeing one/a few anyway" for the multitude of raids). Either Arceus will be locked to a form and multiple will need capture, or Arceus will be changeable but need a resource they'll want you to raid to get, be it energy, candy, or plates.
I finally, finally got a shiny Genesect this time around, destined for HOME if it gets added in the Indigo Disk. Well, unless I get another one, I will probably do some more raids since I still have 24 or so raids to do in the next 2 weeks...
Wooper day went well, got way more shinies than I really needed, as usual, but will fill out some slots on my living shiny dex. I really need to start releasing shinies, though, can't send them to HOME fast enough to trade away there and they are really taking up space.
The squirtle showcase was funny, not sure how niantic managed to mix that up.
Meanwhile, I got Paldean Wooper instantly and had enough candies to evolve it in Go before sending it over, because why not.
I also caught a shiny regular Wooper on that same walk, which was fun. I was kind of hoping to get a Shiny Paldean Wooper too but I didnt see one by the time I came back.
Now if I can just get lucky when Tadbulb drops tomorrow.
I finally, finally got a shiny Genesect this time around, destined for HOME if it gets added in the Indigo Disk. Well, unless I get another one, I will probably do some more raids since I still have 24 or so raids to do in the next 2 weeks...
Wooper day went well, got way more shinies than I really needed, as usual, but will fill out some slots on my living shiny dex. I really need to start releasing shinies, though, can't send them to HOME fast enough to trade away there and they are really taking up space.
The squirtle showcase was funny, not sure how niantic managed to mix that up.
People assume it was a default option since they mentioned in advance they canceled the Wooper Showcases. Most frequent assumption there is they still can't get Regional Variants to work in Showcases after the Growlithe ones, but they also couldn't/didn't remove the Showcase slot and so it went to the default.
Meanwhile, I got Paldean Wooper instantly and had enough candies to evolve it in Go before sending it over, because why not.
I also caught a shiny regular Wooper on that same walk, which was fun. I was kind of hoping to get a Shiny Paldean Wooper too but I didnt see one by the time I came back.
Now if I can just get lucky when Tadbulb drops tomorrow.
Does the Home Dex need you to record a Paldean Wooper with the Go Mark, or is it covered by sending a regular Go-Wooper and thus mainly needed Clodsire itself as a distinct species entry?
