I've been playing this game when I have time/the servers allow. It's actually really fun and pretty balanced for a freenium game! I think it's the perfect game for me because it rewards players that play it in small sessions throughout the day. The pack system is really cool, giving you several avenues for collecting a bunch of different figures. I'm closing in on 1700 on the ladder, but I'm sure there will eventually be players that have the best cards in tandem with the best figures as opposed to right now where everyone is kind of just learning how to play.
My tips for anyone getting started:
- Any figure that has a large section of their attack wheel as useful purple attacks will be your friend. Seriously, I've been using Spinarak that has over 50% of its wheel as a 2 star purple move Constrict (applies Block to the opponent) and a Poison-inducing move and it is an extremely reliable goal keeper.
- Mobility is big! I've fought a ton of guys on the ladder that clearly spent about 50 bucks on the game already with a team of legendaries that can only move 1-2 spaces. People like this are very easy to beat because the nature of the game is getting your piece to the end, not winning battles! 3 space movers are really vital, both offensively and defensively, and I only really like having 1 one space mover as a piece to secure my side of the field throughout the game.
- Pokemon with powerful Gold attacks are very useful to have around. The game's battle system works on a kind of rock paper scissors dynamic where purple beats white, gold beats purple, and white and gold will be judged based on attack power. The reason purple is so good is because, aside from the pikachu you start out with, hardly anybody runs Pokemon with Gold attacks. Anything Gold move with a power >40 is above average in my opinion.
- Never forget you have the ability to defeat a Pokemon by surrounding it on all sides with allied figures. This is explained in the tutorial, but I rarely see people on ladder effectively using it. It's a shame, too, because it's probably one of the most important mechanics in the game.
My team right now is Pikachu / Bulbasaur / Electabuzz / Spinarak / Tropius / Butterfree. Out of the 6, I wish I had better replacements for Bulbasaur and Butterfree, but they're pretty decent. I haven't spent any money on the game and I have almost 4 rows of figures now, so maybe I'll see if I missed anything super viable on there.
Oh, I'm also getting close to being able to buy my second sextouple pack with how huge the login bonuses have been for gems. My first ex pull out of it was a Snorlax EX and it sucks. It has a 120 power move, but it can only move one space and it has a purple that includes self-inducing sleep. Pretty disappointing D:
