Puzzle Page

By Level 51. Art by Fatecrashers.
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porycube

Hm? What's this? A little scrap of paper appears to have fallen out of your copy of The Smog! There are some pretty confusing sentences scribbled on this piece of paper. You do your best to make them out:

Exhausting again? (8)
Ageless French cheese (4)
Something not in the haze? (4)
Fear about prices (4)
Healthy source of water (4)

Huh! That was weird. You crumple up the scrap of paper and focus your attention on the rest of the page:

Welcome to our special 40th issue edition of the Puzzle Page here at The Smog! As always, we're open to feedback; if there's some type of puzzle you'd like to see included in the next issue, or if you have a gripe with this issue's puzzles, feel free to send a VM to Level 51 or air your opinion in the feedback poll or release thread.

In honor of The Smog's 40th issue, we've added some extra goodies for those of you who have had a far too easy time steamrolling through our puzzles from previous issues, so you can look forward to an extra tier of parameter puzzles and a bonus mystery sound! Before that, however, it's time for another round of congratulations to our astute puzzlers who rose to the top last issue.

First off, congratulations to the three users who actually submitted entries for the parameter puzzles from last year! While most of you evidently had a pretty hard time, ethan06 once again came out on top, with a perfect score of 15 out of 15! Next in line were xfix and ILRB, with scores of 14 and 12, respectively. The other two users to win the prize of a custom title are The Ordinary and MadMunky20k, who demonstrated their aural abilities in a pretty tough edition of the mystery sounds. Finally, let's not forget PriestLee, who was the first to submit a completely correct crossword grid, earning themselves a custom avatar on Pokémon Showdown!

Parameter Puzzles

Your challenge for these questions is to obtain the given list of Pokémon from the "/dexsearch" command on Pokémon Showdown! using the correct number of parameters as shown! Note that "all" does not count as a parameter and that the exclusions mentioned are included in the total number of parameters. Can you figure out which parameters were used to obtain these results?

Simply type "/dexsearch" on Pokémon Showdown! for a quick introduction to the command. The first three users to send in all 15 correct answers will earn themselves a custom title on the Smogon forums, failing which the three users with the highest scores will earn these custom titles instead!

The fourth level of parameter puzzles is a recent addition, so I guess an explanation is in order. What these puzzles do is combine multiple dexsearch results into a single list, requiring you to reverse engineer the sets and the parameters used to define those sets. For example, suppose I had a puzzle that looked like this:

Eventually, I'd find that the answer would be a combination of {Follow Me, Nuzzle}, which gives Pachirisu, Pikachu, Raichu, and Smeargle, and {Run Away, U-turn}, which gives Aipom, Furret, Pachirisu, Raticate, Rattata, and Sentret. Note that even though Pachirisu appears in both sets of results, it is only shown once. Furthermore, the parameters don't have to be split evenly between the sets—you could see puzzles combining a set of 1 parameter and a set of 3 parameters! Good luck—you'll need it!

  1. Level 1: Simple – the only parameters used here will be moves!
    1. Arceus, Lugia, Miltank, Smeargle, Sneasel, Weavile (2 parameters)
    2. Avalugg, Blastoise, Drilbur, Excadrill, Smeargle, Squirtle, Torkoal, Wartortle (2 parameters)
    3. Exeggcute, Exeggutor, Ninetales, Nuzleaf, Shiftry, Smeargle, Vulpix (2 parameters)
    4. Amaura, Aurorus, Dialga, Heliolisk, Mew, Smeargle, Zekrom (3 parameters)
  2. Level 2: Moderate – parameters used here may include moves, abilities, and types!
    1. Entei, Weavile (2 parameters)
    2. Accelgor, Leavanny, Pinsir, Sewaddle, Swadloon (2 parameters)
    3. Banette, Gothita, Gothitelle, Gothorita, Shuppet, Stantler, Wigglytuff (2 parameters)
    4. Duskull, Lunatone, Solrock (3 parameters)
  3. Level 3: Insane – parameters used here may include moves, abilities, types, colors, and exclusions!
    1. Axew, Flygon, Fraxure, Rayquaza, Vibrava, Zygarde (2 parameters)
    2. Rufflet, Smeargle, Togekiss, Togetic, Volcarona (3 parameters)
    3. Bagon, Castform, Dragalge, Lugia, Masquerain, Salamence, Shelgon, Smeargle (2 parameters, including 1 exclusion)
    4. Buneary, Psyduck, Quilava, Sableye, Sentret, Sneasel, Squirtle, Wartortle (4 parameters, including 2 exclusions)
  4. Level 4: Otherworldly – parameters used here may include moves, abilities, types, colors, and exclusions, and will combine multiple sets of answers!
    1. Finneon, Horsea, Kingdra, Lumineon, Mantine, Mantyke, Paras, Parasect (2 sets, totaling 4 parameters)
    2. Absol, Drowzee, Hypno, Persian, Skuntank, Smeargle, Stunky (2 sets, totaling 4 parameters, 1 of which is an exclusion)
    3. Arcanine, Geodude, Golem, Granbull, Graveler, Growlithe, Hitmonlee, Hitmontop, Raticate, Rattata, Smeargle, Snubbull, Staraptor (3 sets, totaling 6 parameters)

Mystery Sound

Do you consider yourself a well-traveled denizen of the Pokémon world, able to recognize a tune from just a few bars of sound? If so, this is the challenge for you! Simply guess the location and the main series Pokémon game that these clips come from. The first two users to send in all four correct answers will win themselves a custom title on the Smogon forums!

Crossword

And here we have it: the grand finale to this issue's Puzzle Page! To participate, simply fill out the crossword grid below with what you believe are the right answers and send a screenshot of the grid to us. The first person to send in a completely correct grid will win themselves a custom avatar on Pokémon Showdown!, as always. Should you be the lucky winner, more details concerning the prize will be sent to you later. Like last issue, this issue's answers include Pokémon names, items, abilities, and moves, so keep that in mind when you examine the clues!

Participation

You are eligible for the Puzzle Page competitions as long as you have a Smogon account. To participate, send all your Puzzle Page entries in a single forum conversation to The Smog. The deadline for submission is 2 weeks from now, on the 14th of March; after this, you can still try the puzzles, but the answers will be posted here, and we'll close submissions. As always, good luck and have fun!

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