Pokémon Thread XXIX: Sword, Shield, and Spoilers

[SaintRidley]

Currently just four pokemon shy of completing the pokedex and getting my shiny charm in Sword. Anyone got a Zamazenta I can trade for to get the dex entry?

[Lord Fullbladder, Master of Goblins]

Currently just four pokemon shy of completing the pokedex and getting my shiny charm in Sword. Anyone got a Zamazenta I can trade for to get the dex entry?

I can help out tomorrow afternoon (after 2:00 pm EST) if that's okay. What else do you need?

[SaintRidley]

I can help out tomorrow afternoon (after 2:00 pm EST) if that's okay. What else do you need?

Spritzee/Aromatisse and evolution on Swirlix->Slurpuff.

Feel free to pm me when you become available tomorrow.

[SaintRidley]

Lord Fullbladder, I can't respond because your inbox is full.

[Lord Fullbladder, Master of Goblins]

Terribly sorry! Didn't realize. Never was any good at managing that.

[Zaq]

Hey folks! Anyone got a Sableye with its hidden ability (Prankster)? If so, please trade me for it! I can handle breeding on the IVs and nature myself once I get the right ability, so I don’t mind taking the remnants of your breeding program if that’s what you’ve got on hand.

As for what I can offer in exchange, I’ve got a good general grab bag of Pokémon to offer, including most version exclusives (for both), a good handful of hidden abilities, custom-bred stuff (I’ll do up to 4 or 5 IVs plus a nature, just tell me what you want and I can probably do it), a couple (not many) Gigantamax-capable guys, and maybe something else if you want something else. Idk, just ask and let’s discuss it.

I do NOT have any shinies, sorry. I legit haven’t seen a single one in this gen. Weird, but them’s the breaks—can’t trade what I don’t have.

If you have other hard-to-get hidden abilities, I’m kind of collecting them in general, but hidden ability Sableye is what I want most right now.

I’m in the US (mountain time), so if time zones are a consideration for you, there you have it.

Who wants to trade?

[LaZodiac]

Oh hey look at that Pokemon Home is going to have the GTS and you can use it for freeeee, you don't have to buy premium at all.

[Saambell]

Oh hey look at that Pokemon Home is going to have the GTS and you can use it for freeeee, you don't have to buy premium at all.

Trading is locked to the Mobile version, so you have to download it on both your Switch and mobile, probably linked by NNID. Transferring is Paid, only bright side is there's a 3$ USD one month sub so you can drop all the stuff you want to move into Home, move all the stuff you don't want to move up into USUM, and let both subs lapse. There's also a single month of Bank for free when Home launches, so you don't have to pay for Bank when you go to transfer.

For longer term, Home costs 3$ for a month, 5$ for 3 months, or 16$ for a year. A full year of all Nintendo related Subs for Pokemon and playing online is 41$ USD for Home, Bank, and Switch Online. 20$ less then X Box Live Gold or PS+, but offering quite a bit less then the other two.

[Emmerlaus]

STILL ALIVE !

OMG the forum were down for SO LONG!

To celebrate, here's a question:

What is the best Pokemon fanfic that you know?

[Aotrs Commander]

STILL ALIVE !

OMG the forum were down for SO LONG!

To celebrate, here's a question:

What is the best Pokemon fanfic that you know?

Ashes of the Past, instantly and unquestionably.

Saphroneth does a superb job of not only doing a "back-to-the-past and fix stuff," but also keeping the tension high and things comsensurate with Ash and companies' much higher capabilities, and at doing and keeping a LOT of characters straight and doing the competition and battle scenes - and also being FRICKIN' HILARIOUS on top.

It is not short, by any means, but is by miles the best I've read.

[MCerberus]

I hear the GTC is back, but to do that with Sword and Shield you need to export to home, then trade, then import back in right?
Can trade evolutions trigger in this system?

[Bartmanhomer]

Has Nintendo released Pokemon Sword and Shield 2 yet?

[boj0]

What? No, where did you even get the idea that they were doing that?

[Bartmanhomer]

What? No, where did you even get the idea that they were doing that?

I thought that Nintendo was planning to do that. I mean they made Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, Black and White Version 2. So I assume they were making Sword and Shield 2.

[Mando Knight]

I thought that Nintendo was planning to do that. I mean they made Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, Black and White Version 2. So I assume they were making Sword and Shield 2.

They also typically wait more than three months before publishing follow-up titles, usually closer to around a year or so.

[Bartmanhomer]

They also typically wait more than three months before publishing follow-up titles, usually closer to around a year or so.

Ok thank you for telling me.

[DataNinja]

They also typically wait more than three months before publishing follow-up titles, usually closer to around a year or so.

Not to mention the fact that they've already announced two rounds of DLC for Sword and Shield.

[DeTess]

Yeah, I'm fairly certain we won't actually see sword and shield 2, with the DLC being the way they add extra content to the base-game instead. They might eventually release a bundle with the base game with the DLC, but that's it.

[Razade]

So with Pokemon Home out I finally sat down to breeze through Sword. Breeze through isn't an understatement either. The base game isn't as short as many of the Dexit crowd wanted to complain about but it certainly has felt like the shortest pokemon base game. Haven't beat the Champion but I feel like I'm at a good place to share my thoughts.

The Good

- The Quality of Life stuff is the best so far. Pokemon improves on it with each generation and this is no exception. Menus are slick, things just look nice.
- Double Battles not lagging the hell out of my Switch is great.
- The array of Pokemon was pretty nice. I actually swapped a ton out and felt good for doing it.
- The Gyms were cool, their puzzles were interesting and I enjoyed all the themes except for the Dark Gym...which was just "beat a bunch of enemies in a row" which is pretty boring. I get it was meant to cover the "villain team" hide out but it was just kind of bland. The Dragon Gym was also kinda lame but double battles with weather was at least a cool concept and I felt like I was challenged.
- I for one like the graphics. I don't care about ultra 4k resolution, so the "n64 tree" whining meant nothing to me.
- For as little character as they seemed to get, I enjoyed all the characters I encountered.
- Raids are fun, even if I hate the gimmick they lean on.

The Bad
- Man does the game feel short. I never really felt like I was invested in any area because I'd just be in the next. Having a ton of pokemon from home cut down the amount of grinding I'd need but...that's no a point in the game's favor really.
- The routes, as said above, are short and boring. The entire game is linear outside the Wild Areas and I couldn't care less about any place I visited.
- The towns were small and basically just set pieces, there for the gym and really not a whole lot else. I didn't even bother to go house to house like I've done in every game until I beat the gym. Which I could do just as soon as I rolled up for most of them. Which...blurghhhhh...why game. Why.
- Hop is annoying. Easily the worst of the "rivals" and literally being with him the entire journey save for a few minor points made it feel less like I was on my own adventure rather than being his side kick.
- Leveling was way too easy. I normally slap on EXP Share because I'm old now and have things to do with my time other than grind, but I never felt like I had to grind. I had at least two full teams around equal level the entire time.
- Dynamaxing is a boring gimmick and I am wholey uninterested in Gigantamax since whatever game comes next is probably not going to carry it over. I get the game is all up on a new gimmick each game but Dynamax is just giving pokemon a built in Z-Move and more HP. I didn't even feel like they improved combat. On the contrary, it just felt like it was a waste of my time. I'd have beaten the gyms faster if I knew I didn't have a meat wall at the end of each fight.

The Ugly.
- My biggest gripe with the game is that it feels like the story takes place around me. I'm not involved in it. Not that there's much outside the championship going on up to the Championship itself. There's a brief mention of bad news going down but by the time we reach it it's taken care of. There just doesn't feel like there's any stakes right now and I'm nearing the end of the game it feels. I've beat all eight gyms but it feels like, story arc wise, I'm just nearing the end of part one of a three part story. Which I know for a fact I'm not. Hopefully the DLC will give me more to do and be more involved in because so far Sword really...doesn't feel like it stacks up storywise to any of the other games. In those we were active in the villain's plans and thwarting them as we went. There isn't even a villain team this time around. They're just losers trying to help Marnie and they're boring. For all the QoL stuff and for all the other neat bits they've included like Camp...I don't really forsee myself replaying this game like I've done so many others.
- The Wild Areas suck and actively work to make me enjoy the game less. They're small, uninteresting and shallow and really just there to serve as a set piece for the raids. After clearing all of them, and farming, there's nothing going on there. They lack the grandeur and epic scale of Breath of the Wild, they lack the involvement of any of the Bethesda open world games, the heart of many Far Cry games. Not only that but with the level cap on catching pokemon there's no reason to explore them at all. All the pokemon are too high a level for you to catch without beating the two gyms after them in the story and by that point...what's the point? I'll certainlly go back and explore them when the game is done because I need to 100% my pokedex so I can be ready for whatever comes next but my mantra that Open World-ness in a game drastically decreases how much I enjoy it remains the same. They're not even Open World considering the rest of the game is practically on rails for how linear it is.
- Fast Travel to every point you've been to previously from more or less the get go makes exploring pointless. If I can backtrack from the word go to wherever I want, there's no reason to feel pressured to keep moving forward. Not to mention that it's an utterly useless feature as there's nothing to go back to. There's no metroidvania style "get an HM, uncover previously unexplored areas for treasure" bits that older games in the series had.

All in all this is probably my least favorite of the Generations. I've enjoyed my time in it and there's more to come, the DLC will hopefully change my opinion a little at least but as it stands I just wish we got something closer to the older games instead of trying to make this Breath of the Bulbasaur. They didn't commit to it in the first place and both the non-open parts and the open parts suffered for it.

If I were to have done an Open World Pokemon game I'd have given a single central city. Large enough to be dynamic with a larger cast of familiar faces. I like the idea that it's a sport in Galar and that could still work. The stadium changes for the Gym Leader, but it's still the central stadium. The rest of the region is huge and mostly untamed, requiring characters to be more rough and ready explorers. Pokemon Camp acting more as a traveling Pokecenter, other NPCs camps being shops and the like when you happen upon them. Bring back crafting your own Pokeballs, expand on that. Creating your own pokeballs with its own parameters and such. Cooking would still be a cool idea, like they have the curry, instead of relaying just on potions and revives. Smaller towns dot the fringes, just there to explore and give quests.

You could get past the Pokemon levels as well, where they have none in the wild and only once you get them to town do they get actual experience. Give the town a reason to be there, providing moves and training so you can tame stronger pokemon or put them away until you can actually tame them. It certainly breaks from Pokemon convention of grinding but it at least cleaves closer to open world games than what we got. We obviously didn't get that game, we won't ever get that game, but while I'm doom and gloom about Open World Games being the end of gaming as we known it as all games have to conform to the general gray gunk of mediocrity in the face of this omni-present fad, I'd hate to not offer how I think it could be improved.

[Qwertystop]

Ashes of the Past, instantly and unquestionably.

Saphroneth does a superb job of not only doing a "back-to-the-past and fix stuff," but also keeping the tension high and things comsensurate with Ash and companies' much higher capabilities, and at doing and keeping a LOT of characters straight and doing the competition and battle scenes - and also being FRICKIN' HILARIOUS on top.

It is not short, by any means, but is by miles the best I've read.

Seconded. I think I first discovered it through someone mentioning it here, actually.

[Gray Mage]

Been trying to fill my pokedex in pokemon sword, but I'm having a hard time getting the trade exclusive pokemons (I managed to find one or two in the wild area, but no luck so far).

Would someone be willing to make mutual trades for the evolutions or trade them back?

[Snowblaze]

So I have a quest in Pokemon Go that involves making new friends... but my IRL friends who play Pokemon Go are all already my friends.

So this seems a good way to solve my problem! Trainer ID is 8016 8843 2035.

[Snowblaze]

So as my last Go Battle League reward encounter, I got a level 20 Cobalion. This being a legendary, I was pretty pleased... until I realised that even with an Ultra Ball and a Razz Berry, catch rate is still only 10%.

And that there is no way for me to get a new set of battles until I've caught the Cobalion.

And that I have no Ultra Balls, nor any way of getting hold of them now I've run out of gifts and can't get to any Pokestops because coronavirus.

And that even if I had Ultra Balls my aim is so terrible that I'd need about thirty.

My current plan is to level up (I need 20,000 XP and I'm rationing my Pokeballs) and use all my reward balls to try and catch the Cobalion, and in the meantime be unable to do any PvP battling.

This will take some time, and I was really looking forward to trying out my new Ultra League team against a real person... so, yeah. Anyone got any advice to save me from getting completely stuck?

[Joran]

Too bad it wasn't a shiny XD

Here's a couple of things that might be helpful with throwing.

1) If you're having issues hitting the Pokemon attacking/not landing a good throw in the circle, you can practice the circle locking trick.

Basically, hold the Pokeball down until the circle gets to where you can hit it reliably and then let go and wait. Wait for the Pokemon to attack and then in mid-attack, throw the ball and it should land.

Demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzpPnY7SMyI

For me, my windup is pretty long for a curveball, so I usually just keep spinning the ball and wait for the pokemon to attack in a good window for me to throw.

2) If you really fork up a throw and completely miss the Pokemon, or it gets batted away, there's a slight window where you can hit the home button and then close the app. The game won't have registered the throw and save the ball.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoa...hrow_dont_sit/

For balls, I can friend you if you want, but I'm also sheltering at home (although, not in complete lockdown), so my gifts will probably be occasional.

Additionally, you should get an infusion of balls from Adventure Sync walking today. With Google Fit installed on my phone (Android), I get at least 25 km just moving around the house.

This event + the increased spawns have really taken a chunk of my ball supply. I was sitting on 600+ balls plus prior to everything shutting down and am now down to 150.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

So as my last Go Battle League reward encounter, I got a level 20 Cobalion. This being a legendary, I was pretty pleased... until I realised that even with an Ultra Ball and a Razz Berry, catch rate is still only 10%.

And that there is no way for me to get a new set of battles until I've caught the Cobalion.

And that I have no Ultra Balls, nor any way of getting hold of them now I've run out of gifts and can't get to any Pokestops because coronavirus.

And that even if I had Ultra Balls my aim is so terrible that I'd need about thirty.

My current plan is to level up (I need 20,000 XP and I'm rationing my Pokeballs) and use all my reward balls to try and catch the Cobalion, and in the meantime be unable to do any PvP battling.

This will take some time, and I was really looking forward to trying out my new Ultra League team against a real person... so, yeah. Anyone got any advice to save me from getting completely stuck?

You can get Ultra Balls if you walk 50 km within the rewards week period, and by 'walk' I mean 'shake your phone up and down a lot so the game thinks you're walking.' Unfortunately this won't help you until next Monday. What it might help you do in the mean time is hatch Eggs to get to that level-up threshhold faster.

Also if you have a Pokemon Buddy who is at least two hearts, make sure it's your current Buddy because there's a chance any balls that get attacked will be bounced back at the Pokemon you're trying to catch.

You probably already know about Curve Balls but if you you don't, speak up - those will increase your catch chances a little.

On the off chance you have any Golden Razzes, those work better than normal Razz.

That's all I can think of at the moment, but I'll add if I think of anything else. Hope it helps!

[Red Fel]

And it seems a solution presents itself.

You remember that one-time bundle of incense for 1 coin in the shop? There's now a one-time bundle of 100 Poke Balls for 1 coin. If you have just 1 coin, you'll have all the chances you need.

[Snowblaze]

Got lucky with my level-up rewards and caught it. Now I can play Ultra League as much as I like! Thanks for the tip on cheap balls - I'll be taking advantage of that!

[Turalisj]

Does anyone happen to have a spare tortonator? I'm only like 15 pokemon from finishing the Dex. Want to get it done before the expansion pass comes out.

[Bartmanhomer]

How come there's no multiple status affliction (For example poison and burn affliction together) in Pokemon?

[Kantaki]

How come there's no multiple status affliction (For example poison and burn affliction together) in Pokemon?

A mix of balancing and... tradition? Whatever you want to call it. I guess.
The early games probably wouldn't have managed it and now that they could it would be a lot of work to balance multiple status effects with all the relevant Abilities, immunities and stuff.

It would be too easy to completely lock down the opponent with a status move focused Mon.

Plus logic as a minor concern burn and freeze together don't quite work.