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[Sixfortyfive]

Last night in IRC we were looking at shinies for like an hour, and I have to say: actually reminding myself of what most shiny Pokemon look like really diminished the value of RNG exploitation. :lol

This is why the desire to have them has always baffled me. 90% of the time or more, they look like shit.

If I saw a shiny legendary, I'd probably soft-reset on the spot without a second thought.

 

[larvi]

I'm working on the Battle tower, just got to 49 in a row and beat the 2nd round with Palmer for the gold symbol. It's the same team he had in D/P from what I can tell. I've uploaded the battle video, number 56-38280-51821, if anyone wants to see it.

As for the shinies, yeah I was going through looking at the shiny sprites to try to see which I wanted next. I was thinking either spheal or metagross. Does anyone know of site where all the shiny sprites are displayed on a single page rather than having to view them one at a time?

 

[Sixfortyfive]

Singleplayer to-do list:

- Get the six remaining legendaries (Heatran, Regigigas, Cresselia, Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres). I might grab the birds in Fire Red instead. I don't have any Master Balls left in that game, but soft-resetting for good ones should be easier on FR.
- Grind some more levels and defeat the Elite Four's super teams. This should be easier than the Gary rematch due to the higher-level trainers in Sinnoh.
- Buy the rest of the available junk for the house.
- Start messing around with the Battle Frontier.

How exactly does the Vs Seeker work when it comes to the NPC trainers' teams? I heard that the enemy trainers' Pokemon tend to evolve and increase in level as you use it more, but I don't think this ever happened to me when I was playing through Pearl version. But then again, I never did use it on that many different trainers.

 

[ShinoguTakeruKoeru]

So I hit Giratina in Distortion World, and I kinda wanna move on with the story. The one I have in the PC is

Naive
HP: 24
Atk: 31
Def: 5-6
Sp Atk: 30-31
Sp Def: 18-19
Spd: 20-22

I'm kinda torn on keeping this one or, if it's possible, rejiggering the process later on in Turnback Cave. Iunno if Giratina's like the roaming legendaries with its second appearance where the first meeting locks its IVs for future encounters. Can anybody clarify? I am looking to make this one somewhat more offensive-based.

 

[Sixfortyfive]

So I hit Giratina in Distortion World, and I kinda wanna move on with the story. The one I have in the PC is

Naive
HP: 24
Atk: 31
Def: 5-6
Sp Atk: 30-31
Sp Def: 18-19
Spd: 20-22

I'm kinda torn on keeping this one or, if it's possible, rejiggering the process later on in Turnback Cave. Iunno if Giratina's like the roaming legendaries with its second appearance where the first meeting locks its IVs for future encounters. Can anybody clarify? I am looking to make this one somewhat more offensive-based.

I consider the nature a lot more important than IVs, and Giratina can be Synchronized for the proper nature, so I'd ditch it and try again. I have no idea if the stats are locked in place after the first encounter or not.

You can backtrack out of the Distortion World after defeating Cyrus if you need to prepare (Synchronizer, one-under guy, more Pokeballs, etc).

 

[rainer516]

I'm looking for mareep eggs, and the TRU giveaway Regigigas. If anyone can help me out here it'd be great. My FC is 4597 5676 0327 thanks in advance.

 

[MidnightScott]

Wow,

I just did the Battle Tower, got through all those matches piece of cake. But then Palmer challenges me, and 1 Hit KO's my Pokemon with his Dragonite >>;

What a waste of time all those matches were, just to lose - This is why I gave up on Battle Frontier in Emerald, because every time I made it to the Frontier Brain I lost...-_-;

Yes, I'm whining like a baby over a Pokémon game. With the amount of time it took me to play those matches...and then losing...it just ticks me off!

I guess I should go train my Pokemon some more and with better movesets -_-;

 

[Jiggy]

The wasted time issue is why Pokemon battles need not merely to be as fast as they were in GBA days, but so very much faster. :/ Text speed in battle, filler text before and after each battle, the length of time it takes to watch the HP bar drain...

 

[shykyoichi]

I just lost my winning streak in Battle Factory for the 3rd time. Bad luck!

 

[rainer516]

The wasted time issue is why Pokemon battles need not merely to be as fast as they were in GBA days, but so very much faster. :/ Text speed in battle, filler text before and after each battle, the length of time it takes to watch the HP bar drain...

Turn off battle frames

 

[Jiggy]

Turn off battle frames

Those have nothing to do with any of my points.

 

[TurtleSnatcher]

Im a newb to pokemon. Got to the 1st Gym Leader.

I'm screwed arent i?

I chose the Chimchar (That his name?) the Fire monkey and I have a Luxio but thats about it..

Also where can I trade globably?? That GTS thing? Did I already pass it?

 

[Crazymoogle]

Im a newb to pokemon. Got to the 1st Gym Leader.

I'm screwed arent i?

I chose the Chimchar (That his name?) the Fire monkey and I have a Luxio but thats about it..

Also where can I trade globably?? That GTS thing? Did I already pass it?

Nah, Chimchar and Luxio turn out to be really good pokemon long-term because fire lets you put the hurt on a lot of gyms, and electric moves are useful on most pokemon outside of caves. You could use some more guys though, probably want a full six even if you don't use a few, as you need as much type variety as possible. Starly (flying type) is another decent long-term option.

The GTS building is in that big city near the beginning of the game, with the tall buildings. There is an area that a character blocks you from entering without a gym badge, I think. Anyway, there you can either try to fulfill a trade request via wifi or request your own trade (but you can only request pokemon your character has seen in-game.)

 

[TurtleSnatcher]

Man a full 6? Id never level up half of them.. its already a pain keeping two on par with eachother this early.

Guess Ill go grab some others..

I saw an Abra earlier and they looked good but they Teleport before u can even bother catching them.

 

[Crazymoogle]

Man a full 6? Id never level up half of them.. its already a pain keeping two on par with eachother this early.

Guess Ill go grab some others..

I saw an Abra earlier and they looked good but they Teleport before u can even bother catching them.

That's fine, I mean even I used to basically just have two guys I used a lot, another two on the sometimes pile, and then the last two would basically just get the special HM abilities. You'll just have to make sure your main pokemon are high enough level though or they could be in trouble in some gyms. Chimchar and Luxio in particular get a lot of power by evolution, so hitting evolution levels helps them out.

Abra turns into Kadabra/Alakazam - great Psychic pokemon - but yeah, they use teleport a lot. Can be frustrating. If you have the fishing rod, you can easily grab Magikarp, which is basically useless, but you can swap him out at the beginning of battle for other pokemon until he reaches level 20 and evolves, at which point he will be a pretty powerful force.

 

[Sixfortyfive]

There's an NPC trainer in Oreburgh who will give you an Abra for something common, so just take advantage of that trade instead of trying to catch an Abra yourself. Traded Pokemon also get a 1.5x multiplier for their EXP, so this particular Abra will level up fast.

Shinx/Luxio/Luxray is decent, but you could probably do better if you wait for better electric types to start appearing. Luxray has a wonderful attack stat but absolutely no powerful moves to take advantage of it.

It's also not really a good idea to start training a full team of 6 right out of the gate. At most, you should only be using enough Pokemon to make sure that you're prepared for the next gym or two that lie ahead. Chimchar learns some fighting moves upon his first evolution, so just grind a little bit until you reach that point. Don't bother adding another primary member to your team until you know that the members of your existing team won't be able to cut it on the next gym. Chimchar should be able to take the first 2 on his own without breaking a sweat.

Wow,

I just did the Battle Tower, got through all those matches piece of cake. But then Palmer challenges me, and 1 Hit KO's my Pokemon with his Dragonite >>;

What a waste of time all those matches were, just to lose - This is why I gave up on Battle Frontier in Emerald, because every time I made it to the Frontier Brain I lost...-_-;

Yes, I'm whining like a baby over a Pokémon game. With the amount of time it took me to play those matches...and then losing...it just ticks me off!

I guess I should go train my Pokemon some more and with better movesets -_-;

The Battle Tower in D/P was the only thing I've played in years that made me legitimately ragequit. I took a year-long vacation from Pokemon because of it.

It's terrible. In order to get a decent team assembled for wi-fi, you need specific battle and training items from the tower area. But in order to buy those, you have to win a horrible number of matches in the tower to accumulate the BP needed. And in order to do particularly well in the tower, you're going to need a pretty good team in the first place. And even then it might not be enough; it's not that hard to be luck-fucked in at least 1 match out of the necessary 21-win streak you need to get a significant amount of BP.

Fuck the tower. Despite the positive impressions of the frontier in Plat, I'm saving that stuff for the very, very end of my journey. I'd rather be soft-resetting on legendaries all day.

 

[larvi]

Crap, made it through 169 consecutive battles in the battle hall with my Garchomp but lost on the final battle to the Hall Boss. Even though I was selecting from the electric category she used an Articuno which seems a bit unfair. Choice banded outrage couldn't OKHO and I got taken out by a blizzard. Anyone know if she always uses the same pokemon every time or does she switch based on what you have? I probably could have won if I would have used a yache berry or a focus sash.

 

[zaccheus]

why do the new pokemon look so fucking stupid?

who designs them now and who designed the original 150? (and maybe up to 251?)

 

[Zilch]

The same people (more or less) designed all 493 monsters.

 

[Akim]

I'm bad at this game. Basically I'm at the second gym, the one with the bugs and they can basically 1 hit me. I only leveled a prinlup so far. I have a bidoof, psyduck, machop and zubat but they are all level 5-8. I'm gonna have to go back aren't I?

 

[Chozo]

Crap, made it through 169 consecutive battles in the battle hall with my Garchomp but lost on the final battle to the Hall Boss. Even though I was selecting from the electric category she used an Articuno which seems a bit unfair. Choice banded outrage couldn't OKHO and I got taken out by a blizzard. Anyone know if she always uses the same pokemon every time or does she switch based on what you have? I probably could have won if I would have used a yache berry or a focus sash.

Argenta (Battle Hall boss) uses a completely random Pokemon every time you fight her. I used a Garchomp for my 170 win streak and I saw Entei the first match and Gardevoir the second.

I also used yache berry on chomp, but that or Focus Sash is ideal: there's almost nothing in the Battle Hall that Garchomp won't kill in 2-3 turns, so I'd use something to increase his survivability rather than putting on a Choice Band to force OHKOs in matchups you'd win anyway.

why do the new pokemon look so fucking stupid?

who designs them now and who designed the original 150? (and maybe up to 251?)

Your nostalgia goggles are preventing you from seeing some of the shittacular designs from gens 1 and 2. See: Mr. Mime, Voltorb/Electrode, Qwilfish, etc.

 

[Deleted member 21120]

Your nostalgia goggles are preventing you from seeing some of the shittacular designs from gens 1 and 2. See: Mr. Mime, Voltorb/Electrode, Qwilfish, etc.

Yeah, plenty of 151+ are pretty cool.

 

[shykyoichi]

This is why the desire to have them has always baffled me. 90% of the time or more, they look like shit.

A shiny Charizard falsifies your statement.

 

[Holepunch]

A shiny Charizard falsifies your statement.

This is why the desire to have them has always baffled me. 90% of the time or more, they look like shit.

His statement still stands. Sure a black Charizard looks pretty badass but the rest of the pokemon end up a sickly green or purplish blue color that looks just awful.

Anyways, I opted to not buy this game and just stick with Diamond, but now I need to somehow get a Platinum owner to Move Tutor my Tangrowth Synthesis. Normally I would ask someone on the site for a trade but I don't know exactly how that would work very well on GAF through posts.

Edit: I would very much be interested in a tournament, I'll probably finish up my team in a few days. Just thought I'd say this to let people know there is some interest in this.

 

[overthehill99]

why do the new pokemon look so fucking stupid?

who designs them now and who designed the original 150? (and maybe up to 251?)

I'm pretty sure Satoshi Tajiri helped Ken Sugimori design the original 251. Ken Sugimori is the artist, so he really designed the Pokemon. He is really responsible for the whole art style of Pokemon.

I have no clue who designed the rest. I know Ken is still on the team.

 

[Firestorm]

Only two Pokemon on my team would look good shiny. I prefer Charizard in Red, so the only one I'd have shiny would be:

 

[larvi]

Argenta (Battle Hall boss) uses a completely random Pokemon every time you fight her. I used a Garchomp for my 170 win streak and I saw Entei the first match and Gardevoir the second.

I also used yache berry on chomp, but that or Focus Sash is ideal: there's almost nothing in the Battle Hall that Garchomp won't kill in 2-3 turns, so I'd use something to increase his survivability rather than putting on a Choice Band to force OHKOs in matchups you'd win anyway.

Just went through it again and swtich to the yache for the last few rounds and beat her this time. She had a Kindra which was went down easy to 1 outrage.

 

[Jiggy]

I'm pretty sure Satoshi Tajiri helped Ken Sugimori design the original 251. Ken Sugimori is the artist, so he really designed the Pokemon. He is really responsible for the whole art style of Pokemon.

I have no clue who designed the rest. I know Ken is still on the team.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/gameboy/data/367023.html - 1-151 team
http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/gbcolor/data/198308.html - 152-251 team
http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/gbadvance/data/471243.html - 252-386 team
http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/ds/data/925601.html - 387-493 team

Assuming GameFAQs is accurate, of course...

 

[Forkball]

Someone gave me a Shiny Spinda in a trade. Yay, a Spinda. Not all shinies look like crap though:

All shinies

 

[Jiggy]

So basically the fully-evolved shinies I like are Charizard, Sandslash, Nidoking, Golduck, Alakazam, Muk, Cloyster, Weezing, Starmie, Gyarados, Snorlax, Crobat, Jumpluff, Umbreon, Slowking, Donphan, Blaziken, Gardevoir, Sharpedo, Salamence, Metagross, Regice, Staraptor, Honchkrow, Spiritomb, Tangrowth, Gallade, Dusknoir, Rotom, and Heatran.

I think shinies are at their best when they're making the Pokemon more vibrant (Golduck, Cloyster, Regice, etc.), adding color where there once existed only shades of black/gray/brown (Donphan, Staraptor, Honchkrow, etc.), or adding a sickly tone to Pokemon that want to look sickly (Weezing, Spiritomb).

 

[NeoForte]

Shiny Roserade, Bronzor and Nosepass(kinda funny his Shiny looks like real rock lol) look awesome.

 

[shykyoichi]

I nearly forgot the awesomeness of a Red Gyarados.

 

[Teknoman]

I'm bad at this game. Basically I'm at the second gym, the one with the bugs and they can basically 1 hit me. I only leveled a prinlup so far. I have a bidoof, psyduck, machop and zubat but they are all level 5-8. I'm gonna have to go back aren't I?

The second gym is full of plant type monsters. Just dont use any water types, lvl the rest, and you should be fine.

 

[overthehill99]

I swear to God, some of the shinies look exactly like their regular counterpart. Like if I was training a Pokemon, and trying to just rush through the battles to get EXP points, and I came across a shiny Pikachu, or Jigglypuff, I would probably just past right over it. I'm sure I have too.


The only shiny I have is a Shieldon, which my brother traded to me from his Pearl to my Diamond, and we realized it was shiny while it was going through the trade. The trade animation was going on, and the Shieldon pop up, and I was like "this thing looks weird". He got so pissed off.

 

[Crazymoogle]

I swear to God, some of the shinies look exactly like their regular counterpart. Like if I was training a Pokemon, and trying to just rush through the battles to get EXP points, and I came across a shiny Pikachu, or Jigglypuff, I would probably just past right over it. I'm sure I have too.

There is a special effect played when you encounter a shiny, as I recall, as if they were actually "shiny". So it shouldn't be too hard to notice...

EDIT: I hate you Mesprit. First it took 40 dusk balls on a 10hp, paralyzed Azelf, and now this. -_-

 

[grandjedi6]

So since I have the itch to play Pokemon and yet I refuse to be a consumer whore and buy Platinum, I decided to instead rent Leaf Green from Gamefly (which I had never played before)..... Gee, I hope the inevitable Silver/Gold remakes aren't this literal :/

 

[Ravidrath]

Yeah, I think 90% of shinies look worse than their regular ones. I have a shiny Flygon, though, which fortunately is one of the ones I actually like.

Would LOVE to have a shiny Breloom and Shinx, though... I'm almost tempted to try that Shiny random manipulation egg stuff to get those.

Got a question about Shinies from eggs, actually - are the chances the same as they are for regular Pokemon in the wild? Does having a Shiny parent increase the odds?

 

[Crazymoogle]

Got a question about Shinies from eggs, actually - are the chances the same as they are for regular Pokemon in the wild? Does having a Shiny parent increase the odds?

Nope. Still miniscule odds. Actually, just finishing off Platinum and I didn't see a single Shiny yet.

leafgreen

The old games are pretty literal color versions of the original stuff, whereas the jump to pseudo-3D really helped give the DS games a new feel to them. I too hope that a silver/gold remake is not quite so literal (please, even another 50 pokemon would be great. All Evos. Maybe even...gasp...Kangaskhan/Pinsir evos?!) but it will definitely be interesting to play again using the new style.

 

[vhfive]

Nope. Still miniscule odds. Actually, just finishing off Platinum and I didn't see a single Shiny yet.



The old games are pretty literal color versions of the original stuff, whereas the jump to pseudo-3D really helped give the DS games a new feel to them. I too hope that a silver/gold remake is not quite so literal (please, even another 50 pokemon would be great. All Evos. Maybe even...gasp...Kangaskhan/Pinsir evos?!) but it will definitely be interesting to play again using the new style.

Absol plz

 

[shykyoichi]

Nope. Still miniscule odds. Actually, just finishing off Platinum and I didn't see a single Shiny yet.

Try chaining using the Pokeradar.

 

[Jiggy]

I decided to instead rent Leaf Green from Gamefly (which I had never played before)..... Gee, I hope the inevitable Silver/Gold remakes aren't this literal :/

So do I.

...though in my case that's only because, unlike FR/LG, I don't like the source material for G/S single-player.

 

[Crazymoogle]

Try chaining using the Pokeradar.

I don't think I've ever read an explanation of that that makes sense. Last time I looked it involved a lot of save-reloading and odds of a certain grass having something, but the one time I tried, it didn't matter because I would just encounter pokemon before hitting the grass shake. That was at least a year ago, though...

 

[Sixfortyfive]

I thought Fire Red and Leaf Green were great. They deliviered exactly what they promised (old Pokemon games with new Pokemon mechanics).

And I have no idea why everybody thinks that a Gold/Silver remake is not only in the cards, but inevitable.

 

[shykyoichi]

I don't think I've ever read an explanation of that that makes sense. Last time I looked it involved a lot of save-reloading and odds of a certain grass having something, but the one time I tried, it didn't matter because I would just encounter pokemon before hitting the grass shake. That was at least a year ago, though...

The higher the number of chains using the pokeradar, the higher the chances of encountering a shiny pokemon.

From the Pokeradar FAQ by Burning Corpse (Gamefaqs):

You may notice that some patches of grass rustled differently to the others.
In total, there are 3 different types of rustle:


1) The ordinary. The patch of grass shakes, with no other noticable movements.
In these patches of grass there will be mainly the normal types of Pokemon you
would find, such as Starly, or... Bidoof. However, rare Pokemon can still be
found in them, just not very often.

2) The greeny-white flecks. The grass will shake, but will also have white
flecks on it. These patches of grass indicate that a rare Pokemon could be
hiding there, so always try for these ones if you can!

3) The shiny. These patches of grass are the rarest, and easily best. They
indicate that a shiny Pokemon is present, and should DEFINITELY be battled, no
matter how far away from you it is. They look a pure white in colour, and
flash white twice. They are very noticable in comparison to number 2.

Also,

Here's the formula, over three lines for ease of reading:

14747 - 40 Where P = Probability
P(shiny) = ------------------ and n = Chain length
2621440 x (41 - n)

So what does this show us? Well firstly, it shows that the probability of
finding a shiny Pokemon with the Pokeradar DOES increase as the length of the
chain increases, and it also shows us that the optimum chain length is 40. Any
higher, and there will be no difference to the outcome of the equation, even
though it is impossible to divide by zero.

 

[Jiggy]

And I have no idea why everybody thinks that a Gold/Silver remake is not only in the cards, but inevitable.

http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/GSDS

Of which there's a lot of irrelevance and random trivia that probably doesn't mean anything, but I think these are the greatest points in the remake theorists' arguments hold (and I think the remakes are happening too):

-FR/LG's hints that the rival in G/S/C is Giovanni's son; other references are minor, but this is too big to randomly dump in
-Johto text programmed in
-Heavy anime focus on second-gen Pokemon
-Heavy anime foreshadowing for Johto as a whole (old friends all traveling to Johto; Dawn wanting to go to Johto; in a recent episode in Japan, an Officer Jenny is dispatched to the Whirl Islands to help work against an unnamed Team Rocket operation)



Also, these are my own points, but:

-With Game Boy cartridges alone, players could visit Kanto and Johto; with Game Boy Advance cartridges alone, players could visit Kanto and Hoenn. DS is the odd one out, as you can't go to any other region without a GBA game--and that possibility is about to be axed. For those who are just picking up Pokemon for the first time, the world seems smaller than ever and I doubt that's what Nintendo or GameFreak want.

-Right now, for seemingly the first time, we don't know of a new Pokemon game being in development. To put this in perspective, we knew Diamond/Pearl were in development by 2004. Ever since Gold/Silver, brand new Pokemon games have always showed up with some new Nintendo portable, so (unless anybody expects DSi to be kicked down anytime soon) a remake would be a perfect stopgap Pokemon game until fifth-gen.

 

[NeoForte]

I got a Shiny ditto on less than Chain 40, I think it was at 7. Was really surprising, Sucks I couldn't continue it

 

[Crazymoogle]

I just don't see how to keep the chain going. Even if I always hit the 4 spots as indicated on the map, every time I get to around 5, it's a different pokemon. That, and when starting the chain, the white specked grass is almost always a really generic pokemon too. *shrug*

 

[Ravidrath]

I just don't see how to keep the chain going. Even if I always hit the 4 spots as indicated on the map, every time I get to around 5, it's a different pokemon. That, and when starting the chain, the white specked grass is almost always a really generic pokemon too. *shrug*

I haven't done this, but I'm told you need to use repels.

On top of that, you can use the Radar multiple times between chains and keep the chain. I guess this is more of a deal if you're not going to use Repels, so you can make sure that there are only so many steps between you and the spot.

Also, you don't need to get the same Pokemon every time to get a chain, I don't think? Just need to defeat it.

 

[Sixfortyfive]

http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/GSDS

Of which there's a lot of irrelevance and random trivia that probably doesn't mean anything, but I think these are the greatest points in the remake theorists' arguments hold (and I think the remakes are happening too):

My response to almost every single one of these points is "...So?" It just seems like a huge stretch.

-FR/LG's hints that the rival in G/S/C is Giovanni's son; other references are minor, but this is too big to randomly dump in
-Johto text programmed in
-Heavy anime focus on second-gen Pokemon
-Heavy anime foreshadowing for Johto as a whole
-With Game Boy cartridges alone, players could visit Kanto and Johto; with Game Boy Advance cartridges alone, players could visit Kanto and Hoenn.
-Right now, for seemingly the first time, we don't know of a new Pokemon game being in development...

1) No, it isn't. It just seems like a random little easter egg. Not every minor plot point in a series that hardly ever emphasises its plot in the first place is going to be developed upon. We never got a game that spilled all the details regarding Fuji and the Mewtwo project either, just some little references here and there.

2) All this implies is that the programmers left open the possibility that Johto can be visited in a future game, or even that an NPC you're intended to trade with would be from Johto. It does not imply that there will be a Gold/Silver remake. It also does not imply that this possibility will be followed through, as there are all sorts of unutilized pieces of data in the Pokemon games.

3&4) lol

5) It might just be me, but Sinnoh feels a lot larger than the older regions to begin with. This also doesn't seem like much of an issue.

6) This is probably the strongest case, actually. The only time we get a 100% brand-new full-fledged Pokemon game is when Nintendo releases new hardware, and I'm not sure that DS->DSi is that big of a jump. A stopgap game of some sort is reasonable, but I still don't see the point of a straightforward G/S remake and wouldn't like it at all, especially when half of that game (Kanto) just got remade in the previous set of Pokemon games. The last thing this series needs is more rehashing.

 

[Stage On]

Why would they promonantly feature the gs starters in the 12th movie plus TWO Pichu variants (Notch eared and Pikachu coloured) if their WASN'T going to be a GS remake?

The anime always hints at the upcoming games after all