Wow. Ok, this is going to be long, because they've changed a lot.Originally Posted by Bunny
First off, the new features. There are three primary ones to talk about. They are Pokémon Amie, Super Training, and the Player Search System. Each one takes up your lower screen unless you bring up your menu, and you can use the touchpad or L and R to cycle between them. All three of these features unlock immediately after you get your starter, though some have other minor restrictions, which I will mention as we get to them.
Pokémon Amie Guide
Pokémon Amie is a new way to increase Affection with your Pokémon. Each Pokémon has three Pokémon Amie stats. These are Affection, Fullness, and Enjoyment. Affection is the beneficial one that you want to raise. Fullness and Enjoyment are just restrictions on how much you can raise Affection.
When you open Pokémon Amie, you'll be able to interact with your Pokémon. Petting it with the stylus or calling its name will give you hearts, which increase its Affection. However, doing so consumes Enjoyment, and once Enjoyment is drained, you can't gain any more Affection hearts this way.
You can also feed your Pokémon Poképuffs to further increase Affection. However, this also increases Fullness. Once full, a Pokémon refuses to eat any more. How much a Pokémon can eat varies based on how empty its Fullness is (at fully empty, it can eat six), but you'll notice that the last one is eaten slower than the others, to give you warning so you don't waste any Poképuffs.
In order to reset Fullness and Enjoyment, and earn more Poképuffs, you need to play the mini-games. There are three, and they have variable difficulty levels. The better you do, and the higher difficulty you play on, the better the rewards. You'll get more, and better, Poképuffs for doing better on the games.
Each time you play a minigame, it resets part of the meters. Any three games played through (even Endless mode where you lose immediately on purpose) will reset both a Pokémon's Enjoyment and Fullness, allowing you to feed it and pet it to get more affection.
As you get basic Affection hearts, you'll eventually raise the Affection level. When your level goes up, the Pokémon will cheer and dozens of hearts will rush out at once. You really can't miss it.
Raising Affection seems to be permanent (I know it is permanent once you max it), and gives various bonuses. Increase Experience, increased Evasion, increased Critical Chance. You Pokémon can heal itself from status effects (so you don't worry about them) or even survive normally deadly hits with 1 HP left, like a Focus Band.
Minigames (to play you need at least three Pokémon):
Each has four difficulty modes: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Unlimited (which goes on until you fail)
-The first is Berry Picker. You drag berries from a tree to your Pokémon. There is one of each berry type, and each Pokémon requests a certain berry. More berries are added and the speed picks up as the difficulty increases.
-The second is Head It. Yarn falls from the top of the screen, and you tap your Pokémon to bounce it back up. Yarn falls faster and patterns are a little less consistent as difficulty increases.
-The third is Tile Puzzle. A moving picture of your Pokémon is broken into tiles. Each tile is then switched with another tile on the screen. Each tile is only moved once, so if you move a tile back correctly, you should always actually fix two tiles. Each picture shifts between scenes as you work on it. The pictures are split into more tiles as difficulty progresses.
Personal advice: Raise up the "Head it" minigame. It's easy to bounce the yarn up, and it gives great rewards for easy effort. Once you reach unlimited, play it and earn about 300 to 400 points, and you should get six excellent Poképuffs. If you five star it (around 900 points) you'll get even better ones, but it's not worth the extra time. If you wind up with lots of extra Poképuffs, you can just end the game in about fifteen seconds by not bouncing yarn at all, so you can reset the work up stats really quickly.
Even better: Play unlimited and chain together 15. Your score should reach around 65+, so you'll one star the level and earn 2 of the second-best Poképuffs in the game.
Pokémon Super Training Guide: This is REALLY long, and I'm sorry about that.
Pokémon Super Training is a great new way to maximize the Effort Values of your Pokémon.
As per previous games, a single Pokémon can have 510 Effort Values total. Every 4 Effort Values (EVs) are worth one point in a stat to a level 100 Pokémon. However, unlike other Pokémon games, you can now only put 252 EVs in a single stat, instead of the 255 of older games, preventing you from wasting 3 EVs which won't yield a stat boost.
Super Training starts with two tutorial level which teach you the basics. Essentially, the game is a shooter. The Circle Pad controls your Pokémon's movement, and the stylus controls your aim and fires shots.
You face a series of Pokémon balloons. Each has targets which appear on them as you play. Hit the targets and your score goes up. Meet the score that is the goal for the level, and you complete the level. However, many Pokémon balloons move, and some have barriers, other balloons blocking for them, or the ability to fight back.
Barriers can be broken either through doing enough damage, or by hitting their yellow weak spot directly. Guardian balloons can be killed by damage, but will regenerate over time, so it is better to try to fire around them. Balloons will fight back by firing giant soccer balls at you. Evade them by moving, or press L to activate your Shield. Just know that, like Protect, your Shield can't be used repeatedly, so get used to dodging.
Adding EVs to your Pokémon increases how they perform in Super Training, in addition to the stat boosts. Increasing Attack or Special Attack increases the points you score with each hit. Increasing Defense or Special Defense decreases the damage you take from soccer balls and increases the speed at which you charge shots up. Increasing HP increases the size of your ball's hit zone, allowing you to hit targets more easily. And increasing Speed increases how fast you can move to avoid hits, and possibly how fast your shot travels.
When you complete a level, you earn Effort Value points. The first two tutorial levels (which you can't escape) yield 4 EVs in Defense apiece, for a total of 8 Defense EVs. There is also a "Target Time" for each level that gives your Pokémon a little medal if they can beat it within the time, and the game will keep track of your fastest times, and which Pokémon earned them.
After you complete those levels, you unlock the first tier of Super Training. You can choose from any of the six stats: Special Attack, HP, Attack, Special Defense, Speed, and Defense. Completing one of these levels will reward you with 4 EVs in the corresponding stat. Complete all the levels, and you unlock the second tier. IMPORTANT NOTE: You do not have to complete them all with a single Pokémon, you just have to clear each level once with any Pokémon to unlock tier two.
Tier two has the same breakdown, but each level now yields 8 EVs per level, and each level is generally harder. Complete every tier two level (again, you do not need to do it with a single Pokémon), and you unlock tier three. In Tier 3, you face harder levels, and each is worth 12 EVs, making it the fastest way to increase EVs in Super Training.
After any individual Pokémon has acquired 510 EVs, that particular Pokémon is allowed to enter Tier 4 (you may have to unlock Tiers 2 and 3 if you got your EVs through battle instead of Super Training, I'm not sure). In Tier 4, you no longer get EVs. Instead, you get items. Some of these items are rare (almost every course seems to be tied to an Evolution Stone, for example), and what item they give you depends on how fast you clear them, with some luck thrown in. Also, these levels are far harder than the old ones, and, unlike Tiers 1 through 3, you cannot take on any one you wish, you have to unlock them one at a time.
Completing all 6 Tier 4 missions with one Pokémon will allow that Pokémon to take on Tier 5, the final tier. You'll get more items as rewards, but the rules are essentially the same as Tier 4.
Each time you complete a level, no matter which tier it is in, you will also earn a Punching Bag. These Punching Bags are accessible from the main Super Training Screen (again, the game will give you a tutorial on them). Which one you get depends on which mission you completed, and how fast you did it. Completing an Attack mission, for example, will yield an Attack bag almost always (occasionally you'll get a Double Up bag or something else different, but never a different stat, I'll get to those in a minute). Breaking these bags reward you with extra EVs for that stat.
Small Bags, easily accessible from the first Tier, are worth 1 EV, and must be punched by a Pokémon 11 times to break. And, as with all bags, the final blow must come from you hitting the screen, the Pokémon won't do it automatically. Medium Bags are worth 4 EVs, and must be hit 26 times. Large Bags are worth 12 EVs, and must be hit 51 times.
If you fail a mission, you still get a punching bag. However, you get different punching bags, intended to help you complete the missions. These include the Strength Bag, which earns you more points per hit, the Toughen Up bag, which reduces the damage you take from soccer balls, the Big Shot bag, which increases your shot size to make hitting easier, and the Swiftness bag, which makes your Pokémon move faster. Each bag breaks in 11 hits, and lasts for only one mission.
There are also a few extra bags which do special things. The Double Up bag can be randomly won as an award, or through the second method (give me a second, I'll get to it), and doubles the EVs you earn on your next mission. The other two bags, the Soothing bag and the Reset bag, can only be acquired through being "found" by a Pokémon training itself. Essentially, any time your Pokémon hits the grey punching bag (about once a minute if left automatically) while no other punching bag is put up, there's a chance they'll get a bag. These can be any bag in the game, but are your only chance of getting Reset and Soothing bags. Soothing bags increase your friendship, so are great for Pokémon like Golbat or an Eevee you want to evolve to Espeon/Umbreon. Reset bags reset all your EVs so you can train from scratch. All non-stat bags take 11 hits to break, again with the final hit coming from you.
Pokémon will occasionally fall asleep, which keeps them from going on missions or hitting punching bags. Tapping them will wake them up. It will also put a smile on their face, which makes the next bag they punch at break twice as quickly.
How to punch bags: Any time you tap the touchscreen, your Pokémon will punch a bag. They will also punch on their own about once a minute, and they'll do this even in the middle of a punching session you're controlling.
Final note: Not every Pokémon acts the same way in the Super Training missions. On the main Super Training page, in the upper right corner, is a logo. For most Pokémon I've found (including your starters) it will be a soccer ball. But for some (first I found was Oddish) it will be a line of little soccer balls. This indicates how they fight in the missions. A single ball Pokémon is good for heavy, timed shots, while Oddish will fire rapidly but weakly as long as you hold down the stylus.
Player Search System and O-Powers
This is the new Wifi-Room. You no longer have to go to a Pokécenter to trade, browse the GTS, or anything like that. You can do it all from the PSS screen at any time.
The PSS screen is split into three sections. The first is "Friends", which lists all the people who are Friends with you. The Friends from your 3DS's Friends List will only be added if they go online while playing a Pokémon X/Y game at the same time you are online with your Pokémon X/Y game.
The second section is "Acqaintances", which is used for anyone you've had direct interactions with (battle or trade) but have not Friended. And the third section is "Passerby", which is everyone within your 3DS's wireless range or, if you are on the internet, every other person connected to the internet with a Pokémon game.
To interact with a trainer, tap on them. It will pull up a screen with their name, and available options. These include Trading, Battling, using Game-Chat (if they allow it), viewing their Trainer Video, or using O-Powers on them. Most of these are fairly self-explanatory, but I'll detail Trainer Videos and O-Powers below.
Trainer Videos can be set up in Lumiose City, and are a ten second video of your trainer in various poses and with effects, backgrounds, and movements. Edit one when you get to Lumiose City, and you'll figure it out from there.
O-Powers are buffs. You start out with Pokémon Healing, which heals the first Pokémon in the party, or the Pokémon currently in battle, for a minor amount. You also start with Pokémon Capture Power, which increases the chance for a Pokéball to capture a Pokémon. You get extra ones as you play, and they include powers like a stat buff at the start of the next combat, increased money from trainers, increased experience from battles, reduced cost of items at shops, and things like that.
Every O-Power has a cost of "Energy". Energy regenerates with time, and isn't used for anything but O-Powers, so don't be stingy with it. Each Power has a cost to you, and a cost to use on someone else. Using it on yourself is always more expensive than using it on someone else, to help promote social interaction. For example, Sp. Attack Power 1 is 1 Energy if you use it on someone else, but 3 Energy if you use it on yourself.
There are also different levels of each power. The more you use a power, the higher level it will become, until it reaches level 3, which is the highest. Each higher level works better, but also costs more energy.
Some powers give one time buffs, like healing or stat increases. Others give duration buffs, like money or experience. A duration buff will typically provide its benefit for three minutes, no matter what power level it is at. Increased levels instead give strong effects for that duration.
Now, on to the last parts of the PSS. In the upper right of the main screen are two blue icons. The one on the far right is the Internet icon. Press it to hook into the internet. To the left of that is the Functions Icon. This lets you do a lot of general things that aren't directly interacting with another trainer. I'll run down the list now.
Battle: Set up a Pokémon battle.
Trade: Set up a Pokémon trade.
Battle Spot: Random battles or Ranked Competition, I believe (haven't used it yet, I don't like playing competitively).
Wonder Trade: Trade any Pokémon for a random Pokémon from someone else. You can get some rares, and it's a great way to pick up Pokémon from other countries easily, but don't put up anything you don't want to lose.
Shout Out: Send out a message to other trainers who see you using PSS.
Holo Caster: No clue, really. Ability to pick up announcement data and some other stuff on Street Pass. Haven't used it.
The GTS: This is a place you can put a Pokémon and request a Pokémon for trade. You can search for a Pokémon other people have put up, either by selecting one from your Pokédex, or typing in its name. It's a decent way to hunt for Pokémon you don't have, though there are a lot of ridiculous trades up there, such as people wanting a legendary for a Skitty.
Game Sync: Hook up to the Pokémon Game Link to let Nintendo track your progress and reward PokéMiles for it. For more details, try it out or check the website, this one isn't too important right now (not all functionality is working for it yet).
O-Power: If you want to use an O-Power on yourself, this is the place to do it.
Favorites List: Haven't used, not sure how to. Something similar to the friend's list, apparently, but I don't know the details.
Profile: Information on you to adjust and make viewable.
PSS Settings: Exactly what it sounds like.
Friend Safari Guide
Upon completing the game and beating the Elite 4 (massive spoilers), you unlock the Safari Zone. Your Safari Zone has a type, which relates to the Pokémon which can be found within it. Mine, for example, is Normal. Unfortunately, your Safari Zone only has three Pokémon in it. You are stuck with those three Pokémon and can never change them, as far as we know.
However, anyone who is listed as a "Friend" in your PSS has their own Safari Zone, and you can visit that Safari Zone as well.
Thus, for each friend on the PSS, you get another Safari Zone and three more Pokémon to catch in it. Though you can of course get duplicates if you have bad luck. However, you should note that if one of your friends has not beaten the Elite Four (and done a Game Sync or been online since, so Nintendo can know about it), you will only be able to see two of their Pokémon, and the third will unlock once they have completed the game.
The benefits of the Friend Safari are thus:
You can get Pokémon you can't otherwise get in-game.
Pokémon in the Friend Safari have an increased chance of having their Hidden Ability.
Pokémon in the Friend Safari have an increased chance of being Shiny.
Pokémon in the Friend Safari always have at least two IVs that are 31, the maximum possible value.
Kalos Pokédex Explanation - Very Short
The Kalos Pokédex is broken into three regions. Central, Coastal, and Mountain. You start with just the Central Pokédex, and the others are added on as you enter their respective territories. You first get the Coastal Pokédex after you leave Connecting Cave.
Due to the extremely high number of Pokémon, the sections were added for ease of sorting/tracking. There are no other effects on gameplay that I know of.
Please let me know if I forgot something.
You're the trainer named "Jinx" with a Pink hat, white sunglasses, black hair, and a pink shirt, right? I've been using O-Powers on you a ton. It's cheaper than using it on myself, so it boosts them faster.
Have you not been getting the O-Powers I've been using on you? Did I somehow befriend a different "Jinx"?
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