Pokémon X&Y post-launch discussion thread - AKA Jinx is Upset

[WildRaubtier]

There's a flaw in your plan - the pokemon in the FSZ are taken from a list, and each spot has its own list. Unless you beat the e4 before reformatting, you're not going to have access to everything there is.

[Skyblade]

There's a flaw in your plan - the pokemon in the FSZ are taken from a list, and each spot has its own list. Unless you beat the e4 before reformatting, you're not going to have access to everything there is.

I only have to reformat the system, not restart the game. When I put Pokemon Y back in, I would have already beaten the Elite Four, so it should unlock automatically. The save files are tied to the cartridge, I believe.

Edit: Perhaps it would be different if I had the downloadable version. I don't know that I could copy off the save files, given how much Nintendo hates giving people a second save file on Pokémon games. But with the cartridge, it shouldn't be a problem.

Also, worth pointing out, if you don't unlock all three Pokémon by defeating the Elite Four, you also lose out on Hidden Abilities, as they don't unlock until the third Pokémon unlocks.

[comma]

Somehow I've spent close to 50 hours on the game, and I've only just beaten the Lumiose City gym. There's a lot more grinding than I expected there'd be. They really make you work to fill up your pokedex.

What is up with people in the GTS? Every time I search for anything like a level 1 male Ralts, most people are asking for a Xerneas or Yvetal or Mewtwo in exchange. Does that ever pan out for them?

The most generous trades I've made were probably my Shedinja or Sylveon for some pretty basic level 1 stuff that I was missing, like a Gastly. But who is going to trade legendary pokemon just to fill out stuff that they could easily catch?

[Del Murder]

I found that odd too, but I was able to score some good GTS trades from people requesting things more reasonable.

[Endless]

Good find, and let me know when you get a ditto FSZ, since it's the one I can give to everyone but can't use myself >.>
Edit: the reason you see so many absurd GTS requests is because reasonable ones don't stay up long, they get accepted and only the stupid ones stay.

[Jinx]

I'm considering resetting my game and starting over.

[comma]

Edit: the reason you see so many absurd GTS requests is because reasonable ones don't stay up long, they get accepted and only the stupid ones stay.

I'm not saying I only see stupid requests. But I'm surprised how many there are. At any given point, they seem to make up at least 75% of total requests.

[Skyblade]

Edit: the reason you see so many absurd GTS requests is because reasonable ones don't stay up long, they get accepted and only the stupid ones stay.

I'm not saying I only see stupid requests. But I'm surprised how many there are. At any given point, they seem to make up at least 75% of total requests.

Well, good ones don't last long at all. With the number of players as high as it is, reasonable requests rarely last more than two minutes.

Also, I'm not sure if you can cancel a request once it's up (haven't tried). Otherwise why else would so many people keep up requests for Jirachi and other Pokémon which aren't even in game?


There's also the problem that the GTS isn't particular enough. Let's say that I have a Squirtle with it's Hidden Ability which knows Aura Sphere and Dragon Pulse (two great Egg Moves that work with Mega-Blastoise's Mega Launcher ability). I've also bred it for perfect nature and perfect or near-perfect IVs.

What can I ask for that Squirtle? A Pokémon of a particular gender. I can't make demands about Moves, IVs, Ability, Nationality, or anything else. So I put it up for a female Eevee, and add a note asking for a Japanese one with its Hidden Ability, Anticipation. It's gone in thirty seconds to a random caught one with junk IVs and Run Away. Asking for a Legendary is pretty much the only thing the system allows to ensure you get some value for your trade.

Then too, the person who is picking up the Pokémon can't see nearly the details they need to. They can't check Nature, they can't check IVs (can't even check stats, which would be a start, even if EVs and low level Pokémon would mess it up), they can't check Ability, and, if they're as obsessive as I am, they can't check which ball it was caught in. You have to trust the note the person added and hope that they are telling the truth.

They really need an "Advanced" GTS that give people some more options.

[Agent Proto]

Also, I'm not sure if you can cancel a request once it's up (haven't tried). Otherwise why else would so many people keep up requests for Jirachi and other Pokémon which aren't even in game?

Of course you can cancel a request once it's up, just as long as nobody has accepted.

[Tasura]

Also, I'm not sure if you can cancel a request once it's up (haven't tried). Otherwise why else would so many people keep up requests for Jirachi and other Pokémon which aren't even in game?

Of course you can cancel a request once it's up, just as long as nobody has accepted.

And if someone has accepted it, there isn't even a chance to take it off to see that it can't be done, because once accepted the next time you load the GTS the trade automatically happens, or if you're still on the GTS after depositing your Pokemon and it gets accepted (Which has happened to me before, Dittos go like crazy), when you go to check the summary of the deposited Pokemon the trade happens.

[drotato]

I'm considering resetting my game and starting over.

I've also thought about this, but I dunno if I can do it without crying. xD

[comma]

I think it works fine for what it is. Okay, you can't trade perfectly bred pokemon, but most people aren't into breeding the perfect pokemon, so it's not something that particularly matters. My assumption is that if you've taken the time to breed a perfect pokemon, you can find someone who wants it on your friends list instead of asking for total strangers to trade you something worthwhile.

[WildRaubtier]

Nerds, just wait until the Pokebank extension comes out, that way you can at least keep your favourites.

In other news, I finally finished farming all the berries that fall from trees in battle. I am willing to spare anyone else the trouble.

[Skyblade]

With a question like "What are IVs", I figured it couldn't hurt to go ahead and write up this post.

What makes a Good Pokémon?

Pretty much every species of Pokémon has its utility, and has a niche somewhere that makes it useful, or at least usable, somewhere in the game. However, there are certain features of individual Pokémon which may change how strong or usable they are compared to others of their own species. Understanding these strengths, how to manipulate them, and knowing what to get out of them, is what helps to make a real Trainer.


-Stats-

Perhaps obviously, one of the cores of a Pokémon's strength is their numeric statistics. Every Pokémon has six stats, and these stats determine how well they perform in various circumstances. Each Pokémon, however, has three unique modifiers which determine their stats within the available range for their species.

Before we discuss these modifiers, though, it might help to define a term that will come in handy when discussing the strengths and weaknesses of an individual Pokémon: Base Stats.

-Base Stats-

Base Stats are, put simply, the base statistic that the game uses to determine what a Pokémon's stats are at each level. The actual formula is complicated and relatively unimportant, but it does lead us to a fairly simple, and incredibly useful, way to assess a Pokémon's stats. First, we assume that all other modifiers are inconsequential. This is for a Pokémon with zero for all of its Individual Values, no Effort Values, and a Neutral Nature.

The HP of a Pokémon at level 100 is equal to the Pokémon's Base HP, multiplied by two, plus 110.
The value of any other stat for a Pokémon at level 100 is equal to the Base HP, multiplied by two, plus 5.

Why is this helpful? Because it lets us ignore all the modifiers I told you about a minute ago, and assess a Pokémon at its core, going by just the most basic system the game has. This cuts out the very odd stats you usually wind up with (like 359 in Special Attack after all modifiers), and focus on just what makes the Pokémon tick.


The first statistical modifiers are Individual Values. Individual Values are a system originally introduced to ensure that each individual Pokémon is different, even if slightly. Each stat has its own Individual Value, and these values range from zero, to thirty one. At level 100, a single Individual Value point is worth a single stat point, so a Pokémon with a "perfect" 31 IV in a stat will receive an extra 31 points in that stat, on top of the regular base total of its species.

The statistical modifiers are Effort Values. Effort Values were introduced to the series to help ensure that a Player's Pokémon would be more powerful than a Pokémon in the wild. They represent the Effort that a Trainer puts into training their Pokémon in battle. Unlike IVs, however, Effort Values are not a 1 for 1 trade. Instead, 4 Effort Values will boost a stat by 1 point at level 100. A single Pokémon can have 510 Effort Values distributed among its stats. However, no particular stat can have more than 252 Effort Values in it. These means that a Pokémon has 127 points that can be distributed among its stats (it's actually 127.5, but the 0.5 rounds down, so 2 EVs are wasted), and can add a maximum of 63 points to any particular stat.

The third and final statistical modifier is Nature. Nature can modify every statistic except HP. A Nature will adjust one stat upward by 10%, and adjust another stat downward by 10%. Every combination of the 5 remaining stats (Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed) is represented by a Nature, leading to a total of 25 (or 5 squared) different Natures. Please note that this also includes 5 Natures which boost the same stat which they decrease, making those 5 Natures cancel themselves out and result in a Neutral Nature.

On important detail to note about Natures, is that they are calculated after both EVs and IVs have been added. So if you max EVs in a stat boosted by a beneficial Nature, you will get an extra 69 points added to your total, rather than the 63 it would be otherwise, or the 57 it would be on a detrimental Nature.


Now that you know about the modifiers that affect a Pokémon's stats, let's talk about how to manipulate them.

-Effort Values-

Effort Values are the most easily manipulated, as they are dynamic and change on a single Pokémon. Also, for the first time in the series, Game Freak has allowed us to track them directly through the use of the Super Training interface. Super Training is also a great way to train EVs onto a Pokémon.

Without Super Training, however, a Pokémon will still gain EVs, as EVs can be acquired through battling. Any Pokémon that you defeat, either through making it faint or capturing it, yields particular EVs to all Pokémon which receive Exp. Points from fighting it. The EVs yielded range from 1 to 3, and are usually (but not always) in a single stat. What EVs you acquire depend on what Pokémon you defeated in the battle.

It is also possible to boost your EVs from battle. The Macho Brace item doubles all EVs obtained from battles. The Pokérus “virus” does the same, and is well worth trading for if you can find someone with it (not that hard with the new GTS). These two also work together, so getting both will yield four times the usual EVs.

There are also other items that boost EV acquisition. These items are called the Power Weight, Power Bracer, Power Belt, Power Lens, Power Band, and Power Anklet. They are available as prizes from the Battle Maison, and each gives an additional 4 EVs in HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed, respectively. The EVs that these items give are also doubled by the effect of the Pokérus.

Since these items only affect EVs acquired through battle, they make battles a more efficient system for boosting EVs than Super Training, once you unlock them. By combining the EV boosting Power Items with the Pokérus, you can get an incredibly large amount of EVs in a single battle by participating in Horde Battles. Check the EV yield of the Pokémon in Hordes in the area, and put on a Power Item (even if the Pokémon is in the party and getting experience through the Exp. Share, it will still work). You will get EVs for every Pokémon you defeat, including the additional EVs from the item.


-Individual Values-

Individual Values are somewhat more difficult to manipulate. Unlike Effort Values, which are dynamic on a particular Pokémon, Individual Values are fixed when a Pokémon is generated. As such, in order to manipulate them, you need to change how the Pokémon is generated.

With the code locked up and very little time spent experimenting, hacking and RNG manipulation methods are both currently unavailable. However, the game has left us even more tools for the primary method of manipulating how a Pokémon is generated: Breeding.

Under normal circumstances, when you breed two Pokémon, the baby will inherit the IVs for three of its stats from its parents. It can take any three stats, and the IVs it can inherit can be chosen from either parent. By itself, this isn't too helpful, as it will take a large number of eggs to inherit the best IVs, and there are still three IVs that will be randomly generated. However, there are items that can make this process much easier.

The first are the EV enhancing items that I mentioned in the last section. If one of the parents holds one of the Power items when it breeds, its child is guaranteed to receive the corresponding stat's IV from that parent. This allows you to guarantee the transferal of a particular IV. However, only one of the parents can use these items (if both hold them, even if they are items from different stats, instead of being guaranteed to pass on both IVs, it's a 50/50 chance to pass on either of them), which means that these are not the most efficient item to use.

The best item for IV manipulation is the Destiny Knot. Either parent holding a Destiny Knot during breeding will ensure that the child will inherit the IVs for five stats from either parent. While you still might not inherit a particular one, or you may inherit them from the wrong parent, it nevertheless means you will have far fewer eggs to go through before getting ones with the results that you wanted. Also, please note that one parent holding a Power Item to guarantee it passes a particular stat will deactivate a Destiny Knot being held by the other parent, and will result in only three stats being passed.

Of course, inheriting good IVs through breeding will require having parents with high IVs to begin with. Fortunately, the game has assisted us there as well. The Pokémon caught in the Friend Safari will always have an IV of 31 (the maximum possible) in at least two stats, making it much easier to acquire good IVs to pass on to Pokémon you are breeding. Further, any Pokémon which are among the unbreedable "baby" Pokémon, such as Riolu, Chingling, or Mime Jr., will always have at least three stats with maximum IVs, which will carry over when they evolve into their breedable adult forms.


-Nature-

Nature is also fixed at the point of time the Pokémon is generated. However, it is far easier to manipulate than the IVs of a Pokémon, no matter how you choose to generate it.

If you are hunting Pokémon in the wild, you can help determine which Nature Pokémon that you encounter will be. If your lead Pokémon has "Synchronize" as its Ability, then 50% of the Pokémon that you encounter will have the same Nature as the lead Pokémon. This includes any Legendaries that are encountered.

If you are breeding to acquire new Pokémon, either parent can pass on their Nature to the baby by holding an Everstone (if both parents hold one, the baby will randomly pick either parent's Nature to inherit).

-Moves-

Of course, those stats don't do a lot if your Pokémon doesn't have some good moves to use with them.

As you know, every Pokémon has moves that it can learn while leveling up. Most Pokémon can also learn moves via TM, further increasing their pool of available moves to take into combat.

However, there are a few special moves that can only be learned through slightly irregular means.

The first of these which are moves which are restricted to a pre-evolution. For example, Riolu can learn Nasty Plot by leveling up. Lucario, it's evolution, cannot. However, if a Riolu with Nasty Plot evolves into Lucario, you will have a Lucario which knows Nasty Plot.

The second set of specialty moves are what are called "Egg Moves". These are moves which are available to a Pokémon species by breeding. Normally, parents pass down moves that the baby can learn that the parents know (with some complicated and honestly, rather unimportant restrictions). So if you are breeding a male Lucario with Extremespeed with a female Farfetch'd that knows Tackle, the baby Farfetch'd will only know Tackle, since Farfetch'd cannot learn Extremespeed (unfortunately).

However, let's take this same situation, only this time, we'll breed a male Lucario with Quick Attack with a female Farfetch'd with Tackle. Farfetch'd can learn Quick Attack either, so you'll have another baby Farfetch'd with just Tackle, right? Well, you would, except that Quick Attack is one of Farfetch'd's (man, that's an awkward possessive) Egg Moves. As such, the baby Farfetch'd will know Quick Attack and Tackle.

Now, let's say that you've obtained a Smeargle (used for the example because it can learn any move, though you can do this with any Pokémon that can learn the correct moves) with 4 Egg Moves for Farfetch'd on it. We'll use Revenge, Night Slash, Leaf Blade, and Roost for this example, which are all Egg Moves for Farfetch'd (despite a crappy stat total, Farfetch'd has a pretty large movelist). If you bred this Smeargle with your Farfetch'd that knows Tackle, you'd expect a baby that knows Tackle, and three of the Egg Moves, right? Nope, wrong again. Egg Moves take priority over regular moves that the baby can learn, so that baby (and any others bred from this pairing) would know all four of the Egg Moves.

Now, let's take that new baby, which we'll say turned out female, and breed it with a new Smeargle. This Smeargle knows Covet, Steel Wing, Featherdance, and Trump Card (more Egg Moves for Farfetch'd!). What happens if you breed it with your Farfetch'd that already knows 4 Egg Moves? Well, I haven't tested myself, but some people on Smogon have said that the baby will know four of the moves, but the other four will still be available to the Pokémon. How, you might ask? Well, in this generation, Egg Moves can be restored to a Pokémon via the Move Reminder, in exchange for a Heart Scale. Thus, even if you forget one, you can learn it again (that I have tested), and, supposedly, if you have bred more than four onto a Pokémon through breeding, you can restore the ones which it can't carry due to the move slot limit.

The worst part about Egg Moves is that the lists are unique to each Pokémon, so you have to either look them up, or experiment a ton. And some moves require breeding egg moves across a chain of Pokémon in order to teach the move to a Pokémon that you can breed with your target.

-Ability-

That's right, we can't forget about Abilities, can we?

Every Pokémon has at least one ability. Some don't have any more than that (Flygon, for example, will always have Levitate). But most have at least one alternate. Like IVs, which Ability a Pokémon has will be fixed at the time it is created.

For a Pokémon with two standard Abilities, it has an equal chance to get either of the two when it is generated.

As the use of the word "standard" in my last sentence may have clued you in, some Pokémon have Hidden Abilities. These Abilities are only accessible through unique means. In Pokémon X and Y, they're available rarely in Horde battles, or occasionally from Pokémon who are found in the Friend Safari (as long as your Friend has all three of their FSZ Pokémon unlocked).

How to manipulate Abilities? Well, there aren't as many options for that. Breeding is pretty much the only way. A female Pokémon has a 60% chance to pass on the Ability it is carrying to its offspring. Or a male Pokémon has the same 60% chance when it is breeding with Ditto.

If the current Ability is not passed on, the offspring Pokémon will get the basic Ability of its species. If the species has two basic abilities, it will have an even chance of getting either of them. So, when passing down Abilities, the breakdown goes like this:

Parent's Ability: 60%
Ability 1: 20%
Ability 2: 20%

Note then that if you are passing down a basic Ability, the chance becomes essentially 80%.


So, now that you know what makes up a Pokémon, and how to manipulate those components, it's time to determine what makes a good Pokémon.


This is where things get fun, but things can also get complicated, due to how things play off against each other and how many different features there are. So, I thought I'd take you through how I built the most recent addition to my team, my Mega-Absol. I chose Mega-Absol because I've always been an Absol fan (it looks so cool!), and I like it's Mega-Evolution. That's really all I need to justify using it. It's just up to me to make it good.


Absol

Ok, so the first way I start out is by assessing the Pokémon's Base Stats. It's a great way to get an overview of what the Pokémon is designed to do, and can help get a view in mind for how it will work.

-Stats-

Absol's Base Stats:
HP: 65
Attack: 130
Defense: 60
Special Attack: 75
Special Defense: 60
Speed: 75

From this, we can see that Absol excels in physical attacks... And that's about it. To give you a view of how these stats fare up against other Pokémon, Absol has the highest Base Attack stat of any non-Legendary, single-evolution Pokémon, and put it in the top 45 list, and that list includes Legendaries and Mega Evolutions.

It's other stats are rather lackluster, though. In terms of Speed, there are a ton of commonly used threats that run 90 to 100, including fully evolved starters and a lot of fighting types (which capitalize on Absol's Fighting Weakness), like Lucario, Primeape, Hitmonlee, Sawk, Toxicroak, and Heracross, just to name a few.

One a Pokémon with more bulk, this would be ok. But Absol, unfortunately, lacks such bulk, as 60 Base in each Defense is fairly sad, putting you at the same defense level as a lot of Not Fully Evolved Pokémon like Ivysaur and Axew.


Before we get too far into analyzing these stats, though, we need to remember that this particular Absol is being planned to be turned into a Mega-Absol. So let's take a moment and look over the base stats of Mega-Absol.

Mega-Absol:
HP: 65
Attack: 150
Defense: 65
Special Attack: 115
Special Defense: 65
Speed: 115

Now, let's look at what changed. It's Attack received a great boost, and it now has an Attack stat that's only bested by 13 Pokémon (including 4 Legendaries).

More importantly, perhaps, it received an even bigger boost to its Speed stat, allowing it to outrun all those Base 100s I told you about, and even the Base 110 Speed Tier, which is pretty dang fast.

Its bulk was unfortunately not buffed, but it might be worth noting that it received a fairly massive buff to its Special Attack as well.

Now that I've scoped out its stats, it's time to take a look at its move pool.

-Moves-

This is a little harder to demonstrate, as most Pokémon have really large move pools to choose from. These large move pools can also be distracting or confusing, as they may indicate play styles that aren't really viable on the Pokémon in question.

For example, Absol learns several moves naturally by leveling up that aren't really usable by it, including Perish Song, Taunt, Razor Wind, and Future Sight. Absol just doesn't have the bulk for two turn attacks (especially ones which don't grant near invulnerability the way Dig or Fly do), or to stall out opponents for the duration of Perish Song, let alone surviving a Pokémon Taunted into just attacking.

However, it does have a solid move pool to choose from which it can use well, including:

Swords Dance, Quick Attack, Night Slash, Sucker Punch, Psycho Cut, Pursuit, Thief, Return, Shadow Claw, Payback, Retaliate, Stone Edge, X-Scissor, Rock Slide, Aerial Ace, and Rock Smash.

Oh, but lest I forget, it also had a great boost to Special Attack in Mega Form, which opens up the possibility of using some of its other moves really effectively, such as:

Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Blizzard, Ice Beam, Thunder, and Thunderbolt (he learns Shadow Ball and Dark Pulse too, but they aren't worth it with that massive Attack stat sitting there with great Physical moves for it).

This gives a clear indication that Absol can hit hard, and with the Mega-boost, it can hit fast as well. So, knowing what I want to do with it (build it into a sweeper, designed to tear through entire teams), I then take a look at its Egg Moves.

Yeah, you could look at these along with the standard move pool, but I find it better to wait until you know what you want to do with it, and then look for Egg Moves that augment that style of play. It's a rare Egg Move that shows me an entirely new way to play a Pokémon (though they do exist).

Assessing these separately also makes sense because they're harder to get, and should be judged carefully, lest you waste time breeding for them.

[b]-Egg Moves-

Absol's Egg Moves include:
Assurance, Baton Pass, Curse, Double-Edge, Feint Attack, Hex, Magic Coat, Mean Look, Megahorn, Play Rough, Punishment, and Zen Headbutt.

There's also a few there that Absol already learns through Leveling Up, which I don't bother to include.

Looking at the move list, you see a few that are still falling into the same trap as Perish Song. Absol just doesn't have the bulk to run Magic Coat or a stat decreasing move like Mean Look, and Punishment requires you to get hit to reach full power, and Absol doesn't like getting hit.

Double-Edge only hits slightly stronger than a full power Return. Assurance is mostly for Double Battles, so not really worth getting for my setup (which is designed for Singles). Megahorn is less accurate than X-Scissor (which I already have access to if I want Bug coverage). Zen Headbutt is similarly less accurate than Psycho Cut. Feint Attack never misses, but is inferior in power to both Sucker Punch and Night Slash. Hex requires a status ailment I don't want to waste turns or move slots inflicting, making it less damaging and reliable than Shadow Ball or Shadow Claw. And Curse cuts Absol's speed, as well as being slower to build up than Swords Dance. Even with a Defense boost, Absol just isn't that bulky.

So the usable Egg Moves on Absol appear to be Play Rough and Baton Pass.

Play Rough gives Absol Fairy coverage, which meshes beautifully with its natural Dark STAB. Only two Pokémon resist the combination of Dark and Fairy, and those are the Steel Fairy Pokémon, Klefki and Mawile.

Baton Pass can let Absol pass off its Swords Dance to another Pokémon if something pops up which I know can threaten it. And, since only two Pokémon resist the Dark/Fairy attack combination, I don't exactly need to run a third attack. It's also worth noting that Mega-Absol's ability, Magic Bounce, will let it avoid things like Intimidate or Screech, that might lower its stats, ensuring it gets its full boost to pass off to its target.

Fortunately, both Baton Pass and Play Rough are able to be picked up by breeding with Mawile, who learns both moves naturally.

So now I know that I want to breed Play Rough and Baton Pass onto my Absol. Thus, as I am ready to start breeding, it's time to think about what Nature and Ability I want my Absol to have.

-Nature-

Nature is usually fairly straightforward. For a sweeper like Absol, there are generally only four Natures worth looking at. These are Adamant, Modest, Jolly, and Timid. Both operate on the same principle: Lower the attack stat that your sweeper does not use (in this case, Absol's Special Attack), and boost either your main attack stat, or Speed.

Normally, I'd love an Adamant on my physical attackers (competitive players love Speed, but I don't play competitively, just Battle Maison and friendly duels, where that insane degree of min/maxing doesn't come into play). However, Absol is really powerful as it is, so moving first actually means a lot. He has the power to One-Hit-KO a lot of threats, especially after a Swords Dance, but keeping him alive with his weak defenses means making sure that most things won't move before him, so they can't hit him.

Thus, Jolly seems like the best bet. Unfortunately, it's not. Not quite. This is because, as I said, there are two Pokémon who can wall my Absol. Now, I could pass off to another Pokémon to continue the sweep, but Absol also carries two moves that absolutely destroy Mawile and Klefki: Flamethrower and Fire Blast.

Since Mega-Absol gets such a boost to Special Attack, they may be worth running as tertiary attacks instead of Baton Pass to let Mega-Absol punch through the only things that can resist it. It will also help against Pokémon like Scizor, who just has naturally high Physical Defense.

So I don't want to lower the Special Attack they were so nice to gift me with. This means that, to boost my Speed, I need to consider losing either Defense, or Special Defense. For Absol, this one is actually fairly easy. Despite its great Speed, there are still moves which can hurt it. These are Priority moves like Quick Attack. All but one Priority move is Physical, so investing in Physical defense is the better option. Plus, the only Special Priority attack is Vacuum Wave, which is Fighting type and will probably crush Absol anyway, if anyone ever used it. Which they don't.

So the Nature I am going to go for is Naïve, which boosts Speed, but lowers Special Defense.

So that's the Nature I want. Now to choose an Ability.

-Ability-

Absol's Abilities are:
Super Luck
Pressure
Justified (Hidden Ability)

This one actually doesn't matter that much. By going Mega, Absol will always get Magic Bounce. And there is really no reason to not Mega-Evolve Absol on the first turn it is out (plenty of reasons why it's a bad idea to not Mega-Evolve immediately, in fact). So you wouldn't even really have the Ability of base Absol for even one turn.

Choosing between the two normal ones is really easy. Absol still doesn't have the bulk to run a stalling set, so Pressure is worthless. Super Luck is far better, if you ever had a turn to attack in your base form.

However, there is a slight, very very VERY slight possibility to use one of Absol's Abilities. That Ability is Justified, Absol's Hidden Ability. If you can switch into a weak Dark attack, like a Thief, Feint Attack, or Bite, you will probably survive, since Absol resists it. And that would give you a free Attack boost before you Mega-Evolved. This is, however, dangerous, and relies on you to predict well (granted, much easier in the Battle Maison than against players, since you can lure out a Dark attack by sending out pretty much any Psychic type against an opponent that carries Dark attacks like Sandile). It's usually safer to get Absol in without suffering an attack if you can.

Still, that gives Justified the slight boost, even in a rare situation. And, fortunately, Absol is available in the Friend Safari.

Now we've settled on what we want Absol to have. Sure, there's still the possibility of switching out Baton Pass for Flamethrower/Fire Blast depending on how my team shapes up, and whether I have anyone else who can handle Klefki and Mawile easily, but that's unimportant right now. Instead, we start breeding.

Breeding

We'll start with breeding with Mawile. Mawile can immediately learn Play Rough with a Heart Scale, and learns Baton Pass at level 31 (it also learns Feint Attack at level 26, just if you want to pass an extra Egg Move in case you ever want to recall it with a Heart Scale later). So I take a level 31+ Mawile, and start breeding it with a female Naïve Absol I got from the Friend Safari (use a Synchronizer to help get the Nature you want).

I did not have access to Mawile in the Friend Safari when I did this, so I keep going until I preserve both of Absol's 31 IVs (the Judge in Kiloude City is wonderful for checking the IVs of new Pokémon). Then I breed Absol with other Friend Safari Absols to get more good IVs distributed. This is a long process, since even if each parent has 2 IVs at 31, the baby might not have any due to the evil that is RNG.

But, eventually, I have a Pokémon with 5 IVs at 31. Which stat did I drop? Well, the same one my Nature hurt, Special Defense, as it was the one I decided was least important to me. You could theoretically keep hatching until you got one that was hex-flawless, but I'm not going to bother with that.

With the breeding done, the only step left is Training.

-Training-

The first step is to EV train. Super Training is great for this, especially if you don't have the EV boosting items from the Battle Maison yet.

For my Absol, I'm going to go with 252 in Attack, to ensure it hits as hard as possible, 252 in Speed, to ensure it is as fast as possible, and the last 6 (only 4 of which matter) are going to give me a single extra point of Special Attack, just to boost my Special damage ever so slightly, if I decide to run Flamethrower.

Then it's just a matter of leveling Absol up to 100 (or simply at least 50, if he's doing the Battle Maison), and making sure he knows all the moves I want him to learn. And let's recap those briefly, since I never did come to a full conclusion about any except the Egg Moves.

Play Rough
Baton Pass/Flamethrower/Fire Blast
Swords Dance
Night Slash/Sucker Punch

That last one is the hard one of the set, at least to me. Sucker Punch is great, especially on Mega-Absol, since your opponent's only choice is to attack when status moves don't work (if the opponent is a human and smart enough to realize that, I haven't tested it in the Battle Maison yet). But it has lousy PP, and only 10 more Base Power than Night Slash. On the other hand, it is Priority, so it could hit faster Pokémon... In the end, I chose Night Slash, mostly because I wasn't sure how well the Battle Maison would work around Sucker Punch. But I could always change again with a Heart Scale at the Move Reminder.



So, there you go. How to manipulate the values that make up a Pokémon, and how to look for what you want out of a Pokémon, and how to bring that out. Hopefully this helped anyone who was looking to form their own team (because otherwise, why did I spend a week typing all that?). Even if you don't use or like my choices, maybe you can take the core principles to your own favorites.


Also, I now have a ton of Absol with Play Rough and Baton Pass (no Feint Attack, didn't think of it, sorry) and good IVs to get rid of. Who wants some?

[Bunny]

Despite having 7 boxes full of WT Pokemon, I have yet to get one infected with Pokerus. Anyone have one they'd be willing to throw my way?