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

[Shaibana]

it seems ive already added you ^^
my nr: 2122-6914-9713

[Dat Matt]

Right, that's me added you. I'll be available for the next 6 hours, so just say when you're available and you can get your ultra cool growlithe.

[Fynn]

Alright, I beat the champion about a week ago and am now ready to get back to it.

I've set myself two goals. I want to finally become a Pokemon master, just like I always wanted back in elementary school.

Goal #1: I want to collect all the Pokemon. Thanks to the Internet, that may finally be possible for me
Goal #2: I want to finally be competitive in online play. I never really got the meta game much. But now that everything has become so streamlined, I guess I may actually have a chance. If anyone has any tips to give me on that, I would be glad to hear that Seriously, I have no idea about competitive battling. I know what IVs and EVs are, but any guides I find are not helpful because they look like they're written in some language understood by those already in the know. How do I even get started with this? I know there's a lot of breeding involved.

As a side goal, I want to make lots of friends through competitive battling. Essentially, I finally have a chance to live the dream my 11-year-old self had

[Dat Matt]

Catching all the Pokemon is a time consuming process in this game mostly because there are 718 of them. When I went through the game, I got everything I possibly could from the GTS before Pokemon bank was released. People in Japan had access to the bank, and Shauna found a Piplup on the wonder trade around New Year. I used that Piplup to make eggs and trade for anything I was missing. It was really easy to get what I was missing.

I managed to fill the dex to about 674/718 before I had to start playing other games. Simply because anyone that owned a legendary Pokemon (Say Lugia) wanted to trade it for a event pPkemon that was even harder to obtain. I ended up playing through all of Heart Gold, Soul Silver, Platinum, Black and White to bring the total up to 711/718. The rest were vent legendaries I traded my friends for.

Now that Pokemon Bank is out, I'm not sure how that will affect trading. If it will be easier or hard to get some things. When I was trading, Piplup was still rare and I had the means to get what I wanted using it. The Legenary Pokemon were also impossible to obtain. I assume that will remain the same.

All in all it took about 350 hours to catch them all, but it was a lot of fun doing it.

On that note, I can't help you with battling. I am terrible at it.

[Fynn]

Catching all the Pokemon is a time consuming process in this game mostly because there are 718 of them. When I went through the game, I got everything I possibly could from the GTS before Pokemon bank was released. People in Japan had access to the bank, and Shauna found a Piplup on the wonder trade around New Year. I used that Piplup to make eggs and trade for anything I was missing. It was really easy to get what I was missing.

I managed to fill the dex to about 674/718 before I had to start playing other games. Simply because anyone that owned a legendary Pokemon (Say Lugia) wanted to trade it for a event pPkemon that was even harder to obtain. I ended up playing through all of Heart Gold, Soul Silver, Platinum, Black and White to bring the total up to 711/718. The rest were vent legendaries I traded my friends for.

Now that Pokemon Bank is out, I'm not sure how that will affect trading. If it will be easier or hard to get some things. When I was trading, Piplup was still rare and I had the means to get what I wanted using it. The Legenary Pokemon were also impossible to obtain. I assume that will remain the same.

All in all it took about 350 hours to catch them all, but it was a lot of fun doing it.

On that note, I can't help you with battling. I am terrible at it.

That's OK That makes two of us

I was actually thinking it might be a good idea to start with wonder trade while I still got very little pokemon. Through Pokemon bank I got all my starters, so I guess I have something to bargain with later on. And I guess those are the ones I want to send, since I don't want to be one of those douches that just sends Flabébé expecting a smurfing Deoxys.

[Dat Matt]

I started the game wonder trading. If I didn't get something I wanted I'd just put it back in the wonder trade. Even got a Xerneas through the wonder trade which was pretty cool.

Mostly Flabebes and pidgeys though.

[Shaibana]

i was so happy when i got a an eevee through wonder trade.. but a vieuw days later i discovered you can catch them in the wild.

wich i find a little disapointing.
in all the games so far Eevee has been an exclusive, and now it feels worthless.
but on the bright side: i have realised my eeveelution dream

ive battled online 2x.. it was horrible. im so bad at it..
anyone wanna fight me? xD

[Fynn]

You up for a fight right now? I'm playing at this moment

[Ultima Shadow]

"Since NCG has not yet challenged
'the gyms', anyone else is free to
do so. The first victor of each get
the spoils. Oh, and... I'm adding
myself as well. The gyms, and
their characteristics are as follow:"

Normal rank (3 pokemons):


Blazing Sword Gym
Reward: 4IV Charmander and Skarmory with egg moves.
Hint: setup-heavy sweep team. Steel and Fire types.





Magic Gym
Reward: 4IV Dratini with Marvel Scale and a 5IV Timid Ralts.
Hint: mixed team mostly focused around special attacks. Dragon and Psychic types.





Shinobi Gym
Reward: 4IV Hidden Ability Froakie and Gible.
Hint: high speed-tier team with instant sweeping capasity. Dark and Dragon types.





Rust Gym
Reward: 4IV Squirtle and Feebas.
Hint: bulky pokemon, hard to break through. Water and Steel types.







High rank (4 pokemons):


Despair Gym
Reward: Shiny Trevenant and a 4IV Prankster Cottonee.
Hint: annoying team, focused around being a total pain in the ass. No type restrictions.






Lunatic rank (5 pokemons):


Boundary Gym
Reward: Gale Wings 4IV Fletching, Skill Link 4IV Shellder, 4 IV Mudkip, 4IV Frillish.
Hint: Filled with OP bs and stupid things. No type restrictions.



FC: 0662 - 3970 - 8557

[Skyblade]

Alright, I beat the champion about a week ago and am now ready to get back to it.

I've set myself two goals. I want to finally become a Pokemon master, just like I always wanted back in elementary school.

Goal #1: I want to collect all the Pokemon. Thanks to the Internet, that may finally be possible for me
Goal #2: I want to finally be competitive in online play. I never really got the meta game much. But now that everything has become so streamlined, I guess I may actually have a chance. If anyone has any tips to give me on that, I would be glad to hear that Seriously, I have no idea about competitive battling. I know what IVs and EVs are, but any guides I find are not helpful because they look like they're written in some language understood by those already in the know. How do I even get started with this? I know there's a lot of breeding involved.

As a side goal, I want to make lots of friends through competitive battling. Essentially, I finally have a chance to live the dream my 11-year-old self had

*Ahem*

EVs and IVs are values that determine your Pokémon's stats.

Every Pokémon species has certain strengths and weaknesses. Cloyster has really high physical defense, and pretty average in everything else, for example. However, there are modifiers that adjust these so that every Cloyster does not share identical stats. These modifiers are called EVs and IVs.

The first we'll go over are IVs. These are called Individual Values, and they're designed to make every Pokémon more unique. They are determined at the Pokémon's creation, and they never, ever change. Each stat can have an IV from 0 to 31. Essentially, this refers to how many bonus points a stat will receive when a Pokémon is level 100. So an Absol with an Attack IV of 31 will have an Attack stat of 296, while one with an Attack IV of 0 will have an Attack stat of 265. Obviously, therefore, higher IVs are better (with some very rare exceptions for particular Pokémon and builds).

IVs are usually generated randomly on a wild Pokémon (or most trainer Pokémon, although some rare trainers have Pokémon with fixed IVs). Thus, if you are attempting to catch a wild Pokémon with max IVs, you will be catching a lot, and I do mean a lot, of wild Pokémon. Your odds of catching a Pokémon with 6 max IVs (referred to as hex-flawless, since it has perfect IVs in all six stats) is 1 in 1,073,741,824 (1 in 32^6). Good luck with that.

Fortunately, the game does offer some alternatives that make this much, much easier. First, is that catching particular Pokémon, or Pokémon for particular locations, can guarantee you a certain number of IVs at max level. Any Pokémon caught in Friend Safari will have at least two max IVs (which cuts your odds of catching a hex-flawless down to 1 in 32^4, or 1 in 1,048,576). To make things even more interesting, any Pokémon that is a member of the "Undiscovered" Egg Group will be guaranteed to have at least three IVs at max level. This is because the Undiscovered Egg Group contains every Legendary, and it was done to make Legendary Pokémon more useful (since you can't breed them, which I'll get to later). However, the Undiscovered Egg Group also contains every Baby Pokémon, so catching Pokémon like Riolu, Chingling, and Mime Jr. will net you Pokémon who can evolve, and then be used for breeding.

Now, you might ask, "How does breeding work, and how does it affect stats?". Fortunately, you don't have to, because Jinx already did. I'll go ahead and paste in my answer to that question while I'm here.

How does breeding work? Like, I understand you breed to get better stats, but how?

I'm unsure if you're asking for just stat information, or a breeding guide in general. Either way, it's a chance for me to type some more. Skip to the "Stat Inheritance" section for the information specific to stats.

-Breeding Basics-

Egg Groups: Who can breed with whom.
Each different Pokémon species is part of an Egg Group. Any male Pokémon can breed with any female Pokémon in the same Egg Group. The Egg Groups are usually based on physical characteristics.

For example, there are three different Water-based Egg Groups. One is for standard fish like Magikarp, one is for amphibians like Poliwag, and one is for invertebrates like Tentacool. There are plenty of other groups as well. On for mammals, one for reptiles, one for plants, etcetera. Keep in mind, however, that plenty of Pokémon are actually in multiple groups. Squirtle, for example, is grouped with both the Amphibian group and the Reptilian group.

If two Pokémon left in the Day Care can breed, you'll get a message saying that they like to spend time together when you talk to the Day Care man outside the center. If he says they prefer spending time with others, they won't produce an egg.

Pokémon without a gender cannot be bred through standard means, though they may still be a part of an Egg Group.

Breeding rules: Which child is produced.
When two Pokémon within the same Egg Group create an egg, the resulting Pokémon is going to be the lowest Evolution-form of the mother. Breeding a female Marowak with a male Feraligatr (again, both in the Reptilian Egg Group) results in a baby Cubone, the lowest Evolution-form of Marowak.

There are two small exceptions to this: Nidoran Male and Female are considered the same species, and breeding them can produce either offspring, not merely Nidoran Females. Illumise and Volbeat are also considered the same species and follow the same rules. There are no female Volbeat or female Nidoran Males, but you can get more of either by breeding Illumise and Nidoran Female.

Also, the "Baby" Pokémon further break this rule. If you breed a female Azumarill, for example, you will get only Marill as children, not the younger Azurill. This is because the "Baby" Pokémon are only able to be obtained by breeding while the parent hold on to the corresponding incense. To get an Azurill, for example, you would need to let Azumarill hold the Sea Incense (available at the stand in Coumarine City) while breeding. Each Incense is used to get a different Baby Pokémon.

Egg Moves: What the child learns.
The child Pokémon can learn moves from either parent.

The child will learn any moves it can naturally learn from leveling up (in its current evolution) that both parents know.

The child will learn any TM, HM, or move tutor moves that either parent knows (it was only from the Father until this generation, but I believe it can now learn them from either), that the child can also learn.

The child can also learn certain "Egg Moves" from breeding if, again, either parent knows them (this was also originally restricted to only learning Egg Moves from the father, but now can be learned from either parent, confirmed). These moves are different for every Pokémon, but they essentially are a list of moves available only through breeding. Outrage, for example, can never be learned by a Charizard, but breeding a female Charizard with a male Dragonite that knows Outrage will result in a baby Charmander with Outrage. You'll have to either experiment a lot or look up the possible Egg Moves for each Pokémon you want to try these on.

Stat Inheritance: Why breeding is good for stats.
Every Pokémon has 6 stats: HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed.

Each stat is assigned a number when the Pokémon is created. These go from 0 to 31, and the stat gets a corresponding boost from these "Individual Values" (hereafter referred to as IVs). For example, at level 100, a Pokémon with a 31 in the Attack IV will have an Attack stat 31 points higher than a Pokémon of the same species with a 0 in the Attack IV.

IVs are set when the Pokémon is created, and never change.

Babies inherit three IVs from their parents. They can be taken from either parent, and can be any three IVs.

Example:
You have a female Pikachu with 31 Special Attack IV and 0 Speed IV.
You have a male Pikachu with 0 Special Attack IV and 31 Speed IV.
The baby can inherit the mother's Special Attack and the father's Speed (and one other stat IV from either parent), resulting in a baby Pikachu with a 31 in each.
Of course, the baby could also inherit both 0's, resulting in an incredibly weak baby, relatively. But you can always breed them again.

Natures: How they change stats, and how to pass them on.
Each Pokémon also has a "Nature". You can view it from the Ribbon page, above the date met. Each nature changes two stats. A "Mild" Natured Pokémon, for example (like my Greninja), will have increased Special Attack, and decreased Defense. These modifications are 10% of the stat's value. So if a neutral Greninja had 100 in both Defense and Special attack, a Mild Greninja of the same level would have 90 Defense and 110 Special Attack.

You can view the changes on a Pokémon's stat page. If the name of a stat is red, it is being increased. If it is blue, it is being decreased.

Please note that there are 5 Natures which boost the same stat that they penalize, resulting in neutral Natures.


When breeding, if either parent holds an Everstone, the child will be hatched with that parent's Nature. If both parents hold Everstones, the child will have a 50/50 chance to get either. This lets you help ensure that the child is born with the correct Nature when it finally inherits the correct stats.

Other Items that affect breeding.
The Everstone and the Incenses are not the only items that change the resulting baby.

There are certain items which give Effort Values (EVs) in battle when equipped to a Pokémon. The Power Weight gives 4 HP EVs. The Power Bracer gives 4 Attack EVs. The Power Belt gives Defense, the Power Lens gives Special Attack, the Power Band gives Special Defense, and the Power Anklet gives Speed.

If a parent holds one of these while breeding, it will guarantee that the corresponding stat will pass from that parent to the baby. If both parents hold an item (even if not the same item), it will pick one of the two to inherit, then take the other two inherited stats at random. You cannot guarantee more than one inheritance stat this way.


The Destiny Knot increases the number of IVs that the child inherits. If either parent holds this item, the child will inherit five IVs from the parents instead of the usual three. Which IVs are chosen, and from which parent, are still random.

Abilities: How to pass them on.
Some Pokémon, especially those gotten from Horde battles or the Friend Safari, will have Hidden Abilities that are different from what the Pokémon usually has.

Other Pokémon can naturally have more than one Ability (such as Absol, who can have either Super Luck or Pressure, in addition to its Hidden Ability, which is Justified).

These Abilities can all be passed on to the baby as well. When normally breeding, between any two Pokémon of the same Egg Group, the mother has an 80% chance of passing down a non-Hidden Ability, or a 60% chance of passing down a Hidden Ability.

Supposedly, the Father can now pass down a Hidden Ability as well, as long as both parents are members of the same species (for example, the male Blazikenite from the event can now pass down Speed Boost to a baby Torchic, as long as he is breeding with a female Blazikenite).

Abilities cannot be passed down when breeding with a Ditto, and the child will know either its regular Ability, or one of its regular Abilities if it can have two, at random.

Ditto: Breeding the unbreedable.
Some Pokémon do not have a gender, or are only available as male (such as Throh and Sawk). Or you might not have caught a female to breed with. These Pokémon can still be bred, however, thanks to Ditto. Ditto can breed with almost any non-legendary, non-baby Pokémon in the game.

Putting Ditto in the Day Care with any non-legendary, non-baby Pokémon (except Nidorina, Nidoqueen, and Unown) will result in producing a baby which relates to the other parent. A Ditto and a Metagross, for example, results in a baby Beldum, even though Metagross is not a female parent, and cannot breed except with Ditto.

You cannot breed Dittos at all. Two Dittos together will not produce an Egg, and with any other parent, will only produce an Egg that corresponds to the other parent.

Other than this, Ditto works almost the exact same way as other Pokémon. The same inheritance and move rules apply.

So, now you have some quite detailed information on breeding, and how it can affect IVs. Next up, we will have to examine EVs.

EVs are the second modifier for statistic. EV is short of Effort Values. They're named because they are points that you put Effort into Training.

EVs affect a particular stat. Each Pokémon can have up to 510 EVs. Each Pokémon can only put a maximum of 252 EVs into a particular stat, however. A level 100 Pokémon will gain one point in a stat for every 4 EVs put into it. These means that the maximum boost a single stat can receive from EVs is 63. Thus, going back to our Absol example, an Absol with an Attack IV of 31 and zero Attack EVs will have an Attack stat of 296, while one with an Attack IV of 31 and 252 Attack EVs will have an Attack stat of 359.

As you can see, EV training is extremely important. How then, do you EV train? Well, each Pokémon that you defeat (or capture) gives you EVs. Which EVs you obtain changes based on which Pokémon you defeat. Defeat an Alakazam, and you'll get Special Attack EVs. Defeat a Raichu, and you'll get Speed EVs. The amounts for each fight vary based on the specific species, with more evolved versions typically giving higher values, ranging from one to three EVs per kill. These EVs, however, can be doubled by the Pokérus, or the Macho Brace (and using both will Quadruple the EVs you obtain). The "Power" items, like the Power Lens, also guarantee you 4 EVs in the stat they boost per kill, allowing you faster growth and a bit less randomness.

Medicine can also effect EVs. Each Protein, Carbos, or similar item gives you 10 EVs in a particular stat, but only up to 100 EVs. You can also use certain berries to reduce a stat's EVs by 10, in case you have a few unwanted EVs to be rid of.

For a less complicated, easier to control method, you can also use Super Training. Each Super Training mission grants you either 4, 8, or 12 EVs, based on the tier of training. Super Training bags also grant 1, 4, or 12 EVs to their particular stat. The boosts you receive can also be monitored, though not in exact numerical form, by the Super Training radial graph.




My other main guide for some of the new Pokémon features introduced in X and Y, including Super Training, from earlier in the thread.

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. A Pokémon whose Fullness is completely empty can eat 6 Poképuffs, and you'll notice that the last two are 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.

The Best Way To Get Good Poképuffs:
Play Unlimited Head it, and chain 15 bounces together. This should net you at least 60 to 65 points (45 from bouncing, plus 15 for the chain), which is enough to one-star Unlimited Mode. This will reward you with two of the second best Poképuffs in the game (again, to get the best, you need to 5-star Unlimited, which takes at least ten times as long, and risks making mistakes). Three games with two Poképuffs rewarded each will get you 6 Poképuffs, which is exactly how much a Pokémon with an empty stomach can eat, so this method is not only a fast way to get good Poképuffs, it is also perfectly sustainable for keeping your Pokémon fed as optimally as possible.

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. Each Effort Value (EV) is 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.

Upgrading from Level 1 to Level 2 of a power takes either 15 uses, I believe. I have not kept track of how long to upgrade to Level 3.


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.

[Fynn]

That was absolutely perfect Could you just tell me how I can find out what IVs my Pokemon has in-game?

[Shaibana]

You up for a fight right now? I'm playing at this moment

aww, didnt see ur post was doing something else..
have you added me? and have i added you? :o
under what name?

p.s im going to set up a pokemon battle competition!
please check it out!
http://home.eyesonff.com/general-gam...ml#post3381961

[Skyblade]

That was absolutely perfect Could you just tell me how I can find out what IVs my Pokemon has in-game?

In the Kiloude City Pokémon Center, on the left hand side, there is a character called "The Judge". He gives you some information on your IVs.

Essentially, he chooses the highest IV of the Pokémon you tell him to Judge, tells you what stat it is in, and then gives you a rundown on how good it is. He doesn't give exact values though, but rather a range of possible values.

If a stat has an IV between 0 and 15: "It has rather decent stats, I'd say. That's how I judge it."
Between 16 and 25: "It's definitely got some good stats. That's how I judge it."
Between 26 and 30: "This Pokemon has some fantastic stats. That's how I judge it."
And, if the IV of a stat is 31: "Stats like those... They simply can't be beat! That's how I judge it."

He does, however, give you a bit of extra information. If you have two stats tied for having a Pokémon's highest IVs, he will say "oh, but this stat is good too". This lets you know when you have multiple IVs that are all at the same value, or multiple perfects. He will also make a special statement if you have any IVs at 0 after he finishes his main statement.

There are also programs that will help judge your IVs for you, based on calculating the values from the Pokémon's current stats and EVs, but in-game, your only option is the Judge.

[Shaibana]

ill be online tonight between 22:00 - 23:45 (Central european time)
in a train and i believe both trains have WIFI :o
so if Mr. shauna, you have time around that i would apreciate it

and if anyone wants too battle, i would love that too

[Fynn]

I might be online then, we'll see