Pokémon GO

[QuentinQuonce]

I usually find the forced "battle in the GBL [x] times" researches so tedious (but hey, it's for a free Elite TM so I'll do it anyway) but this time actually ended up being rather enjoyable since nearly everyone I fought this morning was using a full team of Dragon-types. Some of the easiest wins ever.

 

[pika pal]

And right after this event with a bunch of GBL featured mons we get news from Worlds about a massive move overhaul that hits a lot of them (Skarmory, Quagsire, Lickitung) pretty hard. Classic Niantic.

 

[Fluke]

Today was very nice. I really wanted my first shundo today so I played like a maniac. Sadly I still didn't get one. I did get a bunch of shinies and hundos, though. However, when I finally got home after a hectic day I realized I screwed up by forgetting to evolve my best Beldum for the move Meteor Mash... and now I'm out of luck. I wish the timeframe was a little longer...

 

[pika pal]

Today was very nice. I really wanted my first shundo today so I played like a maniac. Sadly I still didn't get one. I did get a bunch of shinies and hundos, though. However, when I finally got home after a hectic day I realized I screwed up by forgetting to evolve my best Beldum for the move Meteor Mash... and now I'm out of luck. I wish the timeframe was a little longer...

Hold onto them, since I believe CD Classics are included in the December “Recap” weekend so you could do the evos then

 

[R_N]

Of all things to dedicated a full trailer too, on the Worlds Closing Ceremony stage....Morpeko?

Like yeah, there was the Dynamax tease at the end and Morpeko is a new gen 8 addition but.................Morpeko??

 

[pika pal]

Of all things to dedicated a full trailer too, on the Worlds Closing Ceremony stage....Morpeko?

Like yeah, there was the Dynamax tease at the end and Morpeko is a new gen 8 addition but.................Morpeko??

Gen 8 has been so ignored that that is legitimately a big reveal for Go players at this point.

More notably, Morpeko introducing mid-battle form changes opens the gate for quite a few things on new and possibly even pre-existing forms (though we're probably stuck with Zygarde-Complete-at-Start in ML).

 

[DrrT]

I genuinely wonder if they have been saving Galar so much just for the 8th year. It's amusing the difference between Paldean and Galar mons in Go.

 

[Expert Evan]

Next season's GBL especially Great League is going to have a huge shake up in which pokemon are meta as I expect shadow Machamp with moves that will require elite TMs along with Pangoro, certain charmers and poison types to dominate, so I'm now undecided about going to Baltimore in mid September since other family matters have come up that currently take precedence at least.

 

[pika pal]

GBL is just completely upended in GL, with UL and ML suffering ripple effects (RIP Lugia Sky Attack nerf).

The big stuff to watch out for as I understand are Shadow Feraligatr and Clodsire.

 

[R_N]

The galar starters are finally, definitively, coming to Go in the new season

Praise be. Always appreciate an easy +9 entries.

 

[pika pal]

Also looking like Zacian and Zamazenta are coming back, whether Hero forms (maybe Shiny Debuts) or Crowned Forms, which I welcome as a collector but absolutely dread as a ML player unless the Crowned forms are better with different moves (Zacian without Wild Charge is Ho-oh Food and the Steel Typing adds some weaknesses like various Ground Types).

 

[DrrT]

Wait, not even the *starters* were in? Galar was even more ignored than I thought, wow.
After Origin Dialga/Palkia, I can see the Crowned dogs making a debut, just like the Kyurem fusions.

 

[R_N]

Wait, not even the *starters* were in? Galar was even more ignored than I thought, wow.
After Origin Dialga/Palkia, I can see the Crowned dogs making a debut, just like the Kyurem fusions.

The only Galar Pokemon in the game to this point have been: Skwovet, Greedent, Woolo, Dubwool, Falinks (for some reason), Perrserker, Obstagoon, Runerigus, Mr Rime, Sirfetch'd, Zacian, Zamazenta, Zarude, Regieleki & Regidrago.
The cross-gen evolutions were released around mid-to-late 2020
The squirrels, sheep, falinks and wolves were released August 2021 I think as a Worlds tie in, Zarude later that year as a movie tie in.
The regi were released in the first half of 2023
They have released every Galarian regional form (including the legendary birds) aside from Corsola, though. So that's nice?


I think the general theory has been they didn't want to "leap ahead", so they just "focused" on variants and their relatives so that the latest games still had something. With the 2021 release just being a tie in.

Obviously with Gen 9, they decided to actually strike while things were relevant. iirc Masters - which also kind of put Gen 8 on the backburner for a while - also immediately hit Gen 9 around that same time. I could see this being GameFreak influence, like hey we really should have a proper release of these Pokemon this time.

 

[R_N]

I did have a feeling Stonjourner would be regional, but I thought it'd be regional by hemisphere raids with Eiscue.
Frustrating, but hey Dreepy's here too. As a rare spawn. Whatever....the discord will provide.


Also: I am laughing forever that they are dripfeeding the ability to Dynamax.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Stonjourner the UK regional, CALLED IT

 

[Fluke]

Does anyone here actually try and climb in the GBL? Once you reach 1500 elo at around rank 20, you'll never get rewards anymore because you'll be facing the most elite crackhead teams. I decided to lose elo, just to be able to sometimes win a few matches in a set again. Otherwise I'll never get any of these rewards, besides the occasional Stardust from the 1/5 win.

 

[pika pal]

Does anyone here actually try and climb in the GBL? Once you reach 1500 elo at around rank 20, you'll never get rewards anymore because you'll be facing the most elite crackhead teams. I decided to lose elo, just to be able to sometimes win a few matches in a set again. Otherwise I'll never get any of these rewards, besides the occasional Stardust from the 1/5 win.

What you described is "Tanking", and a lot of players do it when they hit a rank they care about for the one-off reward to then farm the set prizes.

I tend to hang around 2000-2500 most seasons, usually not strenuous to manage that if you're using GBL viable Pokemon instead of just tossing stuff in haphazardly. Like I'm not good at teambuilding but understanding what principles go into it would keep you around that ELO.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Rather hyped for shiny Zacian at last. Never had a copy of SwSh so my HOME account is still missing shiny entries for Zacian and Zamazenta since the event distributions can't be traded.

This has got to be both the most new species and the most new shiny debuts in a single month in god knows how long. 14 new species and 6 shiny debuts announced so far, by my count. Pretty darn sweet.

 

[DrrT]

Weird that only one of the wolves got Shiny, but since I played Sword and prefer it to Zamazenta's anyways, I may try to grab one.

No comments on how Dynamaxing works...

 

[R_N]

Weird that only one of the wolves got Shiny, but since I played Sword and prefer it to Zamazenta's anyways, I may try to grab one.

No comments on how Dynamaxing works...

Zacian is at the end of September, so most likely Zamazenta is at the start of October.

 

[pika pal]

The main thing I find curious is that there's a Hero themed event at the end of the month, starts the 26th alongside Zacian, but ends October 1st before Zacian's rotation is done, much less Zamazenta, the other hero, could appear.

I'm also torn on the Crowned forms: I want Zamazenta for ML to have a viable Fighting type and a new Steel type, but Crowned Zacian is going to be absolute hell if you don't have a healthy Ho-oh, Lando-T, or something spicy like Reshiram (excluding heavy-energy-advantages on something like EQ Zygarde or Eternatus later)

 

[R_N]

They announced a new "big" event for November, the Wild Area

I wonder if this is a Go Fest/Tour style event, but maybe with a bunch of rotating power spots for Dynamax Raids instead of regular Raids.

 

[pika pal]

Shout out to RocketSurgery with the new Season Move update making Marshadow a beast in ML with the Sucker Punch Buff

 

[Fluke]

I'm super excited for this upcoming increased friendship XP event. Just added 60+ people I will become best friends with during the event period. Seems like this is the only way to level up when you reach level 40 and above...

 

[RocketSurgery]

Shout out to RocketSurgery with the new Season Move update making Marshadow a beast in ML with the Sucker Punch Buff

Nice! It'd be nicer if they'd give Marshadow ghost moves, but I'll take it. I think my Marshadow originally came with sucker punch and I TM'd it to counter. Guess I gotta TM it back again.

I was having fun with Marshadow in Master League when we were forced to do GO battles for research the other week. Caught multiple people off guard who didn't shield because they presumably didn't expect that I didn't bother to TM rock slide away for close combat.

As for other recent news: happy to hear that dreepy is going to be one of the first releases of the season; hopefully it won't be too rare to stumble across. I think frigibax was not too bad when it was released(...?), which hopefully bodes well for finding dreepy. If not, surely they will boost the spawns foe Halloween, right? Right??

Also, I will be annoyed if Niantic doesn't do the obvious thing and release shiny Zamazenta right after Zacian so that I can finally pick up the shiny.