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[Caddywompus]

Just tried an M-Bee team today and had my Survival run end at 48. M-Bee is Lv13 and fully candied while my Machamp is Lv20, SL5. I only got Hoopa-U recently so it's only Lv7, SL3. And for some reason they refuse to repeat Landorus-T so I had to make do with a Lv6, SL3 Crookodile. I also had to buy a few DDs along the way. In the end, my damage output couldn't get me through some of the tankier stages w/o using up a lot of moves (Ampharos, I'm looking at you). I probably won't try again until I've finished maxing Hoopa and Krook.

Is the general consensus that you need a Fighting, Dark, and Ground team for survival? I'm thinking of swapping in my maxed out Emboar.

Ampharos and Raichu are a pain with those barriers so Landorus tends to be a lock, they can eat up a lot of turns without it. Hoopla is pretty much there for Mewtwo. Machamp and Emboar are a toss up, usually you go with the stronger BP. Machamp can rack up turns with so many Normals plus deal with the likes of Zoroark but Emboar can handle Heracross late in the game who can give you trouble. At lvl 20 Machamp can deal more damage on regular non-SE stages so I'd stick with that. Order is also important to remember, I stick Hoopla in the 4th spot.

First run I beat Mewtwo with 11 moves left, I tried again later in the week I had 55 turns in the late 30s then struggled on Mewtwo with 2 turns left. Even with an optimal team you appear to be at the mercy of RNG. I wouldn't waste the time either until you have he right Skill boosted mon.


VVV I didn't even attempt Terrakion once, Rock types could be reclassified as MTtar. I guess Gigalith gets used occasionally but those are about the only two with the overlap Rock types face. I wonder if I'll regret passing on it down the road like Articuno.

I already sped up Shiny Ray in an failed attempt to beat EB stage 100 itemless. It's the fastest + tapping Megas and with flying type teams lacking disruption delaying or busting abilities it will probably have a solid role against the 3 SE types for while (which only overlaps only Bug between all three +tapping Megas)

 

[Lone_Prodigy]

Geez Terrakion has a garbage PSB drop rate. Was only going to level 2 and still took forever. At least I got an RML.

Would you speed up Shiny Ray? Seems to compete with Salamence for flying Megas but it's better for disruptions.

 

[Stage On]

Dang it not another escalation battle!!!!!

 

[Caddywompus]

Dang it not another escalation battle!!!!!

This one should be an easy 200 unless they pumped up Darkrai's HP to insane levels. Machamp is going to feast.

 

[Ondore]

I put some early work in, but the competition knocked me under 2k (FOR TIER 4) on 3DS so I'm going to hold it back until I max out. Still want to get a few main stages catches (hi Tentacruel!)

 

[pHand]

Ouch, according to the dataminers, they significantly increased the HP of the last two Darkrai boss stages. Stage 200 in particular went from 34,573 to 88,000. I guess at least the rewards are better to compensate, but from now on I'm refusing to use a Jewel unless I can get 5 RMLs, lol.

First run I beat Mewtwo with 11 moves left, I tried again later in the week I had 55 turns in the late 30s then struggled on Mewtwo with 2 turns left. Even with an optimal team you appear to be at the mercy of RNG. I wouldn't waste the time either until you have he right Skill boosted mon.

Thanks, I think I'll hold off on trying again until my team is maxed. I'll probably also try to do some practice runs on Ampharos and Mega Mewtwo, as those two seem to be the ones that eat up the most moves.

 

[Cosmozone]

Ugh, squandered some tries for Lvl. 75 in search of a good team. That added complexity is BS and can't be get rid of by choosing the appropriate team member. Contemplating Steelix + MS, to at least get rid of the blocks fast.

 

[Don Draper's Hat]

All main Pokemon finally caught.

Now on to S-ranking and expert catching. Should be fun.

 

[Machine]

I just beat 175. It looks like I'll actually be able to finish this EB unlike the last one. Then it's back to working on S-ranks for a while.

 

[Caddywompus]

Almost finished the EB in a week. Finally learned my lesson, stopped throwing money down the drain in multiple failed attempts to save from spending more items. Just spent more than I probably needed even if reports claimed to beat the level with less.

When I saw that 88k HP, I thought we were in for stupid roll of the dice full item runs that most would need jewels due to bad RNG.

Also after stingy Ttar, Valentine Pika, Cobalion, Terrakion and Virizion I finally got a RML to drop from Mespirit, two in fact.

Sounds like W-Manaphy won't be near the pain Shiny Ray was to catch so I look forward to a soft week. Might work on PSB farming Ice Dance with MGarchomp next week.

 

[Zonic]

Hahahahaha, I got Winking Manaphy on my 2nd safari attempt. Had to use 2 great balls, but glad that was quick. Probably will be worth leveling up, possibly giving RMLs to.

 

[toythatkills]

Haven't seen winking Manaphy yet but it's nice that now and then there's a load of free coins in the safari, at least. It makes the pain a little easier to take.

Quite a light week, all told! Will plod on through main stages, I guess.

 

[Deleted member 57681]

Hahahahaha, I got Winking Manaphy on my 2nd safari attempt. Had to use 2 great balls, but glad that was quick. Probably will be worth leveling up, possibly giving RMLs to.

Lol it showed up on my first try. Thanks safari.

 

[Machine]

Haven't seen winking Manaphy yet but it's nice that now and then there's a load of free coins in the safari, at least. It makes the pain a little easier to take.

Quite a light week, all told! Will plod on through main stages, I guess.

Not only are there free coins, there are also experience boosters. I've already gotten two small and one large experience booster while waiting for winking Manaphy to appear. Not bad.

 

[pHand]

Uggh, my first heart on the Safari was a Phione. Oh well, as others have mentioned, this is one of the better Safaris since there's a chance for extra coins and exp. I wish all of them were like this.

Once I catch W-Manaphy, I'll go back to farming Uxie. I'm halfway done (50 PSB to go), and can more consistently beat it since I swapped out Gengar for Beedrill. Still, the 25% rate is such a drag.

 

[Lone_Prodigy]

I think I said this during the last Darkrai EB, but it seems boring. Use M-Bee to clear disruptions and line up Machamp Risk Takers. Rinse and repeat.

Maybe it's the colours of the Pokemon I'm using that make it seem bland.

 

[Ondore]

The long-awaited update for the 3DS version is now live. 721 blocks in the eShop.

Alolan Pokemon are in the opening title/skyfall, but that seems to be it for major changes for now. Except I seem to have completed 239 mission cards more than the game will show.

 

[Zonic]

Wow, they even changed the title on the top screen on the system menu, that's a nice touch.

There's also new present icons to tell you if a stage will give you the skill booster.

& FINALLY, you can go directly to a stage if you tap a mission on the mission card, why did that take so long to get added???

Edit: There's now also a "stage difficulty" when you select a stage, I'm guessing it's out of 5. For example, Eevee is only rated a 1, but Amoonguss is a 3, while main stage 548 is a 4.

Edit 2: Seems a few sprites were altered/got different shades to make them easier to tell apart (Mew, Mewtwo, Gengar, & Ho-oh), but I can't tell the difference with Gengar or Mew. Also, when you select to sort by attack power when searching for pokemon, it now automatically will change it to sort from highest AP first so you don't have to tap the arrow.

 

[pHand]

Yay, finally found W-Manaphy. Even got Super Catch Power, so I had MAX chance at catching him.

Good to hear that 3DS finally got all of the QOL updates. I wonder if that means they've added the Drop Rate Increase item in the Weekend Shop?

 

[Don Draper's Hat]

Over 50 hearts and 3 great balls later I've finally got that winking little shit.

Get to bollocks!

 

[Caddywompus]

Wow so is it true they removed the Sleep Charm and Mind Zap combo? Mind Zap no longer activates when the opponent has a status condition. So not only can you reset the disruption countdown when you finally put it to sleep but you can't extend sleep with Mind Zap either. Glad the just re-released Shaymin and Bellossom so you could invest all that time for nothing.

EDIT: Heads up make room for 10K coins and 30 hearts before checking in.

 

[Stage On]

Wow so is it true they removed the Sleep Charm and Mind Zap combo? Mind Zap no longer activates when the opponent has a status condition. So not only can you reset the disruption countdown when you finally put it to sleep but you can't extend sleep with Mind Zap either. Glad the just re-released Shaymin and Bellossom so you could invest all that time for nothing.

EDIT: Heads up make room for 10K coins and 30 hearts before checking in.

Ah man, I only had room for those coins by pure luck since I just finished stage 550 earlier today but I totally didn't for those hearts which sucks

 

[JoeM86]

A list of updates

Aesthetic & UI Changes

Now includes an icon next to a stage number when a stage offers an item such as Personal Skill Booster
Alterations of multiple sprites such as Tyranitar, Ho-Oh and Gengar
Functionality for using multiple Enhancements immediately added
Competitive stages now have a new golden icon, separating them
Mission Cards will now take you to the stage in question when you tap on them
Sorting Pokémon has been made easier. Sorting by Attack Power and Level will automatically sort Highest to Lowest

Functional Updates

Added functionality for Alola Pokémon and various more event Pokémon.
There's now restrictions on when certain types of Event stages can be played as of March 14th
Defeat Stage 11 - Unlocks ☆ difficulty levels and Meowth & Victini stages
Defeat Stage 90 - Unlocks ☆☆ & ☆☆ difficulty event stages as well as the Eevee Skill Booster stage
Defeat Stage 120 - Unlocks ☆☆☆☆ difficulty event stages, Competitive Stages and Pokémon Safari
Defeat Stage 135 - Unlocks Escalation Battle stages
Defeat Stage 150 - Unlocks ☆☆☆☆ difficulty event stages
The abilities Prank and Mind Zap have also been altered so that they won't activate during Disruption Delay or a Pokémon is hit by a status condition

All Alolan Pokémon from Rowlet to Marshadow are in it. As are all Alolan Forms. Pikachu with each of Ash's hats are in, as are the 22 additions found in the Mobile code. Lots of Shiny Pokémon and Zygarde Core/Cell too

 

[Hegarol]

I am soo hoping for a switch version with cross save feature. Do you see any chance for this Joe?

 

[JoeM86]

I am soo hoping for a switch version with cross save feature. Do you see any chance for this Joe?

I would love that. It, like VOEZ, would have to be portable only though.

 

[Hegarol]

I would love that. It, like VOEZ, would have to be portable only though.

I could live with that. But with that much content still coming I would hate for it to stay 3ds only.

 

[JoeM86]

I could live with that. But with that much content still coming I would hate for it to stay 3ds only.

We were fast approaching the end as it was, with 684 of 721 Pokémon already available/in the list. This has given it another year or so (depending on if they continue repeat stages)

 

[Caddywompus]

Gah, why mess with Mind Zap like that? I understand nerfing Crowd Control prior to releasing Skill Boosters but this just ruins this ability.

It effectively removes All-Grass Teams from the game. Without Shaymin/Bellossom duo there's no need to bring MSceptile.

All that investment into Freeze/MindZap Snorunt/Abomasnow wasted, never even got a chance to create an Ice Dance team around those two.

Greninja the strongest Water type will hardly even be used. Hope you didn't waste too much time and coins on it or Uxie. That's such a bullshit thing to do right after all this PSB farming on multiple mon.

EDIT: More Ranting...

There's no reason to nerf this ability. You have to invest heavily in at least a SL5 Sleep Charm and SL4 Mind Zap for it to work 55% and 60% of the time. So even if you manage to put it to Sleep there's no guarantee to keep it a sleep with Mind Zap. All that time and investment made it a viable strategy. It's not like it was an overpowered ability every Mind Zapper had access to right out the gate.

Fuck you Genius Sonority, I'm going back to playing Zelda.

 

[daydream]

was hoping for the ability to save pokemon teams so as to easily employ them for stages like gengar etc.

 

[JoeM86]

We have extracted all the stuff. Here's some choice images from the update. Things to do in the future

 

[Lone_Prodigy]

Had almost max banked hearts so I lost a bunch. Meh.

At least I found W-Manaphy this morning so I pretty much got those hearts back.

 

[pHand]

Gah, why mess with Mind Zap like that? I understand nerfing Crowd Control prior to releasing Skill Boosters but this just ruins this ability.

"Oh, Block Smash+ is 100% default on a 4-match? Too OP, enjoy 50% at SL5. Risk-Taker does more damage than we intended, so instead we'll make it activate 10% of the time and do up to 1% extra damage."

Uggh, I'm 40 PSBs away from maxing Uxie and in my last 20 hearts only got 3 PSBs. This nerf isn't exactly motivating me to keep going, but there's not much else to do this week so I'll just keep going.

 

[Caddywompus]

Had almost max banked hearts so I lost a bunch. Meh.

At least I found W-Manaphy this morning so I pretty much got those hearts back.

Ugh, I lost to W-Manaphy and it wasn't even close. I matched the vertical row to break the block so I could match the 4 Manaphy which forces you to beat it in 4 moves. Gengar didn't evolve, SL5 Emolga didn't proc, neither did Raikou leaving that frozen rock in the corner.

I'm going to take M-Bee now. Watch me blow the stage apart and not be able to generate any combos.

EDIT: Fuck, that's exactly what happened. I went for the match four Risk Takers to trigger 1300 and 1200 but it still wasn't enough. Raikou even triggered on a match 3. Should I bring one or two weaker Rock Break++ like Breloom and/or Ectrode? I shouldn't be having this much trouble with this thing

 

[LSauchelli]

The abilities Prank and Mind Zap have also been altered so that they won't activate during Disruption Delay or a Pokémon is hit by a status condition

Did they at least boost the proc rate? 5% increase for level five was always kinda 'meh'.

 

[Loptous]

Nooooo

The 10k coin gift made me reach the coin limit and I'm stuck with a 9 again.
And Carnivine doesn't even give you 1 coin like Wobbuffet used to. ;_;

 

[Lone_Prodigy]

Ugh, I lost to W-Manaphy and it wasn't even close. I matched the vertical row to break the block so I could match the 4 Manaphy which forces you to beat it in 4 moves. Gengar didn't evolve, SL5 Emolga didn't proc, neither did Raikou leaving that frozen rock in the corner.

I'm going to take M-Bee now. Watch me blow the stage apart and not be able to generate any combos.

EDIT: Fuck, that's exactly what happened. I went for the match four Risk Takers to trigger 1300 and 1200 but it still wasn't enough. Raikou even triggered on a match 3. Should I bring one or two weaker Rock Break++ like Breloom and/or Ectrode? I shouldn't be having this much trouble with this thing

That sucks, sounds like you had some bad RNG. With M-Bee on a 3-Pokemon stage sometimes I don't even tap since the skyfall will naturally create combos. Otherwise, tap to remove as many M-Bee as possible and let the other two match themselves.

I used Bellossom (level 10, SL4) and Virizion (level 9, SL2). I didn't need Barrier Bash (there was one frozen column which I removed with Bee).

 

[toythatkills]

Best change in this update: escalation stages have the Pokéball icon now when you catch them.

 

[pHand]

LOL, they didn't bother to add Drop Rate Increase or Superior Super Catch Time to the 3DS Weekend Shop. I can understand not adding the latter since catch rates are usually higher on the 3DS anyway, but I can't imagine why they don't want 3DS users to have DRI.

 

[Caddywompus]

W-Manaphy finally returned 4 days later. Took Breloom and went back with Gengar. Beat it with 3 moves left this time and a Great Ball. Breloom 40 BP lower than Raikou, went into the Safari at lvl 4 came out at lvl 7.

At least this was a generous Safari to get stuck in, lost count of all the EXP boosters and a near guarantee 610 coin stage unless Emolga felt like making things risky on a match 3.


Data Mining revealing another move getting messed with Poison Pact. Poison type's Prye/Pummel/Sinister ect now only works when the opponent is Poisoned at least only on 3DS. Poison does last a long ass time, 7 moves iirc but imagine having to Burn something before you could trigger Prye

 

[toythatkills]

Did anyone have any luck S-ranking Snorlax with M+5 only? I've got close but it's so RNG dependent that I might end up spending more trying to do it this way than if I just buy a C-1.

I've ended with anywhere between 4 and 9 moves left, needing 10.

 

[Stage On]

Did anyone have any luck S-ranking Snorlax with M+5 only? I've got close but it's so RNG dependent that I might end up spending more trying to do it this way than if I just buy a C-1.

I've ended with anywhere between 4 and 9 moves left, needing 10.

I did manage it but only after I had max leveled Machamp to 20 with maxed risk taker, Lucario to 15 and leveled up Snorlax itself

 

[Orgen]

My 3DS is hard locking every time I beat the 184 stage on Darkrai EB. Is there anything know about it?

 

[Fewr]

Hmm.. once at around #20+ I got an error and got booted to the 3DS main menu, that's all that happened to me in this escalation battle.

 

[Orgen]

Hmm.. once at around #20+ I got an error and got booted to the 3DS main menu, that's all that happened to me in this escalation battle.

Yep, that's what's happening to me. Did you resolve it?

 

[Fewr]

Now that I think about it, it forced me to turn off the 3DS, i turned it back on went back to the game and that was it, as if nothing had happened.

It's happened to me about 2-3 times, maybe about once a year.

 

[Lone_Prodigy]

I've been going back to the dreaded 200 levels to get S-Ranks and captures. M-Bee is a dream.

 

[Don Draper's Hat]

Said it before and I'll say it again; I cannot do wanky timed stages!

Just used 4 hearts on level 10 of this weeks EB. Got nowhere near beating it. Embarrassing.

Did manage to beat Lugia Pickachu and was fortunate enough to catch it at 16%.

 

[Zonic]

who wants more pikachu alt versions?!

also competitions have a special icon to make it easier to tell it apart from the other special stages.

 

[Caddywompus]

I've been going back to the dreaded 200 levels to get S-Ranks and captures. M-Bee is a dream.

Isn't it funny how easy some of those stages are now with MBee and MSalamence. Before I passed on the S-Ranks because it cost too much with +5, MS and DD but some can be done itemless or at worse +5.

Said it before and I'll say it again; I cannot do wanky timed stages!

Just used 4 hearts on level 10 of this weeks EB. Got nowhere near beating it. Embarrassing.

Did manage to beat Lugia Pickachu and was fortunate enough to catch it at 16%.

There might be something up with stage 10 it has like 22k in HP, we'll probably get a patch tomorrow but will be too little too late for most. At least it wasn't that glitch where you faced LVL 300 on stage 1.

who wants more pikachu alt versions?!

also competitions have a special icon to make it easier to tell it apart from the other special stages.

The only good thing about more Pikas is that they are eventually going to run out of moves and will be forced to create more abilities if they want to keep releasing them.

At least you don't have to waste hearts on these Pikas but the make you catch them the first day if you want more chances at a RML.

 

[Machine]

I spent a lot of coins last week working on s-ranking main stages (currently at 543/550). Unfortunately, it doesn't leave me with a lot for the competition and EB this week. Oh well, I guess I'll visit my friend Meowth for a few days.