Pokemon Shuffle

[Flame Dragon]

I don't actually know what Mega Speedup does, and am hesitant to use it until I do understand it.
 
Is its effect on the chosen Mega permanent? So that it'll always M-evolve faster? Seeing as the item is probably going to be exceptionally rare, I'd hope so.
 
I beat all the new stages, but still need to capture Doublade and T-tar, the last one is going to be an exceptional pain because I can't even beat the stage without using Mega Start.
 
My understanding for the Expert Stages, by the way, is that you need 191 S to unlock Chesnaught, 195 for Delphox and ALL 200 for Greninja. Have fun.

As noted above its 1 time use to speed up the rate the pokemon goes Mega. If you look at the various Mega Pokemon they have an indicator to show how many times you can give them one. Gengar only gets one while Amp gets like 7.

I actually didn't have a lot of problems beating T-Tar. Though I'd always have almost no moves left. Got lucky and one of the attempts had the super catch thing happen so I went for it and got it that way. Now to try for S ranks on Lickilicky and Tangrowth since they don't seem like they will be super hard to get normally.

Yea, I saw that and got very sad. Going to SUCK going for Gren.

[Althemia]

Used my Speedup on Gengar since he's going to be godly when M-Banette comes back around and it makes escalating for the 2nd/3rd Mega Speedups easier. Not regretting it so far.

[Flame Dragon]

Multiple times now I've beaten the stupid Lickilicky stage only to realize I forgot to buy the +5 moves that would have given me the S rank. I'm VERY tilted now since I've wasted like 4000 as a result since I keep failing when I do use it.

Edit: Finally got it. Dear lord that was frustrating. See, I figured it would be easy since I had like 9 or 10 moves left when I first cleared it. Nope, just got super lucky.

[evilfusion]

Okay, so I'm confused. Did anyone else check in today and receive a bunch of Jewels as a present?

 

Because I did. And while I can maybe hazard a guess as to why, I'm not sure at all.

[Flame Dragon]

I did not. How strange. Anyway, the Giratina stage is SUPER easy. Like, I've already cleared level 26 and I'm still having no problems. I'd imagine getting to 50 is still going to be hard, but its more time consuming than anything. Not sure if I even want to get to 100, but since this also doubles as level grinding for Pokemon I can use vs. Mewtwo I can't complain.

[evilfusion]

I did not. How strange. Anyway, the Giratina stage is SUPER easy. Like, I've already cleared level 26 and I'm still having no problems. I'd imagine getting to 50 is still going to be hard, but its more time consuming than anything. Not sure if I even want to get to 100, but since this also doubles as level grinding for Pokemon I can use vs. Mewtwo I can't complain.

 

I got to Level 50.

 

It's NOT easy anymore. It got harder around Stage 40 - 49, but not TOO terrible. But Level 50 is extremely hard. I think Giratina got a massive HP boost, Shaymin randomly got added to the batch (previously no "extras" were ever included), and Gira throws around more barrier disruptions. I haven't beaten it.

 

Level 50 is also the last one, I'm pretty sure. It's the last level with a reward, and considering the huge challenge spike from 49 to 50, it better be the last one.

 

EDIT: Nope, you're right. There is 100, according to Bulbapedia. It supposedly gives you another Mega Speedup. But the event info itself only goes up to 50.

 

My hunch is, the gift I got is some sort of bonus for a Jewel purchase. I had bought 6 Jewels about a week ago. And today, I got a check-in gift of 6 Jewels. Coincidence? Not if no one else got it.

 

EDIT 2: Just beat 50. No way in hell am I going to try to reach 100. I had to use a Mega Start and a Disruption Delay (both earned through the Escalation battle) to even hope to beat 50, and even then I was down to 0 moves. I'm satisfied with this.

[Flame Dragon]

I got to Level 50.
 
It's NOT easy anymore. It got harder around Stage 40 - 49, but not TOO terrible. But Level 50 is extremely hard. I think Giratina got a massive HP boost, Shaymin randomly got added to the batch (previously no "extras" were ever included), and Gira throws around more barrier disruptions. I haven't beaten it.
 
Level 50 is also the last one, I'm pretty sure. It's the last level with a reward, and considering the huge challenge spike from 49 to 50, it better be the last one.
 
EDIT: Nope, you're right. There is 100, according to Bulbapedia. It supposedly gives you another Mega Speedup. But the event info itself only goes up to 50.
 
My hunch is, the gift I got is some sort of bonus for a Jewel purchase. I had bought 6 Jewels about a week ago. And today, I got a check-in gift of 6 Jewels. Coincidence? Not if no one else got it.
 
EDIT 2: Just beat 50. No way in hell am I going to try to reach 100. I had to use a Mega Start and a Disruption Delay (both earned through the Escalation battle) to even hope to beat 50, and even then I was down to 0 moves. I'm satisfied with this.

See, it at least makes sense that it would get that hard. I keep expecting it to. Likely won't go for anything past 50 then since I'd rather shift back to working on S ranks. Another nice thing though is that this also helps get me some gold back.

[The Warden]

I stopped trying to fight him after I caught the bastard honestly.

[Flame Dragon]

I stopped trying to fight him after I caught the bastard honestly.

Well, your still going through the main game. Only thing I have left are 2 EX stages and S ranks to unlock the 3 new ones so its not a bad use of time to grind for the Giratina items. Though you should play up to stage 30 to get the free Mega Start.

[The Warden]

That's true. I have 5 more battles to get it, and my numbers should be enough since Giratina's 80 power is pretty good.

[Flame Dragon]

That's true. I have 5 more battles to get it, and my numbers should be enough since Giratina's 80 power is pretty good.

80 power is STUPID high. One of the things that suck is once you unlock everything its either 70 power or bust. Honestly, its VERY easy to get him by like 15% odds and with how easy the stage is, its a nice gift for people just starting out. Actually, I should have tried beating him using some of the earlier pokemon to see how hard it would be.

[The Warden]

Yeah, tell me about it. Shaymin is freaking ridiculous with its 70, and Victini is even better with that kingly 80. What's so great about Giratina's Power of 4+ is that super-effective hits from him (currently) deal about 747 damage, which is freaking insane.

[evilfusion]

Yeah, Power of 4+ is amazing, and not even that hard to trigger (compared to Power of 5 abilities).

 

I only went to 50 for the Mega Speedup. Otherwise, I'd have stopped at 8 when I caught him. But Mega Speedups are probably going to be extremely rare. But I'm not going to go through a immensely difficult gauntlet to get another one at 100.

[The Warden]

I had difficulties at stage 30, so there's no way in hell I'm going to make it to 50. I can't even beat the likes of Blaziken, Heatran, or Xerneas yet.

[Flame Dragon]

I had difficulties at stage 30, so there's no way in hell I'm going to make it to 50. I can't even beat the likes of Blaziken, Heatran, or Xerneas yet.

30 is where it actually gets hard. Blaziken is one of the hardest EX stages. I needed Mega Aero to get it done. I couldn't beat Xerneas without using items, and only got it because of -1 Complexity. Heatran I honestly found to be easy.

[The Warden]

I'm trying to capture some mons, but things like Gengar are FUCKING nightmares.

[Flame Dragon]

Since I'm pretty sure you weren't around when I was trying for Gengar.....

So, I've been slowly losing my mind trying to catch Gengar. His stage is naturally pretty hard and every time I get even slightly decent odds I fail. I've had 26->52, 22, 18->36, 18->36 all fail and I know I've won with 10% odds a several times too. I was wondering why the game was being unusually nice while I was going through the other stages. Now I know.

As a point of reference, I'm pretty sure the 3 Pokemon I'm using that aren't my mega I had at the start of level 1 when I started. They are nearing level 6 now. The worse part is if you want to S rank it you need at least 7 moves left since I know 6 only gets A.

Taken for a chat log with a friend

i just beat Gengar in 5 moves
I have 42% chance to catch
if this doesn't work
so help me god
kill me
just kill me

I hate this so much right now
 
FINALLY caught the damn thing. It was a 6% chance, but after failing so many times at decent odds I had to get it somehow. Dear lord that was miserable.

Yea, he was far and away the most miserable pokemon for me to catch. It took me actual days.

[The Warden]

Beating him his currently my bane, considering the fucker gets to barrier the middle two columns. Which is juts fucking lovely. Like how it's ALSO just fucking lovely that Zoroark also does it, but with fucking unbreakables that only give you one turn's reprieve before he blocks it again.

[Flame Dragon]

Beating him his currently my bane, considering the fucker gets to barrier the middle two columns. Which is juts fucking lovely. Like how it's ALSO just fucking lovely that Zoroark also does it, but with fucking unbreakables that only give you one turn's reprieve before he blocks it again.

 
 
I don't remember Zoroark being that hard to get. Only that Gengar drove me insane.
 
Anyway, got 50 wins. Honestly, didn't find the 40 stages that hard but 50 actually took a few tries to get. Doable, but a TON of RNG on where the barriers go and if he makes a column of unbreakable blocks makes me not want to do it another 50 times for the second Speed Up.
 
Also, figured out how they work, or how they scale. The secret is in the numbers they can take.
1 - Gengar
2 - Slowbro
3 - Audino, Venusaur
4 - Lucario, Blastoise
5 - Mewtwo
6 - Altaria, Glalie
7 - Ampharos, Mawile, Aerodactyl
8 - Banette, Sableye, Kangaskhan, Lopunny

I can only assume that if you give a Speed up to Mawile for example it will build meter as fast as Glalie, the second makes it as fast as Mewtwo, etc. So if you want to have a better quantifier for how helpful the Speedups are, there you go.

Also, M-Altaria SUCKS. Its Mega Effect isn't that good and its type coverage is horrible and Glalie does it better, and you get access to it like 3 stages before Glalie. Seriously, that was a bad design choice.

[The Warden]

Right now I am COMPLETELY roadblocked by Onix. His 12,000 HP is fucking insane trying to chew through it in a measly 18 turns. Right now I'm getting some success using Donphan, and will replace Lucario with Shaymin. So I'l tackle him with Mawile, Donphan, Sceptile, and Shaymin.

 

Well, I bested Onix and... FUCKING 50?! ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?! WE GO THROUGH THE UNFAIREST FUCKING CONDITIONS FOR A FUCKING 50?! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I apologize, that was just the sound of my patience snapping like a twig.

[evilfusion]

50? What do you mean?

 

Oh, you mean Onix's power? Yeah. Seriously, what do you expect? It's an unevolved defensive Pokemon. Of course it has a ton of HP and mediocre damage.

[Flame Dragon]

Right now I am COMPLETELY roadblocked by Onix. His 12,000 HP is fucking insane trying to chew through it in a measly 18 turns. Right now I'm getting some success using Donphan, and will replace Lucario with Shaymin. So I'l tackle him with Mawile, Donphan, Sceptile, and Shaymin.
 
Well, I bested Onix and... FUCKING 50?! ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?! WE GO THROUGH THE UNFAIREST FUCKING CONDITIONS FOR A FUCKING 50?! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I apologize, that was just the sound of my patience snapping like a twig.

 
Onix is one of the more frustrating stages in the game. It being one of the 11 I still haven't S ranked also shows how hard it is.

 

50? What do you mean?
 
Oh, you mean Onix's power? Yeah. Seriously, what do you expect? It's an unevolved defensive Pokemon. Of course it has a ton of HP and mediocre damage.

Thats one of the more depressing things with the extra stages, that most of the pokemon you get are basically useless. I get this being the case for the unevolved mons, but a lot of the fully evolved ones still max out at 60 power which doesn't do you any good at this point.

[evilfusion]

I just finished S ranking Onix.

 

I still need to S Rank the following:

 

M- Glalie

M- Gengar

M- Mewtwo

M- Aero (noticing a pattern yet)

Snorlax

Steelix

Lickilicky

Garbador

Doublade (also need to capture)

Conkeldurr

Tyranitar (also need to capture - this will be a nightmare)

[Flame Dragon]

Stages I have left to S rank

M-Mewtwo
Onix
Milotic
Timburr
M-Aero
Snorlax
Steelix
Pangoro
Doublade
Conkeldurr
Tyranitar


For Lickilicky and Garbador they are pretty easy to get with just a +5 move. Pretty sure all the ones I have left need more than that which sucks cause I don't have a ton of gold.

Also, was really tilting. Was playing the Snorlax stage just to get some EXP for later and ended up winning with enough moves such that +5 would have gotten me the S rank. So its doable, but really hard since the stupid thing has so much HP.

Edit: Got Milotic and Pangoro. Needed Mega Start & +5 moves for Milotic, but Pangoro just needed +5.

Chesnaught stage is not super hard. Its limited to 3 mon, but column 2 and 4 are basically soft blocks for most the fight and he adds more at a pretty fast rate. Was able to win, but a nice chunk of the damage came from the end when I'd empties at most the soft blocks. It also sucks that once you get to that point, things start falling on their own, which is sweet normally, but REALLY hard to allow you to do anything in timed play. Hopefully, the super catch will let me get him after beating the stage a few more times.

Yea, I guess I got lucky for first times since the stage is a lot harder than I though. Though after trying out Aero it got a LOT easier. Also used the speed up on him since Rock is good attacking type and I need him for Genesect anyway.

And somehow caught on a 9% chance. I'll take it.

[evilfusion]

There is now a Dialga event. It's actually quite challenging. Dialga is a Steel with 80 base, and has Block Bash+ (destroys 3 unbreakable blocks).

 

M-Blastoise event is back as a move-based one. I did it just for the Jewel, using non-super effectives, so I won't be holding any of the 30K slots.