The Pokémon Book

Sunday, April 10, 2016

Shiny Hunting in Gen VI

Shiny Hunting

Shiny Pokémon are rare, alternately colored Pokémon that can be found using conventional and unconventional means. Shiny Pokémon do not necessarily have better IVs, abilities or moves than their normal counterparts, and are purely for collector value. The methods for catching Shiny Pokémon are as follows:

Random Encounter Method

Very Easy
Very Slow (1/4096)

The most simple method is randomly encountering Pokémon in tall grass, caves, and so forth. This method requires nothing, but is the slowest. Using the Shiny Charm, got by owning every Pokémon in the National Pokédex, increases the encounter rate up to about 1/1365.

Horde Hunting

Easy

Fast (1/273)

Use a Pokémon with Sweet Scent to encounter hordes of Pokémon. You will encounter five Pokémon, each with a 1/1365 chance of being shiny. You must knock out all the other Pokémon to capture the shiny Pokémon.

Soft Resetting

Very Easy

Very Slow

Use this method to catch shiny legendary Pokémon. Save just before reaching the Pokémon, place a Syncronizer at the front of the party if desired, and encounter the Pokémon. If it is not shiny, press L+R+START to soft reset. Some legendary Pokémon can never be shiny, such as the game mascots and legendary birds.

Masuda Method Breeding

Somewhat Easy

Somewhat Slow (1/683)

Named after Pokémon producer Junichi Masuda, this method is done by breeding two Pokémon from different country codes, such as an American with a Japanese, or a German with a French.

Chain Fishing

Medium

Very Fast

For this method you must fish the same spot without moving for an unbroken string of successful catches. You can either knock out or run from the Pokémon you catch.

Your chain can fail for two reasons, either pressing A too soon or late, or randomly getting the "Nothing seems to be biting..." message. To reduce the chance of the latter case, fish while a Pokémon with the Sticky Hold or Suction Cups ability is at the front of your party. Also, fish in spots enclosed by rocks or some other barrier, which trap the Pokémon.

Friend Safari (X & Y)

Very Easy

Somewhat Long (1/512)

Pokémon in Friend Safaris have higher shiny rates than their wild counterparts. There is no special method within Friend Safaris; just run through the grass! The shiny charm does not affect the shiny rate within Safaris.

Radar Chaining (X & Y)

Very Hard (Play with headphones)

Very Fast (1/200 after 40 chains)

You will need a Pokéradar and a lot of Repels.

Use the Pokéradar in a large, solid patch of grass.
Step into a shaking patch of grass. If the Pokémon found is what you want, knock it out to continue the chain. If not, run away to reset, and then run 50 steps to recharge the Pokéradar.
Once you knock out a Pokémon, new patches of grass will immediately shake and the music will change. Your chain has begun. Step into patches that:

Are not on the border of the area
Are more than three steps away
Are not immediately adjacent to another shaking patch

When a patch of grass sparkles, it contains a shiny Pokémon.

You can break your chain by:

Encountering a Pokémon different than the one you are chaining
Leaving the grass patch you in which you are chaining
Quitting the game
Not knocking out the Pokémon you are chaining (this is different from Chain Fishing)
Walking into grass patches on a border, or using your Pokéradar on a border patch

If the music randomly changes during your chain, do not walk into any patches that are not shining. The odds of a shiny patch spawning has randomly increased to 1/200 for a short time. Keep resetting your Pokéradar until this music stops or you find a shiny patch. If none appear, continue your chain as if nothing happened.

Some ideal locations for chaining are the Pokémon Village patch, the Azure Bay secret area, Route 7 and Route 5.

DexNav Hunting (ORAS)

Somewhat Easy

Somewhat Long

Use a lot of Repels, and the Acro Bike.

Open the DexNav in the bottom screen and tap on a Pokémon you have seen in an area.
If you do not encounter a Pokémon, run around and try again. Hopping in one spot using the Acro Bike counts as steps toward resetting, but not toward Repels.
If you encounter the Pokémon you are looking for, knock it out. This raises the quality of subsequently-encountered Pokémon of the same species.
Chaining does not affect the shiny rate. It does affect the quality of the found Pokémon, though.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

My First Competitive Pokémon

Twenty Years Later, the Same Starter

When I bought Pokémon Red in 1996, a began a gleeful relationship with Squirtle, my first starter. After 20 years, I will honor that little guy by making Blastoise my first competitive Pokémon.

It's been a long time, little buddy.

Blastoise @ Leftovers

Calm (+SpD, -Atk)
Rain Dish (Hidden Ability)

During rain, a Pokémon with Rain Dish will regain 1/16 of its maximum HP at the end of each turn.

Aqua Ring (from Marill @ lvl_28)

User recovers 1/16 max HP per turn
Yawn (from Slowpoke @ lvl_1)
Puts target to sleep after one turn
Scald (TM 55)
80 Base; 100%. Has a 30% chance to burn the target
Protect (Squirtle.self @ lvl_24)

Prevents moves from affecting user this turn

Aqua Ring, Leftovers and Rain Dish recover 3/16 max HP every turn during rain. Protect buys time to recover health. Yawn can force a switch or give me free hits. Scald gets STAB and can neuter physical attackers.

Pokémon Team Roles: Baton Passer, Heal-Beller and Rapid Spinner

Utility Pokémon

There are many utility roles Pokémon can fill, some of the most common being Baton Passers, Heal-Bellers, Rapid Spinners and Spin-Blockers.

Baton Passers buff their own stats, and then pass them to a Sweeper who knocks out the enemy team; Heal-Bellers and Aromatherapy users cure their party's status afflictions; Rapid Spinners clear entry hazards from your own side, while a Ghost-type Spin Blocker prevents your opponent from doing the same.

Good Baton Passers

Smeargle

Ninjask

Good Heal-Bell/Aromatherapy Users

Blissey

Chimecho

Good Rapid Spinners

Cloyster

Blastoise

Pokémon Team Roles: (P)hazers

The (P)hazer

The Hazer and Pseudo-hazer uses Haze and shuffling moves, respectively, to negate an opponent's stat boosts. This is critical against would-be Sweepers who require setup.

Good Hazers

Weezing

Blastoise

Vaporeon

Good Phazers

Manectric

Skarmory

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Pokémon Team Roles: Tank

The Tank

The Tank combines the offense of a Sweeper and a the bulk of a Wall, each Pokémon to varying degrees.

A Tank has at least one damaging move, and usually stat-boosting and recovery moves.

Good Tanks

Starmie

Torkoal

Mega Venusaur

Arcanine

Blastoise

Claydol

Dusclops

Pokémon Team Roles: Wall

The Wall

A Wall is supposed to soak up damage. A good wall should have:

High HP and Defense or Special Defense
Reliable recovery by moves and items
Resistance, especially to Dragon, Fighting, Rock and Ground
Perhaps the ability to lay entry hazards, haze or phaze

Walls trade swiftness and offense for pure defense. Walls can PP-stall an opponent, survive hits until the foe runs out of PP, until his or her Pokémon are useless.

Good Physical Walls

Weezing

Forretress

Golem

Skarmory

Shuckle

Good Special Walls

Blissey

Gastrodon

Jellicent

Suicune

Tentacruel

Good Mixed Walls

Ferrothorn

Cresselia

Cofagrigus

Pokémon Team Roles: Sweeper

The Sweeper

Sweepers have one job: knock out foes using either physical or special attacks. Offensive teams use more Sweepers and defensive use less. Your team use both Physical and Special Sweepers, if using Sweepers at all, to hit any foe.

Usually, Sweepers will use three damaging moves of sundry types for coverage, and one set-up move. Sweepers trade bulk for swiftness and strength. Almost all Sweepers boast high Attack or Special Attack, depending on their moveset, and Speed.