dondon151

In the specific case of Talonflame, I actually think that earlier is better, because it's just so terrible before L35.

And it exists because I was cautioned against debating about it in the location guide thread, so here's a better place. Context: I'm not sure how seriously you took my comment about Fletchling being C tier in Smogon's XY in-game tier list. This means that it's pretty bad. If you take a look at the line's level-up movepool, Fletchling is complete garbage until it evolves into Talonflame and learns one of its STABs by Heart Scale (probably Flare Blitz, because Acrobatics is better than Brave Bird in-game anyway). It's actually worse than Pidove prior to L35. I will debunk this point by point. Plenty of Pokemon in the current release have good dual STABs. Off the top of my head, Houndoom, Swampert, Gardevoir, Camerupt, Crawdaunt, Leavanny, Scrafty, Sigilyph. And that's not exhaustive. Talonflame doesn't have a high atk stat and at least one of its STABs has recoil, which is a bit more problematic in-game because you have to fight battles in succession. It's actually really inappropriate to compare Talonflame to Blaziken, because one effortlessly sweeps entire teams while the other doesn't. Even the comparison to Infernape is a huge stretch, because Infernape is much stronger than Talonflame and has a better STAB combination. Heracross is not a good Pokemon as of the current release because its availability is abysmal. Roost shouldn't factor into in-game tiering at all; all recovery moves are rendered pointless by ice creams. There's really no reason to run Roost on Talonflame in-game unless you're fond of stalling. This response is mostly incomprehensible, and some of it I addressed pre-emptively. Gale Wings hardly matters on Talonflame in-game because there are very few opponent Pokemon that it doesn't outspeed already. The few Pokemon that it does get the jump on with Gale Wings cannot be sufficient to render it broken. The conclusion that "everyone would use Talonflame" is unfounded because there's no evidence that it's a broken Pokemon, or even a really good one. The closest point of comparison for Talonflame is Crobat. Crobat is actually in the game. It's slightly stronger, much bulkier, learns Acrobatics, and is a much better Pokemon before reaching its final stage than Talonflame. Any argument that I've heard so far justifying Talonflame's exclusion has been unconvincing.

Your Blaziken actually has a near-optimal moveset already. Bulk Up allows it to sweep without doing the convoluted method of passing speed boosts to another Pokemon. Flare Blitz's recoil hinders its ability to sweep, especially against opponents that resist HJK.

Giving the opponent Pokemon better hold items wouldn't be a problem if the pool of player-accessible hold items and moves were expanded. There seems to be a bit of an obsession with constraining options, which has the dual effect of increasing difficulty and reducing fun.

Talonflame is actually pretty bad-to-mediocre in-game, though. For reference, the XY in-game tier list on Smogon has it listed in C tier. Gale Wings hardly makes a difference in-game because it already outspeeds almost everything in the 0 priority bracket.

Okay, that's hilarious.

I think the most rage-inducing part of episode 12 is how inconsistent the AI is. Sometimes it's really bad for no apparent reason.

On the topic of bugs in the chess puzzle, if you solve the 4th chess puzzle, Gardevoir won't let you progress if you interact with the right-hand door. I made a brief remark on this in the speedrun route (which, due to its length, probably no one bothered to read, lol).

Poison types could never be poisoned across all generations. Same thing with Steel (except in gen 2 where they could be poisoned with Twineedle).

I thought those were only obtained through mining? Well, I'd welcome it if you decided to work on it again. I think I'm going to stop the planning at Luna and wait for episode 13 to come out so I can have a better time getting to Samson, what with the Route 2 lag and all that. It's actually a shame now that Ralts was moved so far back, because the Teleport scenario that you described seems to be one of the few that's actually abusable in-game, since a lot of locations that the player has to go to end up being set as new healing spots. I guess we should continue lobbying for a pre-Apophyll Natu, or something! The Magnemite is a decent idea that I might employ if I have to go the grind-up-a-Gardevoir route in a later revision. Problem is that it's not really sufficient as a long-term team member because it doesn't have a boosting move and it's kind of slow. I think Quagsire and Musharna also do pretty well as temporary Pokemon vs. Aya, but Quagsire has to watch for Muk's Giga Drain. But for the if we go a bit more long-term, Swoobat still looks like the best. EDIT: I just finished the route up until Luna, which is where I'll leave it for now. The split is currently 5h 34m. IIRC Super Repels are buyable in Agate Circus, so I have an excess of about 27 Repels. I also remember that Hyper Potions are buyable there, and I still have 18 unused Berry Ice Creams sitting in the bag. The absence of lategame EXP is very well illustrated in the route. I didn't use a single Common Candy after Noel and my team of 2 Pokemon is now in fact somewhat underleveled. I'm not sure if the situation will improve in the future, but I have 26 unused Common Candies. With more optimized item purchasing, I can definitely squeeze in 2 more Rare Candy purchases along the route. We mind double posts so I'll just fix this up nicely for you this time okay? ~ B. Guardian

Just keep in mind that despite the speedrun route taking only 6+ hours, it takes more than 6 hours to plan... So a baseline play time estimate is, at the very minimum, double that.

Well, I think I can beat 9h 7m for Samson, seeing as I'm at 5h 13m after Radomus and there's not too much up until Luna and Samson. But CHALLENGE ACCEPTED nonetheless. I've got my lightningrod handy. By the way, I'm interested in what Teleport shortcuts you were using, because I can't seem to find any. I can't teleport to the cabin in Tanzan Cove because it doesn't count as a healing spot, and I can't teleport from Vanhanen Castle to Lapis Ward after defeating Radomus because it seems like entering Vanhanen Castle causes it to be set as a healing spot. The only Teleport shortcut I can think of that might work later on is to Vanhanen Castle after rescuing Luna, provided that something else doesn't inject itself as a healing spot. So if that's the case, then there's no Teleport shortcuts available between Ralts and Abra, which means that I might as well ignore Ralts and get an Abra, unless it turns out that I need to grind up a Gardevoir for the endgame, because sweeping with Swoobat tends to be really difficult. You'd have to write a different route with other starters, probably. Blaziken is just the near perfect combination of great offensive stats, high-powered STABs (HJK especially), a boosting move, and an ability that's perfect for sweeping. Infernape, for example, is fast enough to probably not need Speed Boost, but doesn't hit quite as hard and lacks a boosting move - his STABs are physical, but Calm Mind is special. Most other starters are really not robust enough to end up soloing most of the game. Water starters are SOL between Julia and Florinia, and Grass starters are generally bad. Swoobat also happens to be a really good partner to Blaziken, because it takes care of 2 troublesome gym leaders, plus it also has the requisite boosting move and an ability to amplify it. Swoobat does a good bit of work in this route. It would be difficult to find a single partner Pokemon to most other starters, mostly because of the fact that there are very few objectively good in-game Pokemon remaining due to Ame's penchant for taking them out (watch Woobat suddenly disappear when episode 13 is released - it's not even that good!). And I have no idea where the get a Gyarados anymore. EDIT: I keep seeing RMTs with Black Belts. Where do I get a Black Belt? And a Twistedspoon, I could use a Twistedspoon.

I say "nearly" because Blaziken has big problems vs. Aya and Radomus. Magus posted a speedrun topic back during episode 11 and it doesn't seem like he's come back to it in awhile. This route is incomplete and can probably be optimized more. I have to go somewhere real soon, so the formatting isn't going to be great. It's also incredibly long and I try to be thorough and cover some contingencies. For hidden items, I have screenshots of their locations, but imgur is censored where I currently am. I also only scoured for hidden items up to around Kiki, so if any of you can point out valuable hidden items to me that I missed (e.g., vitamins), that will be much appreciated. Any feedback would be nice, too. Game start to Julia: Julia to Florinia: Florinia to Corey: Corey to Shelly: Shelly to Shade: Shade to Kiki: Kiki to Aya: Aya to Serra: Serra to Noel: Noel to Radomus: Radomus to Luna: This is as far as I've gotten for now. Additional notes for revisions:

If you can find a Pokemon against whom to set up Blaziken with Bulk Up, it can sweep, especially if it also has Speed Boost. Actually, most battles can be won with Blaziken setting up with Bulk Up and Speed Boost.

It's not strong at all. It's an unevolved Pokemon that relies on an evolution stone obtained when the level cap is L45. It's fairly good after evolution because at least it gets coverage moves, but a lot of Pokemon have reached their final stages before L45. So Growlithe is actually pretty bad before then, relatively speaking. Actually, scratch that, it doesn't even get good coverage moves. Crunch isn't spectacular, Outrage provides very little in terms of coverage, and CC is an egg move. Growlithe is not strong, lol. I like Alilatias's post despite its length because it supports my point about trainer density from the perspective of a different kind of player. Also, I have one more feature request: could we reorder the start menu so that Pokemon or Bag is at the top and not Pokedex? Very few people enter the start menu to use the Pokedex. Alternatively, is it possible to make keyboard shortcuts for the Pokemon and Bag menus?

Yeah, I think I'm going to go with that, since it can help out with the Fern, Florinia, and ZEL & Taka battles if it has a +spe nature with good speed IVs. Hypnosis is also a bit more reliable than Delcatty's Sing. It takes a slight bit more time to get, though - less than a minute or so.

You're not guaranteed to find one in the first encounter and you only have a 1/3 chance of catching it at full HP with a Poke Ball. I just realized that the Glameow from the salon is a good candidate.

Yes, but 2 of those HMs don't exist yet, and Bibarel is the one who learns all of the HMs. Bidoof can only learn Cut. I don't want to have to hunt for a Bidoof and then go through the hassle of capturing it. Also, what's the easiest Membership Card sticker to obtain? There used to be one that got replaced with a Smoochum egg, I think. Kricketot doesn't learn Cut. Otherwise a good suggestion, though, since it does evolve at L10 to a Pokemon that does learn Cut.

Hello, I'm routing a speedrun for episode 12 and I'm wondering whether there are any easily accessible event Pokemon that can learn Cut. Ideally they shouldn't require a battle and are not too far out of the way, such as Skitty or Snubbull, or are part of the main storyline, such as either the Team Magma or Team Aqua quest rewards. (Obviously, those guys can't learn Cut.) Magus used a Bidoof for Cut in his route, but I'd rather not partake in the hassle of going through grass to find and catch one if possible.

Well, I do think, "why would you want to breed a Mareep for in-game purposes?" because it seems like an entirely pointless activity to me (especially when it's possible to just hex edit the save data and save a load of time). But you need only take one look at the Team Showcase forum to see the number of players breeding Pokemon and advocating the breeding of Pokemon to understand that some people enjoy doing this, and they have every right to continue doing so. I believe there can be a solution where both kinds of player would be satisfied. Type 2 players have the option of more easily integrating freshly caught wild Pokemon, who are innately at a disadvantage because they start with 0 EVs. Type 1 players have the option of breeding and min-maxing to their hearts' desire. No problem, I appreciate your responses.

I'm totally getting you. You would use the L50 Mareep if you had the option to choose between L50 and L10. What I'm saying is that if you (or anyone else) really cared about the loss in satisfaction from grinding it up from L10, then you would just breed it to get a L1 Mareep. Since you probably don't care about that satisfaction per se, then you'd rather take the L50 Mareep.

This is true for a L36 Geodude, too. Why hasn't it evolved yet if it's supposed to evolve at L25? Conversely, there have also been examples from previous games of evolved Pokemon existing in the wild at impossibly low levels. I think it's fine for these instances to exist if they're flavorful and/or improve gameplay. You mentioned that you would be less satisfied without having to grind the L10 Mareep. By breeding the Mareep, you get to experience this satisfaction if you so desire it. The guy who doesn't want to grind a Mareep in order to use it is also happy that he can grab one at L50.

Bulbapedia says that in the main series games, the increase is random and not determined by the Pokemon's existing friendship value.

I don't understand what's ridiculous about having high leveled unevolved Pokemon - Victory Road has had L36+ Geodude since gen 1, for example. Yes, but my response to this would be: why not breed a Mareep if you want the satisfaction from the grind? You even get the side benefits of manipulating its IVs and possibly breeding egg moves. I don't believe that the gen 5 EXP system makes leveling up take a longer time, because the differences in EXP gain due to level disparity are actually small if the levels are close enough. For example, a L49 Pokemon defeating a L50 Pokemon only gains 5% more EXP than a L50 Pokemon defeating another L50 Pokemon. It's also not been very effective as a means of level capping, because speedruns still starter solo the game with no problem. This is a good idea. Yazmat and Rewer made good points about the tiling on Route 2 being weird. Until you get used to it, it's hard to tell whether you can push a Crustle horizontally between two rocks.

No, I actually don't want to do this, but it doesn't seem like my suggestion of increasing the amount of mandatory trainer battles was very popular. What I proposed in your quoted post was that there should at least be enough mandatory trainer battles such that a team of 2-3 Pokemon will not fall behind on levels, and any more mandatory or optional trainer battles is just icing on the cake. I'm ambivalent about reducing the density of early trainers; that was Ame's idea. My original suggestion was to increase the density of mandatory trainer battles later in the game. A lot of players don't like the grind. I'm going to refer back to the whole point that I made earlier on unintended consequences. Suppose that you design the game such that the player has to run around in grass or repeatedly switch train for 20 minutes just to bring any newly obtained Pokemon up to par. The intended consequence is to give the player the satisfaction of training that Pokemon up. The unintended consequence is that some players will just ignore all of the Pokemon. You can't just focus on the intended consequences, declare that the game is supposed to be played this way, and insist that there isn't a problem. Suppose that Reborn required generally less grinding to use most Pokemon than it does now. It's not gone completely, but it's been reduced. This would enhance my (i.e., type 2 player) enjoyment of the game. Would it decrease your enjoyment of the game? Are you going to think, "shucks, I have to grind slightly less now; this game is less fun?" The notion seems a bit absurd to me, but you tell me, because I'm not that kind of player. I really can't imagine that the type 1 player would find Reborn less fun if there was overall a bit less grinding required, because you still have the option to engage in activities like breeding for egg moves, which marks the epitome of grinding in this game. I disagree with the statement "a little grinding isn't going to hurt anyone." I mean, it really doesn't hurt, in any sense of the word, but I think you're trying to imply that grinding doesn't detract from the player's enjoyment of the game, or something. There are games where their entire purpose is to engage the player in mindless grinding (Cookie Clicker, anyone?). Does Reborn want to be that kind of game?