Avengers alliance came out with the 3rd chapter of the second season last week. The mastery reward this time is the alt suit for Daredevil. I just finished it about 2 hours ago. I would have finished it much earlier if it wasn't for a few issues I ran into. So it took me this long. Usually I can knock it out in like 5 days max. I didn't even start on this until a day late because of a stupid task chain item. And I also spent way too much time doing one thing. So I might as well just get down to it.
First off I'm overall ok with Chapter 3. I don't think it was their best work, but also don't think it was their worst. Let me explain it step by step.
Task chain: As those of you that play AA you know that in season 2 instead of mastery stars you have to complete several steps the first being the task chain. This is a chain of requirements you must meet. Once again the 2nd task is to collect a distress call. This happened in the first chapter, but they fixed it in the 2nd so I thought they learned their lesson. Nope so I had to wait a whole day before really getting started. One of the last tasks which require you to defeat 5 Hydra Burners and 5 Maggia Captains is a pain in the butt because the Burners RARELY appear. The Captains are also rare. You can go an entire mission where you only fight the 2 with the boss and the 1 with the heroic battle. And you won't know if you'll find more until you get deep into the mission therefore end up wasting quite a bit of energy. There is also a task involving a heroic battle which I'll get into next. Overall it seemed like a lot of energy gets wasted both in the game and in real life.
Heroic Battles: These are suppose to be challenging battles that are based off actual comic battles. In season 1 they were a little buggy but overall not impossible. Cable and Deadpools was the one that was the most challenging since at that time Cable's TO outbreak hurt him and it was needed in the 2nd part of the fight and you couldn't just change like you can now. The 2nd season had very good fights. Nothing too hard, just a little tedious, but overall not impossible. Then here comes chapter 3. I don't know if the person who programs these decided to say screw the players or what. Out of the 6 heroic battles 3 are complete flips in the air. I'll hit them one at a time and come up with a very simple fix.
The very first match is Mr. Fantastic v.s. Doom and a Doombot. The gimmick is to use Mr. Fantastic's Bifurcator (level 9 ability) on the doombot to make him hit Doom who then attacks back and puts his ring debuff on that can sometimes stun. Seems pretty easy except there are major issues with this. The first is that Doom and the Doombot will use steal essence. This will boost all of their stats while draining yours. That means your attack, defense, accuracy, and evasion go down. They both will do this the first turn. So right off the bat you have two stacks of this. This makes for a hard match right out the gate, but wait what if Doombot attacks Doom. Well then you don't have to worry about Doombot stealing your essence, but here's the other problem. The attack he does on doom, at best, will do 1/12th damage. That's it. At best. I've never seen it even crit. And if you have Doombot do this he'll like to use arc lighting which will then cause weakening reducing your attack stat by 25% and then Doom will do another steal essence. You can already see how this is impossible if you don't get to at least attack first. You basically have to use Mr. Fantastic's Tumble ability to deadly crit. If you are lucky. Even if you use the close e-iso. I spent 2 and a half days trying to do this. Until I finally finished the mission and came back on challenge mode and managed to go first and finally win. So what fix do I have. Oh that's easy. Two steal essences for once. Either the doombot and doom get one full of doom each or Doom gets two. That's it. Up Doombots damage to doom and/or cut down Dooms health. If you are going to allow for more steal essences then have Bifurcator remove them and/or refresh Mr. Fantastic of that debuff. They have given abilities special abilities to techniques before such as Spider-woman turning AIM soldiers into enemies that heal if they have pheromones put on them. Hercules gains stacks of "hit me" when he recharges. So those things are not unheard of. I and many others won't do this one again until it's fixed and even if it is I probably wouldn't since I don't use Mr. Fantastic.
Next is Hawkeye's heroic battle. He faces two hydra burners and bowman. Already there is a disadvantage since hawkeye is normally a tactician and bowman is an infiltrator. Bowman will also use mark of death and hate arrow which will still hawkeye. That's a turn loss. What is the big gimmick for this one. When hawkeye uses pinpoint target and then fires the burners leak fuel which will ignite and hurt all enemies if a fire attack is used. The problem with this is the fact that the burners won't use fire attacks most of the time. They will decide to physically attack Hawkeye. And even if you managed to get the burners down you have bowman who will get an attack right after you attack him. So let's say you use one of his alts well you just lost your 2nd attack so when you get stunned that whole round is a wash. Thus the problem. There is no clear cut way to win. I bought Hawkeye's heroic age alt hoping Hawkeye had a fire arrow. If he did he never used it. So this is another one that is pure luck. So what is the fix? This one is a hell of a lot tougher to fix. The first is to eliminate 1 of the burners and make this a 2 on 1 match. Or change Bowman's class. They did it with Mystique for Nighcrawlers. The other thing is to allow Hawkeye to launch fire arrows if he has burned debuff on him. Heck even take away Bowman's stunning bow ability or make the AI rarely use it not use it every time it's done cooling down. It's a headache and basically suffers the same problem Mr. Fantastics did. The gimmick doesn't really help. Heck Ms. Marvel got a gimmick that strengthened her attacks when hit with energy attacks in her Heroic Battle which also was in chapter 3. She also has absorb energy which will heal her if an energy attack is used. It makes the battle long, but it can be done.
The last headache one involves Phoenix. Again the big problem with this one is the gimmick doesn't really help if you don't go first. Phoenix is up against Selene and a Hellfire solider. You have to use Psi-blast on the solider who will then get weakened resolve. Your next move you can use mind link on him to protect you from Selene's attack. The problem is exactly what it sounds like. This takes two rounds to set up. Which isn't bad because most of Selene's attacks are psychic and Phoenix has a passive that makes those rarely hit. The problem comes in her lone physical move which puts Stare of the Abyss debuff on Phoenix. This debuff has to be one of the most powerful ones in the game. It takes away a good chunk of any heroes health. The only way to be immune to it is to have a passive that makes you immune to bleeding, poisoning, radiation exposure, chilled, or burned. All things Phoenix does not have. So right there you lose pretty much all your life. Yes it goes away after a turn, but two of those and you are done. The best way to fix this is to give Phoenix two turns per round. That or make it one round to set up the solider as an ally. Or simply take off the stare at the abyss debuff from Selene's attack. Both would work.
Now before a lot of you say oh just go in again I'm sure it will be different. It's not. Heroic battles follow one format. If you start a Heroic battle and say miss if you use an attack on let's say doombot. Every time you play that heroic battle that time around you will miss against doombot on that specific attack on that specific opponent. The battle will follow the exact same script until you finish the battle or finish the mission and do the mission again.
That being said there were missions they did a great job on. The best being the mission with Black Widow, Wasp, and Black Panther. It's challenging without being impossible. The gimmick works. Black Panther's vibranium attacks damage Ultron. This makes wasps lvl 1 and lvl 6 abilities do more damage. Even if you get to the last wave Wasp can do it herself. Her lvl 6 ability gives nimble which makes pretty much all attacks Ultron uses miss. It's one that you feel good for doing and glad they put it in. The battle of Spider-man and Black cat was great. Again not impossible just tedius. Plus their alts actually help. Unlike with Mr. Fantastic, Phoenix, and Hawkeye. If you use their alts it makes it a little easier. Even Ms. Marvels is doable.
Boss drops: The boss drops for the first 5 missions are pretty crappy. They are devices that boost a specific type of class. They aren't really useable outside of PVE, but at the same time why waste a slot for it? The epic drop and drops from the Premium mission on the other hand are pretty good, but overall no one will be farming for drops unlike in previous chapters. They were a flop.
All in all Season 2 Chapter 3 goes up there with my least favorite Chapters and honestly I can't say there have been too many. In season one there may have been missions I hated doing, but those are now easy since I have a lot more heroes and weapons to use. So I guess I should rephrase that. Season 2 Chapter 3 is the only entire chapter that I have no been a fan of. I do not have high hopes for Chapter 4 at this rate.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Special Ops
Avengers Alliance released the new Special Ops yesterday. A lot has happened. This Special Ops also has a group boss and lockboxes like the previous one. I'm going to have to make an Avengers Alliance Glossary for people to refer to. Anyway this one is actually a little different than previous ones. For instance usually you run into the group boss after you finish doing the task that requires you to research for 8 hours. The other big difference is that this is the first to require Special Ops heroes to unlock the epic boss. Normally it has been a 90 cp hero, the pvp reward hero from the previous season, and then another hero. There is also a new alternate form of Thor available. I'm not going to go into the exact task list here, but just some of the observations I've noticed from this and past Special Ops.
Plan out: Special ops requires unstable iso-8 which you get in a limited supply. You start off with 440 isos. You will need 260 isos for the 3 researches you have to do. Yes you can get more from visiting allies, drops in battles, gifts, and rewards from deploys and roulettes, but don't go around expecting to get a lot this way. As a result you want to be smart with the tasks. The current task list can be found here. There are also tasks you can do outside of SO like using Valkerie, Sif, and Thor's attacks. The only ones that are retroactive are the ones that require you to get a certain number of mastery stars.
Mastery the missions: Getting 3 star mastery is a requirement always. And if you are going to do the side quests 4 stars. Even though it seems like it will be a lot of iso up front do all the deploys and threats the first time through. This will ensure that you will get at least 2 stars. Also try to 3 bird (fight the main boss and 2 mini bosses) the final boss. This saves on iso and helps to get you a very high score. Don't forget to use those team up bonuses. This will help get you to 3 stars in about 2 runs. 1 if you do it really well.
Don't forget side quests: If you are wanting to get lock boxes to get the LB hero quickly don't forget about them. This goes along with the planning out. A lot of these can be done in conjunction with the main quests to get the SO hero.
Use the forums: If you haven't signed up for playdom's forums then I suggest you do so. They usually will have tips on how to get or do things before any other place. You can also get other player input. For instance someone may have found a way to really hinder a boss that you normally wouldn't have thought of. So now you can get a higher score against that boss.
Don't rush: There is no need to rush. Unless you want to spend real money the fastest you can possibly get the hero is after 80 hours. That's the time it takes to complete all the research required. You also are given 26 days. So of that 26 about 3 hours is carved out still leaving you with 23 days. Use research time to stock pile isos and study the upcoming tasks. Even level up some heroes and try to get new gear.
Lockboxes are frustrating: Recently playdom has come out and said that everyone is guaranteed to get the lock box hero. A person will only get so many duplicates before getting a new cover. They have said this before, but they have a new status bar to show it. Basically your chances of duplicates is based on how many unique covers you have. So if you have 4 different covers you can get 4 duplicates before you get a new one. Now without getting long winded basically open lockboxes 10 at a time since you get a 100% chance of getting a cover v.s. a 7% chance if you do them on at a time. So that means the highest amount of Lockboxes you have to open to get all 8 covers is 360. So you have been given a heads up.
Leave up your boss: Your group boss will respawn every 72 hours. No sooner. So if yours is beaten in 6 hours and you claim your lockboxes you now have 66 hours to wait. While your allies that didn't get a chance to attack your boss don't get a chance now. So leave it up. As stated before you could need 360 lockboxes before you get the hero. So be a pal and don't claim it until at least 24 hours are left.
These here are just generic pieces of advice. I haven't gone into specifics for doing this Special Ops. Mainly because I'm still in the middle of it. I can give you some advice about it now based off what I've seen.
Get Valkerie, Sif, and Thor if you don't already have them. Use their abilities outside of special ops. They will count towards the task. This will save on isos, but also ensure that you don't have to have your score suffer. You have to use their ability 4 or 5 times for the task. That means you have to stall which can sometimes mean your agent dies or needing to recharge which hurts your overall score. If you got to a season 2 mission or a season 1 mission that you've already 5 starred then you won't need to worry about your score. You only get 1 free Dark elf mask from the research. Purchase 4 more. When you use them make sure you use it on a hero that can attack a dark elf that has used his illusion ability for it to count. Try to do that task as quickly as possible since the side quest that unlocks after requires you to defeat 35 dark elves. That's pretty much all of mission 1, but luckily the dark elves you beat from the group boss count. Oh and on the first mission there are 3 mini bosses. Defeat 1 since there is no bonus higher than 3 bird. I suggest taking out Wrecker or Pildriver. Kurse is really no concern. He will flee if he loses like a third of his life. The team up I like to use is Iron Man's movie armor, The new Thor armor and my agent as a blaster. Makes for easy work. Granted I do have the cube and part of the Attilian set, but that's a story for another day.
Plan out: Special ops requires unstable iso-8 which you get in a limited supply. You start off with 440 isos. You will need 260 isos for the 3 researches you have to do. Yes you can get more from visiting allies, drops in battles, gifts, and rewards from deploys and roulettes, but don't go around expecting to get a lot this way. As a result you want to be smart with the tasks. The current task list can be found here. There are also tasks you can do outside of SO like using Valkerie, Sif, and Thor's attacks. The only ones that are retroactive are the ones that require you to get a certain number of mastery stars.
Mastery the missions: Getting 3 star mastery is a requirement always. And if you are going to do the side quests 4 stars. Even though it seems like it will be a lot of iso up front do all the deploys and threats the first time through. This will ensure that you will get at least 2 stars. Also try to 3 bird (fight the main boss and 2 mini bosses) the final boss. This saves on iso and helps to get you a very high score. Don't forget to use those team up bonuses. This will help get you to 3 stars in about 2 runs. 1 if you do it really well.
Don't forget side quests: If you are wanting to get lock boxes to get the LB hero quickly don't forget about them. This goes along with the planning out. A lot of these can be done in conjunction with the main quests to get the SO hero.
Use the forums: If you haven't signed up for playdom's forums then I suggest you do so. They usually will have tips on how to get or do things before any other place. You can also get other player input. For instance someone may have found a way to really hinder a boss that you normally wouldn't have thought of. So now you can get a higher score against that boss.
Don't rush: There is no need to rush. Unless you want to spend real money the fastest you can possibly get the hero is after 80 hours. That's the time it takes to complete all the research required. You also are given 26 days. So of that 26 about 3 hours is carved out still leaving you with 23 days. Use research time to stock pile isos and study the upcoming tasks. Even level up some heroes and try to get new gear.
Lockboxes are frustrating: Recently playdom has come out and said that everyone is guaranteed to get the lock box hero. A person will only get so many duplicates before getting a new cover. They have said this before, but they have a new status bar to show it. Basically your chances of duplicates is based on how many unique covers you have. So if you have 4 different covers you can get 4 duplicates before you get a new one. Now without getting long winded basically open lockboxes 10 at a time since you get a 100% chance of getting a cover v.s. a 7% chance if you do them on at a time. So that means the highest amount of Lockboxes you have to open to get all 8 covers is 360. So you have been given a heads up.
Leave up your boss: Your group boss will respawn every 72 hours. No sooner. So if yours is beaten in 6 hours and you claim your lockboxes you now have 66 hours to wait. While your allies that didn't get a chance to attack your boss don't get a chance now. So leave it up. As stated before you could need 360 lockboxes before you get the hero. So be a pal and don't claim it until at least 24 hours are left.
These here are just generic pieces of advice. I haven't gone into specifics for doing this Special Ops. Mainly because I'm still in the middle of it. I can give you some advice about it now based off what I've seen.
Get Valkerie, Sif, and Thor if you don't already have them. Use their abilities outside of special ops. They will count towards the task. This will save on isos, but also ensure that you don't have to have your score suffer. You have to use their ability 4 or 5 times for the task. That means you have to stall which can sometimes mean your agent dies or needing to recharge which hurts your overall score. If you got to a season 2 mission or a season 1 mission that you've already 5 starred then you won't need to worry about your score. You only get 1 free Dark elf mask from the research. Purchase 4 more. When you use them make sure you use it on a hero that can attack a dark elf that has used his illusion ability for it to count. Try to do that task as quickly as possible since the side quest that unlocks after requires you to defeat 35 dark elves. That's pretty much all of mission 1, but luckily the dark elves you beat from the group boss count. Oh and on the first mission there are 3 mini bosses. Defeat 1 since there is no bonus higher than 3 bird. I suggest taking out Wrecker or Pildriver. Kurse is really no concern. He will flee if he loses like a third of his life. The team up I like to use is Iron Man's movie armor, The new Thor armor and my agent as a blaster. Makes for easy work. Granted I do have the cube and part of the Attilian set, but that's a story for another day.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Did some new things
So my Delphox hit level 100 yesterday so I began to start evolving some of the pokemon I've had. My venasaur also hit level 100. I also tried wonder trade for the first time. My friend got a Froakie with its hidden ablility so I figured what the hey. Well glad I did. I got a magmar, a shinx, a serviper (which is a pain in the butt to get in X) and something else that I can't remember. Now yes I did get some throw aways. Got a trapinch, a Butterfree, a Scyther (I already have one and this one had a kinda racist name), and some other throw aways. So my advice is if you caught a pokemon you aren't a fan of then wonder trade it. You never know what you'll find. Thanks to wonder trade I can breed that magmar and then trade it in GTS for something specific like a togepi or something.
Correction: I do need to make a correction on something I said earlier. To turn Eevee into Slyveon you only need to make it grow one heart in Pokémon Amie. I thought it was 5 (because everyone said max it out). Then my friend said he evolved it after 2 and I just did one and it evolved. Now to breed it.
Another Correction I have to make involves friend safari. In order to find a pokemon with a hidden ability your friend needs to be online. You will also only find 2 pokemon until they beat the elite four. Then a 3rd slot pokemon will be revealed.
Other than that I haven't found many more new things. The game is kinda straight forward at this point.
Correction: I do need to make a correction on something I said earlier. To turn Eevee into Slyveon you only need to make it grow one heart in Pokémon Amie. I thought it was 5 (because everyone said max it out). Then my friend said he evolved it after 2 and I just did one and it evolved. Now to breed it.
Another Correction I have to make involves friend safari. In order to find a pokemon with a hidden ability your friend needs to be online. You will also only find 2 pokemon until they beat the elite four. Then a 3rd slot pokemon will be revealed.
Other than that I haven't found many more new things. The game is kinda straight forward at this point.
Friday, October 25, 2013
Avengers Alliance
So I mentioned Marvel Avengers Alliance yesterday and I figured I'd do a post on it. Now I will say that if you haven't started this game it might be pretty hard for you to get into it. The reason being is that so much has happened in the game. There are about 73 Heroes in the game and a good chunk you can't get until they rerelease them for gold and/or command points. I'll touch on those two later. There are currently 3 platforms to play this game. The mobile app currently only available for iOS. I know they are working on an Android. Not sure if it's out yet since I don't have it. This is probably your best bet of getting into the game if you haven't already. It's relatively new so you aren't too far behind. Next is on playdom.com. This is probably the 2nd best route since it's more interactive and you can make allies super quick. I play on facebook which by far would be the hardest for newbies which is why a lot quit by level 20. Now Avengers is a turn based system. You have a team of your Agent and 2 heroes v.s. up to 9 enemies in waves of 3. You are trying to find out the cause of this pulse that caused blackouts and made these elements called Iso-8. That part of the story becomes less and less important as you go on. Now there is a lot of lingo here so I'm going to hit on the big ones and hit on others later.The first are the different classes.
Generalist class: This is your basic class. It's the normal type of Avengers. There are no strengths or weakness to this class. Your agent will start with this class. As he goes on he can get different uniforms with other class bonuses. This one can come in handy in pvp (player v.s. player) and when against a boss that can negate your class bonus or who has one you can't beat.
Blaster class: This class is exactly what it sounds like. They are typically heroes that use some sort of blast. They are good against the Bruiser class. Their class bonus is they critical hit any and every bruiser and ignore defense stats (which comes in handy against the Bruisers class bonus). They also gain Focus Attack when hitting or hit by a Bruiser. This makes it so the next attack they do against whatever class will always critical hit (assuming no debuff or special ability of the opponent) and ignore defense. This will bypass shield abilities (something I'll talk about later).
Tactician class: This class are typically those that are observers and leaders. They are the ones that come up with strategies. Their class bonus is against Blasters. When hitting or hit by a Blaster they can Tactical option. Think I said that right. This gives them an extra turn. This can come in handy when you are against an opponent you would like to end quickly.
Infiltrator class: This class is pretty straight forward. Those that can sneak in and out of places. The spy type. Their class bonus is against the Tactician class. When hitting or hit by a tactician they gain combat reflex. This makes all of their attacks stealthy (and I'll talk about why that's good later) and also will have them counter attack. This will last for 1 round unless hit again. Anyone that hits an infiltrator with combat reflex will be attacked unless their attack is stealthy (see why it's good) or knocks out the infiltrator.
Scrapper class: This class is good with fighting. Typically hand to hand. This class bonus is against the infiltrators. When attacked or attacking someone from that class they gain close quarter combat. Now this one is tricky to get to work sometimes. If you are attacking an infiltrator you have to attack then have your follow up attack (your hero or agent will do it automatically) and the infiltrator must not pass out or in this game "die". Close quarter combat makes it so your hero never misses (except in extreme situations). You will ignore most avoidance abilities and attack twice in a row. The second attack will be your first ability.
Bruiser class: This last class is for those big tough bruisers that can take a hit. They are good against (you guessed it) scrappers. When attacking or attacked by this class they gain enraged. This ups all stats except for health and stamina. It stacks (applies up to) twice. This can easily end a fight when done right.
Next up we have the stats which are pretty obvious so I won't go into too much depth. You have your health, stamina (each attack cost some of this), Attack, Defense, Evasion, and Accuracy. Now onto the super basics.
Iso-8: Strange crystals that when equipped to your Agent or hero a certain stat or stats are increased. There is a full explanation in the game.
Shield points: These things are hard to come by at first, and then you can't get rid of them enough. They are required for training your hero to the next level, researching items, or buying certain items in the store.
Command Points: These are used to recruit new heroes. You gain them by defeating bosses and getting them in the roulette, purchasing them for gold, doing certain tasks, getting them from lock boxes.
Gold: Bars that you get from leveling up, getting in special roulettes or buying them with real money. This is used to get premium items like special weapons, lockboxes, more energy, speed up leveling or research, etc.
PVP: Player v.s. player. This is where you test your weapons, heroes, and strategy against others. This is not in real time. The A.I. will play your opponent. This can be both good and bad depending on how complicated your strategy is for defense.
Roulette: This is a screen where you will see 9 possible options of items for you to gain. These appear each new day you visit the game, after defeated the boss for a certain mission, win 5 tims in pvp per day.
Gear: Items used by the agent in battle. Basically weapons.
Special Ops: A special event with a limited time span to be completed. There are 25 tasks that have to be done to receive a special hero.
Covert Ops: Special task chains that yield special gear or the chance to recruit a new hero.
Anything else that you may want to know about the game can be found here. I just gave the basics so if I talk about it again no one will be lost.
Generalist class: This is your basic class. It's the normal type of Avengers. There are no strengths or weakness to this class. Your agent will start with this class. As he goes on he can get different uniforms with other class bonuses. This one can come in handy in pvp (player v.s. player) and when against a boss that can negate your class bonus or who has one you can't beat.
Blaster class: This class is exactly what it sounds like. They are typically heroes that use some sort of blast. They are good against the Bruiser class. Their class bonus is they critical hit any and every bruiser and ignore defense stats (which comes in handy against the Bruisers class bonus). They also gain Focus Attack when hitting or hit by a Bruiser. This makes it so the next attack they do against whatever class will always critical hit (assuming no debuff or special ability of the opponent) and ignore defense. This will bypass shield abilities (something I'll talk about later).
Tactician class: This class are typically those that are observers and leaders. They are the ones that come up with strategies. Their class bonus is against Blasters. When hitting or hit by a Blaster they can Tactical option. Think I said that right. This gives them an extra turn. This can come in handy when you are against an opponent you would like to end quickly.
Infiltrator class: This class is pretty straight forward. Those that can sneak in and out of places. The spy type. Their class bonus is against the Tactician class. When hitting or hit by a tactician they gain combat reflex. This makes all of their attacks stealthy (and I'll talk about why that's good later) and also will have them counter attack. This will last for 1 round unless hit again. Anyone that hits an infiltrator with combat reflex will be attacked unless their attack is stealthy (see why it's good) or knocks out the infiltrator.
Scrapper class: This class is good with fighting. Typically hand to hand. This class bonus is against the infiltrators. When attacked or attacking someone from that class they gain close quarter combat. Now this one is tricky to get to work sometimes. If you are attacking an infiltrator you have to attack then have your follow up attack (your hero or agent will do it automatically) and the infiltrator must not pass out or in this game "die". Close quarter combat makes it so your hero never misses (except in extreme situations). You will ignore most avoidance abilities and attack twice in a row. The second attack will be your first ability.
Bruiser class: This last class is for those big tough bruisers that can take a hit. They are good against (you guessed it) scrappers. When attacking or attacked by this class they gain enraged. This ups all stats except for health and stamina. It stacks (applies up to) twice. This can easily end a fight when done right.
Next up we have the stats which are pretty obvious so I won't go into too much depth. You have your health, stamina (each attack cost some of this), Attack, Defense, Evasion, and Accuracy. Now onto the super basics.
Iso-8: Strange crystals that when equipped to your Agent or hero a certain stat or stats are increased. There is a full explanation in the game.
Shield points: These things are hard to come by at first, and then you can't get rid of them enough. They are required for training your hero to the next level, researching items, or buying certain items in the store.
Command Points: These are used to recruit new heroes. You gain them by defeating bosses and getting them in the roulette, purchasing them for gold, doing certain tasks, getting them from lock boxes.
Gold: Bars that you get from leveling up, getting in special roulettes or buying them with real money. This is used to get premium items like special weapons, lockboxes, more energy, speed up leveling or research, etc.
PVP: Player v.s. player. This is where you test your weapons, heroes, and strategy against others. This is not in real time. The A.I. will play your opponent. This can be both good and bad depending on how complicated your strategy is for defense.
Roulette: This is a screen where you will see 9 possible options of items for you to gain. These appear each new day you visit the game, after defeated the boss for a certain mission, win 5 tims in pvp per day.
Gear: Items used by the agent in battle. Basically weapons.
Special Ops: A special event with a limited time span to be completed. There are 25 tasks that have to be done to receive a special hero.
Covert Ops: Special task chains that yield special gear or the chance to recruit a new hero.
Anything else that you may want to know about the game can be found here. I just gave the basics so if I talk about it again no one will be lost.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Well that was a bust
So I went Megastone searching and of course didn't find a single one. The annoying thing about it is that you are told that your Mega Ring will detect these stones. Well that's not true. It doesn't detect anything. It just makes it so when you go to the right spot between 8pm-9pm your time (the time on your 3DS) it will be there. Also looks like there is in fact only one stone per game which in itself is very annoying because it means I can not get the megaform of houndoom unless someone is nice enough to trade it to me. So with that being a bust I figured I'd move on to some more aspects of the game.
Hordes: I've touched on this before, but I thought I'd mention it again. As I've said before Hordes can happen naturally or they can be created. Some Pokémon will not appear unless in hordes. For example you can't find geodude in the wild except in hordes. Hordes have you face off against 5 wild Pokémon. These Pokémon can even have their hidden abilities. There is also a higher chance you'll run into a shiny Pokémon this way. You can still run into them normally but obviously your chances of having a shiny increase with 5 wild Pokémon. Now I will say that these are a lot harder than they sound for capture purposes. You have to knock out the other 4 Pokémon before you can even use your pokeballs. Now this of course is easy if you have a Pokémon that you want that has water absorb or fire absorb and you use an attack all move of those elements. Anyway to make a horde appear you have to use honey or the move sweet scent. I will say the smart way to go is to have a few timer balls. By the time you get down to 1 Pokémon and get it low enough to capture 5 or more turns will have passed making a Timer ball the perfect one to use.
Pokémon Amie: I again touched on this yesterday, but you will need to use this system at least once. Eevee will only become Sylveon. Eevee needs to bound with you fully on that system (5 hearts filled). It also needs to know at least one fairy type move. The quickest way would to be capture one on Route 10. Those already know baby doll eyes. Next one will take some time. To get hearts you need to pet and feed Eevee. Feed it pokepuffs which you win from games. The better you do and the higher the difficulty the better chance of getting better pokepuffs which of course Pokémon like more. Feed Eevee until it's stuffed then play a lot of games. Feed it again and pet it and continue until it fully bonds. You'll know you've gained a heart when Eevee lets out a cry and it unleashes a barrage of hearts. Once done you just use a rare candy or take it into battle and level it up. The other benefits are as stated before. You can recover from status conditions. Just yesterday my Lucario was put to sleep by hypnosis and before the turn was over it woke up because it bonded with me. This also works on poison, burning, paralysis, and confusion. There is even a chance your Pokémon will survive a move that would knock it out. For Pokémon normally in your party this is a good thing to do. You don't have to sit there and do it endlessly, just play every now and again and they will eventually grow and bound with you.
Style: In this game "style" and status actually play a decent part in this game. In Lumoise City you need to be considered stylish or cool to do or access certain parts of the city or get discounts. You'll also get new hairstyles and styles for your Pokémon Furfrou which can be styled in different ways. Note that it will change back if you put it in your box. Everything you do will get you invisible style points. Some will do more than others. The super high point givers aren't available right away, but you can do things such as getting your hair cut, riding the gogoat shuttle, or making a PR video will help. Then from there shopping stores, working in hotels having Alexa show you around, or going to the battle institute will help those points rise higher. You'll for sure want this so you can get discounts at stores like the pokeball store that sells specialty balls or getting the mega stones for the other starters which are not cheap. The other aspect of this is learning skate tricks. In the Lost Hotel you won't be able to meet the "boss" until you learn 4 of the 5 skate tricks. Then you'll be able to meet the boss and learn the final trick.
Wild Items: This is one I'm honestly not an expert in because I only have one Pokémon that will be able to do this in my party. When you are facing wild Pokémon and sometimes trainers you'll notice certain things behind the enemy Pokémon. These include grass, Trees, Rocks, Snowpiles, Sandpiles, etc. If you use the correct move then they will interact with these items and you'll get an item at the end of the match. For example if you see a Tree and use Air Cutter, Twister, or Blizzard then you'll get a berry. On Grass use Pedal Blizzard (the move my Venasaur knows) or Razor leaf and you'll get herbs. Now the big one that you'll want to be aware of is when you see a Boulder. Usually they are in caves, but can be found in Routes. If you use Rockslide on these guys you can get a Water, Fire, Leaf, or Thunder stone. Now that last one I know cause I looked it up. I don't have a Pokémon in my party with Rockslide so I can't confirm it myself, but I can do it with the berries and herbs.
Restaurants: The last thing I'll touch on are Restaurants which can be found in Lumoise city. There are 4. A one star, two star, three star, and a high roller sushi bar. These restaurants are of course not just for eating (seeing as your character doesn't really eat). You go in and will choose to either double battle, triple battle, or rotation battle depending on the restaurant. They do get pretty spendy, but in the end you get exp and a gift of berries, mushrooms, or even nuggets. The goal is to win the match in a specific number of turns. There are 4 courses I believe. The wait staff (or owner) will tell you how many turns. They will say something like this dish is best eaten after two turns and then the battle will begin. In some cases this is very easy in others not so much. I know the one star likes to use a compination of the 3 monkey's evolutions (Pansage, Panpour, Pansear). If you have moves that take two turns this is usually a little easier. The better you do the better prize you get. Like I said these are also good for getting free exp. They'll also give you style points.
That's all for today. Tomorrow I might touch on Avengers Alliance.
Hordes: I've touched on this before, but I thought I'd mention it again. As I've said before Hordes can happen naturally or they can be created. Some Pokémon will not appear unless in hordes. For example you can't find geodude in the wild except in hordes. Hordes have you face off against 5 wild Pokémon. These Pokémon can even have their hidden abilities. There is also a higher chance you'll run into a shiny Pokémon this way. You can still run into them normally but obviously your chances of having a shiny increase with 5 wild Pokémon. Now I will say that these are a lot harder than they sound for capture purposes. You have to knock out the other 4 Pokémon before you can even use your pokeballs. Now this of course is easy if you have a Pokémon that you want that has water absorb or fire absorb and you use an attack all move of those elements. Anyway to make a horde appear you have to use honey or the move sweet scent. I will say the smart way to go is to have a few timer balls. By the time you get down to 1 Pokémon and get it low enough to capture 5 or more turns will have passed making a Timer ball the perfect one to use.
Pokémon Amie: I again touched on this yesterday, but you will need to use this system at least once. Eevee will only become Sylveon. Eevee needs to bound with you fully on that system (5 hearts filled). It also needs to know at least one fairy type move. The quickest way would to be capture one on Route 10. Those already know baby doll eyes. Next one will take some time. To get hearts you need to pet and feed Eevee. Feed it pokepuffs which you win from games. The better you do and the higher the difficulty the better chance of getting better pokepuffs which of course Pokémon like more. Feed Eevee until it's stuffed then play a lot of games. Feed it again and pet it and continue until it fully bonds. You'll know you've gained a heart when Eevee lets out a cry and it unleashes a barrage of hearts. Once done you just use a rare candy or take it into battle and level it up. The other benefits are as stated before. You can recover from status conditions. Just yesterday my Lucario was put to sleep by hypnosis and before the turn was over it woke up because it bonded with me. This also works on poison, burning, paralysis, and confusion. There is even a chance your Pokémon will survive a move that would knock it out. For Pokémon normally in your party this is a good thing to do. You don't have to sit there and do it endlessly, just play every now and again and they will eventually grow and bound with you.
Style: In this game "style" and status actually play a decent part in this game. In Lumoise City you need to be considered stylish or cool to do or access certain parts of the city or get discounts. You'll also get new hairstyles and styles for your Pokémon Furfrou which can be styled in different ways. Note that it will change back if you put it in your box. Everything you do will get you invisible style points. Some will do more than others. The super high point givers aren't available right away, but you can do things such as getting your hair cut, riding the gogoat shuttle, or making a PR video will help. Then from there shopping stores, working in hotels having Alexa show you around, or going to the battle institute will help those points rise higher. You'll for sure want this so you can get discounts at stores like the pokeball store that sells specialty balls or getting the mega stones for the other starters which are not cheap. The other aspect of this is learning skate tricks. In the Lost Hotel you won't be able to meet the "boss" until you learn 4 of the 5 skate tricks. Then you'll be able to meet the boss and learn the final trick.
Wild Items: This is one I'm honestly not an expert in because I only have one Pokémon that will be able to do this in my party. When you are facing wild Pokémon and sometimes trainers you'll notice certain things behind the enemy Pokémon. These include grass, Trees, Rocks, Snowpiles, Sandpiles, etc. If you use the correct move then they will interact with these items and you'll get an item at the end of the match. For example if you see a Tree and use Air Cutter, Twister, or Blizzard then you'll get a berry. On Grass use Pedal Blizzard (the move my Venasaur knows) or Razor leaf and you'll get herbs. Now the big one that you'll want to be aware of is when you see a Boulder. Usually they are in caves, but can be found in Routes. If you use Rockslide on these guys you can get a Water, Fire, Leaf, or Thunder stone. Now that last one I know cause I looked it up. I don't have a Pokémon in my party with Rockslide so I can't confirm it myself, but I can do it with the berries and herbs.
Restaurants: The last thing I'll touch on are Restaurants which can be found in Lumoise city. There are 4. A one star, two star, three star, and a high roller sushi bar. These restaurants are of course not just for eating (seeing as your character doesn't really eat). You go in and will choose to either double battle, triple battle, or rotation battle depending on the restaurant. They do get pretty spendy, but in the end you get exp and a gift of berries, mushrooms, or even nuggets. The goal is to win the match in a specific number of turns. There are 4 courses I believe. The wait staff (or owner) will tell you how many turns. They will say something like this dish is best eaten after two turns and then the battle will begin. In some cases this is very easy in others not so much. I know the one star likes to use a compination of the 3 monkey's evolutions (Pansage, Panpour, Pansear). If you have moves that take two turns this is usually a little easier. The better you do the better prize you get. Like I said these are also good for getting free exp. They'll also give you style points.
That's all for today. Tomorrow I might touch on Avengers Alliance.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
So much to do
Sorry again. I've been pretty busy. Pokémon X has been keeping me pretty distracted at night and Avengers Alliance and work have been keeping me busy in the day. Right now Avengers Alliance on facebook is running a Covert Task chain where you eventually get to get Moon Knight for 90 cp. I may do a thing on Avengers Alliance some time down the road. To be honest so much has happened in that game, that anyone new to it will have to spend a good chunk of real money to get even half way close to caught up. And as for Pokémon, now that I've finished the game I'm trying to capture pokemon I'm missing (which is a lot and requires tons of money to get enough balls for everyone) along with trading for those I can't get. Last night I spent like an hour trading for all the fossil pokemon.
So I'm going to talk about the major need for the internet. The nice thing about this game, unlike in my day, is in order to trade you don't need to have someone in the room with you with a link cable. Thank you Diamond and Pearl for adding the Global Trade System. However, this game requires it a whole lot more. Again I never played Black or White so I don't know how internet based that was outside of dream world. So let me try to break it down.
-The first need of the internet involved getting your free Torchic. You definitely want to get this. This is the only way to get Blazikenite (the mega stone for Blaziken) as well as the only way to get Torchic without offering up a super rare pokemon for trade. It also has the hidden ability speed boost. Every round your speed is upped. A fire type is for sure a big helper in this generation. The first and last gym leader are weak to fire. Not to mention one of the Elite Four uses steel types.
-The next use of the internet is not necessarily a must. If you choose to sync your game to the new Global Link, you earn what are now called Pokemiles. These are used to get items such as Rare Candy, Heart Scales, or Revives sent to your game. As of right now I'm saving all mine because there is something called Attractions that aren't available yet. If I was to guess I think it would be something like Dream points and might end up being a way to get special pokemon or just special items. It's free so might as well do it. They also keep track of your battles and also give you medals for doing certain things during the game.
-The big one here is what I mentioned earlier. Global Trade System requires you to of course be on the internet. The nice thing is that you can ask for Pokémon you haven't seen as long as you know how to spell their names. This is how I got my Kabuto, Omanyte, and Archen to name a few. The other thing is that if you get a pokemon from a different region and breed it with one of your own there is a higher chance of breeding a shiny.
-Something that is not a must, but nice to do is Pokémon Amie. Basically this system allows you to pet and play with a pokemon. This is something you should do if you want to have your pokemon gain experience much faster. The text also changes a little. My party all have 4 hearts so whenever they 1 hit KO someone my character tells them good job. There is also an increase in recovery of a status problem. I'm not just talking sleep or confusion, but also the ones you needed an item for before. There is also a small chance it will survive a fatal blow. Now back to the internet part. You can decorate your Amie home screen. If you are connected to the internet you will have pokemon from people on the web stop by. Once you get 3 they engage in a conversation and leave you a gift. This can be anything from a decoration to special pokepuffs which you can feed your pokemon to make them more affectionate. Again this is a minor thing, but it is nice.
That will be all for today. Tonight I'm going to try to capture 15 Pokémon I'm missing plus trade another one. I'm also going Megastone hunting. Hopefully I'll be able to give some insight on that tomorrow. I'm also wondering if there are certain stones you can actually get more than one of. If so then I'm going to have to find someone with Pokémon Y to trade with. I want to get a megahoundoom, but also want to get mega forms of pokemon that are only in Y.
So I'm going to talk about the major need for the internet. The nice thing about this game, unlike in my day, is in order to trade you don't need to have someone in the room with you with a link cable. Thank you Diamond and Pearl for adding the Global Trade System. However, this game requires it a whole lot more. Again I never played Black or White so I don't know how internet based that was outside of dream world. So let me try to break it down.
-The first need of the internet involved getting your free Torchic. You definitely want to get this. This is the only way to get Blazikenite (the mega stone for Blaziken) as well as the only way to get Torchic without offering up a super rare pokemon for trade. It also has the hidden ability speed boost. Every round your speed is upped. A fire type is for sure a big helper in this generation. The first and last gym leader are weak to fire. Not to mention one of the Elite Four uses steel types.
-The next use of the internet is not necessarily a must. If you choose to sync your game to the new Global Link, you earn what are now called Pokemiles. These are used to get items such as Rare Candy, Heart Scales, or Revives sent to your game. As of right now I'm saving all mine because there is something called Attractions that aren't available yet. If I was to guess I think it would be something like Dream points and might end up being a way to get special pokemon or just special items. It's free so might as well do it. They also keep track of your battles and also give you medals for doing certain things during the game.
-The big one here is what I mentioned earlier. Global Trade System requires you to of course be on the internet. The nice thing is that you can ask for Pokémon you haven't seen as long as you know how to spell their names. This is how I got my Kabuto, Omanyte, and Archen to name a few. The other thing is that if you get a pokemon from a different region and breed it with one of your own there is a higher chance of breeding a shiny.
-Something that is not a must, but nice to do is Pokémon Amie. Basically this system allows you to pet and play with a pokemon. This is something you should do if you want to have your pokemon gain experience much faster. The text also changes a little. My party all have 4 hearts so whenever they 1 hit KO someone my character tells them good job. There is also an increase in recovery of a status problem. I'm not just talking sleep or confusion, but also the ones you needed an item for before. There is also a small chance it will survive a fatal blow. Now back to the internet part. You can decorate your Amie home screen. If you are connected to the internet you will have pokemon from people on the web stop by. Once you get 3 they engage in a conversation and leave you a gift. This can be anything from a decoration to special pokepuffs which you can feed your pokemon to make them more affectionate. Again this is a minor thing, but it is nice.
That will be all for today. Tonight I'm going to try to capture 15 Pokémon I'm missing plus trade another one. I'm also going Megastone hunting. Hopefully I'll be able to give some insight on that tomorrow. I'm also wondering if there are certain stones you can actually get more than one of. If so then I'm going to have to find someone with Pokémon Y to trade with. I want to get a megahoundoom, but also want to get mega forms of pokemon that are only in Y.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Those tips
Sorry about the no post yesterday. Got caught up with work. So as I promised some tips for Pokémon X based on my experience. That's not to say my tips can't be used in Y, it's just that I don't have any experience with how the game play might be different. I would assume not much. So I'll try to go in chronological order, but if I go back don't be shocked.
-There is currently a mystery gift promotion going from now until January 15th. You get a free Torchic with Blazikenite which will allow Blaziken to megaevolve. This is a must because you can't find this megastone in the game. Plus you get a free Torchic.
-Base your starter off the fact that you will get one of the Kanto starters (Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Charmander). So if you want to get Charmander then you probably shouldn't get Fennekin. Especially if you plan on training a Fletchling who will gain the fire type once it evolves, plus you will have a free Torchic. I planned on getting Bulbasaur to counter my rival since I know she would have the water starter so I got Fennekin. I didn't plan on training Torchic.
-Your first gym leader loves Bug types. That means Chespin won't be your star player. You will be able to get Pidgey and Flechling and even a Pansear before you make it there. Her pokemon are also at 10 and 12 so keep that in mind
-You will find a Snorlax pretty early on in the game at lvl 15. This is a major plus. It doesn't know Rest so it won't regain health and can be a major power house on your team.
-The HMs in this game are more for getting you items or making shortcuts. You will briefly need to use surf and strength will make it so you don't have to go all the way around in a cave. Both of which will be a must in Victory Road however.
-Exp share is your friend. Once you get it after your first gym battle you won't have to grind anymore if you take the opportunity to battle as many trainers as you can. You'll find your pokemon will stay at around the same level this way.
-Catch a Honedge. I can not stress this one enough. It is such a trump card in this game. It has a very diverse movepool. It knows Fury Cutter when you find it (which had it's power upped) and learns moves like Iron Head (which fairy types are weak against), shadow sneak, night slash, aerial ace, and other moves I'm sure I'm forgetting. It's also part ghost so it can be your big trump card against fighting since you can use aerial ace which they are weak against.
-Team Flare likes to use poison, fire, dark, and on rare occasion normal.
-There is a lot to do in Lumiose city. The more you do in that city the more style points you get. Which you can't see of course. The more style you have the more places you can visit and in some cases get a break on prices.
-The first and third gyms don't let you leave to heal your pokemon. Once you are in you have to defeat all the trainers and then beat the gym leader to leave. All other gyms won't force you to stay.
-You will have a long drawn out line of battles to get to your legendary pokemon (Xerneas or Yveltal). Once you face the leader the at the Secret HQ (not to be confused with the base in the café) go heal your pokemon. You will then have a series of 3 double battles (your rival will be your partner). His or her pokemon will heal, yours won't. Go heal again before entering through the doors. You will then have 4 more admins to deal with. Save after you finish. The next step you take towards the core will make the fight begin. Once you've captured your legendary you will then be challenged for the last time by the leader. This time your pokemon will be healed.
-Hordes will happen at random and will feature 5 pokemon at levels lower than the levels of the pokemon you'd normally find. Sometimes they do have hidden abilities. To cause a horde you need to use honey or sweet scent. Hordes will come in handy if you want to catch a pokemon at a lower level to train it to your liking. At a certain point you'll only run into evolved pokemon.
-When you face the Elite Four (I beat them last night 10/16/13) you won't challenge them in a specific order. This time you can pick a room to challenge in any order. The types are Fire, Water, Steel, and Dragon. My advice is to attack Dragon last. Dragon types can be very hardy and you want to have the extra experience to make your fairy or ice type stronger to face them. They all will have pokemon at the exact same level. 3 pokemon at level 63 and one at 65.
-After you become the Champion you will be thrown a parade where you will have one last battle. It's a very easy battle. 3 pokemon (Torkol, Golurk, and Silphyh).
These are just a few of the things that I wish someone would have told me or I noticed. These should make your game go a little smoother to help you require less turning on and off for a do over. If I think of anymore I'll post them.
-There is currently a mystery gift promotion going from now until January 15th. You get a free Torchic with Blazikenite which will allow Blaziken to megaevolve. This is a must because you can't find this megastone in the game. Plus you get a free Torchic.
-Base your starter off the fact that you will get one of the Kanto starters (Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Charmander). So if you want to get Charmander then you probably shouldn't get Fennekin. Especially if you plan on training a Fletchling who will gain the fire type once it evolves, plus you will have a free Torchic. I planned on getting Bulbasaur to counter my rival since I know she would have the water starter so I got Fennekin. I didn't plan on training Torchic.
-Your first gym leader loves Bug types. That means Chespin won't be your star player. You will be able to get Pidgey and Flechling and even a Pansear before you make it there. Her pokemon are also at 10 and 12 so keep that in mind
-You will find a Snorlax pretty early on in the game at lvl 15. This is a major plus. It doesn't know Rest so it won't regain health and can be a major power house on your team.
-The HMs in this game are more for getting you items or making shortcuts. You will briefly need to use surf and strength will make it so you don't have to go all the way around in a cave. Both of which will be a must in Victory Road however.
-Exp share is your friend. Once you get it after your first gym battle you won't have to grind anymore if you take the opportunity to battle as many trainers as you can. You'll find your pokemon will stay at around the same level this way.
-Catch a Honedge. I can not stress this one enough. It is such a trump card in this game. It has a very diverse movepool. It knows Fury Cutter when you find it (which had it's power upped) and learns moves like Iron Head (which fairy types are weak against), shadow sneak, night slash, aerial ace, and other moves I'm sure I'm forgetting. It's also part ghost so it can be your big trump card against fighting since you can use aerial ace which they are weak against.
-Team Flare likes to use poison, fire, dark, and on rare occasion normal.
-There is a lot to do in Lumiose city. The more you do in that city the more style points you get. Which you can't see of course. The more style you have the more places you can visit and in some cases get a break on prices.
-The first and third gyms don't let you leave to heal your pokemon. Once you are in you have to defeat all the trainers and then beat the gym leader to leave. All other gyms won't force you to stay.
-You will have a long drawn out line of battles to get to your legendary pokemon (Xerneas or Yveltal). Once you face the leader the at the Secret HQ (not to be confused with the base in the café) go heal your pokemon. You will then have a series of 3 double battles (your rival will be your partner). His or her pokemon will heal, yours won't. Go heal again before entering through the doors. You will then have 4 more admins to deal with. Save after you finish. The next step you take towards the core will make the fight begin. Once you've captured your legendary you will then be challenged for the last time by the leader. This time your pokemon will be healed.
-Hordes will happen at random and will feature 5 pokemon at levels lower than the levels of the pokemon you'd normally find. Sometimes they do have hidden abilities. To cause a horde you need to use honey or sweet scent. Hordes will come in handy if you want to catch a pokemon at a lower level to train it to your liking. At a certain point you'll only run into evolved pokemon.
-When you face the Elite Four (I beat them last night 10/16/13) you won't challenge them in a specific order. This time you can pick a room to challenge in any order. The types are Fire, Water, Steel, and Dragon. My advice is to attack Dragon last. Dragon types can be very hardy and you want to have the extra experience to make your fairy or ice type stronger to face them. They all will have pokemon at the exact same level. 3 pokemon at level 63 and one at 65.
-After you become the Champion you will be thrown a parade where you will have one last battle. It's a very easy battle. 3 pokemon (Torkol, Golurk, and Silphyh).
These are just a few of the things that I wish someone would have told me or I noticed. These should make your game go a little smoother to help you require less turning on and off for a do over. If I think of anymore I'll post them.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Lil' Introduction
So I decided to start a blog that focuses mainly on the things that make me geek out. Most of the things I really geek out over are games. I'm not as into games as I once was since a lot of my friends are older and aren't into games as much as me, but from time to time I just need to get it out and well this is the perfect avenue for that. So with that set aside let me get right to the think that has me geeking out this week.
As many of you know the new Pokémon games, X and Y, came out this past weekend. I was one of the many who went and got the game that first day and I've been playing it off and on ever since. So I figured I'd write a little review and point out some of my likes and dislikes about the game. I'll probably come back to those features or other features as I progress through the game or they catch my attention. And in full disclosure I never played Black, White, Black 2, or White 2.
All and all this is a really good game. I will admit I haven't beaten the Elite Four yet. I do however have all 8 badges so I've gotten through a nice chunk of the game. So let me begin by saying I love the pace of this game. Speaking as a guy who grew up on the Blue version and being able to exploit the Missingno glitch a fast moving game is pretty awesome. From the moment you get your first pokemon you can tell it's a lot different than the other games. Your first battle is actually against one of your friends that has the pokemon weak to the one you choose. I chose Fennekin so my friend (your rival is the hero of the other gender of your character) chose Chespin. Right off the bat you already have your elemental attack so it's an easy win. The other big difference is the amount of wild pokemon you see right off the bat. You get 10 pokeballs for free and in the first area alone you can fill up your entire party which is very new for me. The other big difference for me is you can say bye to the level grinding. Sadly this only happens after your first gym battle so you still have to grind before. Exp share is back to being a key item and gives all pokemon on your team exp. In the first game that was a nice feature, but the exp always seemed so low. In this game it seems they do get a decent amount. My pokemon are in there 60's (except one) and all from the exp. There are also so many features on this game. Super Training to work on stats, Pokémon Amie which basically helps your pokemon bond with you and helps eevee evolve into Slyveon, Megaevolutions, Sky Battles, and the list goes on and on. So with that being said it's kinda hard to get bored with this one since there is so much you can do as you your hero goes through the game. So since I kinda got started on this let's go to the positives and negatives of the game.
Postive:
-The big positive here is that level grinding is a thing of the past. Pretty quickly my pokemon where anywhere from 5-20+ levels above the trainers or gym leaders of the area I was currently in. Which is awesome because I hate level grinding.
-HMs aren't as necessary as once before. I'm sure well all remember when you couldn't go anywhere without having the right HM. Cut and Flash being one of the more annoying ones. Now I know at least Surf and Strength are needed for Victory road, but that's to be expected.
-Trainer Customization is pretty nice. You don't have a carbon copy of your neighbors hero. You can actually make your hero look a lot like you or nothing like you.
Positive/Negative:
-Tons of pokemon per area. The positive you have a good chunk of pokemon to choose from before you even get through the 4th gym, but at the same time it means you have to dish out a lot of money to get new pokeballs and decide if you want to seriously try to catch every pokemon in the route or just move on and come back later. I personally like catching all the pokemon before moving on, but with my levels being way above the pokemon I was running into and the fact that I was really wanting to get to the Legendary pokemon I stuck with the quick beat route.
-Tons to do. Yes it's great you won't get bored of this one quickly, but at the same time there are so many things going on in so many different places from jobs that you can do for extra cash, learning new tricks on your roller skates, Pokémon Amie, Super Training, PR videos, and so on that you kinda don't want to split up your time.
-Fairy type. The new type is great in the since that it's a new type, but it only has two weaknesses poison and steel. And is good against Fighting, Dragon, and Dark. Since I don't normally carry around it's weakness types in my party normally this is a pain in the butt. And they are everywhere in this game. Plus do Dragon's really need another weakness? I guess it was an attempt to balance a type that has so much resistance.
Negative:
-There is a very long lull between your first and second badge. Almost the point where you wonder if you missed it along the way.
-The final battles with Team Flare. I understand that they are the big bad guys, but come on. You face the leader 3 times. All pretty close to each other with his pokemon surprisingly getting stronger and stronger. You first face him at the hideout, Then after you go through that maze you have to go to the secret hideout where you face him again. Then without your pokemon getting healed unless you go to the pokemon center you have to face 3 double battles with your rival (who's pokemon heal but yours don't), then face 4 more admin goons before you face the legendary and then face the head guy once more.
-Your status seems oddly important in this game. They really elevate your character in this game. Plus you do things to get more and more famous. You can get into places once you are famous enough (not just the champion). Style also matters. One guy won't face you unless your "cool enough".
All in all I clearly enjoy the game and every game has features that aren't people's favorites. Loved Kingdom Hearts 2, but hated the musicals. I also have some tips for those that are going to be getting it this weekend or some time down the road. I'll do those tomorrow.
As many of you know the new Pokémon games, X and Y, came out this past weekend. I was one of the many who went and got the game that first day and I've been playing it off and on ever since. So I figured I'd write a little review and point out some of my likes and dislikes about the game. I'll probably come back to those features or other features as I progress through the game or they catch my attention. And in full disclosure I never played Black, White, Black 2, or White 2.
All and all this is a really good game. I will admit I haven't beaten the Elite Four yet. I do however have all 8 badges so I've gotten through a nice chunk of the game. So let me begin by saying I love the pace of this game. Speaking as a guy who grew up on the Blue version and being able to exploit the Missingno glitch a fast moving game is pretty awesome. From the moment you get your first pokemon you can tell it's a lot different than the other games. Your first battle is actually against one of your friends that has the pokemon weak to the one you choose. I chose Fennekin so my friend (your rival is the hero of the other gender of your character) chose Chespin. Right off the bat you already have your elemental attack so it's an easy win. The other big difference is the amount of wild pokemon you see right off the bat. You get 10 pokeballs for free and in the first area alone you can fill up your entire party which is very new for me. The other big difference for me is you can say bye to the level grinding. Sadly this only happens after your first gym battle so you still have to grind before. Exp share is back to being a key item and gives all pokemon on your team exp. In the first game that was a nice feature, but the exp always seemed so low. In this game it seems they do get a decent amount. My pokemon are in there 60's (except one) and all from the exp. There are also so many features on this game. Super Training to work on stats, Pokémon Amie which basically helps your pokemon bond with you and helps eevee evolve into Slyveon, Megaevolutions, Sky Battles, and the list goes on and on. So with that being said it's kinda hard to get bored with this one since there is so much you can do as you your hero goes through the game. So since I kinda got started on this let's go to the positives and negatives of the game.
Postive:
-The big positive here is that level grinding is a thing of the past. Pretty quickly my pokemon where anywhere from 5-20+ levels above the trainers or gym leaders of the area I was currently in. Which is awesome because I hate level grinding.
-HMs aren't as necessary as once before. I'm sure well all remember when you couldn't go anywhere without having the right HM. Cut and Flash being one of the more annoying ones. Now I know at least Surf and Strength are needed for Victory road, but that's to be expected.
-Trainer Customization is pretty nice. You don't have a carbon copy of your neighbors hero. You can actually make your hero look a lot like you or nothing like you.
Positive/Negative:
-Tons of pokemon per area. The positive you have a good chunk of pokemon to choose from before you even get through the 4th gym, but at the same time it means you have to dish out a lot of money to get new pokeballs and decide if you want to seriously try to catch every pokemon in the route or just move on and come back later. I personally like catching all the pokemon before moving on, but with my levels being way above the pokemon I was running into and the fact that I was really wanting to get to the Legendary pokemon I stuck with the quick beat route.
-Tons to do. Yes it's great you won't get bored of this one quickly, but at the same time there are so many things going on in so many different places from jobs that you can do for extra cash, learning new tricks on your roller skates, Pokémon Amie, Super Training, PR videos, and so on that you kinda don't want to split up your time.
-Fairy type. The new type is great in the since that it's a new type, but it only has two weaknesses poison and steel. And is good against Fighting, Dragon, and Dark. Since I don't normally carry around it's weakness types in my party normally this is a pain in the butt. And they are everywhere in this game. Plus do Dragon's really need another weakness? I guess it was an attempt to balance a type that has so much resistance.
Negative:
-There is a very long lull between your first and second badge. Almost the point where you wonder if you missed it along the way.
-The final battles with Team Flare. I understand that they are the big bad guys, but come on. You face the leader 3 times. All pretty close to each other with his pokemon surprisingly getting stronger and stronger. You first face him at the hideout, Then after you go through that maze you have to go to the secret hideout where you face him again. Then without your pokemon getting healed unless you go to the pokemon center you have to face 3 double battles with your rival (who's pokemon heal but yours don't), then face 4 more admin goons before you face the legendary and then face the head guy once more.
-Your status seems oddly important in this game. They really elevate your character in this game. Plus you do things to get more and more famous. You can get into places once you are famous enough (not just the champion). Style also matters. One guy won't face you unless your "cool enough".
All in all I clearly enjoy the game and every game has features that aren't people's favorites. Loved Kingdom Hearts 2, but hated the musicals. I also have some tips for those that are going to be getting it this weekend or some time down the road. I'll do those tomorrow.
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