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Pokémon GO

Of all things to dedicated a full trailer too, on the Worlds Closing Ceremony stage....Morpeko?

Like yeah, there was the Dynamax tease at the end and Morpeko is a new gen 8 addition but.................Morpeko??
 
Of all things to dedicated a full trailer too, on the Worlds Closing Ceremony stage....Morpeko?

Like yeah, there was the Dynamax tease at the end and Morpeko is a new gen 8 addition but.................Morpeko??
Gen 8 has been so ignored that that is legitimately a big reveal for Go players at this point.

More notably, Morpeko introducing mid-battle form changes opens the gate for quite a few things on new and possibly even pre-existing forms (though we're probably stuck with Zygarde-Complete-at-Start in ML).
 
I genuinely wonder if they have been saving Galar so much just for the 8th year. It's amusing the difference between Paldean and Galar mons in Go.
 
Next season's GBL especially Great League is going to have a huge shake up in which pokemon are meta as I expect shadow Machamp with moves that will require elite TMs along with Pangoro, certain charmers and poison types to dominate, so I'm now undecided about going to Baltimore in mid September since other family matters have come up that currently take precedence at least.
 
GBL is just completely upended in GL, with UL and ML suffering ripple effects (RIP Lugia Sky Attack nerf).

The big stuff to watch out for as I understand are Shadow Feraligatr and Clodsire.
 
Also looking like Zacian and Zamazenta are coming back, whether Hero forms (maybe Shiny Debuts) or Crowned Forms, which I welcome as a collector but absolutely dread as a ML player unless the Crowned forms are better with different moves (Zacian without Wild Charge is Ho-oh Food and the Steel Typing adds some weaknesses like various Ground Types).
 
Wait, not even the *starters* were in? Galar was even more ignored than I thought, wow.
After Origin Dialga/Palkia, I can see the Crowned dogs making a debut, just like the Kyurem fusions.
 
Wait, not even the *starters* were in? Galar was even more ignored than I thought, wow.
After Origin Dialga/Palkia, I can see the Crowned dogs making a debut, just like the Kyurem fusions.
The only Galar Pokemon in the game to this point have been: Skwovet, Greedent, Woolo, Dubwool, Falinks (for some reason), Perrserker, Obstagoon, Runerigus, Mr Rime, Sirfetch'd, Zacian, Zamazenta, Zarude, Regieleki & Regidrago.
The cross-gen evolutions were released around mid-to-late 2020
The squirrels, sheep, falinks and wolves were released August 2021 I think as a Worlds tie in, Zarude later that year as a movie tie in.
The regi were released in the first half of 2023
They have released every Galarian regional form (including the legendary birds) aside from Corsola, though. So that's nice?


I think the general theory has been they didn't want to "leap ahead", so they just "focused" on variants and their relatives so that the latest games still had something. With the 2021 release just being a tie in.

Obviously with Gen 9, they decided to actually strike while things were relevant. iirc Masters - which also kind of put Gen 8 on the backburner for a while - also immediately hit Gen 9 around that same time. I could see this being GameFreak influence, like hey we really should have a proper release of these Pokemon this time.
 
I did have a feeling Stonjourner would be regional, but I thought it'd be regional by hemisphere raids with Eiscue.
Frustrating, but hey Dreepy's here too. As a rare spawn. Whatever....the discord will provide.


Also: I am laughing forever that they are dripfeeding the ability to Dynamax.
 
IMG-20240827-WA0001(1).jpg


Stonjourner the UK regional, CALLED IT
 
Does anyone here actually try and climb in the GBL? Once you reach 1500 elo at around rank 20, you'll never get rewards anymore because you'll be facing the most elite crackhead teams. I decided to lose elo, just to be able to sometimes win a few matches in a set again. Otherwise I'll never get any of these rewards, besides the occasional Stardust from the 1/5 win.
 
Does anyone here actually try and climb in the GBL? Once you reach 1500 elo at around rank 20, you'll never get rewards anymore because you'll be facing the most elite crackhead teams. I decided to lose elo, just to be able to sometimes win a few matches in a set again. Otherwise I'll never get any of these rewards, besides the occasional Stardust from the 1/5 win.
What you described is "Tanking", and a lot of players do it when they hit a rank they care about for the one-off reward to then farm the set prizes.

I tend to hang around 2000-2500 most seasons, usually not strenuous to manage that if you're using GBL viable Pokemon instead of just tossing stuff in haphazardly. Like I'm not good at teambuilding but understanding what principles go into it would keep you around that ELO.
 
Rather hyped for shiny Zacian at last. Never had a copy of SwSh so my HOME account is still missing shiny entries for Zacian and Zamazenta since the event distributions can't be traded.

This has got to be both the most new species and the most new shiny debuts in a single month in god knows how long. 14 new species and 6 shiny debuts announced so far, by my count. Pretty darn sweet.
 
Weird that only one of the wolves got Shiny, but since I played Sword and prefer it to Zamazenta's anyways, I may try to grab one.

No comments on how Dynamaxing works...
 
Weird that only one of the wolves got Shiny, but since I played Sword and prefer it to Zamazenta's anyways, I may try to grab one.

No comments on how Dynamaxing works...
Zacian is at the end of September, so most likely Zamazenta is at the start of October.
 
The main thing I find curious is that there's a Hero themed event at the end of the month, starts the 26th alongside Zacian, but ends October 1st before Zacian's rotation is done, much less Zamazenta, the other hero, could appear.

I'm also torn on the Crowned forms: I want Zamazenta for ML to have a viable Fighting type and a new Steel type, but Crowned Zacian is going to be absolute hell if you don't have a healthy Ho-oh, Lando-T, or something spicy like Reshiram (excluding heavy-energy-advantages on something like EQ Zygarde or Eternatus later)
 
They announced a new "big" event for November, the Wild Area

I wonder if this is a Go Fest/Tour style event, but maybe with a bunch of rotating power spots for Dynamax Raids instead of regular Raids.
 
I'm super excited for this upcoming increased friendship XP event. Just added 60+ people I will become best friends with during the event period. Seems like this is the only way to level up when you reach level 40 and above...
 
Shout out to RocketSurgery with the new Season Move update making Marshadow a beast in ML with the Sucker Punch Buff

Nice! It'd be nicer if they'd give Marshadow ghost moves, but I'll take it. I think my Marshadow originally came with sucker punch and I TM'd it to counter. Guess I gotta TM it back again.

I was having fun with Marshadow in Master League when we were forced to do GO battles for research the other week. Caught multiple people off guard who didn't shield because they presumably didn't expect that I didn't bother to TM rock slide away for close combat.

As for other recent news: happy to hear that dreepy is going to be one of the first releases of the season; hopefully it won't be too rare to stumble across. I think frigibax was not too bad when it was released(...?), which hopefully bodes well for finding dreepy. If not, surely they will boost the spawns foe Halloween, right? Right??

Also, I will be annoyed if Niantic doesn't do the obvious thing and release shiny Zamazenta right after Zacian so that I can finally pick up the shiny.
 
Also, I will be annoyed if Niantic doesn't do the obvious thing and release shiny Zamazenta right after Zacian so that I can finally pick up the shiny.

I would imagine Zamazenta will follow Zacian immediately but it's possible they space them out a bit to draw out the season's theme. Galar doesn't have a lot of legendaries to put in t5 raids after all.

Might be the end of October but that's usually reserved for your Halloween staples like Darkrai and Giratina. Given Sinnoh tour was this year though, maybe not - could it be possible we get Spectrier released next month? Given they released Cosmog long before Necrozma I don't see why not, Calyrex could absolutely be saved until a future Galar tour. I don't see Eternatus debuting for a long time (and they'd make sense to do together). Kubfu seems like the sort of mon they should save for a season-long research, but wait for them to just make it a ticketed encounter like they did with Keldeo.
 
The spaced out Zamazenta & Zacian teh first time too. But just by like a week or two; I am guessing the same will be here.

I doubt they already rush out Spectrier for Halloween, since it's not like Paldea's first halloween dropped any of the ruinous treasures; we'll probably just see the usual suspects. If we get a new Galar ghost this year I figure it'll be Galarian Corsola + Cursola, since they have been conspicuously absent. The other 5 cross-gen evolutions came out in 2021 and all the other Galarian forms came out since then.
 
Niantic has revealed some of the details for the coming Dynamax feature in Pokémon GO through Japanese media such as Famitsu. Do note, elements are subject to change by release implementation next week
In battle when you Dynamax you can use 3 options: Max Guard to protect against damage, a Max Move and Max Spirit which will provide recovery to both your Pokémon and ally Pokémon. Each Dynamax Battle has a limited amount of turns to complete, which means more strategy needs to be implemented.
1 Star Max Battles require 250 Max Particles to enter. You can earn Max Particles by walking to Power Spots. Max Battles are local only and cannot be done remotely.
Only 4 people can participate in Max Battles at one time and you can use only 3 Pokémon and they have to be Dynamax capable to participate. Pokémon can only be Dynamax capable if caught from Max Battles. Dynamax capable Pokémon can be used in all other facets of the game but will be unable to Dynamax during it
You have the ability to upgrade the rewards from Max Battles using Poké Coins. In the example given, you could get an additional Golden Razz Bery, Rare, Candy, Hyper Potion and 10 Premier Balls for 100 Poké Coins
Power Spots, where Max Battles are located, can be found at random locations but don't take over existing Gyms or PokéStops
Max Move performance can be improved using Max Particles and Candy XL

ngl this all sounds like it sucks

Also very...confused at the prospect of "You have to be Dynamax capable to participate" and "Pokemon can only be capable if caught from Max Battles"

Serebii does not post all the information and you can get more information here but it is in Japanese
https://app.famitsu.com/article/202408/15663
Here are some importants one
  1. You need 250 max particle to join a Max Battles and you can get 300 by walking 2 km (You can collect at maximum 800 particles a day)
  2. Only Dynamax capable can participate in Max Battles and you will get the first one by tutorial (You can join a Max Battle with just 1 Dynamax eligible pokemon)
Edit
Additional Max Battle mechanics:
  • You can dynamax your Pokemon when the Max meter is full
  • The Max meter can be seen at the top and can be charged by attacking or hitting the "Max charge" (purple button that appears occasionally)
  • At first, you only have one Dynamax Pokemon that you obtain in the tutorial
  • You also need to teach each Pokemon individual "Max Moves" that can be used during Dynamax. You may not have many "Max Moves," but don't hesitate to participate in Max Battles to increase your numbers and skills
  • I am not certain about this point but based on the information given it appears by default your Pokemon only has Max Attack and you need to do "something" to unlock Max Heal and Max Guard
  • When three lines appear above a Pokemon's head, it means it is being targeted. You can avoid it by swiping
After a Max Battle
  • You can place your Pokemon in the power spot to help support other players. You will receive rewards based on how much you helped them. (I assume this is to help player who attempt with group less than 4 player)
OK you're given a dynamax Pokemon for free.
That makes sense but also this is just...such an incredibly stupid way of handling this
 
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Max Battles sound pretty lame to me in that if they're not engaging for their own sake, you're basically playing them from scratch (due to requiring Max-able Pokemon) to catch... just more Pokemon. No use of the feature for other modes, nothing unique, and you can't carry much over to participate with your existing catches or resources. The slow roll out also means players can't reasonably expect more difficult stuff for a while since we're basically getting the Starters and a couple Normals as initial options (so good luck with Dragons for example).

I'm left with a Max Move question of if it's locked to the Pokemon's type(s) or will match their move(s). Like they demonstrate with Blastoise for Geyser, but will Venusaur with Frenzy Plant/Sludge Bomb have Max Overgrowth, Max Ooze, or both? Can Charizard have Max Wyrmwind from Dragon Claw?

Can I also note that the Max requirement means that barring a break from canon, Zacian/Zamazenta/Eternatus will be completely unusable in Max Raids due to being unable to Dynamax (I don't assume Eternamax is accessible since it's mad as an OP Boss-Monster type form) despite Dynamax slaying being their whole schtick in those games? This feels glaring especially given Zacian is rerunning in the same month the mechanic is introduced.
 
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