In Emerald - albeit not Ruby/Sapphire - , it was catchable on Route 104.
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Hoenn 2.0
- Thread starter Stellar
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One thing I wonder is how Feebas's evolution will work. Will it still involve trading w/ prism scale? Or will max beauty return? The prism scale is a given, since it exists in XY, and it wouldn't make sense to say that it only works when trading to X or Y. Personally, I'm hoping for the beauty mechanic to come back, since contest stats were a mechanic I loved dearly in RSE.
Related and more on-topic: catching Feebas. How will it work? Will Feebas again be stuck in those 6 squares in that Arceusdamned river, or will it be slightly easier to catch? I want to use Milotic in my run, and I do not want to spend several hours searching for a Magikarp clone like I did in Emerald.
One final note: Would anyone mind if, when ORAS comes out, I did a sort of text-based LP (Scramble/Nuzlocke style) where I also find out the sets of the in-game Trainers? Reserving it now unless people strongly object.
Related and more on-topic: catching Feebas. How will it work? Will Feebas again be stuck in those 6 squares in that Arceusdamned river, or will it be slightly easier to catch? I want to use Milotic in my run, and I do not want to spend several hours searching for a Magikarp clone like I did in Emerald.
One final note: Would anyone mind if, when ORAS comes out, I did a sort of text-based LP (Scramble/Nuzlocke style) where I also find out the sets of the in-game Trainers? Reserving it now unless people strongly object.
I was actually planning on doing a little spreadsheet of all of the in-game trainer's moves and Pokemon. However, it would be great to have two people doing it, because one person will undoubtedly fail to find a particular attack, whereas the other person could easily have found that move.
Plus, if one of us gets AS and the other gets OR we can get team aqua or magma's Pokemon.
The contest stats still exist in Gen 5 and 6, albeit hidden because they have no real purpose. But if you transfer up a Feebas with maxed out beauty from Gen 3/4 and level it in Gen 5/6, it'll evolve without the need for a prism scale. So both methods will return.
I think that will be a great idea.
Just 2 mons I am looking forward to using that have improved significantly I think:
Magikarp / Gyarados: Physical Water-type STAB with Dragon Dance from level-up oml. I think this thing could see some real use in against the Elite Four seeing how Intimidate will help greatly against Sydney and Drake with their new found Physical STABs on their Dragon- and Dark-type Pokemon respectively. Ice Fang can be gotten from level-up to make it a sweeper vs Drake also in conjunction with Dragon Dance. It doesn't get a physical Water-type STAB (Aqua Tail) until level 35 unfortunately (this may change you never know), or until the late game Waterfall HM is obtained. If Steven is the champion in ORAS, then Gyarados is also a useful against him with Intimidate softening the Rock-type coverage on some of his Pokemon and Gyarados having a super effective STAB Waterfall on Armaldo, Aggron, and Claydol now comming off of its Attack stat (there is that Aggron with Thunder though; Once again this could change). It could regain Bounce through tutors also which, depending on where they are, could prove useful both post and pre E4. Otherwise, it is still a good Surf, Dive, and Waterfall user for travel needs and everyone knows how broken Dragon Rage is in the early game. The newly broken Experience Share helps it greatly depending on where you get the thing (I assume Rustboro).
Horsea / Seadra / Kingdra: Kingdra has turned into monster since the first RSE with better better Dragon-type STAB moves in Dragon Pulse and Draco Meteor through tutoring. If the Outrage Tutor returns (and depending on when they do), abusing Dragon Dance would also be an option late game when you get access to Waterfall. With Kingdra's very obscure weaknesses and good bulk, it can see use in almost all of the late game Gyms as well as being a good Surf user. Horsea can be caught rather easily once you get the Super Rod and Surf from Slateport City's side of Route 134. Because the did this in Black and White, you might have a slight chance to find wild Kingdra in these routes with the Super Rod idk. It would save time fishing for a Dragon Scale.
Magikarp / Gyarados: Physical Water-type STAB with Dragon Dance from level-up oml. I think this thing could see some real use in against the Elite Four seeing how Intimidate will help greatly against Sydney and Drake with their new found Physical STABs on their Dragon- and Dark-type Pokemon respectively. Ice Fang can be gotten from level-up to make it a sweeper vs Drake also in conjunction with Dragon Dance. It doesn't get a physical Water-type STAB (Aqua Tail) until level 35 unfortunately (this may change you never know), or until the late game Waterfall HM is obtained. If Steven is the champion in ORAS, then Gyarados is also a useful against him with Intimidate softening the Rock-type coverage on some of his Pokemon and Gyarados having a super effective STAB Waterfall on Armaldo, Aggron, and Claydol now comming off of its Attack stat (there is that Aggron with Thunder though; Once again this could change). It could regain Bounce through tutors also which, depending on where they are, could prove useful both post and pre E4. Otherwise, it is still a good Surf, Dive, and Waterfall user for travel needs and everyone knows how broken Dragon Rage is in the early game. The newly broken Experience Share helps it greatly depending on where you get the thing (I assume Rustboro).
Horsea / Seadra / Kingdra: Kingdra has turned into monster since the first RSE with better better Dragon-type STAB moves in Dragon Pulse and Draco Meteor through tutoring. If the Outrage Tutor returns (and depending on when they do), abusing Dragon Dance would also be an option late game when you get access to Waterfall. With Kingdra's very obscure weaknesses and good bulk, it can see use in almost all of the late game Gyms as well as being a good Surf user. Horsea can be caught rather easily once you get the Super Rod and Surf from Slateport City's side of Route 134. Because the did this in Black and White, you might have a slight chance to find wild Kingdra in these routes with the Super Rod idk. It would save time fishing for a Dragon Scale.
So I was looking over the line ups that Gym leaders used in Emerald for rematches and I noticed something interesting: 5 out of the 8 leaders (possibly 6 depending on Wallace) have potential Mega Evolutions in their final rematch line-ups:
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Wallace also had a Gyarados on his Champion line-up in Emerald so this is a potential also:
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Of course these leaders are the ones that differ:
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I don't know if this means anything or not, but I thought it was interesting at least.
Wallace also had a Gyarados on his Champion line-up in Emerald so this is a potential also:
Of course these leaders are the ones that differ:
I don't know if this means anything or not, but I thought it was interesting at least.
Might as well talk about it since we might have to find one again for the Regi's.
Relicanth in GenIII was a super slow, poorly typed fish with stats in all the wrong places and only rock slide and double edge to it's name. But it's based on a still living dinosaur fish, so that's cool (sorry sturgeon, maybe in Gen7).
Now, It's a super slow, poorly typed fish with a really really strong head. Head Smash everybody! It's also a level 1 move, so a trip to the move tutor is all you need to give your glass cannon it's balls (so to speak). Like Crawdaunt, Sharpedo, Gyarados, and others the physical/special split gave it a water STAB to work with in Waterfall. Too bad it didn't get aqua jet over the years to help that speed. But going from forgettable to gimmick is still an upgrade, right?
(I actually love you derp-fish don't ever change).
Relicanth in GenIII was a super slow, poorly typed fish with stats in all the wrong places and only rock slide and double edge to it's name. But it's based on a still living dinosaur fish, so that's cool (sorry sturgeon, maybe in Gen7).
Now, It's a super slow, poorly typed fish with a really really strong head. Head Smash everybody! It's also a level 1 move, so a trip to the move tutor is all you need to give your glass cannon it's balls (so to speak). Like Crawdaunt, Sharpedo, Gyarados, and others the physical/special split gave it a water STAB to work with in Waterfall. Too bad it didn't get aqua jet over the years to help that speed. But going from forgettable to gimmick is still an upgrade, right?
(I actually love you derp-fish don't ever change).
I was thinking of the possibility of having the leader's signature Pokemon getting a mega evolution. Although I'm unsure as to whether something like this will be case, I do think it'll be interesting. (If they do make Megas for the signature mons, it's likely that Mega Slaking (If real) keeps Truant (Or gets some variant)) However this does become tricky in the case of Tate and Liza, since only 1 Mega can Mega Evolve in a battle. (Unless they change the mechanics, which I doubt) Thus signature megas becomes less of a possibility.
Also, I would assume they would place the evolution stones/items and Mega Stones at the mid to late stage of the game, unless they pull a Mega Aero or Mega Kanto starter again and give you a Mega Stone early, not likely but it's still possible. (I do think that Steven will give the player a Mega Stone after he gives his speech (Possible battle) about Megas, which I would assume would be a mid-game thing)
Also, I would assume they would place the evolution stones/items and Mega Stones at the mid to late stage of the game, unless they pull a Mega Aero or Mega Kanto starter again and give you a Mega Stone early, not likely but it's still possible. (I do think that Steven will give the player a Mega Stone after he gives his speech (Possible battle) about Megas, which I would assume would be a mid-game thing)
Not necessarily with Tate and Lisa, because it's a tag battle, not a straight up double battle, and I believe that both trainers on one team can utilize mega-evolutions in tag battles.
Only discouraging thing about using Relicanth is that it's quite late in the game (post Gym 7, unless you can find it through fishing in ORAS, which is still post Gym 5/6), and there are easier to obtain Water types much more easily available. That said, I'm definitely looking forward to Relicanth being much improved since its debut.
Is it? I think the double trainers past and present have been treated in-game as one trainer (at least, in code and function) despite appearing as two.
That said, it's not like they couldn't give them Battle Maison Super-Multi AI (i.e. tag battle like you said). Has anyone confirmed you can have two Megas in Super-Multi with a non-AI partner?
*edit* Confirmed, you can. Two guys got a streak with M-Kangaskhan and M-Charizard Y. So it is possible for Tate and Liza to use two megas. In theory.
I was talking about it as humans though, since there hasn't been an AI Mega-Evo tag battle problem yet. I assume if they want to they can just put two megas on the team and use it as an excuse for them being tag, or even make them separate AI fighting together in a battle like we have seen in Pokemon before.
Yes, both players can use a Mega in Multi-battles.
True, so to get back on track...
and continue my "they got one new move and now they're okay-ish" list, Cacturne. Pretty good mixed offenses but slow and frail, not a good mix. However it got a new toy in Gen4, Sucker Punch. Assuming no moveset changes, level 37 is the earliest you can get it if you hold off evolution, 41 if you don't. Long time to deal with Cacnea's stats though (but at least it looks cool?)
The steel nerf helps it look more appealing, and the flood of water types late game help it some. Still comes somewhat late (about on the falling side of the mid-point). And Sucker Punch has too little PP and the non-gym leader AI is too unpredictable to be a real go-to move. But it got better with age, so that why I'm talking about it.
One of the bigger ones for me is:
You can find Trapinch at ~20, when it will already know Sand Tomb (which was buffed to 35 BP) and Feint Attack, which is physical now. Level 21 it learns Bulldoze, which is a godsend for the Trapinch, not only because of its decent base power, but because it can enable it to outrun stuff that it doesn't KO off 100 Atk. A quick bike ride to Fallarbor allows you to reteach Superpower (and Fissure I guess?), which means it has fairly hard hitting moves almost right off the bat. Level 25 it gets Rock Slide, allowing it to smack around Flying types that are immune to Ground moves, and 29 it gets Dig. Level 34 gives it Dig, then if you choose, you can evolve it a level later, where it loses a bit of Attack in exchange for increased defenses, and more notably, much better Speed.
If you really want, you can keep it from evolving until 55 for EQ, but that's a pain in the ass, and Bulldoze/Dig should suffice until you have access to the TM. Otherwise, once you evolve it at level 35, besides the addition of Fly, and it trying to learn Dragonbreath, which is kinda meh, it's not much different than Trapinch, just a little weaker, and much faster, with a few added resistances, and only one notable big weakness (and Ice type moves aren't that common in the Hoenn anyway). Once you get Vibrava to 45, you'll undoubtedly evolve it, since Vibrava is crap compared to Flygon, and it will try to learn Dragon Tail, which is again, kinda meh, but it can abuse Dragonbreath from earlier a bit better, and depending on if its a tutor, possibly Dragon Pulse. Get it up ten more levels, and it will try to learn Dragon Claw by itself. So with a little bit of effort (not even, tbh), you can get a pretty decent powerhouse early on without too much trouble.
You can find Trapinch at ~20, when it will already know Sand Tomb (which was buffed to 35 BP) and Feint Attack, which is physical now. Level 21 it learns Bulldoze, which is a godsend for the Trapinch, not only because of its decent base power, but because it can enable it to outrun stuff that it doesn't KO off 100 Atk. A quick bike ride to Fallarbor allows you to reteach Superpower (and Fissure I guess?), which means it has fairly hard hitting moves almost right off the bat. Level 25 it gets Rock Slide, allowing it to smack around Flying types that are immune to Ground moves, and 29 it gets Dig. Level 34 gives it Dig, then if you choose, you can evolve it a level later, where it loses a bit of Attack in exchange for increased defenses, and more notably, much better Speed.
If you really want, you can keep it from evolving until 55 for EQ, but that's a pain in the ass, and Bulldoze/Dig should suffice until you have access to the TM. Otherwise, once you evolve it at level 35, besides the addition of Fly, and it trying to learn Dragonbreath, which is kinda meh, it's not much different than Trapinch, just a little weaker, and much faster, with a few added resistances, and only one notable big weakness (and Ice type moves aren't that common in the Hoenn anyway). Once you get Vibrava to 45, you'll undoubtedly evolve it, since Vibrava is crap compared to Flygon, and it will try to learn Dragon Tail, which is again, kinda meh, but it can abuse Dragonbreath from earlier a bit better, and depending on if its a tutor, possibly Dragon Pulse. Get it up ten more levels, and it will try to learn Dragon Claw by itself. So with a little bit of effort (not even, tbh), you can get a pretty decent powerhouse early on without too much trouble.
Machamp.
When you encounter it for the first time at Fiery Path, it'll be around Level 16 as a Machop - this gives it Low Sweep as an amazing Fighting STAB very early on, and it doesn't take incredibly long for it to evolve to Machoke and Machamp if you have a friend/other 3DS - it should definitely be ready before Norman.
But let's talk about what it gained, eh? I'm going to set aside No Guard as a reason, but regardless it is pretty damn good late game - 100% accurate Cross Chop is decent STAB at level 44+, then you should be around level 55 by the League where you get Dynamicpunch.
But the real reason here is the buffed Rock Tomb. Having been upgraded to a base 60 power this gen, in conjunction with Machop/Machoke/Machamp's attack stat it can be pretty deadly as soon as you get it, assuming you get the TM from Roxanne which you most surely will. And since Gen 5's infinite TM change, you no longer need to struggle on deciding who to teach it to - say you had an Aron or Marshtomp or something.
Type Matchups are pretty great. Base 80 attack with 100% accurate Rock Tomb will decimate the Fire Gym until Camerupt and Torkoal, but even those it can do well against. By the next gym you should be fully evolved (or at least Machoke without a friend), and you should wreck that gym with STAB Low Sweep/Vital Throw/whatever. After that it does start to thin out a bit; it doesn't do as badly against the Flying Gym as it might have because yeah it still has Rock Tomb, but Flying still kills it. And it will feel a detriment to your team against Tate & Liza. But from then on it's smooth sailing - it obliterates Aqua/Magma's dark types, completely wrecks Sidney and Glacia, can do reasonably well against Steven and Drake (Rock Tomb), and 130 Base Attack with Fighting STAB does well against anything it hits neutrally, including all those water types.
Machamp.
When you encounter it for the first time at Fiery Path, it'll be around Level 16 as a Machop - this gives it Low Sweep as an amazing Fighting STAB very early on, and it doesn't take incredibly long for it to evolve to Machoke and Machamp if you have a friend/other 3DS - it should definitely be ready before Norman.
But let's talk about what it gained, eh? I'm going to set aside No Guard as a reason, but regardless it is pretty damn good late game - 100% accurate Cross Chop is decent STAB at level 44+, then you should be around level 55 by the League where you get Dynamicpunch.
But the real reason here is the buffed Rock Tomb. Having been upgraded to a base 60 power this gen, in conjunction with Machop/Machoke/Machamp's attack stat it can be pretty deadly as soon as you get it, assuming you get the TM from Roxanne which you most surely will. And since Gen 5's infinite TM change, you no longer need to struggle on deciding who to teach it to - say you had an Aron or Marshtomp or something.
Type Matchups are pretty great. Base 80 attack with 100% accurate Rock Tomb will decimate the Fire Gym until Camerupt and Torkoal, but even those it can do well against. By the next gym you should be fully evolved (or at least Machoke without a friend), and you should wreck that gym with STAB Low Sweep/Vital Throw/whatever. After that it does start to thin out a bit; it doesn't do as badly against the Flying Gym as it might have because yeah it still has Rock Tomb, but Flying still kills it. And it will feel a detriment to your team against Tate & Liza. But from then on it's smooth sailing - it obliterates Aqua/Magma's dark types, completely wrecks Sidney and Glacia, can do reasonably well against Steven and Drake (Rock Tomb), and 130 Base Attack with Fighting STAB does well against anything it hits neutrally, including all those water types.
Machamp will be nice to use, but I would prefer Guts.
Rock Tomb got an increase to 95% accuracy.
No Guard will not be that beneficial until the very late game when DynamicPunch might help, or not because 55 Speed only beats some very few Pokemon in the league.
Machamp still has the benefit of living Aerial Ace from any one member of Winonas team at least once so it will be able to defeat one of her Pokemon.
Otherwise fighting types never had a special performance in Gen3.
RockTomb´s increased Power might also make Roxanne much harder to beat, albeit Geodude will most likely never attack and Nosepass has that pitiful 45 Attack. Still something to keep in mind for all those challenge mode gamer.
One big thing I only remembered now that Agonist spoke about over leveling Trapinch:
Overleveling grants an Exp boost now.
And experience does not get split anymore when you bring more than one Pokemon into battle.
=> I will evolve Ralts on Lv 29 or maybe after it learns Psychic on 31/32 to speed up the process of Gardevoirisation. And Trapinch might only be a Vibrava for one Level if I feel like it :)
Small mention goes to koffing/weezing, it now has a TM-able version of Will-O-Wisp although it lost its physical STAB Sludge Bomb (not like it minds special STAB with 90/85 offenses). Considering it now has another type to hit SE with poison, it's not that bad, especially with a pretty good special movepool (TBolt, Flamethrower, and the new Dark Pulse, all TMs).
EDIT: HUGE update, Mega Lopunny, Mega Altaria, and Mega Salamence confirmed. Full details at serebii.net
EDIT: HUGE update, Mega Lopunny, Mega Altaria, and Mega Salamence confirmed. Full details at serebii.net
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Crawdaunt seems pretty good in game. Back in RSE Crawdaunt was basically garbage since it was slow, had next to no moves to use it's 120 base attack with, however it has recieved quite a few buffs in more recent generations. Firstly the physical sepcial split now gives him acces to physical Water and Dark type moves which it previously couldn't use before. Corphish gets Knock Off through level up which now has a pretty good base power ( Even though trainers don't hold items most of the time so it's still 65 base power ). You will need the Good Rod to get it so you will also need Surf and Surf can make for a good STAB move until you get Waterfall or Crabhammer and Crawdaunt has decent base special attack to use Surf with. Also Crawdaunt now has acces to many TM moves that weren't available or easy to get before like Rock Slide, Swords Dance and X-Scissor giving it quite a few coverage options. Along with that the old Aerial Ace and Ice Beam also return if you need a coverage move. Also we probably won't get acces to it in game but Adaptibility would also be fantastic if there is a way to get an Adaptibility Corphish in game. With all these new improvements I could definetly see Crawdaunt being useful for once and I will definetly be using one in my playthrough.
I would still like to point out the following:
A) We don't know when we get the Mega Stone for things like Lopunny. Even Megas revealed before the release of X and Y weren't always available prior to the Elite Four.
B) Even if something is in a regional dex, you may not have access to it until after the Elite Four. While this group does include things like Mewtwo, it also includes the Metagross line in Ruby and Sapphire. And Metagross is on the champion's team. Which is why it is safe to be skeptical at times. If patterns follow, we may not have access to Dusknoir by the Elite Four, even though Phoebe has one.
Another thing with Mega Metagross is two possibilties:
1) Access to it might be identical to access with plain Beldum (RS)/access to Mega Gardenvoir (XY). We get it post game and it holds the Mega Stone.
2) With the announcement of the Shiny Beldum event, where it is holding the Mega Stone, it feels a lot like Mega Blaziken, whose stone was an event exclusive.
As I said in the general ORAS thread, all the faff surrounding Pikachu and contests seem to indicate that Pikachu will have a role to play in the storyline. In R/S/E, Pikachu was only catchable in the Safari Zone (5% encounter rate), meaning that if you wanted one, you'd have to go for a bit of a detour, spend a fair amount of time in the Safari Zone, and it came fairly late in the game and was slightly underlevelled (though the subsequent voyage across the seas was ideal for training it). In short, Pikachu was kind of an obscure Pokémon in the original Hoenn games.
I think this obscurity won't be transferred to ORAS. It wouldn't be very GameFreak like to go "Hey, you know this one-in-twenty-encounters Pokémon you could find in that optional area back in the woods? It has loads of cool costumes!". They would make sure players were properly introduced to Pikachu in-game before handing out accessories exclusive to it. I think we can even assume players would be given a Pikachu as a gift at some point in the story, to ensure that players would have one available when offered costumes for it. Kinda like X/Y Lucario with Mega Evolution.
The question then is, when would you receive the 'chu? If Battle Tents prevail, and Contests are once again centered in Lilycove (in my personal opinion, this would be a shame, since having them spread all over Hoenn really encouraged travelling), I think it's given that the costumes would be handed out there as well. Even if they are spread across Hoenn, I still find Lilycove's contest hall the most likely place to receive the special costumes.
Then, when would we be given a Pikachu? Not too early on, I suspect, since players would be likely to swap out the electric rodent for something better if many more options presented themselves shortly after. If Pikachu was given in Dewford, it would have fallen into obscurity by the time players reach Lilycove. I suspect this would also mean that New Mauville, Hoenn's resident Electric Pokémon Hideout, could be ruled out.
The way I see it, a gift Pikachu would ideally be presented to the trainer a little time before they reach Lilycove, but not too long before, lest players would box it or otherwise forget it by the time the Costumes could be brought up. The contest hall itself is a plausible location, though I think the "time window" strech between just before gym 5 (Norman) to just before Lilycove. This means it's likely that Pikachu could be available for Winona.
This is where we get on-topic: How would Pikachu affect the gym battle in the Flying gym? It would probably sweep the Gym trainers rather effortlessly, allowing it to rake up EXP before encountering Winona herself. If Volt Switch is Wattson's gift TM, Pikachu could be an excellent pivot even if it was at a lower level than 29, at which point it learns Thunderbolt.
Without Thunderbolt or Volt Switch, though (Wattson could be an ass and give us the TM for Thunder Wave or something instead), I don't see Pikachu performing that well. If GameFreak really want players to keep Pikachu around until Lilycove, I suppose they could let the gift Pikachu hold Light Ball, but I doubt that would be the case. With wild Pikachu being limited to the Safari Zone, the Light Ball would appear unavailable until after Winona.
Though, with or without Light Ball, and even if it appeared as late as Lilycove, I still think Pikachu could make a splash during the water routes (which appear to be reduced somewhat in ORAS, being replaced mostly by islands), the Aqua/Magma hideout, Sootopolis Gym and possibly also Mossdeep gym. And I suppose it could outspeed and OHKO Sidney's Sharpedo/Cacturne. Yay?
I think this obscurity won't be transferred to ORAS. It wouldn't be very GameFreak like to go "Hey, you know this one-in-twenty-encounters Pokémon you could find in that optional area back in the woods? It has loads of cool costumes!". They would make sure players were properly introduced to Pikachu in-game before handing out accessories exclusive to it. I think we can even assume players would be given a Pikachu as a gift at some point in the story, to ensure that players would have one available when offered costumes for it. Kinda like X/Y Lucario with Mega Evolution.
The question then is, when would you receive the 'chu? If Battle Tents prevail, and Contests are once again centered in Lilycove (in my personal opinion, this would be a shame, since having them spread all over Hoenn really encouraged travelling), I think it's given that the costumes would be handed out there as well. Even if they are spread across Hoenn, I still find Lilycove's contest hall the most likely place to receive the special costumes.
Then, when would we be given a Pikachu? Not too early on, I suspect, since players would be likely to swap out the electric rodent for something better if many more options presented themselves shortly after. If Pikachu was given in Dewford, it would have fallen into obscurity by the time players reach Lilycove. I suspect this would also mean that New Mauville, Hoenn's resident Electric Pokémon Hideout, could be ruled out.
The way I see it, a gift Pikachu would ideally be presented to the trainer a little time before they reach Lilycove, but not too long before, lest players would box it or otherwise forget it by the time the Costumes could be brought up. The contest hall itself is a plausible location, though I think the "time window" strech between just before gym 5 (Norman) to just before Lilycove. This means it's likely that Pikachu could be available for Winona.
This is where we get on-topic: How would Pikachu affect the gym battle in the Flying gym? It would probably sweep the Gym trainers rather effortlessly, allowing it to rake up EXP before encountering Winona herself. If Volt Switch is Wattson's gift TM, Pikachu could be an excellent pivot even if it was at a lower level than 29, at which point it learns Thunderbolt.
Without Thunderbolt or Volt Switch, though (Wattson could be an ass and give us the TM for Thunder Wave or something instead), I don't see Pikachu performing that well. If GameFreak really want players to keep Pikachu around until Lilycove, I suppose they could let the gift Pikachu hold Light Ball, but I doubt that would be the case. With wild Pikachu being limited to the Safari Zone, the Light Ball would appear unavailable until after Winona.
Though, with or without Light Ball, and even if it appeared as late as Lilycove, I still think Pikachu could make a splash during the water routes (which appear to be reduced somewhat in ORAS, being replaced mostly by islands), the Aqua/Magma hideout, Sootopolis Gym and possibly also Mossdeep gym. And I suppose it could outspeed and OHKO Sidney's Sharpedo/Cacturne. Yay?
Pikachu's biggest problem is that it's frail and weak without the Light Ball, so it won't be OHKOing things while taking huge amounts of damage in return. You also have the problem of players possibly wanting to evolve it ASAP if they have the Thunderstone available too early or trying to justify not letting you evolve it.
I think it's safe to say that Pikachu won't be given out until Lilycove just to avoid all those problems.
When you mentioned contests, you made me think of pokeblocks, which in turn made me think of liechi berries, which led me to Mirage Island.
My wonder is how mirage island will work now, since I doubt that they will make it as obscure as the did in RSE (I have never seen it legit reached to this day, only via hacks and emulators).
Back to pokeblocks though, how will they work now? Will they be wifi-compatible now (I.E., can you blend over WiFi) and will they work the same (or like DPP's poffins). I have even heard rumors that poke puffs will replace them (I doubt it), anyone have any thoughts?
Lastly, will anyone here attempt the contests BEFORE completing the main story?