Pokémon GO

[Champion Leon]

Sad that you can’t salvage those 2. They’re great designs! And yea Dragonite lost its crown to the rest.

Anyways the real reason for this post: Charm and Doom Desire’s stats have been updated in the GAME MASTER for Go Fest. They are:

Hide

PvE Doom Desire (charged move)

- Power changed to 70, down from 80

- Energy delta changed to -33, up from -50 (changed from a 2 bar charge move to a 3 bar charge move).



PvE Charm (fast move):

- Type: Fairy (yay)

- Power: 20

- Duration: 1500 ms (1.5s)

- Energy: 11



PvP Doom Desire (charged move)

- Power changed to 75, down from 80

- Energy delta changed to -40, down from -35



PvP Charm (fast move):

- Power: 16

- Turns: 2

- Energy: 6

What this means is that Charm is our first non-damaging move that does damage! Assuming the leaks are correct, Garde should get it. For raids, it puts Garde as the best counter to Darks/Fightings in Cloudy weather. Dragons are better vs other Dragons but it’s pretty high. It is meta relevant.

For PvP I have 0 idea. For Great League, I assume Garde’s stats are mediocre due to its high CP, but if Charm lowers Atk too, it might be incredible. For Ultra / Master Leagues it looks far more impressive but gl finding tournaments that run those.

Doom Desire is an amazing move in PvE for Jirachi, but Metagross exists and it never had a chance. However, it is the best PvP move in the game and should make Jirachi incredible for all Leagues (less so in Master).

I would throw in TDO for Gardevoir vs any Current Dragon (besides Dialga with a Steel move), and I would say that still puts it above Dragons, although Togekiss is patiently waiting for his big Community Day - watch out Gardevoir! Although, I have a feeling Gardevoir will have one first. Seniority of final forms (sorry that Togepi / Togetic was Gen 2, but not Togekiss).

As for Dragonite supposedly losing its crown, we already had the discussion, and with Legacy moves, it hasn’t lost anything, as it is tied with Palkia and Garchomp. And if it could compete with Rayquaza on TDO versus DPS, it can certainly do the same with Salamence which is marked under Rayquaza.

Raikou isn't irredeemable. It's the 3rd best Electric attacker (after 'vire and 'zone).

I see your point, but my concern is with all of the Elekid egg hatches it can be seen as a waste of Rare Candy. Magnezone can be difficult to cull candy and spawns for and it requires 200 coins for a Lure, so that can be seen as inconvenient, but the type is hype. I would say, it didn’t get any worse, but what will it have that others don’t? Thundurus & Zekrom will be released in 1 more generation, which could be an issue for it. In either case, as I mentioned in my last post- it isn’t getting any worse by not getting better (until Gen 5).

 

[Dargad]

As of 3 hours ago.

Come on, Yellows!!

 

[Blitz]

The problem with these challenges is the fact that Instinct always has to haul significantly more ass because of their reduced numbers. It's honestly unfair. IF Niantic doesn't rig this and we fail the challenge in 24 hours, I hope they do look at the numbers and adjust each team accordingly - Mystic needing the most to advance, Valor not that far behind from Mystic, and Instinct having the smallest goal.

 

[Champion Leon]

The problem with these challenges is the fact that Instinct always has to haul significantly more ass because of their reduced numbers. It's honestly unfair. IF Niantic doesn't rig this and we fail the challenge in 24 hours, I hope they do look at the numbers and adjust each team accordingly - Mystic needing the most to advance, Valor not that far behind from Mystic, and Instinct having the smallest goal.

Part of it was also the weather that disrupted (evacuation) the event Saturday.

 

[Dargad]

Success!

 

[Champion Leon]

Success!

View attachment 180948

Happy Father’s Day!
From Niantic.

 

[Blitz]

The bonuses from Spark's challenge are now live for a week, until June 25. These are double catch candy, double hatch candy, half hatch distance and at least 1 Rare Candy per raid done.

As for Shiny Raikou, it will debut on June 29 at 4:00 PM local time. This is very odd time-wise, which leads me to believe it won't be a "traditional" raid day, but who knows?

EDIT: Yea I'm seeing a 7:00 PM end time reported so never mind. Still weird though!

 

[Expert Evan]

A 3 hour Raikou raid fest similar to the one we recently had with Lapras will certainly encourage me to find a group train attending raids though it's after we have kyogre as a raid boss (similar to having groudon after heatran raids awhile ago). I have one powered up raikou, one powered up electivire and 3 powered up magnezone as well. I also got a mediocre raikou powered up to level 30 at least as well as another magnezone as I look forward to seeing how these hold up against blizzard kyogre in raids. The cresselia raids (even with a shiny) were dead in my area the past week and it was discouraging never to get a shiny.

Am I the only one that cannot find nor hatch a gible? I'm seeing lots of my buddies walking them and I've been going from one cluster spawn to another constantly finding one and it's rather annoying.

I also have 15 lucky friends at once most of whom I'll probably never get to trade with either because I can't communicate with them, wish Niantic had a built in feature to try to notify them outside of facebook or discord.

 

[Ivy]

I'm writing an article on the summary of changes in Go since summer 2017 (the last topic covered on TFP was the Gym rework) if anyone has some specific ideas they'd like to see elaborated in there. So far I've been operating solely on the primary news from the official Go website to fill in any gaps in my knowledge.
So far I have the introduction of raids, with the legendary birds (also TMs and RC); introduction of EX raids, with Mewtwo; gen 3, starting with the Halloween teaser and then an actual wave of releases in December; the first Community day in 2018; the first Special Research in March, featuring Mew; the introduction of Alolan formes in May with Alolan Exeggutor (does anyone know when 7k eggs specifically came about?), trading/friendship/gifts in June; introduction of Lucky 'mons in July; Pokéstop nomination in September as well as Meltan's "release"; gen 4 beginning in October; PVP, secondary charged moves, and increased type effectiveness in December; Limited Research in January; Go Snapshot with Smeargle and Team Medallions in February.
Phew! Interestingly enough, there's not much in the way of major news since then, although the teaser from the Go Fest post with Team Rocket may result in some noteworthy event that would be nice to get in the article.

 

[Panic Station]

7k eggs were introduced with the Friends & Gifts update. They're gift-exclusive, and afaict they weren't included in the egg pool update that occurred recently.

 

[Dargad]

Also, the Dynamic Weather system was introduced in December 2017.

 

[Champion Leon]

I'm writing an article on the summary of changes in Go since summer 2017 (the last topic covered on TFP was the Gym rework) if anyone has some specific ideas they'd like to see elaborated in there. So far I've been operating solely on the primary news from the official Go website to fill in any gaps in my knowledge.
So far I have the introduction of raids, with the legendary birds (also TMs and RC); introduction of EX raids, with Mewtwo; gen 3, starting with the Halloween teaser and then an actual wave of releases in December; the first Community day in 2018; the first Special Research in March, featuring Mew; the introduction of Alolan formes in May with Alolan Exeggutor (does anyone know when 7k eggs specifically came about?), trading/friendship/gifts in June; introduction of Lucky 'mons in July; Pokéstop nomination in September as well as Meltan's "release"; gen 4 beginning in October; PVP, secondary charged moves, and increased type effectiveness in December; Limited Research in January; Go Snapshot with Smeargle and Team Medallions in February.
Phew! Interestingly enough, there's not much in the way of major news since then, although the teaser from the Go Fest post with Team Rocket may result in some noteworthy event that would be nice to get in the article.

What about changing teams? The medallion. *A big help to people who wrongly chose Yellow in their Red/Blue dominated cities.

Also, the Power Rankings:

-Type mechanic changes (Type effectiveness change and how it lead to specialists rather than neutral damage generalists for all 3 Battles systems: Gym Offense/Defense, Raids, PvP)
-New Defenders (Gen 4 Togekiss between Blissey and other normals)
-PvP per Silph Road Cup, and in general what matters to each of the 3 CP Cap leagues (Master league, Ultra League, etc.)
-New Gym Attackers/Raid Attackers - Rampardos over even CD Tyranitar.
-Raid differences- Dinner Hour Raids, more frequent rotations (same with egg and research task rotations), and with friendship giving you more Premier Ball bonuses.

Don’t stress about it, just glean some summarizes info off of Gamepress, PokemonGoHub, and you should be fine.

 

[Ivy]

Thanks for the tips guys; they've been incorporated into my working summary in the TFP submissions forum.
The new Attackers point is a good one; I'll have to elaborate on that when discussing the gen 4 release.

 

[Kevin Garrett]

Am I the only one that cannot find nor hatch a gible? I'm seeing lots of my buddies walking them and I've been going from one cluster spawn to another constantly finding one and it's rather annoying.

They appear to be a heavily urban spawn. I caught one in an urban area and haven’t seen a single one in residential suburbs.

 

[Champion Leon]

Thanks for the tips guys; they've been incorporated into my working summary in the TFP submissions forum.
The new Attackers point is a good one; I'll have to elaborate on that when discussing the gen 4 release.

Also, stat boosts. CD Mamoswine was the guinea pig, but, Power Up Punch Lucario was the perfected upgrade.

Luc doesn’t just pack a punch, he packs an ever increasing Power Up Punch.

 

[Kanburi]

New load screen

 

[Blitz]

New Stuff:

From July to September, Research Breakthrough FINALLY removes Lugia and Ho-Oh and will have Latios, Latias, Kyogre, and Groudon as the rewards. You can obviously find their shiny variants if you are lucky.

Another Spinda pattern, but with a twist: The shiny can be obtained!

And finally, after 3 months, Deoxys-D will leave the Ex Raid scene and Deoxys-S will join the game starting on June 23 in the next wave of Ex Passes. This means we're finishing the 12 month cycle with all Deoxys formes and will probably transition to a new boss afterwards!

 

[Expert Evan]

I got my ex raid invites for July 1 so I'm excited about it finally being Deoxys-S as I was getting tired of the defense form while many were frustrated they couldn't beat it with so few accounts which included 4 level 40 players and they tried twice. I still haven't found a Gible yet as I even go through my nearest urban area which happens to be my hometown of Bridgeport, CT along Main Street and even a few times I ventured there still nothing. I'm hoping it will eventually show up in the 10k eggs besides it often being the likes of a Porygon, Feebas, Beldum, Slakoth to name a few.

Speaking of which I'm hoping these legacy community Day Pokemon like Beldum will have yet another chance to get their exclusive charge moves again or I won't be evolving them anytime in the near future. Hate to see a newer 100% lucky go short.

My guess is even Gible will be a future community day pokemon as it may possibly get Earth Power.

 

[Champion Leon]

I got my ex raid invites for July 1 so I'm excited about it finally being Deoxys-S as I was getting tired of the defense form while many were frustrated they couldn't beat it with so few accounts which included 4 level 40 players and they tried twice. I still haven't found a Gible yet as I even go through my nearest urban area which happens to be my hometown of Bridgeport, CT along Main Street and even a few times I ventured there still nothing. I'm hoping it will eventually show up in the 10k eggs besides it often being the likes of a Porygon, Feebas, Beldum, Slakoth to name a few.

Speaking of which I'm hoping these legacy community Day Pokemon like Beldum will have yet another chance to get their exclusive charge moves again or I won't be evolving them anytime in the near future. Hate to see a newer 100% lucky go short.

My guess is even Gible will be a future community day pokemon as it may possibly get Earth Power.

I hope it gets dual chop, another semi exclusive move. Gible hasn’t been found by me either.

My guess is he might be buried underground, and is only poking his head up when no one is looking. :(
Must be the sun getting to him.

I think you can totally just use the berry feeding tactic to get candy from Defenders for Gible and when you catch him you will already have a head start.

I totally feel your 100% non-community day dilemma:



It’s very similar to the Community Day exclusive move on a low IV Shiny dilemma:

 

[Ivy]

CD move on low IV shiny is way better than no CD move! Good find!
I have a 7/7/7 Venusaur from last December and he's my special boy.

 

[CoolMan6001]

How do I get my hands on Alolan Grimer? I have already been attempting to hatch 7km eggs to get it, but none of them had one. Is there a better way to get it?

 

[Ivy]

How do I get my hands on Alolan Grimer? I have already been attempting to hatch 7km eggs to get it, but none of them had one. Is there a better way to get it?

That is the only way to get it. Just gotta keep harvesting those friends' eggs.

 

[Blitz]

Slakoth Day for EMEA confirmed July 4 to July 7.

This is the remake for Slakoth Day for the EMEA region following the problems in the original run. During this 3 day period, people in this region will experience increased Slakoth spawns and will be able to evolve their Vigoroth into Body Slam Slaking.

Of note is that this date unfortunately coincides with Go Fest at Dortmund, which raises the question how Slakoth spawns will be balanced by the special event spawns, just as Chicago's Go Fest had the likes of Horsea, Misdreavus, Psyduck, Geodude, Snubbull, Snorunt, and countless others spawning worldwide during its duration. We will see when we get there.

Update to Spinda research.

The blog post for Spinda has removed the "new form debuting" tidbit, and this tweet further confirms that. While we are still getting Shiny Spinda, the form that we're getting is unknown: either it's all of them, or one of the previously existing ones (or a select group of these).

 

[Blitz]

Mudkip Community Day:

Straightforward, but Mudkip has its own CD on July 21st. There IS a new time, and it's from 4 PM to 7 PM local time. The move is presumably Hydro Cannon, as is the case with all starters, but Muddy Water is also in the coding of the game like Blaze Kick was, so that's probably an extra move we can TM.

Potential Team Rocket Event:

This is APK stuff (aka things found in the coding of the Android update), but nonetheless interesting content that we'll be seeing soon. We are going to have a Team Rocket interaction through a quest, and a big one at that:

This is the list of trainers that are involved in this. Of note is type-specific grunts like the Water Grunt, Bug Grunt, Dark Grunt and the weirdly named Metal Grunt. They are interacted with / activated through PokeStop (as they are a quest).

The quest will involve the return of Shadow Pokémon! And this is complete with the "purification process" as a means to turn them back into regular Pokémon. I find it very interesting they're taking a mechanic from side games a decade ago, though without Cipher. This also comes with 2 badges that show how many Pokémon you've purified and how many Rocket Grunts you've beaten.

These next two things were added at the same time but they might be related:

There are 3 new moves in the APK: Return / Frustration / Synchronoise. The power of Return and Frustration is based on happiness in the main games, but it's possible they'll be related to Shadow Pokémon (Frustration) and it changes into Return when these are purified. It's to anyone's guess where Synchronoise fits into all of this, but it is a Psychic-type move that only does damage to a Pokémon if it shares a type with the user of the move.

Finally, a new item called the Route Maker. Again, it's to anyone's guess how it fits into all of this, but perhaps the item devises a specific path for you to take on the Team Rocket quest.

This all sounds very interesting so let's see what happens!

 

[Kanburi]

Definitely sounds like a nice event that brings in some excitement to the game, which has been pretty dry for a long time. That said, it does depend on the execution and it wouldn't be surprising if Niantic bombs this one.