SPOILERS! Sun and Moon In game experience thread

Xen

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Toxapex is a glorious middle finger to Lusamine's Clefable, for what it's worth. Boosted Venoshock that always crits will shut it up real quick. Made me glad that I picked one up for my in-game team, even if Mareanie was complete ass until it evolved (not helped by the fact that I initially missed the Scald TM somehow.)
 
I really enjoyed it. My team right now is as follows:

Incineroar (Kiwi) Lv. 74
Flare Blitz
Darkest Lariat
Flamethrower
Cross Chop

Lycanroc (Jack) Lv. 72
Accelrock
Brick Break
Rock Slide
Stealth Rock

Mudsdale (Seneca) Lv. 74
Mega Kick
SuperPower
Counter
Earthquake

Tsareena (Bouncee) Lv. 76
Leaf Storm
High Jump Kick
Rapid Spin
Trop Kick

Golisopod (Predator) Lv. 71
False Swipe
Liquidation
Leech Life
First Impression

Solgaleo (Patrick) Lv. 69
Sunsteel Strike
Flare Blitz
Crunch
Zen Headbutt.
Pokemon I will hope to use in Moon:
Drampa
Dhelmise
Alolan Muk
Oranguru
Salazzle
Primarina

And for either a second playthrough of Sun or a third version
Decidueye
Turtonator
Wishiwashi or Milotic
Alolan Raichu
Bewear
Maybe Alola Dugtrio?
 
Had finished the game this weekend. Played as young Lt. Surge and chose Rowlet as my starter. The playthrough has definitely solidified it as my favorite grass starter line. Started my second playthrough with Popplio and playing as Namine from Kingdom Hearts. I managed to get a female, modest Popplio with pretty much all the IV's looking to be in the 20s while I was soft-resetting for nature, so not bad.

A couple thoughts:

*The customization was disappointing. It was nice to remove hats and have accessories and change colors but the actual clothes weren't as varied as I had hoped. Luckily, it mostly worked out for my playthrough as young Lt. Surge.

*The game was surprisingly more difficult than I had expected at times. Certain totem pokemon could be annoying to take down if you couldn't shut them down immediately due to the stat boosts and ally pokemon.

*Team Skull is hilarious and great comedic relief but the Po Town segment definitely darkened things and I actually sort of felt bad for the grunts. The Aether Foundation felt like an improved Team Flare. They had a similar vibe, with similar goals but the Aether Foundation felt better executed.

The characters were definitely more compelling. It was nice to see the Trial Captains and Kahunas out and about the islands and interacting with the main character as well as each other. They were able to make an impression on me in a way most of the gym leaders/Elite Four in XY didn't.

*The rivals/friends had great character development. Some people in the fandom have said that they wish there was a jerk rival again but I think some of them really just want a compelling rival. Silver, for example, wasn't a good rival b/c he was a jerk. He was good rival b/c he showed some actual character growth. N wasn't a jerk but was a good rival b/c and was interesting as well. Lili, Hau, and Gladion definitely left more an impression than the XY rivals. Lillie especially had a great character arc.
 
Lillie is basically the real main character and the only reason you don't play as her is because she's defined by not being a trainer.

I aggressively do not want another Kanto game but I would absolutely play a Kanto sequel if it meant playing as Lillie, but the series will never have you play as a defined character with their own deal going on.
 
Lillie is basically the real main character and the only reason you don't play as her is because she's defined by not being a trainer.

I aggressively do not want another Kanto game but I would absolutely play a Kanto sequel if it meant playing as Lillie, but the series will never have you play as a defined character with their own deal going on.
Personally, what I could see them doing (if anything) is a new story in Kanto set maybe a year or two after Sun/Moon with Lillie, having become a trainer there, as the champion.
 

Xen

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Finished the league a few hours ago. Definitely up there on my list of favorite gens, and hands-down better than last gen. I honestly wasn't expecting too much initially in terms of difficulty; the idea of trials and totem Pokemon sounded easier than the traditional formula of gym leaders on paper to me. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised over the difficulty spike, and how well everything worked out to a comfortable, yet challenging level. The story and all the characters were also great; the games definitely rival Gen V in those two categories. The ending in particular was very heartwarming, yet bittersweet in its own way. Mirroring what R_N said, The games are unique in the fact that there were really two main characters, and while SuMo was, more or less, the end of the PC's story, it's really just the first chapter to Lillie's story. I'll wager we'll be hearing her name again in the forseeable future.

My final team prior to the Hall of Fame looked like this, with levels around 53-55:

-Incineroar (@Incinium Z)
Swords Dance
Darkest Lariat
Flare Blitz
Leech Life

-Shiinotic (@Big Root)
Spore
Strength Sap
Moonblast
Giga Drain

-Toxapex (Leftovers)
Toxic
Venoshock
Liquidation
Ice Beam

-Vikavolt (Quick Claw)
Agility
Thunderbolt
Hidden Power (Ground)
Bug Buzz

-Passimian (No Item)
Bulk Up
Close Combat
Acrobatics
Rock Tomb

-Flygon (@Groundium Z)
Dragon Dance
Earthquake
Dragon Claw
Stone Edge

Btw, as much as I enjoyed this team, I am never using a team of slowmons in-game again. I initially had Mudsdale as my 6th mon, but I ended up switching to Flygon because the lack of speed was a bit painful.
 
I'm on a roll! Via a bunch of high-stakes, rapid-fire GTS trading, I got 3 Shiny Pokemon on my Moon today. Dhelmise, Mimikyu, and Midday Lycanrock. The Dhemise is Adamant, the Mimikyu has a mostly-usable Lonely, but the Lycanrock unfortunately is Calm
 
what game designer at gamefreak keeps thinking that having the same 2 to 3 common fishing encounters is ok with the One New One being a 1-20% encounter is ok

BW1/2 did the same thing! stop it!

Don't forget the "oh hey rippling that must mean something better than normal is happening!" followed by "but nothing was biting..."

I hate fishing in this. The only upside is it's easy to SR, but doing that breaks the gameplay immersion.

Also, anecdotal, but there's no way Dhelmise is a 10% encounter when rippling, I've been fishing for hours.
 
Don't forget the "oh hey rippling that must mean something better than normal is happening!" followed by "but nothing was biting..."

I hate fishing in this. The only upside is it's easy to SR, but doing that breaks the gameplay immersion.

Also, anecdotal, but there's no way Dhelmise is a 10% encounter when rippling, I've been fishing for hours.
i found 2 within an hour
*fist pump*

I actually enjoy fishing here significantly more than most other games because:
1. its nearly instant, no need to time multiple presses or wait an eon for "oh its nothing"
2. if there's a "miss" it doesn't make the bubbling water go away
3. bubbling water spots are semistatic and will respawn the moment you leave the area and come back

but these are hampered severely by a cascade of 1% encounters that only go up to 20% (AT MOST) in rippling spots.
 

Codraroll

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what game designer at gamefreak keeps thinking that having the same 2 to 3 common fishing encounters is ok with the One New One being a 1-20% encounter is ok

BW1/2 did the same thing! stop it!
BW1 only had new Pokémon in it, so I don't think that particular flaw is applicable here. I can understand the BW2 comparison, though.

But yeah, I find this a bit of a strange quirk in Sun and Moon. I believe Norne coined the term "Johto syndrome", since G/S fell hard into the same trap. The new Pokémon are in many cases a lot less worthwhile to use than old recurring ones. They're either prohibitively rare/hard to find, or too weak compared to other available options, or are introduced too late, or have some other disadvantage. Skimming through the Alola portion of the National Dex, it seems like its last 30 Pokémon or so come too late in the game to be participant in your grand adventure, and half the remaining ones are hard to find to a degree that's almost prohibitive. I guess you could make an in-game team out of Gen VII Pokémon that are both easy to come across and powerful enough to be worth it over the previous-gen Pokémon available on the same routes, but you're pretty short on options if you do so.
 

dwarfstar

mindless philosopher
BW1 only had new Pokémon in it, so I don't think that particular flaw is applicable here. I can understand the BW2 comparison, though.

But yeah, I find this a bit of a strange quirk in Sun and Moon. I believe Norne coined the term "Johto syndrome", since G/S fell hard into the same trap. The new Pokémon are in many cases a lot less worthwhile to use than old recurring ones. They're either prohibitively rare/hard to find, or too weak compared to other available options, or are introduced too late, or have some other disadvantage. Skimming through the Alola portion of the National Dex, it seems like its last 30 Pokémon or so come too late in the game to be participant in your grand adventure, and half the remaining ones are hard to find to a degree that's almost prohibitive. I guess you could make an in-game team out of Gen VII Pokémon that are both easy to come across and powerful enough to be worth it over the previous-gen Pokémon available on the same routes, but you're pretty short on options if you do so.
I haven't tested out how the old mons fared, so I don't have a point of reference for comparison, but if we count Alola forms as new Pokemon (which I did, and even then I only used one), it's either not that tough or I discovered the golden formula by accident. I've been running with Araquanid, Incineroar, Vikavolt, Mimikyu, Tsareena, and Alolan Muk, and they all pulled their weight pretty consistently barring that stretch before Tsareena's final evolution (which did require a fair bit of babying, but it wasn't for that many levels) without EXP Share or excessive grinding. These six are the only ones I ever used, barring an Ariados I had on the team up till I caught my Dewpider because spiders are kinda my signature thing and I make myself use at least one in every run if possible. (As one would expect, that Ariados was a massive pain in the ass to raise and only barely pulled its weight even after evolving, so I boxed it as soon as I caught Dewpider and just left open slots on the team until the final crew was fully assembled.) The only one of those Pokemon that was hard to find at all was Mimikyu, although I guess an argument could be made that Bounsweet would have been if I didn't already know it was only available in one specific area of the jungle. Not to say certain fights weren't still difficult - I almost wiped against Lurantis and the first match against Olivia - but I never got the sense that my decision at the outset to only use new Pokemon was holding me back.
 
BW1 only had new Pokémon in it, so I don't think that particular flaw is applicable here. I can understand the BW2 comparison, though.

But yeah, I find this a bit of a strange quirk in Sun and Moon. I believe Norne coined the term "Johto syndrome", since G/S fell hard into the same trap. The new Pokémon are in many cases a lot less worthwhile to use than old recurring ones. They're either prohibitively rare/hard to find, or too weak compared to other available options, or are introduced too late, or have some other disadvantage. Skimming through the Alola portion of the National Dex, it seems like its last 30 Pokémon or so come too late in the game to be participant in your grand adventure, and half the remaining ones are hard to find to a degree that's almost prohibitive. I guess you could make an in-game team out of Gen VII Pokémon that are both easy to come across and powerful enough to be worth it over the previous-gen Pokémon available on the same routes, but you're pretty short on options if you do so.
yeah its so...weird. Like Mareanie (SOS only through a 1/20% encounter), Bruxish, Dhelmise are all 1% encounters (20% in bubbling).
Stufful is on 2 routes but only as a 5%
Lush Jungle has Comfey and Oranguru/Passimian as 5% encounters.
Drampa lucks out at a 10% but this is presumably to make up for being in literally the last area of hte main game with all the...ice types...?

i don't recall XY having this problem

e: I did form an all gen-7 team though, which is more than I can say for any of the johto games. Even HGSS 4/6ths of my was gen 1
 
so the path to the battle tree is quite the difficulty spike....

after fighting the veterans double battle i figured i'd be good, but nope...
 
I haven't tested out how the old mons fared, so I don't have a point of reference for comparison, but if we count Alola forms as new Pokemon (which I did, and even then I only used one), it's either not that tough or I discovered the golden formula by accident. I've been running with Araquanid, Incineroar, Vikavolt, Mimikyu, Tsareena, and Alolan Muk, and they all pulled their weight pretty consistently barring that stretch before Tsareena's final evolution (which did require a fair bit of babying, but it wasn't for that many levels) without EXP Share or excessive grinding. These six are the only ones I ever used, barring an Ariados I had on the team up till I caught my Dewpider because spiders are kinda my signature thing and I make myself use at least one in every run if possible. (As one would expect, that Ariados was a massive pain in the ass to raise and only barely pulled its weight even after evolving, so I boxed it as soon as I caught Dewpider and just left open slots on the team until the final crew was fully assembled.) The only one of those Pokemon that was hard to find at all was Mimikyu, although I guess an argument could be made that Bounsweet would have been if I didn't already know it was only available in one specific area of the jungle. Not to say certain fights weren't still difficult - I almost wiped against Lurantis and the first match against Olivia - but I never got the sense that my decision at the outset to only use new Pokemon was holding me back.
Been replaying it a lot on my "not safe" copy.

The most consistent mons are Araquanid and Wishiwashi thanks to scald bring given in the same route as them, eviolite magnezone comes back with a vengeance from B2W2 and facetanks the trials, Tsareena especially Bouncee the ingame trade is flat out ridiculous in campaign along with stamina mudsdale, heck most of the second island mons break the game if coupled with magnemite or Grimer from the first island.

The early route nukes include but are not limited to Moondoge, munchlax, Grimer even without lefties/sludge, Growlithe comes back with a vengeance B2W2 style even without lefties/sludge, Magnemite, Pikachu if you SOS a light ball thanks to the tutor move and fur coat Persian who is a complete monster up to the league, cutiefly deserves a special mention even without hp fire and z belly drum Hariyama wich is absolutely broken.

The most effective combination comes from Magneton+Tsareena(Bouncee)+2nd island water nuke ingame wise, it's better to use litten for speed runs if you choose this path given his better movepool and TM access without backtracking.

I forgot to add that Magmar can be found if you SOS chain Magby, it's is every bit as retarded as he is in the johto games for the level it is obtained, this really feels like Johto.
 
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Making my way through my first playthrough of Sun and will probably progress even slower 'til winter break arrives. Right now, I'm about to enter the Halo Grand Resort's hotel with a team of five + filler 6th 'mon that will be replaced by some team member to be determined in the future.
Brionne, Lv. 26
Encore
Bubble Beam
Acrobatics
Disarming Voice

Magnemite, Lv. 25 @ Quick Claw
Ability: Magnet Pull (was okay with foregoing Sturdy)
Thunder Wave
Metal Sound
Thunder Shock
Mirror Shot

Crabrawler, Lv. 26 @ Amulet Coin or Fightium Z
Ability: Hyper Cutter
Rock Tomb
Power-Up Punch
Bulk Up
Brick Break

Leafeon, Lv. 26 @ Grassium Z
Razor Leaf
Sand Attack
Bite
Giga Drain

Cubone, Lv. 25 @ Eviolite
Bold Nature (ugh, damage output is noticeably lacking on even enemies with average bulk...)
Ability: Rock Head
Bonemerang
Headbutt
Rock Tomb
Brick Break

Helpful filler Pokémon thus far: Cutiefly, Alolan Grimer, Fletchling (way to take the K.O on Totem Lurantis instead of a main team member--Acrobatics even at Lv. 16 is quite something).

I'd like the 6th slot to go to some fast Ground, Flying or Psychic type, something that won't share a type with another teammate by endgame and will pick up the pace for my rather slow team.

Playing with Exp Share off, Pokémon Refresh as I play along (they're all at 2 hearts each), and Premier Balls on all members aside from Brionne, of course. I'm glad to be using Pokémon Refresh because I like the incentive of using it to heal status post-battle, unlike with Pokémon Amie, which I only really dabbled with postgame.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

So far the playthrough has been very fun. The game doesn't feel as linear as Gen 6 when you can go out and extend exploration in old locations upon receiving a new Poké Ride. The difficulty so far has been respectably steady, with no blacking out to anyone just yet (poor Brionne got triple-teamed at the Battle Royal to net me a not blacked-out loss, how unfortunate). Totem Wishiwashi and Lurantis should've cleaned through my team, but like in other games, the way to play with untrained low levels is paralysis/sleep and Sand Attack spam, which is why Leafeon still has the latter move learned.

The Poké Rides are very convenient. At first I thought that not having the D-Pad to move would spell trouble for me with a finicky Circle Pad, but no, movement feels almost as good as it does in Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness. I do wish Stoutland wasn't that slow when searching for items, though. It makes me want a Dowsing Machine again.

Lastly, I'm enjoying a lot of the little nuances of the game, from getting the "7.8 out of 10 Too Much Water" comment in the Poké Finder, to how some overworld Pokémon give you items when you talk to them, to the ambient Konikoni City night theme. While I'm on the note of music, though, does anybody else get Kirby: Planet Robobot vibes from some of the music?

...Oh yeah, and items from the Sinnoh region are "Sinnohan"? Go figure.
 
Important hint for postgame, which I don't really see written on most guides or Poké-Sites:
Except for maybe the Master Ball, all Pokéballs are locked to a 1x Ball Rate at all times if used on an Ultra Beast, except for the 5x rate of Beast Balls. So don't try and use the special balls unless it's for aesthetic purposes.
 
Dhelmise are all 1% encounters (20% in bubbling)
WHAT

Is there some sort of conditional check I have to do to make this happen??? Like, maybe fish from the left hand side, at night, with Suction Cups in the active, and it has to be a day of the week that has an E in it? Because I'm clearly doing something wrong.

On a similar vein, I've been simultaneously KOing early route mons with a team of 5 pickup meowths to hopefully pull a destiny knot, while also searching for a Munchlax to nab its leftovers. I don't know what the percentage is there, either, but I ran into and KO'd upwards of 90 'mons (verifiable because of the number of times I ran out of PP) without a single Munchlax in sight, and I'm definitely in the right spot. I suspect Alolan pokemon have decided they don't like me much. Can't complain about not getting Destiny knot at least, since all my Meowth are mid 30's.
 
Have you tried the other grass patches in that area? I think it's possible some of the information we have is still incomplete. I spent hours trying to find a Feebas in the rippling spot closest to the entrance of Brooklet Hill (supposedly a 5% chance), gave up, and later found two easily in the middle areas. Obviously that may have been luck, but it's also possible that first spot was incorrectly listed as having Feebas.
 
I'd tried the patches to the right for a while, but got paranoid so checked YouTube for a video where someone actually found it, hence that patch. I'm sure I'll get one eventually, but the RNG gods are not my friend!

Edit:
HOT DAMN I FINALLY FOUND ONE!

Hallo frend munchlax!! :D

Now I'm gonna kill it as a lesson to its kind. You're next, Dhelmise!


Edit edit: random showerthought. I was wondering why among all the Fish boats, there was one shaped like a Steelix of all things. Then I remembered, years ago wasn't there a popular joke about the fact that Steelix has less density than styrofoam? I.e it would float?
 
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Oh man the munchlax reminds me
a 100% chance to hold leftovers. For a 5% encounter that's not terrible!



meanwhile you have to hope for pokepelago for almost every non-standard stone and you MUST with 0 other option steal a Razor Claw off Jangmo-o at 5% chance (5% off Hakamo-o and 50% off Kommo-o but those are SOS only)

king's rocks can at least be bought off the battle tree if you dont want to deal with hoping it rains in Maile Garden and then hope for an entirely too rare Poliwrath or Politoed encounter
 
The floodgates kinda opened after I found that initial munchlax. Found 3 more in the interim and stole their lunches. Currently have a team of 6 meowths trained to pickup yarn, (or at least I wish they would) and have managed to run into a shiny before getting a destiny knot. My luck is weird today.

It's only a Pikipek, but I managed to catch it in a lure ball, so that's gotta count for something.
 
I reached Mount Lanakila and, with my team close to Level 55, I'll be soon challenging the Elite Four.

Thoughts so far about difficulty. Keep in mind, I had the Exp. Shared turned on for basically all the game (only turned off when I caught a new Pokemon or some were lagging behind in levels, so as to keep them even):

- OHKOed the Alolan Raticate with a Brick Break from my Trumbeak.
- Wishiwashi was surprisingly nothing more than an annoyance, despite the presence of Alomomola using Healing Pulse, which impressed me. Then again, I had a traded Wishiwashi of my own...
- OHKOed the Salazzle with a Bonemerang from my Cubone.
- Lurantis succeeded at being more annoying than Wishiwashi, but that's it. It was more of a matter of waiting until sun ran out (as, oddly enough, Salandit could not KO it, and in fact got KOed itself). The idea of +2 Speed was good, I admit.
- Vikavolt could have been difficult... had I not had my Lightning Rod Marowak. It was somewhat lengthy, though, as Marowak has no STAB before Flame Charge or Mount Lanakila thanks to TrollFreak.
- Mimikyu was the hardest of all battles. +1 to all stats is obviously difficult to deal with, and its Shadow Claws and Play Roughs could OHKO most of my team. It took two sacrifices to break its Disguise. In the end, I had to resort to poisoning.
- Kommo-o was not difficult, as I happened to have a Kommo-o of my own, that happened to have Soundproof. It still impressed me in that, as soon as Clanging Scales failed because of Soundproof, the totem Kommo-o never used the move again, then resorted to spamming Protect and using Sky Uppercut. It was clever!


Kahunas
- Kaudan: Trumbeak OHKOes his entire team with Pluck. Then again, I was underestimating the Exp. Share and battled him with a Level ~18 team...
- Olivia: A combination of an underleveled Cubone and Trumbeak dealt with her.
- Nanu: Sableye and Persian where surprisingly annoying. Between both, they KOed half my team. Otherwise, nothing special.
- Hapu: Led with Salazzle, which meant Mudsdale used its Tectonic Rage on the only Pokemon it was absolutely unnecessary to use on. Later, Gastrodon appeared after Mudsdale and Flygon fell to try to wall my Pelipper (I didn't know it did not have Storm Drain), but then I sent out my Oricorio with HP Grass...

Team Skull

I won't even discuss them, as they were ridiculously easy. Plumeria is a joke, whereas my Reptile/Dinosaur themed team brutally countered whatever Guzma could throw at me.

Rivals

- Hau: You hardly battle him. That being said, the first time he used his Raichu, he surprised me by OHKOing my Marowak with Psychic. But that's it.
- Gladion: Type:Null is difficult to take down in the first battle (and in the forced Battle Royale, you are better off targeting Kukui's Rockruff), but the other battles are fairly easy. His Weavile in the Mount Lanakila battle annoyed me by critting my Kommo-o with Ice Shard whereas Sky Uppercut missed.

Aether Foundation

- Faba: A complete pushover.
- Lusamina: Here, he have to split the battles.
  • The first battle was of moderate difficulty at the beginning, with Clefable being difficult to break through, and Mismagius was all too happy to 2HKO my Pokemon with Shadow Ball. The other three Pokemon were a joke, as not even Lilligant's Teeter Dance could buy turns (as it inexplicably Teeter Danced twice in a row, even though Oricorio got bad confusion rolls twice in the same turn).
  • The second battle, on the other hand... was a complete joke. Clefable decided to Metronome in front of a Pokemon it could OHKO with Moonblast, and ended up Encoring a Poison Jab. While Kommo-o fell before Clefable, it set the standard for the rest of the battle. Mismagius spammed Pain Split, Milotic set up Safeguard and got KOed, Bewear never moved in both battles and Lilligant Quiver Danced in front of an Oricorio (which had KOed the other four Pokemon), which promptly got the OHKO with Hurricane.


In spite of everything, it's more difficult than I thought. It's just... that it seems the Gen VII Reptile/Dinosaur theme seems to give you surprisingly good typing matchups for the relevant battles throughout the game. I think only the Pokemon School teacher was a bad matchup for my team (as it was Magnemite vs Rowlet, Pikipek and Wingull. The latter two were unceremoniously OHKOed).

meanwhile you have to hope for pokepelago for almost every non-standard stone and you MUST with 0 other option steal a Razor Claw off Jangmo-o at 5% chance (5% off Hakamo-o and 50% off Kommo-o but those are SOS only)
I got a Razor Claw from the very first Jangmo-o I found (and caught) :P
 

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