u/ILostMyChurros

This is Aevian Unfezant. Earliest you can get Aevian Pidove is Chapter 2, by trading a Barboach to some person near the train stop on Route 2. Additional ones can be caught in River's End. This pokemon is one of the best leads in the game, and here is why:

• One of its various abilities is Sturdy, allowing it to usually get off two moves at the start of battle (this ability is shared by both genders)
• 115 Attack and 98 Speed, defensive stats don't matter since you should be using Sturdy
• From its learnset, it has Stealth Rocks, Tailwind, Taunt, and from egg moves Defog. All are amazing moves to have on a lead pokemon, particularly rocks and tailwind.
• It's a Rock/Fighting type and gets great attacking moves in Close Combat, Rock Slide, and from its egg movepool Head Smash and Knock Off. It also gets Endeavor from move tutor which pairs really well with Sturdy.

It's simple but having a pokemon that can setup both Tailwind and Stealth Rocks is just really good, and you get this pokemon in Chapter 2. Having a strong and decently fast Study pokemon is also great against boss pokemon. The flaw is that some of its learnset moves are late, Stealth Rocks is at level 36 pre evo and 44 post evo, and tailwind is 48/60. But it's legitimately a pokemon you can use for the entire game in every fight.

I'm at a loss for words on how viable this is in mono dark.

(Also I know I can add Kecleon, Cinderace, or Hisuian Zorua w/ Golden Apple for even more but this is a mono dark playthrough so nope)

Hear me out, the Quaxly line is a top 3 starter choice.

Pros:

• Moxie + Aqua Step (80 bp water move that gives +1 speed) = Attack+Speed snowball
• 120 base attack
• Water + Fighting is good offensive typing
• Good learnset moves: Close Combat for fighting stab, Acrobatics is great for coverage, and Work Up to get early KOs
• In my testing, sweeps all gyms from Venam to Flora, then Souta and Saki
• Sweeps a lot of Xen Executive fights
• Can sweep in doubles provided Fake Out, redirection, and other doubles supports
• Turn your brain off during filler NPC battles
• Little loss of opportunity cost since its first available during .Karma files

Cons:

• Not great when it can't stack stat boosts, especially due to its base 85 speed
• Bad against certain tag battles, which can be some of the toughest fights in the game if you aren't using the password
• Not great for boss pokemon, although it does get Moxie boosts from taking boss lives
• Trivializes the game when you're able to easily sweep fights

I'd bet that other starters are better generally (ie protean Meowscarada), but other than Blaziken and Blastoise I don't think other starters are capable of sweeping this many major fights this easily

Just managed to beat Angie deathless in a Nuzlocke right before the release of v14! My goal when starting to do Nuzlocke runs was never to complete the run but simply to see how far I'd get, and this run went insanely well somehow. Only 5 deaths is insane at this point in the game. Angie also ended up being much easier than expected, but I'd credit it to having good doubles supports and Alolan Sandslash just being really good in this fight. (Second image is the team I used against Angie)

I attached photos of my boxes with the pokemon in approximate chronological order of when I got them. If you see this box and think it's strange how many "rare" encounters I have, its probably because I did a ton of repel manip strats. Shuckle, Porygon, Kecleon, Swellow, Oranguru, and Kangaskhan were guaranteed encounters using repel manips. Furthermore, Hariyama and Alolan Sandslash were obtained using repel manips and dupes clause to boost the odds of encountering them. Also, I counted the mystery eggs as free encounters just to make the run more fun (I was too lazy to get it but the Aevian egg is Budew)

If anyone wants to know anything about my run either for their own Nuzlockes or out of curiosity, I did take note of the strategies l used for the major fights so feel free to ask.

Earlier it was announced that VFUN linking will be enabled. Now it's confirmed that its only for accounts that are already linked to google/pmang/apple accounts. BUT, they also confirmed that they will FINALLY be looking into the issue where guest accounts can't be linked.

It's great that it's finally being addressed but omg why did it take this long, I've seen people complaining about this since launch. These kinds of issues should've been fixed ASAP.

Edit: So I tried it out of curiosity and... linking guest accounts works now? So they resolved the issue but they don't know they did it? Tf is going on lmao. Not complaining tho

Recently I've been testing strategies for Nuzlockes and so far I've found good consistent strategies for all of the major fights from chapters 1-4. This one is both the most consistent and the coolest one I've found so far so I wanted to share it. Details below:

Pichu is obtained from the Novae Help Quest in East Gearen City. Raichu needs Lightning Rod so use an Ability Capsule if it's Static. Pikachu learns Discharge at level 34. You can get Thunderbolt by using Reverse Candies to bring Pikachu to level 1, then evolving it with the Thunderstone to learn all of Raichu's level 1 moves. The EVs are up to you, the only requirement is 85+ speed to outpace Haunter. The flow of the fight can change slightly depending on damage rolls and how much SpAtk Raichu has, but you have such an advantage that you can close it out easily.

Voltorb is obtained from buying 5 pokeballs from the broke person in East Gearen. Electrode can be any ability. Voltorb learns Discharge at level 37, so you need to use 2 rare candies. Make sure to delay its evolution because Electrode learns it at level 41. Make sure to tune Electrodes/Raichu's EVs/Nature so that Electrode outspeeds Raichu. 252 HP & SpDef EVs means you can tank discharges and even a few crits. Feel free to give it a Sitrus Berry instead of Berry Juice for a little extra healing.

Lastly, you can guarantee a Kecleon encounter by repelling with a Level 27 pokemon in the lead in Mirage Woods. Kecleon needs Protean so use an Ability Capsule if it's Color Change. Delevel Kecleon to level 6 using Reverse Candies to learn Shadow Sneak at level 7 and Feint at level 10. With average IVs and a non -Attack Nature you typically only need 1 PP Up on Feint to guarantee kill Giratina. But with bad IVs and a -Attack Nature its safer to either use a second PP Up or bring another pokemon to finish off Giratina. Only the 252 Atk EVs are necessary.

It's not shown in the video, but I recommend bringing a ground type or an electric resist. Electrode might take too much damage early on so having a pokemon who can switch in on Raichu's boosted Discharges can make the fight much safer. Just make sure it isn't weak to Fairy.

Also, if you prefer to conserve your Help Center encounter and are willing to give up the Litten you can get Post-Fly, the static Blitzle encounter can substitute for Raichu. Same as Raichu, Zebstrika needs Lightning Rod. Delay its evolution until Level 32 to learn Discharge earlier. 252 SpAtk & Spd works well. Zebstrika just spams Discharge 4 times and it works somehow. It does start to do a lot of damage to Electrode so on turn 3 (against Masquerain and Clefairy) switch Electrode for a ground type or an electric resist to tank the next 2 Discharges.
Edit: you can also run Raichu+Zebstrika for double Discharge+Lightning Rod

So in this team, the 4 characters in the back should be able to trigger both Shirayuri and Sowan's Support attacks (aka follow-ups), but in battle it will only trigger Shirayuri’s. If I remove Shirayuri from this team, they are able to trigger Sowan's support attacks perfectly fine. So unless I’m overlooking something, you can't proc two Support attacks at once.

Now you might immediately think of how the Mongoose team can proc both Miho and Starfish’s follow-up's, and I thought the exact same. But thats because Starfish's follow-up is a Co-op attack whereas Miho's is a Support attack (Yes these are different things and not just mistranslations). And if you're reading Starfish's passive to check this, you might realize that Starfish's passive says it’s a Support attack, but that’s because it’s different: this one only works if Miho's not in the team. Starfish's Co-op attacks aren't in her own kit but rather in the active 1 of all of the other Mongoose team members. You can test this by removing Miho from the team, Starfish will trigger both a Co-op attack and a Support attack when a team member uses their Active 1.

Thanks for being soooo transparent game.

And if you're wondering if Co-op attacks stack, idk. Most of them are character pairing specific like the Mongoose team so I couldn't find a way to get somebody to trigger two Co-op attacks at once.

Bought this thinking it was an additional squad, didn’t even know presets were a thing before this. In retrospect it’s obvious that it’s the 70 tuna can one. Any good reason this costs 100 tuna cans though? It seems pretty pointless in comparison to the other upgrades.

Update: I ended up making a new account. Some might say its stupid, but there were other things I did that I wish I hadn't. With the knowledge I have now, I basically overtaken my previous account in 1 day. Won't be making this mistake again lol.

Edit: posted wrong persona card for the 2nd one, supposed to be the exhaust 5 50% additive one

Tbf it still helps her damage but none of her extra hits from freezing blade and trickery strike are buffed from this, meaning only 6 card hits (not accounting for basics) will benefit from this additive buff. Even Haru manages to get 15 hits worth of additive buffs… Maybe with this 2 hit flash slash will be better? 10 hits get buffed (this still sounds mid af lmfao)