r/pokemonribbons

They're shutting down bank in about 6 months, but that's no reason to give up now! Putting it bluntly, we knew this was coming at some point, but given that they're replacing it with presumably nothing, that's just not fair.

The time pressure against us is not normal, it's not fair, so don't be afraid to take any advantage you can possibly claw back in order to get this done on time.

That includes, but is not limited to:

* Using speed up on emulators.

* Changing the date and time on your system of choice for whatever shenanigans you deem necessary.

* Using save states to preserve your already built winning streaks in battle facilities.

* Adding in things like rare candies, money, vitamins, and berries to make the whole process faster.

And it also includes a last resort option that, while very cheaty and absolutely completely 100% against the rules as far as the subreddit's HoF is concerned, is possibly your only option left to get this done if it gets all the way to February and you need more time:

Clone your ribbon master, gen all the ribbons on one of them and send it through to Home, then keep the other on the 3DS and earn the ribbons legitimately after the fact. Advice if you do this: make sure to account for the fact that Bank was also how you'd send Pokémon between gens 5, 6, and 7 as well, and make additional copies in all the relevant games if necessary.

Ultimately it's your challenge, you decide what's appropriate and what isn't. If there are some parts of the process you want to do the intended way for your own sense of legitimacy, you go for it. This is me letting you all know what options are available to you and saying not to feel guilty if that's what you have to do. The terms of the challenge have changed, and it's only natural for the means of completing it to change as well.

Don't get me wrong, knowing bank is shutting down is devastating both for people who just want to keep pokemon caught in older games and for ribbon hunters like us, but remember, we still have half a year to do it! Don't take the shutdown as a sign to give up, use it as inspiration to get back on it and work harder for your ribbon masters! You still have over 180 days, even just 1 ribbon a day would be enough to make it before the shutdown! And if you're worried about not getting certain ribbons in time, remember that a good amount of ribbons are available in the switch games too! The ORAS contest ribbons are available in BDSP, so is the sinnoh champion ribbon. As much as I love Sinnoh, it's pretty ribbon heavy. Even so, the only real necessary to grab ribbons from the DS sinnoh games are the contest and battle facility ribbons, as a good chunk of the rest of them like the daily ribbons are obtainable in switch titles. I know the battle facilities can be a bit of a roadblock for some ribbon masters, believe me I've been feeling it with Regigigas, but with enough time, luck and effort, you can do it! Don't let yourself get dragged down because suddenly there's a deadline, you can do this!

I really wanted to do a shiny Jirachi hunt and transfer it up.

Are there any grey areas that can be used so to speak?

I've heard of Hex, but I thought that was strictly creation, not a means of legitimate transfer.

Legitimate is probably not the right term to use, but I consider it legitimate if the mon originated via legal means.

EDIT: there (title)

There are times when a preevolution is in a game but the final one is not like Quilava in PLA. So I suggest for your last rm if you care about the max ribbons possible on your Mon, keep it baby form.

While others are trying to finish all of their dream/target RMs before the Bank closure, I'm trying to just be as comprehensive as possible with my one single favourite Pokémon. That means that outside of Ribbons, I'm also trying to cover anything that might make for a good picture or even simply would be a good memory to have.

As I'm getting close(ish) to wrapping up Gen 3, I wanted to ask if anyone can think of any other "achievement" or "memory" I may have missed that one may wish to do with their favourite Pokémon, even if it doesn't result in any permanent marker like a Ribbon.

Colosseum and XD:

• Snag and Purify all Shadow Pokémon with RM on team

• Defeat Cipher

• Clear all Colosseums

• Clear Mt. Battle and receive Ho-Oh/Johto starters

Ruby and Sapphire:

• Defeat Team Magma/Aqua

• Enter the Hall of Fame

• Earn all 20 Contest Ribbons

• Fill the Lilycove Museum's 2nd floor

• Catch all Legendaries

• Complete the Battle Tower 50-Trainer Challenge

• Complete the National Dex

• Obtain a Gold 4-Star Trainer Card

Emerald:

• Defeat Team Magma and Aqua

• Enter the Hall of Fame

• Earn all 20 Contest Ribbons

• Fill the Lilycove Museum's 2nd floor

• Catch all Legendaries

• Beat Steven in Meteor Falls

• Clear Trainer Hill

• Obtain all Gold Battle Frontier symbols

• Complete the National Dex

• Obtain a Gold 4-Star Trainer Card

FireRed and LeafGreen:

• Enter the Hall of Fame

• Clear the Sevii Islands

• Complete the National Dex

• Add the RM to the back of your Trainer Card (Game Corner)

• Obtain a 4-Star Trainer Card

Dash:

• Connect Dash to one of the GBA titles to make a course based on the RM

Duskull and its evolutions are my favorite pokemon (Dusknoir less so) so I plan on shiny hunting duskull in emerald to make a ribbon master, but I’m unsure how I should approach it. I think duskull would make for the better ribbon pokemon since it’s kinda cute and I favor it more than Dusclops, but I know Dusclops would be better in the long run for the battle towers since it can eventually use eviolite and duskull would be dead weight. I don’t plan on using dusknoir since it’s shiny isn’t as good as the others. What are your thoughts?

View Poll

if transferred up, do all current ribbons have their own title in scarlet/violet ?

Just like all of you, I am devastated by the end of Pokémon Bank support. One of the main aspects of playing retro Pokémon is that you’re able to bring these Pokémon eventually to the current version of the game. Ribbon farming underlines that process for me.

I do hope that Nintendo comes up with a way to continue Ribbon Masters as before, by either getting all the games in their Switch ecosystem or allowing some way of transfers. However, this seems unlikely and we’ll probably need to rely on support from modded hardware or adjusted systems.

I would love to continue to have a meaningful way to play the retro games, with regards to Ribbon Mastering. For my own copium methods, I’ve come up with a new way to treat Ribbon Masters. I don’t expect anyone to agree with it, but if like me, you’re struggling with the concept of not being able to get Pokémon from Gen 5 to Gen 6, Gen 6 to Gen 7 or Gen 7 to Pokémon Home, maybe this will help you.

First of all I consider the ‘old’ Ribbon Master the True Ribbon Master. All titles I’ve come up with here are in effect a smaller version of that. But they might be meaningful still.

Splitting the Ribbon Master Title

Disregarding the True Ribbon Master, it would be nice to treat Ribbon Pokémon who have obtained all Ribbons in their games as a special kind of Ribbon Master. This opens up possibilities for:

Advanced Ribbon Master (eg. Salamance the Advanced RM) by completing all Ribbons in the Gameboy Advance Games. Same goes for the DS Ribbon Master (eg. Garchomp the DS RM) who has completed all Ribbons on the DS Games.

The Generational (X) Ribbon Master by completing all Ribbons in a certain (or more than one) generation of games. This would work for Gen 3, 4, 6 and 7. A Pokémon could have more than one generation in it’s title (eg. Blaziken the Generational (3-4) RM).

The (Game name) Ribbon Master for people who like to play only a single game in the series. This would work for any game (eg. Mimikyu the Omega Ruby RM).

Maybe there’s even more titles possible, please let me know your ideas so this Ribbon Mastering may forever continue!

Yes, you.

I keep seeing posts about people giving up on their RMs popping up on my feed in the wake of the Bank news, so I went back and checked the dates on old messages/screenshots from when I did my ribbon masters. I started in late April and finished in mid-December. That's more than 5 and a half months, but I was doing six ribbon masters at once

Working out the time for one wouldn't be as simple as dividing by six, since there's some up-front, set-up-y stuff that gets done regardless and some things you do in batches, but it'd definitely be much quicker. They were also all coming from the Gamecube, having never done any before (so I was building all battle tower teams, farming berries, etc. totally from scratch), and I didn't even have saves for XD, gen 5, or gen 7. I also was not Pokemonning full-time during that period; in June I moved to another country, and in September I started my final year of uni.

There is no one single definitive amount of time it takes to do a ribbon master; sure, I just rattled off a bunch of factors slowing me down but there was also plenty working in my favour, and there are lots of aspects that will just vary person-to-person.

My point is just that if you start now, it's totally feasible to have a RM make it to the Switch by the end of February. If your sole reason for giving up is thinking you can't do it by then, or the amount of ribbons you need to get feeling overwhelming, just go for it. It's not as hard or as slow as it seems, and you speed up a lot as you go (not only is each successive gen generally quicker than the last, a lot of the experience is transferable - eg. getting better at one battle tower makes you better at the others). And worst case scenario, you don't get everything in time, you probably still have fun and grow more attached to your mons doing it.

Good luck!