Tuesday Tip: Let's talk about pokémon!

[inkstone]

I thought it'd be useful to have a catch-all post for all things pokémon. They are what you're trying to catch in this game, right? And with the release of the in-game appraisal system, I figure some people might have some questions.

Here are the basics:

• Each pokémon is unique. It has visible values for CP and HP, in addition to movesets that can vary from mon to mon within a species.


• Every pokémon also has hidden stats called individual values (IVs) for attack, defense, and stamina. The CP & HP values are visible renderings of these IVs. The new in-game appraisal system gives you the range for these hidden values.


• When you level up as a trainer, you will start seeing pokémon with higher CP but to only a certain extent. The CP of pokémon hatched from eggs stop scaling at level 20 and the CP of pokémon caught in the wild stop scaling at level 30.


• The trainer level cap, though, is level 40. So you can keep powering up your pokémon with stardust and candy past level 30 until you hit the cap.

There are other nuances to be found here, but I find they vary from trainer to trainer. Some people start powering up their pokémon right away. Others wait until they hit level 30. Some people are torn. I thought that in addition to sharing general tips about pokémon, we could also use the comments to ask advice about our mon.

So let's have it!

Comments

[monanotlisa]

Yes it does!! Mine is good, but not THAT good.

[inkstone]

What do you use as your standard for determining which mon should be powered up? Anything above 80%?

I ask because my Mariana (vaporeon) and Zuko (flareon) are both 88.9%. The vaporeon is 15/10/15 and the flareon is 15/14/11. So not as good as my vileplume, but nothing to scoff at either. Both have the ideal movesets for their species. I'm trying to figure out if I should wait and see if I find better IVs or if the difference between 88.9% and, say, 93% is that much and therefore, worth it. Never mind the fact that I'd be dice rolling anyway to see 1) which eeveelution I get and 2) which moveset I get.

[monanotlisa]

Two decision routes that lead to powerup, for me:

1. The mon is perfect or near-perfect, and I wuv it...for battling. ;) For example, regarding Eeevolutions, I have my Vaperfecta (15/15/15) and Sperfecty (15/15/13 or similar), and I power them up because, in a bastardization of a hair brand slogan, they're worth it.

2. There's a tough gym, and I do have the right type of mon and attack, but I just. Can't. Win. I power up here regardless of perfection level because it's the only way I see to get the job done (e.g., I have a medium-good Rhydon, maybe in the 70%s per IV, but because it used to be my only mon with solid HP I had to use it for fierce enemies).

[inkstone]

That makes sense.

I did some digging through the Silph Road subreddit (man, I love those stat nerds) and I think I'll set my requirements to >85% & great moveset. I compared the difference in damage & weighed the cost/effort and that's a comfortable limit for me. But only for mon that would make great attackers or defenders. So, looks like Mariana will get a boost while Zuko can sit there & look pretty LOL.

[monanotlisa]

I'll set my requirements to >85% & great moveset

Yeah, that makes tons of sense -- I may look more at movesets in the future (wow, everybody hates Twister on their Gyarados; I do have two dragon moves, thankfully).

[inkstone]

My gyarados has twister & I hate it, especially since they took away dragon breath as a quick attack. (So I have bite.) I'm going to start farming magikarp again in the hopes of getting a better moveset but ugh. Why.