Topic: Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon discussion

Mareep it is then! I'm a sucker for the Ampharos line.

@Tyranexx You're welcome. A lot of electric types (Manectric in UM, Elekid, Dedenne, Togedemaru, Geodude) don't show up until Ula Ula Island

In moon, the event rockruff gets thunder fang.

That counts, right?

@YummyHappyPills: That's a shame that a lot of them don't show up until later. Out of those you just listed, I'm most fond of Manectric and Alolan Golem's line.

I was pretty adamant about keeping my main team in Sun filled with Gen 7 Pokemon, but I think I'll be breaking that rule when I pick up US or UM.

@Meowpheel: ...Not quite. XD I may end up getting Ultra Sun anyway.

@Tyranexx I'm accidentally doing what I did in Sun and Moon, using a mix of old and new.

For Moon I had Magnezone (Used Before), Primarina, Araquanid, Ribombee, Palossand and Lycanroc.

For Ultra Moon, I have Primarina (Used Before), Araquanid (Used Before), Aurorus (Used Before) and the new Pokemon to me of Tauros, Malamar and Electivire when I get there.

My team right now is Rockruff, Rowlet, Buneary, Pichu and Zorua. Just started playing it yesterday so haven’t even done the 1st trial, home stuff keeps getting in the way. Finally got the steelbook dual pack today so my kids are playing theirs and only have two 3DSes that four people can play on. Lol hence why I’m not so far into the game.

Aaah... I managed to get an awesome team of competitive shinies on Sun and Moon that had: Decidueye, Golisopod, Alolan Raichu, Lycanroc day form, Salazzle and Silvally... but then I transferred my previous team from X and Y wich were also competitive shinies: Greninja, Espeon, Charizard Y, Luxray, Scizor and Hawlucha/Flygon and ended up using the same team online again... I loved many of the pokemon from that game but I just couldn't replace any of them.

Nice teams across the board! In Sun, I used Decidueye, Alolan Raichu, Toucannon, Lycanroc (Midday), Araquanid, and Salazzle. It's a team I'm still fond of overall, minus Lycanroc's singular typing and wet paper bag Alolan Raichu.

I'm considering starting with Rowlet again in US/UM, but I may change things up and grab Litten...hmm....

I'm gonna keep the exp share on and use the ability to add newly caught Pokemon to your team. Keeping the team different.

Maybe I'll discover some new favorites.

Wow they actually made an improvement in UMUS, if you have battle animations turned off you no longer see the stupid dance when you use a Z move.

Just saw Joe Merrick / @Serebii post these on Twitter:

Here's the link to the tweet as well: Link

Such a nice thing to add to the game.

So I just "Beat" the Electric trial.

Be setting up Intimidate turn one, getting two Bulldozes off to lower speed, losing my Tauros and sitting with Malamar mixing Reflect and Hypnosis on the non-Totem Pokemon and ended up doing this for 45 turns because I couldn't make any other moves due to them being able to sweep me handily until the Totem Pokemon used Struggle and took itself down after 48 turns.

That's how bad this games difficulty is.

I had to heal stall until Struggle for near 50 TURNS.

Okay so I always thought the two on one battles were a bit BS, especially when one of the opponents has an aura boosting some or all stats by up to 2 stages.

But this game does that, gives an insane combination of Tutor moves, later level up moves, Egg moves and more to the Totem, gives it its aura, gives it support Pokemon with moves like entry hazards and Tailwind, gives it beneficial items like Super Effective reducing berries or healing berries, and then EV and IV trains both of them.

What absolute **** at Game Freak thought having two on one battles with aura boosted Pokemon that are COMPETITIVELY TRAINED was a good idea in a main playthrough where you are not going to have ANY of the provisions to EV/IV/Get Natures beneficial to your Pokemon? That's legitimately s*** design.

Making the game harder is good in my book. X and Moon were ridiculous walks in the park, so if this one has some actual challenge I'm ok with that.

Then again my litten one-shotted the totem raticate yesterday, so I'm not all that sure.

@Meowpheel Im all for making it harder.

Im not all for making it harder in ways that to level the playing field you need absurd luck with RNG or a lot of Potions. Like they shouldnt be competitive pokemon that are trained in that way when the player cant do that.

Anyway time to battle Guzma

You have the power OF overleveled pokemon, also the pokepelago.

And items. Those are almost cheating.

@Meowpheel Poke Pelago isnt unlocked until after the Fire trial now, and thats after the god insane Water trial. And what Power Overlevelled Pokemon?

As for items, Roto Boost doesnt help much though its useful. Heal stalling is the only real strategy.

Oops I missed the "of" in between "power overleveled". I meant that the regular player using the exp share and a constant team of pokemon will likely have their team overleveled most of the time.

That's too bad about pokepelago. Anyway, items. It's easy to dismiss them, but the X items are super useful. I think each one raises their stat by two stages. And rememeber, using Double Team and Sand Attack is perfectly ok when against the computer.

There's lots of cheesy strategies to use. Heal stalling is just one of them.

So go for it! Be unpleasant, cheap, and unfair! Like the AI.

@Meowpheel Double Team and Sand Attack only have merit assuming the opponent doesnt immediately hit you anyway and OHKO you even if you resist it.

Regarding EXP Share, where I am now, im about 3 to 5 levels below. Thats without it and battling every trainer. I dont see the exp share filling that gap. Maybe with Roto EXO but you get that randomly so no guarantee.

Regarding resisting moves, Ive had Pokemon be KOed kr bear knocked out by resistive moves from Pokemon that have no business doibg damage like that. This game is nuts.

On that note beware of Masquerain

Oh the exp share definitely "fills the gap", it's a bit overpowered actually.

Let's say you have a team of six pokemon, and don't switch pokemon mid-battle.

Exp share off:
You defeated a pokemon and your active pokemon got 1000 exp.
Total: 1000 exp.

Exp share on:
You defeated a pokemon and your active pokemon got 1000 exp.
Pokemon 2 got 500 exp.
Pokemon 3 got 500 exp.
Pokemon 4 got 500 exp.
Pokemon 5 got 500 exp.
Pokemon 6 got 500 exp.
Total: 3500 exp.

It may seem little indiviudally, but even without any multipliers (affection, lucky egg, traded, rotom) that single pokemon was worth over three times more exp.

@Meowpheel That's an unbalanced game as a result then. I'm not fond of that but I know the levels spike like they did in SM when you hit Poni Island (I thought there was cut content in SM before Poni, turns out no, the levels just spike).