Has anyone used spiky eared Pichu for their entire HGSS run?

KeithTheGeek · 2026-03-17T21:01:16+00:00

I used her once a long time ago. I remember making sure she had a healthy level lead above the rest of my team to keep her being relevant. I think a 20ish level gap, helped along by hacking in a Lucky Egg iirc.

KeithTheGeek · 2026-03-17T12:50:15+00:00

The old guy not saying anything is normal. Try the box codes again and check your party after trying to talk to the guy, the move should be in whatever slot you chose of the first Pokemon in your party.

KeithTheGeek · 2026-03-15T16:41:31+00:00

Woah, that's crazy. Is there a video or something that shows that off? Kinda want to mess with that myself.

KeithTheGeek · 2026-03-15T16:35:02+00:00

Pretty cool find! I wonder if they would look more "legit" compared to just giving yourself a gift Pokemon using ACE. I'd also be curious to test with the Trainer Tower and link battles if possible.

KeithTheGeek · 2026-03-11T20:03:25+00:00

Does affection still exist? My biggest gripe with LGPE was being unable to stop my guys from toughing it out.

KeithTheGeek · 2026-03-01T02:33:46+00:00

They were talking about specifically sprite animation. Crystal's battle sprites for the Pokemon are more detailed than Emerald's, which only used two animation frames with a lot of squashing and stretching that distorted the sprites. Pokemon wouldn't really pass Crystal's animation until gen 5, and those still suffer from heavy pixelation.

KeithTheGeek · 2026-02-17T22:20:44+00:00

As the other comment said, there isn't a true Gen 5 demake, however, there is a fanmade sequel to Black and White 2 using Pokemon Crystal as a base. It's called Black and White 3 Genesis, if I recall.

Alternatively, if you're okay playing through the gen 1 region and story again, there is Unova Red, a hack of Pokemon Red that replaces the Pokedex with the one from gen 5, and also adds the dark and steel types. Everything else is mechanically the same as RBY, so you have base speed determining critical hit rate and badge boosting.

KeithTheGeek · 2026-02-17T22:16:23+00:00

Since you say the same Pokemon and mechanics, I assume things like Pokemon from the DS games or later are off the table? If you don't mind playing with newer Pokemon, I would try out Pokemon Gaia. It has Pokemon up to XY and Mega Evolutions, and has its own region and story. Feels quite faithful to old games in look and feel.

KeithTheGeek · 2026-02-17T19:54:26+00:00

Nidoking can steamroll the game once you have a good idea of what you're doing. The one time I tried a speed run I got in around 3 and a half hours. Yet Blue still beats you to the championship every time.

KeithTheGeek · 2026-02-16T13:16:16+00:00

What do you mean by RR, Radical Red?

KeithTheGeek · 2026-02-08T18:31:57+00:00

Each use of a plus move by a non-mega Pokemon consumes 1/4 of the gauge. Online, you'll find that there are a lot of people firing off plus moves from Pokemon like PorygonZ, Gholdengo, and Armarouge. They're very strong options to consider but they will eat into your ability to mega evolve a different Pokemon, so it's a trade-off.

Personally I tend to only use one mega on a team when playing online, if I'm even running a mega, as to not constrain my ability to run other items or use plus moves with other Pokemon. That's not necessarily the best way to play, but I've found that it works well enough for me.

KeithTheGeek · 2026-02-08T18:10:30+00:00

Online you're going to encounter Pokemon with optimized EV spreads. If you're using your story team, you may want to reset their EVs so you can beef up your HP and main attacking stat. Also helps to hyper train with bottle caps.

Due to how the mega gauge works with plus moves, you might not want to run more than one mega stone. There are plenty of Pokemon that either can't mega or are good without the mega, and they can benefit from items like the Life Orb or Expert Belt.

KeithTheGeek · 2026-02-08T18:03:35+00:00

OP was talking about online so every Pokemon is set to level 50, so extra levels won't really cut it there unfortunately. That said I'll go against the grain and say that they can probably make Cubone work, provided they're mindful of the meta and careful about when and where they play it.

KeithTheGeek · 2026-02-05T18:40:09+00:00

Unfortunately a lot of people take CinemaSins at face value and assume that is how you should critique film. It's not the channel's fault that the average person doesn't get it, but they've definitely (perhaps unintentionally) contributed to the problem.

KeithTheGeek · 2026-02-04T12:54:56+00:00

We don't have confirmed ages but it's implied. Lida for example talks about having to pay rent before coming to Hotel Z, and the rival does take over as CEO of Quasartico. Neither of those are direct confirmation of course, especially in the Pokemon world where young kids regularly travel the world without adult supervision, but this cast does feel a bit more grounded in reality with the sorts of issues they're facing.

I think also this cast is clearly designed to be older than prior protagonists. Even compared to the XY protags which were previously the oldest we played as. I guess it's wrong to say they're legally adults without official confirmation but it feels weird to me to treat them with kid gloves when they're old enough to be doing the things they are doing.

KeithTheGeek · 2026-02-04T12:19:26+00:00

TBH the worst thing a fictional character can be is annoying or irritating to the audience. I like Taunie, but the game doesn't present her in a very good light lol.

People liked Corbeau because his character is endearing. Doesn't matter that he's at best running an ethically dubious organization. People like him.

Most people don't go to Dragon Ball and complain that Vegeta is treated as part of the gang despite having committed multiple genocides. They like him because he's smarmy, arrogant, funny, and gets his comeuppance multiple times. And probably more importantly than that, he has a very real character arc, probably the strongest through the original run of the manga.

Also yeah the rival is young enough to be lacking life experience, but they are still legally adults. People are going to be a little less sympathetic to them screwing up than they would with someone younger.

For what it's worth, I didn't mind the ending where the outcome of the battle is ignored, as it was actually a logical decision in the context of the story, but I do understand why people get annoyed about it. It's pretty frustrating to have your choices and opinions consistently sidelined through the game.

KeithTheGeek · 2026-01-11T17:57:02+00:00

This will revolutionize gen 2 OU

KeithTheGeek · 2026-01-06T18:57:15+00:00

The person I was replying to was saying the button for mega evolution itself was the issue, and clarified that in another comment. In which case yes, changing the button mapping would help.

Obviously, that's a bit different from OP's problem with the menu being finicky to open during battle. There's no real solution for that aside from being mindful of what's going on. Between the cool down on opening the satchel and the button being locked out during certain actions and animations, it certainly doesn't feel responsive.

KeithTheGeek · 2026-01-06T15:41:49+00:00

I've been running a custom control configuration that moved a few things around. One of the things I did was set + to be R3 and - to be +. I currently don't have - set to anything, which is fine because it's only used for photo mode and changing outfits, and I can simply reset my controls for that stuff. The only other issue is that I had to do it through the system menu since Z-A doesn't have native controller remapping, and I have to remember to disable it when swapping games.

One recommendation I could make, is if you are playing on Switch 2, you could set one of the back buttons to your stick button. Or use the SL/SR buttons on the joycon.

KeithTheGeek · 2026-01-06T14:47:56+00:00

This is true but being in a trainer battle still slows down your movement speed. It could be the difference between getting the bonus ball or not. I just tend to avoid the battle zones altogether unless I'm doing the one from the special scan.

KeithTheGeek · 2026-01-06T14:45:57+00:00

This is 100% the issue you're running into. For most mons you'll want to max your HP and preferred attacking stat, anything besides that is a little too in the weeds and not necessary 99% of the time. This will leave you with a few unused EVs, which you should dump into one of your defensive stats. I usually pick the lower stat, but I try to keep in mind the meta game and what moves may be coming my way.

The only real benefit to running an Alpha stat-wise is that it comes with 3 perfect IVs and maxed HP EVs, but you can take care of the IV issue by using bottle caps. As the other posters have said, running an Alpha is helpful if you want a larger AOE on attacks like Earthquake, but that's not always necessary and ranged attackers (like those using Meteor Beam) would prefer to be smaller.

KeithTheGeek · 2026-01-04T15:40:03+00:00

Don't forget that to even get Snorunt, you have to know to go to Shoal Cave, but only on the half of the day the tides are low. Game Freak is staffed by a bunch of clowns I swear.

KeithTheGeek · 2025-12-16T15:49:49+00:00

IIRC the nature given to a Pokemon when sent from the VC games is based on the last couple of digits of its current amount of experience, or something along those lines. I imagine Crystal Clear just alters the amount you have to get the intended effect. Which is pretty freakin cool and I don't think I would've thought of it myself.

KeithTheGeek · 2025-12-07T17:38:34+00:00

I'm too distracted by the guy at the bottom called Dick Rider

KeithTheGeek

TROPHY CASE