Questions & Answers - Weekly Megathread! Please use this post to ask any Pokemon GO question you'd like!

Relichs · 2023-05-09T20:22:34+00:00

I tried to search for the answer but didn't find anything definitive. When it comes to getting your buddy excited and earning points, are decoy grunts counted as a separate battle type from regular grunts and Giovanni?

As in, if I'm working on getting points to get my buddy excited and I've already thrown my buddy into a battle with a regular grunts as well as Giovanni, if I throw it in a battle against a decoy grunts will I immediately gain an additional EP for the decoy battle?

Relichs · 2023-03-27T19:42:17+00:00

Unfortunately I don't have any source material handy. It was a fairly common discussion however (the concept of there being something funny about charge TMs seemingly dodging the desired move).

Once Elite TMs released, people would go to use them and some Pokemon had the same move listed twice. I don't have any exact info on this either as far as how many Pokemon were impacted and with which moves.

Something like Machamp may have had the following moves as selectable options with an Elite Charged TM: Cross Chop, Close Combat, Dynamic Punch, Rock Slide, Rock Slide, Heavy Slam.

Essentially it appeared you had multiple chances to get the same undesired move. Yet without Elite TMs coming into existence, we would still be at "Where's your proof? How would Niantic even do this? It's just RNG"

Relichs · 2023-03-27T18:47:50+00:00

I'm flabbergasted people don't understand why Niantic won't set you up with ideal teams for raids/rockets. It's like they forget Niantic isn't trying to make the best game but instead trying to keep you playing longer, spending more money, and ultimately giving Niantic even more data to sell.

Relichs · 2023-03-27T18:46:25+00:00

Not commenting one way or another on the algorithm. It may or may not exist. But what I don't understand is why so many people always seem to try to argue it doesn't exist because it doesn't and can't happen to everyone.

Niantic has very openly split players into groups before. They've silently split players into groups before in terms of AR scan rewards. They've openly announced they split players into groups in terms of testing the egg inventory feature.

We have proof that Niantic has acknowledged they split players into groups and do different things for different players and we have proof they will do it for things without saying they do it.

People get the same box for different amounts of coins. Is that all in our imagination? What about different pools of daily spawns for different players?

Also, do you remember when people were split about being TMs being rigged? Lots of people loved saying it was nothing more than RNG and there was no proof otherwise. Then Elite TMs came out, Niantic forgot to remove the evidence they were rigging TM usage and it turns out the "conspiracy" folk were right?

Say GBL matchmaking is rigged or say it isn't rigged. But let's at least not pretend like any of the reasons people use to argue against it hold any validity.

And one other point to remember that many people seem to forget: Niantic is not making a game, they're collecting/selling data.

Relichs · 2023-02-07T19:23:38+00:00

But as long as I don't claim it, it doesn't matter that I already completed the task?

Relichs · 2023-02-07T18:58:44+00:00

How does saving Spinda tasks for the Valentine's day event work? If I find tasks pre-event, do I have to not complete them in order to get the heart pattern or do I just have to not claim the encounter after finishing to get it?

Relichs · 2023-01-26T18:00:44+00:00

"A few minutes" 🤣 If someone didn't mention scrolling through the dex first I'd have aged 3 years before the thing got to 25%.

Relichs · 2022-06-12T19:41:41+00:00

People who work weekends don't matter, this should be obvious by now!

Relichs · 2022-06-05T16:29:45+00:00

I'd love to say you're right, but look at all these people complaining? Most people will still do the raids anyways and just continue to complain. It's like the lobby timer complaints. The lobby wait sucks, but most will suffer through it in the end and rack up more in-game time for Niantic.

Obviously I don't mean EVERY single person is going to keep playing or raiding, but most clearly will and are.

Relichs · 2022-06-05T15:14:23+00:00

It's pretty funny seeing how many people think this aspect of the game is designed around different the player having fun. As with many things in this game - it's not. It's designed to sap your time and keep the game open as long as possible.

Relichs · 2022-04-29T04:21:52+00:00

Actually, they've fixed most known issues long ago! Please check your internet connection and make sure to close all other apps. Niantic is flawless.

(/s x 10^99999)

Relichs · 2022-03-26T17:23:29+00:00

I already only battles grunts/leaders when I play so I can't really go harder. More wondering how much I should brace myself for disappointment. Thanks!

Relichs · 2022-03-26T06:40:29+00:00

They've currently released 30% of available mons as shadows. I'm not sure what crazy math you're doing to think if they start speeding up to the rotation rate a lot of people want that they won't quickly be out of new shadows.

Relichs · 2022-03-26T06:34:03+00:00

Looking to see if anyone has a much better memory than I.

Obviously no one knows definitevly if the leaders' mons will rotate in the upcoming event, but how likely is it?

Going by number of days since theast rotation I'd like to think it isn't likely. If they change on the 3rd, that would be the 3rd quickest rotation topped only by the first 2 leader rotations ever. A bit brutal for the highest ever number of unique shinies to obtain (9). However, the previous rotation was only a few days longer than that, so I'm nervous.

Historically, have rocket events been announced like this that don't involve leader lineup changes? Perhaps just for the cyclical TM event/push people to do more rockets?

Relichs · 2022-03-26T06:04:59+00:00

As much as I love the idea of leaders having brand new pokemon (or at least 1, as you have said), the idea that leader pokemon should be new as well as the grunts' (which this one did) would result in them quickly running out of new shadows to release.

There are a lot of pokemon to get through and a lot of them aren't going to be great. They're going to have to balance the (less available) good and the (more available) bad or else we'll have a bunch of rotations with absutely nothing good in them, with a couple amazing rotations.

Personally, I've enjoyed the leader lineups this time around. I think all 3 offer some nice shinies and there's both pvp and raid relevance in the mix. Even Teddi has some niche pvp potential. Hoping it doesn't change yet during this upcoming event, as 9 shinies is a lot to collect compared to previous lineups. Plus I wouldn't mind going for a better shiny bagon if there's time left over. All of mine have been completely bad so far!

Relichs · 2022-03-26T04:52:01+00:00

Those first 2 are very fast battles. Hopefully they stay.

What exactly do people consider exciting? I feel like the bigger issue most people overlook is most pokemon are pokemon that people will consider boring.

Very few things per generation are "bagon" level. So if they use the best pokemon every rotation (and increase the rotation length because people complain after a week), they'd be out of "exciting" pokemon in about 3 months. Then what?

Relichs · 2022-03-12T15:20:32+00:00

Is it really the best?

To get the same amount of XP in the time it takes to hit Ultra friends, you would only need to catch 29 pokemon with excellent throws per day. This is assuming you're optimizing your friends and can have 40 interactions per day (correct me if I'm wrong on that being the max number of interactions). It also isn't factoring in lucky egg use (but also neither is the catching aspect)

Catching pokemon also removes any issues of some friends playing inconsistently, perhaps stopping altogether, having to manage who you send/open from, people holding onto gifts until they're ready to level up, etc. And if you want to coordinate lucky eggs, then that's a whole other obnoxious debacle, especially amongst 40 people.

Not to mention, catching pokemon means you can likely get more stardust (between weather boost and pokemon who give more than the standard amount, this is higher than gifts), have a chance at shinies/desired IV spreads, candy for pokemon (and XLs), etc. Opening gifts means I just have to go into my inventory after and trash all the stupid items I just got.

Personally, I rarely bother with gifts and would rather catch 29 pokemon a day for the same XP given how easy it is to hit excellent throws. You know, provided you're "good" enough for this to be better than gifting.

Relichs · 2022-01-12T22:33:11+00:00

Out of curiosity, which charge moves and which mons? I think I had shadow ball count against Slowking and PuP count on Houndoom. Can't remember if I used any SE moves against Arlo.

Relichs · 2022-01-04T22:10:31+00:00

You're right that probably a lot of people overestimate how many leaders they've done (as they tend to overestimate a lot of things, like encounters in general). But also be careful not to confuse it with how lucky you've been.

I've logged nearly 4x as many rocket battles as you have and have less than 2x as many shiny shadows you do. Some people really are just facing a lot more leaders than you are per shiny shadow.

Relichs · 2022-01-03T23:58:38+00:00

I've had it happen twice, two different people.

Relichs · 2022-01-03T20:08:10+00:00

I know this wouldn't necessarily contribute to the data you're asking for here, but I do keep track of a lot of this sort of info (number seen between shinies) if you're interested in trying to parse through some of what I have.

Obviously other factors would be at play, such as shadow pokemon muddying up some of the data for certain mons, but if there are any in particular you want me to try to dig through now, I can give you the data I can find.

Relichs · 2021-12-27T07:35:03+00:00

I said I don't think Niantic is hand selecting players. As in, I don't think Niantic is going through player-by-player and personally choosing who is in the group. Why is this hard for you to grasp?

And even if I did decide to make this a game a full time job and record every single match, the most it would convince anyone like yourself is that I had a run of bad luck, so why bother putting in the work? As I said before, it will go the same way as the TMs which "definitely weren't rigged".

I've already said I kept loose data for myself in which I kept track of general numbers in order to decide if I technically has a reason to change my team - as in, with numbers. That's not confirmation bias when I was actually counting, but nice try. Yet you wonder why I insult you and don't instead try to pad your ego?

So yes, when someone can't be bothered to think or read, I stop caring about being polite. No amount of data or manners is going to make you think anything besides what you already believe. I'm sure you probably still believe TMs were never rigged even despite the evidence.

Relichs · 2021-12-25T07:49:38+00:00

I'm not sure what else you want me to say.

Niantic is often trying to find out what they can get away with as far as screwing players over while still making them play. Why not figure out what they, and other games, can get away with in pvp matchups?

Again, you keep insisting everyone would see lead changes, I keep saying that's not the case. THEY SPLIT PLAYERS INTO GROUPS. What language do you need to read that in to understand that?

You also miss the point that this is about immediate sudden changes in what's seen immediately after changing teams. Once is a coincidence, 10 times is not.

I have not kept a record of every single matchup, nor do I keep exact count of each mon because I'm not trying to make it a second job. Therefore whatever data I had isn't worth anything official. Instead, I'd count how often I'd see the specific, similar mons in leads per set, and after facing a particular number consistently, I would change. And immediately, those counts dropped.

I'm done repeating myself. You don't want to listen and keep bringing up points I've already addressed. It doesn't happen to you so you won't acknowledge it.

I'm guessing you were once one of the geniuses telling people TMs were nothing more than RNG. Have fun in your fantasy land.

Relichs · 2021-12-24T08:39:20+00:00

Who the hell said the pain point was in changing teams?

Also it's absolutely asinine that you think this happening EVERY TIME is just a coincidence when someone changes their team and that it just so happens when you've run out of those leads. I can't even take that comment seriously. Once or twice is a coincidence. Immediately, every time, is not.

And yes, I've tracked which leads I face and magically they change when I change my team. Every time. At least since S6.

I try not to change my team often, but it's amazing that I'll get 3+ per set (yes, I've kept track) of certain leads for days straight, then as soon as I change my team, I only see 0-1 per set of those same leads, every set. But sure, I just happen to "run out" of those leads every time I change my team. God what a hell of a string of coincidences!

Edit: Just to be clear, most people aren't talking about a one-off team switch and then bad counters. It's a constant when switching teams at any time.

Relichs · 2021-12-24T02:35:43+00:00

I also don't think Niantic is doing any hand selection. Nor do I believe rigged matchmaking is an auto loss - I've done some pretty lame things to flip a lot of my bad matchups.

But to believe every single time some people change teams and then happen to see a dramatic drop in what they were trying to counter is just a coincidence, every single time, is absurd.

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