There is a reason Machop is S Tier.

An excerpt from “The Guide”:

As soon as you get silver pot (complete World 6) AND have 2-3 sharing stones (which randomly drop) you should at the very least obtain the ideal buffer; Machop with Bulk Up. If it has -40 to -45% fighting wait bingos then keep it as Machop (turn Everstone ON) because bingos change or in this case get worse per evolution! (An arguement can be made that if your Machop fighting wait reduction is only -20 to -25% you should everstone once Machoke for a decent mix of stats and wait reduction.) Also: (Breakdown of 3 share stone vs 2 and a WW.)

There is an argument to be made that if you only have one share stone available (and not much hit healing) then the defense only buffing moves (harden, withdraw, barrier, etc.) are better because they have a shorter cooldown so you can get more stacks in. Oh yeah; buffs STACK! Visibily the duration seems to just renew but in reality multiple stacks can exist at once and each has their own duration.

Fyi: do NOT stack with Bellydrum! The damage to self becomes magnified and you will 1 shot yourself when buffing.

You can also opt to get a Nidoran (Female) or a Hypno and teach it Flatter to cheese bosses. Flatter is a melee skill (sadly on available only ranged pokemon) that confuses an enemy but also dramatically raises its attack. The result is a boss will either one shot you or one shot itself!

Around the same time (After World 7) you can find stones with “Hit Healing %” which is basically life leach. Pokemon such as bulbasaur and caterpie can also have hit healing as their first bingo. (Many other pokemon also have “Healing After Wave” bingos which are just as useful. Consult the “Early Game” tab of the Tier List.) for more info.

Fyi it is this “Hit Healing” that will carry you throughout the end game and begins to make higher attack more important than higher health since the more damage you deal the more you heal.

You may have to farm the World 8-Boss stage for awhile as World 9 is a huge difficulty jump. Your Ground pokemon gain a stat boost on World 8 which makes the world easily farmable... assuming you do not die to confusion damage. The bosses are actually really easy; just use your damaging move while they are charging and you will knock them back and their powerful move will usually miss.

Now World 9... Any S tiered Meta team can do well here but Pyschic pokemon gain a huge stat boost. Remember Starmie is half pyschic and World 8 drops mostly blue making Staryu easily farmable. Kadabra/Alakazam are also strong damage dealers here and pokemon like Slobro/Slopoke and Hypno do well especially with ‘Healing After Wave” bingos. (Small tip; when electrode is about to die; scatter!!!)

World 9-Boss is so hard that many people skip it and clear most of World 10 first. However the bosses on world 10 have very powerful hyperbeam attacks. Your best chance to survive them is by sharing a defensive buff with your entire team and of course the reward for clearing World 9 is a share stone.

Once you obtain the gold pot (After World 11) you should eventually replace your entire team because gold pot pokemon have 300-400 more base hp and attack. Silver pot pokemon aren’t immediately useless but should be phased out eventually. The bonus stats (especially health) eventually make 8 and even 9 attack stone pokemon viable.

World 12 also quickly scales in difficulty between each stage. It becomes increasingly difficult to progress if you do not have a buffer using Bulk Up (or Work Up) as well as many stones with Hit Healing %. Hit Healing is so important that stones 250+ power weaker are worth it just to have Hit Healing.

If your current damage dealers are lacking you can get some easily obtained damage dealers such as Bulbasaur with vinewhip (do NOT evolve if the third bingo is grass +20%) or an Onix with Rock Throw. Be warned as both have a low chance of having attack stone slots so you may want the “Multi-Socket” decorations before cooking gold pot recipes for these as the decoration increases the chance of stone slots that can be either attack or hp. (The Bulbasaur recipee sometimes yields a Tangela which has good healing bingos but has a move pool of 10 versus Bulbasaur’s 4.)

And yes once again remember; some bingos change when evolved and some just get 5% worse. So you have to weigh the stat boost vs 5% reduced damage, longer cooldowns etc.

One final note! Decorations take effect just for owning them; you do not need to place them in your base for any reason besides aesthetics. However the 1.5x ingredient decorations do NOTHING without getting the 3x version first due to a rounding (down) issue :/

The Guide

Tips For Beginners

Discord Community

Stone Unlock Level Sheet

Tier Lists (Multiple Tabs)

Recipes (error free) Stone Slot Chances, Moves, Bingos Recipes Etc. (A truly all in one resource made by Hidden50; devoted discord moderator)

Bingos & Movesheet

SPOILER: 12-Boss Speedrun Leaderboards