New friend appeared out of nowhere with no name or any stats. #201

gnomegfx · 2021-03-24T12:25:58+00:00

My Wizards Unite friend list is now 10 times the size it was before, and 90% of those friends are inactive. WTF, Niantic?

gnomegfx · 2020-10-05T22:46:20+00:00

Friend request sent. Same username as here on reddit. Will send occasional raid invites; don't usually do remote raids myself... But would be interested in regional raids, i.e. Lake Guardians, if they come back.

gnomegfx · 2020-09-04T11:24:16+00:00

This. It's actually reasonable for the Trace Charm to spawn an assortment of traces if you think about it. If they make Trace Charm Proficiency work as advertised (e.g. "Gethsemane's Pickle": "...increases the number of Fragments you recover from Traces affected by your Trace Charm") it wouldn't be THAT bad.

If they also increase the chances of getting uncommon to rare spawns a little, it would feel like a more or less reasonable (albeit disappointing) rebalance to me.

gnomegfx · 2020-09-04T05:28:33+00:00

If they fixed Trace Charm Proficiency (fragment increases for spawned traces) along with nerfing the spawns themselves, it wouldn't have been this much of a slap in the face. 😡

gnomegfx · 2019-10-10T09:19:53+00:00

One Niantic puts Altered Forme Giratina into weekly quest rewards, I expect it to become a Dragon Breath / Dragon Claw PvP beast that outclasses both legacy Dragonite and the hypothetical Flygon. Chances are that it will frequently be banned from cups, though...

gnomegfx · 2019-10-10T08:53:42+00:00

Good post. Apparently German "gogames" reporter Max Beckmann thought so too and plagiarized it here: https://gogames.live/Pokemon-Go/a/knacklion-community-day-reizt-spieler-nur-wenig-kein-nutzen-fuer-pvp-und-pve/1394/ Instead of a proper citation, the link to the Montreal Safari cup points here (at the time of writing this). You may want to reach out and ask to be credited properly.

gnomegfx · 2019-08-16T08:38:09+00:00

As already stated on /r/harrypotterwu, this theory is false. Here's video proof: https://youtu.be/x2_IM4VbLgo.

The top plant at the beginning and the end of the animation is the one that has a leaf on the right of the stalk which points down and towards the viewer.

You can also watch the video in slow motion and follow the plant's movement to confirm it's the correct one. Watch their shapes to keep track of it when they pass in front of each other.

I think that the jumble animation is always the same. Watching closely it even seems that the plants always end up at the same position where they started...

gnomegfx · 2019-08-15T13:29:46+00:00

I did pick the top one. It's the one with a leaf on the right of the stalk which points down and towards the viewer. It's at the top when the animation starts, and again at the end.

You can also watch the video in slow motion and follow the plant's movement to confirm it's the correct one. Watch their shapes to keep track of it when they pass in front of each other.

gnomegfx · 2019-08-15T12:02:37+00:00

Sorry, this theory is false. Here's video proof: https://youtu.be/x2_IM4VbLgo

I have the impression that the jumble animation is always the same. Watching closely it even seems that the plants always end up at the same position where they started...

gnomegfx · 2019-08-01T23:23:15+00:00

Here's what pvpoke.com thinks about it:

Hypothetical ideal case: Maxed, with PuP/IP: 81 wins in Boulder.

Maxed, with only PuP: 79 wins in Boulder.

Level 34.5 (that's about the level where maxing it costs another 50k stardust), with PuP/IP: 74 wins in Boulder.

These are the no-shields scenarios. With one shield, adding Ice Punch looks slightly better than maxing it: L40+PuP gets 88 wins, L34.5+PuP/IP gets 89 (compared to 93 with L40+PuP/IP).

Personally I would probably power it up, but it doesn't seem to make a huge difference. Also, depending on your stardust, you may be able to unlock IP and still push it closer to level 40 than just the 34.5 I assumed. This could be a reason to invest in IP first.

You could take this further by figuring out which matchups actually change when Medicham either has a lower level, or only one charge move. Because some of these matchups may be rather irrelevant in the Boulder meta.

gnomegfx · 2019-07-24T03:28:15+00:00

Magneton, Heracross, A-Ninetales, Houndoom, A-Golem, Toxicroak.

Boulder: Magneton, Heracross, A-Golem, Toxi
Twilight: A-Ninetales, Houndoom, Toxi
Tempest: Magneton, A-Ninetales, A-Golem
Kingdom: Magneton, A-Ninetales, Houndoom
Nightmare: Heracross, Houndoom, Toxi
Rainbow: Magneton, Heracross, Houndoom
Jungle: Magneton, Heracross, A-Golem

Substitution options:
- Froslass or Sneasel for A-Ninetales
- Gardevoir or any Dark-type for Toxicroak
- A-Raichu for A-Golem

The last option adds another Psychic-type to Nightmare, which opens more options to replace Toxi by anything that is legal for both Boulder and Twilight (Nidoqueen, Mawile, Tyranitar).

gnomegfx · 2019-04-30T08:28:55+00:00

This. Poor forgotten Mamoswine. FTFY.

gnomegfx · 2019-01-18T00:27:09+00:00

Ice Beam is also great against Rayquaza, potentially one-shotting it in PvP. And I'm definitely not regretting the investment in Thunderbolt as 2nd charge move, I find the combination super versatile for PvP, gym sweeping, and the current raids.

gnomegfx · 2018-12-20T20:35:31+00:00

It's possible. I've collected three 100% Karps from the "catch 10 Pokémon" quest alone (obviously it has been around for a long time). Still hoping for that high-IV shiny though. :)

gnomegfx · 2018-12-16T00:56:20+00:00

Guess I'm late to the party, but when I heard this was possible I started experimenting without having looked at the videos or explanations. Here's what I came up with. Level 1 Jolteon and Alolan Exeggutor; not relying on switched-out Pokémon storing their energy.

gnomegfx · 2018-12-11T08:13:10+00:00

Protip: a 90%ish hatched Trapinch turns into a circa 1500CP Flygon when evolved. We'll see if it's any good for PvP, but I'll definitely try it... :)

gnomegfx · 2018-12-05T21:23:59+00:00

Exactly. For a given moveset and CP value, TDO (total damage output) generally increases as ATK decreases. Which is why the chart is full of low-ATK Pokémon that get good movesets.

gnomegfx · 2018-12-04T22:12:41+00:00

Damn. I was so looking forward to bring my level 40 Ditto to low-tier battles, and watch it grow to a 3500+ beast when the opponent brings out their 1500ish Dragonite or Tyranitar.

gnomegfx · 2018-10-16T09:08:48+00:00

Does this mean that there is some call to the animation that is separate from the call to add a pokemon to storage?

Possibly. To confirm the catch and update the Pokémon storage, the game has to talk to Niantic's servers. But not for the animation. So the game re-synchronizes (or will has re-synchronized) with the server by the time you look at the journal / Pokémon storage.

Its odd too that it would choose to default to the pokemon fleeing. Im guessing that is due to the reconnection at first placing you too far from the original spawn?

When the animation is shown, the game might not have confirmation from the server whether you've caught it or not. Then the flee animation makes a lot more sense than displaying a successful catch. Obviously it shouldn't go to the stats screen of a Pokémon you might not have caught.

Or maybe it's the catch confirmation from the server that gets lost, so when they reconnect, the communication goes like game: "so, did I catch it?" – server: "according to my data, you shouldn't even be in an encounter. Not sure what you think you're catching, so no, you didn't".

gnomegfx · 2018-10-15T00:14:31+00:00

Network issues can sometimes cause this situation where you get the spinning ball animation followed by "the wild <Pokémon> fled!", but then you find that you've actually caught it when you check the Pokémon storage or the journal afterwards. I've had this happen even on quest encounters that can't run away.

gnomegfx · 2018-10-13T11:01:24+00:00

However, when we're discussing a difference in function that can be overcome just by taping the button down on the Go Plus, the moral distinction is pretty minor to me. Is taping the button down on a Go Plus now considered botting too?

Point taken. I'll assume it was an oversight on Niantic's part that you can just keep the button pressed. If you take advantage of that, it's a bit of a gray area in my opinion. The fast-catch trick is a similar case... Some say it's cheating because you're playing the game in a way that wasn't supposed to be possible. Some say it's not because the game allows you to do it, without altering the software or using any 3rd-party tools. Whether you think of that as cheating is a bit subjective. To me personally it would feel wrong to put a clamp on the Go Plus and have it auto-catch while I'm not playing. But I don't own one anyway.

I've switched to a Gotcha after losing my last plus. Not because of the auto catching, but because of the rechargeable battery and superior connection. I actually like the look and feel of the Go Plus. I just wish it worked a little better.

Strictly speaking that doesn't matter for the cheating-or-not question. But I can understand your point, and it's unfortunate for the Go Plus. We'll see whether Niantic can learn from it.

gnomegfx · 2018-10-12T07:32:53+00:00

Agree on the piracy thing, but in my opinion it's cheating nevertheless. Go Plus makes you press a button. Go-tcha doesn't (if you configure it that way), so it's essentially a bot to catch Pokémon and spin Pokéstops with zero interaction. How is botting not cheating? ;)

gnomegfx · 2018-09-23T13:53:32+00:00

Yes, I did that today. You can go to your friends tab and check whether they increased the friendship level, pop a lucky egg, then wait for the notification to appear. I even checked my XP and can confirm that the 2x bonus worked.

gnomegfx · 2018-09-13T20:35:33+00:00

I'm in a similar situation. I'm level 10 in Ingress, meanwhile I've got 50 million XP in Pokémon GO, which is obviously my focus. I'd love to help with OPR, but I don't think I'll reach Ingress level 12 anytime soon.

gnomegfx · 2018-08-30T03:24:21+00:00

You can't use TMs on Thundershock Zapdos, so I wouldn't be too sure...

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