DoubleX

While this is true, you do have to find a balance between predictability and effectiveness. Some sets are ridiculously predictable (like if you come up against a Blissey in Advance, odds are they're running Aromatherapy/Thunder Wave/Softboiled/Seismic Toss or Ice Beam) but are very effective (see aforementioned Blissey set). On the other side of the coin, you may have a moveset that's completely unexpected (like an all-special Gyarados) but is nigh useless as a battler. Pokemon that can be unpredictable and still effective are things you have to look out for. Stuff like Gengar, Lucario, or in the Uber tier Mew, Mewtwo or Darkrai. And yes, prediction is a big part of Pokemon battling. A fair number of special sweepers that can learn Focus Punch try to use it as often as possible to attempt predicting the incoming Blissey/Regice/Snorlax to crash the party. Gengar does it quite often, certain Dragonite do it, some people have been crazy enough to have Regice do it. Focus Punch is also useful if you force a switch by sending in something that the opponent can't touch. Say there's a Choice Specs Gengar firing off Shadow Ball after Shadow Ball. You send in Ursaring, and Shadow Ball fails due to it being a Normal type. The opponent's only option is to switch, and so if you use Focus Punch, you get a guaranteed hit on whatever comes out next. Of course, then there might be an extra level of prediction there, in that the Gengar user predicts said Focus Punch and brings in a Fighting resist. It can get quite complicated, but once you've battled for a while, you'll start getting the hang of it.

One thing you need to learn if you want to battle competitively is to not think in terms of just types. You should also be thinking in terms of what specifically you cover. Solarbeam is really only useful against Swampert/Quagsire/Whiscash/Gastrodon since Arcanine has no STAB behind it, and thus it won't do shit to the other Water types you'll run into, particularly Milotic and Suicune. Also, should said Water type come straight into Arcanine, what do you do then? You can't Solarbeam, because you'll die. Short of HP Electric, which is pretty awful against aforementioned Water types, there's nothing you can do, so you'd have to switch. Diversity is good, but Earthquake is one of the best moves in the game, and so would be a good idea to go on Electivire. It also means you can guarantee pain for other Electric types who may switch into you. Yes, Sing is shit, but Lapras doesn't have the greatest movepool, and Psychic is bad due to lack of STAB, and so you'd likely not KO what you'd need to before it did the same to you. Metagross with Sunny Day is pretty bad. Turtlegross would serve you much better, since Arcanine shouldn't really have Solarbeam in the first place. Also, Sunny Day powers up Fire moves, so if something with a Fire move is up against Metagross after you use Sunny Day, it'll hurt twice as bad. It's unlikely, but it's a possibility. Metagross without Meteor Mash is also epic fail. It's Metagross' best move. Kingdra has one weakness, true, but that's all it has going for it. It's woefully average, and there are better Water types. I'll think about that one and come up with a possible replacement. Night Slash is useful to stop you getting walled by Gengar and Dusknoir. It doesn't do brilliant amounts of damage, but it stops them walling you completely. And you're welcome.

I offer the following suggestions: Arcanine: Get a better nature (Lonely or Mild would work well, or Hasty if you want Speed), and go with Flare Blitz/Crunch/Extremespeed/Flamethrower with a Choice Band. You'll find that'll give you better mileage than your current Arcanine. Besides, Solarbeam sucks without Sunny Day support. Electivire: Also needs a better nature (Adamant imo) and to get rid of Brick Break and Giga Impact. Go with Earthquake and Cross Chop. Life Orb would work well as an item. If you fancy yourself as a good predictor, you could think of Focus Punch over Cross Chop to smash stuff on the switch, but Cross Chop is a tad more reliable. Lapras: All of your natures so far suck :ohwell: . Calm nature, then go Surf/Ice Beam/Thunderbolt/Substitute or Sing. Leftovers for item. Metagross: This one isn't too bad nature-wise, but Adamant or Impish are better. Metagross has no business using Sunny Day. In this instance, to support the rest of your team better, I'd suggest Impish nature, with Meteor Mash/Earthquake/Rest/Sleep Talk as a moveset. Turtlegross ftw. Leftovers here too, but if you can't use Leftovers due to Item Clause, use Shell Bell maybe. Kingdra: Modest is fine, but Hyper Beam is horrible (as is Giga Impact, hence the removal from Electivire) and Dragon Pulse has no use except for opposing Kingdra (which will be few and far between) or Palkia (if you end up against one of these you will lose). Rain Dance/Surf/Ice Beam/Signal Beam and make sure it has Swift Swim as an ability. Wet Rock as item. Scizor: It's alright except for its nature. Adamant please. Choose between X-Scissor and U-Turn, they're equal power, but U-Turn is much more useful tactically. Steel is a shit offensive typing, so lose Iron Head. If it were me, I'd go U-Turn/Night Slash/Agility/Baton Pass, since Electivire with an Agility behind it would be quite scary indeed. Not sure what item to give Scizor to be honest. I didn't suggest any changes in actual Pokemon, but if you were to do so, lose Kingdra, it's a pretty average Pokemon. You also don't really need two Water types that do almost the same thing. If you want any more help, just ask.

It's not, I'm just being silly Murkrow actually has an advantage over Honchkrow in that it slows down if it evolves. So yeah.

Dark Stone evolves Murkrow to Honchkrow. And there's one pretty much right in your path when you enter Team Galactic's warehouse to whip their asses. No excuses.

No Staraptor or Honchkrow? Bad Keith, bad. Also no Alakazam, but that's not so bad since it's harder to evolve. Hi-Jump Kick is funny when it misses a Blissey. They usually either KO themselves, or come quite close. My Medicham HJK'ed right as that person with the Drifblim in the Elite Four switched to it, and since Drifblim's a Ghost type it obviously failed. Medicham nearly died from the recoil :pinch:

That's because the catch rate calculation involves a random number. I don't know the actual equation, but every Pokemon has a number assigned to it as a Catch Rate value. Most legendaries have their catch rate as 3. Basically, that number, as well as a value assigned to the ball you used, is input into an equation, and if the resulting number fits a certain characteristic, the Pokemon is caught. If it doesn't, the Pokemon is not. Everything in Pokemon is an equation, and a lot of them have a random number involved somewhere.

I think Legendaries might be immune to those abilities in this one. I got myself a Dugtrio with Arena Trap so I could stop Cresselia from escaping, and it doesn't work. The Cresselia keeps running away like it always did. =( Dugtrio's Arena Trap didn't work on Cresselia because Cresselia has the Levitate ability. Arena Trap fails on anything Flying or with Levitate. Shadow Tag and Arena Trap do work on running legendaries. Hmm, any advice then? I still have my Master Ball, but if all three of the Legendaries run, I'm still fucked. Is the Kricketune failing to put it to sleep because sing is just shit, or because they can't be put to sleep? Save your Master Ball for Cresselia, it's much more annoying to whittle down to low health due to it being a hyper-defensive motherfucker of a Pokemon. Also Sing is shit. If you want sleep, use Sleep Powder or Hypnosis. If you have something on a high enough level with Spore, then go with that. Gengar is a good legendary-catcher, since it learns Hypnosis and Mean Look by level-up. That's my suggestion if you can be patient enough to raise a Gastly/trade for a high level Gengar with Mean Look and Hypnosis. Say what? Elaborate on that please.

The male has to know TM or egg moves that the female can learn, otherwise nothing's passed over. It's possible for kinky giraffe cross flaming-horse sex to result in a baby giraffe/flaming horse with new moves, you just need to assert some more control over it. Just for the heck of it, a quick breeding guide thing pertaining to moves: Say you have a female Rapidash and a male Girafarig. Rapidash knows Stomp/Flamethrower/Bounce/Megahorn, Girafarig knows Stomp/Hidden Power/Psychic/Double Kick. The resulting offspring will be a Ponyta. A level 1 Ponyta knows only Tackle naturally. Girafarig knows Hidden Power, a TM Ponyta can learn, and Double Kick, one of Ponyta's egg moves. Thus, the Ponyta will know Tackle/Hidden Power/Double Kick. As well as this, both the mother and father know Stomp, a move Ponyta can learn by level-up, and so the Ponyta will also know Stomp. Rapidash + Girafarig - Flamethrower - Stomp - Stomp - Hidden Power - Megahorn - Psychic - Bounce - Double Kick FEMALE MALE Ponyta - Tackle - Hidden Power - Stomp - Double Kick To summarise, moves are only passed down by the father. If the father knows a TM the lowest level of the female can learn, or knows one of the female's egg moves, the resulting offspring will know it. If both the female and male know a move the lowest level of the female can learn by level up, the resulting offspring will also know that. EDIT: I only just realised that I used my 1500th post explaining mechanics of Pokemon breeding in regards to moves. Go me.

Magma Armor or Flame Body, and they're both abilities. Off the top of my head, you can use Magmar, certain Camerupt (half have Hard Rock, half have Magma Armor), Magby, Slugma or Magcargo for this effect. Having one of those Pokemon in your team while walking around with an egg halves the steps required, but having more than one does not quarter the egg steps required (that is, it doesn't stack). Serebii.net is a good starting place for finding Pokemon movesets, but if you want to get more competitive with them, try Smogon.com. Keep in mind that Smogon is quite competitively based, whereas Serebii is pretty much anything-goes when it comes to your level of effort. I'm guessing it was a male Meditite with a female Machop? Meditate is something Machop can't usually learn, but Hidden Power's nothing special; just about everything can learn Hidden Power, even more things that can learn Toxic (since Unown is counted where Hidden Power is concerned). Out of curiosity, did you find out what type Hidden Power Machop has? And on that note, Keith, if you want me to assist further in your learning about breeding, just ask.

They can both dish out decent offense, it's just that Sneasel (Weavile) is from the physical side, and Misdreavus (Mismagius) is from the special side, and of their respective attacking stats, Weavile is slightly more powerful. On another note, how many of you ever got into the Pokemon trading card craze? I remember my brother and I got a bunch when they were really big, and I just found a bunch in my desk. Not going to bother counting them, but when stacked it's 2.5 inches thick

Misdreavus, after evolving to Mismagius, is like a slower Gengar with a slightly smaller movepool and can actually take a hit from the special side of the spectrum. Sneasel, after evolving to Weavile, is a physical speed-demon that has a pretty good type coverage offensively, but is quite frail. To say that one is better than the other is silly since they're both so different. Both cover types that you'll need to cover in the game, so pick one and go with it. I would personally go with Mismagius, since I think Misdreavus is cool, but it's up to you.

Bwahaha...EVing Attack on Chansey. That's quite comical. Max Def, lots of HP, rest in SpAtk/Spd is the only way to EV Chansey/Blissey. Seriously.

It's not too hard. The Stone evolutions, Glaceon and Leafeon are easy to get. Espeon and Umbreon are slightly harder, but not impossible, you just need the Soothe Bell and to get them massages and such. I restarted my Crystal game the other day, and from the Odd Egg got a shiny Igglybuff. I'll be sure to train that once I'm done with the gyms, and my current team is: Quilava lv24 Geodude lv23 Granbull lv24 Weepinbell lv24 Phanpy lv23 Slowpoke lv23 I'm going to replace Geodude with the Extremespeed Dratini once I get it, and the rest I'm hanging on to.

I haven't played Pearl in ages (except for obtaining Sudowoodo and Azumarill for Ellis), but the team I used to beat the Elite 4 was: Infernape Steelix Golduck Crobat Alakazam Luxray I also beat the game once within a week after getting it back in February, then restarted, resulting in the above team. If memory serves, my first team was: Empoleon Mismagius Medicham Raichu Golem Staraptor

Which is Route 209 for reference. It's the route that connects Hearthome to Solaceon. When you go out the east exit of Hearthome, continue east and you'll find a fisherman on a pier thing. He gives you the Good Rod.

Looks like you can't be bothered evolving a lot of things I know for certain I can get you Sudowoodo, Azumarill, Honchkrow, Mismagius, Purugly, and I can probably do Mantine too.

Could you post an updated list of the ones you still need? Or do you still need all of them? I could probably get you a fair few of them if you like.

Noctowl's a bit iffy since it's not particularly good at attacking. Don't evolve Weepinbell until it's learned everything you want it to, since Victreebel doesn't learn anything naturally. Geodude is a good standby, I've used it and its evolutions to great effect. Totodile is an underrated starter, since Feraligatr is fairly capable. I would personally use Pidgeot or Fearow over Noctowl, but it's up to you. You may also want a Fire or Fighting type for Jasmine and Pryce, and something that can learn Shadow Ball (and use it effectively) will come in handy too. Maybe a strong Normal type, like Granbull or something.

Except for the fact that it's not helpful at all. Flamethrower and Fire Blast both run off the Special Attack stat. I don't know when you last looked at your Geodude's stats, but the Geodude line have above average Attack, decent HP, high Defense, and low Special Attack, Special Defense and Speed. As such, if you pit your Golem against, say, a Lucario, it will hammer you with a Steel or Fighting type move, and you will die before you can even dent it. Even if, by some miracle, you don't die first turn, a Flamethrower or Fire Blast from your Golem won't be enough to KO it before it KOs you. A Fire type with a decent attacking stat and decent Speed would be your best bet for dealing with all those pesky Steel types. If you want, I could trade you one. Oh, and once Staravia evolves it'll be able to deal with some of them, notably a particular Lucario you'll run into, but a Fire type is a good idea for when you run into Bronzor and Bronzong.

...please tell me you're kidding.

rofl Good luck with that. Your best bet for Steel types is for Staravia to evolve into Staraptor and learn Close Combat. Otherwise somehow get your hands on a Fire type. You will want a Fire type at some point, since there are quite a few Bronzor and Bronzong to take out (one in the Elite Four too), and most of them have Levitate. But then, if you go for a Fire type, you'll probably want to trade for one, since your only options before the National Dex are the Chimchar line and Ponyta, and since you started with Turtwig, your only option is Ponyta. EDIT: You get the Good Rod from a Fisherman on Route 209, east of Hearthome City.

Nope, I've got the National Dex and I haven't caught Drifloon yet. Two of the trainers before Fantina have Drifloon in their party.

On that note, every Pokemon in the Sinnoh Dex is represented at least once in a trainer's team. So if you battle every single trainer in the game (or almost every single trainer) you should have seen 149, and then you go speak to that old woman in the town east of Mt. Coronet (I don't know its English name) and she shows you a picture of the other box legendary.

I haven't read Order of the Phoenix in a fair while, and missed the first five minutes of the movie, so I can't remember specifically what happened in that first chapter, but if it was Harry seeing through Voldemort's eyes, then isn't that kinda important? Since, y'know, it was those visions that made him go to the Ministry of Magic when he thought Sirius was in danger? So, unless I've missed some glaring detail about the chapter, I'd say that it'd have a lot to do with the plot line.