Pokémon Shuffle (Nintendo Used Pay Day!)

Seemingly, if you use a Great Ball and the capture attempt fails, if you immediately quit the game, you'll keep the money you spent on the Great Ball. You will lose the heart and any coins spent on items on the stage though. I've not had a chance to test this out, yet.

Not sure I'm going to try that, Jay, to be honest, though thanks for passing it on!

Xerneas joined the Zero fold earlier thanks to a Mega Start, a Complexity -1 (which may not have been necessary, actually) and a more relaxed approach to letting combos happen. Hoping that similar tactics net me the remaining EX 'mon.

Any tips to snagging Blaziken?

ZeroJones wrote:

Not sure I'm going to try that, Jay, to be honest, though thanks for passing it on!

Xerneas joined the Zero fold earlier thanks to a Mega Start, a Complexity -1 (which may not have been necessary, actually) and a more relaxed approach to letting combos happen. Hoping that similar tactics net me the remaining EX 'mon.

Fair enough - I just hate wasting coins, and considering how long it takes to get them without dropping cash on the game, I'll take any shortcut I can get.

I've only got three Pokemon left to catch - Onix, Xerneas and Mewtwo. I can't beat Onix reliably without buying items, same with Xerneas, and I can't beat Mewtwo at all.

Shanks: Nothing really to offer on the Expert Stages besides bringing in your strongest 'Mon and consider purchasing a couple of items. Kyogre (if you got him), and any of the Stage 3 Water starters should serve you well.

Might leave him until we hopefully get the Blastoise mega stone.

I'm up to Bagon which I nearly beat but ran out of moves. Though I think for my next run I'll go back and try and Catch some of the Pokemon I've missed (like that God damn Gengar)

ZeroJones wrote:

I've not caught Rayquaza yet, despite opening with a Mega Start. Saving up my cash for a second attempt with the option of a Great Ball to back me up. Shuffle truly is a massive timesink.

If you think it is a massive timesink, just try playing it on 5 separate consoles! It feels like it is the only thing I do. I am past Mega Mewtwo Y (Stage 150?) on 3 of them, but the other two are more recent starts, so I am back around Stages 100-120. I have barely scratched the surface of the EX stages.

Oh, and I found out you can't have more than 99,999 coins, or at least I believe that to be the case, as I always have at least 60,000 on all games before I use any of them, and when I looked at trading gems for coins, I couldn't trade for the 48,000 coins - assuming it was over the limit.

I downloaded this yesterday and am currently on something like stage fifteen. Had a bash at Rayquaza and failed, too.

I find it a bit tight that you lose a life every time you enter a level, not every time you fail one...

It's very much like Candy Crush Saga in that respect.

My latest tale of woe involves Mewtwo. I tooled up with a Complexity-1 and a Mega Start. Still only beat him after the timer had elapsed through combos that were still taking place. There was no point paying for a Great Ball.

Up next: Blaziken. That'll give my ego a bit of recovery time before Mewtwo Round 2.

Got Xerneas! Now I've only Mewtwo and Onix to catch, and I'm going to need 30K coins to guarantee success against both of them - Complexity-1, Disruption Delay, Mega Start and Great Ball for security. I should get an S-Rank with that too, hopefully. Off to grind coins on Meowth's stage, I guess.

So, so tired of Meowth. Still, I will have all the Pokémon. :twitch:

I keep accidentally killing him before he can get the fourth and fifth coins out. I try to aim for four coins matched, but I often end up with none at all.

How many have you left to catch Zero?

You typed exactly my Meowth experience, Jay! I'm increasingly experiencing the coins disappearing before I can match them, too. And, four - Blaziken, Heatran, Yveltal and Mewtwo. Let's keep going!

Ah, how did you get Onix? Did you buy items or did you manage to get him itemless?

If I remember rightly, a Mega Start, highly-levelled Pokémon, good fortune and a Great Ball.

I've been stuck trying to catch Gengar for the last week and a half now.. I'll try for a couple of turns and fail. I move on to some of the others I haven't caught and yeah it's about 50 / 50 as to if I catch them or not. (Dedenne being another stubborn one)

JayMoyles wrote:

Ah, how did you get Onix? Did you buy items or did you manage to get him itemless?

I did get Onix itemless, but I don't remember how, plus I can't get it on my other two up around the same stages. I am now up to Stage 163 on one of the consoles, with 70,000 coins, so I am looking forward to getting the last one, so I can go back and catch the few I missed and then focus on Ex stages.

Note: figured out why Meowth's coins occasionally disappear - they vanish if you're using a Pokémon who removes disruptions.

oldschool wrote:

JayMoyles wrote:

Ah, how did you get Onix? Did you buy items or did you manage to get him itemless?

I did get Onix itemless, but I don't remember how, plus I can't get it on my other two up around the same stages.  I am now up to Stage 163 on one of the consoles, with 70,000 coins, so I am looking forward to getting the last one, so I can go back and catch the few I missed and then focus on Ex stages.

You will absolutely need some of those coins for #165. I don't see how it's possible otherwise.

ZeroJones wrote:

Note: figured out why Meowth's coins occasionally disappear - they vanish if you're using a Pokémon who removes disruptions.

Oh, that is annoying! I'm so unbelievably sick of Meowth's stage, but the completionist in me wants to 100% this. It's beginning to not be worth my time.

And now there's a new contest. Still, it'll help out with those troublesome fire EX 'mon... should I be successful, of course!

Yeah - decided bugger it and used some coins on a Complexity-1 for the new contest. Sitting at 82nd right now, which'll change, but I'm probably set for the Blastoiseite. Cheeky buggers, lowering the number of prize winners too!

JayMoyles wrote:

Yeah - decided bugger it and used some coins on a Complexity-1 for the new contest. Sitting at 82nd right now, which'll change, but I'm probably set for the Blastoiseite. Cheeky buggers, lowering the number of prize winners too!

I did get Stage 165 really easily with buying everything. I overdid it, as I still had about 22 moves left when I finished. No regrets, I decided it was all or nothing.

With this new competition, I was as displeased about the 10,00 limit as you are Jay. That will be a lot tougher. I am going to practice for a while before I use up the coins on the two items you can buy. I will wait until closer to the end before I try though. Up until then, I will see how I can place without them. I also thought about doing everything to catch the Pokemon the leaders used - which are all Ex ones, except Amphoros. I have none of them, but I will give it a shot.

The EX 'Mon are all really useful, even for the regular stages. I'd recommend nabbing them as soon as possible, especially if you've cleared the main stages.

I used Ampharos, Sceptile, Zapdos and Raikou for my attempt and with a Complexity-1 I managed a mid 20000s score. Hopefully that'll be enough.

I really want a Blastoisnite.. So far my score is only in the ten thousands. I'm going to try and catch Zapdos and unlock Raikou and try and get that

The Complexity -1 and Disruption Delay combo got me to what was 896th at the time. That'll do me for the moment - now back to endless Meowth drudgery!

I did manage to get all 3 Ex Pokemon for this competition, but only on one of the five consoles. Raikou is the tough one. I have got Zapdos on all and Sceptile on 2 or 3. Now I am levelling them up on Meowth, so for coins as well. I have thought about using the Jewels to buy 80 hearts - not really sure if I will, but that would give me plenty of turns to get the levels up.