Pokémon Go

[ExedExes]

Despite our status as semi-rural, we have a huge dedicated playerbase here. Our Valor text group opened a new text group with players from all teams that is now up to 13 people, and there is also a Facebook here for the the county I'm in that also advertises raids. It's the best way to get the local scoop.

[ExedExes]

1. 4 STAR - Charizard - No catch
2. 2 STAR - Electabuzz - Catch
3. 2 STAR - Weezing - Catch
4. 2 STAR - Exeggutor - No catch
5. 1 STAR - Quilava - Catch
6. 2 STAR - Exeggutor - No catch
7. 1 STAR - Croconaw - Catch
8. 2 STAR - Weezing - Catch
9. 1 STAR - Quilava - No catch
10. 2 STAR - Electabuzz - Catch
11. 3 STAR - Machamp - Catch (w/ Dynamic Punch!)
12. 2 STAR - Muk - Catch
13. 2 STAR - Magmar - Catch
14. 4 STAR - Rhydon - Catch
15. 4 STAR - Tyranitar - No catch
16. 4 STAR - Snorlax - Catch
17. 3 STAR - Machamp - Catch
18. 4 STAR - Tyranitar - Catch (15/15/10)
19. 4 STAR - Venusaur - No catch
20. 4 STAR - Tyranitar - No catch
21. 4 STAR - Blastoise - Catch

2 raids yesterday and 2 raids today. Finally got my Tyranitar, about 20 CP shy of perfect. We didn't have any 4 star raids till around 4:30 today, but we had 11 on a Tyranitar, took it down in about 50 seconds, and 15 on the Blastoise, that one was at a park so it was easier to get people.

We now have our own local Discord channel, which will make it far easier to coordinate for raids!

[ExedExes]

1. 4 STAR - Charizard - No catch
2. 2 STAR - Electabuzz - Catch
3. 2 STAR - Weezing - Catch
4. 2 STAR - Exeggutor - No catch
5. 1 STAR - Quilava - Catch
6. 2 STAR - Exeggutor - No catch
7. 1 STAR - Croconaw - Catch
8. 2 STAR - Weezing - Catch
9. 1 STAR - Quilava - No catch
10. 2 STAR - Electabuzz - Catch
11. 3 STAR - Machamp - Catch (w/ Dynamic Punch!)
12. 2 STAR - Muk - Catch
13. 2 STAR - Magmar - Catch
14. 4 STAR - Rhydon - Catch
15. 4 STAR - Tyranitar - No catch
16. 4 STAR - Snorlax - Catch
17. 3 STAR - Machamp - Catch
18. 4 STAR - Tyranitar - Catch
19. 4 STAR - Venusaur - No catch
20. 4 STAR - Tyranitar - No catch
21. 4 STAR - Blastoise - Catch
22. 3 STAR - Alakazam - No catch
23. 4 STAR - Lapras - No catch
24. 4 STAR - Rhydon - Catch (+2 Charge TMs)

3 more raids today! I was disappointed over the first two being no catches, but the final raid with its 2 Charge TMs more than made up for it! I was able to change Dazzling Gleam on my original Alakazam over to the far better Future Sight, as well as line up all my awesome Machamps to better moves now (1 with Counter/Dynamic Punch, 1 with Counter/Close Combat and 1 with Karate Chop/Dynamic Punch).

Our Discord is up to nearly 35. I met even more Valor and Mystic today, and yes even a few more Instinct!

[ExedExes]

1. 4 STAR - Charizard - No catch
2. 2 STAR - Electabuzz - Catch
3. 2 STAR - Weezing - Catch
4. 2 STAR - Exeggutor - No catch
5. 1 STAR - Quilava - Catch
6. 2 STAR - Exeggutor - No catch
7. 1 STAR - Croconaw - Catch
8. 2 STAR - Weezing - Catch
9. 1 STAR - Quilava - No catch
10. 2 STAR - Electabuzz - Catch
11. 3 STAR - Machamp - Catch
12. 2 STAR - Muk - Catch
13. 2 STAR - Magmar - Catch
14. 4 STAR - Rhydon - Catch
15. 4 STAR - Tyranitar - No catch
16. 4 STAR - Snorlax - Catch
17. 3 STAR - Machamp - Catch
18. 4 STAR - Tyranitar - Catch
19. 4 STAR - Venusaur - No catch
20. 4 STAR - Tyranitar - No catch
21. 4 STAR - Blastoise - Catch
22. 3 STAR - Alakazam - No catch
23. 4 STAR - Lapras - No catch
24. 4 STAR - Rhydon - Catch
25. 4 STAR - Tyranitar - No catch
26. 4 STAR - Snorlax - Catch

2 more for the 4th! This Tyranitar raid had over ** 20 ** people, the max capacity of a battle group is 20 so we divided it into 10 and 10. Our Discord has nearly 40 people from all over the county now across all the teams. It's been AMAZING. I knew the raids were going to be really fun!

[ExedExes]

1. 4 STAR - Charizard - No catch
2. 2 STAR - Electabuzz - Catch
3. 2 STAR - Weezing - Catch
4. 2 STAR - Exeggutor - No catch
5. 1 STAR - Quilava - Catch
6. 2 STAR - Exeggutor - No catch
7. 1 STAR - Croconaw - Catch
8. 2 STAR - Weezing - Catch
9. 1 STAR - Quilava - No catch
10. 2 STAR - Electabuzz - Catch
11. 3 STAR - Machamp - Catch
12. 2 STAR - Muk - Catch
13. 2 STAR - Magmar - Catch
14. 4 STAR - Rhydon - Catch
15. 4 STAR - Tyranitar - No catch
16. 4 STAR - Snorlax - Catch
17. 3 STAR - Machamp - Catch
18. 4 STAR - Tyranitar - Catch
19. 4 STAR - Venusaur - No catch
20. 4 STAR - Tyranitar - No catch
21. 4 STAR - Blastoise - Catch
22. 3 STAR - Alakazam - No catch
23. 4 STAR - Lapras - No catch
24. 4 STAR - Rhydon - Catch
25. 4 STAR - Tyranitar - No catch
26. 4 STAR - Snorlax - Catch
27. 4 STAR - Charizard - No catch
28. 3 STAR - Arcanine - Catch
29. 4 STAR - Lapras - No catch
30. 4 STAR - Rhydon - Catch
31. 4 STAR - Snorlax - Catch
32. 4 STAR - Tyranitar - No catch

More raids to document! Arcanine was nice to get with Wild Charge to keep the water types on their toes, the Rhydon was a critical catch, and I fail to get more Tyranitars!

Otherwise, I used rare candies and a 10km Dratini to get my Dragonite finally! With the exception of our North American exclusive (Tauros), I completed my Gen 1 Pokédex in the course of a year!

I also got my Ash hat Pikachu today.

[alienjesus]

My thoughts on the new gym system after a few weeks of playing with it.

1. It's better than the old one. I actually get my Pokémon onto gyms on occasion now, and it's also actually feasible to beat an enemy gym without spending 10 years sat on a street corner trying to take down a level 10 gym.

2. It's still flawed though. First of all, it's absolute redundant to use your good pokémon to defend gyms. I fought an enemy gym the other day which had a 3000CP Dragonite and a 250 CP Charmander on. It took exactly 3 runs through the gym to take out both Pokémon. In fact, it seemingly takes 3 runs through a gym to take out ANY Pokémon from full health. In this situation, the Charmander guy actually had the advantage - he wasn't using one of his best Pokémon to defend the gym, but it held on just as long. Dragonite guy was missing a 3000 CP pokémon to take on raids with though!

I put my 2100 CP Typhlosion and my 29 CP Ditto on gyms in the same day. Ditto was mainly put on there as a joke. Typhlosion came back later that day with 21 coins for me. Ditto returned 9 days later with the full 50 coins. The location of the gym is far more critical than the power of the pokémon you put on there, because they can be taken down just as easily with a team of Blissey, Tyranitar, Dragonite, Snorlax, Rhydon and Machamp as they can with a team of Magikarp, Weedle, Caterpie, Rattata, Pidgey and Sentret.

3. The berry system is an absolute joke. Because it only takes 3 runs through a gym to take it down, you rarely have the opportunity to power up pokemon if they've been weakened by battles. So the only use of it is to power up pokemon who have had their CP lowered over time. However, the rate of decline is so slow that you rarely actually want to do so - by the time the Pokémon has reached a low enough CP, they've earned enough time for 50 coins and you want them to come back. You gain nothing by keeping them powered up, you just lose the opportunity to gain 50 coins. I HATE when I pass one of my gyms and some guy has fed all the pokemon a berry. I just want to the gym to be beaten so I can get my 50 coins. Unless they give a benefit to keeping pokémon on there for longer, this system is broken. Even then, it's not like powering up makes a difference - it'll still only take 3 attempts at a gym to beat it!

4. Raids suck unless you can find a group like Exedexes, because they're impossible alone once you hit the 3 star difficulty tier. I'm just using all my passes on Bayleefs and Croconaws right now to work towards their evolutions.

[Tanooki]

I skimmed the dex earlier. About a month ago an egg popped and I oddly got a Clefairy from it which was a first, amazing and atk-wow too. Walked it a bit since, just today banked a nice Clefable out of it. I found I have 14 left to go in Gen1. Ouch.

[Michi]

After over a year of waiting, I have finally acquired this guy:

YES! FINALLY! PRAISE THE POKEMON GODS!

I have nothing left to acquire from Gen 1 other than the exclusives, mythical and legendaries. And, lets face it, those are likely going to be long shots for quite a while now (even if legendaries are coming out soon), so for now I'm considering Gen 1 about as done as it's going to be.

As for Gen 2, the game was nice enough to give me a Mareep. So that's one more hard to find one off my list. *whew*

[ExedExes]

With my Dragonite finally completed, I've got nearly all the 1st gen (no Tauros) but it's a great feeling.

I've been on a ton more raids thanks to the Discord I'm on... over 80 people now! I've lost track of all that I've done. I did catch a near perfect Venusaur today!

Looking forward to the global event on Saturday!

[alienjesus]

I got Alakazam yesterday, which puts me at 3 non-region-exclusives left in gen 1 - Dragonite, Chansey and Snorlax.

I'm hopinh one day I'll manage to gather a raid team for Snorlax, and Dragonite I can just feed Rare Candies as I gain them to get him. Chansey is the worst for me - I've still never even seen one.

There's going to be a chance to catch region exclusive pokemon in some places in Europe, but nothing was mentioned for the UK.