Silph road

You're looking for /r/TheSilphRoad!

2016.01.24 08:35 dronpes You're looking for /r/TheSilphRoad!

You're looking for /TheSilphRoad! Head over there now!
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2016.01.24 08:03 dronpes Pokémon GO's Largest Grassroots Network: The Silph Road

Reddit's #1 spot for Pokémon GO™ discoveries and research. The Silph Road is a grassroots network of trainers whose communities span the globe and hosts resources to help trainers learn about the game, find communities, and hold in-person PvP tournaments!
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2016.03.14 21:12 dronpes The Northeast Region of the Silph Road

The US Northeast Region of The Silph Road. Region Includes: Connecticut Delaware Maine Maryland Massachusetts New Hampshire New Jersey New York Pennsylvania Rhode Island Vermont Washington DC
[link]


2023.06.06 20:54 WineGutter why would they ban me from the pokemon go sub for this rule

why would they ban me from the pokemon go sub for this rule submitted by WineGutter to 196 [link] [comments]


2023.06.06 15:00 AutoModerator Questions & Answers - Weekly Megathread! Please use this post to ask any Pokemon GO question you'd like!

Hey travelers!

If you have any questions about Pokemon GO (anything from basics to specifics of a certain mechanic), ask here! We also have a wealth of information available in historical posts, so try using the search bar. Or click the Discord link in our topbar and head to the #boot_camp channel - where helpful travelers are standing by to answer questions.
Weekly Feedback & Suggestions Megathread
__________________________

What is /TheSilphRoad?

The Silph Road is primarily focused on discoveries and analysis related to Pokemon GO, as well as constructing an in-person network of Pokemon GO enthusiasts. General discussion topics (Jokes, stories, a photo of a recent catch) would likely be better suited for another subreddit, such as a general subreddit like /PokemonGO, or /Pokemon, or a subreddit with a more specific focus, like /PokemonGoSnap, /PokemonBuddy, /ShinyPokemon, /PoGoRaids, /TheSilphArena, /PokemonGOTrades, /PokemonGOFriends, or /NianticWayfarer.
Anywhere you travel to in the world will have a friendly, local Silph Road community to help you learn about Pokemon nests nearby or trade a bunch of local species! Check out the global community map for your hometown or travel destination to get in touch with the community there!
Silph Road Content Policy
The Silph Road is heavily moderated to promote civility/courtesy, and high-quality content and discussion. You can read our full policies in the sidebar, but don't be surprised if a comment is removed for being rude, cynical, or off-topic. We strive to foster civil discussion about the game. We are first and foremost a network of real people, and this network is being built by volunteers! If you simply want to complain or bring something to Niantic's attention, your post would be better suited elsewhere.
Research
The community culture here also attracts the more analytically-minded element of Pokemon GO. Consequently, the Silph Research group was formed to align this brainpower and leverage the massive Silph datasets that the community can gather. We post our findings in infographics, videos, and walls of text on Reddit. Check out the top bar for links to current research tasks, the current egg pool, current raid bosses, and more!
The Nest Atlas?
Head here for information about the global Nest Atlas!
Final words
Finally, welcome once more! We're glad to have you join us on the Road :)
- The Silph Executives -
Link to other Questions & Answers posts
submitted by AutoModerator to TheSilphRoad [link] [comments]


2023.06.06 11:13 Zyxwgh Final thoughts of a former Silph Road Scientist and former Pokémon Go player, 2 months after stopping playing

This is a copy of a post I made on TheSilphRoad (where it was moderated away for reasons I don't understand yet) and on pogoraids.
Dear Silph Road and PoGoRaids communities, dear Pokémon Go community,
Many of you know me directly or indirectly as the (now retired) Silph Road Scientist who used to publish raid attacker spreadsheets, actually even as "prestiger" spreadsheets even before raids existed, who predicted forced nest migrations, or as the co-discoverer (together with u/DrThod_PokemonGo) of the egg rarity tiers, or just as the guy who tried fun and funny raid challenges with teams of small unevolved Pokémon, already before raids were even a thing.
I started playing in July 2016 and I played almost every single day between November 2016 and March 2023.
My passion for statistics / quantitative analysis + geo-located stuff had me hooked, and the challenge of achieving different goals kept me in the game despite the frequent bugs and the lack of communication from Niantic's side.
I decided to stop playing cold turkey when Niantic announced the price increase for remote raid passes, but that was just the final nail in the coffin Koffing in a season full of frustrations, which in turn were only the tip of the iceberg above a huge chunk of unsolved issues.

What promped me to quit the game for good

1) The first frustration was when Master Premier Classic was removed. Master Premier Classic was my best GBL league, I had a well-balanced team (Togekiss - Snorlax - Swampert) that I knew very well and brought me twice to Veteran. Now, to be equally competitive in Master Premier XL, I needed hundreds of XL candies for my team, which were basically locked behind events and trading. That is, easy for people flexible enough to play when Niantic wants, and easy for multiaccounters, but hard for legit players with work and family obligations like me.
2) Then in March I felt for the umpteenth time the rush to remove Frustration exactly in that week because it's just one week (or less) every three months, and not even with a fixed calendar.
3) Meanwhile I was hovering in the 2000s in GBL, without much hope to achieve Veteran any time soon, and still being forced to tank and go back up to get Rare Candies (because a 1-4 followed by a 4-1 gives 3 Rare Candies while two 3-2 sets give 0 Rare Candies).
4) I also realized that the "Go Battle League Pass" locked Elite TMs behind 900-950 battles per quarter, which amount to 20 monthly hours of GBL. At a $15 hourly salary that corresponds to $300 per month i.e. $3600 per year. Not sure if everyone realizes how much time/money it is.
5) At the end of March, the "Bronzor Cup" obviously added to the frustration level.
6) So the remote raiding kill (which not only meant I would have a hard time competing for the pokeraids Phantom Drafts, but also meant that walking to a gym locally, finding no one, and asking for remote help on Discord wouldn't be a possibility anymore) was just the cherry on top.
But these are just the final hits that made me realize there are many more unsolved issues in the game.

What really needs to be fixed

1) The biggest problem of all: This game more and more feels like a series of chores. Gift sending/opening, buddy hearts, Frustration/CDs/events that force you to do something specific at set dates/times... All these things make the game an obligation to play during certain times, and no longer a game that can be played on one's own terms and schedule.
2) Related but slightly different: Rarity goes from "impossible" to "too much of it" AND BACK in a matter of days. I'd spend months chasing a rare Pokémon (e.g. Togetic), only for there to be a 3-hour window where I'd get plenty of it. But if in those 3 hours my daughter's school organizes an event, I may miss 90% of that exclusive time window and go back to "impossible" rarity at the end of the event. It also made any buddy walking or egg hatching or spawn chasing feel useless, because the game now is mostly "play in the scheduled obligation time to get what you need".
3) Being force-fed event after events also deprives players of the time to explore "natural" spawns (which are bad anyway) or nests (which nobody reports anymore because it's pointless on many levels).
4) It's very hard to coordinate with other players. For years we had to just be lucky and bump into other players by chance, and then try to find the right third-party app for that particular community (Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord...). Campfire is too little, too late, and not available for everyone yet.
5) Most game incentives cater to rule violators (mostly spoofers, multiaccounters and account sharers). Raids must be in person? "We'll fly to it." Guaranteed XL from trades? "I don't need your help, I just do 100 daily trades with my baby account." Regional exclusives? "My sister is in New Zealand, if you want I can ask her to catch a Relicanth for you." Especially multiaccounters get a lot of the good stuff: a second account, even without significant work put into it, adds firepower to raids, especially with the Mega attack bonus, it is a better Pokémon transfer "sink" than Professor Willow, who almost never gives XL candy, while "trades" with the alt account are often guaranteed, and a second account of a different team can conveniently take out the demotivated gym placeholders for 50 guaranteed coins a day. I literally emigrated away from a country that implicitly tolerates rule violators. I'm now leaving a game that implicitly tolerates rule violators.
6) Raids have been broken since freaking 2017 and no fix is in sight. I'm referring to the extremely annoying bugs called phantom hits and boss health regeneration.
7) RNG is everywhere. Spawns are random, eggs are random, IVs are random, the number of XL candies is random, GBL encounters are random, raid bosses appear randomly, nests rotate randomly, raid rewards are random, quests are random, and so on and so on. Yes, that's what keeps players trying for more, and yes, in the long term many things even out, but it's still quite frustrating.
8) Many ways of wasting raid passes. People backing out at the last moment because there is no in-game communication channel (and because the number of needed trainers and the actual attacker effectiveness are being kept obscure by Niantic), inability to re-enter when the raid has expired, and the already mentioned raid bugs make raiding sometimes just a waste of time and raid passes.
9) The GBL reward structure incentivizes tanking. Giving rewards on the basis of how many matches have been won within a set instead of overall, coupled with matchmaking based instead on Elo and therefore (roughly) on overall match wins, pushes players to lose matches on purpose in order to win more when their Elo is artificially lower but rewards are higher because of Go Battle Days or just 4-1 being just so much better than 3-2, given the poor average quality of encounters.
10) Communication sucks. It's June 2023 and there is still no way a new player can figure out that at the end of each GBL season the star piece has to be activated before clicking on Battle. And the same goes for a lot of in-game mechanics that can only be figured out by reading a lot of posts here or by trial and error. In addition, often the official blog and even Niantic support give wrong information.

Minor problems

This above was enough to make me quit. But we also have some minor problems that would be nice to be solved because they are additional nuisances:
1) The gym system is stupid. Instead of being competitive (actual battles for gym control among the three teams, with appropriate rewards) or cooperative (before the 2017 gym "reform", players from the same team could "power up" a gym by "training" in a raid-like way), it is just a race to who gets the first 6 spots in an empty gym without any effort (or with variable effort only by the first player) and then hoping that someone from the opposing team kicks out your "defender" after more than 8 hours but possibly every day, but not from all gyms but only one gym a day. Or just multiaccounting (ToS violation) and do it all yourself.
2) Too much focus on Saturdays and Sundays. For me it's a major problem, but I can understand the reason. However I'm around more often Monday to Friday than on weekends, so it's annoying that CDs, raid days and special research events (which are by the way the shortest and the ones that shouldn't be missed) fall on days when I'm not so flexible.
3) Too many pointless time sinks. Pointless animations when fighting gyms, pointless 120-second lobby when soloing a low-tier raid, pointless animations for buddy feeding, pointless need for AR when AR is not functional to the game, pointless Rocket rewards screens, etc.

Conclusion

I hope that someone at Niantic reads half of what I've written, knowing that they have lost one of the (many, but few in percentage) people who have contributed to the growth of the awesome community around this game, and knowing that, if the game is kept in this "alpha-version" state, many other players will leave and move on to something less frustrating and more enjoyable.
I'm thankful to the Silph Road Team (moderators, scientists, researchers, and everyone else) and to the PoGoRaids Team (moderators, draft leaders, and everyone else) and to both TheSilphRoad and pogoraids communities because they have made this not-so-short phase of my playing life more enjoyable despite Niantic.
List of my most significant posts, i.e. my legacy, for those interested:
My "David vs. Goliath" challenges:
submitted by Zyxwgh to pokemongo [link] [comments]


2023.06.06 05:35 Teban54 Followup: Kleavor Raid Day's shiny rate was also different from previous raid days, MIGHT be due to a Remote Raid shiny nerf (from Japanese crowd-sourced data)

TL;DR: Kleavor's shiny rate (1 in 11.5), crowd-sourced by Japanese players, was slightly lower than other raid days like Hisuian Braviary and Avalugg (~1 in 10). The difference is small, but the sample size (22k) is large enough that it's extremely unlikely to be just RNG. There's no evidence why, but a SPECULATION - that's still unconfirmed - is that Kleavor's shiny rates from remote raids may have been much lower than in-person raids.

Earlier today, I posted that the Lake Trio's shiny rates from remote T5 raids may have been nerfed, according to crowd-sourced data on 9db, a popular Japanese website where anyone can submit a report of their shiny hunting results.
Thanks to comments from both Reddit and Discord, I was reminded that we can also use the data to compare Kleavor Raid Day (May 2023, after remote raid passes have been nerfed) to earlier raid days such as Hisuian Avalugg, Mega Gyarados and Hisuian Braviary (December, September and July 2022 respectively, before the remote nerf).

The data

Here's the crowd-sourced data from 9db. Please be reminded that the data is user-reported, not controlled, and does not differentiate in-person vs remote raids.
As established from raid days all the way back in 2018, such events usually have 1/10 as their standard shiny rate. Hisuian Avalugg, Mega Gyarados and Hisuian Braviary's user reports all ended up biasing too high, in line with the other reports I noted in my earlier post.
But Kleavor, despite having a similar sample size as Hisuian Braviary, ended up being too low from the expected 1/10 shiny rate.

The statistical tests - Could it be just RNG?

While "1 in 11.5" and "1 in 9.1" don't look too different at first glance, it turns out the difference is "statistically significant" - i.e. the sample size is large enough that it's extremely unlikely to be RNG.
The 2-prop Z-test is a standard method in statistics to test, in PoGo terms, whether "shiny rates" from two samples are different from each other. Online calculators can be found here (so you can run the same tests that I did).
Let's first compare Kleavor and Hisuian Braviary, since they have similar sample sizes. The left-tailed p-value, or the probability that Kleavor's shiny rate was not nerfed from Hisuian Braviary's, is 0.0000000000000056%. Therefore, we are almost certain that Kleavor's overall shiny rate was lower than Hisuian Braviary's.
Similarly, comparing Kleavor and Hisuian Avalugg, the p-value is 0.00016%. Again, this shows near certainty that Kleavor's overall shiny rate was lower than Hisuian Avalugg's.
The above were independently confirmed by EverdarkRaven from the PokeMiners Discord server, both by hand and using a calculator.

What could have been changed?

So the Z-test tells us there's something different between Kleavor and prior raid days - but we don't know what's the difference.
----- [Warning: Here's where the speculation comes in.] -----
A possible SPECULATION is: What if the shiny rate from Remote raids was lower than in-person raids?
A few days after Kleavor Raid Day happened, people were making this speculation online. The idea was best illustrated by this tweet:
Remote: 3 shinies from 348 raids
In person: 52 shinies from 620 raids
Taken at face value, this would show a shiny rate of 1/116 from remote raids, and 1/11.9 from in-person raids. Note this is a small sample size and subject to high uncertainty.
There were a few other tweets on the Kleavor situation, such as this and this.
This is a plausible explanation for the difference in aggregate user-reported shiny rates on 9db that I discussed above. 9db does not distinguish in-person raids from remote raids, and we can reasonably assume that most people did Kleavor raids in person, as it was a soloable Tier 3 raid.
But even if a small proportion of reports were remote, and even if the shiny rate wasn't changed too much (e.g. to 1/64), this would be enough to drag down the total average to 1/11.5.

Could it be biases in player reports?

This is less clear than the Azelf and Mesprit discussion, but I still maintain the same opinion as the previous post: Very unlikely.
As I mentioned in great detail in the previous post, 9db typically got most other shiny rates right. If anything, they're usually biased too high. Kleavor's reported shiny rate would have ended up too low if it was a uniform 1/10.
Furthermore, even though the speculation has gained traction after the raid day, nobody had that thought before the raid day started. The data collection was only open for a bit more than a day (with the vast majority of reports in the first 8 hours), and I didn't see any references to the Japanese site in the English discussions on Twitter. I doubt too many unlucky players would have purposely gone to 9db to skew the reports after seeing the speculations on Twitter.

What we DO and DO NOT know

I reiterate: The only thing we can say with near certainty is that something was different between Kleavor and previous raid days. We can't conclude anything more than that.
In particular, the following are NOT confirmed:
submitted by Teban54 to TheSilphRoad [link] [comments]


2023.06.06 00:03 SilphScience Event Mega Thread- Water Festival: Beach Week!

Everything you need to know about the event, all in one place. A lot of these pieces will be verified by the Silph Research Group, so throughout the post we'll use the formatting:
Also note that (s) will be used for species whose shiny form is available, and (s?) for new shinies that we haven't seen yet.
This verification isn't meant to replace reports here, rather to provide an extra level of verification and depth to the event. Travelers are always welcome to join here and help out with data collection: https://discord.gg/WpAvRRsaRT
For a Full list of all available Eggs, Raids, and Field Research check out: https://www.reddit.com/TheSilphRoad/comments/13fwpg8/current_raid_quest_rocket_egg_pools/
Have fun and stay safe this week!
https://pokemongolive.com/post/water-festival-2023?hl=en
Event Date: Tuesday 6 June 2023, at 10:00 a.m. to Monday 12 June 2023, at 8:00 p.m. local time

Bonuses

Boosted Spawns

Here's what is listed in the announcement. Anything else to report?
If you're lucky you may find

Field Research

Just looking for event tasks.
Task Text Reward
Hatch an Egg Scarf Lapras (s)
Make 5 Great Throws Binacle (s)
Make 5 Nice Throws Clauncher (s)
Catch 5 Water-type Pokémon 10 Poké Balls, 5 Great Balls
Catch 15 Water-type Pokémon Frillish (Pink) (s)
Catch 25 Water-type Pokémon Sandygast
Make 10 Great Throws 30 Blastoise / Swampert Mega Energy

Raid Bosses

You won't see any new bosses hatching until 11:00 am local time.
Standard raids:
Tier Raid Bosses
1 Alolan Diglett (s), Hisuian Qwilfish, Carvanha (s), Feebas (s), Sandygast
3 Blastoise (s), Gyarados (s), Scarf Lapras (s), Alomomola (s)
5 Uxie (s), Mesprit (s), Azelf (s) *in their Respective Regions
Mega Mega Swampert (s)
Shadow raids:
Tier Raid Bosses Difficulty Guide
1 Starly, Abra, Mareep, Growlithe (s) Very Easy solo, Trivial 2+ Trainers
3 Sawk / Throh (Region locked), Sneasel (s), Gligar (s) Sawk/Throh/Gligar: Hardcore solo, Easy duo; Sneasel: Medium solo, Very easy duo

Ticketed Timed Research

Stage 1
Rewards: 1000 stardust, Clauncher (s), 1000XP
Stage 2
Rewards: Avatar pose (male and female), Sandygast, (unlisted) 1500 stardust
submitted by SilphScience to TheSilphRoad [link] [comments]


2023.06.05 19:02 Teban54 Lake Trio shiny rates from Remote Raids may have been nerfed, according to crowd-sourced data from Japanese website

Update (June 6, 18:40 GMT)

It appears that Niantic has fixed the nerf in shiny rates, and remote raids MAY have the standard 1/20 shiny rate now. Waiting for more data to confirm, and once we have them, I'll make another post.
In the 25 hours since I made this post, there seems to be a drastic increase in shiny reports on 9db. Current reports since June 1 are:
Reports in the last 25 hours:
Most of the reports are still from Japanese players with remarks in Japanese. One player explicitly raised the question of whether Niantic has silently fixed it.

Original Post

TL;DR: Japanese players report Azelf and Mesprit raids (likely remote) had a much lower shiny rate than the expected 1/20. Doesn't seem to be RNG or reporting bias.
Edit: More analysis on Kleavor Raid Day's shiny rate, using the same data source, can be found here.

The data

The 9db website is one of the most popular sources of Pokemon Go info in Japan. For most events, they run a crowd-source shiny rate survey, where anyone can report their own data.
Current shiny rate reports for Azelf and Mesprit (presumably mostly done from remote raids) are:
Edit: Since several people have asked, 9db did not run a data collection for Uxie for some reason. Though they've also missed several T5 bosses recently (Tapu Fini, Genesect, Regigigas). Also, there's no distinction of in-person raids vs remote raids in the data collection, but it was reasonably assumed that most of these Azelf and Mesprit reports were from Japanese players, thus remote.

Could it be RNG?

Almost impossible.
Normally, legendaries should have a shiny rate of 1/20. However, if that was the case, both reports would only have a <0.000001% chance of occurring. This means there's sufficient sample size to reject the hypothesis that their shiny rate is 1/20.

Could it be biases in player reports?

Very unlikely, at least not to this extreme.
Even though 9db allows everyone to report - which can cause many issues compared to TSR research group's controlled studies - most of their past shiny surveys ended up pretty accurate, if not too high:
Note that several of these have a smaller sample size than Azelf and Mesprit.
Another possible critique is that it's only been 5 days, and early reports may be filled with unlucky players. However, I'd argue what should have happened is the exact opposite, i.e. reports being biased too high initially:

Remarks

There are a few possibilities:
  1. Remote shiny rates are still 1/20 as usual, and the data was bad - Likely not, as I showed above
  2. Remote shiny rates have been nerfed to an unknown value, while in-person shiny rates remain 1/20 - Possible
  3. Shiny rates from both in-person and remote raids have been nerfed to an unknown value - Possible
(It doesn't seem like their shinies were not turned on at the start, since reports came in fairly early: Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf).
submitted by Teban54 to TheSilphRoad [link] [comments]


2023.06.05 17:35 Zyxwgh Final thoughts of a former Silph Road Scientist and former Pokémon Go player, 2 months after stopping playing

submitted by Zyxwgh to u/Zyxwgh [link] [comments]


2023.06.05 17:31 Zyxwgh Final thoughts of a former Silph Road Scientist and former Pokémon Go player, 2 months after stopping playing

Dear Silph Road and PoGoRaids communities,
Many of you know me directly or indirectly as the (now retired) Silph Road Scientist who used to publish raid attacker spreadsheets, actually even as "prestiger" spreadsheets even before raids existed, who predicted forced nest migrations, or as the co-discoverer (together with u/DrThod_PokemonGo) of the egg rarity tiers, or just as the guy who tried fun and funny raid challenges with teams of small unevolved Pokémon, already before raids were even a thing.
I started playing in July 2016 and I played almost every single day between November 2016 and March 2023.
My passion for statistics / quantitative analysis + geo-located stuff had me hooked, and the challenge of achieving different goals kept me in the game despite the frequent bugs and the lack of communication from Niantic's side.
I decided to stop playing cold turkey when Niantic announced the price increase for remote raid passes, but that was just the final nail in the coffin Koffing in a season full of frustrations, which in turn were only the tip of the iceberg above a huge chunk of unsolved issues.

What promped me to quit the game for good

1) The first frustration was when Master Premier Classic was removed. Master Premier Classic was my best GBL league, I had a well-balanced team (Togekiss - Snorlax - Swampert) that I knew very well and brought me twice to Veteran. Now, to be equally competitive in Master Premier XL, I needed hundreds of XL candies for my team, which were basically locked behind events and trading. That is, easy for people flexible enough to play when Niantic wants, and easy for multiaccounters, but hard for legit players with work and family obligations like me.
2) Then in March I felt for the umpteenth time the rush to remove Frustration exactly in that week because it's just one week (or less) every three months, and not even with a fixed calendar.
3) Meanwhile I was hovering in the 2000s in GBL, without much hope to achieve Veteran any time soon, and still being forced to tank and go back up to get Rare Candies (because a 1-4 followed by a 4-1 gives 3 Rare Candies while two 3-2 sets give 0 Rare Candies).
4) I also realized that the "Go Battle League Pass" locked Elite TMs behind 900-950 battles per quarter, which amount to 20 monthly hours of GBL. At a $15 hourly salary that corresponds to $300 per month i.e. $3600 per year. Not sure if everyone realizes how much time/money it is.
5) At the end of March, the "Bronzor Cup" obviously added to the frustration level.
6) So the remote raiding kill (which not only meant I would have a hard time competing for the pokeraids Phantom Drafts, but also meant that walking to a gym locally, finding no one, and asking for remote help on Discord wouldn't be a possibility anymore) was just the cherry on top.
But these are just the final hits that made me realize there are many more unsolved issues in the game.

What really needs to be fixed

1) The biggest problem of all: This game more and more feels like a series of chores. Gift sending/opening, buddy hearts, Frustration/CDs/events that force you to do something specific at set dates/times... All these things make the game an obligation to play during certain times, and no longer a game that can be played on one's own terms and schedule.
2) Related but slightly different: Rarity goes from "impossible" to "too much of it" AND BACK in a matter of days. I'd spend months chasing a rare Pokémon (e.g. Togetic), only for there to be a 3-hour window where I'd get plenty of it. But if in those 3 hours my daughter's school organizes an event, I may miss 90% of that exclusive time window and go back to "impossible" rarity at the end of the event. It also made any buddy walking or egg hatching or spawn chasing feel useless, because the game now is mostly "play in the scheduled obligation time to get what you need".
3) Being force-fed event after events also deprives players of the time to explore "natural" spawns (which are bad anyway) or nests (which nobody reports anymore because it's pointless on many levels).
4) It's very hard to coordinate with other players. For years we had to just be lucky and bump into other players by chance, and then try to find the right third-party app for that particular community (Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord...). Campfire is too little, too late, and not available for everyone yet.
5) Most game incentives cater to rule violators (mostly spoofers, multiaccounters and account sharers). Raids must be in person? "We'll fly to it." Guaranteed XL from trades? "I don't need your help, I just do 100 daily trades with my baby account." Regional exclusives? "My sister is in New Zealand, if you want I can ask her to catch a Relicanth for you." Especially multiaccounters get a lot of the good stuff: a second account, even without significant work put into it, adds firepower to raids, especially with the Mega attack bonus, it is a better Pokémon transfer "sink" than Professor Willow, who almost never gives XL candy, while "trades" with the alt account are often guaranteed, and a second account of a different team can conveniently take out the demotivated gym placeholders for 50 guaranteed coins a day. I literally emigrated away from a country that implicitly tolerates rule violators. I'm now leaving a game that implicitly tolerates rule violators.
6) Raids have been broken since freaking 2017 and no fix is in sight. I'm referring to the extremely annoying bugs called phantom hits and boss health regeneration.
7) RNG is everywhere. Spawns are random, eggs are random, IVs are random, the number of XL candies is random, GBL encounters are random, raid bosses appear randomly, nests rotate randomly, raid rewards are random, quests are random, and so on and so on. Yes, that's what keeps players trying for more, and yes, in the long term many things even out, but it's still quite frustrating.
8) Many ways of wasting raid passes. People backing out at the last moment because there is no in-game communication channel (and because the number of needed trainers and the actual attacker effectiveness are being kept obscure by Niantic), inability to re-enter when the raid has expired, and the already mentioned raid bugs make raiding sometimes just a waste of time and raid passes.
9) The GBL reward structure incentivizes tanking. Giving rewards on the basis of how many matches have been won within a set instead of overall, coupled with matchmaking based instead on Elo and therefore (roughly) on overall match wins, pushes players to lose matches on purpose in order to win more when their Elo is artificially lower but rewards are higher because of Go Battle Days or just 4-1 being just so much better than 3-2, given the poor average quality of encounters.
10) Communication sucks. It's June 2023 and there is still no way a new player can figure out that at the end of each GBL season the star piece has to be activated before clicking on Battle. And the same goes for a lot of in-game mechanics that can only be figured out by reading a lot of posts here or by trial and error. In addition, often the official blog and even Niantic support give wrong information.

Minor problems

This above was enough to make me quit. But we also have some minor problems that would be nice to be solved because they are additional nuisances:
1) The gym system is stupid. Instead of being competitive (actual battles for gym control among the three teams, with appropriate rewards) or cooperative (before the 2017 gym "reform", players from the same team could "power up" a gym by "training" in a raid-like way), it is just a race to who gets the first 6 spots in an empty gym without any effort (or with variable effort only by the first player) and then hoping that someone from the opposing team kicks out your "defender" after more than 8 hours but possibly every day, but not from all gyms but only one gym a day. Or just multiaccounting (ToS violation) and do it all yourself.
2) Too much focus on Saturdays and Sundays. For me it's a major problem, but I can understand the reason. However I'm around more often Monday to Friday than on weekends, so it's annoying that CDs, raid days and special research events (which are by the way the shortest and the ones that shouldn't be missed) fall on days when I'm not so flexible.
3) Too many pointless time sinks. Pointless animations when fighting gyms, pointless 120-second lobby when soloing a low-tier raid, pointless animations for buddy feeding, pointless need for AR when AR is not functional to the game, pointless Rocket rewards screens, etc.

Conclusion

I hope that someone at Niantic reads half of what I've written, knowing that they have lost one of the (many, but few in percentage) people who have contributed to the growth of the awesome community around this game, and knowing that, if the game is kept in this "alpha-version" state, many other players will leave and move on to something less frustrating and more enjoyable.
I'm thankful to the Silph Road Team (moderators, scientists, researchers, and everyone else) and to the PoGoRaids Team (moderators, draft leaders, and everyone else) and to both TheSilphRoad and pogoraids communities because they have made this not-so-short phase of my playing life more enjoyable despite Niantic.
List of my most significant posts, i.e. my legacy, for those interested:
My "David vs. Goliath" challenges:
submitted by Zyxwgh to pogoraids [link] [comments]


2023.06.05 10:00 AutoModerator Weekly questions, bugs, and gameplay megathread - June 2023

Rules
Bugs
Instruction Manual
Useful Links
Niantic support : https://support.pokemongo.nianticlabs.com/hc/en-us
/PokemonGO FAQ: /PokemonGo/wiki/FAQ
There's this Pokéstop/Gym near me which seems inappropriate. Can I report it?
Use this link. However, Niantic seems to be preoccupied with other things now, so don't expect too much.
We have Niantic representatives on both here and /TheSilphRoad - please do not ping them for bugs which are in the known issues page unless you have found a niche yet gamebreaking issue/exploit.
Where can I find other players in my area?
Try our regional subreddits list! Also, see the related subreddits or TSR's community map!
If you have any suggestions for FAQs to append to this thread or for meta questions, message the moderators or mention PokemonGoMods!
submitted by AutoModerator to pokemongo [link] [comments]


2023.06.05 04:11 RBrim08 The conclusion to my first real attempt at a FireRed Nuzlocke.

Here's the previous post I made, for those seeking more context.
I, sadly, did not take very comprehensive notes after this point, as I was busy with several things and was just busy with playing at the time.
I did catch a male Krabby, which I named Boris, in Cerulean City to replace my Gyarados that I lost in my Sabrina fight. I trained it up into a Kingler and focused on training it on Route 9 to give it lots of Attack EVs and Speed EVs from the Ekans and Rattatas and Spearows. This guy did a good number on Blaine's and Giovanni's gyms, but ultimately got taken out by Giovanni's last Rhyhorn outspeeding me and getting an Earthquake off.
I picked up a female Tentacool on Route 20, which I named Vera, and evolved it into a Tentacruel. I was planning to make use of this girl in the Elite Four, but a Marowak in Victory Road had other plans and killed her with a Bonemerang.
To replace Vera, I picked up the Lapras from Silph Co. in Saffron City, naming him Indigo. I also picked up an Abra from the Game Corner in Celadon City, which I named Oswald, and leveled him up to become an Alakazam. I used the Old Amber I got from Pewter City to add an Aerodactyl to my team, which I named Crush, who take the place of Cerberus, my Dodrio.
Nossu, my Electrode, met his end against Blue just before Victory Road, getting taken out by Blue's Alakazam. I went to the Power Plant in hopes of getting a good Electric type and found an Electabuzz, which I named Kurtis.
Getting through Victory Road, I found myself at the Elite Four and, after grinding my team to about level 55, I decided on this team:
Lorelei, Bruno and Agatha were all clean sweeps. Kurtis took out most all of Lorelei's Pokemon, with Zheos coming in for her last 'mon, Jynx, to take her out with a Flamethrower. Bruno was absolutely destroyed by Indigo using Surf and Oswald using Psybeam and Psychic. Agatha was utterly demolished by Oswald alone.
And then came Lance... I began the battle with Kurtis, taking out his Gyarados with a single Thunder Punch. He then switched into Aerodactyl. I decided to switch to Lapras, hoping his extensive HP EV training would help him remain bulky in the face of Ancient Powers. Sadly, he only got one Ice Beam off before succumbing to Rock Tomb. I sent in Kurtis to finish the bastard off with a couple of Thunder Punches. The rest of the battle had a few close shaves, but I managed to take out all of his remaining Pokemon with my team. Crush was the MVP here, dodging an Outrage that would have killed him with Fly, the Dragonite becoming confused and hurting itself on its following turn and, not wanting to risk a low roll, taking out the Dragonite with a Double-Edge (thank you Rock Head).
Then came the battle against Blue. I sent in Kurtis to handle his Pidgeot, which it took out with a Thunder Punch and Thunderbolt. Blue sent out his Rhydon in retaliation and, sensing an Earthquake, I switched in Crush to dodge it. I attacked with an Earthquake from Crush in hopes it would take out his Rhydon, but the tanky bastard lived and took out Crush. You shall be missed, you crazy bastard.
Sending in Oswald, he managed to flay the Rhydon with a powerful Psychic, before Blue sent out his Arcanine. I decided to set up a Calm Mind in hopes I could sweep with Alakazam... but a critical Flamethrower from the Arcanine killed Oswald in one shot. He wasn't with me for long, but he did a damn fine job getting me passed Bruno and Agatha.
I sent in Myon to try and follow up on some damage with a Confuse Ray and Shadow Ball, the latter not making him hurt himself in confusion at all and the former doing only some marginal damage. Unfortunately, a Flamethrower and Bite sealed Myon's fate and down he went... and at this point, I felt that the run was over. I was down to two Pokemon, Kurtis and Zheos, and Blue still had four, healthy Pokemon for me to get through.
I sent out Kurtis... and remembered that he still knew Light Screen! I used that bad boy to reduce the damage he took from the Flamethrowers and spammed Thunderbolt on that Arcanine to take it down. Next came out his Alakazam, the bastard that killed Kurtis's predecessor. After a quick topping off and another Light Screen, Kurtis avenged Nossu and took down the Alakazam.
Blue then sent out his Exeggutor and, knowing Kurtis wouldn't be able to handle this palm tree, I sent in Zheos. Two quick Flamethrowers fell the tree, before Blue sent out his Blastoise. Kurtis was still a bit dinged up from fighting Blue's Arcanine and Alakazam, so I decided the safest option was to leave Zheos in, knowing he would likely die to any of Blastoise's water moves, so I could heal Kurtis up to full. Thankfully, Blastoise missed the Hydro Pump that would have killed Zheos and used a Rain Dance on the turn I switched Kurtis in.
With a mighty Thunderbolt, I took his Blastoise down to half health, dodging his second Hydro Pump in the process. And with one more Thunderbolt, I took down the beast and defeated Blue, earning a come from behind victory, becoming the Pokemon Champion and succeeding in my first serious attempt at a Pokemon Nuzlocke!
I'm sad that I wasn't able to bring Barbeque the Charmander, my starter, any further than Brock's Gym. But I hope he's proud of me, along with all the other Pokemon I lost along the way.
submitted by RBrim08 to nuzlocke [link] [comments]


2023.06.04 23:55 jamesplaydrum Number of players needed for raids?

Hi all, the silph road used to have a webpage showing current raid bosses and gave a pretty accurate estimate of how many players you need to defeat the raid (e.g. 2 average lvl 35 players can defeat this 3* raid). It very rarely failed, it made me attempt more raids than I would have done either alone or with a single friend because I don't want to waste time to find out its impossible
Now the site is closed, is there an alternate resource I can use?
I need something that's just a simple graphic/number and don't want to be adding all my pokemon and moves into calculators because I'm not that invested
submitted by jamesplaydrum to TheSilphRoad [link] [comments]


2023.06.04 10:55 Lewichan06 Update 5

Hello again! Updates may be more frequent as I am more or less finished with my own laboratory, which will double up as a music studio!
Outside of rp, I'm not great at making music but I'm going to try do some stuff for Team Sky.

After making it through the Pokémon Tower, I found out that the weird flute could wake up any Pokémon from its slumber so that Snorlax blocking the way to Cycling Road was easily dealt with! Onto Cycling Road I went, pretty boring honestly and so I just trotted on until I reached Fuschia City, where I stumbled into the safari zone and found... The HM for Surf!

Now being able to access almost all of Kanto, I took a step away from collecting gym badges and tried to make the best team of SKY Pokémon I possibly could. I ventured across the secret passageways of this mystical region, finding small cottages in the middle of the swamp, the sea, wherever I could go, I would. Discovering my fascination with ghost and dark type Pokémon! The mystery and allure to what could possibly lie behind them, their unique aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Idk I just wanted to use cool ghost types aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. (I ran out of excuses)
This was my team! It's also the same team I beat the league with so it dosen't change after this.
MGMT-Luxray/Honchkrow (named after Electric Feel by MGMT)
Blossoms-Togekiss/Yanmega (named after At Most a Kiss by Blossoms)
Cinnamon-Chandelure/Dusknoir (named after Ghost by Gerry Cinnamon)
Coldplay-Zoroark/Gengar (named after Ghost Stories LP by Coldplay)
Shed Seven-Slaking/Shedinja (named after Shed Seven)
Kasabian-Ninjask/Charizard (named after Fire by Kasabian) Starter Pokémon

Now I had assembled my new squad, I challenged the Poison gym and struggled! It was an extremely challenging fight according to everyone else I saw in the city, Koga is a fantastic battler and I have much respect for him and his profession.

That's when we hatched the plan to take down Silph. Co.
submitted by Lewichan06 to TeamSky [link] [comments]


2023.06.04 08:46 Teban54 [Analysis] Tyranitar (and its Mega) with Brutal Swing in raids: The Dark-type Monster Returns

[Analysis] Tyranitar (and its Mega) with Brutal Swing in raids: The Dark-type Monster Returns

TL;DR - Hunt down those Cliffs before Shadow Larvitar goes away!

Shadow (Dark) Tyranitar redefines dark/ghost attackers now. It's at Mega Gengar tier, MILES ahead of all other non-megas, is one of the most useful shadows in raids among all types, and is very future proof.
  • L30 Shadow Tyranitar = L50 Hydreigon and all others
Regular (Dark) Tyranitar = Hydreigon. Mayyybe 1% below Hydreigon, and it's mostly typing-dependent.
Once released, Mega Tyranitar will become #1 Dark and #1 Rock, both in solo performance (though Mega Diancie will be better), and especially in group damage contribution due to its bulk.
Dark or Rock? Save 1 non-shadow of each for the mega, then: Shadow Dark > Shadow Rock > Regular Dark = Hydreigon > Regular Rock.
  • Ideally, both Shadow Dark and Shadow Rock are worth making teams of (rock team mixed with Rampardos), but prioritize Dark.
  • Shadow Rock is also #1 non-mega rock, but just barely, and will eventually be outclassed. Keep at least 1 for Rockets though.
  • DO NOT PURIFY!
Keep reading for:
  • Why each Tyranitar can't double duty
  • Dark/Ghost and Rock-type attacker comparison charts and Mega comparison charts
    • Brief mention of Mega Sableye (it disappoints)
  • Is Shadow Tyranitar (dark) the most useful raid attacker of all types? (Strength & Utility metric)
  • Pairwise comparisons involving shadow and regular Tyranitar
  • Future considerations
    • Shadow Darkrai with Dark Void is the only one that can truly outclass Shadow Tyranitar
  • More detailed recommendations on "Dark vs. Rock"
  • List of my previous analyses - now in Google Sheets!

Introduction

At the start of the Season of Hidden Gems, we got our seasonal Go Battle League move update. As part of the update, Tyranitar can now learn Brutal Swing as part of its regular, non-legacy moveset, using a Regular Charged TM.
Additionally, the season website has (accidentally?) revealed that Mega Tyranitar will make its debut in Mega Raids from July 25 to August 4 (full schedule on Go Hub). A detailed look at the website's source code also shows Mega Sableye release from June 29 to July 6.
When I previously wrote about Tyranitar for its Community Day Classic in January, my tone was rather bleak, as regular Tyranitar had already fallen way below the tier lists of both rock and dark attackers. Quoted from the TL;DR back then:
Unless you missed December CD, relax - 2023 is not 2018. Regular Tyranitar is not a must-have anymore.
But that was when Tyranitar's dark moveset was Bite/Crunch, both being mediocre to bad moves. Now, Tyranitar can instead use Brutal Swing, a borderline overpowered (OP) move designed for Hydreigon to shine on its Community Day a year ago.
Does Brutal Swing help both regular and Shadow Tyranitar restore its 2017 glory? How will Mega Tyranitar (and Mega Sableye) perform in raids once they arrive? I'll address these questions with the following parts:
  1. Tyranitar (Regular, Shadow, Mega) and Mega Sableye as Dark/Ghost-type raid attackers
  2. Mega Tyranitar as a Rock-type raid attacker
  3. Future Considerations - What else can catch up with Shadow Tyranitar?
  4. Verdict: Dark or Rock?
If you're on desktop and want to jump to a particular part, search "Part X".
You can now follow me (@teban54) on Twitter!
Since this post is too long, Reddit may not allow edits after publishing. Should there be minor changes or bug fixes, I will mention them in a comment.

A legacy fast move - why each Tyranitar can't double duty

A minor note that should be obvious for veteran players, but still useful to point out.
To function as a rock type, Tyranitar needs Smack Down, a legacy fast move. This means you can't build a single Tyranitar and TM back and forth between dark and rock movesets. An individual Tyranitar is locked in as either a rock type or a dark type, not both.
This may force you to build twice as many Tyranitars as you normally would - a dark team and a rock team - if necessary.
Do note that you will be able to get Smack Down by evolution during December 2023 Community Day, without needing an Elite Fast TM.
And if you really want to, you can TM a Smack Down Tyranitar to Bite. It's a one-way street: Rock -> Dark is a yes, Dark -> Rock is a no (or at least expensive).

Part 1: Tyranitar as a Dark Attacker

[Part 1 TL;DR] Shadow Tyranitar redefines the Dark/Ghost meta, being at Mega Gengar tier, and L30 Shadow Ttar = L50 other options. It's now a Tier 1 shadow in utility across all types.
Regular Tyranitar is virtually the same as Hydreigon, mayyybe 1% worse and typing-dependent.
Mega Tyranitar is also at Mega Gengar tier, and will likely be the choice for a Dark/Ghost Mega from now on.
Dark and Ghost attackers ranked by their average in-raid performance, using ASE and ASTTW.
Charts of ASE with and without dodging are here.

Brutal Swing is a HUGE upgrade on Tyranitar: an 18% improvement, almost the same as shadow vs. non-shadow, and enough to cross several tiers.
  • Put it another way: Non-shadow Tyranitar with Brutal Swing is as good as Shadow Tyranitar without Brutal Swing.
As a result, Shadow Tyranitar REDEFINES non-mega Dark/Ghost attackers now.
  • Shadow Tyranitar's power gets to Mega Gengar tier, and most people should know how OP Mega Gengar is. (Detailed comparisons later...)
  • Everything that we used to call "a top dark/ghost type" gets left WAY behind. This includes: Hydreigon, Shadow Weavile, Shadow Tyranitar without Brutal Swing, Shadow Mewtwo (Shadow Ball), Giratina Origin, Darkrai. Now, Shadow Tyranitar at Level 30 = all these options at Level 50, Hydreigon included.
  • For the DPS lovers, here's the ER and DPS table. Indeed, even in raw DPS, Shadow Tyranitar is now the highest among all non-mega dark/ghost types - and it still has good bulk!
Regular Tyranitar is now virtually the same as Hydreigon, mayyybe 1% below. Together, they're the top non-shadow non-mega options.
  • This also means it's better than Giratina-O and Darkrai.
  • So, non-shadow Tyranitar isn't meta-defining per se, since Hydreigon already existed. If you had a Hydreigon army from its CD, regular Ttar doesn't do anything extra, aside from typing differences. Put your resources into the shadows.
  • (Detailed comparisons later...)
When Mega Tyranitar arrives, it will sit in the same tier as Mega Gengar and Shadow Tyranitar in individual performance. In other words, top of the type.
  • Mega > Shadow, but DO NOT PURIFY.
  • (Detailed comparisons and mega charts later...)

Shadow Tyranitar (Dark)'s Incredible Utility

[Section TL;DR] Due to the high utility of dark/ghost types (many bosses to use them against), Shadow Tyranitar is now one of the most useful raid attackers across all types. This will remain the case even after most future shadows (including shadow legendaries) are released. A solid Tier 1 shadow for raiding.
I've always treated dark and ghost types as "one" of the most useful types for raiding, if not the most useful. Their main roles are anti-psychic and anti-ghost, and it happens that there's a crazy number of psychic-type T5 bosses (perhaps the most common type among legendaries).
Back when I wrote the Shadow Mewtwo analysis in January, I defined a "Strength and Utility" (S&U) metric, which combines individual powers of raid attackers with the number of raids they can be used against. For example, Shadow Mewtwo as a psychic type doesn't do too well, because psychic attackers are rarely needed.
With all expected future Gen 1-5 shadows at that time - which included Shadow Hydreigon, but not Shadow Tyranitar with Brutal Swing - the metric looked like this:
Strength and Utility (S&U) metric with Gen 1-5 shadows in January 2023. \"(Shadow) Hydreigon\" on this chart is a close approximation for Shadow Tyranitar with Brutal Swing.
Treat the "Hyderigon" on the chart as Shadow Tyranitar.
That means... Shadow Tyranitar (dark) is one of the most useful raid attackers - #1 by the S&U metric. Both right now, and in a future where all Gen 1-5 shadows are released.
The incredibly powerful (future) shadow legendaries that you're thinking of: Shadow Mewtwo, Groudon, Rayquaza, Terrakion... In terms of utility, they all pale in comparison to Shadow Tyranitar.
  • One caveat is that this chart only considers utility of a single type. Shadow Mamoswine's utility in either of its types may be lower than Shadow Tyranitar, but its combined utility will likely be higher, at least today.
So yes, I would absolutely rank Shadow Tyranitar (dark) as a Tier 1 shadow in raids today. (And my definition of Tier 1 was very restrictive. I ranked Shadow Mewtwo as Tier 2... And people hated it.)

Comparisons: Mega & Shadow Tyranitar, and Mega Gengar

[Section TL;DR] Mega > Shadow Ttar. Mega Gengar technically "wins" more often than both (and still has the highest DPS/TTW), but it's very unreliable, and when it fails, it fails very badly.
Mega Tyranitar vs. Shadow Tyranitar vs. Mega Gengar (L40 best friends)
Mega Tyranitar vs. Mega Gengar: (Individual power, without damage boosting)
  • Mega Gengar may be better than Mega Tyranitar more often, but it's WAY less consistent.
  • This is due to Mega Gengar's fragility and weakness to psychic moves. On the other hand, Mega Tyranitar doesn't fear much, except fighting moves.
  • As a result, Mega Tyranitar gets better average Estimator. (Remember the bar chart above doesn't show how much better each option is.) In TTW, Mega Gengar still pulls ahead.
The other two pairs are comparing apples (megas) to oranges (non-megas), but:
Shadow Tyranitar vs. Mega Gengar:
  • Same discussion as above, except that Shadow Ttar fares worse than its Mega counterpart.
  • Their average Estimators are similar at L40-50, whereas Mega Gengar is ahead in TTW.
Mega Tyranitar vs. Shadow Tyranitar:
  • In theory, Shadow Ttar actually out-DPSes Mega Ttar by 2.1%. But Mega Ttar has 54% more TDO, more than enough to make up for it.
  • Indeed, in practice, Shadow's tiny DPS advantage almost evaporates. Mega is better.

Comparisons: Regular Tyranitar vs. Hydreigon and others

[Section TL;DR] Hydreigon is technically still better, but only by 1%, and basically typing-dependent. Tyranitar outclasses most other options, arguably except Shadow Weavile.
Tyranitar vs. other similar Dark and Ghost attackers (L40 best friends)
Everything listed here used to be the "golden standard" for dark and ghost. Now, even non-shadow Tyranitar at least puts up a fight, if not straight up outclasses them. (Recall that Shadow Tyranitar is above all of them by 18%.)
Starting with Tyranitar vs. Hydreigon, as it's the most relevant pair.
  • Hydreigon has 256 base attack to Tyranitar's 251, but Ttar has more defense and HP. Now that they have the same moveset, Hydreigon naturally has slightly higher DPS, while Tyranitar has higher TDO.
  • From the bar chart... Yes, Hydreigon is technically still better.
  • However, it's only better by a tiny amount - usually on the scale of 1%.
    • Here's a plot of the extent to which each one is better than the other. In 80% of cases, the difference is really small.
  • In practice, what's preferred essentially boils down to typing differences.
Tyranitar vs. Shadow Weavile is also interesting: Shadow Weavile is a classic glass cannon, stronger in the best case, but very risky. But if you're comparing to a shadow... Why not use Shadow Tyranitar instead?
Tyranitar basically outclasses the rest (Darkrai, Giratina-O, Chandelure, Gholdengo), aside from typing disadvantages, such as Focus Blast Mewtwo.

Dark and Ghost-type Mega Comparisons

[Section TL;DR] Mega Tyranitar > all dark megas, and > Mega Gengar unless everyone else uses ghost. Mega Sableye disappoints.
Comparison of dark- and ghost-type megas, in terms of damage up to a fixed time frame (relative to the no-mega baseline). Big type icons denote attackers that other raiders use.
As usual, this chart looks at the question "which mega contributes the most damage to the group", accounting for both its own damage output and its mega boost to other raiders. Note that Primal Kyogre/Groudon in the 6th slot may still be the best way to contribute damage (method explained in my Mega Pinsir analysis).
If you don't want to "use" a Primal...
Yes, Mega Tyranitar will outclass all Dark-type Megas on all fronts - in both power (Houndoom) and group boosting (Gyarados).
Comparing to Mega Gengar:
  • If you coordinate so that everyone else uses ghost types, then Mega Gengar is better.
  • However, if you're not sure what others will bring, Mega Tyranitar is better, often by far.
Brief mention on Mega Sableye. In theory, being able to boost both Dark and Ghost damage - regardless of what others choose - sounds very enticing. Sadly, Mega Sableye's laughable power and mediocre bulk means it can't execute that well. It's worse than Mega Tyranitar in almost all situations, including when others use ghost types.

Part 2: Mega Tyranitar as a Rock Attacker

[Part 2 TL;DR] Mega Tyranitar's individual power is barely above Mega Aerodactyl (current best rock type), and slightly below Mega Diancie. However, its superior bulk makes it the best mega for contributing damage in group raids.
Rock attackers ranked by their average in-raid performance, using ASE and ASTTW.
Charts of ASE with and without dodging are here.

In individual power, Mega Tyranitar is the best rock attacker, being better than Mega Aerodactyl... But just barely.
  • It will also have worse solo performance than Mega Diancie, when/if it's released at Go Fest. (Not shown on the chart)
  • However, Mega Tyranitar has a massive bulk advantage over Mega Diancie and Aerodactyl, making it the Rock-type Mega of choice due to boosting other players. (More on this in a moment...)
Brief note on Shadow and regular Tyranitar:
  • Shadow Tyranitar is the best non-mega rock type in Estimator, but only barely ahead of Rampardos. In large lobbies (TTW), Rampardos actually catches up.
    • Shadow/Mega Tyranitar are tanks, while Rampardos and Mega Aerodactyl are glass cannons. The latter have higher DPS respectively, but not enough bulk to fully shine when relobbying is a concern.
    • A mixed lobby of, say, 3 Rampardos followed by 3 Shadow Tyranitar may perform even better.
  • Non-shadow Tyranitar is worse than several options, and #6 non-shadow non-mega.
More discussions on Shadow and regular Tyranitar with Smack Down can be found in my CD Classic analysis.

Rock-type Mega Comparisons

Comparison of rock-type megas, in terms of damage up to a fixed time frame (relative to the no-mega baseline).
Very simple chart.
Mega Tyranitar is the best rock-type mega to use in group raids for damage contribution, due to its superior bulk providing the 30% mega boost for longer. Even though it's weaker than Mega Diancie by itself.

Part 3: Future Considerations - What else can catch up with Shadow Tyranitar?

[Part 3 TL;DR] Shadow Tyranitar is very future-proof as a dark type. Future counters such as Shadow Hydreigon may become similar, but nothing can truly outclass it until we get Shadow Darkrai with Dark Void. However, as a rock type, it will eventually be outclassed by Shadow Rhyperior, Shadow Rampardos, etc.

Future Dark-type Attackers

Future and speculative dark and ghost attackers ranked by ASE and ASTTW.
Charts of ASE with and without dodging are here.

If we're only talking about what can outclass Shadow Tyranitar? The answer is: Only Shadow Darkrai, once it gets Dark Void.
Several things can become equivalent to Shadow Tyranitar or barely below, however:
  • Shadow Hydreigon. Just like their non-shadow forms, their shadows will likely tie each other.
  • Darkrai (non-shadow) with Dark Void, if the move is sufficiently OP.
  • Shadow Darkrai with its current moves. If Niantic never gives us Dark Void.
  • Calyrex Shadow Rider, if it gets a Game Master moveset change and receives Hex.
  • Hoopa Unbound with its signature move.
Blacephalon (with the best possible moves) and Shadow Chandelure will lie between non-shadow and Shadow Tyranitars, but probably on the lower side.
In short... Shadow Tyranitar is pretty darn future-proof as a dark type.

Future Rock Attackers

On the other hand, as a rock type, Shadow Tyranitar is waiting to be outclassed by future shadows. In particular, Shadow Rhyperior and Shadow Rampardos. (And to a less extent, Shadow Terrakion and Shadow Gigalith.)
I covered them in my CD Classic analysis in January, including possibilities of Tyranitar receiving better rock-type moves. You can jump to the charts here.

Part 4: Verdict - Dark or Rock?

So here's a punchline:
Do you want a #1 dark that's miles ahead of other dark types, or a #1 rock that's only barely ahead of other rock types?
A #1 dark that's very unlikely to be outclassed, or a #1 rock that will be outclassed sooner or later?
Based on this, here's a more detailed set of advice:
Form Dark Rock
Mega 1 non-shadow Dark for Mega 1 non-shadow Rock for Mega
Shadow As many Shadow Dark as possible Ideally also a team of Shadow Rock and Rampardos, at least 1, but lower priority than dark
Non-shadow Round out your Hydreigon team, if you lack Shadow Ttars Just the 1 Mega, unless you lack all the better options
Or, as a one-liner: After 1 Mega for each, Shadow Dark > Shadow Rock > Regular Dark = Hydreigon > Regular Rock. If you need to choose between limited Shadow Larvitars with good IVs, prioritize dark.
  • DO NOT PURIFY! Use another non-shadow for the mega.
  • I recommend having at least 1 Shadow Rock for Rocket battles. Smack Down Ttar is awesome especially against flying grunts.
Factors that went into the recommendations above, which also serves as a recap of the whole article:
  1. Megas for both types are a must.
  2. Both Shadow Dark and Shadow Rock are currently #1 non-mega of their types. Both are worth building teams of (though the rock team may be mixed with Rampardos).
  3. Shadow Dark fares significantly better among its own type than Shadow Rock, is stronger in raw power, and is also more future proof.
  4. I'd try my best not to TM a Shadow Rock to Dark - find a better one from Cliff. But if you really have to, Rampardos and Rhyperior get you covered. Shadow SD Tyranitar is ahead of Rhyperior, but they fulfill the same role: a rock-type tank.
  5. Shadow Ttar > Regular Ttar, of course. So ideally, any resources should preferably go into the shadows before the non-shadows (if at all).
  6. Regular Dark = Hydreigon, or 1% below. Anyone that has already built a Hydreigon team doesn't need another regular Tyranitar. If you haven't, regular Ttar is awesome, but why not build a Shadow Ttar instead?
  7. Regualr Rock < Rampardos, Rhyperior, Terrakion, Tyrantrum, Gigalith. TM'ing Regular Rock to Dark wouldn't be too crazy.
Of course, these are general guidelines, and may differ based on your availability of attackers, preferences (e.g. Unique 6, hate shadows), etc.
Ultimately, do what makes you happy.
-------------------------------------------

What's next?

I'll start working on Breaking Swipe Haxorus analysis ASAP. Preliminary thoughts can be found here.
Beyond that, I will likely be scaling down the frequency and depth of my analyses soon. More details and explanations to come. (This article is already less in-depth than it could have been.)

Appendix: Past analyses on other types

A complete list of all my past analyses - on every single type other than normal - can now be found in this spreadsheet!
submitted by Teban54 to TheSilphRoad [link] [comments]


2023.06.02 22:56 Errubki Search strings for PvP IVs in June 2023 Spotlight Hours

tl;dr: very long search strings that let you quickly find good PvP IVs.
Hello, first of all here are the search strings:
https://digistorage.net/9hit192e (not all the strings for the month are up at the moment, I'll add them to that link later.)
if you don't know how these work you can find full details in one of my previous posts. You can also watch this video tutorial by RyanSwag and here I leave you a quick summary:
I've generated text files containing search strings for different possible sets of IVs that people might be interested in. You can get to the text file that contains the string that works for you by traversing the tree of folders. To do this, just click on the folder that contains the set of IVs you want to search for each respective league/evolution until you get to the text files. Then, save the content of one of the "Transfer [...].txt" as a saved search in PoGo, and then transfer (or tag for trading) all the pokes that match that search when you need space during community days/events. See my previous posts for more explanation on using the other text file, "Not PvP.txt", or for more insight into the generation or usage of these search strings.For example, let's take a hypothetical event where Scraggy spawns in the wild. I don't have a good great league Scrafty, so I want to look at anything that could be in the Top 100 IV spreads--I click the "Top 100 Scrafty (Great League)" folder. However, I already have the rank 1 ultra league Scrafty, so I click the "Top 0 Scrafty (Ultra League)" folder to not save any of those. I don't play little cups, so I choose "Top 0 Scrafty (Little League)" and "Top 0 Scraggy (Little League)". Finally, I don't really want to build a great league Scraggy, but would consider it if I got a really good one, so I pick "Top 25 Scraggy (Great League)" to reduce the number I have to look at manually. Then for usual (not PvP) high IVs I would only like to keep 96% IV or better so I use the "Transfer (save 96%).txt" string.

Warning: make sure you're pasting the whole string, some phones don't do that.

If you like this work and would like to financially support, you can do so here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Errubki. Thank you!
And that's it for now. Please leave below any question or concern you might have, and remember you can follow me on Twitter if you want (for updates on these from time to time). Have fun catching!
submitted by Errubki to TheSilphRoad [link] [comments]


2023.06.02 20:00 PokeUpdateBot [Beyond the Main Series Thread] 02 June 2023

Welcome to the Beyond the Main Series Thread, a weekly thread to discuss Pokemon-related events and media outside the main series games, such as the Pokemon anime, TCG, manga, and spinoff titles!
Note: Please don't link to or exchange ROM files, links to illegally-hosted anime or manga, or any other copyrighted content here unless it's from a legal source. Feel free to discuss that stuff, though!
Anime resources
Serebii anime hub
Bulbapedia episode list
/anime/
TCG resources
TCG online forums
/pkmntcg/ /ptcgo/ /pkmntcgtrades/ /pkmntcgcollections/ /PokemonTCG/
Manga resources
Serebii manga hub
/manga/
Spinoff game resources
/pokemongo /TheSilphRoad /MysteryDungeon /PokemonROMHacks /PokemonShuffle /PokkenGame
submitted by PokeUpdateBot to pokemon [link] [comments]


2023.06.01 22:57 gyroda Could we add links containing current egg pool, rocket rewards etc to the weekly question megathread?

The new seasonal megathread has pushed the old one out and the links in the weekly question megathread still point to the Silph Road site. It'd be nice if those could be changed to the megathread for the current egg pools, rocket rewards and research tasks.
submitted by gyroda to TheSilphRoad [link] [comments]


2023.06.01 00:02 SilphScience Season of Hidden Gems Wild Spawns Megathread

Last updated: June 6, 04:00 UTC
Links to other research threads:
General: https://www.reddit.com/TheSilphRoad/comments/13fwpg8/current_raid_quest_rocket_egg_pools/
Field Research: https://www.reddit.com/TheSilphRoad/comments/13wzkbk/season_of_hidden_gems_field_research_megathread/
Let's work out which Pokemon are going to be available in the wild during the new season! You'll start seeing new spawns at 10:00 am local time on June 1.
We'll split up the list between hemispheres. When a spawn is first reported, it will only be added to the hemisphere the report came from until it's confirmed in the other. Since the southern hemisphere gets an early start, the list will look very skewed at first, but will balance out as we progress.
Species in bold were announced in the blog post. Normal font are traveler reports.

Regionals

Both Hemispheres

South

North

Nesting Species

Let's also put together a list of what you can find in nests.
Reported in both
Reported South
Reported North
submitted by SilphScience to TheSilphRoad [link] [comments]


2023.05.31 16:06 PokeMondes Inquiring about the chance to receive Candy XL when walking Buddy

Hello. I can't seem to find a reputable source, especially now that the Silph Road website is down. If I have 4 Mewtwo that are levels 35, 40, 45, and 50, does it matter which one I walk if I want to optimize getting the most Candy XL?
Some people say at Pokemon level 31, they all give the same chance. However, TCGPlayer.com - I'm not familiar with this website - states, "At Level 31, you'll get a Candy XL about 70% of the time. The bonus likely maxes out at Level 40, where the rate is somewhere above 80%."
Thank you.
submitted by PokeMondes to TheSilphRoad [link] [comments]


2023.05.31 08:23 SenseiEntei Pokemon GO: Hidden Gems season trailer teases Mega Rayquaza

Surprised this hasn't been posted here yet, but some Poke YouTubers have already jumped the gun. At the end of the trailer for next season (52 second mark), you can see the GO Fest banner on the side of multiple buildings. Then the camera pans up and shows a green beam of light shoot up towards the sky. This matches a cutscene in Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire where Rayquaza mega evolves as it flies into space.
As listed in this post, the season calendar showed the mega raid boss rotation for most of next season. The July and August rotations have since been removed because Niantic likely didn't intend to release it yet. But they are likely correct and confirmed on Niantic's end, since it included Mega Tyranitar from July 25 to August 4, which (almost) lines up with this leak from a month ago, which has so far been correct. But notably, the last week of August was ??? for mega raids. Global GO Fest is August 26-27.
Finally, add the fact that the Hoenn Tour special research included dialogue from Prof. Willow that originally hinted at Mega Rayquaza (though later edited to "mighty" instead of "Mega"). All of this lines up with Mega Rayquaza being a likely candidate to be released around GO Fest. Not confirmed, but there are many signs pointing to it.
submitted by SenseiEntei to TheSilphRoad [link] [comments]


2023.05.30 15:00 AutoModerator Questions & Answers - Weekly Megathread! Please use this post to ask any Pokemon GO question you'd like!

Hey travelers!

If you have any questions about Pokemon GO (anything from basics to specifics of a certain mechanic), ask here! We also have a wealth of information available in historical posts, so try using the search bar. Or click the Discord link in our topbar and head to the #boot_camp channel - where helpful travelers are standing by to answer questions.
Weekly Feedback & Suggestions Megathread
__________________________

What is /TheSilphRoad?

The Silph Road is primarily focused on discoveries and analysis related to Pokemon GO, as well as constructing an in-person network of Pokemon GO enthusiasts. General discussion topics (Jokes, stories, a photo of a recent catch) would likely be better suited for another subreddit, such as a general subreddit like /PokemonGO, or /Pokemon, or a subreddit with a more specific focus, like /PokemonGoSnap, /PokemonBuddy, /ShinyPokemon, /PoGoRaids, /TheSilphArena, /PokemonGOTrades, /PokemonGOFriends, or /NianticWayfarer.
Anywhere you travel to in the world will have a friendly, local Silph Road community to help you learn about Pokemon nests nearby or trade a bunch of local species! Check out the global community map for your hometown or travel destination to get in touch with the community there!
Silph Road Content Policy
The Silph Road is heavily moderated to promote civility/courtesy, and high-quality content and discussion. You can read our full policies in the sidebar, but don't be surprised if a comment is removed for being rude, cynical, or off-topic. We strive to foster civil discussion about the game. We are first and foremost a network of real people, and this network is being built by volunteers! If you simply want to complain or bring something to Niantic's attention, your post would be better suited elsewhere.
Research
The community culture here also attracts the more analytically-minded element of Pokemon GO. Consequently, the Silph Research group was formed to align this brainpower and leverage the massive Silph datasets that the community can gather. We post our findings in infographics, videos, and walls of text on Reddit. Check out the top bar for links to current research tasks, the current egg pool, current raid bosses, and more!
The Nest Atlas?
Head here for information about the global Nest Atlas!
Final words
Finally, welcome once more! We're glad to have you join us on the Road :)
- The Silph Executives -
Link to other Questions & Answers posts
submitted by AutoModerator to TheSilphRoad [link] [comments]


2023.05.30 14:15 prikaz_da Survey: Shadow Mewtwo raid weekend

It’s been quite a while since I last ran a survey here, but I’m back! If you participated in Shadow Mewtwo raids this past weekend, I’d love to know more about your experience. Please click or tap this link to take the survey. It’s short—not even 10 questions—and you don’t need to write anything or share any personal information. Once the survey has closed, I’ll share the results of my analysis in a follow-up post.
Edit: The survey will be closing tonight, May 31, at 11:59 p.m. PDT has closed. Thank you to everyone who submitted a response!
Praise for past surveys: The last time I reported survey results in this subreddit, the top comment was “get this man some grant funding”.
submitted by prikaz_da to TheSilphRoad [link] [comments]


2023.05.29 23:03 Madame_Foxglove New nests?

Hey, so I just found out about the Silph road closing down. Are there any reliable ways of finding nests now?
submitted by Madame_Foxglove to TheSilphRoad [link] [comments]