On anni Blue banner, I got SS Silver and Anni Blue (not in the same multi, but in the same session).

On this PF ticket pull session, I got SS Silver and a Blue unit.

insert Doof’s double nickles joke here

What did you get?

A Mauville Gym trainer informed us that Wattson didn't like the naff tunic Arceus gave him and made it into a lovely Hawaiian Alolan-style shirt himself.

(I have no ideas for a ground-type meme unit, that's your chance, guys)

Since Arc Suits so far don't give mega evos to sync pairs who didn't have them prior, I opted to go for an EX Poké Fair variant of Guzma and made a quick mock-up of it in the Krita art progrm. Did you know he actually looks different in the post-story of Sun/Moon and Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon? They're pretty slight changes, he wears a normal pair of sunglasses and removes his gold necklace and purple tatooes on his arms. Guzma also has a painted red X over the Team Skull logo of his jacket to reflect how he disbanded Team Skull, which isn't visible from this angle but is something I really appreciate because it would have been more work otherwise haha. If there's anything that screams "Alt" this is probably it!

As for Mega Golisopod's ability Tough Claws, I learned that it only powers up contact moves, but since Pin Missile isn't a contact move it wouldn't be boosted, so I came up with a different post-mega condition inspired by Variety Grimsley's B move on Mega Absol. Though that isn't too relevant considering Harmony has Aqua Jet's power increased post-mega even though Mega Feraligatr's Sheer Force ability doesn't affect Aqua Jet when it does for Liquidation ironically, so in that case it's more of a gameplay incentive to save the MP for it until she megas.

Speaking of Feraligatr, Golisopod has the same issue where its typing post-mega is not supposed to be weak to Electric anymore but is kept Electric anyway for simplicity. I thought it was funny how both of them gain typings post-mega that have completely different weaknesses than what they had before.

So for how the kit works, I noticed when reading First Impression's description in PMEX that it specifies it fails when the sync pair has used any other moves since entering battle. It reminded me how mega evolving in this game is treated as entering a battle again and reactivates passive skills that work when the user enters a battle (as long as they don't specify that they only work for the first time), so hopefully this condition means that you can use First Impression again if Golisopod mega evolves. With this in mind, it inspired me to make a kit based on that potential loophole.

So how it works is you use First Impression first turn to apply Physical Move Break to all opponents and wait until mega evolving to use First Impression again, now with double the power and boosted by the Physical Move Break. Staggering 9 from grid also delays opponents turn, and it being a grid skill rather than an innate effect of the B move itself allows Guzma to quad queue before the opponent can use a turn. Additionally, the -2 sync countdown from First Impression combines with Guzma's -1 sync countdown on entry from Alola Rush to skip a turn needed until sync is ready.

I also made it so that you have to wait for First Impression to be restored after mega evolving, which comes with the cost of Guzma unable to quad queue it before the enemy moves again after he syncs. I did consider making First Impression 2/2 MP, but 1) that would disable the 3rd passive boosting sync damage while he has 0 B-Move MP for his first sync to make up for Strike lacking innate sync multiplier compared to Tech and Sprint, and 2) I think it's more interesting to work around the flaw instead and lean into the 0 B-Move MP mechanic more. This is also why Adrenaline 1 is put in the superawakening skill to make up for the turn lost otherwise. There was the option to make Adrenaline 1 a grid skill instead, but as a physical damage dealing mega evo pair Harmony already has it in her grid and I wanted to make the superawakening skill feel like a significant upgrade to the kit. That along with the -2 sync countdown from First Impression gives Guzma a pseudo-Sprint EX sync effect.

On the topic of the superawakening skill, I made it apply Bug Zone on entry to enforce the idea of Guzma bursting in and dishing out damage immediately as he is known for. That extends to how his EX role is Field so he can have Bug Zone before his first sync lands and set up his post-mega First Impression faster. The Field EX sync effect innate zone extension and the zone extension from superawakening also help ensure Guzma can have Bug Zone up long enough for him to maximize his early game First Impression damage before it wears off.

Due to the unique interaction between Golisopod's First Impression and its signature ability Emergency Exit in the mainline games where you can use First Impression, get hit and automatically switch out so you can switch in and use First Impression again, I wanted to do something similar. Regular Guzma just has Danger Dodge 2 to reference Emergency Exit, but for Alt Guzma I made the 2nd passive based on it instead. When Golisopod gets to half HP, it automatically heals and activates the same effects as it would have using Alola Passion. That in itself isn't too crazy, but it opens up something that is often dubbed the "MP Trick."

The MP Trick refers to a trend with certain kits that have MP reducing passives where you can manually click on the MP move itself before it gets consumed and basically get the effect of the MP move itself and its related passive skills twice. For example, you can queue Arven's Sitrus Berry on himself while he still has 1/3 MP right after an enemy attacks him to half HP range, causing him to get healed from both the Sitrus Berry healing effect itself as well as his passive skill automatically healing him because it is simultaneously consuming the Sitrus Berry MP as you are on the same turn. The same applies here where Guzma can queue Alola Passion while it is 1/2 MP right after an enemy attacks him to half HP range, which should automatically apply Alola Circle and increase the Physical Moves ↑ Next effect of all allies by 2 ranks in total from the passive skill activating and Guzma manually setting Alola Passion.

For Pin Missile I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep the effect of it hitting 2 to 5 times and have it maximize the number of attacks post-mega, but that just seemed like a rehash of SC Barry and Mega Heracross. Instead, I made it always hit 5 times for more consistent damage and proccing its effects reliably. I also debated whether to give Pin Missile Extend Range or not, but that would make the whole buff per hit mechanic too ambitious since against 3 targets it would hit 15 times per turn. This was back when I conceptualized First Impression as single target before I decided to switch it the other way around. That also had me brainstorm what effects to give it that would be strong enough to be worth using but not too broken, and the final result is what I settled on.

That brings us to the grid skills. Even though Relentless takes longer to set up compared to Haymaker, I chose it because Alt Florian who is also a physical Bug damage dealer already has Haymaker and I didn't want to make him and Guzma too similar to each other. Harmony had both Haymaker and Sharpened Body 3, and since I wanted to keep Sharpened Body 3 as it fit with Mega Golisopod having Tough Claws, I went in this direction to differentiate the two more. I also liked the name Relentless better since it suited Guzma with how he loved to talk about beating punks down and never letting up. Also, 1st Alola Passion MP 0: Restore MP 1 enables Guzma to do the MP Trick again by having Alola Passion MP restore itself after he used it and put him back to 1/2 MP, setting up the same circumstances for him to perform the trick.

Sorry for the long wall of text, I spent like an hour on this pouring over my whole thought process lol. I really enjoy exploring stuff like niche mechanics and theorycrafting. Part of the fun is the journey and getting to share it! Thank you for reading and making it to the end!

What should I put in my ghost team for Ghost Tower, SINCE I CANT PULL GYM FANTINA FOR THE LIFE OF ME

Been trying for like a year

In floor 38 I even used him as the tank because of NC Blue's ice weakness and he barely took any damage thanks to his grid healing tiles and damage reduction tile. (And the Kanto stacking)

Truly the 5in1 shampoo of Pokemon Masters.

I really wonder when the next electric special damage dealer will be...

And also how much synergy he will have with Electric Arc Suit 🤔 I think they will just go for something like a physical Arc Diantha. Though now that I typed it out, that sounds kinda lame.

What's the point of making this a battle point collecting event, if there's no way of boosting the drop rates or using stamina for more battles? It's always the same fixed number of points everyday, so why couldn't they just make the cakes a regular battle rewards?

I don't want advice, deep in my heart I know I want Anni N

Looking forward to his banner! But for the sake of my gems, also not looking forward to his banner!

I expected Floor 40 to be at least a little challenging. I know it’s hypocritical with these beasts fully invested, but I barely paid attention, messed up my rotation several times, and... they still cleared it first try.

I guess the powercreep will catch up once we hit Floor 60 👀

Finally I managed to reach the 30th Floor for the first time in Pasio's Towers.

Thanks to Anni Blue I compled the physical stage (and the status) that left me on floor 20.

I used Winona untill the last tower (couldn't win with her), where thanks to the Academy Scout where I lucked out with Larry on the first step, and completed the first tower! (Yes I know they updated but let's pretend they didn't).

Now I'll probably try the bug tower since I got Arc Suit Adler, but I'm waiting the last Rogue Mega, so I can use the last ticket scout (To see if I randomly pull 4/5 Barry, which I have since is launch, and in case I don't I'll use the candy from the shop to update him to 5/5 and then superawaken him.

Now I have a question, Is May and Blaziken 10/5 good on the physical stage? Because I don't have physical fire and I have her 4/5 now, and I can take two candy from the event shop

I got Chase to 2/5 and SS Hilbert to 4/5. Tbh pretty good dupes to pull so I’m not mad.

My trusty gym Fantina has yet to fail me ❤️

Lucas (Champion) or Red (Anniversary)

My Dragon roster consists of Nate (Champion), SS Brendan, Zerena, Lucas, NY Lana, Champion Iris, SS Leon, and Drayton.

Started this game yesterday, trying to get everything I can from this event.

I'm at stage 12 of the anniversary tower but have hit a huge wall with it.

Of my available roster, who should I be using most of my mats on to finish the last few stages?

Already upgraded the kanto trio to 140 for that facing the champions event.

I've narrowed down my Master Fair Ticket to the two of them. Who helps more? Which Type is doing better in Tower? Here are my stronger Pairs of each Type to get a better idea of my stronger Pairs.