Yep, there goes my 9 badge. Oh well, looks like the top scores are all using Mega Gengar for Blaziken, it is strong and the disruptions on this one aren't as bad as I feared. New prize structure is interesting, jewel for less than 25kth position, -1 compexity between 20-25k, 20k+ gets blaxikenite and top 6000 get a mega speedup too.
There's a mega speedup for beating level 50 in escalation too.
Only 60 base power? You'd think it would be stronger what with such a low catch rate.
Then again, the Psychic group already has 3 Pokémon with a base power of 80, including Cresselia.
Gonna take a day or two to max out my coins, and then it's straight to Ampharos with my Blaziken team. I'm determined to place in the top 6,000 without items. I know it sounds cuckoo, but I'm gonna try anyway.
Got Cresselia, and it's another powerful one. Will go great with Mewtwo. 80 base power and Barrier Bash+, which sometimes removes three barriers.
@SubM Without items? Good luck! I'll definitely be using items.
Psychic has 3 base 80 power guys now! Caught Cressilia at 7% and Woobufet at 3% (but that was around my tenth attempt, even missed on a great ball at 47% a few tries before the catch)
Sounds like mega blaziken's ability will be a reduced power hybrid of gengar and mewtwo.
Basicly it removes same type icons including its own, but only upto 3 total. (Based of some guys interpretation of a japanese image)
If things get bleak during the last days of the competition, I'll give in and use Attack Power ↑ and Disruption Delay -- but definitely not Complexity -1. I'm not about to scrap a day's worth of coin farming unless it's 100%, absolutely and unconditionally necessary.
And each disruption adds another coin.
Time to break out the Rich Meowth team!
Oh, and a reminder, even if you already beat one of the Daily Pokemon, if it appears again without a letter rank you can beat it again for 200 coins.
Thanks for the heads up Klim! I've been using Gengar who isn't horible for coins but was thinking of switching it up for someone better at clearing ice.
I'm through level 48 and Banette has been crushing it for me. I was using non-max Pokemon early on for EXP, but moved to my best possible team after level 40. Haven't lost yet, fortunately, largely due to Mega Banette.
As for ice, Cresselia becomes a disruption and I use it against itself.
Wow, another great tip about using Cresselia against itself Klim! Not only does it turn those Cresselia icons that show up as 'disruption' into bonus matches, but its Barrier Bash+ sure helps clear the ice in a hurry!
Man, you guys are tempting me to dive into Cresselia now. Still leveling up 'mon to get a good itemless score on Mega Blaziken, though.
As for the already-caught Daily Pokémon without a rank thing, I've been doing that since the very beginning when I noticed the rank was missing. I stopped after I started regularly getting 330 every Heart with Meowth, though.
Check my last Yeah. Apparently that whole coin thing on the Cresselia stage happens on level 55 as well, and according to someone who commented on the post, level 75.
Level 50 was my first repeat again, took me 3 tries but no boosts. Then I breezed through 51 with 7 moves remaining. Thanks for the heads up about more coin levels, have you heard of any extra prizes for this one? I'm actually considering pushing it farther this time. (At least to 55 now that I've heard your news, but perhalps further.)
I have not, though I haven't investigated. I doubt it though.
I stopped at 55. The only reason it would be worth it to continue was for a Mega Speed Up.
Now it's coin-mania every 20 levels after 35, according to another person.
That avengah dude said he'd go to level 200 in order to get a third Mega Speedup out of Cresselia. He must really love 'em...
I plan to go up to level 100 for two coin runs and two Mega Speedups, but there's no way in the heck that I'm going up to 200.
These coin stages differ from rich meowth. The start pattern is set and after each move it seemed to throw out 2 more at random (sometimes 1 would land on an existing coin so you just get 1) Combos don't trigger more or bigger coin drops so pacing is key, by the time I figured out how it worked I had it down too far, I still had around 6 turns left when I won with single 3s my last few moves.
Banette's mega effect is the same as Mewtwo's (picks a pokemon of same type from your team and removes upto 10 of that from the board) but it is ghost type, has 20 less base power and is slower to go mega. Only been available from a single competition so far.
Level 100 gave another Mega Speedup? Dang.
I may go for 100. Because my dude's are so leveled up I never had to replay a level.
Haven't attempted Blaziken yet. I have 3 of 4 of the Pokemon I'm going to use maxed. Need one more, which is halfway through 9.
@Dave: That bit about Arceus isn't banter- A direct quote from Arceus's Pokedex entry in Y Version: "It is told in mythology that this Pokemon was born before the universe even existed." Now you see why people say that.
Don't know if you've noticed, (took me a while) but when trying to trigger pokemon's abilities the longer the string in the match (3, 4 or 5 of the same pokemon) the higher the odds of the activation on the first match.
I recently noticed that as well. Also noticed that Banette's Mega Boost actually helps himself reach mega faster. Assumed it only helped other Pokemon trying to evolve.
Also, Mind Zap resets the disruption counter completely, not just one turn. I noticed it when leveling up Greninja. Super useful against Amphoras' 15 counter.
Mind Zap is really good, I'm waiting on Mega blaziken for a starters training group of Blaziken, Delphox, Greninja and Chesnaught.
Also check my last yeah, normal teams With Arceus and Gengar have taken the top 2 in Europe with about a 7000 point margin over the field.
On level 71 of the escalation battles, and still haven't had to redo any level or use powerups. I hope I can keep it up. If so, the extra effort will definitely be worth getting to 100. Will stop there though. The next mega speedup is at 200, which seems ridiculous.
Only maxed one I use is Banette as my mega. Leveling up other Ghost/Bug types as I go until I need to use the heavy hitters.
My Arceus hit level 9 a while ago, but I haven't finished it yet and I have no other high level normals to support it either. Maybe I'll try it another time.
I still haven't made an attempt at the Blaziken level. Too busy with the escalation battles. I should hit 100 tomorrow so I will still have a few days. I already have the four I was going to use maxed out, so I think I may spend all my efforts toward grinding those four Normals as high as possible. Then Sunday I'll figure out which team to spend the powerups on to hit the top 6K.
I have 3 gems in the bank as well. I usually hold off on cashing them in until I have 6, and I always get coins. But I have been so tempted to cash them in for hearts and hurry the escalations along. My patience has won out so far, and likely will continue, but man...
I know how you feel on that one. I'm sitting at level 80 and these hearts can't regen fast enough. I've got a place holder on Blaziken just over 30k but it is about to slip into the 3000s and will need an upgrade if I want the mega speed up. That and the one from level 100 would give me enough to have my Mewtwo fully sped up. (Did Gengar first.)
Well, I'm officially delusional. Players are way better than I thought! No way I'm placing top 6,000 without items.
I might wait until Saturday morning to make a fully boosted run at Blaziken. Putting Arceus, Lickilicky and Snorlax in my Victini team.
...Hmm, I may just put Arceus and Lickilicky in, since the Complexity -1 I'll use will eliminate the need for one Normal (using Gengar as Mega).
Most use Blissey instead of Snorelax (at least in Europe) and even with reduce complexity all 4 on my team were in use on this one. (Blaziken competition)
I guarantee you- I won't get the Blazikenite: ;-; I'm only up to M-Aerodactyl main stage-wise and Yveltal expert stage-wise... Plus I only have 1700 coins right now and I only get 130 coins (very rarely 330) from Meowth everytime and 0 jewels... This contest looks very bleak for me... T-T
Really? So Complexity -1 doesn't remove a Pokémon from the puzzle area on the Blaziken stage?
I don't think it really matters between Snorlax and Blissey, as both are base 70 power. Their Abilities won't matter either, as Arceus's Double Normal is the only one I want to trigger in my boosted run.
Well, using Blissey in place of Snorlax is impractical anyway, as I've already trained Snorlax up to level 5.
Also, does anyone know if Double Normal affects Pokémon in their Mega state? I was thinking about using Audino in an experimental run, since his Mega Effect isn't too distracting. Also, at level MAX his attack power would be stronger than MAX Gengar's when Double Normal is triggered.
Could be worth trying, Audino would get the bonus, but people like Gengar so much, even when it isn't super effective because of the huge advantage it gives to combos. As far as I can tell the strategy with the normal teams is to get a double normal trigger and then just keep riding that combo as long as possible, if lost you need to get another trigger to ride quickly to keep high damage on.
Yeah, stick with Gengar because you have to keep the combo going, and his power is much better for that. Even as the Gengars erase from the playing board, it gives you a moment to find the next combo.
Tried Audino... and my run was horrible. Gengar it is.
Never mind about the whole Complexity -1 thing earlier, I'm an idiot. Just now realized that Ninetales is on the Mega Blaziken stage as a "disruption" Pokémon.
Ha! I just shot myself in the foot! I got to level 100 and did an itemless test run to scout, had a good start but got seriously bogged down with disruptive ise each turn. Decided for my last heart I'd take Duosion in my team since it is in the stage anyway and got +5 moves, disruption delay and attack power+, started the level and realized I'd grabbed Solosis by mistake. Lost it all.
Yeah, oops. That level just runs duosis if you put solosis in your team. Should have worked harder at just pushing through. Anyway I cleared level 100 for a 2nd candy now, (put a couple thoughts in a new post) so back to coin/exp farming and trying to increase that Mega Blaziken score some more.
Better, this one should hold a top 6k spot.
On itemless trial runs I was actually doing better with Bastiose as my mega over Gengar, however Gengar's ability get stronger the fewer pokemon are on the board to begin with, so I still opted to run with it for my boosted run since the reduce complexity would benefit him more.
That's the Maxed team I plan on running with unless I can get my Normals up by Sunday. I'll do some practice runs with both teams and see which is better, and then go all out with the items. Fortunately I had a big stack left over and I haven't used any at all this week.
Yes, neither of the last ones had over 100k taking part, the earlier ones did. The first broke 200k I think. Lately they have even been advertising ahead of time and tying them to other Specials (like Manectric) to try too get attention and participation up too. Not to mention more prizes. I've been watching this sad trend for over a month now.
Yeah, I think this trend is one of the only reasons I've even had luck winning the last three contests... I think if I can at least save up enough coins for Attack↑ and D Delay before I miss my chance to improve my score. I noticed this contest hasn't had almost any new players in 48 hours....
Heck, I wish I had that score right now...
On a side note, that avengah guy is banned. Wonder what he got hit for. All the dude ever talks about is Shuffle.
Based on that dude's posts, I'm not even going for 200 on the escalation battles. 100 was good enough.
Currently have everyone on my Normal team up to level 7. Not sure I'll habe the coins to get them all the way to MAX bu Sunday.
Snorlax is my only strong Normal at level 5 or above at this time, but Victini gives a LOT of EXP points with that 300 coin experience booster. I've got max coins again, so I'll invest about 6000 in Ampharos training before I do my Blaziken run.
Oh, and I got a decent total of 1130 coins on level 35 Cresselia last night. Mega Gengar, two Quirky Ghost types, and Bannette for Mega Boost.
To my observations a successful Victini run with 1.5x exp. will take a pokemon that had just hit level 9 almost half way to 10 (max). (2 such runs and I still had a little to top off on both Zorark and Ninetales)
Well it matters how you use the Pokemon during that particular run. The Pokemon that you drag gets the EXP, I've deduced. The more you drag a Pokemon to a match, the more EXP it gets after completing a level.
I noticed that, too. I put Kyogre in last week. He and all the others were level 6. Made quite a few matches more with him than the others, and as a result he shot up two full levels while the others only gained one full level, or less (Milotic only went up about 3/4 of a level).
Needless to say, I'll be tearing into every Arceus icon that spawns on the puzzle area.
Got all of them to Level 9, but I'm down to 10,000 coins and no gems. I need 13,500 for a Blaziken run. I'll get 5-7k from Meowth, so basically I have around 2-4k in coins to buy 1.5 EXPs. I'll be alternating between Meowth and Ampharos all day Saturday and Sunday. Between that and Victini, I don't think I'll quite get all of them maxed out unless I don't allow any time to go to waste.
Well, that's further confirmation of it. Made several matches with Arceus, and he jumped up 4 levels. Matched Snorlax once, and he barely gained a few pixels.
It may also have something to do with the amount of damage created by the move. I just did Victini and focused on Snorlax, making the majority of moves with him. But, I made one move with Arceus which resulted in a powerful combo, and he gained the most XP.
Not planing to run my normal team this time anyway. (I still don't trust myself to keep a combo going well enough either.)
But this is where my squad is at at present. Arceus made #34 on my Max list.
Not sure if it's just me but when i finished farming on meowth's stage both arceus and my articuno leveled up, but arcues got more EXP by the pixels i noticed that way back to, arceus levels up faster than most pokemon and yveltal got the crown for the most EXP points in that same run...
I think it's based on how much damage done. Whichever is the dragged Pokemon gets credit for all the damage in a combo. Perhaps the crown is which one had the most drags? Usually the same, but not always.
I have used Banette, Haunter (Quirky), Yamask (Quirky), and another non-ghost with Quirky+ (this week it was Cherrim since Xerneas is max level) the last three weeks and have netted at least 6000 coins each time. I buy Mega Start and +5 moves (2800 coins). It's worth it to have Banette already mega evolved because right from the start I can get big combos.
Also, finally made a first run at Blaziken with my team of Gengar and the my three max level Normal types -- Arceus, Lickilicky, and Snorlax. Decided to go with that team over the super effective one because the top three scorers used the Normal strategy.
I'm glad I did. I am ranked 210 with a score of 53588!
@Momo What rich Meowth team do you use?
Gengar isn't bad for rich meowth (helps with combos) I used to run all quirky and quirky+ but for over a month my team has been Mewtwo, Meowstic (both ♂ and ♀) and Xerneas. Main objectives are to hit mega ASAP and get at least a combo of 3 each time to trigger more coins appearing.
Also that stage doesn't give any Exp. Never used either Meowstic anywhere else but after 6+ games here still at 0.
;-; Oh, Arceus.... My place has dropped by x2 in the last 24 hours- I may not get the Blazikenite at this rate... And I won't be able to save up 3000 more coins in time...
Barry, I'll have to go back and check but it'll definitely be one of my best finishes. I've finished in the triple digits before, but can't recall where exactly.
I now have 24 maxed out. Going to use that Normal strategy on expert levels 21-24 as I can't get higher than an A rank on them.
Have you guys ever noticed that when your mega evolves, it actually delays disruptions for one turn? I noticed it with Gengar a long time ago, but thought maybe it was just that Pokemon. I noticed it on Meowth's level today when I was using Blaziken. Unintentionally got a mega. It messed up my coin farming that level. Time to put a non-Mega in that 1st slot...
Yeah, I'd noticed the delay, but not sure I'd made the connection. Wobbuffet has mega start AND disruption delay for free now. Ooo.
And the results were in, I got the blazikenite and mega speedup. Guess I'm working on leveling this week as I'd saved 95k+ coins incase there were new main stages or something.
