6th Gen No Exp. Share: How does it change the game for you?

[Pendraflare]

As i'm sure many of you guys know, the Exp. Share is a pretty game-breaking item, which gives your entire team half the EXP that active Pokémon get from any foe that you defeat. If you watch Marriland's X Adventure, you'll see his entire team be well above Level 70 before he even reaches the Pokémon League, which is even higher than the Champion's ace! It's an item that seriously allows you to tower above the competition with no effort at all. But if it's off, that widespread EXP won't be spread to your entire team, and you'll have to do the training for them on your own instead of letting the item do the work for you.

Some of the challenges on the forum force you to turn off the Exp. Share, others allow it but recommend against it. I've heard some people say that without it, the game gets seriously harder and on par with previous games. Others say that the game is still laughably easy even then, but i've talked about why I find it harder without.

If you've played the game without the Exp. Share on through a majority of the game, or ever using it at all, what's your take on it? Does it make the game far more challenging, does it do things somewhat harder but not too much? Or is it still as pitiful as it is without it? Discuss.

 

[XtinaIsMeLuvinWWE]

I'd say it's somewhere in-between if you don't use it, I think a lot of it probably depends on everyone's battle style. I know a few people who tend to battle everything they encounter including wild battles for experience but because I only battle other Trainers, I found that without the EXP. share my experience was a lot more similar to other games :) In fact in other games there's moments where I've been ridiculously UNDER-levelled actually so it's nice that the option is there, especially if you're training up new members of your party (something I did a lot with their being so many Pokémon available in Kalos, I kept changing my mind about who I wanted on my team lol). I think it's a great tool for raising Pokémon you're wanting to evolve for Pokédex purposes as well so from that perspective I found it quite necessary in the game but in terms of party Pokémon, not using it in my experience made the whole game a reasonable level of difficulty given that this time around the Elite Four and Champion are the highest they've ever been (which come to think of it is probably why they included it in the first place lol) :)

 

[Firox]

EXP Share did made the game too easy and the with the aid of certain items and Pokemon Amie it made the game extremely easy - made my Pokemon up to level 80 before reaching the Elite 4. I like using it, but have to turn it off after a short time playing.

I turn of the EXP Share and not use Amie when ever I'm playing challenges (two so far, they are in my signature), for me makes the game much harder but fun at the same time

 

[Itcheeee]

My playthrough of X went by very quickly due to the EXP share. I'm now playing Y without it and it feels about the normal speed of pervious games but still a little quick. It sure seems like everything comes so easily in XY.
Pokemon, TMs(I normally use ones that are a pain to get, but are the best attacking moves for each Type), and the game pretty much guides you excactly where to go and when.
Not a terrible thing, just wish there was a bit more of a challenge compared to other games. :)

 

[Hiatus]

I've kept Experience Share turned on in each and every one of my play-through. For the first time ever, thanks to this, I was able to keep all my team-members at balance without having to put much effort, and focus more on whatever's going on in terms of storyline, as well as enjoy other features.

If I had turned this off, I'm sure it wouldn't have been as easy. I'd like focus on training only one Pokémon of my crew, just like in almost every other game, and other team members once I'm done defeating Pokémon League and whatnot. It's not as bad, but it does consume more time. All-in-all, I'm glad that they have renovated this. There are many players out there that aren't exactly fond of the new Exp. Share, but hey, at least we still have an option to disable.

 

[Iceshadow3317]

For me, not using it in my first play through made it pretty difficult. Having to train all your pokemon to keep balanced. And I was still behind in levels with gyms and E4. At the moment, I am playing Y with exp share on and I am getting even with the gyms. Haven't gotten to the E4 in it yet though. So I really don't know how people were 10 levels above everything unless they used one or two pokemon and they were above 10 levels.

 

[DeltaElite121]

EXP share is a good idea, but it needs a hard nerf to keep the game from being too easy. I had zero trouble in this game until I reached the final boss, and that was only mildly troubling. Yes you have the option to "turn it off" but I don't think that's really the point.

 

[Laylaw]

I never use it, so I have to say that the game would be exactly the same.

I prefer to feel like I do things myself.

 

[Ultan]

The first time I played through X I turned it off (didn't know it was default turned on when I first got it) after the first battle I played. I turned it back on again after/during the 3rd gym battle mostly because my team was like Lv. 20-23 range and also because my team had nothing that could hit rock types at all, so the gym was a struggle for me. I kept it on throughout the rest of that play through imaging that I may need it to keep up as at that point my pokemon were behind, the game wasn't challenging at all after the third gym in that play through.

2nd play through I didn't use it at all during the main story (have used it for EV training and Quick Exp in 'Le Wow' since) and the games weren't difficult at all, slightly under leveled compared to the champion's pokemon but were around the same levels as the elite 4 members pokemon (all were 58-60 at the start, all finished around level 59-62).

The game is the easiest pokemon game I have ever played even without Exp Share on as the AI just wasn't high enough, significant trainers didn't have items on pokemon (even things like Sitrus Berries weren't on the EL4 + Champion's pokemon Iirc), also the EL4 having 4 Pokemon makes them easier than they would be anyway (I know B/W and B/W EL4 had 4 Mons each but that doesn't mean it should stay that way, and it was understandable in B/W as they didn't have enough Pokemon in the regional dex to give each EL member 5 of each type, without duplicates...)

 

[TriforceCourage]

I never used the Exp Share until the end when I actually started training for competitive. I always felt like it decreased the amount of Exp the pokemon I was using was getting. It never really made a difference to me having it off. I also feel that to make it more beneficial they should make it to where pokes who gain Exp dont recieve EVs when its on.

 

[Candy]

It's still too easy. I played Pokemon X without the Exp. Share, Battle mode Set and in Japanese and I'm still defeating everyone like cakewalk.

Although trainers after Wulfric started to give me a hard time.

 

[blue]

During my first playthrough of Pokemon X, I made sure to switch Exp. Share off right from the off. I ended up becoming on par with the Elite Four's levels by that stage (mid 60s) with it switched off which felt like just the right level of difficulty. I'm pretty sure had I switched it on, I would have been atleast +10 over levelled making the games much easier.

 

[La Espada]

I had to turn it off because the game became easy to the point that I found myself not enjoying it. The game is easy enough as it is, so I have no reason to use it unless I'm leveling up multiple Pokemon to use online.

 

[ZenonPrototype]

All other things aside, this should have been the game that all the kids start out with, because it could've been an introduction into the harder games of the franchise (by harder games, I mean all the other ones). Overall, good for new players, terrible for returning ones.

 

[Necrum]

I think that Exp Share itself is not as OP as combining it with completely Amie'd Pokemon, but still leaves you in a pretty comfortable spot on its own. The sad fact is that the game is practically built with the item in mind. When I played without it completely I found myself unable to keep up without a large amount of grinding, which honestly seems like a good time to turn it on if you don't want to use it all the time. Ultimately playing without it made the experience a bit un-fun for me, which is the opposite of what I expected. Kalos just doesn't seem like a good place to get hung up on level grinding, it's better to enjoy as a fluid journey.

 

[welsknight]

I've played both with and without EXP share, and while it was not very difficult either time, it was definitely harder without it. With that said, I really don't mind how "easy" X & Y were with the EXP share on, as there are many other ways to challenge yourself (Nuzlocke, etc).

 

[oshimas]

I've played with both exp. share on and off. i'd say, it's definitely harder to level grind without it. right now i'm training a few pokemon for alpha sapphire and it's been so much easier to do with exp. share on. also, i tend to use the o-power for exp share when i'm in the battle maison while leveling up.

 

[IceyGamer]

Taking away the item entirely from the game? Thanks for adding X amount of hours trying to get a level 5 starly up to 65 with my starter at the end of the game.
Put it back to how it was before X and Y? I don't mind. My levels just take a bit longer to even out levels but not crazy long like taking it away in general.

 

[Data_Error]

I'm torn. On one hand, it's nice to have that extra element there to speed things up in the post-game when I'm just evolving a bunch of things for the Pokédex or topping out the levels on a team that's already beaten the Elite 4.

On the other hand, it means that during the main game, you have to use the old switch-out method of sharing EXP if you want to feel any resistance at all from the NPCs. It's nice for those who aren't in it for any sort of challenge, but I really do wish that we had both available. It's a trade-off, but really doesn't have a lot of negative sides post-game.

 

[Zeffy]

Eh, I've managed without it for the past five generations. I like to grind a lot in every game I play so it isn't much of a bother compared to how many hours I've spet grinding on other games :p