Timbjerr

T-o-X-i-C

Age 36
Female
Texas
Seen May 30th, 2022
Posted January 28th, 2016
7,415 posts
19.7 Years


So I'm sitting here, playing through the beginning phase of my second White playthrough, and I'm grinding my Tepig and my Pansage up a couple of levels before taking on the Striaton gym...as is a typical compulsion of mine to have to be equal in level to the next gym leader.

Now I seek assurance that I'm not truly insane. XD

Do you ever stop the plot in a Pokemon game to grind up some levels?
-If so, how often and to which goal? Have you ever been rediculously overlevelled by the end of the game?
-If not, have you ever ended up cripplingly underlevelled by the end of the game?

Oryx

CoquettishCat

Age 30
Female
Seen January 30th, 2015
Posted December 27th, 2014
13,184 posts
12.2 Years
I only did the grinding thing right before the Elite Four, so all my Pokemon were at their level. I was no more than 5 levels behind on each though, so it wasn't a big deal.


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blue

gucci

Male
United Kingdom
Seen September 26th, 2021
Posted August 7th, 2019
21,056 posts
15.4 Years
My Pokémon always end up Under leveled apon reaching the E4, some higher some a little lower but all below the E4's levels so I just grind.

Elite Overlord LeSabre™

On that 'Non stop road'

Age 97
Shimoda City
Seen 2 Weeks Ago
Posted January 25th, 2022
9,705 posts
15.5 Years
I am a habitual level grinder. I like to be a good 5 levels or more higher than the Gym Leader so I can pulverize them. I basically play every game "semi-Nuzlocke" (which means I just follow the "Don't let your Pokemon faint" rule, so 5 levels ahead usually makes me feel reasonably comfortable that I won't have one of my team picked off.

Elite Overlord LeSabre™
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Mr Cat Dog

Frasier says it best

Age 32
Male
London, UK
Seen September 29th, 2017
Posted July 12th, 2017
11,344 posts
19.1 Years
I am EXACTLY the same as you, Timbjerr. In previous games, I would level up EVERY Pokemon in my team to the level of the highest level Pokemon of the Gym Leader; nowadays I just level up the main Pokemon that I'm going to use against the respective Gym Leader, but end up training the others to a slightly lower level just in case something horribly wrong happens during the Gym Battle. The same strategy is also used with regard to the Elite Four, but by this point I'm probably using all my team at least once, so they're all a pretty high level.
Holy Roman Empire
Seen February 23rd, 2016
Posted February 23rd, 2016
2,551 posts
13.7 Years
It depends. If I know I have a significant advantage even while being underleveled, I'll relinquish the grinding. However, the other case is far more common, this is also one of the reason why I prefer having the ability to play at insane speed, just so I won't have to literally grind forever.

Meganium

memento mori

she/her
Houston, TX
Seen February 1st, 2023
Posted February 1st, 2023
I always do that before going in a huge gym battle. My starter and three of my Pokemon are pretty high level (give or take 5 levels higher than normal), because I just want them ready for the battle than just having to face the unexpected (and get wiped out by the first Pokemon that comes out from the leader). So, yeah, I agree with you. It's better to do some "level-grinding" before facing a challenging battle. It increases your gameplay time too. xD

Sydian

fake your death.

Age 30
they/them
Georgia
Seen May 22nd, 2022
Posted November 29th, 2021
33,354 posts
15.2 Years
Do you ever stop the plot in a Pokemon game to grind up some levels?
Yes. 8D;

If so, how often and to which goal?
Usually to have all my Pokemon at or above the highest level of the next gym leader/boss/rival battle.

Have you ever been rediculously overlevelled by the end of the game?
55 in HGSS is a tad overlevel right? :< Never ridiculously overlevel though.
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Imperator161

Seen February 5th, 2023
Posted July 31st, 2020
1,415 posts
14.7 Years
On most of my games (from second gen or so on), I've been far too obsessed with grinding. Of course, to make matters worse, I frequently can't narrow down my Pokemon collection to a single team, so I just train everything. I still haven't beaten LeafGreen yet (finally got to the islands, though!), but every Pokemon on my game is on level 53.

While I realize that it's probably less time-consuming to rush through the game and then train later against higher-level foes, I enjoy training as I go along and keeping ahead of the level curve, even though I probably don't really need to. Of course, I haven't paid as much attention to gym leader levels in B/W, so I haven't found myself quite as overleveled as I normally am, but I still have more high-level Pokemon than I probably should partway through the game.
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BenjiTheKid

Cooltrainer Benji

Non-binary
Spring Lake, NC
Seen August 24th, 2014
Posted May 19th, 2011
496 posts
14.3 Years
Do you ever stop the plot in a Pokemon game to grind up some levels? Only all the time. I like being at least two levels ahead of the gym leaders strongest Pokemon.
-If so, how often and to which goal? Have you ever been rediculously overlevelled by the end of the game? ^ At least two levels ahead as stated above. However, if I can put up with the tediousness of grinding long enough... I'll train till I'm up to 5 levels ahead. Generally speaking, I'm using overlevelled compared to the NPC trainers and the gym leaders. However, annoyingly enough, I always find I'm underlevelled for the Elite Four and the champion. Seriously, am I the only one who thinks they jump like 10-20 levels between the 8th gym and the league and am I the only one who finds it impossible to train those 10-20 levels between the final route and Victory Road. Ridiculous D:
-If not, have you ever ended up cripplingly underlevelled by the end of the game? Not cripplingly. Usually I'm only about 10 levels underlevelled. Which (amusingly) can be solved by grinding in Victory Road. That usually means hours of grinding, though. :'D

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PlatinumDude

Nyeh?

Age 29
Male
Canada
Seen July 31st, 2020
Posted May 30th, 2020
12,958 posts
12.7 Years
Do you ever stop the plot in a Pokemon game to grind up some levels?: Yes I do.
-If so, how often and to which goal? Have you ever been rediculously overlevelled by the end of the game?: Yes, at my HeartGold game, I didn't stop grinding at Victory Road until Dragonair and Pupitar evolved, making my team, not counting the starter, 5 levels above Lance's 3rd Dragonite.

Age 32
Female
Library
Seen November 26th, 2019
Posted November 21st, 2014
1,123 posts
13.3 Years
Do you ever stop the plot in a Pokemon game to grind up some levels?
yes after every gym leader i will spend a couple of hours grinding my team

-If so, how often and to which goal? Have you ever been rediculously overlevelled by the end of the game?

by the end of the game no matter how hard i try i always end up underleveled even tho i try for the opposite. i get bored. lol

-If not, have you ever ended up cripplingly underlevelled by the end of the game?
yes in my diamond. i was so underleveled i just gave up and restarted the game


Pair

EJ

everything is purple

Age 30
Male
FL
Seen March 19th, 2022
Posted November 25th, 2019
1,618 posts
14.2 Years
Yes I have stopped the progression of the story to grind my team. I do it practically before any gym.

I'm overlevelled in Black right now and in white I was always underlevelled. I played white first so I know what to expect on Black.

I have ended up underleveled and had to force feed my pokemon revives and hyper potions against the E4 a lot of times.
Male
Seen October 1st, 2016
Posted February 3rd, 2012
167 posts
13.7 Years
In White, I grinded my team to Lv30 or so for Nimbasa Gym, expecting the gym to be around 32. The game didn't catch back up to me until Opelucid Gym.

Other than that, I try to be about two levels below the next important battle.
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Age 31
Male
Scotland/Cyprus
Seen December 8th, 2013
Posted February 9th, 2012
97 posts
12.1 Years
I only really grind when I catch a pokemon that evolves in to something decent for example Caterpie> Butterfree and Magikarp>Gyrados
WHenever I do have trouble with a gym I jsut keep retrying it with the pokemon I want to use to beat it until it does in particular with E4 in the earlier games a Lapras or Gyrados with Thunderbolt repeatedly beating the first couple of Lorelei's pokemon until it's leveled up enough to beat them all easily


Age 33
Female
Kansas, USA
Seen February 2nd, 2022
Posted December 8th, 2014
247 posts
14.3 Years
I'm a little OCD about my pokemon... I try to keep them at the same levels, whatever I have before the first gym I try to get to 15, then I go 5 levels more with every pokemon in between each gym, which means about level 55 or so by the time I get to the elite 4...
It's a very long process, but I've done it since I started as a kid on Red, I didn't want any of my team to be weak when I needed them most.

blue

gucci

Male
United Kingdom
Seen September 26th, 2021
Posted August 7th, 2019
21,056 posts
15.4 Years
I like to have higher levels than the Gym Leader to ensure that I'm strong enough.
Age 27
Male
Unova's Kantotown
Seen March 30th, 2016
Posted June 17th, 2014
263 posts
13.8 Years
Actually, I have a chart of sorts of how high I want my Pokemon team to be before battling someone. Here it is:
Before Gym 1-Level 16
Gym 1-Level 25
Gym 2-Level 36
Gym 3-Level 45
Gym 4-Level 50
Gym 5-Level 55
Gym 6-Level 60
Gym 7-Level 65
Gym 8-Level 70
Elite Four-Level 70+
Strongest Trainer in Region-Level 85+
Battle Frontier-Level 100

So yeah, you're not truly insane, Timbjerr. Yet.
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Male
USA
Seen March 19th, 2013
Posted January 19th, 2012
63 posts
12.1 Years
Do you ever stop the plot in a Pokemon game to grind up some levels? Oh yes- All. the. time. I am like OCD when it comes to it; One, all my Pokemon have to be at the same level, or within a level or two of my highest. And Two, all my party has to be at the same level or higher than the Gym Leader. Haha.

-If so, how often and to which goal? Have you ever been ridiculously overlevelled by the end of the game? YES. YES. YES. Especially in Platinum, one day I was just reading through some forums on the computer and I just had my fingers fiddling on my DS in the background.. When I battled the E4, majority of my Pokemon were 70-80 -_-

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champagnepapi

exile

Male
new england
Seen September 4th, 2016
Posted June 25th, 2016
1,795 posts
12.5 Years
Do you ever stop the plot in a Pokemon game to grind up some levels?
Only in Nuzlockes, where being weak comes with a price, or in games such as Diamond or LeafGreen, where the Elite Four is quite powerful, more so, than in the other games. I also tend to (just like you, Timb) set the gym leader's strongest Pokemon as the bar for the level of each member of my team, barr the HM slaves.

-If so, how often and to which goal? Have you ever been rediculously overlevelled by the end of the game?
Not really, I don't have the patience or lack of confidence to grind that much.

-If not, have you ever ended up cripplingly underlevelled by the end of the game?
I remember my strongest team member in HGSS was a Lv. 47 Mamoswine, and Lance always thrashed me. Other than that, not really.

paired to kaori & vrai