Jae's Tryhard Degenerate Corner - Part I (Kanto Dex Complete)

[Sirindu]

I was worried about how hard it might be/how much time it might take to get a regional exclusive while traveling. Glad you were able to get the Aussie one, at least.

 

[VisualJae]

9/11/16: Spent most of my time working since the last update with some casual play sprinkled in between free time. As a comparison, I've only gained about 60,000 experience and caught 200 Pokémon in the last week compared to averaging 50,000+ XP and 150-200 Pokémon per day during my PokéDex completion chase.

Notable Pokémon obtained recently include:

Spoiler:

Snorlax: 82.2% IVs (15/13/9); decent defensive moveset
Ninetales: 97.8% IVs (15/15/14); absolutely horrible moveset :(
Flareon: 82.2% IVs (15/14/8); first one I've obtained with decent IVs and Fire Blast

As you can probably see, anytime I get enough Stardust, I start boosting some Pokémon. I've been mostly focusing on a few Snorlax that are under CP2000, but since I'm now fresh out of Snorlax candy, I actually might be able to start stocking up on dust again! ...At least until the Buddy System rolls out.

Heading to France at the end of the month. Crossing fingers for PokéDex entry 144/151.

Highlights:
- Passed 7,000 PokéStops visited lifetime
- Passed 400 km for the Jogger medal
- Caught 1,000th Bug-type Pokémon (Bug Catcher)
- Caught 500th Grass-type Pokémon (Gardener)

 

[Phoenixstarz]

Bit of advice from a European, Mr Mimes are very rare over here, I've heard the other regionals are a lot more common. I've walked over 700km and hatched over 300 eggs but I've only seen 3 Mr Mimes and had it on radar but not found it another 2 times.

 

[VisualJae]

Bit of advice from a European, Mr Mimes are very rare over here, I've heard the other regionals are a lot more common. I've walked over 700km and hatched over 300 eggs but I've only seen 3 Mr Mimes and had it on radar but not found it another 2 times.

I'll be going for a week. Considering I'm going with family and we all play, it'll be interesting to see if we can put in some team effort and scout for some hotspots.

9/13/16: I've decided to whip out alternate accounts since there's very little progress left for me to make in my main Mystic account (other than hunting down regional exclusives when opportunities come up).

As a result, I'm growing my secondary Valor and Instinct accounts. This is also in preparation for what I'd assume Niantic would do with legendary birds—tie them into each of the three teams.

While I'll still prioritize my Mystic account if exceptionally rare Pokémon appear, for now I'll be dedicating most of my attention in bringing the two secondary accounts to the low-mid level 20s at the very least.

Maybe I should just set up more mobile devices to bring with me from now on...

 

[VisualJae]

9/20/16: More casual play; picking up a measly 136,105 experience across three accounts in the past week. Most of the gains went into my Instinct account.

Despite being lower level, my Valor account's Dex progress stands at 115/151 while my Instinct account sits at 86/151. The latter is higher level since I did pop a Lucky Egg there before.

Notable captures in the last week:

Snorlax: 48.9% IVs (15/6/1); anyone heard of a "glass cannon" Snorlax? What a shame. When I saw the default CP I got super excited, only to find out it has a meh moveset and horrid IVs other than Attack.

Chansey: 86.7% IVs (15/12/12); fourth Chansey overall and second one found in the wild. Took a single Great Ball.

 

[VisualJae]

9/26/16: Juggling three accounts at once is pretty tough, since it seems like progress is super slow by splitting time across each of them. Gaining a tick over 100,000 experience across the three over the last six days doesn't sound like much either! That's a measly 17,000 experience a day.

Man, if I think back on my original run through the game averaging 40-50,000 experience a day... I don't know if I can go back to that.

For the most part I've been Dratini and Magikarp grinding on my secondary accounts. I also haven't evolved any Pokémon, which is the main reason why experience gains are so low. But I do have approximately 40,000 XP worth stored on my Mystic account at the moment and about 30,000 for each of Valor and Instinct. I'll wait a bit longer before I pop the Lucky Eggs.

I did boost two big Gym defenders (RIP Stardust):

Dragonite: 91.1% IV (15/11/15) - The only time Steel Wing has a use would be for defending.
Snorlax: 82.2% IV (11/11/15) - Decided to transfer some of the low IV Snorlax I had stored up in order to power up this one since he's pretty chunky despite being extra small.

Other highlights:
- Caught a lot of Dratini, Magikarp, and acquired a fair bit of Charmander candies (still waiting on a higher IV one)
- Gold medal for Rocker obtained

 

[VisualJae]

9/30/16: Before I leave the country, I decided to pop a Lucky Egg, yielding over 70,000 experience for my main Mystic account. It's less than 150K away from level 31.

I spent a fair amount of time hoarding up Charmander candies in recent days hoping to get one with higher IVs. So far the highest one I encountered in the wild was 91.1%, but it was rock bottom CP13. Meanwhile I can only hold onto this 86.7% one I hatched a long, long time ago.

In other news, I put in a fair amount of Gym time:

The level 8 Gym is still standing... surprisingly. But it is a less populated area compared to places I usually engage. Or it's a testament to the player drop since the initial hype.

Lastly:

Venusaur: 93.3% IV (12/15/15) - Optimal defensive moveset; questionable investment at this point.

Evolved my third Venusaur (sixth obtained overall). This one has the optimal defensive moveset, but I'm still on the fence about whether or not I want to power it up. At level 20, it'll take me another 58,000+ Stardust before it'll reach a respectable CP (low 2000s) for my standards.

Other highlights:
- Gold medal for Breeder obtained (500 eggs hatched)
- Caught 2,000th Normal-type Pokémon
- Over 30 Gym battles in the last three days

 

[VisualJae]

10/4/16: WOW! This might be a lengthy journal entry so brace yourselves. Back from a short trip through France, I have some updates!

Let's start off with the most important update: a new Dex entry to bring the grand total to 144 out of 151.

Unlike my trip to Australia, I was actually able to spend a lot of time playing Pok?mon GO on top of all the sightseeing. It took me until the day before I left that I managed to obtain a Mr. Mime. The entire trip saw me at the wrong place at the wrong time, passing by Mime silhouettes while I was in a moving vehicle, unable to step out to track one down. But in the end, it all worked out. Obtained in the Parisian suburbs of Montrouge.

While I did capture a bunch of Pok?mon in France, ranging from Paris to Versailles to Vincennes, only a few stood out:

Spoiler:

If you didn't notice, I named all the Pok?mon captured in France their official French names. And yep, first off, that's another Chansey. Third hatched and fifth obtained overall, bringing my Chansey candy count to 71. I'm ready for a Blissey, Niantic. Its IVs are also pretty good, standing at 86.7% (15/12/12).

Why is a Meowth there? Why, it's a perfect French Meowth born in Paris! 15/15/15. Not sure what I'll do with it, though. I might just keep it as a Meowth.

Then there's the Slowbro, which I caught at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Also at 86.7% IV (15/14/10), it also came with the best defensive moveset. How lucky.

Speaking of the Eiffel Tower, what's a tourist to do besides conquer as many landmarks as possible?

Spoiler:

Obviously, I couldn't hold all of the Gyms down simultaneously. Ch?teau de Vincennes, the Arc de Triomphe, the famed pyramid of the Louvre Museum, the Tour Montparnasse, and of course the Eiffel Tower were all highlights.

One place that I completely forgot to take over was the Palace of Versailles. I was so enthralled by the history of the French monarchy there that I went full tourist mode and didn't even log into the game to check for Gyms. I gotta say, the Parfum Palace in Pok?mon X and Y is a fantastic tribute to the real life location.

All in all, the trip was a great experience despite being incredibly short. I'm glad I could leave without any real regrets. I'll definitely make an honest effort to return another time and learn more about the region.

Other highlights:
- Gained about 117,000 experience during the trip (less than 30K from level 31)
- Hatched 38 eggs
- 23 Gym battles were enough to take over the Gyms shown above

 

[VisualJae]

10/7/16: Triple level up day!

Let it be known that I've been at level 30 for nearly two months before finally reaching level 31. Obviously playing less overall and splitting time into two alternate accounts held me back, but there's really nothing special about moving past level 30 other than raising the CP caps for Pokémon.

I'm pretty content with the progress made on my Instinct and Valor accounts, considering they were both worked up from scratch starting about a month ago (I had the Valor account made a long time ago, but didn't start consistently working on it until September).

Beyond leveling up on all three accounts, there's not too much happening on other fronts. Main highlights would be further powering up existing Pokémon:

The perfect IV Venusaur gained about 500 CP points this past week. Stardust just keep disappearing on me, gosh darn.

And I encountered and caught my first wild Raichu.

It's terrible.

 

[VisualJae]

10/17/16: Just a simple grind at this point and it's actually quite relaxing. Virtually every bit of Stardust I get right now I invest into different Pokémon now that prestige leveling supports using a diverse group—typing, CP ranges, and movesets are all important factors.

Most of the Stardust I've accumulated the past week plus went into my perfect Venusaur and my top offensive Golem (14/14/10; 84.4%):

Huge fan of Golem's attack animation, mind you:

Spoiler:

In other news, two key evolutions and one egg hatch:

Victreebel (15/15/11; 91.1%) and Wigglytuff (13/12/13; 84.4%) will likely be used predominantly for prestige leveling as Wigglytuff will be able to take down many Pokémon twice its CP level. I'll be investing Stardust into it soon.

The recent Snorlax hatch was somewhat of a disappointment in terms of IVs (11/12/12; 77.8%), but the candy is most welcome.

Other highlights:
- Passed 6,000 Pokémon caught lifetime
- Passed 8,500 PokéStops visited lifetime

 

[VisualJae]

10/21/16: Quick update consisting of powerups and... medals?

The two main Pokémon that received powerups were my perfect Venusaur and my recently acquired offensive Wigglytuff that I use mostly for prestige leveling. Venusaur broke CP2200, which I'll be happy to leave it at for now. Wigglytuff's CP increased by over 300, equating to 32,000 Stardust.

Some medal milestones of note:

1,000th Pokémon evolved! Silver medals in Youngster and Pikachu Fan now puts all my medals other than Skiier at silver and above. Medal count now sits at:

• 15 gold medals (Kanto, Collector, Scientist, Breeder, Backpacker, Schoolkid, Bird Keeper, Punk Girl, Ruin Maniac, Bug Catcher, Kindler, Swimmer, Gardener, Rocker, Psychic)
• 12 silver medals (Jogger, Fisherman, Battle Girl, Ace Trainer, Youngster, Pikachu Fan, Black Belt, Hiker, Hex Maniac, Depot Agent, Dragon Tamer, Fairy Tale Girl)
• 1 bronze medal (Skiier)

Other highlights:
- Gained 100,000+ experience (over 3 days)
- Hatched four Pikachu from 2km eggs o_O
- 3 more Normal-type Pokémon captures from 2,500 Normal-types caught lifetime
- 1 egg hatch away from 600 eggs hatched lifetime
- 10 prestige battles away from 400th

 

[VisualJae]

10/28/16: Halloween event's in full force, lots of candy to be obtained... I actually got to play a little more than I have lately, even with the cooling weather. I put a lot of progress into my main Mystic account, pushing it past level 32. My Instinct account also picked up a hefty chunk of experience.

As for Pokémon progress, there are many highlights recently, ranging from captures to evolutions to powerups:

To start off, with the Halloween event, Gastly candies became automatic. Even after I evolved an existing Haunter, thereby using 100 candies, I still ended up over 600 Gastly candies and the event won't be over for at least another 72 hours. This particular Gengar has a B-tier moveset, but it's not like a Gengar is competitive anyway in Pokémon GO. IV-wise, it's passable at 84.4% (15/10/13).

The Blastoise came from a Squirtle just recently hatched. As soon as I figured out its IVs were near perfect at 95.6% (15/15/13), I had to evolve it all the way through. Then of course it ended up with one of the worst movesets. Sure, Ice Beam can be great for defense since opponents will more than likely run Grass-types to counter, but this completely removes this Blastoise from any utility role. It's not like it can outshine Vaporeon competitively anyway.

The Muk (IVs: 93.3% - 13/15/14) and Machamp (IVs: 95.6% - 15/15/13) were all evolved from their previous stages. I'm pretty satisfied with the Muk—my fourth one overall—as it has a moveset suitable for both offense and defense. The Machamp, however, only has a defensive role. I would very much prefer an offensive one as a high CP one can deal with some Snorlax. I do have one more Machoke (IVs: 95.6% - 15/14/14) ready in the wings for evolution.

The Kabutops is an interesting one. It's not a competitive Pokémon, but it has always been one of my favorite Pokémon aesthetically speaking. I obtained this one long ago, and with a great moveset and near-perfect IVs at 97.8% (14/15/15), I decided to show it some love. It can still play a role in prestige leveling.

The next two are my French prizes (other than Mr. Mime). The Nidoqueen (IVs: 86.7% - 14/11/14) came from a Nidoran♀ I obtained while in France. It turned out that despite catching more than 140 Nidoran♀ lifetime, this one was the best so far. It has a B-tier moveset (Earthquake is always preferred) so I don't think this one's worth powering up. I did, however, power up my French Dewgong (IVs: 86.7% - 13/11/15). I wanted to try it out as a "poor man's Lapras" since it has the same optimal moveset. Obviously it won't outclass a Lapras, but it's another prestige leveling candidate.

Lastly, the rest of my stardust went into further powering up some of my main Gym Pokémon. Now that I reached level 32, I expect to boost my two main Dragonite over CP3100. I haven't went out of my way to hoard Dratini candy in the last month or so. Now might be the time to go back to it.

Other highlights/upcoming milestones:
- Crossed 9,000 PokéStops visited lifetime
- Hatched 600th egg lifetime
- Caught 2,000th Poison-type Pokémon lifetime
- 27 more captures from 7,000 Pokémon caught lifetime
- 51 more captures from 2,000 Flying-type Pokémon caught lifetime
- 23 more Rock-type captures from gold Hiker medal
- 9 more Ghost-type captures from gold Hex Maniac medal

 

[VisualJae]

11/9/16: Made some good progress in the past week and a half, gaining over 320,000 experience across three accounts, with most going into my main Mystic one... now over a third of the way to level 33.

As for Pokémon progress...

After some thought, I decided I will start investing some candy and stardust into my third Dragonite (IVs: 88.9% - 15/10/15), which has an optimal defensive moveset. I also logged more than 100km on my Lapras buddy, so a change of scenery is nice (plus I haven't had the opportunity to camp and grind out Dratini candies lately).

Highlights are predominantly powerups, with my offensive Golem (IVs: 84.4% - 14/14/10) breaking CP2000. I now have the option of running a Jolteon (IVs: 88.9% - 15/10/15) against Water-types, though it might be reserved more for prestige leveling. And also on the subject of prestige leveling, I continued to power up my Dewgong (IVs: 86.7% - 13/11/15), since my main Lapras are too high in CP.

Also powered up include my main offensive Lapras (now CP2477), defensive Lapras (now CP2326), utility Exeggutor (now CP2604), utility Nidoking (now CP2141), utility/prestige leveler Wigglytuff (now CP1635).

Lastly, I happened to catch two high IV starters with decent starting CP in Bulbasaur (IVs: 97.8% - 14/15/15) and Squirtle (IVs: 93.3% - 13/14/15). My last near perfect Squirtle evolved into a Blastoise (IVs: 95.6% - 15/13/15) with Bite/Ice Beam. Not quite too satisfied with that result so hopefully this one will turn out better. As for rounding out the trio, I've been waiting for a better Charmander to come along before pulling the trigger to evolve. I'm still sitting on the same Charmander (IVs: 86.7% - 11/14/14) I've had since August 6th. Considering Charizard isn't exactly the best defender, I do want an offensive Charizard so I'm waiting for that higher Attack IV.

Oh, and caught my seventh Porygon. I still have yet to hatch one so I'm sitting on 27 Porygon candies as of now in preparation for Generation II.

Medal milestones:

Crossed the 7,000 Pokémon caught lifetime, soon to be 8,000. Passed 10,000 PokéStops visited lifetime. Caught my 2,000th Flying-type Pokémon. And gold medals for Hex Maniac and Depot Agent achieved.

Other highlights/upcoming milestones:
- Hatched 700th egg
- 19 more Gym victories for 500
- 180 more Pokémon captures for 8,000 lifetime captures
- 85 more captures from 3,000 Normal-type Pokémon caught lifetime
- 23 more captures from 2,000 Water-type Pokémon caught lifetime
- 6 more Rock-type captures from gold Hiker medal

 

[VisualJae]

11/24/16: Happy Thanksgiving to fellow Americans and happy week of insane progress! P.S. this marks the final journal entry in this thread, as I'm migrating to start a new one as Generation II rolls around.

As I had off basically the entire week for the holiday, I decided to see how much intense playing I can squeeze in while I have the opportunity. I basically tried to emulate my playing style during the summer and push myself to another level. Three days of the past week I played for more than 12 hours at a time, with each day averaging well over 100,000 experience.

The first full day of the Thanksgiving event saw me net nearly half a million experience. The progress was due to a combination of Lucky Eggs and evolving hordes of Pokémon I accumulated days prior. Even without evolving any Pokémon, going down one city block could net me over 10,000 experience through catching everything with Excellent throws and spinning every available PokéStop. I netted over 25,000 experience in a span of minutes by timing a Lucky Egg with a full inventory of egg hatches.

With the absurd gains in the past few days, that shot the daily average of the last two weeks to over 90,000 experience a day. And this is just for my Mystic account. Both my Instinct and Valor accounts gained several levels as well with limited playtime. Absolutely crazy.

I expect to reach level 34 on my Mystic account sometime this weekend.

As for Pokémon-specific progress, there is a lot to go through:

For captures, of course the new addition of Ditto is the main highlight. At first I thought it would take longer to obtain, but I managed to encounter one not long after the Thanksgiving event started. This particular Ditto (IVs: 57.8% - 15/0/11), doesn't have a whole lot to show, but I doubt I'd be utilizing one competitively anytime soon.

For other new captures/hatches, I significantly bolstered my Fire-type choices. It's funny how Pokémon seem to come in bunches sometimes. Prior to November, I really didn't have many choices for competitive Fire-type Pokémon. But in the past two weeks alone, I managed to obtain three 90%+ IV Charmander (two of which I've evolved all the way to Charizard). The first Charizard ("Deep Fried" IVs: 97.8% - 14/15/15) is nearly perfect, with one of the best offensive movesets. The second Charizard ("Steak" IVs: 91.1% - 15/11/15) is sort of redundant and essentially replaced one of my older Charizard that I had for Dex purposes.

Other than Charizard, I also obtained my first two competitive Arcanine. The first Arcanine ("Bork" IVs: 86.7% - 13/11/15) quickly replaced my old one, which already had the best offensive moveset, but had inferior IVs. But soon after I powered Bork up, I obtained an even better Arcanine ("Doggo" IVs: 95.6% - 15/15/13), which had the same moveset, but better IVs. Even though I really can't complain about having two optimal Arcanine, the recent nerf to them made me favor Charizard a little more... and also Flareon. I decided to evolve one of my higher IVs Eevee in my collection, which turned into said Flareon ("Napalm" IVs: 91.1% - 15/11/15). With a superior base Attack stat, I'll be more inclined to use Flareon to quickly DPS down any Grass/Bug defenders I see.

Aside from the Fire-types, I've obtained yet another Venusaur ("Salad" IVs: 93.3% - 15/13/14) that has the same exact moveset as my perfect one, which really just puts this one into the "I-dunno-what-to-do-with box." Then there's my newest Clefable ("DEATHABLE" IVs: 95.6% - 15/14/14) with the optimal offensive moveset. I'm still not quite sure what I want to do with it yet, but it's certainly a treat to have. Then there's Rhydon ("O.G." IVs: 91.1% - 14/13/14), which I've actually had for a while, but never saw a true purpose for. With the recent buff, I may consider using it in tandem with my main offensive Golem. And lastly for this group, is the first Aerodactyl ("80 eggs late" IVs: 77.8% - 11/11/13) I've ever hatched from an egg. After over 80 10km eggs hatched, here's the one.

For the next group of highlights are 100% IV Pokémon. The Pinsir here is in fact the oldest Pokémon I have remaining in my collection, caught all the way on July 11, 2016. Coincidentally with the optimal moveset and the recent buff, there just might be a use for it now. Next there's a perfect IV Victreebel with the worst possible moveset. This would've stung more had it not been for the recent massive nerf to Victreebel's stats. And finally, there's a perfect Magneton. No idea what to do with it.

Moving past the newly obtained Pokémon, the rest of the highlights go into powerups, and some influenced by the recent CP changes. Most of my main team remains intact, with my dream of commanding a Dragonite army still on its way. The newest Dragonite ("Sleeper" IVs: 88.9% - 15/10/15) that I've powered up past CP3000 is going to be one of my main defenders, as its the only one I currently have with Dragon Claw.

My legacy Gyarados ("Not a Dragon" IVs: 80.0% - 15/11/10), with its special moveset, has now been promoted to defender status with the recent CP change. And speaking of which, the change inflated my offensive Golem ("Lump" IVs: 84.4% - 14/14/10) to absurd levels.

I also replaced my Hydro Pump Vaporeon with my old Aqua Tail Vaporeon ("O hey" IVs: 86.7% - 13/11/15), which has superior IVs. I'm not sure why I didn't make this switch earlier. Others that have received a fair amount of powering up include my offensive Lapras and perfect IVs Venusaur.

Other highlights/upcoming milestones:
- Caught about 4,000 Pokémon in the last two weeks, with a single-day record of 418 on 11/22/16.
- 11 more Pokémon until 12,000 Pokémon caught lifetime.
- Caught 4,000th Normal-type Pokémon
- Caught 3,000th Poison-type Pokémon
- Caught 3,000th Water-type Pokémon
- Caught 1,000th Grass-type Pokémon
- 45 more captures until 2,000 Bug-type Pokémon caught lifetime
- Hatched 800th egg
- 6 more Gym victories from 500
- Less than 150km away from gold Jogger medal
- Gold medal for Hiker obtained (caught 200+ Rock-type Pokémon)
- Gold medal for Fairy Tale Girl obtained (caught 200+ Fairy-type Pokémon)

Again, this journal is retiring in favor of one geared toward including Generation II Pokémon: https://www.pokecommunity.com/threads/385566