To grind or not to grind?

[-Slick-]

It seems that certain people prefer to play the game without grinding, and the only training that would be done for them is trainer battles, while there are others like me who choose to grind their pokemon by battling a lot of wild pokemon to the extent that you are borderline to being over leveled. I'm just curious to know the preference of the people over here. And if you are going to post, please explain why you prefer that style. I'll start. I choose to grind, not because I don't like a challenge, but because I want to be above every trainer or pokemon I battle in the game. I hate the idea that there is someone on par with me.

 

[Sassy Milkshake]

Tbh I don't know the exact definition of grinding. I assume rebattling trainers over and over isn't considered grinding on trainers lol, but that's my preferred style, assuming the game has a rebattle system. Obviously it gets you more exp, which is the only reason I do it as opposed to wild Pokemon.

 

[-Slick-]

Well yeah I guess rebattling trainers would be in the category of grinding, which I define as constantly battling over and over and isn't limited to only wild pokemon battles.

 

[Lucariotoes]

I find I usually have to grind, especially in newer games, to stand a chance. I usually just battle wild Pokemon over and over, trying to match my current team to the average level of the area's trainers.

 

[Bounsweet]

Easily 1/3 of all my playthrough times are just from grinding lol, I'll spend hours grinding a team so that they're overleveled by like 5-6 levels.​

 

[Pinta77]

I play runescape, so I'm used to grinding. I do grind a little in pokemon, sometimes to evolve certain pokemon or to over level certain pokemon.

 

[Karma]

When I grind, I do it to get a few decent levels above the Gym/Area before challenging the Gym Leader or moving on. I am not necessarily sure why I do it other than to be ready for any battles and that I don't want to get my 'dex handed to me by fainting primarily due to a level difference. Other than that I have not a clue why I prefer this method, but it works for me.

 

[Sableye~]

I don't grind levels anymore. I prefer to EV train so I end up running from the Pokemon that won't help with the specific stat I'm EV training for. The last time I grinded was my female level 70something Venusaur some months ago.

If I've restarted my game, I grind before battling a gym leader or progressing farther into the game.

 

[-Slick-]

yup ev training is definitely mandatory for me too. But what I was referring to originally in my post was for the storyline aspect of the game not online battles. But hey, I guess ev training can help for the storyline too, though the pokemons I use to beat a story aren't really ev trained as they can't be used in competitive battling so I save my ev training for pokemon other then them

 

[Raven Valt]

Unless I am doing a Nuzlocke or Random Pokemon challenge I do not grind, The games are supposed to have enough trainers/exp for you to beat the first time elite four with, Diamond is a prime example of this.

Once I finish the elite four first time I may do a little grinding (Mainly on pokemon black) but usually i go out exploring! :S

 

[Alice]

When I was a kid, I never grinded (ground? lol) and avoided as many trainers as possible, and was still able to beat the games no problem. Nowadays I make sure I fight every trainer, but never bother with grinding. It's just really boring and pointless imo. =/

 

[mishy.]

I grind when I really need it. So it doesn't happen too often. Most of the time I dislike grinding because it's boring to me, but at least the fifth generation made it a little quicker to do with the faster battling system. Still something I would like to avoid if I can.

 

[Brendino]

I found that, especially in the 5th gen, I've had to grind my Pokemon just because of the larger gap between an area's trainers as compared to some of the past games. I never used to do it that much, but now I'll take some time out either looking for Audino or random trainers that are around before I even attempt facing the Gyms or the Elite Four.