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There is no life in the void.

When designing fights, I like to use RNG as a tool to force players to get better at the game. I'm not a fan of coin flips which just make you lose with nothing you can do about it during preparation or gameplay. In the case of repeatable grinds like hard mode Pumpking, the goal is to introduce enough variance that players trying to follow a guide will still need to think and learn as they play. It's difficult at first but once you understand the mechanics and AI well enough, you can almost always figure out how to come back from a bad situation. Although the "problem" is sourced from which adds randomly appear, you are rewarded for your skill with improved consistency. I'm usually able to achieve a 95%+ win rate against it each year. In the case of Shaymin's adds, there are 2/6 which will survive a hit (Sturdy Steelix + Focus Sash Tauros). This isn't really an RNG problem though, the only variance (which is out of your control) is the order in which they appear, you will always see both of them at least once due to the way adds currently cycle. You can deal with them by having two AoE attackers on the left each turn or by using Stealth Rock or Spikes to damage them when they enter. If you need to reset a raid as soon as something goes even slightly wrong, that usually just means that your strategy isn't very good. If raw damage isn't working out, players might find that slowing down and focusing a bit more on survivability produces more consistent results. Anything that lives a turn provides double the value and it only takes two moves (prevent or remove the SpAtk boost + Light Screen) to make that a reality. Three for Mist if you're not using Flying/Levitate mons to avoid the Seed Flare✫ hazard. Sometimes I do get it wrong (AncientPower was more obnoxious than expected during Xmas), but the overall goal is always to reward good teambuilding and adaptability. When used well, RNG in a format where you get 3-4 actions per turn should only feel unfair if you're not willing to do anything to mitigate or respond to it.

They should just remove MM and force people to organize parties. If needed they could implement some sort of token after beating a certain raid as proof of completion and when you link in chat it could say something like Shaymin 2025 Token x5 which would mean you have beaten it 5 times to vouch for your experience. (Pretty much the system guild wars2 uses)

I wish the AI was better but it's not something I personally have control over. In my ideal world it would be using Seed Flare into your Sash mons 100% of the time. With the way it currently works though, what you're describing is a scenario where the RNG is frustrating because you're opening yourself up to it then not doing anything to deal with it. A few of your options would be: Figure out a plan which doesn't require Focus Sash. It's okay for it to not always be a good option. Use Focus Sash on the last mons affected by the Seed Flare✫ hazard (it doesn't inflict drops on Flying / Levitate / Clear Body / Contrary / Air Balloon). Some mons still deal 5-6% after the hazard debuff, save them until after it goes up. Use Mist to prevent the debuffs from occurring at all. Blame losses on RNG, retry until you win. Although option 5 can win eventually, planning to reroll if you don't get lucky makes it a poor strategy. These will always exist for every piece of content but that's okay as long as better strategies are reasonably achievable. Preventing the boss from using Seed Flare✫ with careful teambuilding actually was intended, that's why the entry hazard is tied to a damaging move instead of being applied automatically. There are always multiple ways to approach each raid and that's not something I want to change.

Now that I have devs attention, please add ANY fishing encounter here so we can fish in the most relaxing place ever

hey pokemmo community, straight to the point, game isn't fun and i hate it, so i'm quitting and probably not coming back its been a good run, it was really, REALLY fun while it lasted, so goodbye final shoutout to SOJU for being one of the coolest teams ever, and to TFBO for being the coolest team ever. bye, make sure to miss me ;).

Hello everyone. I would like to talk a few words about the Lunar New Year Event. I have been playing PokeMMO for about 900 hours. I have participated in many events and fought in raids so far. But some of the raid pokemon in this last event were really terrible. I don't expect the raid events to be beginner friendly. But most of the pokemon in this year's raids were not even intermediate friendly. We defeated 12 raids with fully trained pokemon without any problems. However, many beginner-intermediate level players in our team had a hard time in raids. I have a Youtube channel and I make PokeMMO videos. A few of my viewers mentioned that they could not win raid battles with random parties. I fought with random parties in a few raids just to try. It has become almost impossible to beat even the simplest raid battles with random parties. Now let's talk about the last raid pokemon of the event, Shaymin! I have never seen such a terrible raid before. We spent a total of three and a half hours with our perfectly trained Pokemon. We could barely catch the stupid Pokemon. Some of the advanced players on our team spent 5-10 hours doing the same thing. Lots of unnecessary random variables, completely modified nonsensical mechanics really made me sick. I have never hated this game this much in the 900 hours I have played it. Now, there will be know-it-alls who will write "skill issue" under this title in a ridiculous way. Let's say that me and the endgame level players on my team are incompetent players. Are other YouTubers the same? I watched Caav's stream, for example. Even a high-quality player suffered for hours on the stream. I was so unenthusiastic at the end of the Shaymin raid that if there was a ball worse than a Pokeball in the game, I would have thrown it. I was on the live stream last night. I was so bored that I really didn't have the energy or motivation to be happy even if the stupid Shaymin's shiny form came out. If you want, ask the people in the community. It was really ridiculous to design a raid battle with such difficult and meaningless mechanics for such a meaningless poke. At least a nice music should have been chosen for the Shaymin battle. Since we were going to spend hours, we should have listened to a nice music over and over again. Anyway, a side note to the forum moderators: Please give the professors who will write "skill issue" medals of excellence.

Just learn to read messages before reacting to them. Literally all my interventions here talk about this specific interaction. This is an assumption of IA behavior that if, even true, still remain the problem of the inconsistency of the behavior. Maybe Whimsicott can survive a Seed Flare and we're assuming IA sometimes does Seed Flare because it wants specifically to break sash with 1HP remaining, so what of other Focus Sash pokemons that you cannot escape the RNG of undecisive IA with super specific spreads ? I do not think IA always wants to do max damage, for example if you use Air Balloon Heatran, Shaymin will use Seed Flare instead of Air Slash to break the Air Balloon immunity. In the end, we can always try to assume what is IA behavior but the point remains that it will always be through an un-intuitive process that should not be a part of strategy-making. The game needs to show clearly what is the challenge you are facing and these things don't help it and are unwanted, even if in the end we find the pattern it's not fun, because we want the thing to give us a challenge that mimicks what a smart player would do (for example, consistently use the best move adapted to the situation, and not 30% of the time) so we can try find ways to outsmart it. Outsmarting technicalities in IA code especially that deal with RNG are just the most boring thing ever.

I also think Seed Flare RNG (context for everyone : when a pokemon holds Focus Sash, even if it resists grass x4 and usually is killed by AI with any super effective / neutral move, the AI has like 50% chance of hitting Seed Flare on that pokemon to break Sash. I have no idea of actual chances but in my experience we reran 50% of our runs because of that, while changing the Sash pokemon so it's not really a matter of species) was the only thing that felt "unfair" in this raid for multiple reasons : - Choosing pokemons that will not trigger Seed Flare is ALREADY a limitation in the strategy (so it feels unfair when it uses that move when you specifically chose pokemon to not deal with it) - The 1 item clause is also ALREADY a limitation (only 1 pokemon can hold Focus Sash so you shouldn't nerf it more it feels unfair since we play by the rules) - RNG obviously matters a lot in these raids but most of the times it's """fair""" or along the premises of a pokemon battle, here it doesn't feel fair at all because the Seed Flare just happens or don't while 1) limited your teambuilding around not triggering it and 2) rerunning just because of something that can happen or not is dumb when it's not because of a failed or not optimal strategy - but because of the use of 1 item that is super useful in general and fair to use within the difficulty of the raid. "Punishing" the use of that item through RNG is stupid and RNG should never be the thing that balance difficulty. If you don't want us to use Sash in this raid, introduce a mechanic where it punishes the use of Sash and let us find ways to go around it. But being forced to go through RNG is bad and feels bad to play.

Honestly this is good to see happening so people understand how broken shaymin sky actually is and why having it outside of bring an orb or some sort of memento would break every meta. But yeah I don't like it much when a raid, which is supposed to be content you prepare for and adapt to has a lot of rng layers, it doesnt make sense to lose runs multiple times to bad rng, could happen once, maybe twice, but I've seen people complain its a lot more than once or twice

I always create my raid links by recruiting people on global. What most people try to bring is 3 support mons that cost 120k in total to buy (sableye murkrow whimsi), a gym rerun 2x31 typhlosion, a starter from the professor (for the OT) and some other random mon. I will say this, if you're new to the raids or you're a lazy old player who never bothered to invest in actual pokemons (in a pokemon game), stay the heck away from the altars. You're ruining the experience for everyone else.

Changelog: 10/02/2025 Update 3 Bug Fixes The Shaymin Sky Forme raid boss now has the correct base stats and typing. Previously it had Land Forme's.

I agree with u, its not that hard BUT its unfair as possible. A mon with fly/grass type how can be neuturel to ice??? or rock?? (i also tried with rock it doesnt pop up "super efective") And why i dont get the sky form??? i beat it?? do you get nidoking after beating nidoquen??? i spend hours of time with the strategy that they said like youtube or somewhere else but they dont work for us becas u need very spesific moves. Not even fire type work (i dont even talk about ice, its all dissapointment, then use adaptive shield at the start instead of follow me ads) Just be fair with it its all we want. if u dont have heatran with euroption nearly u cant win raid. like i said i spend like 3 hours then sleep after i wake up made my own chart and its work perfect, i got it my first try. i didnt use infernape, heatran, embroar, entei, chandelure, moltres even ninetails. And yeah i have most of them and the pokeyen to buy or breed rest (all my pokes ot not even ot*) And the seed flare thing. Its not even lower the TARGETS att/spa it just have %40 chance to lower TARGETS SPDEF but even the rest of mons dont affected this efect the new coming ones get -4spa/att its like a joke. I... we are said that because the raid is not hard but is UNFAIR AS possible as. and the reason why this raid is 4 star to get all "raid masters" with all alt. cause its just need 2 of your ot poke. they are sayin "its ez man skill issue" when they get their 20th shaymin. I think raids must be 1 for every IP then let we see the prices of raid spesific mons. they are geting like hundreds millions with raids (christmas included) and sayin ez to only them get raids thats why they say that. even ha excadrill almost expensive than shaymin.... its a shame for game economy. u guys supporting this because u can get but others get too. if u say ez and raids get harder only u guys can get them with your 2ot(just tw :DD) trash and 4 non ot pokes (the 4 pokes will gona use with your millions alt....) so as a result : raid was unfair but not that hard BUT NOT EZ U GUYS JUST CARE ABOUT MONEY IN YOUR POCKET. i hope upcamin raids be 1 for per ıp.

🎉 Introducing PokeMMO Help – A New Tool for Pokémon Trainers! 🎮✨ Hey everyone! 👋 I’m excited to share something I’ve been working on – PokeMMO Help! A few days before the Lunar New Year event, I found myself wondering which Poké Balls I should stack up on for the event. While searching for a Capture Chance Calculator, I found some like DragonflyCave, but they weren’t really suited for PokeMMO. Caav had also made one that worked properly, but I found it a bit clunky and not as user-friendly, since it required manual input for every multiplier. So I thought, "Why not make one myself?" And that’s how PokeMMO Help was born! 🔹What’s Inside? Capture Chance: Find out exactly which Poké Balls you should use for each Pokémon, with real-time calculations based on level, HP, and status effects. Pokémon Search: Filter Pokémon by moves, stats, abilities, types, and even Alpha status – with a sortable results table. Type Coverage: Analyze battle effectiveness with a dynamic type damage calculator, including dual typing, type chart interaction, and even a flip typing feature. 🔹Why You’ll Love It: Fast & Local: Runs on local JSON files – no laggy APIs, just instant results. Live Search: Start typing, and suggestions pop up – Pokémon, moves, abilities, you name it. Customizable Themes: Choose your background theme or submit one via Discord. Interactive Features: Hover, click, and flip through type matchups – it’s all real-time and intuitive. 🔗 Check it out now at https://www.pokemmo.help/, and I hope it makes your Pokémon journey a little easier! Feel free to join our Discord server to see sneak peeks of future updates, share suggestions, report bugs, submit your art, or just hang out. Happy catching! ✨

I know this isn't entirely the point of the current discussion but I kinda want put my thoughts on why the overall crowd of raiders may be struggling more this time vs the last 2 events. For me who has a box full of mostly raid oriented pokemon and have successfully completed all of the Halloween and Xmas 2024 raids, I did not struggle very much as long as I had 1 or 2 people in the link who are experienced raiders who I have rapport with. The Shaymin raid took like maybe 1~2 hours to complete and that was before anyone actually cleared it, probably could've cleared it much faster if my group waited for strats to come out. However, my friends who tried to get the raids done even after a day after the Shaymin raid reveal struggled even on the 3* raids. I do not necessarily think the bosses are harder, but the overall pool of experienced players willing to do the raids have considerably diminished: 1. OT clause: This prevents people who are running alts to run the raids again with more groups of people who may need help. People who are using alts will tend to have more resources and higher quality pokemon to do this type of content well. Yes, some alt users may only run the raid with themselves and not bother doing it with other players anyways or that there are easy workaround for the OT clause, but I know quite some number of people with alts who got tired of working around the new restrictions and gave up on bothering to breed for OT (for example, it was only 1 for the 3* raids but the uncertainty of what it would be for the 4* raids made ppl give up and not look back) 2. Repeat rewards vs last year's LNY: People are starting to feel the burnout from the last 2 events. With the shrine being a massive source of pokeyen income with 0 costs, veteran players who already did the LNY event last year were far less compelled to participate in the raids this year since it was the same alphas and legendary. I think the lower pool of experienced raiders have exacerbated these issues: 1. Not good enough pokemon: Players with "okay" raid mons who may have been successful during Halloween and Xmas are now struggling much more because the carries are no longer there. Before, you probably could've been okay if all of your DPS weren't 2x31iv. Now, they are a considerable liability because you are more likely to queue up with ppl who don't have the proper nature and IV/EVs either. 2. Hotfixes: Changing how Miracle Eye works and fixing Wonder Room are obvious productive fixes I don't have qualms about. But changing things to its "fixed" state such as the Slaking Amnesia and Shaymin's sky form typing and stats threw a wrench into the community effort of helping each other out on raids. In a group, it is important for everyone involved to be on the same page on what needs to be done, and the strategies chalked out by experienced players getting outdated had made the problem solving process much harder (remember, not everyone is good at pokemon the video game). I think there's a discussion to be had on whether to not fix something if it doesn't make the raid objectively easier. 3. The runaway effect: The pool of experienced raiders are too good at dealing damage that the strategies they write do not translate well to players who theoretically can clear it but are far less experienced or have a lot less to work with. One sort-of example that comes to mind is the Ampharos raid with players recommending using a Sun Team. This went disastrously for a group I was trying to help. Spamming Earthquake with ground mons ended up being better even if it did less damage from the cotton spore because pokemon would survive and it would've been far more work to detangle why the dmg checks weren't being met with their fire dps instead. I'm not saying these are issues that devs need to do something about because in the end, raids are not for everyone and it needs to reward the people who put in the proper time and resources. Also economy this economy that blah blah blah. But I think the context is helpful for why some things may be different for LNY vs Ween or Xmas.

The problem with this is not anything to do with the boss ai, it’s to do with how randomness is involved in the damage calculation. random is a random factor. Namely, it is recognized as a multiplication from a random integer between 85 and 100, inclusive, then divided by 100. This inherent randomness in damage output is why you’ll get different results for the same input. It’s part of the DNA of pokemon battles.

That's fair. I just wanted to make this all clear that I personally never wanted hidden Cloak to exist to begin with. I wasn't exactly thrilled of the accusations like I made this request on a whim but rather I wanted it to be known this is what I've been saying for 1,5 years. But I do think this is one of those calls where the community's opinion as a whole should absolutely matter over whatever I think or feel personally. That's why I said Lastly - we need to remember we're all living in our own bubbles especially what becomes to Doubles. In my personal bubble, people did feel that Covert Cloak being hidden is harmful. Because this represented pretty much the whole Doubles community to me at this point, I got the idea that people just don't like hidden Cloak but I will happily accept if there in fact is more people who enjoy it over hating it. This is pretty much the first big Doubles related discussion since the Sleep Clause. I do think we should open a discussion where everyone can weigh in and if it seems like by and large people enjoy hidden Cloak then that's completely fine as far as I'm concerned. I think I can be and should be open about the fact what comes to Tier Council and any Doubles related discussion, it's just about on the hands of 1-2 people and I do not think any decision like this should go on the hands of 1-2 people regardless what I feel about the matter.

Thanks! I wanna say a big thanks to my team TFBO (TheFishingBoiiis) for being the best team ever. Special mention to BreatheItIn for lending me the Focus Blast mons for the Slaking Raid, @Poufilou , DJowie and @Cheemsito for being the best team to raid Shaymin with (especially Pouf who supplied me with many Focus Sashes and Flying Gems) Thanks to all the Mods and Devs who worked hard to give us this event You made this event for all of us expecting nothing in return, and I wanna show my appreciation in this post because Event season is especially hard on them, but it was so much fun for us to play!

Everyone has the right to take part in the raids. If you are so biased about it why not make 4 characters and just do it yourself instead of complaining about other players' shortcomings. It's not even about the mons, it also includes strategy which you quickly figure out on the go through trial and error. Raids are not meant to be won first try and not everyone has been around long enough to have the "Perfect" teams and strategies. A lot of the times I linked with randoms I realized that we can win if small changes are made to their teams whether they change a few ev's / moves or I borrow them a mon or 2. Either way I defeated most of the raids through the help of randoms by coaching them etc and it worked out fine. +1 for me and +1 for them. Have a bit of compassion.

Bug issue, luck issue. By the way here is your medal but you are late🥉😄

Thank you to you and Poseidon, for organizing beautiful events with such interesting rewards no particular suggestion i find the idea cool only

Its not even really the matchmaking thats the problem, its the lack of tools to be able to adapt once youre into a link imo. Sure youll get the ocassional really unprepared player but far too often youre not able to counter the mechanics a boss has or have to many duplicate counters and therefore not enough damage. I think something like: With the addition of being to able to access the pc when in the menu could really help with the coordination of random matchmaking links.

Here your medal!🥈

I mean the game is for everyone, the players that try hard and the casuals. We need content for both. Perhaps the Shaymin raid was not designed for you and that's okay. Shaymin is not mandatory for any end game content, whether that is pvp or pve. And if you really really want one, you can also grind the cash and buy one from the GTL. Sure the raid is difficult, but no one is forced to do the raid. You can do the Abundant Shrine event or catching the mons for mysterious balls; you don't have to focus on what you can't do or find difficult to do when there are other event activities available.

#bringbackclownemoji

+1

dont play the weekend cause a travel... now Hunting moltres got this: PD: i will continue dragon hunt after monthly legendaries

Amazing service! Fast, communicative, and reliable.

Yes, that is what we eventually end up doing adapting pokemon order and all but we couldn't avoid not using sash and that would be fine if IA would 100% Seed Flare on it because then we would have understood some intent about how to handle the raid (the game design saying us clearly : you will be punished using sash). Instead, it just says to us contradictory messages (sometimes AI react one way or another with same situation) that are frustrating to deal with and that we took for simply part of the experience (this feeling of "they added RNG difficulty" inherited from past events). It's better to know from your perspective that this issue falls on IA and isn't an intended design choice though (intently having Seed Flare proc % of time under same condition is a super bad design). Thank you for taking the time explaining your process designing these. Please work towards making these raids a permanent feature that we can all appreciate without a time limit. No, IA choosing Seed Flare over Air Slash on a Whimsicott 50% of time has nothing to do with damage calculations. I have no idea why you are trying to explain something that is irrelevant here. The problem in this context lies in the AI choosing to do different moves in same situation - ideally, it should always recognize it is not gonna OHKO the sash pokemon and do the according better move (Seed Flare in this situation). Or always do Air Slash or always something else it doesn't matter. The indecisive behavior makes any strategy-making a bit frustrating, especially when it takes time to figure out exactly what is triggering the different behavior when it is not explainable by normal pokemon battle standards (it's not intuitive to know what's wrong with what you did to have Shaymin use a grass move on a x4 resistant pokemon).

Well, im on that discord too so you probably saw me on the conversation, i use the same nick on discord. In fact i was the one that brought glare into the discussion. Jej figured out a blizzard spam strategy late yesterday, he claims it´s even more effective than fire, the only problem is most raiders don´t have a full ice team. Thanks for the good luck i will report back to discord to see if trick room worked or not, i got a specially defensive spiritomb created for these scenarios, just hope it doesn´t bait seed flare.

HA maractus (storm drain) could have positive interactions with surf mons in double battles. Would love to be able to use it. Thanks!

I found this weird encounter when I was surfing on the side, I also have 128 masterballs now for some reason...

I got this as Shiny Litwick after around 57k encounters.

Thank you I appreciate it, I was not 100% sure how I could fix it but it seems you figured it out, I will make the next major update editing the Pokemon that have alpha sprites, and ill update Ambipom in the upcoming update. scheduled for 2/16/2025 date

Two words: skill issue

"The raids is hard bla bla bla", Oh no worry, there are lot of content creator who are willing to share their strategy to beat the boss! "Oh hell nawh, they use specific strategy and mons, I don't like it. I only want to use a random mon with no strategy at all. Why can't I beat it? its not beginner friendly, its not fun!!" ???

And here is your order of revocation as a teacher, you have failed your "viewers" and teammates by not guiding them properly. You cannot call yourself a sensei anymore, especially with that mentality. Challenges take time investment to complete? Yeah, thats how it should be. You are just seeking instant gratification with minimal effort, that goes against the concept of end game content.

Here your medal of excellence! 🥇

Raid reward is the same Shaymin that was given in the last 3 years. (Plus 25 Gracidea 🙂) I wish it was an alpha Shaymin or its Sky Forme was already unlocked. Its signature move Seed Flare is too overwhelming. You have to bring niche support pokemons in order to prevent the AI from choosing the move Seed Flare. It is such a disappointment that we (have to) beat the raid boss without even seeing its signature move in the battle. As a player who also managed to beat the Heatran raid, I understand that endgame content should be challenging. However, despite the difficulty of the Shaymin raid, the reward is not very encouraging.

Changelog: 09/02/2025 Update 2 Bug Fixes The Spring Flower Hairpin is once again available via Lucky Red Envelopes (2025) Fixed an issue where, when an item was lost and Unburden was triggered, gaining an item again through Recycle would not reset speed modifications

Team [Mr] kicked off 2025 with a serious bang! Shortly after the Xmas event ended, we started our 8th semi-annual team shiny war event - "Team [Mr]'s Shiny War 8.0: A Historical Boss Battle! Awk vs. Flare!". Our team's former leader @FlareBlitzz and myself, the current leader, were the mascots for each of the 2 teams (and we both found wild shiny rares during the war, too). @GingerMatt & @Qiyist were our inspiring team captains, and during that 1 week long war, they each helped rally their teams, and collectively between all of the war participants, we found 97 total shinys that week - that's more than we find for entire individual months sometimes! Lots of amazing shinys this month were caught, some tragic shinys fled, but we all had a great time together. More importantly, on January 17th, 2025, Team [Mr] Celebrated our 10 year anniversary as a shiny-themed team in PokeMMO. This was an excellent way to kick off the year and celebrate the team existing for a decade - thank you to everyone who helped make the beginning of 2025 a blast, and as always, thank you to @Servor5555 (xXFongusXx) & @cloo (clooh) for making the bulletin below. ♥ Team Mr January 2025 OT Shiny Bulletin:

In-game Name: kraotts Timezone: EST Hours Played: 21 Regions Completed: 0 Favorite Type/Pokemon/Playstyle etc: Typhlosion

my hatched shalpha vanillite. team porygon member.

I proclaim myself as the "weakest maractus fan" and i too advance my support to the gigachad guy above me to add HA maractus and an alpha one to shunt for my weak desire.

That kinda bad i think, its pay to win because people will just sell it for millions and buy anything without need to play the game for money, the economic aspect of mmo is really good i think beside for that

Hey Everyone, Here is a money making method, you may know this but if not its here laid out for everyone, This is Arguably the best method for Farming Amulet Coins Photos Attached for Convenience for people to copy move-sets and route. Location: Kindle Road, North East from One Islands PC - Kanto Target: Meowth Can Hold Amulet Coins/Quick Claws Level 34/36, Move Set - Nasty Plot, Screech, Slash, Assurance 3 Pokemon Needed, Egg Shunt Optional Lead Pokemon Banette - Dont need any special EV/IVs, needs to out speed a level 36 Meowth Ability - Frisk MoveSet - Imprison, Nasty Plot, Screech, Thief. Imprison Blocks the use of Nasty Plot and Screech for a couple turns, Thief is there as a back up option. PickPocket Pokemon Sneasel/Weavile - Needs its Hidden Ability Needs to be High Level and able to take a few hits is Crucial so investing in Hp and Def EV/IVs are strongly recommended Moveset - Dig, Surf, Thief, Rock Smash Dig allows you to leave the Hot Spring faster than Running out, Surf allows you to surf over from the PC, Rock Smash is for if you want to fossil farm as well in the area, Thief is there as a back up option. Utility Pokemon Exeggutor - Solely so you can Sweet Scent and Teleport back to the PC if you are egg hunting, adds nothing else to the farming strategy. Moveset - Sweet Scent (PP Maxed), Teleport, Synthesis, Thief Sweet Scent is to encounter Hordes Teleport is for quick navigation back to PC (if Required) Synthesis is for healing (if Required) Thief is there as a back up option. Turn Layout Encounter Either Ponyta or Meowth Horde Run from Ponyta Hordes On Meowth Horde if there is an item either Amulet Coin or Quick Claw Frisk notification on Banette will go off. Turn 1 Banette uses Imprison so Nasty Plot and Screech is Blocked, Slash cant hit Banette Turn 2 Swap For Weavile, Meowth can still only use Assurance or Slash both Physical moves so pickpocket will take effect Turn 2 Turn 3 Run away from the battle. Or use Surf to clear Horde Route 1. Fly to One Island 2. Surf and then go Last Grass patch on Kindle Road, This is where you'll Sweet Scent, 3. When out of PP head North to the Hot Spring where in the center spring it will reheal PP 4. Use Dig to escape hot spring and go back to Grass Spot. Video On Youtube, Show some love! Thanks AG!

While I agree with a lot of what you're saying in your post and can agree having to carve out time for a limited event sucks. Halloween and LNY don't feel near as bad as Xmas does. Having these time sensitive things happening at such a crucial time for a lot of people is just terrible. I'm not advocating for less Xmas content just wish they wouldn't leave us in a content desert for 9 months of the year and then force us to focus for what is essentially 6 weeks and 3 events a year. Would be better served releasing time sensitive content like this in the summer when people have more free time.