prdl Posted September 12, 2023 Share Posted September 12, 2023 (edited) Guide to help catch Alpha Swarms This guide is for helping players catch Alpha Swarms after the Johto update and Alpha Rebalance. With this guide you can catch any Alpha with little effort and minimum investment in Pokemon / Pokeballs Special thanks to these people @OfficialDarku for your video on Alpha catching and the info about how Love Ball works (Video here) @drakesstepson for teaching me how to make better looking posts (Legendary Beasts Post) @JurassicMick for helping with testing and listening to me talk about this 🙂 My team members who are continually helping gather more info on Alpha swarms Trick Spoiler Pokemon Used Trick User : Bronzong or Gothitelle Why Bronzong? While being a slower then Gothitelle its offers more bulk. (Base HP 67 / Def 116 / Sp. Def 116 / Speed 33) Why Gothitelle? You prefer a little more speed. (Base HP 70 / Def 95 / Sp. Def 110 / Speed 65) Both are great options and have the same build and moveset. Pokemon Ability Item Pokemon Nature Ability Item Lv100 Bronzong Levitate Choice Band Lv100 Gothitelle Bold / Relaxed Frisk / Comp Choice Band Choice Specs Imipish / Careful Choice Specs IVs EVs IVs EVs HP 20-31 HP 6 HP 20-31 HP 6 Attack x Attack x Attack x Attack x Defense 20-31 Defense 252 Defense 20-31 Defense 252 Sp. Attack x Sp. Attack x Sp. Attack x Sp. Attack x Sp. Defense 20-31 Sp. Defense 252 Sp. Defense 20-31 Sp. Defense 252 Speed x Speed x Speed x Speed x Move Type Power ACC PP Move Type Power ACC PP Trick Psychic - 100 10/10 Trick Psychic - 100 10/10 Heal Block Psychic - 100 15/15 Heal Block Psychic - 100 15/15 Substitute Normal - - 10/10 Substitute Normal - - 10/10 Hypnosis Psychic - 60 20/20 Hypnosis Psychic - 60 20/20 Defense and Sp. Defense Walls : Blissey and Slowbro Why Blissey? Blissey offers a high HP and Sp. Def stat to deal with the Sp. Atk Alphas Why Slowbro? Slowbro offers a high HP and Def stat to deal with the Atk Alphas Pokemon Nature Ability Item Pokemon Nature Ability Item Lv100 Blissey Careful Natural Cure Leftovers Lv100 Slowbro Bold Oblivious Leftovers Relaxed Serene Grace Impish Own Tempo IVs EVs IVs EVs HP 20-31 HP 252 HP 20-31 HP 252 Attack x Attack x Attack x Attack x Defense 20-31 Defense 4 Defense 20-31 Defense 252 Sp. Attack x Sp. Attack x Sp. Attack x Sp. Attack x Sp. Defense 20-31 Sp. Defense 252 Sp. Defense 20-31 Sp. Defense 4 Speed x Speed x Speed x Speed x Move Type Power ACC PP Move Type Power ACC PP Seismic Toss Fighting 1 100 30/30 Seismic Toss Fighting 1 100 30/30 Substitute Normal - - 10/10 Substitute Normal - - 10/10 Softboiled Normal - 100 5/5 Slack off Normal - 100 5/5 Sing Normal - 55 15/15 Yawn Normal - 100 10/10 False Swipe, Sub, Spore and Soak : Smeargle and Breloom Why Smeargle? Smeargle with the move Soak allows you to catch Ghost type Alphas Why Breloom? Breloom offers a great option for catching Alphas with its natural healing. Pokemon Nature Ability Item Pokemon Nature Ability Item Lv100 Breloom Adamant Poison Heal Toxic Orb Lv100 Smeargle Bold / Relaxed Technician Leftovers Imipish / Careful IVs EVs IVs EVs HP 20-31 HP 252 HP 20-31 HP 252 Attack 20-31 Attack x Attack 20-31 Attack x Defense 20-31 Defense 128 Defense 20-31 Defense x Sp. Attack x Sp. Attack x Sp. Attack x Sp. Attack x Sp. Defense 20-31 Sp. Defense 128 Sp. Defense 20-31 Sp. Defense 6 Speed 20-31 Speed x Speed 20-31 Speed 252 Move Type Power ACC PP Move Type Power ACC PP False Swipe Normal 40 100 30/30 False Swipe Normal - - 20/20 Substitute Normal - - 10/10 Substitute Normal - - 10/10 Spore Grass - 100 15/15 Spore Grass - 100 15/15 Synthesis Grass - - 5/5 Soak Water - 100 20/20 Species of Alpha Pokemon or Immunity Bringing the opposite gender of the Alpha you're attempting to catch allows for use of Love Ball. (only works for gendered Alphas) Love Ball has a max catch rate of x8.0 when setup properly Setting up team Order of party besdies Lead is not relevant arrange the party how you see fit Lead Pokemon or : Trick users You use one of these Pokemon to Trick a Choice Item onto the Alpha Other party members and : Walls These two Pokemon will offer bulk and consistent damage. They also have to the ability to sleep and sub for optimal catching and: False Swipe, Sub, Spore and Soak These two Pokemon will offer another option for if your walls are KO'd and have the moves to sleep and sub Species of Alpha or Immunity to attacks You can use an opposite gender of the Alpha to max the potential of the Love Ball You can use a Pokemon with a immunity to one of the Alphas attacks after Trick to have free catch attempts Examples of Immunities Dark Immune to Psychic Flying Immune to Ground Ghost Immune to Fighting Ground Immune to Electric Steel Immune to Poison Abilities with Immunity Dry Skin Water Sap Sipper Grass Flash Fire Fire Sound Proof Normal Levitate Ground Storm Drain Water Lightning Rod Electric Volt Absorb Electric Motor Drive Electric Water Absorb Water Lead with you Trick user to give the Alpha a choice item. If the Alpha has healing moves use Heal Block. Lower Alphas HP with Blissey or Slowbro using Seismic Toss. Use Smeargle or Breloom to finish lowering HP to 1. Use remaining Pokemon to sleep and catch Alpha. Or Setup sub + sleep then safe switch to same species and loveball Super Fang Spoiler Pokemon Used Super Fang users or : Golbat or Crobat Why Golbat? Golbat offers more resistance then Crobat with eviolite but is slower Why Crobat? Croat offers more speed then Golbat but less bulk. Pokemon Nature Ability Item Pokemon Nature Ability Item Lv100 Golbat Imipish Inner Focus Eviolite Lv100 Crobat Imipish Inner Focus Leftovers Black Sludge IVs EVs IVs EVs HP 20-31 HP 6 HP 20-31 HP 6 Attack 20-31 Attack x Attack 20-31 Attack x Defense 20-31 Defense 252 Defense 20-31 Defense 252 Sp. Attack x Sp. Attack x Sp. Attack x Sp. Attack x Sp. Defense 20-31 Sp. Defense 252 Sp. Defense 20-31 Sp. Defense 252 Speed 20-31 Speed x Speed 20-31 Speed x Move Type Power ACC PP Move Type Power ACC PP Super Fang Normal 50% 90 10/10 Super Fang Normal 50% 90 10/10 Roost Flying - 100 5/5 Roost Flying - 100 5/5 Substitute Normal - - 10/10 Substitute Normal - - 10/10 Hypnosis Psychic - 60 20/20 Hypnosis Psychic - 60 20/20 : Smeargle Why Smeargle? Smeargle offers another option. Pokemon Nature Ability Item Lv100 Smeargle Bold / Relaxed Technician Leftovers Imipish / Careful IVs EVs HP 20-31 HP 6 Attack x Attack x Defense 20-31 Defense 252 Sp. Attack x Sp. Attack x Sp. Defense 20-31 Sp. Defense 252 Speed 20-31 Speed x Move Type Power ACC PP Spore Grass - 100 15/15 Substitute Normal - - 10/10 Super Fang Normal 50% 90 10/10 Baton Pass Normal - - 40/40 Defense and Sp. Defense Walls : Blissey and Slowbro Why Blissey? Blissey offers a high HP and Sp. Def stat to deal with the Sp. Atk Alphas Why Slowbro? Slowbro offers a high HP and Def stat to deal with the Atk Alphas Pokemon Nature Ability Item Pokemon Nature Ability Item Lv100 Blissey Relaxed Natural Cure Leftovers Lv100 Slowbro Bold Oblivious Leftovers Careful Serene Grace Imipish Own Tempo IVs EVs IVs EVs HP 20-31 HP 252 HP 20-31 HP 252 Attack x Attack x Attack x Attack x Defense 20-31 Defense 4 Defense 20-31 Defense 252 Sp. Attack x Sp. Attack x Sp. Attack x Sp. Attack x Sp. Defense 20-31 Sp. Defense 252 Sp. Defense 20-31 Sp. Defense 4 Speed x Speed x Speed x Speed x Move Type Power ACC PP Move Type Power ACC PP Seismic Toss Fighting 1 100 30/30 Seismic Toss Fighting 1 100 30/30 Substitute Normal - - 10/10 Substitute Normal - - 10/10 Softboiled Normal - 100 5/5 Slack off Normal - 100 5/5 Sing Normal - 55 15/15 Yawn Normal - 100 10/10 False Swipe, Sub, Spore and Soak : Smeargle and Breloom Why Smeargle? Smeargle with the move Soak allows you to catch Ghost type Alphas Why Breloom? Breloom offers a great option for catching Alphas with its natural healing. Pokemon Nature Ability Item Pokemon Nature Ability Item Lv100 Breloom Adamant Poison Heal Toxic Orb Lv100 Smeargle Bold / Relaxed Technician Leftovers Imipish / Careful IVs EVs IVs EVs HP 20-31 HP 252 HP 20-31 HP 252 Attack 20-31 Attack x Attack 20-31 Attack x Defense 20-31 Defense 128 Defense 20-31 Defense x Sp. Attack x Sp. Attack x Sp. Attack x Sp. Attack x Sp. Defense 20-31 Sp. Defense 128 Sp. Defense 20-31 Sp. Defense 6 Speed 20-31 Speed x Speed 20-31 Speed 252 Move Type Power ACC PP Move Type Power ACC PP False Swipe Normal 40 100 30/30 False Swipe Normal - - 20/20 Substitute Normal - - 10/10 Substitute Normal - - 10/10 Spore Grass - 100 15/15 Spore Grass - 100 15/15 Synthesis Grass - - 5/5 Soak Water - 100 20/20 Species of Alpha Pokemon or Immunity Bringing the opposite gender of the Alpha you're attempting to catch allows for use of Love Ball. (only works for gendered Alphas) Love Ball has a max catch rate of x8.0 when setup properly Setting up team Order of party besdies Lead is not relevant arrange the party how you see fit Lead Pokemon or or : Super Fang users Use these Pokemon to Super Fang (Does 50% of total HP) Other party members and : Walls These two Pokemon will offer bulk and consistent damage. They also have to the ability to sleep and sub for optimal catching and: False Swipe, Sub, Spore and Soak These two Pokemon will offer another option for if your walls are KO'd and have the moves to sleep and sub Species of Alpha or Immunity to attacks You can use an opposite gender of the Alpha to max the potential of the Love Ball You can use a Pokemon with a immunity to one of the Alphas attacks after Trick to have free catch attempts Examples of Immunities Dark Immune to Psychic Flying Immune to Ground Ghost Immune to Fighting Ground Immune to Electric Steel Immune to Poison Abilities with Immunity Dry Skin Water Sap Sipper Grass Flash Fire Fire Sound Proof Normal Levitate Ground Storm Drain Water Lightning Rod Electric Volt Absorb Electric Motor Drive Electric Water Absorb Water Catching Alpha Use Super Fang Pokemon to Lower HP of Alpha Use Smeargle or Breloom to finish lowering HP to 1. Use remaining Pokemon to sleep and catch Alpha. Or Setup sub + sleep then safe switch to same species and loveball Nerfed on 10/18/23 update Normalize new strategy 10/16/23 Wonder Guard Nerfed as of 9/22/23 Spoiler Pokemon Used : Delcatty Why Delcatty? Delcatty has the ability Normalize and the move Assist to use Skill Swap from Plusle or Solosis which when setup allows Smeargle to avoid all attacking moves Pokemon Ability Nature Item Lv100 Delcatty Normalize Timid / Jolly Focus Sash IVs EVs HP 20-31 HP 252 Attack x Attack x Defense 20-31 Defense x Sp. Attack x Sp. Attack x Sp. Defense 20-31 Sp. Defense 6 Speed 20-31 Speed 252 Move Type Power ACC PP Shadow Ball Ghost 80 100 15/15 Thunder Wave Electric - 90 20/20 Foresight Normal - - 40/40 Assist Normal - - 20/20 : Smeargle Why Smeargle? Smeargle can learn any move allowing for the for the moveset that replaces Shedninja Wonder Guard Conversion when used changes the type of your pokemon to the type of the move that's first on your pokemon (Ghost move has to be first move to work) Pokemon Nature Ability Item Lv100 Smeargle Bold / Relaxed Technician Leftovers Imipish / Careful IVs EVs HP 20-31 HP 6 Attack x Attack x Defense 20-31 Defense 252 Sp. Attack x Sp. Attack x Sp. Defense 20-31 Sp. Defense 252 Speed 20-31 Speed x Move Type Power ACC PP Ghost Move Ghost - 100 15/15 Conversion Normal - - 10/10 Super Fang Normal 50% 90 10/10 Skill Swap Psychic - 100 15/15 : Solosis or Plusle Why Solosis or Plusle? These Pokemon learn Skill Swap by level up Filling your remaining slots with a pokemon that only knows Skill Swap increases the odds you choose it when using assist Pokemon 1 Pokemon 2 Lv1 Plusle Solosis IVs EVs HP x HP x Attack x Attack x Defense x Defense x Sp. Attack x Sp. Attack x Sp. Defense x Sp. Defense x Speed x Speed x Move Type Power ACC PP Skill Swap Psychic - 100 15/15 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - How to use these Pokemon Lead Alpha encounter with Delcatty and use Assist If Skill Swap is used Thunder Wave if not Assist again till Skill Swap is used Switch to Smeargle and use Super Fang till Alphas health it down Notes The Pokemon used do not have to be level 100 but it helps with consistency Skill Swap Pokemon should be lowest level possible to increase damage resistance for Delcatty and SmeargleIn Increasing the number of Skill Swap pokemon increases the chance to be used, if its not used the strategy is not broke. Just unlucky RNG Edited October 19, 2023 by prdl Normalize Nerf JurassicMick, drakesstepson, Ubet48 and 9 others 2 4 5 1 Link to comment
prdl Posted September 20, 2023 Author Share Posted September 20, 2023 Reserve Updated post to include more strategies. Zanders44 and OfficialDarku 2 Link to comment
Faka Posted October 29, 2023 Share Posted October 29, 2023 delcatty with twave is viable, since she has normalize, she can para pokes like marowak Link to comment
TheEvilMetal Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 The strategy that I have been using has 4 required pokemon to cover basically all cases. 1st pokemon is Spinda with the hidden ability contrary. Make sure it knows the move Skill Swap. Nothing else here matters tbh. I've heard that having Dig is quite good if the spinda survives more than 1 turn so that it digs underground, then attacks. This uses up an extra turn compared to just attacking and dying immediately after skill swapping. But I never need to stall for a timer ball, so this is not really necessary. The goal of the Spinda is to get the Contrary ability onto the Alpha so that when it gets the wild might boosts from breaking out of pokeballs it's stats are lowered instead of raised. Note that after a while these stat changes will be reversed. This happens more often if the Alpha has it's own stat boosting moves like swords dance or dragon dance that makes it reach the -6 cap faster or if it keeps healing and breaking out of pokeballs. The next pokemon helps with this though. The 2nd pokemon I use is Swoobat with the Klutz ability and the Assault Gear item. This pokemon just needs to know the move Trick to put the Assault Gear onto the Alpha. When the Alpha is holding the assault gear it is unable to use any status moves like dragon dance, swords dance, recover, roost, aqua ring etc. The most annoying Alphas that take the longest to catch in my experience are the ones that heal themselves or that spam stat changing moves which ends up reverting the negative stat changes caused by Contrary. By putting the Assault Gear on the Alpha we mitigate the chances that this happens. A good second move for the Swoobat is super fang. If it survives 1 attack, then it can deal at least half the Alphas health in damage before dying. Note that Swoobat can also learn Reflect and light screen if you want to help the Soak Smeargle survive a hit. The last 2 pokemon that I have are the actual catchers. The first catcher is a Smeargle that knows soak. This allows for grass types to be put to sleep with the move spore, which both catchers will have. Other good moves for the Smeargle are false swipe/super fang, Substitute, and Spore. I generally put leftovers on this Smeargle to allow it to heal from substitute uses. The last catcher is generally a Breloom with the ability Poison heal. Give it the item Toxic Orb. This will poison the Breloom, but since it has poison heal this ends up having a healing effect. This healing is more potent than with just leftovers. This allows for basically infinite substitute uses, only limited by PP. The Breloom should have spore, substitute, and false swipe. The last move is flexible. I have drain punch on mine. To recap how battles usually go: Open with Spinda. Immediately use skill swap to put contrary on the enemy. Attack with the Spinda until it dies (or try hypnotize to then swap into the Swoobat, but that is risky as the Alpha might wake up and kill the Swoobat before it can Trick the Assault Gear onto the Alpha) When the Spinda dies swap into Swoobat. Use Trick immediately to put the Assault Gear on the Alpha to prevent it from using status moves. Super fang with the Swoobat until it dies. If the enemy is a grass type or resists normal type attacks I send in the Smeargle to Soak the Alpha. Otherwise I send in the Breloom. Soak the Alpha if required. The Smeargle might die immediately after this, in which case swap to the Breloom. Then Spore the Alpha to put it to sleep. Then use substitute. If the Alpha wakes up and attacks and breaks the substitute, then repeat the spore and substitute again. When the alpha stays asleep for more than 1 turn you get a chance to use false swipe or super fang. Bring the Alpha down to 1hp through false swipes/super fangs while keeping it asleep and hiding behind substitutes. When it is at 1hp and asleep and you have substitute up start throwing timer balls. Chances are that by this time 11 turns have passed, so the timer ball will be at max catch rate. Catch the Alpha. For safety I have 2 more catchers on my team, but I usually only need 1 or 2 if it's an Alpha that needs to be soaked. JaimieLannister and prdl 1 1 Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now