Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

[tegan]

Natures are generally pretty easy, there's only a handful that really matter. You can safely ignore all neutral natures (Hardy, Docile, Serious, Bashful and Quirky) and will almost never want something that reduces either Defense or Special Defense (Lonely, Naughty, Lax, Hasty, Naive, Mild, Rash, and Gentle).

From there, if your Pokémon is meant to attack and be fairly fast, you want either Timid (+Speed, - Attack) or Jolly (+ Speed, -Special Attack), whichever one will lower your least useful Attack stat. If it's meant for attacking but isn't likely to outspeed anything or doesn't need to due to reliance on priority moves like Aqua Jet or Extremespeed, you want either Modest (+Special Attack, -Attack) or Adamant (+Attack, -Special Attack) instead. If your Pokémon has useable stats in both Attack and Special Attack and you want to try a riskier mixed attacker build, that's one of the rare cases where you'd sacrifice a Defense stat in favour of Speed with either Hasty (+Speed, -Defense) or Naive (+Speed, -Special Defense).

If your Pokémon is meant for purely defensive use, you'll want an ability that boosts a Defense Stat at the Expense of an Attack Stat: Bold (+Defense, -Attack), Impish (+Defense, -Special Attack), Calm (+Special Defense, -Attack), or Careful (+Special Defense, -Special Attack). I generally try to lower Attack since that`s what confusion damage and Foul Play are calculated using, but you can lower Special Attack if your Pokémon has decent enough Attack to use. If your Pokémon is for a Trick Room team and thus wants the lowest possible Speed; choose either Brave (+Attack, -Speed), Relaxed (+Defense, -Speed), Quiet (+Special Attack, -Speed), or Sassy (+Special Defense, -Speed); whichever best suits its build.

 

Overall, you're almost always going to use two pools of four Natures each: Offensive (Timid, Jolly, Adamant, and Modest) and Defensive (Bold, Impish, Calm, and Careful). Once you pick the one that works for your Pokémon, you can lock it using an Everstone to ensure that all future offspring carry that same Nature.

 

Some examples from my shinies:

Scolipede, Jolly (specializes in speed and has no Special moves)

Mega Gengar, Modest (Special Attacker, already naturally fast and relies on a Baton Pass from Scolipede, so Speed isn't necessary enough to choose Timid)

Heracross, Adamant (pure Physical attacker, probably should have actually gone with Jolly on this one since it's a little slow)

Mega Aggron, Impish (purely defensive and has no Special moves)

Milotic, Calm (augments its already high Special Defense, has no physical moves)

Metagross, Jolly (needs the Speed boost more than it needs the Attack)

Hawlucha, Adamant (physical attacker, relies on Unburden for Speed)

Gourgeist, Adamant (this is a weird build based on using Gourgeist's high HP and an Assault Vest to take advantage of its great physical movepool)

Tyrantrum, Adamant (physical attacker, too slow to benefit from Jolly, in my opinion)

Aurorus, Calm (Aurorus is kind of crappy Defense-wise, but its Special Defense is decent if you sactifice its unnecessary Attack)

Goodra, Sassy (the original plan here was to use Gooey to wear down the opponent's Speed while also making them averse to using physical attacks and compensate with a high Special Defense, but sadly mine ended up with Sap Sipper)

Mega Gardevoir, Modest (in the same boat as Mega Gengar above)

Mega Gallade, Adamant (exists solely to help me catch legendaries with Heal Pulse, Hypnosis, False Swipe, and Swords Dance. False Swipe is so weak that it needs the Attack Boost, but it doesn't need its Special Attack at all)

Mega Charizard Y, Modest (pure Special Attacker and already pretty fast)

Greninja, Timid (pure Special Attacker. Timid makes it crazy fast, Protean and Life Orb make it crazy strong)

Mega Altaria, Bold (Altaria's more about being defensive and bulky than anything else. It doesn't need Attack and Pixilate gives it a nice boost and STAB for its Hyper Voice)

Azumarill, Adamant (relies almost entirely on Aqua Jet's priority, so it doesn't need to be fast at all. It just needs to hit really, really hard)

Florges, Calm (Florges can easily heal itself and its teammates with Wish and Aromatherapy, so it really just needs to be able to take hits in the meantime)

Mega Beedrill, Adamant (this was a toss-up between Adamant and Jolly. Both are fine choices)

Vespiquen, Impish (Vespiquen relies on bulk and healing, I picked Impish over Bold because its Attack is actually high enough to use)

Volcarona, Bold (Volcarona is a good defensive Pokémon. It gets its Special Defense from a combination of a naturally high stat and Quiver Dance, so it's more important to focus on its Special Defense)

Leavanny, Naive (my Leavanny is a mixed attacker with great natural Speed, so I can't risk lowering either Attack stat. I use a Focus Sash to compensate for its shitty defenses, which has the bonus effect of activating Swarm and making it even stronger)

Mega Lopunny, Jolly (Mega Lopunny is already a great physical Attacker, Jolly helps it take on faster foes. Adamant is fine if you think it can take a few hits though)

Mega Pinsir, Jolly (Mega Pinsir is a weird build where I didn't specialize much, but it doesn't need Attack nearly as much as it needs Speed)

Roserade, Timid (Special Attacker that also has the option of laying down Toxic Spikes or Stun Spore, so Speed might be all it has going for it)

Shuckle, Bold (the immovable object, Bold to reduce confusion damage. Compensates for the defensive balance with maximum IVs in Special Attack)

[Vulpes Absurda]

Oh Right I forgot about egg moves, I'll try to make sure the Eevee I give you has at least Wish on it as it's kinda hard to get. I think. It's been a while since I started my super Eevee breeding project so some of the specifics of it escape me at the moment.

[Vulpes Absurda]

Ok I have two Eevees to trade, a male with Perfect IVs in everything but attack, and a female with IVs in everything but HP and Special Attack, both are modest with the hidden ability. Jennegatron just let me know when you have time and I'll trade you which ever you want. I should be free any time today or tomorrow with enough notice.

[jennegatron]

Nice! Sunday afternoon would be a delight. I'll send you a PM here when I'm around tomorrow.

[Vulpes Absurda]

Alright the drug dea, I mean Pokemon trade is done. Let me know if you need any more of them Jennegatron. And thanks for the Mareep!

[jennegatron]

Very successful exchange of one adorable Pokemon for another.
Whenever I wonder trade or GTS, I try not to to think about it too much, otherwise I get sad that my dearly loved hand hatched Mareeps & Eevees are going to terrible people who name their Pokemon awful things.

[tegan]

THEY KEEP PULLIN' ME BACK IN

 

 

 

 

(I also caught a shiny Zigzagoon while EV Training it)

[tegan]

Oh, also, worth noting, that Rotom has perfect IVs across the board.

[tegan]

Got another! Sadly, it's got the wrong ability and I'll need to keep breeding them.

 

[eRonin]

And tegan's spiral into insanity continues.

[tegan]

I'm riding the emotional rollercoaster. I got another shiny Dratini with Shed Skin, and then two eggs later got one with Marvel Scale. But then...

 

[jennegatron]

: (

I believe in you tegan.

[tegan]

So the fourth shiny Dratini I hatched had a better HP stat that I coudn't quite pin down until I had raised it a bunch. It was only 11, but fuck, I'll take it.

 

Then today I hatched a shiny Tepig with an identical spread. Fun.

[tegan]

I got a shiny Caterpie earlier. It was almost a shame to evolve it, because I like all-yellow Caterpie and all-red Metapod more than I like Butterfree's technicolour dreamcoat, but it turned out too good to leave unevolved (31/5/31/31/31/31).

 

Workin' on Nincada now.

[jennegatron]

I love getting these shiny updates.

[Syd]

(Edit: Apologies for the useless pageking. I suppose I'll make some use out of it by emphasising that I'm always looking for more 3DS buddies. I don't really battle since I don't have the roster for it but I'm very willing to trade!)

 

I wish I had the drive to not only breed for shinies (I've done it with success once through the Masuda method. That purple-haired Zoroark is still my precious baby, even if it sucks in battle) but to put in the extra work to try to make sure they're battle ready as well, like IV/nature/egg move breeding on top of it.

 

I imagine that getting a shiny charm is a big part of the process, but all that effort needed to fill the Pokedex, bleeeh. (I know the GTS makes doing that a lot easier than before, but bleeeeeeeh)

[tegan]

 

It's a twofer. OuO

[tegan]

so I've been Wonder Trading some breeding leftovers these past tow nights and man has WT gotten weird. I got two legit-looking shiny legendaries (Giratina and Darkrai), a couple of people doing Wonderlockes (enjoy your near-perfect IV-bred Pokémon!), and some very obviously hacked Pokémon including a shiny Gogoat whose OT is a bot that does nothing but Wonder Trade.

[tegan]

 

I bred a couple of these babies; kept the best one for myself and traded the other on the GTS for a Victini. I have now reached the point where the only Pokémon I don't have are ones that aren't tradeable through the GTS, so I'm gonna let you guys know that I'm willing to breed pretty much any perfect non-shiny or near-perfect shiny Pokémon in exchange for Mew, Manaphy, Shaymin, Arceus, or Genesect. Make me an offer. I draw the line at Vespiquen.

 

I also logged into the Pokémon Global Link for pretty much the first time ever as of Gen VI, because I wanted a Custap Berry and realized that the only way to get one is to play an insipid minigame on the site. Man, it's better than it was in Gen V, but the PGL is still terrible.

 

I'm starting to get into building weird gimmick Pokémon. I'm breeding a slow, bulky Analytic Magnezone because I realized that Analytic+Zoom Lens gives it 100% accuracy with Zap Cannon, which got buffed up to 120 base damage this gen. It also gets 105% accurate Supersonic. Next I'm gonna try a Harvest Trevenant with Curse, Sunny Day, and a Custap Berry. 5 consecutive turns of guaranteed +8 priority sounds fun.

[tegan]

All from last night:

 

 

[tegan]

So my camera's dead right now, but last night I got me a shiny Cottonee, which I level-capped and then evolved into Whimsicott. Then today I decided I'd go for a Chandelure. I nailed down the nature and egg moves and then put it in the daycare to nail down its stats.

 

The first egg was a shiny with 18/31/31/31/31/31.

 

I have no idea what to do now.

[jennegatron]

Sometimes you win the RNG lottery (first egg a near perfect shiny)

Other times, you lose the RNG lottery (a bee army 10,000 strong)

[tegan]

So I bred this shiny Drifblim but didn't fully flesh out what I wanted to do with it first. Here's what I've got so far:

 

Drifblim lv. 100

Bold

EVs: 252 HP/252 Sp.Def/8 Def. 

Unburden

@Red Card

-Recycle

-???

-???

-???

Available Egg Moves: Memento, Destiny Bond, Disable, Hypnosis

 

It didn't get perfect HP, sadly, and I deliberately bred it for a crappy Attack stat. It pairs well with things that set hazards, but can't set hazards itself. Suggestions welcome!

[jennegatron]

For 2016 they're giving away a Pokemon a month - here's March's which will be available tomorrow - http://www.pokemon20.com/en-us/mythical.html#mar

 

I'm getting back into X and man I love Pokemon.

[Shibboleth]

I just started playing Omega Ruby and Pokemon is the best! The leveling seems to be pretty quick compared to Gen. 1, 2, and 3 games (jennegatron gave me a Charmander and the following day it evolved to a Charizard), and the hidden ability, sneaking, and shiny additions are wonderful. The online component seems to be competent, too, which is surprising given Nintendo.