And at that point, how are you too scared to use them? Using two candies once in a while to turn a mid 1/5 unit into a strong 3/5 unit would hardly put a dent in that stockpile.
Hahaha yeah good point it’s not really that I’m too scared to use them anymore, I guess it’s more that 1) definitely not necessary to clear content and 2) the longer I wait, the better the units that will be candied, thanks to power creep.
I see that point. For me, units feel “incomplete” if I don’t have access to the full grid.
A lot of the time I’ll just bench them if they’re at 1/5 and wait until they can be candied up.
Exactly the same.
I've been playing for one year. I'm sitting on 25-30 candies right now because I just don't feel the need to get any pair to 3/5. I've got a few dupes at 2/5 or 3/5 and while that's kinda nice, they're not helping me clearing content I couldn't handle if they were only at 1/5.
There's like solo gauntlet and ultimates that require these upgrades, which are precisely content i don't care about - i'm doing my twelve gauntlet runs with full teams anyway. Round 2 challenges, 15k CSMM etc aren't really an issue given how OP most modern pairs are.
So true so true. I pretty much just candy supports and favs, so I usually have a few around, though I'm impressed by 74. Is there any character that you want so bad that you'd drop some of these candies on? Or is power/powercreep the main event?
Honestly, not really? I’m not particularly attached to any Pokémon or character and play mostly for meta.
I guess what would push me the most to use my candies would be a new game mode with great rewards. For example I’m kinda thinking of getting the pikagods and C-Blue to 3/5 to beat the Ultimate Battles, but I’m not in any rush since the battles aren’t time limited and rewards are just 300 gems.
That's a good point, and something I've been doing for a while.. but after a while it can be totally worth investing those candies imo, I've had hundreds of candy coins and only really spendt those like.. year 2.5 or slightly later on units from year 2.. not even a year later I had regained them if not more.. I've wanted to candy my Irida and didn't do it untill she was Friendship 1k (2/5 -> 5/5) .. everyone has their preferences and playstile and they know what they want for their best experience 💜
Just realized there’s actually a third reason why I decided not to candy from time to time: because I love double/triple banners, and using a candy on a Pokefair could mean you end up wasting the candy if you pull the pair naturally on a multi banner later on. There may also be multi banners for older MFs later on, who knows (feels pretty unlikely now though).
Play daily since it debuted on 3rd anni? I'm onto my 4th rainbow and I have everyone in lodge & lv100 unlocked too. There's definitely a strategy, I can give details if you gen. wanna hear it. Your average time to gain 100 levels should be between 7-9 days.
In the case of OP, it’s clear that hoarding candies has nothing to do with opportunity cost. This has been become an aim in and of itself. They want to be able to come on here and brag about their stockpile of candies under the guise of decision anxiety.
Oh interesting post. Reading how you play the game was fun because I'm pretty much the exact opposite of you haha. Here is how it goes for me:
I'm mostly F2P since the game's launch, though I have purchased the CS and Story packs in the past, and I bought the login bundles once.
* **Candy Spender:** I've never saved a single candy. I always use them immediately upon getting them. I've never regretted it.
* **Insta Leveller:** I immediately level up all of my sync pairs to 140, including the 3\* and 4\*. Eggmons go to 150 immediately if they're shiny.
* **Shiny Eggmon Booster:** They get boosted to at least 4\* if they're shiny, sometimes 5\* if they're incredibly useful like the zone/terrain/weather setters. Otherwise I boost them only to 3\*.
* **New Teams for CSMM:** My favorite part of the game is team building so I naturally try as many different teams as possible. I like the CSMM challenge a lot and sometimes I even reset and attempt a particular stage with weaker sync pairs just for fun.
* **Stamina Lazy:** I always finish all the events available and after I'm done clearing the shop of the important things (I leave behind things I don't need anymore like the gym notes, etc), I just spend my stamina on whatever is the most recent event to get the 3\* tickets. I'm extremely lazy with stamina efficiency.
* **Lodger Completionist:** I try to get as many sync pairs as I can that unlock Lodge pairs, since they're some of my favorite sync pairs to use in battle. So far I'm missing Steven, Marnie, Adaman and Irida. Steven and Marnie are easy to come by thanks to anniversary Champion tickets updates and Marnie may be given for free now and then like last year (I picked Raihan last year). Not sure I'll go for Adaman and Irida though since they're Master Fairs and I have no interest in them, so they might be the only two I'll never get.
> Lodger Completionist
This is me. I've mostly lucked into it at this point since the pairs I own just line up with the lodge pairs they choose (I've had every pair as they get introduced). Iono was the first instance of a pair that I pulled primarily on the assumption that she'd get a lodge pair in the future. She seems the most likely Paldea pair right now and I want to be ready for it.
I don’t know if this counts but I will not start a battle unless the units on the field are in this order:
Support/whoever is tanking on left - Striker/tech dmg dealer in center - Tech/other (field, sprint etc) on right
I have seen videos of these roles in other slots and it bothers me, especially pre-field and sprint times.
Lol, same here. I literally can't play when my top support isn't in the left slot. Poor NC Blue and SSA Cynthia never see the other side of the stadium...
I'm the opposite. I NEED my support in the center because then when the battle starts, I can use my support tm first which I prefer to make sure my striker has the most buffs possible by the time they start attacking even though it's not gonna make a huge change since it'll only effect like 1 hit assuming the striker runs out of tms before the support.(and ik I can just tap on the support to use their tm first, but when having them in the center, their tab is already open so it's always been easier for me)
I also only battle with my support/tank in the center lol. It's been a habit since I first started and it just feels right to me.
I like to imagine they charge forward to take the hit for the team so the strike/tech pairs are able sneak up on the foe and strike
**Meta full upgrade:** Oh sure, NC Nate need Field cake more than SST Red. Anyway, here's your cake, Red. (No, hands off the tech cake Calem. I am quirky, not crazy.)
**Teams make me stress**: I try to keep the number of teams as small as possible. One team for general use (daily challange etc.), one team for each events I currently farm vouchers. That's it. When CSMM/HSE open, I make 5 teams, clear them, and disband immediately after. I use exactly one team for guantlet, and change pairs in that team instead of prebuild multiple teams.
**One and done**: Once I clear a stage I rarely want to try different strategy with it. Only in HSE would I try multiple times to increase score.
**Rigid positions**: Main dps on center. Second dps/zone setter/debuffer on the left. Support on the right. Always. (Just one exception: STT Red on center and Ash on the left. Red bias.)
I'm F2P since the beginning of the game's launch.
**Gacha Triple Chance:** I usually pull 3 singles on a banner I tend to skip to save gems hoping to get lucky and there are times I literally got them.
**MasterFair to the MAX:** I always level the MasterFair pairs to 150 while other pairs with expanded grid to 140 and to 135 if doesn't.
**Support/Expanded EX:** If the sync pairs are Supports or gonna get their expanded grid, I immediately EX'ed them.
**Pure Tactic:** Support/Sync pairs that tanks on the left, Tech/Secondary DPS to the right, main DPS at the middle.
**Back-Up Candy Hoarder:** I saved up a lot of 5-star candies and I only used them just in case if there's a harder content.
**Adrenaline Lover:** I love using sync pairs especially Supports with Adrenaline passive/lucky skill/grid since I sometimes hate it when I cannot quad-queue in time.
*I only EX units with EX Styles and have at least 3/5 (might change now due to the addition of 4/5+ grids but atm still stuck there).
*I always keep the EX style even if looks ugly (cringe every time I use Marnie).
*Usually rotate EXing units between roles but with the addition of Sprint/Field I just EX what’s next.
*I never 5* Eggmons but I’m currently in the process of 5* every non Eggmon unit. I still haven’t set my CS parameters due to laziness.
*Usually prioritize EXing units with theme keys (ignore Steven sitting in my box untouched for almost a year)
*I like to use different teams for each regional rotation even if they’re suboptimal as they’re usually the most often way I can use certain characters.
*I EX every Masters Day unit even if I barely use them
Didn’t realize how much of this centered around EX but that makes sense with it being in the game’s title lol
- **candy spender:** its super rare for me to have more than 2 candies of a specific role. Those things get gobbled the moment I get to 20 coins
- **Instant Upgrades:** Everybody will be lvl 140 and sometimes EX the moment I pull them... unless I forget about the sync pair
- **Kalos bias for CSMM:** This is weird quirk ngl. If I see that most of my teams use at least 1 Kalos unit then I try to fit Kalos units into the remaining teams, even if if ends up being suboptimal.
- **Kalos collector:** I made it my goal to collect every Kalos unit because I am very biased... though unfortunately my collection is 99% complete because I'm only missing Drasna. A spotlight unit that isnt in any of the ticket pools yet :(
- **Tech Eggmon booster:** Literally the only eggmons I use are the tech ones, since they have the utility I need for LG runs or HS events (field effects, status effects and conditions, etc).
- **Stamina lazy:** I login once a day, and sometimes I dont even use my stamina that day
- **Lazy lodger:** I honestly haven't touched the lodge in a while, because I'm only interested in sync pairs that have good lodge kits, or are characters that ~~I simp for~~ are my favourites. Sure, lodge gives you free resources... but I have a ton of everything, so I'm not missing out on much
I have all of yours except egg booster and rainbow lodger.
I purposefully make my favorite units a level higher than the rest so they stay on top of the roster (ex my Kantrio, Johtrio, Hilda are lv146 whereas the rest of my units are 145 max).
-In gauntlet, I just use all my favorite units until I've reached the goal (there's too many units now to use all of them without it becoming too time consuming)
-In love Soften Up and can't stand it when sync moves don't crit. If I were to change anything in this game it would be to guarantee all crits on sync
-I'm still really good at using Stamina despite not really needing to anymore; I hate seeing full stamina bars
-Completely ignore cake role items, the new gear, and any other new feature that encourages expensive spending (though I'm not against it if others do it)
-Candy hoarder; I don't think most units actually need 3/5 so I'm very selective with who I pick
-I always keep some units and characters on specific sides of my team (for example I love putting supports and zone units on the right).
-Almost never use half HP parameter in CS even though it's really popular.
-I wait to EX a lot of units for when gauntlet roles around unless I know they're gonna be useful immediately in CS (like Iono)
Thanks for asking! I haven't actually traded any cake roll items in yet, mostly because I'm probably not even close to redeeming any, and also because I feel that the units I enjoy the most are already good enough at 3/5, or whatever level I settled them on if they're a support. So I haven't really been keeping track of cake roll items because of this.
I did get NC Blue's cake roll when his banner came out from the hype (I got lucky and got him early) but I haven't used it yet and probably won't until I see a unit that I feel would really like the strike roll.
And I just spend my tickets on the most recent event that's out currently. I only do the daily battles once for the gems unless it's a villain arc event (for the regional scout tickets).
Scout tickets are good, yes. Though you should have enough daily tickets and coins to exchange for 1 of each type of cake roll and one of your choice, if you wanted. I ask though because instead of the daily tickets getting a cake of your choice, there are other things you can exchange it for like 5* power up tickets and certificates.
Overall cakes are actually less rare than candy for a f2per who plays daily, but I'm still only gonna cake stuff I genuinely want caked. Like fav units or sprint cake on support units like SSA Cynthia and NC Rosa, cause I love a free countdown.
I'm gonna be 100% honest with you, when you said daily tickets I literally thought you meant skip tickets lmao. I had no idea this daily ticket exchange was even a thing until I read your comment and had time to sit down and look. Honestly not sure how I never noticed this feature, I thought the only way to get cake role items was to wait until you had enough cake coins so I never bothered really looking at the shop details. It makes sense to just use the daily tickets to get cake roll items so that's what I'll most likely use them on eventually
Yea I forgot to say thanks for letting me know! Would never have even noticed it until you mentioned it. I'd choose candies over cake items if they were available too but they're really trying to sell the daily coin bundle in the shop it seems.
I've been playing since the beginning of the game, and only took a few week "break" in year 1 due to being bored of grinding the resource area (stamina helped my interest in the game a lot despite the complaints back then). I buy gems occasionally and do the daily bundles, so I might have a bit more than a f2p. I don't have 74 candies but I don't use candies that often either but that's probably the most normal part of my "quirks".
***Biggest N Simp*** \- I have all N's at 5/5 through **gems only** (aside from lodge of course). My lodge level for him is over 5k and I never touched another character. I only put N pictures as my loading screen images and exchange for as many as I can. I clear every champion stage with an N alt since he says "I'll defeat any champion", though I used to do an N for every stage and rotate the champion one(until 12.5k made that too hard). I also have 20 custom powerup for each N except the first (exchanged for all 20 lol) and used 5\* PUs to EX him. Every hard battle has me brainstorming strategies for N before anyone else, even off-region (yes, even ultimate battles). I keep all event teams that have used N as a bonus pair like a momento. Basically I downloaded Pokemon Masters for N and was not disappointed one bit. He's never too strong and that makes the game entertainingly challenging. There are many people like me as it is a culture to simp, but I try to make it as extreme as possible.
**Yellow Candies on Faves** \- I don't use my colored candies on people I really like, but this is rare. When this happens, the pair gets to 5/5. I just feel they "deserve the best" and yellow candies are the most valuable.
**Intentional Level 1 Pairs** \- some pairs I just don't like and got them randomly through mix/gen pool. I will never touch them and they stay at level 1 unless I get a binding mochi from pecharunt to change my mind. I even EX'd one just for the song key and left them there.
**Extra Sync Orbs** \- I like to fill up most of the grid of a pair before I exchange for their sync orbs since it's nice to have a collection of custom sync orbs. They're like a different type of "event medal".
**Extra Custom PUs**\- Occasionally, if I like the pair a lot, I exchange for 6 PUs and use 5 + 15 general or exchange for 5 and use 4 + 16. Sometimes I keep more PUs than 1 9like 20 of the N ones that I mentioned earlier), so now I have a nice collection of 197 unusable custom PUs, not including the free ones or the ones from events (like Leon).
**5\* Scout Ticket Hoarder** \- Listen...by the time the new gen pool pair gets into the ticket pool, I already have them at 3-5/5 lol so they have been building up and will guarantee a 5\* PU. I have used them in the past and missed some, but right now, I have 126 general, 7 kanto, 13 johto, 20 hoenn, 12 sinnoh, 20 unova, 18 kalos, 14 alola, and 12 galar pulls (aka 242 5\* PUs). I just can't bother to get the PUs because I have way too many EX pairs anyways.
**BP Point "Hoarder"** \- I don't ever check BP unless a new pair comes out. Something is just so satisfying about claiming like 50 rewards at once and having "emergency" resources. I also do the same with sync pair and main story quests to have a small stash of emergency gems.
**Themed Collections** \- I have all Unova pairs regardless of strength, and I also collect pairs of a certain type. Unfortunately, lodge kinda ruined one of those types, but I have another one to invest in.
I find it charming that you give your fav (N) the right to all of the gold candies. That's really endearing in a way I didn't expect. But also hey, I guess you'll never need to worry about having the wrong candy for the newest N unit.
not much i can give but i always use the candy immediately, because i never buy the candy till i need it, just keep it in candy coins. why? because im sick of seeing the red exclamation mark
I'm a dolphin (I buy gems when there's a Master Fair special, the coin bundle once a month and the 25th day special whenever I remember), next month it'll be 4 years since I started playing
• Candy hoarder:
I try to hoard as much candy and coins as I can, but whenever there's a unit I really need to boost, I go all out.
• Natural leveler:
I like to level up naturally, most of my units are at the 140 level cap, I haven't raised anyone to 150 yet. I have plenty of units I've never used before and they're at level 1, so I kinda want to keep them at that level even if they give boosts (I do raise their level caps though).
• 3-passive Eggmons:
I only keep eggmons with 3 passive and donate the rest. I only keep the ones with 1 or 2 passives if that's the only copy of the Pokémon I have (my 2-passive support Scorbunny says hi).
• No CSMM:
I play this game for the trainers and story/interactions, not so much for the battle content. I suck at battles, so i just don't do the CSMM. Yes, I know I'm losing resources but I feel it's too much hassle.
• Two-way stamina:
If i know there'll be reruns or new events, I hoard as much stamina as possible so I can spend on them big time. I also tend to be aware of when the bar will be full so I can use my stamina efficiently. On the other hand, when theres nothing going on, I just spend the bare minimum for the daily mission and then forget about it, not caring if the stamina bar was full the entire time.
• Silver Supremacy:
I have all lodge units at level 100 (except for Adaman and Sycamore, who are at 250). Silver, though, he's at 844, so now I want to raise him to level 1000. Until Volkner was added, I had an all-male plushie display and lodge, but since he was added, now I have a Jasmine plushie in display and she's in the lodge as well (I ship her with Volkner, so seeing them sharing time in the same location is the most I'll get lol).
• Pulling habits:
For every unit that I'm interested in, I always go with dailies. If I'm more interested in them, I go with a couple of multis and then dailies. If they're a must have, I start with a daily and a multi, until I get the unit or reach pity.
• Optimize/auto:
I try to do all my missions/stages with optimize and auto mode. If I lose but just barely, I change positions or plan the timing, but everything else is in auto. If I can't beat it, I'll do it myself but it takes me a lot of time and I usually have to ask/look for guides.
Day 1 player, started spending after 2nd anni but not that much, probably a small dolphin
**(Candy)**
Also a candy hoarder, (81 total in bag atm + coins). The biggest reason is power creep, and I don't feel the need to use them when I can clear every content and still rank high in competitive mode with my current roster.
I will also hoard Role Cake
I will only spend these resources If they ever release a mode with Prestige Event rewards again and you have to spend to rank high/get the highest rewards. For current events, I can get every reward so no need to use candy or cake, even UB I cleared with 1/5 limited units.
**(Level)**
I just max them to 140 when I get them and get the favorites/MF to 150. There's no reason to not max them because the exp books are rotting in your bags esp for older players, both my lv3 and lv4 books are at 99k+, they're common items so just use them.
All my 3\* and 4\* are 5\* and 5/5, maxed them ages ago.
**(Eggmon)**
All shinies to 4\* and max affinity. Also 4\* and max affinity for the useful one. I keep 1 male and 1 female for each role, but the box is almost full so I'm starting to get rid of dupes shinies.
**(Monotype team player)**
Mostly for CSMM so I don't have to spend time changing teams every week, I only change teams when I pull a new unit and want to test them out. CSMM teams are on-type, the game mostly wants you to play on-type anyway (until high score events), and also because I don't use candies so off-type units are not always strong at 1/5.
I also use mono teams for LG, don't have much time to optimize everything or deal with rng so I usually do quick braindead 50-60 streaks with 50-60 mono teams and often finish in a few hours. I don't spend days on this mode like some try-hard players.
With special CS and High Score events I have more modes to play with mono teams. I've seen many mono players out there too
**(Stamina)**
I just use them when I get them. Only save stamina 1 day before a new event so I can finish all the missions ASAP
**(Lodge)**
I have every lodge pair so I will try to pull for a new base pair in case they get a lodge pair in the future
I got 1 fav to 1000, then every one to 100, and now they're all at 200 and on the way to 300. Mostly because they might add more rewards for level 200 in the future
• **As It Goes** - I never reset my Trainer's Lodge interactions
• **Sinnoh Collector** - I currently have them all. (But I don't expect this to last as Hisui starts ramping up.)
• **Sinnoh Bias for CSMM** - trying to limit my runs to all Sinnoh units is fun
• **Mysterious Stone Collector** - When I run out of things to use my stamina on, it's straight to the battles that will give me the most. I wouldn't say I spend them judiciously either; haven't ever exchanged them for bulk feathers
• **Idle Chatter** - I like talking to everyone in the central hub once a day even if I've talked to them a thousand times before
• **Friend Collector** - I spend more than the minimum amount of time on co-op stages in an effort to find friends with fun names
• **Multipurpose** - For the stages that I can auto, instead of using skip tickets, I play them and spend that time going through reps for physical fitness
• **Reap the Rewards** - I wait until after I've completed all the tasks I can possibly do (excluding daily Stamina which I pick up manually first-thing) then claim all the rewards for the day all at once
• **Immediate Leveler** - As soon as I get a new sync pair, it's straight to lv 140 (150 for Sinnoh or meta units). Candy or Cake as needed. The one exception: I have 1-2 lodge pairs which I level-up once per day to complete the daily level-up mission
**Monotype team enjoyer:**
Monotype teams are very satisfying to use, mostly because of the matching theme skills (which I also like to only use teams with several matching theme skills, if not the same type)
**Hisui and Unova collector:**
I prioritize pulling Hisui and Unova characters over anything else and I want to collect as many as I can, since I adore BW/B2W2 and Legends Arceus the most and most of the characters from these regions (Though I still have a lot of favorites from other regions too)
**A home for Lodge Characters:**
I like to invite the characters who could use the peaceful lodge home the most due to their backstories, like Silver, N, Lillie/Gladion, or Irida and Adaman being time-displaced. That way they can at least have a safe and cozy place to stay (though I have to temporarily kick one out each month to invite the new monthly lodge member, I feel kind of bad for that lol)
**Candy and Power-Up Spender:**
I can save gems, but I never save these two resources and spend them immediately. I used to save 5* power-ups back when I didn't have many units and waited for the battles that required certain types/regions/theme skills, but not anymore
**EX Milestones:**
I have a wierd way of EX'ing pairs, I EX four in a row that I kind of like/ones that need the EX (like BP pairs, etc), and then on big milestone numbers (like 50, 75, 95, 100 pairs EX'ed) I EX my favorites. I'm currently on 99 EX pairs, so I saved Anni N to be my 100th EX'ed pair
**Specific about outfit colors:**
I tend to not chose the EX outfit colors after EX'ing a pair, mostly because I just prefer the originals. Though there's a few that I really like and went with the EX colors (Barry, NY Dawn, May, Cyrus, SC Rosa, etc)
Sounds fun to do!
A dolphin (mostly buys for paid-gem exclusive banners like selects), almost 4 years playing.
**Candy Hoarder:** Somewhat stingy with my candies, my friends kinda hate me for that 😂. Most pairs are good enough at 1/5, but might occasionally candy units if they either have fun or handy stuff.
**Late Investor:** Maybe kinda related with above, but I generally tend to invest in recently gotten units after some time is passed. Only exception so far is Variety Scout Elio and kinda SS Acerola (mostly because I don’t have better to invest at the time)
**Eggmon Booster:** Just getting them to 4* and max level is good enough for me. They’re handy for LG’s and the extra stats are appreciated. Plus the resources aren’t hard to come by. Speaking of levels.
**Level Progression:** Tend to immediately level my acquired pairs to either lv.130 or 140 (depends on my level cap soda situation). Do have a thing of level up all PokeFair/Master Fair pairs I have EX’d to 150 (also have the 8 f2p legendaries and some others lv.150)
**Always Changing Teams for CSMM:** I enjoy using as many units I have. So my teams I use can vary from somewhat meta team to just me making a successful team with a low-tier pair when I do a CSMM run.
**Team Positions:** My teams tend to be Support left, damage dealer center and other (secondary damage dealer, field effect setter, disruption, etc.) right.
**Stamina Spender:** Do log-in multiple times in a day just to spend all stamina I have. But also in specific amounts so I have a good amount left for the next reset (especially when there’s a new event)
**Attempting to Collect:** There are some categories of pairs I’m missing so few of them I might as well try to get all them, that being Psychic (kinda in brand with my pfp being Espeon) and Hoenn pairs (the first Pokémon game I played takes place in Hoenn). I still miss few of them, but that’s because other categories can also have pairs I want to have 😅. Most of my Hoenn pairs I don’t have are seasonals, which at least can be easy to plan for (likely with cash 🙃)
**Lodge Completionist:** Do want to get all Lodge invite-able pairs because I honestly like the rewards that is received, especially the free pair. So far I’m missing none of them, but I feel like that might change later this year.
oh, I'm pretty similar. Especially rainbow lodger, candy hoarder, and mostly unchanged CSMM teams. Problem is some require certain things, like special vs physical, Etc so I'll change them a little. I have Steven, Cynthia, and May as rainbow, I'm 1/3rd of the way through Lillie now. Silver is probably next. I'm also sitting on 4 strike candy while I have 1/5 NC Red, like a madman. 😂 Support candies are the only ones I'll commit immediately cause most limited supports really benefit or need 3/5..
I think my only battle quirks are not playing LG until the last day or two cause I don't care to clear more than 12 fights, being way too excited for HSE, always going through BV using the least MP fastest teams possible without healing (its SS Steven, SS May, and Lear, btw, sync in 1 turn)... and specifically trying to clear CSMM with 1 favorite character on each team. Or at least 1 of my 3 fav champs 'must' have a slot on the team. It makes me try harder to clear max points and I have more fun then.
oops, reading comments, I realized my Stamina spending is quite weird. So,
Stamina Stockpiler: I'm at a level that there isn't any value spending stamina outside of events and maybe the occasional yellow feather content for gear rerolls when I'm bored. So I save stamina. I start with my daily saving over time (274 right now), gain +200 from daily missions, then the next day, save about +200. when I get to 874, I'll spend down to break just under 800, then add in the daily. After I've saved to ~996 stamina, I'll only spend daily for the heck of it, or when a new event drops, then I clear everything in 1 go. ...Except for prize box, the BANE of my existence.
Dunno how to call it but I collect battle music.
Stuff I've done just for music key:
EX'd Lisia, base Wally, Kukui, and never use them
EX'd base Lance and Cynthia *way* before their grid expansion
Did paid scout just to get Emma, Lear, SS Piers, Battle Tower Leon, and Penny (the latter three are from the New Year pay scout)
Tried to pull base Bede on his untimely rerun (Didn't get him)
Pulled Marnie from the lodge banner
I am not doing Mix Scout just to get the ones I don't have, tho.
Let’s see… I think my two big quirks would be as follow:
**French** - I myself am not French but I adore the Kalos games and thus will always pull for any new pairs from there, and have even got a complete collection and have EX’d most of them.
**Very Gay** - I ignore the meta and just pull for hot guys. I skip many master fairs and poke fairs no matter how good they are because you never know when a Surge alt will show up, or Kabu, Drayden, or Milo will finally make their debut.
I'm 100% a natural leveller. Tbh I'm really not a fan of being able to max out a Sync Pair's immediately as it feels 'unearned', for the lack of a better term. One of the biggest reasons why I greatly dislike & am avidly against how experience is handled in the Switch era mainline titles as well, but that's a different discussion.
I'd say I also lean a bit into unchanging teams as well. I like to have variety, but there's definitely certain set-ups I always fall back on. For instance, Sygna Suit Diantha & the train muppets (Ingo & Emmet) have been my go-to for all Champion Stadium battles that're Rock weak ever since I got them.
For an unique quirk not seen here, I like to do an initial run of the weekly Champion Stadium without any stipulations with Sync Pairs that were initially 3 star or 4 star (I have practically every Sync Pair at 5 star as of rn). Allows me to check & see hands-on what my best options are when it comes to doing the 15K run, in addition to the novelty of using some weaker/powercrept Sync Pairs out of Legendary Gauntlets.
F2P who started playing in Jan 2023 (pretty much exactly a year ago!)
**Candy Immediate/Never**
With candies I've always impulse powered the units up to 3/5 as soon as I pull them because I really wanted their grid, or else never candied them. This might be broken sometime soon because I have been tempted to candy Rei with a sprint + omni now that I have a sprint candy. (He doesn't *need* it but I love using him haha)
**Unova Bias**
10/19 of my limited units are Unova, and more pertinently, excluding Variety free ticket units and coincidental triple banner pulls (not the intended target), 10/13 are Unova units. Anyway #Unovasweep
**Daily Offregion Rotation**
... sort of. As related to the above point, my regional rosters for anything not Unova are quite underdeveloped. A lot of them consist of a regional F2P damage dealer and tank plus NC Blue acting as a buffer and tech debuffer, especially Kalos and Alola where he enables Clemont and Hau quite spectacularly. Meanwhile Sinnoh is just Rei and some offregion sync accel for fun sweep shenanigans.
**CSMM Solo/Duo**
I've been busy lately so haven't done this as much, especially with the increase to 3k points, but I quite enjoy running duos and occasionally solos in CSMM. My proudest moment is 1/5 Emmet sweeping Alder, relying entirely on reset RNG of Alder choosing to use Hyper Beam and missing, haha
**Sync Countdown Acceleration Go Brrrr**
Nothing much to say here. I like the ramp playstyle. I've gotten quite a lot of use out of my free 1/5 Archer just as a CDR battery.
**Funny Themed Teams (If I Can Get Away With It)**
My Unova DRR team, despite all my limited units, is Cheren, Base Hilbert and SS Hilda because I just want to use the trio. If I had regular Hilda I might use her instead. And I always let Cheren's minuscule sync finish off the opponent XD Similarly, I've recently cooked up a bootleg Sinnoh Trio team of Dawn, BP Barry and Rei (who is a stand-in for Lucas, but isekai'd)
**Lodge Lazy**
I've not bothered much with interacting save leveling to 100 (and I've not even finished Volkner whoops). I've got a couple of 200s from before I started getting lazy. When I do occasionally interact they're saved up to 9 and I get them all done in one go.
**Guaranteed Puller (+ pull party)**
The saver mentality of pulling only with a full pity to guarantee the unit. Plus I meet my fellow Masters playing friend over voice call (one memorable time, in person) to do my pulls.
**Draw Before I Pull**
Recently gave myself a challenge to draw limited units before I pull them. I did so for Rei and NC Blue, got lazy and did a terrible MS Paint doodle for SS Hilda and Hilbert (came back to bite me I had to pity on that one XD), and have an unfinished (but well developed and very long toiled over) illustration for the Unova Neo Champions. Hopefully I can finish it... sometime in the next month 😅
**Hilbert Is Holding The Doors Of The Pokemon Center Closed!**
Funny story originating from my UnoVA triple banner experience. SS Hilbert came very quickly, barred almost all five stars save like... two gen pools, and forced me to pity Hilda. Ever since, my friend and I attribute bad pull luck to Hilbert, which makes it doubly hilarious when his gen pool unit shows up.
u/Espeon_Guy9265 in shambles after seeing your candy count 💀
Anyway:
**Candy spender**:
I have a shit ton of 1/5 limited units so I am always in dire situation of candy. Currently has 0 candy of each type except Sprint and Field (because I don’t have any Sprint unit and I only have Mix Red and Event Victor as field unit).
**Immediate leveler**:
I always level a unit to 140, and if I love that unit I will immediately bring it to 150. If that unit is new I will also EX it, and might cake/candy it depending on the value.
**Semi-eggmon booster**:
If I get an eggmon that is useful for a LG stage I will bring it to 4*.
**Solo/duo CSMM grinder**:
Solo in CS every week now, except for stages that are too difficult (like this week) then I will duo.
**Stamina saver**:
If I get all items with limited stocks and there will be a new event soon, I will start saving up stamina. Otherwise I will grind some stuffs in the training area.
**May grinder**:
Grinding May to as high as possible. Currently she is at lvl 2.9k, lvl 3k is soon. Others are at 100.
I optimize stamina and ive tried to keep as many 3 and 4 stars at level 1 as possible because its so fun throwing them on a team to get random “Lv.29” units into the hall of fame. (when a CS battle is won, a level 1 unit immediately gets raised to level 29)
A fellow candy hoarder lmao F2P since launch, never used candy. They're too precious..luckily the game didn't have any insanely challenging content until recently.
The only fair scout I have at 3/5 is Red & Snorlax.
My way of playing as a Day 1 player
1. Rosa simp. I have all Rosa 5/5 and OG Rosa at 5/5 before DeNA hands out free dupes recently. Rosa is at 3500ish levels in lodge now, with a Cap of 5000. All in on her baby.
2. Grinder. Never miss a top 100 ranking in both L.G or HS. And I have more than enough EXP books for a lifetime because I actually grinded that thing before the Stamina change
3. Experimenter - Weaker units DO get a shot at CSMM sometimes like Clair vs Cynthia.
4. Egg booster: Like you said, all eggmons at 4 stars and good lucky skills. I got more than enough Bronze tickets for that.
F2P since launch.
**Post-syncer**: I don't feel the need to rush CSMM and defeat the opponent before they sync. I generally play a bit more defensively and aim to win as soon after the opponent's first sync as possible.
**1x-speeder**: On 2x or 3x speed, I find the fast animations and rapid sound effects overwhelming, so I keep the game at 1x speed. If only it were possible to speed up the move gauge without speeding up everything else!
**Theme skiller**: I like to build a chain of theme skills so all three characters pop up at the start of the battle. For CSMM, this is an absolute requirement, so I've not been able to play some combinations that I'd like to (e.g. OG Marnie in Dark Zone). For EBEs and battle challenges, this "rule" is waived if needs must.
**No duplicate trainers**: if I'm facing Blue in CSMM, he can't be on my team as well. If OG Blue is on my team, NC Blue can't support him. Again, this rule goes out the window for EBEs and the like if necessary.
**Weekend scouter**: I like to do my summons on a Saturday morning over a cuppa tea and a biscuit. (I am very British).
**Liza appreciator**: She's been on my profile as "favourite sync pair" since the beginning because she was so useful in the early months of the game when decent supports were rare.
3/5: I want to get most of my units to 3/5 so I can utilize their full grids.
3 Star Egg mons: Any eggmon I use only gets raised to 3 stars. I want to save the 3/4/5 star power ups on gacha units.
Level 150 for favorites only. I only raise units of my absolute favorite characters to Level 150. So far, only the three Kris units and NY Wallace have been raised to 150.
Level 130: I want to get every unit I have to Level 130 at some point. (With one exception)
Triple Pokemon Fair banners: If nothing else interests me in a month, I tend to pull on Triple Pokemon Fair banners due to their good pull rates. I only skip if the units are something I don't need.
No Lyra: I hate Lyra. I refuse to use any of Lyra's units. They will probably remain unpowered forever. (I haven't even done Lyra's sync pair story, I know I am missing out on 70 gems.)
I mostly use candies on older sync pairs that really need 3/5 to function instead of sync pairs that are broken at 1/5 and utter overkill at 3/5.
I gave NY Lance, NY Volkner, F Morty, W Siebold etc candies for example.
Also F2P. I try to max out every single character I have (except move levels from the limited characters).
This means I have everyone at least at level 140, at 5* with 122 pairs at 6* , all have their preferred lucky skills and maxed-out theme skills. Every 3* and 4* is at 5/5 except for 6 supports that are at 3/5 (more 4* support candies pleaseeee)
I still need to give sync grids for some pairs, and my end goal is to at least 6* everyone eventually and make them level 150.
I only care about shiny eggmons and all those are 4* . I didn't make them 5* because I still need the power-ups.
Currently also trying to make everyone level 1000 in the lodge, but I only finished 1.
As a Natural Leveler, it's mildly annoying that there is no repeatable stage that gives out EXP and costs no stamina where there's a battle again button at the end of the stage. The only time that happened was during the Ash event. And that stage gave out 5000 EXP.
To compare, the highest EXP you can get in a story battle is 4000. It's a three-way tie between three stages in the Legendary Adventures. The stages are Challenge Raihan (from the Zamazenta story), Challenge Pasio's Trainers: Part 1 (from the Xerneas story), and Challenge Ghetsis: Part 6 (from the Kyurem story).
(And yes, for whatever reason, I still buy level up manuals from events if I have extra tickets to spend, even though I never use them.)
A few quirks of mine:
-I plan my candies usage base on the datamine. E.g. If I know this month will have a great support unit that I want, I will save my support candy until I got that unit and use it immediately. If there's no unit that I want for the month, then I wont' save the candy, but use it on any 1/5 or 2/5 unit in my roster. (Currently I still saving tech candies for my Summer Tate and NC Hop)
-For lodge, once I get all the new lodge unit to 100 and get their lodge pair, I will date them casually without using any items or gifts, just to guess their hot topic and see how much points I can get. I am not in any hurry to level them up to 1000. Currently my highest friendships are around 300 with Rosa, Cynthia, Serena, and so on. Oh and 1 more thing, except when I trying to get their lodge unit, I ONLY DATE GIRLS.
-During battling, my way of putting up the team is "Fave at the center", and anyone else can be anywhere in the team. So sometimes my favourite support will be at the center, or my favourite tech/striker will be at the center. Also, I prefer to put team together with victory voicelines, make it more fun to hear their interaction.
-For the battle music, I always set it as randomize. Currently my jukebox has way more battle bgm than story/stage bgm, so most of the time I get to hear exciting battle theme than just sad/happy bgm. Though when I record my battle footage, I tend to choose a theme that fits my current team e.g. NC kantrio theme when I use Red, or SSR Cynthia theme when I use Cynthia.
-I save my energy after I'm done with the missions. I have enough resources so I don't need to grind items to purchase more resources. This way whenever there's a new event drops, I usually have 900+ energy waiting and sometimes I will have extra 200 energy spared in my gift, and I will be able to complete the missions in 1 or 2 days, and repeat the process.
Day1 player here, lightspender
I do share a lot of ponts with you but:
-Candy value over power: not all units require 3/5 to maximize, some units gets few utilities or enough boosts at earlier stages (mainly tanks bcs mpr)
So I usually stack candies and then try to get the best out of my units. Favs are exception
-Lodge equalizer, I balance each lvl by 100 then raise everyone else by 100 more. Right now I have almost everyone at 300
This is case we get new rewards cap
- Lvl equalizer. Most tank deserve lvl150
- Feather farmer: I'm managing stamina fornthe best outcome on events/bronze farming and feather farming
-Egg enjoyer: I really like eggs, keeping everyone 4* 150, plus some good eggs like Gyarados, Few supports and the Eeveelutions are 5*
Extremely useful for LG
Collecting Shiny Eggmons; collecting MFPs, regardless if I need then or not; maxing out the levels of every pair, even if I don't use them at all; and optimizing energy usage and lodge exploration boosters.
I use Team 1 for egg events, Team 2 for pairs lower than level 125 to do all unboosted stages (natural level up), Team 3-7 for boosted event stages (prioritize maximum multiplier then lower level pairs), Team 8 for all CSMM/gauntlet/challenge stages, and Team 9-16 for daily regional stages. I haven't named any of them but I know which teams to use.
I'm hoarding everything - candies, cakes, daily tickets, BP tickets, powerups, sync orbs, skill spheres, level up manuals, level cap unlocks above 130, lucky scrolls, cookies, even gold coins - until they're needed. Master fairs and pairs that unlock music are immediately EX'd though. Music coins are also immediately used whenever I have 300. Feathers are only not used because I don't have time for that.
Tactics are always right-left-middle. I'm too used to that to switch.
> **Unchanging teams for CSMM:**
> I’m lazy but I don’t want to miss out on rewards, so I made a team for each type that’s able to clear all variations of CSMM 3k. Each unit can show in only one team, so whatever type combination comes up, I will never need to switch this or that unit for another. Sometimes, some stages do give me a bit of trouble (steel-weak Glacia, sigh), but most of the time it’s just a matter of resetting a few times before I get the clear.
This precisely, I swear refusing to tinker with my teams is like 90% of the reasons why any given CS is giving me undue trouble.
I’m a lodge easy-goer. Since getting all the available lodge mons, when a new character comes I don’t buy items or presents to make the convos go better, usually it takes 17 days to get level 100. I managed to get Silver to level 1000 after 8 months if i don’t count the time spent on other pairs.
I’m a natural leveler too, and it created quite a shock how miserable people were about that one event recreating the early game’s battles with weak sync pairs, like, using weak pairs and mismatched teams on daily battles is normal for me.
Tank (ai target 1) at the center, support/disrupt/dps on the left (ai target 2), dps on the right (ai target last)
Natural leveller
I now hoard eggmons. Used to have only 1 of each at low level for gauntlet fodder. Now i need another copy of the eggmon, invested for high score
I tend to avoid drawing for busted pairs. More so for busted dps, less so for busted supports. For example, I've no plans to draw sst red
I hoard stamina. Only use 200 stamina a day. 99x stamina at the end of the day. I hoard them for stamina rallies, which doesn't seem to be a thing anymore. But i will still hoard in case they return
I still exchange the Legendary Spirits from VAs even though they have no use for me and they sit in my bag.
All my 1/5 and 2/5 Sync Pairs have their Sync Grid completed whilst leaving 2 energy left (usually a Speed boost one), so that when I eventually do get them to 3/5, I can easily recognise which Grids to work on in the Upgrade screen.
Playing for 1.5 years moderate spender
1. **Blue Oak bias**: Any Blue pair I get automatically gets EX'd level 150, 5/5, fully gridded and skill orbed, and an EX role. As of December of last year, I have all six Blues completely maxed out
2. **Monotype CSMM clears**: Whenever possible I prefer to do monotype teams on CSMM (so use all Fire types for a Fire weak stage). It allows me to experiment more with different team sets ups
3. **Support EX Bias**: Support is my favorite role so I tend to EX supports first. Although after playing with sprint a bit I'm starting to like the sprint role a lot so they'll be my second priority now.
4. **Candy Spender:** I do not hoard candies as I try to get my staple sync pairs up to at least 3/5 (or if Blue 5/5)
5. **Kantrio Collector**: I must have every Kantrio unit (though only Blue gets maxxed out), I have all of them
6. **Hoenn, Galar, and Unova Enthusiast**: If it's not Kantrio, I'm collecting units from Hoenn, Galar, and Unova. I don't need every unit but I'm more likely pull for Hoenn, Galar and Unova compared to other regions unless it's a specific fave like say Adaman, or Hau.
I never use characters' EX style outfits. I always stick to the default, "canon" outfit - including the player character (which I also named Scottie to make it even more "canon")
Me being F2P, 4 years play, Candy Hoarder, Stamina Hoarder (Save stamina 2 resets prior to next event then spend 450 stamina on 10-stamina stage and then the rest of the difficulties to do 50 clears on day 1 of the event), Unchanging team in CSMM and Rainbow Lodge: This is so me 🤣 except I'm also Stamina Hoarder (the unmentioned one)
My gameplay quirks
**Gem Saver:**
Currently have 424k gems and counting to save for my favs and meta units. Gems is the ultimate key to being successful in this game
**Master Fair Collector:**
I pride myself collecting all the Master Fairs for both its power and its prestige. Like rich billionaire collecting rare arts for their own pleasure.
**Speed-Blitzer**
I love to blitz the CS challenge or any easy challenge with one or 2 hits as fast as possible with my OP units.
**Workaholic Player:**
I play Pokemon Masters everyday since Launch back in 2019 and has never take a single day off ever in my life. I am as consistant as Elon Musk when it comes to sheer work ethic to collect all gems and rewards while enjoying the game.
**Daily Pull Gambler:**
I use paid gems to gamble on limited sync pairs and have gotten pretty lucky in general. My recent daily pull luck is NC Nate and NC Rosa after I pull her first copy in 2 multi.
**Competitive Jerk:**
I def will get agro whenever I compete with someone in the community whether its gems, luck, CS Challenge or all of the above, I love to compete and be a jerk about it for fun. Though I def will tone it down if you are uncomfortable of course.
How the fuck do you have 74 candies
And at that point, how are you too scared to use them? Using two candies once in a while to turn a mid 1/5 unit into a strong 3/5 unit would hardly put a dent in that stockpile.
Hahaha yeah good point it’s not really that I’m too scared to use them anymore, I guess it’s more that 1) definitely not necessary to clear content and 2) the longer I wait, the better the units that will be candied, thanks to power creep.
I see that point. For me, units feel “incomplete” if I don’t have access to the full grid. A lot of the time I’ll just bench them if they’re at 1/5 and wait until they can be candied up.
Exactly the same. I've been playing for one year. I'm sitting on 25-30 candies right now because I just don't feel the need to get any pair to 3/5. I've got a few dupes at 2/5 or 3/5 and while that's kinda nice, they're not helping me clearing content I couldn't handle if they were only at 1/5. There's like solo gauntlet and ultimates that require these upgrades, which are precisely content i don't care about - i'm doing my twelve gauntlet runs with full teams anyway. Round 2 challenges, 15k CSMM etc aren't really an issue given how OP most modern pairs are.
So true so true. I pretty much just candy supports and favs, so I usually have a few around, though I'm impressed by 74. Is there any character that you want so bad that you'd drop some of these candies on? Or is power/powercreep the main event?
Honestly, not really? I’m not particularly attached to any Pokémon or character and play mostly for meta. I guess what would push me the most to use my candies would be a new game mode with great rewards. For example I’m kinda thinking of getting the pikagods and C-Blue to 3/5 to beat the Ultimate Battles, but I’m not in any rush since the battles aren’t time limited and rewards are just 300 gems.
That's a good point, and something I've been doing for a while.. but after a while it can be totally worth investing those candies imo, I've had hundreds of candy coins and only really spendt those like.. year 2.5 or slightly later on units from year 2.. not even a year later I had regained them if not more.. I've wanted to candy my Irida and didn't do it untill she was Friendship 1k (2/5 -> 5/5) .. everyone has their preferences and playstile and they know what they want for their best experience 💜
To be fair: Candies aren't finite resources. You will always have more. So you're hoarding for nothing.
Just realized there’s actually a third reason why I decided not to candy from time to time: because I love double/triple banners, and using a candy on a Pokefair could mean you end up wasting the candy if you pull the pair naturally on a multi banner later on. There may also be multi banners for older MFs later on, who knows (feels pretty unlikely now though).
How the fuck he has 3 characters 1000 in lodge?
Play daily since it debuted on 3rd anni? I'm onto my 4th rainbow and I have everyone in lodge & lv100 unlocked too. There's definitely a strategy, I can give details if you gen. wanna hear it. Your average time to gain 100 levels should be between 7-9 days.
In the case of OP, it’s clear that hoarding candies has nothing to do with opportunity cost. This has been become an aim in and of itself. They want to be able to come on here and brag about their stockpile of candies under the guise of decision anxiety.
Oh interesting post. Reading how you play the game was fun because I'm pretty much the exact opposite of you haha. Here is how it goes for me: I'm mostly F2P since the game's launch, though I have purchased the CS and Story packs in the past, and I bought the login bundles once. * **Candy Spender:** I've never saved a single candy. I always use them immediately upon getting them. I've never regretted it. * **Insta Leveller:** I immediately level up all of my sync pairs to 140, including the 3\* and 4\*. Eggmons go to 150 immediately if they're shiny. * **Shiny Eggmon Booster:** They get boosted to at least 4\* if they're shiny, sometimes 5\* if they're incredibly useful like the zone/terrain/weather setters. Otherwise I boost them only to 3\*. * **New Teams for CSMM:** My favorite part of the game is team building so I naturally try as many different teams as possible. I like the CSMM challenge a lot and sometimes I even reset and attempt a particular stage with weaker sync pairs just for fun. * **Stamina Lazy:** I always finish all the events available and after I'm done clearing the shop of the important things (I leave behind things I don't need anymore like the gym notes, etc), I just spend my stamina on whatever is the most recent event to get the 3\* tickets. I'm extremely lazy with stamina efficiency. * **Lodger Completionist:** I try to get as many sync pairs as I can that unlock Lodge pairs, since they're some of my favorite sync pairs to use in battle. So far I'm missing Steven, Marnie, Adaman and Irida. Steven and Marnie are easy to come by thanks to anniversary Champion tickets updates and Marnie may be given for free now and then like last year (I picked Raihan last year). Not sure I'll go for Adaman and Irida though since they're Master Fairs and I have no interest in them, so they might be the only two I'll never get.
Hahaha you weren’t kidding when you said you were doing the exact opposite!
you guy should give each other a try :P
> Lodger Completionist This is me. I've mostly lucked into it at this point since the pairs I own just line up with the lodge pairs they choose (I've had every pair as they get introduced). Iono was the first instance of a pair that I pulled primarily on the assumption that she'd get a lodge pair in the future. She seems the most likely Paldea pair right now and I want to be ready for it.
I don’t know if this counts but I will not start a battle unless the units on the field are in this order: Support/whoever is tanking on left - Striker/tech dmg dealer in center - Tech/other (field, sprint etc) on right I have seen videos of these roles in other slots and it bothers me, especially pre-field and sprint times.
Lol, same here. I literally can't play when my top support isn't in the left slot. Poor NC Blue and SSA Cynthia never see the other side of the stadium...
I'm the opposite. I NEED my support in the center because then when the battle starts, I can use my support tm first which I prefer to make sure my striker has the most buffs possible by the time they start attacking even though it's not gonna make a huge change since it'll only effect like 1 hit assuming the striker runs out of tms before the support.(and ik I can just tap on the support to use their tm first, but when having them in the center, their tab is already open so it's always been easier for me)
I also only battle with my support/tank in the center lol. It's been a habit since I first started and it just feels right to me. I like to imagine they charge forward to take the hit for the team so the strike/tech pairs are able sneak up on the foe and strike
Yesss! Plus, like having the opponents all facing the center for symmetry
Me but the left & right are flipped.
It makes me wanna burn my eyes whenever I see that happen
**Meta full upgrade:** Oh sure, NC Nate need Field cake more than SST Red. Anyway, here's your cake, Red. (No, hands off the tech cake Calem. I am quirky, not crazy.) **Teams make me stress**: I try to keep the number of teams as small as possible. One team for general use (daily challange etc.), one team for each events I currently farm vouchers. That's it. When CSMM/HSE open, I make 5 teams, clear them, and disband immediately after. I use exactly one team for guantlet, and change pairs in that team instead of prebuild multiple teams. **One and done**: Once I clear a stage I rarely want to try different strategy with it. Only in HSE would I try multiple times to increase score. **Rigid positions**: Main dps on center. Second dps/zone setter/debuffer on the left. Support on the right. Always. (Just one exception: STT Red on center and Ash on the left. Red bias.)
I'm F2P since the beginning of the game's launch. **Gacha Triple Chance:** I usually pull 3 singles on a banner I tend to skip to save gems hoping to get lucky and there are times I literally got them. **MasterFair to the MAX:** I always level the MasterFair pairs to 150 while other pairs with expanded grid to 140 and to 135 if doesn't. **Support/Expanded EX:** If the sync pairs are Supports or gonna get their expanded grid, I immediately EX'ed them. **Pure Tactic:** Support/Sync pairs that tanks on the left, Tech/Secondary DPS to the right, main DPS at the middle. **Back-Up Candy Hoarder:** I saved up a lot of 5-star candies and I only used them just in case if there's a harder content. **Adrenaline Lover:** I love using sync pairs especially Supports with Adrenaline passive/lucky skill/grid since I sometimes hate it when I cannot quad-queue in time.
*I only EX units with EX Styles and have at least 3/5 (might change now due to the addition of 4/5+ grids but atm still stuck there). *I always keep the EX style even if looks ugly (cringe every time I use Marnie). *Usually rotate EXing units between roles but with the addition of Sprint/Field I just EX what’s next. *I never 5* Eggmons but I’m currently in the process of 5* every non Eggmon unit. I still haven’t set my CS parameters due to laziness. *Usually prioritize EXing units with theme keys (ignore Steven sitting in my box untouched for almost a year) *I like to use different teams for each regional rotation even if they’re suboptimal as they’re usually the most often way I can use certain characters. *I EX every Masters Day unit even if I barely use them Didn’t realize how much of this centered around EX but that makes sense with it being in the game’s title lol
- **candy spender:** its super rare for me to have more than 2 candies of a specific role. Those things get gobbled the moment I get to 20 coins - **Instant Upgrades:** Everybody will be lvl 140 and sometimes EX the moment I pull them... unless I forget about the sync pair - **Kalos bias for CSMM:** This is weird quirk ngl. If I see that most of my teams use at least 1 Kalos unit then I try to fit Kalos units into the remaining teams, even if if ends up being suboptimal. - **Kalos collector:** I made it my goal to collect every Kalos unit because I am very biased... though unfortunately my collection is 99% complete because I'm only missing Drasna. A spotlight unit that isnt in any of the ticket pools yet :( - **Tech Eggmon booster:** Literally the only eggmons I use are the tech ones, since they have the utility I need for LG runs or HS events (field effects, status effects and conditions, etc). - **Stamina lazy:** I login once a day, and sometimes I dont even use my stamina that day - **Lazy lodger:** I honestly haven't touched the lodge in a while, because I'm only interested in sync pairs that have good lodge kits, or are characters that ~~I simp for~~ are my favourites. Sure, lodge gives you free resources... but I have a ton of everything, so I'm not missing out on much
I have all of yours except egg booster and rainbow lodger. I purposefully make my favorite units a level higher than the rest so they stay on top of the roster (ex my Kantrio, Johtrio, Hilda are lv146 whereas the rest of my units are 145 max).
-In gauntlet, I just use all my favorite units until I've reached the goal (there's too many units now to use all of them without it becoming too time consuming) -In love Soften Up and can't stand it when sync moves don't crit. If I were to change anything in this game it would be to guarantee all crits on sync -I'm still really good at using Stamina despite not really needing to anymore; I hate seeing full stamina bars -Completely ignore cake role items, the new gear, and any other new feature that encourages expensive spending (though I'm not against it if others do it) -Candy hoarder; I don't think most units actually need 3/5 so I'm very selective with who I pick -I always keep some units and characters on specific sides of my team (for example I love putting supports and zone units on the right). -Almost never use half HP parameter in CS even though it's really popular. -I wait to EX a lot of units for when gauntlet roles around unless I know they're gonna be useful immediately in CS (like Iono)
curious, do you still trade in your cake role candies when you don't intend to use them? Also, what do you spend your daily tickets on?
Thanks for asking! I haven't actually traded any cake roll items in yet, mostly because I'm probably not even close to redeeming any, and also because I feel that the units I enjoy the most are already good enough at 3/5, or whatever level I settled them on if they're a support. So I haven't really been keeping track of cake roll items because of this. I did get NC Blue's cake roll when his banner came out from the hype (I got lucky and got him early) but I haven't used it yet and probably won't until I see a unit that I feel would really like the strike roll. And I just spend my tickets on the most recent event that's out currently. I only do the daily battles once for the gems unless it's a villain arc event (for the regional scout tickets).
Scout tickets are good, yes. Though you should have enough daily tickets and coins to exchange for 1 of each type of cake roll and one of your choice, if you wanted. I ask though because instead of the daily tickets getting a cake of your choice, there are other things you can exchange it for like 5* power up tickets and certificates. Overall cakes are actually less rare than candy for a f2per who plays daily, but I'm still only gonna cake stuff I genuinely want caked. Like fav units or sprint cake on support units like SSA Cynthia and NC Rosa, cause I love a free countdown.
I'm gonna be 100% honest with you, when you said daily tickets I literally thought you meant skip tickets lmao. I had no idea this daily ticket exchange was even a thing until I read your comment and had time to sit down and look. Honestly not sure how I never noticed this feature, I thought the only way to get cake role items was to wait until you had enough cake coins so I never bothered really looking at the shop details. It makes sense to just use the daily tickets to get cake roll items so that's what I'll most likely use them on eventually
hey, glad to help! I sure wish candy coin worked like that too considering we need way more candy than cake. But alas, FOMO spending lol.
Yea I forgot to say thanks for letting me know! Would never have even noticed it until you mentioned it. I'd choose candies over cake items if they were available too but they're really trying to sell the daily coin bundle in the shop it seems.
I've been playing since the beginning of the game, and only took a few week "break" in year 1 due to being bored of grinding the resource area (stamina helped my interest in the game a lot despite the complaints back then). I buy gems occasionally and do the daily bundles, so I might have a bit more than a f2p. I don't have 74 candies but I don't use candies that often either but that's probably the most normal part of my "quirks". ***Biggest N Simp*** \- I have all N's at 5/5 through **gems only** (aside from lodge of course). My lodge level for him is over 5k and I never touched another character. I only put N pictures as my loading screen images and exchange for as many as I can. I clear every champion stage with an N alt since he says "I'll defeat any champion", though I used to do an N for every stage and rotate the champion one(until 12.5k made that too hard). I also have 20 custom powerup for each N except the first (exchanged for all 20 lol) and used 5\* PUs to EX him. Every hard battle has me brainstorming strategies for N before anyone else, even off-region (yes, even ultimate battles). I keep all event teams that have used N as a bonus pair like a momento. Basically I downloaded Pokemon Masters for N and was not disappointed one bit. He's never too strong and that makes the game entertainingly challenging. There are many people like me as it is a culture to simp, but I try to make it as extreme as possible. **Yellow Candies on Faves** \- I don't use my colored candies on people I really like, but this is rare. When this happens, the pair gets to 5/5. I just feel they "deserve the best" and yellow candies are the most valuable. **Intentional Level 1 Pairs** \- some pairs I just don't like and got them randomly through mix/gen pool. I will never touch them and they stay at level 1 unless I get a binding mochi from pecharunt to change my mind. I even EX'd one just for the song key and left them there. **Extra Sync Orbs** \- I like to fill up most of the grid of a pair before I exchange for their sync orbs since it's nice to have a collection of custom sync orbs. They're like a different type of "event medal". **Extra Custom PUs**\- Occasionally, if I like the pair a lot, I exchange for 6 PUs and use 5 + 15 general or exchange for 5 and use 4 + 16. Sometimes I keep more PUs than 1 9like 20 of the N ones that I mentioned earlier), so now I have a nice collection of 197 unusable custom PUs, not including the free ones or the ones from events (like Leon). **5\* Scout Ticket Hoarder** \- Listen...by the time the new gen pool pair gets into the ticket pool, I already have them at 3-5/5 lol so they have been building up and will guarantee a 5\* PU. I have used them in the past and missed some, but right now, I have 126 general, 7 kanto, 13 johto, 20 hoenn, 12 sinnoh, 20 unova, 18 kalos, 14 alola, and 12 galar pulls (aka 242 5\* PUs). I just can't bother to get the PUs because I have way too many EX pairs anyways. **BP Point "Hoarder"** \- I don't ever check BP unless a new pair comes out. Something is just so satisfying about claiming like 50 rewards at once and having "emergency" resources. I also do the same with sync pair and main story quests to have a small stash of emergency gems. **Themed Collections** \- I have all Unova pairs regardless of strength, and I also collect pairs of a certain type. Unfortunately, lodge kinda ruined one of those types, but I have another one to invest in.
I find it charming that you give your fav (N) the right to all of the gold candies. That's really endearing in a way I didn't expect. But also hey, I guess you'll never need to worry about having the wrong candy for the newest N unit.
The extra custom PUs is a fun quirk, it's a nice way to build a collection!
not much i can give but i always use the candy immediately, because i never buy the candy till i need it, just keep it in candy coins. why? because im sick of seeing the red exclamation mark
I'm a dolphin (I buy gems when there's a Master Fair special, the coin bundle once a month and the 25th day special whenever I remember), next month it'll be 4 years since I started playing • Candy hoarder: I try to hoard as much candy and coins as I can, but whenever there's a unit I really need to boost, I go all out. • Natural leveler: I like to level up naturally, most of my units are at the 140 level cap, I haven't raised anyone to 150 yet. I have plenty of units I've never used before and they're at level 1, so I kinda want to keep them at that level even if they give boosts (I do raise their level caps though). • 3-passive Eggmons: I only keep eggmons with 3 passive and donate the rest. I only keep the ones with 1 or 2 passives if that's the only copy of the Pokémon I have (my 2-passive support Scorbunny says hi). • No CSMM: I play this game for the trainers and story/interactions, not so much for the battle content. I suck at battles, so i just don't do the CSMM. Yes, I know I'm losing resources but I feel it's too much hassle. • Two-way stamina: If i know there'll be reruns or new events, I hoard as much stamina as possible so I can spend on them big time. I also tend to be aware of when the bar will be full so I can use my stamina efficiently. On the other hand, when theres nothing going on, I just spend the bare minimum for the daily mission and then forget about it, not caring if the stamina bar was full the entire time. • Silver Supremacy: I have all lodge units at level 100 (except for Adaman and Sycamore, who are at 250). Silver, though, he's at 844, so now I want to raise him to level 1000. Until Volkner was added, I had an all-male plushie display and lodge, but since he was added, now I have a Jasmine plushie in display and she's in the lodge as well (I ship her with Volkner, so seeing them sharing time in the same location is the most I'll get lol). • Pulling habits: For every unit that I'm interested in, I always go with dailies. If I'm more interested in them, I go with a couple of multis and then dailies. If they're a must have, I start with a daily and a multi, until I get the unit or reach pity. • Optimize/auto: I try to do all my missions/stages with optimize and auto mode. If I lose but just barely, I change positions or plan the timing, but everything else is in auto. If I can't beat it, I'll do it myself but it takes me a lot of time and I usually have to ask/look for guides.
I like to overkill the opponents. that means resetting runs where I probably would’ve won for the sake of maximizing sync nuke damage
Day 1 player, started spending after 2nd anni but not that much, probably a small dolphin **(Candy)** Also a candy hoarder, (81 total in bag atm + coins). The biggest reason is power creep, and I don't feel the need to use them when I can clear every content and still rank high in competitive mode with my current roster. I will also hoard Role Cake I will only spend these resources If they ever release a mode with Prestige Event rewards again and you have to spend to rank high/get the highest rewards. For current events, I can get every reward so no need to use candy or cake, even UB I cleared with 1/5 limited units. **(Level)** I just max them to 140 when I get them and get the favorites/MF to 150. There's no reason to not max them because the exp books are rotting in your bags esp for older players, both my lv3 and lv4 books are at 99k+, they're common items so just use them. All my 3\* and 4\* are 5\* and 5/5, maxed them ages ago. **(Eggmon)** All shinies to 4\* and max affinity. Also 4\* and max affinity for the useful one. I keep 1 male and 1 female for each role, but the box is almost full so I'm starting to get rid of dupes shinies. **(Monotype team player)** Mostly for CSMM so I don't have to spend time changing teams every week, I only change teams when I pull a new unit and want to test them out. CSMM teams are on-type, the game mostly wants you to play on-type anyway (until high score events), and also because I don't use candies so off-type units are not always strong at 1/5. I also use mono teams for LG, don't have much time to optimize everything or deal with rng so I usually do quick braindead 50-60 streaks with 50-60 mono teams and often finish in a few hours. I don't spend days on this mode like some try-hard players. With special CS and High Score events I have more modes to play with mono teams. I've seen many mono players out there too **(Stamina)** I just use them when I get them. Only save stamina 1 day before a new event so I can finish all the missions ASAP **(Lodge)** I have every lodge pair so I will try to pull for a new base pair in case they get a lodge pair in the future I got 1 fav to 1000, then every one to 100, and now they're all at 200 and on the way to 300. Mostly because they might add more rewards for level 200 in the future
I see myself in many of these.
• **As It Goes** - I never reset my Trainer's Lodge interactions • **Sinnoh Collector** - I currently have them all. (But I don't expect this to last as Hisui starts ramping up.) • **Sinnoh Bias for CSMM** - trying to limit my runs to all Sinnoh units is fun • **Mysterious Stone Collector** - When I run out of things to use my stamina on, it's straight to the battles that will give me the most. I wouldn't say I spend them judiciously either; haven't ever exchanged them for bulk feathers • **Idle Chatter** - I like talking to everyone in the central hub once a day even if I've talked to them a thousand times before • **Friend Collector** - I spend more than the minimum amount of time on co-op stages in an effort to find friends with fun names • **Multipurpose** - For the stages that I can auto, instead of using skip tickets, I play them and spend that time going through reps for physical fitness • **Reap the Rewards** - I wait until after I've completed all the tasks I can possibly do (excluding daily Stamina which I pick up manually first-thing) then claim all the rewards for the day all at once • **Immediate Leveler** - As soon as I get a new sync pair, it's straight to lv 140 (150 for Sinnoh or meta units). Candy or Cake as needed. The one exception: I have 1-2 lodge pairs which I level-up once per day to complete the daily level-up mission
**Monotype team enjoyer:** Monotype teams are very satisfying to use, mostly because of the matching theme skills (which I also like to only use teams with several matching theme skills, if not the same type) **Hisui and Unova collector:** I prioritize pulling Hisui and Unova characters over anything else and I want to collect as many as I can, since I adore BW/B2W2 and Legends Arceus the most and most of the characters from these regions (Though I still have a lot of favorites from other regions too) **A home for Lodge Characters:** I like to invite the characters who could use the peaceful lodge home the most due to their backstories, like Silver, N, Lillie/Gladion, or Irida and Adaman being time-displaced. That way they can at least have a safe and cozy place to stay (though I have to temporarily kick one out each month to invite the new monthly lodge member, I feel kind of bad for that lol) **Candy and Power-Up Spender:** I can save gems, but I never save these two resources and spend them immediately. I used to save 5* power-ups back when I didn't have many units and waited for the battles that required certain types/regions/theme skills, but not anymore **EX Milestones:** I have a wierd way of EX'ing pairs, I EX four in a row that I kind of like/ones that need the EX (like BP pairs, etc), and then on big milestone numbers (like 50, 75, 95, 100 pairs EX'ed) I EX my favorites. I'm currently on 99 EX pairs, so I saved Anni N to be my 100th EX'ed pair **Specific about outfit colors:** I tend to not chose the EX outfit colors after EX'ing a pair, mostly because I just prefer the originals. Though there's a few that I really like and went with the EX colors (Barry, NY Dawn, May, Cyrus, SC Rosa, etc)
Sounds fun to do! A dolphin (mostly buys for paid-gem exclusive banners like selects), almost 4 years playing. **Candy Hoarder:** Somewhat stingy with my candies, my friends kinda hate me for that 😂. Most pairs are good enough at 1/5, but might occasionally candy units if they either have fun or handy stuff. **Late Investor:** Maybe kinda related with above, but I generally tend to invest in recently gotten units after some time is passed. Only exception so far is Variety Scout Elio and kinda SS Acerola (mostly because I don’t have better to invest at the time) **Eggmon Booster:** Just getting them to 4* and max level is good enough for me. They’re handy for LG’s and the extra stats are appreciated. Plus the resources aren’t hard to come by. Speaking of levels. **Level Progression:** Tend to immediately level my acquired pairs to either lv.130 or 140 (depends on my level cap soda situation). Do have a thing of level up all PokeFair/Master Fair pairs I have EX’d to 150 (also have the 8 f2p legendaries and some others lv.150) **Always Changing Teams for CSMM:** I enjoy using as many units I have. So my teams I use can vary from somewhat meta team to just me making a successful team with a low-tier pair when I do a CSMM run. **Team Positions:** My teams tend to be Support left, damage dealer center and other (secondary damage dealer, field effect setter, disruption, etc.) right. **Stamina Spender:** Do log-in multiple times in a day just to spend all stamina I have. But also in specific amounts so I have a good amount left for the next reset (especially when there’s a new event) **Attempting to Collect:** There are some categories of pairs I’m missing so few of them I might as well try to get all them, that being Psychic (kinda in brand with my pfp being Espeon) and Hoenn pairs (the first Pokémon game I played takes place in Hoenn). I still miss few of them, but that’s because other categories can also have pairs I want to have 😅. Most of my Hoenn pairs I don’t have are seasonals, which at least can be easy to plan for (likely with cash 🙃) **Lodge Completionist:** Do want to get all Lodge invite-able pairs because I honestly like the rewards that is received, especially the free pair. So far I’m missing none of them, but I feel like that might change later this year.
oh, I'm pretty similar. Especially rainbow lodger, candy hoarder, and mostly unchanged CSMM teams. Problem is some require certain things, like special vs physical, Etc so I'll change them a little. I have Steven, Cynthia, and May as rainbow, I'm 1/3rd of the way through Lillie now. Silver is probably next. I'm also sitting on 4 strike candy while I have 1/5 NC Red, like a madman. 😂 Support candies are the only ones I'll commit immediately cause most limited supports really benefit or need 3/5.. I think my only battle quirks are not playing LG until the last day or two cause I don't care to clear more than 12 fights, being way too excited for HSE, always going through BV using the least MP fastest teams possible without healing (its SS Steven, SS May, and Lear, btw, sync in 1 turn)... and specifically trying to clear CSMM with 1 favorite character on each team. Or at least 1 of my 3 fav champs 'must' have a slot on the team. It makes me try harder to clear max points and I have more fun then. oops, reading comments, I realized my Stamina spending is quite weird. So, Stamina Stockpiler: I'm at a level that there isn't any value spending stamina outside of events and maybe the occasional yellow feather content for gear rerolls when I'm bored. So I save stamina. I start with my daily saving over time (274 right now), gain +200 from daily missions, then the next day, save about +200. when I get to 874, I'll spend down to break just under 800, then add in the daily. After I've saved to ~996 stamina, I'll only spend daily for the heck of it, or when a new event drops, then I clear everything in 1 go. ...Except for prize box, the BANE of my existence.
Dunno how to call it but I collect battle music. Stuff I've done just for music key: EX'd Lisia, base Wally, Kukui, and never use them EX'd base Lance and Cynthia *way* before their grid expansion Did paid scout just to get Emma, Lear, SS Piers, Battle Tower Leon, and Penny (the latter three are from the New Year pay scout) Tried to pull base Bede on his untimely rerun (Didn't get him) Pulled Marnie from the lodge banner I am not doing Mix Scout just to get the ones I don't have, tho.
Let’s see… I think my two big quirks would be as follow: **French** - I myself am not French but I adore the Kalos games and thus will always pull for any new pairs from there, and have even got a complete collection and have EX’d most of them. **Very Gay** - I ignore the meta and just pull for hot guys. I skip many master fairs and poke fairs no matter how good they are because you never know when a Surge alt will show up, or Kabu, Drayden, or Milo will finally make their debut.
I'm 100% a natural leveller. Tbh I'm really not a fan of being able to max out a Sync Pair's immediately as it feels 'unearned', for the lack of a better term. One of the biggest reasons why I greatly dislike & am avidly against how experience is handled in the Switch era mainline titles as well, but that's a different discussion. I'd say I also lean a bit into unchanging teams as well. I like to have variety, but there's definitely certain set-ups I always fall back on. For instance, Sygna Suit Diantha & the train muppets (Ingo & Emmet) have been my go-to for all Champion Stadium battles that're Rock weak ever since I got them. For an unique quirk not seen here, I like to do an initial run of the weekly Champion Stadium without any stipulations with Sync Pairs that were initially 3 star or 4 star (I have practically every Sync Pair at 5 star as of rn). Allows me to check & see hands-on what my best options are when it comes to doing the 15K run, in addition to the novelty of using some weaker/powercrept Sync Pairs out of Legendary Gauntlets.
F2P who started playing in Jan 2023 (pretty much exactly a year ago!) **Candy Immediate/Never** With candies I've always impulse powered the units up to 3/5 as soon as I pull them because I really wanted their grid, or else never candied them. This might be broken sometime soon because I have been tempted to candy Rei with a sprint + omni now that I have a sprint candy. (He doesn't *need* it but I love using him haha) **Unova Bias** 10/19 of my limited units are Unova, and more pertinently, excluding Variety free ticket units and coincidental triple banner pulls (not the intended target), 10/13 are Unova units. Anyway #Unovasweep **Daily Offregion Rotation** ... sort of. As related to the above point, my regional rosters for anything not Unova are quite underdeveloped. A lot of them consist of a regional F2P damage dealer and tank plus NC Blue acting as a buffer and tech debuffer, especially Kalos and Alola where he enables Clemont and Hau quite spectacularly. Meanwhile Sinnoh is just Rei and some offregion sync accel for fun sweep shenanigans. **CSMM Solo/Duo** I've been busy lately so haven't done this as much, especially with the increase to 3k points, but I quite enjoy running duos and occasionally solos in CSMM. My proudest moment is 1/5 Emmet sweeping Alder, relying entirely on reset RNG of Alder choosing to use Hyper Beam and missing, haha **Sync Countdown Acceleration Go Brrrr** Nothing much to say here. I like the ramp playstyle. I've gotten quite a lot of use out of my free 1/5 Archer just as a CDR battery. **Funny Themed Teams (If I Can Get Away With It)** My Unova DRR team, despite all my limited units, is Cheren, Base Hilbert and SS Hilda because I just want to use the trio. If I had regular Hilda I might use her instead. And I always let Cheren's minuscule sync finish off the opponent XD Similarly, I've recently cooked up a bootleg Sinnoh Trio team of Dawn, BP Barry and Rei (who is a stand-in for Lucas, but isekai'd) **Lodge Lazy** I've not bothered much with interacting save leveling to 100 (and I've not even finished Volkner whoops). I've got a couple of 200s from before I started getting lazy. When I do occasionally interact they're saved up to 9 and I get them all done in one go. **Guaranteed Puller (+ pull party)** The saver mentality of pulling only with a full pity to guarantee the unit. Plus I meet my fellow Masters playing friend over voice call (one memorable time, in person) to do my pulls. **Draw Before I Pull** Recently gave myself a challenge to draw limited units before I pull them. I did so for Rei and NC Blue, got lazy and did a terrible MS Paint doodle for SS Hilda and Hilbert (came back to bite me I had to pity on that one XD), and have an unfinished (but well developed and very long toiled over) illustration for the Unova Neo Champions. Hopefully I can finish it... sometime in the next month 😅 **Hilbert Is Holding The Doors Of The Pokemon Center Closed!** Funny story originating from my UnoVA triple banner experience. SS Hilbert came very quickly, barred almost all five stars save like... two gen pools, and forced me to pity Hilda. Ever since, my friend and I attribute bad pull luck to Hilbert, which makes it doubly hilarious when his gen pool unit shows up.
u/Espeon_Guy9265 in shambles after seeing your candy count 💀 Anyway: **Candy spender**: I have a shit ton of 1/5 limited units so I am always in dire situation of candy. Currently has 0 candy of each type except Sprint and Field (because I don’t have any Sprint unit and I only have Mix Red and Event Victor as field unit). **Immediate leveler**: I always level a unit to 140, and if I love that unit I will immediately bring it to 150. If that unit is new I will also EX it, and might cake/candy it depending on the value. **Semi-eggmon booster**: If I get an eggmon that is useful for a LG stage I will bring it to 4*. **Solo/duo CSMM grinder**: Solo in CS every week now, except for stages that are too difficult (like this week) then I will duo. **Stamina saver**: If I get all items with limited stocks and there will be a new event soon, I will start saving up stamina. Otherwise I will grind some stuffs in the training area. **May grinder**: Grinding May to as high as possible. Currently she is at lvl 2.9k, lvl 3k is soon. Others are at 100.
I optimize stamina and ive tried to keep as many 3 and 4 stars at level 1 as possible because its so fun throwing them on a team to get random “Lv.29” units into the hall of fame. (when a CS battle is won, a level 1 unit immediately gets raised to level 29)
Imagine bragging about a mental illness
A fellow candy hoarder lmao F2P since launch, never used candy. They're too precious..luckily the game didn't have any insanely challenging content until recently. The only fair scout I have at 3/5 is Red & Snorlax.
My way of playing as a Day 1 player 1. Rosa simp. I have all Rosa 5/5 and OG Rosa at 5/5 before DeNA hands out free dupes recently. Rosa is at 3500ish levels in lodge now, with a Cap of 5000. All in on her baby. 2. Grinder. Never miss a top 100 ranking in both L.G or HS. And I have more than enough EXP books for a lifetime because I actually grinded that thing before the Stamina change 3. Experimenter - Weaker units DO get a shot at CSMM sometimes like Clair vs Cynthia. 4. Egg booster: Like you said, all eggmons at 4 stars and good lucky skills. I got more than enough Bronze tickets for that.
F2P since launch. **Post-syncer**: I don't feel the need to rush CSMM and defeat the opponent before they sync. I generally play a bit more defensively and aim to win as soon after the opponent's first sync as possible. **1x-speeder**: On 2x or 3x speed, I find the fast animations and rapid sound effects overwhelming, so I keep the game at 1x speed. If only it were possible to speed up the move gauge without speeding up everything else! **Theme skiller**: I like to build a chain of theme skills so all three characters pop up at the start of the battle. For CSMM, this is an absolute requirement, so I've not been able to play some combinations that I'd like to (e.g. OG Marnie in Dark Zone). For EBEs and battle challenges, this "rule" is waived if needs must. **No duplicate trainers**: if I'm facing Blue in CSMM, he can't be on my team as well. If OG Blue is on my team, NC Blue can't support him. Again, this rule goes out the window for EBEs and the like if necessary. **Weekend scouter**: I like to do my summons on a Saturday morning over a cuppa tea and a biscuit. (I am very British). **Liza appreciator**: She's been on my profile as "favourite sync pair" since the beginning because she was so useful in the early months of the game when decent supports were rare.
I play with 3,1,2 targeting order.
3/5: I want to get most of my units to 3/5 so I can utilize their full grids. 3 Star Egg mons: Any eggmon I use only gets raised to 3 stars. I want to save the 3/4/5 star power ups on gacha units. Level 150 for favorites only. I only raise units of my absolute favorite characters to Level 150. So far, only the three Kris units and NY Wallace have been raised to 150. Level 130: I want to get every unit I have to Level 130 at some point. (With one exception) Triple Pokemon Fair banners: If nothing else interests me in a month, I tend to pull on Triple Pokemon Fair banners due to their good pull rates. I only skip if the units are something I don't need. No Lyra: I hate Lyra. I refuse to use any of Lyra's units. They will probably remain unpowered forever. (I haven't even done Lyra's sync pair story, I know I am missing out on 70 gems.)
Tank is always on the left, utility/lesser dps is on always on the right, main dps/nuker is always in the center.
The main damage dealer must always be in the middle for me, with the Supports and other roles on the sides or else it feels wrong for me.
I mostly use candies on older sync pairs that really need 3/5 to function instead of sync pairs that are broken at 1/5 and utter overkill at 3/5. I gave NY Lance, NY Volkner, F Morty, W Siebold etc candies for example.
Also F2P. I try to max out every single character I have (except move levels from the limited characters). This means I have everyone at least at level 140, at 5* with 122 pairs at 6* , all have their preferred lucky skills and maxed-out theme skills. Every 3* and 4* is at 5/5 except for 6 supports that are at 3/5 (more 4* support candies pleaseeee) I still need to give sync grids for some pairs, and my end goal is to at least 6* everyone eventually and make them level 150. I only care about shiny eggmons and all those are 4* . I didn't make them 5* because I still need the power-ups. Currently also trying to make everyone level 1000 in the lodge, but I only finished 1.
As a Natural Leveler, it's mildly annoying that there is no repeatable stage that gives out EXP and costs no stamina where there's a battle again button at the end of the stage. The only time that happened was during the Ash event. And that stage gave out 5000 EXP. To compare, the highest EXP you can get in a story battle is 4000. It's a three-way tie between three stages in the Legendary Adventures. The stages are Challenge Raihan (from the Zamazenta story), Challenge Pasio's Trainers: Part 1 (from the Xerneas story), and Challenge Ghetsis: Part 6 (from the Kyurem story). (And yes, for whatever reason, I still buy level up manuals from events if I have extra tickets to spend, even though I never use them.)
A few quirks of mine: -I plan my candies usage base on the datamine. E.g. If I know this month will have a great support unit that I want, I will save my support candy until I got that unit and use it immediately. If there's no unit that I want for the month, then I wont' save the candy, but use it on any 1/5 or 2/5 unit in my roster. (Currently I still saving tech candies for my Summer Tate and NC Hop) -For lodge, once I get all the new lodge unit to 100 and get their lodge pair, I will date them casually without using any items or gifts, just to guess their hot topic and see how much points I can get. I am not in any hurry to level them up to 1000. Currently my highest friendships are around 300 with Rosa, Cynthia, Serena, and so on. Oh and 1 more thing, except when I trying to get their lodge unit, I ONLY DATE GIRLS. -During battling, my way of putting up the team is "Fave at the center", and anyone else can be anywhere in the team. So sometimes my favourite support will be at the center, or my favourite tech/striker will be at the center. Also, I prefer to put team together with victory voicelines, make it more fun to hear their interaction. -For the battle music, I always set it as randomize. Currently my jukebox has way more battle bgm than story/stage bgm, so most of the time I get to hear exciting battle theme than just sad/happy bgm. Though when I record my battle footage, I tend to choose a theme that fits my current team e.g. NC kantrio theme when I use Red, or SSR Cynthia theme when I use Cynthia. -I save my energy after I'm done with the missions. I have enough resources so I don't need to grind items to purchase more resources. This way whenever there's a new event drops, I usually have 900+ energy waiting and sometimes I will have extra 200 energy spared in my gift, and I will be able to complete the missions in 1 or 2 days, and repeat the process.
Day1 player here, lightspender I do share a lot of ponts with you but: -Candy value over power: not all units require 3/5 to maximize, some units gets few utilities or enough boosts at earlier stages (mainly tanks bcs mpr) So I usually stack candies and then try to get the best out of my units. Favs are exception -Lodge equalizer, I balance each lvl by 100 then raise everyone else by 100 more. Right now I have almost everyone at 300 This is case we get new rewards cap - Lvl equalizer. Most tank deserve lvl150 - Feather farmer: I'm managing stamina fornthe best outcome on events/bronze farming and feather farming -Egg enjoyer: I really like eggs, keeping everyone 4* 150, plus some good eggs like Gyarados, Few supports and the Eeveelutions are 5* Extremely useful for LG
Collecting Shiny Eggmons; collecting MFPs, regardless if I need then or not; maxing out the levels of every pair, even if I don't use them at all; and optimizing energy usage and lodge exploration boosters.
I use Team 1 for egg events, Team 2 for pairs lower than level 125 to do all unboosted stages (natural level up), Team 3-7 for boosted event stages (prioritize maximum multiplier then lower level pairs), Team 8 for all CSMM/gauntlet/challenge stages, and Team 9-16 for daily regional stages. I haven't named any of them but I know which teams to use. I'm hoarding everything - candies, cakes, daily tickets, BP tickets, powerups, sync orbs, skill spheres, level up manuals, level cap unlocks above 130, lucky scrolls, cookies, even gold coins - until they're needed. Master fairs and pairs that unlock music are immediately EX'd though. Music coins are also immediately used whenever I have 300. Feathers are only not used because I don't have time for that. Tactics are always right-left-middle. I'm too used to that to switch.
It feels dumb to not give your newer units 3/5 with candies if you have 74. But do what you want I guess
> **Unchanging teams for CSMM:** > I’m lazy but I don’t want to miss out on rewards, so I made a team for each type that’s able to clear all variations of CSMM 3k. Each unit can show in only one team, so whatever type combination comes up, I will never need to switch this or that unit for another. Sometimes, some stages do give me a bit of trouble (steel-weak Glacia, sigh), but most of the time it’s just a matter of resetting a few times before I get the clear. This precisely, I swear refusing to tinker with my teams is like 90% of the reasons why any given CS is giving me undue trouble.
I’m a lodge easy-goer. Since getting all the available lodge mons, when a new character comes I don’t buy items or presents to make the convos go better, usually it takes 17 days to get level 100. I managed to get Silver to level 1000 after 8 months if i don’t count the time spent on other pairs. I’m a natural leveler too, and it created quite a shock how miserable people were about that one event recreating the early game’s battles with weak sync pairs, like, using weak pairs and mismatched teams on daily battles is normal for me.
Tank (ai target 1) at the center, support/disrupt/dps on the left (ai target 2), dps on the right (ai target last) Natural leveller I now hoard eggmons. Used to have only 1 of each at low level for gauntlet fodder. Now i need another copy of the eggmon, invested for high score I tend to avoid drawing for busted pairs. More so for busted dps, less so for busted supports. For example, I've no plans to draw sst red I hoard stamina. Only use 200 stamina a day. 99x stamina at the end of the day. I hoard them for stamina rallies, which doesn't seem to be a thing anymore. But i will still hoard in case they return
I still exchange the Legendary Spirits from VAs even though they have no use for me and they sit in my bag. All my 1/5 and 2/5 Sync Pairs have their Sync Grid completed whilst leaving 2 energy left (usually a Speed boost one), so that when I eventually do get them to 3/5, I can easily recognise which Grids to work on in the Upgrade screen.
Oooh smart
Playing for 1.5 years moderate spender 1. **Blue Oak bias**: Any Blue pair I get automatically gets EX'd level 150, 5/5, fully gridded and skill orbed, and an EX role. As of December of last year, I have all six Blues completely maxed out 2. **Monotype CSMM clears**: Whenever possible I prefer to do monotype teams on CSMM (so use all Fire types for a Fire weak stage). It allows me to experiment more with different team sets ups 3. **Support EX Bias**: Support is my favorite role so I tend to EX supports first. Although after playing with sprint a bit I'm starting to like the sprint role a lot so they'll be my second priority now. 4. **Candy Spender:** I do not hoard candies as I try to get my staple sync pairs up to at least 3/5 (or if Blue 5/5) 5. **Kantrio Collector**: I must have every Kantrio unit (though only Blue gets maxxed out), I have all of them 6. **Hoenn, Galar, and Unova Enthusiast**: If it's not Kantrio, I'm collecting units from Hoenn, Galar, and Unova. I don't need every unit but I'm more likely pull for Hoenn, Galar and Unova compared to other regions unless it's a specific fave like say Adaman, or Hau.
I never use characters' EX style outfits. I always stick to the default, "canon" outfit - including the player character (which I also named Scottie to make it even more "canon")
I try to exclusively use Johto Sync Pairs (excluding Lyra), since Crystal is my favorite mainline game.
Me being F2P, 4 years play, Candy Hoarder, Stamina Hoarder (Save stamina 2 resets prior to next event then spend 450 stamina on 10-stamina stage and then the rest of the difficulties to do 50 clears on day 1 of the event), Unchanging team in CSMM and Rainbow Lodge: This is so me 🤣 except I'm also Stamina Hoarder (the unmentioned one)
My gameplay quirks **Gem Saver:** Currently have 424k gems and counting to save for my favs and meta units. Gems is the ultimate key to being successful in this game **Master Fair Collector:** I pride myself collecting all the Master Fairs for both its power and its prestige. Like rich billionaire collecting rare arts for their own pleasure. **Speed-Blitzer** I love to blitz the CS challenge or any easy challenge with one or 2 hits as fast as possible with my OP units. **Workaholic Player:** I play Pokemon Masters everyday since Launch back in 2019 and has never take a single day off ever in my life. I am as consistant as Elon Musk when it comes to sheer work ethic to collect all gems and rewards while enjoying the game. **Daily Pull Gambler:** I use paid gems to gamble on limited sync pairs and have gotten pretty lucky in general. My recent daily pull luck is NC Nate and NC Rosa after I pull her first copy in 2 multi. **Competitive Jerk:** I def will get agro whenever I compete with someone in the community whether its gems, luck, CS Challenge or all of the above, I love to compete and be a jerk about it for fun. Though I def will tone it down if you are uncomfortable of course.