Can we please talk about difficulty

>>30027466
Yes, it's harder compared to the majority of the releases. It's 4chan, you should never trust anyone, not even me

Notice the people saying it's easy are playing with exp share on, battle switch and z-moves.

>>30027855
I'm playing with exp on too and it doesn't make much a difference. I want to say maybe I just picked shitmons because I've had to redo almost every trial at least once.

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>mfw I was just swept by a Carbink
I don't think I've had a regular trainer's Pokemon singlehandedly sweep my team since Red.

>>30027466
Definitely harder than the vast majority of other Pokemon games. Turning off exp share does make a pretty noticeable difference, same with set vs switch.

Picking shitmons makes this game legitimately challenging for the Totem fights.

You knew NPC give you in-battle item before the first few totem fight for a reason right?

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>doing semi well vs totem wishiwashi
>summons alomomla and proceeds to heal over and over
>rain boosting water attacks

>>30027466
Anyone who says they're easier than ORAS needs to eat a dick and then kill themselves because they're flat-out, objectively wrong. The totem battles are harder than any battle in ORAS and even some regular trainer battles are tough if you don't have a super effective move.

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>>30027466
>mfw a rising star's kadabra, confused and paralysed, still managed to sweep my team

desu, i prefer it like this, makes you be more on guard even for plain trainer battles

>you have to fight a glaceon/espeon at around level 15-16
there is no way these games are easier than XY and ORAS especially when a 525 BST pokemon is used so early on

>>30028748
I lost to that same trainer because I chose Litten and I had nothing to fucking counter it

And she uses a Full Restore too, fucking hell

Not a hard game.

Google the qr codes for the mons and spam it for the rare ones.

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>>30027466
There's a number of things that can make the game easy or hard.

Things like:
>maxing your affection early on
>having more pokemon than your opponents
>catching every pokemon you don't have
>beating every npc trainer and every wild pokemon you come across
>having a team with a type advantage over your opponent
>having exp share on

In my case I:
>gradually raised my affection throughout my adventure by just feeding 1 bean and petting once, only going into refresh when the shortcut pops up before a battle ends
>had the same amount of pokemon as the kahunas when I battled them
>caught only new mons
>skipped 2 or 3 trainers a route, always ran from wild pokemon battles
>had exp share on the whole time

There were times where my team would get wiped but most important battles usually leave me with more than half of my team fainted. Managed to have a lot of fun in this game playing this way.

>>30029773
Yup, that's the same one I lost too. I got so pissed when she pulled that shit.

I have to say, though, the difficulty is welcome. It's been a while since I lost in-game.

>The teacher's fucking Magnemite that early in the game

>>30027466
>Potential to sweep with every Pokemon in my party
>Only using new Pokemon
>Speed stat
Hard game.

I'm about to battle the fat man on the first island. Level 20 litten and it hasn't been too difficult when they hand out potions left and right and the grooming pretty much being a post battle full heal. I know I gotta organize a team with totem wishiwashi tho

>>30027466
I went out of my way to avoid the casual Exp. Share shit and play with a coupe clauses like not using items mid-battle, and I've had a few close calls to losing, more than I normally would. At one of the kahuna battles all of the Pokémon I was training fainted because I didn't know kahunas used Z-Moves, expecting them to be rare like Megas in Gen 6, and only won because I had a junk Rattata with Quick Attack. (That Rattata was added to my permanent team.) It does have more difficulty than Gen VI, definitely.

I think part of the difficulty for me is using new Pokémon with bad stats, like Fomantis, though.

Trainers still have too few Pokémon, though, and Hau is almost as pathetic team-wise as Tierno.

>>30029829
I'm glad I'm not the only one who had trouble with that.

>>30029975
>Level 20

You're overlevelled. You should use more than one Pokémon just because it helps keep your level more even (unless you're a scrub who plays with Exp. Share).

>>30029829
Fucking magnemite. I picke Popplio and I only catch pokemon I intend to use long-term, so my only pokemon that can do neutral or better damage to those things is also weak to their main STAB. I ended up just using Metronome with my Munchlax until I got something that worked (Flare Blitz, in this case).

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>>30027466
They're easy as fuck. I can't really believe that this board is having trouble with it and I'm playing with no Exp. share and set battles on.

>>30028748
>>30029773
>>30029828

I know that exact fucking trainer, holy shit. I felt like a part of me died when she used that Full Restore.

>>30029817
I've been catching everything I come across. I doesn't make the game any easier. In fact, it makes it harder if you actually use stuff you catch. I rotate in one or two new members every 2 routes and it's been helping the game feel a bit harder.

>>30028748
Same here, she snagged 3 hardens and I knew I was absolutely fugd

How are you meant to beat that teachers magnemite if you don't choose Litter?

It hard counters both Popplio and Rowlet, and I didn't encounter a single wild Pokémon that would have been able to do anything to it except for other magnemites

After getting swept like 3 times I ended up having to spam workup and potions on my overleveled Rowlet so I could finally damage it

>>30030087
It's not hard but it's more difficult than Gen VI that's the original point of the thread.

I've actually had to use poitions so far in the game while in XY and ORAS I just played meme play throughs without using any battle items the entire way. It's probably because the game gives you so many shitmons compared to XY where you get a free starter at the very beginning and a mega lucario

>>30030081
Get a pokemon with bite like the grimer's outside it does neutral damage, 3 bites and it's dead.

>>30030130
I just cheesed her out by using my own magnemite with supersonic and playing the waiting game

The difficulty from me comes from the absolute shit you get on the early routes. They really did a good job giving you a variety of garbage. You spend about an hour if you're going absolutely as fast as you can before you get to any real diversity that's not normal, dark or bug.

>doing a mono-fire run
>know Totem Wishiwashi is coming for me
I'm just going to...keep the EXP Share on for now, lads. I need every edge I can get.

>>30030087
What was your team? If you're lugging something like crabrawler, charjabug or sandyghast around you're going to have a few rough battles. I was stupid enough to use all three and the shitty owl, which actually made a lot of battles somewhat challenging. At the very least they're more challenging than every other Gamefreak Pokemon game.

Turn off EXP share it'll be somewhat difficult.

Not even joking, late game is kicking my ass.

>>30030174
>mono-fire run

Good luck there's like 3 in the game

>>30030130
I just used Mud Slap Grubbin

>exploring the first big town
>meet the normal type captain and beat the skull grunts
>"hey fite me"
>that smeargle that knows ember and chunks my mons with tackle
He wiped 3 in one fucking hit and murdered rowlet with 2 embers.

>>30027466
playing the game as:
>set
>only using exp share when all of my other mons are clearly underleveled by four-five levels and box higher leveled mons doing it
>only new pokemon

this game has been a great ride so far.

>>30030130
Grubbin got mudslap for a reason

>>30030100
>In fact, it makes it harder if you actually use stuff you catch

That too. Point I was making is that were a number of things that can affect the difficulty of the game. Even just pure skill levels and knowledge.

>>30030087
It's not that the game is hard. It's that it's harder than the previous. Actually having to think about what mons/moves you're using in gen6 wasn't really necessary at all, and if you wanted to minmax, you still don't bother until at least gym 5. There are some legitimate early game threats here where it pays to pay attention this time around.

>>30027466
Yeah, It's definitely harder than usual for me. I just beat the Wishiwashi Totem, and there were a number of times where I nearly lost. Sina, however, kicked my teeth in when I first encountered her (I chose Rowlet) Took me a couple of tries to actually beat her.

>>30028748
In the ranch? I just rekt that stone before entering the thread.
It's easy, can't believe you guys have problems with anything non-online in any pokemon game.

>>30030189
Litten and Growlithe first island
Cubone and Salandit second island
Turtonator and Oricorio third island

>>30030169
Nah. The game gives you some great Pokemon to use early on. No game that gives you wild Espeon and early game Bagon/Salamence has shit distribution.

The difficulty early on comes from the fact that the AI is better built this time around.

>>30030130
Popplio's pretty decent hell it carried my team for a while. Get a grimer, it knows bite which does neutral damage and kills the magnemite in three hits.

>>30030100
>>30030216
EXP curve actually favor catching and training new pokemon every route.

>>30030130
I spammed Pursuit on Yungoos and Bite on Grimer against it.

>>30030157
Oh, right... I skipped Gen VI, so I keep forgetting that Steel doesn't resist dark anymore.

Hard Mode is
>EXP Share OFF
>Battle Mode SET
>NO Z-Moves
>Alola Pokemon ONLY

The new pool of Pokemon is so weak that it makes the game harder.

>>30030226
>just got to the ranch
You haven't seen any of the "difficult" stuff yet unless this is your second playthrough.

First time I played Moon I lost about 20 times on a speedrun because I tried to skip all the trainer battles.

Second time I played Sun, I've lost zero times so far because I trained my mons and caught a Rockruff to avoide a crippling rock/fire weakness.

You can literally boost with Work Up or spam battle items until you can oneshot everything or use fast non-Alolan mon to kill everything.

>>30030284
Same here I switched to Magnemite during the school yard battle with the Grimer and was confused when it took almost half my health with bite

>>30030291
Forgot one,
Can only gain exp from trainer battles and catches. No battling wild pokemon unless for catching.

>>30030178
Breezing through the game right now with Inciniroar, Typhlosion, and Wishiwashi, I'm on 4th island in case you were wondering. I shat on everything with Litten on the first 2 islands so I decided to diversify a bit to try and make the game harder which obviously didn't work. I thought Totem Wishiwashi was going to be a problem but hell no it Soaked me so I resisted its Water Gun (great job there GF) and I hit back with Bite spam. Every other Totem was also easy except for Salazzle which is kind of tough but I switched into a mon that tanked some hits so I could heal up Litten. I think BW2 Challenge mode is harder than this cakewalk.

SM would actually be legitimately tough and fun if it wasn't for the fact that every trainer only carries 1-3 shitmons. Really the only mon who will ever give you trouble later on in the game is Guzma's Golisopod which hits surprisingly hard but you can just nuke the shit out of it with a Z-Move plus Emergency Exit makes that thing worthless if it takes a big hit. Also whenever Hau battles with you he delivers some free exp.

>>30030226
most people complaining about carbink seem to have picked shitten and didn't get a dugtrio

>>30027466
>Totem Gumshoos
>Sand-attack his ass
>switch to Crawbrawler and rek the two idiot mongooses
I mean it's pretty good. But it's not too hard.

Almost got my shit pushed in by the Red Card trainer because I was being adamant about certain things and letting my pride get the better of me. Same for Illima's first fight on the pier.

>>30030189
anon, have you even played the game? I've seen like 5 not including evolutions

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>>30030174
I just beat Totem Wishiwashi. I think you're fucked if you only use Fire. He almost beat me with a balanced team, and I think I only won because of debuff stacking and he summoned a smaller Wishiwashi instead of Alomamola.

>>30030343
Using 2 starters and an overpowered fish as your only team. Thinks it's easy, gee I wonder why ever tried using something besides the strongest shit in the game.

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>>30030403
my only problem with totem wishiwashi is
that he has soak to make it easier for you

>>30030343
BW2 challenge mode is easier than normal mode, all that happens is you get too much EXP and end up overlevelled. Training those three Pokemon would make any game easy, starters evolve quickly and Wishiwashi is just stupidly good in game. Agreed on Hau though, we didn't need eeveelution rival version 2.0.

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>>30030430
He still one shot one of my monsters after soak. I'm glad Pokemon finally has real boss fights. They better not get rid of them next generation.

I just beat the first Kahuna. Shit was intense. my grimer was able to survive a Z-move and a power-up punch by one hp, and then I disabled the Power up punch before dying. Then my cutiefly was barely able to take him out with some fairy winds. Definitely the closest I've ever been in a mainline pokemon game and I'm not even hearing anybody talk about this one.

>first trial
>lvl 13 makuhita
>force palm x 20
>switched to gastly on totem raticate, cursed it and it tail whiped me until it died
>finish off other raticate it called down with makuhita again

>fight first kahuna
>lvl 16 butterfree with sharp beak
>gust x 8
>on to next island

and you guys think this shit is hard?

What AI improvements have you guys noticed?

>>30030487
>Hey, guys, I just beat Brock. This is easy.

>>30030482
I lost my whole team to that Crabrawler in my nuzlocke. Z-Moved my Popplio and then I couldn't do anything while it stacked up power up punches.

>>30030416
Oh look, another GF apologist. I barely even use ones apart from Incini because he wrecks everything. Did you know that once you kill Guzma's Golisopod during the first encounter you instantly fucking win because his other remaining monster is ARIADOS? This is ridiculous, they couldn't have chosen better loadouts for these guys? I remember someone made a thread when Skull's battle trailer was released and he was scared about the game being too easy since Guzma only uses 2 mons in the middle/late 20s. Looks like he was right after all.
>>30030463
Didn't even have the other 2 early on though. They've been sitting in my party collecting dust right now I just felt the need to mention them because I wasted time grinding them up for no reason because this game poses no challenge.

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>trying to fill my team with bug types
Are there more alolan bugs than railgun and fly?

>>30030487
>if you use type advantages it's easy
No shit sherlock, it only gets hard if you just catch and train whatever. For example, if you use bugs as your grass counter the Lurantis totem will fuck you up.

>fight hala
>set abra first to get some exp
>he pursuits as I try and switch out
TRICK'D

>>30030567
>GF apologist
Anybody who unironically utters this is terminally retarded

>>30030581
Water Bug and Gallosp both

>>30030583

>Picked Popplio
>Overlevelled as fuck so I fear nothing
>It uses a fucking power herb and solar blade is surprisingly strong so I lose Popplio immediately
>Have to poison stall BOTH Pokemon with a minimize grimer that is also overlevelled

I am pleasantly surprised by the difficulty in this game.

>>30027466
Is it actually more difficult?

No bullshitting?

I was going to just pirate it in protest of no difficulty settings. But if it actually is, say, at least Gen IV difficulty, then I'll buy it.

>>30030482
Crabrawler's Z-Move almost cost me the match too, that was the battle I was referring to >>30030018

>>30030567
How overlevelled are you at this point? The whole "train only your starter" thing has always been the cheesiest way to play the game.

>>30030492
It switches more often and has had a few bug fixes made since gen VI.

>>30030628

It's harder than Gen 4.

>>30030628
The difficult part of the game comes from the selection pool not being good early on and turning off exp share. Gen IV wasn't hard at all when I played through it but I've had some close calls so far in SM

>>30030567
Alright anon, restart the game and try raising a team of six without using those mons you currently had.

A game is only easy when you've done everything to make it hard for yourself and it's still easy. Gen 3 for example is easy as taking items completely away and nuzlocking doesn't make it any harder.

>>30030619
gallosp? and wasn't there a mantis?

>Guys Brock needs a nerf, he took out my Caterpie, Weedle, AND CHARMANDER! REEE
This how retarded some of you sound like.

>>30027466

is it more difficult because of team composition or is the A.I. actually making good decisions?

I find that Pokemon Yellow's trainer AI was actually pretty clever compared to the later games which appeared to be just doing moves at random.

>>30030685
Nobody's saying SM is too hard, just that it's harder than Gen VI.

>>30030683
He means Golisopod I think.

And the mantis is mono-grass. I guess since it's based on a bug that pretends to be a plant they thought it'd be funny to make it a plant that pretends o be a bug.

>>30030628
Most difficult gamefreak pokemon game ever. Trainers actually have EVs during the story now, it makes a very noticeable difference.

>>30030624
I thought Charjabug would make it a breeze and then got nuked by sun boosted weather ball. Had to leave the Trumbeak alive just to stand a chance.

>>30030615
Do you have anything else to add onto your shitpost?
>>30030661
Entire team is in the 44s and most trainers are 43 right now. Am I overleveled? Even though I've just been fighting everything that I've came across? Like I said, it's not the levels it's just that these NPCs have some of the weakest parties I have ever seen. Just ran into a Tourist girl with 1 Sandshrew, 1 Geodude that used Explosion, 1 Graveler that used Self-Destruct, and 1 Vulpix. Remember, 4th island. I can't see how this is supposed to be hard apart from the stupid nuzlocke menace meme attacks.

>>30030751
>mono-grass
That's fucking upsetting.

The 1st Kahuna's Mankey also swept me. That was pretty cool.

>Sneaking past trainers is actually fun now
>It's sometimes legitimately surprising when you get caught
>Some battles can be challenging now

Based difficulty

>>30028952
>If you don't have a super effective move

>>30030765
Nah, that sounds about right. Random trainers on routes really don't need to be hard, they're just there for free exp. The bosses are the only thing anyone cares about as far as difficulty is concerned, and most of them are better than anything from previous games.

>>30030714
People on /v/ are complaining that it's too hard

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>>30030899
>/v/ is casual
Stop the presses

>>30030765
>Do you have anything else to add onto your shitpost?
That's what I should be asking you. Nobody with enough self-respect would use such an idiotic terminology.

Maybe the game is not challenging enough for you, but you're an adult. The game's perfectly fine for younger folks. Plus you're only using three pokemon, so chances are you're overleveled.

I did a nuzlocke and didn't even get past the fucking smeargle that had ember because i had rowlet and Magnemite.

>Enemy uses Screech
>I try to switch out my -2 DEF mon, but they Pursuit it on the switch.

Didn't expect something like that out of the AI.

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>>30028748

Holy fuck nice to know Im not the only one

>Litten
>Grubbin
>Rockruff
>Harden Harden Harden Sharpen
>Sweeps with Smack Down
>FULL RESTORE

>>30027466

I honestly can't understand how anyone could say that ORAS was harder than SM.

Even without using the Dexnav, Super Training, Amie, ORAS is pathetically easy. The only time I ever had some semblance of trouble in ORAS was against drake, and that was only because the RNG was completely against me in that fight.

>>30027466
It is tougher with totem Pokemon, totem Lurantis fucked me up. That solar blade. Also wild pokemon calling for help means nearly endless battles sometimes.

Its just the casuals and babies who use exp share that are saying its easy

If you are playing at the same level as opposing trainers its actually alot less brainless

>>30031165

>Trying to catch Magby
>Won't stay in a great ball
>Keeps calling for help
>Sometimes summons Magmar
>Fire spin spam means I cant do anything except bubblebeam spam and try to catch it
>Run out of PP and have to run

It's frustrating shit.

>against Kahuna Halu
>have a bunch of slow mons
>sends out mankey
>mankey uses focus energy
>i proceed to crit the mankey but it doesn't die
>anger point activates
>proceeds to sweep my entire team with Crit +^ Karate Chop
>even my Cutiefly with 4x resistance was still OHKO

whoops.

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>>30031189
>>Keeps calling for help

Holy shit this is so fucking annoying when you try to catch fucking pokemon after the totem challenge

>>30030464
yeah still a pretty good fight

they probably should swap fire totem and grass totem
just so you dont blow Lurantis away with the Z move

>>30028748
There was that trainer with the Hawlucha in Reflection Cave in X that wiped my party. I heard she wiped a few other people too.

>>30028913
yeah i was getting rekt by this as well. Go get a dew pider and get it to level 22 to evolve and you will wipe the floor with it.

>>30030236

Because people want to fiddle around with 1-5% encounter rates, amirite? They may as well not even exist in that route. Fuck 1-5% encounter rates.

>>30029829
>this
>being hard

stop being a fag, if you picked the superior litten you wouldnt have a problem.

>>30030236
>1% encounter change followed by a 6% catch chance early game when the highest level pokeball you have is great and you won't have that many if the first place
>juz catch salamence you get good pokemon early on xDD

Jesus christ, not saying the game is easy or hard but statements like that are stupid

>>30029829
>The entire school
FUCK THAT PLACE, INCLUDING THE WILD POKEMON.

>>30031240
>Because people want to fiddle around with 1-5% encounter rates, amirite?
>he doesn't lurk Dark Cave trying to catch Dunsparce early into the game

>>30027466
I think it's decently difficult mostly thanks to the Totem Battles and gen 5 exp mechanics preventing your team from becoming too overleveled even if you keep the exp share on.

The regular trainer battles are even bigger of an disappointment than inn the last gen though. Fucking evil team boss still has only like 2 Pokemon on your third encounter.

>>30031602
What? The evil team bosses are a pretty big improvement over last gen.

>>30030343
So you were only using 3 Pokemon? The games are always easier if you don't train a full team equally.

>>30031620
Did you actually play the game or are you just talking out of your ass? Guzma still uses only 2 Pokemon in the Team Skull hideout encounter. He's hilariously easy to sweep with any Flying type mon.

>>30031667
Haven't you faced Lusamine's 5 pokemon all totem boosted?

>>30030714
XY was pretty hard if you turn off exp share
The levels scale very quickly

>notice most of my time is like 6levels ahead the wild mons
>well time to swap 3 of them and train something else
>next route immediately close the gap and Im now underleveled.

It wasnt hard, but it was fun. I played with tbe expshare on and fully trained about 12 mons and end up underleveled at the league

>tfw Hala's Crabrawler spammed power up punch and destroys me
>Hau's Raichu sweeps my team
>Almost lost to our boy Guzma's Golisopod
>Actually had to use X-Def and X-sp.Def for the first time in a pokemon game for the totem battles
This game is challenging and I love it

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>Critical hits

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>>30028748
>first totem battle
>"raticate? bah, should be fine"
>bite, flinch, calls help
>bite, flinch, tail whipped
>bite, flinch, quick attacked
>ded magnemite
>send brionne
>repeat, wipe

Why the fucking fuck does the Beauty's Gastly know Mean Look? Had Munchlax from the Mystery Gift and we couldn't touch each other until one of us ran out of PP. This shit is a massive oversight.

Am I the only one who's having a real easy time with this game? I'm 4 trials down and I'm actually really bored with Moon with how piss easy everything is.

To the point I'm actually not liking this game at all.

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>>30031829
>Not just struggling it out

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>only train up a Rowlet and Oricorio from the first island
>whatever, I'll get more type coverage next island
>sina

>>30031202
Wait till you fight him again in the elite four
He's definitiely the toughest member (ghost girl is weakest). That primeape is so damn fast.

>>30031914
That Glaceon is a crime against nature.

>>30027466
I don't know. Any game is more difficult if you play it upside down.

>>30031867
You're probably the only one. I guess you must have trained battling wild Pokémon in grass for hours. I and others I have spoke to have all agreed that we would treat it like any past Pokémon game and just go with the flow but you really have to put in a few hours of training just to get those levels up to where they need to me. I just beat Sophocles trial and it's been a struggle. Though in saying this, my team is Dartrix, Herdier, and Toucannon which have their own problems but idk I liked them best with what I found around me. I'll also say I wish I had chose Littlen but no go backs.

Teacher's Magnemite
Captain's Smeargle

The actual boss fight was easy as fuck but Im scared what random challenges I'll get like those

>>30030220
>>30031914
>>30032243
Hmm. Do you all have Moon?
I fought Dexio and he had an Espeon (picked Rowlet as well).
I have sun, maybe this is a version difference.

I feel like this game is actually harder, but in an artificial kind of way. I can't really put my finger on it yet. Its not because it has competent team construction, because it doesn't seem to. Its also not just 100% gimmick fights, because a gimmick is just a gimmick and can be worked around.

My guess is that Alolan pokemon are just really bad, so a team of 3 kanto pokemon can easily stand up to a team of 3 alolan Pokemon.

>>30032345
It's a version difference. Your first fight is against Female Dexio instead.

>>30031216
>just so you dont blow Lurantis away with the Z move
>tried to do this with my Salandit
>Z Flame Burst didnt kill
>it and Castform proceed to just fuck my whole life up

Totem Lurantis aint nothin to fuck with. Maybe a Torracat Fire Z move might do it but I dont know

>>30032350
I'd argue the opposite. I think it's the most legitimate difficulty the games have ever offered.
It's using actual mechanics that everyone has access to (Z-moves, weather, setup moves) to create clever strategies to overcome.

In the past, most of the difficult fights have only been difficult because of the levels and the Pokemon combinations catching you by surprise.

Also, nearly all of the tough fights I've had have been against Alolan Pokemon so I doubt them being bad is why you feel that way.

>>30032417
Haha had this exact situation! Took me too many tries, since I was refusing to use a Z-move at first. I gave in and used it thinking it was cheating and got absolutely destroyed anyway.

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>mfw I haven't lost yet, but my friend has
It's definitely harder, but I'm not getting BTFO. I'll have my Pokemon faint more than usual, but I can still pull through.
>tfw Rowlet and Slowpoke shit on the Kahuna of Meme island

Mudbray is fucking incredible, btw. She's gonna be a big girl for me.

Decidueye was a fucking mistake, I swear. Feels like almost everything in this game has Dark coverage to wreck his shit.

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>find a Magnemite
>spams Magnet Bomb and kills half my party
There are several moments in the game that are just really savage.

>>30032745
>Catch Gastly early in
>Everything has fucking Bite or Astonish

Welp.

>>30027466
The teacher in the trainer school flinched my whole fucking team to death idk wtf happened...rng hates me

>>30032350
>My guess is that Alolan pokemon are just really bad, so a team of 3 kanto pokemon can easily stand up to a team of 3 alolan Pokemon.
This

I really struggled with the team building this gen because everything was either slow, ugly or made useless by some shitty gimmick ability

I am like 5 levels over leveled, but I still get caught off guard by some battles.

There was a trainer with a Rockruff and Slowpoke that nearly made me white out. I was saved due to xp share leveled shitmons I had kept in my party.

Haven't got a hand on the game yet. Do I need to grind if I turn off XP share? I want it to be hard but I really don't want to grind.

>>30032922
Myself I just raised the affection level of all my Pokemon to 2 to get the exp boost, haven't felt the need to grind so far

>>30032922
The EXP Share really doesn't make you over leveled unless you go out of your way to battle absolutely everything.

I currently have two main pokemon in my team and still battle every. single. trainer.
I also catch and battle wild pokemon to collect pokemon needed to fill my pokedex.
As result, I'm pretty over leveled, so it's no problem...right? I'm just starting in this game!

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>>30030608
Raising Abra without EXP All is a total bitch this time around

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>>30031829
>Not using Metronome
>Not having that spare ether to fight Gastly's Spite
>Not having god tier luck and killing the Gastly on the very last Metronome possible

Get on my level pleb.

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>people who don't play set with no expshare, but then comment on the difficulty

>>30031829
glad to know i wasn't the only one who went through this.

Yeah fuck whoever said this game was easier than the others. Just got out of that Lurantis fight and fuck that was tough.

>>30032829
Not just you. Got three flinches in a row on my slow ass poppo

>>30030081
My munchlax got earthquake with metronome on that battle, just as I was thinking about how useful earthquake would be. What fucking astronomical luck

>>30027466
The only annoying casualized thing is how every character has medicine to give you, even the fucking probopass gives you a potion. Most of the totems have potential to be very challenging depending on your team composition. They actually promote good teambuilding more than gyms did. Also your healslut Lillie follows you around for most of the last 25% or so of the game healslutting it up.

>this whole thread
I'm so glad to hear there have been steps in the right direction. Let's hope they won't backpedal with the switch version now.

I'd like to have future games focus even more on team composition, not as a choice of a balanced team of 6 beforehand but as an encouragement to rotate many different mons mostly so I can keep my autism at bay before playing.

>>30030130
I used Alolan Meowth on it I think, Bite STAB with Technician is fucking great.

I played with EXP Share off full team no grinding no items in battle on set with no plans for team and it was pretty hard I was getting wiped out alot. I allowed myself to grind on wild pokemon afterwards so that the game actually progressed smoothly instead of roadblocks every 10 minutes but still challenging in major fights.

>Glaceon
>Alolan raichu
>Mismagius
>Lurantis
>Mimi
>Stealth rock champ
>Anabele's SMOGON APPROVED team
>All these sucker punch users
>Motherfucking Masquerain of all pokemons
>Alolan persian

Now I absolutely can't beat master rank in the pokemon brawl or reach high heights on battle tree.

>>30034464
Oh yeah and I didn't do the pokemon refresh thing so I didn't know about the EXP boost until the end of the game.

>>30030343
Where do you get Cindaquil?

>>30031821
>train the traded machop because I've heard Raticate is hard
>fucking 1-shots with Brick Break

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>>30028748
>tfw didn't find the melemele cemetary until I beat Hala
>tfw I didn't feel the true wrath of Carbink
Based CraBROler took that fucker down no problem.

>>30034732
two shot with an under leveled crabrawler

Heres hoping the difficulty of the game sets in soon

>>30030130
Pikipek with rock smash

>>30030130
Caught a Magnemite with Popplio and a shitton of potions.

>>30034419
>being unfaithful to your team by swapping through a whole bunch of mons

>>30030628
Harder games as of now, but if you have a "balanced team composition" and plan your battles it will be easy. But that's every Pokémon game ever.

Hau's fucking Raichu fucked me up good.

>>30030819
>Get crit and lower it to the reds.
>Anger point.
>F U G

>>30031189
>>30031206
Status locks them out of getting help.

Yeah, I turned off the share, put it to set, and haven't used a Z-Move (though admittedly that's because I'm only on the first island before the first trial because I've been dicking around trying to find a drifloon in the cemetary) and it's actually pretty hard. Got wiped by ilmia twice and I've been trying to catch whatever I can since I want to go for pokedex completion on my first run.

It's actually a a legitimate challenge, I'm impressed.

>>30032745
It stays like that up until the last island. I picked Slowl too. Then it gets worse.

>I gouged my eyes out, gave myself diabetes and put the entire Baja Men discography on full blast on my first playthrough and it was harder than Dark Souls crossed with Jojo

Does anyone else feel severely underleveled? Totems are always 4 levels above me.

I've played the game with the Exp Share off, battling wild Pokémon only to catch, only gen 7 mons, and fighting against every player.
Totem Lurantis fucked up my team, and in the end of the game, I was 10 levels bellow the E4.

>>30027466
I agree OP. I spent 6 or 7 hours on the first island catching pokemon and leveling but as soon as I got to the 2nd island I started to realize how fucked I would be if I didn't have the luxury of 6 mon.

You find challenges in wierd places in this game. Usually when your trying to catch a female salandit or something else and they keep calling for help...two shotted Wishiwashi totem tho. Too bad I had bug, grass, and steel types. Because now i'm getting my shit fucked sideways in the fire trial.

>>30030130
It doesn't hard counter Rowlet. I KO'd it with astonish in three hits.

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>new island
>hey buddy how about a quick battle?
>sends out raichu
>"time to sweep with my mudsdale again"
>psychic
>psychic
>psychic

I can't even rematch to reclaim some of my lost dignity.
Seriously, he went from the dumbest rival of all fucking time to a stone cold rapist.

Did you guys forget about those X-Attack items? Those things saved my ass against Gumshoos and Wishiwashi.

>Mist!
>Scary Face failed!
>Defense (2+)
>Attack (2+)
>Sweep

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>>30035110
>You find challenges in wierd places in this game

Seems to be different for everyone, there were a few spots for me that didn't go down as easy. I'm going to assume Gamefreak wants to encourage good typing balance on teams.

>>30027466
Fuck off australian

>>30027466
Even the anime isn't shit for once. Really enjoying this gen so far.

>>30034732
>using Brick Break
>on a trained traded Pokemon
>hit a double weakness with a 75 BP attack
>"WOW, WHERE'S THE DIFFICULTY"

I mean I used Brick Break on my Trumbeak, too, but come on.

>>30028790
>Definitely harder
But that bar is set pretty low.

Could you describe it as "challenging"?

Last game I played was X/Y which was a cakewalk.

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>Flatmate got fucking swept by Olivia's Lycanrock

>battle against Hala
>team is rowlet, a-grimer, and grubbin
>thisshouldbeeasy.jpg
>lead with grimer, battle with mankey going relatively well
>crit
>makey's anger point!
>shreks grimer, 1HKO's rowlet too
>grubbin BARELY survives and KO's mankey
>makuhita comes in, use revives on grimer and rowlet before grubbin gets KO'd
>makuhita arm thrusts grimer to death, but not without taking significant damage
>rowlet gets easy kill, only crabrawler left
>rowlet uses pluck
>super effective AND crit
>barely takes out one third of the crab's health
>have to finish to finish the fight with potion spamming, and even then, I barely make it

JUST

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>post yfw you got fucking schooled by totem wishiwashi and alomomla heal pulse faggotry

The fact I had no decent electric type fucked my over 10 fold,

in the end I got fucking schooled

>>30027466
Just beat the first island and I'm having no issues.

>>30030628
its harder in the first quarter of the game
after you get a nice team, its as hard as every pokemon game before

First I got almost destroyed by that school kids alolan grimer (learned to get one of those right after lol) team was Rowlet, Grubbin, and Yungoos. Then came the Ilima battle, and god his smeargle hits hard.

>>30036791
>tfw Charjabug solo carried the team that battle

Best bug bro since Yanmega

Where can I look up where each wild pokemons located

also is it worth sticking it out with Gumshoos? he hits like a freight train if someone switches in

>>30031722
Ehh, I played through xy , no megas and I got through the game without much of a challenge

I find that catching is a lot harder. They break out a lot more than in previous games. Also, the constant calling for help makes it even harder.

>>30037029
Forgot to mention I had exp share off

>>30027855
I didn't really like any of the starter designs, so I decided to make Grubbin-Vikavolt my "starter" and I haven't switched him out since sans one occasion.
>Bug Bite sweep on Moon first trial
>Acrobatics sweep on Fighting kahuna
>Spark sweep on Water trial
>Mudbray bulldoze sweep on fire trial
>X-Scizzor sweep on Grass trial
About to fight rock Kahuna, I might switch back to Mudbray again, but my Charjabug has taken in so many exp from being in every single fight that I'm probably a bit over leveled now. But if a game is so far letting me crash through the game with a single Pokemon, I wouldn't call it hard; any "difficulty" that comes from lack of grinding is just a chore, not hard. The trainer with the Stealth Rock and Red Cards was a cheeky fun cunt though, wish there was more of that.

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>that one trainer with a bulky ass Miltank and just kept using Milk Drink the second you got it down to half

GameFreak finally got their trainers right.

I can't wait for the hacks and the retarded difficult totem fight.

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>my team is dartrix, charjabug, salandit, crabrawler
>totem salazzle absolutely shits all over me before I can even move

SM's level curve is pretty good, well, until just about the Fourth Island.

I went through a playthrough without using an EXP share and my team, just before the E4 was around levels 47-49, while the E4 is in their mid 50's. For the majorty of the game, with using a team of 5-6 the majority of the way, my team managed to be around 1-2 levels within the bosses levels just until 4th Island, then suddenly you're facing against mid 40's while your team is in the high 30's or early 40s. But then it starts to regulate itself until after the last totem battle Then you literally on'y have three battles left until the E4.

I wish there was a decent grinding place for the E4 that didn't consist of dealing with 10% Absol/Drampa encounter rates.

>>30037028

if you want. Gumshoos is a shitmon, but nearly any Pokemon work for ingame, especially with the EXP Share.

>>30037393
If you don't want to change teams, there's a Rock Tomb TM nearby in the volcano park Crabrawler should be able to use, and use X Special Def in the beginning of the battle and you should be set.

>>30027466
Even with exp share on and battle switch, the gladion, hau, and elite 4 battles and the end of the game gave me more trouble than they should have. Especially fucking acerola.

>>30037028
Serebii I think is the most up to date. They have rarity percentages and I believe near finished with the location-by-location wild Pokemon info on their PokeEarth.
>tfw all the Pokemon I want to use are all at or below 10%

>>30030321
I skipped all optional battles and lost all battles I was allowed to lose to stop EXP. What a delightful ride. Until endgame, where it fucks your ass.

>>30037330

Just a little change would make those totems a nightmare

First trial

>Gumshoos summon yungose with red cards

Second trial

>wishiwashi would summon some swin swim or rain dish pokemons
>just give him water pulse instead water gun

Third trial

>Hard enough, maybe just give ballon to the totem Salazzle

fourth trial

>summon torkoal with drought

>>30037567
Retarded Wishiwashi would be level 22 calling out lv20 Wishiwashi.

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>>30031821
>tfw I almost lost to the Kommo-o in the demo because I goofed around using the water move on it and rockruff and next thing I know it's flinch haxing me with headbutt

I'm only just past the first island trial but I'm gonna say these are the most difficult games of the series. The totem battle was the perfect amount of difficulty and satisfaction when I beat it

I dunno about you guys but I'm finding Toucan Sam is godly. Flying and fighting moves takes out a majority of PvE mons early-mid game where I'm at. Having a breezy time.

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>>30029829
That wasn't too bad at all.

Now the Meowth, sumbitch made me flinch 10 different times between heals

>>30037053
If anything it just makes it annoying.

>>30037567
>Salazzle
>Hard enough
You can catch Mudbrays with Bulldoze right before, almost the perfect counter for the trial, why did so many people struggle?
Do people not catch them all and adapt teams accordingly?

>>30037822
I one hit KO that bitch with Araquanid

What makes it hard is that there's enough variety in enemy strategies that you'll inevitably bump into something that will fuck you over unless you're plowing through the game with the most broken shit possible. No more of that "every NPC on the first several routes use shitmon that you can tear through" stuff. That game is very well-balanced in that regard.

>>30037053
That's good. The calling for help feature at least makes it a bit less braindead to catch Pokémon.

>>30032914

>Rockruff used Steath Rock
>Slowpoke used Yawn

Yup. RIP Nuzlocke.

>>30028748
I got beat by the fucking oreschooler with the Bonsly in the school

Granted I still was only running litten but I fwlt like a retard

>>30027466
I've had my ass kicked 3 times now and I'm only just after the first trial.

I am using shitmon though, my team is yungoose, spinarak, rowlet

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>>30036791
Based Light Screen Magnemite carried me through that fight.

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>>30030482
>>30030533
>>30030642
>had cutiefly out
>mfw it took a 4th of its health
It was expected but it was still great

>I want like 12 different Pokemon I've found so far on my team
FUCK

>>30037857
this right here. that is the whole point of my original post.

>>30032367
>Mallow and Sina are moon exclusive battles
>Moon has the better version exclusives, with a few exceptions
Is there any reason to pick Sun?

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Was that fucking Smeargle actually boosted in some way? Even with a two level difference, I refuse to believe a Smeargle can OHKO half my team.

>>30038651
4IV with 15 on the other two as well as the full 510 EVs

>>30038651
Smeargle is only a shitmon by fully evolved standards. Its stats are pretty high compared to unevolved Pokemon.

>>30038651
It's fully EV'd with good IVs

It's defiantly more challenging... and I like that! Totem Pokemon especially are challenging, and that is good since they serve as 'bosses'. It always feels so rewarding when you beat a challenging game, and I haven't felt that way about Pokemon since RBY when I was 7. Maybe this time I will...

>>30034703
QR island scan. I got a totodile from it.

>>30027855

>If you remove 9 features of the game and stop using buttons, it's actually pretty hard!

>>30038922
You must've done pretty poorly in school if you view 3 and 9 as the same number.

>>30038922
How is picking between Switch and Set removing a feature and not chosing between two different ones?

Also that anon is being retarded about not using Z-Moves, they do not make the game easier. The enemies people are complaining here will still give trouble to people because it's more about the type matching than anything. Most aren't arguing the game is hard, but that it isn't braindead enough you can breeze through with anything like Gen VI.

Also the Exp. Share is an optional feature and pretty much an easy mode option. I'm interested in hearing why you defend using that at all.

>>30038651
It may have had technician

>>30036791

>hear lots of grim shit about the Alomomola
>initiate the fight
>it summons another Wishiwashi

I think I lucked out. Magnemite would have destroyed them anyway. Based Charge Beam.

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Did this guy fuck wit any of y'all
He got me good

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>>30027466
>keep almost get wiped out
>one of the glorious motherfuckers on my team keeps pulling through
>just got Wishiwashi to level 20 and now it straight up obliterates shit

I'm enjoying the shit out of this.