Anyone else pleasantly surprised by the difficulty level of the

>Brionne swept Olivia
>Mudbray destroyed Salazzle
>Lurantis only hard totem

No, not all of us are shit

>>30144118
The elite four is currently kicking my ass

>>30144233
just wait till the champion....hoo boy.

>>30144118
not really

i 1-shotted both salazzle and lurantis

>>30144118
It got easier for me after I got a Mimikyu, granted it was still difficult, but in an enjoyable way.

>>30144272
How? I had my Torracat of the same level use a Fire Fang-powered Z Move on Lurantis and it only did about half.

>>30144239
And you can't buy PP restoring items so I'm perpetually fucked

>>30144118
It's not close to the hardest, but it was nice coming across the occasional tough fight. Pokemon's never been remotely hard outside a few key battles and nuzlockes.

>>30144294
I don't know about him but my Torracat was ~5 levels higher because I had to grind a level 7 magnemite to fight Totem Wishiwashi (granted, it was my Gumshoos that did most of the heavy lifting that fight).

>>30144294
dire hit'd my grimer and had it crit poison fang

>>30144302
Why doesn't anyone use Pelago?

Leppa Berries. Lv1 Berry Isle lets you plant six and get back four each. That's 24 ethers than can be used as held items and the source is infinite.

>>30144118
I played with the EXP share on and slowly increased affection with my pokemon throughout the game. Skipped two or three trainers a route and ended up being around the same level as my opponents.

Absolutely loved the difficulty of my playthrough. Lots of times where I got fucked up and even more times where I just barely won.

>>30144379
Exactly. In some days I reached x999 leppa berries by using all the 18 spots in parallel.

I'm with you OP, everybody laughs at Olivia for only having two moves on her Pokemon, but she destroyed me. Yeah, my team was Ledian, Butterfree, Trumbeak, Torracat, Salandit and Magikarp, but this still proves the games were very hard.

>>30144118
Currently nuzlocking this shit. So far I got through the first 4 trials with minimal losses and then I went up the mountain for the electric trial. Had half my team wiped by the totem and then again against that veteran's fucking absol. All the totems are challenging though, I like having a harder game for a change.

Fuck that death mountain, I'm currently slaughtering a shitload of vulpixes to find a shiny I can catch.

>>30144661
> Olivia for only having two moves on her Pokemon,
I'm pretty sure that's not meant to make the games easier, but rather it's an AI hack to make them behave better.

There were a few fights where I could see an unbalanced team getting fucked over even if they were overleveled (which is arguably more difficult than a lot of pokemon games), but I wouldn't say it was hard

Playing with exp share off, just finished 2nd island. Haven't lost a single battle so far. This game (so far) is just as easy as every other pokemon game. Ive started using repels and skipping as many trainers as I can to try to make it more difficult

>>30144302
Leppa berries?

Difficulty was great. I avoided using Exp Share as much as possible, but there were a few times when I found myself needing it due to being underleveled. Only totem I lost to, though, was Vikavolt.

>Destroy Gumshoos because I saw what happened in that one stream
>Hala didn't holla holla get dolla
>Have minor trouble with Wishiwashi because I had no good grass types
>Salazzle died in one hit, thanks Lycanroc
>Lurantis died in one hit, thanks Torracat
>Olivia kicked my shit, and I just barely won with a Wimpod
>Hau after Aether Foundation tour nearly swept me, fucking Vaporeon and Water Pulse

Shit's spiking not even halfway into the game, I love it.

>>30144972
Yeah, it's one of the upsides of having less moves for an AI to use, the lower the chance of them doing stupid shit.

>>30145487
Luke Plumeria trying three times in a row to poison my Minior even though Shields Down prevents it.

The biggest flaw to the structure of the game is that the trials didn't feel like a challenge. Yeah you have a hard boss fight at the end but everything leading up to it is laughable. They spook ya with the whole "you cannot leave the trial once you start" but they didn't even try to make them long and arduous, rendering the entire thing very anti-climactic. Bring back gym puzzles dammit

I had no difficulty at any point in this game with a team of

a-raichu
mimikyu
marowak
muk
mintior

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>>30144118
I was expecting hard, I even shut my EXP share off and trained my team evenly.

It wasn't hard. Not one bit. I absolutely destroyed every battle, it was never "close". Fuck even in Y I lost to the water E4 once because I was stupid and let it get a dragon dance off. Here? I just steamrolled the entire game. I had a lot of fun despite this, but I am pretty disappointed at the difficulty.

My team was Scizor, Gengar, Mimikyu, Lycanroc (moon), A-Exeggutor, Toxapex.

>>30144118
>Olivia beat me twice

the game isn't difficult you just suck
olivia is incredibly easy to beat in her two fights

>>30146230
Good job using the strongest pokemon available, did you also change shift to set?

>>30146161
How overleveled were you?

>>30144118
Its still really easy but I don't have to play as a brain dead child to get a challenge now

you can solo the E4 with slowbro

this game is a fucking joke

difficulty only comes in the post-game when they spike everyone's level and throw surprise battles with 5/6 pokemon teams everywhere

The most trouble I had was the Champion, the Veteran double battle before the Battle Tree and Red when I first got to the Battle Tree. I'm pretty sure Red's AI cheats a ton.

>>30146230
>Scizor, Gengar, Mimikyu, Lycanroc (moon), A-Exeggutor, Toxapex


haha ok

>>30144118
I was
Until the electric totem
What a fucking joke

Slow as dicks and just spams charge like a retard

>>30146284
>IT ISN'T ENOUGH THAT YOU MADE THE GAME INTENTIONALLY HARDER YOU SHOULD USE SHITMONS TOO
Nigga what? And yes I did have set on.

>>30146413
What?

>>30146285
underleveled

>>30146463
No idea, your team isn't even that good, there are stronger Pokemon than what you used

>>30144972
This would make sense if the trainers had good moves. There is literally no excuse for Lycanrock to have Rock Throw at level 27 when the game throws Brick Break and Scald at you before the first trial. There is literally no excuse for Flygon to only have Dragon Breath and Earth Power when, not only Flygon is more physical oriented, it learns much better moves through simple level up, not even the need to use TMs.

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>>30147084
....scald? before the first trial, you say?

The hardest run I ever did in a pokemon game was in AS, exp share off and set as usual, and no items in battles with a full low BST shitmon team consisting of Vigoroth, Seviper, Cradily, Illumise and Walrein. I had a lot of issues in many battles, and it was a lot of fun. Had a lot of game overs in the E4.

Hope doing the same in SM feels similar. Might be even harder.

>>30147360
Doing something similar in SM and yes it is harder and yes it is fun.

Most of the totems are easy if you're overlevelled and/or have something strong enough to one shot them (Salazzle is particularly susceptible to this), but if you don't and they have a turn or two to get rolling the fights get a lot more interesting.

>>30147191
Meant to say second while thinking of Brick Break, my point still stands.

>>30147408
The totems are also super easy to Toxic stall outside of Salazzle, so I don't recommend doing that either.

>>30144186
I swept Lurantis

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>>30146230
>using gengar and scizor
>expecting the game to be hard

So far the only battle I had any sort of trouble was against Hau in the thrid Island (he took 3 pokemon before I could win).

I do like that the game is much, much harder than X/Y and ORAS.

>>30147709
See
>>30146463

Daily reminder that /vp/ can't play maingame pokemon for shit.

Totem Mimikyu almost wiped me
>mimicked bulk up
>started setting up on me
>worry.jpg

>>30144379

I didn't plant leppa berries until E4 because I didn't expect to need them.

If anything this game has shown me just how bad at pokemon /vp/ actually is.

E4 Hala kicked my ass, Ninetales jobbed hard and I had no Psychic or Flying types outside of Pelipper and it didn't have Hurricane yet. Ninetales redeemed itself on Acerola though, shat on Sableye and since Dhelmise had no Steel moves it just set up 2 calm minds and swept with Ice Beams.

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>>30144118

>yfw learning Lurantis can summon things that aren't Castform

I found it weird/disappointing that what is essentially Totem Lurantis: Hard Mode was left to RNG. I wish the game came with a hard mode setting, it was a pleasant surprise.

>castform used sunny day

Eh, the Totems just made more of my pokemon faint than what I'm use to.

>>30146463
>ruin the game for yourself by picking meta pokemon
>WHY IS IT EASY I DONT UNDERSTAND

>>30144953
>Nuzlocke
>Farming for a Shiny
Look at this scrub and laugh.

>>30151401
Yeah, Lurantis was only "difficult" for me because I was having a hard time keeping Fire/Bug moves in my party and Growlithe wasn't cutting the mustard.

Some of the totems were cakewalks, though.
>Giant Raticate for Moon
>The game practically hands you a TM that it's 4x weak to right before you fight him.
I wasn't expecting the first trial to be hard or anything, but "easy mode one-shot" is kinda pushing it.

>>30151401
I fought it twice and twice it summoned a Trumbeak first and then Castform.

>>30146230
Bruh it's not that hard if you know what you're doing and choose mons with good typings and stats and moves

It's just that other people prefer to play with a more casualized approach for enjoyment before moving on the competitive stuff

>>30151974
That and the in-game trade for a Brave Machop who will absolutely wreck shit on the first trial

>>30146230
>smogon tryhard

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>>30152030

This. As a bug/grass fag, Having Castform laser me down with Sunny Day/Weather Ball was both humbling and fun because I just barely cleared it. Yeah I could take five and go catch a team that would be better suited to it, but main game pogeyman is for fun and favorites.

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>Mimikyu was the only totem who gave me any trouble because I got hit by Hypnosis every time and got screwed over by RNG.
> My first try at the Elite Four, Acerola was the one who gave me the most trouble
My team was Primarina, Salazzle, Exeggutor, Bewear, Pallossand, and Vikavolt

>>30144186
My Mudbray OHKO'd totem Salazzle. It was hilarious.

Ya boi is actually a challenging ET boss. I never thought I'd see the day where Masquerain and Ariados were threats. Is Ariados holding metronome? I swear Fell stinger does more on subsequent hits even without KOing any of my Pokemon to get the boost

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>>30144118
>vullaby on route 3
>tanky as fuck, they keep calling for help, one hits me and the other spams leer
>autistic so I must defeat every flying pokemon shadow
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

>>30146230
Psshh, nothing PERSONNEL KIDD

Just beat the elite 4 on my 3rd try with a relatively unbalanced team about 7-8 levels below theirs.

Certainly much better difficulty than gen 6.

Only Blue really challenged me and that was because he didnt heal my pokemon before the fight like literally every other person does

His levels were on par with mine too which was nice but I still won despite going into it with 2 KOed pokemon

Just kicked sophie's ass (and electrocuted him like 8 times because I was playing in class during his trial with no audio) and haven't been challenged since the normie, and even that was mostly because i was under leveled and didn't know what to expect

>>30152294
Hey how's that sand castle working out for you? I just picked up a sandygast and don't know if I want to invest in it

>>30153117
First twenty levels with it are pretty painful and even when it evolves special attacks absolutely destroy it

Its ability is pretty useless too

I poisoned Lurantis with Grimer then just hacked away at it. Giving Flame Charge and Firium Z to Trumbeak helped.

Thankfully it summoned a shitmon that didn't really help it.

>>30153216
It's really good for catching ultra beasts in sun, actually. It walls Nihilego, Buzzwole, and Xukitree, gets reliable healing in shore up, and also gets hypnosis.

>Game pelting me with Z-Crystals I can't use
Fucking...
I can only use Normalium with Tauros, fuck this Wishiwashi bullshit, I ain't got no water pokemans!

My Alolan Grimer toxiced Lunantis with Poison Fang, then the thing got stuck in a state of constantly spamming synthesis because it thought it could outheal Toxic damage.

It's weird. The first two islands are a fucking cakewalk where almost nobody has more than one Pokemon, and the totems are bitch's. then somewhere around halfway through the third island, everyone has teams of 2, 3, 4 Pokemon that are actually competently built and do some real damage, Totems that exist pretty much solely to piss you off, and then Poni Valley happens and finally Lusamine's fucking retarded Totem Team.

>>30151835
>Lycanroc moon
>Meta
Not him but pick one, and only one.

First game in ages where I've really been worried when fighting the E4, wiped once, barely scraped by the 2nd time (mismagius on 8hp was the final one alive after the champ)

Wiped on maybe 1/4 the totems, and nearly wiped on another 1/4. Wasn't using super strong mons (I had a fucking level 55 rowlet at the E4) but it was challenging in a good way

Though if I'd had exp share on the whole time it would have been a cakewalk, but turning it off from the beginning and not going full tryhard leaves a nice difficulty

>>30153322
>Normalium
like 95% of Pokémon have Normal moves.

>>30153963
I only lost on the Elite 4 because I neglected to stock up on revives before heading in. Only time I wiped in the whole main story.

Now the frustrating part for me is
>Tapu Fini used Aqua Ring

>>30154021
Most normal moves are shit, though, especially in story where you'll mostly want to focus on SE attacks.

>>30149835
>>mimicked bulk up
Wow you really fucked up. I let it mimic Darkest Lariat by mistake at one point, which was hilarious to see.

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>didnt realize how fuckign trash my team was until elite four
>had exp share on entire game and only magnezone is above 55
>never buy any revives or potions because i kept getting them handed to me
>was out of them before kukui
>lost to him 4 times, the only fight i lost to at all
>ended up having to do the cheesiest fucking stall using X defenses until snorlax ran out of high horsepower and then using ever other battle item i had gotten in the game
>30 turn stall because i had absolutely no healing items left and didnt want inferno overdrive to one shot magnezone

if i had made an actual team it wouldve been easier but...

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>>30146230
>Scizor, Gengar, Toxapex

>>30154181
>30 turn stall
I'm not even sure how you got your team to be this bad, even casually

>>30144118
ghost totem just swept me countless times in a row

only way i could beat it was plucking their berry, then spamming minimize with an eviolite grimer, hoping for rng then toxic stalling

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>>30154181
>expect Oricorio's Z-Hurricane to OHKO Crabominable
>it doesn't
>KOs with Ice Hammer
>can't spare any revives
>end up stalling Poliwrath for 30 turns with Araquanid

this league was brutal

There were some tough parts but I never lost a battle. Don't forget that you get a lot of items to use; x-attack, x-defense, etc are everywhere, and cheap in shops. It's like using a boosting move with priority.

>>30154552
me too
Z-moves do way less damage than I expected

>>30154558
Didn't the X-Items also just get buffed?

>>30144118
Just beat Olivia. My team only consist of Dartrix, Snorlax, & Grimer. Lurantis did give me a scare, but otherwise, about the same difficulty as always.

>>30146230
Did you play on set, occasionally skip trainers to ensure you were 5-10 levels lower, and avoid z moves entirely?

If not, then obviously it wouldn't be hard.

>>30144239
The champion actually beat my ass. I won with one living pokemon after about five revives.

>>30154636

> occasionally skip trainers to ensure you were 5-10 levels lower, and avoid z moves entirely?

"Did you play the game wrong like I did? Well no wonder it was easy"

>>30154462
level 40 boldore solely for stealth rock
53 primape
64 magnezone
54 granbull
57 lunala
57 decidueye

i had literally no coverage because i wasnt too concerned with what my team was. I'dve had a few ev trained mons but that shit takes 15 trillion years now

My team is cripplingly weak to almost everything (lurantis, sandygast, araquanid, ribombee, charjabug, placeholder wimpod) so this game has been shockingly difficult for me. I've wiped more times than I'd like to admit.

>>30144118
I also played with exp share off fighting everyone, and I had a hard time with a lot of totem battles / boss fights. I didn't plan or think my team through though, and as a result had a few major holes in it, like steel and fairy types to name a couple. Also had to soft reset a few times to beat the pokeleague. Good game.

>>30154670
>Not only doesn't handicap himself with whatever team he just caught and liked, but went out of his way to catch low-ass encounter rate mons like Mimikyu and Scyther so that he could have a meta-esque set.
>"lol game was easy"
No fucking joke the game was gonna be easy if you don't have SOME handicap. It's not like the AI is particularly punishing or anything. It's "If I don't have a SE move, randomly pick a move I have each turn". Periodically the high-level NPCs will switch out low pokemon or throw out healers, but there's no real depth and the game's mechanics have never been too difficult, just grindy or annoying.

You literally have to play the game "wrong" somewhere to have an actual challenge. That's what a fucking challenge is, you nimrod.

You gonna call nuzelockers or monotype players "playing the game wrong"? How about casuals that are just playing the game straight through as they like?

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>>30154783

I'm not the same guy, I just thought that was a stupid point to make that you should purposely be under-leveled and not use the main battle feature introduced in the game.

>Man, that Super Mario World is brutal, isn't it? So difficult
>No, I thought it's a pretty easy game
>And you avoided all power-ups and never used the jump button? No? Well of course it wasn't hard that way!

have
>owl
>birb
>crab
>QT fairy
>dreadlocks dragon
>anti aircraft exploding electric rock man

my team amounts to essentially being slow as shit physical attackers trying to brick break my way through the game

I would love to have used other pokemon, but the new pokemon were fucking impossible to find. The encounter rates in this game are the worst things about it.

Here's the problem, I didn't know what pokemon were in what area, so after spending 15 minutes running around in the grass only to turn up rats and donald trumps over and over I will assume there is nothing worthwhile in it and leave.

>>30154690
>but that shit takes 15 trillion years now
>he doesn't know how EV training in SOS battles works

>>30154901
A fair point.

>>30154901
The main battle feature is an OP easy button that the majority of the in-game trainers don't have access to like mega evolution was in gen 6.

Using it is nothing but a crutch like EXP share.

>>30144118
I got sweeped by that fucking teacher on Hau'oli.

My team was Rowlet and filler.

>>30154918
its only fast if you have pokerus or an ev item, and you can't get the EV items until you have enough level 50s to make 1fps mode bearable

>>30154598
Yes. Not him, but Refresh plus these +2 stat boosting items saved my shit team more times than I'd like to admit.

>Tfw your Marowak and Toucannon were your star players during Mimikyu's trial because of Refresh's bullshit
Only got hit with Hypnosis twice too.

>>30144118
The level jump when you hit Poni island and beyond is jarring. I lost to Hapu, mostly because of dumb hax, and then it took me three tries at the E4.

>First time defeat Hala and Olivia mostly no problem
>Think, hey, this is going well, I can do the flying girl
>Have no pokemon with moves good against flying
>Wipe to Toucannon

>Second time: Hala, Olivia, and Acerola get defeated mostly no problem, onto Kahili
>Ice beam is able to defeat toucannon, but spikes + normal damage from other mons takes most of my team out
>End up winning, move onto Kukui, get completely fucked by Primarina

>On the third try, have to teach Mimikyu Wood Hammer to defeat Primarina, finally beat the league because of a Ghost-Fairy type getting Grass coverage.
>whataworld.jpg

>>30154941

When fighting trainers who have 1 pokemon, it can be prettty OP, but in battles against 4-6 pokes, I think it's fair game. They aren't that strong really, and the opponent has theirs as well.

>tfw team is Torracat, Wimpod, Cutiefly, Misdreavus, Pikachu, and Charjabug
>tfw Olivia wiped me 3 times before I got gud
Bite and Rock Throw OHKO'd everyone but eviolite Charjabug and Pikachu. When I actually won, I only had a 13 HP Pikachu who just BARELY finished off Lycanrock with Z-Brick Break.

Hau fucked my ass with his Raichu upon arriving to Ula'ula Island and I had no opportunity to even save. Ula'ula Island, especially towards the end, marked a difficulty spike for me.

I played without the EXP Share and I fought every trainer I possibly could and my team was always a few levels under. By the time I got to Poni Island the gap grew even wider. Eventually I just had to rely on Solgaleo to carry me to the end of the game.

>>30154987
I used the exact same strategy against both versions of Olivia:
>Poliwrath + Brick Break + Bulk Up as the lead-in (Item irrelevant but I went with Fightium-Z for the Finishing Blow factor).
>First mon she throws out will do almost nothing of worth but try to stall you (First time it's Paralyze and the second it'll be Yawn spam), so take the chance to get 6 stacks of Bulk Up.
>Brick Break the entire fucking party, periodically throwing down a Full Restore when your Wrath gets low.

She got me the first time, but then I got Bulk Up and she stood no fucking chance.

>>30155116
At least the game's nice enough to not penalize you for losing out on that fight, although my brother reset anyway because Battle Network taught us to be paranoid about our save habits.

I was running mostly Ghost types at that point, so A-Raichu wasn't as hard as it could've been.