Equinox event, how to finish

A little more than halfway into the event it's time to give at least a fleeting thought to how to finish it in the best way.

I'm primarily thinking about planning your eggs to be hatched.

If you're running with every egg in an incubator you can disregard this post. It's aimed at trainers who walk with two or three super incubators active at a time.

Basically there are two goals. Maximize stardust or maximize hatching benefits.


If you want to squeeze out as much stardust as possible then only slot in ten kilometre eggs into super incubators the last two days you plan to be active. Wait with the five kilometre ones until you run out of the ten ones. Only use the infinite incubator for two kilometre eggs.

After the event you'll just walk through the stash of two kilometre eggs to see if you got lucky with the content inside. It's quick and you'll be back to normal playing pretty fast.


If you're in it for the hatching then the opposite pretty much holds true. You want to stock up on ten kilometre eggs and rotate through the two kilometre ones as fast as possible during the last active day of playing. Rotating through the two kilometre ones gives you more shots at the event specific hatches.

The added bonus is that you can hatch a sweet batch of ten kilometre eggs after the event at your leisure.

Equinox event, what to do with exess lure modules

Normally I don't use graphics in this blog, but there are things that just can't be explained with words.

Pokemon Go up

And we're live again.

Pokemon Go down

You've probably read it by now, but anyway.

Pokemon Go is down hard.

Event, on eggs

I've found a pretty sweet compromise between shelling out huge loads of cash and starving for hatching eggs.

The 2km eggs go into the infinity incubator. Everything else is slotted into a 'blue' incubator.


Sure, the day I end up with nine 2km eggs I'll probably reevaluate my position on this. Still, up to now it's been working as a stardust machine.


Since Nintic chose to flood us with 10km eggs the incubators are superb tools for amassing stardust. The main problem is a huge surplus of lures unless you're force feeding them into a route for amassing stardust on the go.

Event, some extras

So, I verified a small but nice addition to the event rewards. You get double stardust from feeding berries as well.

For the first hour there was the usual Niantic error as usual. In this case it turned out you didn't actually get double stardust but an extra 100 dust instead, so I ended up with 400 dust for caching an evolved version of a pokemon. After one hour that bug was fixed.


And... there are package deals this event as well. Let's have a lok at them.

Special box

• 480 coins
• 3 super incubators
• 5 lure modules

Great box

• 980 coins
• 5 super incubators
• 4 lucky eggs
• 10 lure modules

Ultra box

• 1480 coins
• 8 super incubators
• 8 lucky eggs
• 15 lure modules

If you, like me, aren't interested in lucky eggs, then the special box it is. Basically it offers three superior incubators for a 30 coins premium price, and then you get five lure modules for rounding off a day hatching eggs.

It's a perfectly decent deal.

Both the great and ultra boxes pretty much require that you're interested in getting a bunch of lucky eggs. If not then they're awful deals. For that reason we need to look at them from a lucky egg point of view.

For 980 coins you get 250 coins worth of lucky eggs. Are the remaining 730 coins well spent? Five super incubators for 750 coins is probably the best way to look at the remaining coins. Arguably a super incubator is worth more than 150 coins, but just to make the comparison easier.

That leaves you with 10 lure modules. If you're interested in those the great box is a great deal. If not, well...

Lastly the ultra box sets you back 1480 coins. There's 500 coins worth of lucky eggs but let's call it 480 in order to round the remaining coins off to 1000. The eight super incubators could be said to be worth 1200 coins, so you're already ahead here.

If you're interested in lure modules then the ultra box is a killer deal since not only do you save 200 coins for lucky eggs and super incubators alone, but you get a whopping 15 lure modules thrown in for good measure.

In fact...

Let's assume you're discarding all eight lucky eggs immediately upon delivery. That makes them worth zero coins.

Eight super incubators are still worth 1200 coins.

Fifteen lure modules are worth in the order of 1300 coins.

So, if you planned to shop an eight pack lure modules before the event, then the ultra box is still a perfectly valid deal even if you're trashing the lucky eggs.

Upcoming event, preparation

The ten day long event will go live in nite or ten hours from now.

So, how to cram out the most of it for the least effort?


There's no avoiding catching lots and lots of pokemon. It's after all a stardust event. This makes it appealing to stay put at a lure cluster, but that would be pretty suboptimal.

Since the current legendary doggie has pretty much overstayed its welcome in each region let's tone down the boss raiding for a bit. We want incubators for those coins instead.


At the start of the event shop two, or preferably three, incubators. Then get rid of all five kilometre eggs, and ten kilometres if you have them. You want to keep the non two kilometre eggs rotated as quickly as possible.

The infinite incubator should be perfectly fine for handling the special two kilometre ones. Five or more of those hatched per day should be easy to do, or say fifty for the duration of the event. That way you're pretty much bound to get something nice.


Cleaning out every other egg gains you an average of 2000 stardust per five kilometres walked per egg incubated. It's nothing to scoff at.


Unless you're already doing a lot of gym battles you should at least use friendly gyms as trash cans for the excess berries you're bound to amass while walking and catching.

Personally I'll kick down an extra gym or two. It's simply too boring just grinding stardust, and it's a more fun way to get rid of the potions and revives I'll collect while hatching eggs.

In short:

• Stock up on a few incubators
• Get rid of five and ten kilometre eggs
• Hatch 2 kilometre eggs in the infinite incubator
• Keep moving and don't get stuck by lure clusters

Event, Equinox

From September 22 to October 2 there's a new event.

• Double stardust from catches
• Double stardust from hatching eggs
• Triple XP from catching a new pokemon (so not really for high level players)
• 2 km eggs may hatch pokemon normally asociated with 10 km eggs. Chansey, mareep and larvitar are specifically mentioned. Observe that the eggs have to be collected during the event.
• Event specific boxes in the shop
• New incubators that cuts walking distance by a third

EX raid testing, Sweden

Seems field testing has gone live in Sweden as well.

That most likely means it's gone live elsewhere in Europe as well.

This is unconfirmed as of yet.

Gym battles, network error

My sample size isn't all that great, but with the latest client network error is merely bloody awful but not a total blocker when you're trying to attack a gym where you have previously boss raided the same day or late the previous day.

For some reason leaving after every battle slightly mitigates the problem. It's not a guaranteed work around, but at least my personal experience is that it enables you to run every third battle or so without an error.

While I wouldn't continue through a gym with six full defenders, using this trick is worth it if the gym is almost down from the beginning.


The problem with contamination still persists though. By contamination I'm referring to how one trainer who runs into the network error will spread that error to other trainers currently fighting the same defender even if they haven't boss raided that gym at all.


A final fix for this problem seems to be something we'll have to wait for some time.

Gym battles, tactical reminder

An extremely short post today.


When tearing down a gym with fewer than six defenders inside, remember to shave the gym. take out the first defender before you start working on the rest.

Well, unless you want to have the gym refilled with extra defenders while you're working on it.

Articuno, suicune, side by side

This post will mostly be for completion.

The mystic legendaries can't really be compared to each other. In difference from moltres/entei and zapdos/raikou articuno and suicune fill different niches.

Articuno:

• Base stamina 180
• Base attack 192
• Base defence 249
• Type flying/ice
• Best attacks Frost Breath / Blizzard or Ice Beam

Suicune:

• Base Stamina 200
• Base attack 180
• Base defence 235
• Type water
• Best attacks Extra Sensory or Snarl / Hydro Pump

Let's start with suicune. It's a dex-filler. As in a patently worthless pokemon for anything but dex-completion. If you want a water type attacker even the tank vaporeon comes with better punch and bulk than suicune.

Not even a 100 IV Suicune should be worth the stardust invested for powering it up. Collect it and forget it.

Articuno isn't a totally pointless pokemon though. While Jynx packs a distinctly better punch it's definitely a glass cannon.

Articuno does the same job as cloyster but comes with a much better bulk. While you're not supposed to tank your way through the defenders, at least surviving the encounter comes in handy.

What articuno does best, however, is to free up eventual lapras you're currently using as special case attackers. Should dragonite enter the scene as a raid boss a pumped up articuno will come in handy as well.

Taking Blizzard or Ice Beam is a matter of playing style. If you're going kamikaze then pick Ice Beam to avoid ending combat with more than 50 energy. Dodging players might prefer Blizzard.

Zapdos, raikou, side by side

In preparation for when the electric dog hits Europe I'll set the two electric type legendaries against each other.

Zapdos:

• Base stamina 180
• Base attack 253
• Base defence 188
• Type electric / flying
• Best attacks Charge Beam / Thunderbolt

Raikou:

• Base stamina 180
• Base attack 241
• Base defence 210
• Type electric
• Best attacks Thunder Shock / Wild Charge

Both pokemon share the same stamina with raikou coming out ahead in terms of defence.

The flying typing for zapdos makes it a little iffy for attacking into lapras since ice attacks are supereffective against flying.

Since the two pokemon don't share the best move sets it's not a given that the 12 extra base attack will settle which one is the best attacker even in terms of raw dps.

Zapdos comes with Charge Beam as a primary attack. It pretty much shares the attributes of Bullet Seed for exeggutor, with Charge Beam being slightly better at pumping up energy for the charge attacks. As a primary attack Charge Beam is pretty lackluster, and it's basically only there to prepare the charge attack.

Raikou has access to Thunder Shock and Volt Switch as primary attacks. While Volt Switch comes with a slighty better DPS, Thunder Shock ramps up energy at a distinctly better pace. It's also much easier to dodge incoming attacks if you use Thunder Shock.

Thunder Shock and Charge Beam ramps up energy at a basically identical rate, and since Thunder Shock comes with a higher DPS than Charge Beam it's likely that Raikou will deal more damage than Zapdos with the primary attacks despite a lower base attack stat.

Zapdos has the two bar Thunderbolt as its best charge attack. It's an 80 power move with a 2.5 second cast time. While using Zap Cannon should yield a higher dps for a long fight, zapdos' stamina simply won't sustain any long fights. You're likely to end combat with a lot of unused energy.

Raikou has the two bar Wild Charge as its best charge attack. It's a 90 power move with a 2.6 second cast time.

As far as charge moves go Wild Charge deals 10% higher dps compared to Thunderbolt given the same attack stat. Zapdos 12 higher base attack stat only gives a 5% advantage, so raikou should come out ahead again.

With better bulk, no type disadvantages against likely targets and a slightly higher dps, raikou is the better attacker of the two electric type legendaries.

Apart from some fights against gyarados, and not even all of those fights, raikou is the best electric type pokemon for attacks in the game. Jolteon will be better against some gyardos, but overall picking raikou as your goto electric type attacker is a no-brainer.

Entei is not the best fire type attacker

Really!

I'm seing ludicruous arguments why entei is the best fire type pokemon.

Now let's get this straight. Stop tanking your opponents. Moltres does more damage, end of story.


So, but flying takes supereffective damage from more sources than a fire type only pokemon?

Eh, ok, let's have a look.

Flying is weak against ice. We'll have a look at that later.

Flying is also weak against electric and rock type attacks. OK, electric and rock type attacks? In what alternative universe did you plan to attack into electric and rock type pokemon with a fire type attacker in the first place?


Remains ice. Or let's be real, remains lapras.


Lapras has a fifty percent chance to lead into the fight with a water based primary attack. Lapras has a thirty three percent chance to slam you with Hydro Pump as a charge attack.

My first pick is not, repeat not, a fire based attacker with that high a risk of receiving water type attacks against me.


And there was this thing with ice. Who in their right mind would pick Fire Spin / Overheat over Counter / Dynamic Punch when it comes to dealing supereffective damage with STAB bonus against a target with a zero percent chance to deal super effective damage against a fighting type pokemon?

Moltres, entei, side by side

I've written that you should stick to moltres, but I haven't said why.

This is why.

Moltres:

• Base stamina 180
• Base attack 251
• Base defence 184
• Type fire / flying
• Best attacks Fire Spin / Overheat

Entei:

• Base stamina 230
• Base attack 235
• Base defence 176
• Type fire
• Best attacks Fire Spin / Overheat

Entei is a hard hitting tank, but a tank nonetheless. It's attack stat is about the same as exeggutor, but it's still lower than flareon, which is the base line for fire attackers.

Unless your primary goal is to survive as an attacker you should go for the highest attack stat possible. Glass cannons might be the exception, but with hit points like an exeggutor moltres is most definitely not a glass cannon. With both higher attack and better survivability than flareon moltres is your goto choise for a fire attacker. Especially since you're likely to have an old flareon since days gone by.

Since moltres and entei share the best attack moves the extra 16 attack stat comes in handy. It's a stiff five percent extra damage done by charge moves, and eventual break points for the primary attack kicks in at earlier levels. Especially since Fire Spin runs at 14 power those break points come at closer intervals compared to a primary attack with 5 or 6 power.

Boss raids, raid eggs are back

Since this morning the one hour heads up raid eggs are back. Raids have been shortened to one hour as well.

With this reversal come a number of changes:

• Tiers one through four have a one hour speculation window
• It'll be harder to get people together for the unsoloable boss raids
• The time during which gyms are raid locked is cut in half
• It's possible to flip a gym and defend it in order to get the gym control bonus

Since entei is the only legendary raid boss available in Europe (and obviously other doggies elsewhere) the tier five gyms have no window of speculation at all. You know your local dog will pop into place.

In cities with a huge amount of gyms the speculation window part matters less. However, cutting the raid lock time in half does matter. It means it's a lot easier to take over gyms during day time compared to the last month or so. We should expect a greater gym turnover from now on.

In areas with fewer gyms it's worth taking over a gym with a legendary raid egg to ensure you get the gym control bous. It's after all a full item pack extra. Two extra balls doesn't hurt, but by now players have probably collected the dogs.

In regions where raikou spawns those extra balls might be more interesting, but entei and suicune are inferior to other options when attacking into gyms, and thus the need to actually catch the raid boss is lessened.

Boss raids, mewtwo confirmed

So the exclusve raids are confirmed to be mewtwo.

Boss raids, exclusive raids and mewtwo

Seems that things are moving forward on the exclusive raids front.

The first passes hae been distributed for a few gyms in what's obviously a beta testing period.

Also mewtwo have received updated information, more specifically a six percent base capture rate.

All in all this hints that mewtwo will be the first raid boss for exclusive raids. Within a few days we'll know for certain.

Boss raids, entei, impressions

In Europe we've been saddled with entei as the new legendary raid boss. It's basically a tankier version of flareon, even though flareon deals slightly more damage.

Entei is in almost all aspects inferior to moltres which makes it pretty much a pokedex filler. If, in some kind of future, we're allowed to assign legendaries as gym defenders this won't stay true as entei comes with a hefty amount of hit points.

As a raid boss entei is, quite frankly, a joke. In the role a a raid boss entei can't capitalise on its stamina since all raid bosses in a given tier share the same amount of hit points, and with a very poor defence stat entei is severely hurt by this.

Five level 38 or higher players will run right through entei as a raid boss, and any constellation of seven high level Pokemon Go players will burn it down with a good safety margin.

Entei shares the same problem, of if you prefer, player benefit, as any other fire based defender -- a good vaporeon is simply too easy to get. To add insult to injury moltres and zapdos had trainers give golem a good look, so by now players have a very good line-up against fire pokemon. Add rhydon for players who invested in one since earlier, and entei is in for a really bad abuse.


What happnes now is that we're looking at a month with a decent inflow of rare candy with no new target to assign it to. Since zapdos had trainers scramble to set up a decent line-up against electric type pokemon, and zapdos in itself is the best electric type pokemon until raikou arrives on the scene, this spells disaster for both raikou and suicune when they're here as raid bosses.

One month is plenty of time to boost one zapdos and yet another golem for those so inclined. The first will go berserk on the water type suicune, and players are likely to be surprised when the eletrci type raikou puts up less resistance than epected.


The only thing that can change this is a really juicy reward from the upcoming invitational raids.