Inkay/Malamar(which is now available on the first island) is pretty good in USUM for Totem battles. Topsy-Turvy reverses the totem stat buffs.
It also works well for the battle with
Ultra Necrozma, who has all of its stats boosted 2 stages, effectively doubling the stats of a Pokemon with a higher stat total than Arceus
You still need give it a way to survive a hit though(Focus sash is the best bet but you'd need to trade with another Gen VII game that's reached the post game, so you'd have to use Focus Band and/or high Affection and pray to the RNG gods.
Also note to anyone Nuzlocking, the above spoilered battle is often a game-ender without the right countermeasures, it can tear apart most level-appropriate teams like paper, it can easily outrun and one-shot many level 100's.
Actually, you can get a Focus Sash before that battle, on Poni Island. In the Poni Wilds, there is a Dancer with four Oricorio, all with a Focus Sash. I'd recommend a Rock Blaster for that. Otherwise, beat her, and she'll give you a Focus Sash.
i don’t know if anyone’s mentioned it, but once you get to the Ultra Wormhole minigame, there are 20 regular Pokémon available through the wormholes. after a certain distance, the chance of a wormhole containing a regular Pokémon that is also shiny goes up exponentially, and once you enter a wormhole with a regular Pokémon, the shininess is locked, so you can soft reset for nature and stuff (this isn’t true for wormholes where legendaries spawn - you can still save right before the actual encounter once you enter the wormhole and soft reset for shininess. i spent 4 hours searching for Virizion & 4 hours soft resetting and finally got one.)
i’ve gotten a shiny Swanna and two shiny Yanmega through wormholes so far. i don’t know what i’ll do with the second Yanmega yet, but now i have a full shiny box and have started on my second.
also, you can go to the Game Freak office in Heahea and talk to an NPC to switch to regular controls instead of motion controls for the Ultra Wormhole once you’ve entered it once, so if you’re struggling with that part of the main story go do that.
i’m assuming this isn’t spoiler stuff since the minigame was shown in trailers
My Steelcase dualpack finally came in the mail last night. It's annoying to start a week later then many other people but at least I have them now. The REAL important thing is that I traded an Egg to my Ultra Moon so I could have a Shellos/Gastrodon named Fidel Gastro, because naming sea slugs after dictators is very important to me.
My progress has stalled because work is busy this time of year.
However, I still go to the plaza and use the loto stations because I have 6 of them as that takes zero effort - as soon as I can rename the plaza I'm calling it nugget-maker.
Bewear is amazing. I actually stalled the living fuck out of Sophocles' Totem mon so much that it Struggled to death and its ally almost did too. I got trapped by Stealth Rocks and Torment, so I figured that I could sacrifice Bewear since I thought Bounce+ally mon would kill it in 2 turns and my Oricorio could tank everything enough to deal damage afterwards. But Bewear dodged every Bounce attack and I managed to lower both mons' attack and speed to shit to survive.
Interesting AI quirks were added to USUM to add depth
There is a preschooler that says he is bad at moves and thus does things like use Fling with no item
The Rainbow Rocket Grunts are unable to recognize the typing differences between Alolan Forms and their original Kantonian versions, and thus will try to for example use psychic moves on Alolan Muk or Normal moves on Alolan Marowak.
Ghetsis is incapable of comprehending the Fairy type, and will try to use dragon moves on them. The BW1 Unova Pokedex also has next to no fairies(Cottonee/Whimsicott is it, since there are no megas or Pokemon from other regions)
Haha, reminds me of Generation One, where you'd carry a Grass/Poison type into Erica's gym. Because of the "Grass" Type, the game automatically makes the Pokemon use Poison moves, but since you're also Poison type, you're immune.
I always just used an Oddish with Cut to beat Erica back in the day.
Interesting AI quirks were added to USUM to add depth
There is a preschooler that says he is bad at moves and thus does things like use Fling with no item
The Rainbow Rocket Grunts are unable to recognize the typing differences between Alolan Forms and their original Kantonian versions, and thus will try to for example use psychic moves on Alolan Muk or Normal moves on Alolan Marowak.
Ghetsis is incapable of comprehending the Fairy type, and will try to use dragon moves on them. The BW1 Unova Pokedex also has next to no fairies(Cottonee/Whimsicott is it, since there are no megas or Pokemon from other regions)
I'm just so happy about the new Ultra Beasts. All three of them are fun to use, even Stakataka who everyone was expecting to be trash with the Rock/Steel typing. That thing is a Trick Room monster and I love it.
I ended up grinding to lv. 49 thinking Lusamine's party was gonna be lv. 50 since the Ultra Recon Squad's mon was lv. 47, but nope. I steamrolled her with Contrary Lurantis. Her Clefable isn't annoying anymore unfortunately, and while her Bewear has a better moveset she still felt lacking. I struggled beforehand with Team Skull and some of the Aether Grunts of all things due to half my party being weak to Poison. Now I'm likely gonna be overleveled after Poni...
Also:
Lusamine's reason for using Cosmog now feels really forced. Just to beat Necrozma for her own benefit and yet the Recon Squad doesn't like that? She's doing what they asked: defeat Necrozma. Now she's being praised as a hero which feels even more forced.
There's a lot of dialogue changes I like such as Gladion mentioning Mohn to Lusamine, but I feel it would've worked better when she was Nihilego crazy. Faba confirming to Hau that Lillie was with her mom feels stupid compared to him not running away with the key to get to them. There's a lot of dialogue changes so far that would've worked better in the previous game than here and some that are pointless.
I'm not sure what to think still since I now gotta crawl through Poni. Please tell me it'll get more interesting.
I ended up grinding to lv. 49 thinking Lusamine's party was gonna be lv. 50 since the Ultra Recon Squad's mon was lv. 47, but nope. I steamrolled her with Contrary Lurantis. Her Clefable isn't annoying anymore unfortunately, and while her Bewear has a better moveset she still felt lacking. I struggled beforehand with Team Skull and some of the Aether Grunts of all things due to half my party being weak to Poison. Now I'm likely gonna be overleveled after Poni...
Also:
Lusamine's reason for using Cosmog now feels really forced. Just to beat Necrozma for her own benefit and yet the Recon Squad doesn't like that? She's doing what they asked: defeat Necrozma. Now she's being praised as a hero which feels even more forced.
There's a lot of dialogue changes I like such as Gladion mentioning Mohn to Lusamine, but I feel it would've worked better when she was Nihilego crazy. Faba confirming to Hau that Lillie was with her mom feels stupid compared to him not running away with the key to get to them. There's a lot of dialogue changes so far that would've worked better in the previous game than here and some that are pointless.
I'm not sure what to think still since I now gotta crawl through Poni. Please tell me it'll get more interesting.
Traded my Level 100 Nebby with Pokerus for an Yveltal. Why? Dunno. Scheming for my Articuno.
And can this stinking baby Shiny Salandit hatch already? So I can photograph it and post it for bragging purposes!! I'm bloody rotating my stick in that square under the daycare for 2 mins at a time, hatching 10 in one hour, and STILL NOT THERE.
Traded my Level 100 Nebby with Pokerus for an Yveltal. Why? Dunno. Scheming for my Articuno.
And can this stinking baby Shiny Salandit hatch already? So I can photograph it and post it for bragging purposes!! I'm bloody rotating my stick in that square under the daycare for 2 mins at a time, hatching 10 in one hour, and STILL NOT THERE.
