I dropped into the idea that I need to also do something else for the blog posts. Due to the issues I had, I had to have a few backup plans. It turned out that it was at least simple for starting out the 3DS Pokémon Alpha Sapphire challenges.

To keep it simple, we will share the stages in what we do and what happens. This could be slightly tedious, however, it is actually good for bringing my consistency back.

Stage 1: Shiny Starter

Since I need to make sure I become consistent again, it happens to require that I can do things that take time again. This happens to take some time. Firstly, you would need to say goodbye to your previous save. It happened to be that I lost my save, with nearly a full pokedex of shiny Pokemon, at the start of last year as I felt like starting again.

Warning: This will delete your save! Please don’t do it by accident.

Delete save on 3DS: Up + B + X

I figured since I wasn’t doing things correctly in the new save I made last year that I would prefer to start again. That way, I can guarantee the tedious tasks I want to guarantee completing.

After a few slow moments I realized I could simplify it. I didn’t need to touch the touchscreen at all anymore. With the center Pokemon you could pick being Torchic I could just reset and then spam the A button till it showed the battle.

As soon as you load into battle you will see if there are sparkles, they depict if it is a shiny no matter what the colours are. Since the normal torchic is similar in colour to the shiny version I had to rely on the sparkles.

Soft Reset (i.e. reload the game): L + R + Start or L + R + Select

It took 9 hours, and 28 minutes, odd to get the shiny starter. I counted several times and it took me an average of 40 to 45 seconds to start the next battle (aka. shiny check). This meant roughly 6 odd per 5 minutes. This says I looked at roughly 678 Torchics to get a shiny.

I was being slightly unintelligent, which you will understand in a bit, as I figured I could just use Zigzagoon with pickup to level it up to 100 as fast as I could.

Stage 2: Effort Values

Since I was being slightly daft, it made sense to guarantee some EV training for ourselves. Effort value training essentially boosts certain stats of your Pokemon. In our case I began getting 4 Wurmple for HP boosting, then, later on, I realized I accidentally defeated another one. Due to that, I had 5 I believed, therefore, I got an extra 3 so that it was 4 Wurmple more (so, 8).

Since I was on route 101 I happened to see statistically that I got way more Zigzagoon than Poochyena. This doesn’t pay attention to EV Reduction that is possible, and also doesn’t have anything to do with pokerus yet. As you can see in the image below, I roughly kept track of the counts for myself.

Essentially, I may have missed marking it a few times, and similarly I therefore happened to not completely track it correctly. I will need the EV Reduction at a later stage to fix this all.

It happens to be close to 252 HP + 252 Attack + 4 Speed. You will clearly note that there was + 8 speed already. That is alright, it is a problem we can solve for ourselves.

So, the slightly sad outcome of doing it this way: we didn’t have a pokeball yet. We couldn’t catch any Pokemon for ourselves. Halfway through hunting, 4 hours 41 minutes in, I happened to realize we could take a look at route 103, it might be better. You can understand it was since all the Pokemon there were for stats that we wanted still (just attack and HP). When I swapped I was roughly 50 higher in Zigzagoon over Poochyena.

Since there were 2 possibilities for speed to the North (Zigzagoon and Wingull) you could expect it would climb way faster than attack. To the end of the hunt it was only roughly 80 ahead when I finished speed’s 252. Yes, I know I should have paid more attention and not gone to 252 necessarily, I just figured I can live with it.

When the EV training was complete, we could begin the long haul for levelling for ourselves. The training took roughly 7 hours and 45 minutes. We do our first trainer battle so we can move into a new area can’t we?

Stage 3: Get Pickup Working

Heading back towards route 101, it is time to get 5 Zigzagoon with the pickup ability. Consider the fact that I didn’t pay attention to where I could get rare candy from with them. Level 41 to 50 gives it a 10% chance. I just sat and started grinding the experience. I found out later (since I wasn’t getting any rare candy yet) that I needed to level them up.

Stage 4: Start Battling and Moving Forwards

Playing at this stage happens to be quite simple. After every battle you should take a look at the items for each Zigzagoon. You take them into your bag and then continue with the battles. Since I was leveling still it didn’t matter that I wasn’t at the level I wanted, 100. 9 hours, 18 minutes, in I got the first gym badge.

This was the point I was planning on stopping the gym grind currently. It was now time to shiny hunt and level up time. I wanted to get a shiny Nincada for myself. After grinding the exp for a bit I figure I should take a look.

I was only getting potions and pokeballs mostly so far. I go to look at the pickup ability and associate myself with all the drops again (the first time in years). I can only get it from a Zigzagoon after a battle when it is higher than level 20 (so 21 and above). This, however, starts from 4% chance. I need to get it to level 41 and above to get a 10% chance for the rare candy.

Oh dear…

So I figured it would be smart to start the Exp Share level grind. Get the Torchic (already evolved by now) up to level 35 so I can quickly go through the areas.

The Exp sharing is tedious and slow. Don’t just expect that to be quick and easy for yourself. I believe it is since I have 6 Pokemon with me sharing the Exp. The attackers get a little bit of a higher amount, and the others get roughly 75% (my estimate from the differences) each. Instead of 600 Exp you would get 100 on the attacker, and 75 on each of the others (the rough numbers).

The experience grind got too tedious here. On the amusing side, I was getting roughly 50 Exp on Torchic and roughly 35 Exp on each of the others. Then finding out the numbers for myself, I need to just continue.

Stage 5: Let’s Rush Exp

Towards the end of this I realized I have a much easier way I can do this. I was just slightly daft with my choices for Exp sharing.

We are currently 12 hours, 58 minutes in. 3 badges, and Flamer is level 35 (the Torchic is called Flamer). Through Exp sharing I have 5 Linoone at level 22 average. There is one slightly higher, though that came from the double trainer battles.

Since starting out I haven’t seen another shiny to catch, we just want to stick to only catching shiny Pokemon. I wanted to have the complete Pokedex with only shiny Pokemon and only Zigzagoon not shiny. Since it became annoying to cancel all the evolutions and I had realized I needed to get the Zigzagoon to a level that was much higher I evolved them. There will only be 2 non-shiny entries currently. I do know there are a few other Pokemon we can’t get shiny in Alpha Sapphire, I am just not worried about them. We will get all that we can in the game.

Next Stage Plans:

I will be doing some more, and writing some more down on my notepad so that we can guarantee I am consistent with the blog again. We will first use the single highest Linoone with Exp sharing and level Flamer as much as we can. When the Linoone hits level 41 we will turn Exp sharing off. We will pick up all the other Linoones and get them up (without Exp sharing) using the 10% chance of the rare candy.

Take note, this currently has a 4% drop chance with their average being level 21. I will get one up to the 10% and then bring them all together and slowly rely on it to bring them up.

Since I realised my errors in the numbers, statistics, and probability, it would be good to stop here and do an actual grind again. I wanted to get level 100 as fast as possible, and then do everything. I’ve done 3 so far, and only had one battle that was dangerous (Flamey was put to sleep and went to lowest third of HP).

We will make sure we get to level 100 as soon as we can now. I have ideas for the method to make it easier. Also, sure, I could have left it at a single Pokedex entry being non-shiny, leaving it at 2 is still okay. So, we will continue to stick to the rule of only catching shiny Pokemon for ourselves and try to complete the Pokedex with all shiny Pokemon. The 2 entries that aren’t shiny being the exception, and the entries for some legendary encounters we will have that you can’t get the shiny of in Alpha Sapphire.

I would also like to hear tips and tricks for the methods of hunting the next shiny Pokemon. I know we will need fly and surf, and I would just love to get the Nincada shiny and up to level 100. I know there is a way to walk through the grass slowly (with a repel), I just can’t work it out exactly. Tips, tricks, and ideas are all welcome in this regard!