Routine Sparkles Pokémon Go

@gillybean2 You can click and then click 'see more,' on the top right in the pokemon search, then click 'buddies' and it shows your past/current buddies and you can show them by most recent etc.

It seems that mine was probably a Larvitar (is a Tyrannitar now.) I'm surprised as that as it's pretty sensible when you'dve thought we wouldn't know what we're doing at the start.

I’m not entirely sure of my first best buddy. I have a feeling it was a snivy. I remember being particularly hacked off when I evolved that buddy and it’s best buddy ribbon vanished never to be seen again. All part of the endless bugs ‘teething problems’

Those wondering why you had a wailmer as a buddy, I did too. It needed 400 candy to evolve and I walked that thing for miles to get them. Same with my noibat and my original noivern is still my favourite best buddy despite everyone now having one since community day. I ran out at 1am to our nearby church to catch that thing when they were rare as ponyta shit to quote @PickAChew

Good luck with your master ball research PickAChew. Ds still has walking to do for his but as he doesn’t play any more and my mobility is still poor it’s taking me a while to get that done for him.

And no bowler hat on the wooper, it was just a standard one with tiny combat power. Trouble is she likes small cute Pokémon and I'm trying to build a battle team!

She's only 4 so a way off having her own phone to play with, she just enjoys prodding all my Pokémon and seeing what they do!

My first buddy was a Wailmer, for no particular reason that I can remember. The first one to make it to best buddy was my hundo Lucario, which I love.

I'm on level 41 now, so lots of Eevee buddies coming up!

@AlmostLegendary Sounds like she needs her own account.

DD 'helps' with my buddy choices, so my first was a rather useless wooper, that I'm not allowed to get rid of now.

I currently need to adventure with a pancham and a slowpoke to evolve them, but she has rejected both and teamed me up with a diglett which has no purpose. I'll sneak another one on when she goes to bed. 🤣

First buddy... the first one on my buddy history is a vanillite, which i must have not liked very much as it has zero berries, zero km walked and was my friend for 0 days. First named one eevee called Bedtime which grew up into an umbreon. I still use it in GL, but should probably replace with one with a better profile.
Lol at your costumed sneasel collection PickaChew. I've got my masterball now, so of course haven't seen any legendary birdies with my daily incense since.

I'm also childishly amused at the developer's-eye-view of what constitutes a fashionable outfit. Shades and a beanie. Someone go inform the Style&Beauty forum.

I can't remember what my first buddy was. I think it might have been a wailmer 🤔

I am finally one raid off completing my masterball research. It's been a lovely day and I've knocked out 6 raids, today - 5 of them one star, which are usually as rare as Ponyta shit, which has been much easier on my stash of revives than other recent efforts - after mega Garchomp and mega Kanga, plus Virizion, all of which I've duoed with DS2's account, I was reaching the point where I was powering stuff up to preserve revives because I was getting plenty of potions but far fewer revives.

Costumed Sneasel is way cool but I think I might have plenty of them, now.

oooh definitely

Thanks, I have a terrakion with sacred sword from last year, so might be worth some rare candy investment.

@thirdfiddle I know it's a matter of them being in a raid/trade but I like Terrakions If they have decent attacks, not Earthquake or something lame like that. For beginning accounts then yep Hariyamas.

I don't actually have a great second fighting type after machamp. If you could have anything, what would you power up?

It also makes a difference how common something is. Hariyama often appears in the wild, this season, so it's easy to build a fighting team. Lucario, OTOH - I've been playing from the start and still don't have one I'm thrilled with.

If you have someone to trade with, you can hang on to high-CP low-IV pokemon and keep trading them with each other.

@AlmostLegendary Thirdfiddle is right- this is the best way. So if you can get someone you know to trade with you a lot, or if you have an imaginary friend.....

I think there's what you prioritise when you're just starting out and don't yet have a strong team against each type, and what you prioritise longer term. There was certainly a stage where I'd power up whatever's cheapest to get to level 40-ish so i could have something to win rocket battles and raids with straight away.
Then later you have something to play with day to day and can slowly power up high IVs (3 or 4 star) to have the best team long term.
If you have someone to trade with, you can hang on to high-CP low-IV pokemon and keep trading them with each other. Eventually you'll end up with lucky high-CP pokemon which are perfect for evolving and powering up to max.
edit for formatting fail

@AlmostLegendary Yay! Well done.

The star rating is more important, as the CP you can always improve. Though obviously both is the ideal, and a 2* one that happens to be high CP is great too.

I got there! Machamp, Jynx and Hariyama team (before I saw your message @PickAChew ). Wouldn't have made any difference as the Hariyama never got to the fight anyway, as I used Machamp, changed to Jynx and then back to Machamp and that was enough to finish him off!

I still never know whether I should prioritise 3 star or high CP, I normally seem to get one or the other and not both. 🤔 I've only caught 1 Makuhita (today) and that was total rubbish on all counts, so haven't really had the option to evolve one yet!

@AlmostLegendary it's far more effective to evolve a high level makuhita caught in the wild than plough precious stardust into hariyama (unless it's a shadow one) as IV merely determines how strong a pokemon is when fully maxed out.

Concentrate on getting the typing right for the rock paper scissors of battle then refine your teams once you reach the point of having lots of everything.

Second moves can be very useful particularly for battling team leaders. When cliff(?) had larvitar I could almost take his entire team with roserade with the fireball from Community day which was great for breaking shields plus its own grass moves which ground types are weak to.

@AlmostLegendary I don't bother with adding second attacks as I don't think it helps much.

He is double weak to ice so mamoswine should do the job.

Speaking of Giovanni, his Garchomp is absolutely battering whatever I put up against him, even if my attacks are super effective. What have any of you succeeded with?

I've got a pretty good Gurdurr, but not enough candy to evolve to Conkeldurr. I might be able to organise a trade, but have a limited number of local friends, DS has had phone problems so completely missed that community day.

I have a 3 star Hariyama, but again not enough candy to power up much.My other high CP fighting types are a Sawk which seemed to be pretty useless against Giovanni and a Hitmonlee that I've not tried yet.

I think possibly I need to be a bit more patient and work on my team a bit.