Serra's new field...damn

[laggless01]

Just took a look at the mirror field Serra gets...Now that's what one would call frustrating.

[mwijsman]

It wouldn't be Pokemon reborn if it was easy for us.

[Antilegend]

Access to Earthquake, or moves of it's kind, seems almost necessary for this. The field isn't designed to give advantages or disadvantages to the player, it's designed to give Serra the edge almost completely. Her entire team will benefit from a field like this, whereas the player will have one, maybe two Pokemon that do.

Take the seven years bad luck and smash it to hell.

[Vinny]

And even then, you can destroy the field as soon as you enter.

It's only bad if you allow it to be bad. Just like the old Serra was.

Edited May 20, 2015 by Vinny

[Ganolth]

I hope E15 comes out before I get to her on my Ghost Mono Run just to see the field.

[Odybld]

Or you can use screens, Magneton, no-miss moves, Unaware Clefable with Meteor Mash and Wakeup Slap, No Guard Machamp, Meowstic with Keen Eye, blablabla. There are many solutions.

Chatot is gonna murder Bennett. Tangled Feet and Chatter will make him feel a taste of this field's medicine.

[laggless01]

Maybe Vanilluxe will see some use thanks to this...there is an ice vending machine in the museum...
But those ice beams are going to hurt badly, no matter how you look at it.

Also, am I the ony one that thinks this field kinda feels like a Naruto episode?

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

As someone who's very big on accuracy to begin with (I only use 100% accuracy moves, so Flamethrower > Fire Blast etc.) this does sound terrifying x . x I can think of a few Pokemon that work well here, though.

Edited May 20, 2015 by Ice Cream Sand Witch

[Foamy]

Ew, an evasion-based field. Let's all just throw skill out the window and leave battle outcomes to probability.

[Sunriseinnovator]

Notice how Nature Power becomes Mirror Shot on that field, Ame was very generous to give us that against her...

Edit: I lied, magnet bomb never misses...but hey, at least you get a SE move on maybe half her team thats not part water...

Edited May 21, 2015 by Sunriseinnovator

[Gaunt]

Ew, an evasion-based field. Let's all just throw skill out the window and leave battle outcomes to probability.

Or you can use that skill to overcome the "obstacle" that is the field

P.S.

Love this field, sometimes i use an Ice-miss team in Uber for fun to see the "almighty tacticians" that populate the place (usually with just copy-paste win teams) rage and quit it's simply hilarious (well when it works )

[Foamy]

Or you can use that skill to overcome the "obstacle" that is the field

Where "skill" in this context means "being shoehorned into using a single narrow strategy?"

[Antilegend]

Where "skill" in this context means "being shoehorned into using a single narrow strategy?"

Back in my day, we used Feint Attack! And Shock Wave! In thirty feet of snow!

And we LIKED it!

But seriously, there really isn't much of an alternative strategy. At that point in the game, there are few Pokemon that can take advantage of the field effects. I don't mind the Snow Cloak hacks, but this seems a bit much.

Bring a quake and be done with it.

[Alilatias]

This field seems to trade weakening offending types (in this case, fire, rock, steel, and fighting) for probability, also powering up one of the super effective attacks. Rather interesting twist...

I can already think that Magneton is going to vaporize Serra though, unless her team changes to have a real counter to steel types somewhere. Avalugg has Earthquake but it's slow and has like no special defense. Maybe have a sacrificial Onyx/Steelix to stealth rock the team first in case there's any Focus Sash users. Maybe Klinklang could work too, and it can come with Clear Body, rendering the accuracy drops useless.

(Oh, an idea. Since I noticed light-based moves and some beam-like moves are adjusted to never miss, maybe Confuse Ray and Hypnosis should be the same way as well? Confuse Ray because, well, it's a ray, and Hypnosis because presumably no matter which way the enemy Pokemon looks, it'd logically make eye contact somewhere.)

Edited May 21, 2015 by Alilatias

[AuthorReborn]

Or you can use screens, Magneton, no-miss moves, Unaware Clefable with Meteor Mash and Wakeup Slap, No Guard Machamp, Meowstic with Keen Eye, blablabla. There are many solutions.

Chatot is gonna murder Bennett. Tangled Feet and Chatter will make him feel a taste of this field's medicine.

If you look closely at he obtainable list, you can obverse that while you could previously catch Machops pre-Serra, now the player can only obtain them as Machokes and thus at a later point, presumably after Serra's fight to prevent this sort of exploit.

[Kithros]

Where "skill" in this context means "being shoehorned into using a single narrow strategy?"

There are 2 very obvious strategies that come to mind - you can simply destroy the field outright (plenty of pokemon are capable of this), and there's also the fairly obvious use flash cannon/mirror shot which are both boosted, both are super effective against ice and both become guaranteed hits - they'd probably OHKO any ice pokemon that didn't have a 2nd type that resisted it (even then it might OHKO it..), so if you get a high speed pokemon with one of those moves you can really easily sweep her team.

There are also some other strategies that would work for the fight - for instance, you could just use substitute on some of your pokemon - all of the accuracy buffs/evasion debuffs are consumed on a critical hit, so if you just set up a substitute to get hit by a critical then you can deal with the fight as normal afterwards.

Something of note is that you can also setup sweep really easily in this field by taking advantage of flash reducing accuracy of pokemon - if you put substitute on a pokemon with a setup move, then you can have another pokemon cripple one of her pokemon with flash, then substitute on your setup sweeper until she misses and set up freely after that (the AI won't switch out their -6 accuracy pokemon until they have no moves that do damage). A magnezone is ideal for this since it has sturdy, and then it can thunder wave + flash spam to cripple a pokemon very effectively.

If you don't mind reloading then the fight's still plausible to beat by just brute forcing it with any conventional strategy regardless - sometimes you might get destroyed by the hax, but after several attempts you'll get lucky and win anyway, even if you didn't use anything special.

I don't really see that as being forced to use a specific strategy personally - there are probably plenty of other options too.

[AuthorReborn]

I'd like the point out that Flash should still be obtainable Pre-Serra. That's all.

[Foamy]

I can already think that Magneton is going to vaporize Serra though, unless her team changes to have a real counter to steel types somewhere. Avalugg has Earthquake but it's slow and has like no special defense.

If she gets an Avalugg, it'll probably be packing Sturdy.

There are 2 very obvious strategies that come to mind - you can simply destroy the field outright (plenty of pokemon are capable of this), and there's also the fairly obvious use flash cannon/mirror shot which are both boosted, both are super effective against ice and both become guaranteed hits - they'd probably OHKO any ice pokemon that didn't have a 2nd type that resisted it (even then it might OHKO it..), so if you get a high speed pokemon with one of those moves you can really easily sweep her team.

There are also some other strategies that would work for the fight - for instance, you could just use substitute on some of your pokemon - all of the accuracy buffs/evasion debuffs are consumed on a critical hit, so if you just set up a substitute to get hit by a critical then you can deal with the fight as normal afterwards.

Something of note is that you can also setup sweep really easily in this field by taking advantage of flash reducing accuracy of pokemon - if you put substitute on a pokemon with a setup move, then you can have another pokemon cripple one of her pokemon with flash, then substitute on your setup sweeper until she misses and set up freely after that (the AI won't switch out their -6 accuracy pokemon until they have no moves that do damage). A magnezone is ideal for this since it has sturdy, and then it can thunder wave + flash spam to cripple a pokemon very effectively.

If you don't mind reloading then the fight's still plausible to beat by just brute forcing it with any conventional strategy regardless - sometimes you might get destroyed by the hax, but after several attempts you'll get lucky and win anyway, even if you didn't use anything special.

I don't really see that as being forced to use a specific strategy personally - there are probably plenty of other options too.

Hm, I dunno. Given the choice between "beat-it-or-join-it" and "let hax decide the match," I'd rather choose neither.

But then again, I suppose "beat-it-or-join-it" is what the field effects are there for in the first place.

Edited May 21, 2015 by Foamy

[Elios]

Guys, if you think that now Serra´s battle is more difficult than before, just don´t see as a problem, at least I see it a challenge, you know, this is something I love of Reborn; the way it make us to try using pokemon that maybe we haven´t used before or movesets that we never thought would be effective. So this field makes Serra an stronger opponet? And what? We have defeated the other leaders and their fields, some may be more difficult that others, but there is always a way to achive it, we just have to think a little bit and I am sure we will make it. Also, we know what the field does, but while episode 15 is not released, we can just speculate and "complain". You can plan your strategies before that of course, but personally, I think the real challenge begins when we can experiment the field effect with our own eyes.

[Helia]

Honestly seeing all the strategies posted above I think she might be less of a challenge for the prepared player. Of course, mono types might have a bit of a hard time, but there's always ways to overcome it.

Though I did have quite a hard time with both Serra and Blake in E14, and I think I won't be doing another run anytime soon, I think I could defeat her easily having seen these strategies, especially if you keep all gym leaders to come in mind each time you do a new run. Preparation is key.

[Fumble]

Of course, mono types might have a bit of a hard time

Thank God I already beat her.