"And From The Yellow Windows of The Last Train...

[TwilightCoda]

...a spectre from the next life breathes his fog on the pane..."

 

 Good morning, fellow East Coasters. And hello to the rest of you, as well. I'm coming back to Reborn after a while of being away, and I'm looking to start again. I remember having some serious difficulties in my last playthrough, to the extent that I felt like I was being completely excluded from the Field Effect system, except until it was used against me to deadly effect.

 

 I'm not a beginner at Pokemon, but I need some expert help on how to team-build, both for individual creatures and within the larger scope of a six man team. Should I try to gather Pokemon from as many types as possible, or should I trim it down to a thinner range of types, while still remaining versatile? How many attackers should I have compared to defenders? How can I make my team influence and counter field effects consistently?

 

 I'll get this party started and say that I'm leaning towards either a Protean Greninja, or a Speed Boost Blaziken for a starter.

 

 I'm looking forward to what you all have to say, please let me know of any questions you have.

Edited April 20, 2018 by Chameleon109

[World3]

Personally, I’d do a cyndaquil, because typhlosion is A) cool as fuck and overpowered as fuck when it gets eruption. However, until then it’s mediocre at best. So probably greninja is your best bet. I’m actually using it right now in an oriental themed run, and it’s working beautifully. As for team building, you’ll have to have probably 11 or 12 mons total, depending on who your opponent is. If you try to keep one single team the whole time you’re fucked unless you ev train everything (at least I was). You should pick up the kricketune in peridot ward, as it will carry you through at least Corey’s gym. After you beat the first gym you should pick up an onix in peridot because steelix is an absolute unit.

 

After that it’s prety much up to you.

 

There are a few Pokemon you should definately grab later, like growlith and scraggy, but other than that it’s pretty freeform as long as you have good type coverage. Store the mons you’re not using in a specific pc box, because you’ll need them again. I recommend a guide by @Shadowthiefdark because it’s an easy, clear read and it tells you where to get pretty much any Pokemon you need.

 

hope this helpd

 

also sorry for any spelling/grammar errors because I’m typing this on my phone

[Alistair]

First off, you get a like for the Porcupine Tree reference.

 

Then, about building yer team... I'd say the best idea you can have is versatility. You're going to encounter leaders and trainers specializing in almost all types, Pulses of different types, other noteworthy enemies... It's very difficult to have a team that counters everything, especially with field effects in mind. So what you're most likely going to have to do, is change your team and rotate pokemon in and out as you progress. It shouldn't be necessary to make a whole lot of changes, but adaptability will save you a lot of time and frustration.

If you played Reborn a long time ago, you might not be familiar with them, but there are field effect read-outs scattered in the game. If you find and read them, that will help you a lot. You could for instance learn that Flash Cannon gets a boost in the Factory Field. And in the Mirror Arena. And in the Crystal Cavern. HINT: Flash Cannon is a good move in Reborn

 

Second advice I would give you, is to give their chance to seemingly mediocre pokemon, especially during the early game. Kricketune, Gulpin, Arbok, Klink... these guys look unimpressive but can be really useful, and they are just a couple examples.

 

Third advice... there are some easily available powerhouses that you'll definitely want to consider. Just throwing in some ideas in no specific order:

Blaziken and Greninja are both stupidly powerful and will make your life a lot easier.

Charmander is excellent for the first 3-4 gyms because it learns Dragon Rage.

Nidoking is available early, and while it keeps a barren moveset for a while, after you get both Earth Power and Sludge Wave it's a monster.

Magneton is ludicrously good because it benefits a lot from several fields.

Forretress is great for spiking and walling some threats.

Arcanine hits hard and helps a lot with Intimidate.

 

Good luck!

[Filthy Casual]

First off, you have excellent preferences for starters. Here is who I find are the best starters for each type:

Spoiler

 

Fire: Blaziken

 

This one is ludicrously easy. Blaziken is currently the most powerful starter because of the combination of Speed Boost and Bulk Up

 

Water: Swampert

 

Now this one is controversial, but hear me out. Greninja is ludicrously good, especially with Protean. However, you'll find that his early level up moveset isn't quite beneficial. The strongest BP moves it learns through level-up are at 60. That would be great if it had more TMs in the beginning to take advantage of it's Special Attack, but it doesn't. The strongest move it will get in the beginning is Water Pledge, which is great, but that's through a tutor with shards. The Mudkip line, on the other hand, goes relatively even at the beginning of the game (good against electric and poison as a Marshtomp, bad against grass and bug without Quick Claw), learns great physical moves (like Rock Slide), and is much easier to team build around. Doesn't mean Greninja is bad, though; you should totally get it if you really want it.

 

Grass: Venusaur/Serperior

 

This one is preference. Venusaur is a great defensive pivot, has a good type, and learns great moves. It even has Cloryphyll as a hidden ability, something that greatly benefits any potential sun teams. On paper, this puts Venusaur ahead of Serperior. However, you then remember that Serperior has Contrary. Serperior may be more predictable and boring to use as a result, but to be honest, that one strategy is really all it needs to get going.

 

 

Also, here are some of my favorite Pokemon to use in the main game of different (but not necessarily all) types:

 

Spoiler

Normal: Bibarel

 

Yes, you can stop laughing. I'm completely serious. People don't realize it, but Simple Curse priority Bibarel can dominate battles. You can find Bidoof relatively early, meaning it can be useful from the start. Bibarel's type is also unique, letting it spam Quick Attack and Aqua Jet to maximum effectiveness. If you don't like Bibarel, I still recommend getting one, as it's a pretty excellent HM Slave.

 

Electric: Ampharos

 

This technically isn't the best electric type in the game (we'll get to that later), but it can be extremely useful. It's bulk combined with good Special Attack is extremely useful. The one thing that can hold it back is that it's slow, but honestly, with Ampharos's moveset, that's not too much of a hinderence.

 

Fighting: Scrafty

 

Scrafty's power is already known. It learns great moves, and has strong power to back it up. Just one thing you should know, though: if you get one, make sure you get one with Dragon Dance. That will make it infinitely more useful.

 

Dark: Krookodile

 

This one is a preference, but Krookodile has a great typing and great moves to back it up. Moxie is also a great ability, taking advantage of it's pretty good Attack stat.

 

Steel: Magnezone

 

If we're being completely honest, Magnezone is the actual best electric type in the game, as well. It benefits from the fields, learns excellent moves, has a good type, and is pretty defensive, as well. The only problem with it is that you won't be able to evolve Magneton until much later in the game. However, with patience, Magnezone can help carry you through fights.

 

Bug: Kricketune

 

This one is tricky. In all honestly, this is only the best bug type at the beginning of the game. Fury Cutter can run through the first two leaders (as well as a few future boss fights). After that, box it and replace it for Galvantula, Araquanid, Leavanny, Heracross, or Pinsir.

 

Finally, no matter what you do, get a Growlithe. You can breed an egg, and trade it away in order to get a Mystery Egg. Almost all of the mons you can get in the egg are excellent, so I would definitely consider that.

[RedactedNPC]

2 hours ago, World3 said:

I recommend a guide by @Shadowthiefdark because it’s an easy, clear read and it tells you where to get pretty much any Pokemon you need.

         Thanks 8^) I'm glad my guide isn't too convoluted. 

 

         As for the question, I know exactly what you mean. You've already been given some great advice by everyone else. I've tried having a few Pokémon that were walls, but that didn't go over too well for me. Personally, I've found that fast Pokémon that hit hard are the way to go in this game. If you need someone more defensive, try someone who's still fast, but doesn't hit as hard. Blastoise isn't the fastest, but it's still fast enough to sometimes go first depending on the foe while hitting hard and being able to take hits. I personally compare all Pokémon I come across to Charizard because I've used Charizard long enough to know how fast "fast" is and how strong "strong" is. Base stats of 100 are outstanding and the lowest I'll accept for speed or attacks is 70. You can find base stats for whatever Pokémon you come across in Bulbapedia.

 

         In general, try to get some good coverage and balance going. If possible, I try to have half the team be physical sweepers while the other half is special sweepers. This way, enemies with high defense or foes with high special defense won't be difficult for your team.

 

         Try to have moves of different types on each Pokémon. With just 4 Pokémon I'm able to use a super-effective move against all but Fairy-type Pokémon because everyone knows more than just their type of moves. For instance, my Gallade, a Psychic/Fighting, knows a Psychic, Fighting, and Grass move. My Blastoise knows a Water, Fighting, Steel, and Dragon (soon to be replaced with Ice) attack. This coverage makes it so that you won't constantly have to switch out your Pokémon and can take advantage of the field even if your Pokémon isn't that type (Blastoise can use the Factory Field effect even though he's a water type). Always have a move that's the same type as your Pokémon so that you can take advantage of STAB.

 

         At the end of the day, it comes down to who looks coolest to me. That's why I'll always choose Charizard over Blaziken. Blaziken may have a lot going for it, but Charizard has that nostalgia, and that's all I need.

 

 

[TwilightCoda]

Wow, thanks a bunch everyone! I'll put this into practice right away.

[doombotmecha]

Blaziken has excellent set-up-and-sweep potential, and Greninja doesn't get access to its best moves until much later. In addition, it's made of paper, and water is a stab type you really don't need early (though it can help at times).

 

Reading through the field effect guide (either on this site or the one that IIRC comes in the download package) is something I'd really recommend. There's also a general walkthrough that's almost up to date in "on the hunt", that goes into more detail than I can here. Here are a few key moves to look out for:

 

Mist and "terrain" moves: all of these are great when for blanket field-away. Watch out, though; for a few fields, Mist can make it into something *worse*.

Users: Igglybuff, Mareep, others

 

Discharge: changes "factory" and "blackout" fields into each other

 

Users: Mareep, Elektrike

 

Flame Burst/Eruption/a few others: can set fields on fire. Really key for a few fights, generally useful in almost any green area, like forests, gardens...

 

Users: Numel, Growlithe, Pansear

 

Earthquake/Magnitude/Bulldoze: use twice to make caves cave-in, fainting both Pokemon. Good for stuff like Caves, Crystal caves, dark crystal caves...

 

Users: Graveler, Numel, Diggersby

 

Other than that, the biggest strategy difference in Reborn is the need for a "rotation", extra mons you can sub into your team case a main team member is ineffective in a given battle. For instance, I'm currently training to beat Shelly, which I will do by setting her forest field on fire with flame Burst from Growlithe and moving on from there. So, my Klink (who really hates being on fire) is going to spend that fight in the box.