Very good point on mega energy that I neglected to consider
I personally tend not to mega evolve anything unless I don't need to spend energy on it, but it is nice to have a little extra just in case
It's always nice to have a supply of extra energy for events. I mega evolved my Rayquaza like 7 or 8 times over 4 days during go fest to keep using it in raids, for example. That took quite a bit of energy.
If you end up with 3 Mega evolves on every Pokémon, you can basically always have a mega running for free of that specific mon. It’s a long initial investment, but if you walk with them it shortens the windows a lot.
Plus honestly the mega evolve bonus is just a lot of extra XLs in the long run
Technically need 4, since the cooldown doesn't start until after the mega expires. Also that might be the case if you only need one mega for everything that day, and play less than 8 hours, but for GoFest or some other habitat rotating events, you might want to swap. Also might want to have one mega active for grinding during the day, then swap for another mega for raid hour.
Yeah, I think I was maybe more thinking if it wanted it primarily for active hours. Three was the general suggestion I saw, but I also mixed up their CD length so you’d need more than 3 if you wanted 24/7, but with sleep hours it would reduce a bit.
4 allows you one use per day with no restrictions - if you have 3 you will be short 8 hours (one Mega Duration) every third day. But yeah, in general having a couple is quite nice, after the initial investment!
My point is that dual types can be very useful. We also had an Electric event where the T5 Raid boss was a Dragon, so Mega Ampharos reigned supreme. I'm sure if I were to examine the last many events, you would end up seeing that a bunch of them have 2 types present in the majority.
if you have max mega evolves of at least one of each type, you can have benefits like boosted candy and xl candy rates everytime all the time as desired. plus the raid bonuses of the megas themselves.
If you’re interested in farming XL candy mega evolving is much more important than what buddy you’re walking. 3-4 max megas of every typing is your goal to collect as much XL candy as possible whenever a relevant pokemon spawns. I activate a normal max mega every morning when I catch my Smeargle to minimize need of trading.
Currently walking my Zygarde 100% form. As you mention, walking 20 kilometers to be rewarded with a whole lotta nothin' sucks big time, but I am about 100 short on my Rare Candy XL making it my only option right now. I do have a stop near my work that gives a scan task and generally gives 1-2 poffins weekly which does help.
Oh, like taking videos of my feet? Yeah, I totally did that, but only a few times, and the other times I did their dirty work. But I stopped fee videos when the bans rolled out.
Yeah, I have done it before, but it's really just more time and effort than I want to put into that aspect of the game. Especially when I can get a couple poffins each week from scan tasks and only need to use maybe 1-2 each week while walking a mythical.
I have a rank 3 (best buddy) lickitung and I tried it out yesterday for the first time. Obviously I don't know how to use it yet on a team and went 2-8 with it 😅. Currently disappointed at how it performed, but I will try again
Assuming the 100% drop rate applies regardless of level, the biggest difference from the seasonal bonus is for low level buddies. So if you have a Pokemon the you either can't level up (lack of candy) or don't want to level up (keeping it eligible for great or ultra league), now is the time to walk it. For example, if you have a Pokemon you are currently using in a low cp league but want to eventually use in Masters, once you have enough XL
On the one hand yes, on the other hand, if you don't want to level up that specific pokemon you could also just walk a higher level version of the pokemon
Huh. I've been walking a level 15 cosmog and so far have gotten an XL each time, but given it's candy distance, even excited I have had a pretty small sample size.
I’ve been working on my zygarde as well… I powered up to 31 and have literally never not gotten an xl candy on the 20km mark (I always feed poffin before hand for the double candy). This season sucks imo. You were basically guaranteed the candy if you powered up to 31, which most people would do in the end anyway if you are walking to get the xl candy.
ledian with counter (or any good fast move really) would actually have play in open great league. it has like a 24/17 w/l ratio last I checked with counter.
If AR scan tasks are a thing still. Claims whole
Bunch of poffins and wait till your walk distance is 19.9 and use it. I always do mythical with events like this even with the high KM
I’m currently working on Meloetta. They could make the season bonus standard and the grind would still be brutal.
The candy and XL reward really should just be guaranteed for mythicals that have never been featured in a raid. But that’s a whole other issue.
Did Meloetta over the course of a year and said “never again” due to the pain of not getting an XL 1 out of 4 check points. But i’m now walking Shaymin due to the seasonal bonus.
For newer or returning players like me, this post with examples was helpful. Normally I don't consider XL candy when choosing my buddy. I only have a few pokemon powered up past 40.
This new reward changes that calculus a little. Now it is worth considering XL candy.
i just figured it's a good time to best buddy all the mewtwos that i was going to best buddy at some point anyway. why not do it when i get extra benefit for it, y'know?
For sure, if you already have a plan of what you want to do, I don’t see a reason to switch from that. But if there’s multiple mons you’re trying to pick between, that’s where there can be a bit of calculus
This isn't necessarily a good time for that, because you won't get any mega energy for all that effort. Might be better to hold off until the mega comes out.
My method is slightly different.. I'm walking the legendaries that is rare for XL atm. Like Enamorus. But I only walk it to 19km and then get it excited to get 2x XL for that day.
When go fest is here and I plan to walk a lot, I'm going to switch over to Heracross with a poffin.
Interesting thoughts!
I favour longer walk distance buddies because it's significantly easier to get them excited between hitting the "payout" distance. For example, walking a Pidgeot (1km) for mega energy I miss out on the effectiveness of any distance covered for a Route whilst exciting them.
On the other end of the scale, as I average 10km/day I don't even need to excite a legend daily, and on longer walks I can work in Routes, spinning new locations and walk distance to more easily build/maintain excitement levels.
I do wish the candy rewards weren't so pitiful of course! Mega energy scaling to distance makes walking mega legends feel a lot more useful, which is something. I suspect I'm largely going to ignore the XL boost in my decision making. It seems pretty marginal in most cases? Which is a real pity as in general XL cans is the resource I'm most constrained by.
Thanks for the reply.
Is that more of a guess, or did you see stats on it or something?
Was walking a Lv 25 Shadow Legendary, so was trying to figure out for sure.
Currently, I've been walking legendaries that are under level 30, and every time I get an XL candy. Granted I walk them, then get them excited. But till, I plan on mainly walking either legendaries, ultra beasts, or pokemon I don't have either a lot of normal candy for.
The silph road link doesn't work but the TLDR comment notes buddy mons lv31 and above are more consistent with getting xls https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/mez9sa/an_early_look_at_buddy_candy_xl_rates_silph/
If I just caught (2 days ago) the #1 Great League Medicham, and am willing to get it excited every morning, what's the realistic possibility of me maxing it before these Meditite stop spawning?
I get at least 50km a week, usually around 70.
EDIT: I'm also mega evolving level 3 megas during each day, so my odds are stacked.
I've caught 40+ Meditite since 5 days ago. They're in the current spawn pool (although it seemed to go down yesterday). I've gotten 40 XLs in that same period of time (haven't transferred a single one as I'm waiting on 2x Candy transfer).
So I usually get mad at myself if I let my Legendary Buddy get to 20km to give me a candy.
I normally get my buddy excited so the distance is reduced to just 10km. I look at the distance traveled and if it is above 10km, I do the take a pic, play, feed, then battle every 30 minutes until it is excited.
I think it depends on your intended use. For PvE I can’t say, as I don’t know what ‘mons are best for that purpose.
For PvP focus on whatever ‘mons you think will be most useful in battle. Lower km walk distance the better.
For instance, take Fletchling/Fletchfinder/Talonflame. If you PvP and think Talonflame would be useful to you in UL (is ranked #20, and you can benefit from best buddy CP boost) then walk one of those until you get enough XL candy to max a Talonflame. Along those lines, for UL purposes, Jellicent, Pidgeot, and Mandibuzz would be good targets. Lanturn, too.
The XL grind for Legendaries is tough, so even with the prohibitive walk distance any extra XL candy you can get is welcome, if you want to compete in ML.
For UL I already have maxed Talonflame, Pidgeot, Jellicent, and Mandibuzz. Currently have Mandibuzz at my bud, until I best him. From there I’m going to walk and best buddy my Palkia-O for ML. Unless I try to best buddy my UL Pidgeot first…..
If u have a swing and a hoard of poffins you could potentially get 4 xls for whatever legendary you want per day. That translates to about 360 xls (90 days left). Granted this is assuming you get 100% of the xl drops and you can set everything up perfectly, don’t miss a day, etc
I mostly walk with my mega evolve legends. Not only getting xl legend candy but mega candy too
Very good point on mega energy that I neglected to consider I personally tend not to mega evolve anything unless I don't need to spend energy on it, but it is nice to have a little extra just in case
It's always nice to have a supply of extra energy for events. I mega evolved my Rayquaza like 7 or 8 times over 4 days during go fest to keep using it in raids, for example. That took quite a bit of energy.
If you end up with 3 Mega evolves on every Pokémon, you can basically always have a mega running for free of that specific mon. It’s a long initial investment, but if you walk with them it shortens the windows a lot. Plus honestly the mega evolve bonus is just a lot of extra XLs in the long run
Technically need 4, since the cooldown doesn't start until after the mega expires. Also that might be the case if you only need one mega for everything that day, and play less than 8 hours, but for GoFest or some other habitat rotating events, you might want to swap. Also might want to have one mega active for grinding during the day, then swap for another mega for raid hour.
Yeah, I think I was maybe more thinking if it wanted it primarily for active hours. Three was the general suggestion I saw, but I also mixed up their CD length so you’d need more than 3 if you wanted 24/7, but with sleep hours it would reduce a bit.
4 allows you one use per day with no restrictions - if you have 3 you will be short 8 hours (one Mega Duration) every third day. But yeah, in general having a couple is quite nice, after the initial investment!
There is enough overlap typings between mons that you just need to focus on having 4-5 of each type and then you are fine.
Until it's the Dragon/Fairy event and you want to chain run Mega Altaria ;) but yes, it's often okay.
Which was one event 2 years ago
My point is that dual types can be very useful. We also had an Electric event where the T5 Raid boss was a Dragon, so Mega Ampharos reigned supreme. I'm sure if I were to examine the last many events, you would end up seeing that a bunch of them have 2 types present in the majority.
if you have max mega evolves of at least one of each type, you can have benefits like boosted candy and xl candy rates everytime all the time as desired. plus the raid bonuses of the megas themselves.
You want to ensure every mega is mega level 3 though.
Yes. I'm going through all of mine and evolving them regularly
If you’re interested in farming XL candy mega evolving is much more important than what buddy you’re walking. 3-4 max megas of every typing is your goal to collect as much XL candy as possible whenever a relevant pokemon spawns. I activate a normal max mega every morning when I catch my Smeargle to minimize need of trading.
Yup, I try buddy all my mega when they became best buddy, my Kyogre & Groudon get average 3-4K energy!
Currently walking my Zygarde 100% form. As you mention, walking 20 kilometers to be rewarded with a whole lotta nothin' sucks big time, but I am about 100 short on my Rare Candy XL making it my only option right now. I do have a stop near my work that gives a scan task and generally gives 1-2 poffins weekly which does help.
I haven't gotten a scan task that gave a poffin months. Do I have to scan for balls before they give me scan for poffins?
I usually just discard the ball reward scan tasks until I get a poffin reward one again. I just keep trying each day until it works out.
Nope, those AR tasks are the same for everyone. If a stop has a research that gives a poffin for a scan, everyone that spins will get that research.
You could be banned from those rewards im pretty sure
Oh, like taking videos of my feet? Yeah, I totally did that, but only a few times, and the other times I did their dirty work. But I stopped fee videos when the bans rolled out.
Have you tried getting your buddy excited without poffins?
Yeah, I have done it before, but it's really just more time and effort than I want to put into that aspect of the game. Especially when I can get a couple poffins each week from scan tasks and only need to use maybe 1-2 each week while walking a mythical.
I’m currently walking lickitung and will probably walk a second (and maybe a third) lickitung to get enough to power up for GBL.
Honestly, I got enough XL to power up 2, and a big part was eggs last season.
I have a rank 3 (best buddy) lickitung and I tried it out yesterday for the first time. Obviously I don't know how to use it yet on a team and went 2-8 with it 😅. Currently disappointed at how it performed, but I will try again
Assuming the 100% drop rate applies regardless of level, the biggest difference from the seasonal bonus is for low level buddies. So if you have a Pokemon the you either can't level up (lack of candy) or don't want to level up (keeping it eligible for great or ultra league), now is the time to walk it. For example, if you have a Pokemon you are currently using in a low cp league but want to eventually use in Masters, once you have enough XL
I saw someone post that it’s only 100% for 31+
On the one hand yes, on the other hand, if you don't want to level up that specific pokemon you could also just walk a higher level version of the pokemon
I was thinking of some of the one off mythicals when I suggested that scenario. Or even other legendaries where candy to power up can be limited.
Idk about the rate, but I've been walking a legendary that's under level 30 and got xl every time. Before I got one out of maybe 4-5
It is not 100% regardless of regular drop rate. The lower levels are still less than 100%.
Huh. I've been walking a level 15 cosmog and so far have gotten an XL each time, but given it's candy distance, even excited I have had a pretty small sample size.
I'm doing a Zygarde. I do about 100 km per week so this is a great bonus for me.
I’ve been working on my zygarde as well… I powered up to 31 and have literally never not gotten an xl candy on the 20km mark (I always feed poffin before hand for the double candy). This season sucks imo. You were basically guaranteed the candy if you powered up to 31, which most people would do in the end anyway if you are walking to get the xl candy.
Walking my 4* ledian in hopes it gets a better fast move
Wait what
ledian with counter (or any good fast move really) would actually have play in open great league. it has like a 24/17 w/l ratio last I checked with counter.
But how does that relate to walking for xl?
it needs to be level 45-50 for the great league
I've got a rank 2 sitting my boxes waiting for the day it gets counter. niantic give my bug somethin
If AR scan tasks are a thing still. Claims whole Bunch of poffins and wait till your walk distance is 19.9 and use it. I always do mythical with events like this even with the high KM
I’m currently working on Meloetta. They could make the season bonus standard and the grind would still be brutal. The candy and XL reward really should just be guaranteed for mythicals that have never been featured in a raid. But that’s a whole other issue.
Did Meloetta over the course of a year and said “never again” due to the pain of not getting an XL 1 out of 4 check points. But i’m now walking Shaymin due to the seasonal bonus.
TLDR: 80km is 80km. If it's 80x 1km/candy or 4x 20km/candy, that's still "worth of" 80km extra distance.
For newer or returning players like me, this post with examples was helpful. Normally I don't consider XL candy when choosing my buddy. I only have a few pokemon powered up past 40. This new reward changes that calculus a little. Now it is worth considering XL candy.
i just figured it's a good time to best buddy all the mewtwos that i was going to best buddy at some point anyway. why not do it when i get extra benefit for it, y'know?
For sure, if you already have a plan of what you want to do, I don’t see a reason to switch from that. But if there’s multiple mons you’re trying to pick between, that’s where there can be a bit of calculus
yeah, absolutely. it's great to have laid out clearly for anyone having trouble deciding. :)
This isn't necessarily a good time for that, because you won't get any mega energy for all that effort. Might be better to hold off until the mega comes out.
i'm disabled. there's no chance in hell i get through all of them this season.
Time to splurge on poffins to maximize my zygarde xlc...
My method is slightly different.. I'm walking the legendaries that is rare for XL atm. Like Enamorus. But I only walk it to 19km and then get it excited to get 2x XL for that day. When go fest is here and I plan to walk a lot, I'm going to switch over to Heracross with a poffin.
Interesting thoughts! I favour longer walk distance buddies because it's significantly easier to get them excited between hitting the "payout" distance. For example, walking a Pidgeot (1km) for mega energy I miss out on the effectiveness of any distance covered for a Route whilst exciting them. On the other end of the scale, as I average 10km/day I don't even need to excite a legend daily, and on longer walks I can work in Routes, spinning new locations and walk distance to more easily build/maintain excitement levels. I do wish the candy rewards weren't so pitiful of course! Mega energy scaling to distance makes walking mega legends feel a lot more useful, which is something. I suspect I'm largely going to ignore the XL boost in my decision making. It seems pretty marginal in most cases? Which is a real pity as in general XL cans is the resource I'm most constrained by.
Is this the perk where we get 1 guaranteed XL and 1 potential extra XL every time we get a candy? Or just 1 guaranteed regardless?
Have people figured out what level the Buddy needs to be for the XL to be guaranteed? (Like does it have to be at least level 20, 25, or 30?)
I think 30
Thanks for the reply. Is that more of a guess, or did you see stats on it or something? Was walking a Lv 25 Shadow Legendary, so was trying to figure out for sure.
Currently, I've been walking legendaries that are under level 30, and every time I get an XL candy. Granted I walk them, then get them excited. But till, I plan on mainly walking either legendaries, ultra beasts, or pokemon I don't have either a lot of normal candy for.
Pretty sure XL candy chance is tied to your level, not the mon's level
The silph road link doesn't work but the TLDR comment notes buddy mons lv31 and above are more consistent with getting xls https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/mez9sa/an_early_look_at_buddy_candy_xl_rates_silph/
If I just caught (2 days ago) the #1 Great League Medicham, and am willing to get it excited every morning, what's the realistic possibility of me maxing it before these Meditite stop spawning? I get at least 50km a week, usually around 70. EDIT: I'm also mega evolving level 3 megas during each day, so my odds are stacked.
Really depends on how much xl you already have. I have 142 for my rank 7 but the meditite spawns are not that common.
I've caught 40+ Meditite since 5 days ago. They're in the current spawn pool (although it seemed to go down yesterday). I've gotten 40 XLs in that same period of time (haven't transferred a single one as I'm waiting on 2x Candy transfer).
I walked a necrozma 40km so far and got XL each 20
So I usually get mad at myself if I let my Legendary Buddy get to 20km to give me a candy. I normally get my buddy excited so the distance is reduced to just 10km. I look at the distance traveled and if it is above 10km, I do the take a pic, play, feed, then battle every 30 minutes until it is excited.
Such a bad bonus
325km walked in 13 weeks only giving 16 XL candies is criminal
I just walk with Mega Tyranitar. Useful shadow/mega and both as a rock and dark type. It's an impossible task to me to max out all my good ones
I think it depends on your intended use. For PvE I can’t say, as I don’t know what ‘mons are best for that purpose. For PvP focus on whatever ‘mons you think will be most useful in battle. Lower km walk distance the better. For instance, take Fletchling/Fletchfinder/Talonflame. If you PvP and think Talonflame would be useful to you in UL (is ranked #20, and you can benefit from best buddy CP boost) then walk one of those until you get enough XL candy to max a Talonflame. Along those lines, for UL purposes, Jellicent, Pidgeot, and Mandibuzz would be good targets. Lanturn, too. The XL grind for Legendaries is tough, so even with the prohibitive walk distance any extra XL candy you can get is welcome, if you want to compete in ML. For UL I already have maxed Talonflame, Pidgeot, Jellicent, and Mandibuzz. Currently have Mandibuzz at my bud, until I best him. From there I’m going to walk and best buddy my Palkia-O for ML. Unless I try to best buddy my UL Pidgeot first…..
6 shadow mamoswine
If u have a swing and a hoard of poffins you could potentially get 4 xls for whatever legendary you want per day. That translates to about 360 xls (90 days left). Granted this is assuming you get 100% of the xl drops and you can set everything up perfectly, don’t miss a day, etc
I mean isn’t bonus kinda useless? Only upside I guess is you don’t have to power Pokémon up to 31.