General Sidequests: A Rough Guide

[chris]

Hey guys I get asked about tips for completing sidequests from time to time so thought I'd share some advice for completing them as quickly as possible. Here are a few tips, but the first is by far the most important.

 

• Use Level 100 Dark (not the type) Pokemon with STAB moves >= 128 power

 

Calculation:

 

Spoiler

Damage = Level x Base Power x STAB x Dark Bonus

 

400 = 100 x BP x 1.5 x 1.25

 

BP = 400/(100x1.5x1.25)

 

BP = 128

 

 

Moves like this will always do over 400 damage on a neutral target, meaning you can OHKO anything that doesn't resist the attack. Click the link below for a list of all moves that fall into this. Note: OHKO moves are excluded as they have 30% accuracy.

 

Spoiler

 >127 BP Moves

 

You can see that Ghost/Bug/Poison/Ground Pokémon are intrinsically worse due to not having STAB attacks that can OHKO.

 

The following Pokémon learn two different-typed moves from above as STAB (Best moves listed). I would recommend using these to make up the bulk of your team, as the extra coverage will help smash through the opponents. Value is placed on accuracy vs power. These are also roughly sorted by their type coverage (e.g. Reshiram & Turtonator hit more Normal/Super Effective and less No Effect than Chesnaught).

 

Spoiler

Reshiram: Blue Flare/Draco Meteor

Turtonator: Shell Trap/Draco Meteor

Hawlucha: Focus Punch/Sky Attack

Zekrom: Bolt Strike/Draco Meteor

Greninja: Hydro Cannon/Fling

Scraggy/Scrafty/Pangoro: Focus Punch/Fling

Kommo-o: Focus Punch/Draco Meteor

Guzzlord: Draco Meteor/Fling

Altaria/Noibat/Noivern: Draco Meteor/Sky Attack

Archeops: Head Smash/Sky Attack

Shiftry: Leaf Storm/Fling

Kyurem (Black)/(White): (Ice Burn/Freeze Shock)/Draco Meteor

Moltres/Ho-oh: Burn Up/Sky Attack

Incineroar: Blast Burn/Fling

Monferno/Infernape: Focus Punch/(Overheat/Blast Burn)

Pignite/Emboar: Focus Punch/Burn Up

Blaziken/Blaziken (Mega): High Jump Kick/(Overheat/Blast Burn)

Drampa: (Hyper Beam/Giga Impact)/Draco Meteor

Fearow/Noctowl/Staraptor/Braviary/Unfezant: (Hyper Beam/Giga Impact)/Sky Attack

Taillow/Swellow: Boomburst/Sky Attack

Magearna: Gyro Ball/Fleur Cannon

Stufful/Bewear/Lopunny (Mega): Focus Punch/Flail

Meloetta (Pirouette)/Snorlax (Mega): Focus Punch/Last Resort

Chesnaught: Frenzy Plant/Focus Punch

 

So... how do you choose your team using this? I use this coverage calculator for a rough guide on effectiveness. Using this, we can see that Fire/Dragon has brilliant neutral coverage, while Fighting/Flying has great super effective coverage. Therefore a fire/dragon and a fighting/flying type should be invaluable. As Shell Trap > Blue Flare, I would say that Hawlucha/Turtonator are essential. On the other side of things, Normal type attacks are less valuable as they hit nothing for SE damage, while being resisted by 2 and immune from another.

 

• Type variance is key: you don't want to be walled by anything, while maximising super effectiveness (for shinies/metallics)

 

The following is just theorycrafting a team, may or may not be useful.

 

Spoiler

The aforementioned Pokémon are not walled by a single type. However, they only hit about 60% for super effectiveness. Fairy is only weak to Steel/Poison, so a steel type with Gyro Ball/Doom Desire should be the next step. Likewise, Electric is only weak to Ground, so, while Ground types don't have any > 400 power moves, they become invaluable due to the sidequests featuring a large number of Electric types. A type to hit Flying types would be useful too, as we have nothing yet... so Electric/Rock/Ice would be great. Let's see what we can do here:

 

The only steel type with two 400 damage moves is Magearna. Having that would also give you Fleur Cannon which is great, as the team is struggling against Fairy/Dragon types like Mega Altaria. Obviously, not many people have Dark Magearna, so we can talk about another route. Steelix offers you both a Ground STAB in Earthquake as well as Gyro Ball so could be a good alternative on that front.

 

For hitting flying types, you're actually quite limited. Zekrom/Kyurem (Black/White) offer the only electric/ice type attacks applicable here. Of the two, I would recommend the Kyurem formes, as they can hit Electric/Flying types like Zapdos. Once again, I understand most people won't have dark formes of these, so Zekrom is a reasonable choice. If you have chosen Dark Magearna, I would go with Rhyperior as your next option, as Rock will help against the Flying types, and you also gain a Ground type for Electrics.

 

Let's evaluate what we have:

 

Either:

                      Turtonator/Hawlucha/Magearna/Rhyperior

                      Turtnoator/Hawlucha/Steelix/(Zekrom/Kyurem(Black/White))

 

Water/Ground types are the next big hurdle, as it is only weak to Grass types. Hence, I would aim for a Grass type next. Likewise, nothing for Psychic types and little for Fire types means a Dark & Water type become useful. Dark in particular is probably the best neutral attack due to a lack of resistances. Options here instantly go to Shiftry/Greninja. Either would be good choices and will help decide what the last would be. Shiftry leaves means you will need something for Gligar/Gliscor/Landorus. While Greninja leaves you with pretty much all water types. Therefore, a Grass & Water type are essential here., and will guarantee full super effective coverage. I personally felt another type for Fairies was useful so opted for Greninja/Victreebell (Leaf Storm/Belch) as my last two. But other options include Shiftry/Jellicent (Water Spout) for a couple of type immunites. Another option would be Ludicolo (Water Spout/Solarbeam) & a Dark Type with Fling/Naughty List (Muk-A/Sableye/Hoopa-U/Caterpie-C etc. Rotom (Halloween) is another good option as Pumpkin Smash is the best Grass Type in the game and Electric coverage is always useful.

 

If you have chosen the second team, Zekrom may stop you from getting perfect coverage. But you may want to look at Crustle (Rock Wrecker/Bug move) or Primarina (Hydro Cannon/Moonblast) to help deal with any inefficencies.

 

I'm using a final team of: Turtonator/Hawlucha/Magearna/Rhyperior/Victreebell (Rotom-Halloween if I could)/Greninja and it works perfectly.

 

P.s, if you are new or simply don't have the rarer Pokémon mentioned. I would use the following full budget team:

 

Turtonator/Hawlucha/Shiftry/Rhyperior/Jellicent/Mawile

 

It won't be perfect, as Mawile doesn't have phenomenal moves, but will help deal with fairy types as well as offer something against Sableye.

 

 

• Use a dark-dark type with Fling as your first Pokemon, not much resists it and so you will be able to tear through most of the sidequests without even having to think.

 

As dark types are resisted by Fairy/Fighting/Dark; something that can deal with those after is generally useful and will enable you to keep clicking if your first faints. I personally use Greninja-Turtonator as my first two. But Shiftr-Turtonator should work just as well for a budget option.

 

• Coverage on your Pokémon is great but not essential

 

See what each Pokémon/your team needs help with and work around that. Consider the level 120/150s within the sidequests: a lot will be Flying/Psychic/Dragon types so Ice/Dark coverage would go a long way to help beating those. However, if you have the  >128BP moves, you can save money by not buying coverage moves as you won't need them particularly often.

 

Also, here are the magnetic field quest numbers for anyone needing them:

 

Spoiler

1176 1177 1178 1179 1421 1422 1423 1424 1425 1426 1427 1428 1429 1587 1588 1589 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859

 

Hope this helps people doing sidequests. It's a horrible grind and the rewards aren't worth it unless you get beast balls/fossils, but it still needs doing unfortunately!

 

Feel free to message me for any clarifications or if I've made a mistake!

 

 

[Sneezeball]

Good job, I really like this. I always used normal pokemon with ohko move plus fighting and dark moves for pokemon I couldnt hit.

Edited January 29, 2020 by Sneezeball

[malayan13]

Hi. For that budget team you said, can i finish the side quest if i have that budget team? I'm still new here. What should I replace with Mawhile? And what do you mean by phenomenal moves?

 

And should I replace their attack? or stick to their basic attack?

Edited April 13, 2020 by malayan13

[Darshil_Irex]

Yo..chris thank for help whts ur ign i just wanna look at ur team and get an exampple

[chris]

5 hours ago, malayan13 said:

Hi. For that budget team you said, can i finish the side quest if i have that budget team? I'm still new here. What should I replace with Mawhile? And what do you mean by phenomenal moves?

 

And should I replace their attack? or stick to their basic attack?

 

Hi  

 

You can complete the sidequests with any team of level 100s really. The guide here is to create a team which can complete them in the fasted time.

 

So, by phenomenal moves, I mean those which can OHKO with their attacks. E.g. a Dark Typhlosion with Eruption will OHKO anything which doesn't resist, isn't shiny nor metallic. Mawile doesn't have any moves which can do this - but it's typing is excellent.

 

Steelix would be my replacement as it still has great typing and can OHKO with Gyro Ball.

 

If you read through the post, you'll see that I discuss moves. You need one of the strongest moves on each Pokemon in your team. You don't need to change any other moves, but having strong options as coverage is never a bad thing - albeit rather costly.

[chris]

2 hours ago, Darshil_Irex said:

Yo..chris thank for help whts ur ign i just wanna look at ur team and get an exampple

Hey My ign is just Chris. I don't really play much any more so my current team is 6 Quilavas I think.

 

Look at the second spoiler on the post and you will see what I use as my team. Then, you can go onto my profile, view all my Pokemon and find each one I mentioned.

[malayan13]

What is STAB btw? STAB and OHKO are the same?

 

And if Mawhile will be replaced by Steelix, therefore I got 2 ground types.

 

Tortunator/Hawlucha/Rhyperior/Jellicent/Shiftry/Steelix

 

I just need to fast end the side quest. hehehe

Edited April 14, 2020 by malayan13

[chris]

10 hours ago, malayan13 said:

What is STAB btw? STAB and OHKO are the same?

 

And if Mawhile will be replaced by Steelix, therefore I got 2 ground types.

 

Tortunator/Hawlucha/Rhyperior/Jellicent/Shiftry/Steelix

 

I just need to fast end the side quest. hehehe

STAB is Same Type Attack Bonus.

 

If a Pokémon uses an attack which shares the same type as the Pokémon, its power will be increased by 1.5x. E.g a Steelix with Gyro Ball - Steel + Steel.

 

OHKO is a One Hit Knockout: So an attack which faints the opponent in just one hit (hence being faster)

 

You could always use something like Forretress with Gyro Ball if you want totally different typings

[slay3r]

This is my team, hard to get past first 2 pokes. pretty easy to obtain took me about 4 hours to find the all the Victinis and Zekrom. Works against any sidequest/special battle team. The last 3 pokes cover the weaknesses of the Victinis. Also I replaced Brine with Water Spout for Jellicent. 

  

Dark Victini OHKOs pretty much all Pokemon.

Metallic and Normal Victini OHKO most pokemon except Shiny and Metallic.

[Hammer1248]

What a fantastic guide. Thank you for all the time it took to make this.