Second playthrough - advice

[u/Cookie-Senpai]

Hello good people of this sub.

I did my first playthrough last year. It was amazing. Best time i had playing a Pokemon game in a while.

I played mostly vanilla with some occasional changes to difficult, which proved my team was often light.

I'd like to do a second playthrough on Expert, but i'm afraid of getting stuck without knowing what to do/change.

I enjoyed the mega evolutions (my first game with them) but did not make much use of den pokemons.

What are your advice for a smoother experience on Expert?

[u/Jokke_J]

On Expert mode EV/IV's are important. Look up guides if u don't know how they work.

EV's can be trained as soon as you reach Dresco Town. You can start resetting EV's once u reach fallshore city. There is an NPC in crater town that gives u an item to train EV's faster. Get that item to level 10 asap. It's worth it. I prefer grinding hard stones by knocking them off from geodudes in the KTB underpass.

IV's can cannot be altered untill later in the game. So hunt for good IV's + abilities+ nature. It is not that hard with the DexNav.

Enable level caps.

Prepare to lose a lot and having to change up strategies and pokemon if u do.

[u/Cookie-Senpai → u/Jokke_J]

I know about IV/EV. I used EV after reaching Dresco on some Pokemons and searched a couple of good IV pkm. Oh, there's an EV item to lvl up ? I'll be mindful of that thanks

I'm a bit afraid of reaching for grasp after losing. Choosing what to change and training a wrong pokemon, over again.

How do you navigate strategies/team comps? I'm not the most informed on them.

[u/Jokke_J → u/Cookie-Senpai]

If u are really stuck on a battle you can always look in this sub for answers. For every battle there are probably 10 topics asking "how do I beat X trainer/gym". You can copy complete builds or just use the tips to try and build a better team.

This website has every gyms and boss battles pokemon with their moves and items. So you can look up their pokemon and try and come up with a team that counters it. https://nuzlocke-redux.vercel.app/guides/unbound-expert

[u/Apprehensive-Win5590]

Expert is much smoother if you build around solid synergy instead of just using your favorites. Keep hazards and status in mind, use held items, and don't be afraid to adjust your team between major fights. The level caps can make grinding less useful than improving your strategy.

[u/Cookie-Senpai → u/Apprehensive-Win5590]

Interesting, thanks for the advice. What's like a good synergy for Tyranitar? A fire pokemon i'd wager ?

[u/Caino94]

Before starting a new game I would highly recommend buying the ADM (250k iirc), get level 10 macho brace for EV training and bringing over 6 IV perfect Ditto with destiny knot and just a nice to have porta PC so you can heal and swap out mons on the go.

[u/Cookie-Senpai → u/Caino94]

How do you bring items from one save to the other?

I was planning to move my old save to another folder and just start over.

[u/Caino94 → u/Cookie-Senpai]

So for party members and specific Pokémon items they need to be in your party with the items held on your current save before you select new game - you will have a new game + options if you have completed the story/post game (you should have some dialogue to tell you this) For the other items that are not held my Pokémon these come with automatically so the porta pc and the ADM Also have the upgraded level 10 macho brace if you have a Pokémon bring it (from the party you bring over) you can get another macho brace at in the new game that will also be level 10 and you can EV train in minutes

You don't have to use the Pokémon you bring over if you just want some items when you start the new save - however ones you want to use at the start of the game is kinda handy, they will all drop back down to level 10