Jump to content

Pokemon Contest Guide


Myyshka

Recommended Posts

Pokemon Contest Guide

As per @Startearたん request I've put together a guide to a frequently overlooked feature of Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald editions: Contests. While there's a ton of guides on this topic for the original games, I couldn't find any specific to PokeMMO.

GEEMZuQ.pngsVYEo3o.png

While the main audience for this guide are the participants in our VÏP Team Contest Events, anyone who's interested in contests should be able to benefit from this.

Winning in a contest can get you nice prizes. Besides berries, lemonades, moomoo milk you can also win rare candies. And sometimes winning a master rank contest will award you with 10 or 20 luxury balls. When playing in link group almost everyone gets a reward. Note that a pokemon with that contest rank ribbon won't get any reward for winning.

Contest Categories and Ranks

There are five contest categories: Beauty, Coolness, Cuteness, Smartness and Toughness. And each contest category has four ranks: Normal, Super, Hyper and Master. Each category also has a set of moves that are favored by the crowd (beauty moves for beauty contest), compatible moves and incompatible moves as seen in table below[1]:

Category

Crowd favored

Compatible

Incompatible

Beauty

Beauty

Coolness, Cuteness

Smartness, Toughness

Coolness

Coolness

Beauty, Toughness

Cuteness, Smartness

Cuteness

Cuteness

Beauty, Smartness

Coolness, Toughness

Smartness

Smartness

Cuteness, Toughness

Beauty, Coolness

Toughness

Toughness

Coolness, Smartness

Beauty, Cuteness

Using a crowd favored move increases the crowd excitement and gives the pokemon an extra heart (unless a move that stops the crowd from getting excited is used but more on this later in this guide). The level of this can be seen in the top left corner of the contest screen.

0MsMmtz.png

When a pokemon gets crowd to full excitement it will get a bonus of 5 hearts instead of just 1 and the crowd excitement meter will reset to 0. Using a compatible move won't affect the crowd excitement. Using an incompatible move will decrease the crowd excitement by one.

Contest Moves

Unlike in pokemon combat the moves in contest have completely different rules. Pokemon level, IVs or EVs have absolutely no effect. Each move has a contest description near the bottom of the tooltip:

NuaZ5p7.png

Appeal: The number says how appealing the move is when used (usually between 10-60)

Jam: The number says how much the foes' pokemon appeal will be reduced (usually between 0-40)

The number next to appeal and jam usually translates to hearts by dividing the number by 10 (unless other effects are in place). Also avoid repeating the same move right the next turn or you will be penalized by the judge (the penalty increases with the amount of repeat) unless specified otherwise in the move description.

Note that the move you used last time will be highlighted with red text. However this will also happen when your pokemon got nervous and didn't perform. In that case you can use the move without getting penalized for repeating it (you didn't perform previous round after all).

Additional Move Effects

A lot of moves have various additional effects based on the description. Note that the following list of these effects may not be complete. Let me know if come across a special effect description not listed here along with the name of the move.

- A highly appealing move: No special effect. This is a general description for 4 heart appealing moves.

- Can be repeatedly used without boring the Judge: Using this move over and over won't get your pokemon penalized by the judge for move repetition.

- The appeal works the best the more the crowd is excited: The more the crowd is excited the more hearts will this move award.

- Temporarily stops the crowd from growing excited: The crowd excitement meter will freeze in the state it will be after this move. This is useful to prevent following players from getting a crowd excitement bonus this round.

- Misses one turn of appeals: Exactly what it says, you won't perform the next round. This is pretty much only useful for the last round.

- Allows no more to the end / Cannot participate in any of the remaining turns: Using this move will cause your pokemon not to be able to perform in later turns making it useful only for the last round. Note that these moves are banned from MATE Pokemon Contests.

- Affected by how well the appeal in front goes: This effect is rather special. If the pokemon before you did well you will get less or no hearts but if it did poorly you may get up to 6 hearts. This may be useful in tag team contests when your partner does a low point startle that you can follow up by this to improve your team standing.

- After this appeal, the user is more easily startled: While the move will generally give 6 hearts any startle will remove twice as many hearts than usual. This move is better used as the last in that round. Otherwise it can be risky.

- Scrambles up the order of appeals on the next turn: The order at which the pokemon will appeal the next round is randomized. This can be used to prevent combos for foes using moves to get to the first or last position.

- The next appeal can be made earlier next turn: Your pokemon will be the first to perform the next round. This is very useful when your pokemon has moves that benefit from the first turn and especially if its part of a combo. However the final order is determined on the last turn order affecting move.

- The appeal works great if performed first: When your pokemon is first to perform it will get 6 hearts. Otherwise it will get only 2.

- The user will appeal later in the next turn: Your pokemon will be the last to perform the next round. As with the earlier version this is effective with another move that has best effect when used last and especially if its part of a combo.

- The appeal works great if performed last: When your pokemon is last to perform it will get 6 hearts. Otherwise it will get only 2.

- The appeal works better the later it is performed: This move will give more hearts the later it is performed. Unlike the moves with “performed last” requirement its not fixed to 2 hearts and thus can be used with good effect even if you're the 3rd to perform that round.

- Makes the appeal as good as the one before it: When used first the move will give the appeal as in the move description. Otherwise it will copy all the hearts from previous pokemon's appeal (even those earned from combos or crowd) and then it will add one more heart.

- Can avoid being startled by others (once): Using this move will prevent your pokemon from being startled by a jam move. Some moves will prevent being startled by all jamming moves during that round, some only for the first time. This move is useful when part of a combo and/or you're not the last to perform in the round.

- (Badly) startles those that have made appeals: Using this move will startle all pokemon that performed before you this turn unless they protected themselves. The effect generally matches the jam figure unless other effects apply. This is useful if more foe pokemon perform before you and you intend to worsen their appeals.

- (Badly) startles the Pokémon in front: Only the pokemon that appealed right before you will be startled.

- (Badly) startles all Pokémon that made good appeals: The jam varies based on how well the affected pokemon performed. Better performing pokemon will be startled more.

- (Badly) startles Pokémon that made a same-type appeal: These moves are bugged and don't behave as in the core games. Normally they would startle the pokemon that used the same category move as the startle move much more then the JAM figure says. However in PokeMMO it will work like a plain startle applying the JAM to all previous pokemon.

- (Badly) startles the Pokémon that has the Judge's attention: The startle will effect only the pokemon that have the judge's attention (glowing 'o' left of the performance bar).

- Makes all Pokémon after the user nervous: Pokemon after you may get nervous and their performance will be skipped. This is affected by the condition and it may or may not actually work. Still, this can be useful for breaking foe combos.

- Ups the user's condition / Helps prevent nervousness: This moves improves the pokemon condition (affects some appeal moves) and may prevent the pokemon from getting nervous.

- Worsens the Condition of those that have made appeals: Increases the probability that pokemon performing before you will get nervous.

Move Combos

You can also use combos to improve your appeal performance. Use the tables here for a the possible combo list:

- http://www.psypokes.com/rs/contestcombo.php[2]

- http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Contest_combination[4]

I haven't tested them all but these sources appear to be quite accurate. PokeMMO will highlight the next possible move in the combo with green text and stronger button border. Most combos on the second move give two extra hearts, some give only one or even four.

Pokeblocks

For achieving the Master rank you'll most likely have to improve your pokemon by using of pokeblocks. However our Team MATE Contest Events specify rules banning pokeblocks for ensuring fair play so these pokemon won't be able to join.

xpIhRmO.png

Pokeblock making is quite different in PokeMMO than in the GameBoy Advance Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald games. Guides for these generation 3 games [1], [3] mention terms like feel, level, taste and other pokeblock properties. In the games the pokeblock blender also works in a completely different way.

In PokeMMO you can make great pokeblocks by yourself. Just get next to a berry blender and press the key you binding for <X> to open the blending dialog. As you try different berry combinations the dialog will preview the result.

2nCS2lw.png9OPSNbk.png

The white pokeblock improves all category stats while other will improve only their category. The PLUS pokeblock has double the effect. Example recipes:

- 2x Aspear Berry → Yellow Pokeblock

- 2x Cheri Berry → Red Pokeblock

- 2x Wiki Berry → Blue Pokeblock

- 3x Wiki Berry → Blue Pokeblock PLUS

- Cheri Berry + Wiki Berry → White Pokeblock
- Enigma Berry + <Any> Berry → Black Pokeblock [5], [6], [7]

As you can see same type berries make pokeblocks of the same color. In some cases only 3 berries are needed for a PLUS pokeblock. However you don't have to combine the same berries, the same color should do just fine but you may need four berries for a PLUS pokeblock.

Different colored berries or berries not associated with a contest category will produce a white pokeblock. Two berries are enough for a white pokeblock. There's also a special black pokeblock [5], [6], [7] that will remove a large amount of contest values from your pokemon.

Getting 20 Contest Ribbon Pokemon Tips

Here are my tips for getting a pokemon with all of the 20 contest ribbons:

- Do the different category contests up to hyper rank first and then tweak the moveset for master rank

- Get a friend or more into a link group and boost each other through contests (this would be a good tag team practice)

Should you also obtain the happiness, battle tower and elite 4 ribbons your pokemon will look more like a decorated veteran :-) .

References

[1] http://www.psypokes.com/rs/contest.php Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald :: Contest Guide with Pokeblocks and Berries

[2] http://www.psypokes.com/rs/contestcombo.php Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald :: Contest Guide Move Combinations

[3] http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9block#Ruby.2C_Sapphire.2C_and_Emerald Pokéblock - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

[4] http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Contest_combination Contest combination - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

[5] https://forums.pokemmo.eu/index.php?/topic/70556-pokemon-contest-guide/&do=findComment&comment=1422257 Black Pokeblock note by @SodaNaranja

[6] https://forums.pokemmo.eu/index.php?/topic/70556-pokemon-contest-guide/&do=findComment&comment=1422261 Black Pokeblock recipe using Enigma berries from @notmudkip0

[7] https://forums.pokemmo.eu/index.php?/topic/70556-pokemon-contest-guide/#comment-1423396 Black Pokeblock variant from @pepe1240

Edited by Myyshka
Added images, paragraph about prizes, added black pokeblock information, removed the note about the topic movement as it was moved already, corrected some move descriptions, changed team acronym because of merge
Link to comment

Nice guide! I was wondering why nobody had done this.

2 hours ago, Myyshka said:

Getting 20 Contest Ribbon Pokemon Tips

Here are my tips for getting a pokemon with all of the 20 contest ribbons:

- Use white pokeblocks to improve all category stats because unlike EVs these can't be removed later on

- Do the different category contests up to hyper rank first and then tweak the moveset for master rank

- Get a friend or more into a link group and boost each other through contests (this would be a good tag team practice)

Should you also obtain the happiness, battle tower and elite 4 ribbons your pokemon will look more like a decorated veteran :-) .

You can remove category stats later on by using black pokeblocks, it works same as on EV's

Link to comment
11 minutes ago, SodaNaranja said:

Nice guide! I was wondering why nobody had done this.

You can remove category stats later on by using black pokeblocks, it works same as on EV's

Oh, I didn't know about the black pokeblock. Do you know the PokeMMO recipe for it?

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...
25 minutes ago, Zehkar said:

Is this guide finished?

I wouldn't call it entirely finished. Some things behave slightly differently and I yet have to retest and document those. In addition there are still some mechanics left to try, namely mirror move and those similar to it.

Link to comment
On 30. 4. 2017 at 6:55 PM, Zehkar said:

Is this guide finished?

Now it should be finished. I retested some stuff and also found a bug (or rather a huge difference from the core game):

- (Badly) startles Pokémon that made a same-type appeal: These moves are bugged and don't behave as in the core games. Normally they would startle the pokemon that used the same category move as the startle move much more then the JAM figure says. However in PokeMMO it will work like a plain startle applying the JAM to all previous pokemon.

Link to comment
  • 6 years later...

unfortunatly i can confirm that not all the combos work, i used my trusty dodrio that i used to dominate with and both the peck > drill peck combo as well as the double team > agility combo dont work, but it seems like castform can still combo so whatever i guess

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.