Here’s Part 2 of our informational guide to EV Training, this time covering Super Training, brought to you once again by that elusive Volaro!
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Greetings, challengers of the PPL.
Almost as soon as I stepped foot onto Kalos soil for the first time, I was hearing about the wonders of Super Training: an incredible and simple method of training your Pokemon without the rigors, risks and dangers of battle. Curious, Roselia and I immediately set out to test it for ourselves.
Super Training is new to Pokemon X and Y, accessible on the touch screen during normal gameplay. To get to it, you’ll simply have to tap the arrows at the top part of the screen until you reach it, passing through Pokemon-Amie and the Player Search System.
To review on what we mentioned in the last article, Your Pokemon’s base stats are shown by the dark green hexagram, while their EVs are displayed as a growing yellow hexagram outside of it. To raise one’s EVs through Super Training; you’ll want to tap the bottom left button and making sure the Pokemon you want to train is selected. You’ll be taken to a screen showing six pictures of blue balloon Pokemon. Clicking one of them will start a mini-game in which your Pokemon pilots a little flying platform and shoots soccer balls (or footballs, for everyone not-American) at square goals that appear on the balloon Pokemon. You can move your Pokemon with the control disc and target with your touch screen and tapping will launch your ball. Hitting the L button will give your Pokemon a shield to deflect the balloon’s own ball attacks. Holding down on the touch screen will charge your shot and score you more points all full power. Each Pokemon will have access to a random type of ball to shoot and the balls differ by color.
- Black Balls are average. Moderate firing speed, moderate size and moderate strength.
- Blue Balls are small and fast, but have average power. Their small size means you’ll have to be accurate.
- Orange Balls are big and can easily score goals, but are slow and weak, so you’ll have to predict the goals’ movements.
- Yellow Balls are small and weak. They have an average speed, but can be rapidly fired to hammer away on the orange goals.
- Green Balls are slow and powerful. Making them work for you may require a bit of effort, but they can quickly gain you points.
You’ll know which ball you’ll have if you check out the window to the right of your Pokemon’s name on the main Super Training screen. The strength and speed of your shots can also vary as your EVs grow. More attack or special attack will make your balls gain more points.
There are four levels to Super Training: Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and Secret Super Training. Levels 1 through 3 are all about training your EVs. Completing any of the games in Level 1 will net you 4 EVs in the stat you picked (Magnemite for special attack, Wailmer for HP and so on). Level 2 will get you 8 EVs per completion and Level 3 will get you 12 each. To begin with, you’ll only have access to Level 1, but completing all six of the games will unlock the next level. It’s best to do this first with a Pokemon with maxxed EVs already (such as Pokemon you’ve been using throughout your journey) so as not to waste precious EVs on stats that you don’t need. As you advance through the levels, the amount of points you’ll need to gain will grow higher and the balloons themselves will get trickier. An untrained Pokemon may have difficulty completing higher levels as their shots will be weaker and slower, so it may be best to start them out on lower difficulties. Secret Super Training requires a fully trained Pokemon, one with max EVs. Completing those challenges in a good time can reward you with evolution stones and other valuable items!
Completing Super Training challenges quickly enough can result in additional rewards as well. Most of these rewards consist of punching bags. Your Pokemon can also find them if you leave you Super Training open in the bottom screen as you wander Kalos. By tapping the bottom right button on your main Super Training screen, you’ll open a window on the left that shows you which bags you have. Using them on a Pokemon will allow them to punch away at it. A Pokemon who isn’t asleep will passively swat at a punching bag placed in front of them. If they are asleep, wake ‘em up with a tap! A Pokemon will also hit the bag for every time you tap them, which is the fastest and most reliable way to complete punching bags. Now with all this talk of bags, you’ll probably want to know the types of punching bags you’ll be able to find right? There are many types, you know!
Like vitamins, there are punching bags for each stat and each comes in different sizes. S bags are the smallest and reward 1 EV in a stat for finishing them. M bags reward 4 EVs in the stat for finishing them, but will take a little while longer. L bags are the toughest and will take some time to complete, but will award 12 EVs. However! There’s more to punching bags than mere stats. Some have special effects that can change how your Pokemon grow in Super Training.
- Double-Up Bags, when completed, will double the EVs you get from finishing any Super Training. If you want to get the most out of these, you’ll want to use them for Level 3 challenges, as it’ll allow you to get 24 EVs in a stat from one challenge.
- Strength Bags, when completed, will make your shots award more points in your next Super Training, which could be helpful for a Pokemon just starting out in their training.
- Toughen-Up Bags, when completed, will make enemy shots take fewer points away when they hit you in your next Super Training. If you’re having trouble dodging those shots, this can be just the bag for you!
- Big Shot Bags, when completed, will give your Pokemon bigger balls during Super Training, so that their shots can more easily hit goals. Good for hitting those quick-moving balloons!
- Swiftness Bags, when completed, will allow your Pokemon to move more quickly during your next Super Training. These will help you duck and weave to victory!
- Team Flare Bags, when completed, will make your Pokemon energetic. They’ll more quickly hit the punching bags you put in front of them, without your input. Take note that sometimes your Pokemon will become energetic on their own.
- Reset Bags, when completed, will reset all of your Pokemon’s EVs to zero. Why would you do this, you may ask? If you fudge up your EVs, these will be important as there are very few ways to undo them. You can also use them to begin EV training your leveling Pokemon, since they’ll probably have been the first guys you’ll have maxxed out.
I think that’s about it for Super Training. It can be a little long, but a fair bit more fun than other methods, if you find you enjoy the mini-game attached. There’s another method too, new to the sixth generation that allows swift EV training but it requires a bit of inside knowledge and cleverness to do. Next time, we talk about Horde Training!
The blue balls really have an advantage with Level 2 and 3 super trainings due to the(what i call it, the combo moment – when you get to aim for the red square). In these moments, i never go for a charged shot, I spam normal shots and sometimes finish faster than other pokemon. At first when I encountered a pokemon with the blue ball i was turned away from even attempting super training, but once i found this method, they are my favorite.
Those blue balls can be super tricky, yeah. Even as I was writing this guide, I had the same first instinct as you. Once you get a handle on them though, they work wonderfully! I think my favorites are the green ones, though. If you can predict where the goals are gonna show up ahead of time, you can launch them early and be done in a flash.