Gotta say, I have played at least one pokemon game from each generation, and I did not really care for the story that much. Sun and Moons is just different. I also love all the new mechanics and I like the trials more than I did the gyms.
Well I know I'm getting Pokemon Moon tomorrow, so I was going to ask if there is anything I need to know before I start?
* There are no gyms nor Hidden Machines; they're replaced by Island Trials and Poké Ride mounts. Waterfall, Surf, and Fly are now Technical Machines. * After completing the first Island Trial (not Kahuna), most wild Pokémon will be able to call for help, resulting in an "SOS Battle", if successful. If a wild Pokémon's such call is successful, an ally will spawn, and the battle will become an "SOS Battle". Wild Pokémon are more likely to call for help by the following (all of these can stack to increase odds): 1) Your active Pokémon having the ability "Intimidate", "Unnerve", or "Pressure". 2) An "Adrenaline Orb" was used anytime, during the battle. 3) Having less percentage HP remaining. ** A Pokémon cannot summon allies, if it's suffering from any on-screen displayed status conditions (Sleep, Freeze, Paralysis, Burn, Poison; but not by Confusion, Infatuation, etc). They'll also not call for help, if they already have an ally. + Some Pokémon like Bagon, Chansey, and Mareanie, can only be encountered by an SOS call. There are other benefits to "chaining" reinforcements too. ( http://www.serebii.net/sunmoon/sosbattle.shtml ) ** Finally, since an SOS Battle involves battling multiple wild Pokémon at once, catching any one requires no allies to be present. - * You don't need an empty party slot for a Legendary or any other caught or gifted Pokémon or Egg to join your party. If your party is full, you can swap one of your Pokémon for the received one, sending it from the Party to the PC. This functionality can be turned off in the Options. * Pokémon Sun and Moon are more focused on narratives and cinematic than past games in the series. Don't expect to complete either one ASAP. In Pokémon Sun and Moon, there is one special Pokémon that's a forced encounter. You will not get a change to save your game or prepare in any way, directly before the battle. After completing the main storyline, before starting the post-game, you are forced to battle Tapu Koko. But, it's completely fine to KO Tapu Koko for this one time. You can catch it in a later encounter at the Ruins of Conflict, giving you time to prepare.
You no longer have to teach any specific moves to your Pokémon to progress through the main story, nor forcefully forget those moves by a Move Deleter. The Poké Ride mounts are your HMs this time. However, you will not have access to the Move Rememberer until right before the end of the main story. This is likely because she can now teach Pokémon moves they would learn at a level higher than their current level. There are also more ways to getting Heart Scales, besides Luvdiscs.
Assuming you mean don't expect to beat the games ASAP, this is true, all other pokemon games took me 20 hours total to beat but this one took closer to 35-40 hours. Not sure if it is actually because I read all the dialogue and got into the story this time, or if it just takes longer in general.
I have several Heart Scales but have yet to learn what they are for. I have a feeling even though I've filled the Pokedex that I've only scratched the surface of the game. Also, I know in Pokemon Go how to get the IV of a Pokemon but do IVs matter in Pokemon Moon/Sun? because I haven't seen any IVs or ratings in general in the game.
Yes IVs do matter. Well mostly only if you want to do competitive, but IVs do matter. As for heart scales, they are used as an item to trade to an NPC called the Move Reminder, which will let you Pokemon remember moves they've forgotten.
IVs stand for "Individual Values". They are one of two types of values for individual Pokémon, the other being "Effort Values", or "EVs" (not to be confused with "Eevee"). IVs are pre-determined when a Pokémon is first generated. They range from any whole number from 0 to 31. Every IV equate to 1 point to a stat at level 100. At level 50, it's 1 point per 2 IVs (The game uses a ratio of Level:100 to coordinate each stat to the current level). Therefore, before applying the nature's multiplier, at lv. 100, IVs can boost a stat by at most 31, and 15 at lv. 50. This is the formulas used to calculate the current, unmodified stats of a Pokémon: Key: Base: The Base Stat value to the species and its current form. IVs: Individual Values ((int) 0, 31) EVs: Effort Values ((int) 0, 252) Level: The Pokémon's current level. Nature: The multiplier factor of the nature on the stat (1, 1.1, or 0.9). Ex: If "Adamant", Attack (1.1), Special Attack (0.9), else (1).================================================== For HP (there are no natures that affect HP): HP = ((2 * Base + (EVs / 4) + IVs + 100) * Level / 100) + 10 - Other Stats: Stat = ((2 * Base + (EVs / 4 ) + IVs) * Level / 100) * Nature + 5 - There are ways to determine and alter IVs, beside using the stat formulas. To find the IVs, first off, starting in Diamond and Pearl, a characteristic in the Pokémon's summary hints what stat has the highest IV, or one if there's a tie. But as of X and Y, some of the descriptions were changed. As the characteristics are right now, these are what hints to possibly an IV value of 31: HP: "Takes plenty of siestas." Attack: "Likes to thrash about." Defense: "Capable of taking hits." Special Attack: "Mischievous." Special Defense: "Somewhat Vain." Speed: "Alerts to sounds." Source: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Characteristic#List_of_Characteristics Next, starting in X and Y, if the Pokémon is Legendary, Mythical, a Guardian Deity, or other special species unable to breed, it'll always have at least 3 of its stats with IVs of 31. In breeding, IVs of offspring are determined when the egg is received, inheriting 3 random IVs between the parents, 5 IVs if either parent is holding a Destiny Knot. In SOS Battles, as more Pokémon are summoned, a reinforcement is more likely to have at least 1-4 maxed-out IVs. After 40 summons, new allies are guaranteed to have four 31 IVs. Hyper Training allows a lv. 100 Pokémon to have its stats boosted to that of having IVs of 31. The game actually doesn't change the IVs themselves, because that would change Hidden Power's type. Instead, it sets a modifier to make the Hyper Trained stats equivalent to a 31 IV. Also, since IVs are never altered, Hyper Trained stats cannot be passed down to breed offspring. And Finally, in Pokémon Sun and Moon, after meeting The Judge at the Battle Tree lobby, after hatching enough Pokémon eggs, he'll add a "Judge" function to your PC. Tapping "Judge" will display a graph with descriptions to the Pokémon's IVs and stats that were Hyper Trained. "No Good" = 0 "Decent"= 1-15 "Fantastic" = 30 "Best" = 31 Source: http://www.serebii.net/sunmoon/useful.shtml Final Notes: In this explanation, I used IVs, Individual Values, to refer to said values of the Pokémon's stats. However, the majority of Pokémon's player-base says "0-6 IVs" meaning the amount of IVs of 31 a Pokémon has. For example: "4 IV Ditto" means that the Ditto has an IV of 31 for 4/6 stats. And you do not need to have as many perfect IVs as possible on every Pokémon. For breeding, yes; they're important to maximizing the changes for offspring to have optimal IVs. But for battling, Speed IVs are detrimental for almost all Pokémon. And as with Effort Values, IVs are fixed numbers; so they mean more to low base stats. High Defense IVs are much more important for Chansey and Blissey than they are for Shuckle and Aggron. Vice-versa, high HP IVs are more important for Shuckle than Chansey and Blissey. High Speed IVs for Alakazam, Gengar, and Ribombee are generally as important as they are for Wishiwashi, Golem, and Metagross.
