@Jargon

I dunno how to calculate the former exactly, because it comes down to luck, but if you reasonably say you can get at least earn 330 coins in 3 from 5 tries...that's 990 coins per 5 tries, maybe 12, 13 tries to get 2500 coins, as a realistic figure.

Double it with your great ball percentage...lets say a round 30 tries?

I suppose that's the better part of a day . If you're unlucky.

In the U.S.A, there's a 30,000 pool of winners for the Lucarionite. As Jargon said; 2 gems for those who already have one. One gem for those who don't place.

Is it evil if I, who has a Lucarionite already, try anyway? Maybe not try hard but just try at all?

Interesting that it's not a timed stage any more though. Fascinating and should help competition maybe?

Haven't attempted Girafarig or whatever. Sounds like I'll use a Great Ball also.

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Edit: So I managed a 10,494 score on my first (of likely very few attempts). At least now I'll get a jewel minimal.
Used a Mega Slobro (lvl 8), Xerneas (lvl 3), Mewtwo (lvl 2), and Slurpuff (lvl 7).

This placed me 624th out of 10,918. Wow. I should really just let it coast. I can't imagine that slipping under 30,000 anyway but maybe... it'll be interesting to watch.

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Edit2: So I just caught Girafig! Third attempt! Managed to S-class him with like a 4 move win, netting me a 24% catch rate. Caught him without a great ball. Phew. Now I still have my 72,980 coins left!

Yea completely threw me for a loop that it wasn't timed. I started out terribly before I realized haha.

I did finally catch Girafig a couple tries later as well.

So far today I've gone from 72,980 coins to 78,310 coins. Still time for at least 9 more rounds today of that Meowth before bed. 5,330 coins (thus far) isn't shabby for a day. That's about 222 coins a half hour really. Since I tend to do 3 or 4 coins in a match, that makes sense. Did 5 once I think today. Also had a few duds.

@DrFinkelstein

I got 9,000 something, it said it failed to upload and I accidentally hit No to try again. Oh well, I can do better.

@Jargon

Keep us posted! My plan is to check in with my original score so we can track how far that sinks over time. Might help gauge the risk of a score dropping near the end. Then depending on things at the end, I'll maybe try again to try and score two jewels! I only use jewels for a crap ton of coins. I think 8 or 12 nets you like 48,000 coins.

Broke 10,000 points for a rank of 2,679. I think that's enough for a while until we get closer to the end date at least.

Dr. Fink's Mega Lucario Score - Round 2 - Initial Score: 10,494; Need to be in Top 30,000 participants to win 'big'

05/18/2015 - AM - 624th out of 10,918 participants - Score Good for the Top 6%
05/18/2015 - PM - 2,663th out of 54,804 participants - Score Good for the Top 5%

If I don't forget, I'll keep adding to this each morning and night to see how things shift without even changing my score.

Beat the snot out of Kecleon first attempt, ended up with a 30 something catch rate, caught first go.

Too easy.

@Shadowlink

Same.

He's giving me more trouble than that. A bad starting placement left me with a 25% on my first try... bastard ran away after three 'knocks'.
27% the next time... and insta-lose. What a little bastard.
Third time beat him in 12 moves. And I captured him with my 31% chance.

Kecleon
9 moves remain - 25% chance
10 moves remain - 27% chance
12 moves remain - 31% chance

Anyway, time to update...

Dr. Fink's Mega Lucario Score - Round 2 - Initial Score: 10,494; Need to be in Top 30,000 participants to win 'big'

05/18/2015 - AM - 624th out of 10,918 participants - Score Good for the Top 6%
05/18/2015 - PM - 2,663rd out of 54,804 participants - Score Good for the Top 5%
05/18/2015 - AM - 3,283rd out of 64,051 participants - Score Good for the Top 6%

Things stay steady. At this rate, we would need to see 500,000 participants to be knocked out of rankings while staying at the top 6%. Alas, back to Meowth grinding. I'll need to start using these coins soon and perhaps nab some S-classes with a little help.

Dr. Fink's Mega Lucario Score - Round 2 - Initial Score: 10,494; Need to be in Top 30,000 participants to win 'big'

05/18/2015 - AM - 624th out of 10,918 participants - Score Good for the Top 6%
05/18/2015 - PM - 2,663rd out of 54,804 participants - Score Good for the Top 5%
05/19/2015 - AM - 3,283rd out of 64,051 participants - Score Good for the Top 6%
05/19/2015 - PM - 4,099th out of 73,576 participants - Score Good for the Top 6%

Dropped 816 spots. Participants grew 9525.

Wow, fuck Shuckle. I beat him the first try using all 5 moves. Realizing a Mega Start for Aerodactyl would be very helpful, I bought one and beat him in just 2 moves. But that only gave me a 19% chance. Not wanting to waste the coins I'd used for a Mega Start, I tried a Great Ball to give me a 38% chance, but failed again. At that point I was just annoyed. Three Great Balls later I finally caught him. Ugh. Oh well, at least I have him. And coins are much more easy come, easy go now with the Meowth grinding.

@Jargon

Oh man. Ouch.

I beat him in 3 moves first attempt with a 16% catch rate....Caught him first try. Now I feel super lucky.

Lets see now... I've got 90,400 coins.

It took me 4 moves to beat Shuckle. 13% capture rate. No dice. Gonna shoot for better before I start chuckin' Great Balls.
Tried again. 4 moves. 13%. No dice.
Third try. Did not finish.
Fourth try Did not finish. @Shadowlink You are a lucky man.
Fifth try, 4 moves. No dice. 26% with Great Ball.... and first great ball! Phew. What a pain in the shuckle. Ended with 88,160 coins.

Dr. Fink's Mega Lucario Score - Round 2 - Initial Score: 10,494; Need to be in Top 30,000 participants to win 'big'

05/18/2015 - AM - 624th out of 10,918 participants - Score Good for the Top 6%
05/18/2015 - PM - 2,663rd out of 54,804 participants - Score Good for the Top 5%
05/19/2015 - AM - 3,283rd out of 64,051 participants - Score Good for the Top 6%
05/19/2015 - PM - 4,099th out of 73,576 participants - Score Good for the Top 6%
05/20/2015 - AM - 4,832th out of 81,330 participants - Score Good for the Top 6% (though I'm just about to edge out of that percentile)

Dropped 733 spots. Participants grew 7754.

Everyone keeps using Mega Mewtwo in the top spots. I didn't do that I wonder how my score would change if I had. Hmm... Oh and by mining for Meowth Coins I managed to max out my Mega Lucario. That's a plus which should come in handy at some point.

What is the current highest level (stage number) on the main stages right now?

I'd have to look but I thought like 190.

Edit: I checked. There are 190 of them. Ends with Steelix.

Of the Expert Stages, there's 21 of them. The main game had 20 which ended with Mewtwo but then they added Genesect.

In other news, I'm at a cool 91,700 coins saved up. Has anyone hit 100,000 I wonder if the game even allows it. I should start using some to get some help S-classing levels.

Dr. Fink's Mega Lucario Score - Round 2 - Initial Score: 10,494; Need to be in Top 30,000 participants to win 'big'

05/18/2015 - AM - 624th out of 10,918 participants - Score Good for the Top 6%
05/18/2015 - PM - 2,663rd out of 54,804 participants - Score Good for the Top 5%
05/19/2015 - AM - 3,283rd out of 64,051 participants - Score Good for the Top 6%
05/19/2015 - PM - 4,099th out of 73,576 participants - Score Good for the Top 6%
05/20/2015 - AM - 4,832th out of 81,330 participants - Score Good for the Top 6%
05/20/2015 - PM - 5,535th out of 87,920 participants - Score Good for the Top 7%

Dropped 703 spots. Participants grew 6590.

Fun Fact: That participant growth-rate means there was one new participant every 8.12 seconds since I posted this morning.
Fun Fact: Every minute and 15 seconds or so I dropped a spot.
Fun Fact: By the time the event ends, at the current rate I would be at about 13,000th place. So definitely in the top 30,000 at that rate.

-------------------------------------------------------
Looks as I have 173 S-ranks complete. It's 180 for the next Expert level right?

Random thought I had...

When it comes to the expert stages, I've heard of people using what they refer to as the 'Home Screen Glitch'. I don't know the details, but near as I can tell it involves hitting the Home button and using the delay and pause provided to plan your next move whilst the timer is frozen. This is possibly what is contributing to the ridiculous competition scores, however my personal experience of this 'trick' was pretty unimpressive. I didn't feel like it gave me that massive an advantage, and my patience was quickly worn thin with the constant pausing/unpausing.

At any rate, assuming that *some* people are finding this trick useful (again, ads evidenced by the ridiculous high scores), maybe this is why Nintendo decided to move to the limited move format for Lucario this time, as opposed to the timed format? Having the competition in this style kicks anyone using the 'glitch' square in the goolies.

@DrFinkelstein

Let me know if you can store more than 99,999 coins. I kind of hope you can't, since that will be a natural point to stop grinding and start spending.