@anon_mastermind

I suppose a cross save is too much to ask.

@Jargon

Was just thinking about how cool it would be if the new Nintendo account system allowed for such a thing. I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility. But the 3DS isn't designed for such a feature, that's for sure.

Dropped to about 1500 or so. Been grinding coins all day. Spent 4 hearts when I got home to practice, and then dropped another 4500 coins for my 'real' attempt-

24,355 points, a gain of 5000+ points. Not bad!

Effect on my ranking? 1107/36833. Only gained 500 places! Boooooo.

The problem with the Attack Up as an option is if you want your score to count 'for real' you need to use it for double points- Which means 3000 coins each time you go for a new record- And don't think Nintendo doesn't know that.

I might hold off there and have the REAL, real attempt near the end of the week with the complexity in the mix.

Quick question: I notice you guys sometimes mention, 'coin grinding' with Meowth. I'm a little confused, I mean, every so often he will appear in the special stages, but as soon as you play the stage, he is gone, there is no opportunity to play for coins again, until the next time he appears, which seems like once a week.

Is there something I'm missing or not understanding? When I think of grinding, I think of using him over and over until all five hearts are used up, but thats not possible since he disappears after one play through. Is there a way to keep playing against him, other than just once a week or however often he does appear in the special stages? I see where some of you guys have tens of thousands of coins. The most I've ever had was when I was awarded the five or six jewels when I beat that 'yellow dude' (I'm sorry, I can't remember his name, which is sad cause I was just asking about his different levels a week ago. I've never ever played any of the pokemon games. I only know the really popular pokemon, like pikachu, greninja, charizard, bulbasaur, ect. As far as names, thats about it. I know they are broken into different classes, like pikachu is electric, lucario is fighting, but again, I only know the classes for the really popular ones and I definitely do not know which ones are effective over others, ect.) at a certain level and I cashed in the jewels for coins. I figured having the coins was more important than having extra hearts, though I've burned through most of those coins.

I typically have around 3,000 coins, maybe more, but then I spend them cause it seems if I don't, I'll never make any progress. Sure, its fun just winning the stage and even going back to 'S' class the pokemon, but to me, its just as, if not more important to 'catch' the pokemon. I mean, what good is 'S' classing him, if you can't use him in battle? What really makes me mad is when I catch a bunch of pokemon when I'm only around 10-20% chance of catching them, of course I'm not mad about that, but then I'll beat a pokemon with, lets say a 70% chance of catching him and the capture, FAILS!!! Now, that really pisses me off, thats when I usually blow my money on a great ball. Sure, I'll try catching him a couple more times before using the great ball, but there has been times I just say, F@ck it, I'm using it now on the little bastard! Lets see you get out flee from a 100% capture chance. I've never had that happen, but if it ever did, I would honestly quit the game, meaning I would delete it from my 3ds.

I could be wrong, but was it Victini that only shows up in the special stage and I read a few pages back where people had a hard time catching him? I think he is the one, which made me chuckle when I was reading about the problems some of you had catching him, cause he was one of those that I caught the first time and my chance of catching him was only around 10%. I'll be honest, for all the complaining I've done over this game, surprisingly, there have been many that I've caught with around only 10%-20%. Honestly, I can't remember if I've caught any under 10%, but I'm pretty sure there was one that I did near the beginning of the game.

Anyways, the main purpose of this post was to find out about Meowth grinding. Is there something I'm missing or not understanding?
Also, I mentioned its more important for me to catch the pokemon, over 'S' classing. So, lets say I beat Pikachu with only a 'B' rating and I also catch him. Does going back and 'S' classing him actually help me out, by making Pikachu stronger in battle, not taking in consideration, actually leveling him up, meaning is an 'S' level 7 Pikachu stronger in battle over a 'B' level 7 Pikachu. Thanks!

@gamewizard65

Ahh! Bold text! Large font! Mai eyes!


Short answer: Check out stage 37.

Long answer is...trickier. Basically over the course of the stage Meowth will spawn in coins as disruptions, in addition to the 3 that are already there. With a properly chosen team and a little finesse and luck, it's possible to line them up in such a way that you can get a match of 5 coins, which will net you 500 coins upon beating the stage. The trick is getting the first 4 coins in position ready for the 5th to spawn in so you can make the match. This happens on the second last move though, so your final move MUST finish the stage for you to come away with the coins. If you're having trouble getting the 5, you can also get 100 from a match of 3 coins or 300 from a match of 4 coins- Easier to do, but the reward isn't as great.

If you have a good run, you can get 2650 coins from a 5-heart session. With a little effort you can come away with anywhere between 5-10K a day. It might take you a little while to nail down a team and the technique, but it's well worth it in the long run.

There's a couple of Gamefaqs topics on it if you're interested-, here and here.


And S-ranks (on the main game) are to unlock EX stages to play (with more Pokemon to catch.)

Who'd you guys use as your Mega in the competition? I haven't given it many gos, but I've used Gengar. My high is 11,307, currently good for #4706. No items used yet.

@Jargon

Gengar's probably the way to go. He's my highest power mega, builds quickly, and is devastating for combos. Everyone else seems to be using him too...

Shadowlink said:

@gamewizard65

Ahh! Bold text! Large font! Mai eyes!


Short answer: Check out stage 37.

I don't understand this answer. Yes, I know that is the Meowth stage. I have hm S-ranked and I've caught him. Are you saying I can keep playing that stage for coins? If so, what is the purpose or big deal of having the Meowth show up in the special stage every so often?

Long answer is...trickier. Basically over the course of the stage Meowth will spawn in coins as disruptions, in addition to the 3 that are already there. With a properly chosen team and a little finesse and luck, it's possible to line them up in such a way that you can get a match of 5 coins, which will net you 500 coins upon beating the stage. The trick is getting the first 4 coins in position ready for the 5th to spawn in so you can make the match. This happens on the second last move though, so your final move MUST finish the stage for you to come away with the coins. If you're having trouble getting the 5, you can also get 100 from a match of 3 coins or 300 from a match of 4 coins- Easier to do, but the reward isn't as great.

This I understand, basically what happens during a match. Also, does it help to use up 800 coins for an extra 5 rounds?

If you have a good run, you can get 2650 coins from a 5-heart session. With a little effort you can come away with anywhere between 5-10K a day. It might take you a little while to nail down a team and the technique, but it's well worth it in the long run.

Ok, now, this quote, is not making any sense. First off, A few times I've actually netted 2,800 coins, during one session, but I used up 800 coins for five extra moves. What I'm not understanding is, how can I come away with 5-10k coins in a day? Once I play one round against Meowth, meaning I only used 1 heart, he disappears after that and I cannot play the Meowth round again, until he appears again which is usually a week or so later. This was my main question in my initial post. Once I play one round, Meowth is not available to play against, until a week or so later, whenever Nintendo decides to offer him up again.

There's a couple of Gamefaqs topics on it if you're interested-, here and here.


And S-ranks (on the main game) are to unlock EX stages to play (with more Pokemon to catch.)

Ok, so it does help to S-rank the pokemon I've caught. I probably have 16 pokemon available in the EX stages, of which I've only captured 2 so far. Though, I really don't play those stages often cause I typically don't win. I know I probably need to level up all the pokemon I've caught so far. I'm on level 162, which features Bagon, a dragon type pokemon. I've been having a really hard time beating the stage, so I have not been playing his stage much. I've been going back & trying to catch others, ect or playing special stages.

My thought & opinions on games like Pokemon Shuffle.

I know I pretty much suck at this game. I just checked how many hours I've played Pokemon Shuffle and it states I've wasted 56 hrs 05 minutes! I've played the game 210 times with an avg playtime of 16 minutes! This is the first time I even thought about checking my playtime. I'm honestly flabbergasted that I've put this much time into such a meaningless game. I'm not really hating on the game, but I can't believe I've put that much time into the game. I'll be honest, I was enjoying the game alot when I first started playing. I still like the game, but its not like I've been playing every 2.5 hours when my hearts are replenished. Lately, a few days might go by without me even playing the game. I know I'd be at a higher level if I actually played every time my hearts are replenished. Sometimes I just think, is there a real purpose for this game? Will there be an actual ending, where I'll be declared the pokemon champion of the universe? Seriously though, even though I thought I had not put much time into this game, its like I've just played a RPG, over last couple months, and what really bothers me is I know I'm not even close to actually finishing the game, that is if there is an actual ending. I'm seriously going to have to think about if I really want this game on my 3ds.

I've only sunk $6 into the game way back when I first started playing. I was actually appalled at how quick I went through 6 jewels. I had at first just bought the one jewel, can't remember why, then I figured, I'd buy 6 jewels for $5. I used some for hearts and a few for coins. I think I ended up only getting an extra 20 minutes or so of extra playtime. I thought to myself, OMG, a person could really burn through alot of money on this game.

Sure, in away, a game like this, is not a game you typically want to play for hours. Depending on your actual situation, yes there was times I would have like to just pass away the time playing this game. I really wasn't in the mood or in the proper mental condition to actually play a story driven game or a game that takes too much thought.

My honest feelings on this type of game, even though it is basically free to play, sometimes people want to keep playing and cannot stop, nor do they want to stop. I was lucky, cause I was in the position that I didn't have access to internet at the hospital. My son would have to take my 3ds either home or run down the street to McDonalds where there was internet, so I could get my 500 coins, ect. If I had actual internet access, I know I would have blown many, many dollars at the beginning. Thankfully, that didn't happen and the money I did spend, I realized, it was a waste of my money.

I guess these developers,even Nintendo can do what they want, again, the game is basically free, but they know there will be who cannot resist, they will not want to wait. Sure, the game is fun and entertaining, but in the end, the game isn't worth, at least imo, more than $10-$20, tops. esp. compared to other games that are equal in comparison, like that Pokemon Trozei(? sorry, spelling or title might be wrong),which I think is only around $8. I've never played that game, but I've heard that it is comparable to Shuffle. I believe I've seen a few videos of the gameplay. So, while it may not be the exact type of game, its probably close enough. So why make Shuffle free to play only? Why not give people the option to pay one flat fee? Now, I understand with the competitions, ect. then it might not be fair for those who have played vs those who choose the free to play route, but there is still ways Nintendo could have changed up the programming in the version that you pay for, that way it would play out fairer.

I could go on, but the reason one cannot pay for it, cause Nintendo knows there will be weak people who will end up spending $20, $ 50 or $100 or more on this game. At the same time they can say that they feel no guilt, because the game is basically free. You never really have to pay one cent to play and have fun with Pokemon Shuffle. It also comes down to, who is to say what having fun is really worth? I had a friend once, he was actually my boss, but one of the coolest, nicest people I've ever met. One day we was talking about the prices of different items. His viewpoint was, if what I'm paying brings me fun, happiness, ect., to me that item is worth the asking price. Of course he also added, if mentioned item was $20 at most stores and a few was trying to get $30 or even double, then of course he would stick to the lowest price.

I guess the same thought could apply to shuffle, but I would honestly be really upset if I ended up spending $50-$100 or more on Shuffle. I honestly could have seen that happen if I just gave into my urges to play. Yes, I like the game, and its especislly trippy when all these combos keep happening non-stop, but its not worth that kindof money. Now, if I had millions or even hundreds of thousands sitting in the bank, then it probably wouldn't bother me to blow $100 on Pokemon Shuffle.

Deep down, I feel these games are bad, esp. for those with a tendency to gamble. I feel people should have a choice up front to pay one price and never have to pay another dime. The competitions for different stones could still take place across the board by adding in a few limitations for those who paid for the game, ect.

Those are my feelings/opinions. What say the rest of ye shufflers?!

@gamewizard65

The Meowth main stage and the Meowth special stage are different. You can get a max of 530 coins from the Meowth main stage (definitely don't use a +5 moves). You can get thousands from the Meowth special stage and you should use a +5 moves for that one. But, as you've noted, you can only do it once a week.

@Jargon

Thanks. I'll be honest, other than the Meowth special stage, I've never replayed stage 37 until just now when I noticed Shawdowlink make reference to it. I actually for about meowth being in that main stage, so no worries, I've never wasted a +5 move there. I was just curious about the Meowth special stage. I would keep noticing people mentioning about farming for coins and I thought there was a way to play the stage over and over. As I mentioned, I believe the most amount of coins I've won was 2800, but I had to spend 800, so really, I only netted 2000 coins.

Is it possible to net 5-10k coins on just one playthrough? Why do I keep seeing that amount pop up. I remember reading that several pages back, basically several times throughout the entire thread. I just don't see it being possible to get that many coins, even if I was using the +5 option. Shawdowlink mentioned this:

If you have a good run, you can get 2650 coins from a 5-heart session. With a little effort you can come away with anywhere between 5-10K a day. It might take you a little while to nail down a team and the technique, but it's well worth it in the long run.

Is he talking about just one playthrough against meowth? I don't understand how I could net that many coins in one day. Does he mean playing against Meowth in the main stage and every 2.5 hours just keep playing against Meowth? I did try a few times just now, and notbnearly enough coins would appear, then I would beat the stage, when I didm't want to.

If thats the case, right now I could play the game ever 2.5 hours, but once I get back to work, back to normal days, I can't put in that kindof time, nor do I think I would want to do so.

Hmmm..any input is welcome. I need to get some zzzz's. I check back later. Thanks

Jargon summed it up. Though I don't have time for my full thoughts on this game or it's pay mechanics, I will say Gamewizard that I haven't spent a single penny and I have 60,000+ coins saved, all main Pokemon caught and S-classed, with all Expert stages beaten and caught. It's possible to do that without money and it wasn't that challenging. Once I learned Meowth grinding, I got a little bit better at being able to use items strategically.

So start doing that. When you earn jewels and such, the best thing you can do is use them on a shit-ton of coins (wait for the max). Do not use them for five extra moves at the end of a level because a simply purchased item could make the difference for you if you try again. It's impossible to mine for jewels but it's easy to mine for coins once you know how. I don't always get the max coinage and the team makes a big difference but it works. It's a bummer when you've leveled up your team so much that you have to switch out. Though be careful too of those special powers which can hurt your chances at the max 530.

@gamewizard65

Yes, he's saying that 5 lives x 530 max coins = 2,650.
Those regenerate and say you slept 8 hours a day you could earn 2,650 x 6 (or so) which would be 15,900 a day if you never missed a time. Of course it never happens this way but you still can easily get 5,000 over the course of the day or more. While you have time off, play every 2.5 hours or so. Meowth is quick.

@gamewizard65

It's hard to explain exactly how to do the Meowth stage effectively, but I think there's some Youtube videos that can at least show you what you're aiming for. Watch some of those and then give it a try yourself. Don't get discouraged if you mess up often in the beginning, eventually you'll get the hang of it.

@gamewizard65

Each playthrough on normal Meowth can get you a maximum of 530 coins. So 5 hearts= 5 attempts= 2650coms.

@ 4 sessions a day, 4 x 2650 = 10,600.

But that's playing 20 times a day and nabbing the maximum each time. If you don't have time to play that much and aren't getting the maximum, you're going to fall short. I normally average about 5K a day.

A hint on the team: Bring one or two strong pokemon in and leave the other slots blank- They will autofill with weak Chansey and Pidgey.

You can control your damage output a bit more (barring unfortunate combos) and set up for a massive attack right near the end. I like the crowd control bugs because if you can match of 4 them on the final turn, you can guarantee a few hundred damage at least. Gives you room to move.

If you care about leveling up your Pokemon, I recommend using Not Very Effective Pokemon that you want to level in your last two spots instead of just weak guys. Giratina for example is not very effective and I've gotten him up to Level 8 basically just through doing Meowth. Gengarr would be another good choice (just don't put him in the Mega slot)

Also Conkeldurr is a good choice for one of the strong Pokemon. He's super effective against Meowth and he has the Last-Ditch Effort power which is especially handy for beating the level on your final move.

Cool! Thanks Shadowlink, Jargon & Dr Fink. I completely understand the Meowth grinding. Now, learning how to properly execute my playthrough for max coinage. I'm sure it'll take a little bit of time/grinding to learn effective moves, which pokemon to use, ect. I may just check out some youtube videos. I don't feel its cheating, nor will I feel that I've spoiled the game by not learning which pokemon to use, ect. Sure, there will be some satisfaction I will miss out on by not learning on my own. As I pointed out in a few posts ago, I've sunk, what I feel, an excessive amount of time into this game. I really don't feel like blowing another, say five or ten hours or more perfecting the Meowth stage on my own. I'm confident that I have the ability to do so.

So far, everything I've learned, I've taught myself. I mentioned I've never played any pokemon games previously, other than the popular pokemon, I don't know jack squat, especially when it comes to the newer pokemon. I've spent several hours googling different pokemon and reading their wikis, learning their abilities, which pokemon are effective against others, ect, ect. Even with all the time I've spent learning about all these little monsters, I'm still fairly ignorant & by no meams do I feel like I'm an expert, ect.

I know many people who snub their noses up at PS, actually, I would consider myself one of those people who would 'knock' a game like this. After playing the game hours upon hours, there is actually more to the game than just matching three pokemon. I feel the gameplay and strategy needed is actually fairly deep. With that said, I still don't feel the game is worth $50, but I do feel its probably worth more than $10.

Its hard to put a pricetag on a game like Shuffle. The game's level of depth can be different for many people, but at the same time, be just as enjoyable across the board. Sometimes I will really take my time, studying a stage, trying to make moves that will net me the most amount of points, while at other times, all I care about is instant gratification by lucking into huge combos, without putting much thought at all behind my moves.

What do I feel the game is really worth? Thats a hard question and I think each person will have a different answer. Myself, I feel the game's worth is in the range of $15-$30. I've only spent $6 on the game, but I was disappointed with the minimal amount of time I received for that $6. I am a very impatient individual. I don't like having to wait. Sometimes, maybe the five hearts is enough, other times I honestly would like to play the game for an hour, maybe several hours. I know it would take around $10-$20 to satisfy my urges, but that is why I have to say no. I guarantee if I would have just given in and bought jewels for each of those times I wanted to play the game for extended playthroughs, I would have already blown, probably $100, if not more.

I feel if I would end up spending that kindof money, then I would feel even more obligated to play the game and I would more than likely have sunk even more money into the game. I couldn't imagine just quitting the game, deleting it off my 3DS, ect., just because I blew a wad of cash on the game. I'd imagine if I did go that route, even if I spent only $30-$50, I know that I would then feel 'chained' to the game. I'm not saying everyone would feel that way, but I know I would. I would feel obligated to keep playing since I've invested not only a fair amount of my hard earned money, but also alot of my free time.

I guess at that point, one would have to seriously ask him/herself, 'Am I really having fun with this game? Am I playing cause I want to or because I now feel like I have to, just to justify the time and money I've sunk into the game.

In summary, that is why I will not spend much more, maybe not even another dollar. I want to enjoy playing the game. I do not want to feel that I'm now obligated to play cause I've sunk this much time & money. Thats why I associate these free to play/free to start, or whatever the developer wants to call them, with gambling. Its just my opinion and I think it depends on each person. Myself, I have an addictive personality, no matter what I engage in, I have to be careful. Whether its eating, buying things, especially videogames or electronics, gambling, consuming drugs, ect., I have to be careful. Once I get going, its hard to stop. Therefore, I just make sure not to start in the first place.

@gamewizard65

Once you nail down your Meowth technique, and coins become less scarce for you, you can pretty much call it Free to Play I think.

I haven't spent a cent and I'm fairly certain Jargon and Fink haven't either.

If it ever gets to the point where you need to spend real cash to make reasonable progress, that's where we'd call it a day, but the resources on hand are fairly generous. Outside of ridiculous events like Giratina or Safari zone, I never feel the need for huge amounts of hearts at once, and coinage is no longer a big issue.

At best the game requires a little bit of patience, but between all the other things I have to occupy myself with, that's not a big problem either

Manectric Competitive Stage
06/29/15 AM - 8,225 points; 4,632th out of 12,453; (Max Mega Lucario, Lvl 9 Donphan, Lvl 6 Stunfisk, Lvl 1 Groudon)
06/29/15 AM - 9,441 points; 2,734th out of 12,553; (switched to Mega Gengar)
06/29/15 AM - 18,814 points; 715th out of 12,610; (did the ShadowLink thing with the Attack Up and Disruption Delay)
07/01/15 AM - 24,721 points; 2,330th out of 70,751; (used the SL technique and now my Donphan is max and Groudon Lvl 5 and Stunfisk Lvl 7)

Five days to go now. I very well might slip out of the best zone but that stone is mine for sure. I kinda wanna dump a Complexity-1 just to see what would happen to my score.

@Shadowlink

Not one penny. Since the cost for this game is up in the air, that confuses my brain and makes me feel icky about spending a penny on it. So I will simply stop playing once I'm forced into that. So far that hasn't happened.

Wow, that disruption delay and Attack +1 really makes a difference. I kept trying with with no items to break 12,000 and kept coming close but not quite. Finally I figured I have 99,000 coins I might as well spend a little and now I've got a high score 24,631. Definitely wasn't going to get into the Speedup tier without that. Question now is whether to add a Complexity -1 to mix and see if I can really sew up a spot in the top 6000. We'll see how things look come Sunday.

@Shadowlink

edit: Woo-hoo!! Just got my first 500 coinage, well actually 530. I just had to stick this in here.

Well, I feel the game is 'free to play'. I know I don't need to spend money to make progress, and the $6 that I did spend, which was in the beginning, I'd say I probably had around 15-20 hours invested when I spent the money. I quickly learned, that I would not spend another dime, cause I probably got around an extra 20 minutes worth of playtime, if that. I actually thought I'd be getting an hour or two worth of playtime. I guess I thought wrong. But, that is what sucks about the game. I don't feel I need to spend money to progress, I just want to keep playing, especially a game like pokemon shuffle, it was like the perfect game to play while I was recovering. I didn't have to worry about making quick movements, thinking real fast out of the box, ect, like one would say in a racing game, fighter or fps game.

Now, thats probably why I haven't played much of the expert levels, though I'm getting better at them now, but a month or so ago, I completely sucked at those levels. I just wanted to take my time, playing regular main stages of shuffle and I wanted to play them hours on end. Sure, I had other games to play on my 3ds, believe me, way too many, but even, say a game like Rusty's Baseball, was kindof tough for me to play a month ago, my thought process, hand to eye coordination sucked, big time. I'm getting fairly close to back to normal now, so I can play almost any type of game just like before I was in the hospital. It was easier for me to play games like Shuffle & Pushmo were the perfect games to play, cause I could take my time and they was easy to control. I knew the only way for me to play a game like Shuffle for the amount of time I wanted, would be to spend like $25 on jewels. I know I could trade 12 jewels for 80 hearts, and do that a couple more times.I just had to let my son take my 3ds home or to a wifi hotspot and buy the jewels. For $25, I could get around 240 hearts, but I knew I could burn through those in a day, or two at most. I know its only money and I would be enjoying myself, but I don't think the game is worth spending that much money on. I guarantee, I would have probably blown $100-$200 , if I had started going down that route.

@gamewizard65

I may have said this already but go look into Pokémon Battle Trozei. It doesn't have the turn based mechanic but it's more or less a prequel to this and is one price then play forever. I 100%d it when it came out. Super fun.

The pokemon battles feel more like battles too.