[X] My Assistant

[Yamper]

Welcome to my Battle Subway guide! Here, you'll find tips on how to use the Battle Subway, how to use items effectively, what to use in a team and most importantly, how to win! Hopefully, you'll be able to smash those Achievements and rack up those wins!

Just before I start, I would like to reiterate what's on the Help Page for the Battle Tower and Battle Subway. Within here, you will find information on available attacks, stats, natures, and generally how things work. So if you're new to this, please familiarise yourself before asking questions. Chances are, the answer you're looking for will be within the Help Page!

FYI, I was going to make 3 separate posts to make this guide seem shorter, but I don't particularly want to get in trouble, so beware, this guide is going to be lengthy! To make things easier for yourself, please CTRL+F the bracketed text next to each of the contents.

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Contents

1. Basic Introduction and Requirements [BIaR]
2. Item List [IL]
3. Pokémon and Pokédex Searching [PaPS]
4. IV's and Natures [IaN]
5. Pokémon Moves [PM]
6. Making a Team [MaT]
7. Tips [TI]

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i. Basic Introduction and Requirements [BIaR]

The Battle Subway is a place where you can win battles against an endless supply of NPC's created by our own userbase. Each time you win a battle, your streak gets increased by 1. After a certain number of battles you can win various prizes, all items. You do not win points in the Battle Subway. The more battles you win, the bigger your streak will be, and the more prizes you can win.

In order to be able to use the Battle Subway, you must have as a minimum, 6 Pokémon of Level 76-100 in your Battle Tower Roster. To add a Pokémon to your roster, select it from its individual drop-down menu, or transfer them there via the PC. Once you have 6 eligible Pokémon, you are able to send your team into battle with a randomly selected NPC. You can also preset your own team. This will be explained under Making a Team.

NPC's are generated based on a scoring system. The higher their score, generally the tougher they will be. Each win for the NPC increases their score by 10, and each loss decreases their score by 1. When you start off you'll have easier NPC's to battle but as your streak progresses, you will start to face more tougher trainers.

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ii. Item List [IL]

As previously mentioned, after a certain number of wins during your streak, you will win a prize. These prizes can be used within the Battle Tower and Battle Subway themselves, for selling and boosting IV's. You may receive the following items:

• Vitamins
• Hold Items (Type Gems / Choice Items / Quick Claw / Leftovers)
• Account Upgrades

Vitamins:

There are a total of 6 Vitamins on GPX+, taken from the games themselves. These Vitamins have the use of increasing the total IV's of a Pokémon by 1 point each time they are used. However, you may only give Pokémon a total of 6 Vitamins. These are what they are, and what they do:

- Calcium - Increases a Pokémon's Special Attack IV by 1.
- Carbos - Increases a Pokémon's Speed IV by 1.
- HP Up - Increases a Pokémon's HP IV by 1.
- Iron - Increases a Pokémon's Defence IV by 1.
- Protein - Increases a Pokémon's Attack IV by 1.
- Zinc - Increase a Pokémon's Special Defence IV by 1.

Once you reach the streak of getting a Vitamin, it is entirely random as to which one you may get. If you would like to sell a Vitamin, they may be sold to the shop for 400 points each. You may also purchase a Vitamin from the Backroom, if someone has sold one (or more), for 600 points each.

Hold Items - Type Gems:

Another item you can win, are Type Gems. There are a total of 17 different Type Gems, one for each type. These Type Gems are found in the games, however, they function differently in GPX+. These Type Gems grant your Pokémon the ability to use a move of a different type it wouldn't normally learn.
The available Type Gems and their functions are as follows:

- Bug Gem - Allows the Pokémon to use weak Bug-Type moves.
- Dark Gem - Allows the Pokémon to use weak Dark-Type moves.
- Dragon Gem - Allows the Pokémon to use weak Dragon-Type moves.
- Electric Gem - Allows the Pokémon to use weak Electric-Type moves.
- Fighting Gem - Allows the Pokémon to use weak Fighting-Type moves.
- Fire Gem - Allows the Pokémon to use weak Fire-Type moves.
- Flying Gem - Allows the Pokémon to use weak Flying-Type moves.
- Ghost Gem - Allows the Pokémon to use weak Ghost-Type moves.
- Grass Gem - Allows the Pokémon to use weak Grass-Type moves.
- Ground Gem - Allows the Pokémon to use weak Ground-Type moves.
- Ice Gem - Allows the Pokémon to use weak Ice-Type moves.
- Normal Gem - Allows the Pokémon to use weak Normal-Type moves.
- Poison Gem - Allows the Pokémon to use weak Poison-Type moves.
- Psychic Gem - Allows the Pokémon to use weak Psychic-Type moves.
- Rock Gem - Allows the Pokémon to use weak Rock-Type moves.
- Water Gem - Allows the Pokémon to use weak Water-Type moves.

You may also win these items at a certain streak, and it is random as to which gem you may receive. Gems may be sold to the shop for 3750 points each, and can be bought from the Backroom for 5625 points each, if a user sells 1 or more.

Account Upgrades & Hold Items - Choice Items, Quick Claw and Leftovers:

There are some other hold items which you may win from the Battle Subway. There are 3 Choice Items, Quick Claw and Leftovers. The items here function the same as they do in-game. There are also some Account Upgrades you may win as-well. These are the EXP. All and Battle Expansions. You may win up to 4 Battle Expansions and only 1 EXP. All.
- Choice Band - Increases a Pokémon's Attack by 50% (+1 boost) and allows the use of only 1 move (until switched out).
- Choice Scarf - Increases a Pokémon's Speed by 50% (+1 boost) and allows the use of only 1 move (until switched out).
- Choice Specs - Increases a Pokémon's Special Attack by 50% (+1 boost) and allows the use of only 1 move (until switched out).
- Leftovers - Allows the Pokémon to recover some HP at the end of the turn.
- Quick Claw - Occasionally allows the Pokémon holding it to strike first.
- Battle Expansion - You may win up to 4 of these, allowing an increased capacity of Pokémon stored in the Battle Roster by 9 per Expansion. You may have 54 total Pokémon in the Battle Roster.
- EXP. All - Shares 75% of the experience gained from the Battle Tower and Vs. Seeker with the Pokémon in the user's party, not already at Level 100.

You can obtain some of these items via Achievements:
- Random Type Gem: Double Dipper, Persistent, A Novel Approach, Expert Battler.
- Quick Claw: Novice Battler, Top Percentage.
- Choice Items: Cypress Battler, Cypress Smasher, Cypress Conqueror.
- Leftovers: It is a Mystery~.

Another way of obtaining Type Gems, Choice Items, Quick Claws and Leftovers is by the Prize Shop. Type Gems are 5 Prize Points and the rest are 10 Prize Points.

You win Vitamins and Hold Items at the following win streaks:
Vitamins Win Streak:
2, 7, 13, 33, 48
After 48, you win one every 15 wins at: 63, 78, 93 etc.

Hold Items (Type Gems / Choice Items / Quick Claw / Leftovers) Win Streak:
10, 21, 42
After 42, you win one every 50 wins: 92, 142, 192 etc.
Once you have all of the Battle Expansions and EXP. All, you will receive a random Hold Item every 75 wins, at 75, 150, 225, 300 etc.

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iii. Pokémon and Pokédex Searching [PaPS]

So. Now that we've gotten past the huge chunk of items, this is probably going to be the bit you all want/need most. The Pokémon and Pokédex searching function allows you to search various pieces of information regarding Pokémon.
Within the Pokédex there are many options at the top. You can search for Pokémon in specific regions, colour and type(s). However, the ones we're going to be looking at are the cells next to the 'Stats' option. Here we can filter out Pokémon who are below or above a specific Base Stat. You will see 2 signs (>= and <=) These cells are where we search and filter out Base Stats of Pokémon (Some of the Base Stats here have been altered)

>= means 'Greater than or equal to'
<= means 'Less than or equal to'

This is the part where you decide yourself what you want to search for. Personally, I would be searching for Base Stats of 100 or more with Speed, Attack and Special Attack.
We can also sort Pokémon by Base Stat. At the bottom, next to 'Sorting' in the middle there is a long dropdown menu. This is how we can sort our Pokémon. Along with filtering Base Stats, we can just get the ones we want. For example if I was looking at Pokémon with a Base Stat greater than or equal to 110 in Attack, and we were filtering by Speed, all Pokémon with an Attack of Base Stat 110 and higher will appear, ordered by Speed.

I will go into more detail regarding this later on in the guide. But for now, this is how it works and that is all you need to know for now.

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iv. IV's and Nature [IaN]

Right, so we've all heard of IV's, yes? A Pokémon may have 186 Total IV's, 31 in each stat. Vitamins (as previously mentioned) will increase an IV by 1, but will not allow you to exceed 31 IV's in a stat.
I cannot stress to you how important the IV's and Natures are. Yeah they may be unique, but they provide a 10% boost and decrease to certain stats (or none in some cases),depending on the Nature. High IV's in certain boosted stats could mean the difference between a win and a loss.
Study the Natures table hard. Use it to your advantage. You can find the Natures table in the Help Page, so there is no reason for me to type out the Natures Table for you. Go look at it. Understand it. Either you understand it, or don't bother reading this because it will be a waste of time.

Back to IV's and Nature, you'd be wanting to boost the stats that matter to a Pokémon. There are many useless things you could do. For example trying to get a Speedy Shuckle. Trying to get a Defensive Ninjask. It's just stupid, pointless and there is no need.
This is where the Pokédex Searching will come into play. You will be needing to search for some high Base Stat Pokémon. What you choose will be completely up to you. I'm not telling you what Pokémon to choose, merely trying to help guide you to get an insight of how things work.

Play around with the Pokédex. Look at different Pokémon, look at their stats and then decide which Nature would be best. Once you've decided, you're going to be needing to hatch eggs of these Pokémon, along with a stash of Pass Orbs to use on Influence Power. Once you're satisfied with your Pokémon, then move onto the next one.

This is the formula for working out the Maximum Stat of a Pokémon with a Beneficial Nature/Non Beneficial Nature:

CODE

[(Base Stat*2)+5+IV of Stat]*Nature Increase/Decrease

1.1 = Nature Increase
0.9 = Nature Decrease

So if I were to use a Luvdisc for example. I want to know the maximum Speed of 2 Luvdisc with different Speed IV's, but both with with a Speed boosting nature. One with 8 IV's in Speed and the other has 31 IV's in Speed. Luvdisc's Base Speed is 176. The first linked Luvdisc has 401 speed and the second linked Luvdisc has 426 speed.

[(176*2)+5+8]*1.1=401.5
This would round down to 401. You can see that the first linked Luvdisc has 401 Speed!

[(176*2)+5+31]*1.1=426.8
This would round down to 426. You can see that the second linked Luvdisc has 426 Speed! (The one I linked has 427 only because of a dodgy Vitamin boost; I can assure you it does round down.)

For a non-beneficial nature, simply not do not include the 1.1
For a negative boosting nature, replace 1.1 with 0.9

To find out the maximum stat with a choice item it is the same formula as the beneficial nature formula.
Multiply the answers by 1.5 and you'll get the stat with a choice item effect. (Only works with Speed, Attack and Special Attack)

Note, if you want to find out the Maximum Stat of a Pokémon with a Nature which neither increases or decreases a Stat, then just leave off the 1.1 or 0.9. If you're going to Choice Item it, then include that 1.5 or you'll get an incorrect result.

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v. Pokémon Moves [PM]

In GPX+, Pokémon have either Strong or Weak moves. Single-Type Pokémon have both Strong and Weak moves of their type. Dual-Type Pokémon have Weak moves of both typings. Once again it is up to you to decide on what you want most.

I'm not going to name drop here. I've had people show me their teams and it consists of all Dual-Types. Yeah you have the coverage, but you lack the punch. You need to be able to move fast and hit hard. Strong Attacks will deal more damage to Pokémon than Weak attacks. If you have say, a Golem. That's x4 Weak to Water and Grass. Regardless if a Pokémon has a Weak or Strong Grass/Water move, it's still going to deal quite a bit of damage.
So you'll be wanting to get some strong moves in. By all means, I am a fan of Dual-Types myself, I use them too. But I use more Single-Types than Dual-Types. Only give Pokémon moves that they will use efficiently. Make sure you give the Physical Attackers Physical moves, and Special Attackers Special Moves.

The items I mentioned earlier; Type Gems and Choice Items. These will help immensely. Choice Items were pretty self explanatory, but the Type Gems have a little more to them than what they say.*
You may only equip a Pokémon with a Type Gem, under the circumstances that the Pokémon you're trying to equip the Type Gem to, does not receive a minimum of x2 damage to it. You cannot equip a Gyarados with an Electric Gem as Gyarados is x4 Weak to Electric Type moves. Most Grass Types cannot hold a Fire Gem, because they are weak to fire.

I've seen this a lot, and people use Type Gems for sneaky attacks. For example, I have run an Electric Gem Dugtrio at one point. Wipe out those Water types! Something I run right now, is a Ground Gem Galvantula. The Bug typing cancels out the x2 to Ground weakness, meaning it is possible to equip it with the Ground Gem. This enables me to cause more damage to Pokémon weak to Ground-Type attacks; such as Steel, Poison, Rock and Electric Types.

*I wouldn't bother with Quick Claws. Yeah they're fun when they activate, but it is purely luck based and it's incredibly silly to rely heavily on them.

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vi. Making a Team [MaT]

This is where it gets more interesting. I will not tell you what Pokémon to use. I am going to list my own team to show you the Advantages and Disadvantages. Please take into consideration everything I have previously mentioned. If you want those Achievements and those Prize Points then please continue reading. Preferably you will be wanting a few Hard Hitting and Speedy Pokémon.

Another thing I would like to mention. This section is about making your own team of 6 to use against the NPC's. Not to make an NPC Team to battle other users. If you create a team for the NPC's (You do this under the Battle Subway tab, by pressing 'Submit a New Team!'). This is not how to make your team. All you do is send your Pokémon to the Battle Tower, and if you click on the 'View Battles' tab, there is a 'Manage Teams' button. This is where you can preset your team to use against the NPC's.

Firstly, I have stated you will be needing a mixture of Single and Dual Type Pokémon. These need to have decent IV's overall, the better stats being the necessary ones. I will show you the team that I currently run. This team has gotten my best streak to date of 667. If you want to check out their Base Stats search your Pokédex.

For weaknesses and general help with choosing, please read PkmHunter's contribution in the Tips sections!

My Current Team [Purely Example Base]:
Dugtrio
-Moves: Sand Tomb, Earthquake, Haze, Lucky Chant
-Nature: Naive [Boosts Speed, Lowers Special Defence]
-Item: Choice Band
-IV's 116
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Jynx
-Moves: Confusion, Powder Snow, Haze, Recover
-Nature: Modest [Boosts Special Attack, Lowers Attack]
-Item: Choice Scarf
-IV's: 134
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Darmanitan [Normal]
-Moves: Flame Wheel, Flare Blitz, Haze, Roar
-Nature: Adamant [Boosts Attack, Lowers Special Attack]
-Item: Choice Band
-IV's: 120
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Haxorus
-Moves: Dragon Claw, Outrage, Haze, Lucky Chant
-Nature: Lonely [Boosts Attack, Lowers Defence]
-Item: Choice Band
-IV's: 149
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Jolteon
-Moves: Thundershock, Thunderbolt, Haze, Recover
-Nature: Timid [Boosts Speed, Lowers Attack]
-Item: Choice Specs
-IV's: 112
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Sawk
-Moves: Rock Smash, Close Combat, Haze, Mean Look
-Nature: Adamant [Boosts Attack, Lowers Special Attack]
-Item: Choice Scarf
-IV's: 140
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That is my team. Look up their Base Stats if you want. Now the reason I have Choice Items on a certain few is because of their Base Attacks.
-Sawk is generally slow, and it has a pretty damn good Attack. So I gave it a Choice Scarf so its Speed would be boosted.
-Haxorus and Darmanitan don't have Choice Scarves, because I felt I would lose some of my punch if I gave them both Scarves.
-Jynx is Speedy and is able to take out most Dragon types with ease (The main reason I use it!)
-Jolteon is pretty Speedy and has a decent Special Attack, so Choice Specs.
-Dugtrio has ridiculous Speed so there's no point in increasing its Speed any further, hence the Choice Band.

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vii. Tips [TI]

Just a few tips. These will probably be edited now and then.

• Always try to counter your opponent. Don't sit there attacking with ineffective moves (unless you have to)
• Don't be afraid to switch out. If you can counter, then do it. Just bear in mind the defence stats and what you're switching to. If you can predict the move, then take that into account.
• If you have a Pokémon with a small amount of health left, I wouldn't bother with using it. Just use it until it faints.
• Switch so you can power up. I do this with Galvantula. Once there is an Electric Type, I usually switch to Galvantula (if it isn't already out) Nasty Plot once or twice, and then use Mud Shot. Works like a charm.
• From Tyranisaur: Also, don't be afraid to lose a pokemon if it's health is low and it has used most or all of its strong attacks already. The pokemon you want to switch to might take a heavy hit. With the high speed - high attack pokemon, they don't have good defence. So something like a dugtrio might be 1HkO'd by a stong fire move, but if you can switch it in after losing the previous pokemon, it'll most likely attack first and 1HKO the fire pokemon very easily.
• From PkmHunter: Your opponent (the NPC) most likely uses Super Effective moves against you so it's vital to keep in mind your Pokemon's weaknesses in order to switch/minimise damages.
  
  You can easily check your Pokemon's weaknesses at http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-bw/.
  An easy way to browse through the list of 649 Pokemon is select the Pokemon's type you're looking and pick the Pokemon from the list.
  E.g. If I want to check Scizor's weaknesses, I'll click on Bug (or Steel) type then Ctrl+F to find Scizor on the list of Bug Pokemon.
  
  If you're looking for a Novelty which the official Pokedex doesn't have, look for a Pokemon that has similar typings with that Novelty.
  E.g. If I want to check Dracowymsy Charge's weaknesses, I'll look for Zekrom.

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I really do hope this guide helps someone out there. Or a lot of people. I am fully aware not everyone is good at battling (judging by the Gear Grinders etc). If you feel like I've missed something out, got an extra tip or maybe there's something that is misleading please let me know! Thanks for reading and I hope it does something for you!

Information cited from:
- GPX+ Wiki
- GPX+ Help Page; Battle Tower section

This post has been edited by Samoo: Jun 2 2013, 04:50 PM