[X] My Assistant

[Zerxer]

The Secret Santa Exchange is now open for deposits! Sorry for the late notice. Please note that your party will be locked to a maximum of 5 after you've deposited, to ensure you have a space available when the exchange runs. This will negatively affect your ability to perform in the current coin event, so keep that in mind in case you want to wait until shortly before the deposits close (reset on Monday, the 26th).

This year, I will have deposits open until reset of the 26th (the day after Christmas). This is because of the fact I'm late, but also because of the exchange taking in to account a user's activity on the day before the exchange. This way no one feels compelled to be overly active on Christmas Day itself; enjoy the holiday elsewhere if you can!

Once you know what Pokémon you want to enter into the exchange, you will use its Options dropdown and choose "Secret Santa Exchange" under the "Move to" option.

The exchange itself will happen after 11:55pm EST on December 26th, meaning you have from now until the end of Monday (server time). Depending on my availability, it will likely be hours later, or the next afternoon, but the ability to deposit will be disabled closer to reset.

Some reminders (and notes for newcomers):

• You can only enter ONE Pokémon in the exchange and you will not be able to undo your choice.
• The Pokémon will immediately be converted into an egg of its BASE form, again meaning you cannot undo your choice.
• When the exchange runs after reset (on the night of Monday, December 26th), your Pokémon's egg will be given to someone else, and you will receive an egg from another person OF EQUAL RARITY.
• Rarity is dex rarity, not how "rare" you perceive it to be by availability on the site.
• Rarity is by BASE rarity. This means submitting certain novelties, such as a MEGA or some other Novelty evolution, will likely have a NON-NOVELTY base rarity (Common, Uncommon, Rare). A Mega Charizard would be a regular Charmander. Snowman Froakie would be a regular Froakie. A Winter Vulpix, however, would be considered a Novelty and would be given as a Winter Vulpix egg.
• Summonable legendaries are in their own rarity grouping, rather than with all legendaries (Very Rare). This means submitting a Ho-oh, Lugia, etc, will get you an equivalent summonable legendary back; you will not get something like an Articuno.
• Ultra Beasts are also in their own rarity grouping.
• Novelties are allowed again, except for: any Zygarde and Magikarp (the color novelties).
• Additional Pokémon that are not allowed: Manaphy, Phione, Arceus, Meltan, Melmetal, Black Kyurem, White Kyurem, all Zygarde.
• Submitting a SHINY means you will get a shiny in return, of equal rarity.
• THERE ARE NO GUARANTEES THAT YOU WILL GET WHAT YOU WANT, NOR THAT YOU WILL EVEN GET SOMETHING THAT YOU DO NOT ALREADY HAVE (although giving you something not already in your dex is the primary objective, but depending on how many people enter, and which Pokémon are entered, and how full your dex is, this may not have a 100% success rate)
• YOUR PARTY LIMIT WILL BE DECREASED TO 5 UNTIL THE EVENT ENDS, TO ENSURE YOU HAVE A SPOT OPEN IN YOUR PARTY FOR YOUR NEW EGG. Keep this in mind in case you want to wait until the 26th to deposit your Pokémon.
• The exchange script will prioritize users based on their December 26th activity — those who were more active that day will be first to get an exchange Pokémon, which helps ensure they get something new.
• I might not be available precisely at reset on the 26th, which means the actual exchange will take place later that night if not the next afternoon. Just an FYI.

I will open this thread for replies after the actual exchange happens.

[Zerxer]

Merry Christmas everyone!

The exchange has been executed.

There were 560 Pokémon exchanged.

Of those, there were 482 successful exchanges that were new dex entries for the new owners, and 78 exchanges that were not new entries.

There was 1 less entry than last year, but 11 more successful exchanges.

This thread is now open for replies.

[Jade]

As always, one of my favorite parts of the year! I was hard pressed to decide between doing a shiny legendary or a novelty this year, but I went for the former.

Thanks Zerx for always running it!

I hope whomever ended up with my Shiny Tapu Bulu will enjoy him ^^

And thank you Keruso for my Mewtwo!

[Myou]

Congrats to Gato for getting my Sh. Tapu Fini, and thank you to Jen for my Sh. Uxie~

[Raboot]

Always a fun event. Thanks for having it again!

[Isla de Monte Cr...]

Thank you for rescuing us so quickly Nick!

And thank you to Sign Seven for my Korechu! May these header events haunt me no more! I hope everyone has fun with the exchange and whoever got my Pokii enjoys their new Christmas Tree!

[ThunderMoss]

[*] Rarity is by BASE rarity. This means submitting certain novelties, such as a MEGA or some other Novelty evolution, will likely have a NON-NOVELTY base rarity (Common, Uncommon, Rare). A Mega Charizard would be a regular Charmander. Snowman Froakie would be a regular Froakie. A Winter Vulpix, however, would be considered a Novelty and would be given as a Winter Vulpix egg.
[*] Summonable legendaries are in their own rarity grouping, rather than with all legendaries (Very Rare). This means submitting a Ho-oh, Lugia, etc, will get you an equivalent summonable legendary back; you will not get something like an Articuno.

Thank you for running the exchange.

However, it did not consider my Sh. Misquaza quite how I expected. While it is a Novelty the underlying base type is Summonable legendary. It was considered a Novelty for the exchange as the recipient noted they gifted a novelty. They also did not have to corrupt the egg as it arrived as a Misquaza.

Regards,
-TM

[Ryuk3112]

[*] Rarity is by BASE rarity. This means submitting certain novelties, such as a MEGA or some other Novelty evolution, will likely have a NON-NOVELTY base rarity (Common, Uncommon, Rare). A Mega Charizard would be a regular Charmander. Snowman Froakie would be a regular Froakie. A Winter Vulpix, however, would be considered a Novelty and would be given as a Winter Vulpix egg.
[*] Summonable legendaries are in their own rarity grouping, rather than with all legendaries (Very Rare). This means submitting a Ho-oh, Lugia, etc, will get you an equivalent summonable legendary back; you will not get something like an Articuno.

Thank you for running the exchange.

However, it did not consider my Sh. Misquaza quite how I expected. While it is a Novelty the underlying base type is Summonable legendary. It was considered a Novelty for the exchange as the recipient noted they gifted a novelty. They also did not have to corrupt the egg as it arrived as a Misquaza.

Regards,
-TM

The exchange reduces things back to their egg so this would make sense.
Novelties that have their own egg like corruptibles, would revert to that egg, but novelties that evolve/form change from another egg line, like with special evolution items, reduce back to their Non-novelty base.

[Cinderegga]

Thank you CoolHaruka670 for my Sh. Piplup! He's a cutie and I'll take good care of him

[teddiursa]

Thank you for the shiny mimikyu, and I hope whoever got my shiny alolan vulpix is happy! <3

[Isla de Monte Cr...]

[*] Rarity is by BASE rarity. This means submitting certain novelties, such as a MEGA or some other Novelty evolution, will likely have a NON-NOVELTY base rarity (Common, Uncommon, Rare). A Mega Charizard would be a regular Charmander. Snowman Froakie would be a regular Froakie. A Winter Vulpix, however, would be considered a Novelty and would be given as a Winter Vulpix egg.
[*] Summonable legendaries are in their own rarity grouping, rather than with all legendaries (Very Rare). This means submitting a Ho-oh, Lugia, etc, will get you an equivalent summonable legendary back; you will not get something like an Articuno.

Thank you for running the exchange.

However, it did not consider my Sh. Misquaza quite how I expected. While it is a Novelty the underlying base type is Summonable legendary. It was considered a Novelty for the exchange as the recipient noted they gifted a novelty. They also did not have to corrupt the egg as it arrived as a Misquaza.

Regards,
-TM

The exchange reduces things back to their egg so this would make sense.
Novelties that have their own egg like corruptibles, would revert to that egg, but novelties that evolve/form change from another egg line, like with special evolution items, reduce back to their Non-novelty base.

Sharing some observations from the Discord chat: It changes depending on the novelty egg corrupted.

All Legendaries that have been corrupted into Novelties are exchanged as Novelties in their Novelty egg form. (e.g. Misquaza, Shadow Lugia, Primal Dialga, Fake Groudon). This behaviour is consistent with past exchanges, but is not necessarily immediately obvious.

It was also seen in this exchange that Novelty pokemon that are corruptions of other Novelty pokemon are reverted back to the base novel form i.e. Feral Zergoose -> Zergoose, Zombidofo -> Bidofo.

I'm uncertain if it has been confirmed for other egg corruptions such as Pudgy Pidgey or Ekralyp, but the current prevailing theory is that these would keep their novelty egg status through the exchange since their eggs have a changed rarity grouping like the Very Rares.

[Akane Kurashiki]

I got a shiny Piplup from Bobdapeach, and my shiny Riolu went to Crosspeice

[Myou]

[*] Rarity is by BASE rarity. This means submitting certain novelties, such as a MEGA or some other Novelty evolution, will likely have a NON-NOVELTY base rarity (Common, Uncommon, Rare). A Mega Charizard would be a regular Charmander. Snowman Froakie would be a regular Froakie. A Winter Vulpix, however, would be considered a Novelty and would be given as a Winter Vulpix egg.
[*] Summonable legendaries are in their own rarity grouping, rather than with all legendaries (Very Rare). This means submitting a Ho-oh, Lugia, etc, will get you an equivalent summonable legendary back; you will not get something like an Articuno.

Thank you for running the exchange.

However, it did not consider my Sh. Misquaza quite how I expected. While it is a Novelty the underlying base type is Summonable legendary. It was considered a Novelty for the exchange as the recipient noted they gifted a novelty. They also did not have to corrupt the egg as it arrived as a Misquaza.

Regards,
-TM

Yeah, I made this mistake with Sh. Fake Groudon a couple of years ago; I put it into the exchange expecting another summonable sh. legendary and got a Sh. Slime Slugma instead. Live and learn, I suppose.

A general rule of thumb I've found is that if a form change/corruption has its own unique egg sprite, that's what it's going to revert to; otherwise, it defaults to the base egg sprite.

[Vulpix D]

got a Shiny Shinx from "Delcatty"

my Shiny Male Salandit went to "Beru". Sorry but i had 2 of them

[Cytosine]

Thank you Tayaere for your shiny Wishiwashi, and I hope you enjoy your Oricorio, Ness 64!

[deleted user]

Thank you to Trish Una for the Shiny Chikorita.

[Asbel Lhant]

I got a shiny Palkia for my shiny Ho-oh so I’m pleased.

[Hichigo]

Thank you to Streak for the shiny Turtwig! It happens to be one of my favourite Pokemon, so this is quite lovely.

[ThunderMoss]

Thank you Myou and Isla de Monte Cristo for additional details.

While I got a Novelty it was one of the not breedable variety (Sh. Spiky-eared Pichu!) so was in this instance an upgrade. I was initially disappointed but after some reflection realized I was happy with the result. And now will resume hunting for another Sh. Misquaza... I had hoped to make a little progress on the summonables... but since the summoning items are unlimited Event shop items this provides a lot of opportunities.

It is good to know that if you receive a corruptible you don't need to corrupt it again.

I would suggest since this has happened to multiple players over multiple years that a sentence or two added to the guidance would help prevent future misunderstandings. A corrupted legendary just doesn't feel like it should be in the same "dex rarity" group as a novelty which could be bred. I guess novelties might be well split into those that can be bred and those that cannot?

Regards,
-TM

[Professor Eucaly...]

Good information regarding exchanging corruptables - will be useful to keep in my back pocket though I don't see myself exchanging them any time soon.
I vouchered up something I thought people would like - Prof Doragun got my Sh. Fossil Tirtouga (always happy to help a fellow prof.)
I received a Floral Togepi from Spring12 - totally forgot it existed, totally forgot how beautiful that egg is. It might be the beautiful-est on the site (step it up, egg spriters.)

Thanks for a speedy Secret Santa this year! I missed it last year so this was a nice treat.