Best PokéRogue Tips and Tricks: Candies, Shinies and Rare Pokémon

In PokéRogue, your primary goal should not be to win the Classic game mode at the start. It's absolutely possible, but even if you win, you're unlikely to have a reliable starter to face Endless right away, so there's little use in rushing. Instead, concentrate on the concept of building your starter pool.

PokéRogue: Starting Out

When you capture a Pokémon in PokéRogue, you unlock it as a starter (assuming you don't already have it). You also obtain candies, which can be used to upgrade those starters by either unlocking a passive ability (unlocking extra features) or lowering their point cost, allowing you to bring more starters to each run (or more powerful ones!).

Catching higher IV Pokémon improves your starting stats; for example, catching a 31 Speed IV Pikachu implies your Pikachu starter now has 31 Speed IVs permanently. Greater stats mean greater power, and gaining higher IVs on your starters is probably the most significant early advantage you can receive in guiding your team forward.

With this in mind, creating a "perfect" team is less necessary than simply forming a team so that we can go out and catch some Pokémon.

PokéRogue: Things to Look Out For

Pokémon With a "Dark" Pokeball Under Their Name

Pokémon in PokéRogue, like in some of the main games, are tagged with a pokeball if they have already been captured. If it's absent and you need it as a starter, get it! More crucially, the "darkened" pokeball emblem signifies that you've unlocked the starter, but this one has something you don't have yet, such as gender or an ability.

This unlocks extra options for your starters, allowing you to switch between them at the Pokémon select screen as you begin your subsequent runs. Normally, it's encouraged to capture as many of these as possible; at first, it may appear that every Pokémon has a dark ball, but this is because you won't have many items unlocked.

Any Rare Pokémon

This is somewhat subjective because "rare" can imply anything from hard to find to legendary. In general, though, I recommend keeping an eye out for stuff you don't see very often, such as starters or legendary/pseudo-legendary/ultra beast/etc. boss monsters at the end of every ten waves.

However, collecting duplicates serves a further purpose: it provides you with candies, which you may use to power up your rare Pokémon starters later. Obtaining candy through friendship is undoubtedly possible, but it can take a long time, especially for rarer/legendary Pokémon. Catch them if you can to make things easier for yourself later.

Pokémon You Plan on Using a Lot

Catching duplicates of Pokémon you know you'll use frequently can be handy for candy collection. This is especially useful for Pokémon that you know you'll use frequently, such as your first few shinies or general-use Pokémon with Pickup.

Create your Zigzagoon army! Candy gathering is very beneficial for lowering costs, allowing you to carry more of them with your legendary into Endless mode if you reach that level.

Shiny Pokémon

Many people already know this, but shinies are PokéRogue's lifeblood. You need a lot of them. They come in three kinds, beginning with the weakest, a yellow shiny (Luck 1), then blue (Luck 2), and lastly red (Luck 3), with the color representing the "star" marking of the shiny Pokémon on their HP bar.

You'll eventually want as many Luck 3 shinies as you can get your hands on, but for now, you're starting from scratch, so grab whatever you see, even if it means failing your Classic run. A fresh run takes an hour to restart; in Classic, finding a new shiny can take days or even weeks.

Don’t Forget About Your Team

Remember, our ultimate goal is to win Classic, but more importantly, we want to get as far as we can, preferably 190. The dash from 180 to 190 is the most profitable in Classic for egg vouchers, with each Elite 4 member and the Champion at 190 awarding them upon victory (plus, first-time winners get additional accomplishment vouchers - two for one!)

With this in mind, you should make an effort to balance your squad as you go, rather than neglecting it. Maybe your team requires a sturdy rock-type wall to block the path of hard-hitting trainer Pokémon.

Perhaps you're searching for a ground-type to absorb all of the electric moves you keep encountering in the electrical biome. Good teamwork can take you farther than any IV or egg maneuver ever could. Even the most powerful legendaries can succumb to a weakness.

Summary

This "starting out" phase does not have a set time limit; everyone progresses at their own speed, and some will be more successful with egg pulls and catches. Don't become discouraged. Simply keep developing what you have; that is your first goal, and it will become easier as you go.