lapis lakeside

I recently unlocked the new Pokemon Sleep zone, Lapis Lakeside (grass/psychic/fighting), and have spent the past week and a half there.

pros: so aesthetic!!

cons: My team is incredibly baby and so is my Snorlax. Last week I got 350K. By contrast, my previous Taupe Hollow Snorlax was 700K+. (My record there is 880K, but that was before the energy nerf.)

pros: My team will SOMEDAY be really good, once we get everyone evolved and leveled.

• Takoyaki the Raichu: My right-hand man. Triple berry mon, speedy (33 minutes), +energy, high enough level to help with ingredients. He never leaves the party. 1739 hours of sleep and counting.
• Kaiser the Venusaur (currently level 23 Ivysaur): Helping bonus. Our ingredient man. Recently ascended to the title of Kaiser (and our other Ivysaur got demoted to Cobb). Once he hits 30, Snorlax will finally be able to get proper meals, probably. These days we just gather like 20 ingredients for every meal and toss them all in the pot. It’s kinda sad.
• Nonya Kueh the Meganium (currently level 13 Bayleef): Triple berry mon. Nature is +energy. His 25/50 skills are skill level up S/M (for charge strength S). He’s going to be a beast someday. The tragedy is that I spent the past week (and a lot of candy) training a different, inferior Bayleef, so it’s going to be a while before I get this guy off the ground.
• Poptart the Espeon: pop pop!! We love charge strength M + skill level up M. This was my only guy prepped for the zone before release. He’s only level 19 (Kiwano ate all the candy) but his level 10 skill is the important one anyway.
• Gardevoir (completely theoretical; we haven’t caught a viable Ralts yet): Our energy generator. Necessary due to the energy nerf, especially since Kaiser and Poptart are -energy. Currently, we have Parfait the Wigglytuff filling in.

The sad thing is Neapolitan the Stufful was supposed to be filling that fifth slot, but the entire team was dying (we don’t have any energy recovery bonus mons on the squad) so he got cut. Our Wigglytuff is really carrying the team on her back.

I’m still salty about the energy nerf. It used to be that pokemon energy was paused during sleep, so if they were, e.g., at 30% when you went to bed, and then you got a sleep score of 70, they’d be fully topped up in the morning. Now, they continue draining energy all night, so they wake up at only 70%. It’s bad for everyone, and devastating for those with -energy nature.

However, from a game design perspective, I appreciate that energy is now a meaningful mechanic. Pre-nerf, I kicked Wigglytuff off my Cyan Beach squad because she didn’t have a useful ability and I wanted another double berry mon instead. Pretty sure she (or another energy mon) has a permanent spot on the team now.