(no subject)

[sigmaleph]

most of my team was at level 36 or 37* when i reached the second gym in pokemon X. that's somewhere between Erika and Sabrina/Koga in gen I terms, or just before Clair (final gym leader) in gen II.

I did not do any deliberate grinding for levels! what I did do is a lot of going through the same area to make sure I'd caught every pokemon that shows up there I didn't already have (or could evolve). I didn't fail many catches, the time consuming part was just trying to find that last low probability encounter for most areas.

the exp mechanics got more generous in gen VI, now you don't split exp. Instead, everyone who fights gets a participation trophy the full experience for the encounter. if you have exp share turned on, then everyone who doesn't participate gets half as much exp. This incidentally also means that 'catching up' a newly caught pokemon to the level of everyone else takes longer, even if you let them and only them take every fight, because everyone gets a decent chunk of xp anyway.

Maybe i should just think of the exp share as 'easy mode' and turn it off.

*except my Axew, who was a relatively new addition to the party and was somewhere in the high twenties.