CryHaddock

Yeah I'm just giving you the data I have access to, not trying to argue a counter thesis.
It would take a real stroke of luck to find data from such a narrow window, particularly when no one spotted the effect at the time.  I hope you get lucky with it some time.

I found one account so far that tentatively supports 'level reduction was always to level 20'

05/08/2018 (trade date on both Pokemon)
Krabby and Spheal, both level 20, both caught in wild.
Account was approx level 11-14 at the time.

This account is currently level 22, but I'm certain that this is entirely because of the Eevee special research I did on it recently, and that the account was still under level 15 as late as 2020.

Edit: found a similar story on a second account, though all those trades were in 2019.
Two of the traded Pokemon are exactly level 20, several others are various levels under 20, the account itself was not level 20 when these trades happened.

A lot of the time the source for these false facts were sample sizes of one. As in people would try something once, it went a certain way, and they made a completely wrong conclusion about why it happened.
Very possible someone's level happened to be 18 when they discovered the level rounding down.

People might have got it wrong by being forced to guess, since Pokemon Go doesn't exactly tell you Pokemon levels.  You've got to use a screen reader app unless you are crazy good at eyeballing that arc display. I can't remember how difficult it was in 2018 to even know your Pokemon's level accurately.

Honestly people sharing information that they absolutely have not tested with the air of someone who deeply understands the game is f a recurring theme with pokemon go culture
Because it's significantly harder to datamine than Switch Pokemon games, and Niantic essentially communicates nothing in detail, there was a real lack of information. Add in its insane popularity and you had this massive demand for information that a lot of people were filling by just... making stuff up with an air of authority.

For a hot minute everyone was taking completely seriously the idea that people in a group raid would get more shinies if only you didn't press a certain button and every raid was people yelling at each other DON'T PRESS THE BUTTON.
There was a new thing like that seemingly every month, and a vastly greater rate  than anyone actually testing or falsifying things.
Sharing the fourth infographic in as many days on how to control Eevee's evolution was a higher priority than testing if any of them worked.

Basically I find it very easy to believe that none of those commentors knew if this was normal trading behaviour and none of them ever checked


 

CP calculation has definitely changed once since 2018 by the way, so to work out levels from old videos you'd need the old formula.
It messed up the collections of people who had kept things at level 69, 420, 666 etc and there was much distress

One possibility for the Lapras oddity is the 'estimated CP after trade' calculation being flat out wrong.
This has occasionally happened the whole time trading has been live. I'm sure I remember noticing it both when trading was new and I definitely still see it now.

It may be that, if they committed to the trade, the Lapras would have retained its level and got a normal CP value for that level, which did not match the prediction.

For example just this week, I was about to trade a freshly caught thing. I realised I'd never checked it for random perfect IVs, so I looked at the estimated CP after trade to see if it was near the top.
The Pokemon's current CP was completely outside the range of estimated possibilities.
These were both grown up accounts with no possibility of level altering, the estimation is simply badly programmed.

Oh I hadn't heard of that theory. I have been routinely trading level 1 Pokemon since 2018. That was most of the point of trading for me and my friend. The oldest one I have is a level 1 Party Hat Raichu traded on 24/06/2018

I was never under the impression that trading could make levels increase; everything I heard was about levels being reduced. 
I think just about everyone was in the same position I was in - they knew that level reduction existed after trying to trade some level 30 thing, but they didn't know what the exact rules were and were mostly guessing them.

I very much doubt I ever traded something from a raid to a baby alt. Most of them were churned through very quickly to get a rare level 1, reach level 10 quickly and trade it for whatever it got in the dex along the way.
I will have a look at my oldest accounts though, on the off chance there are some traded growlithes at exactly the trainer level/exactly level 20.

What hypothesis are you trying to test with trading the level 1 Chansey? I don't quite follow.

1 minute ago, theSLAYER said:

Is this the lv 1 beedrill you're proud about? What's the new hatch date or present trade day?

Yes he is my boy, that combination of absurd rarity and total lack of appeal is chef's kiss.
According to Pogo he was 'received 21/08/2018' and 'obtained in a trade 22/08/2018'
In very bad timing I literally deleted three similar Pokemon yesterday, eg a Zubat from a 2016 egg since he is back in the pool and no longer unusual.
I did notice that each one of those also had an 'egg obtained' date exactly one day prior to the 'traded' date.
Which means that it's either the date they hatched (pretty plausible that I did the trades the following day), or that date is just totally made up from the traded date minus 1.

I have a Beedrill that was hatched from an egg. I know for a fact that it was obtained in the first week of Pokemon go being out, by my friend who briefly played the game.
Weedle was premanently removed from the egg pool really early on so there's no doubt the egg is from 2016.
It sat unhatched on her account until 2018 when I hatched it and traded it to myself.
That Beedrill now has an 'egg received' date that's actually the 2018 hatch date, and an 'obtained in a trade' date from a few days later.

9 minutes ago, theSLAYER said:

Yeah a before and after would be tough. The main thing I wanna know if the +2 bs was ever real, within the first 2-3 weeks they rolled out GO trading. So any proof of it, would be showing the CP + traded date in summary (any lower than lv 20 CP, and the mon was traded). Because as that video + CP calculation shows, by Jul 11 2018, the supposed +2 was already not a thing then (if it was ever a thing).

One thing I'm unsure about, is when they implemented this "date" function for traded stuff, and whether it is retroactively applied to stuff traded prior.

The trouble with that is it would be very hard to find something that was definitely a high level on the before account. We definitely never traded a legendary to a low level account, and probably not anything from a raid either. It was mostly 'trade something that's spawning everywhere this week so it's one of the ten things in the account's dex'

For the practical application of 'was it technically possible to get a level 10 Articuno' I think the stardust costs of trading might have meant that was always impossible.
If you did a month's friendship you'd get 50 000 XP and shoot up in trainer level
If you didn't do the trade would cost 1 million stardust, which you surely can't obtain wthout attaining massive amounts of XP.

The only think I can think of that would have worked is the baby account catching the legendary for itself, by participating in a raid between level 5-10, and then trading. I dunno which legendary raids were possible for this sequence of events, but surely next to no one actually did it since there was little to no reason to even have alts until trading.
 

I do still have the logins for a large number of alt accounts but I'm not sure if any would have what you're looking for. What information specifically do you want to get?
I know for sure we never recorded a 'before and after' so the only information that could possibly be around is the 'after'.

On my main I do have some very old traded things and while the date function is mostly accurate it does fail on some very early things (I noticed it on things that were hatched out of an egg in 2016 then traded far later)

6 minutes ago, theSLAYER said:

But the experimentation you're referring to is post dec 2018 right?
I think that was the time I did the tests previously, cause back then this was what you said. (and my tests were inspired by what you said :3 )
 

Was there any information that led you to believe that back then? I know I've seen silph road posts that mentions a + 2 level, but I've seen no associated images to back up that claim

The vast bulk of the work would have been in whatever the first few months of trading being available were.
We had a lot of low level alts accounts because we used them to get Pokemon at level 1 that would be extremely hard to get otherwise. So we were very aware of the level cap (where wild Pokemon can only spawn up to your trainer level, and powering up only goes to your level +2)
We did enough level 1 hunting that we could plausibly have worked out that cap all by myself but it's also probable that my friend did read info from Silph Road. I personally didn't and just worked with what my friend told me and what I observed myself.

On 12/24/2020 at 12:51 AM, theSLAYER said:

I'm presently inclined to believe that as well: someone proposed that the level follows the wild encounter cap (trainer level + 2), and everyone else just took it as fact without checking for themselves.
[Most people don't have low level accounts anyway]

Do you happen to have seen any old video or photos that may help to prove this point? Just for verification, so that we can confirm whether to add downlevelling to PKHeX

I don't know any videos sorry, all my information on this was basically from me messing around and experimenting with one friend

8 hours ago, theSLAYER said:

Sorry for the bump, but I needed to ask you about the previous method of trading for low level legend (or any raid boss, really).

Can you recall when was the last time it worked for you, and you got any screenshots of date + ball on the mon?
(just wanted to figure out when they changed the mechanic >< )

I believe they didn't change it and we had some wrong assumptions at the time.
(This was when trading was a new mechanic and we didn't actually test it because it would have meant investing a month into present and stardust grinding).

We were able to confirm that wild Pokemon and egg Pokemon are capped at your current trainer level (disregarding weather boost, which is a crude +5 levels applied after all other factors).

And we'd also observed that high level Pokemon had their levels reduced if you traded them to low level accounts.  So we assumed that the level they were reduced to would also correlate with your trainer level.
What I now think is that they're only rounded down as far as level 20.

If the account receiving a Pokemon is anywhere between levels 10-20:
 Level 21-40 Pokemon = rounded down to level 20
Level 1-20 Pokemon = level unchanged

Meaning that there's no interesting way to exploit this because everything can already be obtained at level 20.

I never figured out how trades behave if the receiving account is between level 21-29. I assume they just don't reduce levels at all at that point but I've not tested this.

Thanks for the info. It's been invaluable in creating a spreadsheet of all the newly-available level 20 Underlevelled Pokemon. And then in realising there's over 100 of them and wondering if I'm going to be mad enough to collect them.
 

5 hours ago, jojo12100 said:

Rufflet and Scraggy families were wild during a very limited time in May 2020. Got only 1 lvl1 Scraggy however.

What event was that part of? I can only find info on the Throwback events from around that time.

These are the lowest possible levels for Legendary Pokemon to my knowledge.
* = able to be shiny at this minimum level

Level 1
Dialga*, Palkia*, Giratina*, Regigigas* (Gen 4)
Phione*, Manaphy* (eggs)
Mew (Poke Ball Plus event)
Azelf, Mesprit, Uxie, Meltan*, Melmetal* (Pokemon Go)

Level 3
Articuno*, Zapdos*, Moltres* (Let's Go)

Level 5
Ho-oh, Lugia, Landorus, Thundurus, Tornadus (Dream Radar)

Level 10
Celebi (20th Anniversary)
[There was a level 5 Celebi in Gen 2, but there's no way to transfer it to modern games]

Level 15
Mewtwo,* Raikou, Entei, Suicune, Regirock, Regice, Registeel, Latias*, Latios*, Kyogre*, Groudon*, Cresselia*, Genesect (Pokemon Go)
Shaymin, Keldeo, Meloetta, Hoopa (Pokemon Scrap)
Victini (Pokemon Go & Scrap)

Level 20
Rayquaza*, Deoxys*,  Heatran*, Darkrai*, Cobalion*, Terrakion*, Virizion*, Reshiram*, Zekrom*, Kyurem* (Pokemon Go)

On 11/18/2020 at 10:59 PM, jojo12100 said:

Also all Pokemon from Max Raids can be obtained at lvl20 without any badge + some can even be found at level 17 by event Max Raids (Gloom, Haunter ...).

How does the level cap work for event raids? Does it use a different system than the 'round down to level 20 if you have no badges' that normal raids use?

As far as I know these are the things that are impossible to get level 1 in Pokemon Go. Minimum level you can get them at is in brackets.
Alolan Raichu (15)
Galar Weezing (20)
Shedinja (15)
Sandile/Krookorok/Krookodile (20)
Pawniard/Bisharp (20)
Vullaby/Mandibuzz (20)
Galar Yamask/Runerigus (15)
Espurr/Meostic (20)
Alolan Raichu can be level 2 on 3DS; Runerigus can be level 1 on Switch; all the others are still the lowest level you can get the evolved form at so far.

These Level 1s are technically possible, but highly unlikely because you have to receive them in an egg while your account is at level 1. ie, it has to be the very first action you take - doing anything that grants XP will put you at level 2.
It's possible to receive 9 eggs from gifts while still at level 1; but you only get a single chance at receiving a level 1 egg from a Poke Stop.

Lucario
Shinx/Luxio/Luxray
Klink/Klang/Klinklang
Timburr/Gurrdurr/Conkeldurr
Galar Zigzagoon/Linoone/Obstagoon
Galar Darumaka/Darmaintan
Galar Ponyta/Rapidash
Galar Meowth/Perserker

I was at the 1999 Mew distribution at Myer Centre, Brisbane, Australia.
I'm sure that the machine was a Super Game Boy - I owned the original Super Game Boy and I remember that when I saw the Mew Machine I immediately thought of it as a kind of souped up Super Game Boy.
I think it as a different colour to the Japanese one pictured (something less bright), but the shape was similar (not sure if was the exact same or not). I clearly remember the slot for the game boy cart, and the built in screen, looking the same as the one pictured.

They lined up all the kids with those velvet rope things and there were several signs explaining that you needed to have a pokedex and a poke ball in the game. (I doubt it actually consumed the poke ball, they probably just wanted to avoid a game breaking bug by someone downloading a Mew extremely early).

You simply plugged your game cart into the Mew Machine and it added a Mew directly to your party. (Maybe it could handle adding one to a box? I can't remember if they explicitly instructed us to make space in our party or I just did that myself). It was level 5 and knew Pound. My game boy has long died so I can't confirm if any other details were the same as overseas.

The animation on the Mew Machine screen had a slight variation of the animation for trading (with less shots because it only showed Mew going one way instead of a two way trade). 
The name of the 'other trainer' appeared like it would in a normal Gen 1 trade, and that name was YOSHI (that wasn't the OT of the Mew you got, however).

They ran it for two full days, ~ 9-5. I got in at the start of one of the days, and again near the end of it when there were no other kids left. I took the opportunity to put my game in the machine again, and it did add a second Mew to the cart. There were clearly no safeguards against this in the software. My Dad was concerned that there would be, and outright asked the employees if I should use it a second time. Fortunately his snitching didn't ruin my perfect crime and they let me get my second Mew.

Besides the Mew machine they had a table where employees would teach you how to play/advertise the TCG. I don't think there were any freebies/promo cards to go with this.

On 1/2/2020 at 11:18 AM, jojo12100 said:

I forced myself to play SwSh regardless of Dexit but I realized I can't get any underleved of these games now Wild area Pokemon are all level 60. So yes I'm done with the franchise.

I began a list of underleved in SwSh tell me if you want I release it or not.

Also Nincada can't be obtained anymore in Go, yeah good job Niantics!

I'm interested in hearing what underlevelled things you've found in Sword Shield.
It's true you can't find low level things once you've finished the game, but what you can do is start a second save file without affecting the first.   You can quickly get to the wild area and get low level wild spawns (people also do this to get unevolved Pokemon from raids)

I've already done that part, but I don't know where I should be finding underlevelled things (except for level 15 Ninjask, which I already have)

There's no way to get Eternatus, Zacian or Zamazenta to dynamax.
They are probably saving it for the DLC.  At first I thought it was a 'stop them being completely overpowered' thing, but all of the old legendaries can dynamax just fine.

I just got Magearna minutes ago.  It's definitely possible to get it.
You just can't get infinite ones like you could for a couple of days.

What I did:

0. (not sure if needed) delete the very fake original colour magearna from years ago that I was surprised it even let me transfer into Pokemon Home.

1. Put all 890 Pokemon into Bank *at the same time*.

It isn't enough that you put them in earlier, or that they are  all registered in the poke dex.  They need to all be stored in Pokemon Home right now.

2. In the Switch version of Pokemon Home, move every single box that has your living dex in it 1 space to the left or right.  Every single one.  All of them.

3. Save and quit the app.

4. (not sure if needed) clear the cache on the mobile app

5. open up the mobile app and check mystery gifts.


I'm pretty sure the problem is that some species failed to register properly when we did mass transfers from the 3DS.

The in-game pokedex is working correctly (meaning there's no way to tell which species didn't work) but some other part, which we can't see, did not work correctly.

The purpose of putting all species in, and then moving all the boxes, is to force the app to re-check all the boxes, so it can finally notice whatever species it failed to register the first time.

Because you can't tell which species is the problem, the best thing to do is just force it to re-check everything.

Thanks!
Do the raid Alcremies also defaut to having one particular sweet?

Wondering how availability in Max Raids works for two Pokemon in Sword/Shield.

First is Alcremie. Which forms can appear in raids, and therefore have the potential to be Gigantamax?

Second is Pumpkaboo/Gourgeist. Are all four forms now able to have Hidden Ability?  Or is it still restricted to Average and Super Size?

Thanks

By a stroke of ridiculous luck, I got a level one Luxray on Pokemon Go.
I don't think there's any way to share it sadly, but when there eventually is through the switch, I'd be up for adding it to the collection.

I also have a level 5 one that I obtained earlier.

I know it was a while ago, but there were some questions earlier in the thread about how you do this:  it literally has to be the first action you take on a new account.

Spinning a stop or catching a Pokemon always gives enough XP to raise to level 2. After that it's impossible to get a level 1 egg.  The level of an egg exactly matches your trainer level, there's no randomness to it. Fortunately this is calculated before you get the XP that comes from receiving the egg.

(Catching the first squirtle/charmander/bulbasaur does not count as an action, it's fully scripted and gives no XP).

Absol and Mawile recently became possible to get at level 1 (because they spawned in the wild for a week), leaving just a handful of things that can't be level 1 in Pokemon go:

Can only be obtained through crazy egg luck:
Nincada, Ninjask 
Klink, Klang, Klinklang 
Shinx, Luxio, Luxray

Can't be obtained at all:
Shedinja
Alolan Marowak
Alolan Raichu

Today I caught a level 30 Jynx, traded it to another Pogo account that had just hit level 10, then trasnferred it to Let's Go
The result was a level 20 Jynx
So it seems that Pogo trading reduces things down to level 20 and no further

When playing normally, the maximum level that wild pokemon appear at is your trainer level.  (Not counting weather boost, which adds 5 levels after all other factors are considered)

The maximum level you can power up Pokemon to is your trainer level +2

That's why I guessed that the level traded pokemon get rounded down to would be one of those two numbers.

I haven't actually tested it however.  I've seen things get their levels reduced but not paid attention to the exact levels involved

Is the listing for underlevelled Seadra in Pokemon Let's Go accurate?
This list has it at level 13 in Route 11, but Serebii has Seadra at minimum level *31* on all the routes it's on.
Just wanted to check if it's a typo before hunting it