GO Pokémon GO Adventure Log & Stories Thread!

[Zexy]

Raids: Suicune, Tyranitar
New 2000+ CP Pokemon: Tyranitar 2915/2083, Machamp 2372/2271/2217, Golem 2217, Exeggutor 2119, Gengar 2135/2000, Houndoom 2033, Blissey 2030
+1 Silver Gym Badge

Tuesday - 5th full session (city centre)
Raids
I started off with the Raids to make sure no more Passes would get wasted. Found a Suicune and enough people to do it, didn't catch. Then a Rank 4 Egg nearby hatched into Tyranitar and a few of us grasped the chance to get it with double Candy. And that's how, with some luck, Tyranitar 2083 joined the team, upping my Larvitar Candy count a lot along the way too. It's got Bite/Crunch and has 93% IVs, so it's a nice Dark-type attacker that I may power up eventually, especially if I get that EX Raid Pass, Mewtwo I want uuu :3 And that concludes for the Raids for these two days.
Farming
We then headed to the same old area where we put up Lures, catching whatever we could, including two lucky spawns; a Pupitar which further upped the Larvitar Candy count, so I changed Buddy to Dragonair after I finished the km cycle; and a Chansey that gave me enough Candy to evolve my best one eventually. I would keep working up on my Machop, Geodude, Gastly and Houndour Candies and the evolutions of course, getting about 40 before the battery died out.

Wednesday - 6th full session (seaside park)
This time I planned to go the seaside park again as I didn't have to worry about Raids and there was lots of unfinished business with the Candy on some species from the 3rd session. Very soon after I got there, the insane luck would continue; I found a Dratini, a Larvitar and a 100% IV Halloween Hat Pikachu! This is my second 100% IV Pokemon, the first one was Croconaw which I got at the same place as a Totodile. I got enough Candy to fully evolve 4 Gastly, 3 Machop, 1 Geodude, 1 Exeggcute, 5 Houndoom (of which I only evolved 3), 1 Rhyhorn and 1 Growlithe.

End of the day, I was once again stuck at 349/350 with ~80 evolutions I had to dispose of, so:
3rd Lucky Eggsplosion:
75000 XP (I was 2 evolutions slower than last time )
Tyranitar 2915; this came off a Level 30 bad IV Larvitar I had, that I still evolved because I'd rather get a still decent Tyranitar without any Stardust investment. It has Bite/Stone Edge, if Mewtwo comes up I might TM the Charged move and power up a bit.
Machamp 2372/2271/2217; one of them got the perfect moveset, another the wrong Charge move (TM'd) and the third one has the horrible full Steel moveset; I don't think I'll try to salvage that, since I'll get my 7th in 2 days anyway. So expect 2271 to get transferred soon I guess; still at 5/6 Tyranitar counters though, not bad!
Golem 2217; 6th Golem, Ground/Rock moveset, will TM away whenever I really need a Rock-type again, unless the 7th just happens to have the moveset I need of course.
Exeggutor 2119; not Level 30 but won't bother powering up, Bullet Seed/Solar Beam So I'm up to 5/6 Suicune counters + Dragonite as an anchor and no longer need Venusaur
Gengar 2135/2000; the other two Gengar are barely below 2000 but I don't mind for now, I've got 8 Gengar at this point but only a few have good movesets and idk if I'll bother TMing, I'll probably get more Gengar before the event is over anyway lol
Houndoom 2033; +2 barely below 2000, of which one is full Dark moveset The 2033 one is Dark/Fire but I'll only bother TMing if I end up getting an EX Raid Pass and the Mewtwo has Focus Blast (in which case these will be needed more over Tyranitar)
Bliseey 2030; First good Blissey Not sure when/how much I'll power up, but this can hold its own better than my other defenders even if still weak/not in the 3000s, in the off chance I wanna hold a Gym no one else is in/can offer a better one.

I also transferred away some more redundant 2000+s Rhydon/Arcanine/Kingler as I figured I wouldn't have space for 80 more evolutions that I will definitely get in 2 days I may even need to get rid of some of the Gengar I'm just building...

TL;DR this event is great for building an army of solid Level 30s And XPing up I guess as I'm at 88k/1m and should hit 34 by the end of the next 2-day cycle.

 

[omahanime]

Caught a shiny Sableye.

 

[TeaWest]

I'm on that hunt for shiny Sableye. No luck yet

 

[Vulpix037]

I'm also looking out for a shiny Sableye.

 

[Cilantro]

Caught a shiny Sableye.

W H A T

 

[Zexy]

Level: 33 -> 34
Raids: Suicune, Suicune
New 2000+ CP Pokemon: Rhydon 2555, Jolteon 2162, Golem 2110, Gengar 2056

Only 1 session to post about this time, but it's quite eventful and marks an important change in the way I approach the event as well as the halfway point so it won't have another that is coupled with it unlike the previous 3 pairs.

Thursday - 7th full session
First good thing to find out today, the 2 item bug from PokeStops was fixed which means I can now spin them for 3 items again yay It feels so nice to not run out of them all the time. Although the good and bad luck just wouldn't stop swip-swapping today...

Raids - or better said, the first failed attempt at them
Tried to start off with Raids once again to use up the Passes. A very nice Suicune spawned in a Gym we've played before that always attracts lots of people, and had we done that I would've got the Silver Badge there (which is useful as I tend to spin it a lot while waiting there or a little bit after doing the Raid). But we figured out that the majority of the subway has been closed down because of a strike of the employees, and the area the Gym was close by had a protest, which meant blocked roads for vehicles and lots of traffic nearby, plus some people being afraid to approach. So we didn't do that Suicune. Even worse, a Tyranitar spawned to the Gym right next to it as well, but we couldn't get it either

Farming - or better said, the first half of it
We couldn't get any people for Raids, but we could get a little bunch of people to meet up at some other place with lots of PokeStops and have Lure sessions in hopes we might do Raids later; so we did, but because of the subway strike I had to get there on foot and it would take a while. But some of the good luck came back, because there was a Larvitar on the way there, and I caught it with Pinap. Upon reaching there, we were almost about to begin setting up Lures, but then a Charizard spawned nearby! Third one I ever got, first was 1009 CP last Christmas and second 100ish CP during the Solstice Event (the Fire/Ice/triple XP one) that was transferred away. It has about 1500 CP so it replaced my first one.

Raids - or better said, the first half of them/the second failed attempt on the second half of them
We then put up 4 Lures, but soon after doing so, a Rank 5 Egg spawned nearby So we only did 2 cycles and then headed there, thankfully we found some more people who came there on foot and we got enough to do it; didn't catch it, but I don't mind; 10000 XP, 3 Rare Candies , 3 Golden Razz Berries.
We also caught a Jolteon 2162 in the way, Level 30 but terrible IV, still my best Electric type attacker that I never plan to power up, not bad.

Another Rank 5 Raid spawned nearby in the meantime and we headed there... then two of our friends got an emergency and had to go, so we ended up not doing it and going there for nothing Took a long circle back to the farming spot; at least that meant I could finally hatch the 10km, right? Well... Sudoowodo says hi -_-

Farming - or better said, the second half of it
So we finally head back to the farming spot after wasting more than a half hour around, thinking that there's little to no chance we're ever getting the second Raid done today with the mess the city centre traffic has become, thinking we should've gone to the seaside park again instead etc. etc. Putting up more Lures and guessing that it will just stay like this until the end of the day/battery. But thankfully another Rank 5 spawned, and even though we thought there wouldn't be enough people again, enough people showed up at the last moment again. But it took a bit of walking to get there, so...

Raids - or better said, the second half of them. At last *relief*
By the time we got there the timer would almost run out and we got a few people crashing etc. so it was worrisome, but we managed to do it fine... 10000 XP, 3 Rare Candies and 6 Golden Razz Berries this time, no catch again. So I'm at 4/20 Suicune just like I was with Entei, but will probably do more Suicune before they're over.

Farming? - or better said, the half of it I never did ? ? :I ? idek anymore!
We'd plan to get back to the farming spot but I figured out that I'd probably not have enough battery if I wanted to play on the way to the subway station I started from back at the very beginning of it all, as I've gone quite far and couldn't get back with the part of the subway that was on strike... so I just had to leave and spend the rest of my battery on the way back, which had some PokeStop spinning and catching whatever was there, but was definitely not nearly as efficient as a Lure spam would be... or was it?

I'm not even sure if I can call today's session inefficient or not; it had too much walking around just because we had to, doing little... but unlike the others it was the first time during the event where I could get 3 items per spin instead of the 2 I was used to, so I felt much more comfortable and could actually catch more of the Pokemon we would encounter, unlike the other times where I had to be much more selective. Considering I did get enough evolutions for an Eggsplosion at the end of the day, it might've not been that inefficient... but it sure was annoying in several ways as it the luck would come and go several times. Whatever, I somehow, sometime, got back home...

A dillema
Now at home, putting everything on the chargers and casually checking what I did today; 950k/1m XP, 50k XP left for Level 34. Checking the amount of evolutions I had gathered; guess what, 50! Meanwhile, I was thinking of something my higher level friends told me earlier, and I must admit I've thought of it too: "Don't spend all the extra Candy away yet, wait for the double XP event that should eventually come." So I had a means of getting to Level 34 (and thus stopping to care about XP again for a long while) now at the cost of losing out on 25000 more XP if I were to do the 4th Lucky Eggsplosion now (compared to if I could do the full 75 evolutions I can fit in the 30 minutes), or keep playing the way I did and spend much more Coins on Lucky Eggs as I'd have to pop one every 2 days, the next of which would be tomorrow...

After thinking it out a bit, I decided to do the 4th Lucky Eggsplosion now, get to Level 34, and change my mindset for the rest of the event; only save up on Candy (and a few species like the Ghost-types which I wouldn't be able to regain in another event) and transfer all the common stuff even if I had the Candy to evolve them now, for the sake of saving space and getting them back in double XP and evolve them there, hopefully buying Lucky Eggs on a discount too. Which brings us to...

The 4th (and final) (smaller) Lucky Eggsplosion of the event
Lucky Egg pop, 50 evolutions. To sum it up:
50000 XP that brought me just to Level 34
Rhydon 2555, Rock Smash/Earthquake; decided to keep it for now as I'm going to TM others above it and would like to have a few Rock Smash ones to use VS Normal-type packed Gyms
Golem 2110; Rock/Ground moveset; not terrible as it's one TM away from being full Rock, so I'm 2 TMs away from having 6 full Rock Golem now; but I have no rush to do that yet as there aren't any legendary bird-like Raids around, which means I'm going to keep evolving Golems in hopes I get some with the perfect moveset and save up on TMs.
Gengar 2056; this one got the perfect moveset straight away, even though it's my 9th (7th 2000+) it's only the 2nd that has full Ghost moveset So I'm going to keep getting Gengars too.

 

[Almonds]

Battled a raid Electabuzz on my own. Of course I lost.

I caught a Crobat, Dodrio, and several Houndours. I'm planning to raise a Houndoom soon.

I found two yellow gyms and left my Umbreon and Bannette at each of them.

I hatched a Snorlax from a 10km egg. Nice!

 

[Vulpix037]

I'm still hunting for shinies, (no luck yet ) but the fact that I'm running low on Poké Balls appears to be interfering with this

 

[TeaWest]

Got some more coins, got the Silver Pikachu fan badge, and the Gold Jogger badge! Also 3/4 of the way to level 33

 

[Zexy]

New Medals: Berry Master
New Shiny Pokemon: Sableye
New 2000+ CP Pokemon: Golem 2237/2066, Machamp 2209, Houndoom 2070/2028, Arcanine 2068, Gengar 2056/2013
Raids: Suicune, Suicune
+3 Silver Gym Badges

Friday early morning - 8th full session (Eeveeland and the train lines around it)
As I explained in the event and Eeveelution threads, I planned to visit the local Eevee nest to farm some Candy and a few good "bases" of high CP(level)/IV to evolve on. I actually went along with it straight away, no sleep in between; just waiting for the phone/power banks to fully charge and off again with the first train at 5am.

Eeveeland
I got to the nest with a full bag with lots of Poke Balls and Berries in, walked around and caught whichever Eevee I could find, lower CP ones with Pinap, higher with Razz etc. It eventually started getting annoying, though, as there are very few PokeStops in the area which means that: 1) you are quickly losing on resources and 2) most of the Eevee can't be tracked as Nearby, they are Sightings instead. The area is also too huge compraed to the lack of stops so you just get tired walking all over it as you go on. Later on the Berries end before the Poke Balls and you either can't easily catch higher CP ones or they escape, and also are unable to get bonus Candy off the smaller CP ones; I still had Golden Razz but wouldn't spend them on this.

In any case, I stopped when I was down to just Ultra Balls and made it back to the closest train station with about 400 Eevee Candy and 9 good enough "bases": on the IV department, one 96% slightly less than Level 20, two 89% Level 25 both (these offer a good IV-for-Stardust ratio), one 93% Level 20 I've actually kept as a hatch from before (not caught now), and on the CP/level department: 5 decent-strong ranging from Levels 26 to 30. Not as perfect as I'd like it to be, but good enough for one session; I'm now considering to go there again, back when I did it I was like "I'm NEVER going there again!" but now I'm like "These are cool, but just one more time there and it can get much better!" and will probably do so on Monday morning.

I plan to start working on the 6 Espeons as soon as the event is over and evolve the rest right away to see what good Vaporeon/Jolteon/Flareon I can get. I'm also saving 75 Candies for the 3 Eeveelutions about to come in future generations.

The train lines around it
So I was almost out of items but had lots of battery left but was too far from any farming spots; I could still take a train for there and spin all Stops/Gyms along the way to replenish partly the resources lost. So that's what I planned to do, but an unfortunate and unforeseen occasion made a part of the train line between the nest and home unusable for several hours.

I felt really bad both for what actually happened and not being able to go back home, or to any other desirable GO-related area. But since I would wait around for a few hours anyway, there was something else I could do; take the train back and forth and just keep spinning Stops/Gyms like that. I did so indeed, even put some defenders in, fulled my Bag once again, and just when battery was almost dying out the train line got repaired and I went back home.

Friday night - 9th full session (city centre)
After some sleep and other things I had to attend to on Friday, I found out that most people would actually hang out at the city centre instead of the seaside park as they were afraid it would rain and it was also a better spot for Duskull spawns in hopes of getting a Shiny.. But it actually didn't so we could use the somewhat better park area instead of the central square cafeteria. Most of the session was just the usual somewhat monotonous farming, but hanging out with friends at Friday night and the occasional shiny encounter kept things lively.

I stayed until the very end (past midnight), when a Level 40 Valor guy I just met (really nice person, we exchanged contact info and all) asked me if I'd like to join him in taking over 3 Gyms nearby for the team. We got them together then split up, and while on the way back to a train station (I had to pick a somewhat different path as it was late) I passed through some of the Gyms I've done lots of Raids in and got 3 more defenders in as some other Valor people I know of have claimed the Gyms and left vacancies. I managed to feed all my Nanab Berries (I've gathered a fair share after hours of spinning Lures and not using them, they were basically replacing the Poke Balls and other Berries as we kept farming) and get 3 Silver Badges (I got lucky and could feed on all 3 Gyms I've barely not hit Silver for yet before), even got some lucky +2 Candies on Larvitar/Chansey, as well as the Berry Master gold badge.

Upon coming home I evolved three good catches into:
Golem 2066 (Ground/Rock moveset, one TM away from being good)
Gengar 2013 (Ghost/Poison moveset, usable as defender but not too good)

Saturday evening - 10th full session (city centre)
After fully recharging my gadgets (and myself, as I was quite tired) and getting done some other things on Saturday (weekends can get busy), I headed to the city centre once again to do Raids. It was almost about to rain so we planned to get in the cafeteria, but did 2 nearby Suicune first. Caught neither, unfortunately the one was 1603 CP (96% I think, in any case better than my 1597 CP 91% )

It did indeed rain aftewards but we managed to do the outdoors part just in time and just stayed in for the rest. This is where I got very lucky at last and got (my Haloween namesake) SHINY SABLEYE! Ultra Ball + Golden Razz, caught at first throw 471 CP bad IVs, but who minds it's Shiny :3 It took me a good half hour to take the smile out of my face, I really couldn't help but do it for a bit, and I was trying not to look too happy to not upset the fellow players who haven't got it yet... but it was hard to take that smile away at the time.

I also got a Houndoom 2028 encounter which I caught. Dark/Fire moveset but just one TM away from being usable. I love catching them ready at Level 30

The rest of the session was just the usual. At the end of it, though I evolved some more:
Golem 2237 (full Rock moveset; this is very good and completes, in a way, my Rock Top 6, if I am to count the Bite/Stone Edge Tyranitar in; after this I believe I shouldn't evolve any other Graveler until I get a very high IV one that is)
Machamp 2209 (full Fighting moveset; this is also very good and completes my Machamp/Fighting Top 6; I also shouldn't evolve any other Machoke other than high IV ones, but I already got a 93% Level 25ish 700ish CP one)
Houndoom 2070 (Dark/Fire moveset like the other one, but I don't mind too much)
Arcanine 2068 (full Fire moveset, replaces my former #6 in the Fire Top 6, the 2030 Arcanine, which I now transferred)
Gengar 2056 (Dark/Poison moveset, meh it's not the absolute worst and it becomes Ghost/Poison with just one TM... which isn't perfect... but meh I'm keeping it for now, we'll see)

At this point I have ~850 Duskull Candy (most I've ever had for a species, but it should go down at the first XP event we get), ~800 Misdreavus Candy (most I have that'll stay around until Gen IV), ~650 Shuppet Candy and less than 200s on most species I plan mass evolving on, but I'm only also keeping Cubone/Drowzee as they're event-only common spawns and I'll need the bases for the XP event. Problem is that's a bit too many Duskull, Shuppet and co. so the Pokemon storage is starting to get uncomfortably high again; it's not a problem yet, but if I do too much city centre, it might become; but I need to increase chances to get the Shiny Duskull before event is over.

In any case, what I definitely have to do for Act III of the event while I still can is get one more Eevee nest session, one more seaside park session for 3rd Gyarados (can the weather just get better already, it's too bad we're missing on these because of rain fear) and 2 final Suicune on Monday (Tuesday's Pass is kept for Raikou first thing on Wednesday). I currently plan to do seaside park -> Eevee -> city centre/Raids in this order.

 

[Vulpix037]

Halfway towards level 34 now. Caught a CP2084 Gengar yesterday using only a normal Poké Ball Unfortunately, it's stats aren't great but I kept it anyway.

 

[MrMauville603]

Caught a shiny Sableye today, now I got one of each.
If the current legendary dog raids end today I'm gonna end with only doing 29 entei raids .
I went home for the weekend and unfortunately couldnt find any raid groups, I know they had an ex raid at the local spring store last friday so I was hoping to raid it so I couldn't raid it saturday or sunday, plus a ton of work on Thursday and Friday(plus leaving and going home) ment I only got a bayleaf raid done Thursday night so a bunch of wasted raid passes.

There was also a huge storm last night while I was coming back to campus. I decided to walk back from my car to my dorm (20 Minutes). It was crazy but fun I was completely drenched and a poliwrath inside of a gym at the entrance to our forest trails.

 

[Zexy]

Raids: Suicune, Suicune
New 2000+ CP Pokemon: Gyarados 2783, Rhydon 2626/2559, Vaporeon 2325, Arcanine 2322, Golem 2166, Houndoom 2113/2018, Flareon 2103, Alakazam 2093, Granbull 2014, Jolteon 2012

Sunday evening - 11th full session (seaside park)
As explained in the above post I was planning to get to the seaside area at least once more during the double Candy event, and so I did. I found some people and there were some Lures around, did the usual catching around, got a few Dratini and enough Magikarp to evolve my best one into Gyarados 2783, it got Dragon Tail/Crunch so I just used a Fast TM on it, it's now Bite/Crunch, Dark-type attacker.

A Suicune raid also spawned and we gathered enough people to do it, I caught it but it was bad IV so I transferred it. Thanks to this I managed to split the two Raids I'd have to do on Monday and make things easier the next day and get a few more Suicune Candy (even though they're not that useful) just before it's over.

Monday afternoon - 12th full session (city centre)
Planned with a few friends to get to the city centre as it's easier to find people for Suicune, especially since it was the "last" day (technically it will be available Tuesday too, but everyone's wishing to keep that Pass for an extra Raikou under double Candy on Wednesday). Of course we found people willing to do the first one in sight immediately, so we just did that; didn't catch this one, and this is going to be my final ratio for Suicune: 5/24. Not bad compared to the 4/20 I got on Entei; but Raikou needs to be better.

The rest of the session was the usual farming all over again, including some huge luck with a Tyranitar and 2 Larvitar spawns from Lures (70 Candy). I started getting severe storage problems though because without any Lucky Eggsplosions to take the loads of evolutions away, they pile up and take too much space. And I'm actually throwing away everything I can catch reasonably easily in a future double XP event, too; but I still gotta keep all the Ghosts, and that's more than enough to fill everything Oh, speaking of which, I got more than 1000 Duskull Candy; first time I get a Candy number to four digits

Evolutions at home
So by the time I got home I did a select few evolutions (without Lucky Egg) and did the respective transfers, including some more bad 2000+ CP Pokemon I've just been keeping for the sake of keeping.
Off said evolutions, I got 5 Ghost moveset Level 30 Banette and hope to get 6 before the event is over (They only have one niche use in competitive; solo'ing Raid Alakazam with Focus Blast) and several other 2000+ CP Pokemon off evolutions, such as:
Rhydon 2626 (Rock Smash/Earthquake; nothing too good but better than the 2571 ones which I transferred)
Rhydon 2559 (Mud Slap/Earthquake; I was spared one Fast TM yay! Now I actually have 5 full Ground Rhydon and 1 Golem ready without needing to use any TMs)
Arcanine 2322 (1 TM away from perfect moveset and 89%... still not worth investing on, so I might transfer eventually)
Golem 2166 (Rock moveset; so I was spared the TM on the Rock-type department too I now have 6 full Rock Golem without needing any TMs too; and this means I'm done with Golem until I get some 95+% I have more than 125 Candy spare but this is either getting reserved or spent on 5 Geodude in a double XP event)
Houndoom 2113 (Dark moveset, 89%; better than several others I got, so it's a keep)
Houndoom 2018 (Dark moveset, keep for now as I don't have many perfect moveset ones)
Alakazam 2093 (decided to finally evolve an Abra since I caught a high level one, IV is so-so and it's got Shadow Ball, but if I need 6 Psychic-types too soon, such as solo'ing a Raid Machamp, which is the easier Rank 3 apparently, it's only a few Stardust and one TM away from being usable)
Granbull 2014 (I didn't even know those can reach 2000+ before Level 30! And it's not even Wonder, just strong. This is only kept because it's the highest CP one of its kind, for collection reasons; it doesn't have Play Rough...)

Finally, after some consideration, and as I'm going to hit the Eevee nest again tomorrow so there are going to be lots of Candy spare, I evolved a few Eevee at random (since I decided they are worth enough a 25 Candy splurge each but not a 10km walk for Espeon):
Vaporeon 2325 nice moveset, I needed more Water types so nice
Flareon 2103 nice moveset, slightly better than an Arcanine I had
Jolteon 2012 nice moveset, I needed more Electric types so also quite nice

And somehow, like that, I managed to squeeze my collection to 329/350 from 349/350. My plans for tomorrow involve Eevee nest and then Pinap Berry farming, I need them for the 8 Raikou on Wednesday. And sleep early, cuz we're hitting the very first ones Wednesday morning

 

[MasterJedi]

2/2 on Suicune, got a 1609 so almost perfect. I'll say that's a good day's work. And going shiny hunting tonight with a friend.

 

[Jacensolo66]

Started 0 for 2 on Suicune but then went 2 for 2. Both 82% so still need a good one.

Finally got my 100% Entei to lvl 35. He is now my 3rd highest CP Pokemon at 3136

Also hatched a 100% Snorlax tonite. 1st 100% from a 10k and previous best Snorlax was 88% so super excited about that. Probably going to be the next Pokemon I power up.

 

[Zexy]

Species: 239 -> 240 (caught), 245 -> 246 (seen)
New species: Raikou (duh)
New 100% IV Pokemon: Raikou 2535 (caught 1913) !!! #party_time
Raids: Raikou, Raikou, Raikou, Raikou, Raikou, Raikou, Raikou and of course, Raikou (they're 8, just sayin' so you don't bother counting them )
New 2000+ CP Pokemon: Raikou 2535, Vaporeon 2444/2338/2334/2310, Flareon 2322/2172/2144, Jolteon 2128/2119, Houndoom 2022/2021


Tuesday evening - 13th full session (Eeveeland and a park nearby)
As I said:

My plans for tomorrow involve Eevee nest and then Pinap Berry farming, I need them for the 8 Raikou on Wednesday. And sleep early, cuz we're hitting the very first ones Wednesday morning

Indeed, so I did; went to the Eevee nest with a full set of Poke Balls and Razz Berries and pretty much emptied it all while trying to be conservative with the Pinap (I still used a few on the 100- CP ones though, couldn't resist), caught a lot of them of all sorts of CPs/IVs but unfortunately no more 90+% IV, kept the 6 best for Espeon and evolved some others of decent level to:
Vaporeon 2444/2338/2334/2310: This brings me up to a full six team of Vaporeon as Water-type attackers, which is what I mostly aimed for. I got one more but transferred the worst). Some have Water Pulse unfortunately but I don't think they're worth TMing.
Flareon 2322/2172/2144: Five Flareon, some don't have the best moveset... I have lots of Fire-type attackers in between them and Entei/Arcanine/Houndoom although these 5 all seem to be better than the Arcanine/Houndoom, I'm still keeping one of each of those though as well as some high IV ones as the Flareon don't have good IVs.
Jolteon 2128/2119 4 Jolteon, some don't have the best moveset... with them and 2 Raikou (more on this later) I guess I'm fine.
So I'm satisfied enough with I got thanks to the Eevee nest; a few solid Eevelutions to fill in some big Water/Electric gaps in my roster, 6 Espeon bases, lots of Eevee Candy to have spare for Espeon/the Eeveelutions about to come/future better catches/powerups...

By the time I was almost empty from resources I still had some battery left so I planned to take train commutes and spin all the PokeStops in the way, but as I was doing that I saw 3 PokeStops with Lures in a nearby park, the name seemed familiar so I got off the train and felt like checking it out. Turns out it was a friend of mine with another friend of his (who I might've seen once before, that's why I remember the name) who were just farming there as it's close to their homes and they didn't feel like going to the city centre with everyone else. I sticked around a bit, stocking up on whichever Pinap I could find while still catching the few Pokemon I could until battery ran out. Oh, and in between it all I got 2 high CP Houndour which I evolved into Houndoom 2022/2021 both Snarl/Foul Play yay 5/6 done there.
---
And that concludes ACT III of the event; upon getting home I did a few more transfers and got my finalised Top 6 of 5 Rhydon and 1 Golem powered up for the Raikou, using breakpoints strategy (calculating the damage Mud Slap does for each one and only powering up to the point where you barely get +1 HP damage for each single fast attack in the fight, to avoid needless powerups)

AND THE ALL STAR TEAM FOR RAIKOU IS: Rhydon 2934, 2736, 2716, 2648, 2479, Golem 2217!

Halloween Event: ACT IV
Wednesday (all the time Raids are available) - 14th VERY full session (8 Raikou Raids all over the city centre)

1st Raid
We've planned through Discord to gather at the city centre early and just start hitting whichever Raikou was nearby. So we did, a few people were there since earlier and told us a Rank 5 Egg spawned near the central square, so we all made sure to make it by the hour.

We got more than 20 people but since it was the first one and some came earlier or later we just split in 3 groups so the ones waiting could get done with it. I was in the first group. It had 6-7 people IIRC and we dropped it pretty easily, I think I only got halfway to the 4th Rhydon and got +2 Premier Balls damage. I was slightly surprised and afraid as Raikou has ~42900 CP (a huge way up from ~34100 CP Suicune) but apparently Ground's immunity big resistance does its job. The Raikou I got as Bonus Challenge had bad IVs, I tried my best with Golden Razz but couldn't get it.

2nd Raid
It was about 40 minutes after the time we were done with the first, in a Gym very close (in between the central square and the national park), so the big group was shuffled around a bit; some would go for a little snack or coffee in the meantime, so did I. We later made it to the Gym in time, found several others, split groups based on teams to get maximum Team Contribution Premier Balls. It was another easy drop, I wasn't even near the need of rejoining. And ta-da! My spawned Raikou is 1913 CP! That's 100%... I tried to keep my calm so I could fully focus on catching it with the best possible throws (with Golden Razz of course). It was sometime past the middle point throw (7th-8th out of 12 IIRC?) that I tried to get an Excellent, but did it too soon and got Great; not that it mattered much as it was finally caught! THANK YOU SO MUCH RNG! It's such a huge relief to just know that you have the best possible one already, it totally changes your mindset for the rest of the month...

For a moment I considered not buying the Special Box since I didn't really need to do 6 more Raids to get better chances at finding a good IV one... but I still needed the Candy and wanted to join in the experience so I decided to keep going. Problem is we hit a :45 standstill at that point; that's what we call it when there's no raid spawn nearby to follow up, then X:45 hits the clock and Raids stop spawning for 15 minutes... which means you're bound to wait 1 hour 15 minutes at the very least So we just waited there, more groups would come by and we'd get larger, everyone was congratulating me or pulling jokes at me as I got the first 100% Raikou in the town; apparently someone else also got an attempt at it but missed

3rd Raid feat. 28 Larvitar Candy because why not?
Eventually another Rank 5 Egg spawned at a Gym at the other side of the national park, close to the old (1896 Olympics) Stadium, someone over there saw it and told us through Discord... problem is, because of a misunderstanding, some people thought it was exactly at the Stadium (which has 2 more Gyms of its own) instead of close to it, so people thought there were 2 Raids and would debate over which one to go first etc. only to realize it was all for nothing lol. We had about an hour so we started scattering again, but then...

Someone who actually decided to go there straight away saw 2 wild Larvitar close to each other within the national park; after catching them he quickly told everyone through Discord and suddenly the entire group was rushing to grab them with Pinap for the 28 Candy, so did I of course So I'm at 202 Larvitar Candy and still no good base to use them on (best one is a 93% Tyranitar from a Raid but I'd rather wait in case I get a better one).

Eventually we did get in the Gym, split teams again... but because of yet another misunderstanding we ended up having to attempt the battle with just 5 people. It was very close, my entire Top 6 fainted and I had to resort to Rock moveset Golem after rejoining, but we barely made it Which was actually cool as I got +3 Premier Balls for damage and more rewards. I tried to catch this Raikou, which was bad IV, with Pinap; I failed.

4th Raid
A 4th Raid spawned in some park further away (close to the one with the 4 PokeStops we regularly put Lures on), it took a while of walking so some of us headed off for there straight away while others opted out and decided to wait for one closer and meet us there later. We caught a lucky Mareep with Pinap along the way. Cleared the Raid easily (but in one group instead of splitting teams), the Raikou that I got to attempt is 1893 CP (91% IV), I tried to catch it with Pinap down to the last Premier Ball (apparently there is a graphic bug which makes the last Premier Ball throw to either catch it or break free straight away, any attempt that would normally cause 1 or 2 shakes is displayed as breaking away immediately). So when I saw it shaking I knew it was caught before it happened I'm keeping this 91% one because it's my next best shot after the 100% one and I don't have many good IV Electric attackers anyway as explained above.

5th Raid
There were two options for this; one far away in a square we thought we needed the subway to get to and one somewhat closer, at the central square. We decided to do both starting from the one further away and planned to make it to the subway (which is close to the park with the 4 PokeStops) but then a guy who lived nearby told us that there is also a bus line which was more convenient... and as we were considering if it was worth waiting for said bus (we had no clue how soon it might come) it appeared right before our eyes. OK fate, we got the message Off we go!

At the end of the bus ride we made it to the Gym and found some more people there, we split teams once again and cleared it easily. I caught this one with Pinap at the last Premier Ball too Quite a bunch less CP than the 91%, still appraised Wonder but probably in the low 80s, transferred.

6th Raid
We now rush back to the other Gym option we had in the central square, in which we find even more people (OK the exponential rise ends here trust me), we quickly split teams and try it out. Attempted to catch with Pinap until I ran out of them (couldn't farm enough after all) so I switched to Golden Razz, missed it nonetheless.

7th Raid
Another Raid spawned a bit further, it was one station away with the subway so we took it to get there as we were tired walking around this much. Got there, we actually got a bit less people in this because some had to go/didn't want to use any more Passes. Still enough to split teams, attempted with Golden Razz, missed.

8th Raid
The 8th and final Raid for the day (they would stop spawning anyway, but I also couldn't do more than 8 so I managed to just get them all in time) was quite a bit further but it was on top of a subway station so it wouldn't take walking to get there. Nonetheless, as it was a bit off the city centre, only a few people came for it. We did it without splitting teams and I only got 8 Premier Balls, but I actually caught this one too with Golden Razz quickly. Bad IV, appraised strong, transferred.

TL;DR: 4/8, 100% Raikou + 91% Raikou + 40 Candy (6+12+12+6+4 from transfers). Used them all to power up the 100% Raikou to 2535 CP

And that's it for today as well, battery almost died out (I was very conservative with battery use so it could last these many hours, hence why this session was fuller than the others). So I came back home... this was a great session really, first time I'm dedicating a day to just Raids with so many people, I missed those major sprees for the legendary birds and the very first days of Entei.

Tomorrow, which is the final day of this event, I plan to check in case any nice nest comes up with the migration, else I'll just stay at the city centre park to get some last Candy and hopefully Shiny Duskull/Shuppet. Unfortunately I can't attend the "closing ceremony" we have planned because I've got something to do that night, but I'll be there earlier.

 

[Zexy]

Raid: Raikou
New 2000+ CP Pokemon: Golem 2428, Gengar 2245
New 100% IV Pokemon: Gengar 2245

Thursday noon - 15th (and final) full session (city centre)
We organized through Discord to gather since early in the noon for a few Raids and then Lures as a "closure ceremony" of the event, thankfully most people actually preferred to have it early so I didn't miss it.

I did indeed participate in just one Raikou Raid and I caught it with Pinap at the 2nd Premier Ball throw (awesome luck, 5/9 so far, keep in mind that Suicune was 5/22 woah), this was enough to power up the 100% one to 2727 CP.

A while later I also got a strong Level 30 Graveler, which I evolved in hopes of getting a somewhat better Golem, and indeed I did; Golem 2428, best IVs I've got so far, perfect Rock moveset.

And last but certainly not least, as already explained in the 100%s thread:

I caught a 830 CP (100% Level 29) Gastly today, so did the entire group I was with
Evolved and powered up to Level 30, so now a 2245 CP Gengar. Hex/Focus Blast, ideally I should use a Charged TM to get Shadow Ball... but I might get Sludge Bomb. For now, since I don't really need a great Ghost attacker yet but appreciate a generalist who can take out bulky Normal-types, it is pretty good as is

Needless to say, my luck especially with 100s has gone crazy the past few days

Finished off with some last transfers and that's it for the event. It was great while it lasted... I'll give closing thoughts on it in the event thread tomorrow, I'm too tired to do it now. But that's gonna be big...

 

[TeaWest]

I'm hoping that I can get my first Suicune raid this Monday I've been busy with school so I haven't been actively raiding as much as usual, but soon! Suicune won't stay out of my grasp for long!

 

[Zexy]

Raids: Raikou, Raikou
New 2000+ CP Pokemon: Espeon 2192

Did 2 Raikou Raids in a row Saturday afternoon, caught one with Pinap (critical capture) the other fled; both bad IV. Transferred the one I caught and used a single Rare Candy to get the 100% one to 2823 CP, which is Level 29,5, and now my #6 in the Top 6.

Also evolved the Eevee I was walking as a Buddy during the day after it got 10km walked into Espeon 2192; already started walking the next one.

Just make sure to get the daily bonuses and don't play much more; should do 2 more Raikou tomorrow afternoon.

 

[Almonds]

I really wish they'd give us other methods to earn coins, maybe like a coin per Razz berry fed to a team gym :/ Yellow gyms are really really rare in my area, and even if there is one, it is almost always full of teams that I am rarely able to leave my pokemon, thus unable to earn coins. I'd really like some extra pokemon space.

But rant aside, I caught a Chansey today. I was looking for a yellow gym, when I saw the familiar silhouette not far from where I was standing. I ran over and caught her using 5 Ultra Balls.