Pokémon Masters EX updates to Version 2.18.0 - UI Updates, Champion Stadium expanded with Victory Road, Special Completion Rewards now available

Pokémon Masters EX's Champion Stadium has been expanded in Version 2.18.0 with several UI updates, and the addition of Victory Road. This new feature has been designed to assist casual players to learn more about the mechanics of the game, and better equip them to take on the challenging battles such as Champion Stadium's Hard mode. Special Completion Rewards have also been added to both the Main Story and Champion Stadium, allowing players to obtain up to 6,000 non-paid gems, and an additional 25,000 paid gems through purchasing corresponding bundles.

UI Updates
A variety of new UI elements have been added to assist players in-battle, and in planning out their strategy.

• Category icons have been added to move buttons and descriptions to distinguish between physical and special attacks, and status moves.
• The Edit button on the battle start screen has been replaced with a new Tactics button
• For battles such as the Legendary Area, the number of sync pairs is now displayed above the GO! button
• Move buttons targeting all allies and/or all opponents now have a changed design
• Stat change icons will now flash when they are at their maximum or minimum levels

Victory Road
Victory Road is structured as a side-story, where players join Rosa and Lillie on a journey to learn how to best tackle the difficult opponents of the Champion Stadium. Victory Road is broken up into a variety of stages and tutorials, each focusing on Champions from different regions explaining how certain in-game mechanics work. In a series of 7 unique battles, players will use preset teams of rental Pokémon against the Champions of each region.

Players can unlock Victory Road by completing Champion Stadium on Normal Difficulty. Victory Road uses preset teams for each of it's missions, so players will still be able to complete it even if their teams aren't yet sufficiently powerful to take on Champion Stadium's Hard Lv. 1 difficulty. Completing each Victory Road mission awards 300 Gems, 5x 5★ Scout Tickets, and a large quantity of other items to increase Pokémon's power and level. Players who successfully complete Victory Road will receive a One-Time-Only 5★-Select Scout Ticket to team up with their choice of Sygna Suit Red & Charizard, Sygna Suit Blue & Blastoise, or Sygna Suit Leaf & Venusaur.

Challenge N
The first challenge has players pair up with Kanto Starters to learn the basics of roles and tactics in a 3-on-1 battle against N. Players will learn about the each role's ability to take a hit, and how they can choose the order in which opponents will attack their sync pairs using the new Tactics button. Players can use this information to better manage their battle strategy to ensure that their heavy hitters remain in play right to the end of the battle.

Challenge Lance
The second challenge teaches players about sync buffs obtained from using sync moves in battle, and how to quickly build sync moves using trainer moves. Players will team up with the Johto starters to take on a team of Lance, Diantha, and Iris.

Challenge Steven
The third challenge highlights the differences between moves that use and buff the Attack and Special Attack stats, and how to easily identify which stat a move users on the battle screen. This challenge is a straightforward 1-on-1 fight between the player, using Marshtomp, against Steven & Aerodactyl, where players must uses their buffed moves correctly to win.

Challenge Wallace
The forth challenge, and really the first battle of Victory Road that might catch people out, has players learning the ins-and-outs of how Defense and Special Defense buffs work. Players will partner up with Grotle and Prinplup to battle 2-on-1 against Wallace & Milotic. Players will need to correctly identify what kind of attacks Wallace is using, and apply the correct buffs to their team so that they can survive long enough to deal the knockout.

Challenge Leon
The only challenge to be broken up into multi-part stages, players will first complete a scripted battle against Leon before going into a tutorial on how critical hits work in the game, and then a true battle. Only by buffing their rental Serperior's critical hit rate enough will players be able to take out Leon & Seismitoad.

Challenge Cynthia
Another straightforward battle, this challenge pits the player's rental Delphox up against Cynthia & Lucario after a brief introduction to passive skills. With no super effective moves, the player must use the move boosted by Delphox's passive skill in order to eke out a close victory. Cynthia will give the players a selection of Lucky Scrolls and Lucky Cookies after the battle, so that players can learn and power-up their Sync Pair's passive skills.

Challenge Red
In the ultimate graduation test, players need to put everything they've learned together in a battle against the team of Sygna Suit Red & Charizard, Sygna Suit Blue & Blastoise, and Sygna Suit Leaf & Venusaur. The player character, Rosa and Lillie each pair up with Tyranitar, Hydreigon, and Kommo-o respectively, with each individual sync pair having moves or passives that tie into at least two of the lessons from the previous challenges.

Completion Rewards
Special Completion Rewards allow players to obtain gems by completing certain objectives in the Main Story and the Champion Stadium. These rewards are broken down into General Rewards, which can be obtained simply by playing through the game, and additional Special Rewards which require a purchase of special Bundles in-game. General Rewards all count as non-paid gems, whereas Special Rewards count as paid gems.

Main Story Conditions for Special Completion Rewards
Completing any of the below Main Story conditions award the player 300 non-paid gems as a General Reward.

• Complete Main Story Chapter 1 (Normal) in single-player
• Complete Main Story Chapter 2 (Normal) in single-player
• Complete Main Story Chapter 3 (Normal) in single-player
• Complete Main Story Chapter 4 (Normal) in single-player
• Complete Main Story Chapter 5 (Normal) in single-player
• Complete Main Story Chapter 6 (Normal) in single-player
• Complete Main Story Chapter 7 (Normal) in single-player
• Complete Main Story Chapter 8 (Normal) in single-player
• Complete Main Story Chapter 9 (Normal) in single-player
• Complete Main Story Chapter 10 (Normal) in single-player

Champion Stadium Conditions for Special Completion Rewards
Each of the conditions below awards players a number of gems as a General Reward in line with the difficulty of the achievement.

• Complete all battles in the Champion Stadium (Normal) - Awards 500 non-paid gems
• Complete all battles in the Champion Stadium (Hard Lv. 1) and enter the Hall of Fame for any region - Awards 1000 non-paid gems
• Fill in all pieces of the Champion Stadium (Hard Lv. 1) Medal for any region - Awards 1500 non-paid gems