The Woes of Special Stat Exp

[Poryhedron]

Okay, I've got a problem. I want to train my pokémon for Special Stat Exp (if you want to know why, read the TPM GSC Monotype Challenge thread, where my Steel-type team danced all over the Elite Four right up until they met Karen's Houndoom, who roasted them with one Flamethrower each.) In GSC, of course, Stat Exp is earned according to the Base Stats of the pokémon you defeat.

The catch is the nature of the Special stats. In GSC they separated the Special stat into Special Attack and Special Defense, but they needed the game to be compatible with RBY, so they didn't actually make them completely separate stats. There is only one Special Base Stat, Special IV and Special Stat Exp value for each pokémon; the other stat is just the primary stat plus or minus a set value. This wouldn't be so bad, except that some pokémon have Spc.Atk as their primary special stat, and some have Spc.Def.

To see what I mean by this, look at the base stats for Nidoking and Nidoqueen (just to choose two random examples out of many possible ones.) In RBY, Nidoking and Nidoqueen had a base Special stat of 75. When GSC came along, though, Nintendo decided they wanted Nidoking to be better at offense and Nidoqueen to be better at defense (which was already true of their physical Attack and Defense.) So they set Nidoking's Special Defense equal to its RBY Special and set its Special Attack to its Special Defense + 10. Then they set Nidoqueen's Special Attack equal to its RBY Special and set its Special Defense equal to its Special Attack +10.

End result: the Special Stat Exp granted by a pokémon (remember, there's only one pool of Special Stat Exp between the stats) could be tied to its Special Attack or to its Special Defense, depending on the species. Look at Chansey, for example. In GSC, its Special Attack is 35 and its Special Defense is 105. That's a heck of a difference! Chansey could be a great or a terrible source of Special Stat Exp. Fortunately, we can look at Chansey's stats for RBY and see that its Special Stat was 105, not 35, so there's good reason to believe that Chansey gives 105 Stat Exp in GSC.

Now, here's the part where my real problem comes in. If Chansey is so great...what about Shuckle? The gulf between Shuckle's stats is even wider; it has a Special Attack of 10 and a Special Defense of 230. So what do Shuckle's RBY stats say? There aren't any. Shuckle has never been in a game where there's only one Special Stat. So how does one tell whether Shuckle is a wonderful or horrible source of Special Stat Exp?

And this...is where I turn to you fine folks. Does anyone know of a way? Has a listing ever been made of the Special Stat Exp given by GSC pokémon?

[Number1ChanseyFan]

[color=magenta]I am pretty sure that base Special Attack determines the Special Attack/Defense stat experience that a Pokémon gains. So, going by that, Shuckle and Blissey would be bad choices to fight if you want to gain Special stat experience points. I don't know of a list of base stats, but you can check out my sticky thread in this forum: http://www.pokemasters.net/forums/in...?topic=25813.0

It has listings of all of the individual stats as well as total stats, and lists the Pokémon from best to worst in each stat, as well as their max stats for that stat. To calculate a Pokémon's base Special Attack stat, just go to the area where I listed all of the Pokémon's Special Attack stats, I have them listed with the strongest at the top, weakest at the bottom. Just take the number I have listed, subtract 98 from it, and then divide it by 2, and you will find out the Pokémon's base Special Attack stat.

Hope that helps!!