Pokémon Quest tips and tricks to be the very best

When you first play Pokémon Quest, a short tutorial will familiarize you with the game's basics. Befriend Pokémon, go on expeditions to fight wild Pokémon, and cook delicious meals at your base camp to attract more Pokémon for your team.

• Get Pokémon Quest on the Play Store

Your collection of Pokémon can be upgraded and evolved, of course, but we'll get into that a little later. First, here's how to play to get the most out of the game. 

Jump to:

• Battle tactics
• Cooking guide
• Improving your Pokémon

Battle tactics

1. Manual vs auto-play: when to hit and run

It helps to pay attention to the battles. Pokémon Quest has an auto-play function which can be great when you need to grind a lot of easy expeditions, but controlling your Pokémon manually often leads to better results. 

• Manual mode includes the 'Scatter' button, which sends your Pokémon running in different directions. This can be crucial  for survival against powerful area-effect attacks from bosses, and lets your Pokémon recover
• If the expedition includes self-destructing Pokémon like Koffing and Voltorb, keep an eye on those Pokémon and manually Scatter your team before they explode to avoid friendly fire.
• During tough boss battles, switch to manual mode because many bosses are more vulnerable to specific moves than others, and the game is less than great at picking the correct moves automatically.

2. Every team needs a tank

Defense is a critical role in any effective team. Your team can have 3 Pokémon and one of them should be the tank, or defender.

• Your tank should be a defensive Pokémon with high HP on your team. This is the Pokémon that you should throw into harm's way to soak up hits from the enemy without falling, allowing your more fragile Pokémon with better attacks to get their hits in. 
• A tough Pokémon like Onix or Golem with Harden makes a great tank. Be sure to give your tank plenty of Sharing Stones so that it can benefit your whole team. With a dedicated tank in your team, you should be able to take on even the toughest boss fights.
• Your other team members should consist of a damage-dealer with high attack stats, and a 'support' Pokémon with a special ability (such as Confuse) to disrupt your opponents. Players of MMORPGs will probably be familiar with these roles.

3. Know the battlefield

Unlike your traditional Pokémon games, type weaknesses don’t come into effect in Pokémon Quest. For example, your fire-types won't be weaker against water-types. But certain areas of Tumblecube Island do power up certain types of Pokémon while fighting on that terrain. So if you notice that the area you're exploring powers up fire-types, then consider bring yours along for the expedition, even if they're not normally part of your A-team.

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Cooking guide

Leave your old-school Pokéballs at home, because cooking skills matter more than a good throwing arm here on Tumblecube Island. Cooking ingredients are won in expeditions, and at first you won't know many recipes, although you can get lucky and disover them by combining random ingredients into the cooking pot.

1. Different Pokémon have different tastes

Certain dishes will attract certain kinds of Pokémon; for example the “Hot Pot a la Cube” dish attracts fire-type Pokémon, whereas "Get Swole Syrup a la Cube" attracts fighting-type Pokémon, for example.

2. Understanding ingredient amounts

Just like with real life recipes, weights and measure are important. Pay attention to a recipe's description to know many ingredients to use. It may sound vague, but descriptions such as "a lot" or "a little" actually refer to precise amounts! Here’s what the game means in plain English:

• “A whole lot” = 4 slots
• “A lot” = 3 slots
• “A few” = 2 slots
• “A little” = 1 slot

Improving your Pokémon

1. Training

Pokémon will gain experience and levels by going on expeditions, but you can also have another Pokémon "train" them to gain more EXP. The trainer Pokémon is always sacrificed in this process, so essentially you discard unwanted Pokémon to power up your favorites.

• When either training to gain more EXP or change a move, related Pokémon make the best teachers: always either use the same Pokémon species, Pokémon family, or type of Pokémon for the best result
• If there's a move you want your Pokémon can learn at a lower tier of evolution, make sure to change it before it evolves. A final form evolution is actually much harder to teach new moves to.

2. Bingo Bonuses

Bingo Bonuses activate when three Power Stones in a row line up. Each Pokémon has Three Bingo Bonuses, and each of these can be one of three.

• Before choosing to develop a Pokémon, check its Bingo Bonus, as they can completely change the way that particular Pokémon plays.
• For example, one of Snorlax’s Bingo Bonuses gives it +550 attack, instantly making it one of the best Pokémon in the entire game.

We hope you find these tips useful on your journey to become the Pokémon master of Tumblecube Island! Do you have any other tips you'd like to share with your fellow players?