Dynamax Adventures and the journey of the endless grind

 Baby needs a new Black-scaled Rayquaza!

So now that the Crown Tundra is finally out there and the vast majority of folk have already embarked on their anime-esque adventure with the bodysnatching legendary Calyrex, it's time to talk about the real star of this final DLC; The Dynamax Adventures. Sure, the journey along the way and the hang-outs with all the different Legendary Pokemon, both old and new, get's people through the door, but it's the Dynamax Adventures which get us all to come back time after time again for that promise of the real reward; shiny Legendries. And yes I did touch on this when I spoke about the DLC as a whole, but trust me when I say that a week of constantly grinding these dungeons has painted a whole new perspective on the affair, so I shall share. Never before has there been an actual tangible Pokemon Endgame for me to sink my teeth into so fully, (Although the Isle of Armor's Watts trial did have be hooked for a bit) so forgive me if I go a little off the deep end ranting about this.

So firstly, 'Dynamax Adventures' is the name given to the new feature added practically the second you start this DLC which builds upon the Dynamax dens into 'rouge-lite'-esque dungeons. Dynamax dens being the special battles from the main game wherein you duel an inflated version of a regular Pokemon with an extended healthbar and powerful 'G-max' moves alongside three other trainers. (Either real-life other players or AI stand-ins) 'Dynamax Adventures' extends these battles into entire dungeons that are randomly generated and can be run over and over in perpetuity. (And I get the feeling that they are meant to be.) Each Adventure consists of four fights made up of three normal Pokémon and capped off with a boss battle against a Legendary from a past game, and for that entire Battle-Royale the players have but four possible knockdowns before they are knocked out of the dungeon for good. Strategy comes in the choose-your-own-route minigame between fights wherein players can vote on which Pokemon to take on next based only on a vague shadow of the Pokemon and report on it's type. (Hope you paid attention during all of those 'who's that Pokemon?' cutaways from back in the Anime days)

What makes this most interesting is that players aren't allowed into these dens with the Pokemon that they've carefully built and trained to deal with any and all situations, but with randomly generated 'rental' Pokemon that are gifted due to some lore bit about how Dynamax energy overdose would drive normal Mons insane or something. This means that the Pokemon you'll be battling with all own zero Effort Values and thus are on the same playing field as the enemy. (Whatsmore, they're all levelled to 60 except for the boss legendary who is 70, making the final fight always that bit more tougher) On top of that, Pokemon Status' are carried on through each fight, meaning HP, PP and even status effects need to be carefully managed in order to make it through all four fights without four knockouts. Right there you've got a fine set-up for some quick and repeatable Rogue-lite fun.

Of course there are some extra little quirks thrown in there to add a little more strategy, like the way that any Pokemon you defeat along the journey can be captured (With 100% rates, it's worth mentioning) and replaced with your current Pokemon is they're becoming a little worn down. There's also some randomly placed bonuses along the path that can influence the Party's choice of direction such as Scientists who have quick replace Pokemon for you, Backpackers who give every Pokemon in the party an item (Which has the potential to be an incredibly powerful boon depending on the randomly selected bonus on offer) And for those that don't want to gamble there are also the Berries which just give everyone a health boost.

Now these are just the ingredients that makeup the 'Dynamax Adventures' and ensure that they are as replayable as they are, but what about the incentives? Well for one there is the Dynite Ore which you receive for every Adventure. Every single successful expedition will net player's about 10 and the rewards which can be reclaimed from them are absolutely insane. We're talking rewards ranging from an incredibly rare Beast Ball to the brand new Ability Patch; an item with the ability to give any Pokemon it's hidden ability, something that has been impossible to do before in any fashion. Previously you just had to be given a Pokemon with it already selected through a special event or you'd have to get incredibly lucky in Dens, this marks the first time they've been so accessible. (Although as they retail for 200 Dynite each, maybe 'so accessible' is being a little strong.)

But even there we're talking about the sort of rewards that only the Hardcore players will really appreciate, you want to know about the universal appeal, huh. Well for that you have the promise that within the Adventures none of the Pokemon are shiny locked. Yep, that means any Pokemon you capture in them (You can pick one at the end to keep) has the possibility of being Shiny, even the legendaries! The rates are incredible too, with the Shiny Charm making them as high as 1/100 for every single captured Pokemon. Technically meaning that there's a 1/25 chance of getting a shiny for every adventure provided you capture all four Pokemon along the way, with a possibility of that Shiny being a Legendary. Now seeing as how previously the only way to get a shiny legendary (given the recent advent of Shiny locking) has been to attend a notoriously rare and elusive Pokemon event, this is a godsend for any Grind-happy player out there. (Finally, a Shiny Rayquaza might one day be mine!) You are only allowed to keep each Legendary once, so the pressure is on to make sure that Pokemon-to-keep is the rarest of them all.

Now this is enough to ensure that a steady stream of players are ready to tackle these dungeons practically night and day, all in the hopes that they might one day be the lucky ones. Whatsmore, the promise of Dynite Ore ensures that folk needn't worry about those who don't want go up against this specific Legendary suddenly rage quitting, and to eliminate that possibility almost completely Gamefreak have even made it so that these Pokemon aren't Shiny during the battles but only when you go to check them out at the end of the adventure, so everyone is incentivised to stick it out through the battling. Of course, with random chance being what it is, even with a 1/25 chance of getting a shiny Pokemon there's a possibility of being as unlucky as me and going a full week of grinding without getting a single pull; that's just the way things go sometimes. (I'm not bitter) In fact, I've been so unlucky that maybe I'll end up concluding that Shiny Pokemon don't even exist and that this all been a farce to convince me to play more. Yep, that's my conclusion and the hill I'm ready to die o- oh wait...

Gulp. Well I guess I'm in for the long haul then. As far as endgame activities with the promise of making players come back time and time again it can hardly be disputed, Dynamax Adventures is one of the most fun ideas that Gamefreak have ever conjured up. And in terms of ways to shiny hunt that elusive legendary goes, this is tons more fun and productive than soft-reseting in perpetuity for that one promised roll which may never come. There's also the cherry on top being the way that these Dungeons are sometimes scattered with rare Pokemon from other Gens which never made it into Sword and Shield's Pokedex, and you just have a mode brimming with reasons to come back to for months. So without further ado, I'm going right back to hunting the Shiny Weather trio.