Floors for Pokemon Encounters

As I mentioned earlier this month, my latest Giovanni defeat netted me a 9/8/7 Shadow Zapdos. To me, that is insane. Friends have shown me lower IV Shadow Zapdos and other Giovanni Shadows. This just should not be. There should be floors for every type of Pokemon received based on work put in and expected reward levels.

No Floor: Regular wild caught Pokemon – No effort is put in for this. All Trainers are able to perform the motions of catching a Wild Pokemon. The 0/0/0 should remain extremely rare though, so a 1 IV (0/0/1, 0/1/0, 1/0/0) is the de facto “common floor”. Guaranteed Spawn goes here too.

1/1/1: Rocket Grunts – In essence, a minimal floor. Some effort is put into this, as not all Trainers can beat a Grunt. Grunts are easy for most experienced players and a way to experiment with match ups. Sometimes I bring out a “B” Team for a challenge or to see how some of my lower CP Pokemon do in a battle. The payoff is having trusted Pokemon for gym battles against weakened defenders and constructing the 6 unique species teams for Level 47. I also use my Buddy as a 3rd even if they are a bad matchup since I know I will win with 1 Pokemon usually. One exception below.

Note: After discussion, I did not realize that Shadow Pokemon could also go 0/0/0. I had never seen or heard of such a Pokemon. So let’s call this similar to regular Pokemon with “No Floor”, but a de facto “common floor” as well then.

5/5/5 – Field Research – There is some work done, depending on what the exact research is. There should be a decent floor. The Guaranteed (Bonus) Field Research goes here as well.

8/8/8: The Hard Rocket Grunts (Winning is for Winners) – We all have seen them. The one Grunt that is difficult to defeat and pretty much stole the Leaders Shadow Pokemon (at least that sounds good in storyline). They are equal to Leaders in difficulty, as they bring out 3 of the toughest Pokemon to defeat. We should get a reward similar to a Leader, at least with the Shadow Pokemon encounter. They are rare enough to warrant their own floor.

Minimum 8/8/8: Rocket Leaders – There is effort put into this, even if you have the best counters already. We have to find the various Leaders. We have to beat 3 stronger Pokemons three on three team battle. I have seen much worse than this value prior to the Rocket Disappearance.

10/10/10 – Special Field Research – This is for the Community Day, Event, and Sponsored Field Research. Self-explanatory, I trust.

10/10/10: Raids – As is tradition. That is a fair deal. Even at the 1* level, there is some difficulty. Plus there is a minimum time commitment that is above many other parts of the game.

10/10/10: Eggs – “Eggs don’t hatch themselves!” – Me. There is work to be done to hatch an egg… even a 2k egg.

At least 10/10/10: Giovanni – There is some sort of timed research that players have to complete. Traditionally this a month long timed research, for April 2021, this was shortened to 1 week time limit with a greatly reduced task docket. I prefer the longer time research, it makes for a more complete storyline. Beating all 3 Leaders makes it seem like we have earned the right to face Giovanni. We can only get to face Giovanni once a month, so they should be special and meaningful. We have to normally search for him and we receive a Legendary Pokemon for winning the battle. Those are minimum 10/10/10 in raids. Why not Giovanni?

12/12/12: Lucky Trades – There is a lot of work to be done to get to Best Friend, so yes. This is tradition as well.

Note: None of these proposed floors are meant to go below a floor that is already established for certain types and/or acquisition methods of Pokemon. If there is a higher established floor that I am not aware of, that higher floor abides.