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We've been doing some talking on Skype- seriously, look into it if you haven't already and can use it- and the topic of Pokeballs has come up. Namely, the Luxury Ball. The short of it: We're thinking to change what it does.

For the uninitiated, here's what it does, taken from Snagging and You:

"Luxury Ball: Required to catch shiny Pokemon."

Back when we did this, there had been an ongoing influx of shiny Pokemon and this was a way to combat that while also giving other balls a different use. For example, Great and Ultra Balls can catch Pokemon of higher evolutions, Nest Balls can catch the various "baby" Pokemon such as Pichu or Togepi... it goes on, suffice to say. However, shiny Pokemon fell out of favor, as did this ball's use. There's a few reasons for that.

For one, Safari Contests. In each one that's hosted, there's one shiny Pokemon that can end up being found. Fitting its rarity, it also has the highest star count of any Pokemon in the safari. Getting this Pokemon, though, rare, is something that's usually attempted if someone lands on it. On top of that, most just use the normal Safari Balls, which bypass the limits other balls have.

For another, Shiny Pokeblocks. It's an item that can be made over at Ambrosial Alchemy, and makes a Pokemon or Hybrid shiny. This is admittedly the more consistent way to get a shiny Pokemon, as it can be used on Pokemon you already have.

Finally, people just don't go nuts for them anymore and instead do so out of luck or for a bit of flavor. In a way, this is kind of mission accomplished. But just as it's good to not fix something that isn't broken, it's also good to look back and see what might need some tweaks. Which leads us to this thread, and the discussion on Skype prior.

I should admit that the Luxury Ball is likely to not be the only thing we're thinking of altering a bit, as we also wound up looking at the Apricorn Balls and would like to make it a bit easier to get the Apricorns for those as well. As such, this is an open floor to discuss in a more organized form. With that said, let me outline what we've discussed so far.


Luxury Ball
Current Effect: Catches shiny Pokemon and is required to catch one.

Possible Changes:

1. The Ball instead causes the caught Pokemon to become shiny.
This one keeps it similar to what it already does, but in a different way. Instead of it being required, it'd instead be another consistent way to obtain shiny Pokemon and would mean that any ball could catch them otherwise.

Aside from Master/Cherish Balls, anyway. Those are still reserved for legendary Pokemon.

2. If a Pokemon is caught, it gains an immediate surge of Evo Points.
This is the other idea that seems to be received well, and could have a couple of ways to work. Either the Pokemon could gain a flat increase of points, likely around 5, or it'd be a percentage of what it'd need to evolve. For example, say it was a 20% surge and the Pokemon needs 50 Evo Points to evolve. Catching it in a Luxury Ball with this change would give it 10 points to start off, giving it a nice early boost.

Obviously, this would mean the ball's effects are functionally useless if the caught Pokemon is already unable to evolve or evolves through a method that doesn't involve Evo Points. Likewise, it also wouldn't have any benefit for Shadow Pokemon, but we could also stipulate that those gain a similar surge in Purification Points when caught. However, this is also where the Apricorn Balls come into the coversation, as this effect could work well for the Level Ball.

3. Happiness evolutions gain higher efficacy.
Basically, this would be a boost to Pokemon that evolve through happiness. In the guild, those evolutions are handled as thus: For first to second stage, the Pokemon has to be used in 5 missions or team missions. For second to third, it's 7 missions/team missions instead. With this change, a Pokemon caught in a Luxury Ball that evolves this way would get double credit for anything that goes towards said evolution.

In less words, it'd mean the requirements of 5 or 7 missions/team missions would instead be 3 or 4. The caveat here is that it'd only affect that form of evolution, thus why the first two are admittedly better ideas.

Apricorn Balls

1. Ways to make Apricorns easier and more consistent to obtain.
Currently, the only way to obtain Apricorns is through K&L Nature Tours, in the Snag Mall. Each Apricorn has a 3 in 120 chance to be obtained, or effectively 1 in 40. This would be somewhat fine if we kept the Apricorn Balls as is, their use largely given purpose in the Safari Contests. However, as mentioned above, one of the ideas for the Luxury Ball could work well for Level Balls.

In the past, we did have it where these could be bought in a place for both those and berries. Eventually, we shelved that and put the more useful berries into the Golden Sarcophagus, while K&L allows a way to get the Pokeblock berries. Either way, if we want to allow the Apricorn Balls to have more of a use outside of Safari Contests, or even to make them more worth using, we could stand to have an easier way to get the necessary Apricorns.

2. Possible update to Level Ball, and Apricorn Balls in general.
This one's largely already explained above, but a blurb down here's given to make it as clear as possible that this could be changed too alongside other Apricorn Balls.

I think that covers everything that we've discussed before this thread's creation. So now, officially, the floor is open for any and all discussions, as well as what you think would be a good route for the Luxury Ball.

We've made our decisions on the ball update! You can find them in the Snagging and You FAQ.