Kairos looked more carefully and realized that unlocking those powerful Pokémon without spending money was actually achievable.
"Dream Factory" would periodically launch events in the game to give players small rewards and items.
With perfect attendance and serious grinding, after several months of gameplay, unlocking one red-tier Pokémon shouldn't be a problem...
But these unlock items were mostly random and couldn't specify which Pokémon you'd get.
In other words, even if you unlocked a red-tier Pokémon, it might not be one you actually liked or wanted.
As for perfecting a powerful team composition...
You'd better just spend money, kid.
Right now, Kairos looked at the reward he'd gotten from completing the tutorial—a card that could unlock one designated purple-tier Pokémon—and fell into thought.
With the money he had now, spending a little to unlock all the top-tier popular Pokémon would be no problem at all, but he had absolutely no intention of doing that.
One of Pokémon's greatest charms was that "there are no useless Pokémon, only useless trainers."
Even some unpopular Pokémon that everyone considered weak actually had their own tactical value and could even become the core of a team, producing unexpected results.
With this thought, he opened the team configuration interface and began selecting from the purple-tier Pokémon.
Here were Pokémon like Scyther and Magmar that had decent strength but weren't the most popular.
As he looked through them, a familiar figure suddenly made Kairos freeze.
With sharp protrusions topped by two yellow eyes and blue, petal-like leaves that extended and contracted, this was a rather strangely designed Pokémon.
—The Ore Pokémon, Glimmora!
Honestly, when Kairos saw Glimmora, he thought he might be seeing things.
He couldn't understand how such a powerful Pokémon could possibly appear in the second-tier purple category.
You had to know, this was a Pokémon with consistent top-30 usage rates in Scarlet/Violet doubles battles—Champion Nemona's ace hazard-setter that she'd save for last...
From this point alone, Kairos could tell that the Battle Road players, and even the developers, had rather weak battle understanding.
With this realization, Kairos directly consumed his beginner reward item and chose to unlock Glimmora's usage rights.
He didn't hesitate, because not only was Glimmora's base strength very high, but he had just thought of a strategy using "ordinary Pokémon" that could make Glimmora play a crucial role in his team.
After selecting Glimmora, Kairos switched back to the Pokémon interface and began making further configuration adjustments.
Fortunately, this step was free—Pokémon levels, effort values, and held items could all be freely chosen.
But soon Kairos discovered something wrong. Many important items were missing from the list, like the "Focus Sash" that could survive fatal hits, or Glimmora's key item, the "Power Herb."
At this moment, Kairos finally understood why Glimmora had been placed in the purple-tier category...
Because a Glimmora with a Power Herb and one without were completely different Pokémon!
Power Herb could skip the charging turn of charge-up moves in battle, allowing them to be used immediately.
Although the item would disappear after taking effect, in actual combat—combined with Glimmora's incredibly powerful charge move, Meteor Beam—it could directly eliminate an opponent.
More importantly, Meteor Beam would also raise Glimmora's Special Attack by one stage.
Combined with Glimmora's base 130 Special Attack stat, once activated, it would transform into a mobile cannon, blasting whoever it saw!
In the original games, Glimmora still had the disadvantage of low speed—if it encountered Pokémon that countered it, as a glass cannon, it would have trouble handling them.
But in this kind of simulated battle, who attacks first isn't determined by speed...
Thinking of this, Kairos shook his head slightly.
It seemed this world's development and understanding of Pokémon wasn't as advanced as he'd imagined.
Otherwise, how could a world-class gaming company like Dream Factory overlook so many key battle items?
Moreover, Glimmora's hidden ability, Corrosion, didn't appear in the adjustable range either, which meant people here probably didn't know about some Pokémon's hidden abilities.
But for Kairos, this was actually a good thing!
After all, the less everyone understood about Pokémon, the bigger the sensation his upcoming games could create.
Speaking of which, even without Power Herb, it didn't matter.
Glimmora wasn't meant to be a cannon-type damage dealer in his team anyway—it had other uses.
He quickly adjusted Glimmora's effort values and moveset, then began looking at other Pokémon.
The good news was that white, green, and blue-tier Pokémon could all be used freely.
However, Pokémon in these tiers were generally like Mightyena, Parasect, and Magcargo—unpopular with low base stats.
Kairos glanced through them and directly searched for two Pokémon to add to his team: the round, ball-like Electric-type rodent Morpeko, and the purple-bodied Normal-type with two long, hand-like tails, Ambipom.
These two seemingly unremarkable Pokémon would become the core of his upcoming strategy.
Just thinking about what he was about to do made him want to laugh.
Next, Kairos looked around some more and added Pidgeot, Quagsire, and Dugtrio to his team.
After completing the specific configuration for each Pokémon, he opened the PvP interface.
Battle Road's PvP had two different modes: 1v1 singles and 2v2 doubles, with players able to use six Pokémon in each mode.
Each mode had its own scoring rankings, from low to high: Poké Ball, Great Ball, Ultra Ball, Luxury Ball, and Master Ball—five tiers in total.
Most players remained perpetually in the Great Ball tier.
Ultra Ball was for skilled players with good game understanding.
Luxury Ball and Master Ball were top-tier divisions only accessible to powerful trainers like Gym Leaders, Elite Four members, and Champions.
Right now, Kairos clicked the doubles matchmaking button.
At the same time, he opened his streaming room and entered a title:
[Decent Person: Challenge – Zero Spending New Account 100% Win Rate to Master Ball!]
[Lose One Match, Give Away ¥2,056,250 Prize Pool Giveaway!]
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