Pokemon Conquest Primer- Better Stuff To Do

Battle is dangerous!  Pokemon can get knocked out, gaining only hundredths of a percent in their Link!  Abilities can misfire, knocking out enemies before the pokemon you wanted to do the job, denying them the improvement you wanted!  Things can go wrong, draining the Energy ratings of your pokemon!  Or maybe your pokemon are at a low ebb of Energy, and won’t be very effective- making battle even more dangerous.

So what do you do?

Well, there are several answers.

Most fortresses have one or more extra areas in them that aren’t used for battling independent warriors and wild pokemon.  These areas can be used to do other vital things and help your pokemon along at the same time.  While you’re losing out on the chance to Link to new pokemon and gain the attention of new warriors, it’s a much more secure way to improve your pokemon and takes a lot less real-world time and effort.

There are three major kinds of areas: Mines, Ponigiri Shops, and Stores.

Mines are shown as little gravel pits with a pickaxe.  You can send warriors and their pokemon here to dig for gold, giving you an amount of ryo based on the Link rating of the pokemon and the warrior’s Power.  Occasionally, you will have an ‘encounter’ while there, and get the opportunity to try a hidden vein or experimental device- when this goes poorly, you may get less than 100 ryo, but when it goes well you can turn up an extra thousand or two in some cases.  When a warrior mines for you, their pokemon’s Link rating increases.

Ponigiri shops are little red-roofed huts with white-and-black onigiri decorations atop them.  When you send a warrior here, they will feed their pokemon a selected ponigiri- a snack that increases the pokemon’s Energy (and may or may not cost ryo).  Be warned- while sometimes the shopkeeper will offer a second round of ponigiri ‘on the house’, ponigiri will occasionally make a pokemon sick and wreak terrible devastation on its Energy instead of boosting it.  When a warrior takes their pokemon to get ponigiri, the pokemon’s Link rating increases.

Stores are marked by their blue roofs and the white bag sitting on top of them.  All Stores are one Store- you cannot find different items in different fortresses, nor better or worse prices.  At the Store, you can sell items that are not currently held by any of your warriors’ pokemon, and buy new items to supplement your stocks.  Generally speaking, buying things at the Store isn’t a very good idea- ryo is extremely easy to come by.  Also, you want to send a warrior with high Charisma- it will improve your selling prices.  Sending a warrior to the store improves the Link rating of their current pokemon.