"What is the effect of the Sniper ability?"
"When a Pokémon lands a critical hit, which effects does the move ignore?"
"..."
Just glancing at the test paper Aiden handed over, Nemona's eyes quickly glazed over, and she lost her fighting spirit.
"This is too hard!"
At least with the questions about Breloom last time, she could answer a few based on her past travel experiences.
But these questions about critical hits have completely entered her blind spot!
"Hard? It shouldn't be; isn't this basic common knowledge?"
Aiden raised an eyebrow and looked at Nemona, who had started lying on the desk pretending to be a lazy fish flopping around.
He thought these questions wouldn't stump Nemona.
I remember that critical hits are something they teach in Naranja Academy classes, right?
Oh wait, Nemona hasn't enrolled yet...
Aiden soon realized that this future champion of Paldea might still lack some things.
Good grief, a fish that slipped through the net of compulsory education!
Trainers in the Pokémon world can roughly be divided into two types: academicians and travelers. As the names suggest, the gap between them is clear.
Nemona undoubtedly belonged to the latter. At such a young age, she had already traveled to multiple regions, which made her adept in commanding and nurturing Pokémon.
But because she lacked time for theoretical study, she didn't know much about basic knowledge.
So…
She needed tutoring!
"Alright, let me ask you some simpler questions."
Aiden smiled helplessly, deciding to guide Nemona step by step.
"You should know about the Scope Lens item, right? What is its effect?"
Although Nemona looked no different from ordinary Paldea students, Aiden knew—
This girl was genuinely rich, evident from her luxurious ocean-view villa.
Nemona was actually the daughter of the CEO of the Rotom Phone Company, her status comparable to Steven, the eldest son of Devon Corporation.
Even the chain stores selling phone cases and various battle items in the Paldea region were probably part of her family's business...
Super-rich girl (Paldean style).
So Aiden assumed she should know quite a bit about items.
As it turned out, he guessed correctly.
"Scope Lens... it's an item that helps Pokémon find their opponent's weak points, right?"
After a bit of thought, Nemona quickly gave the correct answer.
"That's right. Apart from Scope Lens, are there other ways to increase the probability of landing a critical hit?"
"Focus Energy?"
Following Aiden's train of thought, Nemona almost instantly answered.
"Bingo! If we estimate using the research data from Pokémon professors, the effectiveness of increasing critical hit rates can be roughly divided into three stages."
Aiden nodded.
"So, when a Pokémon carries a Scope Lens and uses Focus Energy, the probability of landing a critical hit will be—"
"1000%!"
"I see, impressive!"
Nemona instinctively nodded but quickly became confused again.
"But Teacher Aiden... Using Focus Energy in battle wastes a precious strengthening opportunity. Even if it guarantees a critical hit, the damage it causes seems far less than moves like Swords Dance or Calm Mind, right?"
It must be said, once the logic was sorted out, Nemona's reaction was quite quick.
Critical hits indeed significantly increase the damage Pokémon deal, but in actual battles, few people deliberately consider this.
The main reason is the low return. Even if one deliberately lets Pokémon build attacks around critical hits, at best, it's equivalent to half the strengthening effect of Swords Dance.
Executing a guaranteed critical hit tactic requires locking items and wasting time to strengthen with Focus Energy.
Overall, it definitely isn't worth it.
"You're absolutely right."
Aiden smiled approvingly.
Nemona's judgment was indeed flawless. This tactic actually suits very few Pokémon.
"In fact, this is a tactic built around the Sniper ability. Our Sunlight Gym's assessment content this week is closely related to this set of tactics."
"As for how exactly to use it, we'll wait until tonight's live stream to show it more intuitively through the game."
Only after becoming a trainer did I realize how convenient it is to have a simulation game that replaces real combat for unlimited battles, reducing the threshold for testing tactics to almost zero.
No wonder this game has become popular throughout the Pokémon world.
...
Time quickly approached six thirty.
When Aiden appeared in the live room again, the title changed to "No traitors, let's get violent!"
[Ohhhhhh! Seeing Azure go live, I know he's gonna cook!]
[Violent tactics? Actually straightforward combat? Why do I not believe it coming from him...]
[That's called reputation! Azure's sneaky ah is printed in our minds!]
With Aiden going live, the popularity of the live room quickly skyrocketed like a rocket, rapidly occupying the top spots in the PokéTV live streaming section.
"Hello everyone, today we're going to play with some strong, aggressive tactics!"
Aiden's voice quickly appeared.
"As we all know, landing critical hits in Pokémon battles relies heavily on luck. So, is there any way to make our Pokémon land critical hits consistently?"
"Yes, brothers, yes."
"So today, I'll show you a tutorial on hitting critical hits 100% of the time. Even my grandma would be able to do it!"
[Does your grandma know she can fight battles?]
[I'm here, I'm grandma.]
[This doesn't seem to be another dirty tactic... Azure, blink if you've been kidnapped!]
Amidst the barrage of teasing comments, Aiden quickly opened the game and entered the team editor.
Then, he immediately locked in today's protagonist.
Kingdra!
"Kingdra is an amazing Pokémon. Its noble Dragon and Water type combination works very well together, with only Dragon and Fairy types as weaknesses."
"The Swift Swim ability allows it to be lightning-fast in the rain. Coupled with its balanced stats without obvious flaws, it naturally becomes a regular in rain teams."
"So, besides Swift Swim, does Kingdra have potential to develop its other two abilities?"
[Kingdra's other two abilities... Damp and Sniper?]
[Uh-oh, these two seem to have no presence at all. Does Kingdra really have other abilities? (guilty)]
[Damp is only useful to prevent Explosion, right? So are we playing with Sniper today?]
"That's right, today's star is Sniper Kingdra!"
"With the Sniper ability boosting its output, a critical hit from Kingdra's move will deal extremely terrifying damage!"
Aiden skillfully adjusted the setup and added other Pokémon to the team before quickly starting the match.
After a few minutes of budget walkthrough teaching that made the audience question life, the matching wheel finally stopped spinning.
The opposing trainer's image and ID appeared on the screen.
Elegant long dresses as thin as nightgowns, waterfall-like smooth golden hair reaching the ground, and an exaggeratedly large white hat atop her head.
A petite, sleepy-eyed blonde loli appeared before them.
ID: Caitlin!
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