【In-Depth Analysis】Pokemon Auto Chess 6.4 Version Victory Road Comprehensive Update Guide

Hello everyone, I'm a content creator for the Pokemon Auto Chess fan site pokemon-auto-chess.org. Version 6.4 has been officially released for two weeks now, and many trainers have already experienced the numerous changes this update brings. Today, I'll provide a comprehensive analysis of this version update to help all trainers better understand the new mechanics and achieve better results in the game!

New Monthly Event: Victory Road

The most exciting new content in version 6.4 is undoubtedly the brand-new monthly event — "Victory Road"! This is a competitive activity aimed at players of all skill levels. Participating in ranked matches allows you to earn points and advance on the Victory Road, but beware — if you lose, you'll be pushed back! Challenge yourself to reach the 500-point finish line and earn a brand-new exclusive title. Completing this challenge is a significant achievement in itself, so get ready and prepare yourself!

The event resets on the 1st of each month, giving all players a fair chance to compete. In the two weeks since the event launched, we've seen many players actively participating and competing for positions on the leaderboard.

Major Game Mode Changes: Clear Separation Between Casual and Competitive

One of the most notable changes in this update is the significant adjustment to game modes. In version 6.4, Quick Play mode has been officially renamed to "Classic," meaning that regardless of how many victories you achieve or defeats you suffer in this mode, your ladder points will not be affected. The same rules apply to custom rooms. This change aims to make Ranked mode the only way to gain ladder points, ending debates about "farming" points in Quick Play.

According to the developers, the previous Quick mode was often seen as an inferior version of Ranked mode, with greater disparities in player skill levels and controversies about "point farming." The current adjustment makes Classic mode a purely casual experience, no longer "the quickest way to start a PAC game," but rather an environment where players can try new strategies without pressure.

This change has had a positive impact on the game's ecosystem. Based on player feedback, this adjustment has been widely welcomed, creating a pressure-free environment that allows everyone to confidently try various innovative lineups and tactics without worrying about their ranking.

It's worth mentioning that the Chinese server has indeed adjusted this setting. Considering the relatively smaller player base on the Chinese server, to avoid long queue times for ranked matches, the Chinese version has retained the mechanism where Classic mode affects ladder points, but has adjusted the magnitude of point changes. This localization adjustment effectively balances game experience and wait times.

Ladder System Optimization: More Friendly to Casual Players

The series of adjustments to the ladder system have proven to be very player-friendly in practice. Daily ladder point decay has been reduced from 10 points to 5 points, greatly reducing the pressure on players to maintain their ranking. Additionally, the time to be considered "inactive" has been extended from 15 days to 20 days, giving players more flexibility.

The newly added "play three matches per month to stay active" mechanism has also received positive feedback from players. As long as you participate in 3 matches each month, the system will not consider you an inactive player. This feature has relieved a lot of pressure for players who are busy with work or studies.

Starting from the Ultra Ball tier, these three matches must be ranked matches to maintain active status. This setting nicely balances casual and competitive play, making competition at higher tiers more intense and meaningful.

New Pokemon: Diversified Lineup Choices

Version 6.4 brings a batch of new Pokemon, these "Newcomers found on the road" inject fresh blood into the game. According to the official update log, the newly added Pokemon include:

• Celesteela

• Venipede, Whirlipede, and Scolipede

• Meltan

• Varoom and Revavroom

• Ledyba and Ledian

• Emolga

• Taillow and Swellow

In the two weeks of actual battles, we've observed that some of these new Pokemon have already become regulars in player lineups, bringing entirely new tactical possibilities.

Pokemon and Ability Balance: Changes in the Meta

In terms of ability adjustments, cumulative sequences have been uniformly modified to transmit rarity, and damage has been adjusted accordingly. This change has affected the strength of certain key Pokemon, and we've seen significant changes in the meta.

Attribute adjustments to multiple Pokemon have also had far-reaching impacts. For example:

• Comprehensive adjustments to the Regi series: Regirock, Regice, and Registeel have been upgraded from Unique to Legendary tier and have gained the Fossil attribute

• Regice and Registeel have received new abilities: Hail and Iron Head

• Regigigas' HP has increased from 350 to 400

• Xurkitree has changed to Electric/Artificial/Light type, playing a greater role in certain specific lineups

• Melmetal now gives a Mystery Box item when acquired. The Mystery Box replaces all Ditto in shops with Meltan

Additionally, there are numerous ability adjustments, such as Surfing Pikachu now gaining 50 shield and 3 attack power per Aquatic synergy level, Darmanitan Zen Mode now being able to attack at range but with lower attack power and speed, and more.

Synergy System Fine-tuning: Formation of a New Balance

The adjustments to the synergy system have shown the expected balancing effects in these two weeks.

The adjustment to Ghost synergy (dodge chance 20% → 15%; chance to silence on hit 20% → 15%; Ghost 8 curse duration 7 → 8 seconds) has reduced its control and survival capabilities, but it still maintains its unique tactical value. From actual battle data, Ghost synergy is no longer an overwhelming choice but remains a competitive synergy.

The new mechanism introduced for Fossil synergy (maximum damage cap of 50% when attacked) effectively prevents Fossil Pokemon from being instantly killed, improving their battlefield survival. This means one-hit KO abilities and curse status can no longer execute a Fossil Pokemon without triggering its shield. We've already seen some players successfully building endurance-focused lineups centered around Fossil synergy, performing excellently against burst-type teams.

The adjustment to Flying synergy (fixing the skydive ability bug, adjusting damage calculation to only be affected by attack damage, no longer affected by AP) has made its mid-to-late game performance more balanced, relying more on base attack power. This change has made Flying synergy's position in the game more clearly defined.

Aquatic synergy now increases curse delay by 30%/60%/90%/90%, providing a new option against Ghost synergy.

Item System Rework and UI Optimization: Enhanced Gaming Experience

The large-scale rework of the item system in version 6.4 has already shown profound impacts in actual gameplay. Here are the actual effects of some important item changes:

• Amulet Coin: No longer craftable, but can be obtained at stage 4 carousel in the Meowth town encounter. Now reduces maximum interest by 10 gold.

• New Item: Sticky Barb: Crafted with Heart Scale + Miracle Seed, provides 3 defense and 15 shield; when struck by an attack at melee range, deals 3 + 15% of its defense as retaliation true damage to the attacker, with a 30% chance to inflict WOUND for 3 seconds.

• Smoke Ball: New recipe: Black Glasses + Miracle Seed; new base stats: 10% crit chance; now gains 50 shield when jumping away.

• Ability Shield (formerly Cleanse Tag): New recipe: Miracle Seed + Twisted Spoon; new base stats: 15 shield, 10 AP.

• Shiny Charm: New recipe: Heart Scale + Mystic Water; new base stats: 3 defense; now gives 50 PP on activation.

• Pokemonomicon: New recipe: Charcoal + Twisted Spoon; new base stats: 10 AP, 3 attack; new icon.

• Shell Bell: New recipe: Charcoal + Never Melting Ice; new base stats: 3 special defense, 3 attack.

• Aqua Egg: Starting PP reduced from 50 to 30, regain after casting changed from 20 PP to 25% of max PP + 2 PP per ability cast during the fight. Now effectively generates PP regardless of the Pokemon's maximum PP value, greatly increasing its applicability.

• Green Orb: Now heals 3 HP + 3% of max HP per second, and 30% of excess healing is converted to PP. The mechanism of converting excess healing to PP has enhanced its value in endurance battles.

• Soul Dew: Reworked to now give 5 AP and 5 PP per second, becoming an ideal equipment for ability-focused Pokemon.

• Deep Sea Tooth (formerly Mana Scarf): Attack increased from 3 to 7, PP on attack reduced from 8 to 5, if the attack KOs the target, gain 15 additional PP. The focus on physical attacks and KO count makes it a preferred choice for physical damage Pokemon.

• Air Balloon (formerly Swift Wing): Now makes the holder levitate and immune to board effects, providing a new option for countering specific field effects.

• Fire Shard: Now also provides +3 speed.

• Berry items: Berries that previously healed 20 HP now heal 50 HP, Pecha and Sitrus berries now heal 100 HP.

• Gold Bottle Cap: Now gives base +30% crit chance.

These item changes have enriched the strategic depth of the game, requiring players to choose appropriate item combinations based on different lineups and opponents.

The game has also added a new town encounter named "Meowth," offering Amulet Coin choices in the fourth stage. Additionally, Gastly from the Ghost type can now be encountered in town at stage 4 (rather than stage 12), and Gimmighoul coins now provide 3 gold when obtained.

In terms of UI optimization, the new maximum interest display feature in the money bar (gold coins turn gold when the interest cap is reached) helps players better manage their game economy, reducing resource waste due to overlooking interest caps.

The comprehensive reconstruction of ability animations has also significantly enhanced the game's visual experience, with 20 different motion effects scaling with AP increases, allowing players to more intuitively feel the changes in ability effects. Pokemon attacks now have different hit marker animations based on synergy or unit, with 20 different hit markers currently existing.

Tactical Advice: Analysis Based on Actual Battle Data

Based on analysis of actual battle data from these two weeks, I offer the following tactical advice for dealing with the current version:

1. New Positioning of Ghost Synergy: Although Ghost synergy's control ability has been adjusted, its curse duration increase to 8 seconds still has value. In the current version, using Ghost synergy as a supporting synergy rather than a main synergy works better, especially when paired with control-type lineups.

2. Rise of Fossil Synergy: The new damage cap mechanism makes Fossil synergy a powerful choice against burst lineups. In the current version, endurance-focused lineups built around Fossil synergy perform excellently, especially when facing popular high-burst lineups.

3. New Tactics for Flying Synergy: The adjustment to Flying synergy abilities has changed its mid-to-late game performance, making it more dependent on base attack power. In the current version, strategies that utilize Flying synergy's mobility to quickly gain advantages in the early game and then transition to other synergies have shown significant effectiveness.

4. Importance of Item Combinations: After the version update, item choices have become more important. Particularly worth noting are the new item Sticky Barb's counter effect against melee lineups and Deep Sea Tooth's enhancement to physical output.

5. Victory Road Participation Strategy: When participating in Victory Road, it's recommended to choose lineups you're most familiar with and play steadily. Since failures cause you to retreat, overly risky strategies might backfire.

Conclusion: The Joy of Continued Exploration

As a dedicated Pokemon Auto Chess player and content creator for the pokemon-auto-chess.org website, I'm excited about the performance of version 6.4 since its launch. These changes have made the game more balanced, fun, and strategic, with generally positive feedback from the community.

I will continue to follow game data and player feedback to bring you more valuable content and analysis. At the same time, I also look forward to meeting all of you trainers in the game, exploring this Pokemon world full of strategy and fun together!

Thank you to all players for your support and participation in version 6.4, and thank you for your attention to the pokemon-auto-chess.org website!

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Appendix: Complete Update Log for Version 6.4

New Pokemon:

• Celesteela

• Venipede

• Whirlipede

• Scolipede

• Meltan

• Varoom

• Revavroom

• Ledyba

• Ledian

• Emolga

• Taillow

• Swellow

Game Mode Changes:

• Quick Play game mode is now renamed to "Classic" and no longer counts for elo gain/loss. We didn't have a mode where you could play the classic experience of PAC without worrying about your rank, so Quick Play often was perceived as a worse version of the ranked mode, with more disparity between players level and accusations of elofarming. Alongside with this change, we put emphasis on the Ranked mode through the new event introduced in this patch, Victory Road. We hope this event will be popular enough to become a permanent feature of the game, and will make Ranked mode a more attractive option to make the Classic mode more of a casual experience, and no longer the "quickest way to start a game of PAC".

• Custom rooms no longer have Elo gain/loss, again to avoid accusations of elofarming.

• Elo decay has been reduced: 10 → 5 elo lost per day of inactivity. Inactivity is now defined as not playing at least 3 games for the last 20 days instead of 15. Starting from Ultra Ball rank, these 3 games must be played in Ranked mode.

Pokemon & Ability Changes:

• Regirock is now Legendary Rock/Human/Fossil instead of Unique Rock/Human; adjusted stats; Stealth Rocks changes: range 2 → 1/2/3, damage 50 → 20/40/80

• Regice is now Legendary Ice/Human/Fossil instead of Unique Ice/Human; adjusted stats; new ability: Hail

• Registeel is now Legendary Steel/Human/Fossil instead of Unique Steel/Human; adjusted stats; new ability: Iron Head

• Regidrago is now Legendary Dragon/Fossil/Monster instead of Unique Dragon/Human; adjusted stats; range 2 → 1

• Regieleki is now Legendary Electric/Human/Fossil instead of Unique Electric/Human; adjusted stats

• Regigigas is now Normal/Human/Fossil instead of Normal/Monster/Human; HP 350 → 400

• Xurkitree is now Electric/Artificial/Light instead of Electric/Artificial/Human

• Melmetal now gives Mystery Box item on acquisition. Mystery Box replaces all Ditto in shops with Meltan.

• Pyukumuku passive: Explode when KO, dealing 50% of max HP as special damage (was 100 special damage)

• Change Unown S (SURF): Summon a tidal wave at level 2 (10% damage, 20% heal). It heals all allies, not only Aquatic

• Change Unown Z (ZERO): Freeze all enemies for 2 seconds

• Change Unown Y (YOGA): All allies cast Meditate, which increase their attack by 100%

• Surfing Pikachu now has the same stats than Pikachu but gain 50 shield and 3 attack per aquatic synergy level

• Sewaddle line is now Uncommon

• Skorupi is now Dark/Bug/Poison type like its evolution Drapion.

• Change Darmanitan Zen mode: now can attack at range, but with lower attack and speed. Attacks deal special damage, scale with AP and heal for 100% of damage dealt.

• Change Mach Punch: damage 60 at all tiers → 25/50/100

• Change Kubfu: PP 100 → 90

• New ability for Chinchou line: Electro ball; PP 90 → 100, Speed 46 → 43

• New ability for Deerling line: Horn Leech

• Nerf Hitmonlee: Attack 33 → 28

• Nerf Ghastly line: PP 80 → 90

• Nerf Volcanion: PP 90 → 100

• Applin line is now Dragon/Gourmet/Grass instead of Dragon/Grass/Gourmet

• Syrup Bomb (Dipplin) speed debuff now scales with AP

• Buff Chimecho line: PP 80 → 70

• Buff Scream Tail: PP 90 → 80

• Buff Indeedee: Female HP 170 → 190, Def 3 → 4; Male HP 140 → 160

• Fezandipiti is now 1-range. Def 8 → 10

• Nerf Pecharunt: PP 100 → 120

• Buff Stakataka: Attack 6 → 10

• Revert Tapu Bulu nerf from 5.8: Grassy Surge: 4 → 5 attack

• Galarian Moltres is now 2-range

• Skarmory spikes no longer hurt Steel Pokémon

• Buff Fillet Away (Veluza): protect duration 500ms → 1 second

• Nidoran female is now regional, and Nidoran male is the regular one.

• Patrat line is now Normal/Light additional instead of Wild/Light

• Fix Shed Tail (Cyclizar): pokemons targeting Cyclizar now target the substitute instead of Cyclizar after its move

• Magic Bounce now has a 500ms delay before bouncing the ability back to the attacker, and show the visual effect of the ability being bounced back.

• Buff Cottonee defense 3 → 4; Whimsicott defense 7 → 9 HP 120 → 130

Synergy Changes:

• Nerf Ghost: dodge chance 20% → 15%; chance to silence on hit 20% → 15%; Ghost 8 curse duration 7 → 8 seconds

• When the Fossil Synergy effect is triggered, the received shield takes a maximum initial damage equal to 50% of the shield amount. That means one-hit KO abilities and curse status can no longer execute a Fossil Pokémon without procing its shield.

• Fixed a bug on Flying 8 that cause flying skydive attack damage to scale with AP. Skydive attacks only scale with Attack stat.

Item Changes:

• Amulet Coin is no longer craftable, but can be obtained at stage 4 carousel on Meowth town encounter. Now reduce max interest by 10 gold.

• New item: Sticky Barb, made with heart scale + miracle seed, 3 def 15 shield; when struck by an attack at melee range, deal 3 + 15% of its defense as retaliation true damage to the attacker, with 30% chance to inflict WOUND for 3 seconds.

• Smoke Ball new recipe: dark glasses + miracle seed; new base stats: 10% crit chance; now gain 50 shield when jumping away

• Cleanse Tag is renamed Ability Shield; new recipe: miracle seed + twisted spoon; new base stats: 15 shield, 10 AP

• Shiny Charm new recipe: heart scale + mystic water; new base stats: 3 defense; now gives 50 PP on activation

• Pokemonomicon new recipe: charcoal + twisted spoon; new base stats: 10 AP, 3 attack; new icon

• Shell Bell new recipe: charcoal + never melting ice; new base stats: 3 special defense, 3 attack

• Adjustments to Aqua egg rework: starting PP 50 → 30, regain 20 PP → 25% of max PP after casting + 2 PP per ability cast during the fight

• Adjustments to Green orb: now heals 3 HP + 3% of max HP per second, and 30% of excess healing is converted to PP

• Rework Soul Dew: now gives 5 AP and 5 PP per second

• Mana Scarf renamed Deep sea tooth: Attack 3 → 7, PP on attack 8 → 5, if the attack KO the target, gain 15 additional PP

• Swift Wing renamed to Air Balloon: now makes the holder levitate, which gives immunity to board effects

• Buff Fire Shard: now also gives +3 speed

• Buff berries: berries that healed 20 HP now heal 50HP, Pecha and Sitrus berries now heal 100 HP

• Buff Gold Bottle Cap: give base +30% crit chance

• Removed TM Bide, replaced with TM Reflect

• Removed TM Retaliate, replaced with TM Counter

• Removed HM Whirlpool, replaced with HM Dive

• Buff Smoked Fillet: HP reduction 10 → 5

• Buff Berserk Gene: confusion duration is now 3 seconds instead of the whole fight

Gameplay:

• New town encounter: Meowth, which propose amulet coins in carousel at stage 4. Amulet coins now reduce max interest by 10 gold.

• Duskull can now be encountered at stage 4 in town instead of stage 12. Gimmighoul coins now give 3 gold when obtained.

• Aquatic now increases Curse delay by 30%/60%/90%/90%.

UI:

• Max interest is now displayed in player money tooltip. Player money is now displayed in gold once you reach your max interest.

• The ability animation code has been heavily refactored. Every ability animation has been reviewed and many have been improved.

• Ability animations now scale in size with the AP of the Pokemon casting the ability, making them more impressive for high AP Pokemons.

• Pokemons attacks now have different hit markers animations based on the synergy or unit. 20 different hit markers exist for now.

Bugfix:

• Pokemons meals are now consumed even if the Pokemon is on bench.

• Pokemons now keep their meals when evolving no matter the evolution rule.

Misc:

• Add 3 levels of difficulty to Pokeguesser game.

• Boosters can no longer contain duplicates of the same Pokemon/emotion/shiny combination.

This article is published by the Pokemon Auto Chess fan site (pokemon-auto-chess.org). Feel free to share and discuss.