Pokemon Ranger Batonnage

[Blaziken]

Boss Pokemon

Like in the previous Pokemon Ranger, there were specific pokemon released by Admins or randomly appeared and were considered harder to catch, boss pokemon. In Batonnage, there are still Boss pokemon but one of the small changes is that instead of having a little bar below them all the time, a large bar appears permanently at the top of the screen every time you vs a boss pokemon. Don’t worry because at first it might seem daunting, every boss pokemon has a weakness and if you spot and take advantage of it, you should be able to capture it in no time.

Tangrowth

Tangrowth will randomly appear during your graduation from Ranger Academy. Tangrowth will be the first boss pokemon you’ll ever face in the game. Tangrowth is actually incredibly easy to capture and only has some basic power and other grass attacks excluding razor leaf. Don’t worry about this one, just avoid its attacks and take advantage of how slow it is and get some quick circles around it.


Toxicroak

It actually is quite a while until you face Toxicroak. It is located in Pueru Town at the docks which can only be accessed after clearing out all the other pokemon controlling machines. Toxicroak has some powerful attacks but try and stay away from it because it might actually physical hit your styler which does heaps. It also might leave temporary poison puddles on the field, but that might not happen. Toxicroak is only mildly harder than Tangrowth but you better bring some pokemon who can heal your styler. If you chose Pachirisu as your partner, it’ll work wonders here.


Rampardos

After a few more missions, you’ll eventually come to some mountain rangers. There the evil criminal gang are using two Rampardos to try and damage some mountains in the area and it’s up to you and your ranger leader to stop them. You’ll only have to vs one Rampardos so don’t worry. Rampardos like many other rock pokemon is quite slow but it does have very powerful attacks, or so I’ve heard. Rampardos could even be easier than the previous two bosses if you steadily watch Rampardos’s attacks. Rampardos will do it’s trademark Headbutt so it’s best to stop attacking while it does so. It also will do a rock blast like attack but just avoid the rock and you’ll be fine. The final attack is the most lethal as it not only does serious damage if it hits your style but it also gives Rampardos time to recover. The attack is a bunch of boulders falling down onto the field one by one. Thankfully if fast enough you can quickly circle Rampardos once to stop Rampardos from healing but only try thins if you are very confident. If you’re just beginning, it’s best to slowly take Rampardos down between attacks not during them because it can get very ugly.


Drapion

After a long and challenging mission to rescue your ranger leader, you arrive on the deck on the ship only to have to confront Drapion. Drapion is actually the first boss pokemon an admin on the evil criminal gang will send out at you and it’s the hardest match you’ll face. I actually lost two times before actually defeating Drapion. Drapion at first is very easily allowing you to rotate around it without many difficulties. Just avoid the Poison Sting attack, any poison puddles left behind and also the very annoying toxic aura or smoke attack. They aren’t too hard to dodge so you’ll easily get a few rotations around Drapion but once you get a certain amount of spins, that’s where the challenge begins. Drapion with fire more Poison Stings in one attack and it’s bad aura attack surrounding Drapion will cover a larger radius, giving you almost no chance to circle Drapion. What’s worst is that Drapion will use these attacks almost immediately after each other you’ll have barely any time you encircle it. The trick here is to bring a electric pokemon and paralyze Drapion before striking. However it’s not as easily as it sound because you’ll need more than one of them. However once you do beat Drapion with some skill, you’ll earn at least 1000 points, almost guarantee your styler leveling up.


Spiritomb

Spiritomb is the next boss pokemon you'll face but instead of being incredibly hard to capture, it just gets plain annoying. There are five Old Keystones positioned evenly around the field. Spiritomb during the battle will randomly teleport to the keystones one at a time and launch an attack. The attack will depend on what keystone it's at. Some of the attacks can be very annoying to deal with while others are very easy to avoid. The thing that makes the battle hard is the fact that if you hitting the keystones, your styler will lose health so it limits the amount of room you have to spin a ring around Spiritomb. However do use Spiritomb as good practice or psychic and ghost pokemon coming up later in the game. Paralyzing Spiritomb can basically say gg to it if you do it 2 or 3 times. Spiritomb isn't as hard as Drapion but it still is pretty challenging.


Froslass

In the ice palace, the first battle you'll face against the blue admin of the evil criminal group will use a Froslass. Froslass is easier than the two previous bosses but you still have to be careful of some of its attacks. Froslass is a pure ice pokemon in the game so fighting attacks and maybe fire might do some very good damage. Just watch out for when she surrounds herself with four purple, pinkish flames. You might be tempted to strike her now because to the prevent Froslass from recovering but only do it if you know you can make it. She'll also make stallactites drop from the ceiling and use another flame that targets your capture styler's line. She can be very annoying like most ghost pokemon but just get some quick cirlces around her.


Lucario

Lucario is protecting the blue stone shaped in a water drop which you have to get. Lucario isn't as strong as you might think but he does jump around a bit so that might make things tricky. Watch out for his Aura Sphere attacks and any electrical puddles he might leave behind. Lucario's speed also allows him to maybe sneakily strike your styler with a Force Palm, getting quite a bit of damage. Again quick rotations around it will do the trick but as you progress later into the battlem you find that Lucario might chain some of its attacks together and the nature of its attacks will get stronger. Just watch out for one thing with Lucario that can be very troublesome. Lucario has the ability to power itself up meaning that all it's attacks will be at least double power and also have double the amount. For example instead of spending ou three Aura Spheres at once, it'll send out around 10 fast ones. To tell if Lucario has charged, simply check if it's running around with a blue aura.However despite this, Lucario should fall quite easily if you figure out the order Lucario uses certain attacks because it does seemingly follow some sort of pattern I think.


Infernape

While in the volcano cave, you'll come across the next admin of the criminal gang who is a bit of a drama queen. However she likes to use fire pokemon and for this battle, you'll be facing Infernape. Infernape isn't too hard to beat since it does know some basic fire attacks however it does have something you have to watch out for. The first attack it uses it a simple fire ball that creates a small pillar of lava when it lands. The attack is very easy to dodge and it also allows you to still get some easy circles around Infernape. Infernape's next attack is the one you have to watch out for. When Infernape uses it, it creates a few small random detonations in the ground. Just stop attacking during the small period of tim Infernape is using this and you should be fine. It's final attack is basically the same as the one Torkoal uses. It sends out many fire balls that have the small effect as the first attack. As the battle goes on, Infernape's attacks will get stronger and will cover a larger amount of land, mainly the explosion. Infernape does have good speed so some quick rotations will be very effective. Infernape basically isn't as strong as it looks and some quick circles will basically mean gg for it.


Heatran

Heatran is the first legendary you'll face in the game and it does have a few surprises up its sleeves. Heatran has the same explosion attack Infernape had from the previous battle as well as a steel headbutt. It also creates a Fire Blast in the ground without much warning so you'll have to be prepared for it. Get some quick circles in and Heatran will bring to unleash its signature attack, a puddle of lava. It doesn't sound or look too troublesome at first but this lava puddle doesn't dissappear throughout the battle so it might be quite challenging trying to avoid hitting it while trying to capture Heatran at the same time. During the coarse of the match, Heatran will make three of these permanant puddles of lava evenly around the field. Once this happens, you should try and paralyze Heatran when it walls over one of the puddles and capture it then. Heatran really isn't as strong as you might think but a few mistakes will spell out trouble for you.


Kingdra

Kingdra is extremely easy to catch. It's first attack will be setting up some bubbles. Taking this cahnce to charge up your styler as Kingdra will proceed to send out a blast of water. After it finishes the blast of water, all the bubbles might have dissapeared, allowing you to get some good rotations around Kingdra before Kingdra's final attack. It simply fires out a shockwave around it which is extremely easy to avoid, allowing to you strike back. Kindgra basically has the same attacks as some water pokemon from before plus it's attacks can be dodged and taken advantage of in the same way as other attacks from other pokemon. Kingdra is very easy to beat and you shoudn't have too much trouble with it.


Gliscor

Guess who's back? The same person who unleashed Drapion at you before is back and he's going to useful Gliscor for this match. Gliscor is quite fast meaning that you might have trouble encircling him in a row but if you can paralyze him, that will make things so much easier for you. Gliscor will send out gusts of tornadoes at you like many bird pokemon, launch mud puddles as well as tackle your styler. These attacks at first might seem easy to dodge but they might present a problem if you try and get some spins around it in a row. Once you do a certain amount of damage to it, Gliscor will start doing the attacks it knows at a faster, more powerful and mor effective rate. However you shouldn't have a heap of trouble against Gliscor. It definately is fun to vs and if you're good enough, you might even get an S like me.


Cresselia

Cresselia is a pokemon that's more about annoyance than challengingly good. Cresselia will first have an orb of some kind float around it before firing an energy beam. These are easy to avoid but the energy orb might make it tough for you to get some circles around Cresselia. Once you've done a certain amount of damage, like Heatran, Cresselia will also use an attack that lasts for the whole battle. Cresselia will fire out a small energy ball that will revolve around the perimeter of the screen which might cause some more troubles for when you try and encircle it. Like Heatran, it'll use three of them but just avoid them and try and encircle Cresselia as fast as possible and you should be fine. Cresselia isn't too strong but it does get very annoying but try paralyzing it.


Magnezone

After the match with Cresselia, you’ll be forced to battle a Magnezone after a dirty trick has been played on you. Magnezone fortunately isn’t going to be too hard. It’s attacks are very basic and you would’ve faced them or similar attacks before. Firstly it has a Discharge attacks, sending wild sparks of electricity flying around it, similar to Magneton’s. It’ll then throw out three electric orbs or puddles onto the ground that will linger behind for a few seconds. Its final move is that it’ll summon a small electrical orb that fill float around Magnezone. You would’ve faced something similar against Cresselia. Basically, an amateur could probably catch Magnezone if they’re cautious. Magnezone is extreme easy and simply to catch so you should have no problems with it.


Electivire

After returning to Ranger HQ or the dome, you’ll have to face a Electivire. Electivire is very simple to catch since all of its attacks are quite similar to Magnezone’s so basically, you could say Electivire is like a Magnezone who’s just got the smallest of upgrades possible. Electivire will have the usual Discharge attack, and another weak electric attack. Its final attack is the only one that should annoy you because like Magnezone, it’ll have an electric orb revolve around it. However unlike Magnezone, it’ll have two electric orbs float around it. Remember they are only temporary so wait for them to disappear if you want and strike.


Garchomp

You next match is against Garchomp. Unlike Electivire, Garchomp is a whole lot stronger. It’s very fast and a very formidable opponent. Garchomp has the usual Dragon Claw like attack, slashing our in front of it. Garchomp also fires out 2 puddles of mud or sand, which are very annoying to deal with. It’ll also charge around on the screen. While those attacks are relatively easy to avoid, Garchomp itself isn’t very easy. If you somehow paralyze it, take this golden opportunity to quickly encircle it.


Rhyperior

Rhyperior is fortunately as very easy boss to defeat. If you did well against Rampardos, you should do even better against Rhyperior. Basically all of Rhyperior’s attacks you would’ve or should’ve faced sometime before and if you haven’t they aren’t too hard to deal with. His attacks include launching out two boulders, which Rampardos knew, except it only fired out one. This is very easy to dodge. Another attack is creating some sort of shockwave and it also can create an X shaped Earthquake, something that many ground pokemon know. The attack actually is similar to Heatran’s Fire Blast which appears from the ground so if you place you styler in the correct position, you might be able to charge up your styler without being hit by Earthquake. Its final attack is simply dropping many boulders down onto the stage. This goes for a lengthy process however Rampardos also used this attack. There will be enough time for you to get circles in around Rhyperior in between the rock falls so you can easily prevent Rhyperior from recovering. Basically Rhyperior you could say is even easier than Rampardos.


Magmortar

The next boss you’ll face is the female one who loves fire pokemon. This time she has a Magmortar and like before with her Infernape, Magmortar is also quite easy to beat. It has Infernape’s explosion attack where is makes random explosions in the ground. Just lift your styler up to avoid this. Its next attack is creating a row of lava spouts which many fire pokemon can do except they don’t do it in a row. Its final attack is the easily to dodge Flamethrower which does last long enough to let you charge your styler and use the charge quite effectively. Magmortar basically is incredibly easy, possibly easier than Infernape.


Gallade

Gallade like most psychic pokemon has the ability to teleport and it will do so before attacking. He has an attack which sends blades or scythes flying out. Depending on how much damage you’ve done, it could be two or four. Its next attack is sending out those psychic orbs which remain in the ground for a while, something Lucario had. Its last attack is a simply slash. Just watch out for Gallade’s attacks and use the same strategy you use against all psychic pokemon and you should be fine. Gallade however is at least stronger than all the two previous bosses.


Rhyperior, Magmortar, Gallade

Oh boy, here’s something twisted. The three previous bosses you defeated are back and this time you’ll have to take on all three at once. The good news is that they’re health bar will be the same (or at least close or similar) to wild pokemon and that they’re attacks are the same. The bad news is that they’re together in a group and you’ll might have trouble against all three. However they will cross paths during the match at times so feel free to try and paralyze them if you want. Also concentrate on getting the easiest one out first and you’ll have a much easier time. I can’t really tell which one out of Rhyperior or Magmortar is more hopeless so I’ll let you decide that one for yourself.


Dusknoir

After finally meeting the main “bad guy” of the game, you’ll have to take on Dusknoir. Feel free to take some more risks if you can because I’m pretty sure that your styler will be healed after the battle but just in case, stick with your usual strategy. Dusknoir will have the usual attacks ghost pokemon tend to have. You could say it’s like Froslass and Mismagius combined together except it’s not as frightening as it sounds. Firstly Dusknoir will shoot out a beam that Mismagius can also shoot out. Next it sends out a flame which continuously targets your styler. It also has that attack which leaves a temporary and stationary ghost somewhere on the stage. Finally if can surround itself with flames, similar to Froslass. Dusknoir is pretty easy to beat and it should be too hard.


Darkrai

Darkrai is the final boss before the credits role so arguably, it’s the hardest you’ve faced. Just know that Darkrai will only cause major problems for more inexperienced players if they don’t use poke assists, mainly paralysis and charge ones. When you first battle Darkrai, don’t bother doing anything since your styler is useless against it. However a little while later after a small cut scene, your styler will be fused with the three stones you’ve collect before and you can finally capture Darkrai.

Don’t get too excited because Darkrai isn’t the final boss before the credits for nothing. Darkrai has the most attack out of any pokemon you’ve faced before so you’ll always have to be on your guard. The first thing you’ll notice about Darkrai is that it most of the time if not all of the time teleports before attacking like a psychic pokemon. Darkrai can attack with a blast of dark darts or some other weapon like object, exactly like Absol’s. It then can create a shockwave around it that will do around 10 damage. After you’ve done a certain amount of damage, Darkrai will at even intervals for the rest of the battle or capture create random dark pulses in the ground. It’s quite unpredictable where the dark pulse can appear in the ground but just be glad that there will be only one or two.

After doing some more damage, Darkrai will eventually use its best attack. Darkrai will suddenly rise into the air and summon a massive void above it. This is your chance to do some extra damage to Darkrai. However once Darkrai lands, you should stop and check out what happens next. Along with the random dark pulses appearing in the down, with Darkrai’s new attack, dark bullets will shoot out from the void and onto the field. When it lands is completely random so be prepared. When the bullet lands on the field, it’ll create a small brown crater. Avoid this because if you hit it, your styler will take quite a hit. Now there are two things to remember. The dark pulse that randomly appears in the ground and the dark bullets shooting down will not stopping until you capture Darkrai. It doesn’t matter if you paralyze Darkrai, the assaults will still keep on coming so have caution. The best way is just to get some quick circles in since Darkrai can also teleport like mentioned before. Once you capture Darkrai, the credits will role but after that, there’s a bit more to go…

[Akai]

Good job, but can you answer a few questions, like how you have the game? Did you order it from Japan? You really need to post information like this or someone may misunderstand and get mad.

But Drapion is looking good, with that 1000 EXP points. =3

[Blaziken]

Pokemon Ranger Batonnage

Many people wouldn’t have thought that there would’ve been a sequel to the original Pokemon Ranger game, being a spin-off and all. However when pokemon rangers started appearing in the anime, the thought of another version of Pokemon Ranger soon became a reality and here’s the result, Pokemon Ranger Batonnage. Pokemon Ranger Batonnage has certainly had a lot of hype before its release and definitely, this game has lived up to all of it. Many improvements have been made as well as a ton of new features introduced compared with the original Pokemon Ranger.

Pokemon Ranger Batonnage has you either playing as a male or female character who is an-upcoming pokemon ranger in the new region of Almia. As you travel around Almia, you’ll be facing a new criminal gang who seek to take control of all pokemon in Almia and it’s up to the Pokemon Rangers (mainly you) to stop them. On top of this, you’ll also have the opportunity to go on Quests; a new type of mission except you’ll be helping only one specific person most of the time.

One of the disappointing things about the original Pokemon Ranger game is that there weren’t too many missions and out of the missions you could go on, they were relatively easy in a way. Now in Batonnage, this has been eliminated by the addition of a few more missions, which certainly are more challenging. Another bonus addition with this game is that there are a few more pokemon assists and a few more moves you could use in the wild such as Surf and Fog Clear. The way you capture pokemon and the new moves opponents know also add to the excitement and challenges players will face. There are more puzzles, more frequent battles that require you to use all your skill and of course, all the new pokemon for you to capture.

However with the good comes the bad. There aren’t much disappointing things to say about Batonnage but if you hated the first Pokemon Ranger, you’ll hate this one because what you have to do in the game is basically the same as the original Pokemon Ranger. If you basically don’t like the concept or think that circling pokemon is lackluster or boring, then don’t bother buying the game. Other than that, anyone can enjoy this game no matter how old you are. (Within the limits)

Overall the game it definitely worth buying if you’re a pokemon fan or you simply wants to try something different. The good thing about this game is that it actually requires you to focus on what you’re doing or else you won’t succeed. The game is based purely on how skill and how fast and good you are. Think about it, this game has received a lot of hype before it’s release and Pokemon Ranger Batonnage has constantly lived up to all of it.


Graphics: 4/10

The graphics are still the usual 2D graphics from the original Pokemon Ranger. The game does look a bit more sharp and the effects also look better but besides that, the graphics remain the same, plain 2D.

Sound/Music: 7/10

As always, the background music is a standout just like it is in all pokemon games. However the music is only that, it doesn’t have any real excitement to it. However the music at least aren’t random tracks that don’t make sense.

Uniqueness: 7/10

There aren’t many games like Pokemon Ranger Batonnage. There might be some games, which involve the same concept as Batonnage but not completely. Because of this, it’s uniqueness scored well however the one thing that let it down was something that actually made the game standout. At least this game isn’t like a fight and kill type of game that gets incredibly repetitive.

Storyline: 6/10

Being an RPG game, there’s obviously going to be a storyline. Like most pokemon games, the storyline here is decent without being great. Most of the time, pokemon games are based more around game play than an actually storyline that actually keeps you guessing however this is an improvement from the old Pokemon Ranger.

Game Play: 9/10

This is the part which I found to be the standout for Batonnage. It doesn’t matter how smart your are at math, how good you are at battling, how rich you are or how important you might think you are, none of that is going to help you complete this game. It involves your own skill and purely your own skill. Compared to the original Pokemon Ranger, this game is a lot harder and can be very challenging. Even for better players, this should test out their abilities to spin a line around a pokemon around 50 times without losing all your health.

Controls: 9/10

The controls are very easy to remember. Just use the touch screen to navigate your way around Almia and in battles. There’s nothing hard about it at all.

Overall: 42

The ratings above don’t exactly capture how good the game actually is. It creates a wonderful challenge for players that might have lacked in the original Pokemon Ranger. Much of this game involves your own pure skill and not complete knowledge which was one of the reasons I liked this game. Basically this game not only introduces Pokemon to new-comers but also entertains the older fans as well. Do remember that these are my opinions and might and most likely differ from yours.

[Blaziken]

Capture Differences

In the original Pokemon Ranger, you had to capture different pokemon with your styler and use their abilities in the wild in order to complete the game. This has not changed in Batonnage but how you capture the pokemon has, therefore the strategy you use to capture the pokemon might also change.

The aim in Batonnage is to capture pokemon, just like in most pokemon games. Like in the original version, capturing pokemon involves you revolving or circling your styler around the pokemon you’re trying to capture. To do this, simply hold down your pen on the DS touch screen and keep it down while moving it around the target pokemon in a circle. While this might sound easy, it really isn’t, especially if you’re vsing many pokemon at once.

In the old version of Pokemon Ranger, capturing a pokemon required you to encircle your styler around it for a certain number of times without lifting up your styler from the touch screen. This gave some inexperienced people problems, especially with pokemon that required many rotations to capture so the feature of hit points has been introduced to Pokemon Batonnage. Hit points are no new thing to the world of pokemon, especially regarding battles. However these hit points are how many times you’ll have to rotate your styler around the target pokemon.

As you spin your styler around your target, the hit point bar, which is shown right below a pokemon, will gradually fill up. When it’s all filled up, the pokemon will be captured. In the previous version, to complete the capture, it was required of you to lift up your styler at the end but now once filling up the hit points bar, the pokemon will be automatically caught meaning that the task of lifting up your styler at the end of captures is now a thing of the past.

To make things sound even better, you don’t have to continuously hold down your styler on the DS screen while circling around your target pokemon. In the previous version, you had to continuously spin your styler around your target without letting go and risk being attacked but now, you don’t. You can basically take it one spin at a time, circling your target each time with one circle before letting go. The hit points bar will not go down if you lift up your styler so you can continuously do this while avoiding attacks from opponents. However if you don’t circle a target within a few seconds, the hit points bar will start dropping meaning that all your hard efforts before will be wasted if you don’t manage to get a circle around it. In other words, this might mean that you could spin a thousand circles around your target and it still might not be caught. While this does sound bad, against some of the harder pokemon, the bar won’t go down for about ten or so seconds between spins so you’ll have enough time to encircle them once before the health bar starts to drop.

In the previous Pokemon Ranger, sometimes poke assists wouldn’t work on certain pokemon with a type that resists the poke assist type. For example if you used your Minun or Plusle against a Salamence, even though Salamence in battles take neutral damage from electric attacks, the poke assist would still fail because Salamence is also part dragon which resists electric attacks. This was thought to be broken and pretty senseless so now in Batonnage, pokemon will only be classified as one type so there aren’t any dual type pokemon. However that’s not the only new thing, pokemon with resistances still have an advantage over certain assists. Poke assists in Batonnage also help the hit points bar rise so you can fill you target pokemon’s whole hit bar without encircling it once. So if you used Pachirisu’s assist against a Staraptor, the damage Staraptor takes will be greater than if the assist was used against a Rhydon. This brings me to another thing. Rhydon normally in games would be immune to electric attacks but seemingly in Batonnage, immunities are classified as resistances so it would still take damage from the assist and its hit point bar would still rise a tiny bit. The added effect the assist might contain still remains the same, resistance or no resistance so Rhydon basically would be paralyzed the same amount of time the Staraptor would be. Just remember that an assist can fill up your target’s entire hit points bar but you must then encircle it at least once to capture it.

Now there are certain pokemon in the game, which are a bit harder than the usual pokemon who are found in the wild or with most enemies. These are called boss pokemon and they have a much bigger hit points bar than the usual standard pokemon. Their health bar is shown at the top of the screen, almost completely stretching from one side to another. At first this might sound as a tedious job to fill up the bar but really the huge bar at most times is just for intimidation reasons. The battles with these boss pokemon might take a bit longer due to them having more health than other pokemon but do remember that every pokemon in this game has a weakness and if that is taken advantage of, the pokemon will fall victim to your styler.

As you advance further into the game, you’ll be taught how to charge up your styler. Charging up your styler only means making it stronger until the line that is used with the charged up styler is broken. To charge a styler up, simply hold the pen down on the DS screen without letting go or moving around until you see a small white light or aura coming from your styler. This is the first level and every time you move the styler about while trying to capture a pokemon, you’ll see a rainbow line. Hold the pen down completely still for longer and you’ll charge your styler up to the max level. Your styler will give out an even bigger glow and your line when capturing pokemon will be a bigger rainbow. In the first level of charge, each successful rotation around a pokemon will equal two normal non-charged rotations. The next level of charge will equal three rotations so as you can see, if you’re skillful enough, you could very well use this new addition to your advantage. Nevertheless, using a capture line that has been charged will be very hard mainly because of temptation.

Charging your styler might take quite time and during that time, your target’s hit points bar might start falling. Because of this, people will basically try and get as many circles in a possible before an attack is used but most of the time, they will forget or won’t notice their target’s attacks so this could result in damage to your styler. Also remember this important fact. Besides the fact that the charged up line does more damage to a pokemon thus lowing the amount of rotations needed to capture your target, the capture line is exactly like any other line. (Except it looks different) If a pokemon walks into it, the line will be broken. If a pokemon attacks it, your styler will lose health and your line will also be broken. When you lift up your pen from the DS touch screen, your line will disappear. If any of those events happen, and believe me they will happen a lot when using a charged up styler, you’ll have to go back and begin recharging your styler from the beginning again which might take a bit too long for comfort. Be careful when using this method to capture pokemon because it could leave coming out of an attempt to capture, second best.

With the introduction of the new health points bar in Batonnage, you might notice that what took you many rotations to capture might take only a few later in the game. This doesn't exactly mean you're getting better. As you advance further into the game, you styler will grow in power meaning when trying to capture something like a Staraptor later in the game will be easier than earlier in the game because your styler will be stronger, requiring less rotations. This is an automatic thing so you don't have to charge it up or do anything else.

Finally in the previous version of Pokemon Ranger, after reaching the amount of rotations needed to capture your target pokemon, you could actually circle your target some more at the risk of getting attacked and all your hard work being undone. Why do it? Because for extra experience points that might level up your styler quicker. However most of the extra experience points you gained back then were very measly.

Well experience points are back in Batonnage but you might be asking the question, “How do I earn them?” As mentioned before, once you’ve filled up your target’s whole hit points bar, the pokemon will automatically be caught and you don’t have to encircle it anymore. Well after a successful capture, you’ll be rated on how well you captured the pokemon. The better you did, the higher your ranking will be obviously. And the higher your rank is, the more experience points you’ll earn. Essentially, the ranks rang from a C to a S. At most times when you earn a C, you won’t get any extra experience points but in earning an S, it could lead to around an extra 500, depending the pokemon you’re vsing. (You really only earn 500 against boss pokemon) Now your ranking will be determined on these 5 simple aspects:
1. How fast you caught the pokemon. The good thing about this is that you can wait there for 5 minutes doing nothing at all and you can still get a S. Your performance will only start when you start to encircle your target and not when you first enter into battle. Against boss pokemon, you’re allowed to take longer while still earning an S.
2. How many rotations did it take you capture your target. This is when charging your styler up could have big bonuses. You might find that you’ll earn an S against a Staraptor for example without charging up. You might then charge up your styler and only take 3 rotations to capture it, essentially earning you an S and more experience points than the previous S because you used fewer circles.
3. Did your styler line get hit from an attack. Most of the time if it did, you’ll only get a B at best and only if lucky. Against better pokemon or tougher pokemon, you might be allowed to get hit once and against boss pokemon, you’re allowed to get hit a few more times and still earn an S.
4. How many times did you hit your target. When encircling your target, you might accidentally hit it with your styler. While your styler probably won’t lose any health, this does however count as an error and your rank might fall depending on what pokemon you’re vsing. Again against harder to catch pokemon and boss pokemon, you’re allowed to make mistakes but try not to.
5. Did you use a poke assist. This I think affects your ranking the least but although it might make it safer to use a poke assist to capture your target pokemon, it might take up some extra time and therefore might lower your ranking. Using a poke assist also makes your target easier to capture than before so that too might affect your ranking. I believe that using a poke assist against a boss pokemon pretty has no effect on your overall rank.
These five factors will basically decide on what rank you’ll earn and how many extra experience points you could earn.

Those are the basics of how to capture a pokemon in Batonnage and certain changes. Remember that no amount of knowledge on pokemon battles or math or physics can help you capture a pokemon. It all depends on your natural skill only and how natural style. Just do your best and that should be all you can do.

[Blaziken]

The Arena

In the previous Pokemon Ranger, there were certain capture arenas where you could test your skills as a Pokemon Ranger, trying to capture pokemon as fast as possible. Sometimes these arenas held certain pokemon that were found nowhere else in the game or the high score for that arena must be beaten to unlock another pokemon. Well in Batonnage, there isn’t really a capture arena where there’s a high score for you to beat. However there is a certain area called The Arena that is located on a remote secret island that can only be visited after the credits roll and by riding Wailord there.

While The Arena at first doesn’t seem to be packed with tons of pokemon like the capture arenas in the previous Pokemon Ranger were, it surprisingly is. Completing The Arena is probably one of the most challenging tasks in Batonnage and it rightfully is. It’s sort of like the Battle Frontier, testing every skill as a Pokemon Ranger you have.

In the Arena, you’ll face many different pokemon each with different attacks such as Lucario’s Aura Spheres and Heatran’s puddles of lava. Each time you enter The Arena, you’ll see many other Pokemon Rangers in the area however they aren’t your opponents. In a room further ahead, you’ll see some closed doors with only one open. That is where your first challenge will take place. As you enter the room, you’ll see a pod like figure standing out of the ground. This is put in every room and the pokemon in each pod will have to be captured before progressing on. As you progress through the rooms, you’ll find that there will be more pods in each room than just one. All the pokemon in each of the pods must the captured before moving on. When you’ve captured all the pokemon, make sure you don’t leave the room unless you really have to because once you do, you’ll have to capture all the pokemon once more.

After capturing all the pokemon in the pods, another door at the back of the room should open up meaning that your final opponent in the room will be ready to face you. When you face your final opponent for each room, you’ll notice something familiar about them. They’ll be the boss pokemon you have already faced before such as Toxicroak and Lucario. However don’t think these matches will be incredibly easy though. You’re probably thinking that they were easy back then and with a powered up styler, they’ll be even easier than before, right? Wrong. Just to give you an impression on how hard they are, you’ll get around 3000 experience points for beating the easiest boss there so as you can see, beating them isn’t going to be a walk in the park.

Now you might now be thinking that the Arena still doesn’t sound too hard because you can bring in tons of pokemon and use their assists’ right? Wrong. You can only bring your partner pokemon in for the challenges so choose carefully on whom your partner is going to be because your partner’s poke assist is the only one you can use. However you can use the pokemon you captured in each of the pods but you don’t have to. They though will be released after defeating the boss for that room so don’t get any ideas that you can just waltz up to a boss with an army of pokemon you caught in the arena.

On one last note, after clearing a room by defeating the boss of it, another room will open up outside so you’ll be allowed to face your next opponents. Once you clear a room, every pokemon in that room can be faced without capturing the others so you can keeping facing the boss of a certain room after clearing it. This is a great way to level up so styler for future captures and also completing quests will also help you complete this grueling challenge of the Arena.

[Blaziken]

Poke Assists

In the previous version of Pokemon Ranger, poke assists were used to make catching pokemon a lot easier. Assists came is all different pokemon and different effects, some more helpful than others, it just depended on the situation you were in. However there were some pokemon without a pokemon assist meaning that they were basically useless when you were trying to capture something else. Now in Batonnage, this has changed and every pokemon has got their own poke assist depending on what type of pokemon its classified as in the game. For example, a pure normal pokemon probably wouldn’t have had a poke assist but in Batonnage, they will, a normal type one. Every pokemon has a poke assist, each giving out helpful effects that might be the difference between success and failure in captures. Just one little thing to remember. When using any assist, you are unable to charge up your styler. There have been new assists and effects for them in Batonnage and below are a list that will deal with that.

Normal

The normal type assist is a new addition in Batonnage and it is quite normal. With the new capturing system of filling up a health bar, each circle you manage to ring around your target, the damage done is a bit more than it would be if this assist wasn’t used. Do remember that assists don’t last forever and that this assist is outmatched by many others.


Grass

The grass poke assist has basically remained the same as before but seemingly a bit less effective. When you move your styler around, it’ll be leaving a trail of grass around. If your target walks into it, they will get trapped sort of and you’ll get a better opportunity to capture them. Either or they just move slower. Unfortunately, this assist doesn’t seem to last as long as it did in the previous Pokemon Ranger.


Fire

Unlike the previous two, fire is a bit more effective but unfortunately, it doesn’t last very long so make sure you can actually encircle your target before time runs out. When using this ability, after encircling your target, a ring of fire will appear on the encircled target(s)’head. This ability causes a bit more damage to your target than a normal circle would plus it also causes the pokemon encircled to delay their attack for a few more seconds, giving you some valuable time to do some damage.


Water

The water assist has some good and bad things about it compared to the original one. The plus side is that the way to use the assist is still the same, hold down your styler and in turn, charging up a bubble at the tip. Once the bubble is a desired size, fling it at a pokemon. If it hits, the target will dramatically slow down. In the previous version, your bubble had to bigger than the target you were trying to trap inside the bubble. Now any size bubble will work so if you fire the smallest bubble possible at Dusknoir, Dusknoir should be slower than usual for a short period of time. The longer you charge the bubble up for, the more damage the bubble causes. The bad thing is that obviously your target can still keep attacking, just at a slower rate.


Electric

Thank goodness you’re able to choose a partner pokemon that can use this awesome ability from the start. In the previous version, the only pokemon who had access to this ability was Plusle and Minun. Now far more electric pokemon can use the assist, which is fantastic. When you place your styler on the field, in a few second or two, a small jolt of lightning will come down and strike the field where you styler was. If the thunderbolt hits a pokemon, that pokemon will be paralyzed. Of course this means that you’ll have to aim at your target but that can be very hard if your target is extremely fast. That’s where you start to predict where its going to go and when its going to attack. That’s when you strike. Once you’ve hit your target, you can just keep striking bolts of lightning until time runs out, paralyzing the opponent while filling up their hit points bar. Using this assist can fill up you target’s bar very fast and very easily.


Charge

Not all electric pokemon will have the normal electric poke assist. Some electric pokemon will have the ability know as charge. This ability is so simply yet so important. Basically when you select a pokemon with this ability, you have the option of restoring your styler’s hit points. The higher the level of the charge to chosen pokemon has, the more health that would be restored. This ability can also be used in the wild, when you’ve got to many pokemon following you and when you’re trying to capture a pokemon.


Ice

The ice assist works a bit differently than in the previous generation. It actually works in similar fashion with the water assist. When using the ice assist, at the tip of your styler you’ll see a small snowball at the end of it. You can flick this at your target you paralyze them for about less than second. Sounds pretty pathetic doesn’t it but if you keep making random circle, not necessarily around your target, the snowball will get bigger. Flick this at your target and they’ll be paralyzed for a lot longer if the snowball actually hits. However the bigger the snowball the slower if goes. Ice poke assists generally last for a longer time than other poke assists.


Psychic

When using the psychic poke assist in Batonnage, you actually have to paralyze your target yourself unlike before when the target automatically became paralyzed. Begin by making a circle NOT around any pokemon. Once doing so, where you made your circle, a purplish psychic like ring should have appeared. You can fling this at your target, paralyzing them while also causing some damage. Just remember you can’t just keep creating these psychic rings and leave them all over the field, covering it up completely because the most rings you can create at a time is three.

Dark

The dark assist can be hardy but only at certain times. Like in the previous version, the dark assist doesn’t actually cause any extra damage but actually removes obstacles on the field. For example, if there’s an annoying puddle of mud or poison of the field, you can use the dark assist to remove it. Simply circle the obstacle once and it’ll be gone. Just a small tip, if you can predict when your opponent is going to throw down one of these puddles, you can actually just circle them when they’ve just thrown out the puddle. If you’re fast enough, you can make the puddle disappear before it reaches its full size, giving you more room to encircle your target.


Dragon

The dragon assist is probably one of the strangest of all. It seemingly is an assist, which corresponds with the pokemon attack Draco Meteor. Basically, when you hold your styler down on the field, you’ll see a small void or shadow appear at the tip of your styler. You have to option of holding your styler down for a longer period of time, thus increasing the size of the void. When you decide to let go, after a few seconds, a meteor will strike the area exactly where your shadow was. Obviously the bigger your shadow or void was, the bigger the meteor. If this meteor hits a pokemon, it’ll cause pretty good damage to them depending on the size of the meteor. Just a quick note, you can only create one shadow or void at a time so don’t think you can fill up the whole field with meteors.


Fighting

The fighting poke assist has remained unchanged from the original Pokemon Ranger. It basically doubles the amount of damage you cause with a rotation around a pokemon. You can also basically get this effect when you charge your styler but while still using any poke assist besides the charge one, you are unable to charge your styler so switching to a fighting assist can save time and effort.


Ghost

Ghost poke assists unfortunately are not as good as they were in the previous Pokemon Ranger. Basically when you make a circle NOT around a pokemon, a ghost or spirit will randomly appear. The good thing is that you can actually fill up the whole stage will ghosts however they’ll only be good if your target walks into one. This will damage them and they’ll pause temporarily. (When I say temporarily, I mean temporarily) This allows you to get some quick circles in around your target pokemon but no more ghosts will appear until you stop circling around a pokemon. Remember these ghosts will only appear if you create a circle not around a pokemon.


Steel

The steel poke assist is a new assist introduced in Batonnage however it’s very similar to the ice one. At the top of your styler you’ll see a small, bright ball. When you make some rotations, the ball will get bigger and you can fling this a pokemon. If it hits, it’ll cause some damage and the pokemon will be temporarily paralyzed. The attack is seemingly based off Gyro Ball.


Flying

The flying poke assist is actually quite helpful. When using this ability, start making some random circlers around the field or around a pokemon. As you do that, you’ll start to form a small tornado. After a few successful spins, the tornado you’ve created will have become larger and here’s the fun part. After about 5 successful spins around your tornado, if you keep spinning, the tornado you’ve created will start spewing out little tornados to everywhere around the field. You literally cover the whole field in a flurry of tornadoes. If one of the little spewed out tornadoes hit a pokemon, you’ll do quite a bit of damage. Unfortunately these tornadoes don’t paralyze. There’s one crucial thing to remember though. As soon as you stop rotating around the first tornado you created, you’ll have to start this all over again which can be time consuming.


Poison

The poison assist is a new assist introduced in Batonnage and unfortunately it really isn’t that great. Like some of the others, when you place the styler on the field, you’ll see a small puddle of poison beneath it. Hold the styler down and the puddle of poison will get bigger. As soon as you release your styler from the puddle, any pokemon that walks into it will slow down a bit. You can try and fill up the whole field with poison puddles but the puddles of poison don’t last for long, not even the bigger ones.


Bug

The bug poke assist is a bit different in Batonnage. When you place your styler on the field, you’ll see a bit of webbing at the tip. You now can fling this at your target but here is where it can get a bit tricky. To fling the webbing, pull it away from your target before letting go. This basically has the same motion as a slingshot, pull back then release. The webbing unfortunately will travel quite slowly so you might miss your target. If the ball of webbing hits your target, it’ll cause a little bit of damage and it’ll slow them down.


Rock

The rock assist is like the ice assist but not as great. It’s actually almost remained unchanged from the original Pokemon Ranger. When you place your styler down, you’ll see some rocks at the tip. Fling these at your opponent to cause damage. The rocks don’t paralyze your opponent but they do cause some good damage.


Ground

The ground assist isn’t really that helpful. When moving your styler around on the field, it’ll cause the screen to shake wildly like an Earthquake attack. It’ll cause some damage to the pokemon and slows them down for a short amount of time. The ground assist isn’t really that great.


Those are all of the poke assists in Pokemon Ranger. Sometimes when you use an assist, after utilizing its effect, you might see something pop up above the pokemon, a little mark of some kind. There will either be a weird looking face, a blue arrow pointing downward or yellow zigzag lines. The zigzag lines mean that your target is paralyzed while the blue arrow means that they’re temporarily slower than usual. Now the face is the most confusing of all but it means that the pokemon is in some sort of pain. If these symbols appear above a pokemon inside a white box, it means that you’ve used your poke assist and it has worked.

Those should cover all the assists in Batonnage. Remember that assists are just there to help you capture a pokemon more easily. They aren’t always needed for captures; it all just depends on your skill.

[Blaziken]

Specific Field Abilities

There are some new abilities in Pokemon Ranger Batonnage which only one or a few pokemon can use. These abilities sometimes will be necessary to advance further into the game most of the time. Below is a list of them and the pokemon who can use them.


Rain

Rain is the first ability you’ll have to use and the only pokemon who can use it is Blastoise. As the name suggests, once you go to a certain area when you can use the ability, Blastoise will begin to make it rain.


Underwater Ride

When you’re in the sea, sometimes you’ll be confronted with a large crevasse or chasm which you have to cross or go along towards your target or destination. Now for some reason, you’re smart enough not to swim across them (but you’re stupid enough to dive that deep into the sea) so you’ll have to find a pokemon who can actually navigate its way along the deep underwater gorge and that pokemon is Mantine. Capture one and ride across the chasm to where you have to go next.


Ride

After completing a certain mission, you’ll be introduced to this ability called Ride. It simply lets you ride on and only on a Doduo and run all around the region at a higher speed, around 2 or 3 times faster. As mentioned before, Doduo is the only pokemon who has the ability. Just remember that if you want to use any pokemon abilities, you must first get off Doduo before doing so. This is the same for entering buildings and caves. Also once you get off your Doduo you’re riding on whether you were forced or not, your Doduo will be released and you’ll have to go back and capture another Doduo is you wish to ride. Just note that after you’re introduced to this ability, Doduo which couldn’t be found in the region will now be scattered everywhere.


Float

In the first volcano cave, you’ll some little gaps in the ground with air or smoke coming out of them. You should’ve seen a little a little scene before where the Drifloon used these gaps with air coming out of them to rise to higher places on the island. Well you basically have to do the same thing in the cave except you’re trying to get across a river of lava but if you capture a Drifloon and use its ability, you’ll be able to get across.


Flash

Flash is a very frustrating ability not because it’s hard to use or anything but for other reasons. As the name suggests, the pokemon who is using this ability lights up a darkened room or cave. Most of the time once you leave the place, the cave or room which you just lit up will become dark again. While in a dark room, you can still face other wild pokemon however here’s the frustrating thing, you can’t use other pokemon abilities such as Break or Cut. Even though you yourself can see the obstacle, your character in the game seemingly cannot and you’ll have to bring along a pokemon who can use this ability and light up the room so they can see and you can bring down the obstacle blocking you. The only pokemon who has access to this unique ability is Electabuzz.


Whirlwind

Unlike the previous abilities, getting a Skarmory which is the only pokemon who can use this ability really gives you a sense of urgency because in the area where you have to use this ability, there will be a really dark and dense fog created by some Murkrow. Now this fog actually damages your styler so this means that eventually, it’ll reach 0 if you don’t clear the fog. This ability is also required to capture a pokemon that you’ll need to continue on in the game.


Rise

The rise ability is probably one of the most used abilities in the game. In certain parts, you cannot avoid using this ability so don’ think you can break the trend of using this. The rise ability simply allows you to float up to another floor where there’s an opening for you to, indicated by a small patch of light on the ground. Capture a Drifblim and you’ll be able to use its ability to get up to the next floor.


Teleport

Using the teleport ability is pretty much the same as using it in Pokemon Emerald, Diamond, Pearl, etc. It allows you to immediately return to the entrance of a cave without going through the hassle of finding the way out. This ability is by no means necessary to complete the game. Espeon, Kirlia, Mr. Mime, Alakazam, Chingling and Jynx are all pokemon who can use this rather lackluster ability.


Stench/ Fart

Yes the name is a bit strange but this assist is actually quite comical to watch. Simply when you can’t go on any further and there are some of the criminal gang blocking you, find a Skuntank and bring it to the place where you need it. Then you let it do its, well thing and watch as the situation unfolds.


Fly

Fly has always been the same in all pokemon games, it carries you to places where you’ve already visited before. This ability is similar to the Ride one, once you have access to this ability, you’ll find Staraptor which weren’t anywhere to be found located all over the land. Staraptor is the only pokemon who can use this ability to take you to places where you’ve already visited before.


Surf

Surfing is quite basic really; just go to a little wooden dock or port and use the pokemon you want to surf on. In the more gentle and calming water where there are no rapids, Floatzel and Empoleon, the only who have the surf ability can navigate and carry you around on the water. However where there are rapids, only Empoleon is strong enough to take you along them. Just note that as soon as you get off of the pokemon you’re surfing on at a wooden port or platform, that pokemon gets released and you’ll have to find a new pokemon to ride on in the water, if you require it. Also, don’t worry because you can’t fall off the pokemon that you’re riding on.


Lava Ride/ Lava Cross

If you thought someone jumping blindly into the deep ocean was crazy, well this I can tell you is even crazier. In the second volcano cave, you’ll see some small banks leading down to a river of lava. Well you can capture yourself a Torkoal and ride across the lava, just like if you were surf on a pokemon across calm, safe water. Just guide it to another bank leading into the river of lava and get off there, just like you would if you were surfing. As mentioned before, Torkoal is the only pokemon who can ride across lava.


Hole Fill/ Sand Fill

When you first arrive at the Hippowdon Temple you’ll see a massive hole in the ground. Unfortunately you’re not a champion long jumper so you’ll have to find a pokemon who can fill the hole up. Nearby there is a massive gust of sand tornados. In the one specific spot there will be a whole heap of tornados surrounding one pokemon. That pokemon is Hippowdon and after taking many blows from the twisters of sand and reached boiling point, you’ll hopefully figure out a way to reach it and face it. Once you’ve captured it, the sandstorm will end and you’ll be able to easily navigate your way back to the Hippowdon Temple. Use Hippowdon to fill up the hole with sand and continue on with your journey.


Dark Power

This ability is only available to Darkrai. It’s unknown what this ability does since after you catch Darkrai, you can’t actually take it to places and make it follow you so there’s no way of using this ability. However this is unique to Darkrai so it was worth a mention.